The business and financial wires are melting down today as ADP Payrolls, the nation’s largest private sector payroll providing service, releases data from January showing a drop of 301,000 jobs.  [ADP Raw Data Here]

The financial, economic and business pundits are completely caught off guard and using the words “shocked”, “unexpected” and “surprised,” within their analysis.  These employment numbers just don’t align with an economy growing at 6.9%, as measured by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).  However, for CTH readers who have carefully scrutinized the economic claims and looked at the bigger picture through the prism of kitchen table checkbook economics, these results are not a surprise.

Every sector of the employment picture on Main Street USA is hit.  The pundits, following the narrative first seeded by the White House on Monday, are pointing to Omicron as the justification inside their review.  That’s nonsense.  For the better part of seven months these same pundits first claimed Delta, then shifted to Omicron as a way to explain the structurally weak economy.  All of that is nonsense.

What we are witnessing are the outcomes of massive inflation now hitting the labor market.  A drop in demand, and a subsequent drop in the employment of goods and services, is an unavoidable outcome of inflationary pressure on wages.

Let me say it again, on a macro level, natural consumer DEMAND has dropped – we are only now starting to see it surfacing in the statistical measures.

This is why White House spokesperson Jen Psaki made that weird statement on Monday.

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Jeff Zucker abruptly resigned from CNN releasing a statement: “As part of the investigation into Chris Cuomo’s tenure at CNN, I was asked about a consensual relationship with my closest colleague, someone I have worked with for more than 20 years,” Mr. Zucker wrote. “I acknowledged the relationship evolved in recent years. I was required to disclose it when it began but I didn’t. I was wrong.”

Apparently, Jeff Zucker has been involved in a long-term relationship with a woman named Allison Gollust as she worked her way through the ranks at CNN throughout her career.

Ms. Gollust is currently CNN’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer, positioning her as one of the highest-ranking leaders within the network, closely involved in major business and communications decisions.

Ms. Gollust said in another statement Wednesday she was remaining in her role at CNN: “Jeff and I have been close friends and professional partners for over 20 years,” she wrote. “Recently, our relationship changed during Covid. I regret that we didn’t disclose it at the right time. I’m incredibly proud of my time at CNN and look forward to continuing the great work we do every day.”

Essentially, what appears to have taken place is then married Jeff Zucker and then married Allison Gollust beginning a relationship many years ago, and Zucker advancing Gollust throughout her career, even to the point of her physical location living above him.   Both of them eventually divorced from their respective spouses, and yet the network, or at least the board of directors, was “unaware” of their relationship.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the JoeBama Administration and Presidency.

“This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can’t be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won’t be done. The Founders’ Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.”

“But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.”

~ Mike Vanderboegh

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

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Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

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Emerald Robinson has a terrific outline on the RNC donor class priorities and the Machiavellian intents of Mike Pence throughout the term of Donald Trump’s presidency.

~ SEE HERE

“The Treachery of a Vice President“

Everything Robinson outlines rings true.

The pathetic Canadian Prime Minister continues to attach hate-filled labels against ordinary working class Canadians who are protesting for the removal of COVID-19 mandates and restrictions.

These Alinsky attacks against his own countrymen are genuinely creepy and uncomfortable to see.  Trudeau is continuing to melt down in a very public way.  Other than a very small circle around him, I doubt these statements are generating much support.

[Source Link]

It’s always good to review ground reports from middle class Americans.  Much like the feedback from CTH readers, there is a raw honesty you don’t find in any of the economic outlines from financial punditry.

In this Fox News Digital report, Maryland residents react to the consequences of Joe Biden’s economic and energy prices. Maryland has been shifting further to the left socially as the DC-centric commuter base has moved into the suburbs.  However, they are not happy with prices.  WATCH:

The same sentiment is reflected in a recent Gallup poll [data here] highlighting a large majority who note the direction of the country is not good.  Joe Biden policy is crushing the working class, and we can all feel it.  Middle America knows we are going in the wrong direction.

At this point in our nation’s history, certain acceptances are needed in order to accurately identify the current status of our situation.

• • The Legislative Branch (SSCI) created the Intelligence State, the Fourth Branch of superseding government.
  • The Executive Branch (FBI, DOJ, NSA) control the Fourth Branch of superseding government.
  • The Judicial Branch (FISA Court) is the facilitating approval apparatus for the Fourth Branch.

.

With that empirical and well documented reality in place, all three branches of U.S. government work in unison.  Who or what can intervene to stop the Fourth Branch of government from operating unilaterally?

This is the serious question that no one ever discusses.

The FISA Court is the private, secret, unchecked judicial system authorizing the power for the Intelligence State.

As a result, we continue to see NSA reports showing the unconstitutional surveillance of the American people continuing without consequence [NSA Release Here].

This is the 5th straight year where the National Security Agency (NSA) produces a document admitting their metadata capturing system, the system that captures all electronic communication of every single American and puts it into a stored database, is continually used as a research library for unnamed federal agents to scour (without search warrants) for the private documents of American citizens.

At this point, the NSA admission without consequence is simply just another Tuesday, it literally doesn’t even make the headlines anymore.

The executive summary does, however, include the NSA introducing the latest admissions about violating the 4th amendment right of Americans, while bragging about how their diversity hiring efforts have paid off.

So, there’s that.

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The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) are the federal police for Canada.  As many local law enforcement communities have refused to move against their own citizens, the Canadian government is now deploying the RCMP against the Alberta trucker blockade.

The border crossing between Coutts, Alberta (CA) and Sweet Grass, Montana (USA) continues to be blocked as truckers allied against COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine passports are united.  The Alberta protests are in support of the larger trucker protest taking place in Ottawa.

Tensions are increasing as the truckers are refusing to move, but the RCMP has vowed to get rid of the blockade.  Supporters for the truckers are working through freezing temperatures to keep them supplied with food and fuel to keep the blockade in place. Even farm tractors have joined the effort.

The standoff continues as the RCMP have been reluctant to forcibly arrest the rather hardened and burly truckers.  There is also a legal defense fund established to assist the truckers against any criminal charges. [SEE HERE]

Canadian state media, aka the CBC, are trying to frame the protesting truckers as villains and violent fringe extremists.  However, after calling the essential working truckers heroes previously, the majority of the Canadian people, specifically the people in/around the Alberta province, are not buying the nonsense from the CBC as supported by the leftist government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

(Via CBC) – RCMP have approached a blockade of vehicles that has jammed traffic for days at a Canada-U.S. border crossing in Alberta after warning that those participating in the protest may be subject to arrest Tuesday afternoon.

[…] RCMP Cpl. Curtis Peters confirmed to CBC News that enforcement has begun, although it is unclear what that will entail. (more)

Rebel News has journalists embedded with the trucker blockade in Alberta and has been tweeting about the standoff.

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An interesting study from Johns Hopkins University [DATA HERE] shows the 2021 government lockdown did virtually nothing to stem death from the pandemic, but likely created more adverse “social ills” and long-term negative health outcomes.

WASHINGTON – […] The lockdowns during the early phase of the pandemic in 2020 reduced COVID-19 mortality by about 0.2%, said the broad review of multiple scientific studies.

“We find no evidence that lockdowns, school closures, border closures, and limiting gatherings have had a noticeable effect on COVID-19 mortality,” the researchers wrote. But the research paper said lockdowns did have “devastating effects” on the economy and contributed to numerous social ills.

“They have contributed to reducing economic activity, raising unemployment, reducing schooling, causing political unrest, contributing to domestic violence, and undermining liberal democracy,” the report said.

“Such a standard benefit-cost calculation leads to a strong conclusion: lockdowns should be rejected out of hand as a pandemic policy instrument,” the paper concluded. (read more)

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