Via the Conservative Treehouse,

Eight years ago, I created a simple graphic to help readers and researchers understand how Nellie Ohr was connected to the construct of the Steele Dossier, the core source material that underpinned the Title-1 FISA surveillance warrant used against the Donald Trump 2016 campaign and President Trump administration.

In addition to outlining how Nellie Ohr took Ham radio operator classes (May 2016) during her employment with Fusion GPS (began Dec 2015), the graphic shows the circular process of how the Steele Dossier (technically Nellie Ohr’s dossier) was constructed.  Additionally, the graphic is also a timeline showing how Nellie Ohr interacted with the overall ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ investigation, which eventually evolved to the Mueller investigation.

A CTH review of the Nellie Ohr research activity proved Nellie Ohr’s work aligned with the content of the Dossier, and the Nellie research was used as verification of the dossier. [See the release of verification documents (SEE HERE)] In essence the source information for the Dossier was used to validate the dossier conclusions because it’s the same damn material. That’s why Nellie Ohr took the Fusion-GPS header off the top of the material she provided to congress. NOTE: This graphic is almost eight years old.

Nellie Ohr was far more important than Chris Steele.

It was Nellie Ohr’s work product that Steele used in his dossier assembly.

In addition to publicly publishing all of the research material on Nellie Ohr, including how she falsified her testimony to congress, I have personally hand-delivered all of the Nellie Ohr research files to Washington DC, repeatedly, including the FCC License which contradicted her testimony.

Today, Senator Chuck Grassley declassified and released the FBI research files into Nellie Ohr [SEE FILE HERE], proving everything CTH previously asserted in our research. Chuck Grassley’s press release IS HERE.

Notice the Ham radio license (May 2016) corresponds to the timeline when the Clinton campaign officially hired Fusion-GPS as for the Trump “Dossier” research (Ohr training March-April 2016).  Notice also this is immediately after the time when NSA Director Mike Rogers discovered FISA abuse and shut down contractor access to the NSA database (April 2016).

Today, Chuck Grassley notes:

• In direct contradiction to her congressional testimony, Nellie Ohr took six ham radio classes and an exam during her time as a Fusion GPS employee (pg. 37). Ham radios can facilitate international communication without the use of a cell signal. 
  • Nellie Ohr claimed her ham radio training occurred before she was employed by Fusion GPS. However, per records from the Fairfax Fire and Rescue Department and Federal Communications Commission, Nellie Ohr’s entire ham radio training occurred between March to May 2016, while working at Fusion GPS.  [LINK]

When you overlay the timeline with the demonstrable activity, it becomes transparently easy to see exactly what was taking place.

Daniel Jones left the SSCI as Dianne Fienstein’s lead staffer and began working with Glenn Simpson at Fusion-GPS.  Fusion-GPS contracted with Nellie Ohr in “late 2015”.  This is the exact same time when thousands of unauthorized “contractor searches” were taking place within the NSA/FBI database.  This is where the Ham radio comes in handy to transmit “international communication.”

Nellie Ohr then sends her research outcomes to Chris Steele for the dossier assembly; and the dossier is then laundered back to Bruce Ohr and FBI for use in their operation against the Trump campaign.   Meanwhile Glenn Simpson and Dan Jones are leaking to the media who are writing articles.  Nellie Ohr then captures those articles to validate material in the dossier, puts the citations on a thumb-drive and gives it to Bruce.  Again, it’s the same damn origin.

All of this activity originates back in late 2015 when the FBI was allowing “contractors,” many of whom were likely in contact with journalists -via Dan Jones and Glenn Simpson- to have access to the databases within the NSA.

This is not conspiracy theory, this is a factual conspiracy.

All of the key details are outlined in the newly released 43-PAGE FBI Report on Nellie Ohr.

Grassley Press Release Here

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

The Voice of San Francisco is reporting that San Francisco Board of Education Superintendent Maria Su has found a solution for the declining scores in the public schools: lowering the standards for better grades.

It is known as the New Grading for Equity plan. That is far easier than actually teaching students to meet basic proficiency levels. 

Even in the uber-liberal district, parents were outraged and there are reports that the plan is now dead.

The Voice reports that:

Superintendent of Schools Maria Su plans to unveil a new Grading for Equity plan on Tuesday that will go into effect this fall at 14 high schools and cover over 10,000 students. The school district is already negotiating with an outside consultant to train teachers in August in a system that awards a passing C grade to as low as a score of 41 on a 100-point exam.

…It is buried in a three-word phrase on the last page of a PowerPoint presentation embedded in the school board meeting’s 25-page agenda…

While the school district acknowledges that parent aversion to this grading approach is typically high and understands the need for “vigilant communication,” outreach to parents has been minimal and may be nonexistent….

Grading for Equity eliminates homework or weekly tests from being counted in a student’s final semester grade. All that matters is how the student scores on a final examination, which can be taken multiple times. Students can be late turning in an assignment or showing up to class or not showing up at all without it affecting their academic grade. Currently, a student needs a 90 for an A and at least 61 for a D. Under the San Leandro Unified School District’s grading for equity system touted by the San Francisco Unified School District and its consultant, a student with a score as low as 80 can attain an A and as low as 21 can pass with a D.

It is grading for equity rather than education.

The school district is not the first to “solve” the problem by lowering standards to guarantee greater success.

Public educators have continued to lower proficiency requirements and cancel gifted programs to “even the playing field.” The result has been to further hide the dismal scores and educational standards of many public school districts.

Teachers and school boards are killing the institution of public education by treating children and parents more like captives than consumers. They are force-feeding social and political priorities, including passes for engaging in approved protests.

Faced with abysmal scores, particularly for minority students, school boards and union officials have called for lowering or suspending proficiency standards or declared meritocracy to be a form of “white supremacy.” Gifted and talented programs are being eliminated in the name of “equity.”

At the same time, we have previously discussed how schools have been dropping the use of standardized tests to achieve diversity goals in admissions. Cal State dropped standardized testing “to level the playing field” for minority students.

The result is that colleges and universities are dealing with students who lack proficiency in basic subjects. This year, Harvard University was forced to introduce remedial, high-school-level math courses for its students due to falling scholastic standards.

Notably, this “Grading for Equity” plan was not revealed to the public, as the district reportedly set about training teachers on the plan while preparing for the likely backlash. All of this was easier than getting the teachers and their union to improve their performance.  San Francisco has the third-largest expenditures per student at $23,654. Yet, they wanted to lower the standards to improve their statistical success artificially.

Of course, the losers will remain the students who graduate without basic proficiencies in an increasingly difficult job market. These administrators and teachers are leaving them in the same vicious cycle with little real opportunity to escape.

Yet, these same unions and teachers oppose every effort to fund vouchers to allow families to seek schools that can offer their children a real future. Democratic politicians have joined that opposition in preserving this failing system. The status quo has remained unchanged in these major cities for decades, as politicians replicate the same generational failures.

Almost two weeks ago, FBI Director Kash Patel and his deputy Dan Bongino insisted that pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein definitely committed suicide…

Let’s revew:

NEW: Kash Patel and Dan Bongino double down on Jeffrey Epstein claim, “He killed himself.”

It’s the most infamous death of the century.

And when Kash Patel told Maria Bartiromo he believed Epstein committed suicide, she pushed back.

“You said Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide.… pic.twitter.com/oDRxJM7fA8

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) May 18, 2025

…which strains credulity in light of all the strangeness surrounding his (or some homeless guy in a mask’s) untimely death while awaiting trial for sex-trafficking minors.

For starters, Epstein’s cellmate was moved out the day before he ‘decided to hang himself’ on August 10, 2019 – crushing bones in his neck which can fracture during hangings, but are typically broken during homicide by strangulation. What’s more, at least one of the cameras in the hallway outside Epstein’s cell had footage that is “unusable,” despite “other, clearer footage” which was captured in the area, the Washington Post reported at the time.

Nevermind the ‘shouting and shrieking‘ heard from Epstein’s cell the morning he died.

Now (that AI is hyper-realistic?), Bongino says there’s footage that will prove Epstein did kill himself. 

“There’s video clear as day,” he told Fox News Thursday. “He’s the only person in there and the only person coming out. You can see it.” 

“There is video and when you look at the video, and we will release it, we’re working on cleaning it up to make sure you have an enhanced – and we will give the original so you don’t think there are any shenanigans – you will see no one in there but him. There’s just nobody there,” Bongino continued. “I say to people of the time — if you have a tip, let us know — but there is no DNA, there’s no audio, there’s no fingerprints, there’s no suspects, there’s no accomplices, there’s no tips. There is nothing. If you have it, I’m happy to see it.”

BREAKING – Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino says a bombshell video confirming Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide is coming soon. Bongino says the footage shows Epstein alone before and after his death, with no evidence of accomplices, suspects, or outside involvement. “Clear as day,” he… pic.twitter.com/RMSAetBfEq

— Right Angle News Network (@Rightanglenews) May 29, 2025

 “There Was a Room”

Bongino also says they’ve found a room that was “hidden from us” containing improperly stored Comey-era evidence.

“I wouldn’t call it hidden, but hidden from us at least and not mentioned to us, and then we found stuff in there and a lot of it’s from the Comey-era, and we are working our damndest right now to declassify,” he said. “And just so you know, because I get the public, I totally understand people saying, ‘Well, do it now.’ The process is [that] not all information is ours to declassify; some is other intelligence agencies, it’s not– we literally can’t do it. Once that gets done and that gets out there, and you read some of the stuff, we found that, by the way, was not processed through the normal procedure, digitizing it, putting it in FBI records. We found it in bags hiding under Jim Comey’s FBI, and you’re going to be stunned!“

Bongino then called Comey “a disgrace to the badge” and “a big child.”

The FBI just discovered that James Comey had a whole room of secret documents!

“We found it in bags, hiding under Jim Comey’s FBI, you’re going to be stunned.” – FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino

This is crazy pic.twitter.com/dtles73BGG

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 29, 2025

Meanwhile, what?

🚨NEW: FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News last week that its investigation into the July 13 Trump assassination attempt was CLOSED.
When he said that, I immediately filed a FOIA for all FBI interview reports from its investigation. Today, I was denied that request on the… https://t.co/BaHqVq5usN pic.twitter.com/YveQAfsyGo

— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) May 29, 2025

It’s only fitting that a week of impressive coupon auctions would conclude with what was the strongest 7Y auction in years.

Moments ago, with the nervous bond market still on edge over the recent bond collapse in Japan, the Treasury concluded the week’s final auction when it sold $44 billion in 7Y paper. It was spectacular.

The high yield was 4.194%, which while 7bps higher than last month, stopped through the When Issued 4.216% by 2.2bps, the biggest stop through since Dec 22.

The bid to cover rose from 2.55 to 2.70, the highest since December and well above the six-auction average of 2.64.

The internals were most remarkable, however, with Indirects surging from 59.3% to 71.5%, the highest since December’s record 87.9%. And with Directs taking down 23.6%, down modestly from 25.4% in April, Dealers were left holding just 4.85%, the lowest on record.

Overall, this was one of the best 7 Year auctions in a long time…

… with stellar results even as yields hit session lows just around the time of the auction. Not surprisingly, 10Y yields dripped to fresh session lows just around 4.42 after the results hit, although they recovered some of the move in the minutes since.

Authored by Adam Sharp via DailyReckoning.com,

Our friend and colleague Jim Rickards has the energy and drive of a 20-year old. I try to read everything he writes, and watch all his media appearances. But sometimes a gem slips through the cracks.

Two months ago, Jim was featured on Daniela Cambone’s Youtube show. This was a gem, and luckily a reader alerted us to it.

The provocative title is “Jim Rickards: Is the Gold Gone? Did the U.S. Treasury Lease it? This Would Break the System”.

The interview took place during the beginning of the trade war tensions, so the first 7:00 minutes of the discussion can be skipped (unless you want a recap).

At the 7:40 minute mark, Daniela and Jim get deep into the fundamentals of gold. How it’s priced, delivered, and traded internationally.

Jim explains that the vast majority of gold is traded as paper contracts.

Only about 1% of gold traded on futures exchanges like the COMEX is ever physically delivered.

Mr. Rickards goes on to explain that exchanges like the COMEX can change the rules whenever they please. For example, when the Hunt Brothers cornered the silver market in 1980, COMEX did not allow them to take physical delivery.

Tampering With The “Primal Forces”

When the topic of Fort Knox gold comes up, Jim says that the gold is all there. However, his concern is whether that gold has been leased (on paper, not physically) to the bullion banks.

“You can have a hundred tonnes of paper gold transactions supported by one physical tonne that got leased by the Treasury to JPMorganChase.”

Gold bugs have long suspected that bullion banks, such as JPMorganChase and Goldman Sachs, have “leased” gold from the U.S. Treasury. And it’s possible that gold has been “rehypothecated” many times, meaning that multiple individuals believe they own the same piece of gold.

Jim notes that when we ask questions about gold leasing, we are essentially “tampering with the primal forces”.

He goes on to explain the difference between allocated and unallocated gold, and how the rehypothecation process works.

This interview is a must-watch for all Jim Rickards fans.

And here is further reading on this fascinating and controversial topic:

• The Great Gold Leasing Conspiracy

• Elon Slays Sacred Golden Cows

• Trump’s Fort Knox Knot

The day after we posted this on X: 

Dear @federalreserve does this mean emergency 50 bps rate cut tomorrow since there are no more “inflationary tariffs”?

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 29, 2025

President Trump invited Fed Chair Powell to The White House for the first time since 2019.

Earlier this month, Powell indicated he would not seek a meeting with Trump, unless the president sought one.

“I’ve never asked for a meeting with any President, and I never will,” Powell said in a news conference.

“I wouldn’t do that. There’s never a reason for me to ask for a meeting. It’s always been the other way.”

The Fed reported that at the President’s invitation, Chair Powell met with the President today at the White House to discuss economic developments including for growth, employment, and inflation.

Chair Powell did not discuss his expectations for monetary policy, except to stress that the path of policy will depend entirely on incoming economic information and what that means for the outlook.

Finally, Chair Powell said that he and his colleagues on the FOMC will set monetary policy, as required by law, to support maximum employment and stable prices and will make those decisions based solely on careful, objective, and non-political analysis.

@AutismCapital pic.twitter.com/PieUL6gkGi

— Rage Crusader (@RageCrusader) May 29, 2025

So, they didn’t discuss what’s different this time and why Powell didn’t cut rates?

Weak macro data (red arrow), collapse in financial conditions (orange oval), and recovery in macro surprises (green arrow)… prompted a 50bps cut in September (six weeks before the election). But this time… ‘pause’ is the message.

…but, but, but remember, they are apolitical!!

Authored by Jenna Montgomery via BitcoinMagazine.com,

At Bitcoin 2025, economist and author Saifedean Ammous laid out a bold vision for the future of global finance, asserting that Bitcoin – not the U.S. dollar – will anchor tomorrow’s economy, with Tether as the bridge…

Saifedean Ammous, CEO of Saifedean.com and author of The Bitcoin Standard, delivered a data-driven keynote at the Bitcoin 2025 Conference, warning of inevitable U.S. dollar decline and positioning Bitcoin as the only rational hedge.

“Default, devaluation, or default by devaluation are inevitable,” Ammous declared, adding pointedly, “Tether can’t fix what a century of fiat democracy ruined.”

Using projections and flow charts, Ammous argued that Tether’s Bitcoin strategy could soon outpace its U.S. dollar reserves.

“Then Tether will break the peg upwards,” he said, predicting a scenario where 1 USDT could equal 1.02 USD and continue revaluing as the dollar weakens. “Tether becomes a relatively stablecoin as the dollar declines.”

The talk emphasized what Ammous described as a self-reinforcing loop: as USDT demand rises, so does Tether’s need for BTC reserves, which drives up Bitcoin prices—leading to even more revaluation.

“This is a significant impact on the market,” he said. “Buying bitcoin is the smartest thing anybody could do.”

In a final sweeping statement, Ammous forecasted the end of the USD era.

“Eventually, USD reserves go to zero next to BTC reserves,” he said.

“USDT keeps getting revalued upward until it is redeemable in bitcoin. USDT → BTCT.”

He called Tether a “transition monetary system” and concluded, “Even the most bullish scenario for USD is much more bullish for BTC.” 

To Ammous, the dollar is locked in a downward spiral while Bitcoin, with its “number go up technology,” continues rising.

“The thing that goes up is going to overtake the thing that goes down,” he said—summarizing his entire argument in one sentence.

“Of course, it is within the realms of possibility,” the new German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, told TV channel ZDF when asked if Germany would supply long-range weapons for Ukrainian troops. This is after he claimed that leading allies such as the US, UK, German, and France have lifted “absolutely” all restrictions on arms limits – something which Washington has yet to confirm or deny.

Merz hinted that Berlin might transfer its long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine this year, but which would take a many months-long training program for Ukrainian military operators. This is also as he promised new military aid worth €5 billion (£4.2 billion), upon hosting President Zelensky in Germany on Wednesday.

“Ukraine will be able to fully defend itself, including against military targets outside its own territory,” said Merz. While leaving the question of Taurus transfer open, the German leader did promise to bankroll Ukrainian domestic development of long-range missile capability.

“We want to talk about production and we will not publicly discuss details,” Merz affirmed. And BBC added in the wake of the Zelensky-Merz meeting:

Germany’s defense ministry said in a statement that Berlin would finance the production of long-range weapons systems in Ukraine and that the “first of these systems could be deployed in the Ukrainian armed forces in just a few weeks”.

As expected the reaction from the Kremlin was immediate, given Merz is certainly testing Moscow’s red lines: “The Russian Federation will respond ‘harshly, asymmetrically, and decisively’ if Germany proceeds with supplying Taurus missiles to the Kiev regime,” a statement from the State Duma Defense Committee said.

Already over the last several days running Russia’s military has struck Kiev, and has long threatened to ramp up attacks on ‘command centers’ – including places where foreign troops and Western advisers might be located.

Russian state media has been more blunt in reaction to Merz’s comments, warning that Moscow could simply directly strike Berlin if German-made missiles begin raining down on Russian cities…

Word in Moscow is if Merz uses German weapons to strike Moscow – and we all know that Kiev has no independent capacity to operate Tauruses or other long-range missiles – then Russia will have no choice but to strike Berlin directly.

Simple enough. pic.twitter.com/8jYMr0zpUe

— Margarita Simonyan (@M_Simonyan) May 28, 2025

These threats were not made officially, but this is often how the Kremlin indirectly communicates its most dire warnings – either through a mid-level official or something like the outspoken editor-in-chief of RT.

President Trump has said this week that Putin is “playing with fire” with the continual aerial attacks on Kiev and other locations in Ukraine. But Russia has pointed to the literally thousands of drones launched on its territory from Ukraine this month, which have even reached Moscow, disrupting flights at several international airports.

On Wednesday FM Lavrov announced that the next round of peace talks are set for June 2 in Istanbul – but will the warring sides even make it to the negotiating table? The jingoist war of words and threats are ramping up hotter than ever, with the Kremlin warning that further delays (on key conditions like territorial concessions) mean “peace tomorrow will be even more painful”.

Q: “On Iran, did you warn Prime Minister Netanyahu against taking some sort of actions that could disrupt the talks there in a phone call last week?”

President Trump: “Well, I’d like to be honest. Yes I did.” pic.twitter.com/yoXB3t90SZ

— CSPAN (@cspan) May 28, 2025

Just yesterday, President Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he personally was behind the push urging Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu not to strike Iran. War averted, for now… but as Trump said, “that could change at any moment.”

Debating what Trump should do tonight at 7pm ET on the ZeroHedge homepage will be Libertarian Institute founder Scott Horton and Dr. Meir Javedanfar, professor at Reichmann University in Israel. To avoid moderator biases, the debate will be co-moderated by Clint Russell and Ami Kozak.

Dr. Javedanfar is Iranian-born but escaped and now resides in Israel where he teaches about Israel-Iran policy. He has long warned about Iran’s nuclear advancement and is an advocate for containment and aggressive sanctions.

My Islamic Republic of #Iran passport photo, taken in 1986.
I shared the passport with my brother.
We managed to leave a year later after successfully bribing a regime official. pic.twitter.com/a9bKclvDlM

— Meir Javedanfar Ph.D.- מאיר ג’בדנפר (@MeirJa) October 19, 2023

Horton is a native Texan and Libertarian through-and-through who says “our anti-Iran policy is born in Tel Aviv,” pinning the blame on Israel and Netanyahu.

Scott Horton:
“There’s no question that our anti-Iran policies are born in Tel Aviv”#No_War_With_Iran pic.twitter.com/fdSHoP182v

— Amir (@AmirEmzi) April 15, 2025

This should be a fun one. We’ll see you at 7pm ET.

US Pending Home Sales plunged 6.3% MoM in April – far more than the 1.0% MoM decline expected (below all estimates) – and the biggest MoM drop since September 2022…

Source: Bloomberg

Dragging the Index of Pending Home Sales back down near record lows…

Source: Bloomberg

Sales fell in all four regions with the West experiencing the biggest drop of 8.9%.

“At this critical stage of the housing market, it is all about mortgage rates,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun.

“Despite an increase in housing inventory, we are not seeing higher home sales. Lower mortgage rates are essential to bring home buyers back into the housing market.”

As a reminder, pending home sales are often looked to as a leading indicator of existing-home purchases given properties typically go under contract a month or two before they’re sold.