We are at a crossroads between two visions for our country: path one, we follow those that want to keep us quarantined and the other path is the one where retrain the Republic and freedom. Path One is never good and Path Two is always good!
Path One is being orchestrated by Bill Gates though The Bill and Melisa Gates Foundation.
These Videos are all related to the Wuhan virus and how we, the citizens, are being mislead by the “experts” at the NIH and CDC and who are all controlled by Bill Gates and his money. What is happening today is an attempt to break the will of the American People so they can change us from a Constitutional Republic into a single party (Progressive) fascist state. And by the way there is no meaningful difference between Fascism and Marxism as in both systems the people are oppressed. The Democrat party is the progressive party and that is what they want! They want total control of the citizens!
The heading in black are for videos that are loaded on my blog so they should be there. The ones in Red are YouTube and so maybe be taken down at some time in the future. I will up date the post as new information comes up and re-post.
Two Doctors Part One
Two Doctors Part Two
Nurse One
Nurse Two
Nurse Three
New York Doctor
Swedish Doctor
Professor Knut Wittkowski
Flu History (from CDC)
• The Spanish Flu pandemic (1918-19) killed 675,000 Americans. Today: equates to a bit more than two million dead.
• The “Asian Flu” pandemic of 1957 killed 116,000 Americans. Today: equates to approximately 223,000.
• The “Hong Kong Flu” pandemic of 1968 killed at least 100,000 Americans. Today: equates to 164,915.
• The H1N1 or “Swine Flu pandemic of 2009 killed 12,469 Americans.
There are people in China and America, some with connections to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, who are upset with reports that the coronavirus is linked to the lab. They want to blame President Trump for a plague unleashed by China. But it turns out there are many controversial labs in Wuhan. Some “study” viruses. Some produce fentanyl.
A fascinating article in the Los Angeles Times reveals that before Wuhan became known for a virus killing tens of thousands of people, it was the main source of fentanyl, described as the deadliest drug to ever hit U.S. streets, which is also killing tens of thousands of people. Datelined Mexico City, the Los Angeles Times article began, “For drug traffickers interested in getting in on the fentanyl business, all roads once led to Wuhan.” It reported, “Vendors there shipped huge quantities around the world. The biggest customers were Mexican drug cartels, which have embraced fentanyl in recent years because it is cheaper and easier to produce than heroin.”
Senator Tom Cotton: “The Chinese government is the world’s largest drug dealer”
“The Chinese government is the world’s largest drug dealer,” says Senator Tom Cotton. “China has allowed fentanyl and other synthetic opioids to pour into the United States for years, killing tens of thousands of Americans.” Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer agrees, saying, “We must hold China, currently the world’s largest producer of illicit fentanyl, accountable for its role in the trade of this deadly drug.” Their Fentanyl Sanctions Act was included in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020.
But now we find our nation engulfed in another made-in-China health crisis.
Despite promises from Chinese authorities to crack down on the drug trafficking, nothing much has changed. The January 2020 DEA report, Fentanyl Flow to the United States, says, “Currently, China remains the primary source of fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked through international mail and express consignment operations environment, as well as the main source for all fentanyl-related substances trafficked into the United States.”
Another piece of the puzzle may be found in a 2012 news story that is haunting in its implications for U.S.-China “cooperation” in general and medical and scientific research in particular.
Under Obama, in 2015, the U.S. death rate rose for the first time in a decade
An African businessman dealing with China by the name of Ojukwu Emma was interviewed by NPR back in 2012 and said, “We find it difficult because of the language barrier. They are not like us. The culture, everything is very different, you understand?.” He went on to say, “The Chinese believe when they cheat people they are clever. They are not feeling like it’s cheating. But they feel it’s clever, you understand.”
This helps explain their lies about coronavirus.
After Barack Hussein Obama was out of office, the Washington Post finally offered some relatively even-handed coverage of the Obama Administration, reporting that back in May 2016 “a group of national health experts issued an urgent plea in a private letter to high-level officials in the Obama administration” about the fact that thousands of Americans were dying from overdoses of fentanyl. These experts said the administration needed to take immediate action because the epidemic had been escalating for three years. “The [Obama] administration considered the request but did not act on it,” the paper said.
Under Obama, in 2015, the U.S. death rate rose for the first time in a decade. Deaths from drug overdoses were a major factor.
Opium Wars between the British and Chinese almost perfectly illustrate what is going on today between the Chinese and the West
The worst drug crisis in U.S. history did not get the attention it deserved until President Trump declared opioids a public health emergency in October 2017. Figures show that drug overdose deaths overall rose from 38,329 in 2010 to 70,237 in 2017, followed by a significant decrease in 2018 to 67,367 deaths. Progress is finally being made.
Jesse Le Blanc, a concerned citizen and retired mechanical engineer with a home in Colorado, where legal marijuana has devastated the state, commented, “From my observations and knowing a bit of history, the Opium Wars between the British and Chinese almost perfectly illustrate what is going on today between the Chinese and the West. Basically, the Chinese are using the same playbook that the British used during this time period, and they may also be trying to get a bit of revenge for almost a century of humiliation.”
Ironically, The Private Life of Chairman Mao, a book written by his physician, documents the communist dictator’s addiction to sleeping pills and barbiturates. The book exposes Mao as a degenerate and philanderer with homosexual tendencies and genital herpes who engaged in orgies. A man “devoid of human feeling, incapable of love,” he nevertheless was a dedicated communist with an understanding of Marxist dialectics and knew how to “unleash the energies of the people” through socialism.
Revenge is one way to describe what is happening to America. Another word for it is war.
Are there enough Americans ready to unhook the mask that has taken the place of a black swastika-emblazoned armband and engage their God-given right to “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness?”
Apathy is prevalent across the land. People are holed-up in their homes waiting for their governor to give them permission to go about their business.
Governor Pete Ricketts (R) of Nebraska used the word “allow” when directing the citizenry about opening their “nonessential” businesses and “nonessential” churches. And this in a conservative state smack in the middle of the heartland. (Listen to the restrictions being imposed for conducting worship services, overstepping the First Amendment by essentially establishing a state religion of COVID-19.)
On it’s face, the development is disturbing, yet challenges to these guidelines are practically nonexistent. As much as showing up at state capitals on May Day was a demonstration of dissatisfaction with government handling of an overblown crisis, few are defying the unconstitutionality of these edicts by unlocking their business and church doors.
Facing down the giant of statism that Americans have allowed (there’s that word again) to grow unhindered for the past eighty years isn’t happening. Hissing and moaning on social media doesn’t count except to vent, nor does the internet adequately replace human interaction or commerce.
If people haven’t realized to what extent the State has eradicated free movement and the pursuit of individual livelihoods, note that Kate Brown, democrat governor of Oregon, decided to lockdown the state until July 6, 2020. For rationale, she cited danger of infection in a state of four million where, at the time of the declaration, there had been 109 deathsassociated with coronavirus, not necessarily caused by it. The cry of outrage should be deafening.
What’s needed is a Moses in each community to come forward to confront the “pharaoh” and demand the release of the slaves.
Should anyone following the stay-at-home order believe that “slave” is an overstatement, it’s time to examine their justification for permitting themselves to be imprisoned by an irrational fear of a disease that credible studies have shown to be less lethal than the annual flu. (If you don’t believe your life has been impacted for the worse, just as I was writing this there came a flurry of horns honking as a group of cars drove by to wish someone a happy birthday which they were constrained from doing in person.)
Moses reluctantly undertook the advocacy of an oppressed people, a people who didn’t start out that way but had been transformed from freedom to servitude over time, much as Americans have allowed government to undermine their liberty. God endued him with a presence that Pharaoh tolerated to state Israel’s case before the throne. Even this gesture was denied citizens who, in Mississippi on May 1, 2020, were not permitted, by officers acting for the State, to gather on the capitol steps for a peaceful rally.
Governors are acting as Pharaoh, decreeing that citizens must make bricks without straw. They are expected to comply with work orders while being restricted from working – told to create something out of nothing and be happy about it.
Moses pushed the envelope and God provided the means to loose the chains long enough to escape prison, though the fight for true freedom was lengthened by decades because the people capitulated to fear of what appeared to be overwhelming odds. As soon as they didn’t see the power of God operating, which they had just experienced, they lost faith that doomed them to wander in the wilderness until Joshua kindled their courage.
Now is the time for a Moses to rise up in the houses of government and among the businesspeople and the churches. One willing to be a voice, a standard-bearer and an example of faith in the face of godless fear. One who will take the lead in their community to insist the people’s inheritance is restored; who will pray for the rebellious who have jeopardized that heritage by drifting from faith (Deuteronomy 9:23-29) and placing government above the law. One who is willing to coach the people about their ability to overturn tyranny that’s masquerading as the law that it contradicts.
For consideration:
• COVID-19’s mortality rate is less than seasonal flu (CDC data. Check the “provisional” statistics to understand the inflated numbers.)
• COVID-19 has been used to deny treatment for fatal illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, etc.
• Unconstitutional executive orders are denying the free exercise of religion and speech (1st Amendment), armed protection (2nd Amendment) free enterprise and the ability to provide for one’s family, freedom of travel – the pursuit of life and liberty (Fifth Amendment).
• As Israel was in the wilderness, Americans far outnumber their adversaries (it’s difficult to refer to the State in this way but that’s what government has become, adversarial to the People). Approximately three million Israelites came out of Egypt which no single walled town or city standing against them housed. American patriots number over 200 million in a nation of 325 million and if all those entrepreneurs and church leaders knowing their rights, invoked those rights by opening their businesses and worship centers, the renegade State officials could not arrest and jail all those exercising their God-given rights.
• If county sheriffs upheld their constitutional oaths to serve their constituents first and foremost, they would not enforce unconstitutional orders, which are not law if they do not conform to the state or federal constitutions. If state and city law enforcement officers would do the same, they would constrain government officials operating outside their constitutional authority.
Belief in God’s promise and how He re-established our dominion through Christ is what must be restored to the people’s understanding. Ephesians 3:20 explains the power given to His People.
A Moses and a Joshua are called upon to come before the House, the Senate, every state legislature, every county board and every city council to direct Americans back to the path of self-determination.
When independent entrepreneurs, like Family Barbershop Owner Mike Land of Madison, MS, who knew his constitutional right to conduct business, are threatened with intolerable fines and jail under the color of law, it’s time to move in faith. When single parents like Kosha Beall are denied their right to ply their trade because it’s been determined by authorities that it’s “nonessential,” then it’s time to contest government excess.
Standing at a podium on the capitol grounds in Jackson, Mississippi, State Senator Chris McDaniel made an essential point that should strike all Americans to the core, “A constitution without men and women willing to defend it isn’t a constitution at all.”
The internet is fraught with predictions that the coronavirus vaccine will contain the “mark” limiting who can buy or sell. How easily are people overlooking the obvious but insidious “requirement” already in our midst that is restricting who can buy or sell, or go out in public – the face mask, which has been proven to be ineffective in safeguarding health.
Christians who proclaim their faith are being cowed by the world’s decision to be driven by fear and are conforming by covering up like Muslims do with niqabs, hijabs or burkhas. Believers can’t live with one foot in fear and one foot in faith. One cancels out the other.
Are there enough Americans ready to unhook the mask that has taken the place of a black swastika-emblazoned armband and engage their God-given right to “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness?”
Michelle’s husband isn’t the president anymore, he’s the Harvey Weinstein-like ‘influencer’ running the show over at Netflix with his own ‘documentaries’, including the one pushing his wife as buddy Joe Biden’s vice president running mate
Now that the entire American electorate can be found hunkering down at home, courtesy of the ongoing pandemic scare, Michelle Obama is kicking off her campaign for vice president in a Netflix ‘documentary’, coming to a television screen somewhere in your private living quarters, tomorrow.
Get out the popcorn if without a job, you can still afford it.
Overbearing, Self-important Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama’s loudest of late lament is that “people stayed at home” instead of getting out to vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
That’s unforgivable, deplorables!
As far as Michelle is concerned, no crisis, even one that’s taking lives, should ever be allowed to go to waste especially if you have Hollywood stars like Tom Hanks on your side for a 2020 election run.
Now that the entire nation is on governor-mandated Stay-At-Home rule, Joe Biden’s running mate is pushing for a nation-wide November 3rd mail-in vote.
If overbearing, self-important Michelle Obama has her way, not only can you be fully propagandized in the comfort of your own home, you can conveniently and comfortably vote from there too.
Do what the Dems do—do it digitally!
Where is this all coming from besides Obama and Tom Hanks?
“A newly-launched committee called “Draft Michelle Obama” is pushing for Joe Biden, the apparent Democrat presidential nominee, to select the former first lady as his running mate. (Breitbart, May 4, 2020)
“Helping lead this country to be more just and caring” is hardly what Michelle’s husband Barack Obama did
“The Committee to Draft Michelle Obama” firmly believes that Ms. Obama will not only benefit the Democratic ticket this November but also help lead this country to be more just and caring. However strongly we support Ms. Obama as Vice President Biden’s running mate, we will transfer our resolve to whoever joins the ticket to defeat the most dangerous incumbent in the history of our nation.”
All of its hype notwithstanding, it’s the same old, same old 2016 message.
“Helping lead this country to be more just and caring” is hardly what Michelle’s husband Barack Obama did when his prime mission as twice-elected president was to “Fundamentally Transform America”—and tried to do it by getting America’s enemies to build on their visceral hatred of the U.S.
“Joe Biden has said he would choose Michelle Obama as his running mate ‘in a heartbeat.’ The aim of this campaign is to build on the substantial grassroots support for a potential Michelle Obama candidacy and help garner media attention for a vice-presidential nominee who has the power to beat Donald Trump,” the group said in a statement released Monday. (Breitbart)
Sleepy Joe and Hugger Michelle
Says sleepy Joe about his former boss’s wife:
“She’s brilliant. She knows the way around. She is a really fine woman. The Obamas are great friends,” the former vice president told CBS Pittsburgh.” (Breitbart)
But self-described “hugger” Michelle Obama’s message to the pandemic challenged masses last week was: “I miss you all”. (Canada Free Press, April 27, 2020)
“Michelle Obama has described her When We All Vote initiative as a non-partisan effort to boost voter registration among all Americans. But the project, which is also aggressively pushing voting by mail, is backed by a slew of left-wing Hollywood and sports celebrities whose past public statements have been anything but non-partisan. (Breitbart, April 21, 2020)
“When We All Vote boasts a chairing committee of 12 celebrities whose ostensible task is to use their influencer status to boost the organization’s visibility, especially among young, impressionable voters who tend to look up to Hollywood stars. Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson were among the co-chairs who participated in a virtual voter registration drive on Monday, where they helped push for voting by mail across the country.”
It’s not just “the slew of left-wing Hollywood and sports celebrities whose past public statements have been anything but non-partisan”, how can the initiative’s creator who happens to be the ex-first lady, as wife to the ex-president credibly call herself “bipartisan”?
If all of those confined to home because of Coronavirus aren’t bored enough with nothing more to do than watch television, they can be bored stiff by watching Obama’s Netflix ‘documentary’, which (big yawn!) chronicles her 34-city book tour in 2018-2019 for her best-selling memoir “Becoming”.
“Former first lady Michelle Obama says in her upcoming Netflix documentary Becoming that it was a “slap in the face’’ that black Americans failed to show up to vote in the 2016 presidential election, according to the New York Post. (Breitbart, May 4, 2020)
“It takes some energy to go high, and we were exhausted from it … when you’re the first black anything,’’ Obama said, referring to her and her husband, former President Barack Obama, of their failed efforts to help elect then-Democrat White House nominee Hillary Clinton.
“You know, the day I left the White House, it was painful to sit on that stage, and then a lot of our folks didn’t vote — it was almost a slap in the face,” the former first lady added.
“It wasn’t just in this election, but every midterm, every time Barack didn’t get the Congress he needed, that was because our folks didn’t show up,” she said during another point in the film. “After all that work, they just couldn’t be bothered to vote at all. That’s my trauma.”
Obama’s Netflix ‘documentary’ is nothing more than a pathetic attempt to walk back to a 4-year ago past
“Now we’re out of the White House, not to be viewed, judged and parceled by every other person on the planet — yeah, it’s better, it’s absolutely freeing,’’ said Obama. “Being the first lady has been the greatest honor of my life. But how many people are in that position where the entire attention of everything is you, every gesture you make, every blink of an eye is being analyzed?
“Barack and I are not interested in being at the forefront forever — not even for that long.”
Obama’s Netflix ‘documentary’ is nothing more than a pathetic attempt to walk back to a 4-year ago past.
In reality, Barack Obama is ex-president, Michelle, ex-1st lady. Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election from which there is no coming back.
And most hated of all for Clinton and the Obamas, Donald J. Trump is president.
Michelle’s husband isn’t the president anymore, he’s the Harvey Weinstein-like ‘influencer’ running the show over at Netflix with his own ‘documentaries’, including the one pushing his wife as buddy Joe Biden’s vice president running mate.
How is it even possible that former top Barack Obama adviser David Axelrod finds it more than passing strange that the sexual assault allegation leveled against Joe Biden did not come up in 2008 during the Obama campaign’s “vetting” process for their eventual presidential pick when ‘no-creds Obama’ himself had zero “vetting”?!
‘Astroturf guy’ Axelrod resurfaced with a this weekend Tweet, having already been there in 2008 and 2012:
Both Obama—and Biden—strutted past the smell test with absolutely NO VETTING of any meaningful kind
“Axelrod, who was the chief strategist for the campaign and later a White House senior adviser to former President Barack Obama, said that Biden was carefully vetted before being announced as Obama’s running mate and that nothing surfaced to cause concern, including this.” (Fox News, May 4, 2020)
“Before @JoeBiden was selected VP by @BarackObama, letters for the campaign scoured every aspect of his record, career and life,” Axelrod tweeted this weekend. “Tara Reade or complaints of sexual harassment or assault never came up.”
“He added: “I know. I was there.”
Axelrod sure was there, and that’s how both Obama—and Biden—strutted past the smell test with absolutely NO VETTING of any meaningful kind.
“In an op-ed for CNN late Friday, Axelrod detailed the campaign’s “comprehensive vet,” which he said “certainly would have turned up any formal complaints filed against Biden during his 36-year career in the Senate.” (Fox News)
“It did not,” he wrote. “The team would have investigated any salacious rumors of the sort that travel far and wide in Washington. There were none.”
LOL!!! Astroturf Guy!
“Through that entire process, the name Tara Reade never came up. No formal complaint. No informal chatter. Certainly, no intimation of sexual harassment or assault from her or anyone else. The team of investigators, expert in their work, would not have missed it,” he continued. “Reade did not surface her allegations of a criminal sexual assault when Biden was a candidate for president in 2008, nor did she offer them confidentially to the Obama vetting team when Biden emerged as a principal contender for vice president later that year.
“Had any credible issue been raised, you can be sure Biden would not have been the nominee,” he stated.”
LOL!!! Astroturf Guy!
In a typical CYA attempt, AG Axelrod had this to say about women who come forward with sexual harassment charges:
“Women who come forward deserve to be taken seriously and treated with respect, and Tara Reade’s story should be heard and thoroughly investigated,” Axelrod added. “But it is striking that when an experienced vetting team put Biden under a microscope before he was chosen to be second-in-line for the presidency, neither her allegations, nor anything resembling them in Biden’s history, showed up.” (Fox News)
“Axelrod’s defense of Biden comes after the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee was forced last week to personally address Reade’s allegations, which he “unequivocally” denied.”
In other words—just in time.
Why should Biden plant his hands anywhere on a woman’s body?
“No, it is not true,” Biden said during an interview Friday with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “I’m saying unequivocally it never, never happened and it didn’t. It never happened.” (Fox News)
“Reade, a staffer in then-Senator Biden’s office in 1993, accused him in late March of sexually assaulting her. Her story has changed over time, however.
“Last year, Reade claimed Biden put his hands on her shoulders and rubbed his fingers up and down her neck, but was unable to gain traction on her story aside from an article in a local newspaper. Then in March she accused him of assault.”
Why should Biden plant his hands anywhere on a woman’s body?
“Addressing why she remained silent for so long, she told Fox News that the treatment of Anita Hill during the 1991 confirmation of Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas influenced her decision. Two years before Reade says that Biden assaulted her, Hill came forward accusing Thomas, her former supervisor, of sexual harassment amid his Senate confirmation, which was led by then-Senate Judiciary Chairman Biden. (Fox News)
How’s that for scoring politically correct political points?
“I really believed Anita Hill and I thought she was treated badly,” Reade told Fox News. “I think a lot of women felt the same way … that were professionals, you know, I was a young professional at the time.”
“And I didn’t like the way Joe Biden dealt with her, but I also didn’t like how she was dealt with in general, right? And what it did was that it made us more silent. What it did was show us was, ‘OK, when you try to go up against this, this is basically what you’re gonna face. So it was an example of… a deterrent.”
How’s that for scoring politically correct political points?
The Democrat Party and its #MeToo initiative hold the record for targeting sexual predators, but leave their surrogates to run run freely at large:
Convicted sexual predator movie mogul Harvey Weinstein contributed generously to the election campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama—both of whom are now angling to regain power.
Democrat plan was to replace Biden with a chosen vice president, such as Michelle Obama or Hillary Clinton
Convicted sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein purportedly took his own life in a New York City guarded prison before links between him and the Clintons could be forged.
Nothing will happen to presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden—even if Reade’s allegations of sexual assault could be proven true.
Even before the Reade allegation, the Democrat plan was to replace Biden with a chosen vice president, such as Michelle Obama or Hillary Clinton.
Was Tara Reade brought into the Biden brouhaha as a firewall to deflect from Biden’s Ukraine and China scandals?
Astroturf Guy David Axelrod knows.
Related:
Beware ‘Astroturf Guy’ David Axelrod
Don’t believe Internet headlines—no matter from which source—warning that Democrats have “major hurdles” after the latest poll.
“Former top Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod acknowledged Saturday that Democrats face tough challenges in November, following a new Associated Press-GfK poll that shows voters increasingly appear to want Republicans over Democrats to control Congress.”—Canada Free Press, April 7, 2014
It’s often thought that a vice-presidential candidate has little bearing on the election, but many factors make Joe Biden’s choice a consequential one, including his pledge to pick a woman. As for voters, a new poll shows they have a clear favorite for the VP slot. And the process is playing out amid the Tara Reade allegations, which have put a burden on many women to defend Biden exactly opposite of the #MeToo movement that the Democrats had supported.
Welcome to the new world where there are so many contradictions or every possible front, that all appearance is out the door. Worst still, Biden has actually shown that this is no longer about even selecting someone qualified to be president given his questionable age. It just has to be a woman. Perhaps with all the body bags around Hillary, he just does not feel comfortable with her being just one, OOPS sorry about that, away from power.
Here we go. The very claimed scientist whose advice led to Boris Johnson introducing lockdown measures to combat coronavirus has resigned from his government role after he breached the restrictions to meet his married lover at least TWICE. There is certainly a lack of any remorse or morality with Ferguson. This brings him into the class of a potential psychopath who cares nothing about the impact he has inflicted upon the entire world with people losing everything and in many placed suicides outnumber the COVID-19 deaths.
Neil Ferguson, 51, met with his alleged married lover, Antonia Staats, allowing her to travel across London to visit him at his home despite the lockdown. Don’t forget, it has been Ferguson who has continually stressed that is absolutely vital in stopping the spread of this con-coked killer virus which is less lethal than the flu.
Ms Staats, 38, lives with her husband, who is in his 30s, and their two children in a £1.9 million house in south London according to the press. She traveled across the city to visit the scientist on at least two occasions after the lockdown was announced on March 23. It appears that there is one set of rule for the world, and another for Ferguson who it seems does not take his own advice perhaps because it was bought by Bill Gates’s $79 million donation to Imperial College. Investigation anyone?
Ferguson of Imperial College was on the SAGE committee that advises the government on tackling the pandemic. This advice to lockdown the world came from this man. He forecast that 2 million Americans should be dead by now and 500,000 Britons would die without strict restrictions being put in place. In the fact of his dire repeated demands that the public follow lockdown measures, he himself met with his alleged lover on at least two occasions did not take this as a real threat since they were meeting secretly according to the Telegraph.
Supreme Court – “Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent non-surgical treatment for acute cholecystitis, a benign gallbladder condition, this afternoon at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. Following oral arguments on Monday, the Justice underwent outpatient tests at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C., that confirmed she was suffering from a gallstone that had migrated to her cystic duct, blocking it and causing an infection.”
“The Justice is resting comfortably and plans to participate in the oral argument teleconference tomorrow morning remotely from the hospital. She expects to stay in the hospital for a day or two. Updates will be provided as they become available.” (link
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and U.K. Secretary of State for International Trade Elizabeth Truss announced today [joint statement] the beginning of a series of fast-tracked trade negotiations toward a new free trade agreement. [USTR Release]
In the foreground is a trade agreement between the U.S. and the United Kingdom. However, in the more strategic background context these negotiations create leverage for the U.K. in their post-Brexit negotiations with the European Union. First from today:
LIGHTHIZER – […] The US negotiating team will be led by Dan Mullaney, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Europe and the Middle East; and the UK negotiating team will be led by Oliver Griffiths, Director for US Negotiations at the Department for International Trade. Over 200 staff from U.S. and UK government agencies and departments are expected to take part in the negotiations.
An opening plenary today will kick off the detailed discussions, followed by multiple virtual meetings from Wednesday 6 May to Friday 15 May. The negotiations build on the work conducted through the U.S.-UK Trade and Investment Working Group, which was established in July 2017, partly to lay the ground work for these negotiations.
A comprehensive U.S-U.K trade agreement will further deepen the already very strong trade and investment ties between the United States and UK by creating new opportunities for American and UK families, workers, businesses and farmers through increased access to the other’s market.
The United States and the United Kingdom are the first and fifth largest economies in the world, respectively. Total two-way trade between the two countries is already worth about $269 billion a year. Each country is the other’s largest source of foreign direct investment, with about $1 trillion invested in each other’s economies. Every day, around one million Americans go to work for UK firms, while around one million Britons go to work for American firms. (more)
An important geopolitical overlay helps to better understand the specifics of this dynamic.
The United States is essentially a self-sustaining economy. Meaning, if you think about a nation as an independent construct able to sustain itself; our imports are enhancements not priorities. Our domestic resources, energy development, food production and essential internal needs are capable of sustaining our population. The import of products is valuable, but in the bigger picture not fundamentally necessary for survival.
The United Kingdom is very similar in this regard. The U.K. has abundant energy resources, food and agricultural development, and is positioned as an independent economy absent the dynamic of internal politics regulating those functions. Domestic politics surrounding left-wing climate change (energy development etc), to restrict internal development, are a function of ability, not necessity. The U.K. has abundant coal, oil and natural gas; it also has abundant agriculture. [The U.K weakness is military defense.]
Because both nations are similar in their ability to be non-dependent on trade, a free trade agreement is essentially a second-tier negotiation on products and services that enhance the independence. This is a unique dynamic not found in all trade discussions. Two independent economic systems negotiating on trade enhancements to each-other.
This is a much different dynamic than negotiation with a dependent country like China. China cannot feed itself, it needs to import raw materials to sustain itself; thus the importance of the One-Belt/One-Road Beijing initiative. China is a massive economy, but China is also a dependent economy; subject to damage from external dynamics.
Similarly, due to advanced political ideology, Canada cannot sustain itself economically; however, they are dependent by choice. Currently Mexico is not self-sustaining; they too are dependent on both access to the U.S. market and the import of industrial goods. However, unlike Canada our southern trade partner is working toward self-sustenance.
♦ Dependence or Independence is the ultimate context for all trade negotiations.
Dependent countries do not inherently carry negotiation leverage, and must create leverage through access to their economy (China again). The more independent the internal economy is within any nation, the less dependency they have. Less dependency means more leverage… more leverage means better terms (with nationalist negotiators).
A U.S-U.K trade agreement would not be based on “essential” trade products or “vital” trade services. The trade is not essential, but it is complimentary.
A U.S. and U.K. trade agreement is based on mutual enhancements or mutual benefits. This is an important distinction to keep in mind because it plays into the larger geopolitical dynamic.
The U.K. is currently in a post-Brexit negotiation phase after they spit away from the European Union. Strategically, it is smart for the U.K. to enter into trade discussions with the U.S. for needed products and services they might currently be gaining from the EU.
The timing of trade discussion with the U.S. gives Prime Minister Boris Johnson leverage toward the EU. President Trump and Boris Johnson have previously discussed this.
Additionally, the U.S. and E.U will eventually have to work out a new trade agreement because President trump is realigning all existing U.S. trade terms.
The U.S. already carries all of the leverage in any discussion with the EU; both in terms of market size, need for EU to retain access to the U.S. market, and the generous one-way tariff benefit currently maintained by the EU (which Trump is about to confront). Enhancing the U.S. leverage by providing a super-highway for transatlantic trade between the U.S. and U.K. puts the EU at an even further strategic disadvantage with the U.S.
If President Trump told the EU to drop their market restrictions (protectionist tariffs and non tariff barriers); and the EU refused to negotiate…. well, Trump could just shut the EU trade door completely (think German autos) and collapse their economy. The EU needs us more than we need the EU.
Remember the important dynamic: The EU hitched their wagon to China… China cannot purchase from the EU without the dollars from their U.S. trade imbalance…. If Trump shrinks U.S. purchasing from China; Beijing has less money to spend on EU industrial goods…. When we punch China on the nose, the EU gets the nosebleed.
Again, all of this is leverage for the U.S. and vulnerability for the EU.
Thus, the Trump benefit in a complimentary trade discussion with Boris Johnson is really the pending benefit of leverage over the EU.
Not accidentally, a Johnson benefit in a complimentary trade discussion with Trump is really the current benefit of leverage in their post-Brexit negotiations with the EU.
Because most of the trade sectors will be lower tier; and because the bigger goal for President Trump would be the building of leverage to confront the EU; I would expect the biggest trade gain for the U.S. will be helping the U.K. with military purchases.
There will be a lot of small-ball stuff. However, the bigger headline within a fast deal will likely be Boris Johnson purchasing advanced military hardware from us, and in return the U.K. will have preferential access to sell into the United States market based on reciprocal value.
That preferential access will form the basis for a trade hub inside the U.K. which will be the gateway to a transatlantic super-highway. The UK will then negotiate with EU companies based on access to their trade hub. Boris Johnson control the hub.
Once an alternative trade route is established Trump will start negotiating with the EU for new terms based on reciprocity. If the EU balks, Trump reminds them he can just close direct EU trade access while reminding them EU companies can use the hub.
The EU will have no choice except to acquiesce to Trump’s terms, drop their protectionist unilateral tariffs and drop their non-tariff barriers. We finally dissolve the Marshal Plan and enter a new trade era based on actual reciprocity.
I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
Centinel2012 