Tag Archives: Agent provocateur

Jan 6 2019

Government Closure & Lack of Advice to Trump


Armstrong Economics Blog/Gov’t Incompetence

Re-Posted Jan 5, 2019 by Martin Armstrong

 

President Donald Trump on Friday said he has considered using emergency powers to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The press has been saying that he could declare a national emergency to redirect money from the Defense Department or other sources to fund the wall. However, Obama used funding that was granted by Congress in perpetuity to fund the war on Terrorism by simply using that to send his expedition forces to Syria. All Trump has to do is simply declare that Terroristscould enter the country through Mexico and presto – he has the power to build the wall with all the money you can dream of under the Patriot Act. Why did not one of his advisors tell him that? Whose side are they really on? His? or the Deep State?

CNN an the other fake news organizations always cut Trump off from his secondary reason to build the wall – drugs. The only air his first reason immigration and thus declare him to be a racist even though Mexican is not a race. Emails have come in and asked what advice I would have given Trump. To circumvent the fake news, I would simply have told the Democrats that either they fund the wall to stop the drug traffic or I will issue an executive order ending the prosecution of drug cases and order the release from prison of those with just drug charges.

This whole thing is really pointless. The first thing Obama did was build a wall around his house in Washington. The cost of $5 billion is no big deal when we are dealing with trillion dollar deficits. This is all about the Age of Obstruction we have entered. The Democrats must obstruct whatever Trump does in a desperate effort to win the White House in 2020. Will the wall stop the drug trade? Not. They will resort to ships and low flying planes as in Made in America.

Jan 5 2019

Border Security Means a “Real” Physical Wall!


Ronald Reagan’s biggest failure as president was granting amnesty to 3
million illegal aliens and then trusting Congress would secure the
borders. That never happened.

Building the wall and securing the border are as important to Donald
Trump as “read my lips, no new taxes” was to President George H. W.
Bush. Bush reneged on that campaign pledge and became a one term president.

Democrats couldn’t be trusted then and they can’t be trusted now. They
have no interest in immigration reform. This is a party that requires an
underclass dependent on government. They see illegal immigrants as
nothing more than future votes for their party.

Building the wall and securing the border is, arguably, the issue that
got Donald Trump elected.  Stand your ground, Mr. President, or risk the
same fate as the first President Bush.

Jeff Longo

396841101-border-security-briefing

Jan 5 2019

Beware Senator Mitch McConnell…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on January 4, 2019 by 

Sometimes we must call the baby ugly.  CTH has followed and mapped how Mitch McConnell operates for over a decade.  Here’s the deal as we see it…

Senate Leader Mitch McConnell has one major career alliance that has been unbroken and unchanged for well over two decades.  That alliance is with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and specifically with CoC President Tom Donohue.  [SEE HERE and SEE HERE].

Mitch McConnell is stealthily working against the efforts of President Donald Trump.  The effort is to support his primary Wall Street financial benefactor, Donohue. However, Mitch McConnell cannot directly be connected to underhanded efforts against President Trump because it would lead to: (A) questions about a confrontation; and (B) public exposure. [ex. think about how McConnell is blocking President Trump from recess appointments]

Mitch McConnell is up for election in 2020; in the exact same cycle as the reelection of President Trump.  If it became more obvious what McConnell is doing, there’s a strong, heck, guaranteed, likelihood Trump would be empowered to turn against McConnell.  Therefore Mitch McConnell has to be very careful about the visibility of how he undermines the President. Everything must have built in plausible deniability.

McConnell has a history of getting caught. However, fortunately for him people also have a tendency to forget [see McConnell’s scheme in the Mississippi 2014 Cochran race as an example].  Almost no-one remembers that U.S. Senator Jim DeMint, the founder of the Senate Conservative Fund, quit the Senate specifically because of the schemes and internal Machiavellian power moves of Mitch McConnell.

So when the carefully constructed, pre-planned, pre-scheduled, and pre-organized public op-ed by incoming Senator Mitt Romney was deployed in the Washington Post… for those who have watched McConnell work; we knew exactly who orchestrated it and why.

Senator Romney will be one (not the only) visible face of the opposition.  However, just like former Senator Corker and current Senator Sasse, the instructions (direct and indirect), and/or the approvals, will come from Leader McConnell’s office.

Through his power structure McConnell directly controls about 8 to 15 republican senators; we have called them “The Decepticons” for years. [Cornyn, Thune, Porter, Blunt, Portman, Burr, Barasso, Crapo, Murkowski, Gardner, Roberts, Sasse, Tillis, Graham and now Romney]

McConnell needed to test Romney’s commitment to the Decepticon club.  Romney passed the test.  Romney was rewarded with placement on the Senate Foreign Relations committee.  Those Senators who sit on this committee get the most financial benefit from foreign lobbying.  To understand the financial process think: Qatar & McCain Institute etc.

That’s what is going on internally…. and no, I doubt President Trump knows the scale of it; or maybe he does, and he has to pretend like he doesn’t to navigate his agenda… but somehow I doubt it.

To remind ourselves how Minority and Majority Senator McConnell took down the threat of the Tea Party revisit these old articles:  CNN Part I and CNN Part II  both showcase how McConnell works.   Then do some research on how McConnell worked with Haley Barbour in Mississippi [SEE HERE].

Yes, Democrats are the opponents.  However, the far more urgent MAGA enemy is Mitch McConnell.

There.

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Jan 5 2019

Mueller Grand Jury Term Extended Another Six Months…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on January 4, 2019 by 

In December we began to construct the anticipated timeline, and structure, for the weaponization of House committees toward the larger resistance objective to remove their political opposition, namely President Donald Trump.

In the past week some of the Democrat resistance timeline has gained clarity from: (1) within Speaker Pelosi’s rules, structure and committee deadlines; and (2) today the extension of team Rosenstein/Mueller’s ‘small group’ grand jury endeavors:

Washington DC – A federal grand jury being used by the team of Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been extended, Fox News has learned. The original term of 18 months for the Washington, D.C.-based jury expired on Friday.

Sources close to Chief Judge of U.S. District Court in Washington, Beryl Howell, tell Fox News she has extended the grand jury term.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the extension is for another six months.

A grand jury may serve more than 18 months only if the court, having determined that an extension is in the public interest, extends the grand jury’s service. An extension may be granted for no more than 6 months, except as otherwise provided by statute.

Mueller, 74, took over the federal government’s probe into alleged collusion between President Trump’s campaign and Russian officials in May 2017. Already, his investigation has led to charges for multiple Trump campaign associates, though none of the charges are directly related to any misconduct by the president’s campaign.  (read more)

Additionally, following discovery of Pelosi’s committee modifications there has been some chatter amid the Lawfare group about the possibility of an interim Mueller report to be used as the backdrop for Ejijah Cummings (Oversight of White House), Adam Schiff (HPSCI); and Jerry Nadler (House Judiciary).

It’s important to note when we use the term “Mueller” in these contexts, CTH is discussing the special counsel team and not the individual.   Also when we approach the term “impeachment” we are not discussing it as the technical and legal approach for removal of a President; but rather the political use of the process to damage President Donald Trump.

Professional political Democrats would not be using “impeachment” in the constitutional sense of the process; but rather weaponizing the process -as a tool itself- to target the executive office.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi giving a new, much more narrow, mandate to Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, to target the White House exclusively, is evidence of that political fine-tuning and House intent.

As we can see from Pelosi’s outlined rules above, she is giving Cummings until April 15th, under his narrow focus, to deliver a schedule for congressional hearings.  We can infer from that schedule the background material for Cummings will be gathered prior to his setting out the calendar dates for the narrowly tailored Oversight hearings.

Following that path, and anticipating three key backdrop events [¹Cohen appearance, ²Mueller Report (interim?) and ³Horowitz report], we should slightly modify the previous expectation; while keeping in mind that Pelosi also changed the rules for subpoenas and depositions – Cummings, Nadler and Schiff no longer need to coordinate with their minority (Republican) committee counterparts.

The Democrat committee chairs, and investigative staff, can now conduct background investigations (depositions etc.) without notification and/or participation of the minority membership.  In essence they have a lot more room for rapid action against any arbitrary target.

As a result, Chairman Cummings (w/ Nadler and Schiff consult) will likely take a deposition from Michael Cohen prior to Cohen reporting to federal prison on March 6th.  This will help Cummings frame and schedule the substance of the hearings prior to his deadline on April 15th, 2019.   That part of the original outlook remains unchanged.

However, if the Lawfare chatter is correct; and it makes sense that it would be; there is now a greater likelihood that Mueller’s team will present an interim report, also prior to April 15th, in order to accommodate Cummings need to plan out the hearings.

It would make sense, under the faux-auspices of explaining why they are expending so much time, taxpayer money and effort, for team Mueller to present an interim report on ‘muh Russia‘, while continuing down the expanded investigative path authorized by Rosenstein:  ie. “any matters that may arise as a result of the investigation”.

If the Lawfare chatter is accurate, CTH would predict the narrative around an interim report would be the honorable team of Robert Mueller: (1) justifying their magnanimous investigative work; (2) a responsibility to share their current status/findings with a new congress (considering leadership changes); and (3) because they are such honorable stewards of taxpayer funds they owe it to the American public to give a status report.   Blah, blah, blah… well, you get the picture.

This approach by Rosenstein/Mueller would give Democrats the best of both worlds.  A report they can use to begin oversight hearings; and yet the Mueller investigation continues without any end in sight.  So long as any special counsel investigation is ongoing, Mueller’s primary objective is retained:

♦(1) Create an investigation – Just by creating the investigation it is then used as a shield by any corrupt FBI/DOJ official who would find himself/herself under downstream congressional investigation.  Former officials being deposed/questioned by IG Horowitz or Congress could then say they are unable to answer those questions due to the ongoing special counsel investigation.  In this way Mueller provides cover for ideologically aligned deep state officials.

♦(2)  Use the investigation to keep any and all inquiry focused away from the corrupt DOJ and FBI activity that took place in 2015, 2016, 2017.  Keep the media narrative looking somewhere, anywhere, other than directly at the epicenter of the issues. In this way, Mueller provides distraction and talking points against the Trump administration.

♦(3) Use the investigation to suck-up, absorb, any damaging investigative material that might surface as a result of tangentially related inquiry.  Example: control the exposure of evidence against classified leak participants like SSCI Director of Security, James Wolfe; and/or block IG Horowitz from seeing material related to the FISA abuse scandal and “spygate”.  In this way Mueller provides cover for the institutions and the administrative state.

In all of these objectives the Mueller special counsel has been stunningly effective.

If Mueller, the team not the person, can continue their investigation AND congress can simultaneously begin using Mueller’s material to start publicly broadcasting congressional hearings, well, the aggregate resistance effort is amplified.

This approach means the Democrats can continue the ruse/narrative about why they lost the 2016 election.  This approach feeds their base unlimited narrative fuel.

Again, there is very little doubt the approach has already been mapped out in post-election meetings between: Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, the Democrat committee heads, allies in the lawfare community, political allies inside the executive branch (IC, DOJ, FBI etc.), along with feedback from political networks, DNC (Perez) and major resistance donors.

♦Key Committee Structure – The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) will be Chairman Adam Schiff and ranking member Devin Nunes.  The House Judiciary Committee will be Chaired by Jerry Nadler and ranking member Doug Collins.  The House Oversight and Reform Committee will be Chairman Elijah Cummings and ranking member Jim Jordan.

♦Gang of Eight (IC Oversight) – The Go8 line-up will be radically different in 2019 and far more adversarial to the executive branch.  Ranked by influence over IC:

  1. Nancy Pelosi (D) – Speaker of House.
  2. Adam Schiff (D) – Chair, HPSCI
  3. Senator Mitch McConnell (R) – Senate Majority Leader
  4. Senator Richard Burr  (R) –  Chair, SSCI
  5. Kevin McCarthy (R) – Minority Leader House.
  6. Senator Chuck Schumer (D) – Senate Minority Leader
  7. Devin Nunes (R) – Ranking Member HPSCI
  8. Senator Mark Warner (D) – Vice Chair, SSCI

♦The Broad Political Alliances – Overlaying the DC political alliances within the intelligence community Gang of Eight you see a resistance ratio of 7:1 against the executive branch.

Pelosi, Schiff, McConnell, Burr, McCarthy, Schumer and Warner all allied with the overall UniParty resistance objective; and only Devin Nunes as an ally to the White House.  That’s a ration of 7:1 in favor of “The DC Resistance” against the Executive Branch.

That’s the landscape.

Additionally, Nancy Pelosi has the new House Counsel, Douglas Letter, set up to massively expand as a mini-doj,… and by using the pretense of defending Obamacare, the new unaccountable legal unit [likely allied interests from Lawfare] can receive unlimited taxpayer funding.

A smart, albeit Machievellian construct.

Background Resources:

The first step in defeating the enemy is to discover their plans.

Jan 5 2019

President Trump and Vice President Pence Rose Garden Press Briefing on Border Security (Video)…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on January 4, 2019 by 

President Trump speaks to the press following his second meeting with congressional leaders at the White House. Joining him at the Rose Garden press conference was Vice President Mike Pence, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and House Republican leaders Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise.

During an extensive briefing with media President Trump said negotiations continue and he will meeting with resistance lawmakers, again over the weekend.

Jan 5 2019

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders Briefs Press Pool…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on January 4, 2019 by 

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders delivers brief remarks to the press pool discussing the government shutdown. Mrs Sanders notes Democrat leadership Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin and Steny Hoyer are playing political games with national security.  The border security impasse between Republicans and Democrats continues with a partial government shutdown.

Jan 5 2019

STUNNING December Jobs Report: 312,000 Jobs Added, Wage Growth 3.2%, Revisions to Oct/Nov +58,000 More Jobs…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on January 4, 2019 by 

Jumpin’ Ju-Ju Bones…. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases the December 2018 jobs report and the numbers are “eye-popping.”  ♦In the month of December 312,000 new jobs were added.  ♦Real wage growth now 3.2%.  ♦Prior October and November jobs reports were adjusted upward by 58,000 jobs.   Main Street USA is roaring!!

Here’s the data:  Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 312,000 in December. The unemployment rate rose to 3.9 percent (more static workers entering workforce).

Employment in health care rose by 50,000 in December. Within the industry, job gains occurred in ambulatory health care services (+38,000) and hospitals (+7,000). Health care added 346,000 jobs in 2018, more than the gain of 284,000 jobs in 2017.

In December, employment in food services and drinking places increased by 41,000. Over the year, the industry added 235,000 jobs, similar to the increase in 2017 (+261,000).

Construction employment rose by 38,000 in December, with job gains in heavy and civil engineering construction (+16,000) and nonresidential specialty trade construction (+16,000). The construction industry added 280,000 jobs in 2018, compared with an
increase of 250,000 in 2017.

Manufacturing added 32,000 jobs in December. Most of the gain occurred in the durable goods component (+19,000), with job growth in fabricated metal products (+7,000) and in computer and electronic products (+4,000). Employment in the nondurable goods component also increased over the month (+13,000). Manufacturing employment increased by 284,000 over the year, with about three-fourths of the gain in durable goods industries. Manufacturing had added 207,000 jobs in 2017.

In December, employment in retail trade rose by 24,000. Job growth occurred in general merchandise stores (+15,000) and automobile dealers (+6,000). These gains were partially offset by a job loss in sporting goods, hobby, book, and music stores (-9,000). Retail trade employment increased by 92,000 in 2018, after little net change in 2017 (-29,000).

Over the month, employment in professional and business services continued to trend up (+43,000). The industry added 583,000 jobs in 2018, outpacing the 458,000 jobs added in 2017.

♦  In December, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose 11 cents to $27.48. Over the year, average hourly earnings have increased by 84 cents, or ¹3.2 percent.

¹Remember, inflation is currently estimated at 1.6% to 2% (depending on sector).  Lower tax rates, higher wages, low inflation combined with lower gas prices means extra money in workers pockets; quite a bit of extra money actually.  This helps explain the more than six percent increase in 2018 holiday spending.  Almost every economic benefit is central to Main Street USA (blue and white collar).

♦  The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for November was revised up from +155,000 to +176,000 (increase of 21,000; the change for October was revised up from +237,000 to +274,000 (increase of 37,000). With these revisions, employment gains in October and November combined were 58,000 more than previously reported.

After revisions, job gains have averaged 254,000 per month over the last 3 months. (BLS Links)

The talking heads are stunned – watch:

.

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Jan 5 2019

Stunner – Bolsonaro Open To “U.S. Strategic Alliance” Military Base in Brazil…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on January 3, 2019 by 

In the realm of everything geopolitical in consequence, a recent article from an interview with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro highlights the globalists’ worst nightmare. And the comments from the WTO reflects the global influence of President Donald J Trump.

Before getting to two key points, rather stunningly delicious points, it’s worth remembering that Brazil is the “B” in the ‘BRICS alliance’.  Before U.S. President Donald Trump took center stage in the world of international influence, the former governments of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) had formed a coalition.  Each nation represented an enlarged -and growing- regional trade/economic influence.

Shortly after taking office; and with hindsight – prior to the China confrontation; President Trump began a systematic process of challenging various economic influencers.  This is the origin of the Trump Doctrine .

By expanding U.S. energy development, strategically engaging with OPEC (Gulf Cooperation Council) States, and simultaneously engaging with Baltic States at the Three Seas Summit in Warsaw Poland, President Trump established the groundwork for downward pressure on oil prices.  This comprehensive and geopolitical energy strategy diminished the ability of Russia to maintain a consistent external financial influence.

(Tweet Link) – (Article Link)

Simultaneously, President Trump reset the framework for U.S. relations with India; and, while few were paying attention to the side-bar benefit of Nikki Haley, President Trump engaged with Prime Minister Modi in bilateral discussions of enhanced economic partnership. [See: India Invests $500 Billion in two U.S. Steel Operations]

In addition to India providing strategic benefit for trade market systems and access; an enhanced relationship with India also provides an economic foil against China. [Remember, Chinese President Xi is allied with, and heavily invested in, Pakistan.  India’s Prime Minister Modi is allied with, and heavily invested in, Afghanistan.]

♦ Big Picture – With President Trump focused on Main Street USA, the policies to support economic nationalism (Main Street) run in opposition to the multinational interests of  global financial elite (Wall Street).   The constructs of the World Bank (WB), World Trade Organization (WTO), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are necessarily weakened by the rise of President Trump and economic nationalism writ large.

At the same time as President Trump unapologetically confronts these multinational financial institutions, the people of Poland, Hungary, Italy and now Brazil; having felt no benefit from left-wing global policy (economics and immigration); embraced the more visible benefit of a nationalist economic policies and reaffirmed sovereignty.

Back to the BRICS…  What we now see is two central regional components of the BRICS alliance, India and now Brazil, allied in economic ideology with President Trump.

In essence: Russia is bleeding financially (oil revenue dependent). China is being weakened during the U.S. -vs- China trade confrontation.  And India along with Brazil are joining with the U.S.  This fractures the BRICS alliance. [Hell, it just about destroys it.]

That’s the background.

Now, lets take a look at the article from Brazil we cited in the beginning:

France24 – Brazil’s new President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday that he would be open to the possibility of the United States operating a military base on his country’s soil, a move that would form a sharp shift in direction for Brazilian foreign policy.

Bolsonaro, who took power on Tuesday, said that Russia’s support of President Nicolas Maduro‘s “dictatorship” in neighboring Venezuela had significantly ramped up tensions in the region and was a worrying development.

Asked by the SBT TV network in an interview taped on Thursday if that meant he would allow U.S. military presence in Brazil, Bolsonaro responded that he would certainly be willing to negotiate that possibility.

“Depending on what happens in the world, who knows if we would not need to discuss that question in the future,” Bolsonaro said.  He emphasized that what Brazil seeks is to have “supremacy here in South America.”

But wait, here’s the even bigger part of the story:

[…] Separately, Bolsonaro met with the head of the World Trade Organization, Roberto Azevedo, who said the government’s sharp rebukes of globalism were shared by many other countries and that the trade body was making changes.

On Wednesday, Brazil’s new Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo said that under his watch the country would fight for change at multilateral institutions like the WTO.

Araujo’s words were not a threat, Azevedo said.

“To the contrary, I think it was very propitious and compatible with what is happening,” he said after meeting Bolsonaro. “The World Trade Organization itself is beginning the process of reforms.”  (link)

Hello?

Wait.., wha?…

Mr. Robert Azevedo, the head of the World Trade Organization, is now acquiescing to President Donald J Trump’s position that the era of multilateral, multinational, financial and corporate trade exploitation, ie. “globalism“, is over.

The WTO has agreed to reform in order to survive? …And the WTO is admitting this to nationalist political leaders after their successful elections?….

Pinch me!

Winnamins.

STAT !

Big ones.

“Hey, Mitt”..

Jan 5 2019

First Muslim Congresswoman Rashinda Tlaib: “We’re Going to Go In There and Impeach The Motherfucker”…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on January 3, 2019 by 

Democrat Representative Rashida Tlaib was sworn in today as one of the first Muslim women in Congress.  As a self-described Palestinian-American she represents Detroit and the surrounding suburbs, and is being heralded as the new voice of the Democrat party.

To highlight Representative Tlaib’s professional and political ideology; and showcase the progressive resistance intent her regional constituency provides to the United States Congress; Ms. Tlaib delivered the following message to her enthusiastic supporters:

.

Yes, this is the modern professional Democrat party:

“We’re going to impeach the motherfucker”.

Back-up video, in case YouTube deletes original.

https://videopress.com/embed/CVft7h35?hd=0&autoPlay=0&permalink=0&loop=0.

 

Jan 4 2019

Decepticon Senator Mitt Romney Given Seat on Foreign Relations Committee…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on January 3, 2019 by 

A predictable assignment for a Decepticon tool placed to protect the interests of the multinationals.

A committee position on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee ensures that Mittens can prosper from the indulgences of foreign lobbying efforts.

WASHINGTON DC – Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) is getting a high-profile perch as he joins the Senate during his latest clash with President Trump.

Romney was named on Thursday to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, giving him an opening to wade into several looming foreign policy battles between Congress and the White House.

Romney had reportedly expressed an interest in gaining a seat on the committee, where two Republican members retired at the end of the last Congress, opening up space on the panel.  (read more)