President Trump Tweets ‘Tempered’ Response to Attack From Decepticon Senator Mitt Romney…


President Trump enters a new phase in legislative road-blocking fraught with challenges inside the Senate chamber.  Almost all U.S. Republican Senators have accepted the indulgences of U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue.

President Trump now relies on the upper chamber to consent on the America-First trade deals he has been renegotiating.  Simultaneously, Donohue and McConnell plot how to best utilize their increased influence over the executive branch…. [Romney was the first shot]

tempered response does not come as a surprise given the landscape.

How President Trump is able to get Republicans in the Senate to support renegotiated trade deals they have been paid to oppose will be an interesting dynamic to watch.

These trade deals and the fundamental economic policy behind MAGAnomics is the most centrally important aspect to President Trump’s mission in DC.

The fight is about control over U.S. economy.  Mitch McConnell and his Decepticon caucus will be supporting Wall Street; and only President Trump will be fighting for Main Street.

This is the political dynamic to watch.

It’s about the money.

It is always about the money.

Look at the republican senators who are aligned against the removal of NAFTA (that list includes McConnell)…. and we will easily identify those senators who have been paid to protect the interests of U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue.

(Link to 2018 Lobbyist Results)

In Mexico, Central and South America they call it “corruption” and/or “bribery”; in the United States our politicians call it “lobbying”, the process is identical.

Remember, only a few days ago Mitch McConnell still held the Senate in open session to block President Trump from making any recess appointments over the holidays.  That parliamentary scheme requires unanimous support in the upper chamber in order for it to apply.  All 100 senators must agree to hold the session in limbo.

It only takes one senator to break ranks and say no, and that parliamentary trick doesn’t work.   One republican senator could have allowed President Trump to use recess appointments for Ambassador appointments and/or cabinet appointments.

You’ll note not one senator broke ranks.

 

Chairmen Nadler, Cummings and Schiff Announce Immediate Round of Trump Investigations…


CTH previously outlined the likely path Democrats will follow when they take control of the key congressional committees starting tomorrow {Go Deep}.  For those who walk through the deep weeds of DC politics, the sequence of 2019 events -based on accepting the historic resistance pattern- is entirely predictable.

Today, Fox News confirms the intention of Jerry Nadler (House Judiciary), Elijah Cummings (House Oversight) and Adam Schiff (HPSCI) as soon as they are sworn into office:

WASHINGTON DC – They’re about to get subpoena power – and they plan to use it.

As Democrats officially take back control of the House when the new Congress is seated Thursday, newly empowered House Committee chairmen are preparing to launch a slew of Trump administration investigations.

[…]  In a press release Wednesday, Cummings said his committee plans to “investigate waste, fraud, and abuse in the Trump Administration,” as well as “other issues that affect the American people every day.”  (read more)

There are three important congressional events likely in the first quarter of 2019. The sequencing of those events will be the key to understanding the “Resistance” political year.

(House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – New House General Counsel Douglas Letter)

The baseline is that Democrat leadership are cunning political strategists; and have likely already drawn out the big picture road-map with details to be filled in as they proceed.

  • The first event is the congressional use of Michael Cohen for a series of public committee hearings. [Oversight (Elijah Cummings) and possibly -though less likely- Judiciary (Nadler) and HPSCI (Schiff)] This likely has to happen before March 6th, 2019, when Cohen is scheduled to enter federal prison. It’s almost certain Cohen’s incarceration deferment contains the unwritten agreement to appear. [Democrat leadership almost certainly coordinated this plan with team Mueller and the SDNY some time ago.]
  • The second event is the release of the Team Mueller political report which, despite its inability to find criminal wrongdoing, will most certainly be written with highly charged innuendo as damaging to President Trump as possible. The release of this report will absolutely fuel several public committee hearings [Oversight/Reform (Cummings), HPSCI (Schiff) and Judiciary (Nadler)] without any doubt.
  • The third event is the release of the OIG Horowitz report on possible FISA abuse. Due to the nature of Mueller’s proprietary investigative blackout (Horowitz not allowed to see investigative material or witnesses with Mueller probe ongoing), the Horowitz report will likely come out *after* Mueller.

That’s the three key events the Democrats and media will be most likely to exploit for maximum political benefit in the first quarter of 2019. The sequence between Mueller and Horowitz might reverse (though unlikely and I’ll explain later). Other investigative resistance paths will spur from these three primary Q1 events.

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.

The real trick to discovering the plan (as early as possible) will be to spot the signals that will tell us where they are going before they shift in their planned direction. Example: We already know Michael Cohen is a key starting point (aforementioned reasons).

To better understand the Resistance landscape, next let’s look at: (1) the most reasonable predictions for committee structure; (2) the new Gang of Eight line-up; and (3) the broad political alliances that are also predictable.

Key Committee Structure – The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) will likely 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.

So if we take the first quarter resistance events/narratives (¹Cohen appearance, ²Mueller Report and ³Horowitz report); and we overlay what has already surfaced; we can then begin to get a picture of how things will reasonably be expected to play out.

SC Robert Mueller (the team, not the person) and DAG Rod Rosenstein have already explained to POTUS Trump that if he attempts any declassification of documents currently part of Mueller’s investigative purview (that’s literally everything and/or anything they lay claim to), the Special Counsel investigative unit will consider that interference with their investigation of him (President Trump). That threat, and the advice of White House lawyers (prior counsel no longer present), led to Trump backing down in September:

[Obviously “speed” is a relative term, it’s soon to be 4 months]

So it stands to reason if they (Rosenstein, Mueller, etc.) are telling the president he can’t take any action,…. common sense says the same general ‘hands-off‘ principle would apply to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz; who is ultimately under much more of the institutional DOJ control system than President Trump.

See the issue? As time progresses, and with hindsight as a corruption guide, it becomes more clear how Robert Mueller has been playing his cards. Horowitz is frozen in place by an inability to see evidence until Mueller says he’s finished with his investigation.

[While it is absolutely blood-boiling to witness, that professional DOJ hoodwinking -the inherent ‘catch 22‘- is the administrative state doing some of its finest work. See the scale of it? There’s no-one to technically hold accountable, it’s the system self-actuated. This is an example of why you can never be cynical enough when it comes to DC.]

The Democrats take control on January 3rd, 2019  – they will likely utilize the first two weeks of compliant media coverage to spike the football and position maximum demoralization toward their new minority party republican colleagues.

The Democrats will have to balance the level of smug condescension (which the media and their base are looking forward to) with their visible faux-apoplexy toward the current appropriations battle and government shut down. They will pat the republicans on the head and position themselves as the professionals in charge now.

If we extend the sequencing with all the above in mind it looks like the House Oversight Committee (Cummings) and House Judiciary Committee (Nadler) will likely kick the resistance operation into action (after Superbowl) with Michael Cohen’s scheduled appearances broadcast on television for the better part of two weeks use.

That first phase event will likely be followed by a late Feb/early March dropping of the Mueller report. There will be a grand lead-in, roll-out and press spectacle designed for maximum exposure. The tail end of that phase will lead to more hearings throughout March perhaps into early April with subpoenas based on the report framework.

Again, remember these are Democrats. This stuff is already planned out in the broad strokes. The upcoming congressional calendar has all of these events considered. Pelosi and Schumer have told their key underlings of preliminary vacation blackout dates etc. Nothing professional democrats do is without specific intent, purposeful design and well communicated organization. This is what they do. This is all they do.

While these events are happening the HPSCI will be demanding discovery from the White House and intelligence apparatus that will be spurred by Cohen and Mueller. The DOJ and FBI will find a new interest in congressional compliance especially given the House General Counsel, Douglas Letter, is one of their allied Resistance members.

On the positive side for Team Trump, once Mueller actually presents a report – his operational leverage over the White House will be effectively over.

Mueller (the team, not the individual) will be handing the Resistance baton to their allies in congress; and the team will then set off for a well indulged, stunningly compensated, media tour which will likely include numerous advanced offers from Hollywood types for movie rights. Most of them will enjoy job offers from major networks and political allies.

Dark Overlord Claims it Will Release 911 Documents Unless it is Paid in BitCoin


 

The story running around is that the hackers known as the Dark Overlord claim they will release 911 Documents unless they are paid a ransom in BitCoin. This merely illustrates the problem with private cryptocurrencies and it may be just a ploy to justify governments seizing private cryptocurrencies and issuing their own. They claim in an announcement published on PasteBin: “When major incidents like the WTC 911 incident happen, part of the litigation must involve SSI (Sensitive Security Information) and SCI (Special Compartment Information) from the likes of the FBI, CIA, TSA, FAA, DOD, and others being introduced into evidence.”

The government would NEVER have provided such sensitive documents to any private law firm. That is nonsense. Exactly who is going to pay such a ransom? The US government? They would have claimed national security and no judge would EVER compel such a production. This seems to be a pretended media event. The government will never pay a dime. So let’s see if they publish anything.

Strap In – Romney Didn’t Wake Up This Morning and Haphazardly Write an Op-Ed to Attack The President of His Own Political Party…


Don’t get so caught up in a furor over Senator-elect Mitt Romney writing a political hit piece against the President of the United States that we forget to look at the big picture.

Senator-elect Mitt Romney’s niece is Ronna McDaniel, Chairwoman of the Republican National Committee (RNC). Senator Romney didn’t just wake up on New Year’s Day and haphazardly write a specifically constructed character assassination against the President of the republican party; who is currently the President of the United States.

No, this attack was done with forethought and specific intent.

Think rationally and logically.  Why write the op-ed at all?  What is the purpose behind writing the op-ed?  What does the author have to gain by writing the op-ed?…

And specifically, given the nature of the familial relationship between republican Senator Romney and RNC Chairwoman McDaniel, not to mention the political profession therein, with the senator writing something highly damaging; well, there’s obviously a larger intended purpose on Romney’s end of the equation.

Likely many will believe Ms. Ronna McDaniel was generally unaware that her uncle was going to take such a position of expressed opposition.  She didn’t know?  Mitt Romney wouldn’t, given the circumstances, tell his niece of his intention?

Let’s presume Romney didn’t tell his niece.  What does that tell us about the character of Mitt Romney; his obvious self-interest; and, in the bigger picture, what does that tell us of his relationship to republican party objectives, writ large?

What exactly is this ‘republican party‘, Romney’s frame-of-reference (under such a presumption), all about?  Who would Mitt and Ann Romney believe is operating it?

If Mitt Romney felt his current DC entry point, constructed by his specific intent, would leave him entirely isolated from any influence and/or affluence from his position – he wouldn’t do it.  Right?  But he did…. so he doesn’t view this adversarial starting point as damaging to his political objectives.

It’s a new year.  So let’s stop the nonsense explanations and reconciliations attempting to justify behavior…. let’s just accept them.  [People write “you’re negative”, I don’t think so…. I just accept things as they are, not as I wish them to be.]

If Senator-elect Mitt Romney wanted to plant his flag and express his political position as an incoming freshman Senator from Utah he could have written an article outlining his views, his positions, his point of reference; what he hopes to achieve, etc. etc.

But he didn’t.  He specifically went out of his way to level his best attack, a verbal and thought-out assassination, based on character, against the sitting President of the United States.

And he didn’t just think about this earlier this morning.  This was pre-planned.

There had to be an earlier conversation with the Washington Post. Right?  There had to be some form of editorial review…. Right? There had to be some purpose; there had to be some scheduling, correct?

Keep it simple.

The most likely scenario is Mitt Romney coordinated with other like-minded political allies to start the incoming congressional year with a broadside assault against the chief executive.

Agreed?

Romney is aligning himself.

Romney wouldn’t stand alone.

Accepting the above as obvious, that alone tells us quite a bit.

(link)

Remember, there is an agenda behind these people that 97% of the electorate just don’t understand.  Nothing will change until Mitch McConnell is defeated. Nothing. {Go deep}  Remember also, what we already know about how the resistance is set up for a very specific set of sequences {Go Deep}.

Think back to the 2015 instructions from republican insider Alex Castellanos as he described how the RNC could eliminate the disruptive influence of Donald Trump:

[…] “The best way to do it is how Brutus killed Caesar. Get real close, snuggle up, and shiv him in the ribs”… (link)

You still think Mitt Romney’s niece, Chairwoman of the RNC, Ronna McDaniel, didn’t know her uncle was going to publish a direct attack against the President of the United States… The president of the party she is in charge of ?…  I digress.

A pattern of political stories are beginning to show signs of a common continuity. In the bigger of the big pictures seven words continue to set the baseline: “There are trillions of dollars at stake”.

When the common sense Tea Party movement formed in 2009 and 2010 it contained a monumentally frustrated grassroots electorate, and the scale of the movement caught the professional republican party off-guard. When Donald Trump ran for the office of the presidency he essentially did the same thing; he disrupted the apparatus of the professional republican party.

The difference between those two examples is one was from the bottom up, and the second was from the top down. However, the commonality in the two forces resulted in the 2016 victory.

It took a few years for the heavily armored old guard of GOP to formulate a plan to retain their control. In the example of the Tea Party, the republican power structures moved in 2011 through 2014 to co-opt the vulgarian movement and impede their disruptive influence. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was at the forefront of those power moves. {Go Deep} and {Go Deep} The basic issue for the GOP was retention of power.

McConnell and crew tamped down the fire. A few years pass and the issues that spurred the Tea Party movement remained unresolved. In 2015 Donald Trump taps in to that exact same Tea Party frustration toward the control authority within one-half of the DC UniParty; again, the professional republican apparatus was disrupted.

From the first moment candidate Trump announced his platform positions; from the very first poll *after* those platform positions were announced; Donald Trump was leading the republican field in every-single-poll from August of 2015 through today. Center stage throughout 2015 and 2016 and President of the United States as an outcome therein.

Yes, the “movement” rebranded and now MAGA wins the presidency.

So it should not come as a surprise to see an eerily similar response from within the GOP toward the new threat; the Trump presidency.

There are two constants in an ever changing universe: (1) “NeverTrump” didn’t go away; and (2) the Bush-clan, or GOP old guard, will never accept losing power.

The professional republicans and the professional democrats, ie. “the uniparty”, have a common enemy in President Trump.

The vulgarian leader of the deplorable coalition never asked for permission; never paid the indulgency fees; never attended the necessary cloistered club meetings paying homage; and never offered the indulgent team of political elites terms for his takeover.

Thus Donald Trump, just like the Tea Party, would never be accepted.

Why is this important now?

Current events highlight the resurgence of a never disassembled GOP Bush clan influence. For the past two years it’s been a never-ending game of whac-a-mole as each of the establishment minded embeds surfaces at different times. Within the dynamic, the one commonality within the internecine conflict inside the Trump administration is the establishment GOP -vs- Trump MAGA.

Establishment GOP consultant Alex Castellanos was very open about the best design to getting rid of Donald Trump back in 2015 when he discussed an almost identical strategy for how Mitch McConnell destroyed the threat from the Tea Party a year earlier:

[…] “The best way to do it is how Brutus killed Caesar. Get real close, snuggle up, and shiv him in the ribs”… (link)

Forgive me for mixing my metaphors here; but as each of the shiv-bearers appears, that’s when Trump is forced to deliver the whac-a-mole hammer. It’s like having an administration filled with establishment terror cells. Each cell acts independently, but each cell also acts based on a common objective: retain the UniParty.

The earlier whac-a-mole example was Condi Rice’s embed plant and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson popping his head up. But there are many more examples all around in various forms; including the self-serving GOP exit of U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley; and now we see Mitt Romney.

When you think about the actual structure of the Republican state party machines; it’s enough to make you wonder if the mid-term outcome and lack of structural fight was not part of this dynamic. After all, “their” party was taken over by a new MAGA base and a new pragmatic political leader, Donald Trump.

The same UniParty dynamic is visible in the way the FBI/DOJ and aggregate intelligence community were weaponized against Donald Trump – with Democrats and Republicans participating in the unlawful processes. Now, in the downstream consequence phase, we see a UniParty defense approach to block Trump from revealing what happened.

I’m not sure people fully completely understand this dynamic within “spygate”. It was not a targeting operation by democrats; republicans were just as complicit. The ongoing goal to eliminate candidate and president Trump is *not* partisan.

Which brings me to the current state of the advisers around the executive. Remember, there are trillions at stake here – and the downstream benefactors are both Republicans and Democrats who make up the UniParty.

Within the UniParty dynamic, in order to retain full financial benefit, the political class need to align with Wall Street priorities. That alignment means the UniParty needs to eliminate Main Street priorities that are adverse to their interests.

Border controls and immigration enforcement are adverse interests to the UniParty. Additional cross party alignment to benefit Wall Street surrounds: •budgets and massive government spending; •government controlled healthcare retention; •government controlled education (common core); •and most importantly the removal of any national economic and trade policy that would threaten the structure of the multinationals.

On all of these issues the Democrats and Republicans have identical outlooks, common interests and mirrored legislative priorities. It is not coincidental that US Chamber of Commerce President Tom Dohonue also outlined these issues as primary priorities for his massive lobbyist spending.

There are trillions of dollars at stake; and we must never discount how far the Big Club participants will go to ensure the White House counselors are shaping their advice toward those objectives.

There are no MAGA lobbying groups in Washington DC advocating for policies that benefit economic nationalism. On this objective President Donald Trump stands alone.

We don’t need a third party in Washington DC, we actually need a second one.

It cannot be overstated how violent and confrontational the House of Representatives will be as soon as they are sworn in.  They will work with an immediate purposeful intention. All political violence will be approved to attain their objectives.  The recent behavior of Jim Acosta (CNN media), and ANTIFA toward Tucker Carlson, is now, and will be going forward, the new normal.

There will be extreme political violence.

In 2006 it was the SEIU and AFSCME union foot-soldiers who smashed windows, advanced upon polling places and engaged in the most severe examples of voter fraud and intimidation.  In 2018, with the help of uber-Alinsky DNC Chairman Tom Perez, that corrupt sentiment is now institutionalized within democrat-socialist political apparatus.  ANTIFA is now the DNC grassroots activist approach.

Failing to accept the severity of this shift in the past decade is intellectually dishonest.  As Nancy Pelosi said of the Occupy Wall Street violent anarchists: “God bless these people.”  Indeed the OWS precursor to ANTIFA were laying the groundwork for the new severity of power in Democrat leadership.  Nothing is out-of-bounds; no level of corrupt behavior will be avoided; everything will happen openly and without any backlash from a compliant media apparatus; the social fabric will be shredded.

The Democrat mantra: “never let a crisis go to waste” is the modern version of the Fabian-Socialist: “remould it closer to the heart’s desire“.  Both approaches rely upon the destruction of acceptable norms in order to advance the political objective.

Specifics: When Democrats last took power in January 2007, Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer took control in the final two years of George Bush second term.  Immediately they set about a process laying the groundwork for the 2008 presidential election of Barack Obama.  This was a priority objective.

One of the techniques was the removal of the budget process. By eliminating the federal budget process in 2007 (fiscal year ’08) the Democrats paved the way for the next democrat president to demand massive open-ended spending.

By the time the year of the general election came around (2008), the lengthy budget process was replaced with Omnibus spending bills (fiscal year 2009).  Obviously when Obama was successfully installed in November of 2008, the useful crisis was financial. The subsequent TARP bailout, auto bailout, ARRA ($1 trillion stimulus) and QE1 were all accomplished with massive omnibus spending packages.

[NOTE: These are important references because from that moment forward, despite the GOP taking back control in January 2011, the constraining budgetary process was forever destroyed. There was never regular-order budgetary spending again.]

It is also critical to emphasize the difference between Democrats taking control in the last two years of Bush’s second term, and Democrats taking control in the last two years of Trump’s first term.  Within this difference you will predictably see a shift in strategic operations from the Marxists.

George W Bush was exiting, and unlimited spending was used to empower the entry of Obama; however, now the Marxists need to knee-cap President Trump by weaponizing the power of the purse – the biggest weapon of the House of Representatives.

After a ten year UniParty hiatus the Marxists will now go back to using budgets in the structural defunding and dismantling of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), the Southern Border Wall, and any program, initiative, policy or institution the Marxists want to see removed.   This is a strategy of the Democrat crisis-makers; and they are exceptionally better at achieving their desired results than Republicans.

When it comes to political weaponization and political power constructs the Marxists have exceptional work ethics; they will outwork anyone on the other side who opposes them.  They are far, far, better at political strategy and scheme than conservative politicians.  Part of the reason for their success is that crooks, cons and swindlers are far more cunning than honorable, virtuous and moral people.  It is unfortunate, but true; and the same truth applies beyond politics.

♦ Two other thoughts on this issue.  First, you might remember when this massive spending, and the government takeover of healthcare, led to the Marxists losing the 2010 midterm election in a massive defeat.   But do you remember what the democrats did in the lame-duck congress between November 2010 and January 2011?

Does the term “Porkulous” ring a bell?

While 63 democrat seats were lost in the November 2010 election (and six democrat senate seats), those exiting Marxists, despite just having suffered the worst defeat in almost 100 years, audaciously –and apologetically– voted in the December 2010 lame-duck session, to fully fund President Obama’s next two years in office.  This was done by Speaker Nancy Pelosi specifically to block the incoming GOP wave from upending the priorities of the Obama administration in 2011.  That was called the “Porkulous” spending bill; and the democrat-marxists didn’t give a snit about how it looked.

Now, did Speaker Paul Ryan or Senate Leader Mitch McConnell do anything as bold to fund and secure the budgetary priorities of President Donald Trump in the 2018 lame-duck?

No?

Think about the overall unilateral commitment and cunning historically displayed by the Marxist wing of the UniParty. They are so committed to the long-term view they are willing to sacrifice anything for the biggest, most consequential, advances toward their objectives.  In 2010 the democrats killed their own “blue-dog” coalition to advance their ideological goals.

Within the 63 House seats the Marxists lost in that 2010 midterm election; they killed off the entire 40 member Bart Stupak coalition; the blue-dog caucus.  Totally willing to sacrifice 40 seats to attain a generational ideological objective (ObamaCare); and they are about to step back into power a mere eight years later.  Stunning when you think about it.

Few people have any idea just how bad these next two years are going to be. We are the normal people who don’t spend every moment of our day scheming, conniving, and developing plans to dismantle the lives of your freedom loving community and rebuild it as a collective society.

For these political beneficiaries of Wall Street lobbying that’s all they do.   Every moment of their existence they spend thinking about how to gain power and dominate, 24/7/365  that is all they do.

That is all the ever talk about; that is all they ever converse with each-other about.  Every second of every moment, in every meeting, is consumed with plots, plans and strategies for indulging themselves, gaining wealth and growing power at all costs.

…And it won’t just come from the “left”.  Obviously we can now overlay Mitt Romney.

Mitt Romney

@MittRomney

Policies and appointments are only a part of a presidency. A president must also unite us, inspire us, and defend our vital institutions. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mitt-romney-the-president-shapes-the-public-character-of-the-nation-trumps-character-falls-short/2019/01/01/37a3c8c2-0d1a-11e9-8938-5898adc28fa2_story.html?utm_term=.fccbcff20fee 

Opinion | Mitt Romney: The president shapes the public character of the nation. Trump’s character…

The people of this country will respond if called to a higher action.

washingtonpost.com

18.5K people are talking about this

Mitt Romney Kicks off New Year With WaPo Op-ed Attacking Character of President Trump…


Senator-elect Mitt Romney obviously couldn’t wait to kick off the new year with a direct attack against President Donald Trump.  Hell, he hasn’t even taken office yet, and Romney rushes to express his hatred in a strategically aligned op-ed published by the Washington Post:

“The president shapes the public character of the nation. Trump’s character falls short”…

You can read the op-ed here I’m not sharing it.  Romney is a small, foul, bitter and jealous man.  His intent to lead the MAGA resistance was entirely predictable.  F**k Romney!

Also, don’t forget all those who have aligned with Romney throughout the years.

President Trump Gives Four Month Timeline For U.S. Troop Withdrawal from Syria…


Hopefully President Trump can withstand the severe UniParty manipulation and actually get the troops out within the four month time-frame. However, with John Bolton as National Security Adviser, consider me slightly skeptical.  Bolton loves war

.

Big Optical Shift – Unprecedented New Year Speech by North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un…


Yesterday we noted how subtle (and not so subtle) messages have been coming out from Beijing China admitting how the party of Chairman Xi underestimated the cunning fortitude of U.S. President Donald Trump.   Today, a stunning visual is broadcast from inside North Korea which follows the same general outlook.

Remember, nuance and subtle optics are very significant in Eastern projections of political brand messaging.  When they present a nationally broadcast message every grain of sand on the optical beach has been thought out, considered, staged and carefully placed by hand with great forethought toward the intended audience. The optics are everything. [That’s also the reason why POTUS Trump used a video presentation (specifically for Kim) at the end of the Singapore summit.]

In an unprecedented international broadcast, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un delivers a message not just to his people, but more specifically to the international community.  The backdrop, the venue for the message as broadcast, reflects a stunning shift for the country of North Korea.  Notice the background message is ‘economic‘: Business attire; business office etc.  The guiding hand of Chairman Xi is visible, and the transmission is full of messages highlighting the influence of the Trump Doctrine.

.

It is critical to remember that Chairman Xi (Beijing China), is still the leading influence agent over Chairman Kim (DPRK). That nuanced/subtle (hostage/captive) influence message is also inherent in the background of this broadcast. As the U.S. -vs- China confrontation continues, this video message provides additional support that Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping is no longer underestimating the cunning of POTUS Trump.

Discussions of these geopolitical messages need to be entirely separated from the propaganda explanations provided by U.S. media.  U.S. corporate media, advocates for extreme globalism, spin everything into a criticism of President Trump; however, the message here from Kim Jong-un is far more consequential.

Chairman Kim is talking about security issues, denuclearization, weapons, military exercises etc.  However, the bigger background message is centered specifically on the economics.   Broadly speaking President Trump’s doctrine is: the strategically applied use of economic influence to achieve national security objectives.

That Trump Doctrine, a radical shift in the deployment of U.S. geopolitical influence, is the entire reason why Chairman Kim Jong-un is engaging this speech; in this venue; in this business manner; for this domestic and international broadcast.

Remember also, the clock is ticking…. the deadline for U.S. and China trade negotiations is March 1st, OR ELSE, a massive round of devastating (for China) tariffs kicks in and almost everyone agrees the Chinese economy cannot sustain itself under that pressure.  So Chairman Xi needs to use his hostage, Chairman Kim, in this negotiation period.

[*Important point*: South Korean President Moon Jae-in, the primary point of contact for Chairman Kim, is ideologically the Asian political equivalent of Barack Obama. So that interpersonal dynamic also overlays the issues with a unified Korean peninsula.]

The full video as originally broadcast from North Korea is even more insightful.

.

The influence of the Trump Doctrine is clearly on display.

Things are really going at a rapid pace now….

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE, INCLUDING THE HATERS AND THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA! 2019 WILL BE A FANTASTIC YEAR FOR THOSE NOT SUFFERING FROM TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME. JUST CALM DOWN AND ENJOY THE RIDE, GREAT THINGS ARE HAPPENING FOR OUR COUNTRY!

127K people are talking about this

Peace is the prize” ~ President Donald Trump

The nature of the Trump foreign policy doctrine, as it has become visible, is to hold manipulative influence agents accountable for regional impact(s); and simultaneously work to stop any corrupted influence from oppressing free expression of national values held by the subservient, dis-empowered, people within the nation being influenced.

There have been clear examples of this doctrine at work. When President Trump first visited the Middle-East he confronted the international audience with a message about dealing with extremist influence agents. President Trump simply said: “drive them out.”

Toward that end, as Qatar was identified as a financier of extremist ideology, President Trump placed the goal of confrontation upon the Gulf Cooperation Council, not the U.S.

The U.S. role was clearly outlined as supporting the confrontation. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates needed to confront the toxic regional influence; the U.S. would support their objective. That’s what happened.

Another example: To confront the extremism creating the turmoil in Afghanistan, President Trump placed the burden of bringing the Taliban to the table of governance upon primary influence agent Pakistan. Here again, with U.S. support. Pakistan is the leading influence agent over the Taliban in Afghanistan; the Trump administration correctly established the responsibility and gives clear expectations for U.S. support.

If Pakistan doesn’t change their influence objective toward a more constructive alignment with a nationally representative Afghanistan government, it is Pakistan who will be held accountable. Again, the correct and effective appropriation of responsibility upon the influence agent who can initiate the solution, Pakistan.

The process of accurate regional assignment of influence comes with disconcerting sunlight. Often these influences are not discussed openly. However, for President Trump the lack of honesty is only a crutch to continue enabling poor actors. This is a consistent theme throughout all of President Trump’s foreign policy engagements.

The European Union is a collective co-dependent enabler to the corrupt influences of Iran. Therefore the assignment of responsibility to change the status is placed upon the EU.

The U.S. will fully support the EU effort, but as seen in the withdrawal from the Iran Deal, the U.S. will not enable growth of toxic behavior. The U.S. stands with the people of Iran, but the U.S. will not support the enabling of Iranian oppression, terrorism and/or dangerous military expansion that will ultimately destabilize the region. Trump holds the EU accountable for influencing change. Again, we see the Trump Doctrine at work.

Perhaps the most obvious application of the Trump Doctrine is found in how the U.S. administration approached the challenging behavior of North Korea. Rather than continuing a decades-long policy of ignoring the influence of China, President Trump directly assigned primary responsibility for a reset to Beijing.

China held, and holds, all influence upon North Korea and has long-treated the DPRK as a proxy province to do the bidding of Beijing’s communist old guard. By directly confronting the influence agent, and admitting openly for the world to see (albeit with jaw-dropping tactical sanction diplomacy) President Trump positioned the U.S. to support a peace objective on the entire Korean peninsula and simultaneously forced China to openly display their closely-guarded influence.

While the Red Dragon -vs- Panda influence dynamic is still ongoing, the benefit of this new and strategic approach has brought the possibility of peace closer than ever in recent history.

No longer is it outlandish to think of North Korea joining with the rest of the world in achieving a better quality of life for its people.

Not only is President Trump openly sharing a willingness to engage in a new and dynamic future for North Korea, but his approach is removing the toxic influences that have held down the possibility for generations. By leveraging China (through economics) to stop manipulating North Korea, President Trump is opening up a door of possibilities for the North Korean people. This is what I mean when I say Trump is providing North Korea with an opportunity to create an authentic version of itself.

What ultimately comes from the opportunity President Trump has constructed is entirely unknown. However, the opportunity itself is stunning progress creating a reasonable pathway to prosperity for the North Korean people. Chairman Kim Jong-un has the opportunity to be the most trans-formative leader within Asia in generations; but it is still only an ‘opportunity’.

Whether Kim Jong-un can embrace openness, free markets and prosperity is yet to be seen. Freedom is a precariously scary endeavor because there’s always a danger loosening the grip on control can lead to fear, which can lead to even tighter more authoritarian, control.  (continue reading)

Jair Bolsonaro Inaugurated as President of Brazil…


The inauguration of former army Captain turned congressman Jair Bolsonaro was held today in Brazil; delivering the first nationalist outlook to the office of the presidency in decades.

President Jair Bolsonaro and First-Lady of Brazil Michelle Bolsonaro both delivered speeches during the inauguration ceremony, with the first lady also using sign language (her father is deaf).

President Bolsonaro now takes the reins of Latin America’s largest and most populous nation after decades of corruption carried out by Brazil’s far-left politicians. Many will remember a failed assassination attempt on candidate Bolsonaro by opposition from the socialist workers party only a few weeks before the election. Bolsonaro has vowed to end business-as-usual governing which led to rampant corruption.

Many people within the far-left ridiculed Bolsonaro while he was a congressman and stated his Brazil-First outlook was too nationalistic amid a world now driven by global influence. The marginalization by those voices failed and now President Bolsonaro will likely chart a different course.  (Sound familiar?)

There are many similarities in national outlook between U.S. President Donald Trump and President Bolsonaro especially regarding economics and trade. Additionally, following a similar decision by President Trump, Brazil will now move their Israeli embassy to Jerusalem.

Overall the U.S. Brazil relationship could make for an interesting alignment in South/Latin America; this relationship will become particularly important around the geopolitical strategy and influence of China in the region.

The 63-year-old President campaigned heavily on an anti-corruption, Brazil-first, nationalist agenda and promised to support gun ownership rights for law-abiding people within Brazil.  Both Trump and Bolsonaro are opposed by the same groups.

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump

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Jair M. Bolsonaro

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Congratulations to President @JairBolsonaro who just made a great inauguration speech – the U.S.A. is with you!

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Epic Retort – President Trump Discusses Senator Warren…


President Trump was asked about Senator Elizabeth Warren as a 2020 presidential challenger.  The response was, well, epic.  WATCH:

Chang: 2018 is the Year Beijing Realized President Trump Was Outwitting Them….


A good discussion between Charles Payne and Gordon Chang on Fox Business over the U.S. -vs- China trade confrontation.  Mr. Chang makes a good point about 2018 being the year where Beijing realized they underestimated the cunning of President Trump.

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He caught them off guard – There is no doubt in my mind that President Trump has a very well thought out long-term strategy regarding China. President Trump considered strategic messaging toward the people of china very important. President Trump has, very publicly, complimented the friendship he feels toward President Xi Jinping; and praises Chairman Xi for his character, strength and purposeful leadership.

2018 is the year China discovered that President Trump knows how to play their panda/dragon games.

Nuance and subtlety is everything in China. Culturally harsh tones are seen as a sign of weakness and considered intensely impolite in public displays between officials; especially amid adversaries. Respect is earned through strength and cunning.

To build upon a projected and strategic message – President Trump seeded the background by appointing Ambassador Terry Branstad, a 30-year personal friend of President Xi Jinping.

To enhance and amplify the message – and broadcast cultural respect – U.S. President Trump used Mar-a-Lago as the venue for their visit, not the White House. And President Trump’s beautiful granddaughter, Arabella, sweetly serenaded the Chinese First Familytwice in Mandarin Chinese song showing the utmost respect for the guests and later for the hosts.

Why the constant warm messaging?

What is the purpose?

What does all this have to do with a trade confrontation?

Historic Chinese geopolitical policy, vis-a-vis their totalitarian control over political sentiment (action) and diplomacy through silence, is evident in the strategic use of the space between carefully chosen words, not just the words themselves.

Each time China takes aggressive action (red dragon) China projects a panda face through silence and non-response to opinion of that action;…. and then the  action continues.

The red dragon has a tendency to say one necessary thing publicly, while manipulating another necessary thing privately. The Art of War.

President Trump is the first U.S. President to understand how the red dragon hides behind the panda mask.

It is specifically because he understands that Panda is a mask that President Trump messages warmth toward the Chinese people, and pours vociferous praise upon Xi Jinping, while simultaneously confronting the geopolitical doctrine of the Xi regime.

In essence Trump is mirroring the behavior of China while confronting their economic duplicity.

China is a central planning economy; meaning it never was an outcropping of natural economic conditions. China was/is controlled as a communist style central-planning government; as such, it is important to reference the basic structural reality that China’s economy was created from the top down.

This construct of government creation is a key big picture distinction that sets the backdrop to understand how weak the economy really is.

Any nations’ economic model is only as stable (or strong) as the underlying architecture or infrastructure of the country’s economic balance.

Think about economic strength and stability this way: If a nation was economically walled off from all other nations, can it survive? …can it sustain itself? …can it grow?

In the big picture – economic strength is an outcome of the ability of a nation, any nation, to support itself first and foremost. If a nations’ economy is dependent on other nations for itself to survive it is less strong than a nation whose economy is more independent.

Most Americans don’t realize it, but China is an extremely dependent nation.

When the central planning for the 21st century Chinese Economy was constructed, there were several critical cultural flaws, dynamics exclusive to China, that needed to be overcome in order to build their economic model. It took China several decades to map out a way to economic growth that could overcome the inherent critical flaws.

♦Because of the oppressive nature of the Chinese regime demands a compliant culture, the majority of citizens within China do not innovate or create.  Innovation must be imported or stolen.  The “Compliance Mindset”, reinforced by central communist planning, is part of the flaw in the overall economic system.

Broadly speaking, modern era Chinese populous are not innovators; cultural compliance-affirmation does not lead to independent ‘outside-the-box’ thinking  per se’.   Therefore China approves and sends students to study in the U.S. to learn a skill-set absent within their own culture.

Chinese civil activity has been a history of control by government and compliance to stay (think) only within the approved box. The lack of intellectual thought mapping needed for innovation is why China relies on intellectual theft of innovation created by others.

American culture specifically is based around freedom of thought and severe disdain of government telling us what to do; THAT inherent freedom is necessary for innovation. That freedom actually creates the breeding ground for innovation.

Again, broadly speaking, Chinese are better ‘studiests’ (students) in American schools and universities because the Chinese are culturally compliant. They work well with academics, and with pre-established formulas within established systems; but they cannot necessarily create the formula or system themselves.

In large measure their industrial force are good cooks if they already have the ingredients and recipe available to follow.  China is trying to overcome this inherent issue by allowing innovative thinking, importing industrial experts to teach innovation, yet simultaneously keeping a totalitarian grip on dissent.

♦ The Chinese Planning Authority skipped the economic cornerstone. When China planned out their economic entry, they did so from a top-down perspective. They immediately wanted to be manufacturers of stuff. They saw their worker population as a strategic advantage, but they never put the source origination infrastructure into place in order to supply their manufacturing needs. China has no infrastructure for raw material extraction or exploitation.

China relies on: importing raw material, applying their economic skill set (manufacturing), and then exporting finished goods. This is the basic economic structure of the Chinese economy.

See the flaw?

Cut off the raw material, and the China economy slows, contracts, and if nations react severely enough with export material boycotts the entire Chinese economy implodes.

Insert big flashy sign for: “One-Belt / One-Road” HERE

Again, we reference the earlier point: Economic strength is the ability of a nation to sustain itself. [Think about an economy during conflict or war] China cannot independently sustain itself, therefore China is necessarily vulnerable.

China is dependent on Imports (raw materials) AND Exports (finished goods).

♦The 800lb Panda in the room is that China is arguably the least balanced economy in the modern world. Hence, China has to take extraordinary measures to secure their supply chain. This economic dependency is also why China has recently spent so much on military expansion etc., they must protect their vulnerable interests.

Everything important to the Chinese Economy surrounds their critical need to secure a strong global supply chain of raw material to import, and leveraged trade agreements for export.

China’s economy is deep (manufacturing), but China’s economy is also narrow.

China could have spent the time to create a broad-based economy, but the lack of early 1900’s foresight, in conjunction with their communist top-down totalitarian system and a massive population, led to central government decisions to subvert the bottom-up building-out and take short-cuts. Their population controls only worsened their long term ability to ever broaden their economic model.

It takes a population of young avg-skilled workers to do the hard work of building a raw material infrastructure. Mine workers, dredge builders, roads and railways, bridges and tunnels etc. All of these require young strong bodies. The Chinese cultural/population decisions amid the economic builders precluded this proactive outlook; now they have an aging population and are incapable of doing it.

This is why China has now positioned their economic system as dependent on them being an economic bully. They must retain their supply chain: import raw materials – export finished goods, at all costs.

This inherent economic structure is a weakness China must continually address through policies toward other nations. Hence, “One-Belt / One-Road” is essentially their ‘bully plan’ to ensure their supply chain and long-term economic viability.

This economic structure, and the reality of China as a dependent economic model, also puts China at risk from the effects of global economic contraction.  But more importantly it puts them at risk from President Trump’s strategic use of geopolitical economic leverage to weaken their economy.

China has no cultural or political space between peace and war; they are a historic nation based on two points of polarity. They see peace and war as coexisting with each other.

China accepts and believes opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another. Flowing between these polar states is a natural dynamic to be used -with serious contemplation- in advancing objectives as needed.

Peace or war. Win or lose. Yin and Yang. Culturally there is no middle position in dealings with China; they are not constitutionally capable of understanding or valuing the western philosophy of mutual benefit where concession of terms gains a larger outcome. If it does not benefit China, it is not done. The outlook is simply, a polarity of peace or war. In politics or economics the same perspective is true. It is a zero-sum outlook.

If it does not benefit China, it is not done !

Therefore the economic battle must be carefully waged to deliver a series of alternative thoughts in the mind of Beijing – where they view specific action as their best interest.  Any reversal in the current standard of benefit is viewed as a loss; the Chinese will not cede to any losses.  To challenge those who hold this zero-sum position, you must first change the current standard.

This means China must lose first before the negotiations can begin.  The baseline within the negotiation must be reset.  Once the baseline position is reset, then negotiation can be viewed by the Chinese as a gain.  This is the only way to get the Chinese to agree to any terms.

If the baseline losses to China are not currently firmed, such that Beijing and Xi Jinping see their current position as the standard, then President Trump and Bob Lighthizer need to wait longer before engaging.

Big Panda must see their diminished bamboo forest as the natural, current, and diminishing forecast status.  Only then will Panda engage in negotiations.  China must be in a seemingly perpetual stasis of losing before they will contemplate their need to achieve gains.

This is an economic and geopolitical battle that requires nerves of steel and an incredible amount of cunning and strategy.  As Trump resets the baseline, China will make multiple simultaneous moves to counter any potential losses.

President Trump, Secretary Ross and U.S.T.R. Lighthizer must think well ahead of China (they have); and make moves early in the conflict (they have); long before China realizes they are being confronted (they did).   {Go Deep} As we saw with the DPRK showdown Trump was several moves ahead of Xi, and blocked the counter-offense position of the Red Dragon before it was deployed.

President Trump will not back down from his position; the U.S. holds all of the leverage and the issue must be addressed. President Trump has waiting three decades for this moment. This President and his team are entirely prepared for this.

We are finally confronting the geopolitical Red Dragon, China!