President Trump is Not The Issue – It’s Those Who Oppose Him…


Much misplaced anger is visible.  President Trump wants the southern border wall; he is being opposed by every interest who doesn’t want it.  The people in DC who are opposed to border security, are the people who write the laws.  I’m not talking about congress; I’m talking about the real people who actually write the laws, the lobbyists.

Right now Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are writing a short-term continuing resolution to fund government and avoid a shutdown.

They know President Trump is quite comfy with a shutdown.

Why would republican Mitch McConnell take such an action that puts the republican President in a position of opposition and compromise?

Because he wants to, that’s why.

President Trump said he wouldn’t sign another CR that didn’t fund the border wall.  Right now Mitch and Chuck are writing a CR that doesn’t fully fund the border wall.  Why would Mitch McConnell do that? Because he want’s to that’s why.  UniParty !

Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and Paul Ryan are working to put a take it or leave it bill in front of the President and force him to accept it.  Republicans currently control the House and Senate.  Why would McConnell and Ryan put President Trump into that position?  Because they want to, that’s why.

That’s who you should be mad at, not President Trump.

You see, it’s not President Trump who is the issue here; it’s the people who oppose him.  Anger toward President Trump is misplaced; but directing all fire against their enemy is what these Machiavellian sorts are professionals at doing.  That’s exactly what this plan is designed to do.  This is politics.

Who opposes Trump?  The people who write the laws.  Mitch, Paul, Nancy and Chuck are the professional political team who do the bidding of the lobbyists and special interests.  It’s a big club, and we, along with President Trump, ain’t in it.  Getting you mad at President Trump is in the DC interests.  The UniParty knows how to play you.

President Trump represents a second party in Washington DC.  The people who write the laws (lobbyists), and the people who sell the laws (politicians), cannot allow that.  They need to get back to UniParty political business.  They need to get rid of Trump.

Think about it as you direct your fire.

Your enemy is not President Trump.

Carry on….

Simultaneously President Trump is deconstructing decades of economic manipulation and control over our lives by multinational banks and multinational corporations (same lobbyists).   There are trillions at stake. That is an even bigger and more consequential fight. –SEE HERE

In essence Wall Street (multinationals and DC) is fighting Main Street (Trump).  This is a battle of extreme consequence:

Full Spectrum: “The Main Street-Wall Street demarcation has been fortuitously blurred, all to Wall Street’s benefit. Recall the mass migration over the last few decades from defined pension plans to self-directed IRAs and 401ks. This was Wall Street impregnating Main Street with Wall Street’s sweatless ethics. Main Street is very much ‘in the market’. Trumponomics desperately needs a tutorial to the American people explaining the rockiness of the transition and all that’s at stake.”…

Go Deep

The Federal Reserve will make an interest rate hike decision today.

President Trump’s MAGAnomic trade and foreign policy agenda is jaw-dropping in scale, scope and consequence

Reuters had an article last week  highlighting inflationary data as released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) [DATA HERE]. The overall summary is the Consumer Price Index is stable or flat reflecting low inflation on all measured goods; however, that’s not the part that bears emphasis.   Instead I would direct attention to this:

The Fed’s preferred inflation measure, the core PCE price index excluding food and energy, increased 1.8 percent year-on-year in October, the smallest gain since February, after rising 1.9 percent the prior month. It hit the U.S. central bank’s 2 percent target in March for the first time since April 2012.

At the heart of the controlled monetary system; at the epicenter of the multinational global control mechanisms; inside the offices of the global economic elites; there is a system of financial manipulation with tentacles that reach into your pocket.  This system seems hard to understand, but it is critical to do so… so we need to try and understand it.

Background: If you go back to when CTH first began discussing Trump’s MAGAnomic outlook and actual plans for policy, you might remember our discussion about the New Dimension inside our American economy [SEE HERE].  Specifically, one of the key indicators in the disconnect of Main Street and Wall Street is “inflation“.

Inflation has been used by the Federal Reserve as the primary trigger for their monetary control policy; but it is important to understand this is by specific design.

If  “monetary policy“, specifically interest rates, are primarily driven by inflationary measures; and if global financial elites need to use U.S. monetary policy to finance their endeavors (they do); then those same officials need to control what goes into the measures for inflation. This is a critical aspect to economic control.

Wall Street, writ large, supports corporate global expansion without appropriate regard to the downstream consequences to U.S. workers and Americans.   Low interest rates are a critical component of global financial expansion undertaken by these massive multinational corporations.  In essence, globalists need cheap money to spend on creating controlled markets for cheap durable goods.

Higher interest rates means savers benefit and borrowers do not.  Low interest rates means borrowers benefit and savers do not.  This is a simple truism.  However, there’s another dynamic.

Higher interest rates means less capacity for multinational corporations to utilize cheap money to expand their global enterprises.  Low interest rates means more easily attainable money; and that finances larger corporate expansion.

Wall Street thrives on low interest rates.  The global economic system, which included the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, is a benefactor of Wall Street.  As a consequence, the global economic system is also dependent on low interest rates.

Remember, there had to be a point where the influence of Wall Street exceeded the influence of Main Street.   The U.S. federal reserve could not justify lower interest rates (punishing savers) if inflation and U.S. economic growth was stable.  If price inflation is low, the Fed could not justify raising interest rates.   So the measures of inflation were adjusted to remove the highly consumable sector (food, fuel, energy).

As an intended consequence food, fuel and energy prices could skyrocket and the inflation index would *appear* artificially low because those sectors were no longer part of the equation.  This false inflation index permits low interest rates that benefit Wall Street.

With the lower interest rates (Wall Street supported), the multinationals could then begin the process of using cheap-to-borrow money, investing overseas in the process of cheap durable goods.  This became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Outsourcing American jobs meant cheaper goods; those cheaper durable goods were quantified in the feds measure of inflation; the prices of those goods were deflationary (getting cheaper); the U.S. economy was shrinking but the justification for lower interest rates (cheap money that benefited the global expansion) remained.

Conversely those same Wall Street multinationals expanded their control market influence into highly consumable goods (U.S. food) and began merging.   No longer only influenced by domestic supply and demand, the prices of U.S. food, along with fuel and energy, skyrocketed…. but remember, the fed no longer used those prices in their monetary policy decision-making.

This was how the system was rigged.

Inside this rigged system we all lived through the results: U.S. workers were being screwed; manufacturing of durable goods was shipped off-shore; jobs were lost; wages were held down by low job growth; and to make matters worse – the prices for food, fuel, and energy were skyrocketing.

The U.S. middle class was essentially squeezed by the cheap money policy that was benefiting the multinationals.   Can you see what was happening?  This was all by design.  It wasn’t necessarily purposefully intended to hurt you, me, us, per se; we are the proles.  The goal was to gain money and power… we, you, me, us, were just collateral damage.

Now, here comes Trump.

Trump walks in with a plan to reverse that process through MAGAnomic policy.  Wall Street is no longer driving the political policy of the President; Main Street is.

But here’s where the rigged system is stealthy and sneaky.

After a year of Trump putting pressure on the multinational control mechanisms through U.S. regulatory, economic and trade policy, ie. his leverage; the prices for highly consumable goods begins falling.  Domestic supply and demand becomes a bigger influence; food, fuel and energy prices start slowly dropping; but remember, those sectors are not being quantified for inflation measures as used by the Fed via monetary policy.  This is by design.

Conversely, and absolutely intentionally, there is slight upward price pressure on durable goods because Trump is confronting the controlled global system of  cheap-good manufacturing.

As we navigate in the space between a de-emphasized Wall Street economy and a re-emphasized -and more balanced- Main Street economy, the prices on durable manufactured goods will slowly begin to rise; and over-time the domestic production of those goods will return as the total cost of production (including shipping costs) are re-estimated and equalized.

The sneaky Fed, those financial agents who set up the rigged system, are no longer measuring the prices of stuff going down; they are only measuring the prices of the stuff that will naturally go up.  Durable goods prices rise, the fed quantifies increased inflation, and the Fed raises interest rates – this can stall domestic growth.

The rigging is designed that way.

This is what’s happening now.

Now you might say that Wall Street doesn’t like that…. and in part you are correct… check the markets… however, there’s a bigger aspect that Wall Street dislikes more… the elimination of their rigged global system is a bigger threat.  So in the long-term Wall Street is betting against the U.S. Main Street economy in an effort to go back to their preferred multinational system. [ie. cheap money, cheap goods, U.S. service-driven economy]

The system is currently rigged with a favorable lean toward the multinationals.

This is structurally Wall Street -vs- Main Street and President Trump constantly telling the Fed to stop messing with the economy.  MAGAnomics is the reestablishment of an economic system that naturally balances itself over time; it does not need intervention.

The Hedge-fund market, the investment market, is losing ground because it is not based on actual performance. The multinational corps are being broken up by new trade agreements that allow local industry to compete on its own.

Under the Trump economy an apple grower in Washington state can sell his apples to the highest bidder. Under the multinational system he is required to sell to a single buyer who sets the price for his apples in each market.

The Multinationals control whole industries globally. His apples may sell for $1 in the US market and only $.10 in an African market. The farmer is getting $.05 for his apples because he has no other market to sell to. He is obligated to sell to the single buyer because there is no other market open to him.

The multinationals have a vertical monopoly on apples from the grower to the broker to the wholesaler to the retailer. They have been working on the final step, the consumer. Under cover of law the multinationals control legislation in each country that determines what the consumer can buy.  ~Louis Foxwell

This ‘controlled market’ is what President Trump is deconstructing.

 

U.S. Pledges $10.6 Billion For Central America and Southern Mexico…


There are many voices very angered by an announcement that the U.S. State Department is providing $10.6 billion to Mexico and Central America while congress fights over $5 billion in funding for a Southern Border Wall. CTH is not one of those voices.

First, the article (emphasis mine):

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The United States pledged $5.8 billion in aid and investment Tuesday for strengthening government and economic development in Central America, and another $4.8 billion in development aid for southern Mexico.

The U.S aid aims to promote better security conditions and job opportunities as part of a regional plan to allow Central Americans and Mexicans to remain in their countries and not have to emigrate.

The plan was announced in a joint U.S.-Mexican statement released by the State Department and read aloud by Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard in the Mexican capital.  “In sum I think this is good news, very good news for Mexico,” Ebrard said.

Newly inaugurated President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador waxed poetic about the plan to provide jobs so people won’t have to emigrate.

“I have a dream that I want to see become a reality … that nobody will want to go work in the United States anymore,” Lopez Obrador said at a morning news conference before the announcement.

The combination of public and private investment for the stay-at-home effort doesn’t require congressional approval, unlike Trump’s signature project to stem illegal immigration — a border wall. (read more)

What I see here is President Trump deploying a root-cause workaround for the current border argument, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo carrying it out.

I strongly suspect there was an agreement of this sort long before the USMCA was finalized and made public.  As part of an agreement with President Lopez-Obrador, [insert Jared Kushner here] these funds will be used to secure Mexico’s border effectively cutting-off the Central American migration flow before it can reach the Southern U.S.

This approach is entirely in line with nationalist AMLO’s objectives for a larger and more stable economy within Mexico specifically by partnering with nationalist U.S. President Trump toward that common goal [See USMCA details].

If Trump can’t get congress to agree to defend the U.S. border, he can damn sure leverage and entice Lopez-Obrador to do it a few miles south.  This approach is POTUS Trump working on optimal solutions while encountering domestic political roadblocks.  This is exactly what President Trump does…. find solutions.

President Trump can sit around righteously fighting with the swamp over the security issues (historic political approach); or he can fight the swamp while simultaneously deploying a solution that mitigates the issue at its root cause (thinking outside the box).

What would a businessman president do?

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Judge Sullivan Revokes Flynn Passport, Imposes Travel Restrictions Within 50 Miles of DC…


Ever heard the term: “physician heal thyself“?  Judge Sullivan revokes Michael Flynn’s passport and imposes travel restrictions with major financial ramifications.

(Source Link)

At first blush this would appear to be a judge with a vendetta against Michael Flynn.  However, CTH would disagree.  As Robert Barnes stated earlier: “How does a judge try to torpedo a plea deal and get a defendant to withdraw their plea? They threaten to use the charges they avoided within the plea deal as the basis for their sentence.

Sullivan deploys a strategy we know as “extreme compliance“.  In essence delivering ramifications toward the judicial status quo in order to change the status quo.

Arizona Governor Ducey Appoints Martha McSally to Fill Senate Term…


Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced Tuesday he will appoint GOP Rep. Martha McSally to the Senate to fill the seat of the late Sen. John McCain.

“All her life, Martha has put service first — leading in the toughest of fights and at the toughest of times. She served 26 years in the military; deployed six times to the Middle East and Afghanistan; was the first woman to fly in combat and command a fighter squadron in combat; and she’s represented Southern Arizona in Congress for the past four years. With her experience and long record of service, Martha is uniquely qualified to step up and fight for Arizona’s interests in the U.S. Senate. I thank her for taking on this significant responsibility and look forward to working with her and Senator-Elect Sinema to get positive things done.” ~ Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey

Intermission: First Lady Melania Trump Visits Military Bases and USS George H.W. Bush….


We interrupt your regularly scheduled political anxiety with a brief intermission…

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Thank you.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled state of angst.

More Pictures Here

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ps. don’t forget to enjoy life.

BREAKING: Transcript of James Comey Testimony to Joint House Committee Round #2 – (Full transcript pdf)…


Former FBI Director James Comey appeared December 17th, 2018, for a second round of questions by a joint House committee oversight probe into the DOJ and FBI conduct during the 2016 presidential election and incoming Trump administration.

The Joint House Committee just released the transcript (full pdf below):

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/395972408/content?start_page=1&view_mode=&access_key=key-VowRINMl7U6kF9efRfAx

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This was just released.  Analysis to follow.

Sarah Sanders White House Press Briefing – December 18th…


White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivers the White House press briefing for December 18th, 2018:

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Judge Emmet Sullivan Delays Sentencing of Michael Flynn for 90 Days…


Without cameras in the courtroom we are constrained to understand the Flynn sentencing hearing today through the perspectives of others. The Daily Caller has an article [See Here] and a thread on the events [is Here] and a great video recap of the events by Will Chamberlain [is HERE].

That said, there is much speculation and punditry delivered opinion on what took place; and how the hearing ended with Judge Emmet Sullivan delaying the sentencing of Michael Flynn for 90-days. While we await the transcript from the court, here’s my view.

Last night, while contemplating the possible outcomes of the hearing, there was a strong likelihood of exactly what happened today…. but only if Judge Sullivan was aware of the conflicted position of Michael Flynn, and approached the hearing from that perspective.

Flynn took the guilty plea of lying to investigators to avoid Mueller charging him over the Turkish lobbying issues (FARA).

Happily, it appears Judge Sullivan is well aware of this very specific dynamic and the issues therein. Special Counsel Robert Mueller used the unregistered foreign lobbying charges, and -more importantly- the devastating narrative that can be drawn from those FARA violations, as leverage over Flynn. Based on the comments from Judge Sullivan, it is clear he is aware of this dynamic.

That forms the backdrop for Judge Sullivan stating: “I cannot recall any incident in which the court has accepted a plea of guilty from someone who maintained he was not guilty and I don’t intend to start today.” The judge knows Flynn is pleading guilty to the lying, to avoid larger issues that would come from the unregistered foreign agent issue.

Keep in mind, this is about law and this is about politics. Sullivan appears to be well aware there are times when admitting to violations of law can be the better alternative than allowing the appearance of, and the use of, a much more damaging political narrative.

Think about it this way. If Flynn didn’t accept the plea, team Mueller could then begin deploying a narrative that was not just about a national security adviser lying to federal investigators; but also encompassed an unregistered agent of a foreign power holding a key national security position in the White House. Imagine what team Mueller and the media would do with that narrative. Think about it.

The judge readily understands the scale of both legal leverage and, more consequentially, the political leverage Mueller held over Flynn at the time when Flynn was making decisions on the least-bad outcome (June through November ’17).

So with that in mind, Judge Sullivan begins questioning Flynn and the Special Counsel about the status of current assistance from Flynn toward the recently (not coincidental timing) announced indictments in the Turkish Lobbying case. And Sullivan is asking Mueller’s prosecutor about what other charges they had considered over Flynn.

When Judge Sullivan says: “arguably you sold your country out”, he is not necessarily making a declaratory statement as much as he is referencing the framework of Flynn’s choices. Sullivan projects himself into the position of Flynn: you’re either a liar, or a treasonous foreign agent working in the White House. Which is least bad? That was the narrative option for Flynn.

Then comes a recess.

Following the recess:

[…]  “You were an unregistered agent of a foreign country while serving as the National Security Advisor to the president,” said Sullivan. After a 30-minute recess, Sullivan corrected his statement, saying that Flynn’s work for Turkey ended in November 2016.

“I felt terrible about that,” Sullivan said of his statement that Flynn was working for Turkey while in the White House.

At one point in the hearing, Sullivan asked van Grack if the special counsel ever considered charging Flynn with treason. Van Grack hesitated, according to reporters in the courtroom, but said that prosecutors never weighed those kinds of charges. Sullivan also walked back the treason question, saying that he did not intend to imply that Flynn was guilty of the crime. (read more)

I see a good bottom line here; that Judge Emmet Sullivan is well aware of the intricacies of the dynamic. Flynn likely didn’t lie; however, falsely admitting to a lie is a much better option than having team Mueller saying President Trump employed an unregistered foreign agent as his national security adviser.  See the dynamic?

Judge Sullivan is not making declaratory statements inasmuch as he is probing and outlining his understanding of Flynn’s position.

As a consequence of this dynamic, Judge Sullivan cannot vacate the plea that Flynn wants or else he positions Flynn to become a target of the Turkish lobbying case that was just unsealed yesterday.

Sullivan’s questions about the current status of Flynn’s cooperation indicate he was seeking to discover if Flynn held immunity in that case; Flynn does not.

If Flynn lawyers had gained full immunity for cooperation in the Turkish lobbying conspiracy case; it’s likely Sullivan may have vacated current Flynn charges. However, with Flynn still legally vulnerable in the Turkish case, any judicial decision favorable to Flynn could expose him to criminal charges in the lobbying case.

So Judge Sullivan delays sentencing 90-days, hoping the Turkish Lobbying conspiracy case is completed -or- at a status where Michael Flynn cannot be enjoined in the criminality therein.

That’s my take.

Will Chamberlain ⭐️⭐️⭐️@willchamberlain

Will Chamberlain @willchamberlain

Flynn hearing debrief – fireworks from Judge Emmet Sullivan, ends in a continuance

pscp.tv

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Take a Stand


For Trump Republicans, who are paying attention, this is shaping up to be one of the most important weeks in a very long time for the Republican Party. It can also be said that this is a very important week for Donald Trump and his chances of being a two term president. Senate Majority Whip John Thune just stated, on national TV, that “the President and Republican leadership advanced a proposal that would use the $1.6 billion that’s already been approved by the Senate appropriations committee and that another billion or so that would go toward border security, NOT TO INCLUDE A WALL. Thune went on to say “if the Democrats even meet him half way [him meaning Donald Trump] there’s a deal there on the table. This comes just days after the president was clear that he would accept nothing less than $5 billion to partially fund the wall and he was willing to shut down the government to get it.

Earlier this year the president signed a huge Omnibus Bill and his political instincts told him it was a mistake. The decision to sign that bill was a disappointment to his base. With conviction he stated he would not sign anything like this again. Many in his base felt that was the time to fight for the issue that arguably got him elected.

In 2016 most Republicans were elected in large part to push the Trump agenda. In too many instances they have stalled it. With few exceptions the Republican leadership does not want the wall. They are becoming one of the most useless political parties in history. The president needs to be clear…..without this partial funding, $5 billion, nothing else gets passed. If they cave on this the swamp wins and Mr. Trump will be a one term president. I will be calling the White House and letting them know that I’ve got the presidents back and I urge him to fight now and fight hard.

Jeff Longo

 

Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Kevin Hassett: “The Uniquely U.S. Boom”…


CEA Charman Kevin Hassett is a happy MAGAnomic warrior as he continues to explain the disconnect between the strength of the U.S. economy -vs- the world; and how the disconnect impacts the multinationals (Stock Market).

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The interview is in two segments. Part II is below:

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