Put this into the geopolitical file labeled: “Things that make other things make sense”…  You only need to watch the first minute and fifteen-seconds of this announcement to see the bigger BIG picture.  WATCH:

[Transcript Snippet] … “This is the first time that the United States has designated a part of another government as an FTO. We’re doing because the Iranian regime’s use of terrorism as a tool of statecraft makes it fundamentally different from any other government. This historic step will deprive the world’s leading state sponsor of terror the financial means to spread misery and death around the world.”

“Businesses and banks around the world now have a clear duty to ensure that companies with which they conduct financial transactions are not connected to the IRGC in any material way. It also gives the U.S. Government additional tools to counter Iranian-backed terrorism.”  (read full transcript)

The move to label members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as official terrorist designees’ now permits the world financial community to impose sanctions and freeze assets of any IRG members and leaders.

Of course, it would help the geopolitical effort if a U.S. official was, say, President of the World Bank or something…  Wait, wha.. huh?

Funny how that happens….

This now forces a situation where financial proxies (China, Russia) will have to be created for Iran to exploit access to capital.  Of course anyone caught acting as a proxy for the Iranian regime to escape sanctions and/or frozen assets, will run the risk of being caught by the U.S. and subsequently suffer financial (think trade outcome) consequences.

World Bank President David Malpass would hold the key to any loans needed by ancillary economies… which means countries who rely on the World Bank would be apprehensive to engage in any financial connection to Iran…. which means China and Russia would have to find a way to fill the financial gap…. which bleeds China/Russia, and impedes any advanced interest in geopolitical expansion.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled OrangeManBad crisis.

Carry on.

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House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Doug Collins writes a letter to Chairman Jerry Nadler smartly using transparency to call his bluff.  First the letter:

(Link to Letter)

Indeed, the way to diffuse the politicization and weaponization of innuendo within the Mueller report is to specifically get Robert Mueller in front of the committee and ask him questions directly.

This is exactly the correct approach to preempt a summer of nonsense.

If Mueller is in front of the committee first, all of the downstream manipulations by those who are part of the Mueller assignment become worthless.  It is good to see Representative Doug Collins smartly deconstruct the plans and schemes of Pelosi, Schiff, Cummings and Nadler… by giving them what they say they want, but actually don’t.

Another Captain Obvious approach being generally overlooked, is the conspicuous absence of the soft-coup team in media.

Where is Lisa Page? …Peter Strzok? ….James Baker?  ….Nellie Ohr? …Etc.

Why don’t the media have them appearing for interviews to highlight just how horrible President Trump’s grand scheme was?

Why are panel discussions from high-brow Washington DC think tanks not petitioning Page, Strzok, Baker, Ohr, or any other member of the network to appear and discuss the ramifications of having to investigate Trump’s Russia conspiracy/collusion matters?

The Russian election interference efforts were horrible right?  How come we are not hearing from the front-line soldiers who were dispatched to defend our interests?

Why are the satellite trucks missing from in front of the witnesses houses?  These are key people who would be able to outline how terrible Trump plotted to usurp the election.  Why doesn’t the media have a desire to track them down for comment on the Mueller report as a precursor to the report release?

There was a grand Trump-Russia conspiracy right? ….right? …So where’s the media interest in advancing that narrative through the use of those who would have been closest to the work?

The Mueller investigation begun in May 2017 and was an extension of the DOJ and FBI team’s work that begun in July 2016 right?  …So why are we not hearing from the people who were directly on the front-lines of that investigation?  They are no longer in government; they are free to talk…

So where’s the lengthy investigative reporting on 60 Minutes with those people who are no longer inside government and completely free to tell their story of how hard they worked to protect the country from a possible Trump-Russia conspiracy?

Think about it….

Why the conspicuous absence of media?

For some funny reason they don’t seem to be interested in the story behind the DOJ and FBI’s effort to save our nation from Donald Trump…. why is that?

Why doesn’t the media embrace the available sunlight?

During a bond hearing today prosecutors say the FBI is still investigating whether a 32-year-old Yujing Zhang, the Chinese woman accused of lying to illegally enter President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, is a spy.

After a search warrant, additional spy tech was found in her hotel room including: $7,500 in one hundred dollar bills; a signal detector device to find hidden cameras; nine USB drives, five SIM cards and an additional cell phone.  Sketchy… all of it.

(Via CBS) A federal prosecutor says a Chinese woman who was arrested for illegally entering President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club had a device to detect hidden cameras in her hotel room when Secret Service agents searched it.

Speaking at Yujing Zhang’s bail hearing Monday in West Palm Beach, Florida, prosecutor Rolando Garcia said agents also found U.S. and Chinese currency in her room, along with nine USB drives and five USB cards. She’s charged with lying to a federal agent and illegal entering.

Secret Service agents arrested the 32-year-old woman on March 30 after they say she gained admission by falsely telling a checkpoint she was a member.

Inside, they say she told a front-desk clerk she was there for a nonexistent Chinese American event. She was arrested after agents say they found her carrying four cellphones, an external hard drive and a thumb drive with computer malware installed.

The purpose of the hearing Monday is to determine if Zhang should be released on bond. Federal prosecutors believe she’s a flight risk.  (read more)

A little backstory…  Long-time CTH readers will note we have been recommending since candidate Trump first announced, when Donald Trump won the presidency one of the priorities should be to put the Secret Service back into the U.S. Treasury Department.

The reasoning for our recommendations beginning in 2015 was simple: the scale of opposition to an outsider as President would be off-the-charts.  DHS is a multi-layered matrix of conflicting political interests and career bureaucrats with internal agendas.

The recently visible political bias within the FBI is an example of the same issues likely to exist within another massive bureaucracy of the DHS.  Removing the U.S. Secret Service, and putting them back into Treasury, would give them operational independence and renewed clarity of purpose.  Current structures are just too sketchy.  That said, here’s the latest…

(CNN) United States Secret Service director Randolph “Tex” Alles is being removed from his position, multiple administration officials tell CNN.

President Donald Trump instructed his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to fire Alles. Alles remains in his position as of now but has been asked to leave.

The USSS director was told two weeks ago there would be a transition in leadership and he was asked to stay on until there was a replacement, according to a source close to the director.

Secret Service officials have been caught by surprise with the news and are only finding out through CNN, according to the source.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said later Monday that Trump has picked James M. Murray, a career USSS official, to replace Alles. (read more)

 

Statement from White House:

(link)

There has been something more opaque happening in the background recently…. This story is likely connected to several other elements yet to fully surface.  President Trump has excellent instincts.

According to multiple media reports, with a growing crisis at the U.S-Mexico border, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has resigned and President Trump has just confirmed via tweet:

UPDATE: Resignation letter below

(Source Link)

National Economic Council Chairman Larry Kudlow appears on Face The Nation to discuss issues with the U.S-Mexico border and possible economic ramifications if the security issues are not addressed. Additionally, Kudlow discusses the USMCA trade deal and the status of current negotiations with China.

So, Democrats and The Big Club want to play Lawfare with the border crisis?  Well, this is not an ordinary President.  In a move that is straight out of the Alinsky ‘make them play by their own rules‘ playbook, President Trump enforces the rules.

Amid a crisis of growing consequence, President Trump announces deployment of additional 750 Border Agents to U.S-Mexico specific ports of entry:

What President Trump is doing here is a process colloquially called extreme compliance. It is a strategy usually deployed by left-wing activists.  There was an example a few years ago of a group of drivers driving the speed limit, not an single MPH faster, on a six lane highway.  Every car went the speed limit and only the speed limit; not a single car broke the law, but traffic backed up for miles.

Enforcing rules/laws, and not breaking them, creates consequences.  In the example of opening up all points of entry to CBP checkpoints, well, that leads to consequences.  In a rather prescient CTH comment, the possibility of this approach was predicted:

Extreme Compliance – If the President wants to … he might have another card up his sleeve. There are interior checkpoints operated by the border patrol on the I5 and I15 (northbound) freeways. These are the only routes out of the San Diego area to Orange and Riverside counties and all points past them.

Moreover, when they are operating traffic backs up for miles. Imagine if they were operating continuously and more deliberately then normal (due to the increased border crossings). Traffic would come to a complete halt from San Diego to Orange and Riverside counties.

Republicans refuse to accept that normal political back and forth no longer applies. The political environment is a knife fight and we all know what the rules are for that.

Funny how that happens….