In the wake of the first round of Democratic presidential primary debates, Americans are left with the impression that climate change and Mitch McConnell are the two greatest, imminent threats to the country, and to life on Earth. But even if Mitch McConnell personally causes climate change, can Democrats win the White House? Bill Whittle sees the candidates’ misdirected rage as a ‘too good to be true’ blessing for Republicans in 2020. A growing band of principled liberty-lovers sustains the production of some 48 shows each month, and create a community of mutual encouragement and entertainment on their own private blog. Access to this conservative refuge — away from the toxic sewer of social media — comes only through Membership at https://BillWhittle.com/register/
Iranian attacks on U.S. and allied assets has made strange bedfellows of Americans who support and who oppose President Trump. Are these Iran war drums a symptom of unquestioning support for the president, or of Trump Derangement Syndrome?
With President Donald Trump making massive strides toward peace and stability surrounding North Korea, the media cannot accept -nor allow- the common sense solutions to succeed. President Trump is clearly perceived as a risk because his success highlights just how useless and manipulative a professional political class of consultants, advisors and DC think-tanks really are.
The U.S. media are desperate to find something to criticize and openly cheering for failure, so long as it provides fuel for their anti-Trump narrative. It is stunning to watch against the backdrop of President Trump cutting the Gordian knot known as North Korea.
Perhaps by training, by habit or by unintended consequence, the DC proletariat have developed a system for themselves where the process itself as the end result. This allows them to wax philosophically about problems; but it is within the discussion of the problem itself where their industry exists. Solutions are not wanted because that stops the process.
DC journalism has evolved into reveling about the never ending process and, as a consequence, media completely ignore the end point, miss the bottom line, don’t actually SEE the subject matter, and never actually attempt to discover solutions.
If you watch this nonsense long enough you realize those inside the industrial media complex avoid the subject matter deliberately; because if they get their heads around it and nail it home, they won’t have anything to talk about – they will have exhausted their stash.
As part of their unspoken strategy when they encounter a solution driven approach, the media (writ large) fall back on the Gruber Principle: relying on “the stupidity of the American voter” not to understand how the lies and talking points are being distributed.
Today’s example surrounds President Trump and the ongoing negotiations with China. Into this dynamic Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd surfaces as an entity on the U.S. Commerce Dept. restricted “Entity List” on May 16, 2019.
On May 20th, 2019, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security, would be issuing Temporary General License (TGL) permits for U.S. business interests who wish to engage in commercial exchanges with Huawei.
The Commerce Department reviews each request, outlines what products can be exchanged, and restricts the company to a transaction of product approved by the license. Each license lasts 90-days.
“The Temporary General License grants operators time to make other arrangements and the Department space to determine the appropriate long term measures for Americans and foreign telecommunications providers that currently rely on Huawei equipment for critical services,” said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “In short, this license will allow operations to continue for existing Huawei mobile phone users and rural broadband networks.” (link)
Additionally, with the exception of the transactions explicitly authorized by the Temporary General License, any exports, reexports, or in country transfers of items subject to the Export Administration Regulation (EAR) will continue to require a special license granted after a review by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) under a presumption of denial.
Under the new regulations any company wishing to engage in a commercial transaction with Huawei has to apply and gain pre-approval from the U.S. Commerce Department. Hence, the issuance of a 90-day license. Any product or service not approved by the license is not allowed to be exchanged.
This process began on May 20th and still exists today. This process is what President Trump was referencing when he announced the U.S. and China would restart trade negotiations as it related to Huawei. Specifically when the president said: “Ross will evaluate each request”.
Nothing can be purchased from, or sold to, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd and/or its sixty-eight non-U.S. affiliates, without getting permission from the U.S. commerce department. Nothing in the agreement between President Trump and Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping changes that process.
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If Beijing was not going to accept the closed chapters of the prior negotiation; a position they previously rebuked; then there would be no starting point between the Chinese and U.S. teams. We don’t like to make too many assumptions, but common sense would indicate the agreements between all parties, prior to the collapse, is now the agreed starting point.
If accurate (obviously details to be identified later) this would indicate that the hawks in Beijing, those who formerly balked, have now retreated from their antagonistic position toward the agreement negotiated by Liu He.
It is likely they saw growing ramifications and consequences over the past 30+ days. In essence, after getting a taste of what was coming, Beijing saw a cycle of continual collapse as their future; they had no option but to try and stop the downward spiral.
This internal outlook, overlaying their historic zero-sum perspective, would make sense given the latest developments; party because the reality of an increasingly losing position was their new baseline. A cessation of further damage was their best scenario.
Summary: Trump forced Beijing to see less-loss as the better loss.
However, as noted in the attitude of President Trump, he retains the larger tariff level despite China’s re-engagement. Trump has allowed the restart itself to be the face-saving Xi needed, yet he retains the prior tariff gains. Team Trump yielded nothing back.
Do not take this dynamic lightly. China has never negotiated for, nor accepted, less-lossbefore. Understanding this is new ground for them we can only imagine the anxiety within internal discussions. Vice-Premier Liu He cannot turn to the Beijing Hawks and say: ‘I told you so’. He can only start again and hope the same outcome does not repeat.
Both teams know the prior closed chapters were negotiated in good faith by Liu He, Robert Lightizer and Mnuchin. It wasn’t the U.S. who walked away from prior commitments. Therefore it makes additional sense for Chairman Xi to offer the Ag purchases as a show of good faith; and, in turn, President Trump gives the optics of compromise on high-tech.
Returning to the original point of collapse, the stickler point was/is the enforcement mechanism if China cheats. This is where Lighthizer had built sector-by-sector, product-by-product, escalating and countervailing tariffs into the compliance chapters.
Unlike traditional trade agreements with one enforcement chapter that encompasses all of the sectors within the aggregate agreement, Bob Lighthizer built specific enforcement mechanisms into each sector. Essentially, each product had it’s own compliance requirements unique to the sector of trade.
That multi-layered compliance is where China recoiled because they saw the U.S. as having ultimate decision-making about whether the rules were being followed. However, that construct was/is the unidirectional price Lighthizer was applying due to the history of Chinese duplicity and cheating.
Any U.S. company (or U.S. entity) harmed by Chinese trade practices (ie. ‘cheating‘, ‘theft’, ‘coercion’, etc.) would have a set of enforcement provisions to protect their interests specific to their unique sector inside the agreement. The scale of this approach is rather overwhelming to consider; however, as Lighthizer told congress this is the only way to insure compliance and protect very diverse U.S. trade interests.
You have to write the agreement while predicting the other party will attempt to lie, cheat and steal; and they will do so with the sanctioning of the communist government.
Lost in all of the discussions by western media is the fact that no-one has ever attempted to structure a comprehensive and enforceable trade agreement with China before. What the U.S. team is attempting will be the road-map for all other nations who will likely write similar agreements of their own.
Writing a trade agreement between a free-market (USA) and a controlled-market (China) is where the challenge lies. One of the inherent issues will always be how the free-market system can hold the controlled-market system accountable if they cheat.
Given the controlled-market’s governmental support for the cheaters, the accountability will naturally have to come from outside the system. It remains to be seen if it can be done.
Arguably President Trump has a disposition that he doesn’t see how a deal is possible. However, Trump is willing to allow Lighthizer, who really is brilliant (along with Secretary Mnuchin and Secretary Ross), plenty of space to approach this problem with unique solutions.
As President Trump just said: “The quality of the transaction is far more important to me than speed. I am in no hurry.”
The tariffs will continue until behavior improves.
After a historic trip to Panmunjom for a meeting with Kim Jong-Un, President Donald Trump traveled to Osan Air Base to deliver a speech to service members.
The world was watching history being made and overnight millions of Americans stayed up to watch the first sitting U.S. president cross into North Korea. President Trump and North Korea’s Chairman Kim Jong-un took a massive step toward deconfliction and peace.
An incredible moment. WATCH:
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CTH doesn’t want to devalue the history of this moment by over analyzing the dynamic. This is an incredible moment in history as U.S. President Donald Trump carries the hopes of tens-of-millions toward a peaceful outcome in North Korea.
At 3:44pm ROK Time, President Trump walked out of Freedom House towards the military demarcation line between South and North Korea, located between the two famous blue huts.
The North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, wearing his traditional Mao suit, was walking down the stairs towards him on the Northern side of the line.
At 3:45pm, the President Trump and Chairman Kim leaders shook hands over the concrete slab that forms the military demarcation line between South and North Korea. “Good to see you again”, said Kim in English, adding that he would have “never expected” to see President Trump “at this place”.
At 3:46pm, President Trump crossed the demarcation line, becoming the first sitting US president to ever step into North Korea. President Trump then walked a few meters into the North together with Kim. “Good progress, good progress”, he said as the two leaders crossed back to the South.
Asked to recount the moment and first words with Kim when they approached the North-South line of demarcation, President Trump later said he asked Kim: “would you like me to come across. Kim said he would be honored. It was my honor to do it,” said Pres Trump.
After Chariman Kim crossed into South Korea the two leaders briefly spoke to media before greeting South Korean President Moon Jae-in (grinning ear to ear), and then going into the Freedom House for bilateral discussions. Trump and Kim talked for around an hour. Notably Moon Jae-in went into a separate room to allow privacy, and President Trump’s closest staff also left after a few minutes. Suffice to say, the outcome was much more than a handshake; and initial reactions from Asian media were stunning and excited.
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President Trump, Chairman Kim and Moon Jae-in emerged from the Freedom House at 4:51pm after the Trump-Kim bilateral meeting that lasted more than 45 minutes. Together all three leaders walked back together towards the demarcation line between North and South Korea. President Trump and Chairman Kim exchanged words for a few seconds and shook hands before the North Korean leader crossed back, alone, to the North of Panmunjom at 4:53pm.
President Trump and President Moon debrief the media (prompted just hit play):
South Korean President Moon said of the Trump-Kim agreement to set up new diplomatic teams as overcoming a hurdle. Speaking through a translator, Moon called it good news for the 80-million people on the Korean peninsula seeking an end to nuclear weapons. Calling it “a big step forward.”
During a joint press conference South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump announced and confirmed that President Trump will meet with North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Un at the demilitarized zone for a historic handshake today.
UPDATE: Video Added
The schedule is fluid. Anticipated time should be around 1:30am to 2:00am U.S. Eastern Time. Most international broadcasts should carry live.
Will there be an announcement about meeting Chairman Kim at the DMZ? President Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in hold a joint presser at the conclusion of their bilateral discussions. Start time 12:05am Eastern:
President Trump delivers remarks to a group of business and industry leaders in South Korea. Some of the key quotes: “It has been a great period of time for our two countries” –
“We re going to make a visit today to the DMZ with President Moon” – “Lots of good things are happening with North Korea” – “We have a very good relationship, the two of us” – “I understand they want to meet” (saying details were still being worked out as he spoke).
“I want to say hello” – “Let’s see what happens” [A detailed transcript will follow]
President Donald Trump will be delivering remarks to business leaders; then holding a bilateral meeting with President Moon Jae-in today in South Korea. Following the bilat the two leaders will hold a joint press conference (12:05am EDT).
Then President Trump will travel to the demilitarized zone where the world waits to see if the U.S. President will meet North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un, possibly making history. (1:30am EDT)
The DMZ schedule is tentative and might be subject to change; however, the world will be watching to see if the Trump-Kim meeting and handshake takes place (approximately 1:30am EDT). No sitting U.S. President has ever stepped foot in North Korea. If this was to happen it would be a historic moment. Full Schedule Below:
10:00am ROK / 9:00pm EDT THE PRESIDENT delivers remarks to Korean business leaders, Seoul, Republic of Korea
10:50am ROK / 9:50pm EDT THE PRESIDENT departs the Hotel en route to Blue House, Seoul, Republic of Korea
11:00am ROK / 10:00pm EDT THE PRESIDENT arrives at Blue House, Seoul, Republic of Korea
11:10am ROK / 10:10pm EDT THE PRESIDENT participates in a restricted bilateral meeting with the President of the Republic of Korea, Moon Jae-in, Seoul, Republic of Korea
12:00pm ROK / 11:00pm EDT THE PRESIDENT participates in an expanded working lunch with the President of the Republic of Korea, Moon Jae-in, Seoul, Republic of Korea
♦ 1:05pm ROK / 12:05am EDT THE PRESIDENT participates in a joint press conference with President Moon Jae-in of the Republic of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea
1:25pm ROK / 12:25am EDT THE PRESIDENT departs the Blue House en route to the United States Army Garrison Yongsan Landing Zone, Seoul, Republic of Korea
1:35pm ROK / 12:35am EDT THE PRESIDENT arrives at the United States Army Garrison Yongsan Landing Zone, Seoul, Republic of Korea
1:45pm ROK / 12:45am EDT THE PRESIDENT departs the United States Army Garrison Yongsan Landing Zone, Seoul, Republic of Korea
2:10pm ROK / 1:10am EDT THE PRESIDENT arrives at the Joint Security Area Landing Zone, Seoul, Republic of Korea
2:20pm ROK / 1:20am EDT THE PRESIDENT departs the Joint Security Area Landing Zone en route to the Korean Demilitarized Zone Overlook, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea
♦ 2:30pm ROK / 1:30am EDT THE PRESIDENT arrives at the Korean Demilitarized Zone Overlook, Korean Demilitarized Zone
♦ 2:35pm ROK / 1:35am EDT THE PRESIDENT views the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Demilitarized Zone, Korean Demilitarized Zone
2:45pm ROK / 1:45am EDT THE PRESIDENT departs the Korean Demilitarized Zone Overlook en route to DFAC Flag Pole, Korean Demilitarized Zone
2:55pm ROK / 1:55am EDT THE PRESIDENT participates in a joint photo opportunity with United States and Republic of Korea service members and viewing recovered relics, Seoul, Republic of Korea
3:05pm ROK / 2:05am EDT THE PRESIDENT participates in a meet and greet with United States and Republic of Korea service members, Korean Demilitarized Zone
3:25pm ROK / 2:25am EDT THE PRESIDENT departs the DFAC en route to Joint Security Area Landing Zone, Korean Demilitarized Zone
3:30pm ROK / 2:30am EDT THE PRESIDENT arrives at Joint Security Area Landing Zone, Seoul, Republic of Korea
3:40pm ROK / 2:40am EDT THE PRESIDENT departs Joint Security Area Landing Zone en route to Osan Air Base WLT Hangar, Seoul, Republic of Korea
4:20pm ROK / 3:20am EDT THE PRESIDENT arrives at Osan Air Base WLT Hangar, Osan Air Base, Korea
4:30pm ROK / 3:30am EDT THE PRESIDENT delivers remarks to United States service members, Osan Air Base, Korea
5:15pm ROK / 4:15am EDT THE PRESIDENT departs Osan Air Base WLT Hangar en route to Osan Air Base, Osan Air Base, Korea
5:20pm ROK / 4:20AM EDT THE PRESIDENT arrives at Osan Air Base, Osan Air Base, Korea
5:30pm ROK / 4:30am EDT THE PRESIDENT departs Seoul, Republic of Korea, Osan Air Base en route to Washington, D.C., Seoul, Republic of Korea
~ South Korea Visit Concludes ~
8:15pm EDT (Sunday Night) THE PRESIDENT arrives at Joint Base Andrews, Washington, D.C.
8:25pm EDT THE PRESIDENT departs Joint Base Andrews en route to the White House, Washington, D.C.
8:35pm EDT THE PRESIDENT arrives at the White House, South Lawn
President Trump has tweeted the high-level status of the negotiation restart. Essentially the outcome is as we expected.
Trade talks resume from former stalled point. [Likely Vice-Premier Liu He is back representing Chairman Xi Jinping – Beijing retreat]
Current enhanced tariff’s remain in place. [The tariffs that were raised when talks collapsed will remain raised and in force. – Beijing retreat]
China resumes AG purchases. [Likely soy beans will be priority – Beijing retreat]
U.S. will allow trade purchases, exports, to Huawei of non-National Security tech. [Ross likely to determine products – Trump modifies position]
From this summation it would appear President Trump has created an exit ramp for Chairman Xi Jinping that allows him to save face. However, obviously with retention of the recent tariff increases the benefits beyond optics all favor President Trump.
We are assuming the high visibility of Vice-Premier Liu He at the G20; and the fact that Liu He was directly engaged with U.S.T.R. Robert Lighthizer and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin during the G20 sideline meetings; to mean the prior negotiated place of agreement is the starting point for renewed talks.
If the assumption is accurate, this indicates a significant retreat by Beijing.
If Beijing was not going to accept the closed chapters of the prior negotiation; a position they previously rebuked; then there would be no starting point between the Chinese and U.S. teams. We don’t like to make too many assumptions, but common sense would indicate the agreements between all parties, prior to the collapse, is now the agreed starting point.
If accurate (obviously details to be identified later) this would indicate that the hawks in Beijing, those who formerly balked, have now retreated from their antagonistic position toward the agreement negotiated by Liu He.
It is likely they saw growing ramifications and consequences over the past 30+ days. In essence, after getting a taste of what was coming, Beijing saw a cycle of continual collapse as their future; they had no option but to try and stop the downward spiral.
This internal outlook, overlaying their historic zero-sum perspective, would make sense given the latest developments; party because the reality of an increasingly losing position was their new baseline. A cessation of further damage was their best scenario.
Summary: Trump forced Beijing to see less-loss as the better loss.
However, as noted in the attitude of President Trump, he retains the larger tariff level despite China’s re-engagement. Trump has allowed the restart itself to be the face-saving Xi needed, yet he retains the prior tariff gains. Team Trump yielded nothing back.
Do not take this dynamic lightly. China has never negotiated for, nor accepted, less-lossbefore. Understanding this is new ground for them we can only imagine the anxiety within internal discussions. Vice-Premier Liu He cannot turn to the Beijing Hawks and say: ‘I told you so’. He can only start again and hope the same outcome does not repeat.
Both teams know the prior closed chapters were negotiated in good faith by Liu He, Robert Lightizer and Mnuchin. It wasn’t the U.S. who walked away from prior commitments. Therefore it makes additional sense for Chairman Xi to offer the Ag purchases as a show of good faith; and, in turn, President Trump gives the optics of compromise on high-tech.
Returning to the original point of collapse, the stickler point was/is the enforcement mechanism if China cheats. This is where Lighthizer had built sector-by-sector, product-by-product, escalating and countervailing tariffs into the compliance chapters.
Unlike traditional trade agreements with one enforcement chapter that encompasses all of the sectors within the aggregate agreement, Bob Lighthizer built specific enforcement mechanisms into each sector. Essentially, each product had it’s own compliance requirements unique to the sector of trade.
That multi-layered compliance is where China recoiled because they saw the U.S. as having ultimate decision-making about whether the rules were being followed. However, that construct was/is the unidirectional price Lighthizer was applying due to the history of Chinese duplicity and cheating.
Any U.S. company (or U.S. entity) harmed by Chinese trade practices (ie. ‘cheating‘, ‘theft’, ‘coercion’, etc.) would have a set of enforcement provisions to protect their interests specific to their unique sector inside the agreement. The scale of this approach is rather overwhelming to consider; however, as Lighthizer told congress this is the only way to insure compliance and protect very diverse U.S. trade interests.
You have to write the agreement while predicting the other party will attempt to lie, cheat and steal; and they will do so with the sanctioning of the communist government.
Lost in all of the discussions by western media is the fact that no-one has ever attempted to structure a comprehensive and enforceable trade agreement with China before. What the U.S. team is attempting will be the road-map for all other nations who will likely write similar agreements of their own.
Writing a trade agreement between a free-market (USA) and a controlled-market (China) is where the challenge lies. One of the inherent issues will always be how the free-market system can hold the controlled-market system accountable if they cheat.
Given the controlled-market’s governmental support for the cheaters, the accountability will naturally have to come from outside the system. It remains to be seen if it can be done.
Arguably President Trump has a disposition that he doesn’t see how a deal is possible. However, Trump is willing to allow Lighthizer, who really is brilliant (along with Secretary Mnuchin and Secretary Ross), plenty of space to approach this problem with unique solutions.
As President Trump just said: “The quality of the transaction is far more important to me than speed. I am in no hurry.”
The tariffs will continue until behavior improves.
I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
Centinel2012 