The situation in Hong Kong is a geopolitical dynamic that will likely become much more volatile in the next few weeks, months and/or years. One constant in an ever-changing universe is how the UniParty in DC will attempt to drag the U.S. into the issues.
First, Hong Kong is China. Whether a generation of people look back with regret to the time when Great Britain ceded the territory to Beijing is irrelevant. China has, and will have, full control over Hong Kong; and that’s the way it is. This will not be reversed.
Any effort for the people within Hong Kong to reverse the situation and escape the clutches of oppressive communism while retaining their liberty will only lead to massive bloodshed.
Unfortunately for Hong Kong, as President Trump decouples the U.S. economy from the duplicitous communist Chinese enterprise, Beijing will grasp more control over the heavily Western-influenced economic strata in/around Hong Kong.
Stand back and look at the bigger picture. President Trump has neutralized, essentially made irrelevant, Beijing’s use of their proxy province, North Korea. President Trump has embraced Kim Jong-un, not as much out of a position of warmth – but rather as a tactic to block China from weaponizing the DPRK as leverage during the U.S-China trade confrontation.
Beijing still uses their influence to shoot rockets, test missiles etc and president Trump ignores it now. Why? Because North Korea already has nuclear missiles; they’re the same nuclear missiles China has… and it is silly now to think China will remove their nuclear missiles to gain an economic benefit.
If U.S. policy isn’t trying to remove nuclear weapons from China, then why would U.S. policy try to remove nuclear weapons from the DPRK.? They’re the same nukes.
Losing their DPRK leverage, and understanding Beijing has no direct tools to defeat the U.S. in an direct economic confrontation, means China will look elsewhere. That’s where Hong Kong comes into play.
[Always remember, despite the U.S. tariffs on China, there are no tariffs on Hong Kong]
Do we feel sympathy watching a once free society slip into the grips of an oppressive and totalitarian system now ruled by a communist dictator for life in Chairman Xi Jinping? Sure we do. But they made these choices decades ago… now they have the consequences.
If Hong Kong tries to resist Beijing, they will be crushed. Hundreds more will be arrested and disappeared. Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, will be killed. There is already a ongoing flight of wealth out of Hong Kong as the smart and wealthy position their assets overseas to survive the arrival of Beijing’s storm troopers.
The future for Hong Kong is dark. It is not going to end in anything resembling what exists today. Hong Kong will be Beijing 2.0, and will be entirely dominated by Chinese authoritarian rule. The difference in 2019 is the speed at which it is happening.
Things are speeding up now in direct proportion to the severity of the U.S. decoupling our economy from China. As the Chinese economy weakens, Beijing will get more desperate.
Many voices around President Trump will cry out for intervention. The UniParty will demand intervention and decry President Trump’s instinct to stay away from the self-made crisis.
It is not our issue; and engaging in Hong Kong only opens up another pathway for China to play the duplicitous leverage game…. Beijing will play the “we’ll spare, delay, or dilute the Hong Kong absorption, if you agree to our trade terms” game. [lies, lies, lies]
President Trump needs to engage with China and Hong Kong as one nation, under one rule, with one motive and intent. Trying to win a Chinese trade conflict while parsing the economy of China from the economy of Hong Kong, is like trying to parse the nukes in China from the nukes in North Korea.
Hong Kong is lost. Hong Kong belongs to China. Thousands of Hong Kongers will be killed or disappeared into camps as Beijing absorbs the region. The U.S. cannot continue to engage globally in an effort to protect nations from the consequences of their own decisions.
If Great Britain wants to send an armada of battle ships to warn Beijing against aggression with Hong Kong, then we should support. Wait… wha? Oh, Great Britain no longer has a Navy because the high-minded EU collective wanted to hold hands and sing ‘we-are-the-world’ instead of planning to defend its interests for the past twenty years…. I digress.
Hong Kong is not our issue.
The CIA will try to make it our issue. The State Department will try to make it our issue. The UniParty in DC will try to make it our issue. John Bolton will try to make it our issue. Activists in Hong Kong will try to make it our issue. All of the far-left globalists will try to make it our issue…. Nancy Pelosi and Mitt Romney will try to make it our issue; but it’s not our issue.
We pray for peace and send our prayers, but we cannot succeed in the larger economic confrontation with cunning China if we attempt to ignore the direct connective tissue between Beijing and Hong Kong.
Instead, start applying the Chinese tariffs on Hong Kong as soon as Beijing tanks arrive.
Chopper pressers are the best pressers. Earlier today President Trump delivered remarks and held and impromptu press conference from the airport in Morristown, NJ, prior to departing for Pennsylvania. [Video and Transcript Below]
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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: The stock market continues to do very well. We have very, very strong numbers. We have a lot of artificial numbers from other countries because they’re all devaluing their currencies. They’re really doing things that aren’t very good for their countries, in my opinion. But, short term, it’s very good for their countries. Long term, possibly not.
And we’re not following suit. We have a Fed that decides not to cut interest rates, which is a very bad thing. Because, right now, we have to follow suit; we should be following suit. But we have a very powerful country, a very strong economic and military country. We’ve never been better. The stock market is way up today for various reasons, including tariffs.
I just see where we’ve collected close to $59 billion in tariffs so far. And, in my opinion, the consumer has not paid for it because of the devaluation by China. They devalued and they pumped a lot of money into their system. So, it’s really been an amazing — it’s been an amazing period of time.
Yeah.
Q Why did you make the decision on the tariffs, to delay the implementation of the tariffs?
THE PRESIDENT: Only to help, I think, a lot of different groups of people. And we had a very good talk yesterday with China — a very, very productive call. I think they want to do something. I think they’d like to do something dramatic. I was not sure whether or not they wanted to wait until a Democrat has a chance to get in. Hopefully that’s not going to happen because the economy would go to hell in a handbasket very fast.
But they really would like to make a deal. The call itself was very productive. I’m not sure if it was the tariffs or the call, but the call was very productive. Again, they’ve said this many times; they’ve said they’re going to buy farm products. So far, they’ve disappointed me with the truth. They haven’t been truthful, or, let’s say, they’ve certainly delayed the decision. But it’s their intention to buy a lot of farm product.
And we did — we had a very good call with China. I mean, they would really like to do — as you know, they have a problem in Hong Kong, but they would like very much to do something.
Q Would you consider moving the tariffs, even? Delaying them even further, past December 15?
THE PRESIDENT: No, we’re doing this for Christmas season, just in case some of the tariffs would have an impact on U.S. customers, which, so far, they’ve had virtually none. The only impact has been that we’ve collected almost $60 billion from China — compliments of China. But just in case they might have an impact on people, what we’ve done is we’ve delayed it so that they won’t be relevant for the Christmas shopping season.
Q Mr. President, can you please explain your decision to retweet that comment about Jeffrey Epstein and the —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, he’s a very highly respected, conservative pundit. He’s a big Trump fan. That was a retweet. That wasn’t from me; that was from him. But he’s a man who has half a million followers. A lot of followers. And he’s respected.
And, as you know, Bill Barr wants to do an entire investigation of the whole Epstein matter, what happened. He’s been going on for a long — that’s been going on for a long time, the whole Epstein episode. And I know it’s under investigation by Attorney General Barr, and I’m sure he’s going to be handling it.
The retweet, which is what it was — it was a retweet — was from somebody that’s a very respected, conservative pundit. So I think that was fine.
Yeah.
Q But is it appropriate for you to be spreading that kind of conspiracy theory? I presume you don’t know that that’s true.
THE PRESIDENT: No, basically what we’re saying is we want an investigation. I want a full investigation, and that’s what I absolutely am demanding. That’s what our Attorney General — our great Attorney General — is doing. He’s doing a full investigation.
Q Are you concerned about what you’re seeing in Hong Kong? Do you want China to exercise restraint?
THE PRESIDENT: The Hong Kong thing is a very tough situation. Very tough. We’ll see what happens. But I’m sure it’ll work out. I hope it works out for everybody, including China, by the way. I hope it works out for everybody.
Q Have you seen the gathering of military troops, apparently close to protestors? And there’s worries about that.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, it’s a very tricky situation. I think it’ll work out. And I hope it works out for liberty. I hope it works out for everybody, including China. I hope it works out peacefully. I hope nobody gets hurts. I hope nobody gets killed.
Q Mr. President, are you more optimistic now that there’s a chance of getting a deal between China on trade?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I’ve always been optimistic. My only question is whether or not they were willing to wait and take the chance on winning the election and deal with somebody who’s weak and ineffective and doesn’t know what he’s doing or she’s doing, like they’ve had in the past.
This should have been done 25 years ago. It should have been done 10 years ago or 5 years ago. This should have been done a long time ago. This should have been done by Biden and Obama. China is taking out $500 billion a year, and much more than that, if you include the theft of intellectual property. What I’m doing now should have been done many years ago.
Q On another issue: Ken Cuccinelli today said, on NPR, that maybe there ought to be a different poem on the Statue of Liberty that says immigrants who come can stand up for themselves and take care of themselves. Do you think that should be changed?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don’t think it’s fair to have the American taxpayer — you know, it’s about “America First.” I don’t think it’s fair to have the American taxpayer paying for people to come into the United States.
So what we’ve done is institute what took place many, many years ago — at our founding, virtually. But we are just reinstituting it. And I think it’s long overdue.
I am tired of seeing our taxpayer paying for people to come into the country and immediately go onto welfare and various other things. So I think we’re doing it right.
Q Mr. President, you tweeted about a word that Chris Cuomo found racially offensive. Even Sean Hannity defended him. Is that appropriate for you to tweet about that?
THE PRESIDENT: I think that what Chris Cuomo did was horrible. His language was horrible. He looked like a total, out-of-control animal. He lost it. And, frankly, I don’t think anybody should defend him because he spews lies every night. So I don’t know why anybody would defend him. But Chris Cuomo was out of control. I watched it. I thought it was terrible.
So I don’t know who’s defending him. Maybe they didn’t see it. Maybe they haven’t gotten a full picture. But I think anybody that would have seen Chris Cuomo would have said that was a disgrace. You’ve never seen me do that.
Q But you wound up tweeting in response to it, saying that maybe he should be flagged by a “red flag” list. Doesn’t that sort of undermine the whole argument that’s going on right now and the push for that?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think Chris Cuomo was so out of control that I would not have wanted to see a weapon in his hand. I guess his fist is not a weapon or he would have done something. You know, he talked about it but he didn’t do anything.
But I think Chris Cuomo was very much out of control, actually.
Q Mr. President, Anthony Scaramucci today is calling on Republicans to challenge you in 2020, saying that you’ve “gone off the rails.” Do you have a response?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, Anthony was a guy who worked for me, who really didn’t have a clue. He worked for 11 days. He made terrible statements and gestures and everything to people that worked in the office. I think you’ve heard Mercedes Schlapp talk about it in great detail.
Anthony didn’t support me at the beginning; he was with somebody else and then he went to somebody else. And he only supported me after it was a foregone conclusion that I was going to win.
I’m not a fan of Anthony. I haven’t been for a long time. I think Anthony is really somebody that’s very much out of control. And he doesn’t have what it takes. I mean, he really doesn’t.
He wanted to come back into the administration for the last five months, begging me to come back in. I said, “Anthony, I can’t take you in. I’m sorry.” He called so much. He’s a nervous, neurotic wreck. He called so much, and I said, “Anthony, I’m sorry. I can’t do that. I can’t take you in.” And I said, “You got to stop all these phone calls. Too many calls, Anthony.” And I wouldn’t take his call. And lo and behold, now he feels differently.
But Anthony is upset because he wanted certain things. The main thing he wanted was to come back into the administration. And as you remember better than I do, he was a disaster for the 11 days.
Q Mr. President, the factory you’re going to today is going to make plastics. You must be aware of all the reports that say the world is awash in plastic and the last thing it needs is more plastic. What’s your feeling on that?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we have tremendous plastics coming over from Asia, from China, and various others. It’s not our plastic. It’s plastics that’s floating over in the ocean and the various oceans from other places.
No, plastics are fine, but you have to know what to do with them. But other countries are not taking care of their plastic use and they haven’t for a long time. And the plastic that we’re getting is floating across the ocean from other places, including China.
Q How is the progress going on background checks? Are you convinced that Mitch McConnell is going to put that up for a vote?
THE PRESIDENT: I am convinced that Mitch wants to do something. I’ve spoken to Mitch McConnell. He’s a good man. He wants to do something. He wants to do it, I think, very strongly. He wants to do background checks, and I do too, and I think a lot of Republicans do. I don’t know, frankly, that the Democrats will get us there.
But I spoke with Chris Murphy, Senator. We had a very good conversation. We’ll see what happens. But I believe that Mitch — and I can tell you, from my standpoint, I would like to see meaningful background checks. And I think something will happen.
Look, it’s very simple: There is nobody more pro-Second Amendment than Donald Trump, but I don’t want guns in the hands of a lunatic or a maniac. And I think if we do proper background checks, we can prevent that.
Q And back on the tweet question: Do you really think the Clintons are involved in Jeffrey Epstein’s death?
THE PRESIDENT: I have no idea. I know he was on his plane 27 times and he said he was on the plane 4 times. But when they checked the plane logs, Bill Clinton — who was a very good friend of Epstein — he was on the plane about 27 or 28 times. So why did he say “four times”?
And then the question you have to ask is: Did Bill Clinton go to the island? Because Epstein had an island that was not a good place, as I understand it. And I was never there. So you have to ask: Did Bill Clinton go to the island? That’s the question. If you find that out, you’re going to know a lot.
President Trump travels to Pittsburgh, PA, today to tour the Shell cracker plant and deliver remarks on “America’s Energy Dominance and Manufacturing Revival.” The anticipated start time is 2:10pm EST. [Update – Video Added]
The GST Livestream is active now – all others will activate closer to speech time.
In a rather curious and quirky interview, Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne describes a related aspect to the DOJ/FBI operations against candidate Donald Trump in 2016.
Byrne enters the story due to his romantic relationship with Maria Butina, a person charged by Robert Mueller as being a Russian intelligence operative. In/around 2015 Byrne met and started a relationship with Butina, and later was enlisted by the FBI for assistance in their investigation of her. [Sara Carter Backstory Here]
Mr. Byrne now describes all of that FBI activity as somewhat of a political espionage operation to spy on several 2016 candidates, collect dirt, and seemingly gain operational leverage. WATCH:
Research indicates the modern political exploitation of the NSA database, for weaponized intelligence surveillance of politicians, began mid 2012.
The FISA-702 database extraction process, and utilization of the protections within the smaller intelligence community, was the primary process. Start by reviewing the established record from the 99-page FISC opinion rendered by Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer on April 26th, 2017; and explain the details within the FISC opinion.
I would strongly urge everyone to read the FISC report because Judge Collyer outlines how the DOJ, which includes the FBI, had an “institutional lack of candor” in responses to the FISA court. In essence, the Obama administration was continually lying to the court about their activity, and the rate of fourth amendment violations for illegal searches and seizures of U.S. persons’ private information for multiple years.
The key takeaway from these first paragraphs is how the search query results were exported from the NSA database to users who were not authorized to see the material. The FBI contractors were conducting searches and then removing, or ‘exporting’, the results. Later on, the FBI said all of the exported material was deleted.
Searching the highly classified NSA database is essentially a function of filling out search boxes to identify the user-initiated search parameter and get a return on the search result.
FISA-702(16) is a search of the system returning a U.S. person (“702”); and the “16” is a check box to initiate a search based on “To and From“. Example, if you put in a date and a phone number and check “16” as the search parameter the user will get the returns on everything “To and From” that identified phone number for the specific date. Calls, texts, contacts etc. Including results for the inbound and outbound contacts.
FISA-702(17) is a search of the system returning a U.S. person (702); and the “17” is a check box to initiate a search based on everything “About” the search qualifier. Example, if you put a date and a phone number and check “17” as the search parameter the user will get the returns of everything about that phone. Calls, texts, contacts, geolocation (or gps results), account information, user, service provider etc. As a result, 702(17) can actually be used to locate where the phone (and user) was located on a specific date or sequentially over a specific period of time which is simply a matter of changing the date parameters.
And that’s just from a phone number.
Search an ip address “about” and read all data into that server; put in an email address and gain everything about that account. Or use the electronic address of a GPS enabled vehicle (about) and you can withdraw more electronic data and monitor in real time. Search a credit card number and get everything about the account including what was purchased, where, when, etc. Search a bank account number, get everything about transactions and electronic records etc. Just about anything and everything can be electronically searched; everything has an electronic ‘identifier’.
The search parameter is only limited by the originating field filled out. Names, places, numbers, addresses, etc. By using the “About” parameter there may be thousands or millions of returns. Imagine if you put “@realdonaldtrump” into the search parameter? You could extract all following accounts who interacted on Twitter, or Facebook etc. You are only limited by your imagination and the scale of the electronic connectivity.
As you can see below, on March 9th, 2016, internal auditors noted the FBI was sharing “raw FISA information, including but not limited to Section 702-acquired information”.
In plain English the raw search returns were being shared with unknown entities without any attempt to “minimize” or redact the results. The person(s) attached to the results were named and obvious. There was no effort to hide their identity or protect their 4th amendment rights of privacy:
But what’s the scale here? This is where the story really lies.
Read this next excerpt carefully.
The operators were searching “U.S Persons”. The review of November 1, 2015, to May 1, 2016, showed “eighty-five percent of those queries” were unlawful or “non compliant”.
85% !! “representing [redacted number]”.
We can tell from the space of the redaction the number of searches were between 1,000 and 9,999 [five digits]. If we take the middle number of 5,000 – that means 4,250 unlawful searches out of 5,000.
The [five digit] amount (more than 1,000, less than 10,000), and 85% error rate, was captured in a six month period.
Also notice this very important quote: “many of these non-compliant queries involved the use of the same identifiers over different date ranges.” So they were searching the same phone number, email address, electronic “identifier”, or people, repeatedly over different dates. Specific people were being tracked/monitored.
Additionally, notice the last quote: “while the government reports it is unable to provide a reliable estimate of” these non lawful searches “since 2012, there is no apparent reason to believe the November 2015 [to] April 2016 coincided with an unusually high error rate”.
That means the 85% unlawful FISA-702(16)(17) database abuse has likely been happening since 2012. (Again, remember that date, 2012) Who was FBI Director? Who was his chief-of-staff? Who was CIA Director? ODNI? etc. Remember, the NSA is inside the Pentagon (Defense Dept) command structure. Who was Defense Secretary? And finally, who wrote and signed-off-on the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment?
Tens of thousands of searches over four years (since 2012), and 85% of them are illegal. The results were extracted for?…. (I believe this is all political opposition use; and I’ll explain why momentarily.)
OK, that’s the stunning scale; but who was involved?
Private contractors with access to “raw FISA information that went well beyond what was necessary to respond to FBI’s requests“:
And as noted, the contractor access was finally halted on April 18th, 2016.
[Coincidentally (or not), the wife of Fusion-GPS founder Glenn Simpson, Mary Jacoby, goes to the White House the next day on April 19th, 2016.]
None of this is conspiracy theory.
All of this is laid out inside this 99-page opinion from FISC Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer who also noted that none of this FISA abuse was accidental in a footnote on page 87: “deliberate decisionmaking“:
This specific footnote, if declassified, would be key. Note the phrase: “([redacted] access to FBI systems was the subject of an interagency memorandum of understanding entered into [redacted])”, this sentence has the potential to expose an internal decision; withheld from congress and the FISA court by the Obama administration; that outlines a process for access and distribution of surveillance data.
Note: “no notice of this practice was given to the FISC until 2016“, that is important.
Summary: The FISA court identified and quantified tens-of-thousands of search queries of the NSA/FBI database using the FISA-702(16)(17) system. The database was repeatedly used by persons with FBI contractor access who unlawfully searched and extracted the raw results without redacting the information and shared it with an unknown number of entities.
There is little doubt the FISA-702(16)(17) database system was used by Obama-era officials, from 2012 through April 2016, as a way to spy on their political opposition. Quite simply there is no other intellectually honest explanation for the scale and volume of database abuse that was taking place.
When we reconcile what was taking place and who was involved, then the actions of the exact same principle participants take on a jaw-dropping amount of clarity.
All of the action taken by CIA Director Brennan, FBI Director Comey, ODNI Clapper and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter make sense. Including their effort to get NSA Director Mike Rogers fired.
Everything after March 9th, 2016, was done to cover up the weaponization of the FISA database. [Explained Here] Spygate, Russia-Gate, the Steele Dossier, and even the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (drawn from the dossier and signed by the above) were needed to create a cover-story and protect themselves from discovery of this four year weaponization, political surveillance and unlawful spying. Even the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel makes sense; he was FBI Director when this began.
The beginning decision to use FISA(702) as a domestic surveillance and political spy mechanism appears to have started in/around 2012. Perhaps sometime shortly before the 2012 presidential election and before John Brennan left the White House and moved to CIA. However, there was an earlier version of data assembly that preceded this effort.
Political spying 1.0 was actually the weaponization of the IRS. This is where the term “Secret Research Project” originated as a description from the Obama team. It involved the U.S. Department of Justice under Eric Holder and the FBI under Robert Mueller. It never made sense why Eric Holder requested over 1 million tax records via CD ROM, until overlaying the timeline of the FISA abuse:
The IRS sent the FBI “21 disks constituting a 1.1 million page database of information from 501(c)(4) tax exempt organizations, to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.” The transaction occurred in October 2010 (link)
Why disks? Why send a stack of DISKS to the DOJ and FBI when there’s a pre-existing financial crimes unit within the IRS. All of the evidence within this sketchy operation came directly to the surface in early spring 2012.
The IRS scandal was never really about the IRS, it was always about the DOJ asking the IRS for the database of information. That is why it was transparently a conflict when the same DOJ was tasked with investigating the DOJ/IRS scandal. Additionally, Obama sent his chief-of-staff Jack Lew to become Treasury Secretary; effectively placing an ally to oversee/cover-up any issues. As Treasury Secretary Lew did just that.
Lesson Learned – It would appear the Obama administration learned a lesson from attempting to gather a large opposition research database operation inside a functioning organization large enough to have some good people that might blow the whistle.
The timeline reflects a few months after realizing the “Secret Research Project” was now worthless (June 2012), they focused more deliberately on a smaller network within the intelligence apparatus and began weaponizing the FBI/NSA database. If our hunch is correct, that is what will be visible in footnote #69:
How this all comes together in 2019
Fusion GPS was not hired in April 2016 to research Donald Trump. As shown in the evidence provided by the FISC, the intelligence community was already doing surveillance and spy operations. The Obama administration already knew everything about the Trump campaign, and were monitoring everything by exploiting the FISA database.
However, after the NSA alerts in/around March 9th, 2016, and particularly after the April 18th shutdown of contractor access, the Obama intelligence community needed Fusion GPS to create a narrative that could: (A) justify surveillance and spy operations; and (B) be used as an insurance policy in the event they needed to remove President Trump.
Fusion GPS gave them what they needed by creating the Steele Dossier.
That’s why the FBI small group, which later transitioned into the Mueller team, were so strongly committed to and defending the formation of the Steele Dossier and its dubious content.
The Steele Dossier contained a cover-story and justification for the pre-existing surveillance operation; and the justification for a special counsel investigation.
The corrupt DOJ and FBI group needed Fusion GPS to build a narrative for them to use, ie. ‘the insurance policy’ (Mueller). Fusion would provide information to the FBI through the laundry system using Christopher Steele. Fusion also sold the Russia narrative to the media.
After the 2016 election, former Senate Intelligence Committee staffer Dan Jones paid Christopher Steele and Fusion GPS to keep up appearances thereby creating the foundation for Robert Mueller to be appointed.
First rule in geopolitics, it’s always about the economics. Second rule in geopolitics: refer to rule #1. Understanding this basic truism is the key to understand how President Trump is able to be so effective. There are trillions at stake, and infinite interests.
“Economic security is national security.” ~President Trump
All politics circles back to the underlying economics; whether it is an individual financial self-interest for a specific politician, or whether it is a larger financial interest for a group or even a nation. Everything is always about the money, and that essential truth is why Donald Trump is so uniquely qualified, influential and stunningly effective. Today:
(VIA CBC) The United States would “enthusiastically” support a no-deal Brexit if that is what the British government decided to do, U.S. national security adviser John Bolton told reporters on Monday.
[…] As the United Kingdom prepares to leave the European Union on Oct. 31, its biggest geopolitical shift since the Second World War, many diplomats expect London to become increasingly reliant on the United States.
“If that’s the decision of the British government we will support it enthusiastically, and that’s what I’m trying to convey. We’re with you, we’re with you,” said Bolton, in London for two days of talks with British officials. The U.S. administration is seeking an improved U.S.-British relationship with Prime Minister Boris Johnson after sometimes tense ties between Donald Trump and Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May.
A central message Bolton was making is that the United States will help cushion Britain’s exit from the EU with a free trade agreement that is being negotiated by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and his British counterpart, Liz Truss. (read more)
Notice how President Trump doesn’t rely on John Bolton to deliver his message. President Trump builds inherent checks into the process when others deliver his messages about economic deals, strategies and trade proposals. Classic CEO Executive Trump.
It is not that President Trump doesn’t trust Bolton, but rather Trump understands a difference in political priority exists. Donald Trump isn’t a politician, he’s working through a plan for what he views (we agree) is bigger than any ideological aspects.
The economics of all things is the priority for President Trump…. step into that lane, or bring forth a policy directive that crosses into that economic lane, and you step into an administration agenda item completely controlled and directed by Donald Trump.
Every policy engagement from the big to the small goes through the prism of economics first and last. Essentially this is the foundation of the Trump doctrine. Brexit, Huawei, Iran, the larger EU etc. all cross paths with President Trump’s primary focus, U.S. economic wealth, influence and security.
Donald Trump isn’t leaving anything to chance or misinterpretation…. He’s full bore economic Obsessive Compulsive! …And unapologetic about it.
President Trump has single-handily, and purposefully, stalled the global economy and is forcing massive amounts of wealth back into the United States. In essence Titan Trump is engaged in a process of: (a) repatriating wealth (trade policy); (b) blocking exfiltration (main street policy); (c) creating new and modern economic alliances based on reciprocity; and (d) dismantling the post WWII Marshall plan for global trade and one-way tariffs.
Every minute element within this process, no matter how seemingly small, has President Trump’s full attention. He has assignments to many, but he relies upon none.
(Reuters) – The United States overtook Germany as the biggest supplier of imports into Britain for the first time since the early 2000s in the last financial year, the UK government said on Friday.
British trade minister Liz Truss has said the United States tops her priority list for post-Brexit trade deals and has been in Washington this week, along with Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, to promote UK-US ties.
Imports from the United States increased by 14% to 78.27 billion pounds ($94.43 billion) in the year to April, the Department for Trade said, while imports from Germany fell by 0.1% to 78.26 billion pounds.
While Germany has long been Britain’s biggest source of imports, the United States was already Britain’s largest export market, with exports reaching a record high of 121.6 billion pounds in the last financial year.
“Now that the U.S. is our largest market for both exports and imports, there has never been a better time for us to make the most of this golden opportunity and deliver a free trade agreement with the US,” Truss said in a statement. (more)
The White House has announced the Trump administration will enforce long-standing immigration laws that require entrants to be economically self-sufficient and limits public welfare benefits. An entry alien who is -or becomes- dependent on public welfare assistance, is known as a “public charge”. Aliens will be barred from entering the United States if they are deemed likely to become public charges, or welfare dependent.
These immigration rules have been in place for over 100 years, and generally were strictly enforced until the last 25 years. The Trump administration is re-enforcing the rules.
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The enforcement action will have a direct bearing on the current immigration process as most border arrivals are economic migrants manipulating asylum claims. Immigration based on self-sufficiency has been U.S. law for generations.
[White House] – The Trump Administration is taking action to help ensure that non-citizens in this country are self-sufficient and not a strain on public resources.
* The Trump Administration is releasing a final rule that will protect American taxpayers, preserve our social safety net for vulnerable Americans, and uphold the rule of law.
* This action will help ensure that if aliens want to enter or remain in the United States they must support themselves, and not rely on public benefits.
* An alien who receives public benefits above a certain threshold is known as a “public charge.”
Aliens will be barred from entering the United States if they are found likely to become public charges.
Aliens in the United States who are found likely to become public charges will also be barred from adjusting their
immigration status.
* President Trump is enforcing this longstanding law to prevent aliens from depending on public benefit programs.
The Immigration and Nationality Act makes clear that those seeking to come to the United States cannot be a public charge.
* For many years, this clear legal requirement went largely unenforced, imposing vast burdens on American taxpayers. Now, public charge law will finally be utilized.
ENCOURAGING SELF-SUFFICIENCY: Self-sufficiency has long been a basic principle of our Nation’s immigration laws that has enjoyed widespread support.
* Public charge has been a part of United States immigration law for more than 100 years as a ground of inadmissibility.
* Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed two bipartisan bills in 1996 to help stop aliens from exploiting public benefits.
This included the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act.
As Congress made clear at the time, it is our national policy that aliens should “not depend on public resources to meet their needs.”
* Americans widely agree that individuals coming to our country should be self-sufficient, with 73 percent in favor of requiring immigrants to be able to support themselves financially.
PRESERVING THE SOCIAL SAFETY NET: We must ensure that non-citizens do not abuse our public benefit programs and jeopardize the social safety net needed by vulnerable Americans.
* Large numbers of non-citizens and their families have taken advantage of our generous public benefits, limited resources that could otherwise go to vulnerable Americans.
* 78 percent of households headed by a non-citizen with no more than a high school education use at least one welfare program.
* 58 percent of all households headed by a non-citizen use at least one welfare program.
* Half of all non-citizen headed households include at least one person who uses Medicaid. (White House Link)
President Trump wields his Twitter sword to brand Baltimore a disgusting, filthy, rat & rodent infested mess. Democrats leap to defend Rep. Elijah Cummings, who represents the city in Congress, against what they call a racist attack against the Black lawmaker and his many Black constituents. But could Trump’s remark actually help save Baltimore? Right Angle is a production of the Members at BillWhittle.com, who fund 48 new shows each month, and a private conservative enclave where they write their own vibrant blog. Join them now at https://BillWhittle.com/register/
Profusely sweating, pacing, pointing, bragging and shouting to reporters over the motors of Marine One, Donald Trump presents a vision of a president unlike any in recent memory. In an age of video, President Trump’s appearance and approach convey messages beyond words. Bill Whittle analyzes the showmanship and stagecraft of this unique president. The Members at BillWhittle.com fund the creation of some 48 new videos like this each month, and write their own Members-only blog in a secure, conservative enclave. Find your people now at https://BillWhittle.com/register/
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon appears on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo for a wide-ranging discussion on current political and geopolitical events.
Topics include the U.S-Mexico border security and immigration; the 2020 democrat candidates (announced and unannounced); the bigger geopolitical issues behind the U.S-China trade conflict; Joe and Hunter Biden’s direct financial relationship to the Chinese communist government; the USMCA trade agreement; Trump’s leverage to increase an EU free economic alliance against China; and radical action by dems.
Normally, I would not credit anything an Attorney General ever had to say about any case. However, Attorney General William Barr said Saturday: “I was appalled to learn that Jeffrey Epstein was found dead early this morning from an apparent suicide while in federal custody.” The only reason I credit his statement is the fact that he has consulted with the Inspector General about an investigation after Epstein allegedly hanged himself and was found in his jail cell early on Saturday.
Barr continued to say: “Mr. Epstein’s death raises serious questions that must be answered. In addition to the FBI’s investigation, I have consulted with the Inspector General who is opening an investigation into the circumstances of Mr. Epstein’s death.”
The FBI is questionable and only the Office of Inspector General can be trusted to investigate anything (see an investigationby OIG into the FBI).
Any investigation should NOT BE limited to the claimed suicide of Epstein. The OIG should investigate the MCC and how it is used as a tool by the DOJ to abuse prisoners all the time to ensure they retain their 99% conviction rate with the 1% being simply dead.
Another inmate who spent time in the hole told the NY Post it is impossible to hang yourself in one of those cells. There is nothing to tied sheets to and the ceiling is very low. It is not high enough to hang yourself. The lights are on 23 or 24 hours a day. The frosted glass windows offer no view of the outside world. Even the slot on each cell door is kept shut, meaning that inmates see little beyond their solitary cell.
The conspiracy spin is in full force that the Clintons were behind this one which is yet another in a long list of mysterious deaths. However, only some of the names have been unsealed so far. Prince Andrew was named in court documents unsealed from an alleged Epstein victim who claimed he trafficked her to wealthy men including Prince Andrew, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, Wall Street billionaire Glenn Dubin, and foreign heads of state. (The men deny these allegations.) The speculation is that there are other high ranking members of Congress who also might be linked. Obviously, there may be a lot more people interested in his silence than just the Clintons.
The alleged victims no longer get their day in court to testify. So if they were going to describe events at Epstein’s trial, forget that. There will be no trial without charging others. So it would be very interesting if the OIG really investigated the MCC.
Oliver Brown worked in MCC and had the courage to come forward to testify what really goes on in MCC. He appeared in the movie even after the FBI visited him two days before the taping demonstrating that the government was tracking the movie crew. Mr. Brown submitted a declaration under oath that the courts simply passed over to protect what goes on in MCC. He declared:
“I believe that in or about early 2001, though I can no longer be sure of the exact date, I was informed by Mr. Marvin Owens, staff attorney for the MCC, of a conversation he had with an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Owens informed me that, because Mr. Armstrong held a unique status of civil condemnor, the MCC and USAO could not decide what to do with him. Mr. Owens informed me, in words or substance, that it was decided that, despite the lack of sufficient evidence against Mr. Armstrong to prove a conviction, Mr. Armstrong should remain at the MCC in civil contempt until he relented, gave in or simply broke down and admitted to the crimes he was accused of.”
It took a lot of courage for Mr. Brown to come forward, but nobody would investigate what took place and certainly, no newspaper will ever report the abuse of human rights taking place in MCC.
Here we had exculpatory evidence withheld from the court and a whistleblower coming forward from inside MCC and my requests to the Department of Justice and the Office of Inspector General for an investigation of the tactics employed in MCC have simply been ignored. For this reason, I have little hope that there will EVER be an investigation into what is taking place in the American legal system. William Barr may be shocked, but who will ever carry out an investigation that would discredit the Justice system?
It will take an avalanche of letters from everyone to the White House before a real investigation will ever be carried out. I will be glad to testify if they ever have the guts to really investigate behind the curtain.
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
Stand back and look at the bigger picture. President Trump has neutralized, essentially made irrelevant, Beijing’s use of their proxy province, North Korea. President Trump has embraced Kim Jong-un, not as much out of a position of warmth – but rather as a tactic to block China from weaponizing the DPRK as leverage during the U.S-China trade confrontation.
Centinel2012 