Remember: “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” ~ Mike Tyson

The exploitation of Michael Cohen toward the launch of Speaker Pelosi’s impeachment effort backfired bigly.  Not enough people found Cohen credible; and because of the ridiculous way the entire staged performance was carried out by Democrats, and the their media allies, most people saw right through the politicization of it. The plan just failed.

Additionally, some politicians like Jim Jordan, Jody Hice and Mark Meadows started calling out the blatant construct behind Pelosi’s impeachment plan.  HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff sending his staff to New York four times to prep Michael Cohen before the hearings – was only made more ridiculous by Chairman Schiff trying to deny they coached Cohen.  Schiff looks like a doofus.  So today:

[Nancy Pelosi] “I’m not for impeachment. This is news. I’m going to give you some news right now because I haven’t said this to any press person before. But since you asked, and I’ve been thinking about this: Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country. And he’s just not worth it.” (link)

UPDATE: Jerry Nadler has also joined in (see below).

Chairman Adam Schiff:

…”the evidence would have to be pretty overwhelming”…

One of the hurdles the Democrats cannot overcome is the strength of the support for President Trump.  Despite the 24/7/365 attacks from their media allies President Trump still has an approval rating of 50%.   And approval of handling the economy over 56%.

Consider this recent analysis CTH completed comparing the current approval rating of G7 Leaders:  Justin Trudeau, Canada (35%); Emmanuel Macron, France (28%); Angela Merkel, Germany (29%); Theresa May, U.K. (28%); Giuseppe Conte, Italy (67%); and Shinzo Abe, Japan (44%).

It is not coincidental the “globalists” (Trudeau, Macron, Merkel and May) are not supported.  Meanwhile the “nationalists” (Trump, Conte and Abe) are very much supported.

I guess we can call this truth: stuff we’ll never see in the media.

Earlier this afternoon White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders and Acting OMB  Director Russell Vought held a press conference to brief reporters on the president’s fiscal year 2020 budget and answer questions on current political events:

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[White House] FURTHERING OUR ECONOMIC PROSPERITY: President Donald J. Trump’s budget request will continue our economic resurgence while furthering his vision to reduce spending and invest in America.

• The Trump Administration’s pro-growth policies have unleashed the American economy, creating millions of jobs and resulting in historically low unemployment.
• However, the national debt – currently more than $22 trillion – remains a grave threat to our economic and societal prosperity.
• This budget will address the national debt crisis while still investing in critical American priorities that will allow America to further excel in the future.

RESPONSIBLE BUDGETING: President Trump’s budget request promotes responsible Government spending by prioritizing effective programs and cutting waste.

• The budget reduces nondefense programmatic spending by 5 percent below the 2019 cap level.
• Proposes policies to shrink or eliminate Federal programs that fail to deliver desired outcomes for the American people.
• Reduces spending by $2.7 trillion over 10 years, shrinking the deficit from nearly 5 percent of GDP in 2020 to under 1 percent of GDP in 2029.
  • Puts the Federal budget on a path to balance within 15 years.
• Sticks to the current discretionary spending caps while also providing additional defense resources through investments in Overseas Contingency Operations and emergency funding.
  • Allows us to fund our national security needs while avoiding a costly “cap deal,” which would increase defense and nondefense spending.

INVESTMENT IN AMERICA: President Trump’s budget request reflects his commitment to defending our Nation, ending the opioid epidemic, and building a strong American workforce.

• $32.5 billion for border security and immigration enforcement activities to help manage the immigration crisis on the United States southern border, including:
  • $8.6 billion for the border wall, funded by Department of Defense (DOD) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
  • $478 million to hire 1,750 additional Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) law enforcement officers.
  • $2.7 billion in funding for 54,000 ICE immigration detention beds.
• $750 billion for national defense – including $718 billion for DOD to pursue the National Defense Strategy.
  • Priorities include: strategic competition with Russia and China, countering rogue regimes such as North Korea and Iran, defeating terrorist threats, and consolidating gains in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• $80.2 billion to fund Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical care requirements in 2020.
  • Fully supports implementation of the historic VA MISSION Act to provide veterans greater choice on where they receive their healthcare, including at a private provider.
• $330 million for the Department of Justice to aid State and local efforts to fight the opioid crisis.
• The budget promotes quality education and job training, holds higher education institutions more accountable, and expands Pell Grants to high-quality short-term training programs.

(LINK)

National Security Adviser John Bolton appears with Maria Bartiromo to discuss recent reports that Kim Jong-un is moving toward more nuclear testing.

Obviously that discussion moves quickly into the influence of China and Chairman Xi Jinping.

The frustrating question no-one ever seems to ask is not “if” China controls the DPRK government, but rather “to what extent”?

It has become more obvious in the past few years that North Korea’s Chairman Kim Jong-un has much less control over officials and military leadership within his own government than previously thought.

Does Chairman Xi and Beijing structurally control everything around Kim? Is Kim a hostage; forced to ride a dragon he doesn’t control?  I think the answer is yes.

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Once people start to realize that China controls North Korea as a proxy province, then the discussion can evolve toward the true nature of the challenge, and the way President Trump is precariously negotiating a hostage release while refusing to pay the ransom.

In the second part of the interview Ms. Bartiromo discusses the scale of the threat from China; military, economic and national security. Here’s where John Bolton becomes less valuable to President Trump, and oddly Bolton even seems to admit it.

NSA John Bolton can assist and advise President Trump on the best way to move troops, position logistics, and bomb the shit out of an geopolitical adversary. However, the concept of using trade, finance and economics, as a much more powerful national security tool, is outside Bolton’s skill-set.

As a direct consequence of Bolton’s lack of expertise in the use of economics to achieve national security objectives, in the Dance with The Dragon he becomes less influential; you can see it in his responses…. that stuff is just foreign to him.

Deep inside the geopolitical fight against China the most valuable Generals are corporate titans, captains of industry, apex predators and business ‘killers’ who know how to contracts to remove the flesh from a financial adversary and enjoy the challenge of doing it.

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National Economic Council Chairman Larry Kudlow appears on Fox News Sunday to discuss economic policy, budgets and taxes. Since the discussion is the economy, Wallace quickly puts on his doomsday hat.

The White House has announced that Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro will visit with President Trump on March 19th for bilateral discussions.  The media are framing the visit around the ongoing crisis within Venezuela; however, there’s also an important element as it relates to the panda dance.

President Donald Trump and President Jair Bolsonaro both have a strong nationalist perspective and share a common geopolitical outlook.

In fact, during the 2018 election many dubbed Bolsonaro the ‘Brazilian Trump‘.  President Bolsonaro also made headlines last year when he said he was open to a U.S. military base and alliance.

Yes, it’s true the turmoil in Venezuela is a likely top issue for discussion, but the U.S. and Brazil are now aligned with a commonality toward China…. and it just so happens the U.S. and Brazil are #1 and #2 in production of China’s number one import, soy beans.

China has an almost unquenchable thirst for soybeans, which are crushed to make cooking oil and used in the protein-rich animal feed ingredient soymeal.  The U.S. is the worlds largest producer of soybeans at 108 million metric tonnes. Brazil is the second largestproducer with around 87 million metric tonnes.

In July 2018, when China initially wanted to strike back against the U.S. for import tariffs, Beijing initially tried to boycott U.S. soybeans and purchase their needs from Brazil and Argentina; However, that didn’t last too long.  There’s just not enough global production of soybeans to supply all of China’s needs without the U.S.

At a critical juncture in the U.S-China trade negotiations; and with China seeming to slip back into manipulative dragon-mode recently; the timing for a Trump and Bolsonaro summit couldn’t be better…. almost, well, as if it were by design.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump will host Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in Washington on March 19, the White House announced Friday. They are expected to discuss the turmoil in Venezuela.

Bolsonaro was elected in 2018 and his upcoming visit to Washington comes as Brazil’s border with Venezuela has become a flashpoint in the ongoing political crisis facing the oil-rich country and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Brazil has sided with the U.S. in supporting Venezuela’s opposition leader, Juan Guaido, as the legitimate head of state.

Food and medicine shortages under Maduro’s rule have caused a flood of Venezuelans to flee across the border into neighboring countries. The U.S. has sent relief supplies to the region but the political and economic crisis shows no signs of ending soon.

According to the White House, Trump and Bolsonaro are also expected to discuss trade issues and military ties between the two countries.  (read more)

In the dance with the dragon, always watch the more subtle gestures.

National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow discusses the February jobs report, wage gains, stimulus from the European Central Bank, and President Trump’s ongoing trade confrontation with China.  [Solid Interview]

Chairman Kudlow notes some interesting dynamics at play including the recent National Household employment survey which showed 225k additional workers resulting in a drop in the overall unemployment statistics to 3.8%

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Additionally, the globalist-minded Wall Street crowd are disappointed that a March summit between Chairman Xi and President Trump has been scuttled. In aggregate terms, this cancellation backdrops USTR Robert Lighthizer’s strong granular demands of the Chinese delegation toward contractual enforcement terms. It is most likely Chairman Xi is not happy with the feedback he is receiving from his team. Too bad.

The BLS employment report for February is very underwhelming with a mere 20,000 new jobs calculated and results that fall far short of expectations.  The recent private sector ADP payroll reportshowed 183,000 gains.  Despite the low reported jobs gains, the national unemployment number dropped to 3.8%.

Further confounding the low February BLS calculations, revisions to December and January were upward. December’s jobs were revised up from +222,000 to +227,000 (gaining 5k), and the change for January was revised up from +304,000 to +311,000 (+7k). With these revisions, employment gains in December and January combined were 12,000 more than previously reported. Job gains now average 186,000 per month over the last three months.

On a very positive note the calculated wage growth continues to reflect a tight labor market where employers are increasing wages well beyond inflation. “In February, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 11 cents to $27.66, following a 2-cent gain in January. Over the year, average hourly earnings have increased by 3.4 percent.” That is the strongest sustained wage growth in a decade.

(Source Link)

“Aside from the headline number, this is a solid report for wages that gained +0.11. That brings them to +3.4 year-over-year and the labor participation rate held steady at 63.2 after the recent gains,” Wall Street analyst Tim Anderson at TJM Investments, said.

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Charles V Payne

✔@cvpayne

Jobs Report: Most Important Highlight
Non-Supervisory Wages continue to surge and outpace overall wage increases
This is amazing news for all Americans#Winning

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