In the realm of everything geopolitical in consequence, a recent article from an interview with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro highlights the globalists’ worst nightmare. And the comments from the WTO reflects the global influence of President Donald J Trump.

Before getting to two key points, rather stunningly delicious points, it’s worth remembering that Brazil is the “B” in the ‘BRICS alliance’.  Before U.S. President Donald Trump took center stage in the world of international influence, the former governments of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) had formed a coalition.  Each nation represented an enlarged -and growing- regional trade/economic influence.

Shortly after taking office; and with hindsight – prior to the China confrontation; President Trump began a systematic process of challenging various economic influencers.  This is the origin of the Trump Doctrine .

By expanding U.S. energy development, strategically engaging with OPEC (Gulf Cooperation Council) States, and simultaneously engaging with Baltic States at the Three Seas Summit in Warsaw Poland, President Trump established the groundwork for downward pressure on oil prices.  This comprehensive and geopolitical energy strategy diminished the ability of Russia to maintain a consistent external financial influence.

(Tweet Link) – (Article Link)

Simultaneously, President Trump reset the framework for U.S. relations with India; and, while few were paying attention to the side-bar benefit of Nikki Haley, President Trump engaged with Prime Minister Modi in bilateral discussions of enhanced economic partnership. [See: India Invests $500 Billion in two U.S. Steel Operations]

In addition to India providing strategic benefit for trade market systems and access; an enhanced relationship with India also provides an economic foil against China. [Remember, Chinese President Xi is allied with, and heavily invested in, Pakistan.  India’s Prime Minister Modi is allied with, and heavily invested in, Afghanistan.]

♦ Big Picture – With President Trump focused on Main Street USA, the policies to support economic nationalism (Main Street) run in opposition to the multinational interests of  global financial elite (Wall Street).   The constructs of the World Bank (WB), World Trade Organization (WTO), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are necessarily weakened by the rise of President Trump and economic nationalism writ large.

At the same time as President Trump unapologetically confronts these multinational financial institutions, the people of Poland, Hungary, Italy and now Brazil; having felt no benefit from left-wing global policy (economics and immigration); embraced the more visible benefit of a nationalist economic policies and reaffirmed sovereignty.

Back to the BRICS…  What we now see is two central regional components of the BRICS alliance, India and now Brazil, allied in economic ideology with President Trump.

In essence: Russia is bleeding financially (oil revenue dependent). China is being weakened during the U.S. -vs- China trade confrontation.  And India along with Brazil are joining with the U.S.  This fractures the BRICS alliance. [Hell, it just about destroys it.]

That’s the background.

Now, lets take a look at the article from Brazil we cited in the beginning:

France24 – Brazil’s new President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday that he would be open to the possibility of the United States operating a military base on his country’s soil, a move that would form a sharp shift in direction for Brazilian foreign policy.

Bolsonaro, who took power on Tuesday, said that Russia’s support of President Nicolas Maduro‘s “dictatorship” in neighboring Venezuela had significantly ramped up tensions in the region and was a worrying development.

Asked by the SBT TV network in an interview taped on Thursday if that meant he would allow U.S. military presence in Brazil, Bolsonaro responded that he would certainly be willing to negotiate that possibility.

“Depending on what happens in the world, who knows if we would not need to discuss that question in the future,” Bolsonaro said.  He emphasized that what Brazil seeks is to have “supremacy here in South America.”

But wait, here’s the even bigger part of the story:

[…] Separately, Bolsonaro met with the head of the World Trade Organization, Roberto Azevedo, who said the government’s sharp rebukes of globalism were shared by many other countries and that the trade body was making changes.

On Wednesday, Brazil’s new Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo said that under his watch the country would fight for change at multilateral institutions like the WTO.

Araujo’s words were not a threat, Azevedo said.

“To the contrary, I think it was very propitious and compatible with what is happening,” he said after meeting Bolsonaro. “The World Trade Organization itself is beginning the process of reforms.”  (link)

Hello?

Wait.., wha?…

Mr. Robert Azevedo, the head of the World Trade Organization, is now acquiescing to President Donald J Trump’s position that the era of multilateral, multinational, financial and corporate trade exploitation, ie. “globalism“, is over.

The WTO has agreed to reform in order to survive? …And the WTO is admitting this to nationalist political leaders after their successful elections?….

Pinch me!

Winnamins.

STAT !

Big ones.

“Hey, Mitt”..

Oh dear.  U.S. President Donald J Trump just posted a graphic on his Instagram accountthat will likely make his political opposition go bananas.  Epic:

(Link)

From all appearances President Trump is not backing down from his demand for border security that includes a border wall physical barrier.  And while Democrats thought they had him painted into a zero-sum corner, well, there’s every indication the White House is prepared to let the partial government shutdown go on for months if needed.

This position now puts all the pressure on Nancy Pelosi.

It looks like President Trump tasked Chairman Kevin Hassett, of the White House Council of Economic Advisors (CEA), to run the numbers on how the prolonged government shut-down might have an impact on the economy.

Hassett’s rough estimate, calculated from the withdrawal of income from the furloughed federal employees, is around 1/10th of one percent per pay cycle (every two weeks) in GDP impact.  Little to no actual economic effect.

.

Simultaneously, all of the economic adversaries, like China, are watching this and realizing that President Trump doesn’t bluff.  As they are engaged with representatives from the U.S. delegations they carry the concern that President Trump’s team is not afraid to embrace any political confrontation in their determination to achieve victory.

Methinks this won’t work out the way the Democrats originally had planned…

Tomorrow, Friday January 4th, the U.S. Labor Department will release the December jobs report which will offer an in-depth look at the labor market including: job additions, the unemployment rate, the labor participation rate and actual wage growth.

In the interim, the ADP National Employment Report provides a monthly snapshot of U.S. nonfarm private sector employment based on actual transactional payroll data. Their review of national payroll ledgers shows a stunning; 271,000 jobs added in December.

(link to ADP data – link to pdf)

FOX Business – […]  “We wrapped up 2018 with another month of significant growth in the labor market,” said Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute. “Although there were increases in most sectors, the busy holiday season greatly impacted both trade and leisure and hospitality. Small businesses also experienced their strongest month of job growth all year.”

The better-than-expected number can be attributed to good weather last month and strong holiday hiring, despite a tumultuous month for the markets, according to Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi.

“Businesses continue to add aggressively to their payrolls despite the stock market slump and the trade war,” he said in a statement. “Favorable December weather also helped lift the job market. At the current pace of job growth, low unemployment will get even lower.”   (more)

Also released today was an interesting snippet from inside the Bureau of Labor Statisticsreview of metropolitan unemployment regions:

…In November, Ames, IA, had the lowest unemployment rate, 1.2 percent.

El Centro, CA, and Yuma, AZ, had the highest unemployment rates, 18.1 percent and 14.9 percent,respectively…. (link)

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivers a press briefing on the day the new 116th congressional session begins.  There is somewhat of a scramble as the press briefing was only recently announced.  Anticipated start time around 4:30pm EST.

UPDATE:   SURPRISE !!!  President Trump delivered the briefing:

Fox News Livestream Link – PBS Livestream Link – Global News Livestream Link