South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham holds a press conference following lunch with President Donald Trump.  Beyond the border security shutdown issues, notably Senator Graham shares:

…” We had a great lunch.  We talked about Syria; and he told me some things I didn’t know that make me feel a lot better about where we’re headed in Syria”.. [@03:35]

This is a little on the economic wonky side of things; but well worth watching if you are a trade follower.  The Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) attempts to construct a pro-TPP narrative by discussing possible 2019 benefits to Canada.  However, if you listen closely, each time the question of  Canadian consumer benefit it raised you’ll note there aren’t any.

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Corporate globalism, via international trade agreements, is a scam. By design it is intended to exfiltrate the wealth of a targeted (host) nation, and allow corporations full control over the domestic pricing of commodity goods.  There are parts of that interview when the lobbyist/punditry accidentally admits the scheme.

Structurally TPP is an Asia-centric export agreement that establishes benefit for Asian access to non-Asian TPP countries.  In exchange, for access to the Canadian market Asian TPP member nations allow closely regulated access from the Canadian commodity market.

Canada has opened their economy to receiving low cost Asian goods; writ large.  However, the only benefit for Canada is limited access to TPP nations for the Canadian agricultural industry allowing more export.

Specifically in the AG sector, when food production is exported, the traditional supply/demand ‘free market’ is destroyed.   Multinational corporations create a ‘controlled market‘; and there is ZERO benefit to a Canadian food shopper when farm harvests are shipped overseas.  Exactly the opposite is true.

Domestic food prices factually increase as local product is shipped into foreign markets leaving limited (controlled) inventory in the domestic supply chain.  Ex. export massive amounts of beef (processed or other), and, if local demand is consistent, local beef prices increase.  This is exactly the way corporate AG multinationals achieve maximum profit.

In the U.S. this multinational “controlled market system” is a major part of the reason why American food prices jumped so much in the past fifteen years.  The process of charging a U.S. or Canadian consumer a higher price for a product than would naturally occur without the corporate control is called the “exfiltration” of wealth.

Additionally, as noted in the CBC interview, Canada’s value to Asia is more of a gateway to the U.S. market than the actual Canadian market itself.  TPP nations, and the Canadian government, were hoping to exploit the backdoor NAFTA loophole forever.  The restructured USMCA has blocked that possibility.

China is cunning…. they will eventually join the TPP and crush the internal participants by leveraging market access with massive dumping of manufactured goods. However, Beijing will wait until all other nations have fully chained themselves together…. When there is no longer an exit, Beijing will make their move.    Thankfully, the U.S. is not part of it.

[USMCA Article 32 pdf link]

Incoming chief of staff Mick Mulvaney gives an impromptu press briefing to the media highlighting the position of incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the democrat intention to weaponize the government shutdown.

Career Democrats are working through a highly coordinated political agenda, defended by institutional media allies, that involve weaponizing the House of Representatives.

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If we take the empirical 2006 example as the starting point and overlay the 2018 landscape to modernize the predictive model, what results is a most likely scenario.

First, any intellectually honest review must overlay the current political environment.  In 2018 the scale of unchecked lawless behavior is a significant influence toward the differences we can expect from the last time Democrat/Marxists held congressional power. The term “Democrat-socialism”, in essence a Marxist approach, is now the dominant fuel within the professional DNC  political operations.

When the Democrats last held power in 2006, their actionable objective was toward a far-left, Saul Alinsky-type aggressive tone and influence; however, there was a need to couch that intention as they positioned Senator Barack Obama for the 2008 presidential election.

In 2006 the radicals, needed to downplay their radicalism.  In 2018 the severity and aggression of the left, as assisted by the dropping of all media pretense, no longer needs to hide the intention.  When Democrat-Marxists take control in January of 2019 they no longer need to couch the extremism, the American electorate have been prepped.

Secondly, it cannot be overstated how violent and confrontational the House of Representatives will be as soon as they are sworn in.  They will work with an immediate purposeful intention. All political violence will be approved to attain their objectives.  The recent behavior of Jim Acosta (CNN media), and ANTIFA toward Tucker Carlson, is now, and will be going forward, the new normal.

There will be extreme political violence.

In 2006 it was the SEIU and AFSCME union foot-soldiers who smashed windows, advanced upon polling places and engaged in the most severe examples of voter fraud and intimidation.  In 2018, with the help of uber-Alinsky DNC Chairman Tom Perez, that corrupt sentiment is now institutionalized within democrat-socialist political apparatus.  ANTIFA is now the DNC grassroots activist approach.

Failing to accept the severity of this shift in the past decade is intellectually dishonest.  As Nancy Pelosi said of the Occupy Wall Street violent anarchists: “God bless these people.”  Indeed the OWS precursor to ANTIFA were laying the groundwork for the new severity of power in Democrat leadership.  Nothing is out-of-bounds; no level of corrupt behavior will be avoided; everything will happen openly and without any backlash from a compliant media apparatus; the social fabric will be shredded.

The Democrat mantra: “never let a crisis go to waste” is the modern version of the Fabian-Socialist: “remould it closer to the heart’s desire“.  Both approaches rely upon the destruction of acceptable norms in order to advance the political objective.

♦Specifics: When Democrats last took power in January 2007, Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer took control in the final two years of George Bush second term.  Immediately they set about a process laying the groundwork for the 2008 presidential election of Barack Obama.  This was a priority objective.

One of the techniques was the removal of the budget process. By eliminating the federal budget process in 2007 (fiscal year ’08) the Democrats paved the way for the next democrat president to demand massive open-ended spending.

By the time the year of the general election came around (2008), the lengthy budget process was replaced with Omnibus spending bills (fiscal year 2009).  Obviously when Obama was successfully installed in November of 2008, the useful crisis was financial. The subsequent TARP bailout, auto bailout, ARRA ($1 trillion stimulus) and QE1 were all accomplished with massive omnibus spending packages.

[NOTE: These are important references because from that moment forward, despite the GOP taking back control in January 2011, the constraining budgetary process was forever destroyed. There was never regular-order budgetary spending again.]

It is also critical to emphasize the difference between Democrats taking control in the last two years of Bush’s second term, and Democrats taking control in the last two years of Trump’s first term.  Within this difference you will predictably see a shift in strategic operations from the Marxists.

George W Bush was exiting, and unlimited spending was used to empower the entry of Obama; however, now the Marxists need to knee-cap President Trump by weaponizing the power of the purse – the biggest weapon of the House of Representatives.

After a ten year UniParty hiatus the Marxists will now go back to using budgets in the structural defunding and dismantling of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), the Southern Border Wall, and any program, initiative, policy or institution the Marxists want to see removed.   This is a strategy of the Democrat crisis-makers; and they are exceptionally better at achieving their desired results than Republicans.

When it comes to political weaponization and political power constructs the Marxists have exceptional work ethics; they will outwork anyone on the other side who opposes them.  They are far, far, better at political strategy and scheme than conservative politicians.  Part of the reason for their success is that crooks, cons and swindlers are far more cunning than honorable, virtuous and moral people.  It is unfortunate, but true; and the same truth applies beyond politics.

♦ Two other thoughts on this issue.  First, you might remember when this massive spending, and the government takeover of healthcare, led to the Marxists losing the 2010 midterm election in a massive defeat.   But do you remember what the democrats did in the lame-duck congress between November 2010 and January 2011?

Does the term “Porkulous” ring a bell?

While 63 democrat seats were lost in the November 2010 election (and six democrat senate seats), those exiting Marxists, despite just having suffered the worst defeat in almost 100 years, audaciously –and apologetically– voted in the December 2010 lame-duck session, to fully fund President Obama’s next two years in office.  This was done by Speaker Nancy Pelosi specifically to block the incoming GOP wave from upending the priorities of the Obama administration in 2011.  That was called the “Porkulous” spending bill; and the democrat-marxists didn’t give a snit about how it looked.

Now, did Speaker Paul Ryan or Senate Leader Mitch McConnell do anything as bold to fund and secure the budgetary priorities of President Donald Trump in this lame-duck?

No, UniParty.

Secondly, about the overall unilateral commitment and cunning historically displayed by the Marxists.  They are so committed to the long-term view they are willing to sacrifice anything for the biggest, most consequential, advances toward their objectives.  In 2010 the democrats killed their own “blue-dog” coalition to advance their ideological goals.

Within the 63 House seats the Marxists lost in that 2010 midterm election; they killed off the entire 40 member Bart Stupak coalition; the blue-dog caucus.  Totally willing to sacrifice 40 seats to attain a generational ideological objective (ObamaCare); and they are about to step back into power a mere eight years later.  Stunning when you think about it.

Few people have any idea just how bad these next two years are going to be. We are the normal people who don’t spend every moment of our day scheming, conniving, and developing plans to dismantle the lives of your freedom loving community and rebuild it as a collective society.  For these political Marxists who are about to take power that’s all they do.   Every moment of their existence they spend thinking about how to gain power and dominate, 24/7/365  that is all they do.

That is all the ever talk about; that is all they ever converse with each-other about.  Every second of every moment, in every meeting, is consumed with plots, plans and strategies for indulging themselves and growing power at all costs.

The illegal alien suspect in the shooting death of a Newman Police Department corporal Ronil “Ron” Singh was arrested in the Bakersfield, CA, area Friday morning, the Stansislaus County Sheriff’s Department said.

Gustavo Perez Arriaga, 32, was arrested in connection with murder of Police Officer Singh.  The suspect was identified as using multiple aliases.

Also arrested for aiding and abetting were the suspect’s brother, Adrian Virgen, 25, and the suspect’s co-worker, Erik Razo Quiroz, 35.

The suspect was trying to flee to Mexico when he was captured, Stansislaus Sheriff Adam Christianson.  Gustavo Perez Arriaga also claimed to be a member of the Sureno street gang, the sheriff  said during a press briefing moments ago (See Video Below).

Victim: Officer Ronil “Ron” Singh  –  Suspect: Gustavo Perez Arriaga

Earlier today President Trump tweeted out the possibility of closing the Southern U.S. border if congress cannot find a solution to funding border security.  Sounds good….

I’m not sure if even President Trump realizes how much support there would be for this approach.  Mexico would be lighting up the switchboards in DC if that happened.  The Mexican economy is entirely dependent on access.