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%
.
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.
“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.
Jobs Report: Most Important Highlight
Non-Supervisory Wages continue to surge and outpace overall wage increases
This is amazing news for all Americans#Winning
The White House could possibly be evolving from a dynamic of confronting political opposition, into a more necessarily aggressive war against all Swamp adversaries. Following grandma’s rule, well, I am not disappointed in this departure…
From the White House: “Assistant to the President and Communications Director, Bill Shine offered his resignation to the President yesterday evening, and the President accepted. Bill continues to support President Trump and his agenda and will serve as Senior Advisor to the 2020 re-election campaign.”
•From Bill Shine: “Serving President Trump and this country has been the most rewarding experience of my entire life. To be a small part of all this President has done for the American people has truly been an honor. I’m looking forward to working on President Trump’s reelection campaign and spending more time with my family.”
•From President Trump: ““Bill Shine has done an outstanding job working for me and the Administration. We will miss him in the White House, but look forward to working together on the 2020 Presidential Campaign, where he will be totally involved. Thank you to Bill and his wonderful family!”
•From Mick Mulvaney: “Bill has been an asset of invaluable importance to this West Wing. I have enjoyed working with him and witnessing firsthand his unmatched talent, expertise and, and skills. I am grateful that he will continue to be an important member of team trump. I look forward to all of his future contributions.”
•From Sarah Sanders: “Bill Shine has been a great leader on our team and someone we have all loved working with every day. He has brought a tremendous amount of talent and expertise to the Administration. Bill has become a real friend and his generosity and his passion for our country will be sorely missed. It is a big loss for the White House, but a huge gain for the President’s reelection campaign.”
From Sundance: OK, now lets get down to business…. FIREWORKS!
.
Donald J. Trump
✔@realDonaldTrump
Sessions didn’t have a clue!
Paul Sperry@paulsperry_
BREAKING: McCabe Investigated Not Just Trump but Sessions Too
Ordering the Sessions probe was “another unprecedented, partisan action that has been forgotten,” said former federal prosecutor Solomon L. Wisenberg, partner at Nelson Mullins in Washington.https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2019/03/04/mccabe_probed_not_just_trump_but_own_boss_sessions_too.html …
As CTH has outlined since last year, the use of Michael Cohen as the cornerstone of heavily scripted and pre-planned testimony -toward their organized impeachment efforts- is part of a staged and coordinated strategy. Nothing is organic; everything is planned; this is simply what the Democrats do every single time. They use the same playbook.
Adding further evidence toward this insufferable scheme, reports are now surfacing that HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff dispatched his staff members to coach Michael Cohen on his testimony on four occasions (in New York), prior to his congressional appearance, totaling more than 10 hours. Again, everything is rehearsed and scripted.
These latest developments explain why the Cohen testimony was delayed. Political democrat operatives, working with Cohen’s handler Lanny Davis, worked through a training and coaching process for maximum effect. This coordinated process is also why Cohen was given a deferment to the beginning of his prison sentence. None of this should be a surprise to anyone who has followed the predictable ‘Tripwires‘ as outlined.
WASHINGTON DC – President Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen told House investigators this week that staff for Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., traveled to New York at least four times to meet with him for over 10 hours immediately before last month’s high-profile public testimony, according to two sources familiar with the matter — as Republicans question whether the meetings amounted to coaching a witness.
[…] Republicans have raised concerns with the sessions, with Ohio Rep. Mike Turner sending a letter to Cohen’s team on Wednesday demanding answers.
Turner specifically asked for confirmation of Cohen’s contacts, if any, “with Democratic Members or Democratic staff of SSCI [Senate Select Committee on Intelligence], COR [House Committee on Oversight and Reform], or HPSCI [House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence] prior to his appearances before House and Senate committees last week” — as well as the lengths of such contacts, their locations and who exactly was involved.
“These questions are important for the public to understand whether or not they were watching witness testimony, a public hearing, or well-rehearsed theater,” he wrote.
During last month’s seven-hour public hearing before the House Oversight Committee, Cohen hesitantly acknowledged, under questioning from Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, that he had spoken with Schiff “about topics that were going to be raised at the upcoming hearing.” (read more)
.
All of this is carefully designed. None of this is organic. All of the participants have networked contacts, and media, acting as intermediaries (like Lawfare) to provide arms-length plausible deniability to the larger political scheme.
These plans and schemes are all professional Democrats spend time thinking and talking about. This is what they do. This is all they do. This is their purpose in life; nothing else matters.
The structural impeachment schedule will ultimately lead to House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler. Professional political Democrats would not be using “impeachment” in the constitutional sense of the process (high crimes and misdemeanors); but rather weaponizing the process –as a tool itself– to: •target the executive office; •diminish the presidency (“isolate”/”marginalize”, Alinsky rules); •and position themselves for 2020.
It is good to see Jim Jordan and Mike Turner beginning to put the sunlight on the corrupt Democrat operation. This is how the Democrats can be nullified; expose the scheme.
The best defense is a good offense.
The republicans might be in the minority position but they have a distinct advantage. We have the opposition’s playbook in front of us…. we know what they are going to do; we know what the sequence of plays is; and we know generally the timeline they will be using…
That’s valuable information.
Team MAGA can easily crush this. Just use their same playbook against them:
President Trump and first lady Melania Trump flew to the worst impacted areas of eastern Alabama today to review damage from a recent series of tornadoes and comfort victims. Traveling aboard AF1 was Alabama Senator Richard Shelby, and Representative Mike Rogers.
President Trump toured Lee County, Alabama, where 23 people were killed by a massive EF4 tornado almost a mile wide. After Air Force One landed at a military base along the Georgia border, the President took Marine one for an aerial tour of the damage while press followed in two Ospreys.
The President and First Lady then traveled to Beauregard, Alabama, where at least one tornado had maximum impact and visited with survivors of the storm.
After the Ariel tour President Trump, Melania Trump, Secretary Ben Carson and Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen were met by Governor Kay Ivey, Senator Doug Jones, MG Sheryl Gordon – Adjutant General of the Alabama National Guard, Director Brian Hastings – Alabama Emergency Management Agency, Sheriff Jay Jones of Lee County, Alabama, Chairman Bill English, Lee County, Alabama Commission and Mayor Gary Fuller, Opelika, Alabama
President Donald Trump delivered an impromptu presser to White House media prior to departing for Alabama with First Lady Melania Trump. [Video and Transcript]
.
[Transcript] – South Lawn – 9:37 A.M. EST – Q (Inaudible) February jobs numbers?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, the economy is doing very well. We’re seeing wages rise more than they have at any time for a long, long time. Wages are going up first time for many years — I talked about it during the campaign — for over 20 years. So, I’m happy about that.
The economy is very, very strong. If you look at the stock market over the last few months, it’s been great. And certainly since my election, it’s up — getting close to 50 percent — the stock market. So, we’re obviously very happy with that.
We will — I think as soon as these trade deals are done, if they get done — and we’re working with China; we’ll see what happens — but I think you’re going to see a very big spike. A lot of people are waiting to see what happens with the China deal. Mexico, Canada is done. We’ll be submitting to Congress very shortly. And that’s a great deal for the United States, so we’re very happy about that.
And I am now, as you know, going to Alabama. Some of you are joining me. But I look forward to it. I’ll be meeting with Governor Ivey. The people of Alabama, they got hit very hard by the tornadoes. We’re stopping there, then we’re going to Florida. And we’re going to do a lot of work. We’ll be working very hard.
Q Your reaction to Manafort’s sentencing?
THE PRESIDENT: I feel very badly for Paul Manafort. I think it’s been a very, very tough time for him. But if you notice, both his lawyer — a highly respected man and a very highly respected judge — the judge said there was no collusion with Russia. It’s had nothing to do with collusion. There was no collusion. It’s a collusion hoax. It’s a collusion witch-hoax. I don’t collude with Russia.
So I just want to tell you that his lawyer went out of his way, actually, to make a statement last night. No collusion with Russia. There was absolutely none. The judge, I mean, for whatever reason — I was very honored by it — also made the statement that this had nothing do with collusion with Russia.
So, you know, keep it going. Let’s go. Keep the hoax going. Just a hoax. Senator Burr said there’s no collusion. If you look at Devin Nunes and the House Intelligence Commission — Committee — they said there’s no collusion. And guess what? There is none.
Q Is 20,000 new jobs good enough, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: What?
Q Is 20,000 new jobs good enough for you, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, it’s a step. I think you’ll probably find out it averages out. The unemployment rate just went lower. We’re down now to 3.8 percent, so we had very good news on that.
I think the big news, really, was that wages went up. And that’s great for the American worker. That’s something people — I don’t know if they ever expected to see it.
Yeah?
Q Mr. President, we’re hearing rumblings from China that they’re not really positive about a trade deal and that perhaps (inaudible) may not happen. Where is that?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I haven’t heard that. I think they’re doing well. But if it happened that way, we’ll do even better. We’ll do very well either way, with or without a deal. But you’re telling me something that I have not heard.
Q Do you feel confident that you can get a trade deal with China?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. Sure. I’m confident. But if we don’t make a very good deal for our country, I wouldn’t make a deal. If this isn’t a great deal, I won’t make a deal.
Q Are you ruling out a pardon for Manafort?
THE PRESIDENT: Say it?
Q Are you ruling out a pardon for Manafort?
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t even discuss it. I have — the only one discussing it is you. I haven’t discussed it.
I know that, in watching and seeing you folks at night, that Michael Cohen lied about the pardon. It was a stone-cold lie. And he’s lied about a lot of things, but when he lied about the pardon, that was really a lie. And he knew all about pardons. His lawyers said that they went to my lawyers and asked for pardons. And I can go a step above that, but I won’t go do it now.
Q Why do you think Cohen is suing the Trump organization?
THE PRESIDENT: Why what?
Q Why do you think Cohen is suing the Trump organization?
THE PRESIDENT: It’s the most ridiculous suit I’ve ever seen. Bad lawyer. I had a bad lawyer.
Go ahead. That happens.
Q Your administration is being sued by Planned Parenthood over Title 10 funding. What’s your reaction to that?
THE PRESIDENT: We’ll make a comment on it later.
Q (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: Talk. Talk. Up. You’re competing with a helicopter, John.
Q On immigration and what’s going on in Congress now, are you certain that they will not be able to override your veto?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think that it’s going very well. The border — we’re doing a great job. We’re apprehending record numbers of people — 75,000 over the last short period of time. That’s a lot of work. And with a wall, we wouldn’t have to do it.
No, I think we’re doing fine in Congress. They understand it’s an emergency.
Q Michael Cohen’s decision to testify (inaudible) your decision to walk (inaudible) with North Korea?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, time will tell, but I have a feeling that our relationship with North Korea — Kim Jong Un and myself — Chairman Kim — I think it’s a very good one. I think it remains good. I would be surprised, in a negative way, if he did anything that was not per our understanding. But we’ll see what happens.
Look, when I came in — under the Obama administration, North Korea was a disaster. You were going to war, folks, whether you know it or not. You were going to war. There was no talking. There was testing. We didn’t have our people back. We didn’t have our great hostages back. Now we’re getting the remains, we’re doing a lot of things now. This was a disaster. I inherited a mess.
In many ways, I inherited — the Middle East, I inherited a mess, and it’s straightening out a lot. We’re doing very well there. I inherited a mess.
Q (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: I inherited — wait. Wait. I inherited a mess with North Korea. And right now, you have no testing. You have no nothing. Let’s see what happens. But I would be very disappointed if I saw testing.
Q What do you make of the vote yesterday in the House of Representatives on the anti-Semitism resolution?
THE PRESIDENT: I thought yesterday’s vote by the House was disgraceful because it’s become — the Democrats have become an anti-Israel party. They’ve become an anti-Jewish party. And I thought that vote was a disgrace and so does everybody else, if you get an honest answer. If you get an honest answer from politicians, they thought it was a disgrace. The Democrats have become an anti-Israel party. They’ve become an anti-Jewish party, and that’s too bad.
A property law professor at the University of Texas notes that President Trump’s national emergency declaration may get him the money to build the wall, but only Congress can exercise the eminent domain power to get the land. Bill Whittle Now is a production of the Members at http://BillWhittle.com
Judicial Watch has received documents from a previous FOIA request to the DOJ which highlight the extent of the communication between DOJ official Bruce Ohr and the FBI.
While there was prior knowledge of the role of Ohr as an FBI intermediary between Fusion-GPS, Chris Steele and the FBI during the original counterintelligence investigation, the new documents show Ohr continued in his role well into Mueller’s appointment.
In essence, after the FBI claimed to have broken off formal use of Chris Steele; and long after Robert Mueller took over the investigation; Ohr remained an intermediary between Chris Steele and Robert Mueller’s special counsel team.
Obviously this begs the question: if the special counsel was simply investigating the truth of the dossier, why would Robert Mueller want/need an intermediary as opposed to directly being in contact with, and questioning, the dossier author directly?
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it received 339 pagesof heavily redacted records from the U.S. Department of Justice which reveal that former Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr remained in regular contact with former British spy and Fusion GPS contractor Christopher Steele after Steele was terminated by the FBI in November 2016 for revealing to the media his position as an FBI confidential informant.
The records show that Ohr served as a go-between for Steele by passing along information to “his colleagues” on matters relating to Steele’s activities. Ohr also set up meetings with Steele, regularly talked to him on the telephone and provided him assistance in dealing with situations Steele was confronting with the media.
[…] The documents also show that Nellie Ohr sent numerous emails and reports to Bruce Ohr and other Justice Department officials on Russia issues.
“These smoking gun documents show that Christopher Steele, a Hillary Clinton operative and anti-Trump foreign national, secretly worked hand-in-glove with the Justice Department on its illicit targeting of President Trump,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
“These documents leave no doubt that for more than a year after the FBI fired Christopher Steele for leaking, and for some 10 months after Donald Trump was sworn in as president, Bruce Ohr continued to act as a go-between for Steele with the FBI and Justice Department. The anti-Trump Russia investigation, now run by Robert Mueller, has been thoroughly compromised by this insider corruption.” (read more)
Tom Fitton’s likely accurate (highlighted) statement above; showcasing a compromised intent; would explain why Mueller’s team would need an intermediary.
Nellie Ohr and Chris Steele were the authors of the Clinton-financed dossier. The dossier was the primary evidence for the entire corrupt investigative enterprise. The dossier is the lynch-pin of evidence that validated the Title-1 FISA warrant used against Carter Page and all campaign officials therein.
As a direct result of the origination, Mueller’s later mandate from Rosenstein is based on that dossier. As a result, inside that dynamic there is a motive for Mueller’s team to stay away from discovering anything that might invalidate the dossier if they wanted to: (a) continue the appearance of legality for the prior exploitation; and (b) continue extending the investigation that is dependent on the dossier.
If things went sideways, direct contact with the central witness and dossier author removes plausible deniability. Indirect contact, via an intermediary (Bruce Ohr), allows retention of plausible deniability and continuance of dossier use.
The document pdf file is here. CTH is reviewing the information overnight tonight.
ADD: This is the same reason why Christopher Steele and Glenn Simpson are not on the witness list of people and entities announced by House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler.
Judge TS Ellis sentenced former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to 47 months in prison for tax evasion and bank fraud. The sentence is considerably less than federal prosecutors had sought. The judge said he believed the recommended sentence of 19-24 years would be “excessive”.
(Via Associated Press) 6:59pm EST – Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been sentenced to 47 months in prison for tax and bank fraud related to his work advising Ukrainian politicians.
Judge T.S. Ellis III imposed the sentence Thursday, capping the only jury trial following indictments stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
A jury last year convicted Manafort on eight counts, concluding that he hid from the Internal Revenue Service millions of dollars he earned from his work in Ukraine. (link
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
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.
