Emmanuel Macron Invites President Trump to Notre Dame Reopening Celebration This Weekend


Posted originally on the CTH on December 2, 2024 | Sundance 

Macron is such a transparent weasel.  He knows he cannot openly travel to Mar-a-Lago to talk about Ukraine, so he invites Mar-a-Lago for a pre-inauguration state visit to come to him under the auspices of a reopening celebration of Notre Dame Cathedral.  lol

President Trump announces via Truth Social that he has accepted the invitation to the celebration this weekend.

[Source]

Keep in mind that duplicitous Macron, a small man on the political ropes in his own country – desperate to enlarge his diminutive stature as the EU continues to grow in strength to reject Macron’s style of leftism, has pledged to Bussels that he would lead the Trump-proof efforts of NATO.

Macron earnestly believes he can woo President Trump, yet if you watch their encounters closely you will notice that Trump consistently lets the weasel do his weasel stuff while simultaneously putting sunlight on Macron’s conniving nature.

.

Pam Bondi Tells Chairman Chuck Grassley, “I will make you, the President, and our country proud”


Posted originally on the CTH on December 2, 2024 | Sundance

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley had a meeting with incoming Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi earlier today.  Mrs. Bondi promises to make everyone proud.  WATCH:

.

President Trump Issues Dire Warning for Mideast Hostage Takers


Posted originally on the CTH on December 2, 2024 | Sundance

NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump is demanding the immediate release of Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza, saying that if they are not freed before he is sworn into office for a second term there will be “HELL TO PAY.”

[Source]

Ferguson Discusses How Trump Administration Can End Government-Enforced Censorship On Social Media


Posted originally on Rumble By Bannons War Room on Dec 01, 2024 at 06:00 pm EST

Naomi Wolf Walks Through President Trump’s Picks For Health-Freedom Cabinet Picks


Posted originally on Rumble By Bannons War Room on Dec 01, 2024 at 06:00 pm EST

Contemplating the Next FBI Director


Posted originally on the CTH on December 1, 2024 | Sundance

Reposted Due to Numerous Requests

In order to appropriately discuss leadership of the FBI silo as an institution of DC influence, it becomes very important for everyone to understand the current status of the FBI as the organization has self-identified.

For those who followed the 2016 campaign of President Trump and then watched the 2017 attacks organized by the DOJ and FBI toward the incoming Trump administration, you may agree with me that a complete disassembly of the FBI is now warranted. However, first it is important to understand just how bad the corruption has become:

RECAP: The FBI relationship with Antifa.  There is no way for Antifa to operate as a domestic extremist group, without the expressed support and willful blindness of the FBI.  Quite simply, if the FBI wanted to stop the violent and extremist activity of Antifa, they could do that easily.

The objective of the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago was to resecure what they perceived as physical evidence President Trump controlled showing how the DOJ and FBI action in 2016 was targeting him using the power of their law enforcement and intelligence agencies.   In the background, the origination of all the DOJ/FBI/IC targeting goes back to the ’15/’16 FBI exploitation of the NSA database; this is not a contested discussion issue – it’s just continually forgotten.

The FBI was using their access to the NSA metadata of all Americans, to conduct surveillance on political candidates that might be a threat to the power structures that exploited the secrets within the electronic records of all Americans.  The FBI was, almost certainly still is, conducting domestic surveillance and tracking Americans just like the German Stasi or Soviet KGB.  It’s still happening, but we are not supposed to talk about it, or something.

The raid on Mar-a-Lago, just like the Robert Mueller investigation, was part of a long standing coverup operation.  The FBI was looking for what Trump took with him as evidence of the weaponized system that targeted him.  The FBI wanted that back.  The FBI was willing to use deadly force to get it back if that’s what it took.

Using the FBI to filter security clearances – [Fourth Branch of Govt]

A History of FBI Weaponization – [SEE HERE]

The modern FBI is the police agency of a weaponized U.S government, with a direct and purposeful mandate to keep the American people under control through strict surveillance and a violent police state.

Understand and accept this with great seriousness, there are no honorable “rank and file” inside this organization.

Every member of the FBI is a participant in the weaponization of power and government. The members are jackboots recruited from ideological college campuses for exactly the purpose of supporting a Stasi-like police state.

Through the past several years, we have discovered how the FBI worked inside Twitter, Facebook and social media to control information, remove content and manipulate opinion on behalf of the U.S. government – all activity political.

We have also learned the FBI took active measures to suppress information about the Hunter Biden laptop and control any negative consequences for the Biden regime – again, political.  These are not disputed realities.

The U.S. Dept of Justice and FBI are now political institutions that have abandoned their originating mission in order to become the domestic equivalent of the Soviet-era FSB. Their joint targeting mechanisms have been redesigned to support the interests of corrupt DC politicians, specifically the interests of Democrats.

It was in June 2022, when Senator Chuck Grassley sent a letter [pdf HERE] to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Chris Wray, notifying them of whistleblower allegations from within the FBI that senior leadership in both Main Justice and FBI are involved in a coordinated effort to cover up criminal activity related to Hunter Biden.

The whistleblower allegations, in combination with the documented history of DOJ and FBI misconduct, culminate in Senator Grassley stating:

“If these allegations are true and accurate, the Justice Department and FBI are – and have been – institutionally corrupted to their very core to the point in which the United States Congress and the American people will have no confidence in the equal application of the law. Attorney General Garland and Director Wray, simply put, based on the allegations that I’ve received from numerous whistleblowers, you have systemic and existential problems within your agencies.” (LINK)

Grassley was admitting what has been visible for years.

Senator Grassley is telling the corrupt DOJ-FBI leadership that people in the organizations are outlining the detailed behavior of their corrupt leadership.  However, with zero oversight involved, and with Democrats in charge of all committees that would be responsible for such oversight, and with institutional media in alignment and agreement with the corrupt institutional intents of the DOJ/FBI, the frustrating question becomes, “and“?

I mean, who are we kidding?  If Republicans were in charge of the Senate Judiciary, Reform/Oversight, or Intelligence committees, do we really believe that anything would be different?   Before responding to that cynicism, remind yourself, they were for four years, January 2015 through January 2019, Republicans in charge of oversight.

It was exactly when Republicans were in charge of Main Justice and FBI oversight that Main Justice and FBI were targeting political candidate Donald Trump.

In July 2021, the DOJ OIG produced an absolutely damning Inspector General investigation of FBI conduct in the rape and sexual assault of U.S. Gymnasts, revealing how FBI agents facilitated Nassar’s sex crimes by taking no action despite numerous witness statements to them.

Worse yet, the FBI never reported the sexual assaults to local law enforcement… and to top it off, the rank and vile FBI agents lied during the investigation of their conduct, and the DOJ under AG Bill Barr, and now under AG Merrick Garland, refused to prosecute the FBI liars.

The entire IG report [Must Read pdf Here] reveals layer-upon-layer of FBI wrongdoing, misconduct and false statements in an effort to cover up their activity when the internal investigation of their conduct began.  This report is a total condemnation of the FBI rank and file.  It really is quite stunning.

BACKGROUND on FBI – As we discovered in January of 2023, the FBI was fully aware of the terrorist who was planning to shoot the synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, and yet they did nothing.

The FBI knowledge of the shooter, Malik Faisal Akram, who was known as Faisal Akram, was confirmed by The Daily Mail. Akram ranted, prior to his travel to the U.S, that he wished he had died in the 9/11 terror attacks. He was a regular visitor to Pakistan, and reportedly a member of the Tablighi Jamaat group set up to ‘purify’ Islam. To say the U.S. intelligence system knew Faisal Akram would be an understatement.

The FBI was also fully aware of the Boston Marathon bombers, the Tsarnaev brothers, before they executed their plot.  The FBI took no action.  The Russian police twice warned the FBI that the Tsarnaev brothers were going to carry out a domestic terrorist attack on the USA, the FBI did nothing.

The FBI knew about the San Bernardino terrorists, specifically Tashfeen Malik, and were monitoring her phone calls and communications before her and Syed Farook executed their attack killing 14 people and leaving 22 others seriously injured.  The FBI took no action.

The FBI knew Colorado grocery store shooter Ahmad Alissa before he executed his attack.  The FBI took no action.

The FBI knew in advance of the Pulse Nightclub shooter (Omar Mateen) and were tipped off by the local sheriff. The FBI knew in advance of the San Bernardino Terrorists (Tashfeen Malik). The FBI knew in advance of the Boston Marathon Bombers (the Tsarnaev brothers) tipped off by Russians.  The FBI knew in advance of the Parkland High School shooter (Nikolas Cruz). The FBI knew in advance of the Fort Hood shooter (Nidal Hasan), and the FBI knew in advance of Colorado grocery store shooter Ahmad al-Aliwi Alissa.  The FBI took no action.

The case of the first recorded ISIS attack on U.S. soil was in Garland, Texas in 2015.

The FBI not only knew the shooters (Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi) in advance, BUT the FBI ALSO took the shooters to the venue and were standing only a few yards away when Simpson and Soofi opened fire.  Yes, you read that correctly – the FBI took the terrorists to the event and then watched it unfold.  “An FBI trainer suggested in an interview with “60 Minutes” that, had the attack been bigger, the agency’s numerous ties to the shooter would have led to a congressional investigation.”

Remember, shortly before the 2018 mid-term election, when Ceasar Syoc – a man living in his van – was caught sending “energetic material that can become combustible when subjected to heat or friction”, or what FBI Director Christopher Wray called “not hoax devices”?

Remember how sketchy everything about that was, including the child-like perpetrator telling a judge later that he was trying to walk back his guilty plea, because he was tricked into signing a confession for a crime he did not create.

Or more recently, the goofball plot to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer that involved 18 suspects, twelve of them actually working for the FBI as the plot was hatched?  And we cannot forget the January 6th. DC protest turned insurrection effort, which is clearly looking like an FBI inspired and coordinated effort; and unlike Syoc, despite the numerous CCTV cameras and resources in the area, they cannot find who placed the pipe-bombs?

Have we forgotten the Atlanta “Olympic Park Bombing”, and the FBI intentionally setting up transparently innocent, Richard Jewel?

What about the FBI failing to investigate the assassination of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens in Benghazi.  Did we forget when Robert Mueller’s FBI waited 19 days after the Benghazi attack before showing up at the compound?….  Journalists from the USA were walking around the compound after 48 hours, but it took the FBI another two weeks before the first investigator arrived…. All evidence long destroyed.

Then, there’s the entirety of the FBI conduct in “Spygate”, the demonstrably evident FBI operation to conduct political surveillance against Donald Trump using their investigative authorities; and the downstream consequences of a massive institutional effort to cover up one of the biggest justice department scandals in the history of our nation.   The original effort against Donald Trump used massive resources from the DOJ and FBI.  Heck, the coverup operation using the Mueller/Weissmann special counsel used more than 50 investigative FBI agents alone.

And of course, the FBI still had 13 extra agents available to rush to a NASCAR racetrack to investigate a garage door pull-down rope that might have been perceived as a noose; but the serial rape of hundreds of teenage girls, eh, not-so-much effort – even when they are standing in front of the FBI begging for help.

[At this point, I am increasingly convinced by evidence there are elements within the FBI that are enablers involved in sex trafficking, human smuggling, abduction, counterfeiting and money laundering as part of their operational mission.]

The FBI didn’t make a mistake or drop the proverbial ball in the Olympic gymnast case, they intentionally and specifically maintained the sexual exploitation of teenage girls by doing absolutely nothing with the complaints they received.   This is not misconduct, this is purposeful.

Then, as if to apply salt to the open wound of severe FBI politicization, what did the FBI do with the Hunter Biden laptop?

[Notice I’ve set the issue of the disappearing Huma Abedin/Anthony Weiner laptop –in the known custody of the FBI– over there in the corner, next to missing investigation of the Awan brothers.]

More recently, the FBI executed a search warrant on the home and office of Project Veritas and the founder James O’Keefe.  While the raid was taking place, a New York Times reporter called O’Keefe to ask him about his thoughts on getting raided. The same New York Times journalist, a few days later, then begins writing about the confidential attorney-client privileged information illegally retrieved then leaked by the FBI during their raid.

My point is this…

What the Federal Security Service (FSB) is to the internal security of the Russian state, so too is the FBI in performing the same function for the U.S. federal government.

The FBI is a U.S. version of the Russian “State Police”; and the FBI is deployed -almost exclusively- to attack domestic enemies of those who control government, while they protect the interests of the U.S. Fourth Branch of Government.  That is the clear and accurate domestic prism to contextualize their perceived mission: “domestic violent extremists pose the greatest threat” to their objective.

Put another way, “We The People”, who fight against government abuse and usurpation, are the FBI’s actual and literal enemy.

Let me be very clear with another brutally obvious example.  Antifa could not exist as an organization, capable to organize and carry out violent attacks against their targets, without the full support of the FBI.   If the FBI wanted to arrest members of Antifa, who are actually conducting violence, they could do it easily – with little effort.

It is the absence of any action, by the FBI toward Antifa, that tells us the FBI is enabling that violent extremist behavior to continue.  Once you accept that transparent point of truth, then you realize the FBI definition of domestic violent extremism is something else entirely.

The FBI is not a law enforcement or investigative division of the U.S. Department of Justice.  The FBI is a political weapon of a larger institution that is now focused almost entirely toward supporting a radical communist agenda to destroy civil society in the United States.

The FBI set up the operation in Michigan to give the illusion that domestic threats were attempting to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer, everything about the events were an FBI construct.   The same thing with the January 6th events in Washington DC and the pipe bombs.  These are domestic FBI operations.  Think about the precarious nature of what this type of activity indicates.

The current mission of the FBI appears to be preserving and protecting institutional power by protecting the administration of Joe Biden.

Anyone who continues to push this insufferable and fraudulent “honorable FBI rank and file talking point”, is, at this point in history, willfully and purposefully operating to deceive the American people on behalf of government interests who are intent on destroying us.

It is not a difference of opinion any longer.  Personally, I have lost the ability to sit comfortably or intellectually with anyone who pushes or accepts the ‘mistakes are made’ nonsense.  The FBI is not making mistakes, they are doing well what is important to them.

To me, it comes down to a simple matter of accepting what is continually staring us in the face.

Additionally, as we watched the outcome of the Michael Sussmann trial, we should never lose sight of the fact that 40 FBI agents were involved in the Mueller-Weissmann probe to investigate the fraudulent construct created by Hillary Clinton and crew.  40 agents? And, according to the outcome of the Sussmann trial, the FBI knew it was all a ruse.

This is why and how the Fourth Branch of U.S. Government is now the superseding apparatus above all other branches.  {GO DEEP} This is why and how Barack Obama, John Brennan and Eric Holder created it, cemented it, and made it impervious to any effort to remove it.

Remember when Henry Cuellar was critical of the Biden administration open border policies that were hurting his Texas district?  Less than a month after going public with his criticisms, the FBI raids on his home and office began.  The same FBI that raided the home of James O’Keefe while coordinating their search with the New York Times.

The Fourth Branch of Government is corrupt; heck, the J6 committee was defending the corrupt FBI, participating with the corrupt FBI, selling a joint J6 operation that involved the FBI.  The corrupt media have aligned with the corrupt FBI, and the justice institutions in/around this legal framework are self-aware and fully autonomous.

As the Twitter files show, the DOJ and FBI, through the authority of DHS, now have the ability to monitor every single aspect of every life that might seek to challenge or destroy the corrupt system.

In essence, Skynet -the ultimate end game of political surveillance and targeting outlined by Edward Snowden- has been activated.  We the People are the enemy of the state.

That context brings me to the key point that every reader must keep at the forefront of everything else that unfolds for the next several years.

♦ NEW TOOLS – By now you probably carry in your wallet or purse a newly DHS and TSA compliant “real ID,” either in the form of a driver’s license, a passport, or a biometric alien registration id.

If you travel, you will note your compliant ID is scanned by TSA and more recently your face is photographed, recorded and uploaded.  The database connecting your biometric identity to your personage is now complete and growing larger.

The People Behind Donald Trump:

Advanced autonomous Artificial Intelligence (AI) is about to merge with the surveillance authority within FISA-702.

Think.

A new technocracy is emerging.

When AI search and filter capability is merged with the NSA metadata, then add fractal computing power and imagine the search results.  It is only a matter of time before an Obama-type administration take power again.  What will that merged system look like when weaponized?

Now, think about what comes next. Oh, and you don’t have to wonder too much.

Palantir agreed to cooperate with the FBI and launched facial recognition AI on behalf of their federal contract with the FBI into the events of J6 attendees. The FBI arrests followed.  Palantir’s access to the DHS/TSA database, as granted by the FBI for use in their J6 targeting operation, can be looked upon as a beta test for how enhanced AI could scour a large biometric database and deliver results.

Peter Thiel’s company, Palantir, is the govt contracted exploitation software that scours the DHS/TSA system, connects to the metadata and delivers the ‘Real ID’ return result.  Palantir is the product that identifies the faces in the library assembled through the federal requirement for “read id.”

Now, does this make sense?

.

The fully autonomous surveillance system is almost finished.  5G makes the data processing stream fast and in real time.  What remains is simply a hardware issue, ie. cameras.

Additionally, the Dept of Homeland Security Deportation Operation will require the tracking and identification of millions of illegal aliens, many of them gang members.  It can be anticipated that Palantir’s AI facial recognition software may be deployed with great usefulness to identify and locate those who the taskforce needs to remove.

Unfortunately, I am not confident this facial recognition tool will be removed from the FBI/DHS arsenal once the deportation operations are successful and concluded.  Factually, I wonder of those same technologies would then be deployed for another type of Government Target.

This is a big picture moment to stop and think about the FBI against the backdrop of a massive surveillance weapon on the cusp of activation.

We now have a long and historic record for how the FBI unlawfully exploit the NSA database during target operations.  The next FBI director will likely have this new AI tool/weapon, built by Palantir (Thiel), in their arsenal.

Who do we want to control it?

SSCI Member Mike Rounds Says President Trump Can Nominate Kash Patel and the Senate Will Consider Him


Posted originally on the CTH on December 1, 2024 | Sundance 

Senate Select Committee on Intelligence member Mike Rounds doesn’t sound too enthusiastic about Kash Patel in the role of FBI director.  In an interview this morning on ABC, the Republican senator from South Dakota said President Trump has the right to nominate Mr Patel, and the Senate will consider the “consent” from there.  WATCH:

Several people are wondering if current FBI Director Chris Wray will resign.  It’s a very unusual dynamic and the internal pressure will likely be on Director Wray to force President Trump to fire him, especially if the House and Senate are in session and there’s no possibility at the time for President Trump to appoint an “acting” replacement.

A lot can happen with President Trump announcing Kash Patel “will serve as” FBI Director, while a current FBI Director is still in place.  Without the ability to appoint an “acting” replacement, the Deputy FBI director would take Wray’s place even if Wray was fired.  Mike Rounds expresses full confidence in Chris Wray during this interview.

Zelenskyy Thinks He Has Options, While Putin Has an Undiscussed Weapon that Trump Will Navigate


Posted originally on the CTH on November 29, 2024 | Sundance 

In the world of geopolitics created by the U.S. Dept of State and CIA, the pretending is thick.

A recent report has Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy now offering to give up territory to Russian President Vladimir Putin in exchange for NATO membership for the remaining portion. The story is sold by western media as if Zelenskyy has options, he doesn’t. However, Putin has a very strong weapon that President Trump has to navigate with a team of people around U.S. policy that are tenuous at best. Let’s discuss without the pretending.

Start with a Politico Article HERE, that frames the entry of President Donald Trump as the wildcard that has everyone, according to the DC narrative, rushing to get the best position in the final weeks before Trump’s arrival.

The DC narrative is that Russia is trying to maximize their land gains, while Zelenskyy and the NATO allies attempt to position for the least losses possible before they are forced to start peace talks.

It’s a little stunning that Washington DC is saying in advance of inauguration day that bloodshed stops, a ceasefire is imminent, and peace negotiations are a foregone conclusion, without President-elect Donald Trump even lifting his chin.

Apparently, and keep in mind this is the narrative of Washington DC, all President Trump needs to do is take his hand off the bible on January 20th and mysteriously global conflict comes to a screeching halt.

All things accepted and considered; the word “remarkable” is not adequate for that DC perspective.  If that administrative state perspective doesn’t just encapsulate the scale of Donald Trump, I don’t know what could.

If global conflict stops or diminishes simply by changing a U.S. president, then who exactly is responsible for global conflict and escalation? I digress…

Next, we enter the perspective of Volodymyr Zelenskyy as newly espoused.

The New York Post [Article Here], where Zelenskyy tells Sky News, “If we want to stop the hot stage of the war, we should take under [the] NATO umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control. That’s what we need to do fast, and then Ukraine can get back the other part of its territory diplomatically.”  Again, in this context, “fast” is the timetable in Zelenskyy’s mind, before President Trump shows up.

The proverbial “west,” which includes the White House, the CIA, NATO, the EU and the U.S. State Department are all trying to figure out their best exit from bloodshed and war, via a crisis they created a decade ago when they carried out the Maidan color Revolution in Ukraine, ultimately installing Volodymyr Zelenskyy.  The intellectually honest observers of events, that’s the non-pretending group, readily admit this is exactly what happened.

So, to summarize: Zelenskyy is offering to concede territory in advance of peace negotiations, and his USA control group are trying to support that position while pretending that Zelenskyy is not saying that.

Oh, and, well, just send more money (another $24 billion) is another small detail.

Here’s where things get interesting, and how President Trump navigates this will be epic to watch.

Vladimir Putin has a weapon the “west” cannot defend against.  It’s not part of his physical military armament, it’s far more powerful.  Putin has the truth as a weapon.

The western group must pretend they didn’t carry out a color revolution in Ukraine.  The western group must also pretend they didn’t install Volodymyr Zelenskyy.  The western group must also pretend there was not a civil war happening inside Ukraine for a decade, and the western group must pretend they didn’t try to provoke Vladimir Putin with expansions of NATO and an intentional breaking of the Minsk accords.  There are other pretenses that must be maintained, but those are the top ones.

Into this grand game of pretenses comes President Donald Trump, not exactly the best pretender (by choice) and Vladimir Putin not only knows this, but he also respects this Trump attribute of honesty in problem solving.

Keep in mind, President Putin watched how President Trump dealt with the “North Korea threat” problem that was left to him by President Obama.  Putin watched how Trump negotiated an exit to escalating conflict by honesty confronting China, the true hand on the puppet strings of the DPRK.

Putin saw in that North Korea geopolitical dynamic that President Trump dealt with Kim Jong-un with a brutally honest strategy that encompassed the influence of China.  While Putin is more allied currently with China, he knows President Trump cuts through the gordian knot woven by western interventionists.  Trump cuts through the gordian knot with honest and pragmatic policy.

As a result of this dynamic, everyone around President Trump, including the National Security Council, his National Security Advisor (Waltz), his CIA Director (Ratcliffe), and his State Dept Secretary (Rubio), all have to maintain the “western” pretenses that were/are cemented by the people and silos they replace.

The larger American government, sans President Trump, have to maintain all the aforementioned pretenses, in part because the Intelligence Community and the USA media support it, and in part because it would weaken the USA on the global stage to ever make honest admissions about our control of Ukraine.  And yes, that pretending dynamic includes Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg who President Trump appointed as special envoy for Russia and Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin’s strongest weapon is the truth.  Vladimir Putin also knows the auto-setting on President Trump’s psyche of problem solving, ie ‘optimal solutions’, is also centered on truth.

The proverbial $64,000 question: How does truthful President Trump deal with truthful President Putin, while all around the office of the White House are people who only know how to maintain pretenses?

That my friends, is going to be a very interesting dynamic to watch.

One way President Trump could gain back the power of not pretending is to: (1) request an immediate ceasefire; then (2) tell the CIA (Ratcliffe) to immediately withdraw all CIA operatives from Ukraine; then (3) tell Secretary Marco Rubio to pull all USAID operatives out of Ukraine; then (4) tell Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy he must hold a national election within 60 days.

If the U.S and NATO pull all of the control agents out of Ukraine and hold an election, the result will highlight the will of the Ukranian people to retain Volodymyr Zelenskyy.  If Zelenskyy wins, then he is in a stronger position.  If he loses, then he was never strong to begin with, and he’s the wrong person to be negotiating with.

Calling for an election in Ukraine is a radical approach because I think we all know what the outcome would be.  Then again, that’s the problem with pretending, when you stop you have to accept the transparently predictable forecast.

In the interim, President Putin has the truth as a weapon, and President Trump is going to have to find a way to deal with it while everyone around him maintains pretenses.

My money is on President Trump finding an optimal solution, just like he did in North Korea. It will certainly be interesting to watch.

Mexico Threatens Retaliatory Tariffs on US


Posted originally on Nov 29, 2024 by Martin Armstrong 

Mexico

Mexico’s new President Claudia Sheinbaum is asking Trump to use a bit more common sense when threatening to implement tariffs before a tit-for-tat game ensues. “One tariff would be followed by another in response, and so on until we put at risk common businesses,” Sheinbaum said. It would come as no surprise if the incoming Trump Administration faces diplomatic difficulties with Sheinbaum.

Mexican cartels have openly infiltrated government. The president has refused to take responsibility for the drugs coming into the US from Mexico, and instead, has blamed the US for arming the cartels through the illegal arms trade. Sheinbaum called America’s drug crisis “a problem of public health and consumption in your country’s society.”

Although she denied that caravans of migrants are heading to the US from Mexico, countless sources have spotted these caravans en route to America. Mainly poorer migrants ban together to seek safety in numbers, not just from US border patrol, but from Mexican cartels who will seek a fee or worse for crossing their territory.

MadeinMexico

Trump began threatening Mexico with tariffs over illegal immigration in 2019. At first, he threatened a 5% levy but that gone up to 25%. Former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador began his term with hostile sentiments toward Trump, however, he the USMCA was perhaps a turning point in there relationship when both parties realized that FREE TRADE could benefit both countries. AMLO later agreed to send the National Guard to assist in curbing migration.

Manufacturing has shifted to Mexico in a major way since Trump’s first term. The automotive industry, as one example, has benefitted from the USMCA deal and shifted production to Mexico where labor is cheaper. Mexico dethroned China to become the top exporter of goods to the US in 2023, exporting $475.6 billion to the US in 2023, a 5% YoY uptick. This is the first time in two decades that Mexico’s exports to the US surpassed China’s, as Chinese exports fell 20% for the year. Maintaining a diplomatic approach to issues such as illegal migration would benefit both nations as tariffs are never the answer.

Interview: Trump’s Tariffs on China and the EU – Devastating Conflicts in Ukraine & West Asia


Posted originally on Nov 28, 2024 by Martin Armstrong