President Donald Trump made a surprise trip to Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan to celebrate Thanksgiving with our troops. The trip took place under a shroud of secrecy, and very tight security arriving in a darkened airplane just after 8:30 p.m. local time.
The White House concealed the trip from his public schedule for security reasons. President Trump helped the chow staff feed turkey and mashed potatoes to American troops in fatigues, before dining himself. Additionally President Trump posed for photographs before delivering remarks celebrating America’s military in an aircraft hangar. WATCH:
United States Army General and the 20th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley introduces the 45th President of the United States @realDonaldTrump at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!
Presidential historian Doug Wead was given unprecedented access to the White House and people associated with the Trump presidency for his book “Inside Trump’s White House: The Real Story of His Presidency.” Mr. Wead discusses the experience. This is a must watch interview:
The act that President Trump signed today is a law that requires the U.S. to review all of the democracy issues within Hong Kong to assess whether any Chinese violations to Hong Kong autonomy are happening. If so, the U.S. can take remedial steps to punish China.
The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act would require the State Department annually re-certify Hong Kong’s autonomous nature, in order for the so-called “special treatment” the U.S. affords Hong Kong to continue. (more)
Keep in mind a dual purpose to this latest move: Hong Kong holds a special trade status with the U.S. and is exempt from tariffs placed on China. Part of the punitive action President Trump could take against China involves tariffs against Hong Kong.
Today, I have signed into law S. 1838, the “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019” (the “Act”). The Act reaffirms and amends the United States-Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992, specifies United States policy towards Hong Kong, and directs assessment of the political developments in Hong Kong.
Certain provisions of the Act would interfere with the exercise of the President’s constitutional authority to state the foreign policy of the United States. My Administration will treat each of the provisions of the Act consistently with the President’s constitutional authorities with respect to foreign relations.
Again, back to the big picture, is this an action that would indicate President Trump is actually looking for a U.S-China trade agreement? Of course not. So why now, what changed?… The USMCA! It’s all connected folks.
Following the IG report draft review by the principals within the DOJ/FBI small group under investigation more leaks are submitted to the New York Times in an effort to get out ahead of the scheduled publication of the final report on December 9th.
One note before content review: The highly structured obfuscation within how these leaks are being released, in combination with the lawyers representing the principals, explains why there was such a lengthy delay after the principal review phase.
Each principal can provide feedback for inclusion in the report; however, all feedback added to the report generates an IG rebuttal. Keep this in mind because these leaks are the “feedback” and the leakers have no idea what the IG “rebuttal” will be. The more the principals’ obfuscate and justify conduct to the IG in their feedback, the stronger the rebuttal to that feedback will be in the final report.
The New York Times latest narrative effort is intentionally obtuse with the word “spy”:
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department’s inspector general found no evidence that the F.B.I. attempted to place undercover agents or informants inside Donald J. Trump’s campaign in 2016 as agents investigated whether his associates conspired with Russia’s election interference operation, people familiar with a draft of the inspector general’s report said.
[…] The finding also contradicts some of the most inflammatory accusations hurled by Mr. Trump and his supporters, who alleged not only that F.B.I. officials spied on the Trump campaign but also at one point that former President Barack Obama had ordered Mr. Trump’s phones tapped.
[…] [FBI] agents had an informant, an academic named Stefan A. Halper, meet with Mr. Page and Mr. Papadopoulos while they were affiliated with the campaign.
[…] The F.B.I. did have an undercover agent who posed as Mr. Halper’s assistant during a London meeting with Mr. Papadopoulos in August 2016.
But that’s not spying? OK gotcha.
[…] Mr. Horowitz will also undercut another claim by Trump allies — that the Russian intermediary who promised dirt to Mr. Papadopoulos, a Maltese professor named Joseph Mifsud, was an F.B.I. informant.
This obfuscation is really silly. No-one has ever claimed Mifsud was an FBI informant. The concern has always been Mifsud was a western intelligence asset, perhaps CIA.
[…] The report is also expected to debunk another theory of Trump allies: that the F.B.I. relied on information to open the investigation from a British former spy, Christopher Steele, himself a onetime bureau informant who compiled a dossier of damaging, unverified information on Mr. Trump.
Another paragraph of nonsense. No-one has alleged the Steele Dossier was used to open the FBI investigation in July 2016. The technical origination of the FBI investigation known as Crossfire Hurricane came from the joint FBI/CIA operation into Papadopoulos on July 31st, 2016. The questions have always been about what predicate the pre-July ’16 originating investigations into Papadopoulos, Page, Flynn and Manafort were based on.
What was the evidence of Russia’s interference in the election, known to the FBI, before July 2016? And what was the evidence that connected the Trump campaign to that predicate claim?
[…] The inspector general will fault the F.B.I. for failing to tell the judges who approved the wiretap applications about potential problems with the dossier, the people familiar with the draft report said. F.B.I. agents have interviewed some of Mr. Steele’s sources and found that their information differed somewhat from his dossier.
Mr. Horowitz plans to say that the wiretap application, which referenced Mr. Papadopoulos, should have also included a statement he made to the undercover agent in London that could be seen as exculpatory or self-serving, the people familiar with the draft report said. (read full article)
A ‘wired’ FBI “undercover agent” recorded an exculpatory statement from Papadopoulos, but no – they weren’t spying? OK gotcha…. Oh, and the FBI just avoided the transcript of the ‘wired’ statement because it just didn’t fit their purposes. But not political? Uh-huh.
If this is the type of feedback the principals gave the IG to justify their endeavors, the rebuttal evidence will be even more interesting.
Thanks, but I’ll just wait for the actual report… AND the declassified supporting documentation that damn sure better be a part of the release !
The New York Federal Reserve made a quiet admission two days ago that was missed by almost all financial media. In the NY Fed economic blog they admitted everyone was wrong, President Trump’s 2017 tariffs against China did not lead to increased U.S. consumer prices [Read Here]. The Fed also said imports of the Chinese products affected by U.S. tariffs have fallen by an annualized $75 billion. That’s a huge chunk of business U.S. purchasers have shifted to Japan and other Southeast Asian countries.
.
Within this dynamic lays the real reason why Beijing cannot wait for a 2020 election hoping that Biden or Bloomberg can stop their bleeding. Before going into more depth, this brief explainer from Charles Payne will help establish a framework. WATCH:
What Payne outlines is correct; however, the internal Chinese ‘tariff-offset’ dynamic is actually even a little deeper. Overlaying the NY Fed research we can see that Beijing has attempted to offset the Trump tariffs in four majority ways:
A devaluation of their currency by roughly 10% since the tariffs were implemented. This makes the dollar a higher value when purchasing. The U.S. dollar purchases more stuff.
Direct subsidies by the communist control authority. That is a direct payment to the exporting Chinese company to offset the drop in prices they may need to be competitive.
Indirect subsidies. Remember, China is a communist system. Beijing can tell a province to cancel the electricity bill to a company within that province. Beijing absorbs the cost.
Incentives for enhanced end-product delivery. As Payne noted in the video the Chinese company just give the purchaser more stuff at the same price. That additional stuff offsets the tariff cost. This free stuff shows up in new contract terms.
All of this is an effort by China to diminish the impact of U.S. tariffs against their exports. However, all of this cumulative effort, while small in the individual pieces, when added up is a big economic cost to Beijing. Thus the overall economic loss is starting to snowball as the accumulation of offsets is beginning to aggregate. They cannot continue indefinitely.
China is suffering a slow death by a thousand paper-cuts. The bleeding of cash in combination with the direct loss of $75 billion in annualized exported products that U.S. companies have now sourced from alternative ASEAN nations is biting hard.
The direct outcome is also a drop in China’s purchasing of industrial goods they would normally use in the manufacturing process. This lack of Chinese purchasing is one of the top reasons for the stall in the European economy.
There is a natural lag as supply chains reorient. The ASEAN nations that have picked up U.S. manufacturing contracts first go through a process of increased productivity, expanded utilization of existing manufacturing, before they need to expand to new facilities. Machines operate 20 hours daily – instead of 16 hours; more shifts are added, etc. Until production reaches 100% capacity no ASEAN group is going to purchase the warehoused industrial machinery, not purchased by China, and being stored in the EU.
In this investment, lending and financing dynamic, is where the current Wall Street multinational corps and banks are stalled and watching closely. No-one wants to drop $100 million to help expand a textile company in Vietnam, if Mexico -via the USMCA- ends up being a more cost efficient location. This status is why passage of the USMCA is an important next step for President Trump’s global trade reset.
A final word on a question often asked. What is President Trump doing with the trade negotiations with China? What’s his end?
The answer to that question is actually where one must overlay Trump’s history of energy policy, with the visible signs of his China trade reset that began with his visit to Southeast Asia in November 2017.
President Trump is famously impatient in achieving a financial objective. He is known to have well thought plans, but he is also known to not pause long when executing his plan. This economic impatience may seem to be at odds with the majority of the financial media who say President Trump is playing a long-game with Chairman Xi Jinping.
ERGO the dichotomy is explained thus: If President Trump is famously impatient, then why is he being so deliberate and painfully slow in achieving a deal with Chairman Xi?…
Here’s the ‘ah-ha’ moment.
….The current status with China was the final objective.
President Trump looks like he’s being stunningly patient because President Trump achieved his goal when no-one was paying attention. We are already past the success point.
The goal is essentially achieved.
There is no actual intent to reach a trade deal with China where the U.S. drops the tariffs and returns to holding hands with a happy panda playing by new rules. This fictional narrative is a figment of fantasy being sold by a financial media that cannot fathom a U.S. President would be so bold as to just walk away from China.
That ‘walk away’ is exactly what President Trump did when he left all of those meetings in Southeast Asia in 2017; and every moment since has been setting up, and firming up, an entirely new global supply chain without China.
President Trump is not currently engaged in a substantive trade agreement in the formal way people are thinking about it. Instead “Phase-One” is simply President Trump negotiating the terms of a big Agricultural purchase commitment from Beijing, and also protecting some very specific U.S. business interests (think Apple Co.) in the process.
The actual goal of President Trump’s U.S-China trade reset is a complete decoupling of U.S. critical manufacturing within China.
President Trump does not express angst, frustration, or even disappointment over the U.S-China trade discussions because the decoupling is well underway.
Earlier today President Trump tweeted a humorous meme of Rocky Balboa featuring the superimposed image of President Trump’s head… It’s an apt meme and metaphor.
It’s an obvious meme and given the media’s impeachment drama: “walls closing in”, “it’s the beginning of the end”, “bombshell, Trump is done”, etc. etc. the Rocky metaphor is quite apt and very funny. However, the DC media response is once again stupid; decrying the image as “doctored” and launching actual investigations to get to the bottom of it.
The Washington Post
✔@washingtonpost
Trump tweets doctored photo of his head on Sylvester Stallone’s body, unclear why https://wapo.st/2OnTxzp
Impeachment inquiry live updates: White House faces Sunday deadline on participating in Judiciary…
The panel, led by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) will weigh whether to draft articles of impeachment against President Trump based on his conduct toward Ukraine.
Once again the knuckleheads in the DC bubble media encapsulate why we roll our eyes and nod in understanding the reason these same media dolts are relegated to soundbite Chopper Pressers on the lawn.
More signs the U.S. economy is very strong show up today as several key economic indicators defy prior economist predictions. Staring with a significant upward revision by the Bureau of Economic Analysis for the third quarter GDP growth from 1.9% to 2.1%:
The revision to GDP reflected upward revisions to inventory investment, business investment, and consumer spending.
The increase in consumer spending reflected increases in both goods (notably recreational goods and vehicles as well as food and beverages) and in services (led by housing and utilities as well as food services). (link)
Additionally, the commerce department released data showing U.S. core capital goods orders increased 1.2% in November, the largest gain since January; and more data on home sales shows a whopping 31.6% increase year-over-year.
U.S. consumers and home buyers are benefiting from low inflation and significant blue collar wage gains that are an outcome of a growing economy and a very strong jobs market. The most significant wage growth is in non-supervisory positions. The economic strength is broad-based and the U.S. middle-class is confident.
U.S. core capital goods orders post biggest gain in nine months
New orders for key U.S.-made capital goods increased by the most in nine months in October and shipments rebounded, suggesting some stabilization in business investment after it contracted for two…
Well, well, well…. FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo announced this morning that her sources are saying a USMCA vote is possible next week. This DC source reporting would align with our CTH spidey senses from the visible DC trade twitches.
Something is shaping up in the political background around the USMCA.
Yesterday Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez-Obrador (AMLO) sent a second letterto House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging USMCA ratification. Team Trump and Team AMLO are working together against Team Pelosi & AFL-CIO Richard Trumka.
Essentially AMLO has been saying the labor provisions within the USMCA trade pact are already being put in place by Mexico, and Pelosi should quit trying to hide behind labor concerns to avoid ratification.
Tomorrow, on the eve of Thanksgiving at the request of the Trump administration, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Mexican Foreign Minister Jesus Seade and Canadian Deputy Minister Chrystia Freeland are holding a meeting to discuss the AFL-CIO/Pelosi issues within the USMCA labor provisions.
FM Chrystia Freeland is irrelevant to the meeting; she’s a potted-plant rubber stamp for whatever scheme Pelosi is cooking. It is House Speaker Pelosi who is using her pressure over labor unions to hide behind AFL-CIO Richard Trumka and claim U.S. labor unions have issues with the USMCA labor provisions. It ain’t about labor; it is all political cover.
However, it is interesting that USTR Lighthizer, a man with the patience of Job, called Jesus Seade and Freeland to DC:
WASHINGTON – The three trade ministers from the United States, Canada and Mexico are set to meet in Washington on Wednesday to discuss the deal to replace NAFTA, seven people familiar with the plans told POLITICO.
The meeting involving U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Deputy Canadian Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and Mexican Undersecretary for North America Jesús Seade comes as the Trump administration is nearing a compromise with House Democrats to make changes to the USMCA.
Lighthizer has been negotiating with a group of nine House Democrats to address four main concerns involving the pact’s labor, environmental, enforcement and drug pricing provisions.
Any changes to the text would have to be approved by Canada and Mexico before the Trump administration can finalize the agreement and send it to Congress for a vote. Canada is expected to accept changes to the text without issue. (more)
In her effort to stall the growth of the North American economy, Speaker Pelosi has been trying to block the USMCA by demanding [falsely and with cover by Trumka (AFL-CIO)] that Mexico start a national Social Security program for all Mexican workers.
There’s a bucket load of political obfuscation on the issue, but that’s generally Pelosi’s intentional poison pill. Meanwhile Mexican President Lopez-Obrador has told Lighthizer that Pelosi can go drink a bucket of spit if she thinks the U.S. is going to dictate domestic economic policy to a sovereign country.
Now remember, the USMCA is an agreement between Lighthizer and Seade that Canada joined. The architecture of the agreement was exclusively the U.S. (Team Trump) working with Mexico (Team AMLO) when the deal was constructed in 2018. Canada joined after everything was already assembled; the deal hardly changed at all… you’ll see why.
My hunch is that Robert Lighthizer (Trump) has informed Jesus Seade (AMLO) that Pelosi is just trying to kill any USMCA compact simply because she is attempting to derail the U.S. economy for maximum 2020 political benefit (which she is).
This meeting is going to be Lighthizer and Seade extending some deal framework that will functionally stop Nancy Pelosi and Richard Trumka from making ridiculous claims.
Something akin to modified provisions within the agreement where Mexico agrees to a border enforcement mechanism if a labor dispute panel arbitrates a U.S. labor union challenge within the deal. A mini three nation binding arbitration trade panel of sorts (example: 2 from Canada, 2 from Mexico and 3 from U.S.). This panel would create faster labor/trade dispute resolution than going through an extensive multi-year court case.
There’s going to be paper here…. not talk… an actual papered outline. Trump wouldn’t be having Lighthizer call for Seade if he and AMLO had not already worked the paper.
This is a little weedy, and my hunch is that Lighthizer (Trump) is telling Seade (AMLO) the U.S. panel would be stacked in favor of Mexico [nudge-nudge, wink-wink, say-no-more, say-no-more]. An effort to cut-off Pelosi’s scheme to derail the agreement.
The multinationals are lined up and ready to go all-in, BIGLY, on North American investment that will benefit Mexico. There are tens-of-billions of private sector dollars ready to go, they just need to clear the insufferable Pelosi blockage.
TheLastRefuge@TheLastRefuge2
This is connected to USMCA and USTR Lighthizer discussions with Jesus Seale (on behalf of AMLO) back in 2018, when USMCA was being outlined.
This $44bn investment package is why AMLO has been willing to assist the Trump administration on border security etc. President Trump has leveraged major economic benefit to Mexico because in the larger picture the USMCA, in combination with prior ASEAN agreements, is the economic breech that drains China. However, to receive the benefits, Mexico has to be a stable partner on geopolitical issues including immigration, border security, internal corruption and dealing with drug cartels.
If all goes according to the Trump/AMLO plan Wall Street’s U.S. investment in China will have an alternative in Mexico, and that’s the cornerstone that allows President Trump to begin a more consequential decoupling with Beijing. [Insert India watching here]
Phase-One of the U.S-China deal, if cemented, will be the only phase; and that phase objective is simply constructed to fill the purchase void for the U.S. Agriculture Sector. China opens the financial sector and makes Ag purchases, in exchange POTUS stalls further tariffs on designated sectors that touch upon Phase-one agreements.
If the landscape ends were the compass is heading, there isn’t going to be a multi-sector (manufacturing, IP, big-tech, etc.) phase-two or phase-three deal in the U.S-China future. Instead there will be a decoupling of the U.S-China relationship in direct proportion to the opportunity opened within the U.S-Mexico alliance. [Insert Stock Market Stability Here]
This is the incentive for AMLO, via Jesus Seade, to work with Trump, via Lighthizer, to get Pelosi out of the picture. Once she’s out of the way, the big picture starts moving forward.
Chrystia Freeland and Justin Trudeau are irrelevant, Canada has already destroyed its manufacturing base and cannot enjoy the benefits of massive North American investment. Canada has consigned itself to be a service-driven economy living in the shadow of the U.S. and Mexico. If Canadian politics and social outlooks change later on, well… !
A curiously interesting development in the DOJ case against Michael Flynn. Judge Emmet Sullivan is weighing the merits of the Flynn defense Motion to Compel (MTC), which requests a significant amount of information on DOJ/FBI conduct in the lead-up to Flynn’s prosecution. A decision and court briefing was anticipated soon.
However, today the DOJ files a joint motion with the defense asking Judge Sullivan to suspend scheduled briefing dates and sentencing deadlines until after the DOJ inspector general report is published on December 9th. The implication is that some of the “Brady” material at issue; or tangential issues that touch upon the material; may be outlined in the upcoming IG report.
The joint motion asks for a delay to the briefing schedules, and a delay in the subsequent sentencing therein. The full motion is below:
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
Donald J. Trump
Dan Scavino Jr.
MOMENTS AGO
Centinel2012 