This year we are preparing for a profound change in the world economy come January 2020. We can all “feel” something is just not right. The press has declared an all-out war on Trump to drive him from office in 2020. As I have warned, 2020 is more likely to be the most violent election cycle since the 1960s. Neither side will accept a loss. Worse still, neither side has anyone to offer other than the usual career politician. This political battle will be so profound for we are looking at the prospect of the destruction of Western society in the clash of economic philosophies.
President Trump has come out saying that the former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz “doesn’t have the ‘guts’ to run for President!” He has come out and said he is considering a run for President but as an Independent. I have shown the forecast array on 3rd Party activity for the office of President. We have a Panic Cycle in 2021 and in 2024. We are moving in this direction BECAUSE people have had enough of career politicians. Those in Washington do not want to admit that they have a problem. But in the polls, members of Congress are at the absolute bottom of trust. Even a used car salesman has more trust than a member of Congress.
In an interview that aired on the CBS, Howard Schultz said he was considering mounting an independent bid for president. The businessman, a Democrat, criticized his party and the GOP for what he called a “reckless failure” of constitutional responsibility. He is absolutely correct in that respect. The government shutdown illustrated that the Democrats are no longer capable of managing the economy or government. This has all been reduced to just party politics and nothing more.
Schultz also told CBS “I think, like most people, I’ve become bored with President Trump and his tweets.” That is a fair statement for Trump was a breath of fresh air at first, but that may have grown old.
The Democrats fear Schultz because they think he would split their vote and Trump would win in 2020. What nobody is considering is that an Independent could even win.
We have a lot on the agenda for the May WEC. The politics of Europe will be an important focus as will the impact upon the Euro that will cascade through the world economy. So get ready. We are about to embark on a whole new trend.
According to the DOJ announcement released today three companies: Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., Huawei Device USA Inc. and Skycom Tech Co. Ltd. are charged with bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and conspiracy to violate IEEPA, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Huawei and Huawei USA are charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice related to the grand jury investigation in the Eastern District of New York.
Additionally Ms. Meng Wanzhou is charged with bank fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracies to commit bank and wire fraud. Acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew G. Whitaker, Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Wilbur Ross of the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Attorney Richard P. Donoghue for the Eastern District of New York, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers of the National Security Division, announced the charges:
Keep in mind that China has loaned Venezuela over $50 billion in the past five years. In exchange, Venezuela gave China a 49% stake in PDVSA. Venezuela makes payments on the loans via oil shipments to China.
(VIA U.S. Treasury Dept) Today the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PdVSA) pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13850 for operating in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy. PdVSA is a Venezuelan state-owned oil company and a primary source of Venezuela’s income and foreign currency, to include U.S. dollars and Euros.
“The United States is holding accountable those responsible for Venezuela’s tragic decline, and will continue to use the full suite of its diplomatic and economic tools to support Interim President Juan Guaidó, the National Assembly, and the Venezuelan people’s efforts to restore their democracy,” said Secretary of the Treasury Steven T. Mnuchin.
“Today’s designation of PdVSA will help prevent further diverting of Venezuela’s assets by Maduro and preserve these assets for the people of Venezuela. The path to sanctions relief for PdVSA is through the expeditious transfer of control to the Interim President or a subsequent, democratically elected government.”
As with previous OFAC designations of certain Venezuelan officials and their supporters, U.S. sanctions need not be permanent. Sanctions are intended to change behavior. The United States has made it clear that we will consider lifting sanctions for those who take concrete, meaningful, and verifiable actions to support democratic order and combat corruption in Venezuela, including PdVSA.
As Venezuela’s state owned oil company, PdVSA has long been a vehicle for corruption. A variety of schemes have been designed to embezzle billions of dollars from PdVSA for the personal gain of corrupt Venezuelan officials and businessmen. For example, a 2014 currency exchange scheme was designed to embezzle and launder around $600 million from PdVSA, money obtained through bribery and fraud. By May 2015, the conspiracy had allegedly doubled in amount, to $1.2 billion embezzled from PdVSA.
Abraham Edgardo Ortega, a Venezuelan national who was PdVSA’s executive director of financial planning, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering for his role in the billion-dollar international scheme to launder funds embezzled from PdVSA.
In a separate case, U.S. prosecutors have alleged that, from 2011 to 2013, senior Government of Venezuela and PdVSA officials, including Nervis Villalobos, the former Venezuelan vice minister of energy; Rafael Reiter, who worked as PdVSA’s head of security and loss prevention; and Luis Carlos de Leon, a former official at a state-run electric company, sought bribes and kickbacks from vendors in exchange for helping them secure PdVSA contracts and gain priority over other vendors for outstanding invoices during its liquidity crisis.
Today’s action designating PdVSA follows a determination by Secretary Mnuchin pursuant to E.O. 13850 that persons operating in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy may be subject to sanctions.
Concurrent with this action, OFAC is issuing general licenses that authorize certain transactions and activities related to PdVSA and its subsidiaries within specified timeframes.
As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of PdVSA subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them. (link)
8:15 p.m. – AP – The Mexican government says it disagrees with a map displayed by the White House that shows Mexico among those countries that support Venezuela’s embattled president, Nicolas Maduro.
National security adviser John Bolton held a press briefing Monday with a map that showed in red the countries supporting Maduro and in blue those nations supporting the Venezuelan congress leader Juan Guaido, who has declared himself Venezuela’s interim president.
Mexico’s ambassador to the U.S. told reporters in Washington that her government isn’t taking sides in the crisis.
In Ambassador Martha Barcena’s words: “We are not against the U.S. regarding the position on Venezuela. We are not siding with Maduro. We are not siding with Guaido. We think a third way of a peaceful solution can be found.” (read more)
Internal polling and fear of resistance backlash must be significant for the democrats. President Donald Trump accepted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s invitation to deliver his State of the Union speech on Feb. 5, a week later than originally scheduled.
Beware of hyped headlines. AAG Matthew Whitaker made some remarks today about the Robert Mueller probe “hopefully, being close to completed”. That’s pretty vague. Watch:
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The Mueller probe will end at the closely coordinated and pre-selected time when Mueller hands off his investigation to Elijah Cummings (WH oversight), Adam Schiff (HPSCI), and Jerry Nadler (Judiciary). That timing looks to be around the end of February if current congressional witness schedules remain unchanged.
The timing will also be dictated by how the resistance view William Barr taking office. Keeping in mind the political pantomime has to build in some hype-time for congress to argue with DOJ (build a narrative) about Mueller’s report while media align with a new found demand for DOJ transparency.
Devin Nunes dropped a bombshell yesterday in an interview with Maria Bartiromo [Video Here]. Many people are overlooking the implications of his speculation; and, more importantly how Nunes statement answers just about every contradictory question people have carried. Including:
Why Rosenstein introduced Mueller to President Trump the day before he was appointed as Special Counsel?
Why President Trump has NOT been able to declassify documents? and
Why President Trump is, and will always be, hamstrung by the Mueller investigation?
In short, Devin Nunes speculated that Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein put the substantive allegations from the Fusion-GPS/Ohr/Steele Dossier into his investigative instructions (full pdf below) that he gave Robert Mueller.
If it is accurate that Rosenstein charged Robert Mueller with investigating the dossier claims; and if Nunes is accurate that the DOJ investigative target, a derivative of the dossier, is Donald Trump; well, everything starts to make a hell of a lot more sense.
If the mandate given to Robert Mueller was to specifically investigate the sitting president of the United States as an active participant, and subsequent target, for a counterintelligence operation, then DAG Rod Rosenstein -and Mueller- would have to hide that mandate from everyone and anyone.
More specifically, Rosenstein would NEVER be able to honestly discuss the Mueller probe with President Trump; because President Trump would be the primary target within the investigation. And that changes EVERYTHING.
Now, at first blush this likelihood might sound disingenuous, but if you think about the downstream ramifications; and then contrast those ramifications against what we know has factually taken place; then things make a lot more sense.
Remember, back when this entire nonsense began, President Trump strongly said he had nothing to do with any coordination with Russia; nothing to do with collusion with Russia; and also stated he was okay with the investigation as it looked into the propriety of people within the 2016 campaign. However, these statements were also with the assumption, held by himself as a result of -perhaps false- confirmations from James Comey, that he himself was not a target.
If Nunes speculation is accurate; and if the reporting (based on leaks) that has surfaced in the two-plus years of the investigation is accurate; then President Trump was and is the target, and none of the principles would be able to discuss the key elements specifically because of this extra-constitutional issue.
All of President Trump’s prior commentary would be based on a (2017/2018) assumption that he was not the target of the FBI probe that was eventually turned over to Mueller by Rosenstein. If Nunes is accurate; and that origination instruction includes the specific charge to investigate the President; then all prior assumptions are invalid.
Examples:
Rosenstein (or any DOJ/FBI official) would always be engaging with POTUS as a target. All conversation would be clouded by that aspect. As a result, Rosenstein could never be fully honest with President Trump; or answer any question therein.
Any action taken by President Trump (emphasis on “any”) would therefore potentially be direct influence by the President toward an investigation that held him as a target. He could never be permitted to approach the investigation…. yet he would never find anyone with an honest answer as to why he cannot approach the investigation.
We previously pondered this aspect when we outlined “the declassification conundrum“. However, at the time we did not evaluate the classifications issue from a targetperspective; we were evaluating the issue as if President Trump was the victim of the illegal targeting.
If you flip the paradigm and now look at what actions President Trump could take, while reconsidering that he is the likely principle target, well, two years of contradictory things start to make more sense.
The conversation, and inability of Rosenstein to be honest with POTUS, changes the dynamic of this tweet:
POTUS writing: “may have a perceived negative impact on the Russia probe” takes on a whole new meaning when you consider a conversation where Rosenstein cannot be honest with the target of the “Russia probe”…. and the target has essentially no idea.
Remember, throughout 2017 and 2018, the basic assumption -due to visible and public declarations by the DOJ- was that Mueller was conducting an investigation into Russian interference with the election; and/or other matters that may surface as an outcome of that investigation. However, we never knew (still don’t) the actual content of the August 2017 clarification mandate that Rosenstein gave to Mueller (see below):
If accurate, we can imagine a conversation where Mueller approaches Rosenstein in July and August 2017:
Mueller: “Rod, Andrew [Weissmann] wants to go deep into this stuff his buddy Glenn Simpson gave to the team; however, it’s likely a lot of this stuff doesn’t have anything to do with Russian interference of the election. If you want me to allow that, you’re going to have to give some specific expansion of the investigation, in writing, to look into all the stuff inside this dossier.”
Rosenstein: “OK Bob, I’ll put it in writing, but we’ve got to keep this part away from view or the targets will know we’re using an unvetted dossier, which could be portrayed as political opposition research funded by Clinton, as evidence against them…. fair enough?”
Taking Nunes speculation as accurate (after much more thought, it likely is) the redacted portion of the published mandate would be the part where President Trump is outlined as a target.
A direct target, or an indirect target, matters not. What matters is that President Trump is A TARGET. That would explain why Mueller requested that Rosenstein write down a much more expanded explanation for the mandate that no-one, [NO-ONE other than Judge Ellis (Manafort case)], has ever seen.
Knowing he would be entering into this foray where President Trump is the target, you can easily see why Mueller would want to meet with President Trump ahead of accepting the job. The entire enterprise would be fraught with tenuous extra-constitutional issues. Mueller’s target is the most powerful person in the world; and the ramifications are rather stunning.
Any action taken by President Trump to declassify documents, that would show the dubious structure of the originating FBI investigation, would now be considered as: the target of the investigation undermining the investigation into himself.
Under this principle, congress requesting President Trump to declassify documents showing the unlawful nature of the investigative origination is an exercise in futility.
Congress is asking the target of the unlawful investigation to declassify evidence that was assembled against him. The target then turns to the people who are investigating him and says please declassify….. however, the receiver (DOJ) is getting a request from their target.
Getting a declassification request from Congress is one thing; but getting a declassification request from the target of their investigation is a request they can neither fulfill nor explain their lack of fulfillment.
From the position of the DOJ:
As a counterintelligence target President Trump cannot declassify evidence, nor can he direct anyone to declassifying any evidence on his behalf.
FUBAR
Ultimately the only person who can correct this issue appears to be the same person who started this entire mess, Rod Rosenstein. Which likely explains why he said he will leave the DOJ when Mueller is finished.
WASHINGTON — Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who had been overseeing the special counsel investigation, plans to step down after Robert Mueller submits his report, according to administration officials familiar with his thinking.
A source close to Rosenstein said he intends to stay on until Mueller submits a report to the Justice Department on the Russian meddling investigation. The source said that would mean Rosenstein would remain until early March. (link)
[*note* from this timeline you can see how the impeachment plans of Pelosi, Cummings, Schiff and Nadler align with Mueller (report) and Rosenstein (exit). Nunes is trying to catch Rosenstein before he can escape the coming shitstorm he created]
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein initiated the specific investigation into President Trump by authorizing, and later clarifying, that Mueller is to proceed with the special counsel mandate that includes President Trump as a target.
….And knowing that dynamic completely changes the background review about how corrupt Andrew McCabe’s allies in the FBI and media started leveraging against Rod Rosenstein for their own benefit.
White House Director of Strategic Communications appears on Fox News to discuss the ongoing appropriations discussion, and the White House position on border security to avoid another shutdown in three weeks.
The widely held view of the process is/was that Rod Rosenstein selected Robert Mueller as special counsel, and following that selection Mueller created his team. The perspective from CTH research is slightly different.
CTH believes that following the firing of FBI Director James Comey, the FBI Chief Legal Counsel, Jim Baker and FBI Deputy Director, Andrew McCabe; together with the corrupt small group that was involved in the prior year’s counterintelligence investigation; reacted to Comey’s firing by pressuring Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to appoint their preferred person, Robert Mueller.
Within this internal debate (May 2017); at the time this construct was being argued; is when the famous comment from Rosenstein originates: “what do you want me to do, wear a wire?” The corrupt FBI investigative crew; having initiated and continued “Crossfire Hurricane”; including people from the DOJ-NSD side (Ohr, Weissmann, etc) were pressuring Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel….. but not just any special counsel.. Baker and McCabe had the person pre-selected. That person was Robert Mueller.
Obviously we can see the reason for this FBI/DOJ crew to need a special counsel. As career corruptocrats they were operating from a mindset of mitigating risk to themselves and continuing to advance on the objective to attack the executive office through their investigative schemes. The key point here is subtle but very significant. Robert Mueller didn’t select his team, the corrupt team selected him.
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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
President Trump has come out saying that the former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz “doesn’t have the ‘guts’ to run for President!” He has come out and said he is considering a run for President but as an Independent. I have shown the forecast array on 3rd Party activity for the office of President. We have a Panic Cycle in 2021 and in 2024. We are moving in this direction BECAUSE people have had enough of career politicians. Those in Washington do not want to admit that they have a problem. But in the polls, members of Congress are at the absolute bottom of trust. Even a used car salesman has more trust than a member of Congress.
Centinel2012 