Boy howdy, Maria Bartiromo has the big picture of the 2015/2016 political weaponization of the intelligence apparatus exactly right.  In this interesting interview with Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham both Bartriromo and Graham discuss the scale and scope of the 2015/2016 effort to stop Trump.

Interestingly, in a shift of tone, Senator Graham outlines what this surveillance operation means when contrast against the structures of our constitutional government.

Traditionally Lindsey Graham would bury any issue adverse to the institutions of the DC administrative state.  So there’s two possibilities here:  (A) Graham has fundamentally changed his outlook toward the dangers of the institutions within government; or, (B) Graham is doing a full ‘Castellanos‘ and embracing the controversy in order to control the risk to the administrative state with intent to protect it. [The latter is tradition]

The best way for DC to protect itself from the mob’s approach is to lead it themselves. The modern GOPe club has used this defense sending agents to the front of the grassroots anger in order to control the outcome. [Fast-n-Furious, IRS targeting, Benghazi, etc.]

♦When the common sense Tea Party movement formed in 2009 and 2010 it contained a monumentally frustrated grassroots electorate, and the scale of the movement caught the professional republican party off-guard.

♦When Donald Trump ran for the office of the presidency in 2015 and 2016 he essentially did the same thing; he disrupted the apparatus of the professional republican party.

The difference between those two examples is one was from the bottom up, and the second was from the top down. The commonality in the two forces resulted in the 2016 victory.

It took a few years for the heavily armored old guard of GOP to formulate a plan to retain their control. In the example of the Tea Party, the republican power structures moved in 2011 through 2014 to co-opt the vulgarian movement and impede their disruptive influence. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was at the forefront of those power moves. {Go Deep} and {Go Deep} The basic issue for the GOP was retention of power.

McConnell and crew tamped down the fire. A few years pass and the issues that spurred the Tea Party movement remained unresolved. In 2015 Donald Trump taps in to that exact same Tea Party frustration toward the control authority within one-half of the DC UniParty; again, the professional republican apparatus was disrupted.

From the first moment candidate Trump announced his platform positions; from the very first poll *after* those platform positions were announced; Donald Trump was leading the republican field in every-single-poll from August of 2015 through today. Center stage throughout 2015 and 2016 and President of the United States as an outcome therein.

Yes, the “movement” rebranded and now MAGA wins the presidency.

However, think back to the 2015 instructions from republican insider Alex Castellanos as he described how the RNC could eliminate the disruptive influence of Donald Trump:

[…] “The best way to do it is how Brutus killed Caesar. Get real close, snuggle up, and shiv him in the ribs”… (link)

For the past two years it’s been a never-ending game of whac-a-mole as each of the establishment minded embeds surfaces at different times. Within the dynamic, the one commonality within the internecine conflict inside the Trump administration is the establishment GOP -vs- Trump MAGA.

It’s like having an independent MAGA administration that contains establishment terror cells. Each cell acts independently, but each cell also acts based on a common objective: retain the UniParty.

When you think about the actual structure of the National Republican Party -vs- the state party machines; it’s enough to make you wonder if the mid-term outcome and lack of structural fight was not part of this dynamic. After all, “their” party was taken over by a new MAGA base and a new pragmatic political leader, Donald Trump.

The same UniParty dynamic is visible in the way the FBI/DOJ and aggregate intelligence community were weaponized against Donald Trump – with Democrats and Republicans participating in the unlawful processes. Now, in the downstream consequence phase, we see a UniParty defense approach to block Trump from revealing what happened.

I’m not sure people fully completely understand this dynamic within “spygate”. It was not a targeting operation by democrats; republicans were just as complicit. The ongoing goal to eliminate candidate and president Trump is *not* partisan.

I hope Senator Lindsey Graham has encountered something that has fundamentally changed his core sense of identity.  I truly hope that is the case.  However, in the modern era of DC politics I cannot reference an example where the outlook of the individual, the guiding principles, changed inside a politician.

Check the audience at 01:25 (look fast):

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CTH has been in this modern-era conservative battle for a long time.  We have the GOPe battle scars, and a thousand points of betrayal to reference.

The genuine Tea-Party/MAGA movement has the same ideologies and objectives.  It is the ‘Monster Vote’.  It is also the most important political movement in our lifetime.  However, we will not promote ‘hope-porn’ and fantasy proclamations amid sudden appearances of political altruism.

We fight for DC change; we support our President, and we accept the battle-space as it exists; not as we wish it to be.

Proceed with cautious optimism…

National Economic Council Chairman Larry Kudlow appears on Fox News to debate Chris Wallace over the U.S-China trade reset.  As customary Wallace completely ignores the dynamic of communist China as a state run economy, and not a free market system; thus presenting the fictitious Wall Street position about bad tariffs.

Chairman Kudlow notes the bigger issues of President Trump confronting the enforcement mechanisms that must be in place if a trade agreement (FTA) between a free-market system (USA) and a state-run system (China) are going to work…

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Washington, DC – U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer today released the following statement regarding additional action under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974:

“Earlier today, at the direction of the President, the United States increased the level of tariffs from 10 percent to 25 percent on approximately $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. The President also ordered us to begin the process of raising tariffs on essentially all remaining imports from China, which are valued at approximately $300 billion.”

The process for public notice and comment will be published shortly in the Federal Register. The details will be on the USTR website on Monday as we begin the process prior to a final decision on these tariffs.  (link)

Earlier today President Trump celebrates with Major League Baseball champions Boston Red Sox at the White House.  [Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript] South Lawn – 3:44 P.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT: Well, there’s nothing like the White House. And a little rain is okay. We might wipe out a suit, but that’s all right, too. It’s raining a little bit, fellas. Nobody told me about that. You don’t need umbrellas, I know that.

Well, good afternoon. It’s my pleasure to welcome to the White House the 2018 World Series Champion, the Boston Red Sox. A very special group of people. (Applause.) A very special team. Thank you.

With us this afternoon are some of your biggest fans in my administration and on Capitol Hill, including Administrator Andrew Wheeler. Where’s Andrew? Andrew? A lot of deputy secretaries. A very great senator, Senator Tom Cotton. Tom. Ah, look at that beautiful boy is a big fan — right, Tom? Tom was a good player.

We’re also delighted to be joined by the senior leadership of Fenway Sports Group and the Boston Red Sox, John Henry. A great, great businessman. John, thank you very much. (Applause.) Great businessman.

Tom Werner, a man who has done a fantastic job in life. Where the hell is he? Tom. (Laughter and applause.) Mike Gordon, Sam Kennedy, and David Dombrowski. Thanks, fellas. Fantastic. (Applause.) Fantastic job. Great. To all the coaches and players of the Red Sox: Congratulations on your incredible victory.

The team has just come from the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where they visited our wounded heroes and wounded warriors. (Applause.) And they believe very strongly in that.

I want to thank the entire Red Sox organization for your longstanding support for those American service members who have suffered the wounds of war to keep our country safe and strong and free. And we’ve never had a stronger military, right now. This is the strongest it’s been — $716 billion we spent last year, John. That’s a lot of money, even for you, right? Would you say? (Laughter.) That’s a lot of money.

Over the course of the 2018 season, the Red Sox were — frankly, they were unstoppable. I watched. You outscored your opponents by 229 runs and won 108 games in the regular season — the most in Red Sox history. (Applause.) You’ve got a lot of fans over here. You’ve got a lot of fans, huh? That’s a lot of fans they have.

In the playoffs, you bested your archrival, the Yankees. (Applause.) I think I’ll be a neutral on this one, huh? (Laughter.) But you did. You beat them, and beat the defending champions, the Astros — another great team — taking home the American League pennant and clinching a spot in the World Series.

After taking a two-game lead at historic Fenway Park to start the Series, you headed to Los Angeles for Game 3. I was at Fenway Park; I threw out the first pitch a long time ago. And George Steinbrenner was not happy about it. (Laughter.) That cooled my relationship with him for about two days. But he forgot about it. That was good.

But you headed to Los Angeles for Game 3. For 7 hours and 20 minutes, you faced the Dodgers in one of the most exciting games in postseason history.

It was in the 12th inning that relief pitcher Nathan Eovaldi — where’s Nathan? (Applause.) Where is Nathan? That was — that was a good job he did. Did you ever see such good-looking people behind me, too? (Laughter.) Not the owners; forget the owners. (Laughter.)

He stepped up to the mound. Over the final seven innings, Nathan threw 97 pitches, allowed only 3 hits, and struck out 5 batters. Nathan, that’s a great performance. We watched it. It was a dominant performance. Congratulations. (Applause.)

MR. EOVALDI: Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: Though you ultimately lost Game 3 by a single run, Eovaldi’s tremendous effort inspired the whole team. You knew what a World Series victory was, you knew it was in reach, and you didn’t want to do anything to blow it. And that’s what happened.

But then in Game 4, after the Dodgers scored four unanswered runs, things were looking very grim. In the dugout, your starting pitcher, Chris Sale — who, by the way, last night, struck out 14 batters. (Applause.) That’s pretty good, right? No, I said, “How’s Chris doing?” “Well, he struck out 14 last night.” I said, “Fourteen?” I never heard about 14. I said, “Was that your best?” He said “No.” Fifteen is your best, right? (Laughter.) That’s called a power pitcher, by the way.

In the dugout, your starting pitcher, Chris, decided to give the team a little pep talk. Are you an emotional guy? Pretty much, huh? Because I heard it was a hell of a pep talk. Give us a little pep talk every once and a while. (Laughter.)

With great passion, Chris shouted, pointed to the field, and rallied the Red Sox. And, Chris, I know what you said. I heard little things about your — what you said. And we have children here, so I’m not going to talk about it. (Laughter.) But it worked. It really worked.

World Series MVP Steve Pearce tied it up. (Applause.) He tied it up and — with a home run. You’re doing well this year? Pretty well this year, right? Huh? (Laughter.) He’s doing well this year. When it counts, he really does well. Those are the ones we really like, huh? Followed by three RBIs in the ninth, the Sox won — 9 to 6 — and never looked back.

Chris Sale then returned to the mound for the final game. With two outs and a one-and-two count in the bottom of the ninth, against a great hitter, Sale stared down the batter, wound up, and delivered an amazing slider. Was that a slider? (Laughter.) You gave up the fastball? And the batter went down swinging and the Red Sox won the World Series. (Applause.) Right? It’s pretty good, huh? It’s pretty good.

In 2004, the Red Sox achieved their first World Series victory in 86 years. You quickly won two more in 2007, 2013. With your victory over the Dodgers, you now have won more World Series than any other team in this century. That’s pretty good, huh? (Applause.) Must be the ownership, too. I don’t know. I know these owners are great.

In the same period, Boston teams have won six Super Bowls, as well as an NBA and an NHL championship. And this has to be a great time for Boston’s fans. If you think of it, what Boston has done in a short period of time is pretty amazing — in a lot of ways, but in sports, certainly. Congratulations. That’s great.

Each Red Sox player is a shining example of excellence, living out an American sporting tradition that goes back many generations. From the open fields of our rich farmlands to the playgrounds and the vacant lots of our great cities, kids everywhere learn to catch fly balls, swing for the fences, and race to home plate. Baseball is truly America’s pastime.

I love it. I don’t know — I guess everyone out there loves it. You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t. But I love it. It’s a special — it’s a special game, a special sport. I played on a slightly different level. It’s called “on high school.” A little different level, but every spring I loved it. The smell in the air, right? Does that make sense? The smell in the air, right? It’s an amazing feeling.

Through every pitch, inning, game, and series, the 2018 Red Sox never gave up and never backed down. You always played like champions. This is a great champion right here, too. This is some champion. I want to congratulate you all on your spectacular victory.

And I just want to have Chris Sale and J.D. Martinez — two outstanding players and athletes and people — come up and say a few words. And then, after that, I’m going to take — unless the team doesn’t want to do it — you know, they never get to see Lincoln Bedroom. It’s like, sort of, you’re not supposed to be showing it. So if the press, the media, doesn’t report me for this, I’m going to take them up and show them the Lincoln Bedroom. They wanted to see the Lincoln Bedroom. So I’m going to give the tour myself. Okay? (Laughter.)

But, J.D., if you and Chris would come up and say a few words. Thank you. Thank you very much. Great job. (Applause.)

Thank you, Chris. Please.

MR. SALE: Well, Mr. President, on behalf of the Boston Red Sox organization, we’d like to thank you for having us here to celebrate our 2018 World Series Championship team. We’d like to thank our — obviously, our spouses, our family members, and friends, and our fans for coming here. This is a very high honor. It’s something that we appreciate very highly. And thank you again.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Congratulations. (Applause.)

MR. MARTINEZ: I just want to say thank you, Mr. President, for this once in a lifetime opportunity to be honored today here at the White House. And I know celebrating a Red Sox victory is tough for you, given that you’re a Yankee fan and all. (Laughter.)

But we really want to say thank you for your hospitality today. And we brought you a gift: this Red Sox jersey.

THE PRESIDENT: Wow.

MR. MARTINEZ: For you.

THE PRESIDENT: Beautiful. Thank you very much. (Applause.)

MR. MARTINEZ: Thank you.

MR. HENRY: Well, once again, I want to congratulate this group of men who — and women — who put together the best Red Sox team in history last year. And I — (applause) — thank you.

But, of course, we — we would not have been successful over the years in winning these titles without the fans of the Red Sox who are global. We often hear and see service men who are serving across the world who are tuning in to Red Sox games. And it’s a truly remarkable phenomenon around the world and throughout the United States that — how loyal and how committed Red Sox fans are. And they’re the reason that we have the resources to be successful.

And thank you, Mr. President, for this honor today. It really is an honor. And thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, John. Thank you, fellas. (Applause.)

So, again, I want to thank everybody for being here. A very, very special group. And I want to thank the families of the players — because without the families, it just wouldn’t work. You know that. They wouldn’t be up here. It would never work.

Thank you all for being here. It’s a tremendous honor to have you in the White House. And we’re going to look at the Lincoln Bedroom. (Laughter.) Thank you. Thank you everybody. (Applause.)

END 3:56 P.M. EDT

The Southern District of New York has released a criminal complaint to accompany the seizure of a North Korean freighter “Wise Honest” (Full pdf below). The freighter was seized by Indonesian authorities on/around April 2, 2018 [media story here]. However, the background story of Wise Honest is more interesting.

The indictment outlines how the freighter was used to transport coal from North Korea to China and Russia and back-haul heavy equipment from Chinese ports into the DPRK. However, the transport network changed with the timing of increased sanctions on the DPRK.  Simply, the ship was routed to avoid being caught for violating sanctions.

The indictment also outlines how Chinese entities in Hong Kong assisted with routing the vessel to avoid maritime surveillance. There’s an aspect here that overlays a prior set of CTH discussions surrounding U.S. Navy training for a potential U.S. maritime blockade.

You might remember November 2017 CTH discussions about U.S. vessels conducting training exercises in/around shipping lanes. In 2017 and 2018 there were some maritime collisions that seemed to align with the possibility of these training exercises. In June 2017 The USS Fitzgerald was one such example near the coast of Japan.

On page 19 of the indictment the DOJ outlines how vessel Wise Honest was turning off their “Automated Identification System” (AIS), which is the automatic beacon that transmits their location to other surface vessels via satellite.

An interesting coincidence given the previous discussions on those 2017 Pacific shipping lane maritime collisions.

Here’s the full pdf. It’s an interesting read:

This is the big one.  This is the inflection moment.  Tonight around 5:00pm Chinese Vice-Chairman Liu He will engage with team U.S.A. on the substantive issues around the future of the U.S-China trade relationship.   Trillions at stake.

At midnight tonight the tariffs on Round One of Chinese goods are scheduled to increase from 10 percent to 25 percent.  Round Two is yet determined.  The background for the disposition of TEAM USA was outlined HERE.

Mnuchin – Trump – Lighthizer and Ross

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnunchin previously worked a 150-page outline agreement with China on seven chapters of trade issues covering: Theft of U.S. intellectual property; protection for trade secrets; forced technology transfers; competition policy; access to financial services; and currency manipulation.  Last week China reversed course on all of the substantive agreements. 

Today Vice-Chairman Liu He is going to try to justify to President Trump why China can no longer accept the commitments they made over the past three months.

It cannot be overstated how everything in/around DC must first be filtered through the prism of this inflection point.  At the heart of U.S. politics, the majority of the Senate Chamber is aligned with the Chinese through purchased multinational lobbying interests. Again, there are trillions at stake.  Wall Street through K-Street has paid the Big Club to defend their multinational/financial interests from President Trump.

BEIJING (Reuters) – China appealed to the United States to meet it halfway to salvage a deal that could end their trade war, with its chief negotiator in Washington for two days of talks hoping to stave off U.S. tariff hikes set to be triggered on Friday.

The two sides had appeared to be converging on a deal until last weekend, when U.S. President Donald Trump announced his intention to raise tariffs with his negotiators saying that China was backtracking on earlier commitments.

“The U.S. side has given many labels recently, ‘backtracking’, ‘betraying’ etc…China sets great store on trustworthiness and keeps its promises, and this has never changed,” Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng said on Thursday.

[…] Gao said the decision to send the delegation led by Vice Premier Liu He to Washington despite the tariff threat demonstrated China’s “utmost sincerity”.

“We hope the U.S. can meet China halfway, take care of each others’ concerns, and resolve existing problems through cooperation and consultations,” he said.

Gao urged the United States to eschew unilateral action, while warning China was fully prepared to defend its interests.

“China’s attitude has been consistent and China will not succumb to any pressure. China has made preparations to respond to all kinds of possible outcomes.” He did not elaborate.

U.S. government and private sector sources previously told Reuters that a draft trade agreement was riddled with reversals by China that undermined core U.S. demands.

In each of the seven chapters of the draft, China had deleted its commitments to change laws to resolve core complaints that caused the United States to launch a trade war: Theft of U.S. intellectual property and trade secrets; forced technology transfers; competition policy; access to financial services; and currency manipulation.

The stripping of binding legal language from the draft struck directly at the highest priority of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer – who views changes to Chinese laws as essential to verifying compliance after years of what U.S. officials have called empty reform promises.  (read more)

 

President Trump also stated his willingness to levy Round-Two tariffs on an additional $325 billion of China’s goods; layered on top of the $250 billion of its products already outlined.

Since July 2018, China has cumulatively imposed counter-tariffs of up to 25 percent on about $110 billion of U.S. products. China last levied tariffs, of 5 percent to 10 percent, on $60 billion U.S. goods including liquefied natural gas and small aircraft in September ’18.

Based on 2018 U.S. Census Bureau trade data, China only has about $10 billion in U.S. imports left to levy in retaliation for further U.S. tariffs, including crude oil and large aircraft.