Good grief there’s a lot to unpack within this insufferable beltway cocktail party disguised as a high-brow TV review of the U.S-Iraq-Iran conflict. (Video Below)  However, both of them are clueless about what President Trump is about to do.

First, the generous opinion of General Petraeus as a military strategist is massively inflated. As the recently released Afghanistan Papers have revealed the entire premise of the Petraeus’ strategy was based on lies; fundamental falsehoods; and an upper-tier military devoid of anyone willing to say the emperor was naked. It was all BS.

Secondly, and in support for the first point, any General who would commit himself to a career blackmail position by engaging in grossly inappropriate sexual conduct with a pontificating pustule like Paula Broadwell isn’t exactly a smart fella; and that’s without even considering the Kelly sisters leading him by the penis when Petraeus was CentCom Commander.

Internationally espousing a break-through in a mid-east anti-terror strategy while simultaneously positioning himself to be hoodwinked and blackmailed by the political powers in DC does not lend itself to strategically intelligent bona fides.

The outcome of that Broadwell hot-mess was leverage deployed against General Petraeus when he was CIA director and the crisis around the State Department and CIA joint operational station in Benghazi, Libya, erupted. In the aftermath the Panetta/Clinton operation needed an ally, enter interim political ideologue Michael Morell to replace Petraeus after ODNI James Clapper told the General to exit, or else.

Also, don’t overlook that General Petraeus’ wife, Holly Petraeus, went to work forElizabeth Warren’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; which we all know was a deep state Democrat racketeering operation to gain money from the extortion of banks.  What’s that they say about “birds” and “feathers”? … I digress.

Thirdly, cocktail party host Margaret Brennan is trying way too hard to give the intellectual appearances. This is the kind of third-rate interview to be expected during a DC symposium held just prior to the charity auction where the elitist audience bids thousands for a banana duct-taped to the wall.

The audience oooh’s and aaaahs, meanwhile the kitchen staff -who switched labels on the wine bottles- are laughing hysterically at the participants…. Good grief this is silly.

Notice a sequence Petraeus alluded to:…

• Iran took out a U.S. drone, and President Trump held-back.
• Iran attacked ships in the Straights of Hormuz, yet President Trump held back.
• Iran attacked Saudi oil-fields, and again President Trump held back.
• However, Iran attacked a U.S. base killing an American, wounding three more, and President Trump then vaporized Iranian terrorist Soleimani.

Yet for some reason both General Petraeus and Margaret Brennan cannot seem to identify the difference in the final attack that drew a response not evident in the prior three?

Tell me again about this “brilliant military strategist” who sits in puzzled amazement pontificating about “strategy” yet cannot identify the difference between smashing machines, robots and equipment and killing an actual living, breathing, American citizen.

Just before you pause to consider what is in this video, remind yourself how the Ukraine government offered Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman the job to become their Minister of Defense.

Watch and you’ll see.

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TRUMP: “I know more about ISIS than the generals do. Believe me. I would bomb the shit out of them. (Applause) I would just bomb those suckers. And, that’s right, I’d blow up the pipe, I’d blow up the re — I’d blow up every single inch. There would be nothing left. And do you know what? You will get Exxon to come in there in two months. They will rebuild that sucker brand new, it will be beautiful … and then I would take the oil.”…

If Iran retaliates against us, look for that quote to be behind the response.  When President Trump says “important to Iran and the Iranian culture” he is talking about it from an economic perspective.

Our President will destroy Iran’s capacity to sell oil…. that’s the strategy…. It’s always about the economics. That’s what the knucklehead Generals and TV pontificating pundits don’t understand.

Something is ‘off‘ with Senator Graham’s demeanor in this interview segment; there’s a visible lack of confidence.  Perhaps, and this is only a guess, Graham is wondering if President Trump has out-maneuvered the neocon position toward ultimate mid-east failure by applying the: “be careful what you wish for” approach. Ultimately if the Iraqi government asks the U.S. to leave, I doubt President Trump would be adverse to that request.

In the first half of the video Senator Graham discusses his perspective on the current issues in/around Iraq and Iran vis-a-vis the U.S. killing Iranian terrorist Soleimani.

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In the second half of the interview Senator Graham discusses the status of the impeachment agenda and his plans, or lack thereof, as the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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This speech was originally delivered in late November 2012 after the presidential election.  Setting aside nuances in the Romney aspect watch this video again… in hindsight… and contrast specifically against current events.

Stay with it… watch it all the way through.  Pay attention to the specific subject matter outlined, the details as encapsulated, and contemplate what Bill Whittle says in this video against VERY CURRENT events: “a president who believes in his message“…

On the day the administration briefs congressional leadership about the details of the strike that killed Iranian terrorist Qasem Soleimani, President Trump warns Iran about consequences for any retaliatory strike against Americans:

You don’t have to agree with some of the more moderate viewpoints of Rep. Elise Stefanik to recognize how dangerous she is to the narrative expressed by Democrats.

A good day for a MAGAnomic pause and reminder…

In 2015 we discussed candidate Trump’s economic positions and how they would impact the economy.  CTH anticipated that MAGAnomics would be reversing three decades of federal reserve monetary policy. After about a year of analysis and discussion, in 2016 CTH presented a theory: “A new Dimension in Modern Economics“.

CTH shared a possibility of what could happen if Trump Economic Policy was shifted to favor Main St. over Wall St.  One aspect we presented was how Federal Reserve monetary policy would be oddly disconnected from its ability to influence inflation… Today:

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve could find itself fighting too-low inflation for years to come, San Francisco Federal Reserve President Mary Daly said on Friday, and may need a new policy framework to lift inflation back up to the Fed’s 2% goal.

“We don’t have a really good understanding of why it’s been so difficult to get inflation back up,” Daly said at the annual American Economics Association meeting in San Diego.

But with global growth slowing and the populations of most advanced economies aging, Daly said, “this new ‘fighting inflation from below’ is going to be with us, I would argue, for a longer period of time than just a few years.” (read more)

While the Federal Reserve is perplexed, the underlying reason for monetary policy to be incapable of impacting the rate of inflation is not too complex when you think about the focus of federal economic policy reversing in the era of Trump.

For 30-years +/- U.S. economic policy was geared toward Wall Street.  Corporations looked to maximize profits, manufacturing was shipped overseas, jobs were lost and Main Street suffered.  The Fed monetary policy followed the economic influences of a Wall Street created outcome. U.S. multinationals benefited; U.S. main street companies did not.

A Wall St. economic engine was created. The FED policy followed the new engine. The two entirely different economic engines then detached:

• The Wall Street economy, an engine of sorts, is a “service driven” economy, with manufacturing of cheap imported goods done overseas.
• The Main Street economy, again another engine, is a more balanced “manufacturing” economy; with a balance of imports and finished goods produced in the USA.

Bush, Clinton-Clinton, Bush-Bush and Obama-Obama terms focused on the Wall Street economy.  However, Donald Trump focuses on the Main Street economy.  In 2016, immediately after the election, we wrote about what we might expect to see happen:

2016 […]  Understanding the distance between the real Main Street economic engine and the false Wall Street economic engine will help all of us to understand the scope of an upcoming economic lag; which, rather remarkably I would add, is a very interesting dynamic.

Think about these engines doing a turn about and beginning a rapid reverse.  GDP can, and in my opinion, will, expand quickly.  However, any interest rate hikes (monetary policy) intended to cool down that expansion -fearful of inflation- will take a long time to traverse the divide.

Additionally, inflation on durable goods will be insignificant – even as international trade agreements are renegotiated.  Why?  Simply because the originating nations of those products are going to go through the same type of economic detachment described above.

Those global manufacturing economies will first respond to any increases in export costs (tariffs etc.), by driving their own productivity higher as an initial offset, in the same manner American workers went through in the past two decades.  The manufacturing enterprise and the financial sector remain focused on the pricing.

♦ Inflation on imported durable goods sold in America, while necessary, will ultimately be minimal during this initial period; and expand more significantly as time progresses and off-shored manufacturing finds less and less ways to be productive.   Over time, durable good prices will increase – but it will come much later.

♦ Inflation on domestic consumable goods ‘may‘ indeed rise at a faster pace. However, it can be expected that U.S. wage rates will respond faster, naturally faster, than any monetary policy influence because inflation on fast-turn consumable goods becomes re-coupled to the ability of wage rates to afford them.

The fiscal policy impact lag, caused by the distance between federal fiscal action and the domestic Main Street economy, will now work in our favor.  That is, in favor of the middle-class. (full outline)

What we are seeing in 2019 is precisely this outcome.

Reports of new late-night U.S. airstrikes north of Baghdad are starting to be confirmed.  According to developing reports a convoy of two or three vehicles carrying Iran-back Shia Militia leaders was targeted near Taji in Northern Baghdad. [Convoy pic below]

The strike is reported to have killed Qais Khazali, one of the people the US named as responsible for storming of US Embassy in Baghdad.  Also Shibl al-Zaydi is now confirmed to have been killed. Shibl was the leader of Kata’ib al-Imam Ali or the Imam Ali Battalions.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Air strikes targeting Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces umbrella grouping of Iran-backed Shi’ite militias near camp Taji north of Baghdad have killed six people and critically wounded three, an Iraqi army source said late on Friday.

Two of the three vehicles making up a militia convoy were found burned, the source said, as well as six burned corpses. The strikes took place at 1:12 am local time, he said. (link)

It would appear the U.S. has ongoing excellent intelligence on the movements of key Iranian militia leadership operating in Iraq, and are now working through a list of those targets as they attempt to move around.

Today President Trump is speaking at an “Evangelicals for Trump” coalition kick-off event in Miami, Florida.  Anticipated start time 5:00pm ET

Fox News Livestream – Fox Business Livestream – Alternate Livestream

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