Director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro appears on CNN with Jake Tapper to discuss pending steel and aluminum tariffs.   During the interview Navarro rightly outlined the possibility of some product “exemptions” but there no country “exclusions” for new trade tariffs.

What the media refuse to explain (willful blindness), on the country exclusion aspect, is that Chinese steel dumping doesn’t come from China alone.  China uses proxy countries in Asia as shipment depots to avoid tariffs.  Additionally, China use Mexico and Canada in North America as destinations for their steel product to gain tariff-free NAFTA access to the U.S. market.   The only way to avoid their use of proxy shipment hubs is to tax all steel and aluminum globally.

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House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes interview with Fox News Host Neil Cavuto to discuss the ongoing FISA abuse investigation.

Chairman Nunes highlights two key issues:  #1) The risk to the Democrats in having their use of a politically weaponized FBI and DOJ exposed; and #2) It is against the interests of the U.S. media to highlight the alarming investigative discoveries, because the media participated in pushing the narrative which aided the weaponization.

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Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appeared on Fox Business with Lou Dobbs earlier tonight for a discussion of Steel and Aluminum tariffs and ongoing U.S. trade initiatives.

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I think we’ve figured out why President Trump is doing the Steel and Aluminum tariffs ahead of the NAFTA withdrawal.  Perhaps, the wolverine administration is using Steel and Aluminum to draw attention to the NAFTA fatal flaw.

Earlier today Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland stated:

“Should restrictions be imposed on Canadian steel and aluminum products, Canada will take responsive measures to defend its trade interests and workers,” Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement, calling any trade restrictions“absolutely unacceptable.”  (link)

The key word in that statement from Freeland is “products”. Why? because Canada doesn’t make more than a boutique amount of raw Steel.  (Top 40 List)  The Canadians, like the Mexicans, import the vast majority of their raw steel from China.  Canada then fabricates products from the Chinese steel.  This nuanced point is almost always lost on people who discuss trade.  This point of origination is also the fatal flaw within NAFTA.

In essence Canada is a brokerage for Chinese manufactured material, and NAFTA is the access trade-door exploited by China for entry into the U.S. market.  More on that in a moment.  First watch Justin from Canada explain his country’s position. (prompted, just hit play):

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If the U.S. were to exit NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), the price you pay for most foodstuff at the grocery store would drop 10% in the first quarter and likely drop 20% or more by the end of the first year. Here’s why:

Approximately a decade ago the U.S. Dept of Agriculture stopped using U.S. consumer food prices within the reported measures of inflation. The food sector joined the ranks of fuel and energy prices in no longer being measured to track core inflation and backdrop Fed monetary policy. Not coincidentally this was simultaneous to U.S. consumers seeing massive inflation in the same highly consumable sector.

There are massive international corporate and financial interests who are inherently at risk from President Trump’s “America-First” economic and trade platform. Believe it or not, President Trump is up against an entire world economic establishment.

When you understand how trade works in the modern era you will understand why the agents within the system are so adamantly opposed to U.S. President Trump.

The biggest lie in modern economics, willingly spread and maintained by corporate media, is that a system of global markets still exists.

It doesn’t.

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The professional financial class are going bananas at the steel and aluminum tariffs being implemented by the Trump administration.  As expected, most of the apoplectic drum-beating is coming from the Wall Street crowd.  This same Wall Street crowd conveniently overlooks that last year the EU imposed even HIGHER tariffs on steel and aluminum than the Trump administration is proposing now.

Laughably this group of talking heads is pitching the trade and economic position of Canada and the EU in their talking points. However, the hypocrisy is off the charts.

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If you think the professional financial class are over-the-top now, just wait until the administration pulls out of NAFTA. These are the battles that matter. The administration is directly over the target. The multinational corporate crowd, including their corporately owned media, are pushing a fundamentally false set of talking points; their economic dishonesty reflects their desperation.

When Main Street economic principles are applied Wall Street will initially lose. There’s no way for this not to happen. Most of Wall Street is built on the Multinational platform of economic globalism. Weaken the grip of the multinational corporations and financial interests on the U.S. economy and Wall Street will drop… this is not difficult to predict. This is also necessary.

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The New York Times (Matt Appuzzo & Adam Goldman) published an article yesterday citing a pending DOJ Inspector General Horowitz report that points the finger at former Asst. FBI Director Andrew McCabe for leaking information to the media.

Citing four people familiar with the IG inquiry, the motive for the New York Times is transparent. The “small group” of DOJ/FBI officials are trying to head-off the disturbing aspect to the IG outline and spin a false narrative.   However, our earlier research into the text messaging of Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, in combination with the leak in question to former Wall Street Journal reporter Devlin Barrett, allows us to see through the narrative.

The unnamed officials within the back-story, clouded by the verbiage in both the New York Times recent article and the Washington Post follow-up, are all ‘small group’ members: FBI Asst Director Andrew McCabe, FBI Agent Peter Strzok, FBI Attorney Lisa Page, FBI Chief of Staff Jim Rybicki and FBI Public Relations Director Mike Kortan.

Prior reporting showed Asst. FBI Director Andrew McCabe -along with the entire small group- became aware of the Clinton emails on the Huma Abedin/Anthony Weiner laptop on September 28th, 2016.  Attempting to protect Hillary Clinton, text messages showed McCabe and crew withheld that information for several weeks until October 28, 2016, when congress was notified and a public statement was made by Mike Kortan and FBI Director James Comey.

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This evening House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes sends a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions questioning the protocol and legality of a fraudulent FISA application submitted by the FBI.   This approach sets up AG Sessions to defer the legal framework to OIG Michael Horowitz, and establishes the public basis for parallel prosecutors within the DOJ.

However, keep in mind, it’s extremely likely, almost certain, these prosecutors already exist – they are already working with Horowitz.  Evidence of this is found in the memo quotes from Bill Priestap, but those not following the granular details are unaware.

In the letter to AG Jeff Sessions (full pdf below), Nunes is requesting the DOJ provide answers to what his committee calls “clear violations of FBI protocols” in obtaining the FISA Title-1 warrant against Carter Page on October 26th, 2016.

Chairman Nunes also wants to know whether guidelines embodied in the latest 2011 version of the bureau’s Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (DIOG), outlining what the FBI must do when submitting an application for a FISA warrant, was changed to allow the bureau to obtain a warrant with less evidence. “If not, what steps has the DOJ/ and FBI taken to hold accountable those officials who violated those protocols,” Nunes asks Sessions:

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MAGAnomics baby!!  Throw dem ju-ju bones out the windows and hold on to your britches…  The U.S. Dept of Labor is reporting unemployment claims have dropped to 210,000.  That’s the lowest jobless number since December 6th, 1969.

You know what this means right?

…wait for it.

…wait for it.

That’s right. We better grab chin straps for the hard hats, because pay raises and wage rate increases are thundering toward the middle-class like an unstoppable herd of buffalo. Exactly on schedule.  Cha-ching & Ka-pow.

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Earlier today First Lady Melania Trump and Senior Policy Adviser Kellyanne Conway held a summit on the opioid epidemic at the White House (videos below).  At the conclusion of the meeting, President Trump delivered closing remarks:

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Full video of the summit is below:

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