During an interview with Fox Business Maria Bartiromo White House Trade and Manufacturing Advisor Peter Navarro outliness how the USPS, the postal system, has been heavily subsidizing “incoming mail of a number of countries to the tune of hundreds of million dollars a year.”  Navarro notes he is meeting with foreign ambassadors and representatives of the State Department at the Blair House in Washington, D.C., to work on changes to the current mail system.
Additionally, Navarro explained that he will be traveling to Geneva, Switzerland, on Sept. 23 for a third “Extraordinary Congress” and there will be two issues/options on the ballot: (1) allows all countries in the postal union to self-declare rates, ending a terminal dues system that costs countries to subsidize incoming mail. (2) A “multispeed approach,” allowing the U.S. to self-declare rates immediately.

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The European Central Bank (ECB) announced Thursday an indefinite supply of fresh asset purchases and deeper cuts to interest rates, into negative territory, as it tries to prop up the ailing euro zone economy.  These are EU financial counter-measures to the geopolitical trade realignment triggered by U.S. President Trump.
The EU is driving down the value of their currency in an effort to help prop-up the French and German economies that are dependent on exports.  In essence, the financial and economic positions of the EU and China are connected.  The more pressure the U.S. (Trump administration) puts on China, the less China can purchase from the EU.
With that as the backdrop, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin holds an impromptu press conference outside the White House on China trade, Huawei and the bond market.

 

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Several news outlets are now reporting that U.S. Attorney for DC, Jessie Liu, will likely indict former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe for lying to FBI investigators.
The reporting is based on leaked email communications from the lawyers representing Andrew McCabe, where McCabe’s legal appeals to Main Justice and current DOJ Deputy Attorney General James Rosen were rejected.

WASHINGTON DC – […] A source close to McCabe’s legal team said they received an email from the Department of Justice which said, “The Department rejected your appeal of the United States Attorney’s Office’s decision in this matter. Any further inquiries should be directed to the United States Attorney’s Office.” (more)

While an indictment of McCabe is a positive step toward accountability for the corrupt ‘small group’ within the DOJ/FBI, the fact that McCabe is afforded a back-and-forth debate on the issues only highlights the ridiculous prism of tiered justice and politics.
The OIG investigation of McCabe, and the subsequent criminal referral, was finalized over 18 months ago. No ordinary citizen, other than well-connected ‘beach friends‘, would be granted such considerations.
If McCabe is indicted it will be interesting to read the Lawfare (Benjamin Wittes) perspective on having one of their team finally encountering legal accountability.
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The supreme court has upheld President Trump’s immigration enforcement policy that denies asylum claims to migrants who travel through safe nations to reach the U.S.

(Via AP) […] The justices’ order late Wednesday undoes a lower-court ruling that had blocked the new asylum policy in some states along the southern border. The policy is meant to deny asylum to anyone who passes through another country on the way to the U.S. without seeking protection there. (more)

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Amid new reports of U.S. companies initiating a rapid exodus from China, President Trump has announced the delay of the next round of tariff increases on Chinese goods from October 1st to October 15th.

U.S. Company Survey – More than a quarter of the respondents – or 26.5% – said that in the past year, they have redirected investments originally planned for China to other regions. That’s an increase of 6.9 percentage points from last year, the AmCham report said, noting that technology, hardware, software and services industries had the highest level of changes in investment destination (read more)

President Trump apparently senses the diminishing position of Chairman Xi.  The status quo, U.S. disinvestment, has put Beijing into a weakening position.  As the president noted today during remarks from the oval office, Xi’s belt-and-road (aka ‘bribe and loan’) supply chain program is collapsing.
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To honor the memory of those lost on September 11th/12th 2012:

The Benghazi Brief

The “Benghazi Brief” remains the most controversial research report we have ever produced. The brief contains over two years of research and hundreds of very specific factual citations supporting it. Five years after it was originally written, and not a single aspect outlined within the brief has ever been identified as inaccurate.
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Today Michael Flynn and his attorney Sidney Powell returned to federal court for a status hearing before Judge Emmet Sullivan.  Generally status hearings are uneventful; however, this hearing falls on the heels of an explosive filing by Flynn’s defense outlining allegations of serious prosecutorial misconduct; and claims the DOJ is withholding Brady material.
Before getting into the heart of the proceedings, here is Ms. Sidney Powell appearing on Fox News to discuss the events today.  In this interview Ms. Powell confirms something we have previously presented; Rod Rosenstein authorized Robert Mueller to target Michael Flynn Jr. in order to provide leverage for a Flynn guilty plea.

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Hat Tip Techno-Fog:  The DOJ prosecutor, Brandon Van Grack, has not filed a response to the Flynn defense motion. However, both sides argued some of the specifics today in court.
For scheduling: a date of Sept. 24th, 2019, was set by Judge Sullivan for the written DOJ response to Flynn’s accusations of Brady violations.  Thereafter the defense rebuttal to the DOJ response is due by October 15th; and then a hearing date of October 31st is scheduled for Sullivan to question both teams centered around the filings.  A tentative sentencing date was scheduled for December 18th, 2019, as a matter of formal proceeding.
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The story of a “Russian spy” being exfiltrated from Russia over U.S. intelligence concerns about excessive media reporting on the Russian Conspiracy-Collusion.  Reporting that was driven by those same intelligence leaks is, well, sketchy as heck. However, at the 30,000 ft level there is a picture providing obvious possibilities.
First, the tenuous reporting from CNN, where they attempt to paint Donald Trump into the spy narrative, is transparently political opportunism by narrative engineer Jim Sciutto and the anti-Trump brigade.  You know Sciutto’s efforts are bad when even the Washington Post and New York Times undercut the CNN script.  The exfiltration had nothing to do with President-elect Trump, or President Trump.

The part where the story becomes interesting is: (A) the timing; and (B) that DC journalists know who the “spy” is.  Indeed the claimed “spy” and his family have been living under his real name in Washington DC.  This fact doesn’t fit the outline of a retracted spy living in an era of imminent danger.
Heck, it doesn’t take more than a few minutes on the internet to discover who this “spy” might be. Obviously, if the media know all about him; well, that speaks volumes.
So what is the likely scenario here?
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It was always just a matter of time…

The Beijing/Wall Street lobbyist Robert Zoellick has taken an attack posture on behalf of his U.S. corporate clients and their investments in China.
White House director of trade policy Peter Navarro appears on FOX Business’ Lou Dobbs to rebuke Zoellick and Beijing claims about Trump’s trade policy:

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