CTH was wondering how long it would take for President Trump to point out the brutally obvious…. Thanks to some advanced planning that everyone ignored, there are multiple trade alternatives to China:

Perhaps now people will reference President Trump’s long-game strategy which has been evident since his marathon Asia trip in November 2017.
Long before media pundits starting noticing/considering how serious President Trump was about structurally resetting the entire landscape of a U.S-China trade relationship,  President Trump quietly and methodically laid the groundwork with personal visits to: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (Japan); President Moon Jae-in (S-Korea); President Tran Dai Quang (Vietnam); and President Rodrigo Duerte (Philippines).
Oh, how quickly the media forgot.
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If this were anyone except Judiciary Committee member John Ratcliffe, it would be easier to ignore…. but it’s not.  John Ratcliffe is a very tempered and deliberate voice; he has a strong reputation in DC and doesn’t speak in riddles, hype, or disingenuous terms.
During an interview with Maria Bartiromo discussing the recent comments by former FBI Director James Comey, Ratcliffe replied [Must Watch at 04:10 ]:

[@04:10] “Gosh, y’ know, as I listen to that, Jim Comey is proud and wouldn’t change a thing? Really?  He’s proud that he put Peter Strzok in charge of investigating Donald Trump? The same Peter Strzok who, while he was investigating Donald Trump, promised to “f*ck” him and to “stop” him?  He’s proud of his hand-picked deputy director, Andrew McCabe who lied under oath; lied to the inspector general, and has been criminally referred for that?
And we know Jim’s proud of himself, but the inspector general found him insubordinate, and many of us believe that he either is or should be under investigation for violating the espionage act; for recording his conversations with President Trump in the oval office, and then intentionally leaking classified information to start this investigation”…

Note: “is, or should be”.  So there’s a possibility of “is”.
Remember, Ratcliffe is one of only a handful of people who saw, and continues to see, all of the highly classified intelligence documents (fully unredacted) currently under consideration for declassification by President Trump.  Ratcliffe was also strongly considered for the U.S. Attorney General position.  This is a deliberate man.
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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.

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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.]
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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:
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Recently release FOIA documents into the special counsel team of Robert Mueller reveal the remarkable trail of a 2017 entrapment scheme conducted by Prosecutor Andrew Weissmann to target George Papadopoulos.
[Hat Tip to Undercover Huber and Rosie Memos who have been reviewing documents.]

Before digging into the details it is important to note this is a DOJ/FBI entrapment operation being conducted in 2017 by the special counsel; this is not prior to the 2016 election. The detail surrounds a series of events previously discussed {Go Deep} where George Papadopoulos was approached by a known CIA operative named Charles Tawil.
In 2017 George Papadopoulos and his wife Simona were approached in Greece by a known CIA/FBI operative, Charles Tawil.  Mr. Tawil enlisted George as a business consultant, under the auspices of energy development interests, and invited him to Israel.
On June 8th, 2017, in Israel under very suspicious circumstances, where Papadopoulos felt very unnerved, Mr. Tawil hands him $10,000 in cash for future consultancy based on a $10k/month retainer.
On June 9th, 2017, according to his book, Papadopoulos and Tawil fly back to Cyprus.
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Against the backdrop of documents from the state department, Senator Lindsey Graham sends a letter to both OIG Michael Horowitz and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo seeking additional information about State Department contact with Christopher Steele.

(Source Link)

Additionally, the FBI has apparently reversed course on the self-serving redactions they put in place when the Kavalec Memo was released.  A less redacted version is below:
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According to Reuters, House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler is negotiating terms for special counsel Robert Mueller to testify before the committee…  [I doubt this].
In my opinion, no-one in DC wants Robert Mueller to testify because they know Mueller was/is purely a figurehead for a corrupt investigative enterprise that was simply an extension of the 2016 DOJ and FBI effort.

Mueller was the 2017 cover that allowed the 2016 DOJ and FBI team to continue their efforts. Mueller didn’t select an investigative team, a pre-assembled TEAM that included Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe and FBI Counsel James Baker selected Mueller; and they successfully leveraged DAG Rod Rosenstein to appoint him.

“Hopefully he will come in. It won’t be next week,” Nadler said. “If necessary, we will subpoena him and he will come.”

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Today President Trump outlines an approach to head-off the anticipated retaliation from China over the increase in U.S. tariffs that began today. Whether this is structurally possible, or whether this is Trump’s attempt to diminish the leverage carried by Vice-Chairman Liu He, is an interesting question. However, the strategy is clear.
Overall U.S. inflation remains low relative to the economic gains from MAGAnomic policy. [Current CPI HERE].  GDP and wage growth are both exceeding inflation. As such, now is indeed the best time to confront China. President Trump notes this today in a tweet:

Inflation in the U.S. remains low overall at 1.8%…. now is the perfect time to hit Beijing with expanded tariffs.  However, President Trump knows China will retaliate through the multinationals on Wall Street.  President Trump knows China will specifically target the U.S. Agriculture sector. China will likely attempt to put pressure on Trump by refusing to buy U.S. farm product. The BIG AG multinationals will go bananas.
The BIG AG multinationals, those who control food/farm production, also control key Senators; they have been purchased through lobbyists. This is part of the Big Club approach/strategy.  Wall Street and the U.S. Senate will be aligned to support China; as a consequence President Trump needs to counteract their effort.
President Trump’s approach to counteract China’s strike against the U.S. agricultural community is visible in a series of tweets today.  I don’t necessarily agree with the proposal long-term, BUT I do understand the short-term objective…. optimum expediency.
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House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes discusses James Comey’s recent comments and the ongoing efforts against Attorney General Bill Barr.

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The full James Comey town hall event is below:
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House Judiciary member Mark Meadows has provided John Solomon with notes taken by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec on Oct. 11, 2016, during her meeting with Dossier author Christopher Steele (full pdf below). Solomon Article HERE.

Within the notes Kavalec outlines: ¹the motives of Steele; ²innacuracies in his claims; and ³his media distribution network used to push the sketchy information.  From the notes Kavalec wrote an email (currently classified by FBI/DOJ) informing the FBI of her review, two weeks ahead of the FBI application to the FISA court, which should have led investigators to withdraw Steele’s dossier from the application:
[scribd id=409363897 key=key-msf8r3AmC6FEpoDTsQUT mode=scroll]
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