The House of Representatives voted tonight to include $5.7 billion for border security in a spending bill after President Trump warned them he would veto the spending bill without it. Despite prior claims by Democrats the bill passed 217-185.
The bill now goes to the senate where Mitch McConnell, the GOP Decepticon caucus, and Chuck Schumer previously refused to consider border security. If Schumer, McConnell and the Decepticons reject the bill it will likely lead to a partial government shutdown.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin discusses the strength of the U.S. economy, and the apparent disconnect between Main Street’s growth and Wall Street’s multinational risk exposure. [Pro Tip: go back and read the dimensional shift]
Secretary Mnuchin (correctly) stays away from discussing the federal reserve and highlights the strength of Main Street. CTH readers well understand what is driving this dynamic; and it will continue until 30-years of divergence is corrected, and parity achieved.
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Traditional economic principles have revolved around the Macro and Micro with interventionist influences driven by GDP (Gross Domestic Product, or total economic output), interest rates, inflation rates and federally controlled monetary policy designed to steer the broad economic outcomes.
Additionally, in large measure, the various data points which underline Macro principles have been viewed as two dimensional. As the X-Axis goes thus, the Y-Axis responds accordingly… and so it goes…. and so it has historically gone. This ain’t that. (more…)
Oh snap, grab my belt, we’re going deep.
This move is not unexpected; especially for those who have followed the Trump Doctrine for the past two years. President Trump has announced reception of a notification from Defense Secretary James Mattis that he intends to retire.
The move makes sense on multiple levels. President Trump has been executing a policy, a clear doctrine of sorts, where national security is achieved by leveraging U.S. economic power. It is a fundamental shift in approach.
Initially, the traditional military interventionist approach couldn’t just be reversed or dispatched; and James Mattis was the bridge to a path forward. Toward that end President Trump removed military constraints, allowed rules of engagement that were much stronger, and let Mattis work on confronting and stamping out terror threats. In essence, an aggressive “let’s get this over with” approach. (more…)
The sentencing guideline for the single count of lying to federal investigators was: 0 to 6 months. After a rather sketchy plea deal, DOJ Prosecutors had requested an upward revision to two-years incarceration based on the severity of the conduct.
Moments ago US District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson sentenced James Wolfe to a two-month prison term.
The judge rejected the request for an upward revision of sentencing; and she rejected a victim impact statement from Carter Page outlining the damage to him caused by James Wolfe’s leaking… In essence, James Wolfe became the benefactor of a corrupt FBI/DOJ trying to protect the Senate Intelligence Committee from scrutiny.
A few days ago many critics were concerned over an announced pledge of U.S. State Department funding ($4.8 billion) for security and economic development in Mexico. However, CTH noted the approach was likely not what it seemed.
Those who followed the USMCA construct closely noted that U.S. President Trump (through Jared Kushner) and Mexican President Lopez-Obrador (through Jesus Seade) were doing something much bigger than a trade agreement; they were structuring an entirely new U.S-Mexico economic alliance.
With increased investment in central America by the Chinese government; and with Venezuela in a state of vulnerability to becoming a proxy therein; and with Brazil taking a more nationalistic approach; a completely new partnership which focused heavily on domestic security and economics was taking shape between the U.S. and Mexico. Throughout 2017 and 2018 the U.S. media was oblivious to it.
Then, two days ago, the U.S. State Department made public the principles of an economic alliance between the United States and Mexico. [See Here] The outline should be familiar: Economic Security is National Security.
Today Department of Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nielsen told lawmakers that migrants heading to the southwest border to seek asylum in the United States will have to wait in Mexico until their claims are processed, under an agreement between the two countries:
Sticking to his prior statements about omnibus spending, President Donald Trump called republican leaders to the White House and informed them he will NOT sign a short-term resolution that does not provide funding for border security.
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy hold a quick presser following their visit with President Trump:
CTH has some new readers, so against the backdrop of the UniParty in Washington DC jumping into action to criticize President Trump’s decision to withdraw from Syria; perhaps a little factual historic refresher is in order…. On September 30th 2016 the New York Times quietly released a leaked audio recording of Secretary John Kerry meeting with multiple factions associated within Syria.
The 40-minute discussion took place on the sidelines of a United Nations General Assembly in New York. The meeting took place at the Dutch Mission to the United Nations on Sept. 22nd 2016:
[…] Kerry’s off-record conversation was apparently with two dozen ‘Syrian civilians’, all from US backed opposition-linked NGO’s in education and medical groups supposedly working in ‘rebel-held’ (aka terrorist-held) areas in Syria.
This opposition conclave also included ‘rescue workers’ which can only be ambassadors from the White Helmets, a pseudo NGO which serves as Washington and London’s primary PR front in pursuit of a “No Fly Zone’ in Syria, and it’s being bankrolled by the US, UK, EU and other coalition states to the tune of well over $100 million (so far). (link)
When you listen to the audio recording (embedded below) it becomes immediately obvious what was going on in 2014, 2015 and 2016 as an outcome of policy from the White House. In addition, you discover why this jaw-dropping 2016 leak/story was buried by the U.S. media and how it connects to the prior 4 years of perplexing U.S. mid-east policy.
This evidence within this single story would/should forever remove any credibility toward the U.S. foreign policy under President Obama. It also destroys the credibility of a large number of well known republicans, and explains how the prior action placed President Trump into a precarious position requiring a careful approach. (more…)
From research we know what is known as the “Steele Dossier” was a collaborative effort between Fusion-GPS contract employee Nellie Ohr, and a British intelligence asset named Chris Steele; also hired by Fusion. According to inferred congressional testimony, Nellie Ohr’s co-author, Chris Steele, was also an employee of Russian influence agent Oleg Deripaska.
Within a court filing today (full pdf below) there’s an outline of a network of NeverTrump republican allies who received the dossier directly from Christopher Steele. Including: David Kramer (for John McCain), Representative Adam Kinzinger, Paul Ryan’s chief-of-staff John Burks, and various British and U.S. intelligence officials.
It was David Kramer, on behalf of Senator John McCain, who gave the Dossier to Buzzfeed to publish. The first 10-pages of the filing outline the distribution network.
Considering the relationship between Oleg Deripaska and Christopher Steele, ultimately what the dossier and distribution reflects is a Russian propaganda document created by Fusion-GPS Nellie Ohr (herself an expert on Russia) and Chris Steele – then funneled to the U.S. intelligence apparatus for use against an American presidential candidate.
Rather ironic eh? (more…)
The White House says U.S. has started returning troops home from Syria as it transitions to next phase of campaign. Additionally, all U.S. State Department personnel are being evacuated from Syria within 24 hours (link).
White House – “Five years ago, ISIS was a very powerful and dangerous force in the Middle East, and now the United States has defeated the territorial caliphate. These victories over ISIS in Syria do not signal the end of the Global Coalition or its campaign. We have started returning United States troops home as we transition to the next phase of this campaign. The United States and our allies stand ready to re-engage at all levels to defend American interests whenever necessary, and we will continue to work together to deny radical Islamist terrorists territory, funding, support, and any means of infiltrating our borders.” (Link)
As expected the UniParty legislature in Washington DC; bought and paid for by lobbyists with specific intention to oppose President Trump; have constructed a short-term funding mechanism that kicks-the-can to February 2019.
Mitch McConnell announced on the Senate floor the stopgap funding mechanism, for departments and agencies not already funded for fiscal year 2019, would run through Feb. 8th, 2019. The Big Club lobbyists control the UniParty. President Trump pushes back by announcing a U.S. military withdrawal from Syria…
(Via Roll Call) […] “Later this morning I’ll introduce a continuing resolution that will ensure continuous funding for the federal government,” McConnell said. “Even if the face of a great need to secure the border and following good-faith efforts by the president’s team, our Democratic colleagues rejected an extremely reasonable offer yesterday.”
