Economic security is national security… In July 2017 President Trump traveled to Poland to attend the Three Seas Initiative Summit, a gathering of countries bordering the Adriatic, Baltic and Black Sea (Poland, Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia).
The primary purpose of the visit was to discuss security initiatives including how to diminish Russian influence through a cooperative agreement over energy.  President Trump took the SME’s, and delivered a speech in Warsaw, Poland:

[…] “President Duda and I have just come from an incredibly successful meeting with the leaders participating in the Three Seas Initiative. To the citizens of this great region, America is eager to expand our partnership with you. We welcome stronger ties of trade and commerce as you grow your economies. And we are committed to securing your access to alternate sources of energy, so Poland and its neighbors are never again held hostage to a single supplier of energy.”

Well, today a massive multi-billion energy contract for the United States sale and Poland purchase of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) was announced.  While financial terms were not disclosed, the agreement is for the sale and purchase of approximately 2.7 billion cubic meters per year (after regasification) – enough natural gas to meet about 15 percent of Poland’s daily needs.  The contract is for 20 years of purchases.

SAN DIEGO, Dec. 19, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Port Arthur LNG, LLC, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), and the Polish Oil & Gas Company (PGNiG) today announced they have entered into a definitive 20-year sale-and-purchase agreement for liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Port Arthur LNG liquefaction-export facility under development in Jefferson County, Texas.

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There are many voices very angered by an announcement that the U.S. State Department is providing $10.6 billion to Mexico and Central America while congress fights over $5 billion in funding for a Southern Border Wall. CTH is not one of those voices.
First, the article (emphasis mine):

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The United States pledged $5.8 billion in aid and investment Tuesday for strengthening government and economic development in Central America, and another $4.8 billion in development aid for southern Mexico.
The U.S aid aims to promote better security conditions and job opportunities as part of a regional plan to allow Central Americans and Mexicans to remain in their countries and not have to emigrate.
The plan was announced in a joint U.S.-Mexican statement released by the State Department and read aloud by Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard in the Mexican capital.  “In sum I think this is good news, very good news for Mexico,” Ebrard said.

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Former FBI Director James Comey appeared December 17th, 2018, for a second round of questions by a joint House committee oversight probe into the DOJ and FBI conduct during the 2016 presidential election and incoming Trump administration.
The Joint House Committee just released the transcript (full pdf below):
[scribd id=395972408 key=key-VowRINMl7U6kF9efRfAx mode=scroll]
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This was just released.  Analysis to follow.

CTH has pointed, repeatedly, toward a very specific economic and financial dynamic  because President Trump is uniquely focused on Main Street’s “real economy“.
Everything happening in/around the financial markets is very predictable when you focus on understanding the principles of Main Street MAGAnomics and how those basic principles diverge from Wall Street’s “paper economy”.
President Trump is clawing back American wealth; inch by inch… bit by bit.  This is the full monty.  This is economic nationalism. This is for all the marbles.
This is it.
Everything is happening in a very predictable sequence. Few understand the MAGAnomic reset, and what was predicted to happen in the space between disconnecting a Wall Street economic engine (globalism and multinationals) and restarting a Main Street economic engine (nationalism/America-First).  In 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 CTH explained where we would be today. With current Wall Street events, perhaps it is worthwhile remembering the dynamic.
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There’s a rather extensive backstory to the Turkish lobbying efforts that involved Michael Flynn.  [BACKSTORY HERE] Much of the Flynn issue was before the election of 2016 {Go Deep} and recent events align exactly as we would expect {Go Deep}. As CTH predicted the day after the original Flynn plea, the Turkish lobbying was used by Mueller as leverage.

It would appear, as CTH has predicted for well over a year, that Flynn brokered a deal with Robert Mueller to admit to misleading statements to the FBI in exchange for Mueller agreeing not to prosecute Flynn for FARA (lobbying) violations.
As CTH warned in November of 2016 Flynn was involved in lobbying efforts on behalf of the Turkish government via Bijan Rafiekian, aka Bijan Kian, 66, of San Juan Capistrano, California, and Kamil Ekim Alptekin, 41, of Istanbul. The financial constructs surrounding the payments to Flynn were sketchy, very sketchy.
In 2016 CTH anticipated this sketchy behavior would come back to bite Flynn and -by extension- could be an issue for the White House if he took a high level position.  None of that had anything whatsoever to do with the fictitious vast Russian conspiracy story.
It is increasingly clear that Mueller used the sketchy financial arrangement between Turkey and Flynn -specifically how Flynn maneuvered the money- as the leverage in the unrelated Russian conspiracy investigation.
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House Permanent Sub Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) Chairman Devin Nunes appears on with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the current state of issues with Michael Flynn.
Chairman Nunes draws attention to the latest documents (released Friday). One of the documents is written by Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe who noted that Flynn was aware the FBI had the content of a phone call between himself and Russian Ambassador Kislyak, prior to the FBI interview. Therefore it is highly unlikely Flynn would lie about the content of that Kislyak phone call.

Most people forget the background of how the Mueller probe was constructed. FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and FBI chief legal counsel James Baker selected most of the special counsel investigators; those two then recommended to Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein that he hire Robert Mueller as special counsel lead.
Comey was fired. The remaining ‘at-risk’ corrupt FBI leadership (McCabe and Baker), positioning to defend their own interests, selected the “small group”; then Mueller was selected and brought on his additional team members. The entire  purpose of the special counsel operation was to cover-up the DOJ/FBI activity.
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Former New York Mayor and current lawyer for President Trump appears on Fox News as swamp guardian Chris Wallace constructs the opposing argument for Robert Mueller.

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President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania host a stunning congressional holiday ball at the White House.

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Well, well, well.  This is likely to be quickly brushed under the proverbial rug.  If you have followed the case against SSCI Security Director James Wolfe you will note the original indictment against him outlined, obliquely, how Wolfe took custody of the Carter Page FISA application and then leaked it to his concubine at Buzzfeed Ms. Ali Watkins.
The leak of the FISA application was a rather explosive issue not readily identified when Wolfe’s indictment was first presented (June ’18).  It was only possible to connect the dots after the FISA application was released (July ’18) and a comparison on specific dates, times, contacts and chain-of-custody, was possible.

In response to his indictment, Wolfe’s lawyers said they would force Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) members to participate and testify in any trial.  This was a rather stunning approach.  A few months passed and a plea bargain was struck.  Wolfe would plead guilty only to one count of lying to FBI investigators.  The charges of the leaking “top secret and classified” intelligence were dropped.
Wolfe was not ultimately charged with leaking the FISA application.  We sniffed a quid-pro-quo.  We suspected Wolfe was instructed by at least one senator, likely  SSCI Vice-Chairman Mark Warner, to leak the information.  This would explain Wolfe’s extraordinary defense position – and the DOJ response therein.
Think about it.  A gang-of-eight member (Warner), who happened -as a consequence of the jaw dropping implications- to be one of only TWO SSCI members who was notified by the FBI that Wolfe was compromised. The ramifications cannot be overstated.
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Forget the unmentioned brutally obvious political motives and intents behind the operation against Donald Trump for a moment; and focus on the collective Obama activity as if they actually believed the claims they have since presented…
The counterintelligence investigation into candidate, president-elect, and president Donald Trump was predicated on the Obama’s intelligence community believing that campaign officials were colluding, conspiring and otherwise coordinating to take over the office of the presidency, with help from a foreign government.  So why wouldn’t the intelligence services of the United States government conduct wiretaps and full blown surveillance upon that incoming administration?

The John Brennan CIA presented a classified electronic communication, “ec”, origination memo (we are not allowed to see) to ODNI (Clapper) and FBI (Comey); who then opened a full-blown counterintelligence operation against officials within the Trump campaign.
We know this operation was political, but again, ignore that aspect and just look at the issues, details and activity while accepting -at face value- their demonstrably dubious claims.
Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn provided the opening for operational surveillance of the Trump team. We can argue about how they were framed in that regard; however, it is factual that FISA-Title-One surveillance is all encompassing.
The target is validated and defined by the FBI as “an agent of a foreign government”. This legal distinction permits full surveillance: electronic, physical, the works.  Everything is on the table, no limits or boundaries.
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