Something appears to be happening within the administration that is currently impossible to define with regard to intent of construct. For the sake of my own internal disposition, and to ensure a geographic distance from sharp things, a modicum of levity is necessarily required.  Cue suspicious cats:

Unfortunately, it’s too early (not fully developed pixels) to see the picture, but there appears to be an intentionally constructed parallel set of administrative policies that almost gives the appearance of a paralleling administration. It should be emphasized the construct herein is not necessarily definable as good or bad; it’s just simply too early.

It begins with Vice President Mike Pence delivering a speech at the Invest in America Summit today, which is primarily a gathering of the largest lobbying group in Washington DC via The U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  No single lobbying organization has done more to advance global trade interests and diminish the U.S. manufacturing economy than the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and its president Tom Donohue.

Simultaneous to this event, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was on Capitol Hill testifying to the Senate Banking Committee, and appears to have recently accepted the premise that the U.S. banking system is institutionally too big to fail, and more alarmingly too big to reform.

First, the Summit remarks:

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President Donald Trump meets today with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. Trump and Santos were meeting to discuss collaborative policies on the drug trade and drug cartels.  Together they will hold a joint press conference from the White House at approximately 3:45pm:

UPDATE: Video Added:

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Newly confirmed U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer accepts his presidential commission today completing the cabinet of U.S. President Donald J Trump.

Together with his daughter, Claire, and son, Bob Jr.,  Robert Lighthizer was sworn in by Vice-President Mike Pence.  A really wonderful ceremony.

Listen carefully to Lighthizer’s words which begin around 09:00 – HE IS NOT KIDDING OR OVERSTATING.  BELIEVE IT.

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Trade Rep. Lighthizer joins a U.S. trade team including Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.  Together with exceptional underlying staff and trade policy support members they represent the strongest U.S. trade policy team in our lifetime.

The WINNING future looks exceptionally bright.

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To understand the larger objectives of the G7 Financial Ministers meeting it is important to understand the three-decade global financial construct they seek to protect. Global financial exploitation of national markets:

♦Multinational corporations purchase controlling interests in various national elements of developed industrial western nations.
♦The Multinational Corporations making the purchases are underwritten by massive global financial institutions, multinational banks.
♦The Multinational Banks and the Multinational Corporations then utilize lobbying interests to manipulate the internal political policy of the targeted nation state(s).
♦With control over the targeted national industry or interest, the multinationals then leverage export of the national asset (exfiltration) through trade agreements structured to the benefit of lesser developed nation states – where they have previously established a proactive financial footprint.

The ‘America First’ Trump-Trade Doctrine upsets the entire construct of this multinational export/control dynamic.  Team Trump focuses exclusively on bilateral trade deals with specific policy only looking out for the national interests of the United States.

Under President Trump’s Trade positions exfiltration of U.S. national wealth is essentially stopped.  This puts the multinational corporations, globalists who previously took a stake-hold in the U.S. economy with intention to export the wealth, in a position of holding interest of an asset they cannot exploit.

If you can see the ramifications, and can grasp the inherent anger, you can begin to understand the severity of the opposition to President Trump.

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To understand the China ‘One-Belt / ‘One-World’ economic trade forum it becomes necessary to understand how structurally weak the Chinese economy was created.

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People often talk about the ‘strength’ of China’s economic model; and indeed within a specific part of their economy -manufacturing- they do have economic strength.  However, the underlying critical architecture of the Chinese economic model is structurally flawed and President Trump with his current economic team understand the weakness better than all international adversaries.

Lets take a stroll and lightly discuss.

China is a central planning economy.  Meaning it never was an outcropping of natural economic conditions.  China was/is controlled as a communist style central-planning government; As such, it is important to reference the basic structural reality that China’s economy was created from the top down.

This construct of government creation is a key big picture distinction that sets the backdrop to understand how weak the economy really is.

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Two great interviews with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, aka “Wilburine”. Secretary Ross is easily the most comprehensively well-versed trade policy commerce secretary in modern history, perhaps ever.

Wilburine is discussing the recent U.S./China trade breakthrough. –BACKSTORY HERE– Additionally, at 08:30 of the interview Ross discusses NAFTA against the backdrop of the Senate not yet accepting his “letter of intent” to renegotiate the agreement.  Secretary Ross discusses how Robert Lighthizer’s confirmation should help speed up the senate process.

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In substantive terms the bigger aspect to remember is how much more leverage there is in bilateral trade negotiations than multilateral agreements.

The Trans-Pacific-Partnership (TPP) would have held the U.S. hostage to agreements that in many cases were against our interests and to the benefit of the larger group of TPP nations. Former Secretary of State John Kerry stated openly: while China was not part of the original TPP framework, the participating nations held open a back door for China to enjoin.

Because President Trump pulled away from TPP, the U.S. is able to negotiate terms for trade with our market that may have specific and purposeful benefit exclusive to the United States. This is critical as we review current negotiated bilateral deal with China.

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Absolutely Fantastic engineering and recovery job in Atlanta as I-85 reopens.

The elevated interstate collapsed on March 30th.  350 feet in both directions, 10 lanes of elevated interstate, needed to be replaced.  The original target projections were for a completed repair by June 15th.  Today, May 12th, the Northbound lanes open, tomorrow the Southbound lanes open.

43 Days ‘Merica!  We know how to get stuff done.

ATLANTA’s OPEN FOR BUSINESS! We can come back from any collapse! #I85 #Atlanta pic.twitter.com/G0O0DfKMK8

— 11Alive Sports (@11AliveSports) May 12, 2017

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The company contracted to repair the damage can qualify for up to $3.1 million in incentives for finishing ahead of schedule.

The damaged section of the interstate, which runs through downtown, usually sees about 243,000 vehicles a day.  (article link)

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The economic lobbyist community known as The Big Club is represented most visibly by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Tom Donohue.

Via the Wall Street community, CoC President Donohue pours tens of millions of multinational corporate contributions into DC lobbying efforts to retain control over politicians and legislation that relates to U.S. trade and economic matters.   [FYI Donohue’s Chamber of Commerce lobbying group were the primary architects of the now dispatched TPP trade deal; they actually wrote the U.S. part of the construct.]

Tom Donohue funds a large number of politicians in DC in an effort to control the outcomes of legislation and policies that could become adverse to his multinational interests.  Two of those primary beneficiaries are John McCain and Ben Sasse.

As a consequence it doesn’t come as a surprise to see McCain and Sasse announce their intention to block the confirmation of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer:

REUTERS – Republican U.S. Senators John McCain and Ben Sasse said on Wednesday they would vote against President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, because of his opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“Unfortunately, your confirmation process has failed to reassure us that you understand the North American Free Trade Agreement’s (NAFTA) positive economic benefits to our respective States and the nation as a whole,” McCain and Sasse said in a letter to Lighthizer. (read more)

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and President Trump strongly support Lighthizer for U.S. Trade Rep.   The institutional control agents within K-Street, aka the economic lobbying group, do not.

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During the White House Press Beating today, Press Secretary Sean Spicer announced President Trump would defer any decision on the Paris Climate Change Agreement until after the G-7 Summit [May 26th and 27th Toarmina in Sicily].

If you’ve understood President Trump’s strategy this announcement is predictably Trumpian; that is it is exactly what we would expect President Trump to do.

Make no mistake on strategy, President Trump has already made up his mind on the agreement, the strategic decision here is on the announcement therein.

Remember, everything about Trumpian strategy is strategic leverage – and no aspect to strategic leverage will be more clearly evidenced than when President Trump is positioning on issues surrounding economics and trade imbalances.

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Actually, seeing this outlined in Reuters is a very good sign of things to come.  The pending NAFTA trade renegotiation between the U.S. (Trump/Ross) and Canada (Trudeau) correctly viewed through the prism of Canadian politics.  This is exactly the correct perspective.

The larger liberal need is for Trudeau to pander to the constituencies of Quebec, even if it means economic disaster and crushing collapse for the entire country of Canada.  This reality is exactly the ideological zero-sum perspective of the liberal mind and worldview.

Complete economic disaster is what Prime Minister Trudeau will do to Canada if he chooses to continue positioning against the U.S. with President Donald J Trump.

VIA REUTERS – Canada escalated a trade dispute with United States by making threats Washington called inappropriate in part because Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is under pressure to secure support in a key region ahead of the country’s 2019 elections.

Washington last month slapped tariffs on timber imports, prompting Trudeau to say he was considering a ban on exports of U.S. coal through Pacific ports.

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