Today is Labor Day 2018.

♦ This Labor Day more Americans are working than ever before in the history of our country.   ♦ This Labor Day our economy is growing more than all the pontificating pundits expected.  ♦ This Labor Day our unemployment rate is the lowest in our lifetime.  ♦This Labor Day there are more jobs available for American workers than ever before.  ♦This Labor Day wages are increasing at a faster rate than at any time in the past three decades.  ♦ This Labor Day inflation is growing at a lower rate than wages are increasing. ♦This Labor Day productivity is growing faster than any time in the past decade.  ♦This Labor Day 323 metropolitan areas have the lowest unemployment ever. ♦This Labor Day consumer optimism is higher than anyone has ever recorded. ♦This Labor Day high-paying manufacturing jobs are growing at the highest rate in five decades.

This Labor Day is our first MAGA labor day.

…And we’ve only just begun!
(more…)

The Monster Vote is Very Real..

There is a very specific reason why U.S. print and broadcast media focused intensely on pushing their anti-Trump funeralpalozza narrative.  As we saw in the 2016 election cycle, the goal of the DC proletariat is to create a false sense of the electoral landscape.
What they don’t want people to see are reports like this. Last Thursday night’s President Trump rally drew the Ford Center’s largest crowd ever, according to manager VenuWorks. The turnout: 11,500 people, with another 2,000 unable to get in. [Courier and Press Link]

Just like there was no precedent for a single primary candidate -amid a group of 17-  to draw 15,000 people to any event in 2015, so too is there no precedent for 13,500 people showing up to a political rally during a non-presidential mid-term election season.  THIS IS THE SILENT MAJORITY the media and professional political class fear.  The MAGA movement is unprecedented in size, enthusiasm, and more importantly, resolve.
We are winning, bigly, and we represent the existential threat to the professional political establishment. The system, which has created an entire business model based on control of U.S. politics, is being summarily deconstructed.  This is the reason why all of those who benefit from decades-long constructs of lobbying, consulting, think-tanks and UniParty party control, hate what President Trump represents.  There are billions of dollars at stake, trillions more downstream, and slowly the MAGA movement is kicking their ass.
(more…)

The Associated Press is reporting that a Virginia tourism board is initiating an emergency fund to compensate for a significant drop in business as a result of the Red Hen Restaurant refusing to serve White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders:

The Roanoke Times reported Sunday that a regional tourism board is pulling together emergency funds to boost its digital marketing campaign.

Normally that money is saved. But officials agreed the region is in desperate need of positive coverage.

(more…)

Yesterday we wrote about how the Associated Press was attempting to cloud and obfuscate details (now getting exposed) about DOJ Official Bruce Ohr and his engagements with Fusion-GPS, Glenn Simpson, Christopher Steele and the collaboration with the FBI in their collective political targeting of candidate Donald Trump.
I noted it becomes frustrating because writing hundreds of words to: (1) initially outline, then; (2) describe as the fiasco unfolds with more details surfacing; then (3) affirm the original outline and description with irrefutable evidence; is like writing/reading the same chapter of the same novel over-and-over-and-over… yet no-one in authority makes a single move to indict these bastards because ‘muh institutions‘ must be protected.  I digress…
Here’s the cut-to-the-chase:  Those AP reporters are almost virtually guaranteed to be the same AP reporters that are participants within the Fusion GPS network; and the same AP reporters who collaborate with Andy Weissmann et al. These endless media scribes were willing participants within the 2015/2016/2017 plot, plan and execution; and as such they are clearly acting/writing to protect themselves and their interests.
Today we cue up another brutally obvious example of media collaboration to protect their own interests, where we see the New York Times attempt to engineer yet another narrative and hide a reality that DOJ and FBI officials were conspiring with Russians:

(Read Article Here)

See how the insufferable media now spin the connection between the DOJ/FBI and Oleg Deripaska as the FBI was trying to “flip” the Russian oligarch.
(more…)

The Trump Doctrine is easiest to describe as: deploying economic leverage to achieve national security interests.  The Trump Doctrine is unique and stunningly effective.

Many of the geopolitical decisions have multiple facets which connect like small gears on a much larger machine.  One of those small dual-purpose gears is the Doctrine as it is applied to Pakistan.  The downstream moves impact China, our #1 geopolitical and economic adversary, then Russia, and also support new alliances with India and the broader Middle-east.

Toward China = ♦Squeeze #3. In 2017 Trump and Secretary Tillerson, now Secretary Pompeo, put Pakistan on notice they need to get involved in bringing their enabled tribal “extremists” (Taliban) to the table in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s primary investor and economic partner is China. The U.S. removed $900 million in financial support to pressure Pakistan toward a political solution in Afghanistan, China has to fill void.  [NOTE: Last month the World Bank began discussions about a financial bailout for Pakistan.]  Again, more one-way bleed for China. {Go Deep}

When President Trump removed the $900 million in aid to Pakistan, he empowered the Pentagon via Defense Secretary James Mattis, with an option to give $300 million to Pakistan if Mattis felt positive steps were being taken to change behavior.  Today the Pentagon announces no change in behavior is noted:
(more…)

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has submitted a regulatory 90-day notification to congress outlining the intent to modify the U.S. trade deal with Mexico according to mutually agreed terms.
However, the Canadian trade priorities; including retention of protectionist tariffs (dairy) and non-regulatory barriers (telecom/banking); in combination with subsidies (lumber/aeronautics), make Canada joining the deal almost impossible.

Canada is scheduled to meet with Lighthizer again on Wednesday, but it seems very doubtful the political needs for Justin Trudeau would allow any three-way agreement.
(more…)

Deploying her best cutesy high school routine at the Canadian Embassy in Washington DC, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland gives an update on the state of trade negotiations between Canada and the United States.
The presentation is fraught with *tells* highlighting how every word is carefully selected through the prism of domestic politics. Chrystia now heads back to Canada for debriefing, discussion and poll-testing of Canadian sentiment. She will meet again with USTR Lighthizer next Wednesday with an answer as to whether or not to include Canada in the 2202 notification.

President Donald Trump makes remarks and signs the “Executive Order to Promote Retirement Security in America” at the Harris Conference Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. Anticipated Start time 3:00pm.
UPDATE: Video Added

Continual emphasis on the severity of Canadian politics is needed to understand the latest developments in the U.S-Canada trade negotiations.
The Trump administration set a deadline of today for Canada to join the U.S-Mexico trade agreement and make the NAFTA replacement agreement a three-way pact.  The concessions needed by Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland to join the agreement were politically devastating.

In order for Canada to accept or join, via a NAFTA 2202 modification, they would need to agree to the U.S-Mexico modification terms. For Canada they would have to:

• open their telecommunications and banking sector (eliminate non tariff barriers).
• eliminate soft-wood (lumber) and aeronautics subsidies.
• begin a process of lowering their assembly use of Chinese/Asian goods.
• accept the rules of origin for North American manufacturing.
• eliminate protectionist tariffs on dairy and farm products.
• accept the U.S-Mexico terms for arbitration and dispute resolution.

President Trump and U.S. Lighthizer are holding all the cards.  As we previously highlighted they don’t care if Canada doesn’t join; the U.S. would likely prefer to send congress a NAFTA 2205 withdrawal notification removing the U.S. from the original 1993 NAFTA construct in combination with a simultaneous 2202 modification notification for the U.S-Mexico side of the agreement.
This would allow the U.S. to go into a one-on-one trade negotiation where six months and a day from the 2205 notice. The U.S. would then apply 25% auto tariffs on Canadian made vehicles while negotiating a bilateral deal. Canada is in a very weak negotiating position; politics are paramount for the Canadian team; their exit needs political cover.  Media need to help the optics for the Canadian team.
(more…)

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks Friday, August 31, 2018 about the Canadian perspective on trade negotiations with the U.S. – Everything about the Canadian position is framed through the prism of politics not economics. Virtue signalling is the primary tactic.
Trudeau and Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland are in a tenuous position, they cannot accept the terms of the U.S-Mexico deal because they cannot afford to drop the protections and carve-outs within their highly controlled and subsidized economy. Canada would have to: drop telecommunications and banking barriers; drop protectionist tariffs on Dairy and agricultural products; and drop subsidies for the lumber and aeronautics industry.