This is more than a little funny. Senator Ted Cruz must not be having much success fundraising for his re-election campaign, as his latest publicity stunt outlines:
In essence, the architect of Obama’s Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority bill is using the border wall, which he is paid to oppose, as a tool to “gruber” his sheeple followers. Judging by the number of people responding to the tweet, he’s found a goldmine.
As many people are aware, Senator Cruz is part of the ‘controlled opposition’ ploy. As a dedicated UniParty benefactor of the U.S. CoC lobbying expenditures Ted’s role is to plow through the political field giving a crony-constitutional impression of one thing while loyally working to deliver the end result of the thing he optically rails against, like TPP or TPA.
The El Chapo/wall angle as a narrative and fundraising mechanism, is similar to the dead-end ploy previously exhibited by Senator Rand Paul in last month’s ObamaCare repeal narrative used as his fundraising tool. Both are fallacies of false choice. Both have no foundation in actual goal or intention. Both are ruses.
Having spent over 30 years deep in the weeds on the actuarial side of trade and economics, I can guarantee you there’s a generational need to completely reset all frames of reference when it comes to imports, exports, and U.S. trade principles in general.
It is no longer worthwhile even beginning a conversation around the arcane concept of “free trade”, especially when discussing commodities and agricultural trade. The “free market” was structurally disassembled years ago when multinational corporations began using the business end of agriculture to create investment and global profit via Wall Street.
The BIG AGRICULTURE legislative lobbying groups are funded -much like the U.S. CoC- with multinational corporations and multinational investment banks. Agricultural prices, formerly referenced on basic supply and demand principles have been bastardized through global purchases, and contracts therein, of U.S. farm products.
Simple question to understand the dynamic: “If there is such a U.S. glut of raw milk, then why has the 10-year price of milk skyrocketed”? Within the answer to that question you realize the product is not domestic. It is controlled by multinationals, exported under controlled contract, and the domestic price (you pay) driven by global trade not domestic production/consumption (supply and demand).
The inverse (import pricing) is also true. We’ve been getting screwed by the multinational interests of global trade for decades. This is NOT ‘free trade’. The BIG CLUB owns the process (inputs and outcomes) and manipulates the market in their interests, not yours. There simply is no “free market”.
[TRANSCRIPT] – 3:14 P.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT: Busy day. They had a very busy day — had a good day. We’re doing well, very well. Things are turning around. I know they’re turning around for you folks, so I just want to welcome you very much to the White House — special place — America’s farmers and ranchers.
I especially want to congratulate Secretary — now I can say, Secretary Sonny Perdue, who was just sworn in as the Secretary of Agriculture — (applause) — sworn in by Justice Thomas. And it was a beautiful ceremony, and we’re going to celebrate a little bit later, and that’s great. We’re very happy. And you had a good vote too.
A very unusual report from Reuters announces the White House has extended an invitation for the entire U.S. Senate to come to the White House for a policy and security briefing on North Korea. The briefing is scheduled for 3pm Wednesday:
(Via Reuters) Top Trump administration officials will hold a rare briefing on Wednesday at the White House for the entire U.S. Senate on the situation in North Korea, senior Senate aides said on Monday.
All 100 senators have been asked to the White House for the briefing by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the aides said.
A newly empowered Chris Wallace takes the big government Fox Media position and begins arguing with OMB Director Mick Mulvaney. Interested observers will note Wallace defends the U.S. CoC lobbying position around the budget, health care, the border wall, the imminent risk of government shutdown, Trump’s “first 100 days”, necessary tax cuts, cuts to environmental protection etc.
It can be frustrating to watch because Chris Wallace is arguing the exact positions of Tom Donohue, the U.S. CoC and the K-Street swamp’s corporatist lobbyists.
In advance of a generically created media 100 day way-point to judge the presidency, ABC/Washington Post deliver a poll today (full pdf below) to begin framing the week long narrative.
The direction taken by political narratives is mostly due to a loose coalition of like-minded ideologues within politics and media. People who run in the same circles, attend the same cocktail parties and gather at the same conventions and group meetings. The current ‘anti-Trump administration’ approach is no different from prior 2016 election assemblies.
Tomorrow in Chicago, former President Obama is anticipated to rally the ideological resistance to current President Trump. Enhancing the weekly set-up is a poll from ABC and the Washington Post constructed to cast a negative light upon Trump. It’s the same formula used in the 2016 election assemblies.
It becomes exhausting, and really quite futile, to dig through the poll construct. Yes, the pollsters over sample anti-Trump groups, and yes they under sample those methodological groups who would be more favorable in their opinion of Trump’s efforts. The transparency of the intention is evident within the data they assemble, and even more so within the way ABC/WaPo specifically highlights the data and focuses the attention of the consuming reader or reviewer. (more…)
Attorney General Jeff Sessions and DHS Secretary John Kelly visited the Southern border today and paused for an interview with Martha MacCallum:
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Almost simultaneously, OMB Director Mick Mulvaney gave an interview to the Associated Press where he outlines the White House priorities for the upcoming ‘bridge budget’ bill. The short-term budget (May through Sept 30th) is needed because congress never passed a budget from 2008 through 2017, and a continuing resolution spending bill expires on April 30th.
Following an earlier expansive press briefing by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, President Trump signs a memorandum in the Oval Office to outline launching an investigative trade memorandum on the steel industry.
[Transcript] 12:13 P.M. EDT -THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. We appreciate everybody for being here. It’s a historic day for American steel and, most importantly, for American steelworkers. Thanks, especially, to Secretary Wilbur Ross for helping to lead this critical effort. We’ve been working on it since I came to office, and long before I came to office. We’re going to fight for American workers and American-made steel. And that’s beginning immediately.
For decades, America has lost our jobs and our factories to unfair foreign trade. And one steel mill after another has been shut down, abandoned, and closed, and we’re going to reverse that. Other countries have made a living taking advantage of the United States in so many ways, as you know, and I’ve been talking about that for a long time.
There are many people rightly concerned about legislative issues seemingly stuck in the mud. However, what many of those same people seem to forget is the basic reality of President Trump’s America-First agenda being opposed by professional republicans even more than it is opposed by professional Democrats. DC is a UniParty.
Republican and Democrat political leadership, the UniParty writ large, have been paid to protect the legislative priorities of the multi-billion lobbying group known as K-Street.
The fallacy of false choice lies behind the concept of controlled opposition.
Prior to Donald Trump there was only one political party in DC, the Uniparty. President Trump represents the alternative; the second party.
For almost five years we have been pointing out the construct. The UniParty have three unwavering primary objectives as purchased by the lobbying groups: 1) Retention of Obamacare; 2) Budgetary spending to retain growth of government; and 3) comprehensive immigration reform to include amnesty.
These three primary legislative issues are not up for debate, modification or discussion. The legislative outcomes have been purchased, multi-million-dollar investments made, and the interests behind the legislative constructs will not allow any elimination or concession.
The time-frame was 2011 – the Tea Party had just crushed a republican Utah senator named Bob Bennett a year earlier. Massive push-back against growth of government including TARP, Auto Bailouts and now ObamaCare was fueling the grassroots movement; the Professional Republican Party hierarchy, the GOPe, was furious; the Tea Party represented a risk to the establishment republican authority.
The GOPe were in the midst of formulating a push-back plan against the Tea Party through the use of the SCOTUS decision “Citizens United”. Establishment Republicans were organizing tens of millions into Super-PAC constructs to crush Tea Party insurgents.
The time-frame was 2011 – Utah Senator Orrin Hatch was up for reelection in ’12 and the Tea Party wave was pushing House Republican Jason Chaffetz to challenge Hatchfor the Senate seat. The GOPe knew if Chaffetz challenged Hatch their tenured statesman would be lost (just like Bennett before him).
GOPe corrupt Senate leadership (McConnell, Portman, Cornyn, Corker, Blunt, Burr, Crapo et al) were assembling all resources to kill the Tea Party uprising. They reached out to like-minded colleague John Boehner, Speaker of the House for support. Hatch must be protected from the challenge.
Speaker Boehner, Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy (influence agents) told Jason Chaffetz to back away from the primary challenge and he would be rewarded with a bigger office, cushy career advancement, and the Chairmanship of an important and powerful committee.
The GOPe warned Chaffetz it would be in his long-term best interests to turn away from the Tea Party because the GOPe were going to go nuclear against the rebellion. There was also a 2012 Presidential race on the horizon and all efforts would be expended to destroy the opposition to their previously selected candidate, Mitt Romney. (more…)
Oh what a tangled web is weaved…. Apparently, the FBI used the Jeb Bush/DNC Commissioned opposition research dossier on candidate Trump as evidence to the FISA court to gain a warrant for surveillance. Things just got more interesting.
If this report via CNN is factual in its baseline accuracy, methinks the motive for the stuttering obfuscation of FBI Director James Comey just gained some sunlight.
Washington (CNN) – The FBI last year used a dossier of allegations of Russian ties to Donald Trump’s campaign as part of the justification to win approval to secretly monitor a Trump associate, according to US officials briefed on the investigation.
The dossier has also been cited by FBI Director James Comey in some of his briefings to members of Congress in recent weeks, as one of the sources of information the bureau has used to bolster its investigation, according to US officials briefed on the probe.
