Tonight President Donald Trump is holding another MAGA campaign style rally at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, PA. The anticipated start time is 7:00pm EST with pre-rally festivities ongoing:
UPDATE: Video Added
President Trump has moved into Phase II of the U.S./China confrontation. Part of that confrontation is to use the inherent weakness of the Chinese economy against them. To understand the weakness is to understand the China ‘One-Belt / ‘One-World‘ economic trade strategy. Here’s an outline of the economic battle-space we are witnessing.
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 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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Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appears on Fox News this morning to discuss Phase II in the economic confrontation with China. The hurt will increase until behavior changes.
Phase II is direct, deliberate and fully confrontational trade engagement with extreme prejudice to financially hurt the Chinese economy and present the communist regime with examples of what will lie ahead if they do not concede to U.S. terms.
The first objective in Phase II is to convince the Chinese the war is real. Beijing cannot yet fathom the United States is not going to allow the import of low cost manufactured goods…. they believe, wrongly, against a history with all previous administrations, that President Trump is bluffing.
Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders conducts the White House press briefing for Thursday August 2nd. Anticipated start time 1:00pm EST
UPDATE: Video Added
President Donald Trump surprised radio host Rush Limbaugh by calling in to congratulate him on his 30 year anniversary in broadcasting.
After a few moments of expressing congratulations President Trump and Mr. Limbaugh began discussing ongoing events and the politics of Washington DC. WATCH:
Vice President Pence delivers remarks at an honorable carry ceremony for the remains of American service members who fell in the Korean war. Full Ceremony Video:
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) Chairman Devin Nunes appears on Fox News with Tucker Carlson to discuss the redactions within the Carter Page FISA application. About two-thirds of the way through the interview Nunes describes the document as “a phoney FISA“, moments later “a completely fraudulent document“… WATCH:
As POTUS Trump and the U.S. trade team target ever increasing tariff pressure upon Beijing to change their behavior, keep a close eye on North Korea. Given the zero-sum approach of the Chinese; and their history of weaponizing the DPRK; we could expect to see Beijing roll out nuclear antagonism again in an overt effort to gain concessions.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross discusses the need to hit China with even more economic pressure. WATCH:
In June and July last year it became obvious President Trump was going to initiate a full-frontal geopolitical confrontation with China based on their ambitions for economic conquest. We labeled the confrontation: Eagle -vs- Red Dragon.
Specifically around: intellectual property theft; massive U.S. trade imbalances; imposed tariffs, and ridiculous non-tariff barriers put in place by China, we anticipated the conflict would eventually force Beijing to drop the Panda mask and expose their economic intentions. Additionally there was clarity within President Trump’s approach for any observer who was willing to accept the history of Mr. Trump’s views on the larger issues. In short, POTUS Trump will not back down.
In March of 2018 U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer completed a section 301 review of China’s trade practices. [SEE HERE] Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974 authorizes the President to take all appropriate action, including retaliation, to obtain the removal of any act, policy, or practice of a foreign government that violates an international trade agreement or is unjustified, unreasonable, or discriminatory, and that burdens or restricts U.S. commerce. However, as talks with China progressed, President Trump shelved the 301 action to see where negotiations would end-up.
Due to the severity of communist ideology, and the intransigence of China to make any modification to their global economic plans, Chairman Xi Jinping made the strategic decision to elevate the confrontation in full Red Dragon mode. The May and June, 2018, negotiations between the U.S. and China provided no progress. The 301 review of China is now pulled back off the shelf, and President Trump assembles his trade-war strategy:
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Earlier today President Trump hosted a roundtable discussion with several inner city pastors and faith-based leaders to discuss the Administrations’ efforts on prison reform and other policy initiatives to improve inner cities.