President Trump’s political opposition, including Most Swamp Media (MSM), have claimed he went too far in calling out NATO members for their lack of funding their own military and security apparatus.

During President Trump’s latest trip to NATO he stated publicly they needed to improve and do it quickly.  The media expressed a position that President Trump was too direct; however, what the media never shows is how far out of balance the entire financial system is for NATO.

The members of NATO agreed to spend at least 2% of their GDP on their own internal defense and security.   Most people are probably familiar with a graphic such as below which appears on CNN website explaining the dynamic:

However, what is rarely added to the discussion is the scope of the U.S. GDP in comparison to other nation states.  For us to spend 3.61% of our massive GDP ($18.5 Trillion) is actually $670,344,000,000  That represents 76.11% of the entire NATO budget.

In the graphic below I’ve added the GDP and extended the math to show how much the United States actually pays in whole dollars in comparison to the top 10 NATO member nations:

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Those who followed the 2016 presidential campaign might remember when Senator Ted Cruz was discovered to have hidden $1.3 million in campaign “loans” from Goldman Sachs and Citibank during his 2012 campaign for the senate.

At the heart of the issue was a failure of Ted and Heidi Cruz to list Wall Street “loans” on the required Federal Election Commission financial reports.

Beyond the financing was the most likely reality that Goldman Sachs insiders were actually financing Senator Cruz and using “loans” as a tool to skirt campaign finance laws.

During the heat of the 2016 primary campaign the Cruz Team, and the legions of supporters therein, vociferously defended the revelations and stated there was no issue with their campaign filings.

In response to the issue the Ted Cruz campaign said they’ll go through the enforcement mechanism of the FEC instead of the compliance division for resolution.

By going through the “enforcement division” (took over a year) they would delay any damaging information from discovery until after the 2016 Presidential Election.

Well, the enforcement division of the FEC finally made a decision as to the entire construct of the dubious campaign financing: (more…)

Reuters/Washington Post Puts a Slice of Kushner Cheese on Russian Nothingburger and simultaneously prove the Obama Administration was spying on the Trump campaign.

The extent of the U.S. media’s straw-grasping is boundless, but this one is going to backfire. HOPEFULLY.  For the most recent example consider the Washington Post and Reuters claiming President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner participating in a proposal to set up a back-channel with Russia for communication after the November 8th election.

Firstly, Reuters and The Washington Post are idiots in their claimed “exclusive” bombast, etc.  UPI reported on the nothingburger back-channel Russian construct on April 3rd.  This “breaking” news is old news, and old nothingburger news at that.

Of course President-elect Trump’s staff would consider a back-channel set up for communications with Russian government officials in November and December 2016, just about everyone with a tinge of common sense was saying that exact construct was needed.

Why?

Well, you must remember the atmosphere after the November 8th election during the time period being discussed.  President Obama, in close coordination with his U.S. media allies, was filling the airwaves with toxic anti-Russian narratives in an explicit attempt to make any structural positive relationship between the pending Trump administration and Russia impossible.

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Too funny.  Um, I don’t think the political opinion writers at ABC are “writing” that headline with the same perspective as voters “reading” it.  [Story Here]

Republican candidate Greg Gianforte easily won his election bid for congress.   The media are apoplectic about the brazen victory – without even considering the possibility that Gianforte is less angry with national media than the voters who elected him.

Like a boss.  President Trump throws the irony into hyper-drive telling the entire group of NATO socialists: it’s time to pay their fair share.

[Transcript] 4:39 P.M. CEST – PRESIDENT TRUMP:  Thank you very much, Secretary General Stoltenberg.  Chancellor Merkel, thank you very much.  Other heads of state and government, I am honored to be here with members of an alliance that has promoted safety and peace across the world.

Prime Minister May, all of the nations here today grieve with you and stand with you.  I would like to ask that we now observe a moment of silence for the victims and families of the savage attack which took place in Manchester.  (A moment of silence is observed.)  Thank you.  Terrible thing.

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The Director of the Office of Management and Budgets, Mick Mulvaney, gave testimony today before congress and outlined the Mother Of All Budget Battles (MOABB).

Behind the scenes the financial class are putting full pressure on congress to attack the Trump administration’s budget proposals which would significantly enhance the speed of the swamp draining.   Lobbyists are out in force protecting their spending priorities, as the taxpayers watch the pantomime play out through the media’s preferred narrative.

The Congressional Budget Office and the Federal Reserve will work earnestly to block President Trump’s economic policy.  There are trillions of dollars at stake.

The ‘system‘, the vested financial interests who fund politicians, are apoplectic at the thought of any reductions in government spending – and the advanced ideology of financial upward mobility and independence is adverse to their interest.

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The Manchester Bomber is one of Hillary Clinton’s Libyan “Rebels”

Islamic State fighters landed in Libya back in November of 2014, and began work establishing training camps in the Libyan city of Derna before launching a terror offensive which included an attack on a Libyan hotel, attacks on oil field workers, and the execution of 21 Copts in a graphic video which made international headlines.

In early through mid-2015 several extremist jihadist elements in Libya swore allegiance to Bakar al-Baghdadi.  A man named Abdelhakim Belhadj took the position as head of ISIS in Libya. Abdelhakim Belhadj was critical in forming “Libya Dawn”, essentially a group of Islamic militia forces (LIFG or Libyan Islamic Fighting Groups) who fought under various banners such as Ansar al-Sharia (al-Qaeda in Libya) and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Today the links emerge between the Manchester bomber, Salman Abedi (22), and these extremist forces within Libya.  It appears the bombing attack against the Manchester concert venue was directed and coordinated by the family of Abedi and their close contacts within Libya including his father Ramadan Abedi who was arrested earlier today.

Important top-lines:

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Much of the predictive economic analysis we present is done so for a very specific reason. If you teach yourself how to sift through the big picture rocks you can quite simply predict the granular future.  Our CTH goal has always been to help with the sifting. CTH has a remarkable track record because common sense is the compass heading, and when we see the obscure data –nobody pays attention to– we focus attention and context upon it.

NOW THIS–>:DETROIT (AP) — Ford is replacing its CEO amid questions about its current performance and future strategy. A person familiar with the situation says CEO Mark Fields is retiring at age 56 after 28 years at the company. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the official announcement hasn’t been made.

Fields will be replaced by Jim Hackett, who joined Ford’s board in 2013, this person says. Hackett has led Ford’s mobility unit since last year. He is the former CEO of office furniture maker Steelcase. Fields helped lead Ford’s turnaround a decade ago as president of its Americas division. But the company’s stock price has fallen almost 40 percent in the three years since he became CEO. (link)

Those of you who have been around a while might remember…

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The pageantry and scale of the royal reception toward President Trump and the U.S. is reflective of much more than a singular presidential visit to a nation and region of geo-strategic importance.

The word “reset” is frequent amid media reporting of the Saudi trip but few people have followed the recent regional history to thoroughly understand what exactly is being reset.

~ President Donald Trump and Saudi King Salman – Joint Statement.

President Trump is being recognized and respected by the regional Arab coalition for his specific approach and outward worldview which is based on eye-to-eye diplomacy.

Through the contacts, discussions, emissary meetings and individual diplomatic engagements over the past six months, the Arab region members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) -and specifically Saudi Arabia- are overjoyed to find a fresh U.S. perspective based on mutual respect. (more…)

Reminder.  David Plouffe was President Obama’s campaign manager and Senior White House advisor:  (source link)  Plouffe has ideological cohorts, friends and embeds inside almost all corporate media entities; specifically WaPo and NY Times.