Russia and China have invested billions in Venezuela to prop-up the Maduro regime. On Monday the U.K. denied Maduro access to $1.2 billion in gold held by the Bank of England. On Monday night a Russian aircraft landed in Caracus. On Tuesday it was reported that 20 tonnes of Venezuela gold bars have gone missing (link).

“President Donald J. Trump spoke today with Venezuelan Interim President Juan Guaido to congratulate him on his historic assumption of the presidency and to reinforce President Trump’s strong support for Venezuela’s fight to regain its democracy.”
“Interim President Guaido thanked President Trump for the United States’ commitment to freedom and prosperity in Venezuela and the region, and noted the importance of the large protests across Venezuela against former dictator Maduro, set to occur today and Saturday. They agreed to maintain regular communication to support Venezuela’s path back to stability, and to rebuild the bilateral relationship between the United States and Venezuela.”  ~ White House

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Giddy up.  Two days of intense trade discussions begin today in the Eisenhower building led by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and his Chinese counterpart Vice Premier Liu He. The stakes are high as the deadline for an agreement is March 2nd.
Ambassador Lighthizer is joined by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and China’s arch nemesis, White House trade advisor Peter Navarro.

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Adding to the intensity, the United States just charged Chinese telecommunications company Huawei Technologies and its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran by doing business through a subsidiary.  Ms. Meng was arrested in Canada at the request of the United States; her extradition has been requested by the Department of Justice.
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Keep in mind that China has loaned Venezuela over $50 billion in the past five years. In exchange, Venezuela gave China a 49% stake in PDVSA. Venezuela makes payments on the loans via oil shipments to China.

(VIA U.S. Treasury Dept) Today the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PdVSA) pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13850 for operating in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy. PdVSA is a Venezuelan state-owned oil company and a primary source of Venezuela’s income and foreign currency, to include U.S. dollars and Euros.

“The United States is holding accountable those responsible for Venezuela’s tragic decline, and will continue to use the full suite of its diplomatic and economic tools to support Interim President Juan Guaidó, the National Assembly, and the Venezuelan people’s efforts to restore their democracy,” said Secretary of the Treasury Steven T. Mnuchin.

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Devin Nunes dropped a bombshell yesterday in an interview with Maria Bartiromo [Video Here].  Many people are overlooking the implications of his speculation; and, more importantly how Nunes statement answers just about every contradictory question people have carried.  Including:

• Why Rosenstein introduced Mueller to President Trump the day before he was appointed as Special Counsel?
• Why Mueller/Rosenstein are hiding the investigative origination letter?
• Why President Trump has NOT been able to declassify documents? and
• Why President Trump is, and will always be, hamstrung by the Mueller investigation?

In short, Devin Nunes speculated that Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein put the substantive allegations from the Fusion-GPS/Ohr/Steele Dossier into his investigative instructions (full pdf below) that he gave Robert Mueller.
If it is accurate that Rosenstein charged Robert Mueller with investigating the dossier claims; and if Nunes is accurate that the DOJ investigative target, a derivative of the dossier, is Donald Trump; well, everything starts to make a hell of a lot more sense.
If the mandate given to Robert Mueller was to specifically investigate the sitting president of the United States as an active participant, and subsequent target, for a counterintelligence operation, then DAG Rod Rosenstein -and Mueller- would have to hide that mandate from everyone and anyone.
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Former HPSCI Chairman and current minority ranking member, Devin Nunes, appears on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the recent indictment of Roger Stone, Robert Mueller, and other matters that surround congressional investigations.
Representative Nunes notes that if the current DOJ are willing to go after people that have lied to congress, then this same DOJ should be looking at lies told by Lisa Page, Peter Strzok, James Comey and Andrew McCabe. Additionally, and frustratingly, Mr. Nunes outlines how it is demonstrably true the Clinton campaign was in direct collusion with Russians in 2016 and yet the current DOJ keeps ignoring those facts.
Nunes also speculates that Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein put the allegations from the Ohr/Steele Dossier into his instructions (full pdf below) that he gave Robert Mueller. This is what DAG Rod Rosenstein is trying to hide from everyone, including President Trump. If true, that should comprehensively destroy the integrity of the DOJ, the Mueller investigation (writ large), and the pro-Rosenstein narrative.

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In the latter part of the interview Maria Bartiromo discusses the issues of Chinese trade practices and how Beijing is weaponizing their trade position to infiltrate international technology and gain control over infrastructure.
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After a few months of head-fake commentary downplaying the Democrat party objective to use the House for an impeachment process, Speaker Nancy Pelosi drops the pretense.
In a tweet last night, connected to a press release, the democrat Speaker of the House of Representatives accuses the sitting President of being a Russian operative; thus Pelosi begins to set the stage for two likely purposes:

(Link)

The tweet itself is connected to, and comes on the heels of, Speaker Pelosi publishing a statement about the Special Counsel, DOJ and FBI arrest of Roger Stone.

“The indictment of Roger Stone makes clear that there was a deliberate, coordinated attempt by top Trump campaign officials to influence the 2016 election and subvert the will of the American people.” … “In the face of 37 indictments, the President’s continued actions to undermine the Special Counsel investigation raise the questions: what does Putin have on the President, politically, personally or financially?” (link)

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Here’s the Roger Stone indictment (full pdf below) – (link to indictment).  Stone has been indicted on seven counts in connection with Rod Rosenstein and Robert  Mueller’s investigation.  The charges include obstruction of an official proceeding, witness tampering and five counts of false statements.
[scribd id=398235426 key=key-jWQBtzxlhZNOqpEGskns mode=scroll]
The prosecutors allege Mr. Stone made multiple false statements to the House Intelligence Committee about his interactions with “Organization 1″ [WikiLeaks].  Thus it appears this is the reason why the currently corrupt DOJ and FBI have kept the transcripts hidden from public review.
If the public had the opportunity to review congressional witness testimony it would be much harder for current DOJ and FBI officials to shape a prosecutorial opinion of those statements.  Thus, Robert Mueller’s team keeps the testimony hidden so they can weaponize innuendo, and legal differences of opinion, for maximum political damage.  This is the very essence of “Lawfare”; one valuable approach toward legal manipulation.
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo goes one-on-one with Martha MacCallum to discuss his message to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and Trump’s approach to NATO.  This is a really strong interview.
Secretary Pompeo brilliantly outlines the value of the nation state, and the principle that when a coalition is formed all members within that coalition (ie. NATO) have a responsibility to participate.  Watch:

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The Precursor – Yesterday there was a meeting at the White House between FL Senator Rick Scott, FL Governor Ron DeSantis, FL Senator Marco Rubio, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and President Donald Trump.  Florida is home to most of the Venezuela political exiles and opposition groups who oppose Venezuela’s dictator Nicolas Maduro.
Today, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself interim president while surrounded by thousands of supporters. At a rally that brought hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans into the east of Caracas, Guaido said Maduro had usurped power and promised to create a transitional government that would help the country escape its hyperinflationary economic collapse.

“I swear to assume all the powers of the presidency to secure an end to the usurpation,” 35-year old Guaido, the head of the opposition-run congress, told an exuberant crowd.

Minutes later, U.S. President Donald Trump recognized Guaido as the legitimate interim president.
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Yesterday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a video-conference message to the assembly of international economic leadership in Davos. [Full remarks and transcript below]

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[Transcript] SECRETARY POMPEO: Good morning, and thank you, Borge, for your kind introduction. And thank you to the World Economic Forum for the invitation to speak today. It’s 18 degrees Fahrenheit here in Washington, D.C. You see the Lincoln Memorial to my back. So while I’m not here in person, I at least feel like I’m in Davos with the weather.
It’s interesting times that we live in. Over the past few years, all around the world, voters have tuned out politicians and political alliances that they thought weren’t representing their interests. A few examples of new directions that people have taken: Brexit; the election of President Macron in France; the rise of the Five Star Movement in Italy; Mahathir’s comeback in Malaysia; and of course, Borge, as you referenced, the election of President Donald Trump.
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