In June 2018 President Trump instructed U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to initiate a 10% tariff on $200 billion of Chinese goods (Round #1).  After two months of China refusing to negotiate renewed trade deals in good faith President Trump instructed Lighthizer to increase the tariff rate to 25% in August (Round #2).  There is a third tranche of tariffs scheduled for January 1st, 2019.

With a full quarter of trade data to analyze the impacts, the results are now measurable.  A multinational group studying the outcome (full pdf below), identified that approximately 4.5% of the tariff is being carried by American consumers.  The overwhelming cost of the tariff is being paid (20.5% absorbed) by Chinese producers.

(Via Bloomberg) President Donald Trump is succeeding in making China pay most of the cost of his trade war.
That’s the conclusion of a new paper from EconPol Europe, a network of researchers in the European Union. U.S. companies and consumers will only pay 4.5 percent more after the nation imposed 25 percent tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods, and the other 20.5 percent toll will fall on Chinese producers, according to authors Benedikt Zoller-Rydzek and Gabriel Felbermayr.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Sarah H Sanders Twitter @SHSanders45

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

Dan Bongino delivers speech about “Spygate” during David Horowitz Freedom Center Restoration Weekend 2018.  His presentation outlines how the big threads all connect to weave a very specific conspiracy.  Great presentation:

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One of the key points Bongino highlights is how none of the paper-trail; nothing about the substance of the conspiracy; can possibly surface until *after* Robert Mueller is no longer in the picture.  Until Robert Mueller is removed, none of this information can/will surface.
That’s why every political and media entity are desperate to protect Mueller; and also why Mueller’s investigation will never end.
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Jerome Corsi is famous for his research, analysis and theories surrounding the life story of President Obama.  In most mainstream media circles Corsi was labeled a ‘conspiracy theorist’.  Then again, some conspiracies are not theory; and seeing the Washington Post take lead against Corsi only cements Mueller’s deep state allies are feeding the info.
As word spreads about Robert Mueller snaring Corsi inside his investigative quicksand, don’t be surprised to find people wondering if Corsi’s work into the background of Obama isn’t the real motive behind snare deployment.

(WaPo) Conservative writer and conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi is in plea negotiations with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, according to Corsi and another person with knowledge of the talks.
The talks with Corsi — an associate of President Trump and GOP operative Roger Stone — could bring Mueller’s team closer to determining whether Trump or his advisers were linked to WikiLeaks’ release of hacked Democratic emails in 2016, a key part of his long-running inquiry.

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Ex CIA Director Michael Hayden is one of the anti-Trump derp state intelligence officials who was under consideration to have his security clearance revoked by the President.
Hayden is currently employed by CNN to deliver consistent anti-Trump declarations from within the apparatus of the intelligence community.  He is a frequent guest of Jake Tapper on CNN.

(Via CNN) Michael Hayden, a former director of the CIA and National Security Agency, suffered a stroke earlier this week, his family said Friday.
In a statement, the family said Hayden, 73, suffered the stroke at his home and was hospitalized but did not provide details about the stroke’s severity.

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A key point to finding truth in any theory is to apply the scientific method to the research; ie. question the assumption, reverse the hypothesis.

Throughout the research into the Machiavellian constructs of “Spygate” and the subsequent Mueller investigation, there have always been larger questions behind the stories.  It is a fact that most of the evidence surfaced after General Michael Flynn entered a plea agreement with special counsel Mueller on November 30th, 2017.
Why were the original Page/Strzok text messages released to the public in December 2017, and January 2018?  Perhaps more importantly: Who did the redactions within the text messages prior to their release? And why were those redactions ever made?

There’s a bunch of ‘unofficial’ evidence, or data-points, that no-one can explain how or why they came to be visible.  The data did not surface sequentially; but it surely surfaced purposefully from within the apparatus of government.
Just like the questions about who redacted information inside the 600 pages text messages between DOJ/FBI Lawyer Lisa Page and FBI investigator Peter Strzok; putting the downstream data-points together leads to a series of questions that remain the subject of much speculation through today:

• How do we find out about the Mark Warner text messages?
• Who publicly released the Carter Page FISA application?
• Where did the four day flood of information (Dec 1st – 4th, 2017) about Lisa Page and Peter Strzok come from?
• Who released that Page/Strzok information to the media?  Why?
• Who made the decision not to indict James Wolfe for leaking classified information?
• Why be so specific about details within the Wolfe indictment; then dismiss them?
• Who made the decision (FISA ap) NOT TO redact the key FISC clerk stamp?
• Where is all of this “unofficial” evidence/information coming from?
• Why?

For a long time CTH has looked at these questions from the position that the information was adverse to the interests of the DOJ; therefore we operated on the assumption that someone within the apparatus of government was leaving a trail of information with good intention.  However, over time – and with the absence of any accountability being delivered, there is also another motive that deserves attention and review.
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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Sarah H Sanders Twitter @SHSanders45

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

Latest updates on the situation in Paradise, CA, from Butte County Sheriff and Cal Fire. Few in media are adequately quantifying the scale and scope of this horrific and ongoing event.  County officials are still trying to count the number of homes lost.  That number jumped by almost a thousand homes yesterday alone (now 13,631).  Each of these houses is added to the list to be checked for human remains.

A Sobering Perspective – See Here

• Yesterday two more bodies were located bringing the death toll to 83.
• There are still 563 people confirmed missing (mostly elderly).
• Six bodies were identified yesterday and next-of-kin notified: •Teresa Ammans (82); •Richard Brown (74); •Marie Wehe (78); •Kimber Wehr (53); •Joseph Rabetoy (39); and •Ms. Joan Tracy (80).   Please pray for comfort over these families.
• Of the 83 fatalities, 58 people have been identified.
• There are currently 563 people missing.
• As search teams get further into the community the number of homes destroyed jumped yesterday by almost 1,000.
• The current estimate is 13,631 single family residential homes are completely lost. [472 homes are damaged]
• Additionally 275 multi-family residences destroyed and 514 commercial buildings.

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