Trade and Tariffs: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Full NBC Interview…

The essential argument made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during this interview was already addressed in the preview segment prior to broadcast – SEE HERE –  However, here is the full interview as broadcast on NBC Meet The Press with Chuck Todd.

The interview is a typical narrative engineering attempt by Chuck Toad; however, beyond the narrative, for those who pay close attention to the economic issues, there are some key elements which deserve attention:

  • @04:05 Trudeau admits the problem with corporate transshipment of Chinese Steel into the U.S. market – through Canada via the NAFTA loophole.  While Justin from Canada frames the issue from their own national efforts to stop the practice, you’ll note how he avoids taking ownership…. it’s called ‘willful blindness‘.
  • More importantly at @08:17 the topic of NAFTA surfaces. Pay close attention.  Not only does Trudeau speak in past tense (reinforcing the reality that all parties have accepted that NAFTA is essentially dead), but moments later @09:00 he admits the Canadian trade and manufacturing economy is set up as a brokerage (ie. multinational corporate investment) dependent, exclusively dependent, on access to the U.S. market.

WATCH:

.

Once you see the strings on the marionettes, you can never go back to a time when you didn’t notice them.

(more…)

Trade Talks: Intentionally Obtuse Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland Discusses Tariffs….

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland begin a U.S. media grievance tour to frame a narrative around the recent Steel and Aluminum tariffs.

The Canadian duo intentionally conflate a U.S. objective to secure the Steel and Aluminum industrial base into a narrative that the U.S. is targeting Canada as a security threat.  Despite this shamefully obtuse argument the majority of Canadians and the vast majority of Americans can see right through this nonsense.  Trudeau and Freeland should be ashamed (but they won’t be), watch:

.

Canada and Mexico have both structured their international trade deals around their ability to provide access to the coveted $20 trillion U.S. market. Rather than fix the fatal flaw in NAFTA, which would cost them billions, both nations have doubled down with demands that their dependency model be allowed to continue. They are both about to discover the catastrophic consequences to that decision. Their economic losses will now be exponentially larger as an outcome of their entrenched ideology.

(more…)

June 3rd – 2018 Presidential Politics – Trump Administration Day #500

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.

trump-president-3

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

Sunday June 3rd – Open Thread

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 †

Secretary Wilbur Ross Leads Trade Delegation To China…

Interesting delegation to accompany Secretary Ross: treasury, agriculture and energy. Small delegation, short trip, sounds like contract discussions.

From Camp David –  Today, President Donald J. Trump announced the members of an official delegation from the United States to China to discuss rebalancing the bilateral economic relationship between the United States and China.

These meetings will take place from June 2 through June 3, and are a continuation of the talks held in Beijing one month ago and in Washington two weeks ago.

Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross will lead the discussions, accompanied by United States Ambassador to China Terry Branstad, Under Secretary of Treasury for International Affairs David Malpass, Under Secretary of Agriculture for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Ted McKinney, and United States Trade Representative Chief Agricultural Negotiator Ambassador Gregg Doud.

Additional officials and technical experts from the Department of Commerce, Department of Treasury, United States Trade Representative, Department of Agriculture, and Department of Energy will also participate in the talks.  (link)

Spygate Debate: Joe diGenova -vs- Phillipe Reines

Appearing on Jesse Watters television broadcast, former federal prosecutor Joe diGenova and former Hillary Clinton official Phillipe Reines square off in a debate over Spygate:

.

Unfortunately Reines conflates the origination of the CIA/DOJ/FBI surveillance issue and the FISA searches. It is not coincidental all of the foreign operative intervention (see McCarthy Article on Papadopoulos) begins immediately after NSA Director Mike Rogers begins looking into NSA/FBI database search violations in March 2016.

(more…)

The Trump Doctrine – Defense Secretary James Mattis Speech, Questions and Answers to IISS Forum…

Yesterday in a discussion thread recognizing DPRK Vice-Chairman Kim Yong Chol, I noted the following: “The Trump administration is providing North Korea the first modern day opportunity to create an authentic version of itself“.  In essence, though it is difficult to describe, the Trump Doctrine has a clarity of purpose.

The nature of the Trump foreign policy doctrine, as it has become visible, is to hold manipulative influence accountable for regional impact(s), and simultaneously work to stop any corrupted influence from oppressing free expression of national values held by the subservient, dis-empowered, people within the nation being influenced.

There have been clear examples of this doctrine at work.  When President Trump first visited the Middle-East he confronted the international audience with a message about dealing with extremist influence agents. President Trump simply said: “drive them out.”

Toward that end, as Qatar was identified as a financier of extremist ideology, President Trump placed the goal of confrontation upon the Gulf Cooperation Council, not the U.S.

The U.S. role was clearly outlined as supporting the confrontation.  Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates needed to confront the toxic regional influence; the U.S. would support their objective.  That’s what happened.

Another example:  To confront the extremism creating the turmoil in Afghanistan, President Trump placed the burden of bringing the Taliban to the table of governance upon primary influence agent Pakistan.  Here again, with U.S. support.  Pakistan is the leading influence agent over the Taliban in Afghanistan; the Trump administration correctly established the responsibility and gives clear expectations for U.S. support.

(more…)

Hypocritical G7 Ministers Rail Against Audacity of The U.S. Trade Position Requiring “Reciprocal and Fair” Trade Deals…

“No more stupid trade deals” ~ U.S. President Donald Trump

From the G7 Mission Statement outlining the objectives of their meeting: “From May 31 – June 2, 2018, G7 Ministers responsible for development cooperation met in Whistler, Canada, to discuss their shared priorities on some of the most pressing global development and humanitarian challenges, including advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.”

However, as the G7 finance ministerial sessions wrapped up today, all the talk centered around their collective, and stunningly hypocritical, angst at new United States trade policy; specifically the imposition of Steel and Aluminum tariffs on imported goods.

France, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and Italy all have trade tariffs and trade barriers far higher than the U.S.  Each of the G7 nations has exploited the overwhelmingly one-sided access to the U.S. market for decades.  As President Trump demands “reciprocal and fair” trade agreements – those same nations now balk at the same rules and duties they impose on the U.S. now being imposed against them.

The European Union is a non-enumerated member of the G7, and does not chair nor hosts Summits; however, the EU head joins with the G7 in collective angst against a U.S. trade reset.   It’s hilarious to watch them going bananas.

WHISTLER, British Columbia (Reuters) – Finance leaders of the closest U.S. allies vented anger over the Trump administration’s metal import tariffs but ended a three-day meeting in Canada on Saturday with no solutions, setting the stage for a heated fight at a G7 summit next week in Quebec.

(more…)