Thank you to all readers and members of the Conservative Treehouse fellowship for your continued support.  Without your help this little corner of the research and discussion internet just could not exist. I will always work earnestly to be deserving of that support and fellowship.

We are fortunate, blessed and protected by a loving God who has confidence in our stewardship.

As new visitors attest every day, the fellowship in this commenting community is unique, insightful, articulate, intelligent and funny.  I love you guys.

As many of you are aware, in 2024 we lost our primary Ad revenue because we refused to enforce Google moderation rules in our comment system.

The ridiculous demand for content control within our proprietary commenting system was actually the culmination of years of effort by Google and tech allies who were looking for ways to demonetize our platform and control information from this site.

As a direct and specific result without your direct support now, CTH cannot exist.

Retaining our ability to research, share and most importantly, discuss ongoing events, has been my #1 priority.  Thank you again for your insight, wisdom, humor, friendship and support.

There are currently two methods to support CTH 2.0, our ongoing mission and discussion. However, depending on your browser settings (and ad blocker software) the second option may not be visible.  There is a screengrab below showing what I am talking about.

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The state visit by Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping in combination with USTR Jamieson Greer’s responsibilities within the U.S-China trade program, meant that Greer had to defer a visit to Mexico to work on the USMCA replacement.  However, bilateral trade agreement discussions at a technical level remained on track and progressing during Xi’s visit.

The U.S. and Mexico delegations have now expanded the bilateral topics from 54 sections to 90 sections.  This indicates significant agreement on the major components of the framework and now the smaller overlapping topics that enmesh with the bigger topics are brought in.

Greer shifted focus toward the Chinese trade aspects due to the timing of the Xi-Trump summit.  USTR Jamieson Greer is expected to be returning to the Mexico trade talks in about a week.

For the interests of the Mexican side, the main focus is seeking favorable reductions in the section 232 tariffs on steel, aluminum and automobiles.  However, the digital platform section and intellectual property is also a priority being negotiated by team USA.

MEXICO CITY, Sept 23 (Reuters) – The fourth round of trade talks between Mexico and the United States will not take place next week and could instead be held in October, a senior Mexican official said on Wednesday, as the two countries juggle a shifting diplomatic calendar.

Luis Rosendo Gutierrez, Mexico’s deputy economy minister for foreign trade, said the delay was due to scheduling conflicts, including Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States and the upcoming G20 summit. Despite the pause in formal rounds, Gutierrez said technical coordination with the US Trade Representative’s Office (USTR) remains a “daily” occurrence.

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Promethean Action’s Susan Kokinda gives a good recap of Chinese Chairman Xi’s state visit, including the nuanced respect and policy alignment visible between President Trump and Chairman Xi.

In essence, the comments by Marco Rubio about putting USA sovereign policy ahead of prior USA multilateral global policy, are a baseline for Chairman Xi to pivot his own interpretations of Trump’s policy objective.  With U.S policy focused on America’s interests and Beijing policy focused on China’s interests, there is no room for conflict, only terms.

This episode argues that media outrage over a White House “autopen” joke and criticism of Trump’s summit with Xi Jinping obscures a deeper shift: Trump is dismantling a 50-year geopolitical framework associated with Henry Kissinger. It contrasts Chatham House’s “China Rising, America in Decline?” panel and its Thucydides Trap framing—linked to Graham Allison—with Xi’s evolution from posing the trap as an open question to asserting it “can be overcome” after Trump’s UN speech and claimed actions in Iran, Venezuela, the Shield of America, and the Greenland Treaty, alongside a push for reindustrialization.

The script also highlights a UN Board of Peace session on Gaza focused on reconstruction led by Gazans and a new security structure involving Muslim-country troops, presenting it as ending “outside forces” control. It notes Rubio’s permanent dual role as Secretary of State and National Security Advisor and frames his stance as reversing Kissinger’s legacy.  WATCH:

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Terms of Greenland Deal Here

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Bottom line, we are in an expanded information war. I’ll explain.

Several years ago, in explaining some of the site challenges CTH informed people of Google’s latest information control operation that was simply called “a spider crawl.”  The spider crawl was an automated instruction to search the internet and find information that was beyond the parameters of their “trust and safety” guidelines.  The automated search would crawl through the websites and comment sections, and report violations based on key words in the search parameter.

Spider crawling is essentially AI.  A technology tool to search databases and identify results based on parameters established by the individual who launched the search.  However, now in order to push a scare narrative around the hot topic of “AI” the spider crawling is much more in depth and advanced.

Now, instead of just searching the internet, advanced AI can find information and answer questions based on lengthy attributes described by the AI user.  AI can now go into proprietary databases and retrieve information to answer complex and complicated question (instructions).

If the AI launch, now called an “AI bot”, hits a gate, like a password access point, advanced AI can find workarounds to enter the database, extract the information and return the result to the AI user.  If you understand that process, then this headline has context.

[SOURCE]

The entire article is nothing more than taking something that is easily understood and adding jargon to make it sound complicated. The word “meddling” is used to describe the AI process of trying to get passed the gate.  When there were individual people doing this, we called it “hacking” now the process is automated via instructions to the software search.

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President Donald Trump delivered impromptu remarks to the media as he departs the White House this morning. WATCH:

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Again yesterday, western media were running articles with soundbites and interpretations from a press conference in St Petersburg, Russia, given by Vladimir Putin.

When there are significant consequences within words, it is always the best option to review the source of the words spoken and not the interpretation of them by western media.  Below you will find the direct transcription of Putin’s remarks without filtered opinion.

[TRANSCRIPT] – Question: Mr President, you said earlier that the trilateral format negotiations of Russia, the United States and Ukraine could resume after the State Duma elections. The elections have concluded. Where and when could a new round of negotiations take place?

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: As is well known, the Ukrainian side broke off the negotiations that were held in Istanbul. But now – or rather, even before the elections, about 10 days or a couple of weeks ago – it declared its readiness to resume these negotiations. Indeed, we said that negotiations are unlikely to be held before the State Duma elections, and that we will be ready to resume these contacts following them.

However, the recent developments are also well known to everyone. On the night of September 20, that is, on the main voting day, a massive strike was launched against Moscow. More than 1,600 drones entered the area near Moscow. This is the first point.

Second. Strikes were carried out on polling stations. In one location, the polling station was located in a school; the school was virtually destroyed by the strike. Attacks began on the residential homes of the chairpersons of territorial election commissions. In one case, the chairperson of a territorial commission, her husband and her child were injured. In another case, it unfortunately resulted in tragedy, and, as you know, the chair of the territorial election commission was killed as her home was the target of the strike.

In addition, as we are currently in St Petersburg, I think everyone remembers the St Petersburg International Economic Forum being held, when the Ukrainian authorities targeted St Petersburg, hitting the so-called coal harbor in the port and setting it on fire. Who did they want to scare, us or our guests? Those who work with Russia are unlikely to be scared of anything or run away. And no one did. We held that forum to the end.

Then, starting in June, they began targeting our oil refineries. As is also well known, in June they announced the start of a forty‑day operation. Well, this led to certain losses on our part.

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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.

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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 †

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In 1986, the federal government built a computer database called SAVE, Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements. The purpose was simple – when a noncitizen applies for public benefits the state govt can check whether the applicant was legally in the country. The SAVE system worked. Nobody talked about it for 39 years.

In March 2025, President Trump signed an executive order expanding SAVE’s use. The order told DHS to use the SAVE system to verify citizenship of registered voters and people registering to vote. The order instructed the Social Security Administration to share its records with DHS for that purpose.

Two months later, DHS launched the modified version. Two changes: (1) it now checks Social Security numbers against SSA databases. (2) it allows state and local authorities to run bulk searches; the entire voter roll at once.

Blue states sued. Slowly the cases went through the lower courts, then the appellate courts, until finally the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 the SAVE system can be used in the midterm election [RULING HERE]. “While the ruling gives the Department of Homeland Security authority to use the database ahead of the midterms, the court’s conservative majority noted that the impact of the ruling was blunted by another federal law — the National Voter Registration Act — which prohibits states from purging voters within 90 days of the election.” {ABC link}

If the states use the SAVE system, but do not purge their voter rolls for 2026 based on the results, the system still can be of value. “the justices’ action came so close to the upcoming election that the records can only legally be used on a case-by-case basis — and not for the type of bulk voter-roll matching that some states want to conduct.” {Politico link}

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave an extensive press conference following a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the conclusion of U.S. participation in the 2026 UNGA.  The full video and transcript are below.

There’s little argument that Secretary Rubio is one of the most remarkable Secretary of States’ in our modern history.

[Transcript] – SECRETARY RUBIO:  Okay, go ahead.

QUESTION:  Mr. Secretary, what were the U.S. demands with the Iranians yesterday, and was there any discussion of return to the MOU, or have the terms changed for the United States in terms —

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, yesterday’s conversation was with some of the mediators involved in that process, and I don’t want to characterize it as one direction or another.  I think it’s a pretty clear understanding of what this – remember everything here, at its core, the number one issue – the President highlighted this yesterday in his speech before the world – Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.  Everything emanates from that.

We understand the straits is an issue.  The southern lane of the straits is open.  Every day more and more barrels of oil are flowing through there.  And they’re open, thanks to the efforts of the United States military that’s both defending shipping and has removed mines.  And that trend will continue.  Meanwhile, the only blockade in the Hormuz Straits is the one we’ve imposed on Iran because they keep firing on ships and they continue to do so as early as this morning.  There was another launch, so – on shipping.  So, we’ll continue to defend.  We’ll continue to hold the straits open.  So that’s an issue.

But the core issue here is that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.  We make that point in every interaction with them.  Beyond that, I would say that – I don’t want to characterize these meetings because these – if there’s going to be a deal with Iran, it’s not going to happen at a press conference.  It’s going to involve a lot of hard work over a period of time, and it will engage and involve mediators as well.

So as the President said, he’s open to a deal.  The President’s open, still to this moment, to making a deal with Iran that allows Iran to be what it should be, which is a great and prosperous country.  But if they continue to insist on the desire for a nuclear weapon, their support for proxies in the region that – their support of terrorism – they’re the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism – then we’re going to have big problems with them.  And the President has a number of options available to him, including the ones he’s already taken, which is to impose severe and growing economic costs.  But he also has some military options, upon which I won’t speculate.

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