There’s an interesting interview within the New York Times written by Thomas Friedman who interviews Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about the current changes taking place within Saudi Arabia and MbS’s intense drive to modernize and engage.  The article is well worth reading.
CTH would be remiss if we didn’t draw attention to the level of jaw-dropping weasel linguistics that Friedman uses to jump on the MbS bandwagon.  If you have never read Friedman’s interviews of President Obama –EXAMPLE HERE– you might not see it.
However, if you have watched the decade of fawning idolatry expressed by Friedman toward the Chicago lightbringer you’ll immediately notice the tell-tale signs of a pontificating liberal [shallow-minded simpleton] attempting to retain relevance by claiming proximity toward perspectives that are 180 degrees away from his previous prose.
There’s a particular level of inauthentic weaselistics that goes beyond the normal level of liberal snobbery.  If you’ve ever experienced the shallow pinky-raised elites, group-talking about their sensitive wine palates while the Sommelier tricks them with $10 vino; or if you’ve heard stories of the cloistered-clutch waxing philosophically at art exhibitions which were actually switched for Kindergarten scribbles… well, then you know Friedman’s tribe.
In real terms there’s a level of profound irony within this interview.  The changes within Saudi Arabia are directly supported by a U.S. president empowering Saudi Arabia to manifest its own destiny.
President Trump has reshaped mid-east policy, and formed a strong coalition, based on a partnership among co-equals.  This is not about the U.S., this change is about Saudi Arabia.
That Trumpian outlook is a complete reverse of the Bush/Obama Doctrine of forcing their personal definition of ‘Western values‘ to provide support.   Yet Friedman can’t even see that paradigm shift; his ideology is so mired in selfishness it is invisible to him.
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I somewhat agree with Mrs. Brazile, but I doubt she’ll ever be honest with the reason.
Anyone who has watched the ongoing internal battle within the larger Democrat party will note the institutional apparatus is about to make a major concession.  More than likely the Democrat machine will drop “super delegates” from the system.
The control authority will sell the removal of ‘super delegates‘ as confirmation they are reforming and listening to the people.  However, things are not quite as they would appear.  The institutional control agents will NEVER give up their control over the nomination process; they don’t even carry that genetic possibility in their DNA strain.
As an insider and life-long party benefactor, Donna Brazile outlines her view on the future. A future that almost everyone reading these pages will be very familiar with.

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Remember the adage, ‘history repeats’. What Brazile is outlining is exactly the same conversation you might remember from the republican wing of the UniParty circa 2009; and expanded later in the 2013 GOP autopsy. There’s a strategy behind running a field of candidates; a control strategy; a “splitter strategy“.
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Aside from the common vernacular of ‘broken arrow‘ referencing a loss of a nuclear weapon it also means:

“a code phrase that a ground unit is facing imminent destruction from enemy attack and all available air forces within range are to provide air support immediately.”

In essence, with enemy completely overwhelming a position – a military commander calls in direct fire upon themselves in a last-ditch effort to at least retain some of their own forces in the aftermath.
For the sake of this discussion do not consider the reference ‘federal politicians’ (ie. DC congress and Senate); but rather consider the term “broken arrow” a metaphor for the totality of the past eight years and the collapse of the Democrat political apparatus in state House seats and state Senate seats.
Currently:

• State House Majority Control: 38 states Republican / 12 states Democrat
• State Senate Majority Control: 37 states Republican / 17 states Democrat / 1 state tied.
• State Governors: 34 Republican / 15 Democrat / 1 Independent

If you put a blue marble on a table for each of the Democrat politicians in state office and a red marble on the table for each of the Republican politicians in state office the table would be roughly 65% red marbles and 35% blue marbles.
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Oh, this is SWAMPY – and the timing is epic.  Pennsylvania Congressman Bob Brady is a ranking member of the Committee on House Administration which oversees settlements paid by Congress for sexual discrimination and harassment complaints.
Additionally, representative Brady is also under FBI investigation for false statements, conspiracy and campaign fraud, according to FBI documents revealed on Tuesday:

PHILADELPHIA –  The FBI has reason to believe U.S. Rep. Bob Brady unlawfully concealed a $90,000 payment made by his campaign to get an opponent to quit a 2012 primary race, according to court documents that confirm the Philadelphia Democrat is under investigation in a widening campaign finance probe.
In unsealed court documents made public Monday, the FBI requested a search warrant and has obtained data from an email account belonging to Brady. The FBI agent who filed the warrant wrote that there is probable cause Brady violated contribution limits and produced false documents, and there is evidence that he and others knowingly circumvented campaign finance rules.

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This one is going to be a tough call for the Democrat apparatus.  88-year-old Representative John Conyers is the longest serving member of the house, and generally insulated from criticism by the congressional black caucus and identity politics.
Initially on Tuesday Conyers denied ever paying for sexual harassment claims against him. A few hours later his office reversed position and admitted paying.

(VIA NBC) Rep. John Conyers admitted Tuesday to reaching a financial settlement with a former staffer who had accused him of sexual misconduct but the lawmaker denied having done anything improper.  The House Ethics Committee announced several hours later it had opened an investigation.
“I expressly and vehemently denied the allegations made against me, and continue to do so,” Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, said in a statement. “My office resolved the allegations — with an express denial of liability — in order to save all involved from the rigors of protracted litigation. That should not be lost in the narrative.”

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$64 billion of the current annual trade deficit with Mexico stems from the auto sector alone.
For over a decade auto manufacturers have moved to Mexico in order to import parts from Asia, assemble and install them, and then ship the completed cars into the U.S. through NAFTA without duties (tariffs).
The U.S. auto ancillary business groups (parts suppliers) have been pushed out of competition in the auto sector by this corporate profit strategy.  Thousands of U.S. jobs have been lost in both the plant assembly and the ‘auto-parts’ manufacturing sector.
CTH has called attention to this bastardized supply chain for years.  Foreign auto-parts, made by foreign workers, assembled into U.S. owned manufacturing, and sold as U.S. automobiles. The weird supply chain and assembly process is essentially a multinational corporate scheme (in the auto sector) which exploits one of the loopholes in the 25-year-old NAFTA agreement.
If the assembly plant was on U.S. soil the foreign (mostly Asian) parts would be taxed as imported parts.  However, so long as the assembly is in Mexico (or Canada), the origin of the parts is currently irrelevant, and the finished automobile crosses the border into the U.S. avoiding the taxes using NAFTA.
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Stunningly even Chancellor Merkel herself admits her immigration intransigence is the leading reason for her inability to form a coalition government.  Yet she is so committed to the ideology of ‘open borders‘ she will tender no compromise.
In an effort to leverage political blackmail against her opposition Merkel prefers the route of another election rather than trying to govern from the minority position.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would prefer a new election to ruling with a minority after talks on forming a three-way coalition failed overnight, but Germany’s president told parties they owed it to voters to try to form a government.

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Interesting juxtaposition when you contrast the ‘impossible mandate‘ election results in Germany, against the ‘incredible mandate’ election results in Japan for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.  It’s as if there’s something, well, almost divinely nationalist guiding it.
Things are challenging for Angela Merkel in Germany, and amid the reality we see just how entrenched the globalists are in their ideological demands for ‘open borders‘.
The issue of unfettered immigration has collapsed any hope for German Chancellor Angela Merkel to be able to form a government. Merkel’s Christian Democrat Union (CDU) party had hoped to form a coalition with the center-left Social Democrat (SPD) party and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) party.  However, the primary issues surrounding immigration, spending and climate change are so deeply divided no coalition is possible.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel’s efforts to form a three-way coalition government that would secure herself a fourth term hit a major setback after a would-be coalition partner unexpectedly pulled out of talks, thrusting Germany into a political crisis.
Merkel, whose conservatives were weakened after an election they won with a reduced number of seats, said on Monday shortly after the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) withdrew from the negotiations that she would inform the German president that she could not form a coalition.

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Everyone is aware how apoplectic the Democrat loonery became when their best laid schemes to put Hillary in the White House ran into the reality of electoral Cold Anger carried by the deplorables.  Lots has been written about the gobsmacked reaction to the election, yet few have outlined the underlying policy reasons for the scope of the panic.
The desperate need for post-election control showcased the lefts’ reaction to fear.  However, it is only by looking at the policy groundwork they lost where a political observer can evaluate the scale of defeat.  Democrats created a continuum pathway that is now entirely controlled by the very nemesis of their controlling belief system.

In a largely under-reported story last week, President Trump installed OMB Director Mick Mulvaney as interim head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the CFPB.
The CFPB was created to establish power and control over almost every financial transaction in the United States.  But it is only when you review how Elizabeth Warren and the control agents structured the czar head of the CFPB that you recognize the scale of the intent carried within the construct.
When Senator Elizabeth Warren and crew set up the Director of the CFPB, in the aftermath of the Dodd-Frank Act, they made it so that the appointed director can only be fired for cause by the President.
This design was so the Director could operate outside the control of congress and outside the control of the White House.  In essence the CFPB director position was created to work above the reach of any oversight; almost like a tenured position no-one could ever remove.
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Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney appears on CNN today with Jake Tapper to discuss the Tax Reform Bill and the current Senate version.
Tapper has the ‘Media Matters’ talking points cued up; however, unfortunately for Tapper, Mulvaney knows the intricacies and swats the annoying gnatter chat. Actually, in the $30k example provided by Tapper – Mulvaney went easy on him.

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Interestingly, Mick Mulvaney was also appointed to be the interim head of the CFPB this week; which has ramifications for left-wing economic control loons far greater than the tax reform package.  [More on that later.]  OMB Director Mick Mulvaney also appeared on CBS with John Dickerson (below):
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