$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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Holy Cats… things are moving exponentially fast now…
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri is now disclosing the nature of his resignation, and why he left Lebanon to spend time in Saudi Arabia.  It appears the Saudi and regional partners provided evidence that Iran and Hezbollah were planning an assassination targeting Hariri and his family.
Saad Hariri traveled to France for a meeting with French President Emanuel Macron.
Yesterday President Trump and President Macron had a phone conversation where they agreed on the need for continued cooperation and partnership with regional allies, namely Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the Gulf States and coalition members to confront the destabilizing efforts of Iran and Hezbollah:

JEDDAH: US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday agreed on the need to partner with allies to respond to the destabilization activities of Hezbollah and Iran in the region.
The two leaders’ telephone conversation came in the aftermath of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s resignation, which he announced during a recent trip to Saudi Arabia.
“Both presidents agreed on the need to work with allies to counter Hizballah’s and Iran’s destabilizing activities in the region,” a statement from the White House said.

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UCLA basketball players LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill were arrested in China for shoplifting while attending basketball tournament. UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero said the players stole from three stores in China including sunglasses stolen by LiAngelo Ball from a Louis Vitton store.
During a state visit to China President Donald Trump requested leniency and consideration from President Xi Jinping. The players were released as President Trump returned from Asia.
Now, the ungrateful father of LiAngelo Ball, LeVar Ball, dismisses the efforts of President Trump:

“Who?” LaVar Ball told ESPN on Friday, when asked about Trump’s involvement in the matter. “What was he over there for? Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.”

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The entire apparatus of the American moonbat-left ignores it, and simultaneously attempts to send it into the inconvenient memory-hole of nothingness, that’s what.
Nobel prize winning Aung San Suu Kyi is the State Counselor of Myanmar (Burma), and has for years been the de-facto personification of a heroine for far left Brangelina Peacenik treehuggers.

Lauded by the Birkinstock crew: Bog Geldof, Bono, and President Obama as the “Asian Mandela“, Aung San Suu Kyi was elevated to almost mythological status by Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, the U.S. State Department and international human rights groups.  In short, she was their heroine.
Unfortunately Aung San Suu Kyi was also susceptible to the intoxicating self-importance of expressed western globalism; and entirely inept in understanding the value in cultural nationalism, and the value of national identity, when there’s no framework of democracy to underpin her desired political and social changes.
After months of weakness, willful blindness and duplicity in allowing genocide against the Rohingya Muslim population, the bloom is off the ruse.  Follow modern peacenik liberalism to its natural and logical conclusion and you find totalitarian dictatorships created by losses in national sovereignty. Despite the apologetic and defensive posture of the New York Times the reality remains.
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Almost everyone understands the term “re branding”. Don’t laugh when you consider the possibility of re-branding Kim Jong-un; and more importantly, as an outcome, the entire geopolitical architecture of North Korea.  Rebranding takes time. This type of re branding takes silent and subtle persuasion.

It’s not a short term process, but look for indicators like this to ever-so-slowly morph. China’s Xi Jinping seeding ploughshares over missiles needs careful and controlled fertilization.
Business suits replacing General’s uniforms would be very good for the people of North Korea. Ultimately that’s an honorable goal.
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Chairman Xi is sending his CPC special envoy, Song Tao, to North Korea.

Song Tao, special envoy of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Xi Jinping, will leave for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Friday.  (Story Here)

This is President/Chairman Xi Jinping, now fully empowered by the communist party in Beijing, sending the party apparatus to talk to Kim Jong-un.  Previously these instructions would have come from Beijing’s old guard.  However, Chairman Xi now commands all power over the communist government; he doesn’t need their approval any longer.
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LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalem Hill have embarrassed our country, our president, their school and their families.  A day prior to President Trump’s arrival in China the three UCLA Bruin freshman basketball players were arrested in Shanghai, China for stealing sunglasses from a Louis Vuitton store near the team hotel.
In addition to being a national embarrassment, they were facing harsh legal consequences in China that would forever destroy their lives.  However, during President Trump’s meeting with Communist Chinese President Xi Jinping, he asked for leniency.

While President Trump is en route back to the U.S. from the 12 day Asia trip, Chairman Xi Jinping has released the three thieves:

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Three UCLA basketball players detained in China on suspicion of shoplifting are on a plane back to Los Angeles.

Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said Tuesday the matter “has been resolved to the satisfaction of the Chinese authorities.”

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President Trump left the Philippines a little early Tuesday after the East Asia Summit schedule was running late.  According to Reuters President Trump left Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to attend the plenary session.

[Pool Report] POTUS, wearing a blue tie, exited Marine One, walked to Air Force One, shook a few people’s hands and scaled the stairs. He entered Air Force One at 3:12 pm and waved.
Trump did not stay for family photo with the 18 members of the East Asia Summit. The event was running behind schedule and he opted to leave.
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The most notable aspect amid President Trump’s granddaughter Arabella delivering a folk song in native Mandarin wasn’t the song itself, it was the response from Madame Peng Liyaun, the wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping. If you haven’t watched the video, you should.
The song was shared moments after President Trump delivered these remarks during a state dinner presented by President Xi and Madame Peng to honor the visit of President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump:

[…] “This moment in history presents both our nations with an incredible opportunity to advance peace and prosperity alongside other nations all around the world. In the words of a Chinese proverb, “We must carry forward the cause and forge ahead into the future.” I am confident that we can realize this wonderful vision.
[…] It is my hope that the proud spirits of the American and Chinese people will inspire our efforts to achieve a more just, secure, and peaceful world, a future worthy of the sacrifices of our ancestors, and the dreams of our children.
In a moment, we will view a video of my granddaughter, Arabella, reciting traditional Chinese songs and poetry about your country’s serene beauty and treasured customs. Our children so often remind us of our shared humanity and true dignity.” (link)

Arabella began her video by saying: “Hello, Grandpa Xi. Hello, Grandma Peng”, and then began to sing a story in Mandarin very familiar to the Chinese people. Exceptionally familiar to Madame Peng Liyaun who, along with being the wife of President Xi, was a folk singer and popular cultural icon herself.
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CTH has a strong sense that when the final analysis on Venezuela’s ongoing socialist struggle is written, some years from now, the geopolitical strategy used by the Trump administration will be taught in political science classes. [Backstory Here]
As a result of horrific socialist policies, primarily driven by using oil production to maintain it’s socialist governance, Venezuela is under massive debt and desperate for cash.  The United States was one of the few remaining cash purchasers of Venezuela oil before U.S. Secretary of Treasury  Mnuchin imposed sanctions.
Previously China and Russia purchased Maduro’s oil, however their current purchases are/were all made as offsets, repayments, for prior loans.  China and Russia already own 49% of Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA. Venezuela repays China and Russia with oil, but Venezuela needs cash revenue. It doesn’t generate additional revenue for Maduro if China and Russia purchase more oil, it only pays down the Venezuelan debt.
Venezuela needs money.  However, if anyone engages in restructured debt or further loans or bond holdings to Maduro they run the risk of running afoul of Secretary Mnuchin’s sanctions which could have a downstream effect of freezing their own banks and international financial systems from engagement with U.S. banks.
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