Things are getting very interesting as the clock ticks toward the end of the USMCA trade agreement.

Almost no one is watching the USMCA element because it quietly exists only in the background of events. However, pay close attention to the ancillary stories because they will eventually merge with the end of the USMCA and two bilateral trade agreements between the U.S-Canada and the U.S. and Mexico later this year.

NATO funding and Canadian economic independence, and by extension the EU and China, comes into the northern agreement.  Border security and Mexican economic independence, and by extension immigration and China, comes into the southern agreement.  The strength of MAGAnomic policy flows directly through both.

In the quiet sphere, a few days ago Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a key player in the trade program, announced sanctions against three Mexican financial organizations that underline the influence of the Mexican cartels and the Mexican government. [Treasury Announcement Here]

“The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued orders identifying three Mexico-based financial institutions—CIBanco S.A., Institution de Banca Multiple (CIBanco) [ORDER HERE], Intercam Banco S.A., Institución de Banca Multiple (Intercam) [ORDER HERE], and Vector Casa de Bolsa, S.A. de C.V. (Vector) [ORDER HERE]—as being of primary money laundering concern in connection with illicit opioid trafficking, and prohibit, respectively, certain transmittals of funds involving CIBanco, Intercam, and Vector.  These orders are the first actions by FinCEN pursuant to the Fentanyl Sanctions Act and the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, which provide Treasury with additional authorities to target money laundering associated with the trafficking of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, including by cartels”. (more)

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is furious. “The Treasury Department hasn’t provided a single piece of evidence to show that any money laundering was taking place,” she said. “We aren’t going to cover for anyone, there isn’t impunity here. They have to be able to demonstrate that there was actually money laundering, not with words, but with strong evidence.”

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I’m just going to outline this post as it is framed by Vice President JD Vance without anything…

JD Vance – “This is such a revealing clip. The American media is full of the least curious, least insightful people in our country.

To recap, an out of context, “low confidence” and incomplete intelligence report was selectively leaked to the media. The media reported on the findings without any real effort to figure out whether they represent any part of (much less the full) truth. The way the media has presented the report is contradicted by the IAEA, the Iranians themselves, and the administration’s political and defense leadership. More importantly, the media’s reports are contradicted by common sense.

[Vance, cont…] “To summarize: a dozen 30,000-pound bunker busters were dropped on Iran’s main nuclear site. (The other two sites that were targeted suffered heavy damage too). No one disputes they hit their targets. No one disputes the explosive or destructive power of the weapons. No one disputes that a week ago, Iran could have easily assembled a nuclear weapon and now they can’t.

The entire debate–even accepting the press’s dishonest framing–is not about whether Iran can now build a nuke. They can’t. It’s about how much rebuilding the Iranians would have to do in order to achieve a nuclear weapon. In other words, after a wildly successful military operation with no American casualties, the American media is trying to blame Donald Trump for the existence of facilities *that haven’t even been built yet.*

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If you assert the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites at Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan were taken exclusively to remove the capacity of Iran to create a nuclear weapon, you are likely missing a key point. However, if you recognize the strikes were not only about eliminating Iran’s nuclear capacity but also about taking Israel’s “Iran has nukes!” card off the table, then you begin to understand the after action message from the Trump administration.

Essentially, by removing the Iran nuclear threat, the overall influence from Israel on President Trump’s foreign policy objective is also lessened. Within that dynamic you will see why President Trump, Secretary/NSA Rubio and the inner national security circle are so strongly emphasizing the “totally destroyed” message. WATCH:

The inverse of the successful Iran strike narrative is also true. If the strikes against Iran are defined as not eliminating the nuclear threat, then a continuance of national security influence on behalf of Israel is maintained.

Unfortunately, for the deepest part of the U.S. intelligence apparatus, maintaining the usefulness of the Iran nuclear threat is aligned with their interests. Hence, we begin to see why the intelligence apparatus immediately began trying to diminish the effectiveness of the strikes with leaks to CNN [SEE HERE].

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President Trump holds an impromptu press conference from the airport in Morristown, New Jersey.  After making a few announcements about peace between Congo and Rwanda, President Trump took questions from the assembled press pool.

As we have mentioned before, there is a transparent effort by the mainstream media and their aligned allies in the intelligence bureaucracy to get DNI Tulsi Gabbard removed.  President Trump is again questioned about Gabbard’s statements from March where she repeated an Intelligence Community assessment that Iran was not currently building a nuclear weapon.  President Trump accepts the misleading question and responds by saying, “she’s wrong.”

President Trump’s admonishment of the manufactured statement is then amplified by the Israel-First group, which includes Laura Loomer and Mark Levin, both ‘influencers’ hoping to see Tulsi Gabbard removed, and replaced with a more pro-Israel, pro-war intelligence head.  Watching this unfold is quite remarkable.

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For the sake of urgency I’m going to talk in direct and bold terms about the targeting of Tulsi Gabbard.  The IC system is attempting to remove her as a disruptive influence by using Iran as a wedge to get her out, but the issue they have with Director Gabbard has nothing to do with Iran.

CTH approaches this after being very concerned about Tulsi Gabbard’s ability.  Not because of intent, but rather we doubted her understanding of the scope of the IC opposition aligned against an effective Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Gabbard started out with these weaknesses, but she learned quickly – grasped the opposition– and has become a transformative force within the Intelligence Community.  Director Gabbard’s recent efforts within the Intelligence Community Inspector General office is another feather in her cap of competence.  Gabbard is now a threat.

If President Trump allows or supports the removal of DNI Gabbard, he is opening up the backplate of his armor, and making himself vulnerable.

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Chairman Tom Cotton, the disassembled National Intelligence Council and a host of Intelligence Community embeds would like to see Gabbard removed.   DC wants to see her removed because the traditional role of the DNI has been a willfully blind tool of the Intelligence Community; Gabbard is not that.

As DNI Mrs Tulsi Gabbard has ♦ chased down intelligence community leakers, ♦ released the JFK files, ♦ released Joe Biden’s domestic terrorism surveillance plan, ♦ intercepted an NIC plot to impeach President Trump (confirmed by Rubio), ♦ taken control of the Presidential Daily Briefing, ♦ and more recently begun to confront the weaponized corruption within the IC Inspector General organization. These are actions, not words, and those actions speak boldly.  Suffice to say, her effectiveness has placed a target on her back.

In the past few weeks, ever since she began intercepting the ICIG issues and using her own personnel to monitor the IC network, she has been targeted with several direct smear campaigns. It is obvious the targeting is coming from inside the intelligence apparatus, and perhaps even the orbit around/under CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

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With the unusual conflicting information coming from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, about the lower confidence level in Iran’s weaponized nuclear weapons program; and contrast against the weird video she recently posted about Japan and the use of nuclear weapons; and considering that CIA Director John Ratcliffe has remained completely silent (although not surprising for him) about the Iranian nuclear program; there is the potential for this otherwise ordinary senate hearing to deliver some surprises.

DNI Tulsi Gabbard is the only administration official who has said publicly she did not think Iran was trying to develop a nuclear weapon.  President Trump dismissed a question about the intelligence conflict last night, saying “I don’t care what she said, I think they were very close to getting one.”

As DNI, Gabbard has made some strong moves over the past three months in support of President Donald Trump, including the interception of an impeachment construct within the National Intelligence Council inside the CIA, and the beginning deconstruction of the Obama era Intel Community Inspector General (ICIG) construct.

DNI Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director Ratcliffe will testify together in front of the Senate Appropriations Committee at 10:30am today. It will be interesting to see if the subject of Iran and Israel is brought up by the Senators.  [Livestream Links Below]  WATCH: The senate just changed the hearing to “closed” status.

FUBAR!

I was hoping we would see Ratcliffe and Gabbard questioned together about the same issue.

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Jeffrey David Sachs is an American economist and public policy analyst who is a professor at Columbia University. Mr Sachs has been against the Ukraine-Russia conflict from the outset and provides a voice to those who are tired of the constant global conflict.

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction
0:47 Why Is Ukraine So Central to the Deep State’s Plan?
4:51 The West’s Obsession With Weakening Russia
9:11 The Origins of the West’s Hatred of Russia
23:49 How the Deep State Used Bill Clinton to Usher in NATO Expansion
31:37 What’s Stopping Trump From Making Peace Between Ukraine and Russia?

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U.S. Secretary of State / National Security Advisor, Marco Rubio, and Director of National Intelligence ODNI Tulsi Gabbard continue making background moves well worth noticing.

♦ Secretary Marco Rubio has moved forward with instructions to fire all overseas USAID staff.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered U.S. embassies around the world Tuesday to move ahead with a directive to fire all remaining staffers with the U.S. Agency for International Development. He said the State Department will take over USAID’s foreign assistance programs by Monday.

A federal judge had temporarily blocked an executive order by President Donald Trump for mass firings at multiple federal agencies, including the State Department, and plaintiffs say Rubio’s reorganization plan appears to violate that court injunction.

The Trump administration says the plan was already underway when the president issued the order, so there’s no possible violation. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston has yet to make a determination. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Tuesday that Rubio’s directive “wasn’t a surprise.”

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The implication of the remark, as President Trump says, “a better security” venue, is that something of much greater significance than traditional White House operations is in need of attention. To such a degree, that prior strategic discussion arrangements are not considered “secure enough.”

President Trump does not like Camp David.

Before taking office, President Trump once told a German journalist in an interview, “Camp David is very rustic, it’s nice, you’d like it. You know how long you’d like it? For about 30 minutes.”

So, the big picture questions become:

What issue would be of such importance, that changing the venue would be needed in order to address it?

What issue(s) has DC interests so aligned, that Rubio and Trump are two of a very small group on the other side of it?

I suspect this is about Iran.

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Currently only DNI Tulsi Gabbard and Sec of State/Nat Sec Advisor Marco Rubio are rising to the challenge.  As collaborating NSA and DNI, they are slowly -but effectively- deconstructing the corrupt Intelligence Community tools.   DHS Secretary Kirsti Noem is also doing an effective job, but her focus is narrower on the IC elements.

Kash Patel, Dan Bongino, Pam Bondi and John Ratcliffe need to get their ass in gear!

Barack Obama and Eric Holder did not create a weaponized DOJ and FBI; instead, what they did was take the preexisting system and retool it so the weapons only targeted one side of the political continuum.  This point is where many people understandably get confused.

In the era shortly after 9/11, the DC national security apparatus was constructed to preserve continuity of government and simultaneously view all Americans as potential threats.  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) were created specifically for this purpose.

What Barack Obama and Eric Holder did with that new construct was refine the internal targeting mechanisms so that only their ideological opposition became the target of the new national security system.  This is very important to understand as you dig deeper into this research outline.

Washington DC created the modern national security apparatus immediately and hurriedly after 9/11/01.  DHS came along in 2002 and within the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 the ODNI was formed.  When Barack Obama and Eric Holder arrived a few years later, those newly formed institutions were viewed as opportunities to create a very specific national security apparatus that would focus almost exclusively against their political opposition.

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