In the bigger picture… Within the trade team, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is positioned with primary responsibility toward the EU and India. Ross clear-cuts through the politics, explains Trump’s objectives amid the trade proposals, and paves a path for U.S. Trade Rep Bob Lighthizer to engage his counterparts.
India has always been a key strategic nation within the global trade-realignment taking place by the Trump administration.  Under all of the banter, the “Indo-Pacific” strategy is structurally the decoupling of the U.S. from China. As a part of the strategy President Trump has positioned the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) as benefactors in manufacturing & trade as an outcome of the U.S. decoupling from China.

However, India has genuine concerns about the global dynamic. Specifically, India is worried about allowing the multinationals to have influence over their economy and social structure. In this regard India is not wrong; their concerns are not unfounded.
We can all see, heck we’ve lived through, massive multinational corporations quickly gaining too much influence; including -eventually- corporate influence over the politics of a nation. That inherently leads to corruption.
When Americans see it in other nations we call it “bribery and corruption”, but when it happens in Washington, DC, we call it “lobbying”; the process is exactly the same.
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Everything about this short news segment has to be devastating to democrat candidates, party leadership, DC politicians and the DNC as a whole.  CNN went to Michigan to interview striking United Auto Workers (GM) about the current state of politics and impeachment of President Trump.  Man-o-man, do the results cut the legs out from the professional political apparatus.
First, in a seismic overall political shift the striking UAW workers support President Trump, not democrats.  Why?  Because President Trump has been calling out GM CEO Mary Barra for not negotiating a win/win.  There is no economic reason for a strike.  Second, the striking workers can see through the insufferable political agenda of the Democrats.  This outcome is devastating to the democrats overall.

House Judiciary Rep. John Ratcliffe rightly calls-out the unprecedented sketchy nature of a unilateral impeachment process.  The CIA ‘whistle-blower’ is a material witness in the intelligence committee investigation.  The witness had undisclosed contact with the House intelligence committee prior to filing a complaint.  The Intelligence Community Inspector General did not know about the whistle-blower contact with the committee.
This sketchy assembly of activity makes the HPSCI a fact-witness to their impeachment investigation; a constructed conflict that cannot be allowed. Ratcliffe is correct here:

The inspector general for the Intelligence Community is Michael Atkinson. He is very sketchy.  Atkinson was previously legal counsel for the DOJ-NSD during the ‘stop-Trump’ tenure of John Carlin and Mary McCord. As a result, Atkinson was a participant in the weaponizing of the DOJ-NSD via FISA abuse, along with NSA database exploitation and tenuous FARA legal theories used to target political opposition.
In short, Atkinson seems dirty.  At the very least he hangs around dirty characters.
Today, according to Fox News reporter Catherine Herridge, ICIG Michael Atkinson testified the anti-Trump CIA ‘whistle-blower’, likely to be Michael Barry, did not inform Atkinson that Barry and his legal team already contacted staff working for HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff when he submitted his complaint.  More sketchy.

After he took the complaint, ICIG Michael Atkinson then changed the rules for the ICIG office allowing a second-hand hearsay complaint to be processed.  Again, sketchy.
According to New York Times reporting earlier this week, the ‘whistle-blower’ (likely CIA operative Michael Barry) first tried to push the hearsay claims to CIA management through a colleague.  Fearing CIA management would not take the gossip seriously “the officer then approached a democrat House Intelligence Committee aide, alerting him to the accusation against Mr. Trump.”  Chairman Schiff never told anyone.
Buckets of sketchy.
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The Federalist was able to gain a copy of the opening statement delivered to congress by Ambassador Kurt Volker.  The statements made by Volker support the outline put forth by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani surrounding the initial contact and purposes.
The statement by Volker directly undercuts the narrative spun by HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff and his attempt to create an impeachment narrative.  Here’s the statement:
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The outline by Volker supports the original story as told by Rudy Giuliani.
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MAGAnomics – Lowest Unemployment in 50 Years !
The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the September jobs report. 136,000 jobs were added to the economy and the unemployment rate falls to 3.5%, the lowest since 1969.
Demand for workers remains strong (Table A-1). Overall employment is very stable across all sectors (Table B-1) and wage growth is strong (+2.9%). Additionally, inflation is low; that means more disposable income.  The Main Street economy is strong.

♦Over the month, the number of unemployed persons decreased by 275,000 to 5.8 million. ♦Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs declined by 304,000 to 2.6 million in September. ♦Also, the number of persons unemployed for less than 5 weeks fell by 339,000. ♦The labor force participation rate held at 63.2 percent in September.
The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for July was revised up by 7,000 from +159,000 to +166,000, and the change for August was revised up by 38,000 from +130,000 to +168,000. With these revisions, employment gains in July and August combined were 45,000 more than previously reported.  (BLS Report)

House Judiciary Committee ranking member Doug Collins filed an amicus brief yesterday (full pdf below) highlighting why the Judiciary Committee should be blocked from receiving grand jury material against the backdrop of an impeachment effort without support from the House of Representatives.

In the larger picture it is clear the Obama administration weaponized the institutions of government to target their political opposition. It is also increasingly clear a Hillary Clinton administration would have monetized the U.S. government.
President Obama’s team used the DOJ, CIA, FBI and IRS to target their opposition. The intelligence apparatus was weaponized; one small example that scratches the surface is the FBI/NSA database exploitation. Black files on DC politicians, private sector groups and individuals facilitating leverage, and we are still seeing the ramifications.
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When former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne recently discussed his role within the 2016  “political espionage” operations, he described the financial interests of political office; not coincidentally he also seems to have retreated into a safe-space.
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By now it is clear the anonymous CIA ‘whistle-blower’ complaint was a constructed political effort by House Democrats, IC allies and Lawfare members therein.  HPSCI Ranking Member Devin Nunes discusses the fraud behind the construction of Chairman Adam Schiff.

Judiciary member and ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, Jim Jordan, outlined the House Intelligence Committee testimony today from Kurt Volker, the former State Department Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations. “Nothing said today supported Adam Schiff and the democrats’ impeachment narrative. Nothing”