John Solomon’s report on the FBI contacting Oleg Deripaska in September 2016 for help to structure a narrative of Russian involvement in the Trump Campaign via Paul Manafort has multiple ramifications.   (Article Here) Here’s some preliminary thoughts on the issue.

♦In 2009 the FBI, then headed by Robert Mueller, requested the assistance of Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska in an operation to retrieve former FBI officer and CIA resource Robert Levinson who was captured in Iran two years earlier.  The agent assigned to engage Deripaska was Andrew McCabe; the primary FBI need was financing and operational support.  Deripaska spent around $25 million and would have succeeded except the U.S. State Department, then headed by Hillary Clinton, backed out.

♦In September of 2016 Andrew McCabe is now Deputy Director of the FBI, when two FBI agents approached Deripaska in New York – again asking for his help.  This time the FBI request was for Deripaska to outline Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort as a tool of the Kremlin.  Deripaska once hired Manafort as a political adviser and invested money with him in a business venture that went bad. Deripaska sued Manafort, alleging he stole money. However, according to the article, despite Deripaska’s disposition toward Manafort he viewed the request as absurd.  He laughed the FBI away, telling them: “You are trying to create something out of nothing.”

Several issues make this interesting:

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I have a sneaking suspicion the Machiavellian connections between the U.S. intelligence apparatus and multiple foreign agents/actors, including the work of Stefan Halper in the 2016 presidential election, are only a few days from fully surfacing.  There could be enough sunlight on U.K/U.S. political and intelligence officers to launch multiple investigations.

There was always something suspicious about Senate Intelligence Committee Vice-Chair Diane Feinstein abdicating her Gang-of-Eight position to Senator Mark Warner immediately after the 2016 election.  Feinstein stepped down from her intel committee post and took up a defensive posture as Vice-Chair on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Senator Feinstein is a political animal. She knows the deep state; she knows the deep state secrets; her position gave her operational knowledge; with that knowledge she carried leverage; and the move from Offense (Senate Intel) to Defense (Senate Judicary) just reeked of deep swamp maneuvering.   Obama campaigning last week for her, against the left-wing progressive challenge, transparently looked like a leverage expenditure.

On August 22nd, 2017, Fusion-GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson testified to the Senate Judicary Committee (Grassley Chairman, Feinstein Co-Chair) about his engagements with Christopher Steele and the formation of the Steele Dossier.  The Dossier underpinned the October 21st, 2016, FISA Title-1 surveillance warrant used on Carter Page and against the Trump campaign.

Almost five months later, January 9th, 2018, Feinstein unilaterally released the transcript of Glenn Simpson’s testimony without consulting anyone else on the committee.

At the time of the unauthorized transcript release, it looked even more suspicious {see here}.  Professional Deep State operative Feinstein doesn’t make “mistakes”.  There had to be a reason for it.  There had to be a self-interested reason for it {suspected here}.

In the last week the motive has surfaced.  Today, the motive takes on an even larger understanding.

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It is interesting to watch the Trump Cabinet debate the Obama Cabinet (U.S. media). In this interview between White House National Security Advisor John Bolton and ABC’s Martha Raddatz the central topic is Iran; the detailed conversation is deep weeds therein.

After Bolton presents the administration position and reasoning for exiting the deeply flawed, unsigned and unenforceable Obama Iran “deal” (not treaty), essentially a JCPOA pathway to the land of broken promises, Ambassador Bolton then reaches the part of the discussion where sanctions against European companies come back into play.  This is the best part.  WATCH:

Massive U.S. economic leverage, and the strategic application therein, is an aspect that drives the left-wing Iranian apologists bananas.  A weaponized $20 trillion U.S. economy is the unavoidable atomic sledgehammer at the foundation of the Trump Doctrine.  It is far more powerful than a military weapon and drops all nations to their knees in compliance.

Everything is about the economics. E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. Every point of opposition; every forward MAGA policy; every initiative, including freedom; every move toward success; everything is about the economics.

Look at the immediate take-away published by Reuters.

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Critical Update – Critical Update – Critical Update

Those who are watching the NAFTA negotiations must pay close attention to the activity in the past 36 hours.  There is a key video at the bottom.  First the backdrop:

As most are aware the NAFTA fatal flaw, the “loophole”, surrounds Mexico and Canada structuring their economic manufacturing policy -and trade deals- through the exploitation of a back-door into the U.S. Market. Understanding this key issue is paramount to understanding President Trump’s approach therein.

Remove the NAFTA “loophole” and there is no longer an incentive for U.S. manufacturers to locate their operations in Mexico or Canada. However, the removal of this loophole also means China, ASEAN nations and the EU lose the same incentive.

There have been hundreds of billions of previous investment by multinational corporations in Mexico and Canada.  Every dollar spent was intended to continue this exploitation.

Then came Trump.

In terms of investment size and scale of manufacturing, the auto-sector is perhaps the primary industry attempting to position themselves to avoid any reversal of the NAFTA scheme; and it is a self-interested economic scheme. In the short term there are billions at stake; in the longer term there are trillions within the equation.

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The current issue is the DOJ and FBI refusing to comply with a previous letter sent by Chairman Devin Nunes to Jeff Sessions requesting information pertinent to ongoing review of potential FISA abuse.

Chairman Nunes sent Main Justice a classified letter asking questions. DOJ responded saying they would not comply with providing information (letter below). The Washington Post claimed Nunes was looking for information on an FBI/DOJ ‘source’:

“Top White House officials, with the assent of President Trump, agreed to back the decision to withhold the information. They were persuaded that turning over Justice Department documents could risk lives by potentially exposing the source, a U.S. citizen who has provided intelligence to the CIA and FBI, according to multiple people familiar with the discussion and the person’s role.”  (link)

Additionally, this “source” was later also described as a witness for Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation.

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Tonight President Donald J. Trump is holding a MAGA rally at North Side Gymnasium,  North Side Middle School in Elkhart Indiana.  The start time for the rally is 7:00pm with pre-rally festivities much earlier.

UPDATE: Video Added

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Unfortunately for CNN’s narrative engineers, it’s back to the drawing board ahead of the 2018 mid-term elections.  Russia, Russia, Russia and Porn-Stars, Porn-Stars, Porn-Stars just ain’t selling no more…  If only Comrade Stormy was Russian – ::heavy sigh::

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According to their own CNN polling (full pdf below), despite their earnest engineering efforts, when considering issues for the upcoming mid-term elections – there’s less interest now in Russia-Russia-Russia/Sexual Harassment nonsense, than there was three months ago.

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Michael Avenatti is the sketchy lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels.  Following a similar approach deployed by Fusion-GPS, in a rush to spread rumors and accusations Avenatti has pushed stolen documents from Treasury Department filings to his allies in the media.

The documents appear to come from frequently submitted bank filings and treasury notifications known as Currency Transaction Reports (CTR’s), and Suspicious Activity Reports (SAR’s).  SAR’s and CTR’s are compliance forms filed by organizations who engage in financial services.

Every organization from mortgage providers, to international financial institutions, to local U.S. main street banks, all the way to Western Union and convenience stores who generate money orders, are required to file CTR’s and SAR’s as part of the Treasury Department Banking Secretaries Act; a law requiring anyone engaged in financial services to assist government agencies in detecting and preventing money laundering.

At some point every person reading here has likely had a report filled out by a financial provider, submitting their details within a financial transaction, filed with the Treasury department. You never know about it, because it’s part of compliance reporting.

Somehow the sketchy lawyer for Stormy Daniels obtained a list of treasury filings attached to the name Michael Cohen; the same name as President Trump’s lawyer. It is likely someone within the Treasury Department, or the DOJ with search access to the Treasury Department, leaked this list to Michael Avenatti in an effort to assist his dubious motives.

Unfortunately, at least two of the people Avenatti is now accusing of scurrilous financial transactions are not the same Michael Cohen the dubious lawyer is seeking to attack.  One is a Canadian Michael Cohen, the other is an Israeli Michael Cohen; both have financial transactions in the United States.  The latter just sending his brother money.

This is what happens when you put names in search engines within government records.  There are always multiple people with the same name.  You might remember the wrong Michael Cohen was identified in the Steele Dossier as traveling to Prague, part of a similarly intended and motivated accusation.

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This report out of South Korea, while not confirmed, makes sense. Earlier today President Trump announced Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was en route to North Korea to finalize details for upcoming summit. Secretary Pompeo tweeted he was going to DPRK “at the invitation of N-Korean leadership.”

It makes sense, as an advanced gesture of goodwill ahead of the summit, for Kim Jong-un to release the U.S. captives.

SEOUL, May 9 (Yonhap) — North Korea is expected to release three U.S. citizens held in the communist state on Wednesday, an official from Seoul’s presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said, in an apparent goodwill gesture ahead of a historic meeting between its leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump.

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There are key mid-term primary races taking place today in multiple states.  Some of the primary challenges and outcomes could potentially have larger ramifications for the November mid-terms.

In Ohio the race for governor and Senate is interesting. The former Obama ideologue from within the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Democrat Richard Cordray, is up against outsider Dennis Kuchinich for the Democrat governors race. Additionally, there are multiple Republican candidates hoping to win their party position for a Senate challenge to incumbent Senator Sherrod Brown.  Also, a bright young Republican candidate, Christina Hagen, is seeking a congressional seat in the Ohio 16th district.

Indiana has a closely watched Senate race. In a state where Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton by 19 points in 2016, two GOP representatives, Todd Rokita and Luke Messer, and State Rep. Mike Braun will battle it out to determine who takes on Democrat Sen. Joe Donnelly, considered one of the most vulnerable Democrats up for re-election this year.

Then in West Virginia there’s a very visible Republican primary contest to determine who will square off against Democrat Senator Joe Manchin.   Trump beat Clinton by over 40 points in West Virginia and the GOP primary is a toss-up.  Rep. Evan Jenkins battling Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and outsider Don Blankenship, former CEO of Massey Energy Co.  This race is being widely watched.

CNN Election HQ Results – Available HERE

Fox News Election HQ – Available HERE

New York Times Election Results – Available HERE