On the positive side George Papadopoulos appears to have a solid understanding of the motive behind the $10,000 given to him by intelligence asset Charles Tawil in Israel. Mr. Papadopoulos correctly identifies the purpose of the $10k as a FARA set-up designed by the DOJ-NSD ‘small group’ which evolved into the special counsel team. h/t Michael Sheridan for the video segment.
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#1) Papadopoulos was lured to Israel and paid in Israel to give the outline of a FARA premise (ie. Papadopoulos is an agent of Israel). #2) Bringing $10,000 (or more) in cash into the U.S., without reporting, is a violation of U.S. treasury laws. Add into that aspect the FARA violation and the money can be compounded into #3) laundering charges.
[A “laundering” charge applies if the money is illegally obtained. The FARA violation would be the *illegal* aspect making the treasury charges heavier. Note: the use of the airport baggage-check avoids the need for a search warrant (the agents didn’t have one).] (more…)
Maria Bartiromo is one of a very few mainstream journalists with knowledge of the deepest weeds of ‘spygate’ and the multiple intelligence operations to manipulate the 2016 election against candidate Trump, and then run operations to remove President Trump.
In an extensive interview with HPSCI ranking member Devin Nunes, Maria Bartiromo asks the ultimate question: “who was the mastermind” behind all of these intelligence operations?
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Released FOIA documents into the special counsel team of Robert Mueller revealed the remarkable trail of the 2017 entrapment scheme conducted by prosecutor Andrew Weissmann to target George Papadopoulos. (more…)
On May 23rd, 2019, President Donald Trump gave U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr full authority to review and release all of the classified material hidden by the DOJ and FBI.
Sixty-five days ago….
It has been 65 days since President Trump empowered AG Bill Barr to release the original authorizing scope of the Mueller investigation on May 17, 2017. A Mueller investigation now being debated and testified to in congress, and yet we are not allowed to know what the authorizing scope was…. Nor the 2nd DOJ scope memo of August 2nd, 2017… Nor the 3rd DOJ scope memo of October 20th, 2017.
…Every minute spent outraged at what Muller did yesterday, is one minute less that Bill Barr is being held accountable for what he is not doing today…
You know Paul Ryan is pushing Fox News to jump the shark when…. After a few minutes of insufferable UniParty propaganda, even CBS is less fake news.
Margaret Brennan clutches her pearls at the outrage of Trump tweets and then settles in to the typical DC UniParty narrative: ‘We are spending too much, but lets spend more on the Central American migrants.’ Mamet was correct: to retain positions that are inherently hypocritical, leftists have to disconnect their hypothalamus, sever their hippocampus, and pretend not to know things: aka Cognitive Dissonance.
President Trump’s Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney appears on Fox News to debate the guardian of the swamp gates Chris Wallace.
Wallace is apoplectic about President Trump noting that Baltimore, Maryland, the most affluent state in the union, is in a state of disrepair. Wallace does his earnest best to promote the position of the four member Fox News Board of Directors which includes former House Speaker Paul Ryan.
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The Chris Wallace/Paul Ryan status on Obama spending and deficits is jaw-dropping in the scale of how obtuse the swamp is.
First, President Obama was the first president to go through two full-terms of his presidency without a single year of a budget being passed. This was by design.
Second, in the first two years of Obama as president -together with Nancy Pelosi- without a budget they tripled the level of government spending. After tripling the level of deficit spending, in the second term Obama then reduced that level of deficit spending by 11%.
Reducing by 11% something Obama just tripled is NOT less. (more…)
Earlier today President Trump sent a warning tweet about Apple possibly incurring tariffs on their products if they continue a plan for manufacturing in China. Later in the day the president answered direct questions about those possible tariffs.
Additionally, Secretary Wilbur Ross was very insightful when he also spoke of the current U.S. perspective toward the U.S-China trade negotiation. If you have followed the basic road-map of America-First, there’s a very clear picture; however, most pundits and trade analysts will likely ignore the message.
Subtle as a brick through a window…. yet it’s amazing how many people can’t see it.
Secretary Ross warned the professional investment class that the current objective for Secretary Mnuchin and USTR Lighthizer is to find out if Beijing is willing to re-engage from the starting point where they left-off when talks collapsed. That’s a big tell.
After several phone calls and staff contacts if the U.S. team doesn’t know the answer to that question, well, there’s almost zero likelihood of any optimistic outlook. In essence, the only value within the current engagement is financial ‘optics’ to stabilize markets.
It has been clear -validated by the G20 outcome- that President Trump is not going to accept anything less than a full and complete structural change in the U.S. trade position with China. Lighthizer’s severe compliance and enforcement clauses, specific to each unique trade sector, are non-negotiable. (more…)
CNBC pundits use the drop in exports to attack the GDP result as Larry Kudlow appears to discuss the overall picture. The knuckleheaded pundits point to tariffs as the reason for the drop in exports without even contemplating (Mamet Principle) the devaluation and subsidies from foreign countries that have driven up the value of the dollar.
While currency manipulation/devaluing (EU and China) drops the prices of their export goods, their devaluation drives up the value of the dollar. The first impact from a high valued dollar is that it causes our export products to increase in price. This drops our exports, and can be a drag on the GDP growth rate. Pundits are intentionally obtuse.
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My advice to President Trump: “Tariff the bastards; all of them” !! (more…)
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appears with Charles Payne to discuss the latest economic data and the Q2 GDP release. Within the interview Secretary Ross explains the information behind the data; the status of the USMCA and Pelosi’s motives to delay ratification; the baseline for the U.S-China trade discussions, and the position of the administration to advance the economic interests of the U.S. above all others.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) has released the data for the second quarter of 2019. The Q2 GDP growth rate of 2.1 percent beat all economic expectations, and highlights strong consumer spending throughout the U.S. economy.
The two primary drags on the Q2 release are also the most volatile: Export/Import contributions (-.65%), and Inventory contributions (-.86%) [table 2]. However, consumer spending was much stronger than anticipated (+4.3%) showing the internal strength of the U.S. labor market and the impact of wage growth which still exceeds 3.6 percent.
The inflation index is still low at 1.5 percent year-over-year, and highlights a point all economic pundits overlook. With countries attempting to stop the impact of tariffs on their exports they are devaluing their currency (EU and China) and subsidizing their export industries (China). This has the cumulative effect of lowering their price. As a consequence, and with a strong dollar, the U.S. is importing deflation.
The Fed can do nothing of substance to impact low price inflation because the causes are external to the U.S. economy. CTH predicted this in 2016, and we stand by that assertion today because we now have almost three years of empirical data to prove it.
Wall Street wants bad news because Wall Street wants a lower fed rate. As a direct consequence Wall Street’s multinational corporate media bias over the GDP data release is hilarious. The headline from NBC is typical: “Economic Growth Slows Less Than Expected in Second Quarter”…. Sometimes you just have to laugh. (more…)
