{{{snicker}}} Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. Oh, remember that White House meeting with the big four German automakers [back on December 4th, 2018] that mainstream media ignored amid the fury of the, well, more popular ‘resistance’ narrative?   Yeah, THAT one.
Well, combine that US/trade White House meeting with the details within the USMCA auto-sector; mix it up a little with the initiatives and incentives for Trump’s industrial vocational apprenticeship training; give the auto actuaries a little time to crunch the numbers; let the executives settle in…. Then, fast forward a month and currently the big Detroit auto-show is happening.
Voilà!… what does Volkswagen announce?  Ahem:

TENNESSEE – Volkswagen to create 1,000 new jobs in Chattanooga expansion:
Volkswagen announces Chattanooga will be the home to the company’s first electric vehicle manufacturing facility in North America. This will be the company’s second U.S. facility.

The automaker made the announcement Monday morning at the Detroit Auto show. Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke, and Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger were all in Detroit for the major announcement.

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The New York Times is quick to the typeset to explain how Brussels is desperately offended because President Trump and Secretary Pompeo have lowered the importance of the EU.   Officials from the European Union are apoplectic that U.S. officials have downgraded their status amid the official registry of diplomatic protocols.

BRUSSELS — The Trump administration downgraded the diplomatic status of the European Union’s delegation to the United States last year without making a formal announcement or informing the bloc about the change, a European official said on Tuesday.

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The official, albeit preliminary, U.S.T.R. delegation from the United States is on the ground in China to begin initial discussions of “technical details” surrounding the ongoing trade dispute.  The preliminary talks are today (Jan 7th) through Wed (Jan 9th).

The prior notice from USTR announced the delegation: •Ambassador Jeffrey Gerrish, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative (pictured above – center); •Ambassador Gregg Doud, USTR Chief Agricultural Negotiator; •Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Ted McKinney, U.S. Department of Agriculture; •Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Gilbert B. Kaplan, U.S. Department of Commerce; •Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy Steven Winberg, U.S. Department of Energy; and •Under Secretary for International Affairs David Malpass, U.S. Department of the Treasury.

The delegation will be accompanied by senior officials from the White House, USTR, and the U.S. departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, State, and Treasury. (link)

Tu Xinquan, director of the China Institute for World Trade Organization Studies at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing is quoted as saying Beijing’s first phase will be focused on technical details before more important voices “make hard political decisions.”
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Some of the highlights from today’s protests in France are quite remarkable.  Additionally, it seems indicative of an inflection point for Reuters to point out that Macron’s current approach toward the Yellow Vests is only making things worse….  Strange times.

PARIS (Reuters) – Emmanuel Macron intended to start the new year on the offensive against the ‘yellow vest’ protesters. Instead, the French president is reeling from more violent street demonstrations.
What began as a grassroots rebellion against diesel taxes and the high cost of living has morphed into something more perilous for Macron – an assault on his presidency and French institutions.

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Last Wednesday night the arrest of a key political organizer of the Yellow Vest protests, a 33-year-old truck driver named Eric Drouet, spurred the movement to claim French President Macron was now arresting his political opponents. The arrest of Drouet has led to an increase in retaliation by the group against the French government. [Video from today]

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Yellow Vest demonstrators are now allied with various groups from across the political spectrum; most peaceful, but some, notsomuch.  This led to French government ministry official Benjamin Griveaux warning Emmanuel Macron yesterday that a “full blown revolution” was possible.
The evidence to support Minister Briveaux’s dire warning did not take long to surface as a team of masked intruders used a forklift and broke into the French ministry causing police and special forces to evacuate him to safety.
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In the realm of everything geopolitical in consequence, a recent article from an interview with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro highlights the globalists’ worst nightmare. And the comments from the WTO reflects the global influence of President Donald J Trump.

Before getting to two key points, rather stunningly delicious points, it’s worth remembering that Brazil is the “B” in the ‘BRICS alliance’.  Before U.S. President Donald Trump took center stage in the world of international influence, the former governments of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) had formed a coalition.  Each nation represented an enlarged -and growing- regional trade/economic influence.
Shortly after taking office; and with hindsight – prior to the China confrontation; President Trump began a systematic process of challenging various economic influencers.  This is the origin of the Trump Doctrine .
By expanding U.S. energy development, strategically engaging with OPEC (Gulf Cooperation Council) States, and simultaneously engaging with Baltic States at the Three Seas Summit in Warsaw Poland, President Trump established the groundwork for downward pressure on oil prices.  This comprehensive and geopolitical energy strategy diminished the ability of Russia to maintain a consistent external financial influence.
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Former British Prime Minister Winston S Churchill famously said: “It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we must do what is required.”  Perhaps, in an ironic way, that is exactly what the British Army are doing as they reveal an ad campaign to recruit the finest young men and women the U.K. has for military service:

This is not a parody; these recruitment posters are very real. The stereotypical traits of British Millennials are accepted as the standard and re-branded as strengths.
The indulgent trait of self-centeredness becomes “self-belief;” the generational obsession with phones and gadgets becomes “focus”; and those with a propensity for compulsive selfie-taking are now cast with internal “confidence.”
Yes, the British Army have officially accepted that a generation where everyone deserves a trophy is now the first line of national defense; and thus recruitment efforts need to be modified accordingly.
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The announcement of The United States drawing down troop deployment from Northern Syria – with the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia sending in replacements to bolster the region, highlights a much larger backstory.

President Obama’s February ’09 Cairo speech began a sequence of events that led to what was called the “Arab Spring“; factually an extremist uprising.  Bolstered by the resulting chaos the Muslim Brotherhood rose to power in Egypt behind Mohammed Morsi.
However, a majority of the Egyptian people rejected President Morsi’s sharia governance, and asked a well respected General Fattah al-Sisi to step in.  Accepting the request of a desperate people Sisi removed Morsi, disbanded the Muslim Brotherhood and went on to win a landslide election in 2014.   The leadership of the Brotherhood fled to Qatar.
President Obama and his policy team was not happy with this outcome.  Obama supported Morsi, not al-Sisi.  Another person who was not happy, was Turkish President Recep Erdogan, who also supported Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Undeterred, and understanding the need for urgency, Egyptian President al-Sisi then began a long process of confronting extremism.  Sisi destroyed the Hamas terror tunnels on the border between Egypt and Israel; and, despite the anxiety expressed by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Sisi brokered an interim peace agreement between the Palestinian Authority and Israelis.
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Economic security is national security… In July 2017 President Trump traveled to Poland to attend the Three Seas Initiative Summit, a gathering of countries bordering the Adriatic, Baltic and Black Sea (Poland, Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia).
The primary purpose of the visit was to discuss security initiatives including how to diminish Russian influence through a cooperative agreement over energy.  President Trump took the SME’s, and delivered a speech in Warsaw, Poland:

[…] “President Duda and I have just come from an incredibly successful meeting with the leaders participating in the Three Seas Initiative. To the citizens of this great region, America is eager to expand our partnership with you. We welcome stronger ties of trade and commerce as you grow your economies. And we are committed to securing your access to alternate sources of energy, so Poland and its neighbors are never again held hostage to a single supplier of energy.”

Well, today a massive multi-billion energy contract for the United States sale and Poland purchase of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) was announced.  While financial terms were not disclosed, the agreement is for the sale and purchase of approximately 2.7 billion cubic meters per year (after regasification) – enough natural gas to meet about 15 percent of Poland’s daily needs.  The contract is for 20 years of purchases.

SAN DIEGO, Dec. 19, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Port Arthur LNG, LLC, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), and the Polish Oil & Gas Company (PGNiG) today announced they have entered into a definitive 20-year sale-and-purchase agreement for liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Port Arthur LNG liquefaction-export facility under development in Jefferson County, Texas.

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CTH has pointed, repeatedly, toward a very specific economic and financial dynamic  because President Trump is uniquely focused on Main Street’s “real economy“.
Everything happening in/around the financial markets is very predictable when you focus on understanding the principles of Main Street MAGAnomics and how those basic principles diverge from Wall Street’s “paper economy”.
President Trump is clawing back American wealth; inch by inch… bit by bit.  This is the full monty.  This is economic nationalism. This is for all the marbles.
This is it.
Everything is happening in a very predictable sequence. Few understand the MAGAnomic reset, and what was predicted to happen in the space between disconnecting a Wall Street economic engine (globalism and multinationals) and restarting a Main Street economic engine (nationalism/America-First).  In 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 CTH explained where we would be today. With current Wall Street events, perhaps it is worthwhile remembering the dynamic.
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