Personifying what happens when the financial value of a national security clearance is threatened; and highlighting how clearance is traded as currency within the permanent administrative/consulting state; ex CIA official Philip Mudd goes into a rage during a CNN discussion where his personal value would be diminished by losing a security clearance.
If this is the mental stability of people within the intelligence community, who are supposed to be professional consultants available for ongoing advice, well, there’s the problem.  WATCH:

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In direct contradiction to the statements made in the segment; it should be noted (likely to be soon taken down) on the personal website of Philip Mudd he highlights his financial interest, which is the exact point of Paris Dennard:

“Mr. Mudd is the President of Mudd Management, a company specializing in security consulting; analytic training; and public speaking about security issues.  He is a senior fellow at the New America Foundation and The George Washington University’s Homeland Security Policy Institute.  He now serves as Senior Global Adviser to Oxford Analytica, a British-based firm specializing in advising multinational companies.   He sits  on the advisory board for the National Counterterrorism Center and for the Director of National Intelligence, and he serves on the Aspen Institute’s Homeland Security Group.”  (link)

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Michelle Wolf gained notoriety for her obnoxious, unfunny and rude diatribe during the White House Correspondents Dinner:

(Via Mediaite) […] The comedian made a name for herself earlier this year at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where her monologue received a mix reception, especially for her jokes targeting Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who attended the event. Wolf had previously appeared as a correspondent on The Daily Show and a writer for Late Night with Seth Meyers.
Wolf’s controversial brand of comedy continued at Netflix, which debuted shortly after the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in late May.  (read more)

Wolfe’s show only lasted 10 episodes and was cancelled.  According to media reports the show staff and producers found out about their termination via twitter.  Meanwhile Sarah Sanders is still White House Press Secretary.

In a late Friday submission to the court (full pdf below) Special Counsel Robert Mueller has presented a sentencing memo recommending 30 days jail for George Papadopoulos. The basic charge against Papadopoulos was lying about the timing and substance of his meeting with Maltese professor Joseph Mifsud.

Mifsud is the professor who allegedly told Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos that the Russians had emails related to the Clinton campaign. The FBI says it opened its Crossfire Hurricane investigation on July 31st, 2016, after Papadopoulos relayed that information to Australian diplomat Alexander Downer, and the Australians tipped off U.S. authorities.  However, HPSCI Chairman Devin Nunes refutes this origination claim.
Almost everything about the origination narrative stands without evidence. Quite the contrary both Mifsud and Downer have given statements that directly contradict the popular origination pitched by the media. The DOJ and FBI have never given an actual explanation as to what evidence existed to originate the Crossfire Hurricane operation. Everything is media supposition. Thus, everything remains sketchy – including everything surrounding the plea agreement between Robert Mueller and George Papadopoulos.
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Sad Panda increasingly frustrated as disruptor Trump heaps vociferous praise on Chairman Xi, while simultaneously out maneuvering Beijing’s geopolitical economic strategy.
China expert Michael Pillsbury discusses the current environment around the Beijing leadership with Fox host Tucker Carlson.  This is really important. WATCH:

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What Pillsbury outlines is exactly what CTH predicted last year when we shared how the Red Dragon would be caught entirely off-guard.  They’ve never seen this approach before.
NOTE: The upcoming Chinese trade delegation is not showing up at the end of this month as a matter of scheduling happenstance.  What no-one in the financial/trade/economic media is connecting is the timing of their visit with USTR Lighthizers’ Section 301 Tariff hearings –SEE HERE.  August 20th through August 27th, you can guarantee the Chinese delegations will be all over those hearings; including dispatching their paid lobbyists to provide input on their behalf.
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The Associated Press published an interview with Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr today where the intensely corrupt Senator Burr tries to reverse all his prior positions, publications and manipulated committee findings, against President Trump.

“Sorry bro, gotta bail”…

As the tide changes; and with DOJ and FBI officials delivering testimony; combined with communication between U.S. co-conspirators (Bruce Ohr, Glenn Simpson) and foreign actors (Chris Steele, Oleg Deripaska) gaining sunlight, the larger united effort between the intelligence apparatus and politicians starts to become a risk to elected individuals.
Remember, the background here is: currently indicted Senate Intelligence Committee Security Chief, James Wolfe, through his lawyers, having already stated they intend to subpoena Intel Committee members as part of Wolfe’s defense for leaking classified information to the media and lying to the FBI.

(AP) […]  Burr said there is “no factual evidence today that we’ve received” on collusion or conspiracy between Russia and President Donald Trump’s campaign. But he said he’s still open on the issue and hasn’t personally come to any final conclusions, since the investigation isn’t finished.

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Freight hauling trucks are like the lymphatic system within a healthy economy.  As the economy writ large needs to move stuff around, it’s the truckers who git-r-done; and no time in U.S. economic history has there been such a demand for haulers.
In a stunning Wall Street Journal Report they note Analyst group ACT Research says manufacturers are on track for 450,000 orders for heavy-duty trucks this year, easily breaking a 14-year-old record. In July alone, North American fleets ordered more than 52,000 trucks, the largest order in history.   Whoot, Whoot !!

(Via WSJ) An unprecedented run of orders for big rigs has pushed the backlog at truck factories to nine months, according to industry analysts, the largest since early 2006, when truckers stocked up to get vehicles in place before tougher environmental restrictions would take effect. Typically the backlog is about five months for the truck industry’s manufacturers, analysts said.

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Economic analysis can get weedy…. so a simple way to look at productivity is to think about baking bread in your kitchen.
If you were going to bake 4 loaves of bread it might take you 2 hrs start to finish. However, if you were going to bake 8 loaves of bread it would not take you twice as long because most of the tasks can be accomplished with simple increases in batch size, and only minor increases in labor time.  Your productivity measured in the last four loaves is higher.
Economic Productivity is measured much the same way, within what’s called a production probability equation.  Additionally, if two hours of your time are worth $40, each of four loaves of bread costs $10; but if you make 8 loaves in the same amount of time the labor cost is only $5/per loaf.
From 2007 through 2017 the average rate of productivity increase was 1.3%.  However, in the second quarter of 2018 productivity jumped to 2.9%.  That means total business output increased significantly as more product was demanded from within the business operation.  Throughout the economy people just wanted more stuff.
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The media institutions that are the central players in advancement of the two-year-long corrupt scheme against candidate Trump, now President Trump, all listed themselves as a “Media Coalition” on court documents demanding the names and addresses of the Manafort Jury:

Fortunately, Judge T.S. Ellis denied the motion by the media.
Shortly before 3:00pm this afternoon Judge Ellis said he personally had received threats and would keep the names of jurors a secret for their safety despite the media demand their names be made public.
The judge is being protected full time by the U.S. Marshals and shared with the court: “I won’t tell you what threats I’ve received,” he said, “but I have the Marshals’ protection. Where I go, they go. I had no idea this case would excite these emotions,” the judge said.
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Departing the White House for New York and New Jersey, President Trump delivers impromptu remarks and holds a brief unscheduled presser prior to climbing aboard Marine-One.

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The story of the jihadist training compound in New Mexico takes yet another weird turn today, as federal authorities removed the partially buried trailer, bulldozed a portion of the compound in the process, and yet left key evidence including: ammunition, a bullet proof vest, birth certificates and notebooks, laying around. WATCH THIS VIDEO

This happens on the same day when the child’s corpse discovered within one of the terrorist tunnels was positively identified as the partially decomposed remains of 3-year-old Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, the son of Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, who is alleged to have kidnapped the boy from Georgia in December.

Human remains found at a New Mexico compound in a raid that resulted in several arrests earlier this month have been identified as that of a missing as the son of one of the people taken into custody. (read more)

The property owner and even local media covering the story are perplexed by the sketchy and haphazard investigative activity of federal authorities charged with investigating the events.  This follows earlier local reports of the feds clearing the compound, only to have the property owner discover tunnels, weapons and ammunition overlooked by the FBI.
What the heck is going on in New Mexico?
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