There’s been a considerable amount of solid debate on whether the U.S. should withdraw all troops from Afghanistan and just watch to see what happens from the outside. Against this backdrop President Trump is anticipated to call for a firm commitment to the region, perhaps adding 4,000 U.S. troops.
President Trump will give a prime-time address to the nation at 9 p.m. tonight to detail his view of the U.S. role in Afghanistan, and the continued presence held.  However, the majority of President Trump’s speech is now anticipated to be a ‘big picture’ overview with an accompanying public outline of expectations for regional participants such as Pakistan and India.
The problem, at least as it is presenting itself, stems from any U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan likely to embolden the extremist outlook of the Taliban and local people who would be captive to the extremist ideology.  With a growing extremist sense, and with an already admitted tenuously perched nuclear Pakistan as the neighboring conduit, the potential for expanded terror threats looms significant.
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If the U.S. electorate were ever to grasp the full scope of what took place in the IRS, FBI and DOJ weaponization of government to specifically target people, no-one in Washington DC would ever be safe from the backlash.
There’s enough material inside the IRS story for multiple Pulitzer prizes, in addition to severe and jaw-dropping revelations as to republican politicians who aided the overall scheme.  Start by finding out who in the IRS specifically sent 21 CD-ROM’s to the FBI, and find out who specifically received them inside the FBI, and what they did with them.

WASHINGTON A federal judge has ordered the Internal Revenue Service to release the names of specific employees involved in targeting Tea Party groups, after years of litigation over what conservatives have long called “chilling” behavior by one of the government’s “most feared” agencies.

Judge Reggie B. Walton of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia also said the IRS must provide information about which groups were targeted and why, along with a strategy to make sure such targeting doesn’t happen again.

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An interesting article in the Washington Times poses a possibility of President Trump holding a deconfliction summit with North Korea –SEE HERE– And that begs a question of whether or not it’s actually plausible. I would state unequivocally yes, and here’s why.
If you have followed the foreign policy pattern of President Trump you immediately recognize he does not restrain himself to DC political customs or DC political norms. Indeed as Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi optimistically noted, President Trump can accomplish many things because he brings a unique perspective to the world of policy and diplomatic engagement. Later repeating: “He Can Do The Impossible“.

Additionally since we originally outlined the likely scenario for a restart of the ‘six party talks‘ (China, South Korea, Russia, Japan and the U.S.), on August 13th, there has been some visible activity providing further evidence toward that end.
•Japan (Shinzo Abe) has stated they have “great confidence” in President Trump’s Asian national security approach. •South Korea (President Moon Jae-in) has stated they are “confident there will not be war again on the Korean peninsular“; •and they are willing to send a special envoy to North Korea to begin talks. •In addition, China has quietly removed the 71-year-old veteran diplomat, Wu Dawei, from the position of negotiator toward the DPRK, and replaced him with 58-year-old Kong Xuanyou. Kong is a long time Chinese diplomat in charge of Asian affairs and he speaks Korean.
All of this generally under-reported diplomatic activity has taken place within the past week while the American media was busy pushing Charlottesville narratives.  But more importantly this activity took place while President Trump directed USTR Lighthizer to begin a section 301 trade investigation into China.  POTUS Trump is ramping up the pressure on Chinese President Xi Jinping, but more specifically this action targets Beijing’s communist old guard who control both their economy and the DPRK behavior.
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Angela Merkel is essentially the de-facto global head of modern political liberalism.  The central tenet, almost religious-based in its importance, is the lunacy within “climate change”.  However, as most reasonable people have concluded, the ‘climate discussions’ are more about controlled global economics than any actual concerns about planetary climatology.   Bottom line, it’s the economics that really matter beyond all else.
Backdrop – The day after President Trump announced his decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Treaty, the German auto-sector immediately responded with a statement.  We see the immediate admission that ‘climate’ is simply a tool to shape global economics within that reactionary auto industry statement (emphasis mine):

(Via Reuters) […] “The regrettable announcement by the USA makes it inevitable that Europe must facilitate a cost efficient and economically feasible climate policy to remain internationally competitive,” Matthias Wissmann, president of the German auto industry lobby group VDA, said in a statement on Friday.

“The preservation of our competitive position is the precondition for successful climate protection. This correlation is often underestimated,” Wissmann said, adding that the decision by the Unites States was disappointing. (link)

As clearly stated, when push comes to shove German sensibilities are connected more to their economics than to any do-gooder need to save the planet.  This reality, in combination with upcoming German elections, sets the stage for Angela Merkel’s statement today, three months later: (more…)

Hot off The Presses.  Round One of scheduled NAFTA renegotiations has concluded today and a trilateral statement has just been released. [My thoughts follow press release]:

Washington, DC – On August 16, 2017, United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and Mexican Secretary of the Economy Ildefonso Guajardo launched the renegotiation and modernization of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in Washington, DC.

This began five full days of meetings by a team of subject matter experts covering more than two dozen different negotiation topics.  Detailed conceptual presentations were made by the United States, Mexico and Canada across the scope of the agreement, and negotiating groups began work to advance text and agreed to provide additional text, comments or alternate proposals during the next two weeks.

The scope and volume of proposals during the first round of the negotiation reflects a commitment from all three countries to an ambitious outcome and reaffirms the importance of updating the rules governing the world’s largest free trade area.

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The Canadian Prime Virtue-Signaler, Justin Trudeau, appears to be backtracking on his pledge for a borderless open society in Canada.

Since telling the world they would take in all refugees regardless of consequences, well, all the refugees started showing up.   Now Justin from Canada is telling refugees they are “irregular” and will not be tolerated.  Quite a change in position.

MONTREAL (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who once took to Twitter to welcome Syrian refugees into the country, said on Sunday that there would be “no advantage” to entering “irregularly.”
“Canada is an opening and welcoming society,” he told reporters in Montreal following talks with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar. “But let me be clear. We are also a country of laws. Entering Canada irregularly is not an advantage. There are rigorous immigration and customs rules that will be followed. Make no mistake.”

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It’s all connected.  The “Big Ugly” is underway.  Intellectually honest people know the CEO boards and advisory council members were on the White House team to shape and protect their collective stakes in the upcoming America First economic trade reset.  Nothing more.
The intents of the prior participants were to protect their interests, period. There was no ideological American altruism within any of the motives.   Globalists, multinationals and the participating leaders, who make their livelihoods on globalist economic expansion, were simply protecting their interests.  Fortunately for the livelihood of the American middle-class they ran into economic granite, the Monolith that is Donald Trump.  Faced with the futility of their self-interested endeavor, they exit under false pretense.  C-Ya.
With NAFTA ongoing, and freed from the original concern about undermining America-First MAGAnomics by domestic industrial leadership, which was the entire premise of assembling them in the first place; in conjunction with Big Panda telling their bag-man in the DPRK to stand down, President Trump now positioned to fire-at-will:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States on Friday formally launched an investigation into China’s alleged theft of U.S. intellectual property, a widely expected move following a call from President Donald Trump earlier this week to determine whether a probe was needed.
The probe is the administration’s first direct measure against Chinese trade practices, which the White House and U.S. business groups say are bruising American industry.

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Obviously there’s an awakening happening throughout the U.S. body politic.  Proof of that awakening is President Donald Trump.  CTH has long held the belief that with information, simple information, the awakening will continue.  However, the MSM have a vested interest in keeping ‘simple truth’s‘ wrapped up on complicated linguistics.
Complication serves their interests.

That said, and against the backdrop of the Atlanta Federal Reserve saying the U.S. GDP is on pace for third quarter growth at 4.0 percent. Here’s a reference point to showcase how much the American electorate have been subjected to economic gaslighting by the media.
The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is simply the sum total of all goods and services made, manufactured and delivered in the U.S.A. minus the total value of our imported goods.
When considering economic growth, you may have heard that 4.0 percent or higher GDP growth is impossible.  Allow me to remove the gaslighting from that claim.
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NAFTA negotiations enter day #4 today.  The final Round 1 summary day is tomorrow, Sunday.   Information as to specifics is hard to find.  Much of the ongoing negotiation is clouded in secrecy.
However, that said, one of CTH mouses (with wolverine teeth) shares a negotiation aspect that drew a great deal of conseternation from the Mexico and Canada side.
The issue revolves around government contracts, specifically U.S. federal contracts for goods and services.  President Trump has initiated a “Buy American, Hire American” policy for government contracts; meaning if the U.S. government has to spend money for a product or service, it should be spent on acquisition of American products made by American workers.
Mexico and Canada want access to these lucrative contracts.  President Trump’s “America First” procurement process is against their interest.  Canada is especially upset about this dynamic.  Canada wants to be able to bid on U.S. Federal Government contracts; and Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland referred to the buy-local rules as “poor public policy.”
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This is one of those paradigm shift CTH predictions that many people scoffed at back in 2015/2016 when we discussed a Trump federal budget, and how Washington DC politicians would respond to a president who actually planned to cut spending.  Back in February we warned:

[…] The UniParty is going to fight hard, very hard, to retain their spending. Don’t be surprised to see GOPe “conservatives” demanding President Trump spend more money. We have been repeating this warning since he announced his bid for the presidency in 2015. (link)

Today’s headline reads “Fears Grow That Trump Could Ignore Congress on Spending“. Traditional thinking, at first glance of the headline, would be the President might ignore budgetary levels and spend more than he should. However, in reality, the paradigm shift is the exact opposite.  DC is worried that President Trump won’t spend enough money.
Let that sink in for a minute.
THAT’S a prime example of: A.) evidence of the DC UniParty; and, B.) how ridiculously dysfunctional and broken the federal budgetary and spending process has become.  DC lawmakers are now consulting attorneys and planning to sue the President and force him to spend money.

WASHINGTON – Lawmakers and activists are preparing for the possibility that President Donald Trump’s administration, in its zeal to slash the federal budget, will take the rare step of deliberately not spending all the money Congress gives it — a move sure to trigger legal and political battles.

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