CNN has fired political commentator Jeffrey Lord for tweeting “sieg heil” in response to free speech criticism from Media Matters. – Story Here – Ironically Jeffrey Lord was criticizing the Stazi tactics of the speech police known as Media Matters “who are posing a serious threat to the American free press.” –CNN Position HERE–
(more…)
President Trump was asked to respond to Russian President Vladimir Putin expelling 755 of the U.S. Russian embassy’ 1,200 strong consulate staff in Moscow.
The response wasn’t exactly what the liberal U.S. media anticipated. WATCH:
Following a briefing and meeting with cabinet members and national security officials President Trump and Vice-President Pence held a rather lengthy Q & A with media reporters to answer a myriad of questions surrounding national security and ongoing administration policy.
The president discussed North Korea, regional partners, the United Nations, China, Russia, Syria as well as leaks, Jeff Sessions, Mitch McConnell, healthcare reform, taxes etc. together with Vice President Mike Pence in Bedminster, New Jersey.
President Trump announced today his daughter and White House adviser Ivanka Trump will lead the U.S. delegation to India for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in November.
The delegation was announced by both President Trump and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Twitter. Prime Minister Modi previously invited Ivanka Trump to visit India during his visit to the White House. The conference is scheduled for November 28-30, and businesswoman Ivanka Trump’s attendance is seen as a way to promote high-visibility women’s entrepreneurship around the world.
Strategic value. Ivanka and Arabella Trump are cultural heroines in China, very well regarded. China and India are currently in serious economic competition. Trump is essentially rewarding India with Ivanka’s value, while China watches from distance.
(more…)
Speaking from Bedminster New Jersey, President Trump answers questions from media surrounding the ongoing issue with North Korea, and the intransigent republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his inability to move legislation.
…”If China helps us with North Korea I will feel a little differently about trade”…
~President Donald Trump
When candidate Donald Trump first proposed renegotiating NAFTA back in 2015 everyone was stunned. Fixing bad trade deals had never been proposed by any candidate. Candidate Trump also proposed a border wall. Those two policy initiatives are entirely connected. Almost immediately the government of Mexico realized the potential impact and threatened to use illegal migration if NAFTA was reopened.
Well, Trump won the presidency. The crony capitalists/lobbyists in DC (U.S. Chamber of Commerce – Tom Donohue) are freaking out. Congress was notified of the intent to renegotiate NAFTA. Mexico and Canada were notified. Commerce Secretary Ross, U.S.T.R Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin are ready to begin next week (Wed).
President Trump and Secretary Ross have already announced they will try to renegotiate NAFTA on a trilateral basis (U.S., Canada and Mexico). However, if it doesn’t work, they’ll scrap the 3-way NAFTA and go one-on-one with individual bilateral agreements.
Today Mexico’s Economic Minister Ildefonso Guajardo threatens to flood the U.S. with South American illegal aliens, criminals and gang members as leverage to keep exploiting NAFTA.
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico could pull back on cooperation in migration and security matters if the United States walks away from talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Mexican economy minister said in a newspaper report published on Thursday.
The PPI is the Producer Price Index. The CPI is the Consumer Price Index. The PPI reflects the price product producers are getting for their goods and services. The CPI reflects the price consumers are paying for their goods and services. They generally run together as lower production prices usually mean lower consumer prices.
Here again today, the fed is perplexed. With a growing economy, and with labor market tightening, the people who control the monetary policy have continued to anticipate inflation, rises in the PPI and CPI. However, as we have outlined, it’s not happening.
It’s a little wonky, but basically prices are NOT going up. The Fed is perplexed. We predicted this:
[…] The Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand slipped 0.1 percent last month, weighed by decreasing costs for services. That was the largest decline since August 2016 and reversed June’s 0.1 percent gain.
In the 12 months through July, the PPI increased 1.9 percent after rising 2.0 percent in the year through June. Economists had forecast the PPI to tick up 0.1 percent last month and 2.2 percent from a year ago. (read more)
Neither the PPI nor the CPI measure changes in food or energy costs. Those high consumption sectors have always been removed from Fed measures.
(more…)
When we initially read this article yesterday our review began with an earnest and sincere effort to understand the concerns amid the career bureaucrats in the U.S. State Department; and also to understand the overall cultural climate that would need Secretary Tillerson’s Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to calm these officials….
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The No. 2 U.S. diplomat on Tuesday sought to allay concerns among the State Department’s rank-and-file employees over possible layoffs and perceptions of a lack of firm direction under the administration of President Donald Trump. (more)
…After all, this has to be about the eleventyth time either Secretary Tillerson or Deputy Sullivan has addressed these ‘climate assessment’ issues. It was less than a week prior to this latest effort by Sullivan when Tillerson himself was talking to the department.
I mean seriously, how much “talking to‘ could one organization need? These are obviously some seriously needy people. Then again, we’ve long discussed the overall liberal perspectives within the department; so the most entrenched liberalism inside government is definitively inside the Department of State.
(more…)
Apparently CTH and Asian expert Gordon Chang are on the same intellectual page in analysis of the ongoing North Korea issues. In this interview Mr. Chang outlines the dynamic between U.S. President Trump, North Korean President Kim Jong-un and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Gordon Chang also agrees that mounting economic pressure on China will be the pathway to getting the DPRK into line.
Robert Mercer is a billionaire hedge fund manager who originally constructed the multi-million Cambridge Analytica data tool to aid Ted Cruz in winning the 2016 GOP Primary.
Mr. Mercer bought controlling interest in Breitbart Media for $10+ million. It was through Breitbart media that Mercer, together with Steve Bannon, deployed the Cambridge Analytica tool with a two year presidential poll (2014/2015) to vacuum up user data for later use in the 2016 republican primary. Kellyanne Conway is part of their long-term relationship dynamic.
However, after Ted Cruz refused to specifically and enthusiastically endorse the winner, Donald trump, at the GOP convention in Cleveland, Robert Mercer kicked him out of his suite. Robert Mercer generally stays in the background and his daughter Rebekah Mercer leads the political advocacy. That said, they have the resources and disposition to destroy just about any political foe they choose to engage.
(Via Politico) One of Donald Trump’s most generous political benefactors is providing a six-figure donation to a super PAC devoted to unseating Sen. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican who has been fiercely critical of the president.
Robert Mercer, a reclusive hedge fund billionaire who was intimately involved in Trump’s rise and helped to bankroll his 2016 campaign, is contributing $300,000 to a super PAC supporting former state Sen. Kelli Ward, who is challenging Flake in a Republican primary next year.