Commerce Secretary Wilbur “Wolverine” Ross put the trade world on notice today when he announced a staggering $1.19 billion penalty on Chinese company ZTE for violating U.S. sanctions and selling electronics to Iran and North Korea.
China’s ZTE has agreed to pay the United States the fine.  Remember, in China all private businesses are politically attached to the central government.

(From Wilbur Ross Office) Secretary of Commerce Wilbur L. Ross, Jr. today announced that China’s Zhongxing Telecommunications Equipment Corporation and ZTE Kangxun Telecommunications Ltd., known collectively as ZTE, has agreed to a record-high combined civil and criminal penalty of $1.19 billion, pending approval from the courts, after illegally shipping telecommunications equipment to Iran and North Korea in violation of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (ITSR).
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Two important videos containing two important aspects to advancing legislation.  In the first video President Trump is meeting with Republican House “whip team”.  The role of the House Majority Whip, Steve Scalise, is to get the various republicans factions to unite in support of a singular legislative goal.  Unite the clans.
President Trump is not meeting with the House Majority Leader, Kevin McCarthy, because Trump views McCarthy as a weasel (don’t ask – just watch).  President Trump gives remarks to the media during the White House meeting:

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The second meeting is Speaker Paul Ryan, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Greg Walden. Ryan, McCarthy and Walden outline the three-step legislative process that a full and replace bill needs.
Walden outlines the House Energy and Commerce Committee beginning the mark-ups on the bill which starts tomorrow.
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There are bazillions of opinions on the current ObamaCare repeal and replace efforts. Many people are rightly concerned their wants, wishes or needs do not seem addressed within the Price/Ryan bill announced last night.
CTH is far from a SME on the details.  However, we do know the legislative “process” and we followed the original construct closely.  Many people are missing the big picture challenges with “repeal and replace” – perhaps we can explain a little, and maybe it will settle some nerves.

The best way to explain what appears to be the Price/Ryan legislative road-map is to remind ourselves how a Dem legislature was able to enact ObamaCare with zero Republican support.   In 2017 the reversal of this process also lines up to be a Republican repeal with zero Democrat support.
Way back in 2009 when ObamaCare was being constructed, there were two procedural legislative constructs to create ObamaCare- one from the House (Pelosi) and one from the Senate (Reid).
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White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, will be delivering the latest press briefing today at approximately 1:30pm.  Live Stream Link – Alternate Live stream #1 – Alternate #2

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Wide-ranging interview by Stuart Varney of Nigel Farage discussing the upcoming visit of Germany’s Angela Merkel visit to the U.S. to meet with President Trump, and the state of the EU against the backdrop of the upcoming elections.

WASHINGTON (REUTERS) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel will travel to Washington on March 14 to meet President Donald Trump, their first encounter after a rocky start to relations amid disagreements about trade, Trump’s travel ban and his comments about the media.
A United States official announced the visit, which comes shortly before a meeting in Germany of the finance ministers of the G20 industrialized countries and will help lay the groundwork for Trump’s visit to Germany in July for a meeting of G20 leaders.
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This is YUGE news and will impact each and every American.  One of the missing elements in our quest for energy independence has always been the lack of oil refining capacity to produce gasoline and other fuel end-products.
Years of choking fossil fuel regulation, partly funded and supported by an alignment of special interests including foreign governments, OPEC and eco lobbyists, has created a situation where over half of our oil refining capability was eliminated.
With the election, and independence, of Donald Trump that course has changed dramatically.  Trump is not beholden to the lobbyists and special interests who pay for the U.S. to remain dependent on foreign oil and off shore refinement.
Additionally, this is a really big deal because our predictions have always been that President Trump will find a way to make ‘US energy exports‘ a big part of the U.S. expanding economy.  A complete paradigm shift – and with it comes unexpected and unpredicted (by most) additional growth in GDP.  Hence this emphasis:
https://www.facebook.com/POTUS/videos/1273324796070291/
 
(Via Reuters) Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N), the world’s largest publicly traded oil producer, said on Monday it would invest $20 billion through 2022 to expand its chemical and oil refining plants on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
The investments at 11 sites should create 35,000 temporary construction jobs and 12,000 permanent jobs, Chief Executive Darren Woods said in a speech at CERAWeek, the world’s largest gathering of energy executives. (more…)

Oh, this is just too funny.  Confirmation of how effective President Trump’s strategy is against the media surfaced today as MSNBC’s Katy Tur gets into a heated conversation with Congressman Chris Stewart.
Katy Tur claimed the media never said Trump campaign officials were in contact with Russian intelligence.  Defending the media against Trump, Katy Tur said:

“I don’t think any news organization actually claimed that there were direct ties between the Trump campaign and Russian spies”.

Seemingly oblivious to the past two months of media proclamations including the New York Times whose headline was: “Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence.”  (Link)

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The media has been completely knee-capped and can no longer report on intelligence leaks without confirming the position of President Trump. The media is now in a position of denying all of their previous reporting simply because President Trump has accepted their presentations and turned their reporting against the previous administration.
That’s BRILLIANT.
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Tread carefully, this is a Paul Ryan announcement which inherently means the various GOPe elements, legislative authors, are most likely the primary sources.

WASHINGTON—House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) issued the following statement on introduction of the American Health Care Act:
“Obamacare is rapidly collapsing. Skyrocketing premiums, soaring deductibles, and dwindling choices are not what the people were promised seven years ago. It’s time to turn a page and rescue our health care system from this disastrous law. The American Health Care Act is a plan to drive down costs, encourage competition, and give every American access to quality, affordable health insurance. It protects young adults, patients with pre-existing conditions, and provides a stable transition so that no one has the rug pulled out from under them.
“Working together, this unified Republican government will deliver relief and peace of mind to the millions of Americans suffering under Obamacare. This will proceed through a transparent process of regular order in full view of the public. I want to thank all of our members who have contributed their ideas, especially Chairman Walden and Chairman Brady, as well as Secretary Price and the Trump administration, for their commitment to keep this promise and get this right.”

Links To Bill – LINK #1 and LINK #2

 

Something about Michelle Malkin’s disappearance, then Mark Steyn being summarily fired from Mark Levin’s CRTV (Conservative Review TV), and then the timing of Levin rushing to the front lines of Team Trump just didn’t seem disconnected.  A look at the financier behind the entire Conservative Review apparatus reveals a financial angle.

For more than four years we have been predicting a grand awakening among battered conservatives to discover the identity of their abusers.  Candidate Trump, now President Trump simply sped up and spotlighted those revelations exponentially.
Almost all of the political positions espoused by the most visible faces of “conservative” punditry are specifically due to the financial benefactors of those who underwrite the media enterprise.  As previously outlined almost of the Never Trump community was most certainly funded by the financial network of special interest billionaires.
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In lieu of an on-camera press briefing White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer held a press gaggle today to brief reporters and answer questions.  The “press gaggles” are less formal and are not generally accompanied with broadcast video.
A full audio of the briefing is below which includes several minutes of recorded ‘hot mic’ conversations between various media reporters prior to Press Secretary Spicer beginning. Sean Spicer enters the briefing at 05:05 of the audio below:

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