I had a feeling this might happen.
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Lucky Day…. Lucky Day… NAFTA squished.
More winnamins.
Delivering remarks in a post G7 press conference, Prime Minister Justin from Canada outlines his perspective on the summit and takes questions from a pre-selected media audience. Many of the questions centered around U.S. positions on trade/tariffs and the Canadian/EU position that U.S. tariffs are illegal; whereas Canadian and EU tariffs are quantifiable expressions of magnanimous intellectual superiority and Americans should spend more time thanking them, instead of these feeble efforts to gain trade reciprocity.
The underlying Trudeau trade premise is that the U.S. should be thankful for the products brought into the U.S. market by Canadians and Europeans. And Americans should express their appreciation through unilateral indulgence-fees for friendship. If President Trump does not agree to continue the cycle of abusive trade policies, the Europeans and Canadians might stop saying they are our closest and most valuable ally.
In the granular details: •On NAFTA Justin from Canada says a sunset clause on any renegotiated trade deal is a non-starter regardless of time-frame. If the U.S. intends to reevaluate the outcomes of a trade deal, there can be no trade deal – ever.
I wish we had caught this interview before the G7 began because it highlights how much energy the international community is expending in their desperation to retain access to the U.S. market. The central issue is how several decades of international trade policy have been built around exploitative one-way access and rules.
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, the primary Canadian trade negotiator sat down with The National ahead of the G7 summit to talk about strategies for dealing with the Trump administration, tariffs and expectations for the summit. WATCH:
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There’s a part of this interview that CBC didn’t broadcast, but presented in a twitter video. See below:
Remember all those pre-election conversations about Donald Trump, economic leverage, rebalanced economics and our conversations about what getting the “golden ticket” would look like? Well,….
The look on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s face is priceless. “Complicated business folks,… complicated business.”
Earlier today President Trump and members of the administration delivered remarks following the G7 Summit in Charlevoix, Canada. President Trump is heading to Singapore for a historic meeting with North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un.
Prior to departing Canada, President Trump took questions from the media on a wide variety of issues including trade: “Economic Security is National Security” !
Journalist Paul Sperry dropped a bombshell tweet yesterday highlighting issues that have been longstanding within a senate investigation:
This is a BIG deal, obviously. However, it is actually an even bigger deal when put into context with prior inquiry by Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley about FBI manipulating FD-302’s, notes taken by FBI agents during interviews.
The current issue seems to align with Senator Chuck Grassley suspecting Andrew McCabe manipulated the FD-302 investigative notes from FBI Special Agent’s Peter Strzok and Joe Pientka, after they interviewed Mike Flynn. There is enough sketchy and contradictory information giving weight to a likelihood that Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe told FBI agents (Strzok and Pientka) to shape their FBI reports of the interview (FD-302’s) to assist a “Flynn lied” narrative.
The best laid plans of mice-like men simply collapsed when the shadow of President Trump entered the G7 in Charlevoix, Canada.
It’s one thing to talk about the boss when he’s out of town; it’s another thing entirely when he’s sitting next to you. POTUS Trump sets the standard for the scale of influence. Really, it’s such a basic truth – it becomes self-evident. Watch, it is remarkable:
President Trump has taken the Godzilla Trump meme to levels beyond ordinary imaginings. In advance of the G7 summit in Charlevoix, Canada Prime Minister Trudeau sounded the alarm and called in all like-minded allies to help fend off horrible Trump and his arsenal of tariffs.
L-R: European Council President Donald Tusk, British Prime Minister Theresa May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, U.S. President Donald Trump, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and European Commission President Jean-Claude JunckerFrench President Emmanuel Macron responded to Trudeau’s plea and arrived two-days early to coordinate the strategic message. Together they were looking for leverage in advance of Godzilla Trump’s arrival. Germany’s Angela Merkel, and U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May even brought non-G7 members European Council President Donald Tusk, and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker as back-up.
Apparently the six-against-one plan was considered unfair to the six, so they added two more. Unfortunately for Canada, France, Germany and the U.K., Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte are not foolish enough to take on Godzilla.
As an entirely predictable outcome, President Trump won again. It’s just so darned funny to watch this play out. The era of the titan is back, and deliciously the titan is an American President, Donald J Trump. He’s one guy, and he has them all surrounded; and he’s laughing the entire time. He’s impenetrable, sharp, funny as heck and monolithic in stature making all of his opposition look decidedly less-than.
Oh man, this is too funny. Remember the Bowing Ball metaphor? Well, in order for the G6+1 grand plan of Emmanuel from France and Justin from Canada to work they would need the U.K, Germany, Japan and Italy to agree…. outlook not-so-good.
President Trump sits down for a bilateral meeting with half of the dynamic duo. President Trump starts out the public comments with a joke-not-joke that Justin will drop all current trade tariffs against the U.S. and Trump will happily concur. ROFLMAO. Immediately drawing out the trade hypocrisy at the heart of matter. Must Watch:
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The disconcerted look on Justin’s face is priceless.
It is important not to get so granular we miss the big picture. The indictment of former senior senate intelligence committee staffer James Wolfe is filled with information to highlight a much bigger picture. [Indictment pdf here]
Keeping with custom and a very familiar pattern, you will note the big DOJ/FBI investigative releases are timed to drop when President Trump is outside Washington DC.
Note also, it was the Senate Intelligence Committee where Wolfe worked. CTH has continually stated the SSCI is one of the most corrupt committees in congress. It did not come as a surprise to see the staff from this specific committee leaking secret and top-secret classified information. The committee rots from the head down.
According to the indictment Wolfe was notified by the FBI of a classified intelligence leak investigation on/around October 30th, 2017. From the indictment we see that Wolfe was interviewed and confronted by FBI investigators on December 15th, 2017. After admitting he lied to those FBI investigators Wolfe resigned from his position.
On December 15th, 2017 Wolfe was busted; the FBI had him dead-to-rights. However, the grand jury proceedings didn’t start until May 3rd, 2018; and the indictment was sealed until June 7th, 2018. That means six months of investigative work was taking place between busting Wolfe on Dec. 15th, and indicting Wolfe on June 7th.
On December 15th, according to the indictment, the FBI investigators were aware of four specific journalists, “reporters”, who participated in the leak material. The FBI likely had more to choose from, but selected those four reporters -with specific intents and purposes- during the interview with Mr. Wolfe. The four reporters are not named, but their activity is outlined enough to make it possible to determine who is who.