CTH has never hidden our disgust for the corrupt lobbying enterprise known as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and their President Tom Donohue.  No internal organization in modern history has done more to harm American workers and American industry than the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  Their fraudulent and corrupt enterprise is a toxic threat to our economy.
Today the U.S. Chamber of Commerce issues a statement denouncing the trade strategy of the Trump administration and announcing their lobbying support for the USMCA trade agreement is contingent upon the removal of Steel and Aluminum tariffs.

As the Washington Times writes: “The Chamber had previously complained that the deal’s language limiting protections for investors and stiffening of the “rules of origin” for when autos can be duty-free were problematic.”  Put another way: Wall Street is angry their multinational constructs are not supported, and protecting U.S. workers from the predatory nature of global outsourcing is bad for their controlled market schemes.
Ultimately, Donohue’s biggest complaint -revealed by historic review- is that his organization didn’t get to write the USMCA trade agreement and were stopped from selling their special interest carve-outs to their corporate clients.
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With massive civil unrest overwhelming many parts of French society, President Emmanuel Macron made a televised speech to the nation attempting to calm the anger. Macron declared a social and economic state of emergency and attempted to stop the ongoing Yellow Vest protests by announcing a special year-end bonus.
In addition to the year-end bonus, during the national address from the Elysee Palace Macron announced an increase in the minimum wage of €100 per month; a tax exemption on overtime pay; and a plan to not raise taxes on pensioners with an income less than €2,000/month.  Here’s the english version of the EU broadcast.

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When the same issues happened in Venezuela, Maduro followed a similar plan… things didn’t end well.   Macron has already committed the full weight of his police and military to crush any uprising.  Tenuous times in France.
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Representative Jim Jordan discusses his perspectives on the closed-door testimony of former FBI Director James Comey.

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Within a sentencing memo filed today (full pdf below) the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York recommends “a substantial term of imprisonment” for Michael Cohen, who has pleaded guilty to fraud and tax charges and campaign finance crimes, as well as lying to Congress.
Reading through the memo – the content of cooperation, and the details that surface as a result therein, are entirely different from all previous media claims:

Additionally, special counsel Robert Mueller filed a second memorandum, recommending no additional prison time for Cohen’s guilty plea for lying to Congress, saying it would be “appropriate” for Cohen to serve any sentence in that case concurrently with the sentence in the SDNY case.
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John Solomon appears on Fox News Tick-Tock to discuss the latest breaking tick-tock developments deep inside the spygate story.   The bombshell discovery lies within a chain of emails, prior to the FISA application against Carter Page, that includes DOJ and FBI officials discussing the lack of substantiation for the warrant request. [Story Here]
Additionally, Solomon outlines his sources telling him the reasons for President Trump to delay any involvement within the declassification process.  Meaning the sources for Solomon are the same voices advising the President. [Key point]  Watch:

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Wait.. A.. Minute.. James Comey is scheduled to appear on Friday right?  Now ask yourself: why would the people feeding information to Solomon want him to push this story into the media bloodstream ahead of that testimony?  Wouldn’t earnest investigators prefer to question Comey about these emails without him having time to prepare?….
Think about it.

Perhaps HERE’S The Reason

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In a May 2017 testimony to congress former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates explains the details surrounding her engagement with White House legal counsel Don McGahn.  However, for the purposes of truthful discussion, the important part of the back-and-forth between Senator Graham, Sally Yates and former DNI James Clapper is not the aspect about Flynn or McGahn.
Listen carefully to the first three minutes; specifically the part about the Flynn transcript leak to the Washington Post.  Notice Graham outlining how easy it would be for the intelligence apparatus to find out who: (A) unmasked the Flynn communication; and (B) likely then leaked the Flynn communication.  Pay close attention:

Now ask yourself…. If Graham, Yates and Clapper are correct; if there is a paper trail; if it would be essentially a simple process to discover that detail; then WHY hasn’t that been done?
Attorney General Jeff Sessions and DNI Dan Coats made a big deal of stating they were committed to finding out who would leak such critical and sensitive ‘top secret’ information.  And Graham tells everyone how easy it would be to do… and Yates and Clapper agree… So, why wasn’t it done?
Want to drain the swamp?  Start there !
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There is a great deal of suspicion and analysis surrounding the latest developments in the Mueller case, or lack thereof, against Michael Flynn.   Consider this a summary addendum to the CTH initial review.  This is the Occam’s Razor that explains some contradictions.
We cannot view these actions through the transactional prism of modern judicial proceedings as they relate to you and me. These are political struggles taking place inside the venue of the legal system. The players use the legal system to game out the optics and narrative of political battles for ideological wins and losses.

After the November 8th, 2016, election everyone within the Obama network who was associated with the surveillance operation against the Trump campaign was at risk. This is the impetus for the “Muh Russia” conspiracy narrative that was used as a mitigating shield. Within a few weeks ODNI James Clapper and CIA Director John Brennan began pushing the Russia election interference narrative in the media.
NSA Director Mike Rogers went to Trump tower on November 18th, 2016, and essentially informed the principals within the campaign they were under some forms of surveillance.
By mid-December the Obama administration was deploying a full-court-press using their media allies to promote the Russia conspiracy.  However, despite their public proclamations Clapper and Brennan were refusing to give any specifics to congress.
The hard narrative was that Russia interfered. That was the specific push from within the Obama intelligence apparatus writ large.  All IC officials, sans Mike Rogers (NSA)  had a self-interest in pushing this narrative; after all, it was the defensive mechanism to justify their illegal spying operation throughout 2016.  This was their insurance policy.
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Breaking overnight the French government is attempting to stem the growing civil unrest by announcing they will suspend the plan to implement the upcoming fuel tax.  However, the Yellow Vest protests have grown to personify much more than a new fuel tax.
The protests have morphed into a much larger anger about the influence of a disconnected elite political class, personified by President Emmanuel Macron, over the lives of the ordinary French citizen.  The fuel tax was the last straw, the underlying issues remain.

(Via Associated Press) PARIS (AP) — French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe is to announce a suspension of fuel tax hikes, a major U-turn in an effort to appease a protest movement that has radicalized, French media reported Tuesday.
Both Le Monde newspaper and France Info radio said the planned increase, which has provoked riots, will be suspended for several months. Philippe is also expected to announce other measures aimed at easing tensions, just three weeks after claiming that the government would not change course and remained determined to help wean French consumers off polluting fossils fuels.

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Political analyst and commentator Dan Bongino has a great dot-connecting podcast today that outlines the players, motives, moves and intentions surrounding the ongoing Deep Administrative State battle.
It is an excellent presentation in all facets, with one minor gear slightly askew – which CTH will explain.  The content is very well presented. Everyone should listen to the podcast.  (Hit the little orange arrow):
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The only divergence CTH holds to the overall outline is below.
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The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) released their manufacturing review today highlighting continued expansion of the underlying economy.  The results today from within the overall manufacturing industry emphasize the 27th consecutive month of growth…. and a future-view that seems to be predicting much more.  Much more!

ISM Release […] Manufacturing expanded in November, as the PMI^® registered 59.3 percent, an increase of 1.6 percentage points from the October reading of 57.7 percent. “This indicates growth in manufacturing for the 27th consecutive month, led by strong new orders, production output and continued slowing supplier delivery performance,” says Fiore. A reading above 50 percent indicates that the manufacturing economy is generally expanding; below 50 percent indicates that it is generally contracting. (more)

Okay CTH, so take the business wonk-speak out of this – what does it mean?
Here’s the summary: Manufacturers are increasing new orders (making more stuff). Production outputs and employment within the manufacturing sector are still growing. Suppliers are still having a tough time filling material orders, but they are finding new and innovative ways to speed up shipments of raw material. However, despite the speed (increased efficiency in delivering the raw material), the backlog of requests is still growing (new orders exceed supply chain). Customer inventories are too low (hence the backlog for new stuff). Inflationary pressure still exists, but the rate of price growth is slowing (increased supplier efficiency). Manufacturing exports and imports are growing. The economy is expanding.
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