Mark the calendars; today is an important date.  CTH has noted, repeatedly, how extremely difficult it would be for the media to walk-back over three years of false reporting on the insufferable and manufactured “Muh Russia” collusion narrative.
However, remarkably, today that process actually begins.  WATCH:

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There’s way more to this shift. WAY more. ABC News, home of the resistance insider operative George Stephanopoulos, is also starting to use an atypical process to control distribution of the let-down as they back toward the ‘muh Russia’ exits.
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HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff could never get away with the nonsense he promotes if it were not for an intentionally blind media apparatus. Here is his latest insufferable grandstanding:

You might remember back in September 2018, those HPSCI transcripts were already released by Devin Nunes, given to the Intelligence Community [See Here], the DOJ/FBI, and also to Robert Mueller. Of course, the media ignore the manufactured Schiff grandstanding and run with the ‘Muh Russia‘ narrative as if it’s something new.  Silly.
Additionally, Michael Cohen is/was scheduled to appear before the House Oversight Committee tomorrow (Chairman Elijah Cummings), and later to testify to the House Intelligence Committee (Chairman Adam Schiff).   Well, Schiff makes a big deal out of postponing/rescheduling Cohen until February 28th:
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announces the suspension of the United States from the INF missile treaty, based upon ongoing violations from Russia.  [Video and Transcript]

…make no mistake about President Trump’s mission set. President Trump’s mission set is to make sure that any agreement that we entered into has America’s best interest – that is, it protects the American people, protects our allies around the world as well, and has provisions that other countries are both capable and willing to comply with, and allow us to verify that they have complied with those agreements.

[Transcript] SECRETARY POMPEO: Good morning, everyone. At the core of President Trump’s foreign policy are a few very, very simple truths. The security of the American people must be our greatest consideration, the agreements into which we enter must serve American interests, and countries must be held accountable when they break the rules.
For years, Russia has violated the terms of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty without remorse. To this day, Russia remains in material breach of its treaty obligations not to produce, possess, or flight-test a ground-launched intermediate-range cruise missile system with a range between 500 and 5,500 kilometers.
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The sound of sad trombones echos through the halls of media networks today as a year of speculation, surrounding contacts between Don Trump Jr. and ‘blocked phone records’ before and after the oft-emphasized Trump Tower meeting, ends with congress identifying two long-time Trump friends and a major nothing-burger.
Three phone calls by Donald Trump Jr. to blocked numbers in June 2016 fueled rampant media speculation that DJT-Jr. was coordinating with his father, Candidate Trump, over the substance of the Trump Tower meeting, before and after it took place.
SSCI Vice-Chairman Mark Warner and HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff both sold a suspicion narrative that candidate Donald Trump and Trump-Jr. were organizing, coordinating and colluding with “Russians”.   Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his primary investigative asset Andrew Weissmann fueled the Russian Conspiracy speculation with targeted leaks to allies in the media.  However, the truth comes out; and it is boring:

VIA ABC NEWS – Investigators on the Senate Intelligence Committee have learned the identities of three blocked phone calls with Donald Trump Jr just before and after the now-infamous Trump Tower meeting on June 9, 2016, three sources familiar with the calls told ABC News.
The calls to blocked numbers, which came on June 6, and after the meeting on June 9, were between Trump Jr.’s cell phone and two family friends — NASCAR CEO Brian France and real estate developer Howard Lorber, according to the sources.

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Russia and China have invested billions in Venezuela to prop-up the Maduro regime. On Monday the U.K. denied Maduro access to $1.2 billion in gold held by the Bank of England. On Monday night a Russian aircraft landed in Caracus. On Tuesday it was reported that 20 tonnes of Venezuela gold bars have gone missing (link).

“President Donald J. Trump spoke today with Venezuelan Interim President Juan Guaido to congratulate him on his historic assumption of the presidency and to reinforce President Trump’s strong support for Venezuela’s fight to regain its democracy.”
“Interim President Guaido thanked President Trump for the United States’ commitment to freedom and prosperity in Venezuela and the region, and noted the importance of the large protests across Venezuela against former dictator Maduro, set to occur today and Saturday. They agreed to maintain regular communication to support Venezuela’s path back to stability, and to rebuild the bilateral relationship between the United States and Venezuela.”  ~ White House

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Giddy up.  Two days of intense trade discussions begin today in the Eisenhower building led by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and his Chinese counterpart Vice Premier Liu He. The stakes are high as the deadline for an agreement is March 2nd.
Ambassador Lighthizer is joined by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and China’s arch nemesis, White House trade advisor Peter Navarro.

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Adding to the intensity, the United States just charged Chinese telecommunications company Huawei Technologies and its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran by doing business through a subsidiary.  Ms. Meng was arrested in Canada at the request of the United States; her extradition has been requested by the Department of Justice.
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Keep in mind that China has loaned Venezuela over $50 billion in the past five years. In exchange, Venezuela gave China a 49% stake in PDVSA. Venezuela makes payments on the loans via oil shipments to China.

(VIA U.S. Treasury Dept) Today the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PdVSA) pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13850 for operating in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy. PdVSA is a Venezuelan state-owned oil company and a primary source of Venezuela’s income and foreign currency, to include U.S. dollars and Euros.

“The United States is holding accountable those responsible for Venezuela’s tragic decline, and will continue to use the full suite of its diplomatic and economic tools to support Interim President Juan Guaidó, the National Assembly, and the Venezuelan people’s efforts to restore their democracy,” said Secretary of the Treasury Steven T. Mnuchin.

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Devin Nunes dropped a bombshell yesterday in an interview with Maria Bartiromo [Video Here].  Many people are overlooking the implications of his speculation; and, more importantly how Nunes statement answers just about every contradictory question people have carried.  Including:

• Why Rosenstein introduced Mueller to President Trump the day before he was appointed as Special Counsel?
• Why Mueller/Rosenstein are hiding the investigative origination letter?
• Why President Trump has NOT been able to declassify documents? and
• Why President Trump is, and will always be, hamstrung by the Mueller investigation?

In short, Devin Nunes speculated that Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein put the substantive allegations from the Fusion-GPS/Ohr/Steele Dossier into his investigative instructions (full pdf below) that he gave Robert Mueller.
If it is accurate that Rosenstein charged Robert Mueller with investigating the dossier claims; and if Nunes is accurate that the DOJ investigative target, a derivative of the dossier, is Donald Trump; well, everything starts to make a hell of a lot more sense.
If the mandate given to Robert Mueller was to specifically investigate the sitting president of the United States as an active participant, and subsequent target, for a counterintelligence operation, then DAG Rod Rosenstein -and Mueller- would have to hide that mandate from everyone and anyone.
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Former HPSCI Chairman and current minority ranking member, Devin Nunes, appears on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the recent indictment of Roger Stone, Robert Mueller, and other matters that surround congressional investigations.
Representative Nunes notes that if the current DOJ are willing to go after people that have lied to congress, then this same DOJ should be looking at lies told by Lisa Page, Peter Strzok, James Comey and Andrew McCabe. Additionally, and frustratingly, Mr. Nunes outlines how it is demonstrably true the Clinton campaign was in direct collusion with Russians in 2016 and yet the current DOJ keeps ignoring those facts.
Nunes also speculates that Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein put the allegations from the Ohr/Steele Dossier into his instructions (full pdf below) that he gave Robert Mueller. This is what DAG Rod Rosenstein is trying to hide from everyone, including President Trump. If true, that should comprehensively destroy the integrity of the DOJ, the Mueller investigation (writ large), and the pro-Rosenstein narrative.

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In the latter part of the interview Maria Bartiromo discusses the issues of Chinese trade practices and how Beijing is weaponizing their trade position to infiltrate international technology and gain control over infrastructure.
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After a few months of head-fake commentary downplaying the Democrat party objective to use the House for an impeachment process, Speaker Nancy Pelosi drops the pretense.
In a tweet last night, connected to a press release, the democrat Speaker of the House of Representatives accuses the sitting President of being a Russian operative; thus Pelosi begins to set the stage for two likely purposes:

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The tweet itself is connected to, and comes on the heels of, Speaker Pelosi publishing a statement about the Special Counsel, DOJ and FBI arrest of Roger Stone.

“The indictment of Roger Stone makes clear that there was a deliberate, coordinated attempt by top Trump campaign officials to influence the 2016 election and subvert the will of the American people.” … “In the face of 37 indictments, the President’s continued actions to undermine the Special Counsel investigation raise the questions: what does Putin have on the President, politically, personally or financially?” (link)

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