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East Coast Dock Workers Scheduled to Strike Starting Tomorrow

First, my perspective for new readers.  I generally support private sector labor unions. I did not always support them.  I do not support public sector unions, nor the leadership of most labor unions in general who politicize their activity.  In our modern era, the baseline for organized labor to support the interests of their blue-collar workforce is valid.

Against the backdrop of the larger geopolitical dynamic, I would make the case that, similar to the solidarity movement of the mid 1980’s, organizing the general workforce is going to be the last-resort backstop measure to block ideological western government and corporate intentions.

Populism, nationalism and MAGA specifically, needs a unity alliance with organized private sector labor.

I also believe President Trump sees the looming importance of this relationship as made visible by his support for the Teamsters union during the RNC convention.

Consider what we witnessed and endured with the forced worker vaccination programs of 2021.  I do not like the idea of politicized labor but contemplate how organized labor could have been used to pushback against the diminishment of liberty. There is a potential for value; thus, I evaluate organized apolitical labor as a potential pragmatic ally.

That said, let us discuss the looming strike by The International Longshoreman’s Association, which represents 50,000 East and Gulf Coast dockworkers.

There are a lot of economic impacts that can be created by a dockworker strike; they range from inconvenient to severe depending on the industry and sector therein.  With the U.S. manufacturing base diminished, imported goods now represent the system to deliver essential products into our nation.

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Transition Leader Howard Lutnick Explains President Trump Economic Policy, Tariffs and Energy Inflation

Jumpin’ ju-ju bones, I think we may have found Wilbur Ross’s replacement.  In this segment on CNBC Trump transition team leader Howard Lutnick, explains simple MAGAnomics to the panel.  Make this guy both Commerce Secretary and Chairman of the National Economic Council in 2025!

Starting with an explanation of his role within the Trump 2025 transition team, Lutnick then walks through the MAGAnomic principles enmeshed in President Trump’s economic policies.  Mr. Lutnick begins the policy part by outlining how energy restrictions are driving inflation through higher costs of goods. Yes. Yes and Yes.

Then Lutnick shifts to talking about tariffs and is one of the only advisors outside the 2017 team (Robert Lighthizer, Wilbur Ross) who factually references ending the insufferable “Marshal Plan.”  Again, yes, yes and YES.

Howard Lutnick gets it. The essential core of MAGAnomics.  Drive down the cost of goods through expanded energy development, then leverage reciprocity in tariffs to end the exfiltration of wealth.  Then cut out regulation and unleash American enterprise. This is the way to reverse this insufferable economic trajectory that creates a “service driven economy.”   The entire interview is well worth watching:

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A bonus video below.

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Economic Security is National Security – Kamala Harris Does Not Understand This Concept

Economic security is the foundation of national security.  When government takes action that destabilizes our economy, every element of national security is put at risk.  We are experiencing that problem right now as we suffer through Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ intentionally flawed energy policy that is diminishing the U.S. economy.

“It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who gain by the new ones.”

~ Niccolo Machiavelli

Never has that Machiavelli quote been more apropos than when considering the MAGA movement and the rise of Donald Trump.

Thankfully, we are now in an era when the largest coalition of American voters have awakened to the reality that, to quote the former president: “Economic Security is National Security.”

As we live through the economic mess of a Biden administration hell bent on eroding the middle class, there are numerous pundits contemplating 2024 and the shift President Trump represents; consider this group the lukewarm defenders Machiavelli noted.

At the same time professional Republicans, Democrats, the DC coalition (writ large) and corporate media are apoplectic about increasing groups of voters now supporting President Donald Trump.  This group consists of those affluent Wall Street agents and politicians set on retaining the profits derived from decades of institutional objectives.

Institutional Democrats hate Trump, and institutional Republicans are lukewarm, at best, in defending Trump.  Both wings of the DC UniParty fear Trump.  Extreme efforts at control are always a reaction to fear.  I make my case not on supposition, but on empirical reference points that most should understand.

Everything is about the economics of the thing.

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Joe Biden Announces Tariffs on Non-Existent Products from Non-Existent Origination Country – Here’s Why

It was predictable [SEE HERE], and it happened exactly as predicted.

BlackRock investment firm writes the regulatory and economic policy for Joe Biden’s administration. That’s the quid-pro-quo that maintains the Biden political financial operation. All of DC know it. No one does not know. The ones who claim they do not know about it are all pretending. Republicans take the background BlackRock bribes and pretend.

BlackRock positioned massive investment assets inside Chinese auto manufacturers, MG, BYD, and Chery. The three Chinese companies are in the process of moving North American auto manufacturing to Mexico, specifically to make EVs. The Chinese EVs made in Mexico will come into the U.S market tariff free under the USMCA trade agreement. China and BlackRock will make billions.

Today, Joe Biden announced a series of tariffs against China in the EV industry. [SEE HERE] The Chinese EVs are not being made in China. The tariff regime is a farce – a total joke.

Biden might as well be announcing tariffs on Chinese swimming pools flown into the USA via hot air balloon.  There will be more Chinese swimming pools delivered from China than Chinese EVs.  The Chinese EVs come from Mexico.  The tariff is fake.

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Imagine That – Biden Set to Increase Chinese EV Tariffs to 100%, With Additional Section 301 Tariffs on Chinese Steel and Aluminum Imports

Perhaps it’s just because the election is only a few months away, or perhaps it’s because President Trump’s trade and economic policies toward China were always the right approach for the USA.  Whatever the reasoning, the Biden administration is now proposing to use tariffs against China just like President Trump.

There’s a hidden dimension to the Chinese EV angle that makes this claim a little dubious, I will explain after the topline big story.

Overall, the New York Times is reporting [SEE HERE] that Joe Biden and USTR Katherine Tai are likely to trigger massive tariffs against imported Electric Vehicles (EVs) from China, perhaps as much as 100% due to the low cost of Chinese production.  Additionally, the Biden administration is considering increasing the tariff regime against imports of Chinese steel and aluminum in a bid to protect the American industry.

On the EV issue, this tariff approach is politically duplicitous by Biden against the backdrop of massive investment in Mexico by the three largest Chinese EV automakers. Last December the three Chinese auto manufacturers, MG, BYD, and Chery, announced they were going to spend billions building new EV manufacturing plants in Mexico.  Each Chinese auto manufacturer was going to spend between $1.5 to $2.0 billion.

Those Mexican built Chinese EV’s would pass into the USA market under current USMCA trade rules and regulations, as long as they technically meet the material origination rules.  This can make tariffs against the Chinese imported EVs a moot point, because China will be making them in Mexico (North American trade agreement).

One of the reasons President Trump said the U.S. auto industry would suffer a “bloodbath,” is specifically because the current Chinese auto companies are targeting these EV’s in the $10,000 or less range.  If you want to see what it looks like when cheap Chinese EV’s start to flood a consumer market, visit Russia – the western sanctions have only increased this flow.  I can see it clear as day.

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SWIFT Planning Launch of Central Bank Digital Currency Trading Platform in 12 Months

If you followed my research on banking and the reality of the Russian sanction regime, this report from Reuters today takes on an entirely new dimension.

ME: …”The same way the Patriot Act was not designed to stop terrorism but rather to create a domestic surveillance system. So too were the “Russian Sanctions” not designed to sanction Russia, but rather to create the financial control system that will lead to a USA digital currency. The Western sanctions created a financial wall around the USA (dollar-based west), not to keep Russia out, but to keep us in.  The Western sanction regime, the financial mechanisms they created and authorized, created the control gate that leads to a U.S. digital currency.” (more)

REUTERS TODAY: …”The firm [SWIFT] has gone from being virtually unknown outside banking circles to a household name since 2022 when it cut most of Russia’s banks off from its network as part of the West’s sanctions for the invasion of Ukraine. (more)

[The map shows the global financial cleaving, an outcome of sanctions against Russia]

I first started to deep dive research into these CBDC datapoints when the Russian sanctions were triggered.

You see, nothing about the sanctions really made sense from the way they were structured. Never before, not with Iran, North Korea, Venezuela or Cuba was the dollar weaponized against any entity who did not conform to the sanctions. Additionally, the intensity of the drive to make the sanctions the tip of the Western spear was just too pointed; something about it didn’t make sense. That’s what took me to dig deep into the sanction impact and realize nothing said about these financial sanctions made sense when compared against their actual outcome. {Go Deep}.

So, let’s start with the latest development:

(Reuters) – Global bank messaging network SWIFT is planning a new platform in the next one to two years to connect the wave of central bank digital currencies now in development to the existing finance system, it has told Reuters.

The move, which would be one of the most significant yet for the nascent CBDC ecosystem given SWIFT’s key role in global banking, is likely to be fine-tuned to when the first major ones are launched.

Around 90% of the world’s central banks are now exploring digital versions of their currencies. Most don’t want to be left behind by bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, but are grappling with technological complexities.

SWIFT’s head of innovation, Nick Kerigan, said its latest trial, which took 6 months and involved a 38-member group of central banks, commercial banks and settlement platforms, had been one of the largest global collaborations on CBDCs and “tokenised” assets to date.

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Biden Blocks Liquified Natural Gas Exports for Countries Without Free Trade Agreements – Creates Uncertainty and Lawsuits

There’s some nuance in the story, but essentially the Biden administration is not approving or extending Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) export permits to nations who do not have free trade agreements (FTA’s) with the United States.  This is causing expansion issues in the LNG industry as needed investment capital by the industry is negatively impacted.

The Biden administration says they are pausing the permitting while they study climate change.  However, the Biden administration is also unilaterally sending LNG to Europe to support the NATO objective to hamper the Russian economy (not working).

As a consequence, the Biden administration (think Biden family) is controlling the outflow of LNG; essentially putting themselves in a position of financial influence over the LNG industry.  Who is controlling whom, and why?

HOUSTON, Texas — The liquefied natural gas industry has criticized the Biden administration for pausing export permits on LNG as uncertainties arise for developers planning massive amounts of investment.

Major U.S. exporter Freeport LNG’s Chief Executive Officer Michael Smith said Wednesday in an interview on the sidelines of the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston that “you won’t get this resolved till after the presidential elections” in November.

The U.S. Department of Energy, which issues permits for LNG export projects to countries that are not part of free trade agreements, announced in January that the government will pause permits to review how the projects affect climate change, national security and the economy.

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President Trump Warns of a Looming Bloodbath in the Auto Industry Related to Chinese EV Plants in Mexico – Media Go Bananas

Having previously written about the issue of three major Chinese EV makers putting massive investment into production facilities, the remarks by President Trump in Ohio warning of a “bloodbath” in the auto industry are exactly accurate. {Background Context Here}

According to media, last December the three Chinese auto manufacturers, MG, BYD, and Chery, announced they were going to spend billions building new EV manufacturing plants in Mexico.  Each Chinese auto manufacturer was going to spend between $1.5 to $2.0 billion. The Chinese don’t make that much of an investment in something unless they are sure the U.S. government is going to force the EV market to exist.  These manufacturing plants would crush the U.S EV market.

Drawing attention to the issue, President Trump said he can stop the pending crisis. However, if he did not win the election the American auto industry would end up with a “bloodbath” of closed plants, lost jobs and diminished labor union workforce. Trump is not wrong.  WATCH: 

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Showcasing the absolute lying fake news that most American media have become, all of the news agencies reported these comments to be about general “violence, retribution and retaliation” by Trump if he lost the election.   Reuters even twisted the comments to say, “Trump predicts the end of U.S. democracy if he loses 2024 election.”

Last December, when the original reports of the big three Chinese automakers were released, the headline was, “Chinese EV giants are planning factories in Mexico, and it’s alarming US officials.”  Yet somehow, drawing attention to that exact same issue three months later is the end of democracy or something.

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Sunday Talks – SSCI Chair Warner and Vice Chair Rubio Discuss Current National Security Concerns

The non-pretending reality behind this duo is that Marco Rubio knows Mark Warner participated in an illicit and unlawful effort to target Donald Trump using the intelligence community and the national security institutions which included the DHS, ODNI, CIA, FBI, NSA and a weaponized DOJ-NSD.

There is absolutely zero possibility Rubio didn’t know what the U.S intelligence apparatus, DOJ, Mueller team and his friend across the aisle, Mark Warner, was doing. Despite the SSCI silo that surrounds him, Senator Rubio knew the motives, intents and purposes of every element within this network from 2016 through 2021. Denying this reality is pretending on a level that is insulting to the honest observer.

As a consequence of that reality, anything Rubio and Warner say about the national security status is suspect to an admission they are both selling a story that is based on an entirely false framework about the construct of the geopolitical world outside the USA. If you understand the cleaving taking place between both global zones, West and non-West, then everything Warner and Rubio say about activity outside the Western sphere becomes transparently motivated. Most of their review is complete BS, and akin to trying to obfuscate the reality of the world “out there.”  WATCH:

TRANSCRIPT – MARGARET BRENNAN: Thank you for doing this–

SENATOR MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): Thank you.

MARGARET BRENNAN: –and for speaking in the bipartisan way you’re sitting down with us today. How would you both define the greatest national security threat facing our country right now?

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Col Douglas Macgregor Response to Joe Biden SOU Speech Is Profoundly Accurate and Important

Retired Colonel Douglas Macgregor delivers a surprisingly accurate response to the situation created by Joe Biden as espoused in the 2024 State of the Union address.  I cannot emphasize the value of these remarks strongly enough, in part because my own independent research – and that of a global team I have been working with- is in direct alignment with this outline.

Two years ago, I accepted the reality that Western sanctions against Russia were profoundly different from all other sanctions and completely ridiculous in the bigger picture of how the global economy operates.  A sanction regime is familiar and has been used against Cuba, North Korea, Iran and even Venezuela before.  Few were paying attention, but for the first time the U.S sanctions against Russia were not created to target Russia and punish any violator, they were created to remove the tools which would allow violations.  The actual dollar as a trade currency was being weaponized.

What followed was not a surprise.  Given the nature of the relationships in the geopolitical world, it only took a few months for Russia and their allies to create new tools which would render the Western economic sanctions irrelevant.  That’s exactly what happened, and the Russian economy has thrived, while their relationship with two-thirds of the global world has strengthened.

Feeling like the only person who could see through the opaque nature of a narrative that surrounded the Russian sanctions, I quietly set out on a mission to understand what this was all about.  None of it made sense. More on that journey will follow. However, what Macgregor is describing is precisely the outcome that was predictable two years ago.

There is an information war against what Macgregor describes in the beginning of these remarks, and people I know personally have become targets as a result. It might surprise many to discover the nature of this information war does not originate with government or politicians. Our focus has been misplaced and our emphasis has been on the wrong syllable. WATCH:

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The targets within this information war are not people who are criticizing politicians. The core targets within this information war are those who are talking about the entities who are controlling and directing the politicians and government.  The voices who are considered a threat are not, repeat NOT, voices who are critical of government.  The voices who are considered a threat are those who understand the government actors are controlled and intentionally presented as the false source of the problem.

Just as Jack Smith is not the controlling entity organizing the targeting of Donald Trump, so too is Joe Biden (and the administration) not the originating entity who organized the Western sanction regime against Russia.  Jack Smith and Joe Biden are essentially actors, vessels following a design that has been created by outside government entities for the purpose of targeting Donald Trump and/or Russia respectively.  The bigger motives and intents of targeting both are essentially the same.  There are trillions at stake.

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