Today the CIA released an unprecedented 71 Presidential Daily Briefs given to the Executive Branch before and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  You can review the material [HERE – CIA LINK]

I would remind readers, in 2010 George W Bush’s campaign manager, aide and senior staff, Karl Rove, revealed [“Courage and Consequence“] that then CIA Director George Tenet had been trying for several weeks to get a personal meeting with President Bush to outline an intelligence concern about an international terror threat.

According to Rove, White House National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, had been blocking Tenet from meeting with President Bush.  Director Tenet sent several requests using alternate channels to reach Bush.  Eventually, in the late spring or early summer 2001, Tenet overcame the Rice block and was given time to brief President Bush.

CIA Director George Tenet then told President Bush the CIA had intercepted telephone “chatter” pointing to an al-Qaeda terrorist threat that somehow involved airlines.  However, the details and the specifics of the threat were unknown.  The only thing Tenet knew with certainty was that some type of plot was underway and airlines were involved.

George W Bush responded to Tenet by saying it appeared the CIA director was just trying to “cover his ass” in case something happened.  Bush was angered at the vagueness of the warning and told Tenet to consider his ass covered, but essentially the information was useless without specifics.

The rest, as they say, is history.  The matter did not surface again until after the 9/11/01 plot was carried out.

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Canada is drowning in the Sea of China. The USA is the rescue swimmer.  When we reach the victim they thrash, try to climb on our back and pull us under. Survival for both now requires us to punch them in the face, back away and ask them if they prefer to drown. If not, listen to instructions.

The USMCA or CUSMA needs to be terminated!  That’s the punch in the nose.

Then a bilateral trade agreement can be negotiated.  That’s the swimmer giving the victim instructions.

If Canada chooses to drown in the Sea of China, so be it.

Then we build a regulatory wall against all Canadian products, banning the entry of Chinese component parts in EVERYTHING!

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On the sidelines of the Asheville, North Carolina, G20 meeting of global finance ministers, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent holds a fireside chat to discuss current geopolitical events and economic conditions.

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Dept of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Dept of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin hold a press conference to announce emergency DoT and DHS action to initiate an emergency shutdown of regulated training centers for commercial driver’s licenses.

Actions announced include DoT (1) Emergency removal of 110 commercial driver’s license (CDL) schools associated with more than 5,000 drivers who failed English language proficiency tests. (2) Launching a nationwide audit of third-party CDL skills testers and states’ oversight of the testers. (3) Results from 40-state investigation of additional training schools. From DHS (1) Synchronized single-day sweep targeting more than 200 training schools across 23 states. (2) Joint coordination with USDOT. (3) HSI and ICE updates on ongoing investigations targeting CDL-related businesses and schools.

Secretary Duffy and Secretary Mullin outlined the issues and actions in a press conference this morning. WATCH:

[Press Release Here]

What Secretary Mullin outlined in his remarks is stunning.  During one taskforce setup, in the first day they stopped 14 big rig drivers with a CDL that said “No Name Given” for the truck driver’s identification.  They didn’t even have names on their commercial driver’s licenses.

At 41:10 of the video, a reporter downplays the issue claiming only 1% of the accidents on the road are caused by drivers who do not speak English.  Secretary Mullin responds with a very intense pushback against the reporter.

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The blue states and DC are desperately trying to avoid complying with a Dept of Homeland Security administrative subpoena for the records of their commercial driving license distribution.  In short, the blue states don’t want DHS or the American people to know how many illegal aliens are driving on CDLs.

Eastern District of Virginia Judge Anthony Trenga has just interceded to stop the states from forced compliance. Judge Trenga entered an administrative stay preventing DHS from obtaining roughly 17 million commercial driver’s license records it subpoenaed for immigration enforcement. [Read Administrative Stay Here]

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) previously issued subpoenas for approximately 17 million commercial driver’s license (CDL) records, which has led to a legal battle involving multiple Democratic run states.

A coalition of 22 blue states is now suing the DHS, claiming that the demand for this sensitive data is part of a broader effort to create a “nationwide surveillance system” and that the DHS lacks legal authority to access such records. The lawsuit argues that the data could jeopardize drivers’ privacy and violate federal privacy laws. {LAWSUIT HERE}

The states are seeking to block the DHS’s access to the records, which include personal information such as names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers. The coalition argues DHS has no legal authority to demand the truck drivers’ license records and would jeopardize drivers’ privacy if they receive them.

American citizens are not permitted to know who and how many illegal aliens are operating dangerous trucks on the roadways.  The privacy of the illegal aliens is paramount to the safety of the American citizen motorist.

Think about that for a few moments.

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What we can take away from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) index on manufacturing [Data Here]: overall, the U.S. manufacturing sector is continuing to expand significantly.  The current index of 55.6 percent in July is 2.3 percentage points above the June figure and the highest reading since May 2022 (55.9 percent), when we were trying to recover from the COVID-19 shutdowns and supply chain problems.

PMI – The overall economy continued in expansion for the 21st month in a row. (A Manufacturing PMI^® above 47.5 percent, over a period of time, generally indicates an expansion of the overall economy.) The New Orders Index expanded for the seventh consecutive month after four straight readings in contraction, registering 56.7 percent, up 0.7 percentage point compared to June’s figure of 56 percent.

The July reading of the Production Index (58.5 percent) is 6.3 percentage points higher than the 52.2 percent recorded in June and the highest figure since November 2021 (60.5 percent). The Prices Index remained in expansion (or ‘increasing’ territory), registering 71.1 percent, a 1.9-percentage point decrease from June’s reading of 73 percent. The Backlog of Orders Index registered 55 percent, up 4.5 percentage points compared to the 50.5 percent recorded in June.

The Employment Index reading of 52.8 percent is up 3.1 percentage points from June’s figure of 49.7 percent, putting the index in expansion territory for the first time in 33 months.” (source)

All that data and a couple of bucks will buy you a cup of coffee, but here’s what it means in common speak.

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I have a half-day of travel that takes me offline until later today; however, President Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks on the economy today in the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania.

President Donald Trump will deliver a speech during his visit to the Mack Trucks manufacturing plant in Lower Macungie Township.  The event is scheduled for 2:00pm ET with livestream links below.

UPDATE: VIDEO ADDED

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Leading the beginning of the media event with an announcement of the Iran agreement, President Trump notes a signing event for the negotiated deal will likely take place in Europe attended by JD Vance.

President Trump then moved quickly to the topic of an executive order opening fisheries for U.S. commercial fishing fleets, making announcements about the subject before opening up for questions. WATCH:

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Ironically, I find myself with a grin on my face as I read the recent media reports about how the data processing demand behind AI is beyond the scope of financial sustainability.

For several years I have asserted, accurately, the business model for social media was never feasible because the data processing demand needed for the scale of simultaneous users was beyond the capabilities of the revenue side of the equation.  I have been told by all the high-horse experts on the matter how wrong I am.  However, each story they write about the prohibitive cost of AI proves I was not wrong.

CTH watches the tokenization and subscription fees for various AI model use with the same perspective CTH viewed over a decade of false claims within the financial market that told lies about social media viability and data processing costs.

Now, we watch the seemingly exponential growth of AI capabilities and associated costs with the same pragmatic perspective.

Robotic pool cleaners were introduced two generations ago.  Did the pool cleaner business dry up? No, it expanded.  Robotic vacuums broke into the popular household appliance market five years ago, you probably have one, did it eliminate maid services?  No, still growing.

AI can now write its own code to generate outputs. Are software developers getting fired?  No, demand for software designers and engineers is up 15% in the past year.

The mainframe approach, the one AI brain to run all systems, will never work – it is cost prohibitive (see first paragraph – wash, rinse, repeat).  Deny this reality at your own investment risk. If needed, politely absorb the ridicule – for it matters not.

CTH predicts AI will become a localized and optimized sub-set for each sector of the economy, requiring each major organization and corporation to adopt specific cost/benefit data libraries and networks for use and functionality.

At scale, a thousand coders each working on Gemini, ChatGPT, Anthropic, Grok, etc. will become 100,000+ software designers working inside companies to create personalized, targeted, bespoke AI data systems and networks; each system specifically tailored to the industry or sector of business.  The intranet of internets will happen again.

Creating and selling AI system networks and integration functions that are personally tailored to highly specific company functions, creates an entirely new sector of the technology industry that has not even begun yet. [There’s an investment opportunity there]

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It’s not Mexico that needs a trade deal with Europe, it’s the opposite.

For almost two decades Europe has been investing heavily inside Mexico, particularly noted in the auto industry, as they positioned themselves to take advantage of NAFTA and later the USMCA as an entry to the U.S. market.

European auto companies spent billions on assembly plants in Mexico, where they could ship EU manufactured component goods to be assembled into NAFTA/USMCA compliant vehicles.  As President Trump and USTR Greer begin focusing on eliminating the USMCA trade agreement in favor of two bilateral deals (U.S-Canada and U.S-Mexico), Europe now needs to protect prior investment.

The prior Mexico-EU trade agreement has existed since 2000 (NAFTA timeframe).  In 2025 they agreed to a revised Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and finalized the terms and conditions yesterday.

MEXICO CITY, May 22 (Reuters) – Mexico and the European Union signed a long-stalled free trade agreement on Friday as they seek to decrease dependence on the U.S. and partially insulate themselves from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

The accord, which they reached broad agreement on in 2025 but have delayed signing, expands a Mexico-EU trade accord from 2000, which covered only industrial goods. The new pact adds services, government procurement, digital trade, investment and farm produce.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa are to sign the deal in Mexico City in their first summit in over a decade.

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