House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes is currently traveling in Europe and calls-in to Maria Bartiromo to discuss the natural gas pipeline that would reduce Russia’s energy influence in the region.
In the aggregate – the energy initiatives supported by President Trump and U.S. policy is an extension of the Trump Doctrine to use economic power, and specifically energy supplies therein, as an alliance tool to disrupt international states who weaponize energy to control energy-dependent states; thereby neutralizing malevolent interests/influence.
At 05:15 the topic switches to discussion of the ongoing oversight review of conduct from corrupt officials within the DOJ and FBI.  WATCH:

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Methinks Maria Bartiromo is the only media person who has caught on to “the secret“.
Within her wording and presentation today, inside this interview Fox News Maria Bartiromo hints toward her understanding of the Trump trade strategy as it pertains to Mexico, Canada and ::cough:: NAFTA ::cough::

 Nudge/Nudge – Elbow/Elbow – Wink/Wink – Say no more/Say no more!

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After the end of Round #6 (January 2018), it was obvious to POTUS Trump a NAFTA renegotiated deal was impossible.  In March, 2018, Team Trump stealthily began moving in a different direction.  In June,2018, Canada accidentally made the admission there were no ongoing talks between the U.S. and Canada.  The reasoning is simple yet stunning.
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Earlier today U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer messaged a warm birthday greeting to Mexican Foreign Secretary Louis Videgaray during ongoing negotiations between the U.S. and Mexican trade teams (video below).

Canada is FUBAR. No-one quite knows how FUBAR Canada is, because no-one has  followed the brilliant Wolverine crew closely enough to spot the strategy.
At the strategic direction of President Trump; and it is a really brilliant workaround strategy; the U.S. and Mexican teams are approaching the current NAFTA negotiations from a position of bilateral trade.   Trade watchers, Wall Street experts, financial pundits and the entire media apparatus are missing what Team USA are doing right in front of their faces…. they’ve obviously never followed or studied Trump’s out of the box problem solving when it comes to complex deals.
I won’t rehash the NAFTA flaws; familiar CTH readers know them well.  However, the bottom line is NAFTA is NOT, repeat N.O.T being renegotiated. I was going to remain silent, but I think it’s safe, Lighthizer is close enough to a deal to explain what’s happening.
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Today U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer announced the second tranche of tariffs on Chinese imports (full list pdf below).
The 25% tariff mostly includes chemical compounds and material parts used in the manufacture of finished goods.

Washington, DC – The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) today released a list of approximately $16 billion worth of imports from China that will be subject to a 25 percent additional tariff as part of the U.S. response to China’s unfair trade practices related to the forced transfer of American technology and intellectual property.  This second tranche of additional tariffs under Section 301 follows the first tranche of tariffs on approximately $34 billion of imports from China, which went into effect on July 6.
The listcontains 279 of the original 284 tariff lines that were on a proposed list announced on June 15.  Changes to the proposed list were made after USTR and the interagency Section 301 Committee sought and received written comments and testimony during a two-day public hearing last month.

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As many have discussed, due to their volume requirements China cannot secure their supply chain for soybeans without purchasing U.S. soybean crops.   China can purchase soybeans from Brazil and Argentina; however, that only leads to Argentina increasing it’s soybean purchases from the U.S.  Amplifying this issue are current lower yields from South America in their soybean crops.

…“There is a risk that China will have to cut back its livestock production, implying higher prices on the domestic market.”…

(Reuters) – China may have to start buying U.S. soybeans again in coming weeks despite the trade war between the two countries as other regions cannot supply enough soybeans to meet China’s needs, Hamburg-based oilseeds analysts Oil World said on Tuesday.
In July, China imposed import tariffs on a list of U.S. goods, including soybeans, as part of the trade dispute with the United States. China is the world’s largest soybean importer and has been seeking alternative supplies, especially in South America, where supplies available for export are down.

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While European countries criticized the move by Trump to exit the Iran deal, the challenge for their domestic businesses is to weigh the potential loss of American business against deals with Iran that are minuscule by comparison.
U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell has been meeting with numerous CEO’s within Germany to inform them:  “either do business with Iran or the U.S., but not both.”

(Bloomberg) — U.S. President Donald Trump’s desire to isolate the Iranian economy seems to be working.
Within hours of Washington unveiling its first round of sanctions, German carmaker Daimler AG froze a plan to make Mercedes Benz trucks in Iran. That’s even after the European Union tried to salvage the Iran nuclear deal by pledging to protect firms from Trump’s assault.

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The Chairman of the National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow, gives an extensive interview to C-SPAN discussing his life, his career and his role in the White House.
Those who have followed the granular details of the how President Trump put together his team -to carry out decades-long discussed policy- will find this interview interesting. Kudlow has evolved in the past year from a MAGAnomic supporter to a MAGAnomic advocate.

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Luke Rosiak, investigative reporter for The Daily Caller, revealed earlier tonight the name of the Chinese Spy employed by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) for several decades. Russell Lowe began working with Dianne Feinstein in the 1970’s.   According to prior reporting by CBS Lowe passed along information gained from Feinstein to the Chinese government.

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(Via Daily Caller) […] Hankoryeh, a South Korean news publication, described Lowe in October 2017 as “a Chinese-American who spent 20 years as the aide to Dianne Feinstein.” Lowe visited the publication’s Seoul office at that time with former Democratic California Rep. Mike Honda, who left office in January 2017 after losing to progressive challenger Ro Khanna in 2016.
Feinstein has said that the spy had “no access to sensitive information,” and the former staffer was never prosecuted. (read more)
Additionally, internet research done by @almostjingo via Twitter reveals that Feinstein’s relationship to Russell Lowe goes back much further than her time in the U.S. Senate.
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The big-eared British guy wearing Linus’s T-Shirt does have a point; and asks the same question CTH has pondered before: Why do foreign governments need lobbyists?

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If there was a five-click dial available as a severity meter between the U.S. and China, something happened internally in Beijing, over the last 72 hours, because that dial just triggered movement from 3 to 4… Keep watching everything in the world of geopolitics with a mental 360° radar sweep looking for Chinese influence/interests.

Nuance and subtlety is everything in China. Culturally harsh tones are seen as a sign of weakness and considered intensely impolite in public displays between officials; especially within approved and released statements by officials representing the government.
Therefore, when we see China publicly use strong language – it indicates a level of internal disposition beyond the defined western angst. Big Panda becomes Red Dragon; there is no mid-status or evolutionary phase.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s state media on Monday lashed out at the policies of U.S. President Donald Trump in an usually direct attack, accusing him of “starring in his own carefully orchestrated street fighter-style deceitful drama”.
Trump’s wish for others to play along with his drama is “wishful thinking,” the ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily newspaper said in an editorial.

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