Well, it looks like all suspicions are now confirmed. The dragon dance of 2017 and 2018 has extended into 2019. DPRK Chairman Kim fires rockets, Trump smacks Chinese Chairman Xi. Yes, we can officially put the remaining bits of skepticism to rest…
The meeting last week between Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and their Chinese counterparts including Vice-Chairman Liu, was especially important.  Mnuchin and Lighthizer said they would debrief President Trump on the likelihood of whether a successful trade deal with a communist regime was structurally possible; or whether Beijing was playing a game of delay.
The ongoing dance with the dragon has been a series of cunning manuevers between the Panda mask and the Dragon face. At the conclusion of the Beijing visit by Mnuchin and Lighthizer, Chinese Chairman Xi sent a proactive response using his familiar proxy North Korean Chairman Kim. The DPRK test-fired three missiles.
Today President Trump responds:

The increase of the Round-1 tariffs from 10% to 25%, previously delayed after discussions between Xi and Trump in Argentina, will now be triggered. Additionally, the Round-2 tariffs (25% on $325 billion of different goods), originally scheduled for March 1, also postponed after the Argentina dinner, will now be implemented.
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Following the arc of the 2016 election surveillance story, Representative Jim Jordan and Maria Bartiromo discuss the reasons why the administrative state now needs to remove AG Bill Barr with a sense of increased urgency.
Attorney General Bill Barr has vowed to get to the bottom of the surveillance and spy operations conducted against the Trump campaign -and Trump administration- in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. Barr is now a threat to the system.

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appears on Fox News Sunday to debate Swamp antagonist Chris ‘But’ Wallace on issues related to Venezuela, Russia, China and North Korea.
Despite the Weissmann/Mueller report, Chris “But” Wallace continues advancing the Russia collusion-conspiracy… until moving forward and cheerleading for North Korea, Hamas and China.

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There’s something really odd about the latest reports from South Korea about a test of three missiles the South has corrected to describe as “projectiles”.  The odd part is there’s zero mention in North Korea state media about it.  Fox News picked up on that aspect in a brief sentence inside their report:

[…]  South Korean officials were monitoring the situation and were sharing information with their American counterparts. North Korea did not report on Saturday’s firings. Seoul’s intelligence agency said it thinks the projectiles were not missiles given their short travel distances and low altitude.

Amid a tremendous amount of recent geopolitical background moves; and given the history of China using the DPRK as a geopolitical proxy province; there’s a possibility Beijing ordered the action.
Out of caution, please note our CTH perspective is entirely outside the mainstream view on the dynamic within the DPRK and the network around Kim Jong-un.  Quite simply all of the moves, counter-moves, and specifically the timing of them, align with the U.S. and China confrontation far more than most mainstream observers seem to notice.
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This is a discussion point CTH has outlined for quite a while; the new aspect is the scale and scope of Big Tech’s latest effort to silence voices they define as against their interests.
President Trump has taken notice of the issue and over the past 48 hours he has been drawing additional attention to the problem.  Things are going to get a lot worse, a lot worse, in the days and months ahead.

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In the final analysis, the big picture is about authoritarian control. Currently the largest tech companies are leveraging their power and influence to remove dissenting voices from commonly used social media platforms. Back in 2015 there was a prescient discussion between Matt Drudge and Alex Jones where this exact scenario was outlined.
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Rep. Devin Nunes appears on Fox News to discuss his letter raising questions about academic center of origin of Russia probe. Nunes says if Joseph Mifsud is a Russian agent, it would be one of the biggest intelligence scandals in history.

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Earlier today President Trump met with Slovakia Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini in the White House.  Prior to bilateral meetings they held a press availability in the oval office and President Trump took questions from the media. [Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript] – Oval Office – 1:55 P.M. EDT – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. It’s my honor to have the Prime Minister of Slovakia with us today in the Oval Office. We have a lot of talking to do. We’re dealing on trade. We have a very big trade arrangement and deal. They’re buying quite a few of the F-16 planes from us. And a very big order, actually. I’m very impressed. And it’s — I have to say, it’s a great plane. It’s a great, great plane.
But we do a lot of trade. And NATO partner. And our relationship has been very good. And this is the Prime Minister’s first time in the Oval Office, and I think he’s impressed with it.
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National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow appears on Fox Business to discuss the most excellent April jobs report and the continued forecast for U.S. economic growth.
Director Kudlow points out the greatest current economic benefits are being felt in the blue-collar Main Street sector; and rebuts former Vice President Joe Biden’s comments on the administration policy.

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases the April 2019 jobs report and the results are excellent.  It’s a home run for MAGAnomics as the trifecta continues: Job gains +263,000, Wage growth +3.2%, Inflation low at 1.4%.
With a gain of 263,000 new jobs in April, the overall unemployment rate dropped to 3.6%.  There are more jobs available than people looking for work.  Additionally, the prior two months jobs results were revised upward by 16,000 more than previous reported.

• Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 263,000 in April, compared with an average monthly gain of 213,000 over the prior 12 months.
• Professional and business services added 76,000 jobs in April. Over the past 12 months, professional and business services has added 535,000 jobs
• In April, construction employment rose by 33,000. Construction has added 256,000 jobs over the past 12 months.
• Employment in health care grew by 27,000 in April and 404,000 over the past 12 months.
• In April, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 6 cents to $27.77. Over the year, average hourly earnings have increased by 3.2 percent.
• BLS Release Link

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The U.S. Steel and Aluminum industry has been a key focus of President Trump in an effort to reestablish a critical industry for America. Part of the administration strategy was broad-based tariffs aimed at curbing China’s dumping of government subsidized product globally. The broad global application of the tariffs defeated the Chinese trans-shipment strategy to avoid them.
Despite opposition from Wall Street republicans and democrats purchased by K-Street lobbyists, the administration policy has been exceptionally successful at driving investment into the U.S. manufacturing base.  The multinationals are furious.

(U.S. Steel) United States Steel Corporation is investing more than $1 billion in the place where our reputation as a trusted industry leader was first forged more than a century ago: our Mon Valley Works near Pittsburgh.
The investment involves the construction of a cutting-edge, sustainable endless casting and rolling facility at Mon Valley’s Edgar Thomson Plant in Braddock, Pa., – the first of its kind in the United States – and a new cogeneration facility with state-of-the-art emissions control technology at the nearby Clairton Plant in Clairton, Pa. (link)

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