NAFTA is at a critical stage.  Mexico has committed themselves to a full-court press this week in an effort to retain the investment influx from multinational corporations.  To retain their advantage, Mexico needs to keep the NAFTA loophole allowing Asia and EU to use Mexico and Canada as back-doors to the U.S. market.

Additionally, AM-LO, a self-described soft-Marxist (similar to Hugo Chavez) is likely to win the July 1st Mexican election.   Yesterday, Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray travels down the street to the State Department for a meeting with Secretary Pompeo. From the U.S. perspective, anything from Secretary Videgaray is essentially moot at this point; the Mexican government is moving toward a more socialistic economic model.

[Transcript] SECRETARY POMPEO: Good afternoon. Today it is my pleasure and a great honor to welcome the Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray to the State Department. Welcome.

We had a great discussion and we had so because Mexico is one of the United States’ closest partners. Together we are working to build a more secure, prosperous, and democratic hemisphere. We are neighbors, allies, and friends.

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Generally speaking the corporate media have yet to have an honest outline about the fatal flaw within NAFTA that allows China, ASEAN nations and the EU to exploit previous investments in Canada and Mexico as a back-door to the U.S. market.

In a generalized aspect, the recent visit of top U.S. trade and economic policymakers to China was part of Trump’s exploration into the larger dynamic of bi-lateral trade between the U.S. and China knowing full well the NAFTA flaw remains unaddressed.  Without addressing the loop-hole (aka ‘fatal flaw’) any modernized NAFTA deal is moot; and by extension the foundation for any future trade deal between the U.S. and China is too byzantine to manage.

It is in China and the EU’s interests to continue exploiting the NAFTA access.  It is in Canada and Mexico’s interests to retain the subsequent investment influx.

It is in multinational corporate and Wall Street interests to continue the scheme. However, it is also entirely against U.S. Main Street interests.  Hence, NAFTA loggerheads reigns supreme; and in my opinion, we are soon to see President Trump cut the Gordian knot.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senior Canadian, U.S. and Mexican officials trying to rescue slow-moving talks to update the NAFTA trade pact met on Monday in a new bid to resolve key issues before regional elections complicate the process.

With time fast running out to strike some kind of deal on the North American Free Trade Agreement, the three member nations are still far apart on major points.

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Senior administration officials are preparing to brief the media on a congressional “recission request” notification:

“Today, senior administration officials will hold a background briefing to preview the Presidents historic rescission request to Congress. The special message to Congress will be delivered Tuesday, May 8, 2018. The briefing will be conducted via conference call at 6:00PM EDT tonight. The information will be embargoed until 9:00PM EDT this evening.” (LINK)

In essence the administration is preparing to enter into a spending discussion with congress. The White House is actually trying to eliminate unnecessary federal spending. FULLSTOP. Yes, that’s what happens when a businessman, committed to financial stewardship, takes over as executive and reviews spending.

The basic point of “recission” is simple. The Omnibus spending bill contained too much unneeded spending on non-essential budgetary items. A Very Stable Genius President approved the Omnibus to gain the needed financing for the military.

With the military shored-up, the sketchy pork hidden inside the Omnibus needs to be addressed while deconstructing the deep state apparatus.  So,…. the White House is talking with congress about NOT spending the appropriations.

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You can call it a soft-coup, or you can call it politicization of the DOJ and FBI, but the end result is the same – the intentional effort to manipulate, influence, and ultimately subvert an election for the presidency of the United States.  ~SD

Appearing on Life, Liberty and Levin, Mr. Dan Bongino and Mr. Joe diGenova have an in-depth conversation about ongoing issues with the Special Counsel Robert Mueller investigation, and the precipitating events/action within the Obama Intel Community:

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More *’nuther stuff* below.

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Quietly, almost invisibly today, National Security Agency Director Navy Admiral Mike S Rogers turned over his command to Army General Paul Nakasone.

Together with Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick M. Shanahan, a small but formal ceremony was held at Fort Meade, Maryland, on the same day the U.S. Cyber Command was elevated to become the nation’s 10th unified combatant command.

[wpvideo 3aqMSV1Y]

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It does not seem coincidental that today, in the background of events, there is also a great deal of activity within the aggregate intelligence community (FBI/DOJ).  As DNI Dan Coats and NSA Director Mike Rogers are together in a formal and official capacity for the final time, the FBI was purging usurping agents (Page, Baker). Indeed with Admiral Rogers exit from service, he is now able to testify regarding his knowledge of prior FISA issues.

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NOW IT ALL COMES TOGETHER…

Michael Caputo appears on Fox News for a general discussion of his third experience being grilled by Hillary Clinton’s Legal Team within the Clinton-Mueller Special Counsel.

However, one of the interesting bits of information is where Mr. Caputo notes the Clinton-Mueller team have the personal emails, phone call logs, communications and even text messages of every targeted member of the investigation. This little factoid is jaw-dropping important because it highlights the underlying reason why Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein needed to grant a July 2017 extension of the Title-1 FISA surveillance warrant (initiated against Carter Page); that was actually being utilized by the FBI to conduct political surveillance of these same Trump officials.

Without the July 2017 FISA extension, Robert Mueller would not have predicate investigative authority to reach into the accounts of his targets and extract their personal communication.  Mueller would have needed to go to court for a search warrant; he is conducting a criminal investigation; he would have needed probable cause.  However, by applying the 2016 extended FISA Title-1 warrant, the Clinton-Mueller special counsel used the previous legal authority to extract all the information they wanted to review.

Things are making much more sense now.

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Former federal prosecutor, Mayor of New York and presidential candidate, Rudy Giuliani is now one of the lawyers for President Donald Trump.

Tonight Mr. Giuliani appeared on Fox News with Sean Hannity for a wide-ranging interview of current events and issues. Giuliani discussed the ongoing resistance efforts from the Clinton embeds inside the Robert Mueller team; and also discussed the “personal heartbreak” felt by President Trump toward the conduct of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein.

Additionally, Giuliani discussed the attacks against the Trump allies, former campaign aides, the Trump family and the other legal representatives of Donald Trump including Michael Cohen.  The institutional media apparatus is going bananas over this interview.

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A great deal of excitement today centers around President Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence participating in a formal swearing-in ceremony for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

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[Transcript] Washington, D.C. – 11:17 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. I must say, that’s more spirit that I’ve heard from the State Department in a long time — many years. (Laughter.) We can say many years, and maybe many decades. It’s going to be a fantastic start, a fantastic day. And that spirit will only be magnified, will only — with this man right here. I know that for a fact.

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Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross discusses the ongoing trade initiatives with China ahead of the U.S. delegation departing later tonight.  Secretary Ross, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, U.S. Trade Representative/Ambassador Robert Lighthizer, Economic Council Chairman Larry Kudlow and White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro are all heading to Beijing to meet with their Chinese counterparts.

Secretary Ross is like the Babe Ruth of trade-baseball. Wilburine has a way of taking complex issues pitched to him, and knocking them out of the ballpark with an extremely fast common sense bat.  He makes it look effortless.  Watch:

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Two quick thoughts. First, I think this is the first time every member of Team America (Ross, Mnuchin, Lighthizer, Kudlow, Navarro) has unified into one specific set of trade negotiations. That helps understand the scale of importance of the China trade relationship.

Second, there’s no traveling parallel contingent consisting of outside government members/advisers from of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. This is a significant change from the past 30 years of Wall Street policy manipulation by the CoC. Many people may not be aware but until President Trump the U.S. government didn’t actually write the trade agreements.

For all prior administrations the actual negotiations and agreements were willingly sub-contracted out to U.S. Chamber of Commerce delegations. This is how the multinationals took control of trade policy and eventually the U.S. economy. CoC President Tom Donohue must be apoplectic now that he is facing an administration actually writing the trade agreements.

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Earlier today President Trump participated in the presentation of the Commander-in-Chief trophy to the U.S. Military Academy football team; Army Black Nights.

Rose Garden – 12:00 P.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT: At ease. Good afternoon, and welcome to the White House. And this is officially, for you, most of you know, the Rose Garden. Very special. Very, very special place. Today is a day of celebration, so relax and have a good time.

I have no higher honor as President than to serve as the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces. And I truly have no greater pleasure than to award the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy, for the first time in 21 years, to the Army Black Knights. Congratulations. (Applause.)

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