Well, this will not come as a surprise to CTH readers, but it affirms prior suspicion of Chairman Xi Jinping’s motives and intents in the pre-G20 trip to North Korea.  There is also an aspect to this propaganda highlighting that Beijing actually had this narrative written prior to the outcome, I’ll explain below.

As predicted, China’s state media are proclaiming that Chairman Xi Jinping, playing the role of magnanimous panda, is responsible for the success and restart of the discussions between President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un of North Korea:

CHINA – […] Ten days before the Kim-Trump meeting, President Xi Jinping made a historic visit to North Korea, with one of the key aims being to show political support and help North Korea and the US to break the deadlock in their negotiations, Zheng said.
Xi also met Trump in Osaka on the sidelines of the G20 Summit on Saturday, when they also discussed the peninsula issue. Xi has encouraged both Kim and Trump to push forward negotiations and reach an agreement eventually.
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Fox News host Tucker Carlson traveled to Osaka Japan for the G20 meeting between President Trump and China’s Chairman Xi Jinping.  After the summit meeting Carlson interviews President Trump and broadcast the interview this evening:

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Additionally, Tucker Carlson traveled with President Trump to South Korea for the DMZ visit with Kim Jong-un.
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President Trump has completely reset the pre-existing hostile dynamic that existed between the U.S. and North Korea.  By focusing on the root cause of the issue, Beijing China, Trump has been able to reach a position with Kim Jong-un that seemed impossible two years ago.
All over southeast Asia the media reports are optimistic, positive and upbeat with the possibility of a generational crisis finally coming to an end.   President Trump is being called a hero bringing peace to Korea.

(Tweet Link)

The North Korean state-run media has broadcast the video below.
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In the synergy between the U.S. intelligence apparatus and their media agents, the CIA, DOJ and State Department have specific outlets assigned to public relations.
A long tracked history and pattern reflects the DOJ and FBI leak their needs to the New York Times.  The preferred outlet for the U.S. State Department is CNN; and the Washington Post generally comes out first in defense of the CIA agenda.   This pattern has been remarkably consistent for years.

So against a backdrop of looming revelations about the intelligence community and their activity in the 2016 election; and suddenly The Washington Post, seemingly out of nowhere, pushes an article intended to diffuse the issues around western intelligence asset Joseph Mifsud; we can reasonably assume something is happening in the background that has officials in the CIA worried about exposure and their image.
From the WaPo introduction we can see what part of “spygate” the CIA is concerned about:

(Wa Po) […] The Maltese-born academichas not surfacedpublicly since that October 2017 interview, days after Trump campaign aide GeorgePapadopoulos pleaded guilty tolying to the FBI about details of theirinteractions. Among them, Papadopoulos told investigators, was an April 2016 meeting in which Mifsud alerted him that the Russians had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails.”

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It would appear that congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in a thirst for media exposure, has officially decided to remove any remaining semblance of credibility.
After a series of political stunts intended to generate a far-left narrative for open borders, the loon from New York has officially gone bananas:

In addition to migrants having to drink from toilets, Ms. Cortez claims she was threatened to be raped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials conducting a tour for a congressional delegation.  However, according to Homeland Security journalist Anna Giaritelli none of this happened.
Factually, as reported, AOC began screaming during a U.S. Customs and Border Protection briefing and refused to tour the facilities.  Even AOC’s most staunch supporters are having a difficult time defending their moonbat lightbringer on this one.
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Today, July 1st, is the first day of the third quarter 2019.  As typical some of the earliest economic reporting from June is released.  One of the first reports comes from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) as they compile the manufacturing sector.

As noted in the ISM review, manufacturing growth remains strong with an overall index of 51.7 (anything above 50 is growth), and the results are stronger than initially predicted by the financial media (Wall Street).
The manufacturing production index for June is 54.1 versus last month’s 51.3 (May); generally this means manufacturing outputs are growing, order backlogs are being reduced, orders are being fulfilled faster.  This is an indication that new production investment is now coming on-line and delivering actual products from orders.
In the past CTH had noted the heavy Main Street investment which began in 2017 would start to come on-line in Q2 2019, it generally takes about two years for a new manufacturing facility to start producing, and then increases in production efficiency follow.  The ISM result shows we were pretty close with that forecast.
Within the review there are particular notes for additional interest.  First, the June manufacturing employment index is 54.5, very strong; (last month 53.7).  In essence manufacturers are hiring at a fast rate.  One cause is better weather (seasonal), and the majority cause is filling the jobs from new production facilities coming on-line.
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The White House has produced a brief recap video of President Trump’s historic visit to the Panmunjom DMZ in North Korea.

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Tucker Carlson was traveling with the group and will have an interview with President Trump on his Fox News show at 8:00pm this evening.
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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Sarah H Sanders Twitter @SHSanders45

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

Mike Morell was the Deputy CIA Director when President Obama and Hillary Clinton botched the joint 2011 CIA and State Department operation “Zero Footprint” in Libya.
“Zero Footprint” was the covert operation initiated by Secretary of State Clinton and CIA Director Leon Panetta.  Director Panetta left the CIA just before the operation went sideways and resulted in the attack on the Benghazi State Dept./CIA annex September 11th, 2012.  General David Petraeus was the new CIA Director when the Benghazi attack happened.  Immediately, General Petraeus became a risk.  [Deep Background]

After the Benghazi attack, the relationship between journalist Paula Broadwell and General Petraeus was used by ODNI James Clapper to remove the CIA Director.
Immediately after the election of 2012 CIA Director David Petraeus resigned (Nov 9th) and interim CIA Director Morrel took over. This is why Petraeus never testified about CIA operations to the Senate panel investigating Benghazi, Mike Morrel took his place.
Morrel’s job was to provide cover for the background operation (2010, Zero Footprint) where Obama, Clinton and Panetta provided covert weapons, including shoulder fired missiles, to Libyan “rebels”, aka Libyan al-Qaeda.  AND Morrel’s second role was to cover for the extended CIA operation (2011-2012) where the CIA was buying back those missiles and shipping them into Syria for use overthrowing the Assad regime; the second operation was based out of the secret (at the time) State Dept/CIA facility in Benghazi.
Morrel was essentially the CIA narrative ‘fixer’.  He was up to his eyeballs in the cover-up behind Benghazi 2012 and 2013.  After Acting Deputy Morrel testified to congress about the CIA involvement around Benghazi, and the issues of terrorism vs. Islamic movie (happy squirrel chase) etc. Mike Morrel was replaced at the CIA by John Brennan.
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