Against the backdrop of ‘Phase 2’ trade policy initiatives based on reciprocity, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross talks to CNBC about tariffs, carve-outs and protecting national security ahead of his meeting with the European commissioner for trade.
The hypocritical European Union has expansive protectionist tariffs against U.S. products and has threatened retaliation if the U.S. enforces the Trump administration about trade reciprocity.
Additionally, the Trump administration (Ross, Lighthizer, Navarro and Mnuchin) are focusing on China’s trade theft of intellectual property. According to Reuters reporting there is a possibility of $60 billion in trade tariffs being enforced against China for their IP violations and practices.
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.
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 †
“WHY” – The first video highlights the historic backdrop of DOJ/FBI FISA court abuses:
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“HOW” – The second video highlights the specific example of how the DOJ and FBI used false information to the FISA Court to secure a fraudulent ‘Title-1’ surveillance warrant:
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) Chairman Devin Nunes appears for an interview with Sean Hannity to discuss the firing of Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe and ongoing investigative issues.
Chairman Nunes points out the HPSCI is not related to the Office of Inspector General report that flows through the oversight of the Judiciary Committee (Goodlatte). While there can be overlap, such as the FISA issues, Chairman Nunes oversight encompasses the intelligence community writ large, not specifically the FBI or DOJ.
Nunes’ primary intelligence oversight encompasses: DOJ-NSD, FBI-CoIntel, NSA, DoD (Pentagon), CIA, ODNI, and DoS (State). The Chairman of the HPSCI is also the head figure within internal oversight for the Gang of Eight and the highest ranking member of legislative branch oversight over the intelligence apparatus of U.S. government along with the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Fox Business News host Lou Dobbs discusses the firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, and all the downstream issues, with Congressman Jim Jordan:
Before becoming President Obama’s key Homeland Security Adviser Lisa Monaco was the head of the DOJ National Security Division. You might remember the DOJ-NSD is at the center of the “small group” collaboration between DOJ-NSD and FBI Counterintelligence unit. Remember, it was the DOJ-NSD (via Sally Yates) who would not allow OIG Oversight. (John Carlin quit; Mary McCord quit; David Laufman quit)
During the 2015/2016 presidential election Lisa Monaco was one of the key WH figures doing the unmasking of raw intelligence provided by the “small group” collaborators (with Susan Rice, Ben Rhodes). Monaco was also one of the key policy strategists, heck, she was the architect, who utilized the compartmentalization of intelligence to hide the fingerprints of collaboration. This was the issue that initially stymied HSPCI Devin Nunes.
Many people have wondered if the Obama White House, recognizing the empirical risk represented by McCabe’s insider knowledge, would distance themselves from McCabe -leaving him to swing in the wind- or whether they would circle the wagons to defend him. This interview should answer that question. Pay particular attention to the angst expressed by Monaco of Trump creating transparency within compartmentalized IC.
After watching the video, and understanding what battles are to come from within the Obama IC, you understand why THIS GROUP has assembled. It is all interconnected. It is all related. None of these alignments, moves, maneuvers and shifts are happening arbitrarily. They are all done purposefully knowing the biggest political battle in the history of U.S. politics is now visible on the horizon.
Things are proceeding swimmingly. How is it possible to outline the biggest political corruption scandal in modern U.S. history; which utilized the full weight of the institutions of government and the vast intelligence community; against the predictable tide of a mainstream U.S. media apparatus who will shout ‘conspiracy theory’; while every single entity associated with the collaborative effort will protect the group behind the scandal?
There’s the challenge. How do you introduce the scale and scope of corruption to almost half the country who have relied upon the false narrative delivered by fake news for the past two years?
Answer: You assemble a strategic communications team, timed to activate when a key series of events takes place. Joe diGenova is part of that strategic communications team. The triggering event is the OIG release. The purpose of the team is to help the news consumer digest the corruption elephant one bite at a time.
As each individual indictment is parsed and delivered, there will be tens-of-thousands of pages of evidence, multiple witness statements, and a tsunami of investigative supporting material that needs to be unpacked -per person- and understood against the backdrop of the bigger story.
Harvard Law Professor Emeritus, Alan Dershowitz, appears with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the DOJ firing FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. It’s a wide-ranging interview hitting on multiple angles of the ongoing issues at the top of the FBI and Dept of Justice.
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One of the common misunderstandings as highlighted within the interview is the 1.2 million investigative documents held by the Office of Inspector General, Michael Horowitz.
First, a massive amount of the ‘pages’ are likely transcripts from the Peter Strzok and Lisa Page text messages; as well as the likelihood of emails and other communications within the “small group” (co-conspirators) inside the DOJ and FBI.
Second, everyone seems to overlook that much of the evidence collected by IG Horowitz may also be evidence of criminality by those within the “small group”. As such the criminal evidence would NOT be, and SHOULD NOT be, released to congress because the assigned prosecutor would be using it for cases against those outlined in the investigation.
