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President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP
Sean Spicer Twitter @PressSec
How do you get congress to accept the NAFTA notification of intent letter? Why, you backstop the Canadian decision to undermine U.S. dairy farm exports by applying equity import tariffs and offsetting losses to U.S. manufacturers.
First stop, lumber mills. ie U.S. regional impacts, not coincidentally, represented by key Democrat constituents.
The congressional delegations from Washington State and Oregon happen to be mostly elected Democrats; and they happen to applaud the efforts; which means they are not able to criticize the approach. Hmm, it’s almost as if Wilburine and POTUS had a strategy or something. Nah, couldn’t be.
(Via CNN) These are the first tariffs imposed by President Trump, who during his election campaign threatened to use them on imports from both China and Mexico. The decision on Monday is bound to lead to a standoff and could stoke fears of a trade war between the US and Canada, two of the world’s largest trade powers.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the tariffs, or taxes, announced Monday evening were being imposed after trade talks on dairy products fell through.
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 †
♦Last week Vice President Mike Pence visited Japan, China, South Korea, Indonesia and Australia. One of the primary topics was North Korea. ♦Yesterday (April 23rd), President Trump followed up on Pence’s visit with personal phone calls to China’s President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe; again, the topic was North Korea:
“The two leaders reaffirmed the urgency of the threat posed by North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs, and committed to strengthen coordination in achieving the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” (link)
♦Today (April 24th), U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley brings the U.N. Security Council to the White House for lunch with President Trump. The President spoke of the need for the U.N. to fulfill its original charter. ♦On Wednesday (April 26th), President Trump has invited all U.S. Senators to the White House for a classified briefing on North Korea.
♦On Friday (April 28th), U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will be traveling to the U.N. to speak to the Security Council personally: (more…)
One of President Trump’s greatest strengths is his keen instincts for developing relationships as a strategic tools toward accomplishing consequential objectives. To wit, President Trump invites the entire U.N. Security Council delegation to lunch at the White House.
Now, most of us, myself included, do not think highly of the United Nations as an entity that has ever accomplished anything of worth – beyond pushing an incessant drum-beat of left-wing globalism and ridiculous pie-in-the-sky pontificating.
However, that said, the historic invitation to lunch is quite smartly full-throated use of regional political proximity. President Trump inviting the U.N Security Council ambassadors to the White House is something Vladimir Putin, or any other leader of consequence, cannot recreate. The Ambassadors themselves acted more like a group of valedictorian school kids on an outing to where the really important people live.
Important leverage is created through personality, nuance, outline of expectations, proximity and exposure to real power. This is far beyond the mere wordy pontificating power of the attendee’s familiarity, this is structurally deploying leverage of consequence to change paradigms.
[TRANSCRIPT] 11:50 A.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT: This is a very, very important and powerful group of people, and it’s really wonderful to have you with us. And I have to say, welcome to the White House. It’s a privilege to have all of the ambassadors and their spouses.
You know, they were going to leave out the spouses, and I said, you must bring your spouses. (Laughter.) You know, I heard there were a lot of very angry spouses — (laughter) — and this is their first time to the White House. So it’s a great honor to those of you that brought your wife or spouse.
The multinational corporate media are taking no chances this time in their efforts to frame a narrative preferable to their outcome in the French election. This time they are being proactive:
A very unusual report from Reuters announces the White House has extended an invitation for the entire U.S. Senate to come to the White House for a policy and security briefing on North Korea. The briefing is scheduled for 3pm Wednesday:
(Via Reuters) Top Trump administration officials will hold a rare briefing on Wednesday at the White House for the entire U.S. Senate on the situation in North Korea, senior Senate aides said on Monday.
All 100 senators have been asked to the White House for the briefing by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the aides said.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer conducts the White House press briefing for April 24th 2017. Additional briefing material from U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and U.S. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin:
The collective EU, and every like-minded multi-cultural entity within leftist media together with the Obama globalist operatives, are now laying a path of rose petals for their wunderkind Emmanuel Macron.
If you seek a reference point for the narrative over the next two weeks simply remind yourself how Barack Obama was elected in 2008. It will be an absolutely identical playbook.
Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year-old who has never held elected office and is married to his former grade school teacher (24-years his elder), is being heralded as the second coming of the halo-clad unicorn-riding progressive lightbringer Emperor Obama as Macron strides boldly up the gilded staircase toward the purchased French Presidency.
(Via Reuters) The United States on Monday blacklisted 271 employees of a Syrian government agency it said was responsible for developing chemical weapons, weeks after a poison gas attack killed scores of people in a rebel-held province in Syria.
The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned 271 employees of Syria’s Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC), an agency that Washington says develops chemical weapons for the government of Bashar al-Assad, the Treasury said in a statement.
Some of the people blacklisted had worked on Syria’s chemical weapons program for more than five years, the Treasury Department said. The sanction orders U.S. banks to freeze the assets of any employees named, and bans American companies from conducting business with them.