The President's Daily Brief - January 12th, 2023. More Classified Documents Found in Biden Offices?

Episode Date: January 12, 2023

It’s January 12th. You’re listening to the President’s Daily Brief. Your morning intel starts now. ------ A good day to you, ladies and gentlemen. I’ve got three briefs for you this morning that are shaping America — and the world. First, Joe Biden has promised that $7B in new aid to Central America / will stop or slow illegal immigration. We’ll talk about whether or not that is likely true. Second, we’ve got a robbery to talk about in the country of Chile. It involves copper, and it might just affect your pocketbook. Third, Sweden’s plans to join the military alliance NATO has hit a brick wall. And it’s the country of Turkey that is to blame. Fourth, and switching to domestic affairs, Texas is swimming in a budget surplus while California / is sinking with a major deficit. I’ll explain why. Next, some potentially good news for America’s farmers and ranchers as they fight for their ability to repair their farm equipment. Finally, to wrap up the day’s brief, I’ve got an update on the Biden Intel Scandal. They’ve found more classified documents in a new unsecured location. ------ Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of the President's Daily Brief. Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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It's January 12th. You're listening to the President's Daily Brief. I'm your host and former CIA Officer Brian Dean Wright. Your morning intel starts now. A good day to you, ladies and gentlemen. I've got six briefs for you this morning that are shaping America and the world. First, Joe Biden has promised that $7 billion in new aid to Central America will slow or stop illegal migration. We'll talk about whether or not that is likely true. Second, we've got a robbery to talk about in the country of Chile. It involves copper, and it might just affect your pocketbook. Third, Sweden's plan to join the military alliance of NATO has hit a brick wall, and it's the country of Turkey that's to blame. Fourth, and switching gears to domestic affairs, Texas is

swimming in a budget surplus, while California is sinking with a major deficit. I'll explain why. Next, some potentially good news for America's farmers and ranchers as they feel. fight for their ability to repair their own farm equipment. Finally, to wrap up today's brief, I've got an update on the Biden Intel scandal. They have found more classified documents in a new, unsecured location. But before we get to that, we got to get started with this. Yesterday was the conclusion of the meetings between the leaders of Mexico, Canada, and the U.S., where one of the final things that they discussed was illegal migration.

At a press conference yesterday, Joe Biden again stated that America's guiding policy to stop or slow illegal migration is to address the root causes that cause or encourage people to come to the United States illegally. Now, if that phrase root causes sounds familiar, well, it should. I've briefed you on it before, but just to refresh our memories, it's the idea that if only we could fix the corruption and crime and poverty in places like El Salvador and Guatemala and Hunter. Honduras, then people from those countries would never try to come to America in the first place. And that's what Biden proposed once again yesterday. So here's what he said. Quote, we're going to continue our efforts to address the root causes of migration and tell people to stay in their home countries. I've asked Congress for $4 billion to provide for that. We've also had our vice president to help secure private donations of over $3 billion.

Now, there is absolutely logic to what Mr. Biden is proposing addressing root causes, but as ever, the devil is in the details. So to break down the $7 billion that he's proposing, the first $4 billion is actually an amount that he asked for two years ago in Congress. And he said then and now that the money would go to nonprofit organizations doing humanitarian work. Although, then as now, it's not clear which organizations would get that money or precisely what they would do with it. In fact, the normally supportive media outlet called National Public Radio said at the time of Biden's initial proposal that, quote, the plan is being billed as the first of its kind, but much of the proposal is expanding on previous efforts by the federal government that have done little to curb

migration from that region. All right, so that leaves the $3 billion raised by Kamala Harris. but to be clear, this $3 billion is money that private companies like MasterCard and Pepsi and Microsoft had already announced that they were going to invest regardless of the immigration debate. It was money to be used to expand or grow in those markets as a normal part of their doing business. In other words, I think that a reasonable person here might question whether this $4 or $7 billion will really fix the root causes of anything. because frankly, as NPR correctly highlighted, it's all been done before and failed. But as always, you get to make the call whether or not that is true.

And with that, folks, let's leave Mexico in Central America this morning and head to the nation of Chile in South America. Because we need to talk about how a robbery there could affect pocketbooks here. So here's what we know. On early Tuesday morning of this week, in the Port City of San Antonio, Chile. There were 12 containers of copper sitting in a storage yard waiting to be shipped. Well, a gang broke into that seaport, disabled the security cameras, and they drove in some pretty heavy-duty trucks right to those 12 containers. When a security guard approached them, well, they beat the poor fellow and tied them up. Then they loaded the copper and drove off.

Well, all, they took $4.4 million worth of copper, and the police have no leads. Now, this is not the first time that this has happened recently. According to Reuters news, we've seen an increasing number of these attacks previously on trains carrying copper, but now at seaports. Regardless, either way, it's a troubling development for Chile as they are the world's largest producer of copper, and that metal is increasing in demand and value. Prices have popped recently to $9,000 a ton, with analysts expecting $11,000 by the end of this year. All right, so why do we care about this robbery or Chile. Well, copper is increasingly important as the world ramps up the production of things like

solar panels and batteries and electric vehicles, even transmission lines. In other words, copper is a foundational metal to building all sorts of things. And what we've seen in other places with this type of resource, for instance, in Nigeria with oil, bandits can hobble an entire industry, and that affects global supplies and global pocketbooks. By the way, if you have time, research this issue. A quick internet search on Nigerian oil bandits will be pretty eye-opening, I think, for most of us. Regardless, I'm going to keep an eye on this one and see if Chile can get a hold of this issue before it becomes a real crisis, just like it has in Nigeria with its oil. All right, folks, next up, we are going to

leave South America behind, and we're going to jet across the Atlantic Ocean all the way to Sweden. I've got an update this morning on their bid to join NATO. And unfortunately, there is some bad news to report. But first, let me refresh our memories on this issue and why we care. So just after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Scandinavian countries of Sweden and Finland decided that they would join NATO, which of course is the Western Military Alliance, that promises that if one country is attacked,

then all will respond in defense. But in order for any country to join NATO, all the other NATO members have to agree. Well, in this case, one didn't. And that country is the NATO country of Turkey. And Turkey was opposed because Finland and especially Sweden are home to a group of ethnic people called the Kurds. About 100,000 Kurds live in Sweden, for instance.

But they are actually originally from Turkey, but unfortunately fled because they claimed that Turkey's president, Mr. Erdogan, was trying to hump them down, either to jail them or kill them. And, well, they're right. He was and is, and that's because he views many of these Kurds as terrorists. So that issue kicked off a big diplomatic fight last summer, where Finland and Sweden were going to have to be flexible on this issue of Kurds

if they wanted to get into NATO. Well, the month since then, they struck an initial compromise that, yes, they would send some of those Kurds back, but, or as so long as, Turkey could prove that they were terrorists. And that takes us to today's update. Sweden's Prime Minister, Ulf Christerson, is saying that there is nothing left to discuss with Turkey, that he and his country have done everything possible to make Turkey's demands.

But unfortunately, quote, they want things that we cannot and will not give them, end quote. So what he's referring to here is one Kurdish man in particular. It's a journalist living in Sweden that Turkey believes was involved. in a coup attempt to remove President Erdogan from office a few years ago. Well, Sweden's Supreme Court heard a case involving this journalist possibly to send him back to Turkey, and they said, no, he cannot be, which, well, made Turkey pretty angry. And so now the situation is just frozen. Sweden, by law, cannot extradite this journalist, and Turkey won't budge because, well,

they don't have to. NATO continues on without him. And to that point, NATO Secretary General recently said that effectively both Sweden and Finland are already in NATO, saying, quote, it is inconceivable that NATO would not act if the security of Sweden and Finland were ever threatened. So all in all, folks, this actually matches the council that I gave you back in June, when I said that despite the headlines, membership for these two countries in NATO wasn't really that big of a deal or even needed. because in reality, if either country were attacked by Russia, we would be there for them. But look, even still, I'll keep you posted on this one because we could see some horse trading yet to come. And that could involve the United States giving Turkey something that it really wants.

And that's our prized F-35 fighter jets. Now, Turkey was supposed to get an order of these jets, but they got put on a naughty list of sorts back in 2019, all because they bought. a Russian air defense system. And so the U.S. Congress said, no planes for you, Turkey. Well, I should say no F-35s anyway. So we'll see if these new fancy jets get tossed back into the mix, sort of as a sweetener, to help Turkey see the NATO light, as it were. With that, ladies and gentlemen, let's take a quick break. When we come back, I've got three more critical pieces of news for you. So hang tight, and we will be right back. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right,

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Start selling on Deepop, where taste recognizes taste. Welcome back to the PDB. I've got three more critical people. of news for you this morning. First up, two of the most important states in the union are reporting two very different paths this morning. One is in very good financial position and the other is not. So let's start with the good news. On Monday, the state of Texas announced that it had a $33 billion budget surplus. The state is overflowing from record amounts of revenue from homeowners, in other words, property taxes, but really from oil and gas taxes, which is an industry.

that has seen tremendous profitability this year because of the war in Ukraine. The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott says that he wants to give about half of that surplus back to taxpayers, and the other half, well, has to be obligated to a rainy day fund. Meanwhile, other folks in the legislature are saying, well, we actually want to spend some of that money on upgrading the electrical grid in Texas, which failed back in 2021 during a very nasty winter storm. Meanwhile, we have another state that is not doing so well. That's the state of California.

For the past two years, it's seen more people flee that state than any other in the nation. Over 500,000 residents have left. And that helps explain this. The state of California announced on Monday that they were facing a budget shortfall of $24 billion, mainly because tax revenues are about $41 billion lower than that. expected. And they're lower because California relies heavily on a progressive income tax. So fewer people means less money. Well, there's also another angle to this story. California had been doing quite well financially over the past few years, but that is largely because of the federal

government's COVID stimulus programs. According to the committee for a responsible federal budget, California got an astonishing, listen to this, $57 billion in federal relief, starting from the onset of the pandemic in 2020 through December of 2022. But those days of federal riches are over. California is facing a big set of troubles. By the way, not only for this year,

but into future years, too. The state is now forecasting 35 billion in future deficits over the next three years. So as an aside, I suspect that you're going to be hearing a lot more about this over the next year or two as the race for U.S. president starts to heat up. And that's because California, of course, is run from top to bottom by Democrats, while Texas is run top to bottom by Republicans. So both parties have something to either crow about or hope that you will ignore.

Next up this morning, I've got a brief that might seem like it doesn't impact you, especially if you're not a farmer or a rancher, but I promise it does. So here we go. On Sunday, the machinery manufacturer John Deere and company signed a memorandum of understanding with the American Farm Bureau Federation. And the agreement was that farmers and ranchers can repair their own farm equipment, made of course by John Deere, or they can take it to an independent repair shop. You see, up until now, that hadn't been the case. If you had a John Deere piece of equipment, a tractor or a combine, well, once it broke down, you had to take it either to a dealer or the dealer would send a technician to you, and you would pay dealer prices, which is to say,

a whole lot of money. Although, that is assuming that they had a tech to send to you. Because if not, and the tech was booked up for a week or two, you're going to have to wait. And if you're in the middle of planting or harvesting, that is a potential disaster. And also, for folks unaware, if you try to think that. fix that John Deer tractor or combine yourself or you had a local guy who could come up with some sort of solution? Well, that could void warranties or get you sued. In other words, this very fancy John Deer equipment put a lot of very good farming and ranching families in a real bind because they had no right or ability to repair their own equipment. So this agreement on Sunday was a first step

in fixing that imbalance and perhaps putting more control and money back in a farmer's pocket. But there is a catch. This whole agreement is not legally binding. Plus, if any one state passes laws about this right to repair, then the new agreement that covers all states, well, it's null and void. All right, to be fair, John Deere has long maintained that it needs to have exclusive access to repairing their equipment because there's proprietary software involved. So allowing outside technicians to tinker with it might encourage, say, computer viruses.

or damage its intellectual property. Which reminds me, this issue is such a big deal because modern farm equipment is not the stuff that our grandparents used. It's full of computers and sensors and self-driving gadgetry and evolving satellites. Ah, one last thing to mention. If you combine this sort of right-to-repair issue along with incredibly advanced equipment, well, it probably helps explain this as well. prices for old equipment without all that sophisticated gadgetry,

well, prices on that stuff are way up, specifically tractors and harvesters from the 1980s and 90s that don't require much more than some wrenches and a little elbow greased effects. In other words, it might not be fancy this old stuff, but you can repair it and control it. And that actually takes us beyond the facts and data this morning and to my own analysis and opinion. And I want to go back to what I said at the beginning of this brief.

How does this issue affect you, even if you're not a farmer or a rancher? So first, the most obvious is that if farmers and ranchers that feed you struggle to stay in business because their expenses are too high, then the entire industry becomes less and less about families operating farms and more about corporations doing it. And as a guy who grew up in the farming and ranching family, I will tell you that that is just bad news, in part because it centralizes control. of the food supply. And that's what I really want to flag for you this morning. The reason that farm equipment from the 1980s and 90s is so popular is not that it's cheaper to repair, not necessarily,

it's really about control. Because when your business can be turned off or on with a flip of a John Deere switch through, let's say, their software update or even a hack, well, that is a bad day. It might even ruin you. But I'll tell you, that's not even the worst part. what happens when your business gets turned off when the government tells John Deere to switch off that tractor or combine? In other words, what happens when we digitize so much of our lives that it becomes so incredibly easy for the government to just turn it off? Now, that might sound a little bit conspiratorial, but I'm going to offer you this. It's a conversation that I had with an old colleague of mine who worked at the NSA. say. Those are the folks who capture phone calls and emails. They deal with software and gadgets too.

Well, I was in a meeting with him and we got to talking about cell phones and I asked him, hey, what kind of cell phone is the best kind, you know, for security? And without skipping to beat, he said, a broken one. And then he said, look, 30 years ago, my job was hard. To get access to people's lives, it took me a lot of work. And now it's incredibly easy. easy. If we just look at the cell phone, it's a surveillance device now, I can track, control, and manipulate you. So he said, get a smartphone if you want, but just know what you got in your hand. And be careful. Because it's not me that you have to worry about. It's everybody else, other governments and other foreign actors. So to you all, my friends, I offer you that reflection

from a guy who would know, especially after the abuses by the U.S. intelligence community in recent years. Because to me, this John Deere story is not just about a right to repair a tractor or a combine, not really. It's about the right to control, to control your property, your business, and your lives. To all my farmers and ranchers out there, I would love to know what you think about this. Email me at Brian Dean Wright. or my email here at the

first which is PDB at thefirsttv.com. All right my friends, I've got one more thing before I let you go, so stick with me and we will be right back. Wireless can feel like a world of traps, but not with visible. It's one-line

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secret classified documents that were left unsecured in an old Washington, D.C. office that Joe Biden used to use after he left the vice presidency years ago. Well, this morning, we have another update, and as I expected, this scandal is getting worse. according to NBC News and other media outlets, there has been another discovery of at least another batch of classified documents, but this time it's in a new location, also used by Mr. Biden. The White House was asked about this latest development, asked lots of questions, and they refused to comment. So at this point, we don't know where this new location is, nor do we know how sensitive these classified documents were that were discovered. But what we do know is that. other officials in his administration might be implicated in this scandal too.

We're talking about the current Secretary of State, a Pentagon official, and a senior White House counselor. They all served with Biden after he left the vice presidency and before he assumed the presidency. So as this scandal grows, and I promise you, it will grow, here's what I see happening. And to be clear, I'm moving now from facts to my assessment and opinion. First, we can now fairly say that Biden and his team had a pattern of unlawfully taking classified information to unsecured locations. And that suggests willful negligence, which according to national security lawyers that I spoke with, raises the very serious risk of prosecution.

Second, this classified information was likely moved twice. First, when Biden left the vice presidency, and then again when he later moved into the Biden think tank. So that gap was many months between those events. So again, this underlines both the severity of the negligence and the pattern of it. All right. So what happens next? Well, I'll tell you, I would bet a month's paycheck that since we now have a pattern of negligence,

there are more offices and more houses with more classified documents to be discovered. Or God forbid, we learned that they were taken by or shared with foreign governments. And that's why, in my view, This scandal now demands the appointment of a nonpartisan special counsel, with results given to the House of Representatives and the Department of Justice. From there, we can discuss things like administrative discipline or prosecution or something perhaps even more profound, like impeachment. But let's investigate this and let's let the facts speak for themselves.

And then let the rule of law and democracy take it from there. And with that, ladies and gentlemen, we conclude your morning brief. As always, we close out the show, reminding each other of why we are here, talking about our country and our world. It's the creed of every good spy and every smart American. It's from John, chapter 8, verse 32. And you shall know the truth. And the truth shall make you free. Good day.