Well, it is official.  Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke has reversed his prior position and has announced his intent to run for the 2020 Presidential Race.  His entrance narrows the lane currently occupied Bernie Sanders and is likely to fracture the college crowd.
O’Rourke has no experience as an executive; failed in an election run against Senator Ted Cruz; and is generally goofy, lacking any seriousness in disposition.
There is little reason to suspect he could offer much more than to shave a few points away from Bernie; which, not coincidentally, would be in alignment with the preferred objective of the DNC club.

But he also said he would no longer swear off hiring consultants, giving an example of a single mother in the Dallas area who was unable to join his Senate campaign because it would have required her to close her business.

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The Epoch Times, via Jeff Carlson, has apparently gained access to the transcript of testimony from Nellie Ohr. Most of the back-story of Nellie Ohr working for the CIA as an Open Source Works contractor was previously discovered by CTH during earlier research; and again the transcript is not provided by Epoch.
However, while the transcript is not provided, there is a very intriguing implication within their description/interpretation of the testimony (emphasis mine):

[…] Beginning in September 2015, Ohr began working for Fusion GPS. Ohr told investigators that she “read an article in the paper that mentioned Glenn Simpson. And I remembered because he had been a Wall Street Journal reporter working on things like Russian crime and corruption, so I recognized the name. I was underemployed at that time and I was looking for opportunities.”
When later questioned as to her previous knowledge of Simpson, Ohr stated, “I had been at a conference that he was at. I don’t recall directly talking with him at that conference, and I don’t know whether he knew who, you know, who I was other than the fact that I attended that conference.”
Ohr acknowledged to congressional investigators that Simpson was acquainted with her husband, Bruce Ohr. (read more)

The implication here is that Nellie Ohr approached Fusion-GPS owner Glenn Simpson for a job; essentially to work on political opposition research files Fusion-GPS was assembling in 2015.  This is distinctly different from Glenn Simpson seeking out Nellie Ohr, and opens the entire background to larger ramifications.
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Chairman Lindsey Graham appears on late-night-interuptus to discuss his Senate Judiciary investigation into allegations of FISA abuse, etc.

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The more important lead story of this article is buried within the outcome story of ICE agents using a private license plate database to capture illegal aliens. First the headline story:

WASHINGTON – Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been using over the past year a vast license plate database to identify the location of vehicles associated with immigrants who do not have legal status, according to documents released Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
More than 9,000 ICE agents have been given access to the controversial database, which contains hundreds of millions of license plate scans from across the U.S., according to the documents obtained by the ACLU through a Freedom of Information Act request. ICE employees are able to use the database to obtain information on where individuals have been and when they were there, with data going back as far as five years.

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Following two similar plane crashes in Indonesia (Oct ’18) and Ethiopia (March ’19) President Trump has issued an emergency order grounding a specific Boeing 737 airliner.  The “Max 8” and “Max 9” models are being grounded out of an abundance of caution while U.S. and international authorities await the findings from crash investigation.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is issuing an emergency order Wednesday grounding all Boeing 737 Max 8 and Max 9 aircraft “effective immediately,” in the wake of the crash of an Ethiopian Airliner that killed 157 people, President Donald Trump said.

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Jumpin’ ju-ju bones. I’ve seen people say that Ms. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a hired actor without any cognitive intellect, and needs a script to avoid embarrassing herself…  I thought those claims were overstated, until now.
Ms. AOC uses a set of talking points during a Finance Committee hearing to question the CEO of Wells Fargo Bank.  The outcome is, well, rather stunning.  The whole segment is just goofy.  In the final question, reduced by poor research to framing a hypothetical, she asks: why the bank isn’t responsible for a pipeline clean-up they finance.  WATCH:

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Should the bank who holds your mortgage be responsible for cleaning your kitchen after a grease fire?
Should the lender of your auto-loan be responsible for rotating your car tires?
If an elephant walks through your front yard, how many pancakes does it take to fill a canoe?
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Against the backdrop of Speaker Pelosi tamping down expectations of a House impeachment, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders appears on Fox News to discuss the current state of DC politics.

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Speaker Pelosi, Chairman Schiff, Chairman Cummings and Chairman Nadler would not likely drop their deep investments in an impeachment narrative unless they held confidence something more valuable was on the horizon.
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Well, well, well; he did it again.  Representative Doug Collins has released the transcript of testimony from former FBI Lawyer Lisa Page. [SEE HERE] The transcript is from two days of congressional testimony July 13th and July 16th, 2018.  Each day is a separate transcript:  Day One Transcript
[scribd id=401713567 key=key-ytRBq0Zg3cK1WF13ttNl mode=scroll]
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Day Two Transcript (below)
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The U.S. Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (AGAC) was created in 1973 and reports to the Attorney General through the Deputy Attorney General. The AGAC represents the U.S. Attorneys and provides advice and counsel to the Attorney General on matters of policy, procedure, and management impacting the Offices of the U.S. Attorneys.
The purpose of the AGAC is to ensure consistent interpretation and application of the Attorney General’s priority throughout the broad U.S. justice system. [28 CFR § 0.10]
As much as possible pay attention to the dates and names (highlighted) as they each play an important role in understanding what has taken place in the past two years.

• On February 8th, 2017, the Senate confirmed Alabama Republican Senator Jeff Sessions as U.S. Attorney General.
• On November 13th, 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions appointed the first nine U.S. Attorney’s to serve on his Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (AGAC).
• NOTE:  Why AG Sessions waited nine months to appoint his Advisory Committee members is unknown.

Those November 2017 appointments included: U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama Richard Moore; U.S. Attorney for the District of Utah John W. Huber; U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jessie K. Liu; U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio Justin E. Herdman; U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina Robert Higdon; U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Oklahoma Trent Shores; U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana Joshua Minkler; U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri Jeff Jensen; and Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Alaska Bryan Schroder.

AG Jeff Sessions appointed Richard Moore (Alabama) as Chairman of the AGAC, and John W Huber (Utah) as Vice-Chairman.

“I am pleased to announce the first members of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee under this administration. These U.S. Attorneys will play an important role in carrying out the Department of Justice’s mission to reduce violent crime, combat transnational criminal organizations, secure our southern border, end the devastating opioid crisis, and return to the rule of law,” said Attorney General Sessions

Four months later, on March 12th, 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the appointment of six additional U.S. Attorneys to serve two-year terms on the AGAC, joining the nine members previously selected on November 13, 2017.
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The Commerce Department has released a much anticipated January Retail Sales Report which shows total cumulative spending growth of .02% over prior month, and 2.3% growth year-over-year.  Importantly, a sector review (year over year), comparing January ’19 with Jan ’18, highlights where we are against our anticipated state of the economy:

(source – pdf)

Gas prices are low which are reflected in lower overall sales data (-4.2% year-on-year) within the gasoline station sector.  Additionally, electronic and appliance store sales (-3.3%) reflects American consumers holding on to currently owned durable goods in that sector and not replacing. Both of these sectors were defined within the larger MAGAnomic forecast.
On the strong upside, building materials and home improvement reflect large growth of +8.7% year-over-year and +3.3% over prior month.  Again, when considering how the principles of MAGAnomic policy focuses on ‘blue-collar’ economic improvement, these outcomes are exactly what you would expect to see.
How do these results reflect amid your family and social circle; do you see the same?
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