Office of Management and Budgets (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney outlines the structure, intents and purposes of the Trump administration Fiscal Year 2018 Budget. “The Taxpayers Budget”.
The Saudi people and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are very proud of what they were able to accomplish during this historic visit by President Donald Trump to the summit of a united Arab coalition. (Summit Production Video):
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The entire region should be proud.
Despite the popular western dismissive media narrative, the summit was a resounding success. Beyond the royal pageantry, we can only imagine the internal anxiety if our beloved America was defined by the abhorrent behavior of the Westboro Baptist Church.
Consider: (more…)
The pageantry and scale of the royal reception toward President Trump and the U.S. is reflective of much more than a singular presidential visit to a nation and region of geo-strategic importance.
The word “reset” is frequent amid media reporting of the Saudi trip but few people have followed the recent regional history to thoroughly understand what exactly is being reset.
~ President Donald Trump and Saudi King Salman – Joint Statement.
President Trump is being recognized and respected by the regional Arab coalition for his specific approach and outward worldview which is based on eye-to-eye diplomacy.
Through the contacts, discussions, emissary meetings and individual diplomatic engagements over the past six months, the Arab region members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) -and specifically Saudi Arabia- are overjoyed to find a fresh U.S. perspective based on mutual respect. (more…)
The primary elements of the historic arms side of the strategic agreement today is to position Saudi Arabia to enhance its own defense capability. Over time this will lessen the concern or need of U.S. military forces or deployment.
The United States will manufacture, sell, train and support over $110 billion in U.S. hardware to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (explained below). In return, the Saudi government has committed over $350 billion in additional bilateral trade imports and investments.
[U.S. Department of State] Today, in a significant expansion of the more than seven-decade long security relationship between the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the President and Secretary Tillerson attended a signing ceremony for almost $110 billion worth of defense capabilities to be conveyed via Foreign Military Sales Letters of Offer and Acceptance and a Memorandum of Intent to support Saudi Arabia’s defense needs.
Perpetual pervert, and disgraced former Democrat congressman, Anthony Weiner, turned himself in to the FBI, pleaded guilty in federal court this morning to a single count of transferring obscene material to a minor.
Later in the afternoon, a court official confirmed his wife Huma Abedin had filed for divorce after seven years of marriage. The divorce is uncontested. Weiner, 52, agreed to surrender his iPhone as part of the plea agreement, and he must register as a sex offender. Weiner also apologized to the teenage girl.
NEW YORK – Weiner agreed Friday not to appeal any sentence between 21 and 27 months in prison.
During the hearing, the Democratic former congressman apologized through tears to the 15-year-old girl with whom he exchanged sexually explicit texts, saying, “I accept full responsibility for my conduct. I have a sickness, but I do not have an excuse. I knew this was as morally wrong as it was unlawful.”
“These destructive impulses brought great devastation to my family and friends, and destroyed my life’s dream of public service,” he continued. “I am committed to making amends to all those I have harmed.”
Always remember the basic rule that has been proven accurate 100% of the time:
♦ When the CIA wants to leak a damaging story they coordinate with the Washington Post and ABC. (and vice-versa).
♦ When the State Dept. or FBI/DOJ wants to leak a damaging story they coordinate with CNN and the New York Times. (and vice-versa)
This consistent pattern has NEVER been broken.
There is also a particular transparency here, yet again, with regard to media timing and intent. The Washington Post (3:03pm) and New York Times (3:00pm) are attempting to frame the anti-Trump ‘muh russia‘ narrative as he departs on his first overseas trip.
Dual benefits for antagonistic media and political opposition:
♦ Trump team is out of country and unable to defend administration on-camera, while frenzy ensues 24/7 in U.S corporate broadcast media, and ♦ Trump team becomes relentlessly questioned by traveling press corps abroad on domestic controversy, diminishing Trump international status and pushing the weak/damaged Trump image toward the host nation optic.
It’s how they roll. Again, check out the timing:
Sip slowly, this explainer was hard to write. There is a considerable amount of perplexed frustration following on the heels of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin testifying to the Senate Banking Committee earlier today and specifically saying:
02:20 Glass-Steagall? “we do not support a separation of banks from investment banks, we think that would have a very significant problem on the financial markets, on the economy, on liquidity; and we think that there is proper things that potentially we could look at around regulation, but we do not support a separation of banks and investment banks.”
That statement runs counter to the Trump administration’s prior policy statements outlining a preference for a reinstatement of some form of “Glass-Steagall” regulatory separation between commercial banking and investment banking.
In essence when combined with the totality of Mnuchin’s testimony before the committee, Mnuchin is saying the current “too big to fail” (‘too big to succeed’) issue has created a problem for lending liquidity. Specifically, if divisional separation is required – the banks best interests would naturally put the investment division ahead of commercial lending and the liquid capital within the overall economy would shrink.
I think we have a handle on what the administration is doing based on the executive orders signed and explained earlier. Bear with me…
Reminder. David Plouffe was President Obama’s campaign manager and Senior White House advisor: (source link) Plouffe has ideological cohorts, friends and embeds inside almost all corporate media entities; specifically WaPo and NY Times.
Something appears to be happening within the administration that is currently impossible to define with regard to intent of construct. For the sake of my own internal disposition, and to ensure a geographic distance from sharp things, a modicum of levity is necessarily required. Cue suspicious cats:
Unfortunately, it’s too early (not fully developed pixels) to see the picture, but there appears to be an intentionally constructed parallel set of administrative policies that almost gives the appearance of a paralleling administration. It should be emphasized the construct herein is not necessarily definable as good or bad; it’s just simply too early.
It begins with Vice President Mike Pence delivering a speech at the Invest in America Summit today, which is primarily a gathering of the largest lobbying group in Washington DC via The U.S. Chamber of Commerce. No single lobbying organization has done more to advance global trade interests and diminish the U.S. manufacturing economy than the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and its president Tom Donohue.
Simultaneous to this event, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was on Capitol Hill testifying to the Senate Banking Committee, and appears to have recently accepted the premise that the U.S. banking system is institutionally too big to fail, and more alarmingly too big to reform.
First, the Summit remarks:
President Donald Trump held an informal luncheon with news reporters and TV anchors today in advance of the upcoming international visit. Brett Baier reports President Trump was relaxed, warm and comfortable and showing no change in disposition from all prior encounters. Most of the discussion was off the record, however the president did release the following response to a question from one of the participants at the meeting:
Reporter Question: “You made a point about the special counselor and and you believe it hurts this country” —
President Trump: “I believe it hurts our country terribly, because it shows we’re a divided, mixed-up, not-unified country. And we have very important things to be doing right now, whether it’s trade deals, whether it’s military, whether it’s stopping nuclear… all of the things that we discussed today. And I think this shows a very divided country.
It also happens to be a pure excuse for the Democrats having lost an election that they should have easily won because of the Electoral College being slanted so much in their way. That’s all this is. I think it shows division, and it shows that we’re not together as a country. And I think it’s a very, very negative thing. And hopefully, this can go quickly, because we have to show unity if we’re going to do great things with respect to the rest of the world.”
~ President Donald J Trump