U.S. President Donald Trump is attending an event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, today to discuss the importance of a North American trade bloc and support the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade deal.
Anticipated start time approximately 2:25pm EST.
UPDATE: Video Added

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In his former role as U.S. Attorney for the District of Miami Alexander Acosta was one of the senior DOJ officials involved in the Jeffrey Epstein case.  Mr. Acosta has explained his role and justified all the actions of his office over a decade ago.  However, the media and political opponents to the administration are using Acosta to attack the Trump cabinet.
Today President Trump and Labor Secretary Acosta announce the decision to depart from the administration.  President Trump doesn’t want Acosta to resign, but understands he is doing so in order to stop any further distractions to the administration and labor dept.

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[Transcript] THE PRESIDENT: I think he was a great Labor Secretary, not a good Labor Secretary. He’s done a fantastic job. He’s a friend of everybody in the administration. And I got a call this morning, early, from Alex. And I think he did a very good job yesterday. Under a lot of pressure, he did a fantastic job and he explained it. He made a deal that people were happy with, and then, 12 years later, they’re not happy with it. You’ll have to figure all of that out.
But the fact is, he has been a fantastic Secretary of Labor. And Alex called me this morning and he wanted to see me. And I actually said, “Well, we have the press right out here, so perhaps you just want to say it to the press.”
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The smartest man in the world once explained a metaphor apropos to this moment in time when Robert Mueller will testify before congress.  It goes like this:

In front of you sits an ear of corn. You are trying to prove it’s an ear of corn to a room of corn cob deniers. Instead of trying to prove the true nature of what it is, focus your laser inquiry on one specific kernel and hit that single kernel with laser intensity. When that single kernel pops, you will have proved it’s an ear of corn.

In a rare moment CTH agrees with Trey Gowdy, as he discusses the upcoming Mueller testimony:

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Back to the corn cob metaphor.  Here’s how to make a single Mueller kernel pop.
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The motives for Pelosi, Nadler and Schiff to call-up former special counsel Robert Mueller are transparently obvious.  The committees are hoping to weaponize Mueller’s appearance to attain a political edge; and that’s why committee staff have spent weeks in detailed coaching and strategy sessions with Robert Mueller and his Lawfare team members.
House Judiciary Committee ranking member Doug Collins discusses the political collusion between Mueller, the DOJ/FBI “small group” and the House committee chairmen.
Pelosi, Nadler and Schiff have constructed the rules so there’s only one hour of open hearing, and one hour of closed-door testimony, per committee? C’mon man !! Their purpose to protect Mueller from questions about the corrupt investigation is stupidly visible.

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There’s additional value in the notation from Bill Hemmer as he shares his discussion with Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes for those with eyes and ears to accept.
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President Trump tweeted that he will discuss his latest efforts at including the citizenship question as part of the census. Two senior administration officials confirmed to CBS News that President Trump will announce an executive action to add the citizenship question to the 2020 census. The announcement is scheduled/anticipated for 5:00pm EST today.  U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr is expected to be in attendance.
UPDATE: Video Added

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The DOJ made a move today after a failed attempt to label Michael Flynn a co-conspirator in the case against his former business partner Bijan Rafiekian. [Backstory Here]
In today’s development [h/t Techno Fog] the DOJ is calling Michael Flynn Jr as a witness to replace the witness testimony of his father, Lt. Gen Gen Michael Flynn.

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Given what we know about how the DOJ pressured Michael Flynn Sr. to take the plea deal based on threats against his son Flynn Jr; and against the backdrop of the DOJ losing with Judge Anthony Trenga in EDVA; the DOJ now appears to be re-leveraging the original plea to compel cooperation from Jr.
This explains why the DOJ said yesterday they would await the DC sentencing (against Flynn Sr.) pending the outcome of the EDVA case against Bijan Rafiekian.
The DOJ in DC said they anticipated Flynn Sr might be a witness for Rafiekian’s defense; so they’ve moved to put Flynn Jr. in opposition to any potentially supportive testimony from Flynn Sr. in EDVA by revisiting (re-leveraging) the threat against Flynn Jr.
If Flynn Jr. didn’t agree to testify in the Rafiekian case, the DOJ would likely have cancelled his father’s plea agreement in DC and re-initiated cases -with new charges- against both Flynns’.
This also explains why corrupt U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu added new lawyers in the DC case.  Sneaky bastards.   In essence, Jessie Liu is anticipating a change in plea from Flynn, per new Flynn lawyer Sidney Powell, and proactively positioning the DC case to reignite against both the father and the son if: (a) the Rafiekian case goes sideways; or, (b) Flynn Sr. changes his plea agreement.
The benefits for purposefully charging in two distinct courts now surfaces.
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♦Puerto Rico has a long history of public corruption and abuse of federal funds.  Back in 2015 ten government officials in Puerto Rico were arrested for corruption, bribery, honest services wire fraud, extortion and various schemes related to giving payments to friends and family via federal contracts. [LINK]  This is the typical corruption PR is known for.
♦A few weeks ago (June 28) the FBI, Public Corruption Unit, posted a notification of an ongoing corruption probe and provided a tip-line for leads related to bribery and/or corruption of public officials. [LINK]  This probe is connected to the billions of dollars U.S. taxpayers have provided to Puerto Rico for recovery after hurricane Maria (2017).

So much money is poured into the island that hundreds of local and regional officials seized the opportunity to indulge their friends and family with funds from recovery accounts.  This is the widespread corruption President Trump previously drew attention to.  This overt and in-the-open corruption is why Nancy Pelosi took the entire Democrat caucus to Puerto Rico in January for a vacation with her favorite lobbyists.  Everyone in/around PR knows this corruption is the norm, not the exception.
Today, six more people were indicted under new federal charges, including two government officials: Julia Keleher, who served as Puerto Rico’s education secretary until April; and Ángela Ávila-Marrero, who was the executive director of the Puerto Rico Health Insurance Administration until late June. They are variously charged with wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy, according to the 32-count indictment.

WASHINGTON – […] The federal indictment says the former officials illegally directed federal funding to politically connected contractors. The arrests come about a month after Congress approved a controversial disaster aid bill that earmarked additional funding for Puerto Rico’s recovery from Hurricane Maria in 2017, which were tied up in part because President Trump called Puerto Rico’s officials “incompetent or corrupt.”

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Some updates in the Michael Flynn case.  As requested the DOJ has filed a response to Judge Sullivan’s order.   The DC judge wanted to know what the status of the prosecution position was now that Michael Flynn is no longer a cooperating witness for the DOJ in the EDVA case, against his former business partner.
The prosecution responds:

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Earlier today President Trump delivered remarks about an important executive order initiative to fight kidney disease.  [Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript]  THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much, Secretary Azar. And thank you for everyone being here. Please sit down. Let’s enjoy it. It’s much better. You’d rather sit, right?
But today we’re taking groundbreaking action to bring new hope to millions of Americans suffering from kidney disease. It’s a big deal.
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U.K. Ambassador Kim Darroch (pictured left) wrote disparaging diplomatic cables about U.S. President Donald Trump.  The cables were leaked to the media.  Embarrassed by the publicity of the content Ambassador Darroch has resigned after President Trump called him a “pompous fool” and said the administration wouldn’t work with him.

The British Ambassador writes:

“Since the leak of official documents from this Embassy there has been a great deal of speculation surrounding my position and the duration of my remaining term as ambassador. I want to put an end to that speculation. The current situation is making it impossible for me to carry out my role as I would like.  Although my posting is not due to end until the end of this year, I believe in the current circumstances the responsible course is to allow the appointment of a new ambassador.“

Various British politicians are upset about the resignation, saying the U.K. government should have done more to support their embattled Ambassador.  Ultimately this is all a little funny…. The British are going bananas; and President Trump doesn’t care.
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