Attorney General William Barr quietly took the oath of office in the oval office today with Chief Justice John Roberts administering and officiating the swearing in. [link]

With the introduction of a fully empowered and confirmed U.S. Attorney General there is likely to be a great deal of speculation about how AG Barr will interact with the seditious conspiracy scandal known collectively as ‘spygate’.
No doubt the tick-tock-boom club will sell more books with declarations of soon to be announced indictments, grand juries, etc. However, as with all political horse trading in DC, the reality of accountability usually falls far away from headline predictions.
Attorney General Barr will be navigating a myriad of high-powered political interests through his office at the Justice Department.
If we presume William Barr is not intending to cover-up for the gross misconduct of the DOJ and FBI, which is a considerable presumption, it will be worth watching how the two camps, Team Obama and Team Clinton, react to the shifted DOJ landscape.
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Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe launches a pre-planned proactive media blitz timed to coincide with DOJ receiving a new Attorney General.  Say what you will about the duplicitous, lying, corrupt and conniving weasels – but they know how to seamlessly execute cunning self-preservation political objectives.
The strategy is as transparent as it is Machiavellian.  Andrew McCabe, James Baker and the Lawfare group (Benjamin Wittes, Michael Bromwich et al) had a planned defensive front waiting to roll out; today they pulled the trigger:

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Team McCabe always knew the biggest legal threat to their corrupt position would be if they lost control of the mechanisms within the DOJ and FBI.  The launch of a media blitz, surrounding a book and constructed defense narrative, positions them to claim that any legal action against them now comes from a retaliatory Trump administration and DOJ institution (Barr) carrying out the objectives of the President.
The best way to position themselves legally was/is to go on the attack and then use their attack as a shield from any accountability. This is what we are seeing today.
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U.S. Attorney General nominee William Barr has been confirmed by the senate.  The vote was 54-45 with three democrats voting to support Barr: Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), Doug Jones (AL) and Joe Manchin (WV); with one republican, senator Rand Paul (KY), voting against the nomination.
Now that he is confirmed Barr is officially supervising the special counsel probe of Robert Mueller.  It is also likely that after a transition period Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein will depart.
One of Barr’s responsibilities will be to determine what, if anything, to tell congress about the Mueller probe once it is completed.  Perhaps the best way to think about the Mueller report is to think about your local police department (detective or DA) doing an investigation on a subject and completing that task.
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The actual budget appropriations bill is seven compartments consisting of more than 5,000 pages. However, here is the 29 page summary outlining the key elements as negotiated by congress.
WARNING: This is a bad deal, but it reflects the UniParty reality within congress.  Take a deep breath; don’t lash out.  Remember, there are very few MAGA minded representatives. This was negotiated by two wings of the same corporate bird and both want open borders.

[scribd id=399623170 key=key-SCOGFaqwlDLsswYDoZHx mode=scroll]
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• Provides $1.375 billion, or $4.325 billion less than the $5.7 billion the Trump administration requested, for a very limited 55 miles of physical barrier that can only be placed along the southern border in *only* the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
• Contains language allowing only fencing designs in use as of 2017.
• No funding for new border patrol agents above the current on board levels.
• Does not fund the Administration’s request for joint detention facilities.
• No funding for additional enforcement and removal field personnel.

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the latest consumer price information today which shows overall low inflation at 1.6 percent (with energy price deflation, and flat food prices).
Excluding food and energy costs the total CPI remains low at 2.2%.   This low inflation is the exact opposite of what financial media were predicting when President Trump began the series of import tariffs in 2017, which continued throughout last year.

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When President Trump began the tariffs against global Steel and Aluminum imports; and when President Trump began the first set of tariffs against Chinese imports; almost all financial media went into fits of apoplexy claiming we would see massive increases in prices.   Reality shows their doomsday predictions were completely over-hyped.
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Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Robert Lighthizer are currently leading another round of trade negotiations in China.  Recent reporting indicates the U.S. team will meet with Chairman Xi Jinping at the conclusion of this round of discussions.

At the conclusion of the previous round of discussions in Washington DC, President Trump invited the Chinese delegation to the Oval Office. The surface panda-face diplomacy appears to be based on reciprocity; however, there is no indication President Trump and Chairman Xi are making any efforts for a meeting.

BEIJING – China’s President Xi Jinping “is scheduled to meet” key members of the US trade talks delegation, including US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, in Beijing on Friday, according to sources close to the matter.

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Earlier today President Donald Trump delivered a speech to a conference of Major County Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. [Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript] 3:21 P.M. EST – THE PRESIDENT: I have a lot of friends in this room. Thank you. That’s a very fancy-looking table. A lot of very powerful people sitting around that table. Thank you very much, everybody. And thank you, Sheriff Judd — a friend of mine for a long time — for those kind words and for your outstanding leadership of the Major County Sheriffs of America. That’s an important group of words. Done an incredible job.
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President Trump delivers remarks from the oval office while introducing Colombian President Iván Duque Márquez.  The primary topic between the two leaders is the ongoing crisis in Venezuela.  President Trump praised interim Venezuelan president Juan Guaidó for being “brave”, and answered a variety of media questions.  [Video and transcript]:

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[Transcript] Oval Office – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. It’s a great honor to be with President Duque of Colombia. We’ve been working very closely. And it’s so nice to meet your wife, First Lady. And you have a brilliant reputation. And thank you for coming. We very much appreciate it. I think, Melania, you’re both going to have lunch afterwards and get to know each other.
MRS. RUIZ: We are. And I’m sure we’re going to enjoy it.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I know you’re going to enjoy it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much.
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Earlier today U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump welcomed Colombia President Iván Duque Márquez and First Lady Ruiz Sandoval to the White House for an official state visit.
The continuing crisis in neighboring Venezuela was the primary focus for both presidents during the visit.

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The usual suspects within the Decepticon Caucus (McConnell, Cornyn, Thune, Barasso, Crapo, Portman, Blunt, Gardner, Burr, Romney) and Richard Shelby held a press conference to announce the outcome of their DHS border security funding negotiations.
There are massive numbers of Republicans who view Senate Majority Mitch McConnell as a brilliant strategist and staunch supporter of President Trump.  Unfortunately, those voices once again have to reconcile McConnell’s comprehensive failure on a Trump priority.   Yes, McConnell and Shelby successfully negotiated for less border security funding than before the shutdown.

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Fortunately, POTUS Trump planned for the intentional failure of McConnell and his veto-proof construct. [Rest assured, thankfully, President Trump knows exactly who McConnell is.] President Trump had anticipated the result and dispatched Mulvaney to review the granular DHS, DoD and DoS programs throughout fiscal year 2019 appropriations to assemble secondary funding.
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