Earlier today President toured Fincantieri Marine shipyard and delivered remarks about the historic $5 billion dollar contract the Administration recently granted Fincantieri Marinette Marine. This is the first visit by a sitting President to the city of Marinette, Wisconsin.

Fincantieri Marinette Marine is a United States subsidiary of Italian enterprise Fincantieri, one of the world’s largest shipbuilders, the shipyard was established in 1942 to meet America’s growing demand for naval construction.

The Trump Administration’s contract to build up to ten new guided missile frigates worth nearly $5.5 billion, will secure the future of the shipyard. Fincantieri plans to invest $130 million in upgrades to the facility, add approximately 1,000 jobs and projects that the investment will create 15,000 additional jobs in the Wisconsin and Michigan supply chains.

[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, it’s a good song, isn’t it though? Lee Greenwood.

And thank you very much. I’m thrilled to be here with you on this incredible summer day in Wisconsin on the edge of the beautiful Lake Michigan — that is beautiful too; I know it well — with the legendary workers of Marinette Marine. And you now have a lot of contracts because of the United States government. You’re going to — you’re going to be so busy. (Applause.) You’re going to be so busy. I know you went through a little bit of a hard time; not anymore. Not anymore. Got you covered for years.

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The Supreme Court has ruled 7-2 (pdf here) that asylum seekers have no right to a hearing when their claim is denied; and their deportation is in accordance with the law.  This is a major win for the Department of Homeland Security, immigration and border controls.

TRIBUNE – The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that asylum seekers who are turned down by immigration officials do not have a right to make their case to a judge, a win for the Trump administration and its desire to quickly deport people who enter the United States illegally.

The ruling was 7 to 2, although the usual undercurrents of an ideological divide on the court were present. Two of the court’s liberals dissented, and the other two agreed only with the outcome in the specific case.

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Today, NASCAR released a picture of the garage pull-down rope and knot that both they and Bubba Wallace described as a “noose hanging over the car“.

Except it clearly was not hanging over the car, and it clearly wasn’t a “noose” or it wouldn’t function to help pull the door down. Driver Bubba Wallace now calls it “a non-functioning noose.”  Or, in simple terms, a garage pull-down rope with a loop-knot tied in the end.

However, what NASCAR does not yet realize is the picture they have provided actually makes the situation worse; because the picture shows something else, something worse:

The picture was taken Sunday, in Bubba Wallace’s garage stall #4, when the race was cancelled due to inclement weather (rain and lightning).  However, pay close attention to the partially visible uniform on the man standing at the left of the picture.

That person is a member of the Wood Brothers Race Team and this is a VERY important facet.  The picture was taken Sunday, prior to the “noose” (hereafter called a knot) being cut down.  According to a statement by the Wood Brothers team, they informed NASCAR officials the garage-pull in question was in place in 2019:

“One of our employees notified us yesterday … he recalled seeing a tied handle in the garage, from last fall.  We immediately notified NASCAR and have assisted the investigation”. (link)

So that would explain why one of the Wood Brothers team was present on Sunday June 21st when the photograph was taken.

But here’s the problem…. If that picture was taken by NASCAR that means NASCAR was aware the knot in question was in place in 2019; and therefore knew Bubba Wallace was not the target…. and they would know this on Sunday; before they went out and made a big racial publicity stunt over it.

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Michael Flynn’s attorney Sidney Powell appears with Maria Bartiromo to provide insight into the DC Circuit Appellate court ordering the dismissal of the Flynn case. One of the key points Ms. Powell draws attention to is that her client was targeted.  Within that targeting there’s a criminal conspiracy.

In hindsight it is very clear the White House, DOJ and FBI knew they were treading on thin ice. Susan Rice’s memo to file is clearly a CYA memo for the White House. James Comey’s memos are clearly a CYA effort for his participation. Bill Priestap kept his own notes reflecting his CYA; and Peter Strzok’s notes appear to have the same motivation.

Additionally, when the special counsel was put into place, Andrew McCabe’s memos to self are clearly written from a CYA perspective. They knew what they were doing was wrong.

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…”because I’m good enough; I’m strong enough; and doggone it, people like me.”

That’s the kitchen table sensibility as projected by FBI Director Christopher Wray in this interview. It’s a communication style blending the modern term “corporate responsibility” with the patronizing mannerisms of a dad discussing sixth grade peer pressure with his tender gender-neutral offspring.

This is actually a very revealing interview to understand why 50 FBI agents chased the Russian conspiracy for two years with Robert Mueller; and why 15 FBI agents excitedly responded to a garage door pull-down rope. The emphasis is on the wrong syllable, but golly we only have a 0.4 percent turnover ratio, so we must be doing something right.

I’ve actually met a Chris Wray clone in the past. While culling a tier of toxic executive management, the CEO voice in the organization said to me: “what if you fire all of them and later find out you’re wrong?” To which I replied: “what’s more dangerous to you, my firing them and being wrong, or you keeping them around and my being right?”…

Director Wray is the guy who doesn’t deal with the toxic infection, instead he uses words like: “we have an opportunity”, “they need to be supported more”; and “I challenge you to provide continuous coaching.” Note at 09:45 Wray says “I put in place an entire new leadership team”, without even realizing that Bill Barr just removed -by force- Wray’s hand-selected chief legal counsel, Dana Boente. It doesn’t even register with him.

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Chris Wray’s performance as FBI Director is akin to what would happen if you took a hotel manager and made him the captain of a cruise ship.

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Michael Flynn’s defense counsel, Sidney Powell, appears on Lou Dobbs tonight to discuss the defense victory in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals; and the next steps in the case.

Ms. Powell still has legal business in front of Judge Emmet Sullivan, so she obviously needs to be a little tempered at this inflection point.  That said, what an incredible job Ms. Powell has done on behalf of her client.  Remarkable legal counsel.  WATCH:

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In a court filing yesterday [pdf here] the DOJ provided -initially under seal- the Flynn defense team with more exculpatory evidence.  The filing includes hand-written notes taken by FBI agent Peter Strzok in/around key dates in early January 2017.

The filing was unsealed today, and the Peter Strzok notes are released.

One of the reasons CTH has been slow on discussing this release is specifically because I am trying to accurately determine the provenance of the notes (as below).  USAO Jeff Jensen is unsure of the exact date of the notes.  Either January 3rd, 4th, or 5th… and there’s a good reason for that confusing ambiguity; which I am attempting to filter.

The notes are written by Peter Strzok during a conversation with former FBI Director James Comey; that context is important.  What the notes contain are Peter Strzok writing down what Comey relays to him from conversations with White House officials.

Repeat: The notes are Strzok writing down what Comey relays to him from conversations with the White House.   Comey is communicating to Strzok the status of opinion from various officials; those officials may include President Obama and Vice-President Biden.

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President Trump and President Duda of Poland hold a press availability in the oval office prior to a bilateral meeting.  [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. It’s an honor to have President Duda, a friend. We’ve had many discussions, and we work very well with Poland. I don’t think we’ve ever been closer to Poland than we are right now. And we’re going to have a very important meeting on economic development, military, and other things. And that’ll start in about 10 minutes.

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Before NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace appeared on CNN with Don Lémon to discuss his now disproven racial “noose” targeting, he had a decision to make.  Wallace could accept the FBI/NASCAR finding and admit an honest mistake was made by an overly sensitive Richard Petty racing team; or he could make racism his new identity in NASCAR as Colin Kaepernick did with football in the NFL.  Bubba Wallace chose the latter.

As a result of Wallace’s new identity, and his announced career goals, NASCAR will now fragment in the same way as the National Football League. Social justice will now define Mr. Wallace’s professional effort; driving with NASCAR becomes a method to achieve his new career aspirations.  That inflection point, his identity choice, is clear in his interview.

However, before getting to the interview it is worth looking at how this entire fiasco was created, starting with the carefully obtuse explanation from Richard Petty Motorsports:

Obviously Richard Petty’s team are socially woke and enlightened to their obligations in a new era of racial sensitivity.  Notice the careful wording: “discovered a rope tied in the fashion of a noose”, key word “fashion.”  The careful wording allows the statement to skirt on the fringes of common sense truth because they don’t ‘technically’ say it’s a noose; quite simply, because it isn’t.   If it were a noose it would be useless as a garage door pull.

That brings up the second obtuse aspect of the sentence: “discovered a rope”, notice they don’t say it was attached to the garage door pull (which it was) because that would make their misinterpretation seem even more ridiculous.  Saying ‘we discovered a garage door pull-down rope that appeared to be fashioned as a noose’, would illicit eye-rolls.  So they carefully avoid noting their stupidity by ignoring common sense.

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Earlier today President Trump commemorated the 200th mile of border wall being built along the U.S-Mexico border. [Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript] – Q Can I ask question on the wall: How’s it looking?

THE PRESIDENT: I think it’s great. It’s great. It’s going to be — it’s really foolproof. It’s solid steel. It’s rebar and concrete inside the steel. So we have a very heavy concrete inside the steel. And inside the concrete, we have rebar. So you have everything you could have. It’s what they wanted, and that’s what we did.

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