U.S. Customs and Border Patrol announces the first four, of an anticipated eight, border wall prototypes.  The first four contracts to build the prototypes are worth $400 to $500 thousand each and are targeted toward “concrete and reinforced concrete” prototypes.
The CBP authorization letters are anticipated to be delivered to the contractors within a couple of weeks, and the companies will have 30 days to build their prototype.

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The second set of prototype contracts will surround “alternative material” concepts.  USCBP anticipates awarding four of those in a similar fashion.  Each segment of prototype is thirty feet wide and thirty feet high (30′ x 30′), and will be the backdrop of a 150 foot wide border enforcement zone.
The eight border wall prototypes will be built in the San Diego border region and will be evaluated by USCBP officials after completion.   It is possible that more than one contract will win the border wall award as there are multiple differing geographies, terrain and topographies where the Southern Security Border Wall is being constructed.  Parts of the border may be concrete and other parts may be alternative material.
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The Trump administration is pushing every federal agency to lean forward and get all available resources to the people and communities in Texas and Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.  Rescue, Recovery and Relief efforts are ongoing as flooding continues to lessen in some areas, but worsen in others. President Trump and First Lady Melania are scheduled to return to Texas on Saturday.
FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Administration) teams are strategically located throughout the region and all available resources have been opened to Texas Governor Greg Abbott; it’s quite remarkable how proactive their efforts have been.
Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, the general “we got this” attitude of people in Texas is leading to fast, effective, responsive and inspiring solutions.  Today Vice-President Mike Pence, Second Lady Karen Pence, and multiple Cabinet Officials traveled to Texas to visit the communities most impacted by the storm and flooding.

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The open border position of the crony-capitalistic U.S. Chamber of Commerce is only one of the issues that showcases the hidden agenda of their heavily lobbied influence upon Republicans in Congress.  The CoC spends hundreds of millions writing legislation and paying off the UniParty to deliver on their multinational corporate agenda.
In an interview today the Chamber admits their immigration agenda has no common ground with the President Trump administration.  CTH has pointed out this issue for many years, however more people are awake now.

WASHINGTON DC – The Chamber of Commerce admitted Thursday that it is struggling to find common ground with President Trump on immigration, and so far hasn’t been able to find a “sweet spot” on the controversial issue.
“We don’t have a policy paper on immigration. It’s a controversial area,” Randy Johnson, the Chamber’s senior vice president for labor and immigration policy, said at a press briefing Thursday. “We’re trying to figure out where our interests align with the Trump administration.”

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In a letter from Senator Chuck Grassley to new FBI Director Christopher Wray (full pdf below) the senator outlines some disturbing information discovered in documents reviewed by the judicial committee.
Chief among the issues was a discovery that fired FBI Director James Comey had already drafted a preliminary conclusion that Hillary Clinton was not going to be held responsible; the FBI Director’s position was created in April and May 2016 before sixteen key investigative witnesses, including Mrs. Clinton herself, were even interviewed.

The revelations within the documents provides even more evidence that FBI Director James Comey was running a political investigation and using the FBI to cover-up for the Clinton email crimes.

WASHINGTON DC – […] The Judiciary Committee reviewed transcripts, which were heavily redacted, indicating Comey began drafting the exoneration statement in April or May 2016, before the FBI interviewed up to 17 key witnesses, including Clinton and some of her close aides.
Comey’s work on the statement also came before the Justice Department entered into immunity agreements with Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s chief of staff while she was Secretary of State, and Heather Samuelson, who served as the State Department’s White House liaison.

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Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossert gives an extensive briefing and answers questions about the federal disaster response to Hurricane Harvey.

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Boy, this guy is beyond good.  Tom Bossert is exceptional.
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This is a little funny.  Back in 2015 we originally shared an easy peasy way to pay for the border wall by charging a 4% remittance fee on wire transfers to Mexico.  With more than $25 billion (2015) in Western Union transfers, more than Mexico’s entire oil and energy sector combined, a 4% U.S. surcharge on remittances creates $1 billion revenue annually.
The U.S. Treasury already has a similar process in place for Cuban Remittances and Western Union compliance affidavits.  The remittances to Mexico have now jumped to $27 billion in 2016.  Making the remittance fee even more feasible.

WASHINGTON – President Trump is mulling a tax on cash transfers between immigrants in the U.S. and their relatives in Mexico as a way to fund his promised border wall without forcing American taxpayers to open their wallets, according to sources familiar with the proposal.
Trump first floated the idea of taxing or halting person-to-person wire transfers, known as remittances, during his bid for the White House. A two-page memo released by his campaign last April described a plan “to compel Mexico to pay for the wall” by preventing immigrants from wiring money outside of the U.S. unless they can prove their legal status to law enforcement authorities.

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White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders delivers the press briefing for August 31st.  Start time is approximately 2:45 – 3:00pm EDT
UPDATE: Video Added

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President Trump travels to Springfield Missouri today to kick-off a speech promoting tas reform as a goal for the soon to return congress. The White House said that the address is not expected to delve into policy details, including specific tax rates. Instead, Trump is expected to make the case for why he believes changes to the tax code are needed to give people a better chance of achieving the American dream.
“The president is going to lay out his vision to bring back Main Street by reducing the crushing tax burden on our companies and our workers and also to restore our competitive advantage by repairing and reforming our badly broken tax code.”  The speech is anticipated for 2:30pm EDT:
UPDATE: Video Added

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To understand the China ‘One-Belt / ‘One-World‘ economic trade strategy it becomes necessary to understand how structurally weak the Chinese economy was when created.
People often talk about the ‘strength’ of China’s economic model; and indeed within a specific part of their economy -manufacturing- they do have economic strength.
However, the underlying critical architecture of the Chinese economic model is structurally flawed and President Trump with his current economic team understand the weakness better than all international adversaries.
Lets take a stroll and lightly discuss.
China is a central planning economy. Meaning it never was an outcropping of natural economic conditions. China was/is controlled as a communist style central-planning government; As such, it is important to reference the basic structural reality that China’s economy was created from the top down.
This construct of government creation is a key big picture distinction that sets the backdrop to understand how weak the economy really is.
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Despite the good news, the insufferable MSM are still trying to bury the cause and effect. In an effort to give a more precise picture I’m going to use a Reuters summary, and shift their text location to highlight what they bury and emphasize what they avoid:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. economy grew faster than initially thought in the second quarter, notching its quickest pace in more than two years, and there are signs that the momentum was sustained at the start of the third quarter.
Gross domestic product increased at a 3.0 percent annual rate in the April-June period, the Commerce Department said in its second estimate on Wednesday. The upward revision from the 2.6 percent pace reported last month reflected robust consumer spending as well as strong business investment.
Growth last quarter was the strongest since the first quarter of 2015 and followed a 1.2 percent pace in the January-March period. Economists had expected that second-quarter GDP growth would be raised to a 2.7 percent rate.
♦[…] Businesses helped to carry the economy in the second quarter, with spending on equipment jumping at a rate of 8.8 percent. ♦[…] Trade added two-tenths of a percentage point to growth. ♦[…] Government spending contracted for a second straight quarter. ♦[…] Housing was a drag on growth in the last quarter, with investment on home building contracting at a 6.5 percent rate.
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