The economic lobbyist community known as The Big Club is represented most visibly by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Tom Donohue.

Via the Wall Street community, CoC President Donohue pours tens of millions of multinational corporate contributions into DC lobbying efforts to retain control over politicians and legislation that relates to U.S. trade and economic matters.   [FYI Donohue’s Chamber of Commerce lobbying group were the primary architects of the now dispatched TPP trade deal; they actually wrote the U.S. part of the construct.]

Tom Donohue funds a large number of politicians in DC in an effort to control the outcomes of legislation and policies that could become adverse to his multinational interests.  Two of those primary beneficiaries are John McCain and Ben Sasse.

As a consequence it doesn’t come as a surprise to see McCain and Sasse announce their intention to block the confirmation of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer:

REUTERS – Republican U.S. Senators John McCain and Ben Sasse said on Wednesday they would vote against President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, because of his opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“Unfortunately, your confirmation process has failed to reassure us that you understand the North American Free Trade Agreement’s (NAFTA) positive economic benefits to our respective States and the nation as a whole,” McCain and Sasse said in a letter to Lighthizer. (read more)

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and President Trump strongly support Lighthizer for U.S. Trade Rep.   The institutional control agents within K-Street, aka the economic lobbying group, do not.

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FBI Director James Comey pens a farewell letter to his colleagues.  Cue the sad virtue signaling music:

**sniff**

Everyone is so caught up with their discussion of President Trump around the firing of FBI Director James Comey that they are completely overlooking the most explosive scandal in the history of congress.

This scandal, if exposed, should remove, or at least censure: Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, Dianne Feinstein, Richard Burr, Devin Nunes, Adam Schiff and Mark Warner.

The absence of their accountability shows the depth of corruption within Washington DC.

First, understand their job – Each of the aforementioned was/is part of the congressional intelligence oversight called the “Gang of Eight“. The Go8 are exclusively responsible for overseeing all intelligence community activity as it relates to intelligence gathering and corresponding investigations.

In short these eight elected representatives are in charge of all oversight of all U.S. intelligence operations and investigations.  As elected representatives, they represent one of the most important checks within the system of government overseeing non-elected officials. (more…)

(Via ABC) U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein are interviewing candidates to take over the FBI as interim director, after James Comey’s firing Tuesday.

Four candidates are being interviewed today, fielded from senior FBI and Justice Department officials and the heads of FBI field offices across the country, according to a Justice Department official.

The four candidates: FBI Executive Assistant Director Paul Abbate, who leads the agency’s cyber and criminal branch; National Counterintelligence Executive William Evanina; Special Agent Adam Lee, who runs the Richmond field office; and Special Agent Michael Anderson, who runs the Chicago field office.

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Earlier today, following a brief visit to the White House, Secretary Rex Tillerson welcomed Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov to the State Department.

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STATE DEPT – “I want to welcome Foreign Minister Lavrov to the State Department and express my appreciation for him making the trip to Washington so that we can continue our dialogue and our exchange of views that began in Moscow with the dialogue he hosted on a very broad range of topics. Thank you.”

~ Secretary Rex Tillerson

Again, the multidimensional politics of how President Trump utilized the leverage of Comey’s firing to diffuse the toxic antagonism with the Russian relationship is so far beyond diplomatic history making – modern historians have not yet been born who can aptly outline its consequence. (more…)

Last month Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Moscow. Today, President Trump reciprocates with a welcome of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Washington DC.

WHITE HOUSE – President Donald J. Trump met today with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia, following on the visit of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Moscow last month.

President Trump emphasized the need to work together to end the conflict in Syria, in particular, underscoring the need for Russia to rein in the Assad regime, Iran, and Iranian proxies.

The President raised Ukraine, and expressed his Administration’s commitment to remain engaged in resolving the conflict and stressed Russia’s responsibility to fully implement the Minsk agreements.  He also raised the possibility of broader cooperation on resolving conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere.

The President further emphasized his desire to build a better relationship between the United States and Russia. (WH link)

There are more pictures below of President Trump, Foreign Minister Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Kislyak in the oval office. (more…)

White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders will deliver the daily press briefing for Wednesday May 10th:

UPDATE – Video Added:

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White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer appears on Lou Dobbs and gives the first set of explanatory points around the President’s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey:

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Why is President Trump so confident in this decision? Oh, that’s easy:

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It was eight months ago when we first began discussing the “White Hats” -vs- “Black Hats” within the intelligence apparatus.  It was obvious there was a battle going on within the  ‘intelligence’ and ‘justice’ systems per se’ between two distinct groups, mostly centered around political leaks within the IC:

• A Black Hat: is a self-serving entity, person or organization, that is corrupt, deceitful, manipulative, exploitative, and working for their own power and interests.  A bad entity.
• A White Hat: is an altruistic entity, person or organization, that is foundationally grounded on truth, honesty, and clear definitions of right and moral wrong.  A good entity.

The four primary agencies who drove the media narrative were: CIA, DNI, FBI and NSA.

We identified Admiral Mike Rogers (NSA) as the only ‘white hat’ within the intelligence group at the center of the media intel controversies.   Most, heck, all, of the media controversy was created by leaks of intelligence “reports”.  NSA Director Mike Rogers was the only intel head without any participation in leaking.  Rogers also controlled most of the raw intel from which the reports being leaked were constructed.

Initially, last year, FBI Director James Comey was challenging to gauge.  However, it didn’t take long to discover his political corruption, and see his political agenda was all about himself – not the application of law.

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For those who see the obvious, but just can’t figure it out; for those who see the obvious but have to pretend they just can’t figure it out; for those who were never paying close attention; for those who have forgotten or those who perhaps never knew; and for the tender gnats who need a constant reminder:

Our President

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