Earlier today President Trump hosted a cabinet meeting amid the backdrop of media discussions of a chemical weapons attack; Chinese trade negotiations, and ongoing border security.
[Transcript] 11:39 A.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. I’d like to begin by condemning the heinous attack on innocent Syrians with banned chemical weapons. It was an atrocious attack. It was horrible. You don’t see things like that. As bad as the news is around the world, you just don’t see those images.
Victor Davis Hanson appears on Fox Business with Lou Dobbs for an excellent interview on the topic of DOJ and FBI political corruption. In the first response from Mr. Hanson he instinctively and accurately outlines the scale of the challenge that was/is faced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Mr. Hanson frames the context of the myriad of issues very well, and as such represents himself as one of the few big-picture-brains who really gets it. Hanson gets the totality of it… all of it. Everyone should pay attention to how Hanson is able to look at the specific examples and details, and yet remain at the 30,000/ft level… Rare skill:
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Expanding below:
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appears on Fox Business News for an extensive interview with Maria Bartiromo. The interview covers a wide spectrum of important topics attached to the U.S. economy and ongoing trade deals. Two great video segments for the interview will get you up to speed on ongoing initiatives:
♦Segment #1 outlines the upcoming announcement of KORUS, the South Korea and U.S. trade deal. Additionally, Secretary Ross discusses the steel and aluminum tariffs and how they enmesh in the larger objective of the ongoing trade negotiations with China:
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♦Segment #2 outlines more on the aluminum and steel tariffs; ongoing trade talks with Europe; efforts to renegotiate NAFTA, and the possibility of a deal being reached; Saudi Arabian investment in the U.S. and the Commerce Department plans to bring back a citizenship question in the 2020 Census.
Earlier today President Donald Trump led the largest ever coalition response in response to Russia’s alleged use of a nerve agent to poison a former Russian spy living in the United Kingdom. In total, 21 countries simultaneously expelled Russian diplomats.
The Trump administration ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats from the US identified as intelligence agents, and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle. 48 of the intelligence agents worked at the Russian embassy in Washington DC and 12 were posted at the United Nations in New York.
President Trump was joined by simultaneous action from: France, Albania, Australia, Canada, Norway, Ukraine, Sweden, Spain, Romania, Poland, Netherlands, Lithuania, Latvia, Italy, Hungary, Germany, Finland, Estonia, Denmark, Croatia, Czech Republic and the U.K.
London – It’s the biggest collective expulsion of alleged Russian intelligence officers in history, according to British Prime Minister Theresa May.
The passage of the defense spending portion of the Omnibus bill ultimately means there will be increased demand for U.S. steel and aluminum within new defense equipment. The contracts within the procurement process will predictably require the use of U.S. parts.
Add the increase in defense spending with the pending global tariffs on steel imports, and the environment is created for foreign investment in domestic steel and metal manufacturing…. Then add into the mix the geopolitical economic relationship developed between India’s Prime Minister Modi and President Trump… And you discover the backdrop for this announcement from India owned JSW Steel:
(Reuters) – India’s JSW Steel Ltd said on Monday it would spend $500 million to build out its U.S. operations in Texas, amid heightened global trade tensions following U.S President Donald Trump’s decision to pursue steep import tariffs.
The company has signed an agreement with the Texas governor’s office, under which the governor has approved a grant worth $3.4 million to the company’s unit, the steelmaker said in a statement here.
Senator Lindsey Graham appears on Fox News for an interview with Maria Bartiromo. 99.99% of the interview is country club Senator Graham repeating the same South Carolina white wine spritzer talking points he’s famous for. That is to say lots of words amounting to nothing. The gastric equivalence of cucumber and mayonnaise triangle sandwiches on crust-less Wonder bread with a side of celery.
However, there is a reminder at 09:50 of a key and important point that tries to surface yet continues to get whacked down by the annoying duplicity of swamp creatures and a media that completely ignores the obvious. Lindsey Graham claims Christopher Steele lied and told the FBI he never talked to media.
We do not know this to be true, and neither does he.
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It is far more likely the FBI:… #1) Ignored Chris Steele talking to media because they needed his Clinton-Steele dossier for a false FISA application; and #2) the FBI later told congress they didn’t know about Steele talking to media, but they really did; and #3) the FBI falsified FD-302 reports of their interview with Chris Steele to cover their tracks.
Here’s how we know:
Things are proceeding swimmingly. How is it possible to outline the biggest political corruption scandal in modern U.S. history; which utilized the full weight of the institutions of government and the vast intelligence community; against the predictable tide of a mainstream U.S. media apparatus who will shout ‘conspiracy theory’; while every single entity associated with the collaborative effort will protect the group behind the scandal?
There’s the challenge. How do you introduce the scale and scope of corruption to almost half the country who have relied upon the false narrative delivered by fake news for the past two years?
Answer: You assemble a strategic communications team, timed to activate when a key series of events takes place. Joe diGenova is part of that strategic communications team. The triggering event is the OIG release. The purpose of the team is to help the news consumer digest the corruption elephant one bite at a time.
As each individual indictment is parsed and delivered, there will be tens-of-thousands of pages of evidence, multiple witness statements, and a tsunami of investigative supporting material that needs to be unpacked -per person- and understood against the backdrop of the bigger story.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes appears on Fox News at Night to discuss the ending of the Trump-Russian investigation and the continuance of the ongoing FISA abuse and FBI/DOJ corruption investigations.
Part of the interview surrounds the new request by Senator Chuck Grassley for a second special counsel. As Nunes notes the Grassley request is almost identical to his own.
It is easy to get lost in the weeds if you don’t follow the details closely; however, last night James Clapper appeared on CNN to defend himself against mounting evidence he leaked, and falsified the content of a presidential briefing of an Intelligence Discussion -including the “Steele Dossier”- to CNN January 9th or 10th 2017. [Full Recent Backstory]
Before getting to the CNN/James Clapper video, it’s important to revisit the specific sequence of events. It is difficult to spot lies if you don’t have events to reference. Here’s a recap of the exact timeline of events from 2017:
♦Friday January 6th – DNI James Clapper, CIA John Brennan, FBI James Comey and NSA Mike Rogers briefed President-Elect Trump on their Joint Analysis Report of the Russian Election interference. (link) [POTUS-Elect released a statement]
♦Tuesday January 10th – CNN runs an explosive story (Jake Tapper) and article about Intelligence Officials briefing President Trump about the Steele Dossier. (link)
♦Tuesday January 10th – (Moments later) At 5:20pm Buzzfeed uses the CNN story as an excuse to publish the Steele Dossier.
♦Wednesday January 11th – The Trump transition team states the content of the CNN story [claiming President-Elect Trump was briefed on the Dossier] was false.
♦Wednesday January 11th – (same day) President Trump blasts CNN for pushing “fake news” about their story; P-Elect saying he was not briefed on the “dossier”.
♦Wednesday January 11th – (same day) NBC independently refutes the content of the prior day CNN story. Trump wasn’t briefed on dossier the Friday prior. (link)
♦Wednesday January 11th – (same day) FOX News independently refutes the content of the prior day CNN story. Again, Trump wasn’t briefed on dossier. (link)
♦Wednesday January 11th – (same day – EVENING) DNI James Clapper puts out a press release and affirms he only told the President-elect of the IC position on the Steele Dossier moments before. (January 11th – NOT January 6th) (link)
That’s the cited sequence of events, and the copy of the Press Statement by ODNI James Clapper for verification [Archived Link Here] Pay close attention to the wording above.
The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has announced the completion of their year-long investigation. –SEE HERE-Texas Congressman Mike Conaway appeared on Fox News at 6:00pm to make the announcement (Video):
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HPSCI Chairman Devin Nunes statement:
“After more than a year, the Committee has finished its Russia investigation and will now work on completing our report. I’d like to thank Congressmen Trey Gowdy, Tom Rooney, and especially Mike Conaway for the excellent job they’ve done leading this investigation. I’d also like to recognize the hard work undertaken by our other Committee members as well as our staff. Once the Committee’s final report is issued, we hope our findings and recommendations will be useful for improving security and integrity for the 2018 midterm elections.” (link)
