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President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP
Kayleigh McEnany Twitter @PressSec
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is testifying tomorrow at 10:00am to the House Ways and Means committee; later in the afternoon Ambassador Lighthizer will testify before the Senate Finance Committee.
The New York Times has received an advance copy of USTR Lighthizer’s opening statement, and the liberal publication is apoplectic the Trump administration plans to outline an even more aggressive stance toward the World Trade Organization (WTO).
According to the pearl-clutching Wall St. class, Lighthizer is going to inform congress of Trump/USTR plans to demand tariff reciprocity; and Lighthizer will indeed raise tariffs against any nation that continues to attempt one-sided benefit. [EU will go bananas]
One method to approach tariff inequality would be for the U.S. to lower the import value threshold for non-tariff exemptions. Currently the U.S. does not apply import duties to any product valued under $800. This is a great benefit to China, southeast Asia, and U.S. on-line retailers such as ebay and Amazon; however, the zero tariff threshold hurts U.S. manufacturers because China and other nations do not reciprocate.
It is anticipated that USTR Lighthizer will inform congress the U.S. will lower that import threshold to match the same value level applied by other nations. Obviously the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Wall Street multinationals will not like this approach.
In his opening monologue today Fox host Tucker Carlson took on the subject of Google and their control over 70% of all on-line advertising revenue. Within the very accurate segment, Carlson noted that Utah Senator Mike Lee is in charge of the antitrust subcommittee and yet does nothing, absolutely nothing, to stop the authoritarian demonetization and deplatforming action carried out through the monopoly Google holds.
No single issue will do more damage to the reelection efforts of President Trump than allowing Google to carry out their political agenda. However, that accepted, that’s also the motive for the Senate and DOJ to do nothing. This is a good, honest and painful segment:
Earlier today the DOJ filed a civil action [see pdf here] against former National Security Advisor John Bolton for refusing to comply with the classified intelligence review prior to publishing a book. [DOJ FILING LINK] Perpetual warmonger John Bolton worked as NSA to President Trump from April 2018 to September 2019.
Bolton was always an odd pick for National Security Advisor given his propensity to advance mid-east wars and advocacy for military strikes against North Korea.
…”On June 7, 2020, without Defendant giving any prior notice to the NSC, press reports revealed that Defendant and his publisher had resolved to release the book on June 23, without completing the pre-publication review process. Subsequent correspondence with Defendant’s attorney confirmed that public reporting.
Simply put, Defendant struck a bargain with the United States as a condition of his employment in one of the most sensitive and important national security positions in the United States Government and now wants to renege on that bargain by unilaterally deciding that the prepublication review process is complete and deciding for himself whether classified information should be made public.”… (pdf)
An embed of the lawsuit is below:
NBC News is taking a victory lap after their successful efforts to target their competition, The Federalist website, results in GoogleAds demonetizing the outlet. However, within the article the NBC report also implicates Google in large-scale antitrust violations.
According to NBC the outlet asked Google to take action against the Federalist. Emphasis mine:
(Via NBC News) […] The two sites, ZeroHedge and The Federalist, will no longer be able to generate revenue from any advertisements served by Google Ads.
A Google spokesperson said in an email that it took action after determining the websites violated its policies on content related to race.
“We have strict publisher policies that govern the content ads can run on and explicitly prohibit derogatory content that promotes hatred, intolerance, violence or discrimination based on race from monetizing,” the spokesperson wrote. “When a page or site violates our policies, we take action. In this case, we’ve removed both sites’ ability to monetize with Google.”
[…] Google blocked The Federalist from its advertising platform after the NBC News Verification Unit brought the project to its attention. (link)
Apparently NBC has a self-admitted division within its news operation that is specifically focused on eliminating any competition. To accomplish this objective NBC requests Google to target and remove revenue from their competition. An alignment of self-serving interest based on ideology. This is only one example of an unlawful antitrust violation.
Data released by the Commerce Dept [pdf here] shows U.S. shoppers increased spending by a record 17.7% from April to May. The jump in spending was double the amount most economists and forecasters were predicting.
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(Reuters) Retail sales jumped 17.7% last month, the biggest advance since the government started tracking the series in 1992. Sales dropped a record 14.7% in April. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast retail sales would rise 8% in May. (link)
Earlier today President Trump delivered remarks from the Rose Garden and signed an executive order on safe policing. [Executive Order Here] Video and Transcript Below.
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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Please. And thank you all for being here as we take historic action to deliver a future of safety and security for Americans of every race, religion, color, and creed.
We’re joined today by law enforcement professionals and community leaders. Though we may all come from different places and different backgrounds, we’re united by our desire to ensure peace and dignity and equality for all Americans.
This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.
President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP
Kayleigh McEnany Twitter @PressSec
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †