Jumpin’ ju-ju bones… New home sales jumped a whopping 16.6% in May, blowing past the estimates of a 2.9% rise.  The May increase in sales is nearly 13 percent higher than the same month one year ago.

Home sales are a key indicator of economic health because purchases of homes requires (1) income, a stable job; and (2) an optimistic financial outlook from the buyer.

Sales of new single-family homes jumped 16.6% in May from April, to a seasonally adjusted annualized pace of 676,000, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. The median economist estimate was for 640,000, according to Bloomberg data.

In addition to a larger-than-expected monthly surge, May sales were nearly 13% higher than a year ago. As the US economy reopens, people are flocking back to the housing market in droves — the rosy sales are a rebound from three months of declines ending in April. (LINK)

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There are a lot of racially motivated politicians who are using the NASCAR ‘fake noose‘ story to proclaim their woke credentials.  However, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley is particularly interesting because in many ways she has staked her political future around her expressed racial sensitivities.  This bet, she believes, will advance her to the White House. [Background]

While governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley led a movement to remove all historic references and memorials to the southern confederacy.  It was a political calculation she viewed would help her career later on.  So it shouldn’t come as a surprise to see this:

The problem is… as more and more politicians and well known pundits and media stake their reputation on this Bubba Wallace hoax it becomes more difficult for NASCAR and investigators to admit the truth.  An easily solved mystery that should have been explained to the public in a matter of hours has now dragged on for days.  [SEE HERE]

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In the economic balancing act toward China Larry Kudlow represents the good cop, Peter Navarro represents the bad cop and President Trump navigates the market responses.  Neither person is factually in conflict with the other; the nuance is in the expression and each person has a role to play.  Sometimes teeth, sometimes not. It depends on need.

Last night trade advisor Peter Navarro noted the U.S. position with China and trade is still in a state of serious conflict.  This is accurate, and a more confrontational posture has been expressed by President Trump.  Today Larry Kudlow moderates the Navarro position to lessen the Wall St. concern over a looming decoupling.  It’s all a dance.

The need for nuance becomes clear as we watch Stuart Varney pushing the Wall Street concern angle on behalf of U.S. multinationals. The administration does not want to spook the stock market while they deal with a China confrontation. WATCH:

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Kudlow represents the panda mask. Navarro represents the eagles claw. President Trump advances or retracts each position as he controls the market response.  The objective is a slow, steady, smiling decoupling that doesn’t unnerve anyone… but the direction is always toward the decoupling.

President Trump is delivering the proverbial economic death by a thousand paper cuts.

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Chopper pressers are the best pressers.  Earlier today President Trump stopped to deliver remarks to the assembled press pool and answer questions.  The President is heading to Arizona for events at/near the border.  [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. So we’re going to Arizona. We’re celebrating. We have over 200 miles of wall built. It’s been incredible. Our numbers on the border, as you know, are at just about a record-breaking low. People are not being able to cross the border. The wall is up, because we have more than 200 — we have about 212 miles up of wall. So that’s good.

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Throughout the late evening and overnight hours we have been able to assemble definitive proof the NASCAR story of a noose hanging in the garage of drive Bubba Wallace is a hoax.  [Background Here]

When the race team of Bubba Wallace arrived at Talladega Speedway in Alabama, he was assigned to garage stall #4.  After reviewing prior 2019 video of that specific garage bay, at that specific speedway; and after reviewing a picture released yesterday showing the FBI investigators on the scene; it is clear the “rope noose” in question was nothing more than a manual garage door pull-down with a hand loop tied into it.

As you can see, the portion of the rope that shows the hand loop (aka “noose”) in 2019 was cut off in 2020.  The #4 garage door pull-down rope did not break, it was cut -the hand loop removed- and that’s why it is shorter.  The question then becomes was this a mistaken interpretation or an intentional effort to create the appearance of targeted hate?

The answer to that question becomes clear when you look at the same rope on the adjacent stall, #5.  A full picture (shown below) shows the pull-down rope on the stall next to Bubba Wallace also contained a hand loop tied into it.  However, it is clear from the kinks in the rope the hand loop was untied.  Likely by the same person who cut-off the “noose” on stall #4 being used by Bubba Wallace’s crew.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

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 †

This has the potential to be very embarrassing for NASCAR.

Very Important Update at Bottom:  Absolute Proof.

When NASCAR rolled in to Alabama and the Talledega motor speedway, the story of a “rope noose” in the garage of Bubba Wallace grabbed media attention.   However, a NASCAR video of the exact garage doors at the Talledega motor speedway shows all of the garages have ropes and nooses on them.

The images above are from a 2017 NASCAR “GarageCam” walk through during the  NASCAR Camping World Truck Series garage at Talladega Superspeedway.  The rope with a “noose” on the end is a simple method to pull down the garage door to close it.  The noose provides a place to put your hand/wrist when closing the door.

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Walid Phares was the fifth [redacted] target of Robert Mueller’s expanded investigation as authorized by former Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein on August 2nd, 2017.

As Mr. Phares notes, the Mueller investigation was used by Obama-era politicians and officials as a mechanism to block President Trump from executing a divergent foreign policy.  The primary policy to protect was the Iran deal.

There is increased speculation, based on a pattern in other international activities and U.S. participants, the Iranian deal included return payments to U.S. officials for the release of billions in funds and the loosening of sanctions.  It is possible the return payments to the Obama team held a timing mechanism and the payments were stopped after President Trump withdrew from the deal and re-instituted sanctions.  Thus the severity of opposition from western politicians who were scheduled to remain wealthy via Iran.

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U.S. senators write foreign aid policy, rules and regulations thereby creating the financing mechanisms to transmit U.S. funds.  Those same senators then received a portion of the laundered funds back through their various “institutes” and business connections to the foreign government offices. Example Ukraine [Burisma to Biden]

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Socialism destroyed NASCAR, now the corporation is marketing racism for a new audience. Here is how and why from a simple observer perspective.

Auto racing is exciting.  Auto racing racing is also dangerous; and became very expensive. Years of NASCAR success put them into the spotlight of big business; then another thing happened… A decision was made to make the racing “more competitive” through a series of rules and regulations that essentially made every car different but equal.  NASCAR followed the socialist corporate model.

NASCAR intentionally tried -and succeeded- to slow the cars down.

‘It’s too dangerous‘ the corporation said.  So restrictor plates, and rules, and regulations, and more rules, and even more regulations, until every minute detail of the car was governed.  If all cars are equal, the emphasis will be on driver skill the corporation said.

Race teams focused on an increasingly diminishing set of variables that could make a difference.   Pit crews were one example of emphasis…. until after a few seasons all pit crews essentially became equal.   And so it went, and so it went…

Throughout the process of extra safety, speed-limiting regulation and corporate-driven equality, guess what else happened… yup, NASCAR races became vanilla.  All drivers were created equal by corporate decree; audience share started dropping along with speedway attendance.  The racetracks saw more and more empty seats because corporate socialism was sucking the vibrancy out of an exciting and competitive sport.

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