In a statement from the Warmbier family they announce the American student, Otto Warmbier, who was detained by North Korea, and released last week while in a coma, died today at 2:20pm EDT.

It was less than two weeks ago when the Warmbier family first found out about Otto’s condition – that he was in a coma for over a year.  Now, less than a week after reuniting with their son, he has passed…

Family statement below:

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Earlier today President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump welcomed Panama’s President Juan Carlos Varela and first lady to the White House for a bilateral meeting.

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[Transcript] 11:39 A.M. EDT – PRESIDENT TRUMP: It’s our great honor to have President and Mrs. Varela from Panama. And we have many things to discuss. We’re going to spend quite a bit of time today — the Panama Canal is doing quite well. I think we did a good job building it, right?

PRESIDENT VARELA: One hundred years ago.

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Commerce Secretary Wilbur “Wilburine” Ross discusses the ongoing Trump economic growth strategy and the economic policy initiatives surrounding trade, tax reform, and more recently, investment in U.S.

Wilburine delivers a timeline of mid-July China trade meeting and also a mid-July outline to congress, put together by Ross and U.S. Trade Rep Robert Lighthizer, explaining the NAFTA trade renegotiation objectives which will begin mid-August.

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Secretary Wilburine also politely explains how the current valuation of the Mexican Peso and Canadian dollar appears to be weakened vs. the U.S. dollar as an outcome of markets predicting the NAFTA agreement will be far more beneficial to the U.S.  [sly smile]

Love how Wilburine explains @12:30: no distractions, we’re MAGA regardless of anyone paying attention.

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Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser to the office of the president, delivered remarks at an event for the American Technology Council.

Mr. Kushner generally keeps the lowest of low profiles so his appearance and public speaking immediately stunned the MSM and created atomic level ‘splodey heads.   The media was caught off-guard.

Mr Kushner was speaking about the ongoing Trump administration efforts to put operational efficiencies into government functions, reducing the overall size, scope, and cumbersome bureaucracy inherent in the out-dated systems.

Amid the audience members and participatory business leaders were various corporatist ideologues who are aligned in common cause against President Trump, including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Apple CEO Tim Cook.

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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

Sean Spicer 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 †

Another possible terrorist attack in North London as a large rented van has intentionally driven into a crowd of people in Finsbury Park, London on Seven Sisters road. The incident happened in front of a very well known mosque (Finsbury Park Mosque) where extremist cleric Abu Hamza was expelled earlier.

Multiple extremist clerics are identified with the Finsbury Park Mosque. The incident took place around midnight local time.

Initial reports of multiple people hit by the vehicle.  The Daily Mail reports: Several people were reportedly hurt after the van ploughed into a crowd on Seven Sisters Road near Finsbury Park Mosque. Eyewitnesses reported seeing bystanders wrestle the suspect to the floor and pin him down until officers arrived.

Twitter users claimed the victims were Muslims leaving late-night prayers being observed for the month of Ramadan.

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YOKOSUKA, Japan (NNS) – The remains of seven Sailors previously reported missing were located in flooded berthing compartments, after divers gained access to the spaces, June 18, that were damaged when the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62) was involved in a collision with the Philippine-flagged merchant vessel ACX Crystal.

The deceased are:

♦Gunner’s Mate Seaman Dakota Kyle Rigsby, 19, Palmyra, Virginia
♦Yeoman 3rd Class Shingo Alexander Douglass, 25, San Diego, California
♦Sonar Technician 3rd Class Ngoc T Truong Huynh, 25, Oakville, Connecticut
♦Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class Noe Hernandez, 26, Weslaco, Texas
♦Fire Controlman 2nd Class Carlosvictor Ganzon Sibayan, 23, Chula Vista, California
♦Personnel Specialist 1st Class Xavier Alec Martin, 24, Halethorpe, Maryland
♦Fire Controlman 1st Class Gary Leo Rehm Jr., 37, Elyria, Ohio

The incident remains under investigation (link).

CNN is conducting an on-line poll to determine the overall sentiment surrounding whether or not President Trump “should be investigated for obstruction“?

With more than 2.6 million responses so far, more than 70% say NO.

(Take Poll HERE)

There is also a rather funny irony.  The wording of the survey suggests CNN’s admission that an obstruction investigation doesn’t currently exist; while breathlessly reporting 24/7 via their network that an investigation of obstruction must necessarily be ongoing….

“The Mamet Principle!”

A transcript is available here for those who don’t want to hear the banter:

SEKULOW: The president issued that tweet on social media because of the report in the Washington Post from five anonymous sources none of which, of course, anyone knows about, alleging that the president was under investigation in this purported expanded probe.

The fact of the matter is the president has not been and is not under investigation. So this was his response, via twitter, via social media was in response to the Washington Post piece with five anonymous sources. And by the way John the five anonymous sources, they don’t even identify the agencies upon which these individuals reportedly worked. So the response there is clear and I want be really clear about this. The president is not and has not been under investigation.

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