President Donald Trump granted a three-day exclusive and extensive interview to ABC News ¹propagandist, and narrative engineer, George Stephanopoulos.
[¹You might remember Stephanopoulos was actually deployed by the DNC in 2012 to ask GOP primary candidates in an ABC debate about the constitutionality of requiring insurance companies to pay for birth control pills. A totally out of left-field goofy question that no-one understood until two-days later when the DNC trotted out Sandra Fluke]
Well, here’s Stephanopoulos again, somehow granted access (likely by a person inside the White House coordinating with Nancy Pelosi). The final broadcast will be heavily edited, manipulated and presented for distribution and maximum political damage; with the intent to assist Nancy Pelosi and the impeachment narrative at 8:00pm this evening.
In an effort to gain maximum publicity ABC has released some preview segments to stimulate interest by a national audience.

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[Transcript at 10:38]  President Trump: “It’s very simple; very simple.  There was no crime. There was no collusion. The big thing is collusion. Now, there’s no collusion. That means they set — it was a setup. In my opinion, and I think it’s going to come out.”
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~ Dance With The Dragon ~

Amid the furor from hundreds-of-thousands -perhaps millions- of protestors, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam announces a ‘suspension‘ of the proposed extradition law that would have permitted extradition of Hong Kong residents to Chinese law enforcement.

Lam apologized on Sunday, for the way the Hong Kong government handled the proposal but she did not fully take the controversial law off the table.  The ripple effect of the proposal itself now calls into question the autonomy of Hong Kong, and many observers foresee it is now only a matter of time before China takes a tighter grip.
Currently Hong Kong is not subject to the same economic consequences within the U.S-China confrontation.  As long as Hong Kong is considered ‘autonomous’ they remain detached from U.S. tariffs and other measures targeted to China.  However, if China breeches the increasingly unclear barriers, judicial and legal systems intended to provide that autonomy – well, then the situation could change.  Hong Kong is tenuous at best.
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The latest set of statistics from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) shows all of the professional pundit claims of higher prices on imported goods due to Trump tariffs are simply disconnected from reality.  In actuality the year-over-year prices of import products are actually dropping:

U.S. Import prices fell 0.3 percent in May, the first monthly decline since a 1.4-percent drop in December. Import prices advanced 1.8 percent from December to April before the downturn in May. The price index for overall imports decreased 1.5 percent over the past 12 months, matching the drop in January. These were the largest over-the-year declines since the index fell 2.2 percent in August 2016. (See table 1.)

The U.S steel and aluminum tariffs have been in effect globally since 2017. Tariffs on softwood lumber (Canada) & durable appliances (S. Korea), same duration.  Additionally the first set of tariffs on China is now well over a year old; and the second set of expanded tariffs on China began a month ago; again, no material impact to the delivered price.
Despite two years of claims by the professional media that tariffs would lead to higher prices for U.S. consumers, as you can see above the reality is quite different.
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President Trump has taken the leverage of economics to levels of geopolitical strategy never seen before.  Nowhere is the genius strategy more clear than in the way Trump has positioned the trade reset and confrontation with China.
In hindsight every move since early 2017 including:  (1) the warm welcome of Chairman Xi Jinping to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate; (2) the vociferous praise poured upon Xi; (3) the November 2017 tour of Asia; (4) the direct engagement with North Korean Chairman Kim Jong Un; the strategic relationship with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe; and a host of smaller nuanced moves have been quietly building toward a conclusion.
The upcoming G-20 summit is the last chance for Trump and Xi to reconcile considerable differences and President Trump has the strongest strategic position any Chinese official has ever faced.
After Beijing walked away from previous agreements between USTR Robert Lighthizer and Vice-Premier Liu He, Trump initiated a series of punishing economic consequences that had to have been well planned in advance.
The economy in China is reeling from the pressure applied; and stunningly it has only been a month since the consequence phase began.
In addition to tariff increases, the U.S. blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co., threatened other major Chinese tech companies and essentially cut-off China from the international supply chain it needs to sustain itself.  Beijing responded by drawing up a list of “unreliable entities” and making threats against any enterprise that would walk away from business engagement with China.  The totalitarian response has worsened the situation, and more companies have announced their intent to decouple from Beijing.
An important aspect, missed by most observers, is the ideology and outlook within any Chinese engagement. Quite simply, if it does not benefit China it is not done.  Therefore any negotiation with China is challenging because Beijing will cede no ground they view as already won.
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The foundation for the Russian election interference narrative is built on the claim of Russians hacking the servers of the Democrat National Committee (DNC), and subsequently releasing damaging emails that showed the DNC worked to help Hillary Clinton and eliminate Bernie Sanders.
Despite the Russian ‘hacking’ claim the DOJ previously admitted the DNC would not let FBI investigators review the DNC server.  Instead the DNC provided the FBI with analysis of a technical review done through a cyber-security contract with Crowdstrike.

The narrative around the DNC hack claim was always sketchy; many people believe the DNC email data was downloaded onto a flash drive and leaked.  In a court filing (full pdf below) the scale of sketchy has increased exponentially.
Suspecting they could prove the Russian hacking claim was false, lawyers representing Roger Stone requested the full Crowdstrike report on the DNC hack.  When the DOJ responded to the Stone motion they made a rather significant admission.  Not only did the FBI not review the DNC server, the FBI/DOJ never even saw the Crowdstrike report.
Yes, that is correct.  The FBI and DOJ were only allowed to see a “draft” report prepared by Crowdstrike, and that report was redacted… and that redacted draft is the “last version of the report produced”; meaning, there are no unredacted & final versions.
Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot!
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Twenty-three House republicans request declassification of documents directly from President Trump as soon as possible.  Despite the executive office directive to AG Bill Barr, the republican group seemingly do not trust the DOJ and FBI institutional interests.
It’s a smart move to keep the pressure on.
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Earlier today President Donald Trump delivered remarks on expanding health coverage options for employers and workers through health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs).
Under the rule, employers will be able to provide their workers with tax-preferred funds to pay for the cost of health insurance coverage that workers purchase in the individual market. The rule will particularly benefit small businesses that face costs in offering a traditional group health plan and businesses that do not currently offer coverage.

[Transcript] THE PRESIDENT: (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you. This is very nice. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Happy Birthday, Mr. President! (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Happy Birthday, Mr. President!
THE PRESIDENT: Beautiful. Wow.
AUDIENCE: (Sings “Happy Birthday.”) (Applause.)
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President Donald Trump calls in to Fox and Friends on his birthday for a wide-ranging interview on multiple subjects.  The interview is 49 minutes long.
President Trump discusses Iran being implicated in assaulting oil takers in the Gulf of Oman, Nancy Pelosi accusing him of a criminal cover-up, calls to fire Kellyanne Conway, Joe Biden’s campaign and much more:

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Earlier today President Donald Trump delivered remarks introducing a ‘Second Chance’ hiring and workforce development initiative. The ‘Second Chance’ program is the follow-up initiative to complement the ‘First Step Act’ which the President signed last year.
‘Second Chance’ is a way to give everyone an opportunity to reestablish themselves economically and support their family financially.  This was really an uplifting and enjoyable event at the White House. [Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript] THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Please, please. Great occasion.
I want to welcome everyone to the White House. We’re here today to announce a vital new action that we’re taking to help former inmates find a job, live a crime-free life, and succeed beyond their wildest dreams. (Applause.)
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During a White House event to announce the “Second Hiring” initiative, President Donald Trump took a moment to thank departing White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders [Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript] […] THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
And I thought maybe I’d just a take moment. So, at the White House — and been with me now three and a half years, before I won, before the election — is a person, a friend, a woman — a great, great magnificent person, actually — named Sarah Huckabee Sanders. And she’s very popular. She’s very popular. (Applause.)
And — and she’s done an incredible job. We’ve been through a lot together, and she’s tough but she’s good. You know, you also have tough and bad, right? (Laughter.) She’s tough and she’s good. She’s great.
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