This is YUGE news and will impact each and every American.  One of the missing elements in our quest for energy independence has always been the lack of oil refining capacity to produce gasoline and other fuel end-products.
Years of choking fossil fuel regulation, partly funded and supported by an alignment of special interests including foreign governments, OPEC and eco lobbyists, has created a situation where over half of our oil refining capability was eliminated.
With the election, and independence, of Donald Trump that course has changed dramatically.  Trump is not beholden to the lobbyists and special interests who pay for the U.S. to remain dependent on foreign oil and off shore refinement.
Additionally, this is a really big deal because our predictions have always been that President Trump will find a way to make ‘US energy exports‘ a big part of the U.S. expanding economy.  A complete paradigm shift – and with it comes unexpected and unpredicted (by most) additional growth in GDP.  Hence this emphasis:
https://www.facebook.com/POTUS/videos/1273324796070291/
 
(Via Reuters) Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N), the world’s largest publicly traded oil producer, said on Monday it would invest $20 billion through 2022 to expand its chemical and oil refining plants on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
The investments at 11 sites should create 35,000 temporary construction jobs and 12,000 permanent jobs, Chief Executive Darren Woods said in a speech at CERAWeek, the world’s largest gathering of energy executives. (more…)

Vice President Mike Pence delivers the oath of office to representative Ryan Zinke as Secretary of the Interior.  As Secretary Zinke accepts his commission to head the Department of the Interior he takes charge of everything outside:

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(Via AP) Ryan Zinke (ZIN’-kee) has been sworn in as interior secretary, giving him oversight of 400 million acres of public land, most of it in the West. Vice President Mike Pence administered the oath of office on Wednesday, hours after the Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s nomination of Zinke by a vote of 68-31.
(more…)

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. ~ Gandhi

Walking in a Winner Wonderland – WATCH:

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…“and we will win, and you will win, and we will keep on winning, and eventually you will say we can’t take all of this winning, …please Mr. Trump …and I will say, NO, we will win, and we will keep on winning” !…

~ Donald J Trump

(more…)

Deconstructing the Administrative State Continues…

Today President Trump signed an executive order directing EPA head Scott Pruitt to dismantle the Obama Clean Water Rule.   With this executive order Scott Pruitt will begin repealing and rewriting the vastly overreaching EPA rule which defined all water as navigable waterways, including puddles, ponds and water retention structures.

EPA Head Scott Pruitt will now go through the same lengthy rule-making process that put it together.  It will take time to go through the notice and comment periods and probable legal challenges mounted in the opposite direction by environmental groups.
(more…)

• Part I – The Re-Education Needed for an America First Economy – HERE
• Part II – Deconstructing the Administrative and Regulatory Systems – HERE
• Part III – Accepting and Challenging the Adversity within The Big Club – HERE

Part IV – Much of what we need to know about President Donald Trump’s approach we can discover within two books we know he read several years ago:  Dr. Norman Vincent Peale – “The Power of Positive Thinking”, and Zig Ziglar – “Goals“.

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If you had been publicly opposed to the chosen economic fork in the road for over 30 years; •if you were now 68-years-old and fed-up with the continuation down the wrong path; •if you were planning and strategically thinking in big, bold and consequential terms about taking on the challenge of realignment; •if you knew the scope of the challenge and all those who would oppose your efforts; •if you established personal financial security for yourself and your family in preparation,… well perhaps, just perhaps you would have studied and mapped out a goal when you stepped into the arena.
What remains is execution of a plan.
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Newly confirmed EPA head Scott Pruitt attended CPAC and after delivering his remarks he sat down for a one-on-one with Dr. Gina Loudon.
The speech lasts for 7:30 of the video below, and the one-on-one discussion comes thereafter. Mr. Pruitt outlines the objectives and priorities of the EPA and how he intends to remove the regulatory overreach.

(more…)

Upon leaving CPAC, today President Trump took another step to dismantle the choking network of regulations that strangles economic growth, impedes business and weakens the overall economy. Today builds upon the LARGER BACKSTORY.
The details pertain to dismantling ridiculous regulations, but the larger picture is President Trump removing the regulatory and compliance systems the U.S. CoC have used as a special interest leveraging tool to control the legislative influences upon our economy.

President Trump is, importantly, working to remove the larger legislative business lobbying community – and structurally reform the direction of business interests to traditional pro-growth, pro-worker, America First principles.
Allow me to attempt clarity – What we are continuing to witness, including today with this Executive Order, is Trump building out his economic coalition to be stronger and larger than the economic coalition represented by Paul Ryan, the GOPe, Tom Donohue and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. (Much more on that aspect will follow…)

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you all very much for being here.  We have tremendous people standing behind me, and the biggest in the world in terms of manufacturing and business.
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We’ll look for expanded video of the visits today by Secretary Kelly and Secretary Tillerson to Mexico and South America.  In the interim thanks to DaveNYviii for this segment of a press conference in Guatemala.
Woo doggies,…. DHS Secretary General John Kelly drops an absolute truth bomb in a joint press conference earlier today.  Speaking with Interior Minister Francisco Rivas the severity of Secretary Kelly’s words are a stunning reflection of the change in approach.
Minister Rivas’s jaw was visibly quivering as every frightened synapse went simultaneously into apoplectic shock mode.  [Pinch me, I’m in heaven.]
Must watch. No, really… MUST WATCH:

John Kelly’s message to Guatemalans (and others)
Your journey north is going to be brutal.
IF you make it you’re going to be returned fast. pic.twitter.com/AN2XSpq4cH

— TrumpTracker (@DaveNYviii) February 22, 2017

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Guatemala City (AFP) – US plans to deport millions of Central American migrants and regional security issues dominated US Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly’s visit to Guatemala on Wednesday, his Guatemalan counterpart said.
Interior Minister Francisco Rivas said he and Kelly discussed those issues after the US official, who arrived late Tuesday, held private talks with Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales.
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Epic subtlety not withstanding, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito delivers a  presidential commission to EPA head Scott Pruitt.
During the swearing in ceremony, Justice Alito outlines the importance of the oath of office and the constitutional responsibility carried out by an affirmation of duty before God and Country.
Against the backdrop of current headlines amid our Republican form of Government, the Alito ‘ping’ resonates with a contextual -and judicial- clarity of purpose.

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Brilliantly done Justice Alito.
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Millions of protesting sand smelts held up little sand smelt signs and chanted in little sand smelt voices: “hey, hey, ho, ho, he’s no Richard Windsor bro“, as they defiantly march toward safer hospice in Mexico…
Yes, today the Senate finally confirmed Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency; a rogue agency completely out of sync with any semblance of normal environmental protection.  Between bites of their sustainable algae cakes, drum circle activists throw themselves into apoplectic fits….

The vote was 52-46.   Senators Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), and Joe Manchin (D-WV) voted for Pruitt.  Republican Susan Collins of Maine voted against him.
The Senate now takes a week off allowing professional activists to regroup before returning on February 27th to vote on:  • Commerce nominee Wilbur Ross, • Interior nominee Ryan Zinke, • Housing and Urban Development nominee Dr. Ben Carson, and • Energy nominee Rick Perry.
President Trump will be going into March without a full cabinet.