National Economic Council Chairman Larry Kudlow appears on Fox News Sunday to discuss economic policy, budgets and taxes. Since the discussion is the economy, Wallace quickly puts on his doomsday hat.
Two backstory aspects frame this discussion.
♦First, Nancy Pelosi specifically set up the House committee rules to: (1) drop any committee notification for the minority; (2) drop any need for committee participation by the minority. What this first point highlights is the scale of pre-planning from 2018 (last year), for this impeachment scheme.
♦Second, the planning of Cohen as the first step in an impeachment process was entirely predictable. [SEE HERE] On a positive note, Jim Jordan appears to know the scheme.
We discovered last year that Jeff Sessions had authorized U.S. Attorney John Huber to work with the Inspector General’s office, but we did not know exact dates and scope of the original Huber investigation. Thanks to a FOIA request, some details now fill in.
A left-leaning watchdog group, American Oversight, filed a FOIA request in 2017 looking for any communication that might show former AG Jeff Sessions giving instructions to DOJ officials to target Hillary Clinton for investigations.
Ironically, and perhaps serendipitously, the American Oversight FOIA request was submitted on November 22nd, 2017, the exact date Sessions’ chief-of-staff Matt Whitaker was sending a letter to Utah U.S. Attorney John Huber. Had they waited a day, what AO were looking for would have surfaced. However, with the Sessions-Huber communication falling outside the FOIA request window, the DOJ response was delayed until yesterday.
The Sessions letter was an attachment to a email sent by Whitaker to Huber at 5:21pm on November 22nd, 2017. The AG letter to Huber requests Huber to review issues raised by the House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, and return with advice. Here’s the letter:
CONTEXT – in 2017 House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte was conducting oversight and receiving testimony from witnesses concerning a possibility the DOJ and FBI had intentionally manipulated their investigations to protect Hillary Clinton. Goodlatte wrote to AG Sessions about his concerns.
At the request of AG Jeff Sessions, Asst. AG Stephen Boyd sent a responsive letter back to belay Goodlatte’s concerns explaining what ongoing review processes were in place:
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Attorney for Covington High School student Nick Sandmann, Lin Wood, discusses the ongoing lawsuits against media enterprises including the Washington Post and CNN:
The lawyer representing Covington High School student Nick Sandmann has told Fox News he plans to file a lawsuit against CNN likely next week.
According to Fox News, lawyer L Lin Wood discussed his intentions for a more than $250 million lawsuit in an upcoming broadcast interview with host Mark Levin:
(FOX NEWS) CNN is likely to be hit with a massive lawsuit worth more than $250 million over alleged “vicious” and “direct attacks” on Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann, his lawyer has told Fox News.
Lawyer L. Lin Wood discussed his decision to sue CNN for its reporting and coverage of his client during an interview that will air on Fox News Channel’s “Life, Liberty & Levin” on Sunday at 10 p.m. ET.
The White House has announced that Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro will visit with President Trump on March 19th for bilateral discussions. The media are framing the visit around the ongoing crisis within Venezuela; however, there’s also an important element as it relates to the panda dance.
President Donald Trump and President Jair Bolsonaro both have a strong nationalist perspective and share a common geopolitical outlook.
In fact, during the 2018 election many dubbed Bolsonaro the ‘Brazilian Trump‘. President Bolsonaro also made headlines last year when he said he was open to a U.S. military base and alliance.
Yes, it’s true the turmoil in Venezuela is a likely top issue for discussion, but the U.S. and Brazil are now aligned with a commonality toward China…. and it just so happens the U.S. and Brazil are #1 and #2 in production of China’s number one import, soy beans.
China has an almost unquenchable thirst for soybeans, which are crushed to make cooking oil and used in the protein-rich animal feed ingredient soymeal. The U.S. is the worlds largest producer of soybeans at 108 million metric tonnes. Brazil is the second largest producer with around 87 million metric tonnes.
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The push-back begins. Today, Representative Doug Collins spoke on the floor of the House of Representatives and announced his frustrated intention to start releasing transcripts from testimony by DOJ and FBI officials who participated in an Obama-era conspiracy to weaponize the DOJ and FBI against their political opposition.
This morning, I requested the link https://t.co/yA4Ig4L8at be placed in the record so the American people can review the transcript of Bruce Ohr’s interview. pic.twitter.com/wz2A2h78Na
— Doug Collins (@RepDougCollins) March 8, 2019
Here’s the transcript:
[scribd id=401416842 key=key-AyCp2wgYEeayOna9Vixa mode=scroll]
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The BLS employment report for February is very underwhelming with a mere 20,000 new jobs calculated and results that fall far short of expectations. The recent private sector ADP payroll report showed 183,000 gains. Despite the low reported jobs gains, the national unemployment number dropped to 3.8%.
Further confounding the low February BLS calculations, revisions to December and January were upward. December’s jobs were revised up from +222,000 to +227,000 (gaining 5k), and the change for January was revised up from +304,000 to +311,000 (+7k). With these revisions, employment gains in December and January combined were 12,000 more than previously reported. Job gains now average 186,000 per month over the last three months.
On a very positive note the calculated wage growth continues to reflect a tight labor market where employers are increasing wages well beyond inflation. “In February, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 11 cents to $27.66, following a 2-cent gain in January. Over the year, average hourly earnings have increased by 3.4 percent.” That is the strongest sustained wage growth in a decade.
‘Empire’ actor Jussie Smollett has been indicted on sixteen felony counts by a Chicago grand jury. The indictment centers around his continued false reports to police of an attack by two suspects that he staged in an elaborate hoax.
(Via NBC) “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett has been indicted by a grand jury in Chicago on 16 felony counts after allegedly lying to police about being the victim of a racist and homophobic hate crime, NBC News confirmed Friday.
Smollett was charged last month with felony disorderly conduct for the alleged false report he made with Chicago police on Jan. 29, according to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. In it he claimed he was assaulted by two masked men who hurled racist and homophobic slurs. Smollett was charged by a grand jury of 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct for making a false report, according to a criminal complaint. (read more)
The White House could possibly be evolving from a dynamic of confronting political opposition, into a more necessarily aggressive war against all Swamp adversaries. Following grandma’s rule, well, I am not disappointed in this departure…
From the White House: “Assistant to the President and Communications Director, Bill Shine offered his resignation to the President yesterday evening, and the President accepted. Bill continues to support President Trump and his agenda and will serve as Senior Advisor to the 2020 re-election campaign.”
•From Bill Shine: “Serving President Trump and this country has been the most rewarding experience of my entire life. To be a small part of all this President has done for the American people has truly been an honor. I’m looking forward to working on President Trump’s reelection campaign and spending more time with my family.”
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