Well this is stunning to say the least.  After initial denials the campaign of French Presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron is now confirming the authenticity of a massive upload of emails from his account.

The 9.9 Gigs of emails, outlining some very sketchy deals by the presidential candidate, were uploaded to Pastebin a document sharing site – SEE HERE –  Initially no-one was able to confirm the authenticity, and the campaign of Macron denied.   WikiLeaks began an attempt to authenticate the release.

However, the authentication is no longer necessarily warranted as the campaign is admitting they were hacked, and the content appears to be directly from the accounts of Emmanuel Macron:

The campaign of French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron condemns “massive hacking attack” after document leak(link)

Reuters initially reported:

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The media gnats, and some doofus conservative punditry, quip about President Trump talking to Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Duterte is also the rotational President of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations).  Meanwhile, President Trump and Secretary of State Tillerson remain keenly focused on the BIGGER PICTURE in Asia and how ASEAN policy relates to N-Korea.

Thankfully the grow-ups are in charge.

STATE DEPT – Secretary of State Tillerson hosted the Foreign Ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for a special U.S.-ASEAN Foreign Ministers meeting, reinforcing the Strategic Partnership between the United States and ASEAN and commemorating the 40th anniversary of U.S.-ASEAN relations.

Secretary Tillerson underscored that the Asia-Pacific region is a top priority for the Trump Administration and that ASEAN is an essential partner. ASEAN Ministers welcomed the continued commitment by the United States to ASEAN, including the Association’s community-building and regional integration efforts.

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The federal April jobs report shows a gain of 211,000 new jobs amid a 2.5% year-over-year growth in wages, bringing the latest national unemployment rate to 4.4% or what the federal economists call the ‘cusp’ of full employment.  They are, well, ‘positioning’ an advanced narrative.

DATA – •Construction payrolls rose by 5,000; •manufacturing payrolls increased by 6,000; •leisure and hospitality payrolls jumped by 55,000; •professional and business services payrolls rose by 39,000; •healthcare and social assistance employment increased by 36,800; •retail payrolls gained 6,300.

That’s the official interpretation of what the jobs gains mean.  However, to reconcile the “slacking” the quantifying economists are now halving the customary growth figure used for inbound newly economically matriculated workers.

Historically it takes 150k new monthly jobs to retain employment rates as static; therefore any job growth beyond 150k must lower the unemployment rate. The fed is now using 70-100k as the new labor market number to retain stasis.

Bloomberg – […] Removed from the weather-related distortions of the previous three months, the April figures indicate solid trends in employment, while measures of those left behind in the recovery — favored by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and President Donald Trump alike — are at or near pre-recession levels.

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We would be remiss if we didn’t wish the UniParty in Washington DC and the K-Street lobbying community a Happy Cinco de Mayo.

The collective Wall Street, K-Street, corporate media and professional political class, including well compensated CONservative media pundits, will soon showcase an exhaustive and financially motivated immigration reform legislative project.

We’re watching your meetings.  All your taco bowls are belong to us...

Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders fills in for White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer today as Mr. Spicer is fulfilling his naval reserve duty.

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Prior to delivering remarks aboard USS Intrepid to celebrate the historic military alliance between The United States and Australia, President Trump and Prime Minister Turnbull met on the sidelines for a bilateral discussion. Interesting interpersonal dynamic, brings out a sensibility from President Donald Trump not customarily noted…

During the briefly allowed press Q&A both leaders provided additional thoughts and comments on various current events: Healthcare, legislation, social-media etc.

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It’s the first time POTUS has been photographed taking the dominant position in a handshake with an international leader.  It denotes a certain amount of skepticism…

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Shortly after taking office Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull began his relationship with President Trump by demanding Trump adhere to President Obama’s commitment to take refugees from Australia.  Surprise, that call did not go well.

Tonight, after making Turnbull wait an extra 3 hours due to healthcare bill celebrations, President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet face-to-face with PM Turnbull for the first time.  Their meeting is in New York City as part of the commemorations celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Coral Sea in World War II.

After President Trump diplomatically greets the insufferable doofus, President Trump will be giving a speech honoring the military aboard the USS Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.

Update: Video Added

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Against the backdrop of President Trump assembling the mid-east alliance group, and with the previous diplomatic outline of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in mind, the travel schedule is not necessarily a surprise.

WHITE HOUSE – President Trump has accepted the invitation of King Salman bin Abd Al-Aziz, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, to visit the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia later this month. The visit will reaffirm the strong partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia and allow the leaders to discuss issues of strategic concern, including efforts to defeat terrorist groups and discredit radical ideologies.

President Trump has also accepted the invitation of President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit Israel, where he will further strengthen the United States-Israel partnership. The leaders will discuss a range of regional issues, including the need to counter the threats posed by Iran and its proxies, and by ISIS and other terrorist groups. They will also discuss ways to advance a genuine and lasting peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.

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The various media pundits and news stories are calling H.R. 1180 a “new overtime bill”.  However, in reality the ‘take pay or take time off’ concept is more than 50 years old; we used to call it “compensatory time” or “comp time”.

WASHINGTON – […] Voting along party lines, the House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday that would allow private-sector employers to compensate their overtime-working employees with paid time off instead of paying them time-and-a-half as currently required.

The bill, H.R. 1180, would tweak the Fair Labor Standards Act, which mandates employers that require hourly-paid employees to work more than 40 hours a week to pay time-and-a-half, or 1.5 times their usual hourly rate. The bill also prohibits employers from coercing or intimidating employees to choose time off instead of overtime pay.

House Republicans passed the bill, sponsored by Rep. Martha Roby (R-Ala.), with no Democrats voting in favor. The bill will now go to the Senate, where it will require 60 votes to avoid a filibuster by Democrats. (read more)

The professionally Democrat hate the concept, but most Democrat politicians have zero experience in understanding how incredibly beneficial compensatory time can be.

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The House of Representative have passed the ObamaCare Repeal/Replacement bill by a final vote of 217-213.

Over the next few weeks/months the bill will work through the Senate and then return to the House to reconcile any differences.  The House bill takes the increasing, costly IRS tax/penalties on ObamaCare down to $0 – effectively crippling the individual mandate and the employer mandate.

President Trump will hold a 3:30pm EDT celebratory news conference at the White House, and GOP lawmakers are expected to take buses from Capitol Hill to attend. Mitch McConnell and 52 republican senators now have the challenge of passage.

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