The polls close at 8pm local in France Today.  That’s 2pm EDT, 11am PDT.  The results of the election should be well known very quickly after the polls close. RESULTS

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Are people beginning to catch on? Are people beginning to identify the long-ball strategy of a non-traditional approach toward geo-political alliances?

Apparently, some are – because North Korea is not happy with the heavy pressure coming from Big Panda, China.  As identified within this radio interview between Dr. Gorka and Brian Kilmeade…

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I don’t want to say, I told you so… but:

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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appears to be cowering to the demands of British Columbia Provincial Premier Christy Clark who asked for retaliatory trade action against Oregon and the Pacific Northwest after Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced a tariff on Canadian soft-wood imports.

Yesterday (Friday) Prime Weasel Trudeau threatened to ban shipments of U.S. thermal coal from Pacific ports and suggesting sanctions against additional trade products from Oregon due to the support for the soft-wood tariff by Democrat Senator Ron Wyden.

ENERGY ECON […] Trudeau said Ottawa would study whether to stop U.S. firms from shipping thermal coal via the Pacific province of British Columbia. Provincial Premier Christy Clark asked for the ban in response to the U.S. tariffs.

Canada is also considering duties on exports from Oregon such as wine, flooring and plywood, said a source close to the matter, citing Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden’s prominent role in pressing for the lumber tariffs.

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In the run-up to the June 8th national election called for by British Prime Minister Theresa May, the local elections are providing strong indicators for a historic level of support.

This outcome is exactly what Prime Minister May wanted as she heads into tough negotiations with the European Union on terms of exit.

Having won the historic Brexit vote and gained victory for the UK to pull out of the Union, most of UKip party supporters are melding back into the traditional Conservative party ranks.

REUTERS – British Prime Minster Theresa May’s Conservative Party is still a strong 16 points ahead of the main opposition Labour Party ahead of a national election on June 8, according to a poll by Opinium on Saturday.

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Earlier today President Donald Trump signed HR244 into law.  The provisional spending bill that funds government through September 30th, the end of fiscal year 2017.

There has been a great deal of anxiety amid punditry about the spending outline itself, and the spending priorities as determined by both houses of congress.  Some of the criticism is warranted, most is not.

The basic principle the entire professional political class seem to overlook is the reasoning for the CR itself.  Congress has been unable to fulfill its budgetary obligation since 2007.

In fact, the last federal budget (fiscal year ’08) was signed into law in September of 2007.  By the conclusion of this CR it will have been an entire decade without a federal budget.

Perspective: ♦ Over half of all elected federal politicians have never held elected office in any year with a federal budget in place.  ♦ Almost two-thirds of Republicans in congress have never known a federal budget for a single day in office.

THAT FACT should be the target of the ire from all Americans, particularly conservatives.  However, hypocritically, it is not.

For some reason ankle-biters, antagonists, and crony constitutional punditry amid the various CONservative outlets, choose instead to focus their criticism toward the first president in our lifetime to actually deliver on conservative policy, conservative values and expressed policy objectives/outcomes that benefit all common sense Americans.

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Sybrina “Ms Candy” Fulton and Tracy “Fruit” Martin, the family of Trayvon Martin, will accept a college degree in Aeronautics presented posthumously in recognition of the life of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin:

(Via CNN) […] The aeronautics degree is in “honor of the steps he took during his young life toward becoming a pilot,” the school said in a Facebook post. Florida Memorial’s Department of Aviation and Safety has a designated Cessna pilot training center, and the school also houses the Trayvon Martin Foundation.  (read more)

Seriously?

What’s next, sizzurp scholarships?

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During a ceremony today at the State Department, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson delivered remarks of remembrance and honored fallen foreign service workers.

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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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