Despite the professional doomsayer predictions from the professional financial class of Wall Street investment punditry, Main Street is upbeat and consumer confidence is strong.

Tariff-Man Winning

“Consumer Confidence posted another gain in May and is now back to levels seen last Fall when the Index was hovering near 18-year highs,” said Lynn Franco, Senior Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board. “The increase in the Present Situation Index was driven primarily by employment gains.
Consumers expect the economy to continue growing at a solid pace in the short-term, and despite weak retail sales in April, these high levels of confidence suggest no significant pullback in consumer spending in the months ahead.” (more)

Never is the disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street more visible than in the predictions -vs- reality for the growing/strengthening American middle-class.
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A carefully redacted footnote within a report by FISA Court Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer has always appeared to be a clue to a domestic surveillance program.  Now details behind the redactions tell a concerning story.

A brief refresher is needed for those new to the story. In April 2017 Judge Collyer wrote a highly critical FISA Court opinion following discoveries by Director Admiral Rogers of government contractors accessing the NSA database, and extracting illegal search results from the electronic records of every American.
The scale of abuse was incredible [SEE HERE] and the surveillance issues had been covered up for years.  Collyer cited the Obama administration as having “an institutional lack of candor” in their responses to her and the FISA court.  The judge focused her criticism after a review of the period 2012 through April 2016.
Using the non-compliant admissions by NSA Director Mike Rogers and the results of the compliance audit, Judge Collyer used the period of November 2015 through April 2016 to gauge the scale of abuse at 85 percent. Eighty-five percent of all database search queries were unlawful, and she extended her analysis to say:
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President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will be visiting U.S. service members stationed aboard the U.S.S. WASP today as part of their Memorial Day remembrance.  The President is scheduled to deliver remarks at 10:00pm EDT:
UPDATE: Video Added

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Former U.S. Attorney to the District of Columbia, Joe diGenova, discusses the declassification of intelligence documents relating to political surveillance; and the origin of the database abuses outlined by FISC Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer…

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With President Trump returning from Japan tomorrow (5/28); and with the upcoming state visit to the U.K. coming June 3rd; a declassification “window of opportunity” opens between this Wednesday 5/29 and Saturday 6/2.
Given last weeks visit to Main Justice by congressman Mark Meadows; and considering the visit was specifically to review unredacted Page-Strzok-McCabe messages; it could be surmised the first series of declassified documents might be those communiques. Additionally, John Solomon has stated “Bucket Five” is likely the first release prior to the IG report:

Bucket Five – Intelligence documents that were presented to the Gang of Eight in 2016 that pertain to the FISA application used against U.S. person Carter Page; including all exculpatory intelligence documents that may not have been presented to the FISA Court.  Presumably this would include the recently revealed State Dept Kavalac email; and the FBI transcripts from wiretaps of George Papadopoulos (also listed in Carter Page FISA).

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As once noted by CIA Director Mike Pompeo, U.S. President Donald Trump often does geopolitical messaging through twitter that is missed by the U.S. media but hits the target as subtle as a brick through a window. President Trump’s latest tweet on North Korea is a prime example.
If you view this tweet with the perspective that Chairman Kim Jong-un is essentially a hostage of Beijing masters, controlling the upper tier of his military, things make a lot more sense:

…And given the nature of the public comments by President Trump and Prime Minister Abe (transcript pending) during the current state visit; it would appear that Trump has enlisted Abe in hostage rescue efforts.
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President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump become the first guests of Japanese Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako at the Imperial Palace.
Following custom there are three components to the state visit: (1) The guest arrival and formal greeting by the Emperor and Empress. (2) The ceremonial anthems of both nations and the presentation of the imperial guard.  (3) A “state call” or discussion of diplomatic matters between the Emperor, Empress and their honored guests.
During the official state call component there is an exchange of gifts. First, the arrival:

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The ‘inside palace’ greeting and introduction was not covered by international media. However, due to the significance of the visit (first of imperial era of Reiwa) it was broadcast on local Japanese media as below:
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Polls are all closed.  Election results are beginning to come in fast.  The overall result in the European (EU) Parliamentary Election reflects massive gains for conservative nationalists in Italy, Greece, France, Poland, Hungary, Austria, U.K. and others…
Over 400 million people can vote in 28 countries, seven of which held ballots between Thursday and Saturday, with the remainder voting today, Sunday.
Source Feeds: Here (BBC) and Here (Reuters) and Here and Here and Here (UK centric)
♦In France Marine Le Pen has defeated the party led by Emmanuel Macron. Exit polls in France indicated that Marine Le Pen’s far-right, anti-immigrant National Rally party came out on top in an astonishing rebuke of French President Emmanuel Macron, who has made EU integration the heart of his presidency (link).
♦In Greece Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is likely to call a snap general election in June, after the opposition party took the lead.
♦Poland’s ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party is expected to come first in the election with 42.4% of the vote.
♦Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, was expected to win 56% of votes, state television reported.
♦Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz leading with support for Kurz’s conservative People’s Party, at 34.5%.
♦In Italy Matteo Salvini’s far-right League is now emerging as Italy’s largest party, and the 5-Star Movement has lost a third of its voters over the course of a year.
♦Chancellor Angela Merkel’s governing coalition, the CDU/CSU, has lost multiple seats now dropping to a projected 28 (out of 96).

♦In the U.K. Nigel Farage Brexit Party is crushing the traditional political classes. With 100 of 373 counts complete, the brand new Brexit Party is in the lead with 31.9%, crushing the two largest parties,Conservatives and Labour, who are down 12-14% each so far.

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Ian Bremmer is a professor at New York University; a columnist with Time Magazine and has 428,000 Twitter followers. Earlier today he fabricated a Trump quote out of thin air, and thousands of followers and politicians instantly shared it:

Professor Bremmer was challenged on the quote he attributed to President Trump during his state visit to Japan. Instead of admitting he made the entire thing up, Bremmer deletes the quote and offers no apology.
To be clear, this was entirely made up. President Trump said nothing of the sort. The claim is completely fabricated and false. Yet it was shared by thousands of people before the professor and columnist decided to delete it. This is the current state of credibility within the fake news media.
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Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham appears on Fox News to discuss his relationship with President Trump; the upcoming declassification of documents; and the possibility of Senate committee hearings to follow the IG report on FISA abuse.
Graham gives an explanation for his change in disposition. However, his decision not to call Robert Mueller to task highlights he’s still paddling in the shallow water of the deep state…

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When President Trump announced the futility of attempting an infrastructure bill with Pelosi and Schumer as they simultaneously tried to impeach him, the president certainly knew he was going to issue a declassification memo within hours.
The declassification directive to AG Bill Barr creates a dynamic ensuring Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer will align with the former intelligence officials and further attack the offices of the President and Attorney General; they have few options.
Those who participated in the creation of Russia-Gate or Spy-Gate have few options except to manufacture a narrative shield and accuse the President of unethical, immoral and criminal conduct.  See: Pelosi’ recent “cover-up” charge.
By advancing even stronger attacks against the president, the ‘small group’ position any investigation into their wrong-doing as political retaliation.  Their best defense is to build a deeper foundation for their political retaliation claim.  Therefore a House impeachment investigation, in some manner or form, is more likely than ever.
The legal risk for participants in ‘Russia-Gate’/’Spy-Gate’ seems very real.  The best defense against that risk is political.  Speaker Pelosi and Senator Schumer know how to lead the defense by saying any evidence discovered by AG Barr is merely weaponized retaliation from the Trump DOJ.  The media are already supporting that cause.
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