(CNSNews.com) – The Trans-Pacific Partnership that President Barack Obama is negotiating with 11 other nations seeks to eliminate both tariff and nontariff trade barriers with these countries, according to the Congressional Research Service. One of those countries is Vietnam, which the State Department says maintains a Communist regime.
In 2014, the U.S. ran a $24,858,700,000 trade deficit with Vietnam, according to U.S. government trade data published by the Census Bureau. U.S. producers sold $5,724,900,000 in goods to purchasers in Vietnam. At the same time, producers in Vietnam sold $30,583,600,000 in goods to purchasers in the United States.
Documents related to the TPP are currently classified. Members of Congress can only review them in a secured room. But a report published in March by the Congressional Research Service—“The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Negotiations and Issues for Congress”–describes the basic purpose of the deal the administration is seeking. (read more)

According to The Hill the Baltimore and Maryland politicians had a meeting today at the White House; described thusly:

Maryland officials meet at the White House to discuss Baltimore unrest: http://t.co/TB1jxWkB2w pic.twitter.com/ANjNsZa31y

— The Hill (@thehill) May 20, 2015

[…] Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D), Ben Cardin (D) and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D), who represents Baltimore, huddled with White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and other top ranking officials to “discuss ways in which the administration can continue to serve as an active partner in supporting local priorities following the recent unrest in Baltimore,” the White House said in a statement. (more…)

This is too painful to watch…. and people wonder why the leaders of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Oman chose not to attend.
(Via Washington Examiner) Yesterday, two Saudi crown princes arrived to meet with President Obama at the Oval Office, after King Salman refused to meet Obama at the Gulf summit or at the White House.

White House officials should have been careful to make sure everything with the two top Saudi officials went smoothly — but instead, Obama flubbed on the deputy crown prince’s name and the name of the king who forged America’s relationship with Saudi Arabia, King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud. (more…)

It is a sentiment that runs rampant within the current administration. The State Department says radical Islam will stop beheading if they can just implement a Jobs for Jihadist program; now the Education Secretary says Chicago gangs will stop shooting if they have a Jobs for Thugs program. Then again, we thought the unemployment “problem” was fixed now….
(CNSNews.com) – Education Secretary Arne Duncan said on Tuesday that he has met with gang leaders in his hometown of Chicago and they’ve told him that it’s a lack of jobs that keeps them on the streets.

“We have to have jobs for young people,” Duncan said at the National Summit on Youth Violence Prevention in Crystal City, Va. “I probably shouldn’t say this in a room like this, but occasionally when I go home I’ll sit down with some of the gang leaders – back home in Chicago.” (more…)

Democrats, led by Senator Elizabeth Warren, handed Obama a stinging defeat Tuesday afternoon when a procedural motion to proceed with the President’s trade bill, “Fast Track”, failed to get the 60 votes necessary to pass.  Only one Democrat, Sen. Tom Carper (Del.), voted for it.

WASHINGTON DC – […]  Fast-track is a top legislative priority for the White House, but it has run into significant Senate opposition that has been led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
It faces even more opposition from Democrats in the House, and the surprise Senate failure will raise doubts about whether the legislation will make its way through Congress.
Labor unions and other left-leaning groups have declared war on the fast-track bill, which they argue would ship jobs overseas. The Senate is generally a more pro-trade body than the House, and it has been easier to move trade agreements through the upper chamber.
(more…)

Four of the six Gulf Cooperation Council leaders refuse to attend the Obama “Arab Summit”.  Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Oman know full well the summit is a propaganda event meant to deflect attention away from President Obama’s failed mid-East policies. 
Only GCC members Qatar and Kuwait will attend.  Kuwait, because there is still generational loyalty for President Bush’s success in rescuing them from the Iraqi invasion – and Qatar because they carry conflicted loyalties to both the Muslim Brotherhood and their moderate Arab neighbors. 
(Via New York Post) Ever since he decided to chase the mirage of a “Grand Bargain” with Iran, President Obama has pretended that the only opposition comes from Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu and “hardline” Republicans in the Congress.
He was to highlight that claim by hosting a summit for “key Arab allies” at Camp David this week.
Yet the exercise has instead shown the failure of Obama to sell his narrative to “key Arab allies” even before the first round of orange juice is served at Camp David.
Of the six heads of the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, only two, the emirs of Kuwait and Qatar, will attend. (more…)

Shooting: 1700 block Fulton Avenue. Woman reported to be shot in the leg. Western district detectives investigating.

— Baltimore Police (@BaltimorePolice) April 28, 2015

The media continue to ask the question of why the police in Baltimore are not doing more to stop the violence and rioting throughout Baltimore. The answer is quite simple. Baltimore has been the bastion of political correctness and wilful blindness toward race-based violence for several years. Officials cannot now expose something they have tried to hide for almost a decade.

The City of Baltimore is comprised almost entirely of black leadership. The Mayor is black, the police Chief is black, almost the entire city council is black, the law enforcement community is mostly black – yet the rioting masses continue to say they are oppressed. It is simply a factually incorrect race-based narrative. (more…)

Several outlets are now reporting on an open letter to President Obama supposedly from the nephew of Iran’s Supreme Leader.  The letter was posted on an Iranian website (khodnevis.org) today from Dr. Mahmoud Moradkhani — the nephew of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Mr. President
I am presenting this open letter as one of the serious opponents of the Islamic republic of Iran on behalf of the like-minded opposition groups and myself. Because of my knowledge of this regime, especially of Ali Khamenei who is my uncle (my mother’s brother), I see it as my duty to inform you about this regime and the issue of nuclear negotiations with the Islamic regime of Iran.
Let me at first inform you that the regime that falsely calls itself a republic came to power in 1979 by deceiving Iranian people and the world through provoking Iranian people against the regime of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and gaining the support of the world community. (more…)

WASHINGTON DC – President Barack Obama will not use the word “genocide” to describe the massacre of up to 1.5 million Armenians in his annual statement commemorating the historic atrocity later this month.

White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes informed an official from the Armenian National Congress of America of the decision in a meeting at the White House on Tuesday.
(more…)

We don’t call it Marylandistan for nothing.

[…]  The mega-mosque is called the Turkish American Culture and Civilization Center and, according to the Muslim Link,  it “will likely become the largest and most striking examples of Islamic architecture in the western hemisphere” when it is finished.  The Muslim Link explicitly says it is “a project of the government of Turkey.”

(Via Right Scoop) A couple of years ago it was reported that Turkey was helping fund the building of a $100 million dollar mega mosque in Lanham, Maryland. In fact Erdogan visited the mosque when he was here in May of 2013, promising to come back for the opening.
Well that time has apparently arrived and now Erdogan and Obama will be together at the mosque for the big opening ceremony: (more…)