It’s well known that Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan doesn’t want to be in an actual leadership position; and it’s also well known -enhanced by the campaign, and victory, of Donald Trump- that Republicans did not want to win the majority position and face having to reveal their true UniParty agenda.

The evidence of this UniParty positioning has been staring the electorate in the face, repeatedly and brutally, since candidate Donald Trump actually campaigned on key tenets of the Republican party and found himself being openly opposed by GOP leadership.

Now, a stunning discovery surfaces of Paul Ryan’s Congressional Leadership SuperPAC, congressionalleadershipfund.org, actually campaigning for the Democrat, Conor Lamb, in the recent PA18 congressional race.

As evidenced by Big League Politics the Paul Ryan SuperPAC sent a mailer to Pennsylvania CD-18 voters touting Lamb’s favorable position on gun ownership rights:

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President Trump will pull the U.S. out of NAFTA and direct the U.S. Trade Representative to engage in bilateral trade deals with Canada and Mexico individually.   There is no other possible alternative and here’s why.

First, the essential problem with NAFTA was an evolution over time.  In its current form NAFTA became an exploited doorway into the coveted U.S. market.  Asian economic interests, large multinational corporations, invested in Mexico and Canada as a way to work around any direct trade deals with the U.S.
By shipping parts to Mexico and/or Canada; and by deploying satellite manufacturing and assembly facilities in Canada and/or Mexico; China, Asia and to a lesser extent EU corporations exploited a loophole.  Through a process of building, assembling or manufacturing their products in Mexico/Canada those foreign corporations can skirt U.S. trade tariffs and direct U.S. trade agreements.  The finished foreign products entered the U.S. under NAFTA rules.
Why deal with the U.S. when you can just deal with Mexico, and use NAFTA rules to ship your product directly into the U.S. market?
This exploitative approach, a backdoor to the U.S. market, was the primary reason for massive foreign investment in Canada and Mexico; it was also the primary reason why candidate Donald Trump, now President Donald Trump, wanted to shut down that loophole and renegotiate NAFTA.
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Earlier today President Donald Trump delivered remarks during the House and Senate GOP conference in White Sulpher Springs, West Virginia.
The presidential message was simple MAGA (Making America Great Again), and the remarks delivered by the President solidify, and represent, an institutional shift of the Republican party apparatus to reflect new values -within a new era- as highlighted by the policies and perspectives of President Trump.
The President has shifted the GOP toward the People’s Party.  After a year of policy implementation, the modern era GOP is is POTUS Trump’s party now.

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According to Representative Dave Joyce (R-OH14) the House Intelligence Committee will hold a vote on the release of the four-page Nunes memo that reveals systemic corruption within the DOJ and FBI; including the unlawful use of FISA-702(16)(17) data searches which were part of an elaborate DOJ-FBI surveillance program on the political campaign of Donald Trump.

Additionally, Chad Pergram reported that Chairman Devin Nunes met with Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte to discuss the best process to release the memo.   There are generally two ways it could be done, the HPSCI vote is the most likely.
As more people have become aware of the back-story to the campaign surveillance, FISA-702 issue, and the unlawful conduct of the FBI and DOJ, there is also a great deal of misinformation.  Few people have followed the entire story as it unfolded and that has led to large numbers of people mistakenly thinking the process for revealing the classified intelligence -at the heart of the issue- can be easily released.
There are also multiple media voices taking advantage of people with limited understanding of the year-long process.  Glenn Greenwald published an article today claiming there were “Four Easy Ways” the Nunes memo could be revealed.  That article by Greenwald is intentional disinformation targeted to cloud the larger issues and create chaos.  A deconstruction of Greenwald’s ridiculous arguments is HERE.
It is essential the process is followed that allows the larger story to come out without providing the use of political cover by those who are intent on hiding the corruption.
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Congressman Ron DeSantis appears on Sunday Morning Futures to discuss his request to declassify all documents related to the Steele Dossier.  DeSantis is one of the MAGA allies within a small but powerful congressional team who are executing a strategy to expose politicized corruption at the highest levels of the DOJ, FBI and intelligence community.

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President Trump, Vice-President Mike Pence and leadership from the administration deliver remarks from Camp David following extensive meetings on this year’s administrative priorities.

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In an effort to meet the goal of signing the Tax Cut Bill before Christmas, and in order to initiate the tax reforms in FY 2018, President Trump signs the tax reform bill today in the oval office.
President Trump also delivered remarks to the media on a variety of topics.

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[Transcript] 10:45 A.M. EST – THE PRESIDENT: Good morning, everybody. Thank you very much for being here, and Merry Christmas, Happy New Year. Have great holidays.
We are going to sign some very important things today. One is a continuing resolution that very importantly gives us the right, and we are ordering $4 billion worth of missile defense equipment and missiles themselves. Very important. Top of the line. Best in the world. We make the best military product in the world, and nobody is even close.
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Representative Louis Gutierrez (D-IL) is a long-time Marxist in congress who is an open-border activist.  Representative Gutierrez has previously requested illegal aliens to cross the Southern U.S. border and target any border patrol official possible.
As a militant immigration activist Mr. Gutierrez has also supported MS-13 gang strikes in the U.S. and advocated for illegal aliens to register to vote to influence U.S. elections.  He generally keeps his most visible vitriol reserved for Spanish-speaking audiences.

Gutierrez surprised many people today with a report he will not seek reelection this year for his Chicago district. Gutierrez owns a home in Puerto Rico so there’s a possibility the opportunity for unaccountable federal recovery money flowing into PR might be too enticing to pass up. An opportunity exists to make millions from the inherent political corruption in the island.  Regardless, there’s also a financial lobbying angle available.

CHICAGO – Signaling the end to a quarter century career in Congress, Rep. Luis Gutierrez will announce Tuesday that he will not seek re-election, Democratic sources tell the Chicago Sun-Times.

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There are many people taking notice of modern politics for the first time in their lives. There is also some confusion noticed between two groups who talk above and around each other. Two groups communicating from two entirely different sets of understanding.  Perhaps it is valuable to reset the larger frames of reference and provide clarity.
Many, heck, most people think when they vote for a federal politician -a representative- they are voting for a person who will go to Washington DC and write or enact legislation. This is the old-fashioned “schoolhouse rock” perspective based on decades past.
There is not a single congress person who writes legislation or laws.
In 2017 not a single member of the House of Representatives or Senator writes a law, or puts pen to paper to write out a legislative construct. This simply doesn’t happen.
Over the past several decades a system of constructing legislation has taken over Washington DC that more resembles a business operation than a legislative body. Here’s how it works right now.
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CTH has attempted to stay away from talking about the Alabama ‘clown show‘, all of it, since we made our position clear long before the primary run-off race.  Play stupid games, win stupid prizes etc.
My concern with the Alabama mess was a very simple MAGA issue: riding horses to polling stations does not establish a connection to the man or woman who hit the necessary alarm clock at 5:15am to pay the bills.  Those are MAGA people. That’s the essence of the Trump coalition.
The MAGA coalition I know has never been predisposed to racism, sexism, nativism, or any other kind of “ism” or “ist”, because we’ve never been not busy. It takes time to give a rats-ass about bathroom police, social justice etc. Time and energy for that, who has it?

The current position of the epic fiasco was/is entirely predictable…. warnings, deaf ears, blah-blah-blah; water under the bridge.  That said, the current race to the exits by all of the fly-by-nights (populist wallflowers) is embarrassing to see play out.
Factually, I feel sorry for Mr. and Mrs. Roy Moore… However, I don’t have a smidgen of sympathy for the noob-right financial opportunists: Steve Bannon, Laura Ingraham, Sebastian Gorka et al, or the political Roberts-The-Bruce: Ted Cruz, Mike Lee etc. Heck, I’m still waiting for the ‘Use El Chappo Money to Build The Wall‘ bill…  I digress.
So why engage now?  Well, today Rush Limbaugh weighs in in using the customary (passive aggressive/mamet principle) approach to frame the argument as: “The Roy Moore Soap Opera is Really About McConnell -vs- Bannon”.   No, no it’s not.
I understand the frame of reference, why Limbaugh views it that way, but that’s not an accurate assessment.
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