Video from the first meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
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The centuries-old Paris landmark Notre-Dame Cathedral reopens today, five-and-a-half years after a devastating fire destroyed its spire and roof and brought the entire Gothic masterpiece within minutes of collapsing.
The 860-year-old medieval building has been meticulously restored, with a new spire and rib vaulting, its flying buttresses and carved stone gargoyles returned to their past glory and the white stone and gold decorations shining brighter than ever. The state hands over the building to the Catholic church, the archbishop opens the door, and a liturgical celebration is held with singing and a blessing.
President Trump and various foreign dignitaries are in attendance. UPDATE: Video Added
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There it is. The background for the first meeting between President Trump and President Zelenskyy is buried in the story of Emmanual Macron holding two bilateral meetings before the Notre Dame reopening ceremony. [Now, where’s Tucker?]
If you carefully read this Politico Story you can see how President Trump and President Zelenskyy would be in the same place at the same time, courtesy of French President Emmanuel Macron. This explains Trump’s willingness to go to the Notre Dame ceremony and simultaneously reconciles the absence of Joe Biden.
It’s a simple application of geopolitical Occam’s Razor. There’s no other background that reconciles all the variables. Trump is going to speak with Zelenskyy. All of it makes sense.
POLITICO – PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron will hold separate bilateral meetings with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump ahead of the reopening ceremony of the Notre Dame cathedral on Saturday, the French presidency announced.
This will be Trump’s first visit abroad since his victory in the Nov. 5 election. Macron is among those leaders currently in power to have known the soon-to-be 47th president during his first term in office — a position he will look to leverage in order to assert himself as a key European partner to the U.S.
The last Federal Budget that passed through “regular order” was for Fiscal Year 2008, signed by President George W Bush in September of 2007. Every budget since has been outside regular order; a series of continuing resolutions, omnibus spending packages and short-term funding mechanisms. {CITATION}
That is correct. In the past 17 years, all federal spending has been ‘short-term’ or ‘stop-gap’ spending measures, generally known as “Continuing Resolutions,” where the govt (House and Senate) continue to perpetually resolve to fund the government. The CRs as they are known, punt the spending debate by accepting a baseline of prior spending and tweaking around the edges.
The key takeaway to begin thinking about DOGE is to understand that REGULAR ORDER has not been used since Fiscal Year 2008.
Title III of the Congressional Budget Act outlines a legal timeline that each President and Congress must follow {SEE HERE}. Prior to 2007, Continuing Resolutions were only used to resolve short term arguments about spending priorities.
♦ BACKGROUND – The President is required by law to submit his budget by the first Monday in February. Yes, even when an election takes place and a President doesn’t assume office until January 20th, the first Monday in February is still the legal requirement for the new White House budget proposal.
The Presidents’ budget is then submitted to The House of Representatives, where two weeks later the Congressional Budget Office, reviews the budget and issues an opinion as to the cost of the budget. No later than six weeks after the President submits his budget all House committees send the House Appropriations Committee their spending proposals [April 15].
Through May and June, each budgetary appropriations bill from the House is sent to the Senate. The Senate receives the House appropriations bills, then reviews through the Senate Appropriations Committee (Thune just picked Susan Collins as Chair). The Senate proposes their spending priorities based on the House bill because the House has constitutional authority to originate all spending [June 15]. The House and Senate budgets are “reconciled” using parliamentary procedures [June 30] and then sent to the President for signature.
The fiscal year begins October 1st.
That’s the regular order process.
First Lady Melania Trump appears on Fox and Friends morning show to discuss her outlook on returning to the White House.
Melania Trump notes this time is very different as they know what to expect this time and the baseline for knowing who, what, when and how is entirely different than the first term. WATCH:
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…. And just like that, another piece of the puzzle falls neatly into place. President Trump has announced that David Sacks will be joining the administration as the Czar of Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrency.
[Source]
The group of Peter Thiel (Palantir), Elon Musk (X), Vivek Ramaswamy (DOGE) and JD Vance (VP), now gain the addition of David Sacks to their core mission. Both govt inspired/networked AI and the world of Cryptocurrency will benefit.
Many voices say the introduction of AI into government networks was/is a foregone conclusion, so we should be happy that it’s the ideology of Musk, Thiel, Sacks, Ramaswamy and Vance constructing the parameters of the weapon. Perhaps they are correct.
On the upside, the Big Banks of JPMorgan, BoA, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley will not be too happy, so there’s that. Bitcoin and various crypto exchanges like Bakkt will continue surging. A new era of finance dawns.
First things first, Tucker Carlson deserves enormous credit for gaining reentry into Russia during a time when Russia has essentially locked down their entry visa process. This was not a simple task, and Tucker’s motives for doing so are accepted without immediate reservation. As the only other American I know who has navigated this dynamic, congratulations Tucker.
There have been no diplomatic channels used by the U.S. government toward Russia for over two years. Literally, all talks between government officials and emissaries have been severed for the past two years. As I have said before, this is a very dangerous dynamic.
That said, this conversation does not take place without the intent of Russia, specifically President Vladimir Putin and his Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov from wanting this conversation to take place. Without any doubt this is a public message, a direct and intentional communication, intended to reach a U.S. audience much deeper than the average American viewer. Perhaps an audience of one. Again, great job. WATCH:
Chapters:
0:00 Is the US at War With Russia?
12:56 Russia’s Message to the West Through Hypersonic Weapons
17:47 Is There Conversation Happening Between Russia and the US?
Anytime the professional leftists lose anything, they immediately become victims. Whether defeated in the battle of ideas (retreat to safe spaces), defeated in the field of pop culture, or even defeated linguistically through debate (words are violence). Whenever the professional left loses, they immediately become victims. It’s what they do.
The professional political left, newest version from the Chicago spawn of Dohrn/Ayers, has been waging full combat Lawfare via a weaponized government for the past 16 years. However, Obama/Plouffe were defeated, “their kind” rose again and won the 2024 U.S. Presidential election.
What we see in this “preemptive pardon” narrative, is a repeat of the victim narrative. This time the White House discussion boils down to ‘Lawfare agents must be protected from any retaliation for their action’. Pardons presumably provide the mechanism to protect the victims. In the big picture of ideology, this is a continuation of the same mindset.
Politico started the narrative with an outline {SEE HERE} saying the White House was having an internal debate as to whether Joe Biden should preemptively issue pardons to members of the J6 committee, members who constructed false impeachment accusations, members within the DOJ who fabricated political cases using the Special Counsel process, or generally people on the political left who supported/facilitated all the aforementioned false attack fronts.
As the narrative is told, all those who supported the attacks against President-Elect Trump and his allies, now need to be protected from “retribution.” Inherent in the argument, and within the use of pardons, is the baseline that some form of illegal activity was taking place. Heck, if it wasn’t unlawful conduct, then no pardon would be needed. This is the political catch-22 created by the preemptive pardon narrative.
Defense Secretary Nominee Pete Hegseth paused for an impromptu press gaggle with assembled media following another day of discussions and questions from Senators. WATCH:
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Ronald Rowe Jr., the acting director of the U.S. Secret Service, spoke at a congressional hearing today investigating the two assassination attempts of presidential candidate Donald Trump. After Representative Pat Fallon of Texas began questioning Rowe about his presence at a 2024 9/11 remembrance ceremony in New York, the two men engaged in a shouting match in which Rowe accused Fallon of using 9/11 for political purposes.
“You know why you were there? Because you want to be visible,” Fallon accused. “You are out of line, congressman,” Rowe responded. The shouting match devolved from there. WATCH:
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