~ Compare and Contrast ~

To adequately absorb the scale being outlined here: it must be remembered in July 2014 President Obama and DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson declared a “border crisis” and requested $3.7 billion in budget appropriations for a total of 60,000 illegal border crossings during the migrant travel season.  That’s 60,000 TOTAL in 2014.

According to NPR, citing current DHS Border Patrol stats, in the period of October 2018 through last week there have been more than 260,000 border apprehensions.

(Via NPR) The U.S. Border Patrol apprehended more than 66,000 migrants at the Southern border in February, the highest total for a single month in almost a decade.
The majority of those arrested were migrant families or children traveling alone or without a parent, according to figures released Tuesday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Many of the migrants say they’re fleeing criminal gangs and poverty in Central America to seek asylum in the United States.

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Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were all potential presidential candidates.  However, in the last 24 hours all three have publicly stated they will NOT be running for President in 2020.  [Bloomberg here – Holder here – Clinton here]

The timing here is very interesting.   The odds on three of the top-tier politicos randomly announcing their lack of intent within 24 hours of each-other is very small.  Therefore, it would appear a decision on DNC club’s ‘Chosen One‘ has been cemented and dispatches distributed to the executive offices.
With Clinton, Bloomberg and Holder removed, the remaining potential party and donor supported candidates include: Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke, Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Stacy Abrams or some other, perhaps an outsider.  Who could it be?
Curiouser and curiouser…  Keep watching for the ‘tell’ within the roll-out.

Earlier today President Trump signed an Executive Order: “President’s Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End a National Tragedy of Suicide”—the PREVENTS Initiative.
The President delivered remarks during the signing ceremony for the initiative:

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[White House] The Executive Order establishes a task force that includes the Secretaries of Veterans Affairs, Defense, Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security. The task force will develop a comprehensive public health roadmap for helping veterans pursue an improved quality of life and ending the national tragedy of veteran suicide.
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HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff and Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler are hiring members of the anti-Trump “legal resistance movement”, ie Lawfare, to fill their key investigative staff roles.
Chairman Schiff announced his hiring of former SDNY U.S. Attorney Daniel Goldman today [See Here].  The associated network surrounding Goldman is filled with familiar names and ideological alignment.  The Schiff hiring of Goldman follows on the heels of Chairman Nadler hiring Obama Administration lawyer Norm Eisen and criminal defense attorney Barry Berke [See Here].

A brutally obvious aspect to this is how all of these Trump-hating characters have interests, multiple tiered conflicts, and are vested in the outcome of the congressional investigation of President Trump.  Heck, many of the players being absorbed by the congressional team staff are direct or indirect stakeholders in the investigative outcome.  Thus we see a typical Lawfare control pattern.
The appointment of Robert Mueller was primarily a shield against discovery of Obama White House, DOJ and FBI misconduct of historic proportions.  Mueller’s team was/is comprised of many active participants in the weaponization of government. The Mueller probe was/is a tool to defend themselves from exposure.
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U.S. Trade Rep Robert Lighthizer’s work on the U.S-China trade negotiations is easily the most technically challenging and legally complex trade deal in the history of U.S. Commerce.
Lighthizer is not focused on selling more U.S. product, he is focused on bigger issues and enforcement therein.
Think about it.  This is a deal between a U.S. open market economy and a communist controlled closed market economy in China.  No nation has a comprehensive trade deal with China on anything except individual business sectors.
Despite China’s entry into the World Trade Organization, no nation has ever achieved anything close to an aggregate FTA (Free Trade Agreement) with China.  This deal would be the first comprehensive deal, and as such Lighthizer is essentially mapping out an agreement that all other nations could follow….  This is big-league.
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And now….  for something, completely different. Enjoy:

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Earlier today President Donald Trump hosted an annual gathering for the National Association of Attorneys General.  Video and Transcript)

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[Transcript] – State Dining Room, 4:30 P.M. EST – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Please. Thank you very much. I’m very honored to welcome our State Attorneys General back to the White House.
We were together last year, and I said, “I’m inviting you back.” And a lot things have been done, a lot of progress has been made. And, Vice President, thank you very much for being here. You were here last year and we’re here again, Mike.
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House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler has produced his committee witness list to initiate the predictable groundwork for his ‘impeachment’ process.  Pelosi’s trio of organized co-horts Schiff, Cummings and Nadler each have a role in the process.
Chairman Nadler provides some specifics within his planned approach, announcing three investigative prongs: ¹Obstruction of Justice; ²Public Corruption and ³Abuses of power.

It seems Nadler will tackle the “obstruction” aspect; Cummings will specialize on the “public corruption” angle and Schiff will likely tackle the “abuse of power” approach.

Washington, D.C. – Today, House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) unveiled an investigation by the House Judiciary Committee into the alleged obstruction of justice, public corruption, and other abuses of power by President Trump, his associates, and members of his Administration.  As a first step, the Committee has served document requests to 81 agencies, entities, and individuals believed to have information relevant to the investigation.

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Earlier today President Trump hosted the 2018 division-1 FCS National Champions, the North Dakota State Bison, to the White House. [Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript] East Room – 12:14 P.M. EST – THE PRESIDENT: It’s a lot of big people I’m standing next to. (Laughter.) These are big, strong, powerful champions, right?
SENATOR CRAMER: That’s right.
THE PRESIDENT: All champions. Well, I just want to thank everybody for being here. And we’re very excited to welcome to the White House the 2018 FCS National Champions, the North Dakota State University Bison. And that’s with a “Z”. You know, I spell (inaudible) — (laughter and applause). I actually took the “S” out, and I just put the “Z”, because I didn’t want to —
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Mitch McConnell doing what Mitch McConnell does best…. Setting-up, isolating, President Trump to own the National Border Security declaration without party support:

(Link to Article)

Reminder (February 14th, 2019):

..”and I’ve indicated to him that I’m going to support the national emergency declaration”…

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