Tonight and tomorrow CNN is the broadcast host for two nights of Democrat presidential primary debates in Detroit Michigan.  After a live lotto-draw, the line-up was announced for only the 20 presidential candidates who the DNC qualified the second set of debates.
[Former Senator Mike Gravel, Mayor Wayne Messam, former Representative Joe Sestak and billionaire Tom Steyer did not qualify for the second round of debates. Sad.]

Tonight is the all white line-up: the Thriller in Vanilla; and will put Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren on the stage along with Pete Buttigieg and Beto O’Rourke.  It will be interesting watch how the communist and socialist differentiate themselves, the crowd is expecting a free stuff frenzy.
Meanwhile Beto needs to take a bite out of Buttigieg to survive to the next round.  Mayor Pete has been stealing all of self-flagellating Beto’s support; and the cashmere might start flying if the limo-liberals enter a demolition derby.
CNN holds exclusive broadcast rights to the debate. Consider this an open discussion thread for anyone watching…
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Chopper pressers are the best pressers.  Earlier today President Trump held an impromptu press conference as he departed the White House for an event in Virginia.
[Video below – Transcript ADDED]

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[Transcript] – 9:12 A.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT: So I just want to tell you the economy is doing fantastically well. We have people over in China right now. We’re negotiating with China. We’ll see what happens. We’re either going to make a great deal or we’re not going to make a deal at all. But a lot of great things are happening, and including with China.
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Jumpin’ ju-ju bones, there’s big news in here.  Actual Bombshells! For real Tick Tocks and much much more….

Former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker appeared on Fox News to discuss the replacement of Dan Coats with John Ratcliffe as head of the ODNI, and the current status of AG Bill Barr’s ongoing reviews into prior DOJ and FBI (mis)conduct.
Whitaker posits the placement of Ratcliffe as looking at the aggregate intelligence apparatus and seeing if there “are systemic issues and failures for how the investigations were kicked-off”; and the engagements with other countries (FBI and CIA).
Additionally Whitaker summarizes U.S. Attorney John Durham as focused on the origin of the intelligence operation against candidate Trump and “prosecuting anyone that needs to be prosecuted“.  [By the way, that seems to confirm Durham as an official “investigation”, not a “review”.]
Then comes the BOMBSHELL…. (@01:26 below) while seemingly not realizing what he just said, Whitaker outlines U.S. Attorney John Huber as reviewing “anything related to Comey’s memos and the like.”  Boom… There it is.
THAT finally explains why the DOJ is fighting the release of the David Archey declarations in the FOIA lawsuit by CNN.  [Listen carefully at 01:26 of the interview]

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Until that obscure comment, likely a slip that not many would catch, there has been no valid explanation by the DOJ about any investigation of the Comey memos, which would also encompass the “Archey Declarations”.
If U.S. Attorney John Huber is indeed looking at those Comey memos, that would explain why the DOJ is fighting the release of the Archey Declarations in the DC Circuit Court with Judge James E Boasberg.  Now it makes sense.  That little obscure comment by Whitaker is a big effen’ deal.
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A summary review of the DOJ and FBI insider group; those who were behind the 2016 election effort to block and then remove Donald Trump from office; reveals they are generally unhappy with ODNI Dan Coats being removed.
Former FBI Director James Comey:

Former CIA Director John Brennan:
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On the positive side George Papadopoulos appears to have a solid understanding of the motive behind the $10,000 given to him by intelligence asset Charles Tawil in Israel. Mr. Papadopoulos correctly identifies the purpose of the $10k as a FARA set-up designed by the DOJ-NSD ‘small group’ which evolved into the special counsel team.
h/t Michael Sheridan for the video segment.

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#1) Papadopoulos was lured to Israel and paid in Israel to give the outline of a FARA premise (ie. Papadopoulos is an agent of Israel). #2) Bringing $10,000 (or more) in cash into the U.S., without reporting, is a violation of U.S. treasury laws. Add into that aspect the FARA violation and the money can be compounded into #3) laundering charges.
[A “laundering” charge applies if the money is illegally obtained. The FARA violation would be the *illegal* aspect making the treasury charges heavier. Note: the use of the airport baggage-check avoids the need for a search warrant (the agents didn’t have one).]
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This was rumored earlier today [New York Times] and [Axios]. Now Confirmed.
President Trump has announced via Twitter that Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats is departing. He will be leaving office on August 15th, 2019.  President Trump has announced the nomination of Representative John Ratcliffe to be the next head of the Office of Director of National Intelligence.

Representative John Ratcliffe is a member of the House Judiciary Committee and House Intelligence Committee.  Ratcliffe is one of only a few people who has seen all of the unredacted DOJ and FBI evidence within the documents congress has previously asked the President to declassify.
Representative John Ratcliffe currently holds a top-level security clearance.  John Ratcliffe is very even tempered albeit direct by natural disposition.
Ratcliffe’s nomination, and confirmation should be unremarkable.
However, due to the information that Ratcliffe already holds about the overall intelligence community operation in 2015 through 2019, we can expect the deepest part of the Deep State to immediately begin a process to impede any confirmation effort.   Ratcliffe is a risk, and he will likely be controversialized in a political effort to block his nomination.
Earlier today Ratcliffe spoke to Maria Bartiromo about ongoing concerns around the DOJ, CIA, and FBI operations in 2016:
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Maria Bartiromo is one of a very few mainstream journalists with knowledge of the deepest weeds of ‘spygate’ and the multiple intelligence operations to manipulate the 2016 election against candidate Trump, and then run operations to remove President Trump.
In an extensive interview with HPSCI ranking member Devin Nunes, Maria Bartiromo asks the ultimate question: “who was the mastermind” behind all of these intelligence operations?

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Released FOIA documents into the special counsel team of Robert Mueller revealed the  remarkable trail of the 2017 entrapment scheme conducted by prosecutor Andrew Weissmann to target George Papadopoulos.
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You know Paul Ryan is pushing Fox News to jump the shark when…. After a few minutes of insufferable UniParty propaganda, even CBS is less fake news.
Margaret Brennan clutches her pearls at the outrage of Trump tweets and then settles in to the typical DC UniParty narrative:  ‘We are spending too much, but lets spend more on the Central American migrants.’  Mamet was correct: to retain positions that are inherently hypocritical, leftists have to disconnect their hypothalamus, sever their hippocampus, and pretend not to know things: aka Cognitive Dissonance.

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President Trump’s Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney appears on Fox News to debate the guardian of the swamp gates Chris Wallace.
Wallace is apoplectic about President Trump noting that Baltimore, Maryland, the most affluent state in the union, is in a state of disrepair.  Wallace does his earnest best to promote the position of the four member Fox News Board of Directors which includes former House Speaker Paul Ryan.

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The Chris Wallace/Paul Ryan status on Obama spending and deficits is jaw-dropping in the scale of how obtuse the swamp is.
First, President Obama was the first president to go through two full-terms of his presidency without a single year of a budget being passed. This was by design.
Second, in the first two years of Obama as president -together with Nancy Pelosi- without a budget they tripled the level of government spending.  After tripling the level of deficit spending, in the second term Obama then reduced that level of deficit spending by 11%.
Reducing by 11% something Obama just tripled is NOT less.
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Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Doug Collins and Intel Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes appear on Fox News to discuss their perspective on Robert Mueller, the issues revealed by the testimony, and the behind-the-schemes maneuvers of the democrats on both committees.  It’s an interesting dual-interview.

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