Earlier today the U.S. State Department held a special briefing to outline concerning discoveries within Syria, including a new crematorium for use in the disposal of bodies.

[Transcript] MS NAUERT: It’s great to see you. Thanks, everyone, for assembling here so quickly today. Welcome to the State Department. We asked you here to provide you with some new information on the six-year crisis in Syria. I’m joined today by Acting Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs Stuart Jones. Stuart recently returned from the talks in Astana. He’ll give us an update and also provide you with some newly declassified information on Syria today.

Last week, Secretary Tillerson met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for more than an hour here in Washington. You’ve read the readout from that meeting, but I’d like to provide you with some additional context and details coming out of that meeting today.

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The firing of FBI Director James Comey has sent the professional political left into blinding fits of ridiculously over-the-top outrage.

The protestations are so ridiculous that a reasonable person has to ask if Comey wasn’t the center of a much larger political value for their ideological needs.

Made all the more clear when you consider that Comey stunningly admitted to congress (March 20th) he was actively working with the Obama White House, Susan Rice (Nat. Sec. Adviser), James Clapper (ODNI) and Sally Yates (Asst. AG – DOJ), all political operatives, while intentionally not allowing intelligence investigation oversight from congress.

Perhaps it is the removal of that specifically partisan Comey value that has the left-wing politicians and their MSM water-carriers so angered. It would be intellectually dishonest in the extreme not to fully accept this motivation for their behavior.

Therefore when President Trump says that Director Comey told him he was not the subject of, or participatory party to, the FBI counter-intelligence investigation of Russian election efforts, the rage filled oppositional ideologues go bananas.

However, Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican, and Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, seemingly validate the exact same position:

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Everyone is so caught up with their discussion of President Trump around the firing of FBI Director James Comey that they are completely overlooking the most explosive scandal in the history of congress.

This scandal, if exposed, should remove, or at least censure: Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, Dianne Feinstein, Richard Burr, Devin Nunes, Adam Schiff and Mark Warner.

The absence of their accountability shows the depth of corruption within Washington DC.

First, understand their job – Each of the aforementioned was/is part of the congressional intelligence oversight called the “Gang of Eight“. The Go8 are exclusively responsible for overseeing all intelligence community activity as it relates to intelligence gathering and corresponding investigations.

In short these eight elected representatives are in charge of all oversight of all U.S. intelligence operations and investigations.  As elected representatives, they represent one of the most important checks within the system of government overseeing non-elected officials. (more…)

Earlier today, following a brief visit to the White House, Secretary Rex Tillerson welcomed Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov to the State Department.

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STATE DEPT – “I want to welcome Foreign Minister Lavrov to the State Department and express my appreciation for him making the trip to Washington so that we can continue our dialogue and our exchange of views that began in Moscow with the dialogue he hosted on a very broad range of topics. Thank you.”

~ Secretary Rex Tillerson

Again, the multidimensional politics of how President Trump utilized the leverage of Comey’s firing to diffuse the toxic antagonism with the Russian relationship is so far beyond diplomatic history making – modern historians have not yet been born who can aptly outline its consequence. (more…)

Last month Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Moscow. Today, President Trump reciprocates with a welcome of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Washington DC.

WHITE HOUSE – President Donald J. Trump met today with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia, following on the visit of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Moscow last month.

President Trump emphasized the need to work together to end the conflict in Syria, in particular, underscoring the need for Russia to rein in the Assad regime, Iran, and Iranian proxies.

The President raised Ukraine, and expressed his Administration’s commitment to remain engaged in resolving the conflict and stressed Russia’s responsibility to fully implement the Minsk agreements.  He also raised the possibility of broader cooperation on resolving conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere.

The President further emphasized his desire to build a better relationship between the United States and Russia. (WH link)

There are more pictures below of President Trump, Foreign Minister Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Kislyak in the oval office. (more…)

Last month President Trump took a great deal of criticism for calling Turkish President Erdogan and congratulating him on the narrow referendum victory. Many critics of Trump said he was congratulating a dictator, without also recognizing Turkey is a NATO member.

As long as Turkey is allowed to remain in NATO the entire member nation alliance will always be compromised by the self-serving Islamic interests of Erdogan.  The EU and the political left, demand President Trump recognize the value of NATO – and hypocritically denounce Trump for speaking to a NATO nation’s leader.  This is the mindset of the idiots in the EU and their defenders amid the political left.

Today, the Trump administration announces they are arming the Kurdish fighting forces in Northern Syria. President Erdogan hates the Kurds and considers them as adversaries and political opposition to his control over Turkey.

Within the dynamic you can see a multidimensional problem. The Kurds are fighting short-term against ISIS and Bashir Assad in Syria; however, in the larger Kurdish goal they are also attempting to establish their own independent state, Kurdistan.

Erdogan opposes Assad, but Erdogan more strongly opposes the Kurds and any Kurdistan formation efforts because it would destroy his goal of establishing the new Ottoman empire he dreams of leading. (more…)

Holy Cats. This post is somewhat rushed because everyone needs to watch Sally Yates testify before congress, and there’s a very distinct possibility President Trump has just laid a trap to catch her.  The Muh Russia Judiciary Hearing.

Initially I was open-minded, albeit skeptical, about the potential for President Trump to have laid out a rather well constructed trap to catch intelligence leakers together with Michael Flynn.  Skeptical because the construct of the trap is intensely Machiavellian.

However, today two very obvious indicators point to that being more reality than supposition.

Yates is scheduled to testify for the first time in public, alongside James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, who pushed Flynn in 2014 from his job as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. The two are due to appear before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee at 2:30 p.m.  (link)

Not accidentally, today the media is playing out a leaked story about President Obama warning President Trump [On November 10th] about Michael Flynn. Against the backdrop of the February media narrative: why would the Obama white house source wait until just prior to Yates testimony? Why today?  Obviously the political angle is transparent.

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We are entirely clear-eyed as to the scope of the challenge. No-one amid our association is naive to the seemingly impossible scale against the backdrop of history.  It may be that their task is impossible. Yet, if they do not try then how will we know it can’t be done? And if they do not try, it most certainly won’t be done…

There is absolutely no doubt of the work that has been going on for months, quietly, mostly under the radar.  National media are completely deficient for not covering the ongoing events and the diplomacy that has been taking place all year.

We have a front row seat to what President Trump has been assembling, and I would never bet against the ability of President Trump and the people now aligned in consequence.

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The Diplomatic Timeline below:

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This presentation is so good and so important, we’re sticking it to the top of the page for a while. 

“The Trump Doctrine”

Earlier today Secretary of State Rex Tillerson talked to the employees at the State Department and delivered outstanding remarks to explain the Trump administration foreign policy approach.  T-Rex talks about the ongoing State Dept. mission and how values and policies intersect with the larger ‘America-First’ strategy.

Specifically T-Rex explains how the distinction between U.S. ‘values’ relates to U.S. ‘policy’ but determinations of influence and our best interests cannot necessarily be contingent upon foreign governments accepting values that are inherently different to their culture.

These remarks delivered to State Dept personnel are exceptionally well presented and intensely interesting.

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[Transcript] SECRETARY TILLERSON: Good morning. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you.  Are we on? Can you all hear me back there in the back? Can you hear me now? (Laughter.) Can you hear me now?

AUDIENCE: Yes.

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A readout from the White House following a phone call today between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

[White House] President Donald J. Trump of the United States and President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation spoke today regarding Syria. President Trump and President Putin agreed that the suffering in Syria has gone on for far too long and that all parties must do all they can to end the violence.

The conversation was a very good one, and included the discussion of safe, or de-escalation, zones to achieve lasting peace for humanitarian and many other reasons. The United States will be sending a representative to the cease-fire talks in Astana, Kazakhstan on May 3-4. They also discussed at length working together to eradicate terrorism throughout the Middle East. Finally, they spoke about how best to resolve the very dangerous situation in North Korea. (link)