This afternoon President Trump held a press availability in the oval office answering questions from the media as he signed an executive order [Available Here] directing the prevention of on-line censorship in social media platforms.

The president was joined by Attorney General Bill Barr, and both leaders delivered remarks and answered questions from the media. [Video Below, Transcript to Follow]

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[Read Executive Order Here] – In the periphery of this executive action there are indications, and a widespread expectation, the DOJ is close to filing an antitrust lawsuit against Google Inc and their affiliated companies. There is a strong possibility the controlling ideology of ‘big tech’ is about to merge with legal action by the DOJ.

The DOJ action has not yet happened, but there are signals it is very close. There have been visible signals, subtle but visible, that the DOJ was/is about to move on a massive (the biggest in history) antitrust lawsuit against Google and all affiliates.

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Lee Smith appears on Lou Dobbs to discuss the latest revelations in the Obama-era surveillance operations.  Mr. Smith calls it “Obama’s culture of espionage.”

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After President Trump announced he would veto any FISA reauthorization bill, without a full investigative review of prior FISA abuse so that legislation could be created specifically to fix the severe flaws in the process, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has dropped the vote for FISA reauthorization:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The House of Representatives on Thursday dropped consideration of legislation that would have extended U.S. surveillance tools, after President Donald Trump threatened a veto and his fellow Republicans withdrew their support.

“The two-thirds of the Republican Party that voted for this bill in March have indicated they are going to vote against it now,” Representative Steny Hoyer said in a statement on Thursday, after a vote on the measure was unexpectedly postponed late on Wednesday.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to members of the Democratic caucus saying she intends to hold negotiations with the Senate on a possible compromise bill that could be passed and sent to Trump.  (read more)

A little background context is needed.  In November of 2019 buried deep in the congressional budget Continuing Resolution (CR) was a short-term extension to reauthorize the FISA “business records provision”, the “roving wiretap” provision, the “lone wolf” provision, and the more controversial bulk metadata provisions [Call Detail Records (CDR)], all parts of the Patriot Act.

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The Dept. of Labor released weekly unemployment data showing an additional 2.1 million workers filed new unemployment compensation claims last week; bringing the total claims to over 40 million since the Wuhan virus mitigation effort shut down the U.S. economy.

However, there is some good news within the data.   The “continuing claims”, meaning those who have been collecting unemployment compensation for at least two weeks, is now at 21 million.  That’s a drop of almost four million from the prior week and signals that jobs are returning as the state economies begin reopening.

Additionally, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released the second estimate of the first quarter Gross Domestic Product.  The estimate moved the prior contraction of -4.8 percent slightly lower to a newly revised estimate of -5.0 percent.

With the first quarter at -5.0 percent (Jan, Feb, March) and a guaranteed much larger contraction in the second quarter (April, May, June) it is now a certainty we will officially be labeled “in a recession” when the Q2 numbers are released on the last Friday of July.  The media is using the data lag to narrate, and drag-out discussion of negative economic news, as long as possible.

There are some indicators the rebound will be strong (home sales, housing starts, mortgage applications, consumer confidence) but the key to both a wide and deep recovery is putting people back to work as quickly as possible.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Kayleigh McEnany Twitter @PressSec

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

John Bash, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, has been assigned to assist USAO John Durham in the investigation of corrupt and malign activity by former USIC,  DOJ and FBI officials.  USAO Bash is in addition to USAO Jeff Jensen who is reviewing activity specifically as it pertains to General Michael Flynn.

John Bash is assigned to review the scale and severity of overall Obama-era unmasking to identify if laws were broken, and or if downstream leakers can be identified.

Tonight Sean Hannity invites Justice Dept. Spokesperson Kerri Kupec onto his television show so she could listen to him talk about it.  Within the interview: “the attorney general determined that certain aspects of unmasking needed to be reviewed separately as a support to John Durham’s investigation,” Ms. Kupec said. WATCH:

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Within an interesting interview conducted by Jan Jekielek of Epoch Times, former AAG Matt Whitaker confirms what CTH long suspected. The Mueller investigation was used by corrupt interests within the special counsel’s office to threaten any/all executive branch and congressional officials with “obstruction of justice” charges if they revealed any exculpatory or counter-narrative information during the Mueller probe.

Whitaker describes this as the “obstruction of justice trap.”

Essentially, this approach confirms the second-prong purpose of the Mueller investigation itself. First, use the special counsel in 2017, 2018 and into the beginning of 2019, as a shield (hide information); and secondly a weapon (threats) against any entity who would reveal the background intelligence that undercut the Trump-Russia collusion narrative.

We know President Trump was threatened by Rod Rosenstein not to declassify any information in September of 2018 or the Mueller investigation would use that act as evidence of obstruction. Whitaker confirms that same approach was applied toward any executive branch officer who would reveal or release information to congress during the tenure of the special counsel; even within the DOJ and including the attorney general.

This is how the Mueller probe was weaponized to mislead the American people.

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Moments ago President Trump tweeted he will veto the House FISA re-authorization if it is passed without first investigating and exposing prior FISA abuses committed against his prior election campaign and administration:

The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote by proxy on the FISA re-authorization previously passed by the Senate.  No-one has any idea if the FISA vote will actually pass the House and it appears most republicans are positioned to vote against it.

Lou Dobbs discusses the issues with Representative Jim Jordan shortly before President Trump tweeted his intent.  WATCH:

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These developments come on the heels of increased sunlight into the corrupt purposes and intents of Obama-era intelligence officials and how they weaponized their authorities to target the Trump administration starting with National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

[…] It was the FBI, not the NSA, that wiretapped Kislyak’s calls and created the summary and transcript, the former officials said. (link)

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UPDATE 4:00pm Mission Scrubbed due to weather

History will unfold today as NASA and SpaceX launch astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley to the International Space Station. This mission marks the first time since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011 that humans will fly to the space station from U.S. soil.  Targeted Launch Time 4:33pm EDT  – Livestreams Ongoing

NASA and SpaceX are providing live coverage from launch to arrival at the space station. Teams are targeting 4:33 p.m. EDT for the launch of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket from historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The Crew Dragon is scheduled to dock to the space station at 11:29 a.m. Thursday, May 28.

NASA Livestream Link – SpaceX Livestream Link – CSPAN Livestream Link

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