Hillary Clinton and aligned political operatives manufactured the illusion of a connection between Russian entities and the Trump campaign/organization. Those manufactured points of evidence, including a sketchy Russian Dossier, were used by the political intelligence community (Clapper, Brennan Comey) to open an investigation of nothingness – to nowhere.

The mere existence of the investigation was then used as the originating point for a series of media intel leaks (the narrative) intended to cloud and damage the Trump campaign/organization.  CNN, The Washington Post and New York Times led the charge:

Washington (CNN) – The FBI last year used a dossier of allegations of Russian ties to Donald Trump’s campaign as part of the justification to win approval to secretly monitor a Trump associate, according to US officials briefed on the investigation.

FBI Director James Comey, as head of one of the investigative agencies. became a willing part of that political apparatus, kept congress in the dark, and yet engaged in leaking information to his friends and media allies.

However, now, with usefulness exhausted and with increasing sunlight representing a legal risk, it’s CYA time all around for the originating entities.  “CNN President Jeff Zucker is personally involved in the internal investigation into a now-retracted hit piece, sources inside CNN with direct knowledge confirmed to Breitbart News.”  CNN now saying any reporting pushing the Russia conspiracy need executive approvals before being allowed.

This slow walk to the exits occurs simultaneously to the sketchy organization, Fusion GPS, with direct ties to the Hillary Clinton campaign effort, refuses to give any information to congressional investigators.

(more…)

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer delivers the press briefing for June 26th:

.

[TRANSCRIPT] – 1:47 P.M. EDT:

MR. SPICER: Good afternoon. I want to say at the top that with respect to the Supreme Court decision on the President’s executive order, the President was honored by the 9-0 decision that allows him to use an important tool to protect our nation’s homeland.

His number-one responsibility as Commander-in-Chief is to keep the American people safe, and that’s exactly what this executive order does.

(more…)

President Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are scheduled to give a joint press conference at approximately 5:30pm. After a series of meetings at the White House, Trump and Modi will issue statements. However, earlier reports stated they would not take questions from reporters.  Modi met separately with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis earlier in the day.

Following the presser, the president and first lady Melania Trump will host Prime Minister Modi at a “working dinner.” It’s the first such dinner for a world leader at the White House, though President and Mrs. Trump hosted similar affairs for the leaders of Japan and China at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla.

As the leaders prepared to meeting, officials pointed out that Trump and Modi have at least one thing in common: A very large presence on social media. Both have more than 30 million followers on Twitter.

UPDATE: Video Added

(more…)

Moments ago President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump welcomed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the White House.

Prime Minister Modi is currently in United States in the second leg of his three-nation tour. This is PM Modi’s fourth visit to the US. However, this is his first visit to US with President Donald Trump, and comes at a time with Geo-strategic security and and economic trade interests at the forefront of policy issues for both countries. (Video and Pictures below)

(more…)

Our friends at the U.S. Dept of Commerce (DoC) took the weekend off prior to uploading the content from last week’s SelectUSA conference on economics and trade. Unfortunately that delayed our ability to discuss.

However, that said, CTH is often asked how we are able to predict economic and financial events with accuracy. The answer is quite simple, we listen to the raw information. We don’t listen to the media’s interpretation of events, we seek out the actual events and analyze the raw information. Assemble enough of those disparate (but connected) raw information data points and logical predictive conclusions follow.

During the U.S. DoC SelectUSA trade and economic conference last week both Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross provided some great insight into the policies that will structurally impact everyone. Three videos are available below:

Secretary Wilbur Ross armchair discussion and Q&A:

(more…)

Too funny.  President Trump is relentless.  Under attack from every direction; he’s seemingly just one person, yet he has his opposition surrounded.

Yup, tomorrow is just another Tuesday…

Well before most were discussing the possibility of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy retiring from the court we anticipated he would.  In January we discussed the ramifications for Senator Schumer filibustering the nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch to the court, and how politics was a land-mine if Schumer took that route.

The reasoning was simple.  Justice Anthony Kennedy wants to retire, and Justice Kennedy holds institutional and traditional reverence for the court far beyond politics.  Kennedy has previously showcased his disdain for politics and how it corrupts the court. Kennedy’s actual outlook is so steeped in judicial tradition he will defer, modify and delay his own personal interests if he senses a need to guard or protect the integrity of traditions within the court from the toxic infiltration of politics.

In all significant ways that matter, Justice Neil Gorsuch was/is more of an ideological replacement (high brow) for Kennedy than he was for Scalia, at least from the perspective of Kennedy.  We anticipated, somewhat based on how Senator Schumer acquitted himself, that Kennedy would retire with a successful Gorsuch appointment.

(more…)

So much winning. The Supreme Court is letting a version of the Trump administration ban on travel from six mostly Muslim countries to take effect, a victory for President Donald Trump. In the decision to lift the stay the court outlined temporary limits to the ban based on status.

The court said Monday the ban on visitors from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen could be enforced as long as they lack a “credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.” The justices will hear arguments in the case in October. President Trump said last week the immigration and travel restrictions would take effect 72 hours after being cleared by courts.

#1: Agree to hear case:

[W]e grant both of the Government’s petitions for certiorari and consolidate the cases for argument.

#2: Agree to allow ban to continue:

We grant the Government’s applications to stay the injunctions, to the extent the injunctions prevent enforcement of §2(c) with respect to foreign nationals who lack any bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.

Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch said they would have let the complete bans take effect without any limits. (more…)

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

Sean Spicer Twitter @PressSec