The entire system is bloated and needs to be eliminated. However, I will just note for the record; no one ever talked about the staffing level at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence until Director Tulsi Gabbard was appointed to head the agency and for the first time in history utilized the legislatively created power of the office over the entire Intelligence Community.

Several years ago, CTH was outlining the unrealized power of the office; we even went further and explained in detail what changes that office could make to rein in the larger Intelligence Community, including the CIA, and not a single person in DC was ever concerned about ODNI staffing level.  Suddenly Gabbard started making changes, big changes, like removing the National Intelligence Council from the CIA and simultaneously the DC system started shouting about reducing the office.  It’s a little, well, ironic I guess, in a DC way.

Today, Acting DNI Bill Pulte notes another round of staff removals:

[SOURCE]

WASHINGTON DC – […] Pulte’s announcement of a 30 percent cut, depending on the baseline for when the dismissals started, could amount to the elimination of more than 300 staff at the ODNI, which is charged with coordinating intelligence collected by the other 17 members of the U.S. spy community and overseeing their budgets. It comes the same day the Senate is expected to vote on his full-time replacement, current top Manhattan federal prosecutor Jay Clayton, as the next head of the ODNI.

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President Donald J Trump attends the funeral service for Senator Lindsey Graham and delivers remarks.  It is a remarkable memorial to the legacy of Senator Graham.

President Trump remarks begin at 15:00 of the video below.

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Be thankful that God has allowed you to see what is unfolding. Others that remain asleep are not as lucky as you.

Ask yourself in prayer, why you. Why now? Then, think about this daily in your quiet time. Affirm your spirit and allow this sense of fortunate knowledge to elevate your faith and confidence in a loving and purposeful God. You have the unique gift of discernment. Ultimately, you have been chosen.

Be thankful. Remember, Romans 13:12

Live a positive, affirming, purposeful and incredible life.

Within every battle, challenge and contest we encounter, always remember to be thankful and continue living your best life.

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It has been said that all wars are “bankers wars,” however, against the modern era of inverted fascism where corporations tell the govt what policies take priority, the more accurate truism ‘is all wars being controlled by money’, not necessarily banks.

The European Commission has constructed a very special kind of proactive financing for Ukraine that doesn’t require them to give their own €uros to the historically corrupt country.  Partly because the EU doesn’t have their own money, and partly because everything the EU does in the sphere of finance is always a false construct, what the EU put together was a financial system based on sanctioned, confiscated (ie stolen) Russian sovereign wealth funds {citation}.

As part of the sanction regime, the EU and western NATO alliance seized roughly €250 billion, $300 billion USD, in Russian sovereign wealth assets.  As long as the USA was financing the Ukraine government and war effort, those funds sat on the sidelines undiscussed.  However, once the USA stopped writing checks to Ukraine an alternate finance system was needed.

What the EU (Ursula von der Leyen) put together was a finance package using the confiscated $300 billion in the Russian sovereign wealth fund as collateral for loans to Ukraine.  The EU would send the money to Ukraine as a loan that did not have a payback mechanism. Instead, the thinking goes that when the negotiations for a ceasefire take place, Russia would be forced to give up the confiscated $300 billion as part of a reparations package to Ukraine.

Ukraine doesn’t have to pay back the loans because Russia will be forced to give up their sovereign wealth fund, and those funds will repay the loans.  That’s the way the EU financing of Ukraine is set up. {SOURCE}  The EU isn’t giving Ukraine EU money; the EU is giving Ukraine the Russian wealth fund money.

Now, immediately you can see a few problems.

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President Trump called into Fox morning television show to outline current events and answer questions about them.

President Donald Trump joins ‘Fox & Friends’ by phone to discuss late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s life, potential military operations in Iran and Dr. Anthony Fauci’s upcoming Senate testimony.

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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.

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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 †

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Watching carefully what Volodymyr Zelenskyy says, with an overlay of his contacts and travel itinerary, it appears the next phase in Ukraine weapon production will be to build missile and long-range drones outside Ukraine. That is to say outside the reach of proactive Russian attack.

Zelenskyy travelled to Portsmouth, U.K., today for a meeting with newly installed Prime Minister Andy Burnham.  Instead of meeting in London, the two met at a military base in Portsmouth, where 200 Ukrainian soldiers are currently completing maritime exercises.

In an interview with Sky News just before departing for the meeting, Zelenskyy noted the intention to use U.K. factories.

In mentioning a joint U.K-Ukraine “drone deal,” Zelenskyy noted [15:32 video] “I want to build a big factory in Britain, while offering new technologies and sharing with our partners.“

¹I don’t think Zelenskyy was supposed to say that out loud.

Zelenskyy noted the challenges for the U.K effort to support him essentially boils down to “money, intelligence and technology.”

With the EU providing Zelenskyy with funds from the seized Russian sovereign fund; essentially loans with no payback provisions as forfeiture of the fund is intended to be wrapped into any peace negotiation with Russia; Zelenskyy is positioning Ukraine to spend the EU (Russian) funds in the U.K to manufacture authorized Patriot Missiles, U.K Storm Shadow missiles and drones to expand the conflict with Russia.

One thing is abundantly clear from the action over the past few weeks, Ukraine and EU/NATO are fully intending to expand the conflict with Russia and, if possible, pull the Iran conflict into the European dynamic.  That’s why Ukraine attacked the Iranian vessels recently.

LISTEN/watch CAREFULLY

¹You may need to use a VPN to watch this interview as the content was suddenly limited after it was on YouTube for a few hours.  I suspect the note I made above is directly related to this content control.

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Apparently, Joe Biden revealed massive amounts of classified intelligence during a series of roughly three hours of recording done for his ghostwriter and biographer.  The recordings are dated from November 2016 to April 2017.

The Oversight Project filed a lawsuit to gain the audio files and has uploaded them to YouTube.  They are in reverse chronological order.  The gaps in the audio are redactions due to classified information. LISTEN:

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Drawing attention to the importance of the U.S. auto industry, President Trump takes a trip to the GM proving ground in Milford, Michigan to deliver remarks and view a drag race and vehicle demonstration.

Livestream Links of the Event Below:

UPDATE: Video Added

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