President Trump began opening remarks, prior to Senate Bill 3508, with discussion surrounding Hurricane Michael and the ongoing recovery efforts.
The Save Our Seas Act involves the administration confronting foreign nations who dump trash and debris into the oceans. All forward U.S. trade agreements will include passages forcing trade partners to control oceanic trash and debris.

.
[Oval Office Transcript] – 11:27 A.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT: Okay. Thank you very much. I very much appreciate your being here. We have hurricane reports on Hurricane Michael. Unbelievably destructive, powerful.
The one good thing we can say — we were just discussing — is that it was the fastest hurricane anybody has seen. It just was speedy. If it wasn’t, there would be absolutely nothing left. It was incredibly powerful. You’ve seen the destruction.
(more…)

H.R. 1551 The Music Modernization Act – closes loopholes in our digital royalty laws to ensure that songwriters, artists, producers, and providers receive fair payment for the licensing of music.

.
[White House ] 11:57 A.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT: I know you’ve been waiting for this for a long time, you folks. Right? For a long time. Hi, Shelley. Hi, everybody. They’ve been working on this for years and years and years. And I guess certain entertainers have been taken advantage of — but no longer, because of Trump. Can you believe it? (Laughter.) Who would think? Who would think?
But I’m thrilled — I know so many of you. I mean, it’s just great. And I definitely know your music, and you’ve done a great job.
(more…)

Everything is happening in a very predictable sequence. Few understand the MAGAnomic reset and what was predicted to happen in the space between disconnecting a Wall Street economic engine (globalism and multinationals) and restarting a Main Street economic engine (nationalism/America-First).  In 2016 CTH explained where we would be today. With current Wall Street events, perhaps it is worthwhile remembering the CTH forecast.

Originally outlined far more than a year ago. Reposted by request.

President Trump’s MAGAnomic trade and foreign policy agenda is jaw-dropping in scale, scope and consequence. There are multiple simultaneous aspects to each policy objective; however, many have been visible for a long time – some even before the election victory in November ’16.
If we get too far in the weeds the larger picture is lost. CTH objective is to continue pointing focus toward the larger horizon, and then at specific inflection points to dive into the topic and explain how each moment is connected to the larger strategy.

Today we repost an earlier dive into how MAGAnomic policy interacts with multinational Wall Street, the stock market, the U.S. financial system and perhaps your personal financial value. Again, reference and source material is included at the end of the outline.
(more…)

President Trump calls in for a late-night interview with Shannon Bream.  The interview covered a multitude of issues including the recovery efforts for Hurricane Michael.
Additional topics include: the Kavanaugh hearing; mid-term politics; the missing Saudi journalist; a replacement for departing U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley; single-payer healthcare; inaccurate polls and media bias; the pending White House visit by Kanye West; ongoing issues with the AG, DAG and DOJ officials; Senators Graham, Grassley and McConnell; the recent DOW Jones drop, FED issue; current trade deals ongoing and criticism about political incivility.

(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

Sarah H Sanders Twitter @SHSanders45

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 †

There was a Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee hearing today where one of the responding executive branch officials was FBI Director Christopher Wray.  Toward the end of the hearing, long after the rest of the members had left the hearing, Chairman Ron Johnson took the opportunity to ask Director Wray some very specific and pointed questions about the current issues within the FBI as an institutional office.
Few people remember, fewer even know, that it was Ron Johnson’s committee effort that brought out the Lisa Page and Peter Strzok text messages.  Lots of other committees began exploring DOJ and FBI misconduct, but it was Johnson who started the sunlight back in July and August of 2017.  That’s the baseline to begin to appreciate this questioning.

The exchange between Chairman Johnson and Director Wray begins around 02:15:00 of the video (nearly two and a half hours into the hearing).  Likely few will have watched this because, just like actually reading the 600 pages of Page/Strzok text messages, it takes granular exploration to understand what is happening.
Chairman Johnson starts asking specific questions about the lack of response from officials underneath Director Wray.  As CTH outlined in the June 2018 FBI press conference on the IG report, Christopher Wray transparently has no clue (intentionally so) what is going on within his institutional apparatus.
Wray doesn’t know who has responded to oversight requests; what oversight requests have been made; what documents exist; what documents are being hidden; what documents the FBI possesses; and the current status of the FBI to produce documents for oversight.
This level of disconnection is critical to see and watch first-hand.
(more…)

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes appears on Fox News to discuss Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and the ongoing issues surrounding the declassification of documents.

.
Referenced WaPo Article HERE
(more…)

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was scheduled to testify tomorrow to a closed-door joint House congressional committee (Judiciary/Oversight) chaired by Bob Goodlatte.   This committee has been conducting oversight into activity within the FBI and DOJ as it pertains to prior politicization of the agencies.
According to reports from earlier today, DAG Rosenstein is now refusing to deliver testimony to the committee about his personal involvement in the soft-coup attempt against President Trump:

(Via Washington Post) Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein’s interview with a joint House panel reviewing the Justice Department investigation of President Trump’s alleged Russia ties will not take place this week as expected, according to congressional aides involved with the planning.

(more…)

There are times when the perspectives of bitter, vile and shallow people are displayed in such a manner that it becomes difficult to find words to describe them.  This video excerpt from a CNN panel discussing Kanye West is one of those indescribable examples.
I can’t even fathom how this level of toxic hatred, combined with a race-based attack, is aired and presented on a network television show in modern times.  This is the face of the real democrat party apparatus when you remove their hoods.  However, Take race out of the equation for a moment…
Think about this CNN panel segment from the perspective gleefully denigrating and attempting to humiliate another person, any person, simply because you disagree with their views on any issue.  Laughing as they each try to one-up each other in the level of belittlement.
The participants should be ashamed, but they won’t be. They should apologize for their belittling commentary, but they won’t.  CNN should be ostracized for their vile, condescending and openly aired hatred; but they likely don’t even see the scale of their inhumanity.  This is CNN, and the face of the modern political left:

(more…)