The activist who climbed the base of the Statue of Liberty on Independence Day, Therese Patricia Okoumou, held a press conference yesterday outside a New York Courthouse in front of an adoring crowd of Democrat supporters.
Ms. Okoumou is a 44-year-old immigrant from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She lives in the St. George neighborhood of Staten Island, and took the opportunity yesterday to spew an anti-America chant during a news conference.  WATCH:

PHASE II – President Trump tweeted earlier today about the ongoing geopolitical contest that is priority #1 in defending U.S. interests and retaining our economic strength.
Do not be surprised if North Korea launches another provocative missile test soon. Watch China, not N.Korea. It’s Chairman Xi’s people in the DPRK who are taking action. Kim Jong-Un is an expendable proxy regime. The war is the U.S. -vs- China trade and economic confrontation. North Korea is the Potemkin backdrop for the Beijing puppeteer.

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As POTUS Trump and the U.S. trade team target ever increasing tariff pressure upon Beijing to change their behavior, keep a close eye on North Korea. Given the zero-sum approach of the Chinese; and their history of weaponizing the DPRK; we could expect to see Beijing roll out nuclear antagonism again in an overt effort to gain concessions.
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President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

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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 †

Larry Kudlow has fully immersed himself in MAGA.  The evolution from supporter to believer likely comes from the increase in proximity to President Trump and the resolve therein.   Good stuff.
In this segment the Chairman of the National Economic Council discusses the background of the U.S. -v- China trade reset and the long-term goal of open global markets with Zero tariffs, Zero non-trade barriers and Zero subsidies.

A new release from the FBI Vault on the Hillary Clinton email investigation reveals the Anthony Weiner/Huma Abedin laptop containing Clinton emails (350,000) and Blackberry communications (344,000) was never reviewed for intrusion prior to the 2016 election.

Here’s how we discover. However, first, the frustrating context:

From the Boston Marathon bombing investigation through the San Bernardino terrorist attack; passing the Garland, Texas cartoon terror shooting; and continuing through Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub; and then through the Parkland shooting and into Las Vegas -via the Mandalay Bay- we always knew something was wrong with the apparatus, the institutional apparatus, of the FBI… but it wasn’t until 2017 with James Comey, Andrew McCabe and the transparently corrupt Clinton exoneration and candidate Trump set-up scheme that we fully grasped the scale and scope of the corruption.
It is disconcerting to accept that the institution of the FBI is corrupt, soup-to-nuts, including every aforementioned field office and participant therein.  But reality doesn’t care about feelings; it just stares you in the face until we accept it.
Talking heads always approach the issue with a co-dependent and enabling qualifier: “we’re not talking about the field agents”, they say.  Um, no; that’s nonsense.  If the institution is corrupt, then every entity within it is corrupt – until such time as the corruption is removed.
Enter FBI Director Christopher Wray…
FBI Director Wray seems like an affable person who is, by all reasonable evaluations, entirely way-over-his-head in dealing with the systemic rot, cancer and corruption.
Sound harsh?  Go back and WATCH the post IG report (Clinton email investigation) press conference; it’s not harsh.   It takes a particular kind of corruption manager to stand in front of a national audience and tell the world there was no bias in the Clinton email investigation… yet, he’s going to put every employee of the FBI through “bias training”?
Yeah, un huh.
No bias… but everyone needs bias training.  Gotcha.
Perhaps a more nonsensical statement was declared somewhere…. but I couldn’t remember one… until…. well, until the same DOJ/FBI released the FISA application constructed by the institution of the FBI.  This is where we read:
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Move along… move along… nothing to see here folks… Las Vegas Sheriff Joe Lombardo announces the end to the investigation of the Mandalay Bay Massacre with a declaration there is no known motive and there was no second shooter.

LAS VEGAS –  In the year before Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock carried out the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history, the high-stakes gambler appeared to have become increasingly unstable, distant and constantly complained of being sick, according to a final investigative report released Friday.
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National Economic Council Chairman Larry Kudlow discusses the July jobs report with Fox News host Stuart “Grumbles” Varney.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the July 2018 employment report today (full pdf with tables below) highlighting continued growth in jobs.  Overall private employment gained 170,000 jobs, while government employment decreased 13,000 jobs for a net gain of 156,000 new jobs.   The BLS unemployment rate dropped to 3.9%.
[*Note this footnote:  “The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for May was revised up to +268,000, and the change for June was revised up to +248,000. With these revisions, employment gains in May and June combined were 59,000 more than previously reported.”]  Huh, funny that…. some revision eh?
July’s labor participation is holding steady at 62.9%, with 155,965,000 employed within the U.S. workforce. (Table A-1)
Blue and White-collar Main Street jobs continue to lead the MAGAnomic resurgence. (table B-1) Construction jobs increased 19,000 jobs; manufacturing gained 37,000 jobs; and trade/transportation and utilities gaining 15,000.
With extra cash in their pockets, the U.S. worker/consumer continued to spend and retail employment added 7,100 new workers in July.   (Table B1) Interestingly, and reinforcing a long-ago CTH prediction, the consumer spending growth (leading to increases in employment) is specifically in the consumable goods sector (food, clothing, etc.).   This is connected to the increase in work-time (table B2); an oft overlooked aspect to the economy.
Truck transportation gained 4,400 jobs in July (everyone needs truckers), which is in line with the high wage growth (3.4%) within this sub-set of the transportation industry.

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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.

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

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