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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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Next week on Thursday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is scheduled to travel to Washington DC and meet with President Donald Trump in the White House. Considering the importance of Germany to the EU economy and subsequent trade relationship with the U.S, this meeting with Merz will likely be the most important discussion toward a possible U.S-E.U. trade agreement.
Germany is the largest economy within the EU and the core industrial base of the European Union. The number one issue for the German people is their economic status: everything else circles around this priority.
Having spent time in Hamburg, Bremen, Dresden and Frankfurt, it is very clear to me the German people are very focused on work and their vocations. Germans overall, take their economic standing very personally and seriously.
Inasmuch as Merz may have to represent the interests of the larger EU in his approach, he will undoubtedly be focused on what is in Germany’s best interest, with all else second.
For President Trump this specific German interest creates a unique facet of leverage within the larger EU trade discussion. Because the German economy is so vital, whatever terms Germany decides are the core terms the EU will manifest in their trade and tariff negotiations.
I predict we will hear a talking point from Merz, in generally German snark, something akin to a proposal for a zero-tariff base on the import and export of heavy industrial goods (machinery) for both Germany and the USA. I say in general German snark because passive-aggressive Chancellor Merz knows the U.S. is currently not in a position to sell Germany heavy industrial goods, and that’s entirely what President Trump is trying to recreate with the trade/tariff policy.
WASHINGTON DC – German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will travel to Washington next week to meet United States President Donald Trump for the first time since taking office earlier this month.
The leaders will meet in the White House on Thursday and are expected to discuss the war in Ukraine, the Middle East and trade policy, German government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said in an emailed statement.
Stillwater –
June 1, 2025
“Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.” ~ Proverbs 23:23
Glenn Greenwald appears on Tucker Carlson’s podcast to discuss a variety of events including the media admissions about Joe Biden being mentally impaired during his tenure.
There’s a segment of their discussion [prompted] where they talk about Jeffrey Epstein being an intelligence asset to either our govt or a very friendly govt in alignment with our intel apparatus (vis-a-vis Israel). Greenwald asks why FBI Director Kash Patel and/or FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino do not just carve out that issue and answer the question: Which intelligence service was Jeffrey Epstein working for?
I would reply to the question about what Patel and Bongino do not say, by referencing that neither of them is likely allowed to say. There is a reason why some names and seemingly obvious stuff is never mentioned, answered or spoken about. All of my reviews into multiple different questions that hit the same dead-end bring me to believe they are not allowed to talk about it. Active intelligence operations and assets are always protected. WATCH:
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:20 CNN Finally Admits Joe Biden Is in Cognitive Decline
7:40 How Corporate Media Rewrites History
17:46 How Political Tribalism Is Destroying Society
19:42 The Two Main Reasons Why the Establishment Hates Trump
As previously noted, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley released some of the FBI investigative files related to a congressional referral of Nellie Ohr for false testimony to congress. Within the Grassley release the declassified FBI investigative notes show that Trump-Russia files were compartmentalized, allowing control over access to them by the FBI Director and FBI Deputy Director.
The 7th floor level classification within the FBI’s Sentinel record-keeping system was previously unknown, and now people are starting to ask questions about what other information may be filed yet invisible due to the classification designation of “Prohibited Access.”
The Sentinel record-keeping system allows FBI officials and investigators to review and research the status of investigations both past and current. The Sentinel system is also the information system that is searched for responsive documents to legal cases and FOIA inquires. The Sentinel system contains all the information used by the FBI.
Within the Sentinel system there are “Restricted Access” files that are used to control who can view the file information. The FBI official can see the file but cannot access the information within it without a higher clearance level. However, now people are discovering there is a “Prohibited Access” designation that makes the file invisible to searches or queries and is controlled by the FBI Director and FBI Deputy Director.
Margot Cleveland is asking some good questions about how the use of the “Prohibited Access” designation may circumvent the FBI’s legal requirements (brady material) and FOIA searches. [SEE HERE] However, I would also note this approach hides information not only from congress and from the public, but also from the Executive branch itself. The DNI wouldn’t even know what information exists.
Self-interested Wall Street analysts and leftist economic ‘experts’ once again proven wrong. It is almost impossible to find any financial data review written objectively by media. Everything is skewed with a negative tone, yet the data clearly shows -just like 2017- President Trump’s MAGAnomic policy benefits are starting to surface.
News pundits said President Trump’s tariff policies would skyrocket prices. In reality the yearly inflation rate [BLS data] has dropped to 2.1%, the lowest in four years. Core prices (removing food and energy) rose 2.5% from a year earlier, below the March figure of 2.7%, and the lowest in more than four years.
Meanwhile personal incomes tripled expectations coming in at 0.8% for the month of April. “Personal income surged 0.8% well ahead of the forecast for 0.3%.” Then comes the predictable. The trade deficit dropped by 46% in the month of April.
[…] The goods trade gap contracted 46.0% to $87.6 billion last month, the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau said on Friday. Goods imports decreased $68.4 billion to $276.1 billion. Exports of goods increased $6.3 billion to $188.5 billion. (source)
Companies front-loaded their orders from China in February and March, causing imports to skyrocket and a massive skew in the GDP data. As expected in April there are fewer orders because the goods were already received in the first quarter, imports drop in half.
Despite increased tariffs we are likely to see a replay of pricing parity similar to 2017 as companies benefit from lowered energy prices, lower fuel costs, lower Transporation and lower warehousing costs. Simultaneously, export companies who rely on access to the U.S. market will attempt to offset any tariff price as applied. Those combined savings can, likely will, offset increased tariffs on arriving goods.
This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.
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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The New York Times (think DHS embeds) are not concerned about the building of a surveillance state using cross-reference artificial intelligence systems into various government agencies; no, the New York Times (think DHS embeds) are concerned it is President Trump triggering the building of the process, and the parameters therein.
I have outlined this seemingly inevitable construct with great granular detail, that is creating the surveillance state for almost a year. Culminating in a December 2024 recap [SEE HERE] along with my position in January of this year [SEE HERE]. I do not like it, but I understand the arguments behind it.
[New York Times] – In March, President Trump signed an executive order calling for the federal government to share data across agencies, raising questions over whether he might compile a master list of personal information on Americans that could give him untold surveillance power.
Mr. Trump has not publicly talked about the effort since. But behind the scenes, officials have quietly put technological building blocks into place to enable his plan. In particular, they have turned to one company: Palantir, the data analysis and technology firm.
The Trump administration has expanded Palantir’s work across the federal government in recent months. The company has received more than $113 million in federal government spending since Mr. Trump took office, according to public records, including additional funds from existing contracts as well as new contracts with the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon. (This does not include a $795 million contract that the Department of Defense awarded the company last week, which has not been spent.)