Yesterday while exiting the White House, President Trump told reporters he had just finished a 90 minute phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin:

“We had a great call with President Putin. We’re talking about peace in Syria — very important. We’re talking about North Korea. We had a call that lasted almost an hour and a half. We’ve just put out a release on the call. But we’re talking very strongly about bringing peace for Syria. We’re talking about very strongly about North Korea and Ukraine.” (transcript)

Important to note that conversation was longer than would have been possible at any of the Bilat’s (Bilateral Discussion) during the ASEAN Summit or APEC Meeting in Asia.  A further review of the White House readout:
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Aside from the common vernacular of ‘broken arrow‘ referencing a loss of a nuclear weapon it also means:

“a code phrase that a ground unit is facing imminent destruction from enemy attack and all available air forces within range are to provide air support immediately.”

In essence, with enemy completely overwhelming a position – a military commander calls in direct fire upon themselves in a last-ditch effort to at least retain some of their own forces in the aftermath.
For the sake of this discussion do not consider the reference ‘federal politicians’ (ie. DC congress and Senate); but rather consider the term “broken arrow” a metaphor for the totality of the past eight years and the collapse of the Democrat political apparatus in state House seats and state Senate seats.
Currently:

• State House Majority Control: 38 states Republican / 12 states Democrat
• State Senate Majority Control: 37 states Republican / 17 states Democrat / 1 state tied.
• State Governors: 34 Republican / 15 Democrat / 1 Independent

If you put a blue marble on a table for each of the Democrat politicians in state office and a red marble on the table for each of the Republican politicians in state office the table would be roughly 65% red marbles and 35% blue marbles.
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What a tangled web is weaved….  Hillary Clinton paid her lawyers at Perkins Coie for opposition research on candidate Donald Trump.  In turn Perkins Coie paid Fusion GPS to gather information.  Fusion GPS paid Christopher Steele to write the “Russian Dossier”.
The FBI also paid Christopher Steele.  Additionally, prior evidence surfaced suggesting the FBI used the dossier to get FISA warrants against the Trump campaign. And NOW we discover that Fusion GPS paid journalists and five media companies to participate.
Oh, if this ain’t just sketchy as all hell:

WASHINGTON – Newly filed court documents confirm that Fusion GPS, the company mostly responsible for the controversial “Trump dossier” on presidential candidate Donald Trump, made payments to three journalists between June 2016 until February 2017.
The revelation could be a breakthrough for House Republicans, who are exploring whether Fusion GPS used the dossier, which was later criticized for having inaccurate information on Trump, to feed anti-Trump stories to the press during and after the presidential campaign. The three journalists who were paid by Fusion GPS are known to have reported on “Russia issues relevant to [the committee’s] investigation,” the House Intelligence Committee said in a court filing.

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Oh, this is SWAMPY – and the timing is epic.  Pennsylvania Congressman Bob Brady is a ranking member of the Committee on House Administration which oversees settlements paid by Congress for sexual discrimination and harassment complaints.
Additionally, representative Brady is also under FBI investigation for false statements, conspiracy and campaign fraud, according to FBI documents revealed on Tuesday:

PHILADELPHIA –  The FBI has reason to believe U.S. Rep. Bob Brady unlawfully concealed a $90,000 payment made by his campaign to get an opponent to quit a 2012 primary race, according to court documents that confirm the Philadelphia Democrat is under investigation in a widening campaign finance probe.
In unsealed court documents made public Monday, the FBI requested a search warrant and has obtained data from an email account belonging to Brady. The FBI agent who filed the warrant wrote that there is probable cause Brady violated contribution limits and produced false documents, and there is evidence that he and others knowingly circumvented campaign finance rules.

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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.

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

Sarah H Sanders Twitter @SHSanders45

Alabama campaign officials who support Roy Moore held a press conference yesterday to outline the reason for their continued support.  Additionally, several officials confronted and deconstructed the accusations.
The audio is a little sketchy in the beginning:

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 †

This one is going to be a tough call for the Democrat apparatus.  88-year-old Representative John Conyers is the longest serving member of the house, and generally insulated from criticism by the congressional black caucus and identity politics.
Initially on Tuesday Conyers denied ever paying for sexual harassment claims against him. A few hours later his office reversed position and admitted paying.

(VIA NBC) Rep. John Conyers admitted Tuesday to reaching a financial settlement with a former staffer who had accused him of sexual misconduct but the lawmaker denied having done anything improper.  The House Ethics Committee announced several hours later it had opened an investigation.
“I expressly and vehemently denied the allegations made against me, and continue to do so,” Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, said in a statement. “My office resolved the allegations — with an express denial of liability — in order to save all involved from the rigors of protracted litigation. That should not be lost in the narrative.”

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CBS has fired long-time figurehead Charlie Rose as three more victims come forward to outline his history of sexual harassment.  Additionally, PBS and Bloomberg news have also dropped Rose from their media networks.

(Via CBS)  CBS News has fired “CBS This Morning” co-host Charlie Rose over allegations of sexual misconduct, CBS News president David Rhodes announced Tuesday.
“Despite Charlie’s important journalistic contribution to our news division, there is absolutely nothing more important, in this or any organization, than ensuring a safe, professional workplace — a supportive environment where people feel they can do their best work. We need to be such a place,” Rhodes said in a statement Tuesday.

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Go through the archives and you’ll note a strategy unfolding that few, including us, could fully conceptualize when it first appeared.  Way back when candidate Trump first began to put his economic plans into platform outlines the subtle signature was there, but few were paying attention.
In order to reverse three decades of middle-class economic erosion, there were indicators that Trump’s strategy was a radical change in approach.  In essence the strategy was to split the economic policy into two areas and sequence the policy: highly-consumable goods (first) and durable goods (second).
Both product sectors have historically been viewed and approached by economic policy makers using a single financial strategy.  That singular approach gave rise to Wall Street benefiting and Main Street suffering.  Investment-class gained; middle-class suffered.
Trump outlined an approach –albeit vaguely– that was multidimensional.
His policy would first target multinational corporations, using the U.S. Treasury (Mnuchin) to weaken their grip and influence; simultaneously, he would use energy policy to drive down domestic prices in highly-consumable products (fuel, food, energy sector).  These sectors are not measured in fed inflation indexes; however, if lowered, these facets of consumer spending can also increase the amount of disposable income available for workers.
In essence, expand the economy by lowering the aggregate cost of living for the middle-class who live paycheck-to-paycheck.  Use monetary policy, fiscal policy and trade policy), to entice domestic investment and create jobs; and ultimately put upward pressure on wages.
That’s where we are now.
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