White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders delivers the press briefing for the Russia, Russia, Russia narrative for July 12th, 2017.  Audio and Transcript below:

[Transcript] 3:24 P.M. EDT – MS. SANDERS: Good afternoon. Earlier this afternoon, the Senate Judiciary Committee concluded the confirmation hearing for Chris Wray, the President’s nominee for FBI director.
During his hearing, Chris Wray continually displayed the strong character, deep knowledge, and moral integrity that make him, as former Democrat Senator Sam Nunn testified, “…the leader the [FBI] needs at this critical moment.” And the President looks forward to seeing this incredibly qualified nominee move through the Judiciary Committee and be swiftly confirmed by the full Senate.
(more…)

The House Appropriations Committee has proposed a State Department budget with significant cuts of 14 percent.  However, those proposed cuts are only half of the proposed “deep state” spending cuts in President Donald Trump’s budget outline.

WASHINGTON DC – […]  The panel’s spending bill for State and Foreign Operations which includes State Department funding and other agencies and programs is $47.4 billion, an overall 17 percent cut. That figure includes $12 billion in Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding that does not count toward budget caps.
The cuts, while deep, are less severe than those proposed by President Trump in his budget. The president’s blueprint would have cut State’s funding by roughly twice as much. (read more)

It might be challenging to see what this budgetary angle is to the larger aims of the Trump administration, but the spending proposal of the Trump administration is actually targeted toward a larger objective of swamp draining.  And therein, we find the entire apparatus of the administrative state, ‘deep state’, UniParty pushing back.
(more…)

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are scheduled to depart the White House tonight at 7:30pm for a trip to France in celebration of the 100th Anniversary Bastille Day.  The president and first-lady accepted the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron.
There is a great deal of geopolitical interest in this trip driven mostly by the media’s penchant for personality reporting and celebrity tabloid journalism.
However, the EU media is also providing a great deal of specificity surrounding the schedule of the first family.
Given the broad history of MSM promoting political protests against their worldview, but more specifically given the real and present danger of Parisian terror threats, the granular level advanced information presents a higher level of concern.

PARIS – Pesident Emmanuel Macron of France will treat his American counterpart Donald Trump to a lobster dinner with an unparalleled view over the Eiffel Tower when he visits Paris this week, according to reports.
[…] According to Paris Match, the French president will treat Mr Trump to a gastronomic dinner in the famed Jules Verne restaurant run by multi-Michelin starred super chef Alain Ducasse, which offers one of the finest views of the capital – from the second floor of the Eiffel Tower.

(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

Sean Spicer Twitter @PressSec

Donald Trump Jr. appeared on Sean Hannity’s TV show to discuss the controversy of his meeting with a Russian attorney named Natalia Veselnitskaya during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Both former campaign manager Paul Manafort and campaign adviser Jared Kushner reported the meeting on their various compliance forms, however Donald Trump Jr. is not within government and did not have any requirement to identify the meeting.

(more…)

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 †

Ralph ‘sticky lips‘ Peters is a dangerous person. His previous behavior and advocacy showcases his ideology as one which espouses American intervention and elevation of the war machine at any cost.
His history of advocacy for illegal weapons distribution to any foreign entity, regardless of their eventual and predictable disposition to the United States, is littered with outcomes supported by John McCain and Lindsey Graham.
Peters constantly pushes the memes of war, any war. He previously asserted that President Trump should appoint Lindsey Graham to be the Director of National Intelligence after General Mike Flynn was fired.
A few months ago Ralph Peters claimed Fox Business host Lou Dobbs was a Russian operative working on behalf of Vladimir Putin. His unstable mind previously caused him to be suspended from Fox News for using vulgarities to describe President Obama.
Ralph Peters is a seriously unstable and dangerous war-mongering person; and nothing triggers that mindset like a threat of demilitarization. Cue the audio visual demonstration.

(more…)

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrives in Doha Qatar to discuss the ongoing issues between the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) and the government of Qatar for their support of the Muslim Brotherhood, writ large, and the various extremist affiliates therein.
There is a strategic geopolitical shifting taking place; with a specifically directed and simultaneously coordinated multi-continent-encompassing foreign policy of the Trump administration taking place.  It takes elevation to see it and we will attempt to explain it later.

.
[Transcript] FOREIGN MINISTER AL-THANI: (In progress) (Via interpreter) — at the trilateral level between the United States and Qatar, then a trilateral meeting with the presence of our brothers in Kuwait to discuss the latest developments in the Gulf crisis and the appreciated efforts by our brothers in the state of Kuwait and the help of our friends in the United States.
(more…)

This is oddly interesting.
( h/t GWP ) At the heart of the current media Russian narrative du jour is a story about Donald Trump Jr. meeting with a Russian attorney named Natalia Veselnitskaya.  That meeting took place on June 9th 2016 in Trump Tower.
Now it is discovered via video and images, that only 5 days later, June 14th 2016, Ms. Veselnitskaya was a guest of former Obama administration Russian Ambassador Michael McFaul in Washington DC for a House of Representatives hearing on U.S. Policy Toward Putin’s Russia.  [Video HERE – and Video HERE]

Ms. Natalia Veselnitskaya is pictured seated in the front row directly behind former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Mr. Michael McFaul at the House Foreign Affairs Committee. This is June 14th, 2016, five days after the reported meeting with Donald Trump Jr.
(more…)

White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders conducts a press briefing for media on July 11th 2017. Audio and Transcript below:

.
[Transcript] 2:26 P.M. EDT – MS. SANDERS: Good afternoon. Before I get into the issues of today and take your questions, I first want to take a minute to acknowledge the 16 servicemen and women who lost their lives yesterday in a crash of a Marine Corps transport plane in Mississippi. As of now, the investigation into the details of the crash is still ongoing, but as the President said this morning, this is a truly heartbreaking incident. The thoughts and prayers of the entire administration are with the friends and families of the Marines who died in this tragic accident.
(more…)