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
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 †
Earlier today President Donald Trump signed HR244 into law. The provisional spending bill that funds government through September 30th, the end of fiscal year 2017.
There has been a great deal of anxiety amid punditry about the spending outline itself, and the spending priorities as determined by both houses of congress. Some of the criticism is warranted, most is not.
The basic principle the entire professional political class seem to overlook is the reasoning for the CR itself. Congress has been unable to fulfill its budgetary obligation since 2007.
In fact, the last federal budget (fiscal year ’08) was signed into law in September of 2007. By the conclusion of this CR it will have been an entire decade without a federal budget.
Perspective: ♦ Over half of all elected federal politicians have never held elected office in any year with a federal budget in place. ♦ Almost two-thirds of Republicans in congress have never known a federal budget for a single day in office.
THAT FACT should be the target of the ire from all Americans, particularly conservatives. However, hypocritically, it is not.
For some reason ankle-biters, antagonists, and crony constitutional punditry amid the various CONservative outlets, choose instead to focus their criticism toward the first president in our lifetime to actually deliver on conservative policy, conservative values and expressed policy objectives/outcomes that benefit all common sense Americans.
[Transcript] My fellow Americans,
Since Day One, my administration has been hard at work, tearing down the barriers to job creation and economic growth. We have removed one job-killing regulation after another – they’re not pretty and they’re going. And believe me, we are just getting started on regulations. They’re gone.
On Thursday, the House voted to repeal one of the worst job-killing laws of all. It’s called ObamaCare, perhaps you’ve heard of it. Everywhere we look, ObamaCare is collapsing. The House Bill is a plan that will save Americans from this disaster, and replace it with more choices, and more freedom for American families. Most importantly, it will be great healthcare, and your premiums will come down, and your deductibles will come down. So you’ll have better healthcare at a lower cost. And now, I’m calling on the Senate to take action. Repealing and replacing ObamaCare will be a big, big win for the American People.
Sybrina “Ms Candy” Fulton and Tracy “Fruit” Martin, the family of Trayvon Martin, will accept a college degree in Aeronautics presented posthumously in recognition of the life of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin:
(Via CNN) […] The aeronautics degree is in “honor of the steps he took during his young life toward becoming a pilot,” the school said in a Facebook post. Florida Memorial’s Department of Aviation and Safety has a designated Cessna pilot training center, and the school also houses the Trayvon Martin Foundation. (read more)
Seriously?
What’s next, sizzurp scholarships?
During a ceremony today at the State Department, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson delivered remarks of remembrance and honored fallen foreign service workers.
Well this is stunning to say the least. After initial denials the campaign of French Presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron is now confirming the authenticity of a massive upload of emails from his account.
The 9.9 Gigs of emails, outlining some very sketchy deals by the presidential candidate, were uploaded to Pastebin a document sharing site – SEE HERE – Initially no-one was able to confirm the authenticity, and the campaign of Macron denied. WikiLeaks began an attempt to authenticate the release.
However, the authentication is no longer necessarily warranted as the campaign is admitting they were hacked, and the content appears to be directly from the accounts of Emmanuel Macron:
The campaign of French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron condemns “massive hacking attack” after document leak(link)
Reuters initially reported:
The media gnats, and some doofus conservative punditry, quip about President Trump talking to Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Duterte is also the rotational President of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations). Meanwhile, President Trump and Secretary of State Tillerson remain keenly focused on the BIGGER PICTURE in Asia and how ASEAN policy relates to N-Korea.
Thankfully the grow-ups are in charge.
STATE DEPT – Secretary of State Tillerson hosted the Foreign Ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for a special U.S.-ASEAN Foreign Ministers meeting, reinforcing the Strategic Partnership between the United States and ASEAN and commemorating the 40th anniversary of U.S.-ASEAN relations.
Secretary Tillerson underscored that the Asia-Pacific region is a top priority for the Trump Administration and that ASEAN is an essential partner. ASEAN Ministers welcomed the continued commitment by the United States to ASEAN, including the Association’s community-building and regional integration efforts.
The federal April jobs report shows a gain of 211,000 new jobs amid a 2.5% year-over-year growth in wages, bringing the latest national unemployment rate to 4.4% or what the federal economists call the ‘cusp’ of full employment. They are, well, ‘positioning’ an advanced narrative.
DATA – •Construction payrolls rose by 5,000; •manufacturing payrolls increased by 6,000; •leisure and hospitality payrolls jumped by 55,000; •professional and business services payrolls rose by 39,000; •healthcare and social assistance employment increased by 36,800; •retail payrolls gained 6,300.
That’s the official interpretation of what the jobs gains mean. However, to reconcile the “slacking” the quantifying economists are now halving the customary growth figure used for inbound newly economically matriculated workers.
Historically it takes 150k new monthly jobs to retain employment rates as static; therefore any job growth beyond 150k must lower the unemployment rate. The fed is now using 70-100k as the new labor market number to retain stasis.
Bloomberg – […] Removed from the weather-related distortions of the previous three months, the April figures indicate solid trends in employment, while measures of those left behind in the recovery — favored by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and President Donald Trump alike — are at or near pre-recession levels.
We would be remiss if we didn’t wish the UniParty in Washington DC and the K-Street lobbying community a Happy Cinco de Mayo.
The collective Wall Street, K-Street, corporate media and professional political class, including well compensated CONservative media pundits, will soon showcase an exhaustive and financially motivated immigration reform legislative project.
We’re watching your meetings. All your taco bowls are belong to us...
