Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, delivered remarks today on the 82nd anniversary of D-Day at the Normandy American Cemetery in France, honoring the Allied troops who stormed the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944.

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President Trump holds an impromptu press availability aboard Air Force One en route to Wisconsin.  Topics include, latest strong jobs numbers, the status of the economy and interest rates, the Acting DNI appointment of Bill Pulte (5 additional names under consideration for permanent replacement).

Additionally, President Trump discussed a new promenade addition to the Lincoln Memorial, the nomination of AG Todd Blanche as Attorney General and Senator Thom Tillis opposition, the NBA Final Championship, current AI advancement, alignment with Bernie Sanders on some economic issues, oil and gas prices along with the overall conflict in Iran.

Topics then quickly changed to arming Taiwan (under consideration), John Bolton taking a guilty plea to avoid trial, a salary cap in pro baseball and the Ukraine/Russia conflict.

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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.

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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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A rather ironic sequence of events as Canada formally requests to renew the USMCA (CUSMA) trade agreement for 16-years, followed a day later by the U.S. announcing additional tariffs toward 60 countries including Canada.

On Tuesday, Dominic LeBlanc, the trade minister from Canada assigned to USMCA negotiations, traveled to Washington DC for a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

LeBlanc, reflecting the obtuse nature the Canadian trade delegation is now well known for, seemed oblivious to the friction points in the U.S. position and formally requested the trade deal be renewed for another 16 years. {Citation}

LeBlanc called the agreement “highly beneficial” to all three countries. From the Canadian position this may be true, but that’s not even remotely what the U.S. team has presented in private and public comments.

Additionally, over the past two weeks the shift in Canadian strategy has become clearer.   While Carney’s administration previously seemed to be targeting Democrats in the U.S. congress to support retaining a trade agreement with Canada, that approach ended abruptly after several key Democrat senators began taking the position of influential U.S. labor unions who want the deal scrapped.  Canada now seems to be relying on pressure from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and corporate republicans to support their position.

The day after news reports of Dominic LeBlanc’s expressed position, USTR Greer announced a new round of 301 tariffs against 60 countries who participate in third-party trade agreements with countries who use forced labor. {Citation} Suddenly, Canada’s embrace of China becomes even more serious.

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New information about the brutal stabbing murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak continues to surface, and each revelation is seemingly worse than the last.  In the latest development the Daily Mail now outlines that Nowak’s killer, Vickrum Digwa, actually recorded his victim lying on the ground in agony as the murderer mocked him.

Incredibly the judge in the trial ruled the killer’s own recording of his murder, “too disturbing to be shown” in court.  Digwa did not call for an ambulance after stabbing his victim but did take pictures and record Henry Nowak.  However, the killer’s own video was NOT shown in court!  The footage the court ruled too disturbing to show was five minutes of Vickrum Digwa filming the 18-year-old as he bled to death on the pavement.

The entire event is highlighting a two-tiered policing system in the U.K, and now police are revealing documents and training material that specifically tell them to treat encounters with racial minorities differently than encounters with white people.  The outrage is growing and British politicians are afraid to talk about it.

Reform party leader Nigel Farage did not stay silent, and immediately he began facing backlash for speaking truthfully about the murder of Henry Nowak and the circumstances that led to a horrific encounter with police.  WATCH: 

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Below is the initial statement from Nigel Farage that was mentioned in the interview above.

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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.

(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 †

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The Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act was brought to the Senate as an amendment by Lindsey Graham as part of the $70 billion budget reconciliation package funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.

The usual senate suspects, Thom Tillis, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Mitch McConnell voted with Democrats to kill the SAVE America Act amendment.  75% of Americans support the requirement for voter ID, the Senate doesn’t want that.

WASHINGTON – Four Senate Republicans broke ranks to kill another effort to pass President Donald Trump’s marquee voter ID and election integrity legislation as the GOP marches to fund immigration enforcement.

Just like last time, Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Thom Tills, R-N.C., joined all Democrats to thwart the move.

It’s the second attempt by Republicans to attach the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act to their budget reconciliation package, and the second time that they’ve failed to get the legislation across the line months after launching a quasi-floor takeover to debate the bill. (read more)

In related news, after three days California has only counted 63% of the vote and Spencer Pratt is losing ground on his second-place finish.

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In a lengthy open letter addressed to “The President of the Russian Federation” Vladimir Putin [SEE HERE], Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposes a ceasefire and direct negotiations between himself and President Putin.

Two thirds of the letter are background constructed snark and ridicule aimed toward Western audiences sympathetic to the Ukraine side of the conflict. The last third of the letter contains the details of the offer:

Open Letter – […] “We have seen intelligence reports showing that you are now considering plans to continue the war into 2027 and 2028. We also know that you hope ballistic missiles will achieve for you what everything else has failed to achieve. You want to draw Belarus even deeper into this war, and we are now forced to prepare for that as well. We see that you are trying to orchestrate something around Transnistria. Your propagandists threaten, in one way or another, every country neighboring Russia. Do you really want to go through all of this?

The choice is yours now.

Enough of war.

Ukraine proposes to end this war.

This must be done honestly, with dignity, and with guarantees that the war will not be reignited.

We see that the United States is fully focused on the issue of Iran, and it would be wrong to simply wait until the war in Europe returns to the center of its attention.

Ukraine proposes ending this war through direct engagement between us — and you.”

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