Posted originally on the CTH on December 7, 2024 | Sundance
President Trump arrives to meet French President Emmanuel Macron in advance of the reopening celebration for Notre Dame Cathedral.
French media are now openly reporting on a sideline meeting between President Trump and Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The meeting with Zelenskyy was predictable given the nature of how Macron had structured the events.
President Trump’s arrival video:
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President Trump and Emmanuel Macron delivered short remarks to the assembled press pool. Video Below:
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(AP) […] Because of strong winds forecast for Saturday evening in Paris, the French presidential palace and the Paris diocese said Friday the entire opening ceremony will be held inside Notre Dame, instead of starting from the cathedral’s forecourt as initially planned.
[…] The Île de la Cité — the small island in the River Seine that is home to Notre Dame and the historic heart of Paris— is closed to tourists and non-residents. Police vans and barriers blocked cobblestoned streets in a large perimeter around the island, while soldiers in thick body armor and sniffer dogs patrolled embankments. A special security detail is following Trump. (more)
Posted originally on the CTH on December 6, 2024 | Sundance
There it is. The background for the first meeting between President Trump and President Zelenskyy is buried in the story of Emmanual Macron holding two bilateral meetings before the Notre Dame reopening ceremony. [Now, where’s Tucker?]
If you carefully read this Politico Story you can see how President Trump and President Zelenskyy would be in the same place at the same time, courtesy of French President Emmanuel Macron. This explains Trump’s willingness to go to the Notre Dame ceremony and simultaneously reconciles the absence of Joe Biden.
It’s a simple application of geopolitical Occam’s Razor. There’s no other background that reconciles all the variables. Trump is going to speak with Zelenskyy. All of it makes sense.
POLITICO – PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron will hold separate bilateral meetings with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump ahead of the reopening ceremony of the Notre Dame cathedral on Saturday, the French presidency announced.
This will be Trump’s first visit abroad since his victory in the Nov. 5 election. Macron is among those leaders currently in power to have known the soon-to-be 47th president during his first term in office — a position he will look to leverage in order to assert himself as a key European partner to the U.S.
Trump’s return to power has led to concern across Europe about the future of American support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.
The Notre Dame Cathedral has been closed to the public since a massive fire broke out in April 2019. Dozens of global leaders and high-ranking officials, including current First Lady Jill Biden and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, will also be in attendance.
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen was also initially slated to attend, but canceled Friday evening. Earlier in the day, von der Leyen infuriated France by heading to Uruguay to sign a trade agreement with the South American Mercosur bloc, which Paris had vigorously opposed. (read more)
Posted originally on the CTH on December 6, 2024 | Sundance
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is very concerned that President Trump will return the illegal migrants to Mexico. Perhaps Mexico should have thought about this before allowing millions of illegal migrants to travel through their country on the way to the U.S. southern border.
President Sheinbaum is now telling people she wants an agreement with President Trump so that her country does not suffer from millions of illegal aliens swarming Mexico. The irony is too thick.
ASSOCIATED PRESS – MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president said Thursday she will ask President-elect Donald Trump to deport non-Mexican migrants directly to their home countries, rather than dumping them at the Mexican border.
President Claudia Sheinbaum said she hopes to reach an agreement with Trump so that “they send people who come from other countries to their countries of origin.”
Mexico, like any other country, is not obligated to accept non-Mexican migrants, but it has agreed to do so in the recent past, especially from countries like Cuba and Venezuela, which often refuse deportation flights from the United States, but may accept them from Mexico.
Mexican officials have said they are already making preparations if Trump follows through on his pledge to carry out large-scale deportations of migrants who lack the proper documents once he takes office on Jan. 20.
Mexico is obviously fearful of two things: large-scale deportations of Mexican citizens and large numbers of non-Mexicans being deported at border crossings that are ill-equipped to deal with them.
Experts estimate there are about 4 million Mexicans living in the U.S. without proper documentation. Mexico is already preparing its consular services in the U.S. with additional manpower to handle deportation cases involving its own citizens. (read more)
Posted originally on the CTH on December 6, 2024 | Sundance
As the kids like to say with a wink and a nod, “if you know, you know.”
In the first White House briefing since the Hunter Biden Pardon, White House Spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre worked her way through a tangled mess of justifications for why Joe Biden changed his mind and gave a pardon to his son, Hunter. However, within the remarks she relied heavily on a name that apparently has leaned-in to the issue of Preemptive Pardons by the outgoing administration. WATCH (prompted):
It is transparently obvious why Jim Clyburn would be seeking a preemptive pardon from Joe Biden. Clyburn is singularly the most exposed political figure if anyone starts looking at how the election system ballot operation was used in 2020, 2022 and 2024. Clyburn knows his risk exposure.
At the end of all the ballot and election fraud, you find one operation above all others. Watch what happens.
Posted originally on the CTH on ecember 6, 2024 | Sundance
I have been waiting for someone, anyone, to outline the reality of what the Dept of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is all about. Unfortunately, perhaps due to the history of the matter, it appears no one really “gets it.” So, with that in mind, and accepting that even the operators of DOGE may not have a fulsome comprehension of the dynamic, here is what it all means.
Few people realize the last Federal Budget that passed through “regular order” was for Fiscal Year 2008, signed by President George W Bush in September of 2007. Every budget since has been outside regular order; a series of continuing resolutions, omnibus spending packages and short-term funding mechanisms. {CITATION}
That is correct. In the past 17 years, all federal spending has been ‘short-term’ or ‘stop-gap’ spending measures, generally known as “Continuing Resolutions,” where the govt (House and Senate) continue to perpetually resolve to fund the government. The CRs as they are known, punt the spending debate by accepting a baseline of prior spending and tweaking around the edges.
The key takeaway to begin thinking about DOGE is to understand that REGULAR ORDERhas not been used since Fiscal Year 2008.
Title III of the Congressional Budget Act outlines a legal timeline that each President and Congress must follow {SEE HERE}. Prior to 2007, Continuing Resolutions were only used to resolve short term arguments about spending priorities.
♦ BACKGROUND – The President is required by law to submit his budget by the first Monday in February. Yes, even when an election takes place and a President doesn’t assume office until January 20th, the first Monday in February is still the legal requirement for the new White House budget proposal.
The Presidents’ budget is then submitted to The House of Representatives, where two weeks later the Congressional Budget Office, reviews the budget and issues an opinion as to the cost of the budget. No later than six weeks after the President submits his budget all House committees send the House Appropriations Committee their spending proposals [April 15].
Through May and June, each budgetary appropriations bill from the House is sent to the Senate. The Senate receives the House appropriations bills, then reviews through the Senate Appropriations Committee (Thune just picked Susan Collins as Chair). The Senate proposes their spending priorities based on the House bill because the House has constitutional authority to originate all spending [June 15]. The House and Senate budgets are “reconciled” using parliamentary procedures [June 30] and then sent to the President for signature.
The fiscal year begins October 1st.
That’s the regular order process.
Again, regular order has not been followed since Fiscal Year 2008, signed by George W Bush in September of 2007.
♦ The Problem – When congress doesn’t follow regular order they end up with a series of “continuing resolutions” (CRs) where spending is decided on a short-term basis because they don’t have an agreed budget. The problem with CRs is what’s called “baseline budgeting” where all prior spending is the baseline for the continuation of spending proposals. The baseline accepts all previous spending priorities, then adds to them with the new spending needs.
Baseline Budgeting means congress keeps spending on all historic programs regardless of merit or benefit. All the prior spending just continues, and new spending is added. That means when an omnibus spending package is created (instead of individual appropriations bills), all the previous government waste is baked into the cake, and the funds are spent again – regardless of need.
EXAMPLE – If congress funds a trillion-dollar Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), and then doesn’t follow regular order in the next year, the TARP funds spent become part of the baseline of spending. The trillion-dollar TARP can be spent again, and again, and again, as each subsequent year of CRs continues unfolding.
Now, imagine what exists within the system of federal spending when most of the expenditures of the past 18 years are never filtered out. Eighteen years of smaller, albeit not insignificant, amounts of money continually piled on top of each other. Imagine what lays underneath all those layers and layers of unreviewed spending. That’s where we are.
To be fair, the House of Representatives under Republicans did pass almost all of their individual spending bills this past year and sent them to the Senate. However, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer just ignored the bills, put them on a shelf and awaited the govt funding problem to surface so that another CR debate could take place.
Now, you might ask yourself how this ridiculous system can be stopped or put into check. Well, the mechanism to shut down this nonsense lays in the power of a Presidential Veto.
A President can veto a federal budget that he/she feels spends too much money and subsequently send that budget back to congress. This is where politics comes into play because essentially if the funding runs out the Presidential veto is shutting down the government.
Again, this has been our reality for the past 18-years as congress blames the President and the President blames congress. Each of them playing a game of political chicken, daring the other to be blamed by the public for financial Armageddon. Example Below:
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Again, regular order has not been followed since Fiscal Year 2008, signed by George W Bush in September of 2007. It’s been CR politics ever since.
♦ Now, along comes President Trump in term #2 which begins January 20, 2025.
As you start to think about DOGE, remember, in the background of the transition, using OMB Budget Director Russ Vought, the first Trump budget has been organized and will be submitted to the House of Representatives by the required legal day of February 1, 2025.
In part, it is transparently obvious why House Speaker Mike Johnson has been visiting Mar-a-Lago so much. There is strategic budget planning afoot.
A Republican President Donald Trump is going to submit a “regular order” budget to a Republican controlled House.
The now Republican controlled Senate (John Thune) will be responsible for accepting each of the House Appropriations bills and responding accordingly to create a federal budget for Fiscal Year 2026.
I highly suspect President Trump is not going to accept another failed budget and yet another CR from a Republican House and Republican Senate.
The problem Trump faces is the Republicans will not want to be responsible for cutting out 18 years of fat from the spending process. The democrats will wield the politics of these cuts in order to achieve electoral victory in the 2026 midterms….
…. Enter, Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy and DOGE.
That looming regular order budget, and/or the looming veto if it is not followed, is the sum and total purpose of DOGE.
Can you see it now?
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In essence, Elon Musk is assembling DOGE as the weapon needed to hold a UniParty congress accountable to deliver a regular order budget.
Yes, hundreds upon hundreds of billions, perhaps trillions, can be cut out of the budget if “regular order” is followed. Each committee in congress will have to submit their spending proposal to the House Budget and Appropriations Committee, while Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are reviewing each of those proposals and putting them on BLAST!
DOGE may start reinforcing rules within the federal government as controlled by the Executive Branch. However, DOGE isn’t going to be going into federal agencies per se’, to cut their spending. DOGE can just wait for the Fiscal Year 2026 spending proposals those agencies are legally required to submit congress to come to them, then review and BLAST any of the fat.
Through this process, the Executive Branch is not in constitutional conflict with the Legislative Branch. Congress can accept and submit any spending proposal they want, but DOGE can outline it happening in real time and pour sunlight on to it. This is why DOGE and a Republican Congress working together is more effective.
When you understand what I have outlined above, then what follows below from Representative Tim Burchett makes more sense. WATCH:
Just left the @DOGE meeting with @elonmusk and @VivekGRamaswamy and it’s clear to me that the problem is going to be the members in that room.
Burchett is saying that congress will never cut that 18-years of CR fat out of the spending bills, no matter what they say. That 18-years of CR fat is huge. Think of the scale of 18-years of layers of spending as a result of baseline budgets and CRs.
What Burchett is not fully absorbing, is how a VETO from President Trump is now framed against the visibility of the political BLAST that Musk can provide.
Can you see it now?
Last point. Perhaps, just perhaps, one of the people with strong familiarity of this issue, Matt Gaetz, is going to be a key player.
Posted originally on the CTH on December 6, 2024 | Sundance
First Lady Melania Trump appears on Fox and Friends morning show to discuss her outlook on returning to the White House.
Melania Trump notes this time is very different as they know what to expect this time and the baseline for knowing who, what, when and how is entirely different than the first term. WATCH:
Posted originally on the CTH onDecember 6, 2024 | Sundance
I find it very interesting amid all of our current discussions unattached to the events in New York City, that ‘facial recognition technology‘ appears to be the investigative emphasis to find the gunman who killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on December 4th.
From the latest information, the assassin arrived in New York City on November 24, traveling from Atlanta, Georgia, to New York City by bus. Ten days later the unknown gunman executed his mission. New York police have some evidence from the trail of the gunman as they track his travel into and then out of the area. {Developments Here}
The evidence includes CCTV security images of the gunman checking in to a hostel, using a fake New Jersey ID, paying cash. The police also located a water bottle purchased from a local Starbucks and a cell phone retrieved from the area where the gunman fled. If the assassin was a professional, the physical evidence could be purposeful, meaning dropped intentionally.
With this much time to distance himself from the area, it will be challenging for investigators to locate him, even if they are able to come up with a solid identification. And with that background, again we go into the world of ‘facial recognition software’ as a tool to identify a bad guy. Strange coincidence. Hmmm?
NEW YORK – The unidentified man suspected of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel remains at large after Wednesday’s attack, which was described by police as “brazen, targeted” and “premeditated.”
The killer entered New York City by bus on Nov. 24, when a surveillance camera at Port Authority Bus Terminal caught his arrival at 9 p.m., law enforcement sources told ABC News.
The inbound bus originated in Atlanta but it was not immediately clear where the suspected boarded. Sources told ABC News he was spotted on board in Washington, D.C.
Police are investigating whether the suspect left New York City by bus on Wednesday after the murder. The 10-day period he was in New York City before the shooting is the focus of investigative efforts.
Police have collected video of the suspect all over the city, including in the subway, in cabs and in a McDonald’s, sources told ABC News. In each place, he paid with cash and he made sure to keep his mask on, which indicates to detectives he knew he was coming to New York City to commit the murder, sources said.
Police were able to find a surveillance image of the suspect without his face mask on because he was flirting with the woman who checked him into a hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, police sources said.
As he stood at the check-in desk, the sources said the woman asked to see his smile. The shooter obliged, pulling down his mask long enough for the surveillance camera to capture his face.
Police have determined the suspect checked into the hostel using a New Jersey license that wasn’t his own, police sources told ABC News.
The masked gunman shot Thompson at point-blank range at 6:44 a.m. Wednesday outside the New York Hilton Midtown, where Thompson was heading for his company’s investors conference.
“The shooter then walks toward the victim and continues to shoot,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said. “It appears that the gun malfunctions, as he clears the jam and begins to fire again.”
Written on the shell casings were the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose,” according to police sources.
[…] Investigators believe they were able to score DNA samples from several pieces of evidence discovered at or near the crime scene, law enforcement sources told ABC News. The samples are currently at the NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to be run through databases for a possible match — a process that could take several days, the sources said.
Police were also able to extract a fingerprint off a water bottle the suspect bought at a Starbucks, but the print is smudged so it’s not clear how helpful it will be, sources said.
The suspect fled on foot and then fled north on a bike and rode into Central Park, police said.
A person appearing to be the suspect was seen just before 7 a.m. on the Upper West Side, riding a bicycle away from Central Park. He has not been spotted since. (more)
Posted originally on the CTH on December 6, 2024 | Sundance
The jurors in the trial of Daniel Penny have been in deliberations since Tuesday. Today the jury informed the judge they are deadlocked and unable to come to a verdict.
The 12-person jury sent a note Friday morning saying they are having trouble reaching a consensus on whether to convict Penny, 26, of “recklessly” causing Neely’s death by placing him in a six-minute chokehold back in May 2023. If the jury continues to be unable to reach a verdict, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley would be required to give them what’s known as an “Allen” charge, urging them to reach a unanimous verdict.
NEW YORK – Jurors are deadlocked in the case of marine veteran Daniel Penny, 24, who pled not guilty to manslaughter charges brought on after he held street performer Jordan Neely in a fatal chokehold on a New York City subway train last year.
Jurors began deliberations on Tuesday in the trial of a military veteran accused of causing the death of a man with a chokehold on a New York subway, and ended with uncertainty this morning as the jury failed to come to a decision.
The judge emphasized the jurors’ duty to reach a verdict, stating that “deliberations were not intended to be easy,” but they should “harmonize” their views and make a decision.
“It would be a crazy result to have a hung jury because they can’t move onto the second count,” prosecutor Dafna Yoran was overheard telling the judge. Judge Wiley is now contemplating whether to issue an Allen charge to encourage a unanimous decision.
An Allen charge is a court order given to a deadlocked jury to motivate them to reach a unanimous verdict. A deadlocked jury may also lead to a retrial of the case. It can also lead to a hung jury, causing a retrial or a mistrial. A hung jury is unable to reach a verdict by the required voting margin and will often result in a retrial. In some cases, the judge may instruct the jury to continue deliberation, but this is not a common practice. (read more)
Penny’s lawyers have said the Marine veteran and aspiring architect was justified in protecting passengers from a man who witnesses said yelled, “Someone’s going to die today!” and said he was ready to go to jail after boarding the uptown F train. But Manhattan prosecutors have stressed that no witness testified that Neely threatened anyone specifically, touched anyone, or brandished a weapon.
This trial has the potential to change the way people respond to crisis events and threats of danger.
I hope, for a myriad of reasons, Mr Penny is able to walk out of the courtroom a free man.
Posted originally on the CTH on December 5, 2024 | Sundance
…. And just like that, another piece of the puzzle falls neatly into place. President Trump has announced that David Sacks will be joining the administration as the Czar of Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrency.
The group of Peter Thiel (Palantir), Elon Musk (X), Vivek Ramaswamy (DOGE) and JD Vance (VP), now gain the addition of David Sacks to their core mission. Both govt inspired/networked AI and the world of Cryptocurrency will benefit.
Many voices say the introduction of AI into government networks was/is a foregone conclusion, so we should be happy that it’s the ideology of Musk, Thiel, Sacks, Ramaswamy and Vance constructing the parameters of the weapon. Perhaps they are correct.
On the upside, the Big Banks of JPMorgan, BoA, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley will not be too happy, so there’s that. Bitcoin and various crypto exchanges like Bakkt will continue surging. A new era of finance dawns.
Essentially, as we have outlined since the early summer of this year, the new era technocracy is in full bloom.
The older Social Media technocracy system created by Barack H Obama has matriculated and is in flux. The rebellious fight to control public opinion continues, as the Trump FCC will predictably begin confronting the Death Star, Google.
The new Silicon Valley technocracy in the AI/Crypto world is now surging. Oracle (Ellison), Palantir (Thiel) and Musk (Xai) positioned as beneficiaries, with allies taking solid positions to assist President Trump in carrying out the Dept of Government Efficiency (DOGE) agenda.
Microsoft (Gates), AWS (Bezos) and Meta (Zuckerberg), are now riding their bicycles in slow circles at the end of the White House driveway, staring intently in the windows.
Posted originally on the CTH on December 5, 2024 | Sundance
First things first, Tucker Carlson deserves enormous credit for gaining reentry into Russia during a time when Russia has essentially locked down their entry visa process. This was not a simple task, and Tucker’s motives for doing so are accepted without immediate reservation. As the only other American I know who has navigated this dynamic, congratulations Tucker.
There have been no diplomatic channels used by the U.S. government toward Russia for over two years. Literally, all talks between government officials and emissaries have been severed for the past two years. As I have said before, this is a very dangerous dynamic.
That said, this conversation does not take place without the intent of Russia, specifically President Vladimir Putin and his Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov from wanting this conversation to take place. Without any doubt this is a public message, a direct and intentional communication, intended to reach a U.S. audience much deeper than the average American viewer. Perhaps an audience of one. Again, great job. WATCH:
Chapters: 0:00 Is the US at War With Russia? 12:56 Russia’s Message to the West Through Hypersonic Weapons 17:47 Is There Conversation Happening Between Russia and the US?
23:18 How Many Have Died in the Ukraine/Russia War? 28:21 What Would It Take To End the War? 36:11 What Happened to Alexei Navalny? 39:45 Boris Johnson Wants the War to Continue 45:43 Sanctions on Russia 56:31 The Chinese/Russian Alliance 1:02:18 Who Is Making Foreign Policy Decisions in the US? 1:05:05 Biden Pushes the US Toward Nuclear War Before Trump Takes Office 1:08:52 What’s Happening in Syria? 1:13:08 Lavrov’s Thoughts on Trump
One of the things that separates Russians from their eastern European counterparts, is their keen ability to detect and dismiss bullshit. If you watch Russian engagement, from either inside or outside of Russia, their non pretending is truly an artform. Even the silent space between their words is something remarkable to watch.
Vladimir Putin has a weapon the “west” cannot defend against. It’s not part of his physical military armament, it’s far more powerful. Putin has the truth as a weapon.
The western group must pretend they didn’t carry out a color revolution in Ukraine. The western group must also pretend they didn’t install Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The western group must also pretend there was not a civil war happening inside Ukraine for a decade, and the western group must pretend they didn’t try to provoke Vladimir Putin with expansions of NATO and an intentional breaking of the Minsk accords. There are other pretenses that must be maintained, but those are the top ones.
Into this grand game of pretenses comes President Donald Trump, not exactly the best pretender (by choice) and Vladimir Putin not only knows this, but he also respects this Trump attribute of honesty in problem solving.
Keep in mind, President Putin watched how President Trump dealt with the “North Korea threat” problem that was left to him by President Obama. Putin watched how Trump negotiated an exit to escalating conflict by honesty confronting China, the true hand on the puppet strings of the DPRK.
Putin saw in that North Korea geopolitical dynamic that President Trump dealt with Kim Jong-un with a brutally honest strategy that encompassed the influence of China. While Putin is more allied currently with China, he knows President Trump cuts through the gordian knot woven by western interventionists. Trump cuts through the gordian knot with honest and pragmatic policy.
As a result of this dynamic, everyone around President Trump, including the National Security Council, his National Security Advisor (Waltz), his CIA Director (Ratcliffe), and his State Dept Secretary (Rubio), all have to maintain the “western” pretenses that were/are cemented by the people and silos they replace.
The larger American government, sans President Trump, have to maintain all the aforementioned pretenses, in part because the Intelligence Community and the USA media support it, and in part because it would weaken the USA on the global stage to ever make honest admissions about our control of Ukraine. And yes, that pretending dynamic includes Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg who President Trump appointed as special envoy for Russia and Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin’s strongest weapon is the truth. Vladimir Putin also knows the auto-setting on President Trump’s psyche of problem solving, ie ‘optimal solutions’, is also centered on truth.
The proverbial $64,000 question: How does truthful President Trump deal with truthful President Putin, while all around the office of the White House are people who only know how to maintain pretenses?
That my friends, is going to be a very interesting dynamic to watch.
One way President Trump could gain back the power of not pretending is to: (1) request an immediate ceasefire; then (2) tell the CIA (Ratcliffe) to immediately withdraw all CIA operatives from Ukraine; then (3) tell Secretary Marco Rubio to pull all USAID operatives out of Ukraine; then (4) tell Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy he must hold a national election within 60 days.
If the U.S and NATO pull all of the control agents out of Ukraine and hold an election, the result will highlight the will of the Ukranian people to retain Volodymyr Zelenskyy. If Zelenskyy wins, then he is in a stronger position. If he loses, then he was never strong to begin with, and he’s the wrong person to be negotiating with.
Calling for an election in Ukraine is a radical approach because I think we all know what the outcome would be. Then again, that’s the problem with pretending, when you stop you have to accept the transparently predictable forecast.
In the interim, President Putin has the truth as a weapon, and President Trump is going to have to find a way to deal with it while everyone around him maintains pretenses.
My money is on President Trump finding an optimal solution, just like he did in North Korea. It will certainly be interesting to watch.
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This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America