Earlier today President Trump held the first cabinet meeting of 2018.  [The cabinet met four times in December.]

[Transcript] 12:00 P.M. EST – THE PRESIDENT: Welcome back to the studio. Nice to have you. (Laughter.) Good morning, and welcome to our first Cabinet meeting of the New Year. 2017 was a year of tremendous achievement — monumental achievement, actually. I don’t think any administration has ever done — has done what we’ve done and what we’ve accomplished in its first year, which isn’t quite finished yet. You never know what’s going to happen over the next few days. And the achievements for our country, our people, and for our standing in the world have been very monumental.

We confirmed an incredible new Supreme Court justice and more circuit court judges in our first year than any administration in the history of our country, and we have many more coming.

We’ve set a new record on reducing regulation and all forms of stopping growth and stopping jobs that were crippling America’s economy. Again, the records that we’ve set — 22 to 1 — nobody has ever come close. And the amount of regulations that we’ve cut is a record also in our country’s history, as reported by many newspapers, in particular The Wall Street Journal did a big story on it.

And before Christmas, we passed the largest tax cut and reform in American history, including ANWR and including the fact that the individual mandate was terminated, which was a tremendously important thing and a very popular thing, I must tell you. People are supposed to pay for the privilege of not having healthcare; that was not good. Unfortunately, the courts didn’t cut it, but we cut it.

So, in addition to the largest tax cut and reform in history, we have one of the great oil sites that’s now been approved. They’ve been trying to approve ANWR — I don’t know if people know this — for over 40 years. Ronald Reagan tried to get it approved for exploration and for drilling. And for 40 years, they’ve been trying to get it approved. That was in the bill — an individual mandate in the bill.

Since that tax cut was enacted, more than 1 million workers have already received a tax cut bonus — something that, frankly, nobody even thought about. We didn’t think about it. Nobody thought about it. We just knew a lot of good things were going to happen.

And I must say, AT&T was the first one and they did it — $1,000 per employee; they have hundreds of thousands of employees. And many companies followed immediately thereafter, and now they’re following — I guess, the employees are saying, “What about us?” And millions of employees in this country are getting a thousand dollars and more, in some cases, tax bonuses because of the tax cuts.

Hardworking American families will receive tremendous tax relief. We lowered our tax rates, nearly doubled the standard deduction, and doubled the child tax credit, which Ivanka Trump was pushing very, very hard, I will tell you that, and so was Marco Rubio.

And I will tell you that the Republican Senate — we had no Democrat support. Zero. They didn’t want tax cuts. They want tax increases. They want to raise your taxes; they don’t want to cut your taxes. But the child tax credit has become very important to the American family, and they’re very happy about it.

Our historic reductions to the business tax will raise annual household income by an average of $4,000. That’s a tremendous number. The amount of money that’s going to be brought in — we think it’s going to be close to $4 trillion because of our tax reform — will be a number that this country has never seen pour into our country. And that’s going to create more jobs and more investment.

The stock market is shattering one record after another. Unemployment is at a 17-year low. And I’m very proud of this: African American unemployment reached its lowest level in history. Think of that. And on the campaign trail, remember I said, and would constantly say, “What do you have to lose?” Meaning, what do you have to lose if you vote for Trump? And now, it was just reported, African American unemployment is at its lowest level in history. I’m very proud of that.

We’re also making America safe again. Yesterday, we had a bipartisan meeting with House members and senators on immigration reform — something they’ve been talking about for many, many years. But we brought them together in this room, and it was a tremendous meeting. Actually, it was reported as incredibly good. And my performance — you know, some of them called it a performance — I consider it work.

But it got great reviews by everybody other than two networks, who were phenomenal for about two hours. Then, after that, they were called by their bosses for saying, “Oh, wait a minute.” And, unfortunately, a lot of those anchors sent us letters saying that was one of the greatest meetings they’ve ever witnessed. And they were great. For about two hours, they were phenomenal. And then they went a little bit south on us, but not that bad. It was fine.

They probably wish they didn’t send us those letters of congratulations. But it was good. I’m sure their ratings were fantastic; they always are — which is why I think the media will ultimately support Trump in the end, because they’re going to say, if Trump doesn’t win in three years, they’re all out of business. (Laughter.) You guys will be out of business. But the boom holders are still going to be there, so that’s good. (Laughter.) Those are the people I like.

We agreed to pursue four major areas yesterday of reform: securing our border, including, of course, the wall — which has always been included, it never changed; ending chain migration; canceling the visa lottery; and addressing the status of the DACA population. We want to see something happen with DACA. It’s been spoken of for years. And children are now adults, in many cases. The numbers are very different, very varying. A lot of people say 800,000; some people said — yesterday, first time I heard 650 [thousand]. I also heard 3 million. The fact is, our country was such a mess, nobody even knows what the numbers are. But we’ll know what the numbers are.

But above all else, any bill we passed must improve jobs, wages, and security for American citizens. The people who elected us, all of us — the people that elected us, we have to take care of them. We have to have a strong military. We can’t play games with our military. Whether we’re Democrat or whether we’re Republican, we have to have a strong — that’s not a point of negotiation. We can’t say, oh, we’re going to give you money for your military but you have to give us money for something that, frankly, is much less important than security.

And we have to keep our country strong. And our military was badly depleted over the last long period of time, beyond President Obama, I will say — beyond President Obama. Our military was very, very badly depleted.

I just spoke to President Moon. He’s very thankful for what we’ve done. They’re having talks with North Korea. We’ll see how that happens. He felt that the original — that the initial talk was extremely good. Had a lot of good comment. Rex was on the phone, and Nikki has been totally briefed.

But we had a very, very good conversation, and we’ll see where it goes. He’s very thankful for what we’ve done. It was so reported today that we were the ones — without our attitude, that would have never happened. Who knows where it leads. Hopefully, it will lead to success for the world — not just for our country, but for the world. And we’ll be seeing over the next number of weeks and months what happens.

On a separate front, we are going to take a strong look at our country’s libel laws so that when somebody says something that is false and defamatory about someone, that person will have meaningful recourse in our courts. If somebody says something that’s totally false and knowingly false, that the person that has been abused, defamed, libeled will have meaningful recourse.

Our current libel laws are a sham and a disgrace, and do not represent American values or American fairness. So we’re going to take a strong look at that. We want fairness. You can’t say things that are false — knowingly false — and be able to smile as money pours into your bank account. We’re going to take a very, very strong look at that. And I think what the American people want to see is fairness.

Finally, as we begin the new year, I want to thank my Cabinet for working tirelessly on behalf of our country. Every single day, every hour, I’m on the phone with almost all of them all the time. And we have a lot of exciting things to go.

I’m just looking at Alex Acosta. What a job you’ve done with our healthcare. He’s Secretary of Labor, but he’s very much involved in healthcare, and I think those rules and regulations will be out around February 1st, Alex, as I understand it. And this is healthcare through association and associations. And I think that millions and millions and millions of people will be signing up. It will be highly competitive. He has been able to totally get rid of state lines so there will be tremendous competition. And that will be a phase of healthcare that people don’t talk about.

But I think, ultimately, you’ll have more people than you actually had even in Obamacare, and it’s just a segment of what we’re doing. So I just want to tell you, I read a lot of those papers last night, and it is really great work, brilliant work. I think it is something that people don’t talk about, but it’s something that’s going to be very exciting and very great. It will be great healthcare at a very competitive price. There will be tremendous competition, and it will cost the United States absolutely zero. So we’re very proud of that. Thank you, Alex.

And with that, I just — we’ll start our Cabinet meeting. And we appreciate your being here, and you’ve gotten very familiar with this room. I appreciate your nice comments yesterday. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you very much.

END

Earlier today President Trump held a meeting today with Democrat and Republican Senators surrounding one of the most controversial issues in the current body politic. The DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and immigration reform, to include a border wall and an end of chain-migration policy, is a hot button issue on both sides of the political aisle.

President Trump surprised the entire MSM by allowing the media to stay in the meeting for an hour and hear the arguments/positions from all participants at the meeting. Extreme transparency.

(Via Breitbart) Stephen K. Bannon has stepped down from Breitbart News Network, where he served as Executive Chairman since 2012.

Bannon and Breitbart will work together on a smooth and orderly transition.

Bannon said, “I’m proud of what the Breitbart team has accomplished in so short a period of time in building out a world-class news platform.”

According to Breitbart CEO Larry Solov, “Steve is a valued part of our legacy, and we will always be grateful for his contributions, and what he has helped us to accomplish.” (link)

Wow.  Follow up to THIS STORY – In a stunning rebuke to federal prosecutors a federal court judge has thrown out the case against Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy “with prejudice”.  Bundy and his sons cannot be retried, and will walk free.

In order for a federal judge to completely dismiss a case of this significance indicates the court has found serious and compelling evidence of “gross misconduct” on the part of the prosecuting team.

LAS VEGAS — Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, his two sons and a militia member will not face a retrial on charges that they led an armed rebellion against federal agents in 2014.

A federal judge on Monday said the federal prosecutors’ conduct was “outrageous” and “violated due process rights” of the defendants.

U.S. District Court Judge Gloria Navarro dismissed the charges against the four men “with prejudice,” meaning they cannot face trial again. She said a new trial would not be sufficient to address the problems in the case and would provide the prosecution with an unfair advantage going forward.

As the courtroom doors opened after Navarro’s ruling, a huge cheer went up from the crowd of spectators gathered outside.

Navarro’s decision comes less than a month after she declared a mistrial in case and found federal prosecutors willfully withheld critical and “potentially exculpatory” evidence from the defense.

Cliven Bundy, his sons Ammon and Ryan Bundy, and militia member Ryan Payne were all in court. Cliven Bundy had remained in jail until the hearing; the judge ordered his immediate release.

Navarro on Dec. 20 cited six pieces of evidence the Nevada U.S. Attorney’s Office failed to disclose that was favorable to the defense and could have changed the outcome of the trial.

The evidence included:

• Records about surveillance at the Bundy ranch;
• Maps about government surveillance;
• Records about the presence of government snipers;
• FBI logs about activity at the ranch in the days leading up to standoff;
• Law-enforcement assessments dating to 2012 that found the Bundys posed no threat;
• Internal affairs reports about misconduct by Bureau of Land Management agents.

“Failure to turn over such evidence violates due process,” Navarro said last month. “A fair trial at this point is impossible.”  (read more)

Notice something missing recently?

“Leaks”.

The House Intelligence Committee now has the bank records of Fusion-GPS.  They were turned over Friday after a federal judge on Thursday shot-down a last-ditch effort by attorneys from Fusion to get an emergency injunction.

Chairman Devin Nunes and the House Intelligence Committee now have the records of payments made by Fusion-GPS to “journalists and media companies” during 2016 and early 2017 when Glenn Simpson, Mary Jacoby and Peter Fritsch were shopping the Christopher Steele ‘Russian dossier’ to enhance the “Insurance Policy”.

Perhaps we will find out which journalists and media companies were paid by Fusion-GPS. Perhaps those payments are part of the reason the media apparatus, writ large, made a concerted effort last week to distance the Steele Dossier from the origin of the FBI Counterintelligence operation against candidate Trump that began in July 2016.

Additionally, and I shall easily say ‘predictably‘, there’s been far less visible evidence of congressional or intelligence community leaks to the media.  The Wolff book has provided a deafening cover for the media retreat; but the absence of IC leaks is also deafening.  As we previously shared, this outcome was fully anticipated.

Most of the direct (“small group”) FBI (CoIntel), DOJ (NatSec Division) and Special Counsel co-conspirators are only able to talk amid themselves.  They know by now they are being monitored and they have strong suspicion the size of the surveillance upon them. [Hi guys.] No-one else is willing to put themselves at risk now.  Congressional allies now view the small group as carrying a legal ebola virus.  Contact is now a risk.

All of the ‘Muh Russia’ co-conspirators, and the aggregate DC enablers, along with their media mouthpieces are nervous.  The Wolff book noise is hiding a genuine trepidation that all of the scheming for the past 18+ months is about to come crashing down.

The larger American electorate have NO IDEA the scale and scope of the bigger story behind the vast Russian conspiracy.  The people involved are fully aware of the potential for their visible trail to become increasingly public.

The special FBI and DOJ unit that Rod Rosenstein put together, at the request of AG Jeff Sessions and DNI Dan Coats, is still hunting congressional and IC leak agents.  Almost no-one in the media has discussed this ongoing reality, but their silence on the story doesn’t mean their behavior has not changed directly because of it.

WASHINGTON – […] Gaining access to Fusion GPS’s bank records marks yet another victory for the Republicans in the House Intelligence Committee, which earlier in the week secureddocuments and text messages related to the Trump-Russia collusion investigation.

Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., had pursued the information for months and threatened a contempt of Congress charge against both Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray after they refused to turn over the information.

Two Republican senators earlier in the day Friday recommended that the Justice Department criminally investigate the author of the Trump dossier, which contains salacious and unverified claims about President Trump’s ties to Russia. Republicans are concerned the dossier may have been the impetus behind the federal inquiry looking into possible Russian collusion between that country and the Trump campaign.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a senior committee member, told the DOJ they believe Christopher Steele, the former British spy who helped put together the dossier, knowingly lied to federal authorities about his communications with U.S. journalists.

A lawyer for Fusion GPS lashed out at the senators, accusing them of making “another attempt to discredit government sources.”  (read more)

As the Inspector General investigation continues: ♦FBI Agent Peter Strzok has been reassigned to the HR department.  ♦FBI Lawyer Lisa Page, personal legal aide to FBI Asst. Director, Andrew “Andy” McCabe, has been returned to the DOJ side. ♦FBI Chief Legal Counsel James Baker has been relieved of his duties by FBI Director Christopher Wray. ♦FBI Asst Director Andrew McCabe has announced his intent to retire in March.

All of these FBI personnel moves are a preliminary outcomes of the still ongoing Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigation.   All of this has been reported.  None of these moves are speculative.  All of these geese are cooked.  However, this is just one side of the 2016 political “Trump operation”, the FBI investigative Counterintelligence Division side.

The other side, the legal side of the Trump operation, stems from the National Security Division of the DOJ.  A FISA application is submitted from the DOJ-NSD  for use by the FBI Counterintelligence team.   Sunlight upon this side of the collaboration is the reason for all of the current distraction narratives.

The Department of Justice, National Security Division, FISC application(s) and the FISA 702(16)(17) wiretapping and surveillance collection, along with the unmasking that followed, is the focus of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes.  He is tackling the biggest scandal – OUTLINED HERE –

Sometime this month, after the initial Inspector General Michael Horowitz release, House Judiciary Chair Bob Goodlatte and Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley will likely call for a Special Counsel to investigate the upper-level management of the FBI and DOJ.

We should support that approach.  The SC can quickly put a Grand Jury together and start presenting the IG investigative evidence, as well as enforceable subpoenas for witnesses.

There’s a lot of different down-stream legal issues:

• The unlawful exoneration of Hillary Clinton by political operatives in the DOJ/FBI.
• The unlawful destruction of evidence; and the manipulation of investigative protocols to gain a specific and pre-planned political outcome. (Peter Strzok, Andrew McCabe)
• The unlawful use of the FISA court for political spy operations by the DOJ/FBI.
• The unlawful use of the Dept of Justice National Security Division.  For weaponized political benefit.  (Sally Yates, Loretta Lynch, Bruce Ohr)
• The unlawful use of the FBI Counterintelligence Division. For weaponized political benefit. (James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, James Baker)
• The unlawful use of a Special Counsel (Mueller) investigation to hide the conspiracy; (James Baker, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Bruce Ohr, Andrew Weissman, Jeannie Rhee, Aaron Zebley)

All of the origination details are part of the minutia that will surface in the next 30 days.  Devin Nunes, Bob Goodlatte and Chuck Grassley using the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees to collect evidence and tell the public everything outlined HERE and more.

Dave NYiii has a terrific discussion thread on the pending OIG Release HERE

THE BIG UGLY

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RESOURCES:  – The BIG UGLY

• Grassley and Graham call FBI/DOJ Bluff HERE
• NSA Director Mike Rogers and the FISA Scheme Explained HERE
• The Russian Conspiracy was “The Insurance Policy” HERE
• Fusion GPS runs for Cover HERE
• Lindsey Graham discussed the Steele Dossier and FISA Warrant HERE
• The Scale of the DOJ and FBI Corruption – Outlined HERE
• The DOJ FISA Corruption Outlined HERE
• Devin Nunes subpoenas McCain staffer David Kramer HERE
• New context to understand Evelyn Farkas Comments – Discussed HERE
• How will media respond? – Discussed HERE
• A Counterintelligence Timeline – WH and FBI – HERE
• FBI Asst. Deputy, Andrew “Andy” McCabe announces intent to retire – HERE
• FBI Legal Counsel, James Baker, identified as leaker to media – HERE
• FBI Legal Counsel, James Baker, removed from responsibility – HERE
• Steele Dossier Origination Now Directly Leads To Obama White House – HERE
• FBI Asst. Director “Andy” McCabe has convenient memory lapse – HERE
• Rand Paul Discusses Evidence of Conspiracy HERE
• Summary of Scheme and Letter from Trump Transition Team HERE
• Congress Confirms the Investigative Approach for The Big Ugly HERE
• Understanding the Background Motives of Inspector General Horowitz HERE
• Democrats Realize the BIG Ugly Is Coming HERE
• Understanding the Important Role of Bill Priestap HERE
• Inspector General Horowitz Explains how he caught Peter Strzok and Lisa Page HERE
• Understanding the Pattern of Information Releases HERE
• Jim Jordan Questions Rod Rosenstein HERE
• More releases of information about Peter Strzok, Lisa Page and Andrew McCabe HERE
• Why Was FISA Court Judge Recused – Discussion HERE
• Jaw-Dropping Info. on Demoted DOJ Deputy Bruce G Ohr’s wife, Nellie H. Ohr HERE
• Discovery – Nellie Ohr worked for Fusion GPS on Trump Opposition Research Project
• Intel Chairman Devin Nunes Outlines FBI FISA Warrant Abuse HERE
• The FBI/DOJ Leak Hunting Task Force Everyone Forgot – Outlined HERE
• Jim Jordan Discusses the Fraud Behind the FBI FISA Warrant HERE
• Black Hat Hunting II – Becomes Obvious – False Media Leaks To Catch Leakers HERE
• The BIG UGLY – The Big Picture and What it Means HERE
• Judge Rudolph Contreras Recuses Himself – FISA Discoveries HERE
• “The Predicate” – The Importance of the Origin of The FISA WARRANTS HERE
• Black Hat Hunting I – First Appearance of Coordinated Plan HERE
• Deputy Head of Counterintelligence FBI Agent Peter Strzok – Outlined HERE
  
• Discovering Initial Seeds of DOJ-OIG Investigative Plan – Outlined HERE
• President Trump Reacts to Evidence of FBI Mgmt Bias Against Him HERE
• Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes Threatens FBI with Contempt HERE
• First IG Release of FBI Team Bias on Robert Mueller Squad HERE

IG Stimulated Releases of Information:

♦Release #1 was the FBI Agent Strzok and Attorney Lisa Page story; and the repercussions from discovering their politically motivated bias in the 2015/2016 Clinton email investigation and 2016/2017 Russian Election investigation.

♦Release #2 outlined the depth of FBI Agent Strzok and FBI Attorney Page’s specific history in the 2016 investigation into Hillary Clinton to include the changing of the wording [“grossly negligent” to “extremely careless”] of the probe outcome delivered by FBI Director James Comey.

♦Release #3 was the information about DOJ Deputy Bruce Ohr being in contact with Fusion GPS at the same time as the FISA application was submitted and granted by the FISA court; which authorized surveillance and wiretapping of candidate Donald Trump; that release also attached Bruce Ohr and Agent Strzok directly to the Steele Dossier.

♦Release #4 was information that Deputy Bruce Ohr’s wife, Nellie Ohr, was an actual contract employee of Fusion GPS, and was hired by F-GPS specifically to work on opposition research against candidate Donald Trump. Both Bruce Ohr and Nellie Ohr are attached to the origin of the Christopher Steele Russian Dossier.

♦Release #5 was the specific communication between FBI Agent Strzok and FBI Attorney Page. The 10,000 text messages that included evidence of them both meeting with Asst. FBI Director Andrew McCabe to discuss the “insurance policy” against candidate Donald Trump in August of 2016.

This jobs report bolsters confidence in the MAGAnomic prediction shared two years ago. So long as current economic trends continue, the explosion in private sector wage rates, middle-class wages, will begin around Q2 of this year (April – June). Once the eight year Obama-labor-lag is fully absorbed, a tighter job market will put upward pressure on real wages.

The Main Street economic engine, the “real economy”, is now positioned to overtake the Wall Street engine, the “paper economy”. Meaning actual profits and losses, real economic GDP growth, will drive company earnings and valuations in 2018.

There is an economic policy synergy now taking place.  The tax package that was passed shows how President Trump’s economic policy drivers (Ross, Cohen, Mnuchin) have structured Main Street businesses to willingly afford the wage rate increases.

The MAGAnomic dynamic is two-fold. The tax rates for the middle-class have dropped; simultaneous to this tax change increasing take home pay, the business sectors will have room to drive actual hourly wage rates higher. Lower rates and higher wages has a compounding impact on the amount of money in workers paychecks/pockets. See how that works?

[CNBC] The total brought 2017’s private payroll growth as gauged by ADP and Moody’s to 2.54 million, an average of 212,000 a month.

Job growth was broad based, as professional and business services led the way with 72,000 new positions. The education and health services sector was next at 50,000 and trade, transportation and utilities contributed 45,000. Wall Street-related payrolls grew by 19,000.

[…] By size, businesses with between 50 and 499 employees added 100,000 jobs while small firms hired 94,000 and large companies contributed 56,000 to the total.

“The job market ended the year strongly,” Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi said in a statement. “Robust Christmas sales prompted retailers and delivery services to add to their payrolls. The tight labor market will get even tighter, raising the specter that it will overheat.”

Overall, service-related companies were responsible for the balance of jobs, with 222,000 new hires. Goods-producing industries added the rest, with construction growing by 16,000 and manufacturing by 9,000.

The private payrolls numbers come a day ahead of the government’s closely watched nonfarm payrolls report. (read more)

The bottom line is how the MAGAnomic policy builds upon itself.  As middle-class workers have more disposable income they buy stuff.  Consumer spending drives GDP growth.

Higher middle-class wages mean U.S. consumers are no longer dependent on cheap foreign manufactured products.  This boosts the investment outlook for U.S. manufacturing.  The business cost dynamic shifts from the perspective of the U.S. as a service economy and the outlook becomes a balanced production economy.

President Trump’s MAGAnomic policy is breaking the historic cycle of low wages and cheap import product dependency.

Exactly as planned.

NOW, PLEASE WATCH:

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See how that works?

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Look, two things: First, despite the temptation, CTH is not going to say “we toldya so“; it’s irrelevant, combative and unnecessary. Second, I’m not going to go through the repository of all the times there have been harsh words upon this site criticizing CTH previous warnings about this day; again, irrelevant, combative and unnecessary.

CTH views our place, our responsibility for tone and presentation amid the ongoing struggle against the larger political left, as a foxhole discussion during consequential combat. What is the most valuable spirit within that foxhole?

MAGA cannot win without each other. MAGA cannot win without a positive outlook. MAGA cannot win, without a confidence in ourselves and our ability, and MAGA does not deserve to win if the end result of that winning is not ultimately our ability to provide the benefit of winning to the entire country, including the ‘other side’.

Understanding the bigger picture, CTH does not drive purpose with hot anger; energy is too valuable. CTH drives purpose with cold resolve, deliberate. As such, the larger CTH perspective is not disappointment in Steve Bannon, because CTH fully researched, understood and anticipated these moments with Steve Bannon – hence the prior warnings. However, CTH also accepts we cannot force anyone to understand the larger reasons for those warnings.

The goal of walking to discover truth is not to convince. If convincing is the goal, the amount of energy expended is exhausting. The truth of situations, circumstances and ultimately motives, exists regardless of our opinions of it. It just is. Our goal is to simply enjoy the complex conversation as we discover the location.  Deep, friendly, walking.

An honorable man does not personally attack the family of a man he supports. Period.

Regardless of all other things, what a person does speaks more loudly than what a person says. Character is not what you do when needed; character is who you are when no-one is paying attention.

Previous emotionally-driven attacks on Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, HR McMaster and Rex Tillerson showed the substance of Mr. Bannon’s character.

President Trump is the MAGA wave; Steve Bannon -and company- was/are surfers. Ultimately that’s the reason why Robert Mercer, and others, backed away from Bannon.

According to the controversial discussion between Steve Bannon and author Michael Wolff (for a recent book) as specifically quoted by Wolff:

“The three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good idea to meet with a foreign government inside Trump Tower in the conference room on the 25th floor — with no lawyers. They didn’t have any lawyers. Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad s***, and I happen to think it’s all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately.”

This is a quote from Steve Bannon that has driven much of the controversy. The ongoing criticism of Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr also sounds just like Steve Bannon. Mr. Bannon has an over-inflated perspective of his own importance. Accepting THAT reality was essentially the basis for our prior warnings.

A righteously outraged President Trump responds accordingly:

Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. Steve was a staffer who worked for me after I had already won the nomination by defeating seventeen candidates, often described as the most talented field ever assembled in the Republican party.

Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn’t as easy as I make it look. Steve had very little to do with our historic victory, which was delivered by the forgotten men and women of this country. Yet Steve had everything to do with the loss of a Senate seat in Alabama held for more than thirty years by Republicans. Steve doesn’t represent my base he’s only in it for himself.

Steve pretends to be at war with the media, which he calls the opposition party, yet he spent his time at the White House leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was. It is the only thing he does well. Steve was rarely in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have had influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue, whom he helped write phony books.

We have many great Republican members of Congress and candidates who are very supportive of the Make America Great Again agenda. Like me, they love the United States of America and are helping to finally take our country back and build it up, rather than simply seeking to burn it all down.

~ President Donald J Trump

Again, Wolfmoon’s explainer more true today than it was a year ago:

“Well, I don’t really have to do any holding together, now that I figured out what Trump is up to. He is shaking things out, but counting on Trump gravity to pull things back together as he moves along.

He is moving “forward” at speeds Obama could not even dream of.

You and I will be anti-Trump trolls one day and MAGA heroes the next. Get used to it. Trump speed is the new normal. Some will call it flip-flopping, but that’s not what it is. Trump is dodging and weaving through reality faster than the reality can react to disrupt his plans.

I was explaining this to my wife. This is a roller-coaster now. Trump is no longer waiting for people to keep up. He is taking his bewildering art-of-the-deal campaign schtick into geopolitics, and for a lot of people who can’t keep up or hold on, it will be a rough ride.

Trump is no longer playing only with evil and cunning players who are still predictable, easily beatable dopes, like Hillary. He is playing against killers, with his own team of killers, and all the while he has scheming creeps like Hillary, BGI, SPLC, and the neocons gunning for him. Snake Ryan ready to bite when nobody is looking. “Warhead” McCain screaming for Russian blood. Psycho Kim and Samoa Obama plotting some kind of intrigue to take him down. And THOSE are the lightweights.

This is the majors now. Trump has to outwit world-class adversaries and “frenemies” by defining the deals that they will agree to. One minute they will think Trump is their friend – the next minute, a cunning, bitter foe.

And he has to do this with evil cheerleaders like Warhead, Linderace, Dipsy Dowd, Maggie Haterman, and Fake Yapper trashing him or praising him alternately, no matter which way he goes. They can’t keep up, either.

Neither can many around him. I think that half of the problem with advisers crashing into each other is they don’t realize what Trump is doing.

And people will trash you, and they will trash me. Get used to it. I’ve already caught plenty of people mocking me. Well, just wait a week in Trump time. Look stupid and conned by Trump one minute, and you look like a sage three days later.

Trump will not find perfect solutions. He will find OPTIMAL solutions. We cannot ask for more. Trump has stood by and watched Perfect murder Good for 8 years – maybe longer. He’s not gonna do it. He’s going to deliver the best outcome possible, and he’s not waiting for us to feel relaxed about it.

Best presidency ever! Just hang on. More winning is coming, but a lot of people are going to scream that it’s all over at EVERY turn.

The best way through this is to define viewpoints, not people, because people will shift as they change position and velocity in Trump gravity. Bash the neocon, warmonger, and dopey globalist positions – not the people who are going to hold them one moment and come loose from them later.

Trump is Jupiter moving through the asteroid belt. He is going to pull people into his orbit. A few will get slung off into space, but most will come along for the ride of their lives.

I am ON the Trump Train for good, even if I scream that I want off and can’t take it.

In the end, I only want to scream “TOO MUCH WINNING!!!” (link)