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Originally posted by JALLEN:
It’s beginning to look as though the Plumbers unit has moved down the road to DOJ.

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Donald Trump to Media: ‘You Need the Prayer More Than I Do’


President Donald Trump spoke to White House press before his Cabinet meeting at the White House on Wednesday, inviting them to stay for a prayer led by Ben Carson, his secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

“You need the prayer more than I do, I think. You may be the only ones. Maybe a good solid prayer, and they’ll be honest men. Is that possible?” he joked prior to the prayer.

Carson prayed:

Our kind Father in Heaven, we’re so thankful for the opportunity and the freedom that You’ve granted us in this country. We thank You for the president and for Cabinet members, who are courageous, who are willing to face the winds of controversy in order to perhaps provide a better future for those who come behind us. We’re thankful for the unity in Congress that has presented an opportunity for our economy to expand so that we can fight the corrosive debt that has been destroying our future. And we hope that that unity will spread even beyond party lines so that people recognize that we have a nation that is worth saving and recognize that nations divided against themselves cannot stand. In this time of discord, distrust, and dishonesty, we ask that You would give us a spirit of gratitude, compassion, and common sense, and give us the wisdom to be able to guide this great nation and the future. We ask in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sat on Trump’s right and Secretary of Defense Gen. Jim Mattis sat on Trump’s left.

Vice President Mike Pence praised Trump and his administration for finally delivering on major promises that he and Republicans in Congress promised, including tax cuts.

“Because of your determination, because of your leadership, the forgotten men and women of America are forgotten no more, and we are making America great again,” he said.

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Originally posted by JALLEN:
People in liberal prog collective/hives must be passing out.

Imagine! Praying in a public building.

It is a pretty darn good prayer for an amateur.

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Originally posted by justjoe:
Tom Hanks says he wouldn't screen his latest movie at the White House. So there!

Of course, nobody asked him to screen his movie, so he just looks kinda...stupid.

But he says "you have to decide when to go to the ramparts!" Hahahahahahahahahahaha. This self-important twit thinks he is-- *sound the trumpets*-- going to the ramparts!! If the whole world were on fire except for the ramparts, Tom Hanks would go to the ramparts. Otherwise, he'd really like to, you know, but he has a shiatsu appointment. Talk with his agent. He'll get back to you on the ramparts thing....

https://www.hollywoodreporter....st-amendment-1066846

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Germans Fear Tax Cut Will Spur US Investment and Growth
The Democrats in Congress and the press have frantically tried to convince the American people that cutting businesses taxes won’t do any good. This view is delusional, but we hear it so often it almost begins to sound plausible. Here is a contrary view from a different source, German industry: “Germans fear huge loss of jobs from US tax reform.”

German investment in the US is expected to rise by €39 billion because of lower US corporate taxes.

While Americans are anxiously awaiting full details of the tax bill now being finalized in Congress, German economists are warning that the changes sought by President Donald Trump mean that significant amounts of new investment and jobs will shift from Europe to the United States.

“The tax competition will have a new dimension,” said Christoph Spengel, chairman of the corporate tax department at the University of Mannheim. Mr. Spengel, who is also a research associate at the Center for European Economic Research, and a group of tax experts at the university have done a detailed comparison of the two countries’ tax systems and published a report under the heading, “Germany loses out in US tax reform.”

Clemens Fuest, who heads the Ifo economic think tank, also said he believed German business would suffer. “Investments and jobs will migrate to the US,” he said.

The report itself is dense and technical, but interesting. A few readable excerpts:

Scholars and politicians from both US parties agree that the high statutory corporate income tax rate of up to 39% (35% federal rate) is a devastating factor in international tax competition and should therefore be decreased (see, e.g. Avi-Yonah and Mazzoni 2017, see Devereux et al. 2008 for an analysis of competition over tax rates).

Scholars certainly agree, but “politicians from both parties”? Someone better tell Nancy Pelosi.

When considering the changes in US outbound FDI [Foreign Direct Investment] and US inbound FDI, total investment within the US will increase more than in Europe once the tax reform is implemented. This means that despite the overall expansion after the US tax reform which is expected to foster FDI in all countries, the US will benefit disproportionally by additional inward FDI.

Which means that Europeans will be creating American jobs. Finally:

The expected significant reduction in the statutory federal corporate income tax rate from currently 35% to 20% [Ed.: The final rate was 21%] will presumably have a substantial impact on the location attractiveness of the US in global tax competition. As evident from Figure 6, the proposed corporate tax reform would improve the US competitive position relative to the EU Member States from being among the jurisdictions with the highest effective corporate tax burden to a jurisdiction with a comparatively moderate effective tax rate.

It is hard to understand how the Democrats can deny basic economic realities that European economists regard as virtually self-evident. That isn’t the Democrats’ biggest problem, though. They will really have a lot of explaining to do when a large majority of Americans see their paychecks increase in February.

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Originally posted by sdy:

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The above is about what constitutes an official "record" and does not have anything to do with privacy in terms of being subject to monitoring

Disagree. It is the key to the argument.

"Mueller’s problem here is these were not even government employee emails; they were the emails of private individuals stored temporarily on a government server, and publicly declared to be “private materials” as a matter of custom, practice and the public policy of the National Archives .

As Professor Jonathan Turley identifies, the National Archives recognize transition email records “are not federal or presidential records, but considered private materials.” "

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TAKE A HIKE, SON: Trump Tells Countries Favoring UN Resolution Against His Jerusalem Decision: I’ll Cut Off Your Financial Aid



On Wednesday, President Trump, who absolutely refuses to be bullied by countries around the world that are vilifying him for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, struck back.

The U.N. General Assembly is holding an emergency session on Thursday that was requested by Arab and Muslim countries to vote on a draft resolution calling for Trump to rescind his decision.

Trump let them have it with both barrels, asserting, "They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us. Well, we're watching those votes. Let them vote against us. We'll save a lot. We don't care.”

On Monday the 15-member U.N. Security Council voted on a Egyptian-drafted resolution that expressed "deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem." Only the U.S. voted against the resolution.

The five permanent members of the Security Council are the U.S., the United Kingdom, France, China, and the Russian Federation. The current non-permanent members are Bolivia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Senegal, Sweden, Ukraine, and Uruguay.

Israel has never sat on the Security Council since it was established in 1946, while Iran, Cuba, Syria, Iraq and Pakistan have all had at least one turn.

On Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley issued a letter to dozens of U.N. states bluntly stating that Trump had asked her to "report back on those countries who voted against us."

Haley followed with a terse Twitter message: "The U.S. will be taking names."

A senior diplomat from a Muslim country ripped Haley for her letter, whining, "States resort to such blatant bullying only when they know they do not have a moral or legal argument to convince others."

Haley slammed back on Twitter, writing, "Actually it is when a country is tired of being taken for granted."

As Reuters noted, the U.S. government's aid agency USAID stated that in 2016 the United States provided roughly $13 billion in economic and military assistance to countries in sub-Saharan Africa and $1.6 billion to states in East Asia and Oceania. Further, the U.S. gave $13 billion to countries in the Middle East and North Africa, $6.7 billion to countries in South and Central Asia, $1.5 billion to states in Europe and Eurasia and $2.2 billion to Western Hemisphere countries.

Trump said on Tuesday, "I like the message that Nikki sent yesterday at the United Nations, for all those nations that take our money and then they vote against us at the Security Council, or they vote against us potentially at the assembly.”

https://www.dailywire.com/news...m_campaign=mattwalsh