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Trump Admin Seeks $86B in Intelligence Agency Spending

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats

The Trump administration is requesting $86 billion in spending for intelligence agencies, including $23 billion for highly classified military intelligence activities (MIP) in fiscal year 2020, The New York Times reports.

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said the administration wants $62.8 billion for its intelligence agencies while the Pentagon asked for $22.95 billion for its secretive "black budget."
Overall, the budget includes a 6 percent spending increase and covers the costs of cyberweapons, spy satellites, and the national intelligence program that supports the armed services and tactical units.

Both budgets also propose spending more money on capabilities to compete with Russia and China, according to officials who spoke with the Times.
The MIP supports "defense intelligence activities intended to support tactical military operations and priorities," according to a 2016 Congressional Research Service, while funding for the National Intelligence Program goes to nondefense organizations.

The Pentagon in a statement said the request includes base budget funding as well as the war fund known overseas as the overseas contingency operations account.

"The department determined that releasing this top-line figure does not jeopardize any classified activities within the MIP," the statement noted. "No other MIP budget figures or program details will be released, as they remain classified for national security reasons."

White House Predicts 10-Year Economic Boom

Contrary to the views of most economists, the Trump administration expects the U.S. economy to keep booming over the next decade on the strength of further tax cuts, reduced regulation, and improvements to the nation's infrastructure.
The annual report from President Donald Trump's Council of Economic Advisers forecasts that the economy will expand a brisk 3.2 percent this year and a still-healthy 2.8 percent a decade from now. That is much faster than the Federal Reserve's long-run forecast of 1.9 percent annual economic growth.

The administration's forecast hinges on an expectation that it will manage to implement further tax cuts, incentives for infrastructure improvements, new labor policies and scaled-back regulations — programs that are unlikely to gain favor with the Democratic-led House that would need to approve most of them.

Kevin Hassett, chairman of the White House council, insisted that the president's economic agenda would provide enough fuel to drive robust growth at a time when the majority of economists foresee a slowdown due in part to the aging U.S. population.
He said the biggest risk to growth would be if financial markets anticipate that Trump's existing policies would be reversed. Without getting into specifics, Hassett said the risk would be if markets expect that the winner of the 2020 presidential election would shift away from policies such as the tax overhaul that Trump signed into law in 2017.

"Uncertainty over the policies themselves could slow their positive impact," Hassett said.
The tax cuts added roughly $1.5 trillion to the federal debt over the next decade, not accounting for economic growth. The report suggests that the lower tax rates have increased business investment in ways that will make the economy more productive, while also creating a surge in people coming off the sidelines to search for work.

The administration's optimism comes amid signs of slowing global economic growth, as well as a recent slowdown in manufacturing production and weakness in retail sales in January and December.

127,000 Blacks, Hispanics Incarcerated When Harris Was Calif. AG

At least 127,000 blacks and Hispanics were sent to prison in California during the time Kamala Harris served as the state’s attorney general, The Washington Free Beacon is reporting.

Harris, now serving in the U.S. Senate, is currently running for the Democratic nomination for president.
The Free Beacon, in data obtained from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said at least 44,172 black offenders and 83,370 Hispanic offenders were sent to California prisons between n 2011 and 2016.  By comparison 48,761 whites and 11,182 “other” were incarcerated during that time.

Many of those were prosecuted by her office or that of a state attorney who reported to her, the Free Beacon noted.
The website pointed out that the numbers translate into 23.6 percent of new inmates being black and 44.5 percent being Hispanic. According to the Free Beacon, The U.S. Census Bureau estimated 39.1 percent of Californians were Hispanic/Latino and 6.5 percent were black or African American.

Yet, as a presidential candidate, Harris has touted herself as a progressive on racial justice and has claimed to have reduced racial disparities in the criminal justice system, according to the Free Beacon. At one point, she labeled President Donald Trump a racist during an interview with The Root.

Bill O'Reilly to Newsmax TV: Media Sinks to 'Sad' New Low

The hate-Trump media's attempts to tie the mass shootings in New Zealand to President Donald Trump "is hateful, dishonest, and insulting the American public," Bill O'Reilly said on Newsmax TV.
"As soon as I saw the Trump haters try to tie the president of the United States into mass murder in New Zealand, I turned the channel – I turned it off," O'Reilly said during an appearance on Monday night's "The Wayne Allyn Root Show."

"Because I've had enough. And I think my feeling reflects the majority of Americans: Enough.

"President Trump didn't have anything to do with the New Zealand mass murder, and to try to tie him into it is hateful, dishonest, and insulting the American public."
O'Reilly lamented the American media's weak effort to damage their own president at any opportunity, no matter how remote the attack is, because of a nonstop anti-Trump agenda.

"There's no other story for the media other than Donald Trump," O'Reilly told Root. "If Donald Trump isn't in the news, they don't have anything to report on.
"And that's really sad for this country. Really, really, sad."

Hijab Cartoons

Damn Shame Fox News picked the Muslim over the American.

Pompeo Mulls Senate Run: 'Lord Will Get Me to the Right Place'

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has reportedly ruled out a 2020 Senate run in Kansas, but he knows he will not stay in President Donald Trump's Cabinet forever, McClatchy DC reported.

"I try to just avoid ruling things out when there's others who are in control," Pompeo said. "The Lord will get me to the right place."
If Pompeo does not reconsider for 2020, a 2022 run for the Kansas governor's mansion or 2024 presidential run could be in his future, as his dormant federal committee has nearly $1 million in its war chest, according to the report.

"It's a terrible quandary because he may well be the strongest and most capable Cabinet member Trump has," Fred Berry, Pompeo's former campaign co-chair told McClatchy. "He won't be there forever."

Pompeo, 55, noted his future has drastically changed before, including his unexpected start in politics and meteoric rise to being Secretary of State.
"I was running a small business, living my life – it would have seemed unlikely," he told McClatchy of his foray into politics. "I try now to avoid predicting what I might do a year, two years, six years from now."

Despite farm bankruptcies in Kansas amid a trade war with China, strong polling numbers for President Trump and Secretary Pompeo bode well for a run in Kansas, according Sandlot Strategic founder Colin Hoffman.
"It's his race, if he gets in," Hoffman told McClatchy.

Sen. Lindsey Graham Defends McCain Without Rebuking Trump

Famously a loyal friend to the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. – long a target of President Donald Trump criticism in a storied political rivalry – while also being a notable defender of President Trump's policies, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., responded to the president's latest attacks this weekend.
"As to @SenJohnMcCain and his devotion to his country: He stepped forward to risk his life for his country, served honorably under difficult circumstances, and was one of the most consequential senators in the history of the body. (1/2)," Sen. Graham tweeted Sunday.

"Nothing about his service will ever be changed or diminished. (2/2)," he concluded.
Sen. Graham's tweets come amid continued attacks from President Trump, rebuking the late Sen. McCain for his pushing the infamous Christopher Steele dossier in election campaign meddling in 2016 and his casting the deciding vote against a skinny repeal and replacement of Obamacare.

As much as Sen. McCain was an adversary of President Trump before and after his election, Sen. Graham has remained loyal to both, including rejecting the Senate's passing of a resolution to unravel the president's national emergency on the southern border.

"Totally support President @realDonaldTrump's VETO," Sen. Graham tweeted Friday. "President Trump is right to declare an emergency on our southern border and he's right on the law allowing him to reallocate funds to secure our southern border. #BuildtheWall."

Graham's seemingly polar defenses for President Trump and Sen. McCain tend to be rooted in common sense – or uncommon sense – similar to that he tweeted in the follow up to the above.
"Question: How can President Trump be accused of 'going around Congress' using a statute . . . passed by Congress?" Sen. Graham also tweeted Friday.
 2019 Newsmax.

Trump Blasts GM for Ohio Plant Closure, Urges Reopening

President Donald Trump stepped up his pressure on General Motors to reopen an Ohio manufacturing plant that recently closed and put 1,700 people out of work.
Trump's arm-twisting came in two separate tweets on Saturday and Sunday .
He called on GM to reopen its Lordstown plant or find another owner, while insisting that the Detroit automaker "must act quickly."

He also blasted GM for letting down the U.S. and asserted "much better" automakers are coming to the country.
Trump praised Toyota for its investments in the U.S. in an apparent attempt to depict GM as being less committed to its home country than the Japan automaker.
GM didn't immediately respond to requests for comment Sunday.
The Lordstown closure has become a hot-button issue in an area of Ohio that is expected to be critical for Trump if he seeks re-election as promised in 2020.

Trump prevailed in Ohio in the 2016 election, a win that helped him win enough electoral votes to become president despite losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton.
That may be one reason why Trump joined a coalition of Ohio lawmakers in efforts to get the Lordstown plant running again. The tweets marked some of his most pointed criticism of GM so far.

Trump has skewered several other U.S. companies for not doing more to help their country's economy, but his remarks so far have been more bark than bite.
For instance, he has publicly called upon Apple to shift most of its manufacturing from China to the U.S., but the Silicon Valley company continues to make its iPhones and most other products overseas.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, last week expressed doubts GM will reopen its Lordstown plant, but said the automaker indicated it's in talks with another company about using the site.

More than 16 million vehicles were made at the Lordstown plant during its 53-year history until GM closed it earlier this month as part of a massive reorganization. The company also intends to close four other North American plants by early next year.

De Blasio Calls Obama's Early Days in Office a 'Lost Window'

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday criticized former President Barack Obama during a small gathering as he mulls a run for president, saying that Obama's early days in office were "a lost window."
Minutes later, in front of a larger audience, de Blasio praised the Affordable Care Act, Obama's signature legislative achievement, calling it "progress." Obama pursued the health care legislation during his first two years in office and has been criticized at times for focusing more on health care than the struggling economy.

A handful of people were present in a second-floor private room of a Concord restaurant when de Blasio compared Obama to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who took office in 1933 amid the Depression and immediately began a series of actions that came to define the modern presidency's focus on a 100-day agenda. The mayor said Roosevelt was the only person who "had a greater head of steam and political momentum and capital coming into office."
"He, to his great credit, did the 100 days and the reckless abandon and understood that you had to achieve for people to build the next stage of capital to use for the next thing," de Blasio said. "Obama, I think, nobly went at health care, but it played out over such a long time and it got treated politically as such a narrow instead of universal item, tragically, that it was a lost window. And I'm not saying anything I don't think a lot of people feel."

By contrast, de Blasio promoted 2009's Employee Free Choice Act as the kind of legislation worth pursuing by a new president, which raised another matter critical of Obama. The proposed law would have made it easier for workers to join unions, but it became one of labor's grievances against Obama when he didn't press for its passage as Democrats controlled Congress — the same period in which he pushed for the health care law.

"I would argue, we won't be fooled again," he said. "Employee Free Choice Act, or something like it, should be one of the very first things, because, grab that opportunity for structural change. Put that as a foothold, and a whole bunch of other things start to open up based on that."

De Blasio then spoke to about 40 people in a private room on the restaurant's first floor. He didn't mention Obama by name to the larger group but was more complimentary to the Affordable Care Act, commonly called "Obamacare."
Asked what he would do about the cost of prescription drugs, de Blasio said people's health should be put "first and in a collective way."
"Right now we have health care is a commodity and ... God bless the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act was progress, but it's still tethered to a health insurance company-based system," he said.

The Associated Press.