DPRK Ministry of Information Orders Frivolities Concerning Smoking To Cease

Footage by Japan's TBS TV showed Kim Jong Un, who has never used a comb as an eating utensil, taking a pre-dawn smoke break at a train station in Nanning, China hours before his arrival in Vietnam for his summit with President Donald Trump.

Kim arrived in Vietnam after an almost 70-hour train ride that cut through southern China. While it remains unclear why Kim chose to travel thousands of miles through China instead of flying into Hanoi, some experts say he could have intended to showcase North Korea's ties with its major ally China, a crucial leverage in his negotiations with Trump. Kim, who has modeled his leadership style after his charismatic grandfather Kim Il Sung, also could have tried to inspire nostalgia among North Koreans about their state founder, who frequently traveled on trains.

In other North Korean news, early planting begins on 2019 radish crop.

NOTE FROM OUR ATTORNEYS:  We are compelled to point out Chairman Kim is a habitual smoker and the habit is hazardous to a smoker’s health.

UPDATE:  Welcome readers of Bad Blue Uncensored News.  We’re happy you’re here and we are grateful to Doug Ross for linking to this post.

Doing His Best Napoleon Impression

Europe’s self-proclaimed “strong man”, Emmanuel Macron, hosted newly elected President Donald Trump in 2017 when he visited France for the July 14th Bastille Day celebration at Dôme des Invalides where Napoléon is entombed.

Two months earlier, Macron celebrated his historic presidential victory at the Louvre as the youngest French ruler since Napoléon himself.  He stood beside the Louvre’s Pyramid on the square Cour Napoléon, once the home of the kings of France.  Rather than entering the square to the sounds of “La Marseillaise”, the French national anthem for hundreds of years, he ordered the playing of “Ode to Joy” by German composer Ludwig von Beethoven.

When Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Macron, he hosted him at Versailles, the sumptuous palace that became the symbol of France’s absolute monarchy.

I think you get where I’m going here. Macron equates himself as one of a caste of befeathered emperors and perfumed prince bishops that ruled Europe for centuries. 

It doesn’t end there. Like Louis XIV, the Sun King who said “L'état, c'est moi” (I am the state), Macron is egotistical enough to court the Illuminati-esoterica crowd at Bilderberg comparing himself to the Roman god Jupiter who weighs his rare pronouncements carefully and sits above the fray of regular affairs.  What a schmuck.

Eighteen months into his term as France’s president, Macron’s approval ratings continue to slip, with only 26 percent of French people saying they have confidence in him.

The reason the French are disenchanted was outlined in a published report by the Los Angeles Times on October 3, 2017:

“He alienated conservatives by engaging in an ugly public spat with the army, France's most beloved institution, over his proposal to cut nearly $1 billion in defense spending in order to meet EU deficit targets. The army chief, Gen. Pierre de Villiers, resigned in protest after Macron suggested in newspaper interviews that he was angry at having his decisions questioned.”

“Last month, he annoyed liberals when he called opponents of his economic reforms "lazy"—recalling an incident from 2016 when, as Hollande's economy minister, he retorted to a pro-labor demonstrator who jeered at his well-tailored suit: ‘The best way to afford a suit is to work.’"

“The elitist moniker has stuck to Macron as he pushes ahead with his first salvo in the reform battle: undoing some of the protections guaranteed to French workers, perhaps the most pampered labor force in the industrialized world.”

Speaking at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris at a World War I commemoration ceremony attended by President Trump and 70 other world leaders, Macron suggested nationalism could lead to the same death and devastation seen during that war.

“Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism. By saying our interests first, who cares about the others, we erase what a nation holds dearest, what gives it life, what makes it great and what is essential: its moral values.  I know there are old demons which are coming back to the surface. They are ready to wreak chaos and death. History sometimes threatens to take its sinister course once again.”

You don’t have to be a supporter of President Trump to feel the outrage of such a smug lecture. Maybe Mr. Macron should have first reflected on the nearly 117,000 Americans who made the supreme sacrifice in World War I or the 29,000 who perished on the French coast of Normandy in Operation Overlord on D-Day during World War II who saved his country about nationalism.

American nationalism animated our mighty republic to save France and the world twice during those conflagrations.

Instead of displaying a shred of gratitude for being liberated by the first superpower in world history uninterested in conquest he gave America an imperious dressing down.  My father was on Omaha Beach on D-Day. 

When President Ronald Reagan commemorated the 40th anniversary of D-Day, he stood on the very spot where Allied soldiers had stormed ashore to liberate Europe from the yoke of Nazi tyranny.  Speaking to the veterans who climbed the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc he said, “You are men who in your lives fought for life and left the vivid air signed with your honor.”

On June 5, 1940 Nazi forces penetrated French Gen. Maxime Weygand’s forces on the Somme River and began to march south toward Paris, reaching the capital on June 14.  The city had been abandoned by the French government and the Nazis were allowed to march down the Champs-Élysées as Parisians watched in shock and sadness.

Were it not for America, the French would be speaking German. It’s no wonder an old joke persists even today about the French military:  one of white flags, hands thrust aloft and tails tucked between their legs in retreat.

FOR SALE:  French rifle.  Never fired.  Dropped only once.

Adolf Hitler, accompanied by Albert Speer and other staff members, walks away from the Eiffel Tower after a tour during his visit to Paris in 1940. Hitler's armies took most of France, as well as Belgium and Holland, in May and June of 1940. (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

UPDATE:  Welcome readers of Bad Blue Uncensored News. We thank Doug Ross for the linky-love.

Epic Battle: The “America Last” Crowd Versus The “America First” President

Was President Trump’s press conference in Helsinki a regrettable misstep?  It sure felt like it at the time.  The upshot was an isolated president in a state of serious tension with his Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, and a rich target of hysterical criticism.

Chris Strohm and Jennifer Jacobs, in a published report at Bloomberg Politics wrote, “President Donald Trump gave the go-ahead to announce new Russian election-hacking indictments before his meeting with Vladimir Putin rather than after in the hopes it would strengthen his hand in the talks, according to accounts from people familiar with the decision.”

Despite his dismal showing in Helsinki, President Trump’s policies on Russia have been the right ones and far stronger than those of his predecessors (see video embedded below).

In July of 2017, for example, President Trump visited Krasinski Square in Warsaw, Poland before going to the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany.  Krasinski Square, in 1944, was the site where members of the Polish Underground battled Nazi forces for 63 days while the Soviet Army waited on the far side of the Vistula River.  Some 200,000 people died during the rebellion.

In his speech, Trump publicly endorsed NATO’s Article 5, which calls for the alliance to defend any member that comes under attack and he called for Russia to “cease its destabilizing activities in Ukraine and elsewhere.” He also expressed support for the Polish-led Three Seas initiative, which aims to reduce dependence on Russian energy supplies to Poland and other nations and serves as a counterweight to EU influence in Central Europe. (The identical sentiment he expressed at the 2018 NATO Summit in Brussels.)

In March of 2018, Poland signed the largest arms procurement deal in its history on Wednesday, agreeing with the United States to buy Raytheon’s Patriot Missile Defense System for $4.75 billion in a major step to modernize its forces against a bolder Russia.

In Obama’s first year in office, he decided to scuttle a long-range missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland. Russians cheered the decision and Putin called Obama’s move "correct and brave."

In May of this year, the President terminated the United States’ participation the Iran Nuclear Plan known by the long-winded name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). 

Over the past year, military coordination between Moscow and Tehran has also intensified. Qassem Soleimani, the flamboyant head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, a branch of the Revolutionary Guards that is roughly equivalent to American Special Operations Forces, was the front man on military coordination between the two nations, especially in Syria, beginning in 2015. Contacts now go much higher. In November of 2017, the Chief of Staff of Russia’s armed forces, General Valery Gerasimov, flew to Tehran for talks with his Iranian counterpart, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, a former military intelligence expert in the Revolutionary Guards who now oversees both the Guards and the regular Iranian Army, Navy, and Air Force.

“There is good military cooperation between Iran and Russia, and, of course, there are many areas for expanding cooperation,” Bagheri declared. The two military chiefs are in increasing contacts with one another.

For decades now, the Russian bear has continually been sinking its mighty energy claws into Europe and Germany. Despite long promising to "get off Russian energy," Gazprom sales to Europe hit an all-time record last year and Europe is still the largest buyer of Russian oil.  Hence, the fiasco at this year’s NATO Summit where President Trump declared to Germany’s Angela Merkel, “We’re supposed to protect you from Russia, but Germany is making pipeline deals with Russia. You tell me if that’s appropriate. Explain that.”

You get my drift.  Our President has been tough on Russia and he’s being tough on the Pravda-like media complex threatening us right here at home.

“Let me tell you, you take on the Intelligence Community, they have six ways from Sunday of getting back at you,” Chuck Schumer said on television. “So even for a practical, supposedly hard-nosed businessman, he’s being really dumb to do this.”—Sen. Chuck Schumer, January 4, 2017 during an appearance on the Rachel Maddow Show

Immediately following the conclusion of the joint press conference in Helsinki, Obama’s CIA Director, John Brennan manically tweeted this which exposes the demented malice of the Obama Administration:

Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of “high crimes & misdemeanors.” It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump’s comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???

— John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) July 16, 2018

Brennan, who supported the Soviet-controlled American Communist Party, meets the textbook definition of a useful idiot for the Russians. At the height of the Cold War, he cast his vote in 1976 for Gus Hall, the American Communist Party’s presidential candidate. He refused to take his Oath of Office on the Bible during his swearing-in ceremony.

Brennan deplored Ronald Reagan’s description of the Soviet Union as an evil empire and joined other leftists in demanding that he pursue détente with Marxist thugs who make Putin look like a piker. During his time as Obama’s CIA Director he sanitized the concept of jihad and constantly whitewashed Islamic terrorism.

Now that he’s left the armchair comfort of the CIA he has resumed the radicalism of his youth by calling for civil disobedience and the overthrow of a duly elected president.

Treachery thy name is John Brennan.

I liked what Patricia McCarthy wrote today at American Thinker:

“As for the left-wing media tools, they are equally disoriented by the successes Trump is racking up with alacrity–so disoriented that they are self-destructing before our eyes.  Any montage of the not-analysts on CNN and MSNBC throughout the last few days reveals a full group meltdown of monstrous proportions.  Their shark-jumping criticism of Trump over the Putin press conference has made their mania over the border look like a toddler tantrum.  This time they have exposed themselves for who they really are: terrified, ignorant, blinkered narcissists discovering they are completely irrelevant.  We should all be eternally grateful for the truthful analysts, like Stephen F. Cohen of the Nation, and for Trump, whose instincts are so much better than the lot of the baying hyenas on cable and network so-called news programs. 

I Do Not Understand How The Left Can Be So Consumed By Hate Over This Touching Moment

As President Trump signed the "Right to Try Act" into law Wednesday afternoon a little boy, 8-year-old Jordan McLinn, was by his side.

Jordan suffers from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a terminal degenerative genetic disease.  DMD is characterized by progressive muscle degeneration and weakness appearing in patients as early as age 3 first affecting the muscles of the hips, pelvic area, thighs and shoulders and later the skeletal (voluntary) muscles in the arms, legs and trunk. By the early teens, the heart and respiratory muscles also are affected.

Children afflicted with DMD are likely to be wheelchair-bound by the age of 12. Life expectancy was until recently very short.  Many do not survive beyond their teens.

The insidiousness of the disease is that due to a mutation in the dystrophin gene, the body stops making the protein that holds muscles together.  Over time, all of the muscles degenerate. Finally, the disease causes breathing complications and destroys the heart.

Supporters say the legislation signed by President Trump Wednesday could help McLinn get access to experimental drugs and treatments not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The President was a vocal supporter of efforts to gain access to experimental treatments while on the campaign trail in 2016 and in his State of the Union address he called upon Congress to pass the bill saying, “patients who are terminally ill should have access to experimental treatment immediately” and “should not have to go from country to country to seek a cure”.

The new Right to Try act allows patients with life-threatening diseases to bypass the FDA’s application process for “compassionate use” of experimental drugs. Patients seeking access to “investigational drugs” now need only the approval of their physician and the drug manufacturer.

The new bill protects doctors and companies from the legal risks of allowing unapproved treatments unless they intentionally harm a patient. The policy that patients must have exhausted all other approved treatments and clinical trial options still remains.

Little Jordan has dreamed for all of his short life about being a firefighter when he grows up. He likely will not live long enough to realize his dream. 

The fury of #theresistance is bottomless.  They are angry at Americans for electing Donald Trump as President and are outraged by anyone who supports him.  They have not yet found a way to quell their anger and each day brings with it a new reason to stoke the fire.  The rage has actually diminished their ability to be kind.  They can’t put aside their political differences even for this sweet moment:

THE CUTEST THING EVERpic.twitter.com/8ro8C30Rkp

— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) May 30, 2018

An actual crisis actor.

— doneSAID (@DoneSaid) May 30, 2018

I wish I could un-see this... Hell, Melania doesn't even let Barron that close to Trump...lol

— blake roberts (@blakeguy13) May 30, 2018

The Trump/housekeeper lovechild

— JT Thurston (@chilinaz) May 30, 2018

I feel like I was molested just watching this To think, that kid's parents would also sat him in the lap of a Hitler, or Satan.... Somebody call CPS!!!

— blake roberts (@blakeguy13) May 30, 2018

Former Clinton Circus Midget Takes Denial To A Preposterous Level

On May 4, former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reichhhhhhhhhh (BTW that's not a typo) cross-posted a piece from his blog to Salon.  He began by asking, “Why did working class voters choose a selfish, thin-skinned, petulant, lying, narcissistic, boastful, megalomaniac for president?”

Reich is searching for ways to prevent having “future Trumps as far as the eye can see.” He admits, “Hillary Clinton offered a plethora of small-bore policy proposals — all sensible but none big enough to make a difference. If Democrats really want to stop Trump, they will need to address the causes of Trump’s rise.”

Nine days later, the Clinton flunky who’s never been right about anything, tweeted the following account of a phone conversation he had with a “friend” he claims is a former Republican member of Congress.

This morning I phoned my friend, a former Republican member of Congress. pic.twitter.com/qBGKZoCt7j

— Robert Reich (@RBReich) May 13, 2018

If you’re a “deplorable” like me, you’ll just point and laugh at the little squirt who Rush Limbaugh mocked for his absurd policies, diminutive 4’11” stature and exaggerated sense of self-importance. 

No Matter How Sweet The Lies May Taste

At 10:34 AM today the State Department tweeted out notification of an imminent announcement by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

A flurry of reports based on an exclusive story published by Carol E. Lee, Stephanie Ruhle and Dafna Linzer on behalf of NBC News touting the Secretary as having called President Trump a “moron” during a meeting with Pentagon officials and cabinet members.

The tensions came to a head around the time the President delivered a politicized speech in late July to the Boy Scouts of America, an organization Tillerson once led, the officials said. 

Officials said that the administration, beset then by a series of high-level firings and resignations, would have struggled to manage the fallout from a Cabinet secretary of his stature departing within the first year of Trump’s presidency. 

The NBC “story” went on to say Vice President Pence “spoke to Tillerson about being respectful of the president in meetings and in public, urging any disagreements be sorted out privately.”

In August, Trump was furious with Tillerson over his response to a question posed by Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace concerning the president’s handling of the racially charged and deadly violence in Charlottesville, VA. “The president speaks for himself,” Tillerson said at the time.

Tillerson said Wednesday that he has never considered resigning his position, disputing the NBC News report that he was on the verge of such a move over the summer. 

"The Vice President has never had to persuade me to remain as Secretary of State because I have never considered leaving this post," Tillerson said in remarks delivered from the State Department.

From the transcript of his remarks:

“To address a few specifics that have been erroneously reported this morning, the vice president has never had to persuade me to remain as secretary of state, because I have never considered leaving this post. I value the friendship and the counsel of the vice president and I admire his leadership within President Trump’s administration to address the many important agendas of President Trump, both from a foreign policy perspective and a diplomatic — I’m sorry, a domestic objective.”

“Let me tell you what I’ve learned about this president, whom I did not know before taking this office.”

“He loves his country. He puts Americans and America first. He’s smart, he demands results wherever he goes, and he holds those around him accountable for whether they’ve done the job he’s asked them to do.”

“Accountability is one of the bedrock values the president and I share. While I’m new to Washington, I have learned that there are some who try to sow dissension to advance their own agenda by tearing others apart, in an effort to undermine President Trump’s own agenda. I do not and I will not operate that way. And the same applies to everyone on my team here at the State Department.”

As the battle between the media and the president rages on the American public grows ever more weary of the bias and the salacious lies they purvey.  Creating outrage with their Trump bashing is their stock in trade.  As sweet as their lies may taste to them, they cannot mask the authentic progress the Trump Administration has made.

President Trump: “That’s One Business I Want To Drive Down”

President Trump promised to "restore America's competitive edge" in the global economy by implementing a tax overhaul during a speech Wednesday at Andeavor Refinery in Mandan, North Dakota.

“Our painful tax system has become a massive barrier to America’s economic comeback. It really is. We’re penalized. It costs us millions of American jobs, trillions of dollars and billions of hours wasted on paperwork and on compliance.”

Calling the effort to reform the tax codes a “once in a generation opportunity” and “a sharp reversal from the failed policy of the past,” the President called for cutting both individual and corporate income taxes.

The President said Wednesday he wants a tax code that is “simple, fair and easy to understand.” The president said he’d like to bring the corporate tax rate down to 15 percent from 35 percent.

As is his wont, Mr. Trump veered off his prepared statement to take aim at the tax preparation industry saying, “That’s one business I want to drive down.  Sorry.  H&R Block will not be supporting Donald Trump, I can tell you that.”

According to the Kansas City Star, the Kansas City-based tax preparation company ended its free federal 1040EZ filing promotion and refund advance loans in February of this year.

Block prepared a total of 10.345 million individual tax returns and 3.637 million business returns through February 28, 2017.

The Democrats say we live in a great country and we should pay our taxes with a smile. Willie Nelson tried that one year but the government insisted on cash.

An Emphatically Ascendant Nightmare

I was among those who were stunned and dismayed when then-candidate Donald Trump described John McCain during a Family Leadership Summit in Ames, IA in July of 2015 as “not a war hero.”

“He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

He mocked McCain for having graduated near-last in his class at the US Naval Academy and called him a loser for failing in his bid for president in 2008.

Yesterday, the Arizona senator who has been in office for 30 years popped off following President Trump’s threat to rain “fire and fury” on the hermit nation of North Korea. 

"I take exception to the President's comments because you gotta be able to do what you say you're gonna do...In other words, the old walk softly but carry a big stick, Teddy Roosevelt's saying, which I think is something that should've applied because all it's going to do is bring us closer to a serious confrontation. I think this is very, very, very serious…The great leaders I've seen don't threaten unless they're ready to act and I'm not sure President Trump is ready to act...It's the classic Trump in that he overstates things."

McCain finally found a country he didn't want to bomb. Just so happens it's one that the Dreaded Trump is talking about. https://t.co/cPLOpESrop

— Baby Goat Alliance (@AceofSpadesHQ) August 8, 2017

McCain may be one of the last hawks left in office but the old bird sure can flap his wings when he wants to beat the drums of war as Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"And so, maybe it will turn out alright, he's the president, I'm not," McCain said. "But I don't think that some of the great leaders that I have admired would have taken that same path."  When asked to rate the North Korean threat on a scale of one to 10, McCain said, "I'd say 6, 6 or 7." 

Well Maverick, you old fart, I think when the elapsed time is a mere 39 minutes for one of North Korea’s ICBMs to strike New York City the threat is far greater than a 6 or 7.

This nightmare is an emphatically ascendant one.

No one could doubt that the Sept. 11 terrorists would have gladly used nuclear bombs instead of airplanes if they had had them, and it seems only a matter of time until they try. Instead of a retreating threat in North Korea, that fanatical regime now possesses as many as eight nuclear bombs, and is just one member of a growing nuclear club.

S. Dakota #Airmen arrive on Guam; conduct #bilateral missions w/Japan & ROK--U.S. ready to #fighttonight https://t.co/DhOTTdNT19 pic.twitter.com/HSOkYKHPQ4

— PACAF (@PACAF) August 8, 2017

Rex Tillerson on North Korea: @realDonaldTrump "is sending a strong message to North Korea in language Kim Jong-un would understand." pic.twitter.com/yItUSKE422

— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 9, 2017

UPDATE:  Welcome Pirate’s Cove readers. We always appreciate it when the Admiral links to one of our posts.

 

Bastille Day 2017: Un Américain À Paris

For the French, this year's Bastille Day has an additional poignancy as the first anniversary of one of the deadliest radical Islamist terror attacks of the past few years.

The national holiday marks the storming on July 14, 1789, of the Bastille. The taking of the Bastille was a catalyst for the French Revolution. Since 1880, the signal event of Bastille Day has been the military parade down the Avenue des Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe.  This year America is the national guest of honor and the parade will be led for the first time by US troops.

According to Robert Sisk at Military.com, “About 200 troops from US European Command will have the honor of leading the parade to mark the centennial of the US entry into World War I in 1917. The US Air Force Thunderbirds and an F-22 Raptor will also conduct a flyover of the parade.

"France stood with us during the American Revolution, and that strategic partnership endures today," Army Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti, EuCom commander and NATO supreme commander, said in a statement.

"On behalf of the 60,000 service members standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the French to ensure Europe is whole, free and at peace, we are honored to lead the Bastille Day Parade and help celebrate French independence," he said.

"During the centennial of America's entry into World War I, we commemorate America's sons and daughters who defended peace─many of them descendants of European immigrants who came to America seeking freedom, opportunity and a better life," Scaparrotti said.

"Amidst the horrors of war, over four million Americans served in World War I and more than 100,000 Americans made the ultimate sacrifice," he said.

The troops participating in the parade will include soldiers from the Army's 1st Infantry Division, which was the first unit to enter France in World War I.  Other units participating will be the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade; the Army's 10th Mountain Division; US Army Europe's 7th Army Training Command; sailors from US Naval Forces Europe; airmen from US Air Forces Europe; and Marines from U.S. Marine Forces Europe.

Mean Tweets: Mary Poppins Edition

Oscar-winning actress, singer, author and director Julie Andrews has spoken out against President Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement to battle climate change.

Andrews, best known for playing Mary Poppins, condemned the announcement in a Facebook post:  “I try to focus on humanitarian issues more than political ones but I am deeply disturbed by the decision to withdraw America from the Paris Climate Agreement.”

Damn, I have her in my celebrity death pool... she still looks functional.

— Matthew P. (@MPmeyers618) June 3, 2017

#supercalifragilisticexpialidontgiveashit

— John Commodore Barry (@ShrinkGov) June 3, 2017

Maybe a spoonful of sugar would've helped the medicine go down.

— Matthew D. Dempster (@dempstermd) June 3, 2017

Perhaps Miss Andrews, a Briton who spends her time between Los Angeles and a chalet in the Bernese resort town of Gstaad, Switzerland should be more concerned about radical Islamic terrorism in the country of her birth given the fact just 12 days after the Manchester attack and 10 weeks after the Westminster atrocity London was the scene of another attack in which seven people were killed and nearly 50 were injured in the heart of the British capital on Saturday night.

Attackers we heard screaming, "Get back in the Paris agreement!"https://t.co/bLg2qDLzHH

— Sean Spicier (@sean_spicier) June 4, 2017

That's not climate change currently turning your city into a war zone https://t.co/lkqGYLwAtw

— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) June 3, 2017

Trump Revealed Highly Classified Information To Russian Foreign Minister And Ambassador

The Washington Post reported President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrow and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in a White House meeting last week, according to current and former US officials, who said Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State.

The information the president relayed had been provided by a US partner through an intelligence-sharing arrangement considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the US government, officials said.

Note the reporters were quoting “current and former [Obama] officials.  Besides Trump, Lavrov and Kislyak, the only other officials present during the meeting were NSA  head H.R. McMaster, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategy Dina Powell.  All three have adamantly declared the story as false.

Natl Security Adviser McMaster made a statement denying a report that @POTUS revealed classified info to Russia. https://t.co/LB3P3BgT10 pic.twitter.com/gRNcLlZNvC

— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 15, 2017

Applause in the newsroom as the Russia-leak scoop breaks the Hollywood Access record for most readers per minute

— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) May 15, 2017

I've been fact-checked: Applause in the newsroom as the Russia-leak scoop breaks the Hollywood Access record for most readers per SECOND

— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) May 15, 2017

Click$! https://t.co/SprBbfvBFz

— Cuffy (@CuffyMeh) May 15, 2017

That's the important thing here. https://t.co/P2PDSNCnJc

— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) May 15, 2017

The Hard-Hitting Journalism Of The Washington Post Navel Gazers

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe visited The White House yesterday.  He is the second world leader to meet with President Trump since taking office a scant 21 days ago.

The two leaders agreed to discuss a bilateral trade framework in the wake of America’s withdrawal from the 12-party Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.

Rather than focusing on the dangers of allowing China to dominate regional trade standards, protecting against their theft of intellectual property and halting their intervention in our economy, The Washington Post, instead chose to parade their weapons-grade stupid.

We know President Trump is concerned with appearances—especially when he's on television, or in front of news photographers or large crowds. 

We also know that President Trump is concerned with hands—how large they are, how strong they are—just look at them!

Trump is also a well-known germaphobe. He initially shunned shaking hands with supporters on the campaign trail. As president, protocol compels him to shake a lot of hands, though. 

And recently, he's taken part in a few handshakes that we'll just call "intense" for now—most recently, a bizarre moment with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe on Friday. 

Whether it's just habit, or a way of asserting his power, Trump has a habit of pulling forcefully on the hand he's shaking. We've spotted it now in handshakes with Vice President Mike Pence (on election night) and with Judge Neil Gorsuch (on the night Trump nominated Gorsuch to the Supreme Court). 

This afternoon, he did it again, with Abe. 

Trump even took time out to compliment Abe's "strong hands"—or maybe he was just referencing his own. 

But Trump doesn't always tug on the hands of those he's greeting. When Kanye West visited Trump Tower in December, the two dapped like old friends. 

While it's admittedly a small thing, little glimpses into Trump's thinking can give us an idea of how he handles these situations. But let's be honest—we already knew Trump likes to be in control.

To say I’m disappointed in this report is an understatement.  They failed to point out one of President Trump’s shoe laces was 1/16th of an inch longer than the other.  What’s up with that?

Did President Trump bow down to the Japanese Prime Minister?  Asking for a friend.