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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s demand for border wall funds hurled the federal government closer to a shutdown as the Republican-led House approved a package Thursday with his $5.7 billion request that is almost certain to be rejected by the Senate. The White House said Trump will not travel to Florida on Friday for the Christmas holiday if the government is shutting down. More than 800,000 federal workers will be facing furloughs or forced to work without pay if a resolution is not reached before funding expires at midnight Friday.

HUGE ECONOMIC NEWS THIS MORNING— China moved to reduce tariffs on US cars from 40% to 15% in the latest sign of their willingness to negotiate a trade deal with President Trump.... ...Despite the Deep State DOJ’s best efforts to ruin the trade deal and punish Americans China is committing to a new trade agreement with the Trump administration.

The agreement reached by President Trump and President Xi Jinping of China to effectively pause their trade war and work toward a pact appears to be aimed at giving the two leaders some political breathing room after an escalating fight has begun inflicting economic damage on both sides of the Pacific. The temporary truce, forged over a working dinner on Saturday night in Buenos Aires, does little to resolve the deep differences between the two nations and is more a political agreement than a substantive one. Both sides immediately positioned the cease-fire as a domestic victory while staking out areas...

<p>BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- U.S. President Donald Trump says he will shortly be providing formal notice to Congress that he will terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement, giving lawmakers six months to approve the replacement he recently signed. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One while returning to Washington from Argentina, Trump says: “I will be formally terminating NAFTA shortly.” Seeking to gain leverage with skeptical lawmakers to approve the revised trade pact, Trump says Congress “will have a choice” as it considers the agreement he signed with the leaders of Mexico and Canada on Friday during the Group of 20 summit. He says they can choose between the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement or “pre-NAFTA, which works very well.” Trump has made renegotiating NAFTA a centerpiece of his presidency.</p>

Payless Shoesource pranked VIP shoppers into paying markups of up to 1,800 percent for the bargain retailer's shoes as part of a viral advertising campaign designed to shift consumers' perceptions of the brand. Creating a fake luxury brand — Palessi — Payless built a temporary store and filled it with fashionistas. So-called fashion influencers – essentially trendsetters that regular consumers look to for style cues — paid up to $645 for footwear that usually retails for between $19.99 and $39.99, the company said. The fashion insiders were captured remarking on the quality of the shoes' design and fabrication – before...

BREAKING - Top US Source says "deal is done" re #NAFTA. Joint statement from @USTradeRep & Canada's Freeland expected soon. I'm told #NAFTA deal was reached around 9:30pm tonight. Canada giving a larger % of its dairy market to US products in exchange for cultural protection & some form of dispute resolution process (formerly Ch 19).

Is Russia negotiating missile strikes as a method of appeasing Donald Trump? The Washington Post reports that Russia has shifted gears from confrontation to mitigation with the US after assisting Bashar al-Assad’s capture of the rebel stronghold Douma. At first, Moscow threatened a military conflict if Trump followed through on his threat to punish Assad for yet another use of chemical weapons that Russia had guaranteed were destroyed: Russian officials on Thursday sought to tamp down public fears of a looming conflict with the United States, even as Syrian government forces took control of the town where they are...

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea has agreed to further open its auto market to the United States as the two countries prepare to amend their 6-year-old trade agreement following complaints by President Donald Trump. ...It marks the first successful renegotiation of a trade deal for the Trump administration — which used the threat of 25 percent steel tariffs at the bargaining table — and comes as the allies sought to resolve disputes before planned meetings with Kim Jong Un.

Ted Cruz Sent "Voter Shaming Letter" To Iowa Professor of Political Science and the recipient eviscerates Cruz's campaign claim in an article via the New Yorker: One of the targeted voters of Ted Cruz's campaign shaming letters is a political scientist in Iowa. He was none to happy with the message, or the data of himself and his neighbors. In Iowa, although voter registration information is free and available to the public, voter history is not. That information is maintained by the secretary of state, which licenses it to campaigns, super PACs, polling firms, and any other entity that might...

Your comments regarding the State of the Union Address.

OK. I'm doing my public duty and starting the thread. Cuz I'm sure not going to tune in! If there is some brave and hardy soul who can tolerate listening, please give us the play by play. Otherwise we can all make stuff up and it'll probably be more truthful than anything said tonite. Usual State of the ShamWow drinking game rules apply: every time dear leader says "I" or "me" or "my", take a drink. Any survivors will be recognized for their feat. Then sent to detox. Go ahead and drink a 12 pack now to get warmed up....

Tuesday night live on C-SPAN, President Obama outlines his agenda for the coming year when he delivers his fifth State of the Union Address before a Joint Session of Congress. Leading up to the President's speech, C-SPAN sets the scene from the White House and Capitol Hill with perspectives from Former Speechwriter to President Obama Jon Lovett, Senate Historian Don Ritchie, and Gallup Editor in Chief Frank Newport. Following the State of the Union, House Republican Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) delivers the Republican response. McMorris Rodgers is in her fifth term representing Washington’s Fifth District. C-SPAN's live coverage...

Because when I imagine Barack Obama's State of the Union, I see a handsome, dignified man standing at the podium and behind him Joe Biden, sleeping. And next to him John Boehner, snoring. And arrayed before the president the members, napping. No one's really listening to the president now. He has been for five years a nonstop windup talk machine. Most of it has been facile, bland, the same rounded words and rounded sentiments, the same soft accusations and excuses. I see him enjoying the sound of his voice as the network newsman leans forward eagerly, intently, nodding at the...

After hearing from the [clown], Americans will hear a rebuttal from a woman unfamiliar to many of them. Most of the national television audience hasn’t heard of Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the highest-ranking Republican woman in Washington, D.C. and the standard-bearer tasked with delivering the GOP response to President Barack Obama’s address. But Republicans hope that she’ll make an impression with her unapologetically conservative message, her journey from humble origins to the U.S. Capitol, and her family-friendly biography as a busy mother of three young children. All three of her kids were born while she was serving in Congress; her...

WASHINGTON -- The baffling Bitcoin boom is either an exercise in self-delusion -- a high-tech Ponzi scheme that will come crashing down -- or an imaginative new Internet technology that will ultimately change how millions of people around the world conduct everyday business. There is little middle ground. Called a "digital currency," Bitcoin originated in early 2009 with a software program written by Satoshi Nakamoto. Who is Nakamoto? Good question. It's a pseudonym, and we don't know who's behind it -- whether man or woman; individual or group; American, Japanese, Russian or some other nationality. But what seems clear is...

President Barack Obama made it no secret he was a proponent of a single payer health care system in America when he first came on to the national scene. However, he explained to his supporters over the years that a "potential transition" would be necessary to break away from the current system. Interestingly, as the implementation of the Obamacare exchanges face problems and millions begin to lose coverage from their private insurers, something President Obama promised would not happen, Democrats and their liberal allies are now beginning to suggest a single payer system as a solution to the rickety exchanges....

CHICAGO — A federal judge rejected an impassioned plea from a television pitchman for his freedom on Tuesday, ordering U.S. Marshals to lock up Kevin Trudeau for failing to pay a $37 million civil judgment. The visibly exasperated judge had already ordered that Trudeau be jailed during a hearing in Chicago when Trudeau stood up and asked if he could address the court. The Federal Trade Commission won the judgment after accusing Trudeau of hoodwinking viewers about his weight-loss books. "There are no more assets to turn over, your honor," the 50-year-old Trudeau insisted during a 10-minute plea, at times...

As Congress continues to debate the authorization of use of force against the Assad regime, President Obama addresses the nation from the White House on the situation in Syria.

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