This image from Sweden speaks so loudly:

Concrete K-Rail Barriers, positioned to stop terrorist attacks by vehicles, dressed up like Christmas decorations around the local holiday markets.  What a ridiculously sad and pathetic visual of everything wrong in Europe.
Amid the anxiety of anticipating the next Jihadist attack, which everyone knows is not if – but rather ‘when’, it would appear joy is somewhat lowered on the scale of relativity.

EUROPE – The Islamic State has issued chilling threat to attack Christmas markets in the Britain, France and Germany in pictures circulated among supporters.

The jihadis have circulated images on messaging apps including one in which a black-clad hooded figure is seen standing over a kneeling Santa Claus with an image of Regent Street in the background.

A message in English, French, and German says ‘Soon on your holidays’ with the clear implication that London can expect a terrorist attack over the holiday season.  (read more)

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There was a great deal of speculation that a big time Florida law majority partner and founder Democrat John Morgan was going to run for Florida Governor.  Morgan has been growing in political influence within Florida for years and was a massive donor to Democrats.  Well, he just quit the Democrat Party.
Morgan was a bundler for President Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, Morgan even held a $30,000 per plate fundraiser for Obama.  Though he seemed to butt-heads with Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, often publicly.
Morgan also provided the landing place for Charlie Crist when his Senatorial political aspirations collapsed in 2010 under the weight of his evolution from Republican, to independent, to Democrat.

TALLAHASSEE — John Morgan tossed a bomb Friday into the 2018 political landscape, saying in a post-Thanksgiving message he is leaving the Democratic Party, and that Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson should not run for re-election, but rather seek the governor’s mansion so he can leave a “legacy.”
“I can’t muster enthusiasm for any of today’s politicians,” the prominent trial lawyer and Democratic fundraiser wrote on Twitter. “They are all the same. Both parties. I plan to register as an independent and when I vote, vote for the lesser of two evils.”

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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was the brainchild of Senator Elizabeth Warren as an outcome of the Dodd-Frank legislation. With the CFPB Pocahontas tried to set up the head of the agency, the Director, in a manner that that he/she would operate without oversight. Unfortunately, her dictatorial-fiat-design collapsed when challenged in court.  Backstory #1 – Backstory #2
A federal court found the CFPB Director position held too much power and deemed it unconstitutional. The court decision noted that giving the President power to fire the Director would fix the constitutional problem.
However, with the prior court ruling as a backdrop, a second issue for Warren surfaces as an outcome of the current CFPB Director, Richard Cordray, resigning and President Trump appointing an ‘interim’ head for the agency.
Senator Warren, apoplectic at the thought of CFPB critic Mick Mulvaney acting as head of the agency, wants the Deputy Director,  Leandra English, to become Acting Director and points to Warren’s legislative outline as evidence to support her demand. Except it doesn’t…. not even a little bit.

(WARREN LINK)

The language Pocahontas points to in the CFPB construct, points to the Deputy Director filling in during the “absence” or “unavailability” of the Director. The statute clearly does not provide a mechanism when the Director position is “Vacant”.
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The White House releases the official announcement that OMB Director Mick Mulvaney will head up the Consumer Financial Protection Board until a replacement is confirmed.  As previously discussed – notice the verbiage:

WHITE HOUSE – Today, the President announced that he is designating Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Mick Mulvaney as Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The President looks forward to seeing Director Mulvaney take a common sense approach to leading the CFPB’s dedicated staff, an approach that will empower consumers to make their own financial decisions and facilitate investment in our communities. Director Mulvaney will serve as Acting Director until a permanent director is nominated and confirmed.  (link)

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There’s an interesting interview within the New York Times written by Thomas Friedman who interviews Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about the current changes taking place within Saudi Arabia and MbS’s intense drive to modernize and engage.  The article is well worth reading.
CTH would be remiss if we didn’t draw attention to the level of jaw-dropping weasel linguistics that Friedman uses to jump on the MbS bandwagon.  If you have never read Friedman’s interviews of President Obama –EXAMPLE HERE– you might not see it.
However, if you have watched the decade of fawning idolatry expressed by Friedman toward the Chicago lightbringer you’ll immediately notice the tell-tale signs of a pontificating liberal [shallow-minded simpleton] attempting to retain relevance by claiming proximity toward perspectives that are 180 degrees away from his previous prose.
There’s a particular level of inauthentic weaselistics that goes beyond the normal level of liberal snobbery.  If you’ve ever experienced the shallow pinky-raised elites, group-talking about their sensitive wine palates while the Sommelier tricks them with $10 vino; or if you’ve heard stories of the cloistered-clutch waxing philosophically at art exhibitions which were actually switched for Kindergarten scribbles… well, then you know Friedman’s tribe.
In real terms there’s a level of profound irony within this interview.  The changes within Saudi Arabia are directly supported by a U.S. president empowering Saudi Arabia to manifest its own destiny.
President Trump has reshaped mid-east policy, and formed a strong coalition, based on a partnership among co-equals.  This is not about the U.S., this change is about Saudi Arabia.
That Trumpian outlook is a complete reverse of the Bush/Obama Doctrine of forcing their personal definition of ‘Western values‘ to provide support.   Yet Friedman can’t even see that paradigm shift; his ideology is so mired in selfishness it is invisible to him.
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I somewhat agree with Mrs. Brazile, but I doubt she’ll ever be honest with the reason.
Anyone who has watched the ongoing internal battle within the larger Democrat party will note the institutional apparatus is about to make a major concession.  More than likely the Democrat machine will drop “super delegates” from the system.
The control authority will sell the removal of ‘super delegates‘ as confirmation they are reforming and listening to the people.  However, things are not quite as they would appear.  The institutional control agents will NEVER give up their control over the nomination process; they don’t even carry that genetic possibility in their DNA strain.
As an insider and life-long party benefactor, Donna Brazile outlines her view on the future. A future that almost everyone reading these pages will be very familiar with.

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Remember the adage, ‘history repeats’. What Brazile is outlining is exactly the same conversation you might remember from the republican wing of the UniParty circa 2009; and expanded later in the 2013 GOP autopsy. There’s a strategy behind running a field of candidates; a control strategy; a “splitter strategy“.
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Aside from the common vernacular of ‘broken arrow‘ referencing a loss of a nuclear weapon it also means:

“a code phrase that a ground unit is facing imminent destruction from enemy attack and all available air forces within range are to provide air support immediately.”

In essence, with enemy completely overwhelming a position – a military commander calls in direct fire upon themselves in a last-ditch effort to at least retain some of their own forces in the aftermath.
For the sake of this discussion do not consider the reference ‘federal politicians’ (ie. DC congress and Senate); but rather consider the term “broken arrow” a metaphor for the totality of the past eight years and the collapse of the Democrat political apparatus in state House seats and state Senate seats.
Currently:

• State House Majority Control: 38 states Republican / 12 states Democrat
• State Senate Majority Control: 37 states Republican / 17 states Democrat / 1 state tied.
• State Governors: 34 Republican / 15 Democrat / 1 Independent

If you put a blue marble on a table for each of the Democrat politicians in state office and a red marble on the table for each of the Republican politicians in state office the table would be roughly 65% red marbles and 35% blue marbles.
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Oh, this is SWAMPY – and the timing is epic.  Pennsylvania Congressman Bob Brady is a ranking member of the Committee on House Administration which oversees settlements paid by Congress for sexual discrimination and harassment complaints.
Additionally, representative Brady is also under FBI investigation for false statements, conspiracy and campaign fraud, according to FBI documents revealed on Tuesday:

PHILADELPHIA –  The FBI has reason to believe U.S. Rep. Bob Brady unlawfully concealed a $90,000 payment made by his campaign to get an opponent to quit a 2012 primary race, according to court documents that confirm the Philadelphia Democrat is under investigation in a widening campaign finance probe.
In unsealed court documents made public Monday, the FBI requested a search warrant and has obtained data from an email account belonging to Brady. The FBI agent who filed the warrant wrote that there is probable cause Brady violated contribution limits and produced false documents, and there is evidence that he and others knowingly circumvented campaign finance rules.

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This one is going to be a tough call for the Democrat apparatus.  88-year-old Representative John Conyers is the longest serving member of the house, and generally insulated from criticism by the congressional black caucus and identity politics.
Initially on Tuesday Conyers denied ever paying for sexual harassment claims against him. A few hours later his office reversed position and admitted paying.

(VIA NBC) Rep. John Conyers admitted Tuesday to reaching a financial settlement with a former staffer who had accused him of sexual misconduct but the lawmaker denied having done anything improper.  The House Ethics Committee announced several hours later it had opened an investigation.
“I expressly and vehemently denied the allegations made against me, and continue to do so,” Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, said in a statement. “My office resolved the allegations — with an express denial of liability — in order to save all involved from the rigors of protracted litigation. That should not be lost in the narrative.”

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$64 billion of the current annual trade deficit with Mexico stems from the auto sector alone.
For over a decade auto manufacturers have moved to Mexico in order to import parts from Asia, assemble and install them, and then ship the completed cars into the U.S. through NAFTA without duties (tariffs).
The U.S. auto ancillary business groups (parts suppliers) have been pushed out of competition in the auto sector by this corporate profit strategy.  Thousands of U.S. jobs have been lost in both the plant assembly and the ‘auto-parts’ manufacturing sector.
CTH has called attention to this bastardized supply chain for years.  Foreign auto-parts, made by foreign workers, assembled into U.S. owned manufacturing, and sold as U.S. automobiles. The weird supply chain and assembly process is essentially a multinational corporate scheme (in the auto sector) which exploits one of the loopholes in the 25-year-old NAFTA agreement.
If the assembly plant was on U.S. soil the foreign (mostly Asian) parts would be taxed as imported parts.  However, so long as the assembly is in Mexico (or Canada), the origin of the parts is currently irrelevant, and the finished automobile crosses the border into the U.S. avoiding the taxes using NAFTA.
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