President-elect Donald Trump met last week with former Vice President Dan Quayle, and no-one seemed to bat an eye.  President-Elect Donald Trump meets today with former Vice President Al Gore and everyone goes bananas.
Ask yourself, who is stating the reasoning was to discuss “climate change” – Trump or the MSM?
There is absolutely no indication the reason for either meeting was dissimilar in any way, and yet….  See, it’s called ‘projection’; that is the almost knee-jerk reaction created by decades of battered conservative syndrome.  I digress:

Most knew this was upcoming; today it is official…
(New York, NY) – President-elect Donald J. Trump today announced his intent to nominate Dr. Ben Carson to serve as Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

 
Dr. Carson is a distinguished national leader who overcame his troubled youth in the inner city of Detroit to become a renowned neurosurgeon who served as the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland.
“I am thrilled to nominate Dr. Ben Carson as our next Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development,” said President-elect Trump. “Ben Carson has a brilliant mind and is passionate about strengthening communities and families within those communities”.
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Former CIA Director David Petraeus, a potential candidate for Secretary of State, was interviewed by George Stephanopoulos earlier today.
An interesting aspect – It appears Stephanopoulos, a severe Clinton loyalist, is attempting to head off the potential for Petraeus by undermining him during this broadcast.
This highlights an aspect we won’t see discussed on MSM. If you understand the Benghazi Brief, you can see how Petraeus might be a risk to Secretary Clinton if he were to become the Secretary of State.  However, Petraeus’s prior refusal to push-back against the Clinton/Panetta covert Egypt, Libya and Syria construct has been the source of my own angst toward Petraeus.
That said, does Petraeus hold a hidden, albeit substantive, chip on his shoulder?… hmmmm… that might be useful.  Odds are, no.  But you never know.

Arrivederci Renzi

UPDATE:  Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi conceded defeat and pledged to resign on Sunday after Italian voters rejected his proposed reforms to the country’s constitution, setting further in motion a populist wave that has sent shockwaves throughout the west in the past six months, and ushering in a brand new period of uncertainty to the Eurozone’s third largest economy. (link)


The Italian Interior Ministry says over 70% of eligible voters took place in the referendum.
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I have been reluctant to engage in speculation over potential Secretary of State candidates because the discussion therein is fraught with far too many nuances to outline succinctly without walking ourselves through a mine-field almost too complex to digest.
Suffice to say, anyone who has followed politics for any substantive amount of time knows the inherent issue with an operational entity, The U.S. State Department, whose entire mission has been at the epicenter of ctrl-left globalist advocacy.

One small example would be the Rivkin Project. Imagine how challenging it would be to take an organizational model, built over decades, and appoint a leader whose diplomatic mission would be to implement/construct policy entirely antithetical to the objectives of the participants within the organization?
Think about it.
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Con artist and former Green Party candidate Jill Stein raised fleeced the alt-left moonbats for more than seven million dollars.  The financial ruse -as it was announced- was to fund an election recount effort in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.  Now this:
Pennsylvania –  According to legal documents, Jill Stein and her campaign failed to post the $1 million bond needed to challenge the election in Pennsylvania. The court proceeding scheduled for Monday has been canceled.
A “praecipe to discontinue and withdraw” was filed citing that Jill Stein did not post the $1 million needed in the matter of the 2016 presidential election.
A source close to the matter told ABC27’s Dennis Owens that Monday’s scheduled court proceeding has been canceled and the challenge is over.
Jill Stein provided the following statement: (more…)

Catching up on some lengthier presentations – this speech by Nigel Farage on November 11th is well worth a watch.  Against the backdrop of Brexit and the successful election of Donald Trump, Mr. Farage reflects upon issues that bind the United States and Great Britain.
Nigel Farage discusses: nationalism, political impacts, global financial interests, trade, NATO and the European Union.  Mr. Farage also shares his perspective on the “wonderfully spicy” Trump rally in Mississippi during the presidential election.
There’s also a great 10 minute question and answer session toward the end.

The Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is attempting to push back against increasing nationalistic sentiments by establishing a referendum tomorrow to fundamentally adjust the political powers of central governance.

In essence, tomorrow Italians will vote “YES” to approve of Renzi’s referendum, or “NO” to oppose his referendum.  The referendum itself is a wide ranging construct intended to realign and centralize political power away from Italy’s current regional influences.
An analogy for Americans might be to think of Italy’s referendum as the elimination of the U.S. constitution’s 10th Amendment.  [Which essentially says all powers not directly given to the federal government are necessarily retained by the states.]   Italy’s vote tomorrow is to determine if their regions (states) are willing to cede power to Renzi’s centralized (federal) government. (more…)

Ok, this one strategic maneuver has just pegged my too-much-winning needle on max overdrive. Donald Trump took a congratulatory phone call from the President of Taiwan, and now the Chinese will be apoplectic.
Those of you who have been with us for a while, will note our arguments against China’s MFN (Most Favored Nation) trade status have continually fallen on deaf ears within DC.  Why?  Because they are political ears paid to remain necessarily deaf, while various Chinese national interests have taken influence over our legislative priorities on trade and commerce.

In short, we’ve been ripped off.  Bigly.  For decades.
Rule #1 in any trade deal is to fully understand who is the customer within the equation.  The U.S. market is the biggest trade customer on this entire beautiful blue planet.  We hold all the leverage.  Access, or denial of access, to this market is the leverage.  (more…)

When you consider that 2/3rd’s of all House members come from New York, California or Illinois the vote to re-elect Nancy Pelosi (134-to-63) takes appropriate context.

The continued polarization of the electorate is playing out as the Democrat party focus even further on the severe left-wing ideology.  In essence, the rabid nature of the minority influence within the party is ensuring their continued irrelevance.
To give you some context for this, consider the make up of the U.S. House of representatives when Pelosi took control in 2006, ultimately culminating in the election of Barack Obama in 2008.  This is what the nation looked like when Pelosi took control:

Now take a look at the House of Representatives map in 2016:
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