According to DOJ filings: “Tallahassee, Florida City Commissioner Scott Charles Maddox, 50, and Tallahassee political consultant Janice Paige Carter-Smith, 53, both of Tallahassee, have been indicted in a 44-count indictment for conspiring to operate a racketeering enterprise that engaged in acts of bank fraud, extortion, honest services fraud and bribery.”  Both were arrested yesterday.

The issues around the three-year investigation surfaced in the Florida Governors race when Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum was running for governor.  Part of the sting operation discovered Mayor Gillum taking trips with lobbyists and accepting perks from undercover FBI agents.  Outgoing governor Rick Scott has suspended Maddox.

Scott Maddox and Paige Carter-Smith, once power players in Tallahassee’s political scene, shuffled into a federal courtroom on Wednesday, their legs in shackles, to answer charges they shook down city vendors for bribes and pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars.  – Read More

[DOJ Press Announcement Here] – [Story Via Orlando Sentinel Here]

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This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

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Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

Earlier today First Lady Melania Trump visited Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, Joint Base Langley-Eustis and the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush. Continuing to blaze her own trail, our First Lady actually flew on a v-22 Osprey.

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Earlier today President Trump signed an executive order establishing the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council. The Council will be chaired by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Ben Carson, and comprised of 13 Federal agencies.
The goal of the council will be to stop the redundancy and duplication within the federal bureaucracy, and focus on actual delivery of results to specific economic empowerment zones.

[Transcript] 2:37 P.M. EST – THE PRESIDENT: Hello everybody. Good, Tim. It’s a big day.
SENATOR SCOTT: Yes, sir.
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivers remarks to the media following his presentation to the U.N. surrounding ongoing issues with Iran, the failed JCPOA and the updated U.S. sanction policy.

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[Transcript] SECRETARY POMPEO: Good afternoon, everyone. We had a productive Security Council meeting where the United States made clear that Iran’s ballistic missile activity is out of control and that they are defying the UN Security Council 2231 in numerous ways.
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Interesting, very interesting.  As noted in the Flynn sentencing memo last night there were some curiously framed explanations of events surrounding his FBI inquisition.
Now Judge Emmet Sullivan wants expanded information, and wishes to see the actual notes (FD-302) that were mentioned by Flynn; and Judge Sullivan is directing the special counsel to provide all documents created by the FBI surrounding the Flynn interview:

(Source Link)

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I apologize in advance for my shortcomings in trying to de-wonk multinational economics and the financial constructs that impact, at the core, the U.S. worker and consumer.  It’s a big issue to tackle in digestible portions.  However, that said some inflationary statistics are presenting an opportunity for expanded discussion.
Reuters has an article out today highlighting inflationary data as released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) [DATA HERE]. The overall summary is the Consumer Price Index is stable or flat reflecting low inflation on measured goods; however, that’s not the part that bears emphasis.   Instead I would direct attention to this:

The Fed’s preferred inflation measure, the core PCE price index excluding food and energy, increased 1.8 percent year-on-year in October, the smallest gain since February, after rising 1.9 percent the prior month. It hit the U.S. central bank’s 2 percent target in March for the first time since April 2012.

At the heart of the controlled monetary system; at the epicenter of the multinational global control mechanisms; inside the offices of the global economic elites; there is a system of financial manipulation with tentacles that reach into your pocket.  This system seems hard to understand, but it is critical to do so… so we need to try and understand it.
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Did you get your yellow vest yet?  The recently elected New York Attorney General, Letitia James, makes a public declaration that she intends to fully weaponize her office to target the Trump family.
On the bright side, democrats can no longer claim their preferred approach of weaponizing their offices for direct targeting of their political opposition as a “right-wing conspiracy theory”; they are specifically outlining their intent to do exactly that.

New York – New York Attorney Gen.-elect Letitia James says she plans to launch sweeping investigations into President Donald Trump, his family and “anyone” in his circle who may have violated the law once she settles into her new job next month.

“We will use every area of the law to investigate President Trump and his business transactions and that of his family as well,” James, a Democrat, told NBC News in her first extensive interview since she was elected last month.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Sarah H Sanders Twitter @SHSanders45