Oh my gosh.  First Lady Melania Trump introduces the 2019 Christmas Holiday decorations, and they are spectacular.

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President Donald J Trump and First Lady Melania Trump honor two fallen Army officers at Dover Air Force Base on November 21st, 2019.  The President and First Lady traveled to Delaware to meet with the officers’ families and pay their respects.

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The U.S. forces in Afghanistan in a statement says that two U.S. service members were  killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan.  The statement says Wednesday that the cause of the crash is under investigation, however preliminary reports do not indicate it was caused by enemy fire.
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CTH has some new readers, so against the backdrop of the UniParty in Washington DC jumping into action to criticize President Trump’s decision to withdraw from Syria; and against the backdrop of President Trump authorizing an operation last night that killed ISIS leader Baghdadi, perhaps a little factual and historic refresher is in order….

On September 30th 2016 the New York Times quietly released a leaked audio recording of Secretary John Kerry meeting with multiple factions associated within Syria.
The 40-minute discussion took place on the sidelines of a United Nations General Assembly in New York. The meeting took place at the Dutch Mission to the United Nations on Sept. 22nd 2016:

[…] Kerry’s off-record conversation was apparently with two dozen ‘Syrian civilians’, all from US backed opposition-linked NGO’s in education and medical groups supposedly working in ‘rebel-held’ (aka terrorist-held) areas in Syria.
This opposition conclave also included ‘rescue workers’ which can only be ambassadors from the White Helmets, a pseudo NGO which serves as Washington and London’s primary PR front in pursuit of a “No Fly Zone’ in Syria, and it’s being bankrolled by the US, UK, EU and other coalition states to the tune of well over $100 million (so far). (link)

When you listen to the audio recording (embedded below) it becomes immediately obvious what was going on in 2014, 2015 and 2016 as an outcome of policy from the White House. In addition, you discover why this jaw-dropping 2016 leak/story was buried by the U.S. media and how it connects to the prior 4 years of perplexing U.S. mid-east policy.
This evidence within this single story would/should forever remove any credibility toward the U.S. foreign policy under President Obama. It also destroys the credibility of a large number of well known republicans, and explains how the prior action placed President Trump into a precarious position requiring a careful approach.
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President Trump visited South Carolina yesterday, receiving an award and delivering the keynote speech at Benedict College, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU). [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Two great gentlemen. Thank you very much. And thank you all. Please, sit down.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: We love you, President! (Applause.)
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President Trump delivers remarks at the 2019 Values Voter Summit.  Anticipated start time approximately 6:30pm to 7:00pm EDT.
UPDATE – Video Added

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President Donald Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence convened a meeting at the U.N. General Assembly of international leaders to discuss religious persecution and religious freedom.  It is the first such discussion initiated by a U.S. President.
[Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s very nice. Thank you very much. That’s very nice. And I want to thank Mike. Today, it’s a true honor to be the first President of the United States to host a meeting at the United Nations on religious freedom. And an honor it is. It’s long overdue. And I was shocked when I was given that statistic that I would be the first. That’s very sad, in many ways. And it’s great to be with you.
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President Donald Trump delivers remarks at the Jamestown Settlement for the 400th Anniversary of the First Representative Legislative Assembly in Williamsburg, Virginia. Anticipated start time 11:30am EST
VIDEO and Transcript ADDED

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you very much. Please, make yourselves comfortable.
I want to thank you, Speaker Cox. It’s a true privilege to be back in the great Commonwealth of Virginia. (Applause.) And it’s a tremendous honor to stand on these historic grounds, as the first President to address a joint session of the oldest lawmaking body in all of the Western Hemisphere, the Virginia General Assembly. Congratulations. (Applause.)
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Yes, this is today’s media event where remarks by President Trump are grabbing all the media headlines and attention.

President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice-President Mike Pence and Second Lady Karen Pence celebrate the 2019 Special Olympics Team USA in the Oval Office [Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Well, I want to thank you all for being here. This is special for me and special for the First Lady because this is the Special Olympics.
And, I have to say, Vice President Pence and Karen Pence have been so involved. And because she does such a job with so many things, I’ve asked Karen Pence to represent our government and our country on Special Olympics. And we have a lot of the great champions here. We have some of the winners. They won, and they came in a couple of seconds and a couple of thirds, but a lot of first places. And we did fantastically well in the Special Olympics.
And I’d like to have Karen Pence say a few words. You have done a fantastic job, and we appreciate it.
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A group of spectators and supporters were gathered near the South Lawn to watch President Trump depart the White House.  The visiting group included Representative Mark Meadows and likely some of his North Carolina constituents.
President Trump takes the time to visit with the group of normal Americans, and arm himself with support, prior to engagement with the assembled hyenas.

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The Blandensburg Cross, aka The Peace Cross, is a war memorial, located in the three-way junction of Bladensburg Road, Baltimore Avenue, and Annapolis Road in Bladensburg, Maryland.

The American Humanist Association had sued the American Legion to have the cross removed, arguing the memorial represented a Christian symbol on public land and violated the establishment clause.
Lower courts had agreed with the plaintiff, against the American Legion, and the memorial was to be removed.  The American Legion appealed the ruling all the way to the Supreme Court.
Today the Supreme Court reversed the lower court rulings (full pdf below).  In a 7-2 decision authored by Justice Alito, the court acknowledged the Bladensburg Cross -as a memorial- represents more than religion and does not violate the establishment clause.
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