There is no doubt the genuine secular leaders in the mid-East, those who value freedom and minority protections like Fattah el-Sisi (Egypt) and King Abdullah (Jordan), will find a more consistent and stable ally with President Donald Trump.

“I believe that President Trump will be vigorously engaged with the issues in the region,” el-Sisi said. “As a matter of fact, Trump has shown deep and great understanding of what is taking place in the region as a whole and Egypt in particular. I am looking forward and expecting more support and reinforcement of our bilateral relations.”  (link)

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi has praised U.S. President-elect Donald J. Trump, saying that his inflammatory statements from the campaign trail do not necessarily reflect the actions he will take as president.
El-Sissi, in an interview with Portuguese news agency LUSA released on Saturday, said, “let’s not jump into conclusions or worry” about future U.S. actions or policies in the Middle East. The army chief-turned-president was interviewed prior to his upcoming Nov. 21 visit to Portugal.  El-Sisi was among the very first foreign leaders to congratulate Trump’s on his presidential victory.
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Those who enjoy the deep weeds of politics, especially White Hat/Black Hat intrigue, will find this Reuters Story popcorn worthy.

The Back Story – Admiral Michael Rogers, not to be confused with former House Intel Chair Rep. Mike Rogers, is the Director of the NSA (National Security Agency) and U.S. Cyber Command.
Admiral Michael Rogers met with President-Elect Trump, somewhat quietly, last week (Thursday).

It has been reported that Admiral Rogers did not inform his “superiors” of the meeting with President-Elect Trump. President Obama is out of the country. Def Sec Ash Carter and DNI Chair James Clapper, both loyalists to President Obama, do not necessarily align with Admiral Rogers (they would also be the “superiors” per se’).
Many pixels are still needed to bring clarity to the picture. However, reasonable spidey senses indicate the libertarian sensibility side (smaller intrusion of government, less snooping and more freedom liberty etc) of President-Elect Trump (think R and R Mercer here too) is antithetical to those who made the Patriot Act a hammer instead of a scalpel.
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Would require a congressional waiver; yet, in my humble opinion, ‘Mad Dog’ would most definitely be the type a Trump transition team would consider even if needing such an avenue.  Your thoughts?…

James Mattis, retired Marines general and possible candidate for defense secretary or other national security post, now meeting with Trump.

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) November 19, 2016

As Mattis exited, Trump told press: "All I can say is he is the real deal." "We'll see" if role as defense sec. A "brilliant wonderful man." https://t.co/5mcsfhMixB

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) November 19, 2016

*Snicker*… Body Language.

NOTE – video replaced with better quality. Also on the schedule for today:

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Tonight Vice-President-Elect Governor Mike Pence took his wife to a performance of Hamilton on Broadway.  The cast took the opportunity to call out and target Governor Pence and his wife Karen.  They later bragged about it on twitter.

The real irony/absurdity is thick: Historically Hamilton believed the individual was not subservient to the state, a position exactly the opposite of the protestation decried by the social justice cast using Hamilton’s legacy as the basis for their performance.
That point will be lost amid the chattering class. Then again, liberals have a history of attacks against Republican Presidents’ in theaters.
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♦ January 12th 2016 Governor Nikki Haley delivered a Republican State of The Union rebuttal speech that was specifically intended to undermine and ridicule presidential candidate Donald Trump.
The wording within the speech itself was constructed, coordinated, and by her own admission, approved by Washington DC Republican Leadership (Ryan/McConnell).
♦ Thursday November 17th, 2016, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley met with President-Elect Donald Trump.
♦ The next day, Friday, Governor Haley delivers a speech to the Federalist Society where she discusses the 2016 presidential election and how candidate Trump’s successful presidential bid was a rebuke of those DC republicans who wrote her script in January.
Her remarks begin at 11:44 of the video below.  You decide her current intent:
https://youtu.be/gKwjzZ55G_M?t=11m44s
Our outline of Governor Haley’s GOPe speech in January can be found HERE.

Mitt Romney spotted in JFK tonight waiting in the cab line:

Wheelbarrow duty awaits: (more…)

Challenge a liberal ideologue on the issues, any issues, and they have nothing to fall back upon except the charge of racism.  Everything is racism, that’s all they have.
In this interview Tucker Carlson challenges Jonathan Allen of Roll Call over Allen’s accusation that Senator Jeff Sessions is a racist:

Counter Point –> Now that Jeff Sessions is Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, you’re going to hear a lot of people dig up old accusations that Sessions is a racist. In fact, CNN did so last night. However, between the nature of the accusations and Sessions’s actual record of desegregating schools and taking on the Klan in Alabama, it strains credulity to believe that he is a racist.  (read more)

Great interview in The Hollywood Reporter with Trump campaign CEO Steve Bannon.  Well worth the read. Excerpt:

(Via The Hollywood Reporter) […]  “The media bubble is the ultimate symbol of what’s wrong with this country,” he continues. “It’s just a circle of people talking to themselves who have no f—ing idea what’s going on. If The New York Times didn’t exist, CNN and MSNBC would be a test pattern. The Huffington Post and everything else is predicated on The New York Times. It’s a closed circle of information from which Hillary Clinton got all her information — and her confidence. That was our opening.”  (read more)

In what appears to be a transparent effort to allow unchecked border crossing in the final two month of his presidency, President Obama’s DHS has shut down the aerial surveillance program.  Texas Governor Greg Abott goes one step further saying President Obama is doing everything he can to “open the border” for illegals…

(Via Watchdog) The U.S. Department of Homeland Security quietly shut down Operation Phalanx, an aerial surveillance program that intercepts drugs and illegal crossings along the Mexican border.
Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, vows to challenge DHS’s move, saying Congress provided “full funding” for 2017.  Cuellar, a member of the House Appropriations Committee and the Homeland Security Subcommittee, is drafting a letter to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson protesting the shutdown.
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