In January of 2015 Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi began a journey of peace by asking the holiest and most influential Islamic Scholars in the Arab world to join him in stepping away from the noise of extremist voices and engaging in long-term introspective review of their Islamic faith.  President al-Sisi called for a religious revolution to focus Islam toward a future of peace.  The engaged Dar al-Iftaa scholarly audience erupted in applause.

President al-Sisi stood up, resolute, spoke of large truths with bold leadership, and took great risk upon himself.  After the speech a coalition of like-minded voices began to grow in number and consequence.   That moment became the pebble dropped in the shoe of the Arab leadership of consequence – the emphasis shifted toward peace.

That influential speech, and more importantly the leadership of all joining member states, including the praise of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia before his untimely death, paved the way forward toward this upcoming weekend.   King Abdullah’s successor, his brother King Salman, is now positioned to put his own footprint in history.

All of the necessary elements, many of them taking years to organize, are aligned in common purpose for this specific moment in time.

More than a dozen heads of state from Arab and Islamic nations have been invited by Saudi Arabia’s King Salman to attend the conference with President Trump including: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (Egypt), King Abdullah III (Jordan), Muhammad Fuad Masum (Iraq), Mamnoon Hussain (Pakistan) and all six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE).  All are expected to be in attendance.

We are living in one of those rare moments when we are fortunate enough to see the building blocks of historic enterprise being erected while we watch.  The results of these next several days will shape how our children view the landscape of the middle east in all the years to come.

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Consider this weekly address a preview of the seismic geopolitical shift that is about to become evident in the next several days.

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Over the past four months the U.S. media have done a horrible disservice to the American electorate by not reporting on the scale and scope of activity undertaken by the Trump administration in their assembly of The Peace Coalition.

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Perpetual pervert, and disgraced former Democrat congressman, Anthony Weiner, turned himself in to the FBI, pleaded guilty in federal court this morning to a single count of transferring obscene material to a minor.

Later in the afternoon, a court official confirmed his wife Huma Abedin had filed for divorce after seven years of marriage. The divorce is uncontested. Weiner, 52, agreed to surrender his iPhone as part of the plea agreement, and he must register as a sex offender. Weiner also apologized to the teenage girl.

NEW YORK – Weiner agreed Friday not to appeal any sentence between 21 and 27 months in prison.

During the hearing, the Democratic former congressman apologized through tears to the 15-year-old girl with whom he exchanged sexually explicit texts, saying, “I accept full responsibility for my conduct. I have a sickness, but I do not have an excuse. I knew this was as morally wrong as it was unlawful.”

“These destructive impulses brought great devastation to my family and friends, and destroyed my life’s dream of public service,” he continued. “I am committed to making amends to all those I have harmed.”

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Always remember the basic rule that has been proven accurate 100% of the time:

♦ When the CIA wants to leak a damaging story they coordinate with the Washington Post and ABC. (and vice-versa).
♦ When the State Dept. or FBI/DOJ wants to leak a damaging story they coordinate with CNN and the New York Times. (and vice-versa)

This consistent pattern has NEVER been broken.

There is also a particular transparency here, yet again, with regard to media timing and intent.  The Washington Post (3:03pm) and New York Times (3:00pm) are attempting to frame the anti-Trump ‘muh russia‘ narrative as he departs on his first overseas trip.

Dual benefits for antagonistic media and political opposition:

♦ Trump team is out of country and unable to defend administration on-camera, while frenzy ensues 24/7 in U.S corporate broadcast media, and ♦ Trump team becomes relentlessly questioned by traveling press corps abroad on domestic controversy, diminishing Trump international status and pushing the weak/damaged Trump image toward the host nation optic.

It’s how they roll.  Again, check out the timing:

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Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein briefed congress earlier today and firmly stood by the recommendation he wrote that outlined James Comey’s ineptitude and inability to be an effective FBI Director.

Deputy Rosenstein’s recommendation was part of the portfolio President Trump cited in reference to his decision to fire FBI Director Comey.

Here’s the text of the opening statement made to congress earlier today:

Good afternoon. I welcome the opportunity to discuss my role in the removal of FBI Director James Comey, although I know you understand that I will not discuss the special counsel’s ongoing investigation. Most importantly, I want to emphasize my unshakeable commitment to protecting the integrity of every federal criminal investigation. There never has been, and never will be, any political interference in any matter under my supervision in the United States Department of Justice.

Before I discuss the events of the past two weeks, I want to provide some background about my previous relationship with former Director Comey. I have known Jim Comey since approximately 2002. In 2005, when Mr. Comey was Deputy Attorney General, he participated in selecting me to serve as a U.S. Attorney. As a federal prosecutor, he was a role model. His speeches about leadership and public service inspired me.

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Long time CTH readers will note we extended well over a year of benefit-of-the-doubt to the motives of former FBI Director James Comey with regard to the severity of his politicized nature and disposition.  Throughout the entire Clinton investigation we remained ambivalent to Comey’s motives.

Indeed it wasn’t until after the Pulse nightclub terrorist attack when Comey obtusely noted the FBI had been contacted (prior to the attack) about the sketchy behavior of Omar Mateen by a ‘random concerned citizen’ -and our finding that the actual ‘citizen’ was the far more substantive St Lucie county sheriff Ken Mascara– that we recognized how far Comey was willing to go to save his political face.

Yesterday, a friend of James Comey by the name of Benjamin Wittes, editor and writer for lawfare blog, now steps out and admits he was one of the primary sources for the New York Times Comey Memo article (Michael Schmidt); and in so doing outlines the severity of the political nature of the former FBI Director:

[…]  I called Schmidt Friday morning after reading his earlier story, which ran the previous evening, about Comey’s dinner with President Trump and the President’s demands at that dinner for a vow of loyalty.

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Sip slowly, this explainer was hard to write.   There is a considerable amount of perplexed frustration following on the heels of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin testifying to the Senate Banking Committee earlier today and specifically saying:

02:20 Glass-Steagall? “we do not support a separation of banks from investment banks, we think that would have a very significant problem on the financial markets, on the economy, on liquidity; and we think that there is proper things that potentially we could look at around regulation, but we do not support a separation of banks and investment banks.”

That statement runs counter to the Trump administration’s prior policy statements outlining a preference for a reinstatement of some form of “Glass-Steagall” regulatory separation between commercial banking and investment banking.

In essence when combined with the totality of Mnuchin’s testimony before the committee, Mnuchin is saying the current “too big to fail” (‘too big to succeed’) issue has created a problem for lending liquidity.  Specifically, if divisional separation is required – the banks best interests would naturally put the investment division ahead of commercial lending and the liquid capital within the overall economy would shrink.

I think we have a handle on what the administration is doing based on the executive orders signed and explained earlier.  Bear with me…

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Reminder.  David Plouffe was President Obama’s campaign manager and Senior White House advisor:  (source link)  Plouffe has ideological cohorts, friends and embeds inside almost all corporate media entities; specifically WaPo and NY Times.

President Donald Trump meets today with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. Trump and Santos were meeting to discuss collaborative policies on the drug trade and drug cartels.  Together they will hold a joint press conference from the White House at approximately 3:45pm:

UPDATE: Video Added:

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President Donald Trump held an informal luncheon with news reporters and TV anchors today in advance of the upcoming international visit.  Brett Baier reports President Trump was relaxed, warm and comfortable and showing no change in disposition from all prior encounters. Most of the discussion was off the record, however the president did release the following response to a question from one of the participants at the meeting:

Reporter Question: “You made a point about the special counselor and and you believe it hurts this country” —

President Trump: “I believe it hurts our country terribly, because it shows we’re a divided, mixed-up, not-unified country. And we have very important things to be doing right now, whether it’s trade deals, whether it’s military, whether it’s stopping nuclear… all of the things that we discussed today. And I think this shows a very divided country.

It also happens to be a pure excuse for the Democrats having lost an election that they should have easily won because of the Electoral College being slanted so much in their way. That’s all this is. I think it shows division, and it shows that we’re not together as a country. And I think it’s a very, very negative thing. And hopefully, this can go quickly, because we have to show unity if we’re going to do great things with respect to the rest of the world.” 

~ President Donald J Trump