The death toll in the Reina nightclub massacre remains at 39 with an additional 69 people wounded or injured. One of the injured is now reported to be a U.S. national, but no Americans were killed. There is a manhunt underway for the primary gunman, however the Turkish authorities are seeking three suspects.
New CCTV video of the gunman entering the nightclub and shooting what appears to be a Kalashnikov rifle, or AK variant, has surfaced. Warning: the content is disturbing as it shows people at the entrance to the club being shot.

(Via ABC) A manhunt is underway in Turkey after a gunman went on a rampage in a crowded Istanbul nightclub during New Year’s Eve celebrations early Sunday morning, killed at least 39 people and injured at least 69 more, according to Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu.
The popular Reina club had attracted a diverse crowd of between 400 and 500 patrons from foreign countries as well as Turkey to ring in the new year before the attack by an apparently lone shooter at around 1:15 a.m, authorities said.
(more…)

WARNING: Reporting is somewhat sketchy.  However, early reports indicates one or two men adorned in Christmas or Santa outfits, and armed with rifles, entered a nightclub in Istanbul Turkey and opened fire on the crowd.  According to current reporting there were as many as 500-800 people in the club when the shooting began.
UPDATE 1100pm EST: At least 35 people have been confirmed killed, with approximately 40 more wounded.  UPDATE 1:00am EST Unfortunately the death toll has now climbed to 39 people killed and 69 people wounded.  There are many foreign nationals missing.  The gunman/gunmen are still at large.
CNN REPORT: Istanbul (CNN) – At least 39 people were killed and at least 69 wounded in an attack in a nightclub early Sunday as they were celebrating the new year, Turkey’s Interior Minister said.
“We are face to face with a terror attack,” Interior minister Suleyman Soylu told reporters. Twenty-one of the dead have been identified, he said. Of those, 16 were foreign nationals and five were Turkish”.
US officials also called it a terrorist attack, making it the first of 2017. Soylu also said that “the efforts to locate the terrorist are ongoing. Security forces have begun the necessary operations. God willing soon (the attacker) will be apprehended.” (read more)
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Build that darn wall Donald, BUILD THAT WALL:

[…] And when Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.  ~ Donald Trump June 17th 2015

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Mexican man accused of raping a 13-year-old girl on a Greyhound bus that traveled through Kansas had been deported 10 times and voluntarily removed from the U.S. another nine times since 2003, records obtained by The Associated Press show.
[…]  Court filings show Martinez-Maldonado has two misdemeanor convictions for entering without legal permission in cases prosecuted in 2013 and 2015 in U.S. District Court of Arizona, where he was sentenced to serve 60 days and 165 days respectively.
A status hearing in the rape case is scheduled for Jan. 10. Defense attorney Lisa Hamer declined to comment on the charge, but said, “criminal law and immigration definitely intersect and nowadays it should be the responsibility of every criminal defense attorney to know the possible ramifications in the immigration courts.” (more…)

There were numerous incidents throughout the U.S. today as police responded to fights, shooting, looting, bloodshed and general mayhem in multiple States.

The mall issues and/or violence was reported in: Manchester Connecticut, Beachwood Ohio, Monroeville Pennsylvania, Aurora Colorado, Fayetteville North Carolina, Elizabeth New Jersey and Aurora Illinois…
Various terms like “youth“, “kids“, “teens” and/or “students” appear amid the general media reports which accompany each story.  However, beyond the words there appears to be something the PC media are trying to avoid.  Something transparently obvious to those who are looking at each story.
Something’s missing.  Perhaps they all have something in common.
Let’s see:
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Anis Amri, the Berlin terrorist, was shot dead in Milan Italy after shooting at police officers during a routine ID check. The terrorist pulled a gun from his backpack and screamed ‘Allahu Akbar’ while he shot one of the officers.
The 24-year-old ISIS terrorist was stopped by two officers after he arrived in the suburb of Sesto San Giovanni in the northern Italian city of Milan at approximately 3am local time.
According to the Daily Mail – Two officers asked him for ID documents, at which point Amri ‘immediately’ pulled a gun from his backpack and shouted ‘police b******s’ as he shot one in the shoulder. (more…)

When candidate Donald Trump announced his intention to run for the presidency one of the key phrases oft repeated was “this is an election about competency and action“.
Today, President-elect Donald Trump met with Jim Brown and Ray Lewis to discuss initiatives intended to actually deliver, not talk, deliver, results.
Democrat party leadership must be beside themselves as they recognize/face the reality of an action-oriented president focused intensely on delivering economic empowerment.
The message today as delivered by Jim Brown is damn near tear-inducing, because it is so joyful to see:

With Dr. Ben Carson taking the appointed lead as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and with action-oriented President Trump pushing for measurable positive results, and with the combination of already successful private sector economic enterprises…. well, the future looks exceptionally bright.
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Judge Clifton Newman has declared a mistrial after the jury returned to further deliberations Monday in the Officer Michael Slager trial, and are unable to reach a unanimous verdict over the charges of Murder or Voluntary Manslaughter:

Let it be perfectly clear, this outcome, all they way through trial and jury deliberations, has followed the exact tract many CTH researchers and observers predicted since the initial case research.   The entire state case rested upon provable malice.  – Full Case Research Outlines Here –
Based entirely on the facts that were evident in this case, CTH and most participants within the discussion threads therein, it was transparently predictable today’s outcome would be the final disposition of the case.
Update: According to a preliminary media debrief of the jury, which was outlined during a question at the post trial press conference:

The slager jury was hung on the Voluntary Manslaughter charge.
The Jury was a unanimous 'not guilty' on the Murder Charge.

— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) December 5, 2016

We will expand on this later today in an update which will follow and expand on the issues at hand.

The afternoon story began with the announcement the jury in the Officer Michael Slager trial was hopelessly deadlocked.   Previously the State of South Carolina presented two options for verdict consideration, Murder or Voluntary Manslaughter.
The voluntary manslaughter option (lesser charges) was added AFTER the trial phase was concluded and the defense presented, then rested, its case.
The reason for the lesser charge was transparent to all who knew and followed the case closely, there was virtually no-way for a jury to convict on just the original charge of murder, hence the lesser included.
Adding the lesser charge option after trial testimony was yet again more evidence of a manipulative prosecution.
In essence, the State –with the full support of activist Judge Newman– timed the lesser charge inclusion to ensure the defense never used elements within their legal presentation that would have defended specifically against the manslaughter charge.
However, that said, what happened on Friday was even more insufferable.  After the jury announcing they were deadlocked, Judge Newman began by giving them an appropriate “Allen Charge” – essentially telling the jury to try again. (more…)

The jury in the case against Officer Michael Slager is deadlocked. No decision was able to be reached. The judge has provided an Allen Charge giving the jury a final instruction to go back and deliberate, try again. A “mistrial” is entirely possible.

Many of us anticipated this outcome because prosecutor Wilson overreached with the initial charge of murder. However, on the day the jury was given the case the prosecution knew/accepted they were not going to get a murder conviction, and convinced Judge Newman to provide a secondary option of voluntary manslaughter.

The judge instructed the jury that they can acquit Slager, convict him of murder or convict him of voluntary manslaughter. A murder conviction carries a sentence of 30 years to life. (link)

If you have not followed the CTH research on this case you might be surprised with this outcome.  The MSM presentation is completely false.  However, long-time CTH readers and contributors will not be shocked.  You can find all prior CTH research HERE

OK, this one is entirely priceless and apropos of everything liberal. Seriously folks, you just can’t make this stuff up.

Philadelphia police posted a CCTV video asking for help in identifying two suspects who were caught on camera spray painting anti-Trump graffiti on an upscale grocery store in a Germantown suburb.

One of the suspects is participating while wearing a blue blazer, a scarf, loafers and holding a glass of wine.  Yes, really.  But wait,… as it turns out, the bourgeois vandal is actually the Philadelphia Assistant City Solicitor Duncan Lloyd. – STORY HERE –

“If the image of an upper-middle-class city attorney clad in a blazer and sipping wine while vandalizing an upscale grocery store with an anti-Trump message strikes you as perhaps the most bourgeois sight imaginable, that’s because it is,”
~ Philly Republican Party Chairman Joe DeFelice.