Given the speed of events in Saudi Arabia this year a stunning report surfaces stating that King Salman is anticipated to hand over ruling authority to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman next week.
According to The Daily Mail King Salman will retain the title of guardian of the holy mosques but otherwise hand over all ruling authority to the crown prince.

The King of Saudi Arabia plans to step down and announce his son as his successor next week, a source close to the country’s royal family has exclusively told DailyMail.com.

The move is seen as the final step in 32-year-old Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s power grab, which began earlier this month with the arrests of more than 40 princes and government ministers in a corruption probe.

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There is a notable intent to talk down the economy amid almost all financial news providers.  However, despite their negative tone the economic reality continues to surpass their Eeyore disposition.
October’s U.S. housing starts jumped +13.7% to 1.29 million units and now begins to catch up with the underlying economic data.
You’ll note CTH discussed how housing would be regionally specific as the larger Main Street MAGAnomic policies were implemented.
Capital expenditures by home builders and home purchasers are the biggest financial decisions for most American workers.
Due to the deliberate factors involved, home purchasing is the largest railroad car in the economic train; it is also positioned in the rear of the economic sequencing.  However, when home building takes off the entire economic train gains momentum.

(Via Reuters) […] The sharp rebound in home construction reported by the Commerce Department on Friday was also driven by robust gains in the Northeast and Midwest regions.
The broad recovery could ease concerns about the housing market, which has been a drag on economic growth since the second quarter. The report added to labor market, manufacturing and retail sales data that have pointed to strong economic momentum as the year winds down.

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There are many people taking notice of modern politics for the first time in their lives. There is also some confusion noticed between two groups who talk above and around each other. Two groups communicating from two entirely different sets of understanding.  Perhaps it is valuable to reset the larger frames of reference and provide clarity.
Many, heck, most people think when they vote for a federal politician -a representative- they are voting for a person who will go to Washington DC and write or enact legislation. This is the old-fashioned “schoolhouse rock” perspective based on decades past.
There is not a single congress person who writes legislation or laws.
In 2017 not a single member of the House of Representatives or Senator writes a law, or puts pen to paper to write out a legislative construct. This simply doesn’t happen.
Over the past several decades a system of constructing legislation has taken over Washington DC that more resembles a business operation than a legislative body. Here’s how it works right now.
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Multinational corporations and foreign governments spend hundreds of millions in Washington DC lobbying House and Senate politicians to retain trade positions.  It’s generally a legal bribery business where congressional representatives get rich by selling their votes to corporations and foreign governments.
Most of you already know the game: It’s a big club, and we -the working class- ain’t in it.
Fortunately for us, President Trump won the election without funding from the big corporations and lobbyists within the U.S. political system.  As such they cannot influence Trump’s decisions on economic policy matters and trade; and President Trump rarely invites them into the White House for policy meetings.
Specifically because the lobbyists don’t have access to the White House they rely on their purchased politicians in the House and Senate to influence the administration.

The multinational corporations and multinational banks are against the U.S. removing ourselves from multilateral trade agreements.  Those institutions rely on being able to manipulate the U.S. consumer market – EXPLAINED HERE.  The biggest influence agent, and by far the biggest lobbyist spender, is Tom Donohue, President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who represents the interests of the multinational corporations and Wall St.
So when you see these letters, knowing they are written by K-Street and transcribed onto legislative letterhead by political staffers, all you need to do is look at the signatures of the politicians and you can quickly identify who has been purchased by Tom Donohue:
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The entire apparatus of the American moonbat-left ignores it, and simultaneously attempts to send it into the inconvenient memory-hole of nothingness, that’s what.
Nobel prize winning Aung San Suu Kyi is the State Counselor of Myanmar (Burma), and has for years been the de-facto personification of a heroine for far left Brangelina Peacenik treehuggers.

Lauded by the Birkinstock crew: Bog Geldof, Bono, and President Obama as the “Asian Mandela“, Aung San Suu Kyi was elevated to almost mythological status by Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, the U.S. State Department and international human rights groups.  In short, she was their heroine.
Unfortunately Aung San Suu Kyi was also susceptible to the intoxicating self-importance of expressed western globalism; and entirely inept in understanding the value in cultural nationalism, and the value of national identity, when there’s no framework of democracy to underpin her desired political and social changes.
After months of weakness, willful blindness and duplicity in allowing genocide against the Rohingya Muslim population, the bloom is off the ruse.  Follow modern peacenik liberalism to its natural and logical conclusion and you find totalitarian dictatorships created by losses in national sovereignty. Despite the apologetic and defensive posture of the New York Times the reality remains.
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No-where is Trump Derangement Syndrome more evident than in the position of activist Democrats now swearing allegiance to multinational trade deals.
It was only a short time ago when Democrat activists and liberal politicians demanded U.S. withdrawal from TPP and openly discussed how NAFTA was disastrous for the U.S. worker. Both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton ran on pulling out of TPP etc.
Trump gets elected, actually fulfills a campaign promise and promptly pulls-out of TPP subsequently beginning to renegotiate NAFTA (with leveraged threats to withdraw); and suddenly, Democrats are joining arm-in-arm with corporate Republicans expressing their profound love for multinational trade deals. Go figure.

Round #5 of NAFTA renegotiation begins today in Mexico, absent any diplomatic trade ministers, and Canada announces their intent to use their access to congress as leverage over the executive branch in an attempt to work around President Trump:

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada will redouble its lobbying efforts in Congress to block any Trump administration move to pull the United States out of NAFTA, sources familiar with government strategy said, as talks to modernize the treaty run into trouble.
[…] Canadian officials say there is some considerable doubt as to whether Trump could pull out of NAFTA without approval from Congress, which makes lobbying its members so important.

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The most notable aspect amid President Trump’s granddaughter Arabella delivering a folk song in native Mandarin wasn’t the song itself, it was the response from Madame Peng Liyaun, the wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping. If you haven’t watched the video, you should.
The song was shared moments after President Trump delivered these remarks during a state dinner presented by President Xi and Madame Peng to honor the visit of President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump:

[…] “This moment in history presents both our nations with an incredible opportunity to advance peace and prosperity alongside other nations all around the world. In the words of a Chinese proverb, “We must carry forward the cause and forge ahead into the future.” I am confident that we can realize this wonderful vision.
[…] It is my hope that the proud spirits of the American and Chinese people will inspire our efforts to achieve a more just, secure, and peaceful world, a future worthy of the sacrifices of our ancestors, and the dreams of our children.
In a moment, we will view a video of my granddaughter, Arabella, reciting traditional Chinese songs and poetry about your country’s serene beauty and treasured customs. Our children so often remind us of our shared humanity and true dignity.” (link)

Arabella began her video by saying: “Hello, Grandpa Xi. Hello, Grandma Peng”, and then began to sing a story in Mandarin very familiar to the Chinese people. Exceptionally familiar to Madame Peng Liyaun who, along with being the wife of President Xi, was a folk singer and popular cultural icon herself.
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Things could get a whole lot more interesting if Kimberley Strassel is correct in her research and analysis of how the Clinton Campaign paid for the creation of the “Steele Dossier”, pushed it to the FBI, and then used their influence to generate media coverage of it.   There’s a lot more questions to be asked; a lot more.

The basic outline as it appears is:  Clinton paid for the sketchy dossier to be put together; then pushed it to the FBI (Sally Yates); who then used it to open a counter-intelligence investigation; which was then used to begin wiretaps etc. on Trump; while simultaneously reporters were fed information -from Fusion GPS- about the dossier and intelligence investigation; to start the Russian conspiracy narrative, using leaks within the intelligence investigation which were created by the dossier.
Byron York lays out the timeline and asks a similar set of questions.  Additionally, there are strong indications Fusion GPS paid journalists to promote the dossier narrative along with other stories.
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On Tuesday (local), Monday Night (U.S. EST) President Donald J. Trump will participate in the 12th Annual East Asia Summit Head of State and Government Luncheon, followed by an official photograph. The President will then participate in the 12th East Asia Summit plenary session.

Later in the afternoon, President Trump will depart the Philippine International Convention Center for the Philippine International Convention Landing Zone via motorcade en route to Ninoy-Aquino International Airport. The President will then depart Ninoy-Aquino International Airport for Hickam, HI en route to Washington D.C.
SCHEDULE:
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CTH has a strong sense that when the final analysis on Venezuela’s ongoing socialist struggle is written, some years from now, the geopolitical strategy used by the Trump administration will be taught in political science classes. [Backstory Here]
As a result of horrific socialist policies, primarily driven by using oil production to maintain it’s socialist governance, Venezuela is under massive debt and desperate for cash.  The United States was one of the few remaining cash purchasers of Venezuela oil before U.S. Secretary of Treasury  Mnuchin imposed sanctions.
Previously China and Russia purchased Maduro’s oil, however their current purchases are/were all made as offsets, repayments, for prior loans.  China and Russia already own 49% of Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA. Venezuela repays China and Russia with oil, but Venezuela needs cash revenue. It doesn’t generate additional revenue for Maduro if China and Russia purchase more oil, it only pays down the Venezuelan debt.
Venezuela needs money.  However, if anyone engages in restructured debt or further loans or bond holdings to Maduro they run the risk of running afoul of Secretary Mnuchin’s sanctions which could have a downstream effect of freezing their own banks and international financial systems from engagement with U.S. banks.
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