This post was written in 2012. I have made some additions, but left the bulk of the post intact. For clarity, since my changes involve people and time, the additions are in italics.
This has been a very special year in our family, this past year since Mother’s Day 2011. First, we had a beloved addition to our family in May 2011, Sarah Isabella. She arrived several months early, and many of you Treepers prayed for her and her mother after her birth. Then, in March of this year, the arrival of Sadie made me a grandmother for the first time. These two births, as well as some challenges other friends and family members have faced being mothers has made me think a great deal about motherhood, and the unique challenges it brings.
A recent conversation with another mother whose children are now adults added more perspective. Last year, I did a post about the history of Mother’s Day. Most people think about their mother or grandmother, or perhaps a favorite aunt,  when the topic is Mother’s Day. We adults tend to think of our mature mothers, or perhaps even an elderly mom.
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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Sarah H Sanders Twitter @SHSanders45

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

In two separate court filings Roger Stone is challenging the DOJ to produce evidence of their predicate claim the Russians “hacked” the DNC servers.
The first filing is a motion to compel [SEE HERE] and requests the DOJ provide unredacted documents to support their framework of evidence that Russian’s “hacked” the DNC.  The second filing is a motion to suppress [SEE HERE] any downstream evidence, extracted by the use of search warrants, built upon upon the predicate claim of Russians “hacking” the DNC.

In essence Roger Stone is challenging the U.S. government to prove the DNC was hacked by Russians; and further he is refuting the validity of the FBI using a private organization, Crowdstrike, as a valid investigative and determinative body.
The suppress motion argues it was the responsibility of the FBI to secure and investigate the hacking evidence and not rely upon the word of a private party hired by the DNC (an opposing political entity). If the government cannot prove the Russian’s hacked the DNC, and subsequently attempted to work with Wikileaks for the distribution therein, then the basis for government claims about Stone seeking to engage with Wikileaks diminishes.
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Recently release FOIA documents into the special counsel team of Robert Mueller reveal the remarkable trail of a 2017 entrapment scheme conducted by Prosecutor Andrew Weissmann to target George Papadopoulos.
[Hat Tip to Undercover Huber and Rosie Memos who have been reviewing documents.]

Before digging into the details it is important to note this is a DOJ/FBI entrapment operation being conducted in 2017 by the special counsel; this is not prior to the 2016 election. The detail surrounds a series of events previously discussed {Go Deep} where George Papadopoulos was approached by a known CIA operative named Charles Tawil.
In 2017 George Papadopoulos and his wife Simona were approached in Greece by a known CIA/FBI operative, Charles Tawil.  Mr. Tawil enlisted George as a business consultant, under the auspices of energy development interests, and invited him to Israel.
On June 8th, 2017, in Israel under very suspicious circumstances, where Papadopoulos felt very unnerved, Mr. Tawil hands him $10,000 in cash for future consultancy based on a $10k/month retainer.
On June 9th, 2017, according to his book, Papadopoulos and Tawil fly back to Cyprus.
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Rudy Giuliani cancels a trip to Ukraine where it was predicted he would inquire about pre-existing investigation of Joe and Hunter Biden.

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[Note: I don’t think Giuliani was ever really planning to go to Ukraine. He might have just seeded/fed the story to get headlines and attention toward Joe Biden’s corrupt endeavor.]
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Oh gosh, this is funny.  Politico had a phone interview with President Trump where they asked him for opinion of Democrat candidate Pete Buttigieg.  President Trump responded with a one-liner:

…“Alfred E. Neuman cannot become president of the United States.”

So immediately everyone starting to look at the Mad Magazine character and compare the images.  Too funny, Pete Buttigieg really does look like Alfred E Neuman.
Making things funnier, Buttigieg had no idea who the character was.
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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Sarah H Sanders Twitter @SHSanders45

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

Great interview segment between Lou Dobbs and Michael Pillsbury discussing the status of the U.S-China trade conflict.  Pillsbury notes how the Chinese analysts likely fell into the trap of believing what most western financial media were saying about domestic opposition to President Trump’s policies.
https://youtu.be/pilqeV2aNeE?t=4m48s
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One of the aspects to President Trump that bears a continual reminder is the importance of actual economic victory over optical political victory.   President Trump is primarily focused on the former, and only concerned about the latter as it relates to his goal:

….to fundamentally restructure the way the American economy interacts with the global community. Economic security is national security.

That’s what President Trump cares about. President Trump’s outlook on economic security is only superseded by one measure: his willingness to use the U.S. military to protect U.S. persons from physical threats of harm.
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