Hmmm… obtuse swampy defense surfaces. CTH smells the strong residue of UniParty Flak and Countermeasures. Unfortunately, not necessarily surprising.
During an interview with Fox News Brett Baier, the Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Trey Gowdy, claims former Ambassador Samantha Power did not initiate all the unmasking incidents attributed to her.  [Video Prompted – just hit play]
https://youtu.be/ULwCDLnbuIs?t=4m35s
[04:35 Video] Brett Baier: “You are also looking, and have talked to the former Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power. We reported that she requested or her officer requested 260 plus efforts to unmask, in other words, get who was talking about picked up in surveillance. How did she answer that question? Why so many?”
Trey Gowdy: “Well, I’ll tell you broadly, uh Brett, I think if she was on your show, she would say those attempt to unmask may have been attributed to her. But they greatly exceed, by an exponential factor, the requests that she actually made.  So that’s her testimony, uh, and, and she was pretty emphatic.  The surveillance community, the intelligence community, has assigned this number of requests to her – her perspective, her testimony is: ‘they may be under my name, but I did not make those requests‘.”
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Tonight President Donald Trump is delivering a speech at the Heritage Foundation’s President’s Club Meeting in Washington DC.  The President’s speech is being livestreamed.  Approximate start time 7:15 – 7:30pm
UPDATE: Video Added

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There has been a great deal of political consternation and talking points about U.S. aid, or the lack thereof, delivered to Puerto Rico.  Indeed, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz Soto has been a favorite of Democrats and liberal U.S. media as a spokesperson for claims the U.S. has not done enough for the island’s people.
However, a disturbing video shows Puerto Rico’s Secretary of State showing boxes and boxes of food, water and supplies being discarded by Puerto Rican officials in dumpsters, obviously not reaching the intended residents.

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Well, well, well. In what can only be described as perfectly representative of the perspectives of Canada, Mexico and the U.S., the principals within NAFTA [Robert Lighthizer (U.S.), Chrystina Freeland (Can), Ildefonso Guajardo (Mex)] showcase their unique positions during a press conference at the conclusion of round #4.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer begins with the elements of a statement that all parties agree upon. Not much. (Transcript added)
Next comes the smug, self-righteous, and virtue signaling Canadian economic parasite Chrystina Freeland; with an over-the-top emotional plea about how military cemeteries should form the basis of multinational trade deals because trade sectors should be based on her feelings, or something. Mexican economic parasite Ildefonso Guarjardo joins the CanMex position decrying the insufferable demands of the economic host: “we must understand that we all have limits.”
Then comes the hammer. Lighthizer announces to both parasites their positions are fraught with hypocrisy and self-preservation; and the time to reset the imbalance is now. Pointing out how Canada and Mexico agreed to TPP text they are now rejecting in NAFTA, and specifically identifying how their companies have become reliant on special preferences, Lighthizer lets Canada and Mexico know that the time for their feasting on the host is OVER. Watch (transcript added below):

The distance between the parties is too significant and a diplomatic “cooling off” period of one month is agreed upon; prior to entry into round #5 which will take place in Mexico, mid-November. The goal of an agreement, if any agreement is possible, concluding by the end of the year is gone.
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According to numerous media reports the security guard in the Mandalay Bay Massacre, Jose Campos” is missing. Apparently no media have been able to identify his location and Las Vegas officials are unwilling to state his whereabouts.

The Mandalay Bay security guard who disappeared last week moments before he was scheduled to break his silence in television interviews has not been heard from since he went to a walk-in health clinic, his union president said. (link)

  UPDATE 8:00pm: Well, alrighty then…. Las Vegas police say Campos is NOT missing , they will no longer hold press conferences and people need to stop asking questions about the biggest mass shooting in U.S. history.  –SEE HERE–
According to one report surfacing from Laura Loomer, a ground report investigator in Las Vegas, the social security number used by Jose Campos is also shared with a California identity name Jesus Quintero. Which brings up the question CTH posed at the beginning of all the conflicting stories and explanations:

Is Jose Campos an illegal alien?

If Jesus “Jose” Campos is indeed an illegal alien almost all of the challenging and conflicting reports from law enforcement, Mandalay Bay and the FBI begin to reconcile.
Think about it. The legal risk to MGM as a corporation, and Mandalay Bay hotel and Casino specifically, becomes transparent if their employment verification standards would allow an illegal alien to find a job as a security guard.
This would explain the local and national concerns within the larger political and national security apparatus.  Think about how dramatically the national conversation could shift if the FBI and Department of Homeland Security had to admit the security of thousands of people in Las Vegas was compromised by non secure hiring practices.
This would also explain why Campos was unarmed; he would not pass a state or federal background check to carry a firearm.  Was Jose Campos in fear of his status being discovered? Did this delay or impede his action on Sunday night October 1st?
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We knew there were Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin State Department emails on Anthony Weiner’s laptop from the October admission by the FBI.  However, we did not know the extent of the emails, or any of their content.
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch revealed today that the U.S. Department of State admits it received 2,800 Huma Abedin work-related documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that were found on her estranged husband Anthony Weiner’s personal laptop. Abedin was former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s deputy chief of staff.
Weiner is a disgraced former congressman and New York mayoral candidate who recently plead guilty to transferring obscene material to a minor. Abedin kept a non-State.gov email account that she used repeatedly for government business on Hillary Clinton’s notorious email server(s).
The revelation was produced in a May 5, 2015, lawsuit Judicial Watch filed against the State Department (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:15-cv-00684)). Judicial Watch sued after the State Department failed to respond to a March 18, 2015, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking: “All emails of official State Department business received or sent by former Deputy Chief of Staff Huma Abedin from January 1, 2009 through February 1, 2013 using a non-‘state.gov’ email address.”
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President Donald Trump will hold a press conference with the Prime Minister of Greece, Alexis Tsipras shortly from the Rose Garden.
UPDATE: Video Added

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NAFTA Round #4 negotiations have been ongoing and resulting in little progress on the serious issues surrounding the three nation trade pact.
Word from behind the scenes, and off-the-record, finds several insiders with the opinion that the decision by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobbying group to conflict with President Trump and the U.S. trade team has backfired.
U.S. CoC President Tom Donohue made the decision to align in common cause with Canada and Mexico, against the interests of the U.S., and go public with his attacks against the U.S. negotiating team, the administration and President Trump personally.
Following the confrontational approach by the largest DC lobbying group, the U.S. team asked Canada to take their protectionist trade restrictions off the Dairy and Poultry sectors.  Canada was adamant they will never leave their agriculture unprotected, and rejected any consideration of open trade discussion toward those sectors.
The U.S. is standing firm on three elements that Mexico and Canada are dead-set against:
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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 †