Well this is interesting.  The Mandalay Bay hotel security guard Jesus, “Jose'” Campos, who was hailed a hero in the first week post-massacre, was supposed to appear for media interviews…. he disappeared.

Now it is reported Mr. Campos walked out of the interview venue and checked into a clinic right before the interviews were scheduled to begin:

(Via Daily Mail) Jesus Campos, the hero security guard who was shot in the Las Vegas hotel massacre, checked into a ‘quick clinic’ after vanishing moments before he was due to speak to the media for the first time since the attack.

The security guard is yet to be interviewed since he was shot by Stephen Paddock on October 1 on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel.

(more…)

Just because western media doesn’t understand how President Trump executes a geopolitical strategy based on economic leverage, that doesn’t mean adversaries are not fully aware of the effectiveness of the approach.
The Trump Doctrine has two avenues toward dealing with national security adversaries.
The first route is direct assignment of responsibility toward the enablers: see China for North Korea; The Gulf States for Qatar (Sunni extremism); Russia for Syrian terrorism (Assad); and Pakistan for Afghanistan (Taliban); as recent examples.

However, when the geopolitical threat stems directly from the enabler, and not the enabled, the Trump Doctrine has a distinctly different and far more encompassing, approach.  Route two goes through leveraging regional allies and partners: See ASEAN and India for ¹China; and France, Poland, Baltic States for ²Russia.  And now President Trump is beginning to shift toward ³Iran.
In each case: China, Russia and Iran, unlike Western media, these powers assemble volumes of research to assist them in understanding the most likely sequence of events President Trump will take.
When we say volumes of research, we indeed mean hundreds of people researching and drafting position documents based upon every scintilla of every deal Donald J Trump has engaged in.  No expenses are spared as these state actors assemble information toward their own strategy to counter the most unpredictable adversary they have faced.
(more…)

Nearly a week after the California wildfires began, the zone containing scattered fires has swollen to an area as wide as 100 miles. The flames have left at least 38 people dead and destroyed at least 5,700 homes and businesses, making them the deadliest and most destructive group of wildfires California has ever seen.

(Via ABC)  Rising winds fanned the California wildfires again Saturday, forcing hundreds more people to flee from their homes in the state’s fabled wine country and threatening to undo the efforts of crews who have spent days trying to corral the flames behind firebreaks.
Just a day after firefighters reported making significant progress, the winds kicked up and pushed flames into the hills at the edge of Sonoma, a town of 11,000. About 400 homes were evacuated in Sonoma and a portion of Santa Rosa that included a retirement community that evacuated earlier this week, authorities said.
(more…)

The governing board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has decided to kick out recently exposed rapist and sexual deviant Harvey Weinstein.  All currently non-exposed sexual deviants and rapists remain protected in Hollywood. Announcement:
“The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board of Governors met today to discuss the allegations against Harvey Weinstein, and has voted well in excess of the required two-thirds majority to immediately expel him from the Academy.
We do so not simply to separate ourselves from someone who does not merit the respect of his colleagues but also to send a message that the era of willful ignorance and shameful complicity in sexually predatory behavior and workplace harassment in our industry is over.
What’s at issue here is a deeply troubling problem that has no place in our society. The Board continues to work to establish ethical standards of conduct that all Academy members will be expected to exemplify.”  ~ Hollywood

(more…)

Prior to the 2016 election (Oct ’16) consumer confidence measured by the University of Michigan was indexed at 87.2  Today that same confidence rating is 101.1  A stunning 15.9% increase.  Similarly, consumer expectations were indexing 76.8 in October 2016 and now stand at 91.3, an increase of 18.9%.

(Data)

Consumer confidence is at the highest level since 2004 and Americans have the brightest outlook for their economic future in decades.  The MAGAnomic data is clear. Yet even those who assemble the data interpret MAGAnomics with some false assumptions.

Nonetheless, consumers anticipate low unemployment, low inflation, small increases in interest rates, and most importantly, modest income gains in the year ahead. [True]
It is this acceptance of lackluster growth rates in personal income and in the overall economy that signifies that consumers have accepted, however reluctantly, limits on the pace of improving prospects for living standards.  [False interpretation]

With lowered costs associated with highly-consumable, albeit non Fed measured products (fuel, food, energy), average living standards actually increase.  It is a false interpretation of data to say consumer confidence/expectations are at the highest levels in fifteen years, and simultaneously say people have resigned themselves to stagnant living standards.
(more…)

President Trump delivers the weekly address October 13th with remarks focusing attention on the symbolism of our national flag.

[Transcript] My fellow Americans,
Every Fourth of July, we celebrate the day America declared its independence. But this month, let us also remember the day our country won its independence.
Next Thursday, October 19, marks the 236th anniversary of the day that George Washington’s Continental Army defeated the British at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781.
(more…)

This is a great interview from the perspective of seeing first hand how the disconnect between historic economic theory (Kudlow) runs into the reality of a person (Ross) who completely understands how Trade and Finance are enmeshed in a completely new economic paradigm. [The Myth of Modern Free Markets]
If you have read “The New Economic Dimension” you’ll note that Kudlow represents the economist sitting in the Atlantic, only able to see the Wall Street economy; while Wilbur Ross has a satellite perspective on both the Main Street and Wall Street economic engines.
Kudlow’s financial perspective runs into Ross’s reality about two-thirds of the way through the interview when Secretary Ross asks the question: “I bet you can’t give me an example of an economically sound investment that hasn’t found capital”.  It’s just a splendid thing to watch.

.
Despite his financial-centric economic focus Kudlow is a good MAGA ally.  However, Wilbur Ross understands every single pixel of the larger economic picture, and how trade interacts with the larger U.S. economy within the Main Street -vs- Wall Street dynamic.
(more…)

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 †

On August 22nd, 2017, President Trump began a very familiar process toward Pakistan within the foreign policy approach known as the “Trump Doctine”: the accurate ownership of responsibility by honestly calling out the historic nature of the relationship.
The approach toward the Taliban through the enablers in Pakistan followed an identical pattern: ♦noted in the Muslim Brotherhood’s enabling via Qatar; ♦noted in Assad’s enabling via Russia; ♦noted in North Korea’s enabling via China.
In each example President Trump positions his chosen policy leverage toward the enabler, toward the root cause, and not direct confrontation with the symptom.  The results from this approach are quite remarkable.
Well, today:

(more…)