The confirmation hearings for President Trump’s cabinet posts begins today with the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on behalf of the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions for Attorney General.   Judicial Committee Hearing Link
The Attorney General confirmation hearing begins at 9:30am will be broadcast on CSPAN-3 LINK HERE

Additionally, General John Kelly is scheduled at 3:30pm for a confirmation hearing by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs – Link Here –
Hopefully, fingers crossed, a live-stream is also available below:
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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 Trump/Pence presidential victory.

Transition Website HERE

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

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 †

Sketchy fellow Glenn Beck appeared, quite swollen, on the premier of Tucker Carlson’s new 9:00pm Fox TV show, and for the first time faces direct questioning about some of the previously exhibited odd Cheeto-ism.
Tucker Carlson began the program with Glenn Beck, and right away it got pretty interesting.  The level of sketchy Beck’s inherent oxymoron discomfort is palpable.  Fortunately, Carlson has a great sense for knowing when to just be quiet as he watches his guests lay on the couch.

On both Twitter and Facebook platforms President-Elect Donald Trump recognizes and thanks the men and women of law enforcement:

Thank you to all of the men and women who protect & serve our communities 24/7/365!

Yup,… Still Walking in A Winner Wonderland

Interesting to see Duetsche Bank attempting to quantify a new economic dimension.  They also identify the construct of the two U.S. economies, Wall Street and Main Street, and present the following forward analysis:

[…]  “This policy will be successful in moving the U.S. economy away from low-growth secular stagnation towards significantly more buoyant performance. We would not be taken by surprise by a doubling of the growth rate of real GDP in the U.S. over the next two years, nor by a further significant move up of equity valuations and a material further appreciation of the dollar.”
~  David Folkerts-Landau, Chief Economist, Deutsche Bank

Interestingly, heck, surprisingly, the Deutsche Bank analysis rebukes several years of global economic advocacy and theory. “This approach should produce a new order that will ultimately be more stable in the sense that ‘good fences make good neighbors,'” Folkers-Landau said. (more…)

Local, state and federal authorities are actively seeking 41-year-old Markeith Loyd for first degree murder after he shot and killed officer Debra Clayton earlier today in Orlando Florida.

The focus of the manhunt was an apartment complex in the northwest part of the metro Orlando area.  Authorities say Clayton was fatally shot after she approached Loyd outside a Wal-Mart store Monday morning. He was already wanted for questioning in the shooting death of his pregnant ex-girlfriend last month.
Orlando Police Chief Mina said officer Clayton returned fire but Loyd wasn’t hit. The chief also said Clayton was wearing body armor but could not survive her injuries.
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France’s Marine Le Pen spoke to her supporters and detractors alike when she announced recently if she succeeds in the French election her first foreign visit would be to Brussels to dismantle France’s relationship with the European Union.

The 48-year-old candidate said: “I would go to Brussels to immediately launch negotiations allowing me to give back to the French people their sovereignty.”

(Via Express UK) […] The right-wing leader attacked the faltering euro currency as one of the root problems of the EU and described her main economic proposals as “economic patriotism, intelligent protectionism and a return to monetary independence”. She added: “The euro is a major obstacle to the development of our economy.”

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When President-elect Donald Trump says “America First” too few actually understand the severity of his determination to accomplish that goal. Leverage, or more accurately creating leverage, is a business art that Donald Trump has uniquely honed for decades. There are trillions of dollars in play.
Against the backdrop of a known position by President-elect Trump toward the business and financial monopolization by Amazon and Jeff Bezos, President Trump publicly brings Alibaba CEO Jack Ma to the cameras in Trump Tower. All except the business media will probably skip over the larger play within this epic display of 3-D leverage creation.

Titan Trump is almost too good at this; spooky good.  If he were an adversary, we’d be in big trouble. Thankfully he’s on America’s team.
China (writ large) and Amazon (domestically) both benefit from the historic constructs of Wall Street’s leveraged globalist approach. In essence, what we are seeing today are two natural sets of anti-American (monopolistic) business and financial interests being positioned against each other to create the leverage needed for an ultimate American win.
Trump is fracturing business globalism.  Remember, all large business leaders in modern China are essentially political emissaries.  China has been building an economic army for decades.
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Various news agencies are beginning to break the story of Jared Kushner joining the White House team as a domestic and foreign policy senior adviser to his father-in-law, President Donald Trump.

Jared is married to President Trump’s daughter Ivanka, and has been an integral part of the Trump campaign from the outset.

( AP Report ) […]  Kushner’s lawyer has said he would step down as CEO of his family’s real estate business if he took a White House position and would divest some of his assets in order to comply with federal ethics laws that apply to government employees. The law requires Kushner to take more significant steps to detangle his business interests than Trump, given that conflict of interest laws largely do not apply to the president.

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