Judge Clifton Newman has declared a mistrial after the jury returned to further deliberations Monday in the Officer Michael Slager trial, and are unable to reach a unanimous verdict over the charges of Murder or Voluntary Manslaughter:

Let it be perfectly clear, this outcome, all they way through trial and jury deliberations, has followed the exact tract many CTH researchers and observers predicted since the initial case research.   The entire state case rested upon provable malice.  – Full Case Research Outlines Here –
Based entirely on the facts that were evident in this case, CTH and most participants within the discussion threads therein, it was transparently predictable today’s outcome would be the final disposition of the case.
Update: According to a preliminary media debrief of the jury, which was outlined during a question at the post trial press conference:

The slager jury was hung on the Voluntary Manslaughter charge.
The Jury was a unanimous 'not guilty' on the Murder Charge.

— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) December 5, 2016

We will expand on this later today in an update which will follow and expand on the issues at hand.

Most knew this was upcoming; today it is official…
(New York, NY) – President-elect Donald J. Trump today announced his intent to nominate Dr. Ben Carson to serve as Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

 
Dr. Carson is a distinguished national leader who overcame his troubled youth in the inner city of Detroit to become a renowned neurosurgeon who served as the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland.
“I am thrilled to nominate Dr. Ben Carson as our next Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development,” said President-elect Trump. “Ben Carson has a brilliant mind and is passionate about strengthening communities and families within those communities”.
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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 “2016 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 †

Former CIA Director David Petraeus, a potential candidate for Secretary of State, was interviewed by George Stephanopoulos earlier today.
An interesting aspect – It appears Stephanopoulos, a severe Clinton loyalist, is attempting to head off the potential for Petraeus by undermining him during this broadcast.
This highlights an aspect we won’t see discussed on MSM. If you understand the Benghazi Brief, you can see how Petraeus might be a risk to Secretary Clinton if he were to become the Secretary of State.  However, Petraeus’s prior refusal to push-back against the Clinton/Panetta covert Egypt, Libya and Syria construct has been the source of my own angst toward Petraeus.
That said, does Petraeus hold a hidden, albeit substantive, chip on his shoulder?… hmmmm… that might be useful.  Odds are, no.  But you never know.

President-elect Donald Trump reminds the world “America-First” is a policy, not a suggestion:

OMG, OMG,… O.M.G. he,… he,… well,… he used the Twitter.
Media ‘splodey heads in 3,… 2,…. 1,…

3:00pm PST Press Conference – As a follow-up to the earlier discussion – Officials in Oakland California are now stating the death toll has risen to 33 with approximately 40% of the warehouse searched.  Search and recovery teams still have well over half of the warehouse to search.
Fire officials note they were forced to break the warehouse down into four quadrants and they have found bodies in each of the four areas.  The recovery efforts continue within a very difficult crime scene.  Some of the victims are teenagers 16, 17 or perhaps younger.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf

The ctrl-left (extremely far-left) liberal Oakland city politicians -including the inept liberal Mayor Libby Schaaf- are fraught with predictable political correctness, plausible deniability, and efforts to avoid their own responsibility in the events that allowed the illegal use of a non-residential building.
During the 6:00pm (EDT) press conference Mayor Schaaf stated she has made every effort in her administration to make Oakland a “safe space” for artists, musicians, and a liberally minded constituency.  Obviously failing to see the irony in her statement, Schaaf reaffirmed her intention to continue this endeavor.
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Arrivederci Renzi

UPDATE:  Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi conceded defeat and pledged to resign on Sunday after Italian voters rejected his proposed reforms to the country’s constitution, setting further in motion a populist wave that has sent shockwaves throughout the west in the past six months, and ushering in a brand new period of uncertainty to the Eurozone’s third largest economy. (link)


The Italian Interior Ministry says over 70% of eligible voters took place in the referendum.
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I have been reluctant to engage in speculation over potential Secretary of State candidates because the discussion therein is fraught with far too many nuances to outline succinctly without walking ourselves through a mine-field almost too complex to digest.
Suffice to say, anyone who has followed politics for any substantive amount of time knows the inherent issue with an operational entity, The U.S. State Department, whose entire mission has been at the epicenter of ctrl-left globalist advocacy.

One small example would be the Rivkin Project. Imagine how challenging it would be to take an organizational model, built over decades, and appoint a leader whose diplomatic mission would be to implement/construct policy entirely antithetical to the objectives of the participants within the organization?
Think about it.
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Clinton Foundation donor George Stephanopoulos attempts to create controversy during a scheduled interview with Vice President-elect Mike Pence around the issue of taking a phone call from Taiwan’s president.
As with the prior presentation by Chris Wallace (FNS), the globalist ideologues are ideologically concerned about an administration willing to put America’s economic interests first and foremost; in this example above China. The larger globalist concern is specifically because economic nationalism is an existential risk to decades of leftist policies. A strong U.S.A. is antithetical to their objectives.