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December 2016

While this has yet to be confirmed by President-elect Trump or his team, NBC News is reporting that CEO Rex Tillerson will be nominated for Secretary of State with John Bolton serving as his second. NBC News reports:
Donald Trump is expected to nominate Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson as his secretary of state, two sources close to the transition process told NBC News on Saturday. Tillerson, 64, became president of the Texas-based oil company in 2004 and has a close business relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has spent his entire career at the company now known as Exxon Mobil.

My take on Maureen Dowd:
When MoDo is good, she’s really good.  When she’s bad, she’s really bad.
Not sure what to make of this column, Election Therapy From My Basket of Deplorables. It's not therapy delivered by MoDo, but rather, by her brother Kevin, who is one of MoDo's deplorables. But MoDo gave Kevin a big platform in which to taunt and troll people like MoDo. Here's an excerpt:

I'm a big fan of Special Report with Bret Baier on FOX News. Baier is one of the best straight news guys on the network, if not on all of television and he's very good at keeping himself out of the story. This week Baier was on Late Night with Seth Meyers and it was fascinating to see him on the other side of an interview. He spent most of the time talking about news coverage of the election and Trump, naturally. Mediaite covered the segment:
Fox’s Bret Baier Tells Seth Meyers It’s a ‘Challenge’ When Trump Takes the Media ‘On a Ride’ Baier did a pretty good Trump impersonation when describing the times the then-candidate would confront him about the content of his show.

Guess the Chris Hayes contingent missed the memo from President Obama about giving Trump a chance . . . The topic on Hayes' MSNBC show last night was Trump's thank-you tour of states that had supported him. Hayes kicked things off by making a thinly-veiled Hitler allusion, saying the Trump rallies feel "not that far from rallies for the 'leader,' which don't have a great history in politics across the world." Slate columnist Michelle Goldberg was not so coy, coming right out and claiming that Trump is "going to turn our country into a racist police state." Not to be outdone, Fordham professor Christina Greer said that the Trump rallies "have a feeling of a Klan rally, they have a feel of a white-supremacist rally."

Keith Ellison's past decade-long support for Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, his suggestion of dual loyalty from American Jews when speaking at a fundraiser for Muslim leaders, and his cozy relationship with some of the worst pro-BDS, anti-Israel groups, has disrupted what seemed like a clear trajectory to Chair of the Democratic Party. The Nation of Islam is calling BS on Ellison's claim he wasn't a big supporter of Farrakhan. The Chicago Tribune reports:
But Ellison's status as the front-runner last week came under threat after CNN revived articles Ellison wrote in praise of Farrakhan while Ellison was a grad student — 20 years ago — and found footage of him appearing to criticize Israel. That prompted Hillary Clinton's biggest donor, Haim Saban, to on Friday call Ellison an "anti-Semite."

Is it finally "over over" in Jill Stein's impossible dream to recount votes in Michigan? Here's hoping so. After the Michigan mid-level appellate court ruled against her, and a federal judge dissolved an injunction that had kept the recount alive, Stein's only hope was that the state Supreme Court would rule in her favor. But first, the state Supreme Court had to agree to hear the case. And it just declined to do so. The Detroit News reports:

Friday afternoon, former New York City Mayor and Trump supporter, Rudy Giuliana announced he no longer wished to be considered for Secretary of State. "This is not about me; it is about what is best for the country and the new administration. Before I joined the campaign I was very involved and fulfilled by my work with my law firm and consulting firm, and I will continue that work with even more enthusiasm. From the vantage point of the private sector, I look forward to helping the President-elect in any way he deems necessary and appropriate," Giuliana said in a statement. Giuliana will remain Vice-Chairman of Trump's transition team.

Failed Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein's recount scampaign isn't going quite as planned. The recount never made it off the ground in Pennsylvania and both federal and state courts agreed there was no need for a recount in Michigan as Stein did not qualify as an "aggrieved candidate". It's day nine of the state-wide presidential ballot recount in Wisconsin and a federal judge refused to halt the recount, which is mostly complete, saying the recount results won't affect the outcome.

EU counter-terrorism coordinator Gilles de Kerchove will tell the EU interior ministers on Friday that experts have found 1,750 ISIS jihadists have come back to Europe to perform terrorist attacks:
Up to 35 percent have returned - some with 'specific missions' - and 50 percent remain in the battle theatre, which amounted to between 2,000 and 2,500 Europeans.