RUTHFULLY YOURS

Secretary of State John Kerry said he instructed State Department personnel this morning to keep pressing forward with the administration’s foreign policy goals until Inauguration Day and to prepare for the “amazing peaceful transfer of power” enshrined in America’s “beautiful” democracy.

Meeting with Foreign Minister Murray McCully in Christchurch, New Zealand, today, Kerry deviated from remarks on the bilateral relationship to note the “momentous election” on Tuesday.

“I want to offer my congratulations to President-elect Donald Trump and wish him well for the American people, for him, for his family, on the enormous challenges that he will undertake to resolve, to meet, with the same spirit, I hope, that characterizes every presidency, Republican or Democrat, to protect the interests of our people and uphold the values of our country,” Kerry said.

He also expressed “appreciation and respect” for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “I know how hard she fought. I know what it takes out of a family, having been there and done that,” the 2004 Democratic Party nominee said.

“With a transition like this, the issues that we face don’t go away. The values with which we face them are the same values the day after the election that they were the day before. And so I sent a note to all of our personnel within the State Department this morning reiterating what I have said to them personally before I left the country to come here, and that is that we have a time-honored tradition of a very peaceful and constructive transfer of power within administrations when that occurs in the United States,” he said. “And I have instructed everybody in the State Department to make sure that while the issues still are in front of us, we will continue to work every day between now and January 20th in order to further the interests of our country, protect the safety and security of our people, and guarantee that we address those issues and concerns, which are the same today as they were the day before the election.”

“That means making people safer, working to continue to build relationships, which is why I’m here, and continuing to work not just for the United States but for the better prosperity and stability and security of people all around the world.”

Kerry said he also instructed his staff to work on the transition itself. “And we will do everything in our power, as I have instructed our team, to work with the incoming administration as fully and openly as possible, to be as helpful as possible, so that the transfer of power will be as smooth as it possibly can without missing a beat on the important issues before us,” he said.

Sadness reigns in progressives’ America – a grief so profound as to provoke outbreaks of acute liberal insanity. But the grief, anxiety, and outright fear affecting progressive America for the moment must surely pale against those same emotions within Clinton, Incorporated, whose future fortunes have done a disastrous one-eighty since early Wednesday morning.

Think about it for a moment: with no more promise of future access to the presidential inner circle, what third-world government or major global enterprise truly wants to pay a cool half-mil to a now not so cool Bill for his special insights? Do you suppose that all those Wall Street swells are breathlessly waiting to hear the unique perspectives of a now not the first female president at a tidy 250 grand a pop? Sure they are.

But of course, the influence-peddling speeches were just chump change, mere walking around money for high rollers like Hill and Bill. The real cash, the huge multi-million-dollar payoffs that even bought pre-presidential secretary of state access, has until now come in the form of donations to the various non-profit entities the Clintons created to funnel their filthy lucre into – huge amounts of cash that could be washed, rinsed, dried, possibly even nationally dyed before being made available to maintain their one-percent lifestyle. It occurs to me that perhaps there is no longer a waiting list of sheiks and Middle Eastern potentates eager to pony up petro-dollars to ensure that a Clinton presidency maintains a firm grip on the now closed tap of federal petroleum resources, as the current occupant of the Oval Office long has.

In six months or so, when the new U.S. attorney general appoints a special prosecutor to investigate the Clinton Foundation and all its related entities, does any of us really believe that Fortune 500 companies are going to be as keen as they once were to have themselves listed as donors to anything that has the Clinton brand on it? Without the family-White House link, will billionaires feel so warmly inclined toward neophyte investor and Clinton son-in-law Mark Mezvinsky, whose now defunct Greek hedge fund apparently “lost” huge sums of its investments? Ever wonder just where “lost” investments end up?

Beware of Abu Chris Christie – Supporter of Jihadists and Shariah

Chris Christie, whose state has one of the largest Muslim populations in the country, held an Iftar dinner at the Governor’s Mansion in 2012 and invited his “friend” Imam Mohammed Qatanani, a self-admitted member of Hamas and a defender of a charity that provided funds to children of suicide bombers. Imam Qatanani is the religious leader for the Islamic Center of Passaic County (ICPC) in Paterson, New Jersey, a city known to locals as “Little Ramallah.” In a June 2007 sermon at the ICPC, Imam Qatanani condemned Christians to “eternal hellfire.” He is an advocate of Islamic blasphemy laws that criminalize criticism of Islam.

Christie referred to Qatanani as “a man of great good will” and defended him when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) attempted to deport him for failing to disclose his arrest and conviction in Israel in 1993 for involvement with Hamas. (Qatanani publicly ranted against Jews and in support of Hamas on the eve of his deportation hearing).

The New Jersey governor has publicly defended Sohail Mohammed, the lawyer who represented Hamas-affiliate Qatanani as well as dozens of detainees swept up by law enforcement after 9/11. Sohail Mohammed is a board member of the Muslim American Union, an organization closely integrated with the ICPC (Qatanani’s mosque) and whose leadership is linked to Hamas. Christie aggressively pushed for Mohammed to become a Superior Court judge leading to speculation that the appointment was a payoff to Imam Qatanani for the ICPC support Christie received for his gubernatorial campaign. Sohail Mohammed publicly defended Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) leader Sami Al-Arian.

Christie has derided anyone who perceives shariah law* as a threat in the U.S. despite the fact that 23 states have already used shariah as a factor in their deliberations. In 2009, a New Jersey judge referenced shariah when he refused a temporary restraining order for a divorced Muslim woman who had been raped and assaulted by her ex-husband, maintaining that Islamic doctrine requires wives to comply with all of their husband’s sexual demands. Under current New Jersey law, non-consensual sex between married persons is considered rape. (Fortunately, the decision was overturned 13 months later).

In 2012, Governor Christie called for an investigation into the NYPD’s counterterrorism procedures as he objected to their conducting surveillance of mosques and a Muslim student group known as a front for the Muslim Brotherhood, the Muslim Student Association (MSA). In 2010, Christie publicly proclaimed support for the mosque at the graveyard of 9/11.

Donald Trump’s surprise victory fanned expectations in the energy industry that he would clear the path for new pipelines, end U.S. participation in global climate change pacts and undo environmental regulations to boost American coal mining.

The prospect that the president-elect would roll back years of Obama administration policies buoyed investors in fossil fuels companies Wednesday—while sending shares of top wind and solar power firms tumbling.

The S&P 500 Energy Sector Index was up about 1.5% overall midday to 517.28.

Scott Sheffield, chief executive of Pioneer Natural Resources Co., said Mr. Trump’s victory will perk up the country’s stagnant drilling boom by making it easier to build pipelines that unlock areas rich in oil and gas, such as the Marcellus Shale formation in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

“His message about creating jobs is why he broke the blue wall” and attracted votes from Democrats in some states, Mr. Sheffield said.

Shares in Energy Transfer Equity L.P., the Dallas-based pipeline company building the hotly contested Dakota Access Pipeline, jumped 18% to $16.52 amid hopes that Mr. Trump will give a green light to the project.

The 1,170-mile pipeline linking the North Dakota oil fields and Texas has become mired in protests and extra environmental reviews by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers because of its route across the Missouri River and lands considered culturally sensitive to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.

An Energy Transfer spokeswoman said Wednesday that the company expects the pipeline to begin moving oil in the first quarter of 2017.

During the campaign, Mr. Trump invited TransCanada Corp., the Calgary-based company that proposed the transcontinental Keystone XL pipeline linking Canada’s oil sands to the Texas Gulf Coast, to reapply to build that project, which was rejected by the Obama administration in 2015 after seven years in regulatory limbo.

“TransCanada remains fully committed to building Keystone XL,” said company spokesman Mark Cooper. “We are evaluating ways to engage the new administration on the benefits, the jobs and the tax revenues this project brings to the table.”

After a long night that ended up with a clear Trump victory, I think it’s safe enough to say that, from now on, there are going to be some radical changes in the relationship between the American people and Mainstream Media (MSM).

Here there are the following 15 talking points that should be considered (in a random order):

(1) The MSM has always presented itself as the holder of Truth. Reality has shown that MSM has been engaged for way too long in a war with Truth, and MSM has lost this war.

(2) The MSM has portrayed Hillary Clinton as a person exonerated from criminal responsibility for her numerous acts of corruption and illegal activities over time. Reality has indicated that she has jeopardized national security, and has threatened certain individuals, perceived as dangerous or compromising for her own political convenience.

(3) The MSM has presented Donald Trump as an isolated, exotic character, unrelated to the world’s current major concerns (particularly in Europe, but also in Asia and Africa), such as: Islamic terrorism, massive immigration (particularly from Muslim countries), and the assault against Christianity. Reality has shown that Trump is, indeed, a true American Mr. Brexit.

(4) The MSM has presented populism as a marginal trend in the American society. Reality has proven that the majorities of the electorates of both parties, Republican and Democratic, consist in populist voters, who support anti-Establishment candidates (Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders).

(5) The MSM has followed Hillary Clinton and portrayed – narratively and statistically – more than half of the country’s population as a “basket of deplorables,” in sharp contrast with “the majority of the American people.” Reality has shown that the so-called majority – ideologically and racially – consists in an accumulation of several minority groups.

(6) The MSM has threatened the “deplorables” with many Hollywood darlings moving out the country if the candidate of the “deplorables” were to win. Post-election reality will force those darlings of the Dream Factory City to fulfill their vocal promises (otherwise, they should shut the hell up and just sing or act!).

(7) The MSM has presented as a fait accompli the idea that winning televised presidential debates organized by MSM is a solid predictor of winning the presidency. Reality has illustrated that this has become a myth (especially after episodes of Donna Brazile-type, where party operatives, in cahoots with the same MSM, leak information about people’s debate questions to certain preferred candidate).

(8) The MSM has instilled the idea that political household names – like Kennedy, Clinton or Bush – are invincible per se. Reality has shown that non-politicians, like Trump, can take down in just one electoral race two powerful political-dynastic names (Bush and Clinton), which had ruled the country for 16 years in a row.