Newt Gringrich appeared on Fox News Sunday this Christmas morning for an interview with Chris Wallace.   Substantively this was a good presentation by Gingrich who does a great job this time explaining administrative/executive “Trump”, and common sense as it applies to Trump foreign policy.
At the 07:45 point the discussion turns toward governmental contractors and the DC lobbying community etc.
A key moment also comes at the 10:50 point of the interview where Gingrich identifies something we previously discussed in the primary election: the scope of the swamp, and the predictable “there are trillions at stake” fight.

…”they’ll reach a crisis point; where they are going to look in the room at each other, they’re all winners; and they’re going to say either we’re going to be more reasonable and get along with the city, or we have to become even more unreasonable and break the power structure that’s opposing us. My hunch is they’ll pick the latter”…

I think Newt’s hunch is correct.  That inflection point, timed around the delivery of the first Donald Trump budget to congress, is the epic battle many of us have been waiting for.
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(Via Palm Beach Post) […] Trump and his wife Melania and an entourage of Secret Service agents and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputies made the trip from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club to attend the 10:30 p.m. service at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea, which sits about 400 yards from the Atlantic Ocean. They received a standing ovation from the congregation when they arrived. (more)

[…] Bethesda-by-the-Sea is the oldest Protestant church in South Florida. It opened more than 125 years ago in Palm Beach. Its location has made it popular with celebrities, politicians and athletes. Michael Jordan was married there in 2013, and singer Rod Stewart was spotted at a service earlier Christmas Eve. (link)
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Mr. President-elect Donald J Trump and Mrs. Melania Trump together with their son Barron, will be attending midnight mass Christmas services at The Church of Bethesda by The Sea in West Palm Beach Florida.

The Trump family quietly attended services last year at the same church –pictures here– However, as President-Elect -and incoming First Family- this year there is heightened media and public interest.  Security has been enhanced accordingly.

The Episcopal service is being live-streamed via CBS12

VIEW HERE

This might mean Hope Hicks takes over formally as White House Director of Communications….
Palm Beach, Florida (CNN) – Jason Miller, President-elect Donald Trump’s spokesman, has decided he will not take the job of White House communications director he was tapped for just two days earlier.
Citing family reasons, Miller announced he will not continue on to the White House and will hand off his responsibilities as communications director to Sean Spicer, the Republican National Committee communications director who was announced this week as the incoming White House press secretary.
“After spending this past week with my family, the most amount of time I have been able to spend with them since March 2015, it is clear they need to be my top priority right now and this is not the right time to start a new job as demanding as White House Communications Director,” Miller said in a statement he provided to CNN, adding that he is also expecting the birth of his second daughter next month. (more…)

This tweet from President-elect Donald Trump directly implies his willingness to lean into the problem:

And President-Elect Donald Trump is not alone carrying optimism: (more…)

Incoming White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer joined “Mornings with Maria” Friday to discuss his new role assisting President-elect Donald Trump:

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Yesterday President-elect Donald Trump announced Sean Spicer would be the White House Press Secretary.  Today Mr. Spicer made the morning show circuit for several interviews on current events.
Again, we simply remind everyone – CNN (as a ‘media enterprise’) will be the most hostile to the Trump administration or any person within it. Much of CNN’s business model is politically constructed and centered around The State Department political vision.
President Donald Trump settled on Spicer because Trump want’s a more biased media. Trump’s effective communications strategy involves generating as much visible bias from the U.S. media as possible.   The larger goal is to squash all opposition by allowing the media to destroy themselves.
Jaw-dropping confrontation (visible bias) is to be celebrated, emphasized and where possible, enhanced.  Trump wants the media attacking him over everything; he will bait them endlessly toward this objective. Success is achieved by making the media a caricature of themselves.
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Earlier today “his excellency” President-Elect Donald Trump released the copy of a Christmas Greeting letter sent from Russian President Vladimir Putin.   It would appear PEOTUS is having a little fun poking the media with the bear…

(pdf LINK) – SOURCE

Filling in for Sean Hannity, Fox News Eric Bolling interviews President-Elect Donald Trump’s Senior Counsel to the President, Ms. Kellyanne Conway.

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(A Testimonial from Emily Roden)   Nine years ago, I showed up to the Denton County Courthouse for jury duty and got myself picked for the job. A young girl had accused her mom’s boyfriend of sexual assault and the case was being brought to trial.
If you’ve ever served on a jury trial before, you understand the almost immediate, yet very temporary bond that ties 12 strangers together who are randomly chosen from each of their private lives in order to fulfill a very solemn public purpose.
One of our first tasks was to choose our jury foreman.
Perhaps it was his business suit, his impressive stature, or his charisma, but almost everyone in that jury room suggested that this middle-aged man with greying hair was likely the most fit for the task.
“Thanks, but I decline. I’m not interested in the spot light,” he told us. I didn’t think anything of it.
I had just bought my first BlackBerry and used my breaks to catch up on all the emails I was missing from my week at the courthouse. I recall leaving the jury room on a break with this man and remarking how busy I was and how much work I had to do. He smiled as he sat and read the paper. (more…)