There are so many angles to this political storyline it’s almost impossible to encapsulate them.  Today a Politico article reveals the John McCain/Lindsey Graham push to create an international crisis with Russia has found push-back from an unlikely source, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell.

(Politico) John McCain and Lindsey Graham are backing off of their push for a select committee on cybersecurity after Russian interference in the election, bowing to the political reality that the Senate Republican Conference largely does not back their idea.

[…] “We’re just going to move with the individual committees and see how that works. If it doesn’t work, we’ll regroup,” [Lindsey] Graham said in an interview.

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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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As you review this CNN article it is CRITICAL to remember there are two divergent U.S. economies: a Wall Street economy, and a Main Street economy.  The DC UniParty Politicians, the Globalists and the MSM will instantaneously conflate the two.   Stay sharp.
The direct target of the tariff approach is the enhancement of the Main Street economy.  Due to the global nature of Wall Street this immediately puts their financial relationship, their economic risk, in the same place as the risk for foreign countries which would be subjected to the economic leveling of the trade equation.
Again, stay intellectually sharp – this is where we are going to have to fight “the big club“. Understanding how their “trillions of dollars at stake” are placed within the equation is a critical aspect to understanding how the UniParty will attack.

Washington (CNN) – The Trump transition team is floating the possibility of an early executive action to impose tariffs on foreign imports, according to multiple sources.
Such a move would deliver on President-elect Donald Trump’s “America First” campaign theme. But it’s causing alarm among business interests and the pro-trade Republican establishment. (more…)

Anthony Scaramucci and Stephen Miller, executive members of President-elect Donald Trump’s Transition Team, appeared on Fox News for interviews.  In a general sense the primary discussion points were Trump’s economic revitalization plans. Videos Below.
First, the Scaramucci interview.  Pay close attention at 01:30 of the first video to hear something CTH readers might be familiar with.

The last federal budget was signed into law in September 2007 for fiscal year ’08 by George W Bush.  Since then, congress has facilitated nine consecutive years of continuing resolutions, debt ceiling increases and Omnibus spending bills.

President Obama never spent a single day in office with a budget. Not one day.  The current Paul Ryan initiated CR/Ominibus spending package ends on April 1st, 2017.  [Not coincidentally the same due date for President Trump’s statutorily required first budget proposal, which would take effect October 1st 2017 for fiscal year 2018.]
Regardless of Trump’s budget proposal, and as a direct consequence of the CR/Omnibus approach, congress is going to have to pass another CR spending bill, to fund government operations from April 1st through the end of the fiscal 2017 year (Sept. 30th).  Remember,  Ryan/McConnell created this financial mess.
Now, get this, today: (more…)

…“and we will win, and you will win, and we will keep on winning, and eventually you will say we can’t take all of this winning, …please Mr. Trump …and I will say, NO, we will win, and we will keep on winning”.
~ Donald Trump

(Via WaPo) John N. Kennedy of Louisiana has prevailed in the final U.S. Senate contest of 2016, beating out Democrat Foster Campbell for the seat being vacated by David Vitter (R).  Shortly after the polls closed, the Associated Press projected Kennedy the winner.

BREAKING: Republican John Kennedy wins Louisiana runoff election for Senate seat, defeating Democrat Foster Campbell.

— The Associated Press (@AP) December 11, 2016

RESULTS at 11:15pm EST:

√ John N. Kennedy (R) 61.54% – 532,276 votes
Foster Campbell (D) 38.46% – 332,701 votes

Kennedy, the state’s Republican treasurer, had endorsements from President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence. Trump won Louisiana by a wide margin during the general election last month and stumped for Kennedy on Friday during a visit to Baton Rouge.  (link)

In order to tackle the U.S. Illegal Immigration issues, even broadly, a person must first change their paradigm and understand the root issue which creates the crisis. The problem was created by the UniParty, and the problem continues specifically because the UniParty desire it to continue.
Before you can reasonably present a solution to the illegal immigration problem, you must first understand the economic problem. Understanding how illegal aliens work in the U.S. is step one toward understanding what proposed solutions would/could work, and which are mere political talking points.
Here’s the stuff the professional political class don’t necessarily want you to know.

You can clearly see, from many of the various pearl-clutching articles about Labor Secretary Nominee Andrew Puzder, how entrenched, erroneous and naive many peoples’ beliefs are on the specific issue of illegal aliens within the employment system.
It is difficult to accept -perhaps for the first time- what you previously believed is not based on any substantive reality.   Blaming U.S. businesses for hiring illegal aliens makes for a good avoidance technique; heck, the UniParty relies upon an electorate doing just that. However, that blame-casting actually keeps people from recognizing and confronting the underlying ‘real world’ issues faced by U.S. employers.
This is where the value of a successful businessman, Corporate CEO, large employer, and specifically a man who has faced down the weaponized EEOC, Andrew Puzder, becomes infinitely more valuable as Secretary of Labor.
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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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Today it is unofficially announced that Elaine Chao will be nominated as President Donald Trump’s Transportation Secretary.

President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to head the Transportation Department, a source with knowledge of the decision said on Tuesday. (link)

To understand the nomination we must remind ourselves of the real opposition to any America-First policy agenda.

Trump’s real enemy in his battle to replace the influence of Wall Street and K-Street is best exemplified within the U.S. Chamber of Commerce;… and more specifically by understanding U.S. CoC President Tom Donohue;… and even more specifically by understanding who Donohue pays off and uses to push his agenda, Senator Mitch McConnell.
For far too many years conservatives, ordinary Americans, have not fully grasped the usurpation within those who are professionally Republican.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is the primary usurpation agent, the snake within the body politic; the representative personification of all that is corrupt on one side of the UniParty.  The symbiosis between McConnell and Donohue has been toxic to America’s interests.
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Perhaps something worth considering amid all the Mitt Romney angst, is the potential for this to be part of a more comprehensive Donald Trump/Steve Bannon strategy.

You would be hard pressed to find anyone amid CTH who would opine any measure of favorability toward Romney.  Quite the contrary, no-one likes him, at all. Nor did anyone support his initial presidential bid in the primary of 2012.
However, that said, President-Elect Trump presenting Romney as a cabinet possibility -and stirring up the visual appearance of grass root opposition therein- may essentially be nothing more than putting the final nail in another GOPe legacy coffin.
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