Some things never change.  In full alignment with President Obama, the ever faithful war monger Senator John McCain calls for a declaration of war against Russia.
…and if you disagree with him, well, you’re “a Hobbit“, or “a crazy“… or something. 

(Via Reuters) […]  Republican John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on Friday that Russia must face a penalty for the cyber attacks and that is was possible to impose many sanctions.

“When you attack a country, it’s an act of war,” McCain said in an interview with the Ukrainian TV channel “1+1” while on a visit to Kiev.

“And so we have to make sure that there is a price to pay, so that we can perhaps persuade the Russians to stop these kind of attacks on our very fundamentals of democracy.” added McCain, who has scheduled a hearing for Thursday on foreign cyber threats.  (read more)

Seriously, and I am NOT KIDDING when I say this… (more…)

Everywhere you look the end of each year brings forth a series of lists outlining some variant of an annual summation.   We don’t traditionally assemble anything like that – however, this year my thoughts have been on specifically domestic stories that have not received the attention they deserve.
With that in mind, here’s my Top Ten list of domestic, mostly political, stories that I view have not been discussed with the importance or emphasis they should have carried:
#10 – Jeb’s failure to launch.  When you think about the years of strategic planning that went into a Jeb Bush presidential campaign, well, the scope Jeb’s failure to launch just exemplifies how disconnected the professional republican apparatus was from the average voter.  The party apparatchik genuinely believed Jeb Bush had a chance at winning the nomination.  Hundreds of millions of corporate and individual dollars, from major GOP donors, contributed to a campaign that was intensely futile, but the people supporting Jeb seemed oblivious to the reality.  Almost every incumbent republican politician aligned with his campaign.  Their collective disconnect from the feeling of the average American voter was definitely under reported.
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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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Reflecting on the road traveled, it is important to say:

“Thank You”…

Thank You to Chris McDaniel for being one of the first, perhaps the most important, to charge across the open field and force the enemy to show themselves.
Without McDaniel’s efforts in the spring and summer of 2014 we would never have known what hidden armory the opposition held and what lengths they would go to use them.
Thanks to Mitch Tyner for his steadfast support of McDaniel, and for understanding the longer game, once the discoveries were made.
Two years later Tyner made it possible for us to see, when affirmation was needed most, that candidate Donald Trump was also well aware of the long game – and the opposition.
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A rather funny article today in Politico outlines a fear of Trump’s coalition amid congressional republicans.

The article is sympathetic to the GOPe wing of the DC UniParty from a perspective of those nasty Trumpers, ie. “the posse“; and includes South Carolina Rep Mark Sanford as a testimonial of their fear:

[…]  “Nobody wants to go first,” said Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.), who received nasty phone calls, letters and tweets after he penned an August op-ed in The New York Times, calling on Trump to release his tax returns. “People are naturally reticent to be the first out of the block for fear of Sean Hannity, for fear of Breitbart, for fear of local folks.”

O.M.G…  The Horror!   Can you possibly imagine the audacity of the voters to actually express an opinion toward the professional political class?  Just who do these plebes think they are? (more…)

(New York, NY)— President-elect Donald J. Trump today announced his nomination of U.S. Congressman Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina as Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Congressman Mulvaney brings a wealth of experience on economic, budgetary, and fiscal issues to his new role. Rep. Mulvaney has long been a strong voice in Congress for reining in out-of-control spending, fighting government waste and enacting tax policies that will allow working Americans to thrive.
Rep. Mulvaney believes getting America’s fiscal house in order is a key component of President-elect Trump’s America First plan to create millions of jobs and grow the economy.
(more…)

It is being reported that South Carolina congressman Mick Mulvaney will be chosen as President-elect Donald Trump’s person to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

So this just happened… @KellyannePolls sitting next to @realDonaldTrump called me to say PEOTUS is confirming Mulvaney for OMB.

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) December 16, 2016

Normally I can find silver linings within selections; this one?… not so much.
Yes, Mulvaney is Freedom Caucus member, and perhaps you can say he’s generally sold as a fiscal conservative.  However, his prior underhanded dealings -with the promotion of the scheme within the House of Representatives to push the hidden amnesty agenda- has forever tainted any positive attributes that may have existed.  SEE VIDEO:

Call it “the revenge of John Galt“, call it “the revenge of main street“, call it “the rebuke of the compliance department”, or call it something else…. but what’s brutally missing amid all the pearl-clutching punditry is an acceptance that President Trump is ushering back an era of The Titans of Capitalism.

A succinct comment by thesavyinvester cuts to the brutal heart of the matter:

How ironic… The last 8 yrs ( and frankly much longer ) the non producing bureaucratic state only focused on growing it’s own organisms ( like something Ripley fought against ) rather than fostering yours, will now be run by those that for eons that had to dot their I’s and cross their T’s for all these pencil pushers. Yikes, they will be more uncomfortable than Rodney Dangerfield constantly adjusting his collar and tie during his comedy routine?. No I am not tired of winning, grab the popcorn this will be fun.

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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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It is being widely reported that President-elect Donald Trump is intending to nominate Andrew Puzder as Labor Secretary. The move will likely fire up the SEIU and affiliated labor activists in opposition. Similarly there will be those amid the more conservative ranks that see Puzder as less than their desired nominee.

However, CTH has an alternate perspective on the nomination essentially hopeful that Donald Trump is intending to finally bring closure to a labor issue with over twenty years of economic crisis, and hundreds of millions spent on litigation as the backdrop.
Most people are oblivious to a reality that began within the U.S. Department of Labor under the administration of George W Bush. The issue encapsulates thusly:

• Under federal statue it is unlawful to hire an illegal alien who is not eligible to work in the U.S.
• However, under existing EEOC legal interpretations (Disparate Impact Rulings), it is unlawful NOT to hire an illegal alien who is not eligible to work in the U.S.

Within that strange and very specific dichotomy you find the problem with the modern interpretations of “disparate impact” as they apply to employment screening and employment eligibility.
The problem began under President Bush’s tenure (and EEOC policy), and exploded under President Obama’s Labor Department. (more…)