Auld Lang Syne

Rabbie Burns

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne*?

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my jo,
for auld lang syne,
we'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

And surely ye'll be your pint-stoup!
and surely I'll be mine!
And we'll tak' a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We twa hae run about the braes,
and pou'd the gowans fine;
But we've wander'd mony a weary fit,
sin' auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We twa hae paidl'd in the burn,
frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar'd
sin' auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there's a hand, my trusty fiere!
and gie's a hand o' thine!
And we'll tak' a right gude-willie waught,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

Have a Haggis New Year

Watership Down

(C) Richard Adams

Lost amid the brouhaha of George Michael and Carrie Fisher's death, WWII veteran and child's author Richard Adams passed away on Christmas Eve.  As a British civil servant after the war (Assistant Secretary for the Ministry of Housing and Local Government) he created the tale to entertain his daughters.  It was not your typical children's book and after many rejections Rex Collings agreed to publish the book and it exploded selling over a million copies worldwide.

Richard Adams

1920-1916

New York Times

Open Thread

Well, it's halfway between Christmas and New Years...

George Michael 1963-2016

Happy St Stephen's Day

Somewhat of a tradition here at Western Hero:

Merry Christmas

And now for something completely different

Christmas Time is Here

Who's Free?

EU member states cannot force internet companies to keep email data on a "general and indiscriminate" basis, the European Court of Justice has ruled. The EU's highest court found that only targeted retention aimed at fighting serious crime could justify serious interference by the state.  SKY

Meanwhile...


Yahoo Inc's secret scanning of customer emails at the behest of a U.S. spy agency is part of a growing push by officials to loosen constitutional protections Americans have against arbitrary governmental searches. "Computerized scanning of communications in the same way that your email service provider scans looking for viruses - that should not be considered a search requiring a warrant for Fourth Amendment purposes," said the general counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Robert Litt.  Yahoo

Remember when America was the bastion of freedom? The fact that a computer is reading your email rather than a person shouldn't matter given that the results are a stack of emails with keyword hits for a person to read.

Hacking our Constitutional Foundations

For every shady hacker beating the e-mail leaves, there are millions of politicians, bureaucrats, corporations, foreign agents and lobbyists hacking at the foundation of our constitutional republican democracy.

Here's a good article on the alleged Russian Hacking kerfuffle...

An excerpt:

We should recognize this attack for what it is: an assault on our shared constitutional foundations, which require fair elections, free from foreign interference. That is not a partisan issue.

The stakes involve not only the 2016 election, but future ones, not only the U.S. election but those in other democracies. Since Russia, China, Iran, and other nations have stakes in those, they will be tempted to interfere. The tighter the election, the greater the chances cyberattacks could change the outcome -- and throw that country into disarray.

All true. Having said that, the following thoughts creep in:

* We are so big and so powerful, the entire world has a stake in our elections

* Tempted to interfere? Governments and organizations from all over the world already interfere here, lobbying our government and bombarding us with propaganda. Noisy activists with globalist agendas and petty pamphleteers with narrow nationalist or ethnic sloganeering blast their complaints, bigotry and arguments from here in the US, the world’s biggest stage with the biggest megaphone.

* Are you so naive as to believe domestic and foreign news outlets do not curate the news they aim at America in the hope of nudging us to make the “correct” choice?

* How long before the crafty ones on the left use this "hacking" "scandal" to relaunch their battle against Citizens United and to call for speech restrictions, “for the safety of our elections... democracy..."

Ich bin ein Berliner

The German government spokesman said Merkel is in mourning,  me? I say she's responsible.

What do you say? 

P.S: Yes I intentionally used the Bundeswehr Flag.

 

Electoral College Day

Today is the day the Electoral College votes to install Donald J. Trump as America's 45th President. God bless our democratic republic of these 50 United States, and God bless the US Constitution, screaming progs be damned.

Here's a YouTube hack of that self-important and unintentionally funny Hollywood appeal to the Electors...

H/T and a big Western Hero Gracias to Farmer for turning us on to this...

WaPo: Thousands of Hysterical Morons urge Electors to block Donald Trump

Politico: Electors under siege by grubby leftist hordes threatening violence

Hackers: Doing the Job the Press Just Won't Do

The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming!

The Russian Hacking Hysteria is reaching a fevered pitch. If they hacked the election, that would be an act of war, but so far, we only have evidence of them providing us proof of what horrible people Hillary and her staff are.

From the linked article...

“ the heart of Russia's campaign was collecting secret information, such as private communication among political operatives, and then disclosing that material selectively”

So, in other words, they did the same thing our Infotainment-Media Complex does, only unlike the “news media,” they jobbed Democrats instead of Republicans.

The Russians allegedly *GASP!* planted disinformation accurate information:

“The impact of cyber espionage on the 2016 election came through information, not direct manipulation of the results. The information, dribbled out through WikiLeaks, was apparently accurate. The targets never contested any major disclosures as false or fraudulent, though that is certainly a danger in future elections. So far, U.S. spy agencies have not established that the WikiLeaks material came from Russia—or, if they have, they have not shared that nugget.”

Hyperventilating Hillary voters need calm down and consider...

No one knows what the Russians’ motive was.

More importantly, no one can demonstrate how this helped President-elect Trump. Was Comey in league with the Russians? Hillary's Campaign staff, who wouldn't allow her in a situation where she had to answer a real question, feeding the notion of an out-of-touch, aloof, perhaps-sick, shifty politician?

No sane person is alleging any votes were changed. Sure, some leftwing kook fringies are babbling all sorts of tinfoil hat nonsense, but they're way out there in Alex Jones territory. Only apparently, the nutballs and kooks on the left don’t need an Alex Jones to light their imaginations afire--they cook it all up in their own fevered brains, mingle with other leftwing wackadoos at their own crackpotlucks out in Left Kookville where the streetlights are busted and the buses don’t run.

Here’s the most important question:

If Hillary were a paragon of candor and honesty, her candidacy buoyed by a sea of trust and goodwill, does any reasonable person believe any of this would have mattered?

Time to get in the mood for Christmas

Babies on a Plane

Living in post-election America is like being a beleaguered passenger trapped on a long airline flight plagued by crying babies.

Ever get a song stuck in your head? How about crappy pop music in general? Shopping, in the car, on the street, sometimes it seems you just can’t escape it. You want ear plugs. Well, life in America these days, you can’t escape the whiny, howling chorus emanating from that latest Progressive Pop act, The Butthurt Bawlers from Hilloonville.

They still refuse to grasp reality and admit Hillary lost. President Obama said she was on the right side of history! So they comfort themselves with alt-reality fairy tales about how Russian Spymaster Boris Badinoff “infiltrated” and “hacked” the election with “fake news” while Steve Bannon rallied the millions of Klan voters.

Like a poo-throwing child in a tantrum, they fling blame in all dirctions: Racism, sexism, old white people, that recently-uncovered secret cabal called the Electoral College…

Anybody else remember when the red scare came from the right, not the left? Anyone else recall that Soviet propaganda and misinformation was just fine when spewed from the mouths of leftwing Hollywood actors and socialist singers?

Diaper rash Democrats blame everyone but themselves. Like shell-shocked victims knocked on their asses by a runaway parade float, latte splattered on the sidewalk, they scream themselves hoarse shouting irrelevancies like “Hillary won the popular vote!”

Leftwing progs at Mother Jones shriek about a looming dictatorship… after cheering when their strongman hero Emperor Barack, phone and pen in hand, issued imperial decrees, bureaucratic dicta and made law out of whole cloth. Alas, now they quail and wail at the looming Trumpian Totalitarianism.

The most irritating (and un-American of all) tantrum is the “JUST YOU WAIT AND SEE! NYAH!!!” In spastic, spiteful fits of premature schadenfreude, they go all giddy at the fevered imaginings of Trump wrecking America as they dream of sticking out their tongues at the stupid grubby hordes who voted for Trump and telling us “SEE!!! Told ya so!”

Delegitimizing President Trump
Most insidious are the Establismentarian insiders like Hillary, Podesta, Pelosi, Obama and their minions essentially saying President-elect Trump’s election is illegitimate and fanning the flames by egging on the handful of kooks, nuts and flakes sprinkled among the 535 Electors. Their actions are irresponsible, insidious and have a corrosive effect on our democracy.

I felt sorry for Hillary and her voters after the election. The result--not just a Trump win, but a near electoral college landslide--was a shock. But like the airplane passenger--who is a father himself and at first smiles at the poor parents with the baby who won’t stop bawling--my patience wears thin as the interminable crying turns to a purple-faced tantrum without end.

Butt-hurt Hillary voters are the kid who gets walloped in the head with a ball and won’t stop crying. Rub some dirt on it and shut up already!

They are the spoiled brat who breaks her toy and won’t stop being a pestering pain in the ass until daddy goes out and buys her a new one.

Leftwing progs who can’t shut up about this election and face it like mature men and women are a howling chorus of crying babies on a plane. 

They are immature, un-hinged and yes, un-American. We are made of sterner stuff. We survived eight years of President Obama’s vapid, destructive reign; We will survive President Trump. After all, Donald Trump is more qualified to be chief executive than Barack Obama was when he entered the Oval Office.

So knock it off, already. We’re tired of your ranting and raving. The rest of the world is watching and you’re embarrassing us.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/12/13/3-election-stats-liberals-love-that-dont-mean-as-much-as-they-seem/?postshare=8541481634670298&tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.a3506c41d55b#comments

Liberal Dreams, Liberal Nightmares

What are these morons thinking?  This, from Huffpo:

Russian Interference Could Give Courts Legal Authority to Install Clinton.

A Change.org petition signed by more than 4.3 million people, encourages members of the Electoral College to cast their votes for Hillary Clinton when the college meets on Dec. 19. The petition argues that Donald Trump is “unfit to serve” and that “Secretary Clinton WON THE POPULAR VOTE and should be President.” 
USA Today
People

Let us suppose for a second a Federal Judge orders Hillary Clinton installed as President, or the Electoral College actually votes for Hillary rather than simply tossing it to the House?

What happens the next day? 

Constitutional Cure for Polarization

Here's an interesting read from Truman Democrat Joel Kotkin. Still suffering aftershocks from "The Trumpening," some on the left are embracing "local control."

What Americans across the political spectrum need to recognize is that centralizing power does not promote national unity, but ever harsher division. Enforced central control, from left or right, polarizes politics in dangerous ways. The rather hysterical reaction to Trump’s election on the left is a case in point, with some in alt-blue California calling for secession from the union.

He're right. We are a fairly-evenly split country. Whichever side is in charge just ends up pissing off the other 50%.

The ever worsening polarization of American politics—demonstrated and accentuated by the Trump victory—is now an undeniable fact of our daily life. Yet rather than allowing the guilty national parties to continue indulging political brinkmanship, we should embrace a strong, constitutional solution to accommodating our growing divide: a return to local control.

Such an approach would allow, within some limits, local constituencies to follow their own course, much as the Founding Fathers suggested, without shaking the fundamentals of the federal union. Localism, as I label this approach, would address the sentiments on both right and left by reversing the consolidation of central power in Washington.

...localism is widely embraced by a broad majority of the American public. By 64 percent to 26 percent, according to a 2015 poll—Americans say that they feel “more progress” on critical issues take place on the local rather than the federal level. Majorities of all political affiliations and all demographic groups hold this same opinion.

I agree. I came to the conclusion long ago that the only way to break the left's love affair with a strong central government was to put the GOP in full control of it.


What do you think?

Dakota Access Pipeline: Inconvenient Facts

North Dakota Congressman and former member of the North Dakota Public Service Commission (2003-12) has written a piece in the WSJ, What the Dakota Access Pipeline is Really All About.

He presents the following inconvenient facts:

* The pipeline does not cross any land owned by the Standing Rock Sioux

* Two federal courts have rejected claims that the tribe wasn’t consulted

* Other tribes and parties did participate in the process

* Years before the pipeline was announced, the tribe was working with the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps to relocate its drinking-water intake. The new site sits roughly 70 miles downstream of where the pipeline is slated to cross the Missouri River. Notably, the new intake, according to the Bureau of Reclamation, will be 1.6 miles downstream of an elevated railroad bridge that carries tanker cars carrying crude oil.

* Other pipelines carrying oil, gas and refined products already cross the Missouri River at least a dozen times upstream of the tribe’s intake. The corridor where the Dakota Access Pipeline will run is directly adjacent to another pipeline, which carries natural gas under the riverbed, as well as an overhead electric transmission line. This site was chosen because it is largely a brownfield area that was disturbed long ago by previous infrastructure.

* This isn’t about the climate. The oil that will be shipped through the pipeline is already being produced. But right now it is transported in more carbon-intensive ways, such as by railroad or long-haul tanker truck. So trying to thwart the pipeline to reduce greenhouse gas could have the opposite effect.

A Giant of a Man

John Glen Archives

Photo: Gerry Metzler

John Glenn signed up after the attack on Pearl Harbor, became a Naval Aviation Cadet and then a Marine fighter pilot, he flew 59 combat missions in the South Pacific.

 He flew the F9F Panther on his first tour in Korea flying 63 missions and earning the nickname Magnet Ass for the amount of flak he collected... over 250 holes in his aircraft on more than one occasion. At one point Boston Red Sox Ted Williams was his wingman.

On his second tour in Korea as an exchange pilot with the Air Force's 51st Fighter Squadron (Still there in Korea by the way) he flew the F-86 on 27 combat missions and downed 3 MiGs.

149 combat missions, 6 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 19 Air Medals.

In 1957 as a Marine test pilot he completed the first transcontinental supersonic flight from Los Alamitos, CA to Floyd Bennett Field in New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes.

First American to orbit the Earth aboard Friendship 7, 3 orbits, 4 hours, 44 minutes.

US Senator for 4 terms, 24 years and...

At age 77 in 1998 becoming the oldest person to go into space on Space Shuttle mission STS-95. 

Dutch National Archives

 Perhaps even more amazing in this day and age, married to Annie for 73 years.

Rest in Peace

July 18, 1921 - December 8, 2016

 

Phil Collins

Who's Side are They On?

Henry Kissinger, China's Ambassador to the United States

Henry Kissinger has been in and out of Trump Tower a few times since the election, but he is not up for an administration job. He’s a Chinese agent doing the job the Chinese Ambassador to the United States just cannot do.

Bob Dole, Taiwan's Mole

Bob Dole is Taiwan’s paid mole. Supposedly, his law firm set up the phone call between Taiwan’s president and President-elect Trump.

The phone call itself was no big deal, despite what the parrots and trained monkeys tell you in the press.  George Friedman from Stratfor provide a non-hysterical analysis aided by historical perspective and current events.

Government Officials Cashing In

The controversy and arguing sparked by the famous phone call has missed the most important point: 

Former US officials--who still enjoy access to the highest reaches of the Federal Government and to the elite congressional and presidential inner circles--rake in millions acting as foreign agents, peddling their influence and using their access to lobby the US government on behalf of foreign governments.

Does anyone here besides me see anything wrong with this?

Can someone tell me why this practice should not be banned by federal law? I propose a total and plenary lifetime ban on any politician or government official ever representing a foreign government.

Can someone tell me why the same ban should not apply to lobbying for corporations as well?

Related:

Want to be a 'Foreign Agent'?

Tracking foreign influence peddling in America

DNC Chair ???

Howard Dean has dropped out and Keith Ellison appears to be floundering. Some other names bandied about have been Ilyse Hogue,  NH Chair Raymond Buckley, Jaime Harrison, Jason Kander, and even Rahm Eamanual.  Feel free to opine.

Meanwhile, don't forget what day it is:

And kick back with a Kamikaze:

1oz Triple Sec
1oz Vodka
1oz Lime Juice
 

The Progressive Inquisition

Adam Farrell

Hans Feine has some wise words in light of the Progressive Pogrom looking to burn Chip and Joanna Gaines out of their rehabbed HGTV home:

“People who give their kids weird names are unsophisticated morons,” I thought to myself when I was 23 years old and busy substitute-teaching a class full of kids named Brysalynn and Traxton.

Clearly these parents have no love for the culture of their ancestors, which is why their kids are probably named after some organic vinegar bathroom scrub their parents picked up at Whole Foods. I have absolutely nothing in common with people this vapid, so clearly I could never be friends with someone who would name a kid something dumb.”

Then, a few years later, one of my closest friends had a kid and named him something dumb. At the moment of said dumb-named kid’s entrance into this world, two options stood before me.

Option A: I was wrong about baby names, and it was, in fact, possible to be an interesting, intelligent person while also being sweet on absurd baby monikers.

Option B: Despite having a mountain of evidence that my friend was interesting and intelligent, this was all a ruse and he had been a moron the entire time.

Being a reasonable person, he chose Option A.

Folks, the only way we're going to get along is by allowing one another space: To believe differently, to behave differently, and to hold and practice different values.

Like the author, can we approach situations with a little charity, and rather than demonize those who think differently, perhaps reevaluate our own hearts and souls and cut people some slack? This doesn't mean abandoning your beliefs and surrendering to the ideology of others. It simply means tolerating differences of opinion and belief.

Related: Harvard Punishes Thought Crimes

Delusional

Or just plain Moonbat Crazy?

Nancy Pelosi said that despite Democrats losing the House, Senate, and almost two-thirds of state houses, the American people don't want a new direction.

Uh, yeah.

Our Democratic Republic

We are not a direct democracy, and we are not one big peanut-butter-spread country. We are a federation of 50 states that established a federal government and vested it with powers via the US Constitution.

The 2016 Election results reflected this reality. We are a diverse patchwork. Conservatives are perfectly happy to let Massachusetts and California be as leftwing as they wanna be. Oakland elects an openly-Marxist mayor? Meh... Their city, their choice. I'll never have to go there, so what do I care?

Progressives hate federalism and they hate the concept of a democratic republic. They would eradicate the concept of states, leaving them as little more that quaint geographical areas with a flag. They want to peanut butter spread their ideology all over the US. They abhor those stubborn pockets of dissidents and the socially disinterested. "Conform or Die" is the Progressive chant. Witness how they gleefully rub their hands and chatter on about the demise of the white race in America. Everyone must conform to the hive, and the rest can just die off.

A Plea for Toleration

My prayer is that we can learn to leave each other alone. By all means, continue pushing for the rights of others--they are all human rights. By the same token, religious people have the right to practice their beliefs and speak about them in the public square.

I'm glad Colorado is not Massachusetts, and I think it's cool we have a state like Vermont that features liberal hippies with guns.

Not a Trick Question:

Is there any other nation on earth this big, with this many people, where people enjoy so many rights and so much bounty?

I don't think so, but maybe someone can point one out. My point is, in a large, diverse nation, one-size-fits-all will not work. We are a patchwork of communities and peoples who generally congregate with other like-minded people.

What's wrong with that?

The Decemberists -- We both go down together

The Decemberists have been accused of being "overwrought," "frighteningly dark," and engaging in "digressive excess," based mostly on their earlier work, but few doubt the sincerity of their work and Colin Meloy's talent for writing a song and then wringing every last word, note and emotion from it.

2011's The King is Dead, featuring the song you may have heard on the radio, This is Why We Fight, is a very good CD. As the witty smartasses at The Awl observe, it has "100 % Less Raping," and features "a tamer, more pastoral lyrics and a pared-down, bluegrass-tinged sensibility (with guest vocals from the always-excellent Gillian Welch)."  

Their follow-up, What a Terrible World, What a Wonderful World, further refines and matures their work, satisfying critics and fans alike that they have left the emotional excesses behind while staying true to their sound and still providing moving lyrics that provide insight into everyday life, with all its contradictions, joy and sadness.

Despite all that, their 2005 Picaresque remains my favorite.  It is a musical indulgence in pathos-drenched melodrama, a book of pull-you-in-close short stories in song. Intricately woven and full of subtlety, you want to listen and re-listen to soak it all in as you re-experience the emotions. 

My favorite song from that CD is also the most easily-understandable song, one of tragic love and moral ambiguity.  Put on headphones, give it your full listening attention, and you will not remain unmoved.

Note from the man behind Silverfiddle: 

This is me. This is who I am.  Music is magic. Writing a song and then jamming to it with other musicians at a microbrewery and seeing people there enjoy it is magic. Playing music here in town with fellow musicians is the genuine me, it brings me true joy, and it resonates with my heart and soul.

Support Indy Music. Support your local artists.  Peace Out

The Cabinet; So Far

State:
Treasury: Steven Mnuchin
Defense:
Justice: Jeff Sessions
Interior:
Agriculture:
Commerce: Wilbur Ross
Labor:
HHS: Tom Price
HUD: Ben Carson?
Transportation: Elaine Chao
Energy:
Education: Betsy DeVos 
Veteran Affairs:
Homeland:
 

Why an Electoral College

Newstimes

Much ado is being made on the left that Clinton has won the popular vote 64.863 million to 62.507 million.  But...we are a Republic not a Democracy, take a look at the map above, Clinton also only won 20 of 50 states. Throw in the other candidates votes and in actuality 69.829 million people didn't vote for Clinton.

There is a reason we are not a pure democracy, from Federalist Paper 10 by James Madison:

From this view of the subject it may be concluded that a pure democracy, by which I mean a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person, can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority of the whole; a communication and concert result from the form of government itself; and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual. Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths...

A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect, and promises the cure for which we are seeking. 

         Federalist 10. 

Clinton won the Northeast Megalopolis (Washington Boston Corridor) and the Western Megalopolis (Los Angeles to Seattle Corridor), Illinois, Colorado, and New Mexico went Clinton predominately by virtue of Chicago, Denver, and Albuquerque.

Nevada is even stranger... having gone to Clinton when she won only 2 of 17 counties in the state.  Clark County (Las Vegas) and Washoe County (Reno) MAP

The electoral college has functioned exactly as it was intended to function, to diminish the effect of a majority faction, in this case the predominately urban faction as illustrated in the map above. 

Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.   

For those of you that wish to abolish the electoral college, keep in mind that it requires an amendment to the constitution approved by 38 of the states.  That means, you need to convince 18 of those red states above to consent to be ruled by New York and Los Angeles.

Have fun. 

Secretary of State

According to the Infotainment-Media Complex, these are the men on President-elect Trump's short list for Secretary of State:

Rudy Giuliani
John Bolton
Mitt Romney
David Petraeus

I list them in order of my preference, from worst to best.

I don't know why Giuliani is even on the list...

John Bolton is a belligerent neocon with a temperament unsuitable for the greatest nation's top diplomat.

Mitt Romney would be a great Secretary of State. As a bonus, he could clean out Foggy Bottom, revitalize and reorganize it. His foreign contacts are many, he's a smart man, and he would represent us well on the world stage.  The only downside would be if he went into the job with intentions of forging his own path and clashing with the president.

David Petraeus is my choice. Yes, he was prosecuted for intentionally mishandling classified information, and yes, he cheated on his wife.  He has paid his price and mended his marriage. I believe in redemption and second chances, especially for someone with unique talents that our nation needs.

What do you think?

Also, please feel free to comment on other Trump picks or rumored candidates for other posts

Wringing Hands and Gnashing Teeth

Photo: Elibeck

The Clinton campaign held out little hope of success in any of the three states, and said it had seen no “actionable evidence” of vote hacking that might taint the results or otherwise provide new grounds for challenging Donald J. Trump’s victory.

The Federal government did not observe any increased level of malicious cyber activity aimed at disrupting our electoral process on election day. As we have noted before, we remained confident in the overall integrity of electoral infrastructure, a confidence that was borne out on election day. As a result, we believe our elections were free and fair from a cybersecurity perspective.

New York Times 

Jill Stein - The new "Chad" hanging around an American election.
Jill Stein - Struggling for relevancy in the face of unmitigated loss.

Don't worry, for all you candidates that aren't Donald Trump - Here's your participation trophy:

 

Trump Acquires White House in Hostile Takeover

Chidiukwu.com

Rick Danker explains how Trump did it.

"He made an all-in bet on the notion that people won't be told by their elites what to do, an idea long respected in American politics but never tested on the scale of a presidential campaign."

The article also answered my question, How did Trump read the discontent in the country so accurately and way before anyone else? How did he outperform all other politicians--once they caught on--in addressing this discontent?

"For years, he had maintained an open-door policy at Trump Tower for Republicans, hearing out everyone from fellow presidential aspirant Rick Santorum to CEO-turned-senator David Perdue about where the country needed to go and how Democrats could be beaten.

He paid a staffer to listen to talk radio to find out what issues people were calling about.

Backstage at events, he was known to quietly ask everyday workers about their lives and their jobs. Trump's populism wasn't a stance; it was an informed point of view."

Based on that, President-elect Trump...

"... wove his issues into a siren call that the system-the media, the Democratic donors, the branches of government connected to special interests-was rigged."

Or, as Trump's top strategist Steve Bannon put it,

"Elites have taken all the upside for themselves and pushed the downside to the working- and middle-class Americans."

Trump asked voters for once-in-a-lifetime permission to blow up the modern American political superstructure and get back to basics. As Bannon said, "This is not the French Revolution. They destroyed the basic institutions of their society and changed their form of government. What Trump represents is a restoration-a restoration of true American capitalism and a revolution against state-sponsored socialism."

LESSONS LEARNED

You don't need a "Get out the Vote" machine if your voters are motivated by your message

The "Experts" are mostly bullshitting touts

If Trump can do it, so can a Dem candidate in 2020. If GOP moralists try to mount a revanchist campaign to claw back social gains won for gays and transgendered, they will give the Dems an opening. The same outcome will happen if a Trump presidency unleashes the dark forces of racism, misogyny and hatred progressives spent so much energy screaming about during the campaign.

Dems will refocus on the heartland and neglect their base in the big cities. Their support there is so deep they can afford to do it. The vast majority of those deep blue populations will never vote for a Republican. They worst they can do is stay home. In California, the Dems could still take the state even if three-million stayed home. In New York, 1.5 million Democrat could sit it out and the Democrat candidate would still win that state.

Exception: Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Madison, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are critical for Dems in 2020. Also Jacksonville, Tampa, Orlando and Miami in Florida. The Democrats will flood the zone in those cities. That is how they take back those states Trump flipped.

The Democrat party will learn from Trump's unprecedented success and will do a good job adapting their strategy. All political victories are transitory.

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

Alice's Restaurant

For some reason, a Thanksgiving tradition.

Happy Thanksgiving

Gratitude is a Feeling

Thanksgiving is an Act

Brave Little Surrender Monkey

Photo: Chris huh

"This Paris agreement... is irreversible, no one can get out of it," said Hollande during a speech in the southwest of France.

Bwah ha ha ha ha!

Well Bub, that's what happens when you let a President ratify an agreement rather than the US Senate.  What you have is an executive agreement... an agreement easily rescinded by the next executive.

Nicolas Sarkozy proposed a carbon tax on American-made goods if President-elect Donald Trump pulls out of the climate accord.

How do you say it in French? Oh yeah:


                                   Va te faire foutre

The Press: Trumpled and Scorned

The Infotainment Media Complex shat itself on election night, but Trump already owned them by then. Candidate Trump caused them to finally unmask themselves and reveal the Infotainment Media Complex to be the multi-horned, medusa-headed progressive propaganda outlet we all knew it was.

Salena Zito offered this pithy insight:

"When he makes claims like this, the press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally."

"No matter how crazy this election seems, it's less crazy than the condition of our country," Thiel said. " [...] "It is not a lack of judgment that leads Americans to vote for Trump; we are voting for Trump because we judge the leadership of our country to have failed."(Weekly Standard)

Trump broke the Media's Back

The press is not silenced, but El Donaldo did drive them to such hysterics that they wrecked their vocal chords. The rumbly respectability of a Walter Kronkite or Tom Brokaw has been replaced by the hysterical quacking of Donald Duck. 

People still hear them, but don't believe them or take them seriously, and if Trump does not destroy the United States and the world like the press warned us he would, their credibility will be totally shot. 

The Infotainment Media Complex has painted themselves into a spider-infested corner. Their power to propagandize the nation is shattered. Dems can still rely on them to rally the faithful on the left, but not ordinary Americans in the broad middle.

But wait! There's more!

Can You Hear Me Now? President Trump takes Dead Aim

President-elect Donald Trump exploded at media bigs in an off-the-record Trump Tower powow on Monday, sources told The Post.

"It was like a f-ing firing squad," said one source.

"Trump started with Jeff Zucker and said I hate your network, everyone at CNN is a liar and you should be ashamed....

"The meeting was a total disaster. The TV execs and anchors went in there thinking they would be discussing the access they would get to the Trump administration, but instead they got a Trump-style dressing down," the source added. NY Post

Progessives will shriek about how "Dangerous" it is for a President-elect to excoriate the press like that, but President Trump is speaking for the 70% of Americans who despise and mistrust the press. He gave them the bashing the richly deserve, and we enjoy it vicariously through him.

Too bad there's no video of the event...

The Trumpening has driven the Left Mad

A psychologist has written a very long and quite exhaustive refutation of the progressive anti-Trump hysteria. You can read it here: Slate Star Codex: You are Still Crying Wolf

After knocking down every kook theory and unhinged accusation, he concludes. And he speaks for all of us normal people watching the rioting, safe space thumb-sucking, diaper rash rants, media meltdowns and hyper-hysteria heebee jeebees:

Why am I harping on this?

I work in mental health. So far I have had two patients express Trump-related suicidal ideation. One of them ended up in the emergency room, although luckily both of them are now safe and well. I have heard secondhand of several more. 

Stop making people suicidal. Stop telling people they’re going to be killed. Stop terrifying children. Stop giving racism free advertising. Stop trying to convince Americans that all the other Americans hate them. Stop. Stop. Stop.

Robert E. Heller performs a similar, more concise service in his essay, Trump's Triumph, explained. The real reason the left is going crazy is because their worldview is shattered. As one of their propagandists said, they cried wolf one too many times.

And here is where we find the essential key to understanding why Trump really won. For decades, Republicans have largely conceded to false assertions that the left holds the moral high ground. This cycle, that changed. Donald Trump, who is unaccustomed to conceding anything, did not go quietly into that good night.

Voters' affection for him sprang from the same well as Abraham Lincoln's for Ulysses Grant: He fights!

Instead of silence when accused of racism, Trump pointed out that leftist do-gooders have subjected black America to horrifying inner city rates of both crime and poverty, trapped their kids in appallingly bad schools, and driven unemployment rates among their youth into the stratosphere.

Instead of meekness when accused of xenophobia, Trump insisted that "sanctuary cities" are madness when they demonstrably result in the release of caught criminals who continue to victimize innocents. Instead of conceding by lack of response that he is misogynist, he highlighted his opponent blithely receiving millions of dollars from foreigners from countries that forbid women to drive and stone rape victims. And then he put a smart, accomplished woman in charge of his successful campaign.

Trump won because many millions of people are very, very tired of the moral condescension of people who mistakenly believe that they are incapable of being wrong on fundamental moral questions - despite the relative ease of demonstrating the absurdity of that belief.

And if the left clings to that same smugness going forward, then its losing streak is just beginning.

Trump's America: Seven Days, Seven Victories

Edmund Kozak has written an uplifting article: Bored Yet? Trump already winning for America

Go read it. It will make you happy.

Here are the seven "wins" Kozak cites:

* Stock market is up (remember the dire warnings from the left that it would crash if Trump won?)

* Senate Majority Leader: TPP is dead

* EU Trade Commissioner: TTIP has essentially been abandoned.

* Canada, Mexico "open to talking about" NAFTA

* Threat of war receding: Trump and Putin agreed "on the absolutely unsatisfactory state of bilateral relations" and agreed to move "to normalize relations and pursue constructive cooperation on the broadest possible range of issues."

* NYU strikes a blow for anti-PC free speech

* "Department of Veterans Affairs sent a letter to Congress informing it that controversial plans to pay for transgender veterans' gender reassignment surgeries had been abandoned."

What do you see as positives stemming from our election of Donald J. Trump to be the 45th President of the United States?

Leonard Cohen 1934-2016

I thought you said Sit-In

Students at UMASS Amherst are staging a "Shit-In" protest to demand more gender neutral bathrooms.

Somebody wake up Michigan

Hello Michigan!  It's been a week since the election, all 83 counties have reported their results, and while I can understand dotting your "I"s and crossing your "T"s, just call it already, as someone famous once said "What difference does it make"?

The Cabinet

Lots of names are being bandied about potential picks for a Trump cabinet.

Of the names I've heard for State I have to say Bolton would be my choice, if not that then Ambassador to the UN.

Kelly Ayotte would be an interesting choice for Defense, although she is a tad young.

I'm going to guess that AG goes to either Christie or Giuliani  with whoever is left over getting Commerce.

I'm also going to guess that Flynn gets the DNI or National Security Advisor position rather than Defense.

Hopefully he'll spring a few surprises.

The funniest I've heard is Arpaio for Homeland, not ever going to happen, I don't think he'd ever get confirmed (and rightfully so), but it would be a great big middle finger to the left.

What do you think? Care to make some predictions?

Recovering Inkaholics? The Addiction to Point and Laugh Liberalism

The Trumpening has left the The Infotainment Media Complex stunned and gob-stopped. Their view of reality shattered when Trump passed 270 electoral votes, thanks to Wisconsin *Blue Progressive Wisconsin!* I know how they feel and I sympathize.  I was stunned in 2008 when the "impossible" happened: My fellow Americans chose a Muslim-named street activist from Chicago over a conservative-lite war hero.

Such events are bracing, and the mentally-healthy adjust their view of reality based upon them. Defiant leftists who are mentally-unstable are crying foul. What hurts the worse, a burning coal up their arrogant arses, is that President-Elect Trump bludgeoned them with their own cudgels:

"Trump had a way of taking to Twitter and could literally change the narrative because he had such a large following,"

"It's organized digital bullying,"

"In this way, you have untruths and falsehoods that transit through our media ecosystem and become a tidal wave."

"It became possible for him to construct an alternate narrative, I would say an alternate reality," he said.

This final whine emanating from the progressive hive was the most ironic:

"The health of democracy depends on people being exposed to both sides of an issue" 

Indeed. And had the Infotainment Media Complex done that, people wouldn't have had to seek out "alternate realities"

Trumpled by Reality

While most in the Infotainment Media Complex--who get it so wrong, so often--arrogantly march on, some in the press are in a defensive crouch, worrying a Dictator Trump will exact his revenge.

Trump is challenging the legitimacy of traditional media at a time of low public standing and great financial stress for the industry, especially newspapers. In September, a Gallup poll found that just 32 percent of Americans have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in the media, the lowest level in the poll’s history.

Recovering Inkaholics?

But that's not worth wasting time on. I don't want a rightwing press, I don't want a libertarian press--I want an agnostic press, a skeptical press, a press that gets to know the big, wide, diverse world outside its cozy group-think bubble.

Here are a few refreshing and stunning bursts of healthy self-examination from some of the scribblers on the left. Both articles are worth a full reading:

This is all symptomatic of modern journalism’s great moral and intellectual failing: its unbearable smugness. Had Hillary Clinton won, there’d be a winking “we did it” feeling in the press, a sense that we were brave and called Trump a liar and saved the republic.

There’s been some sympathy from the press, sure: the dispatches from “heroin country” that read like reports from colonial administrators checking in on the natives. But much of that starts from the assumption that Trump voters are backward... (Will Rahn -- Unbearable Smugness of the Press)

"The Deplorables Got the Last Laugh"

Let's Face it: Liberals helped stoke the rage that elected Donald Trump

You can believe that half the country is racist if you want, and there’s no question that there’s an undercurrent of anger in Trump’s stunning rise. But that anger isn’t directed at any individual ethnic group. It’s more inchoate than that.

It’s rage at institutions that people believe have failed them forever. It’s rage at an economy that doesn’t work for ordinary folks. It’s rage at a cultural milieu that perceives too many non-coastal Americans as buffoons. It’s rage at the aftermath of a financial crisis and Great Recession, in which the gap between winners and losers just grew larger, and the two-tiered system of justice paraded on full display. It’s rage at an elite class that people feel is lined up against them. (New Republic - David Dayen)

Trumpled Myths, Shattered Shibboleths

President Trump can help us along our path of seeing reality as it really is by proving just how hysterically wrong the progressive alarums and ahoogah horns of calamity were.

* Fairy Tale #1, "The markets will crash!" has already fallen.

The credibility of nut-filled progressive screamers will fall further when...

- Trump fails to grow a Hitler mustache and start shoving Jews into ovens.

- No footage appears of Trump's stormtroopers dragging poor immigrants from their homes and marching them to the border

- America's Muslims and LGBTQ continue to enjoy the best life available to them anywhere on the planet, and anti-Muslim and anti-gay pogroms fail to materialize

Trump has a real opportunity to show America and the world just how wrong the hysterical leftwing lying liars and the progressive scare-mongers are. Add is some healthy self-examination and self-adjustment by the press, and perhaps we can restore some sanity to society.

Related:
NBC News: Trump did better with blacks and Hispanics than Romney
PEW: Election Results by Race, Gender, Education
CBS: Exit Polls--How Trump Won

Clinton Blames Comey

She just don't get it!

Some do:

Too many of my progressive friends seem to have forgotten how to make actual arguments, and have become expert instead at condemnation, derision and mockery. On issue after issue, they’re very good at explaining why no one could oppose their policy positions except for the basest of motives. As to those positions themselves, they are too often announced with a zealous solemnity suggesting that their views are Holy Writ -- and those who disagree are cast into the outer political darkness. In short, the left has lately been dripping with hubris, which in classic literature always portends a fall. Stephen Carter - Bloomberg

In a party in which “white privilege” was pro forma disparagement, those who were both white and without it grew furious that the elites with such privilege massaged the allegation to provide cover for their own entitlement. Victor Davis Hanson - Hoover Institute ~ Stanford

CHILL

Quit Your Whingeing

You have no one to blame but yourselves running corruption incarnate as your candidate, a feeling I think expressed quite loudly the other day by many of my fellow Americans. Frankly I'd have voted for Bernie Sanders or Jill Stein if that was what was necessary to keep Clinton out of the Oval office.

#NotMyPresident

Got news for you, he's as much your President as Obama has been our President for the past eight years.  Get Over It... if it makes you little snowflakes happy we'll send Hillary a Participation Trophy.

Anti-Trump Protests.  Really? What are you protesting? The choice of your fellow Americans?  Have at it, frankly we don't give care. While I respect your right to assemble and protest I'm not paying any more attention to you than I would a child throwing a tantrum.

Yes, Clinton has at the moment a slight lead in the popular vote between her and Trump of about 200,000 votes, but we don't elect presidents by popular vote and you have the same proportional representation in the electoral college that you have in the legislatures.  As it stands right now Hillary Clinton has 59,814,018 votes... but 65,685,400 didn't vote for Clinton.  Clearly the majority didn't want Clinton, so quit your whingeing.

This way to the Egress

Photo: Dennis Brown

Just a friendly reminder to all those that pledged to leave if Trump was elected President.

Well it's after midnight here in Colorado and the New York Times is predicting a better than 95% chance of Trump winning with 308 electoral votes, so we'll go with that for the time being:

What are you doing here?

Photo: Tom Arthur

GO VOTE

If you've already voted and just want to bitch, have at it. 

After the dust settles...

It Doesn't Matter

If You Win or Lose

It's How You

Play the Game

Think about that for a moment.  Tomorrow is the 2016 election, does the outcome really matter? Or is how the game was played more important?

The game, was played badly, by both sides.  What are the repercussions of that going to be? 

Faith in institutions has crumbled, do the results really matter?  If Clinton wins vast swaths of the electorate are going to believe the fix was in.  The same can be said if Trump wins.

How is each side going to view the other after this is all over? Unless one side or the other wins in an overwhelming landslide sweeping the White House, House, and Senate, the battle lines have been formed, the troops arrayed.  After the dust of the initial clash clears there is going to be a long and ugly time of trench warfare ahead.

Forget who wins or loses, what do you think the next four years are going to hold politically?