BTW, I don't respond to comments.  So ignore me or pass it along, as you wish.  I'm good either way.  Of course, nice comments are appreciated.

 

The Forgotten Man

Laws are for little people.  Yes, you.

Don't believe me?  Hold a mask-free birthday party in California.  Scam a few thou on your GoFundMe page.  Or invite too many people to an NYC marriage or funeral during the pandemic.  If you get caught red-handed by the FBI and immediately are whisked off to the nearest cantina to quaff a few beers together while laughing about the "incident," you aren't one of the little peeps I have in mind.  In fact, you probably are a member of the local BSD Club -- Big Swinging D**K Club -- of which you may have heard.  Don't have a BSD membership?  Well, too bad for you.  Joe and Hunter Biden are members, plus extended family.  So, too, the Clintons, Obamas, Wall Street execs and their ilk, for which no crime is too big to be investigated.  Let's face it.  They own a set.  You don't.  Genitalia are not physically required for membership, but be not misled, cojones definitely and metaphorically are necessary.  Not everyday cojones of which families are made, mind you, but the gilded ones that surpass all understanding.

The great comedian George Carlin bored me in the final years of his stand-up act.  It would've happened to Lenny Bruce, too, had he lived long enough.  And Richard Pryor.  Avant-garde only lasts so long, then the act goes stale until the next generation comes along.  We all have our limits.  Still, Carlin's description of The Club, of which you and I aren't members, is a keeper.  Have a listen (NSFW):

Since I'm giving a post-mortem shout-out to George, God rest his genius soul, here's one of the best talks ever given at the National Press Club several years ago, courtesy of George and his razor-sharp mind.  It's 30 minutes long and, again, NSFW, but enlightening nonetheless:

Now, back to my point, which was, I think, something about proles and Mr. Big, which naturally lead to my segue into election fraud 2020.  Georgia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada...are you listening?  If you need a primer on gaslighting, go here.  Don't get gaslit.  We were set up.  It's been years in the making.  For reference, go here, here and here for starters.  You can find your way from there.  Your state reps are the people's voice.  Do your part.  Call them.  Remind them, in no uncertain terms, that your voice matters.  Let yours be a righteous voice, based not on emotion or conjecture but with evidence and dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal, including you!

_____

This past Saturday, in a game with two Power-5 football teams, a girl was called on by Vanderbilt to kick off to start the second half.  Nothing against girls playing Power-5 football in the SEC.  If they can tackle, block, throw or run better than others, so be it.  To her credit, she smashed it downfield to Mizzou's 35, including bounces, to the sheer delight of ESPN .  An upback caught it and immediately dropped to the ground. Not bad for Vandy if you you're 21 points down, scoreless, willing to concede and desperate to virtue signal on national TV.  The men's soccer team at Vandy must be embarrassed, if indeed such a team exists.  Cojones, anyone?  Final score:  Vandy - 0, Mizzou - 41.  Shocker.  SEC?  The acronyms write themselves.

Obama Proves Himself To Be a (CL)ASS Act

Obama found a way to take the CL out of CLASS.

He wants to sound sincere.  I have no doubt he is.  Yet, he gets his jabs in anyway, in that loquacious and insincere way of his.  It takes him hundreds of words to express a simple thought.  He should have stopped after the first sentence.  But he didn't.  Everything that follows is pure politics.  Just pay attention:

Michelle and I grieve with all the families in El Paso and Dayton who endured these latest mass shooting.  Even if the details are still emerging, there are a few things we already know to be true.

First, no other nation in Earth comes close to experiencing the frequency of mass shootings that we see in the United States.  No other developed nation tolerates the levels of gun violence that we do.  Every time this happens, we're told that tougher fun laws won't stop all murders; that they won't stop every deranged individual from getting a weapon and shooting innocent people in public places.  But the evidence shows that they can stop some killings.  They can save some families from heartbreak.  We are not helpless here.  And until all of us stand up and insist on holding public officials accountable for changing our gun laws, these tragedies will keep happening.

Second, while the motivations behind these shootings may not yet be fully know, there are indications that the El Paso shooting follows a dangerous trend: troubled individuals who embrace racist ideologies and see themselves obligated to act violently to preserve white supremacy.  Like the followers of ISIS and other foreign terrorist organizations, these individuals may act alone, but they've been radicalized by white nationalist websites that proliferate on the internet.  That means that both law law enforcement agencies and internet platforms need to come up with better strategies to reduce the influence of these hate groups.

But just as important, all of us have to send a clarion call and behave with the values of tolerance and diversity that should be the hallmark of our democracy.  We should soundly reject the language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalizes racist sentiments; leaders who demonize those who don't look like us, or suggest that other people, including immigrants, threaten our way of life, or refer to other people as sub-human, or imply that America belongs to just one certain type of people.  Such language isn't new -- it's been at the root of most human tragedy throughout history, here in America and around the world.  It is at the root of slavery and Jim Crow, the Holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda and ethnic cleansing in the Balkans.  It has no place in our politics or our public life.  And it's time for the overwhelming majority of Americans of goodwill, of every race and faith and political party, to say as much -- clearly and unequivocally.

Oy, veh.  What a self-righteous windbag.  I almost forgot.

Donald Trump, on the other hand, is a businessman, not a politician.  He has little interest in BS and even less in verbal flatulence.  He cuts straight through the subterfuge.  His response is direct, terse and unambiguous:

Did George Bush ever condemn President Obama after Sandy Hook?  President Obama had 32 mass shootings during his reign.  Not many people said Obama is out of control.  Mass shootings were happening before the President (i.e. Donald Trump) even thought about running for Pres." @kilmeade. @foxand friends.

Ouch!  Now that will leave a mark.

Obama had best stick to public grieving and steer clear of political bloviations.  Otherwise, a la Trump, he gets his head handed to him on a platter.  It's a New York kind of thing.  Obama is out of his league.

We now have a President who speaks truth to BS.  It's been a long time coming.  Maybe not since Andrew Jackson -- a couple hundred years.

Monday Madness

Name just one law that prevented the next shooting?

1968 – Gun Control Act
1981 – Brady Act
1994 – Assault Weapons Ban
2008 – NICS Improvement Act
2018 – Ban on Bump Stocks?

51 YEARS and never once did these efforts prevent the next shooting.

“If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.”     – Dalai Lama, 2001

Tragedies should not be dramatized with an aim to disarm the general public.  Knee-jerk reactions rarely help.  Such reactions at best are virtue-signals and at worst are terrible public policy.  The tragedy itself cannot help but generate empathy for the victims.  That's automatic.  Such a horror.  A bottomless pit.  And it creates a genuine public thirst for justice and prevention.  We all understand.  It could have been my child, my family member or friend.  Our hearts are broken at the evil in our midst.

The MSM doesn't need to remind us of how badly to feel.  They are so ignorant.  So misguided by their desire for face time.  If caught in a madman's rampage, most of us prefer to have a fighting chance.  We want some means of security and defense against tyranny.  Police?  Well, if you need them in seconds, they will be there in minutes, if not longer, unless they happen to be standing nearby.  It's not their fault.  They can't be everywhere at once.  So what to do in the meantime?  Eat bullets?

If you think it's all about AK-47s, just look at Chicago's gun violence this past weekend.  Seven dead and twenty-nine injured.  Those deaths aren't the result of AK-47s.  I'm open to a better solution than currently exists, providing it doesn't require us to be offered as sheep to the slaughter.  Why would anyone volunteer for that?

If someone has a solution, they should argue that their solution will make a verifiable and quantifiable difference in regard to gun violence.  Put up or shut up.  Einstein predicted an eclipse of the sun and was proven right, to the exact hour and minute.  Can disarmament folks claim the same?  How many less deaths in the next week or month?   Gimme something, please, what with London and all its knife attacks.  Otherwise, talk is cheap, and their theory is not much different from my theory that more love would lead to less violence.  I also have a theory that if everyone acted legally, we would have much less illegal behavior.  What say you?  Neither of my theories has caught on well, except among Judeo-Christians in the west.  Among politicians, not so much.  Along with the MSM, their knees still tend to jerk.  Jews and Christians are beginning to catch on to the game.  It's the two-world theory of St. Augustine and Martin Luther.   We have no choice but to be in the world, though not of the world.  A Catch-22 of theological proportions.

Wild Bill Hickock had his own theory.

*****

Here's a clip from this week's Democrat Socialist Party's National Convention.  Aside from wanting to defeat capitalism, these scythe-and-sickle comrades are all about decorum and self-identity.  They just can't help themselves...an anal-retentive kind of thing.  It's a mental proclivity, determined by one's genetic inheritance, I suspect, much like flies are drawn to cow manure:

Oy, veh,  Venezuela notwithstanding, you just can't fix stupid.

*****

Okay, it was my annual "Boy's Week Out" trip last week, and here's how we spent it:

Okay, maybe not exactly.  There were no boys with me.  Or anyone else, for that matter.  And I wasn't on a boat.  Rather, I was on a sales trip in Florida.  But I was near water.  Actually, I played golf at a beachfront course you've never heard of but still allows jeans and tank tops:

That's how they advertised it.  Okay, big deal, so it was only a putt-putt course with fake grass.  Who cares?  The price was right.  And as you can see in the photo, I'd already missed my first putt.

Okay, maybe I exaggerated a little.  It was a cheap green carpet rather than fake grass.  And she wasn't wearing cut-off jeans.

She asked to play through.  I let her.

Yes, We Have No Bananas

Yes, we have no bananas.  We have no bananas today.

Those are lyrics from the 1920s.  Here's the tune, for those of you old enough to remember, which includes alternative lyrics for the English-impaired:

For the original version, go here.

Either way, it's the summary of Robert Mueller's testimony today.   I feel sorry for him.  A lifetime of work destroyed in a single day.  It was sad to watch.

I don't blame him, necessarily.  He worked his way up the ladder from the old soldier he once was...into the realm of prestige...and then into an honorable retirement.  Then came a clarion call.  One last request for service to country...and a chance to move from the fading shadows of oblivion into light once again, whether deserved or not.  He heard the trumpeting of revelry.  And he stood tall and marched forward, like the soldier he once was, but this time into a withering hail of bullets, which he must've known were coming, at least in the final days, if only because he signed onto the losing battle and offered his reputation as the esprit de corps for those he trusted, the women and men of his platoon.  It was a bad decision.

Today he sacrificed his honor on that battlefield.  It was sad to watch.  I do not think suicide was his intention.  He seems an honorable man.  Andrew Weissman, not so much.  In fact, not at all.  Weissman is a guy out for the kill.  His former boss simply got in the way.  Stuff happens, if you know what I mean.  I think Mueller knew it the day he signed onto the Special Council's report.  If not then, then shortly thereafter.  He could've quit much earlier in the process and said there's no further point to the investigation, as most of us knew.  But for whatever reason, probably personal, he didn't.  I suspect he knew he was only a figurehead, and his reputation would get him beyond the bar, so he let his subordinates do all the work.  If today was any clue, he was clueless about most all of which he was put in charge.  But that was then.  This is now.  He now owns it.  I suspect he wishes otherwise.

Bill Barr offered him a path to salvation.  Barr told him he didn't need to testify.  In effect, Barr offered a way out of the impasse into which his old acquaintance Bob Mueller had entwined himself.  Mueller didn't need to own up to the Special Council's Report that he put his name on, at least not on public display, and not this way.  But apparently someone else had Mueller's ear.  Lawfare?  Who knows?  Maybe one day we will get an accounting.  But it seems obvious that Mueller felt his honor was at stake.  It was.  And Bill Barr was unable to help at that point.  So he let his friend Bob Mueller hang himself.  That's what happened today.  Robert S. Mueller, III committed the last public hanging in U.S. history.  He did it to himself.  And he did it of his own free will

If I may paraphrase Bob Mueller's testimony, Yes, we have no bananas...We have no bananas today.

I don't think Jerry Nadler gives a rat's ass about bananas.  What's one more soldier sacrificed on the political field of battle?  Plus, Mueller doesn't vote in his district.

 After a long sabbatical, I've decided to resume my blog.  For some strange reason, Facebook no longer publicizes my posts.  Funny that.  Oh, well.  I've chosen to do a work-around.  Follow along if it's your cup of tea.

*****

*****

“Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer…” 

-- Thomas Paine, Common Sense

*****

Something is true because you say it is...facts be damned.  Then your mind closes and the conversation ends, except for your subsequent accusations and personal attacks.  Racism!  Fascism!  Naziism!  White nationalism!  Oy, veh.  Have you never read history outside of tweets?  (I'm not speaking to you, dear reader, but to the dolts who happen upon this site.)

We have reached a level of ignorance for which there is no rational response.  Such intransigence no longer makes me angry.  Instead, I look upon such folks the same way I view a rabid dog -- poor creature, so sorry that fatal disease afflicted you, but what's one to do other than quarantine the crazed animal until the moment of its demise...or else find a more charitable end.  Otherwise neighbors may get bitten and afflicted.  I have no stomach for such communicable problems.  I choose to keep my distance and save my breath.  I was a Democrat many decades ago.  Then the Jeffersonian democrats left me in their wake and went a rabid direction.  So much for the Founders of this country and what they staked their lives upon.

My walk-away moment came in the 1980s.  I was younger then, and anti-establishment.  I walked the halls of academe.  Then I left the academy and entered the business world.  It was an eye opener.  All I can say is, mea culpa.  I discovered I had been a Republican all along,  Then I discovered I was neither Republican nor Democrat, but instead someone who wanted to think outside party lines.  Yes, I was a slow learner, but I wasn't stupid.  In 2008, I easily recognized Barack Obama as the b**sh*t artist that he was.  How?  Because I once was him.  He was a certifiable liar.  Or a tool for his overseers   I recognized the catch-phrases, the weasel-words, and the facial expressions of an almost true-believer.  Only, I WAS a true believer in my early years, until the ice got too thin.  Then I discovered that my ideology didn't support my convictions.  I still love Thomas Jefferson, but not those who bastardize his ideals.  Such as John McCain.  At some point, one must be realistic.  It just took me a while.  A little humility goes a long way.

My politics these days are similar to the premise of Alcoholics Anonymous.  I will help with politics if you want help.  If you don't, there's not much I can do...other than vote against you... and bring five friends along.  I could offer a more compassionate, rational and balanced response, but then, what would be the point?  Rabies is what it is, politically speaking.  Donald Trump understands this.

Okay, no more offers of help.

*****

*****

Lest someone thinks I'm politically biased and insensitive, there's also this:

If it doesn't come through, the video can be found here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMU2Vo6_CEQ

Enough of these bon mots.  Until next time.

Trump Turns Democrat Angst Up To 11

Next month's election will be fun.

Democrats in Congress and on America's coasts are experiencing an existential crisis.  Hysteria runs rampant.  We're two years in and counting.  Desperation has set in.  Maxine Waters encourages violence.  Kamala Harris and Cory Booker imagine themselves as front-runners in 2020.  Hillary Clinton claims that civility is not merited and Elizabeth Warren checked her DNA.  Oy, veh.  It's getting tiresome.  But, still, it's funny.

These folks assumed since 2008 that their side had won, permanently.  They assumed the Republican party is dead.  They assumed that no one except "crazies" would oppose the progressive agenda.  The bitter clingers and deplorables were supposed to lose.  Everyone to the right of progressives was assumed to be radical, alt-insane, pure scum and worthy of public scorn.  Hence, their mania.

Then a miracle happened.  Against the alleged inevitable tide of history, America got "woke."  It wasn't that America was there for Trump.  It was that Trump was there for them.

Elections have consequences.  2010.  2012.  2014.  Landslide victories for Republicans at both the state and congressional level.  Then came Trump.  Accidental?  No.  It was a red wave of monumental significance.  Except to Democrats in Congress and on the coasts.  They weren't worried by any of it.  After all, they had Hillary warming up in the bullpen.  And open borders ... with illegal immigrants being bused to many key voting districts around the U.S.  And motor voter laws in effect, or coming into effect.  Don't think this strategy was a last minute ploy.  Plans were made in advance.  Plus, verbal agreements were in place for a climate accord in Paris, a nuclear deal with Iran, and a trade deal in the Pacific.  Once those were in place, it was time for the fat lady to sing.  Trump was nothing more to them than a voice crying in the wilderness (Isa. 40:3).  It was a cinch that Democrats would rule Washington for a lifetime or two, maybe forever.  That's my take on it.

So don't be surprised by the manic screeds of miscreants on the alt-left, including Antifa.  At worst, they are a fraction of a minority, a pimple on an elephant's hind leg, no matter how often they are magnified by the MSM.  They assumed they could re-invent America.  Folks much smarter than them assumed they could prevent Trump's election, or prevent his inauguration, or drive him from office.  Destiny was in their hands ... until it wasn't.

It's two years now and running.  The anarchists and bellyachers and their allies in Washington have failed at every turn.  Trump owns them.  And he will prevail.  November 6 is right around the corner.  I'll say now what I said before November 8, 2016:  Trump's got this one.  Watch and see.  You won't be disappointed on November 6, 2018.  Afterwards will come the echo of the prophet Amos:

Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.  (Amos 5:24)

Donald J. Trump doesn't suffer fools for long.  And he is no fool himself.  Plus, he has a strong counter-punch.  Congressional Democrats know as much.  Hence, their angst.  He owns the lot of them.

Let's compare notes on November 7.

In the meantime, vote like your future depends on it.  It does.

Welcome to Crazyville

Well, Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged finally meets George Orwell's 1984.  Within a day of Andrew Cuomo announcing that America has never been great, Senator Elizabeth Warren insists that any company with a market cap over $1 billion should be nationalized. 

Here's a snippet:

Under Senator Warren’s proposal, no business with more than $1 billion in revenue would be permitted to legally operate without permission from the federal government. The federal government would then dictate to these businesses the composition of their boards, the details of internal corporate governance, compensation practices, personnel policies, and much more. Naturally, their political activities would be restricted, too. Senator Warren’s proposal entails the wholesale expropriation of private enterprise in the United States, and nothing less. It is unconstitutional, unethical, immoral, irresponsible, and — not to put too fine a point on it — utterly bonkers. 

Of course, that snippet is from the National Review, definitely a conservative source.  And I'm not a fan of the National Review.  Let's turn instead to Senator Warren's own website, where we find this excerpt from her proposal:

• Requires very large American corporations to obtain a federal charter as a "United States corporation," which obligates company directors to consider the interests of all corporate stakeholders: American corporations with more than $1 billion in annual revenue must obtain a federal charter from a newly formed Office of United States Corporations at the Department of Commerce. The new federal charter obligates company directors to consider the interests of all corporate stakeholders - including employees, customers, shareholders, and the communities in which the company operates. This approach is derived from the thriving benefit corporation model that 33 states and the District of Columbia have adopted and that companies like Patagonia, Danone North America, and Kickstarter have embraced with strong results.

Hmm.  A "United States corporation," eh?  And one that cares nothing about profits from their investment?  Or investors such as retirement fund managers?  Yeah, that'll fix things.  Now return to your seat beside Ms. Ocasio-Cortez.

Stage left is Bernie Sanders, drooling over Sen. Warren's proposal.  He is Ellsworth Toohey in Ayn Rand's 1943 novel, Fountainhead.

You know you're in trouble when your base is reduced to the Truly Stupid.  As in:

... Our new campaign strategy is confiscation of wealth.  We will decide whose wealth must be confiscated.  One billion sounds like a good number.  Anyway, we politicians can spend their money more wisely than they can.  We don't need no stinkin' capital re-investment.  More jobs?  Shareholder profits?  Pfft.  We want your money, and we want it now.

Moreover, we have just been informed by one of our judicial betters that Donald Trump is legally bound to obey precedent, not by law and the Constitution, but by the executive order of his predecessor, Barack Obama, whose order somehow takes priority over Trump's executive order, as per the judge, even though executive orders are subjective interpretations of the meaning and intent of the law. 

I get it.  One interpretation may be better than another.  But, still, if an executive order isn't contrary to the meaning of the law or the Constitution itself, how do you decree that one interpretation is more accurate than another?  Ten degrees southeast or ten degrees southwest?  It's hard to say when the law says "head south."  That's where judicial activism comes in. 

I don't necessarily blame the judiciary.  When Congress refuses to enact sensible laws, or amend ambiguous laws, the judiciary has little choice but to act as the arbiter between Congress, the Executive branch, the public and the Constitution that empowers them all.  On the other hand, not all judges are equal.  They, too, are human, all too human.  Such are the imperfections of organized society.  That's why your vote matters, as do existing laws and the Constitution.

*****

Meanwhile, things have nowhere to go but up in the Democrat stronghold of Chicago.  What a wasteland on the South Side and adjacent areas, and so sad for those who lack the means to live elsewhere.  The rat-a-tat of gunfire seems to be a daily refrain in Chicago, given the statistics. 

The latest murder is sobering.  The poor guy was strangled, stabbed, burned alive and run over by a vehicle.  And he was a high-school student:

CBS 2’s Charlie De Mar reports the horrific final moments for a Chicago teen, police say, killed by peers his own age. Friends of Guerrero say he moved to West Chicago from Mexico in fifth grade. They describe him as a good friend and student.

“I’m extremely sad to know that he had to suffer so much because he was burned alive,” said Jose Ramirez, a friend of Guerrero.

Police say 18-year-old Francisco Alvarado and 16-year-old Tia Brewer, a former girlfriend, met the victim at the library where the pair allegedly strangled Guerrero with a belt, stabbed him several times in the neck, and then drove him to the field. Jesus Correa was also charged.

*****

To top it off, Big Tech has decided to become our Big Brother, as per Brad Parscale in the Washington Examiner.  Apparently Big Tech doesn't like certain political viewpoints that conflict with its own, even of the non-dangerous variety.  Maybe they are not to blame.  After all, herding the internet is like herding cats.  That's their excuse, at least.

Still ... we should be leery of wolves in sheep's clothing.  Here's an excerpt:

This new Orwellian impulse that is taking over Big Tech is particularly problematic because social media websites, which are supposed to be safe spaces for all free speech, get special legal perks.

Under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, websites such as Facebook and Twitter are not treated as publishers of “information provided by another” — which would subject them to libel laws and other headaches publishers have to deal with — because they “offer a forum for a true diversity of political discourse.”

This means social media platforms are not merely private companies who can censor whomever they wish — They are considered, by law, to be public forums that allow free and open debate.

This problem will need to be worked out in civil court.

*****

This pic, from some site called The Patriot Post, highlights the deep divide in American culture:

*****

When this guy starts looking like this guy, you know it might be time for a change in Florida:

*****

In related news, here comes the dog whistle, as Mini-Me vouches for Dr. Evil.  I guess Susan Rice hopes John Brennan will stand in the breach for her and her former White House colleagues, all of whom need protection at this point.  Maybe she's sending him a sweet but mindful message, swamp style:

Susan Rice

✔@AmbassadorRice

@JohnBrennan is an extraordinary patriot and professional. I’m deeply proud to call him a valued colleague and cherished friend. Those who diminish his service and patriotism, past and present, only denigrate themselves. #freespeech
5:29 PM - Aug 15, 2018

• 2,411

• 846 people are talking about this

Yeah, sure.

But, wait!  Joe Biden wants to chime in as well:

Joe Biden

✔@JoeBiden

In the time I have known him, John Brennan has never been afraid to speak up and give it to you straight. Revoking his security clearance is an act unbecoming of a President. If you think it will silence John, then you just don't know the man.
4:06 PM - Aug 15, 2018

• 126K

• 31.4K people are talking about this

Now let's all turn to page 263 of our hymnal and sing together ...

Ugh.  Keep talking, Joe.  Stick with what you do poorly.

*****

Lastly, haha.  I received an email notification from my blog platform sponsor, who feels the need to inform me that comments on my blog site need to be moderated.  I assume this is in response to off-color reactions.  If so, too funny, and shame on those who need moderation.  To anyone who spews ignorance and hate in the comments section, please be advised that I do not read them, good or bad.  You wasted your time.  I didn't waste mine.  If I pay attention to comments in the future, it only will be to block you.  I doubt I will.  I have better things to do.  Ignorance and hate eventually sow the seeds of their own dissolution.  Unless, of course, you're a Russian bot ... in which case ... Drumpf!

For Those Who Love Transparency in Government

This is the kind of honesty and transparency in government we've been looking for.  God, how I love Mick Mulvaney:

Questions, please.  Ms. Elizabeth Warren, author of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, you may go first.

Looking Ahead to November, 2018

On election night in 2016, before the results were in, Michael Moore was interviewed by NBC.  You can watch it here.  NBC asked why he was predicting that Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania would break for Trump.  These were key swing states in the election.  They were supposed to be wins for Clinton on her way to the Presidency.

Moore disagreed.  He predicted that many of those voters -- who, as Moore insisted, were working-class people that have been so abused, attacked, and whose livelihoods were taken from them --  are:

so angry, and so full of so much depair, that I could see they were going to use the ballot box as an anger management exercise.  (Trump was their) human molotov cocktail that they could just throw into the system and blow it up, only to find out a month or two from now how regretful they will be ...

Well, shockingly, he got it right, except for that last clause.

Moore's rationale for his prediction on election night, 2016?  Easy.  Most of those voters had lost jobs over the past twenty years due to ridiculous trade deals, onerous regulations and tax policies that sent companies and jobs overseas, leaving the U.S manufacturing sector with large swaths of closed companies and unemployed Americans.  So what if foreign imports are cheaper?  The unemployed cannot afford them.  Or food, either.  Who cares about glass ceilings if you can't afford the basics?  Hillary and her acolytes never understood the equation.  It's the economy, stupid!

And, yes, politicians are often the dimmest bulbs in the ceiling.  Just see here, and here, and here.

A big middle finger to the glass ceiling is exactly what Rust Belt voters signaled on election night, 2016.  As did coal miners.  And cab drivers.  And others who fought hard, failed, and looked for a reason to rise again to their feet.  They were tired of losing.  They wanted a fighting chance to show what they could do ... to show that their lives mattered.  Trump represented them in spades.  He succeeded, magnificently, and as such was a magnet to those who aspired.  So they marched to the voting booth and cast their ballot.  They weren't opposed to women or glass ceilings.  Or to the privileges of wealth.  They just wanted a reason for being.  Trump offered them a reason worth striving for.  A reason that mattered.  He preached his sermon at every whistle-stop.  And listeners walked toward him afterwards, seeking salvation.  Billy Graham would be proud.

Miracle of miracles, Trump got elected on Nov. 8, 2016.  Afterwards, he began to deliver on his promises.  And he continues to deliver.  It's no wonder Democrats and the MSM hate him so much.  Many Republicans, too.  They prefer rhetoric over results, no matter how many jobs and opportunities get sacrificed along the way.  Vote for me, they say, and I'll fix the problems I created.  They assume you will ignore their hypocrisy.  Wall Street moguls feel the same.  Fortunately for them, they can hide behind the politicans who do their bidding.

Trump is their antithesis.  He prefers results over rhetoric.  Results such as jobs, reduced unemployment, pay raises, tax relief, investments in Main Street, and the re-discovery of the "forgotten man."  He has shown repeatedly that he is not a professional politician ... or a Wall Street puppet ... or a snitch for the thought police.  Does he know he is a marked man?  Of course he does.  They all hate him.  So he takes precautions.  We all should be grateful.

Trump's ascension to the Presidency makes a middle finger proud.  To quote the character aptly named Colonel Kilgore in Apocalypse Now,

I love the smell of napalm in the morning. 

If you take that quote literally, please refer above to the Rust Belt's middle finger.  But, figuratively, it is the truth.  In the re-make of Apocalypse Now, Colonel Kilgore will be played by Donald Trump.  He laid devastating carpet bombs upon the enemy.  His adversaries never even heard the incoming.  And after laying waste to them, he set about rebuilding America, from the ground up and better than before.

Drop your personal MOAB in Nobember at the voting booth.

Make your vote count.