Tag: 2016 Election

Pre-Game Jitters and An Election Day Open Post

photog Current Events, OCF, Trump , , ,

Note:Updates are added at the bottom of the post over the course of the day.  

Well here we go.  No matter how confident you may feel about the results of the upcoming elections you’re probably a little nervous about what will be going on for the next week or more.  And so am I.  I’m fairly certain the President will be re-elected relatively easily but fairly certain and sure are not the same thing.  Also, based on the actions of the woke lunatics infesting the cities around the country I’m pretty sure there will be at least a certain amount of bedlam and violence happening, especially if the polls show Trump winning.  As soon as that happens these creeps will go ballistic, especially in their strongholds like Portland and Seattle.  I expect there will be a certain number of murders and lots of arson and looting for sure.  And the Democrats and their army of crooked lawyers and judges will sow confusion and attempt to outright steal any states that aren’t strong enough to defend themselves.  And the Supreme Court will be the epicenter of the battle and John Roberts is a spineless loser who will do his damnedest to hurt our side.

But what I think is good advice is to try to keep the excitement level a couple of notches below maximum, so instead of eleven dial it back to seven.  It will be a long night for sure and it might even be a very long week of distressing news regardless of how well the election goes.  The world is full of very bad people and they will be looking to rattle our side as hard as they can.  And of course, the media is going to spin everything they can as negatively as they can for as long as they can.

I’m off this week and so as a way to keep morale up I intend to keep this as an open post going all the way through election day and even beyond if it is warranted.  I’ll try to combine election results, links to important or entertaining news along with my always witty and penetrating insights.  Anyone who has comments is, as usual, welcome to chime in with relevant or entertaining discussion.  I’m especially interested to hear about local conditions where you are.  Anything you find interesting about things going on during the election is exactly what I’m looking for.

So, let’s hope it ends like it did in 2016 with a river of progressive tears washing away the mounds of inaccurate polls and their howls drowning out the words of the talking heads trying to explain how they got it so wrong.  But even if it is a long confusing time of disputed election results and screeching progressives threatening to summon the military if their claims about disputed results aren’t honored immediately and unconditionally, remember to keep calm and look at the big picture.  There is no guarantee that elections will work in our favor every time or even at all.  The important thing is to be looking at how to prevent the Left from impacting you, your family and friends.  That’s something you can work on when we’re winning or losing.  And be willing to share a laugh or a kind word with anyone on our side that you meet here or elsewhere.

Best of luck to President Trump and the other folks on our side who are about to get on the roller coaster that is Election Day 2020.  And best wishes to all of us.  And as an old tv show used to say, “be careful out there.”

 

11:30 A.M. Update – Just got back from voting.  My little town turned out in phenomenal numbers.  The lines were epic.  But it was truly fun getting out and doing something useful.  One amusing event happened in line.  About two people behind me in line was this twenty something kid with a sort of goth persona; dyed black hair, black clothes, and the palest skin I’ve seen in years.  As we got close to the front of the line a middle aged woman comes out of the exit door and the young guy yells out have you voted for Joe Biden today.  She made a face like he had said something vile and exclaimed “Hell no!”  I almost burst out laughing but just chuckled a little instead.  I’ll have to say that restored my faith in humanity.  Even here in the belly of the beast, New England, there are plenty of good people left.

12:54 P.M. Note:  I’ve been sent an invite for a 9 pm zoom to serve as a remote election party.  Camera Girl has agreed to bake some pizza pies for me so I can have a reheat-able food available as the long night wears on.  She also plans to studiously ignore the goings on.  She is one of those benighted people who takes no interest in politics.  She claims I am responsible for taking care of that.  Ah well, she is making the pizza after all.  What social provisions is everyone else doing for this  momentous event?  Is it mostly a solitary one for you? 

3:22 P.M. – News Headline – Pelosi Calls Amy Coney Barrett an ‘Illegitimate Supreme Court Justice”

Can you imagine any normal person being called illegitimate by Nancy Pelosi.  At this point I don’t think Pelosi even qualifies as a living human.  As far as I can tell she’s now one of the undead.  The only question is whether she can qualify as a vampire if her sustenance is gin instead of blood.  Please Nancy stay in your  crypt, your scaring the children and Halloween is officially over.

7:03 P.M. – Trump wins Kentucky.  No surprise there.

7:33 P.M. – So far all the numbers are what you’d expect.  Some networks have already called VA for Biden with 0% counted.  But that’s probably a safe state to call for the Dems.  The interesting ones for us will be the Carolinas and Georgia.  If those go well it will bode well for the rest of the night.

7:55 P.M. – I was listening to Fox News but there are just too many progs there to make it enjoyable.  If anyone knows of a better live discussion let me know.

8:02 P.M. – SC was called for Trump.  Not a big surprise, but encouraging.

8:09 P.M. – Maryland, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois and Massachusetts just got called for Biden with the usual 0%.  No surprises.

8:18 P.M. – Fox is saying that Trump looks like he is winning in Florida in unexpected places (Miami/Dade).

8:40 P.M. – Florida seems like it may be an easy win for Trump.

9:40 P.M. – The betting odds have now shifted to Trump.

10:10 P.M. – Everything seems to be going our way.  Fingers crossed.

10:51 P.M. – It looks like PA is shutting down the counting probably because Trump is so far ahead.

1:33 A.M. – So the crooked state officials are withholding the totals in PA and several other locales.  We’ll have to wait until the daylight to see how these criminals try to steal the election.  To be continued.

9:55 A.M. – Shennanigans seemed to have ensued.  Lawyers will have to sort this out.  But without a doubt MI looks like it will be needed.

Remainers Allow General Election.  It May be the Last thing They Ever Do in Parliament.

photog Current Events, On-Line Article Reviews, Reviews, Trump , , , , ,

After forcing Boris Johnson to extend the Brexit waiting period yet again to January 31st, the Remainers may have just signed their own political death warrants.  The Tories, with the cooperation of the Labor Party were able to pass a bill calling for a General Election on December 12th.

Currently Boris Johnson’s personal popularity is extremely high.  And the popularity of the Tories is also strong.  They currently lead Labor 37% to 25% as the two largest parties.  Add in the 10% that Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party controls and it’s practically a majority without the necessity of coalition building.  Add to this the anger by even Laborites at the dirty tricks that the Remainers have used to block Brexit and we have the makings of a popular revolt.

I imagine that Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage will need to coordinate their efforts to ensure that the Tories who have remained faithful to the Brexit promise are spared any Brexit Party competition and only Remainers and Labor districts are targeted for replacement.  I imagine Farage will start by selecting all the districts that were represented by Tories that were thrown out of the party for voting against the Hard Brexit last month.  But he may have an even larger prize with the districts that voted for Brexit in 2016 but have a Labor MP that voted against Brexit this year.  That could turn a small electoral majority into a landslide for the Pro-Brexit parties.

I have to confess I’m shocked that the Labor Party agreed to this election.  It seems like an unforced error.  I know there is an element of risk for the Tories.  Electorates can be fickle but I think the upside for them is immense.  With a well-orchestrated campaign attacking the shenanigans that the Remainers committed and playing to the British national pride I believe this will be the chance to have a Pro-Brexit majority in Parliament and provide the right environment to make the Conservative Party actually conservative again.  It will also allow them to shed their image as globalists and steal the populist mantle from Labor.

It is sad that Boris wasn’t able to fulfill his promise to leave the EU by Halloween but he has redeemed himself by ensuring that the British voters will get to have the final say on Brexit.  And based on the date of the election it looks like it could be considered an early Christmas present for the Britons and a good start for 2020.

If you look back to 2016 it was the Brexit victory in the UK that preceded and almost announced the way for the even more astonishing Trump electoral victory over the Wicked Witch and the Republican Dwarfs.

It would seem almost poetic justice if achieving Brexit with a truly conservative Parliamentary majority is the opening act for President Trump to crush the Resistance under the heel of William Barr and achieve re-election by a landslide.  If only we could imitate that venerable old English custom of installing traitors like Comey and Clapper and Brennan in the Tower of London and provide them with the just desserts they truly deserve.

The Great Revolt – by Salena Zito and Brad Todd – A Book Review – Part 1

photog Book Reviews, Current Events, Reviews, Trump , , , , , , , ,

The full title of this book is “The Great Revolt, Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics.”  When I was told I needed to read this I was a little resentful.  I don’t enjoy reading about politics for the most part.  This may be because lately political books are typically candidates telling us their inspirational biographies and why they are uniquely qualified to save the United States and by extension the whole free world.  Obama, Hillary, McCain, blah, blah, blah.  But I dutifully bought it two months ago and put it into the stack.

So, I started it.  It’s a combination of election analysis identifying the categories of voters who flipped the election to Donald Trump and then interviews with people in those categories.  The analysis is interesting but the interviews are riveting.  As someone who understands the anger over being categorized as a deplorable or being dismissed as unimportant or openly mocked as a defeated yesterday man with no future I was fascinated.  The stories being told by people from small towns and dying cities in the Rust Belt resonated like a tuning fork with what I felt.  Now here I am, an Italian American from Brooklyn living in New England and an engineer working in a 21st century industry and yet I feel more kinship with these unemployed factory workers and small business people than with any of the people I work with every day who don’t believe in any of the things I do.

They voted for Trump for a variety of reasons depending on the type of person or their specific circumstances but as a whole they were voting for the idea that they still counted and couldn’t be just discounted because they weren’t the coalition of tomorrow.  Their grievances weren’t progressive enough and they were too white.  They were old news.  And the interesting thing so far is that all of them that voted in 2008 and 2012 voted for Obama.  I’ve still got a bunch to read and I have to digest the analytical stuff to see what it means to my understanding of national politics but I can already see that the personal stories are the bigger news.  This proves to me that the Trump rallies were very significant.  A lot of these people voted because it was personal.  Trump reached them with his message.  It spoke to them.  These marginalized people in depressed areas of what used to be the industrial heartland resonated to a message from a billionaire New York City reality show cartoon character.  I think this means both parties have abandoned a very large swathe of Americans and if Trump can address what they want he actually could ignite a Populist Revolt.  If most people figure out that they’ve been used by both parties we could have a real awakening and some big things can get done.

I’ll get into more detail when I finish this, but I’ve already learned more about the 2016 election from reading the personal accounts than by all the political analyses that came out in the last almost two years.  I’ve met the people that made Trump president.  Zito and Todd have written an important book.