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NOVEMBER 9,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET:

ARIZONA UPDATE – The vote count in the Arizona Senate race goes on, and may not be completed for another two or three days, or more.   Kyrsten Sinema, the whackjob Democrat, has taken the lead against Republican Martha McSally.  That lead increased from 9,000 this morning to more than 20,000 by evening.  Most observers believe, based on where outstanding ballots are from, that Sinema's lead will continue or grow.  This is a Republican seat, held by the retiring Jeff Flake.  If it flips, it will be the second GOP seat lost, the first being Dean Heller's in Nevada.  It really doesn't look good for Martha, an outstanding woman, a patriot, and a choice vastly superior to the apparent winner.

FLORIDA UPDATE – As always in Florida, strange things are happening.  We thought, at the end of election night, that Republican Governor Rick Scott had been elected to the US Senate, replacing incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson.  We thought that Republican Congressman Ron DeSantis had been elected governor, defeating Democratic demagogue and showboat Andrew Gillum.  That's what we thought.  But a strange thing has happened.  Votes started coming in from Broward County, a place not known for purity in vote counting, and vote officials refused to play by the states's rules.  Now both our victories are suddenly in jeopardy.  As each new batch of votes mysteriously appears, the margins of victory in the Senate and governorship races get thinner and thinner.  If the margins are within half a point, a machine recount will be called.  If a margin goes within a quarter of a point, a hand recount is ordered.   Rick Scott won two court victories today, as judges came down hard on those in charge of Broward's machinery.   This may be the start of a major scandal, and it's possible that we're seeing an election stolen before our eyes.

YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS UP – FROM THE ALGEMEINER:  The New York Times, under pressure, has suspended its moneymaking “Times Journeys” journalist-guided vacation tours of the Islamic Republic of Iran.  The 106-page printed catalog of 2019 departures hit mailboxes of Times subscribers this week. It includes trips to Antarctica, China, Japan, and the Galapagos Islands. But terror-sponsoring, Israel-hating Tehran, which has been a destination for the Times since the “Times Journeys” launched in 2014, has been unceremoniously dropped from the list.  A Times spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a question about why the trips had been stopped. The US Treasury also didn’t immediately respond on the record to a question about whether the Trump administration’s newly-tightened sanctions on Iran had required the Times to stop offering the journeys.  A booking representative for the Times Journeys explained that the Times Iran tour had been put “on the shelf for the next year or two,” the result of “just a change in the kind of direction that we wanted to go with the travel program.”  Next, a nostalgic Times tour of Nazi sites in Germany...and for small extra fee, a tour of Pearl Harbor from the Japanese perspective.

November 9,  2018     Permalink                             

NOT QUITE READY FOR PRIME TIME – AT 10:30 A.M. ET:  Ah, Evita.  When will you learn?  The newest Democratic star doesn't quite yet understand that her little personal problems are of no interest to the public.  What is she doing for her constituents?  That's the question.  And it might begin with her studying some issues and acting like a grown-up.  From Daily Caller: 

Democratic socialist and Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York announced Thursday that issues like finding an apartment in Washington, D.C., before receiving her congressional salary are “very real.”

“I have three months without a salary before I’m a member of Congress, so how do I get an apartment?” Ocasio-Cortez said to The New York Times. “Those little things are very real.”

However, she noted that she and her partner have been saving money since before leaving her job as a bartender in New York. (RELATED: Ocasio-Cortez On Paying For Expensive ‘Medicare For All’ Plan: ‘You Just Pay For It’)

“We’re kind of just dealing with the logistics of it day by day,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “I’ve really been just kind of squirreling away and then hoping that gets me to January.”

While Ocasio-Cortez told The NYT that she “can’t really take a salary,” filings by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) show that she has at least taken one “payroll” check during her time as a candidate.

Following publication of her interview with The NYT, the Democratic socialist tweeted about the issue.

“There are many little ways in which our electoral system isn’t even designed (nor prepared) for working-class people to lead,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “This is one of them (don’t worry btw – we’re working it out!)"

COMMENT:  Okay, she's young.  We feel for her.  But, you know, she's a sudden star.  There are people who will stake her to a small loan.  We'd much rather hear about how she intends to pay for Medicare for all, or to solve international issues.

Congress is no place for kids or amateurs.

November 9, 2018       Permalink

ALL-OUT ASSAULT ON "WHITE WOMEN" – AT 9:50 A.M. ET:  That is one, ugly result of Tuesday's election.  "How can you white women do this to us?" seems to be the main question on the political left.  White women just didn't do what they were ordered to do.  And those white women who supported Judge Kavanaugh?  Treason!  But women who happen to be white are striking back.  From Townhall.com: 

Republicans foiled Democrats’ dreams of a Senator O’Rourke, a Governor Gillum and a Governor Abrams, and, apparently, white women are to blame for it.

One Twitter warrior deemed white women “footstools of the patriarchy” for voting Republican, claiming that their decision is based on a desire to submit to their husbands. Jemele Hill, staff writer for The Atlantic, argued that white women are not “the face of feminism,” because they voted for Ted Cruz and, in 2016, for Donald Trump. A viral tweet listed Republicans for which white women voted in the midterms and concluded, “white women gonna white.”

Don’t worry, though. The Women’s March is here to help us out: “There’s a lot of work to do, white women. A lot of learning. A lot of growing. We want to do it with you.”

Phew! For a second there I thought we were going to have to continue navigating these scary political waters on our own. I’m so relieved to know that, instead of thinking for ourselves, we’ll have obscure liberal Twitter activists and Linda Sarsour guiding us. I’m hoping my tyrannical husband won’t be too upset with me for going against his commands. Last week he gave me an extra fifty cents in my allowance and told me to “buy something pretty,” so maybe he’ll be just as gracious when I tell him I’ve started forming my own opinions.

The irony is, of course, rich. Leftist feminists, long-asserting the strength and independence of women, now argue that some women are so weak that they need to depend on liberals to tell them how to vote. They cannot fathom that we Republican “white women” may actually have different values than they do. It must be because we are “foot soldiers of the patriarchy.” (That’s newspeak for “self-hating idiots.”)

COMMENT:  Wonderful.  Read the whole thing.  It is sad that what's left of American journalism keeps covering for the fringe elements of the women's movement, but I see some evidence that mainstream women, many of whom happen to be white, are no longer silent, and will vote and think the way they please. 

November 9,  2018    Permalink

NOVEMBER 8,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

NOW THE POLITICAL BLOOD FLOWS – FROM FOX:  As two Democratic strongholds in Florida continue to report votes days after Election Day, Senate candidate Rick Scott filed a lawsuit late Thursday against Brenda Snipes, the embattled Broward County Supervisor of Elections, alleging that she is illegally refusing to provide any information about the number of ballots cast or counted in Broward County.  The bombshell litigation comes hours after Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio, in an extraordinary series of tweets that alleged incompetence if not outright complicity by Florida officials, charged that Democratic lawyers were "descending on" the state in a calculated attempt to "change the results" and "try and steal" races for Senate and agriculture commissioner.  A recount now appears imminent not only in Scott's race, but also Florida's high-profile gubernatorial contest between Democrat Andrew Gillum and Republican Ron DeSantis, based on new vote totals -- even though Gillum has already conceded.  Strange things are indeed happening in the vote count in Florida.  The center of action is Broward County, just north of Miami.  Corruption in Broward is a fine art.  Votes appear and disappear according to need.  It is more than conceivable that results announced right after the election – Republican Scott winning the Senate seat and Republican DeSantis winning the governorship – could be reversed.  The lawyers are descending.  Court challenges are almost certain.  This can go on for weeks.  We sense the rising fury in Republican circles, and the real fear of a major steal.  Meanwhile, some press outlets are, of course, lining up behind the Democrats. 

AND, SADLY, ARIZONA – FROM CNN:   Democratic US Rep. Kyrsten Sinema has pulled slightly ahead of Republican Rep. Martha McSally in the close race for US Senate in Arizona.  As of a few minutes before 8 p.m. ET Thursday, Sinema held a slim lead with 49.1% of the vote, while McSally was right behind with 48.6% of the vote, with 83% of the vote reported, CNN results show. Nearly 9,000 votes separate McSally from Sinema.  Sinema's lead comes after roughly 127,000 votes in Maricopa County -- the state's most populous county, which includes Phoenix -- were counted Thursday. Thousands of votes still remain to be counted in the state.  Individual counties in Arizona will continue to update their vote counts periodically until ballots are certified.  It appears that most of the still uncounted votes come from Democratic areas, but we can never be sure.  What a sadness it would be if Sinema, a certified flake, becomes senator from Arizona instead of the patriot and combat veteran, Martha McSally.  Leftist Democrats will have their heroine.

WHAT DID WE EXPECT? – FROM AMERICAN THINKER:   CBS News last night went all in for the identity politics advocacy, highlighting the numbers of women elected to the new incoming House, which was won by the Democrats. The idea of course was to paint Republicans by implication as racist and sexist, and promote Democrats as the only party of 'inclusion.'  It's drivel - and with CBS's exclusion of Southern California's first Korean-American congresswoman, Young Kim, it was obviously a selectively edited report.  Young's problem, see, is that she's a Republican who defeated a Democrat, and that doesn't quite fit the "narrative." So despite being the first Korean-American congresswoman, she got left out of the story.  As the Stalinists did it, she's a "non-person."  And that's the way the left plays the game.  I hope these women enjoy their moment in the Sun, for they will be discarded as soon as they outlive their usefulness to the "movement."

November 8,  2018     Permalink

I LOVE IT, I LOVE IT, I LOVE IT – AT 12:06 P.M. ET:  It turns out that even environmental religionists in a deep blue state vote with their wallets.  From IBD: 

Global Warming: Environmentalists were hoping to score a huge victory in Washington state with a statewide tax on CO2 emissions. Alas, even liberals in Washington don't believe climate change is that big a threat.

Before the election, glowing stories in the press talked about Washington "taking up the fight" on climate change after President Donald Trump dropped out of the Paris climate deal. The state would make history. It would be a "bellwether," and would start a trend across the country.
Carbon Tax

The initiative proposed a $15 tax on each ton of carbon emissions in the state starting in 2020, with the tax rate climbing each year. It would have cost families in the state nearly $1,000 a year by 2035.

Keep in mind that the proposed carbon tax was a tiny baby step toward what environmentalists' claim will be needed to avoid a worldwide climate catastrophe. The United Nations says we'd need a global carbon tax of up to $5,500 to achieve that.

Washington voters rejected even this minimalist step toward fighting what a large majority of them claim to believe is an existential threat to humanity.

Think about it this way. Washington is a deep blue state where Trump got less than 37% of the vote in 2016. Only six states in the nation were more anti-Trump.

Yet 56% of Washington voters rejected the CO2 tax. Only three counties in the state — Jefferson, King (where Seattle is located), and tiny San Juan — voted for the tax.

COMMENT:  So typical of liberals.  They're liberal, until it costs them something.

November 8, 2018       Permalink

A GOOD SUMMATION – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 11:45 A.M. ET:  Ed Rogers gives the perfect summation of what happened on Tuesday.  Will the Democrats understand?  From the Washington Post: 

While Tuesday night was not a complete win for Republicans, there was no blue wave, either. By most measures, Republicans beat the odds of history and nearly everyone’s expectations, while Democrats were left disappointed as the fantasy of Beto O’Rourke, Andrew Gillum, Stacey Abrams and others winning fizzled. Not one new progressive Democrat was successful bursting onto the scene. It will take a few days to process the meaning of this year’s election returns, but the instant analysis is clear: Democrats may have won the House, but Trump won the election.

As I always say, in politics, what is supposed to happen tends to happen. I predicted in August that the Democrats would take the House but that alone was not enough for most Democrats. As much as this year’s midterms offered an obvious opportunity to rebuke President Trump, little of what the arrogant Democrats and members of the mainstream media expected would happen actually did. So much of what they said turned out to be wrong that it will take a while before the significance becomes clear. And if the 2018 midterms prove anything, it is that Trump is standing strong while Democrats and their allies who thought Trump would have been affirmatively rejected are in fact the ones who have themselves been denied.

Democrats have underperformed in comparison with the historical markers and general expectations of a midterm cycle. The president’s party loses 37 seats in the House on average in midterm elections when his approval is below 50 percent — but Democrats aren’t projected to pick up nearly that many seats. No liberal will want to admit it, but Trump is an asset to the Republican Party, while President Barack Obama was a disaster for the Democratic Party.

COMMENT:  Very well said.  The Democrats must now produce something in the House that the American people want.  However, what they apparently intend to produce are investigations, including, incredibly, an attempt to impeach Justice Kavanaugh.  They haven't yet figured out that it was their very treatment of Kavanaugh that energized Republicans and led to most Democratic senators in battleground states who voted against the judge to go down to defeat.

Democrats have a choice.  They can try to govern the House in the interest of the nation, or they can play only to their base, which includes liberal billionaires.  I'm afraid the base will win, and the country will lose.

November 8,  2018     Permalink