Perhaps it is just me, but sometimes it seems as though God has a sense of humor, particularly when it comes to climate change alarmists. If they hold a rally to protest about a drought, they seem to always get rained out. If they complain about the heat, the weather turns wet and stormy. Now they are trying to convince everyone to abandon fossil fuels, which may not even be fossil fuels in some cases, with alternative sources of energy that have not and probably never will work. In addition, these alternatives bring enormous environmental problems often potentially worse than the problem they are pretending to solve. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, one may recall that recently I posted an article showing that the snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere is the highest it has been since around 1976. Some of the usual suspects immediately said that snow cover does not necessarily mean colder temperatures and that global warming can actually increase snow fall. God must have been listening, because he just sent a massive cold front from Siberia into the United States.

Cold air from Siberia will send U.S. into deep freeze ahead of Christmas – UPI.com

“The cold could challenge records that have stood since the 1980s, as subzero temperatures are expected to grip states from the northern Rockies to the East. AccuWeather long-range forecasters expect the mercury to be up to 40 degrees Fahrenheit below late-December averages in parts of the country.

To anyone who has ever lived in a “four seasons” part of the country, 40 degrees colder than average is, well, really, really, really cold. When we lived in Steven Point, it was so cold that the radio stations issued “walk warnings.” This is because when it is extremely cold, you can literally freeze your lungs. There were times when I walked to work backwards.

Those of us who wisely moved to warmer climates have zero appreciation of wind chill. Granted, when it 40 degrees, a strong wind can make it feel really cold, to Californians, like say 25 degrees if there is a 60-mph wind. But to those who live in areas where it gets really cold, windchill is a far more serious problem. Here is the windchill chart from the NWS.

Now if it is 0 degrees and there is a 20-mph wind, it “feels” like -22. But if it is already -10, then a 20-mph wind makes it feel like -35. A lot of people have never experienced this kind of cold. But it actually can get really cold. On February 3, 1996, Couderay, Wisconsin recorded a low temperature of -55.

Now the fun part. Electrical power supplies tend to underperform during really cold weather. Things that rely on wind and solar may stop functioning completely. Imagine the joy of sitting in your home, literally freezing to death, with no heat at all. This type of situation would even drive someone like Ted Cruz to consider a last-minute vacation to Cozumel. That is until we switch to electric airplanes.

Now imagine this. You are very cold. You go to buy a warm coat and it costs a fortune. If you want to go anywhere, you need to let your car warm up for about 10 minutes before you can drive it without shivering. If you have a nice new Tesla, you will learn something else. It takes a lot of electricity to warm up an electric vehicle. The distance you can travel is far less than normal. Tesla knows this, which is why the owner’s manual includes the following wording:

In the owner’s manual of the Tesla Model S, you’ll find a stark warning: “In cold weather, some of the stored energy in the Battery may not be available on your drive because the battery is too cold.” When you’re driving, this is usually indicated by a snowflake symbol on the dash display.

Now imagine sitting in your electric vehicle, stranded on some highway. It is bitter cold inside the vehicle. The heater no longer works. You are waiting for a tow truck, but your phone doesn’t work very well either in extreme cold. There is a shortage of tow trucks anyway because many of them have been converted to electric power, so they aren’t working either.

You finally make it home, after some kind person driving a gasoline powered car offers you a lift. When you get home, you don’t have any heat in your electric home, and you can’t even watch TV. When the TV does come back on, there is Joe Biden, grinning like a deranged hyena, says that in five years we will no longer use any fossil fuels to power anything. You would throw something at the TV, but that would be expensive, and you don’t have the energy. But the thought that you are saving the planet from global warming gives you a nice warm glo inside, not.

TDM

How many times have you heard or read about the big lie by Donald Trump. You know, the lie that the 2020 election was stolen. The big lie that has been discredited over and over again. The sad reality is that many if not most of the allegations by Donald Trump have not been discredited, they haven’t even been investigated. Granted there were some really bizarre claims about voting machines sending data overseas to some mysterious double secret facility where votes were manipulated. I have seen no credible evidence supporting that nonsense. But many of the concerns about the 2020 election were legitimate and at least some of this is going to soon become very obvious to anyone paying attention.

Perhaps the biggest and most damaging lie about the 2020 election was regarding the Hunter Biden laptop. Incredibly, 51 former intelligence officers signed a letter that was absolutely and dangerously wrong. Here is a link to that “Public Statement on the Hunter Biden Emails” dated October 19, 2020. Here is a link to that letter:

Why The Letter from 51 Senior Intelligence Officials About Hunter Biden’s Laptop Was Always a Made Up – Brightwork Research & Analysis

“The arrival on the US political scene of emails purportedly belong to Vice President Biden’s son Hunter, much of it related to his time serving on the Board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operations. We want to emphasize that we do not know if the emails provided to the New York Post by President Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, are genuine or not and that we do not have evidence of Russian involvement – just that our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian Government played a significant role in this case.

This was signed by Mike Hayden, former CIA director, Jim Clapper, former DNI, Leon Panetta, former CIA Director and Defense Secretary, and John Brenna, former CIA Director and a whole lot of other people we supposedly could trust. There were 51 so-called former intelligence officer who signed this document. The MSM took this as the gospel and used it to justify not only ignoring this extremely important story, but to take maximum effect to suppress it every where possible.

One notes that the letter even admits they had zero evidence to support their conclusion. This “document” never came close to passing the smell test. Numerous polls have shown that if the American public knew about the Hunter Biden Laptop and the emails on that laptop, Joe Biden would have lost in a landslide. Instead, this ridiculously misleading public statement was used by the MSM and Twitter to block any reporting on this subject. The truth came in a far distance second to the coveted goal of getting Donald Trump out of office, without regard to the cost. Now we are just beginning to appreciate the cost. Even if Biden were removed from office this afternoon, the damage would take years if not decades to repair.

Now, over two years too late,  the MSM admits the Hunter Biden Laptop and the emails on it have been verified to be authentic.

When Republicans take control of the House in January, they will immediately begin investigating the information disclosed by this laptop and a lot of people are going to be confronted with the ugly reality of the actions taken by Hunter Biden and his father Joe. The significance of that is going to shake this nation to its very core. Some of this represents a clear and present danger to our national security. What could possibly be more damaging that to elect someone President of the United States who appears to have been hopelessly compromised by our worst enemies.

As for the people who signed this letter, they were either hopelessly compromised or incredibly stupid. If they really believed this public statement had any merit, at best this is a sad commentary on our entire intelligence community. If they did not believe it, and wrote it anyway, it is even more troubling. The only thing certain about this is that the more people learn about the Biden family they more they will become outraged.

At an absolute minimum, the MSM, the DNC, and social media giants like twitter conspired to influence a federal election and they did so without regard to the consequences. Once people realize the extent of this conspiracy, it is likely to change their opinion on things like ballot harvesting and voting machine manipulation. Every poll shows that the vast majority of people want fair and honest elections. The same polls show that trust in the MSM is at an all time low. Soon and very soon, it will become obvious that institutions that demand our trust, such as the CIA, the NSA, the DNI, the DOJ, and the FBI have proven themselves to be motived by purely political considerations. Right now, while crime is running rampant in Atlanta, because of a lack of prosecution, is appears as though18 prosecutors have been assigned to investigate a phone call by Donald Trump to Brad Raffensperger. Here is a full transcript of that call.

Full transcript: Trump’s audio call with Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger | CNN Politics

Trump was pointing out serious allegations that were all over the place, including video that seemed to show serious concerns. He was practically begging Raffensperger to investigate, pointing out that the margin in the election was exceedingly small. Raffensperger spent most of his time trying to convince the President and everyone else on the call that this election was pure as the driven snow. Asking someone to investigate is vastly different from demanding someone overturn an election without cause.

The truth is coming out. Perhaps the 2020 election was a pure as the driven snow. I personally doubt that. But somethings are very obvious. Who is asking questions and who is terrified over the prospect of an honest investigation? Who is more interested in covering things up? And who has been caught telling lie after lie, really big lies? If Donald Trump was telling a big lie about the 2020 election, prove it. So far, an awful lot of the people who have been caught lying aren’t exactly fans of Donald Trump.

TDM

How many times have you heard someone tells us that global warming is true. We are in imminent danger unless we stop using fossil fuels immediately and also eliminate the use of internal combustion engine. This is easy to understand, there is too much evidence of global warming for anyone to ignore.

But, it appears, God was not listening. According this this report, as of today, the Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent exceeded 22 million square kilometers, which exceeded the previous record set in 1976.

Fall snow cover in Northern Hemisphere was most extensive on record, even with temperatures at high mark – The Washington Post

North America had its most extensive snow cover on record and Eurasia had it third most extensive cover on record. One wonders how this was possible when the media was telling us that September and October were the warmest months on record. Naturally, the usual suspects will claim that just because there is more snow is no reason to believe it is actually colder. Some predictably claim that colder winters and more snow are the result of you guessed it, global warming.

I actually believe in global warming, that is why we moved to Florida. It is warmer here than when I lived in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Northern Wisconsin, and central Michigan. One of the important characteristics of living in a northern state is that it is much colder during the winter and instead of rain, one gets snow, lots of snow. This time of year, a little global warming goes a long way.

The real problem, for a lot of people, is the snow job they have been enduring over the last decade by people proven to be wrong on virtually every occasion. Woke corporations are quickly learning that the saying: “go woke, go broke” is actually accurate.  When corporation adopt policies embraced by people like Joe Biden and his fawning supporters in the MSM, they quick discover something important. Most people are not buying this nonsense. We understand the price of gas whenever we fill our car. We do notice when the cost of everything at the grocery store is now shockingly high. And, by the way, if you live in places like Buffalo, where you are probably devoting much of your time and energy shoveling snow, having some idiots say this is more evidence of global warming is not all that inspiring.

In another snow job, Joe Biden swapped Brittney Griner for Viktor Bout. Mr. bout is a really nice guy, which is why he is nicknamed “The Merchant of Death.” Boy, we snookered Putin on that one. If some of the recent rumors about his health are accurate, he may have laughed so hard he needed a diaper change.

Kirstin Sinema just gave Chuck Schumer a major case of indigestion because his dream of controlling the Senate just disappeared. She announced that she is leaving the Democratic Party and registering as an independent. There are other so-called independents in the Senate who always caucus with Democrats and always vote with Democrats. Odds are she will vote to keep the Senate 50-50, which means she keeps her committee assignments. If Schumer tries to mess with her, she will like caucus with Republicans, at least regarding control of the Senate.  In a 50-50 senate, there is equal representation by both parties. If Democrats have control, there will be more Democrats on every committee. Schumer has been rejoicing, perhaps a bit prematurely.

In the meantime, as for us, this is perfect. We get to see beautiful pictures of snow. We get to see amusing videos of people dealing with snow. Snow is great. It is wonderful. It is beautiful, particularly when watching this on TV while shivering in the 75-to-80-degree temperature.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow, except in Florida. Merry White Christmas.

TDM

I was expecting Hershel Walker to lose to Raphael Warnock. To be honest, Hershel Walker came with too much baggage to ignore. That does not mean Warnock was a better choice, he wasn’t. But when you combine the far too real baggage with a campaign based almost entire on the politics of personal destruction, well there you are. It didn’t help that Democrats outspent Republicans two to one. It is a miracle this was even close.

A lot of Republicans want to blame Donald Trump, and they have a point. He focused on “celebrity” candidates, people with very high name recognition. The classic example of that was Dr. Oz. It have been nice if Dr. Oz actually lived in Pennsylvania and Hershel Walker really lived in Georgia. The result is that two celebrity candidates, powered by the Trump endorsement, got hosed by candidates that didn’t come close to passing the smell test.

But before Democrats start crowing, they need to look at a map. This year Democrats only had to defend 14 seats while Republicans had to defend 21. In 2024, the opposite will be the case. Democrats will have to defend 21 seats and Republicans only 10 seats. In addition, Republicans will be defending seats in: Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Mississippi, North Dakota, Nebraska, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. Good luck with those states Democrats. Democrats will be defending seats in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.  The slogan for 2024 should be “lose two and you’re through.”

The point being that Democrats have a lot of work to do and Republicans have a much easier playing field. There will be some changes, regardless of which party wins. Even in California, Diane Feinstein is 88 years old, well past her expiration date. Angus King is 78, Ben Cardin is 78, Bernie Sanders is 80, Patrick Leahy is 82. Republicans will see change too. Jim Risch is 78. Mitch McConnell is 80, Jim Inhofe is 87, Richard Shelby is also 87, And Chuck Grassley is 88.

Change is coming and it is coming soon. During the past 20 years, the Democratic Party has become increasingly liberal. But that does not mean the new class will share their values. Odds are they won’t. New Democrats running for office are very likely to realize the total failure of the Biden administration policies and of the enormous backlash to the “woke community.” One thing is sure, neither Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelosi will be the leaders of tomorrow’s Democratic Party.

Once again Georgia put on an election that raises questions, but Brian Kemp was re-elected Governor and Chris Carr was re-elected Attorney general. Don’t assume that Georgia is now a blue or even purple state just because Republicans ran some questionable candidates.

So, while it is depressing to see someone as despicable as Raphael Warnock and John Fetterman elected to the Senate and nauseating to realize these two clowns give control to the Democrats, I am reminded that if this is the best Democrats could produce, their chance of success is also greatly diminished. Sometimes it is darkest just before dawn, but dawn is always just over the horizon.

TDM

The real problem with the modern Democratic Party and their fawning supporters in the MSM  is that they consistently cave to blatant extortion by extremely radical people. In most states it is almost impossible to win a Democratic Primary without support of the progressives. The result is that there are extremely few moderate Democrats in congress, and the one who do exist are ignored.

In California, the public sector unions now totally dominate our politics. It is impossible for anyone not supported by the public sector unions to get elected. They routinely demand that Democrats help them get outrageous contracts that cannot possibly be sustained financially. The only question is when this happens, not if it will happen.

Now, the railroad unions had held the entire nation’s economy hostage with the result that Democrats, with the help of some Republicans, caved and gave them everything they wanted. They will still complain.

This is now so bad that anyone who does not tow the liberal line is immediately confronted with protests, sometimes violent protests. These protests are always fawned over and glorified by far too many in the MSM. Now we have a case where 12 people who rioted following the George Floyd protest received a $600,000 settlements for their injuries allegedly occurred because police used excessive force. That excessive force consisted of tear gas, foam, and rubber bullets.

Minneapolis Settles With 12 Hurt In George Floyd Protests | HuffPost Latest News

In addition, the settlement included the following injunction:

The settlement includes an injunction that bars the city from arresting, threatening to arrest or using physical force — including chemical sprays, flash bang or concussion grenades and foam tipped bullets — against people who are engaging in lawful protests. It also limits officers’ use of chemical agents to disperse peaceful demonstrators. And it requires that officers have their body cameras recording and unobstructed while at protests, according to the ACLU.

Keep in mind that this entire situation was the result of extremely inflammatory and highly misleading media coverage. The reality is that George Floyd was restrained because he was high and out of control as a direct result of having taken several drugs, including fentanyl. The medical examiners report showed that he probably would have died anyway, even if police had not been called. The police spent several minutes trying, and failing, to get George Floyd to cooperate in getting into a police car. Instead, he responded violently. The police finally got him restrained and on the ground. One officer kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes. That video was played over and over again. Few bothered to provide any context.

The media described this as murder by the policy officer and he was convicted of second-degree murder. One does not have to have a shred of sympathy for the police officer to realize that this case was used to create the illusion that police were murdering black men, for no reason, all over the country.

These protests were widely reported by the MSM and praised by people like our current VP, soon to be President, Kamala Harris.

Yet when people went to the capital, to complain about an election that looks to be seriously compromised and begging congress to at least investigate, instead of being praised, they were jailed. They received the same treatment from the Capital Police as the people in the George Floyd protests. One of them, an unarmed female, was shot to death. But this time, there were very different results.

It is considered a near criminal offense to even question the actions of the hero capital police officers. Shooting an unarmed person, completely understandable. Instead of a settlement, they were hounded and hunted down by the FBI and charged with serious crimes. They were subjected to verdicts by a Washington D.C. grand jury that would support the death penalty for a Republican who dared fart in public, if deemed to support Donald Trump.

Unless someone stands up to the “hostage takers” this will get worse, everywhere. Giving in to extortion always results in more attempts at extortion. That only ends when someone stand up to them and says enough. Then, at some point, the honest people shouting their support will drown out the hysterical shrieks from the small minority that has zero interest in free speech or fair play. The last thing they want is to be treated fairly. I should say the second last thing. The last thing they want is for anyone who dares disagree with them to be treated fairly.

We either find someone willing to recognize the problem and stand up to the extortionists or we are doomed. The real problem with the latest fiasco is that no one seems to realize the significance of letting the railroad unions hold the country hostage. Even Harry Truman knew better than that, he called in the National Guard. Lesson learned. Lesson unlearned.

TDM

Perhaps Garth Brooks said it best with his song: “Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers. Remember when you’re talkin’ to the man upstairs. And just because He doesn’t answer doesn’t mean He don’t care. ‘Cause some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.”

Republicans were hoping and praying for a massive red wave. Didn’t happen. Didn’t even come close. Republicans do control the House and they will use it to great effect. But the reality is that things are really bad, and they are very unlikely to improve while Joe Biden is in the White House. That bad news is that more bad news is on the way. The good news is that Democrats, which control the Senate and the White House will get most of the blame. If Republicans had gained control of the Senate, the usual suspects would have been demanding they fix things.

Nothing demanded by the MSM, and RINO Republicans has any chance of working, but since when has that mattered? The theme would be “we gave you your chance and you blew it.” But now, since Democrats control the Senate and the White House, there will be more limited opportunities to play the blame game.

Nancy Pelosi is gone and so are her top Lieutenants, we don’t know who will replace this team of clows, but almost anything would be an improvement. Whoever replaces her will definitely have a lot less power.

Donald Trump is also extremely disappointed at the failure of the red wave. He was counting on coasting into the nomination and defeating the remains of Joe Biden. Now it is far from certain that Trump will even be nominated. He is going to be challenged, and even if DeSantis wisely stays out of this, there will be no shortage of candidates. Keep in mind that Biden is now the oldest person to ever be President of the United States and if Donald Trump wins in 2024 he will surpass that record. He is currently 76 years old and would be 78 in 2024. Whether fair or not, at least some of Biden’s incompetence will be considered to be at least partially the expected consequence of his advanced age.

While Donald Trump may not win the nomination, some RINO Republicans who are trying to kick him on the way out are likely to destroy themselves in the process. The new generation of Republicans are not extremely interested in the Paul Ryan, Chris Christie, Nicki Haley segment of the party. They may decide to move on from Trump, but only after moving on from the malcontents who made him necessary in the first place. In other words, even if these RINOs manage to succeed in destroying Trump, they will get no reward, only additional scorn.

Among the big losers are the “consultants” who always wax eloquent on how Republicans “should act” only to learn the voting public always prefer real Democrats rather than RINO imposters. This includes people like Frank Luntz, and Karl Rove, who are great at focus groups and charts, but not so good at getting results. I will miss them even less than the irritating arrogant voice of Joe Buck who has succeeded in ruining so many major sporting events.

The MSMS is also changing. It is not that they will become fair, honest, and transparent. It is rather that they are tired of carrying the mail for people only to be embarrassed. When the Republicans finish with the hearings regarding Hunter Biden and the big guy, a lot of people are in for a world class amount of embarrassment. The facts are there. The seriousness is beyond obvious. The only thing lacking was the willingness of too many people in the MSM too willfully ignore the obvious. The day of reckoning is at hand.

Finally, the repeat of vote counting fiascos in Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada has alerted a lot of people to the sad reality that if Republicans don’t demand change, nothing else will matter. We either level the playing field or accept the reality of perpetual defeat. Sometimes humiliating defeat is the first step toward the ultimate victory.

Most of all, we need to give thanks for the blessings we did receive. Contrary to what you hear or read from the MSM, no, the world is not at risk of extermination because of global warming. Most of us have good homes, good health and compared to much of the world, a great lifestyle. More importantly, this is still the freest nation on earth. It is a good time to remember the last verse of “I heard the bells on Christmas Day.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

True then, in the midst of the Civil War, when things were beyond dark and dreary. True now. True tomorrow. Give thanks,

TDM

Few people, remotely familiar with the FBI raid of Mar-a-logo can justify the decision by Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a Special Counsel. The grounds for investigating Trump regarding January 6^th are even more obscure. It will be hard, if not impossible, to explain why Trump authorized the National Guard, to protect congress, if he intended to have people violently storm the capital. It makes zero sense. In addition, this just seems so cheap, obvious, and unnecessary. One has to ask: “Why bother?”.

REASON ONE – CONVICT DONALD TRUMP

If this is the reason, it is because they are irredeemably stupid. We already have enough information regarding the raid on Mar-a-logo and the January 6^th event to know that while they may generate stink and steam, Donald Trump is extremely unlikely to be indicted for anything. With one very important caveat. You could indict any Republican for anything in Washington D.C. and get Grand Jury approval. There is zero chance Donald Trump would get a fair verdict on anything in the D.C. courts.

REASON TWO – DISTRACT DONALD TRUMP FROM HIS ELECTION TO BECOME PRESIDENT AGAIN

If this is the reason, then it is incredibly naïve. If anything, we are now at the point where the more people attack Trump, the more they elevate him.  Why bother to attack people you don’t consider to be a threat? This would only prove that they are still terrified of him, as a candidate. That does not mean this is not the motive, people do tend to repeat the same mistake over and over again, I just don’t think this will have much positive impact for Democrats and it may even backfire.

REASON THREE – PANICK

Since this seems unnecessary and dumb, then panic rises to the top of the list. Not necessarily panic that Trump would win the election, Democrats always underestimate Trump’s appeal. It does not mean they fear him becoming a dictator, even Democrats are not that stupid. No in order to assess the reason for the panic, one must look at the circumstances. Somehow, Trump announcing he is running again doesn’t seem enough. But what if the panic is because Republicans won control of the House and Republicans can start investigating, gasp, Democrats. Bingo, panic away!

That led me to dig a little deeper. As soon as it was clear the Republicans will take over the House, the January 6^th Committee quickly announced it would wrap things up by the end of the year. Obviously, they didn’t want real Republicans anywhere near this committee. But with this appointment, it also transfers all the discovery and personnel over to the new “Special Counsel.” We can be sure that any requests for information or documents will be denied, because of an “ongoing investigation.” How convenient is that? In addition, this Special Prosecutor can investigate politicians, which includes any Republicans who dared question the results of the election. Perfect!

The coverup continues. The beat goes on. There is zero chance this Special Counsel will finish his investigation, or prepare a report, prior to the 2024 election. What an amazing coincidence. Of course, no one in the MSM will notice, they will be too busy gushing over the illusionary walls closing in on Donald Trump, again.

Merrick Garland is one of the most politically motivated Attorney Generals in American History and it would be naïve and stupid to even suggest he is doing anything for the right reason. That is not in his DNA. But they may have missed something. Someone has to pay for this, and as of January, Republicans hold all the purse strings. Oops. They can’t exactly fund raise for an “independent” special counsel. They can’t even accept donations. Hmmmm

This is a new group of Republicans, some of which are already making a big impact. These are the Republicans who now own the purse strings and the ability to run investigations, and subpoena people and records. These committees will be run by people like James Comer, not Adam Schiff. They will seek all the facts and treat Democrats fairly. Nothing should frighten Democrats more. They can’t even imagine something as terrifying as equal treatment under the law. This is why they were desperate enough to do something as stupid as appointing a Special Prosecutor to investigation nothing. This is clear a “Cover Charge” and this time, we better all hope it doesn’t work.

TDM

A friend recently sent me a very interesting map. The Red and Orange sections allegedly have equal populations. This seems consistent with everything else I have seen from other sources.

One instantly notes that the fringe places have several things in common. They are run by Democrats, they are extremely expensive places to live, there are serious crime problems, and in most cases election results are predictable. Democrats always win. There is one, very recent, exception, Florida. Ron DeSantis won in Dade County. Wait, Dade County, as in Miami-Dade County? Wow! So, what happened.

The answer is Florida Senate Bill 90. It strengthened existing vote ID laws, banned ballot harvesting, and prohibited unsolicited mass mailing of ballots. Seems pretty obvious.

One big change was vote by mail ballots are only sent to individuals that requested them. Each political party, and every candidate, is guaranteed access to observe signature matching reviews by canvassing boards. It also prohibited private money from administering elections by prohibiting election supervisors from accepting donations or grants to fund any aspect of election administration or operations.

Here is a link to the entire law if anyone is interested: CS/CS/CS/SB 90 (flsenate.gov)

This year the polls in Florida closed at 7:00 p.m. Most of the results were published by 8:00 p.m. There were very few disputes. People in Florida went to bed knowing who had won. Now contrast that with Florida in 2000, when the elections were run by Democrats in places like, gasp, Miami-Dade, and Broward Counties. The Presidential election took weeks. There were these remarkable images of election clerks looking through magnifying glasses at individual ballots searching for “hanging chads.” Finally, the Supreme Court got involved, said you can’t just count votes in places where Democrats (Al Gore) are likely to win. That was a 7-2 decision. Then, because everyone was running out of time, the Supreme Court ordered Florida to stop counting with the result that George W. Bush was declared the winner. That was a 5-4 decision.

If you think things are bad now, just imagine 8 years with someone as delusional as Al Gore in the Oval Office. Actually, just reflect on the great results over the last two years and it would probably be pretty similar.

Look at the results this year. What states gave quick and accurate election results. What states are still counting, and specifically what counties in those states are, again, the problem.

It is obvious, the most advanced nation on this earth can’t run an election in a manner than anyone trusts. Remember that Democrats are just as likely to claim an election was stolen as Republicans. The “potential” new Speaker of the House, Hakeem Jeffries, is an election denier who consistently claimed that Donald Trump was not a legitimate president.

Republicans now control the House, and they must seize the day to make elections more efficient, fairer, and more transparent. They could do worse that pay attention to the results in Florida.  Failure to do this and we will continue to have more and more “fringe management” by the same people who are systematically destroying the areas they control.

TDM

If you want to know who won and who lost the 2022 midterms, just consider the following. Nancy Pelosi has decided to coast off into the sunset. She will not run for any leadership position in the new House. In addition, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn also withdrew from House leadership. It looks like Hakeem Jeffries will take over as Minority Leader. There are also reports of Katherine Clark taking over position 2 and Pete Aguilar position 3.

Perhaps you have heard next to nothing about any of the above. That would not be surprising, because none of them have actually accomplished anything. But that does not prevent them from being considered rising stars in the Democratic Party, which may say more about the Democratic Party bench then it does about them.

Up until a couple of days ago, both Hoyer and Clyburn were hesitating regarding keeping their leadership positions. Obviously, the handwriting or perhaps hand wringing was on the wall, and they suddenly realized they are all so yesterday. Nancy Pelosi is not someone I admired, but she was a very skilled and effective leader. Like her or not, she ran the Democratic caucus with an iron fist. Whatever Nancy wanted; Nancy got with few exceptions. Those exceptions often paid a very high price for “feeling” independent.

With Nancy in power, Democrats would worked very hard, behind the scenes, to make Kevin McCarthy’s life difficult. It is far from certain Hakeem Jeffries can come close to achieving that. Nancy was getting a lot of heat from people like the members of the squad. But there were afraid of her, so she still got her way the vast majority of the time. No one is afraid of Hakeem Jeffries.

This reminds me of when I saw Willie Brown, former Speaker of the Assembly in California in action. He was finally termed out of office, but before that he was the master of his own universe. I was there to testify at a hearing. One of the members on the committee asked a question Willie Brown did not like. He called a luncheon break. When we came back, Willie announced that there had been a change in committee assignments, this person had been replaced, and by the way, he now had a new office on a different floor. The only thing shocking about this was that Willie Brown did this so publicly. We can be certain that the Nancy Pelosi’s of this world perfected the art of this type of gamesmanship, but usually behind closed doors.

But that is all gone. She remains in office, technically, until January, but she is one gone girl. I doubt that she will do much of anything during the next six weeks. Why bother. So “not my problem anymore.” I expected leadership changes at the speed of light, but this makes light look like a turtle in comparison. This all literally happened while you were sleeping.

We already know who the major players in the Republican party will be. That will be people like Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, Steve Scalise, and Ellie Stefanik, Most of the Republicans who opposed Trump are gone. They have been replaced by younger, smarter, hungrier people. You will soon learn about a lot more of them. They will be competing, finally, on a level playing field with people like AOC and the squad. If you are a Democrat, this should terrify you. Actually, it won’t actually be level. People like AOC are already finding themselves on the bottom looking up, begging for someone, anyone to notice. No one will. Keven McCarthy gets to be Speaker of the House, but he won’t be another weak Paul Ryan clone. Keven was given the ball and told to pay hardball or else. He got the message.

One of the problems with people who have had almost unlimited power is that they seldom leave gracefully with any dignity. None of the top Democrats who just quit, did so because of the greater good. They didn’t do so, regardless of what they say, to turn over the reins to younger people. No, they left for the simple reason they had no place left to go. They faced two years of despair, where nothing they said mattered. They realized they would be treated by Republicans under Kevin McCarthy the same way Democrats treated Republicans under Nancy Pelosi. No attempt to listen. No attempt to compromise. Just vote after vote, with only Republican votes counting while voiceless Democrats watch helplessly from the side lines. The calls for bipartisanship for the greater good have already fallen on deaf eyes. It is about time. Republicans learned the hard way about trying to negotiate with people who have zero interest in compromising on anything.

Well, I woke up this morning and all the gloating, arrogance of the Democratic Party disappeared within hours. At least Nancy Pelosi, James Clyburn and Steny Hoyer are old enough to remember the Kenny Rogers song. “You got to know when to hold them, know when to fold them, know when to walk away, know when to run.” It is easy to tell who has the winning hand, and who does not. Look who is running away, as far and as fast as possible. Gone Girl. About time.

TDM

Donald Trump is officially running for President, again. Let the games begin. We can be certain of several things. One is that those who hate him, and that is a very large group, will do everything possible to stop him. We can expect more criminal investigations, based on zero evidence, that are only dismissed after months of bad press. We can expect Trump to continue his long-established pattern of trash talking political opponents. In other words, a repeat of what happened during his first run for President and during his entire presidency.

One thing is absolutely certain, no one has been attacked as viciously and unfairly as Donald Trump. He is never given the benefit of the doubt, anytime, anywhere, on any subject. Up until now, what his enemies failed to understand is that by trashing him, they elevated him. It is quite simple, whether people hate Trump, love Trump, or just tolerate Trump, everyone watches Trump. It is sometimes said that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Trump probably wrote the book on that.

This is hard to predict, but one thing Trump will do is point out, vividly, the failures of the Biden administration. He has no shortage of material. If he can control himself and continue to make his story like he did last night in Mar-a-logo, it would be unwise to ignore him. One reason is that the only person more despised that Donald Trump is Joe Biden. Biden is Trump on steroids, without the competence. If this ends up a campaign between Trump and Biden, don’t bet against Trump.

But it may not be between Trump and Biden. It is far from certain that Biden will be physically able to run. And there are certainly a lot of powerful Democrats who have seen enough and want Joe to leave, one way or the other. On the other hand, there are a lot of Never-Trumper Republicans who feel exactly the same way about Trump. The RINO Never-Trumpers are the same people who have been losing elections for decades. They are, ironically, the primary reason for many people embracing Trump in the first place. Sometimes you are known best by your enemies. Trump has been truly blessed by the quality of those who hate him. In addition to Democrats and the MSM, this includes the cultured elite segment of the Republican Party that still believes gracefully is the highest honor.

But there is another dynamic at play here. I have a lot of friends who supported Trump and thought he made good decisions as President. But lately, they are expressing frustration with Trump because of his self-destructive tendencies. They begin to question whether he is worth it anymore. Ironically when Trump took a couple of cheap shots at Ron DeSantis, the person most impacted negatively was Trump himself. Trashing Democrats and RINOs, who usually have it coming, is great fun. Trashing a very effective and well-respected Republican governor, not so much. DeSantis has not responded at all, which just made Trump’s tirade look small and petty.

Ironically Trump actually has a long list of accomplishments. If he just focused on them, he would do very well. He doesn’t have to exaggerate; the real accomplishments are more than enough. But he can’t seem to resist. Trump, like a lot of other politicians had a deep seeded need to elevate everything he does to a whole new level. He is far from the only one to do that, Biden does it all the time with his ridiculous stories about imaginary accomplishments that are mostly irrelevant. Hillary Clinton does this too, with equally ridiculous imaginary accomplishments. My favorite is that for years she claimed she was named after Sir Edmund Hillary, the man who conquered Mt. Everest. The problem is that she was five years old before the climbed Mt. Everest and before that few people even knew he existed.

Things are going to change, and this is going to happen as the speed of light. The current leaders are old and getting older. If Donald Trump were to be elected President in 2024, he would become a lame duck President before he took the oath of office.  People will be looking for his replacement before he has time to rearrange the furniture.

One way or another, there will be a whole class of new leaders in the next few years. Some of the replacements are already visible, others are waiting quietly in the wings. Mitch McConnell is still the Minority Leader of the Senate, but he is not the future leader of Republicans in the Senate. Kevin McCarthy is very likely to be Speaker of the House, but in order for him to stay in power, he must pay attention to the strong conservatives in the House. Things are changing and one way to see reality is to pay attention to the Don’s early light. Two things have already happened that change everything. One is that the House Oversight Committee with now be headed by James Comer, and he has already announced he is coming for Hunter and his dad. About time. The second is that the Washington Post just admitted that the raid on Mar-a-logo was unnecessary and found absolutely nothing:

Federal agents and prosecutors have come to believe former president Donald Trump’s motive for allegedly taking and keeping classified documents was largely his ego and a desire to hold on to the materials as trophies or mementos, according to people familiar with the matter.

That review has not found any apparent business advantage to the types of classified information in Trump’s possession, these people said. FBI interviews with witnesses so far, they said, also do not point to any nefarious effort by Trump to leverage, sell or use the government secrets. Instead, the former president seemed motivated by a more basic desire not to give up what he believed was his property, these people said.

Once again, the walls closing in on Donald Trump, closed on the people investigating him. Just when Democrats thought it was safe to go back into the water, everything changed. Now it will be Republicans in charge of committees doing real investigations and unlike the Schiff nonsense, they actually have a lot of facts and evidence. This time it is Democrats who may be feeling those walls closing in, only with real walls.

Those who write Trump off are ignoring history. His personality is unlikely to change, but what goes around comes around and it is coming around big time. Once again, Trump may find himself buoyed by those seeking to destroy him, only to elevate his importance. It is as simple as this, the more they attack him, the more obvious that they fear him. The Don’s early light is “I’m still here and the more you attack me the more you risk destroying yourselves.”

Here comes the sun. Enjoy the view.

TDM