Jerry Brown Wins $52 Billion Gasoline Tax in California (VIDEO)

Jerry Brown is the lamest of lame ducks. He's finishing his fourth term as Governor of California, cementing his legacy of clusterfuck moonbeam progressivism.

At the Los Angeles Times, "California Legislature votes to raise gas taxes, vehicle fees by $5.2 billion a year for road repairs and transit."

Video via KCRA News 3 Sacramento.

I've got another 10 to 15 years or so at the college, then retirement. A lifelong Californian, I'm constantly wondering which state would be best to relocate? Nevada? Texas? Idaho or Montana? Seriously. I want to get out to more of the classic West, and especially to a low-tax state that's big on gun rights.

More at WND, "FLEEING INSANITY -- THAT IS, LIBERALISM: Exclusive: Patrice Lewis cites increasing exodus of people from California, Chicago, NYC:

In 1972, when I was 10 years old, my father’s job was transferred from Buffalo, New York, to California. After endless cold Buffalo winters, the golden state seemed like a golden place, a land of golden opportunity. My parents built a house, my father built a successful career, and my brothers and I thrived.

That was then, this is now. California is going off the deep end. The gold has turned to brass. It has become the land of fruits and nuts, a caricature of its former glory, a place people seek to leave in droves before they run afoul of the latest insanity.

Consider just a few examples of recent lunacy:

* Public university to host talk on animal-based sex fetishes
* Claim: Trump ‘threatens mental health of young Californians’
* They’ll have a ‘gay’ old time: ‘Bordellos’ now in nursing homes?
* California just passed a law regulating cow farts
* New bill would criminalize pronoun usage in nursing homes
* California bans students from traveling to ‘anti-LGBT’ states

Perhaps unsurprisingly, middle class Californians are leaving the state in droves. Take a look at these words from a frustrated inhabitant:

Came to SoCal as a kid in 1969 … got married and had kids who now are in college (out of state). I worked my *** off to get where I am today, but my house goes on the market this spring. I’ve watched this state sink into the abyss of liberal insanity inch by inch, drop by drop.

There is no hope for the state of Kalifornia. The Dems and their insane view of this world have a super majority in the Senate and Assembly. Combined with a Dem governor, there is nothing they cannot get passed. Even the Republicans who end up getting into the minority party are squishy and put up little resistance.

This past summer the legislative branch passed a bunch of bills that finally broke my desire to stay here with my salary. Gov. Moonbeam signed into law a bill that forces the cattle industry (dairy and meat) into providing flatulent catching backpacks for all cows to wear, for their precious global warming efforts. He also signed a bill that permits early release of felons out of jail and has them live amongst the citizenry. Combine that with the draconian laws further limiting my Second Amendment rights by making ammunition costly and more difficult to obtain, making some of my firearms illegal to own, he has put more rights into criminals and made my family less safe to live here.

I am DONE. Good riddance. I am moving to a state that will appreciate my conservative, constitutional values.

This person’s lament echoes that of over a million (mostly middle-class) people who have departed California in recent decades. We were among them. My husband and I shook the California dust off our feet in 1992 and never looked back at that once-beautiful state.

But it’s not just California. Recent articles show a massive exodus from both New York City and Chicago as well.

What do these three locations (California, New York, Chicago) have in common? They are bastions of liberalism, cauldrons of experimental progressive policies, vanguards of whatever feel-good fiscally irresponsible nonsense disturbed minds can think up.

So when we read about populations draining out of certain locations, the conclusion is obvious. People aren’t fleeing New York or Chicago or California; people are fleeing liberalism. The festering cauldron of progressive thought ultimately makes places unlivable.

I’m honestly sorry for those freedom-loving conservatives who are unable (due to work or family commitments) to beat feet and flee the gold-plated state. And I welcome those honestly looking to escape the insidious poison. I do, however, bear a grudge with those who bring their poison with them and enthusiastically spread it to a new location, dragging everything down with them.

Keep reading.

BONUS: From Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "WELL, THAT’S ONE WAY TO PUT IT: “California’s gas tax hike shows governor’s political skill” reads an AP headline this weekend."

Federal Staffers Panicked by Conservative Media Attacks

These "federal staffers" are supposed to be nonpartisan bureaucrats who serve elected officials without prejudice. If these same people are afraid of conservatives, that's good. That means they've figured out "the people" are on to them and their far-left schemes of endless government expansion and collectivist utopia.

At Politico:

Obviously, the truth is making career staffers at State uncomfortable. That is not our problem. - @gastonmooney https://t.co/n1uTd9dtfP

— Nick Short (@PoliticalShort) March 22, 2017

Dead-End Democrat Resistance

Ed Morrissey covers Aaron Blake's article at the Washington Post, "WaPo: Obstructionism might play into the hands of the GOP."

This cracks me up.

Republicans opposed most everything Obama did, and they won.

For Democrats, it may not be so simple.https://t.co/8XG5m4nZtG

— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) February 11, 2017

President Trump Allegedly 'Vexed' by Challenges of Governing

Pfft.

He's getting off to a great start, working at the "speed of Trump," as Sean Hannity likes to say.

So I take this Politico piece with lots of salt.

See, "Trump vexed by challenges, scale of government."

Being president is harder than Trump thought, according to aides and allies https://t.co/HnyyiaLS9k pic.twitter.com/WGPI9FNJnf

— POLITICO (@politico) February 11, 2017

President Trump's Weekly Address: 'From Now On, It's Going to Be America First...' (VIDEO)

I used to post Barack Hussein's weekly addresses, always fighting off the gag reflex.

But now we've got the new regime in Washington, and I can start posting these clips again, now with absolute relish.

God bless this president. He's already making America great again. I love it.

Goldman Sachs, With Long History of Public Service, Makes Return to Washington in Trump Administration

This is pretty fascinating.

At NYT, "Goldman Sachs Completes Return From Wilderness to the White House":

“Government Sachs” is back. In the Trump administration, economic policy making is being handed to Goldman alumni. https://t.co/xOpGGxPGl3

— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 12, 2017

“Government Sachs” is back.

After eight years in the political wilderness, its name synonymous with the supposedly undue and self-serving influence in Washington that brought us the financial crisis and the Wall Street bailout, Goldman Sachs is again making its presence felt. In the Trump administration, to an unprecedented degree, economic policy making is largely being handed over to people with Goldman ties.

The Goldman alumni include Steven T. Mnuchin, the nominee for Treasury secretary; Gary D. Cohn, tapped as director of the National Economic Council and White House adviser on economic policy; and Stephen K. Bannon, who was named chief White House strategist. Jay Clayton, named to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, is a Wall Street lawyer who has represented Goldman.

This week President-elect Donald J. Trump hired Dina H. Powell, a Goldman partner who heads impact investing, as a White House adviser. Anthony Scaramucci, a Goldman alumnus (whom I spotlighted last week), is on the Trump transition committee and is expected to be named to a White House position as well.

And this after Mr. Trump campaigned against Wall Street, excoriated Senator Ted Cruz for his ties to Goldman, and castigated Hillary Clinton for giving paid speeches to big banks, Goldman among them.

The Goldman influx has so far drawn little criticism, perhaps because worries about what once would have been deemed undue influence now mix with relief that there is some adult supervision in the executive branch.

On balance, “it’s a plus,” Michael R. Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor who built his fortune on Wall Street, told me this week. “Whatever you may think of them individually, you can’t get to be a Goldman partner and survive if you’re stupid, lazy or unprofessional.” (Mr. Bloomberg is co-chairman of Goldman’s “10,000 Small Businesses” initiative, which provides support to fledgling entrepreneurs.)

Whatever bricks Mr. Trump threw at Wall Street during the campaign, investors have cheered his victory, driving the stock market to new highs. And Goldman has been a particular beneficiary, with its shares gaining 35 percent since Election Day — the top-performing stock in the Dow Jones industrial average in that time.

Mr. Trump, a spokeswoman of his told me, sees no contradiction here. There’s a difference between individuals who happen to have worked at Goldman Sachs, at some point in their careers, and Goldman Sachs itself. “He’s said from the beginning that he’ll hire the very best people for the job regardless of where they worked before, which is what he’s done throughout his career,” said the spokeswoman, Hope Hicks.

While the firm’s influence in a Trump administration may reach a new apex, Goldman alumni have long been fixtures in both Republican and Democratic administrations. The Goldman legend Sidney J. Weinberg headed Franklin D. Roosevelt’s influential Business Advisory and Planning Council.

Recent Treasury secretaries with Goldman roots include Robert E. Rubin, a former co-chairman, under Bill Clinton; and Henry M. Paulson Jr., a former chairman and chief executive, under George W. Bush.

Even in the Obama administration, where a Goldman pedigree was something akin to a scarlet letter, Gary Gensler was credited with reviving a moribund Commodity Futures Trading Commission and might have been Treasury secretary had Mrs. Clinton won in November.

Which raises the question: Why would such a disproportionate number of the “best people,” in Mr. Trump’s view, come from just one bank? After all, Goldman is hardly the only large bank, and it is also far from the biggest. It employs roughly 33,000 people; JPMorgan Chase’s work force is many times as large.

Many point to a unique Goldman culture that has long encouraged public service and philanthropy as integral to its business model.

Goldman “does seem to produce people who are very smart and have valuable experience,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “And they have a culture and a long tradition of leaving the firm for public service. The firm pushes them to do that.”

More.

Woman of Color Lady Liberty on New U.S. Currency

Doesn't bother me.

That's a nice looking coin!

For the First Time, Lady Liberty Depicted as a Woman of Color on U.S. Currency https://t.co/UffU5lHduw

— EAGLE WINGS (@ConstanceQueen8) January 13, 2017

Theresa May's 'Shared Society' (VIDEO)

Yesterday, PEOTUS Donald Trump tweeted his excitement over his upcoming meeting with the British prime minister.

I hope some of his American exceptionalism rubs off on her. She's a bit too British for me. Socialist British, that is.

At London's Daily Mail, "I’m determined to build the shared society for everyone."

And, "Theresa May unveils plans to create 'the shared society' as reform vision is revealed":

I look very much forward to meeting Prime Minister Theresa May in Washington in the Spring. Britain, a longtime U.S. ally, is very special!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2017

Theresa May has revealed her vision for “the shared society” as she declares that government has a duty to intervene and correct “burning injustices” in modern Britain .

Writing exclusively for The Telegraph, Mrs May says that government should not just “get out of the way” and insists there is “more to life than individualism and self-interest”.

The article gives the most detailed insight into Mrs May’s social reform agenda since she took office and reveals a deliberate attempt to break from her Tory predecessors.

David Cameron’s “big society”, which focussed on getting charities to help tackle inequality, and Margaret Thatcher’s claim there is “no such thing as society” are both rejected.

In its place the Prime Minister outlines an unashamed pitch for why governments should intervene in markets that are not giving consumers the best deal.

“It goes to the heart of my belief that there is more to life than individualism and self-interest," Mrs May writes.

"The social and cultural unions represented by families, communities, towns, cities, counties and nations are the things that define us and make us strong."

“And it is the job of government to encourage and nurture these relationships and institutions where it can, and to correct the injustice and unfairness that divides us wherever it is found.”

The piece will be seen as signalling a major departure from generations of Tory thinking that the best way to help the most deprived is to deliver economic growth through the free market.

It also indicates Mrs May’s determination to rebrand the Conservatives as the party of the “working class” and confine the Labour Party to electoral irrelevance.

The Prime Minister's article previews a speech to be delivered tomorrow that will reveal her vision for reforming British society after almost six months of thinking inside Downing Street.

It is designed to build on her promise made on the steps of Number 10 to tackle injustice and “make Britain a country that works for everyone”.

Still more.

What It's Like to Apply for a Job in Donald Trump's White House

From Julie Davis, at the New York Times (via Memeorandum):

“If u filibuster, he’ll cut u off. He wants 2 know what you can do for him" The Trump intrvw: Apprentice, WH edition https://t.co/UfAnQAZEK8

— Julie Davis (@juliehdavis) December 7, 2016

WASHINGTON — When former Gov. Sonny Perdue of Georgia stepped off the elevator on the 26th floor of Trump Tower last week for his interview with Donald J. Trump, he expected a grilling by the president-elect and a phalanx of associates, something along the lines of the confrontational boardroom scenes at the sleek conference table in the television show “The Apprentice.”

What he found instead was Mr. Trump, calm and solicitous behind a desk cluttered with papers and periodicals, in a large corner office with a hodgepodge of memorabilia and décor that appeared little changed from the 1980s. Nick Ayers, an aide to Vice President-elect Mike Pence, and Stephen K. Bannon, who will serve as Mr. Trump’s chief strategist, listened from the sidelines. Mr. Trump, who offered Mr. Perdue a seat across from his desk, was in charge.

“He was approaching this from a deal standpoint, and he wanted to know if he was on the right track,” said Mr. Perdue, who is being considered for secretary of agriculture and wore a tie adorned with tractors to the meeting. “He believes that we in the United States have been sort of patsies over the years in the way we’ve dealt with our foreign competitors and international trade — and I agree with him — and he wanted to know what I would do about it.”

For more than a decade, millions of Americans tuned in to watch Mr. Trump interrogate prospective employees on “The Apprentice” with a mix of arrogance and disdain. But in private over the past few weeks, a less theatrical spinoff of the spectacle has unfolded in Mr. Trump’s office in Manhattan, and occasionally at his golf resort in Bedminster, N.J., or at Mar-a-Lago, his getaway in Palm Beach, Fla.

Mr. Trump’s interview style in the real world is direct but conversational, according to people who have sat opposite him. He did not take notes or appear to refer to a set list of questions, but he did have dossiers on his visitors and often displayed intricate knowledge of their backgrounds and experience. He rarely drank or ate. He kept his suit jacket on. In New York, he liked to show off the sweeping views of Central Park visible over his shoulder.

Job seekers, who must parade before the news media in the marble and bronze lobby of Trump Tower — “It was almost like walking the red carpet in Hollywood,” said Representative Lou Barletta, Republican of Pennsylvania, who has offered himself up as a secretary of transportation or labor — said that the president-elect often asked open-ended questions and had little patience for meandering answers.

“If you filibuster, he’ll cut you off,” said Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker who was initially in the running to be Mr. Trump’s secretary of state but has since said he is not interested in a cabinet post. “He wants to know what you can do for him.”

Mr. Gingrich said Mr. Trump’s approach to putting together his administration was the same one he has used with his multibillion-dollar business. “He’s used to defining jobs, measuring capability and making a judgment: ‘Do I think you can run my golf course? Do I think you can run my hotel? Do I want your restaurant in my building?’” Mr. Gingrich said.

Mr. Trump has been more hands-on in the interviews than his predecessors were. George W. Bush rarely spoke in person to more than one finalist for each cabinet post, said Clay Johnson III, who directed his transition effort in 2000. President Obama also interviewed a single finalist for each post in most cases, usually in a one-on-one discussion meant to confirm an already well-established conclusion that the candidate would be right for the job, said Dan Pfeiffer, a senior transition official in 2008.

“In some cases, he knew who he wanted and it was a question of convincing them to do it,” Mr. Pfeiffer said, citing examples like Hillary Clinton, who became Mr. Obama’s secretary of state, and Robert M. Gates, whom he persuaded to stay on as defense secretary.

Mr. Obama was also adamant that the deliberations not spill out into the open, but that has not been the case with Mr. Trump.

Members of Congress, generals, business executives and others mingle outside his office, waiting for an audience with the president-elect. Mr. Barletta waited more than 45 minutes for his meeting, passing the time chatting with his Republican colleague Representative Michael McCaul of Texas, who was waiting for his turn to audition for secretary of homeland security.

“It was like a green room, a waiting room of people you know or you know of, all waiting their turn,” said Robert L. Johnson, the founder of the television network BET, who visited Mr. Trump at Bedminster to discuss ways the incoming president could reach out to African-Americans. As Mr. Johnson was coming in, Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York whom Mr. Trump is considering for secretary of state, was going out.

Mr. Trump wants a gut sense for a potential hire, people close to him said, prizing personal chemistry and an entrepreneurial spirit. But he also leans on the judgment of trusted advisers — particularly Mr. Pence and his elder daughter, Ivanka Trump — when assessing a candidate...

Fascinating.

I love stories like this.

Keep reading.

Donald Trump Announces Cabinet Picks, Going Big on Diversity (VIDEO)

At the Los Angeles Times, "Trump reaches beyond loyalists and adds diversity with latest Cabinet picks."

There's video from the "All-Star Panel," at Fox News, here.

And at USA Today, heh, "Teacher unions smarting after many members vote for Trump."

Before the Election, Teachers Told Their Students Everything Would Be Okay. Now They're Freaking Out

I attended an immigration rights forum at lunch yesterday, sponsored by the Latino faculty members, which included a representative from the Long Beach Immigrant Rights Coalition. People are scared. The event was emotional. Lots of crying. I feel for these folks. In fact, I'm gathering information, including legal defense resources. With the appointment of Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, I'd say the fears are well justified.

In any case, leftists thought unicorns and rainbows were going to continue in a third Obama term under Hillary Clinton. It's not happening, and school teachers are at a loss for words.

At LAT, "Teachers told their students everything would be OK after the election. Now, they're not so sure":

For months leading up to the presidential election, elementary school teacher Ingrid Villeda tried to instill in her students a certain faith in democracy.

The 18-year veteran of L.A. Unified’s schools looked for simple ways to decode the ugly back-and-forths on TV. She taught her fifth-graders about the virtues of a democratic nation in which ordinary citizens study the candidates’ policy positions and then choose their leaders. She wore suffragette white on election day and told them the story of how women fought for and won the right vote.

Within the walls of Villeda’s school, 93rd Street Elementary, where roughly three-quarters of the students are Latino, Donald J. Trump and his vow to deport millions of immigrants living in the country illegally seemed far away and fictional. That is, until the morning after the election, when Villeda’s students ran to her in the schoolyard, the sleepless night written on their faces.

“People really don’t like us?” asked a girl from Mexico. “What are we going to do about that?”

Recalling this moment in a phone conversation, Villeda began to cry. “They’re looking at me to be able to stand in front of them and say, ‘You’re okay; we’re going to be fine.’ ”

For students and teachers in the nation’s second-largest school system, the repercussions of America’s choice for president are likely to be both profound and lasting. In L.A. Unified, 74% of the roughly 600,000 students are Latino, and many have relatives and acquaintances who are living in the U.S. without legal permission.

Children are coming to school shrouded in anxiety, asking teachers to interpret the day’s headlines for them, examining each bit of news for its potential threat.

“Am I safe?” many want to know, voicing new concerns about immigration raids or hate-inspired attacks against religious and ethnic minorities as well as LGBT people.

“All week long they’ve been kind of like zombies, numb from shock, and so have a lot of educators,” said Martha Infante, 46, a social-studies teacher at Los Angeles Academy Middle School. The day after the election, she said, was the most difficult day of her career...

Still more.

President-Elect Donald J. Trump Selects U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions for Attorney General (VIDEO)

At NYT, via Memeorandum, "Donald Trump Selects Senator Jeff Sessions for Attorney General."

It's a great pick.

And naturally, all leftists can do is bawl about how Sessions was accused of racism 30 years ago, allegations which apparently derailed a judicial appointment.

See Pema Levy, at the hate-site Mother Jones, "Sessions' Anti-Immigration Influence Will Go Far Beyond His Role as Attorney General: Thirty years ago, charges of racism derailed his confirmation for a judgeship. Now he’ll be vastly more powerful."

And at ABC News:

John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, The Right Nation [BUMPED]

I read this book when it came out in 2005, although I admit I'd thought the arguments had gone out of favor.

But maybe not, after what we saw on election day.

Check it out, at Amazon, John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America.

America is fundamentally a conservative nation at its core. The left has been trying to change that for generations, and came close during the Obama years. But now the "silent majority" has awakened, and leftist forces are in shock. Progressives and radicals are traumatized, and their coddling ideology has left them bereft with coping mechanisms.

Oh god what a beauty to behold. I'm loving this moment like you can't imagine. It's glorious.

An American Uprising

Oh boy, it is ever.

From Daniel Greenfield, at FrontPage Magazine, "American Uprising: Everything's About to Change":

This wasn’t an election. It was a revolution.

It’s midnight in America. The day before fifty million Americans got up and stood in front of the great iron wheel that had been grinding them down. They stood there even though the media told them it was useless. They took their stand even while all the chattering classes laughed and taunted them.

They were fathers who couldn’t feed their families anymore. They were mothers who couldn’t afford health care. They were workers whose jobs had been sold off to foreign countries. They were sons who didn’t see a future for themselves. They were daughters afraid of being murdered by the “unaccompanied minors” flooding into their towns. They took a deep breath and they stood.

They held up their hands and the great iron wheel stopped.

The Great Blue Wall crumbled. The impossible states fell one by one. Ohio. Wisconsin. Pennsylvania. Iowa. The white working class that had been overlooked and trampled on for so long got to its feet. It rose up against its oppressors and the rest of the nation, from coast to coast, rose up with it.

They fought back against their jobs being shipped overseas while their towns filled with migrants that got everything while they got nothing. They fought back against a system in which they could go to jail for a trifle while the elites could violate the law and still stroll through a presidential election. They fought back against being told that they had to watch what they say. They fought back against being held in contempt because they wanted to work for a living and take care of their families.

They fought and they won.

This wasn’t a vote. It was an uprising. Like the ordinary men chipping away at the Berlin Wall, they tore down an unnatural thing that had towered over them. And as they watched it fall, they marveled at how weak and fragile it had always been. And how much stronger they were than they had ever known.

Who were these people? They were leftovers and flyover country. They didn’t have bachelor degrees and had never set foot in a Starbucks. They were the white working class. They didn’t talk right or think right. They had the wrong ideas, the wrong clothes and the ridiculous idea that they still mattered.

They were wrong about everything. Illegal immigration? Everyone knew it was here to stay. Black Lives Matter? The new civil rights movement. Manufacturing? As dead as the dodo. Banning Muslims? What kind of bigot even thinks that way? Love wins. Marriage loses. The future belongs to the urban metrosexual and his dot com, not the guy who used to have a good job before it went to China or Mexico.

They couldn’t change anything. A thousand politicians and pundits had talked of getting them to adapt to the inevitable future. Instead they got in their pickup trucks and drove out to vote.

And they changed everything.

Barack Hussein Obama boasted that he had changed America. A billion regulations, a million immigrants, a hundred thousand lies and it was no longer your America. It was his.

He was JFK and FDR rolled into one. He told us that his version of history was right and inevitable.

And they voted and left him in the dust. They walked past him and they didn’t listen. He had come to campaign to where they still cling to their guns and their bibles. He came to plead for his legacy.

 And America said, “No.”

Fifty millions Americans repudiated him. They repudiated the Obamas and the Clintons. They ignored the celebrities. They paid no attention to the media. They voted because they believed in the impossible. And their dedication made the impossible happen.

Americans were told that walls couldn’t be built and factories couldn’t be opened. That treaties couldn’t be unsigned and wars couldn’t be won. It was impossible to ban Muslim terrorists from coming to America or to deport the illegal aliens turning towns and cities into gangland territories.

It was all impossible. And fifty million Americans did the impossible. They turned the world upside down.

It’s midnight in America. CNN is weeping. MSNBC is wailing. ABC calls it a tantrum. NBC damns it. It wasn’t supposed to happen. The same machine that crushed the American people for two straight terms, the mass of government, corporations and non-profits that ran the country, was set to win.

Instead the people stood in front of the machine. They blocked it with their bodies. They went to vote even though the polls told them it was useless. They mailed in their absentee ballots even while Hillary Clinton was planning her fireworks victory celebration. They looked at the empty factories and barren farms. They drove through the early cold. They waited in line. They came home to their children to tell them that they had done their best for their future. They bet on America. And they won.

They won improbably. And they won amazingly.

They were tired of ObamaCare. They were tired of unemployment. They were tired of being lied to. They were tired of watching their sons come back in coffins to protect some Muslim country. They were tired of being called racists and homophobes. They were tired of seeing their America disappear.

And they stood up and fought back. This was their last hope. Their last chance to be heard.

Watch this video. See ten ways John Oliver destroyed Donald Trump. Here’s three ways Samantha Bee broke the internet by taunting Trump supporters. These three minutes of Stephen Colbert talking about how stupid Trump is owns the internet. Watch Madonna curse out Trump supporters. Watch Katy Perry. Watch Miley Cyrus. Watch Robert Downey Jr. Watch Beyonce campaign with Hillary. Watch. Click.

Watch fifty million Americans take back their country.

The media had the election wrong all along. This wasn’t about personalities. It was about the impersonal. It was about fifty million people whose names no one except a server will ever know fighting back. It was about the homeless woman guarding Trump’s star. It was about the lost Democrats searching for someone to represent them in Ohio and Pennsylvania. It was about the union men who nodded along when the organizers told them how to vote, but who refused to sell out their futures.

No one will ever interview all those men and women. We will never see all their faces. But they are us and we are them. They came to the aid of a nation in peril. They did what real Americans have always done. They did the impossible.

America is a nation of impossibilities. We exist because our forefathers did not take no for an answer. Not from kings or tyrants. Not from the elites who told them that it couldn’t be done.

The day when we stop being able to pull of the impossible is the day that America will cease to exist.

Today is not that day. Today fifty million Americans did the impossible.

Midnight has passed. A new day has come. And everything is about to change.

Kellyanne Conway Discusses Trump's Transition and First 100-Days (VIDEO)

Politico reports that there's infighting going on, "Trump team rivalries spark infighting."

But Kellyanne Conway gave no hint of acrimony or dissension, on Hannity's last night, "Kellyanne Conway on Trump's transition and 100-day plan."

BONUS: Check this great post at Hot Air, "Kellyanne Conway for chief of staff":

As noted yesterday, Trump has three constituencies rather than the usual two to please in appointing cabinet members and senior aides. He’s got his true believers, the people who voted for him; he’s got the people who worked for him and who actually helped him get elected, the spoils-system recipients; and he’s got the majority of the country, the Democrats, independents, and Trump-skeptic Republicans who watched the returns Tuesday night thinking Do I need to buy gold? The ideal pick for each job is someone who checks all three boxes. When push comes to shove, his voters need to be satisfied first. But if you can find a pick who makes everyone happy, why not pick them?

The only position I’ve seen Kellyanne Conway touted for so far is White House press secretary, which makes some sense. She was Trump’s most effective surrogate during the campaign by a country mile. If you’re looking within Trump’s inner circle for someone to be a day-to-day liaison to the national media, you couldn’t do better. But here’s the problem: Press secretary is a stupid, garbage job. The daily press briefing is one of the dreariest rituals in modern politics. Those who are good at it have perfected the art of saying nothing meaningful in a lot of words. Given what Conway accomplished in steering Trump to one of the unlikeliest national victories in American history, it’s borderline insulting to reward her with a position that lame.

Chief of staff, arguably the single most influential job in the White House apart from the presidency itself, would be better and would recognize the magnitude of her accomplishment. You could say the same for Steve Bannon, the campaign’s CEO and reportedly a top contender for the position, but between his Breitbart pedigree, his support for the alt-right, and the dirty laundry that the media aired this summer and will gleefully revisit if he’s named as COS, choosing him would freak out the third group I named above and will be treated by the press as confirmation of all their worst fears about Trump, rightly and wrongly. There’ll be headlines about how picking Bannon is a declaration of war on minority America — and on the rest of the GOP, given Bannon’s antipathy to Paul Ryan — and that’ll set the tone for everything going forward. (Besides, everyone understands that Bannon will be an eminence grise even if he’s not named to any formal position.) Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, is another contender for the job. He seems capable and his instincts appear sound (he was reportedly in favor of dumping Corey Lewandowski over the summer), but he’s a political novice. As a friend said to me yesterday, Trump naming his daughter’s husband to a major position like COS without any experience would come off like something a Panamanian dictator would do. I think all three groups above would tolerate it, but there would be a lot of “huh?” and “amateur hour” reactions in group three, fairly or not.

Veterans Launch Pro-Trump Rally at Camp Pendleton (VIDEO)

You'll be seeing more pro-Trump rallies if leftist demonstrations keep getting out of control.

The damned progs won't derail making America great again, lol.

At ABC News 10 Sand Diego:

Hillary Clinton's Campaign Ignored Bill's Suggestion to Court Working-Class Whites

Ouch!

That's gotta hurt.

From Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "REPORT: HILLARY CLINTON’S CAMPAIGN IGNORED BILL’S SUGGESTION TO COURT WORKING-CLASS WHITES."

'America Died on Nov. 8, 2016...'

I don't know.

I think when Obama was reelected I came out and said, unapologetically, that he wasn't my president. I still don't apologize for it, because Obama --- and the Democrats --- don't represent me and they work for everything that I oppose.

So I get it. The progs don't like Trump.

I simply do not remember conservatives being this deathly glum. Sure, folks were depressed and disheartened by Obama's elections, but I think we've reached a whole new level this time around, a much deeper, darker level of despair. This time around it's leftist identity that's been crushed. Their vision of the "new America" of diversity and inclusion (and unicorns and rainbows) has been destroyed. It's much more visceral for leftists. I always thought that Obama was a temporary phenomenon --- recall one of my most famous phrases, "the Obama interregnum" --- and that this too shall pass. That's why I joined the tea party and attended conservative conferences. I joined the movement to restore the republic to its rightful place as a center-right country of basic decency.

Maybe leftists will break out of their funk pretty soon and get back to the business of organizing for change along lines of their choosing. It's just politics, and there's more to life than that.

In any case, here's Neal Gabler, at Bill Moyers' page, "Farewell, America":

Written by Neal Gabler for @BillMoyersHQ

They get it.

It might make you cry. I'm sorry.https://t.co/0T0j0UttLH

— 🌊 (@leahmcelrath) November 11, 2016

America died on Nov. 8, 2016, not with a bang or a whimper, but at its own hand via electoral suicide. We the people chose a man who has shredded our values, our morals, our compassion, our tolerance, our decency, our sense of common purpose, our very identity — all the things that, however tenuously, made a nation out of a country.

Whatever place we now live in is not the same place it was on Nov. 7. No matter how the rest of the world looked at us on Nov. 7, they will now look at us differently. We are likely to be a pariah country. And we are lost for it. As I surveyed the ruin of that country this gray Wednesday morning, I found weary consolation in W.H. Auden’s poem, September 1, 1939, which concludes:

“Defenseless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.”


I hunt for that affirming flame.

Oh brother. Dramatic much?

Still more, if you can take it.

ABC News Political Analyst Matthew Dowd Apologizes for the Arrogant, Close-Minded, Judgmental, and Mean-Spirited Way He Treated Donald Trump Supporters (VIDEO)

Well, this is unusual.

Most leftists will be like Harry Reid, who attacked President-Elect Trump as a "sexual predator who lost the popular vote."

But thankfully, not Matthew Dowd, who's a decent guy, and who worked on President George W. Bush's 2004 presidential campaign, at ABC News, "In This Election, Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa":

As I move on from the aftermath of the presidential election, these words from the Latin Mass I attended as a youth bounced around in my head -- "mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa."

The rough translation is "My fault, My fault, My greatest fault".

I want to take this opportunity to say I was wrong about who would win the election. But my biggest regret, and what I would like to apologize for is the arrogant, close-minded, judgmental, and sometimes mean-spirited way I related to many who believed Trump would win.

They were right, and I was wrong.

I had seen many things coming in this election that turned out to be on target, but for the big finale, I was way, way off. This is primarily because I stopped listening, focused too much on data, and didn't allow counter evidence to be absorbed in a meaningful way.

I became too bunkered in New York City (away from my home in Central Texas) in the last few months, and didn't pay attention to the local stories where another portion of America lives and breathes. Too many of my discussions centered around polling, the horserace, and odds, and not enough on the conversations on the ground.

Nearly three years ago on ABC News' "This Week," I said: "I predict that a year from now we're going to be talking about another candidate — some other candidate who has lit the fire in either party".

This was also a time I argued that Americans were sick of the fact with the 2016 election approaching, it looked like we might be forced into choosing between a Bush and a Clinton. I actually bet a friend at the time that neither a Bush nor a Clinton would be president in 2017.

I also said in early 2015 that Jeb Bush would not make it through the primaries and he would drop out early. And then in September 2015, again on "This Week," I predicted that Donald Trump would be the GOP nominee. I was laughed at and criticized by many. Further, I said early on that Bernie Sanders would rise quickly in the polls and, though Hillary Clinton would emerge as nominee, Sanders would do very well in the Democratic primary process.

Earlier this year, I said because both major party nominees were disliked and distrusted by a majority of citizens we would either see rise of a strong third party or turnout would drop to a low we hadn't seen in 20 years.

Then in the fall, I became convinced Trump would lose, and after the three debates, even put odds on Clinton winning at 95 percent.

Mea Culpa. I was dead wrong...

Keep reading.

More Leftist Cowering: Donald Trump Has 'Shattered' Campaign Norms

Oh brother.

Perhaps next week leftists will get a grip. Meanwhile, we're still watching "Looney Tunes."

From far-left Sam Stein, at the far-left Puffington Host, "Donald Trump Has Shattered Campaign Norms In Damaging, Potentially Lasting Ways."

Read it at the link.

Stein's apparently not apologizing for being wrong. Remember, back in 2015, PuffHo relegated the site's Donald Trump coverage to the entertainment pages, and this week the editors removed their official statement calling Trump a "racist." See Politico, "The Huffington Post ending editor's note that called Donald Trump 'racist'."

This is less introspection than "covering your ass." Perhaps Trump will go after media outlets hostile to him during the campaign, denying them access or whatever. Doesn't bother me in the least. Payback's a bitch.