Sunday, November 15, 2020
With Trench Warfare Deepening, Parties Face Unsettled Electoral Map
This is good.
At NYT, "Voters delivered a convincing victory for Joe Biden, but a split decision for the two parties. Now Democrats and Republicans face perhaps the most up-for-grabs electoral landscape in a generation":
WASHINGTON — America’s two major parties had hoped the 2020 presidential election would render a decisive judgment on the country’s political trajectory. But after a race that broke records for voter turnout and campaign spending, neither Democrats nor Republicans have achieved a dominant upper hand. Instead, the election delivered a split decision, ousting President Trump but narrowing the Democratic majority in the House and perhaps preserving the Republican majority in the Senate. As Joseph R. Biden Jr. prepares to take office and preside over a closely divided government, leaders in both camps are acknowledging that voters seem to have issued not a mandate for the left or the right but a muddled plea to move on from Trump-style chaos. With 306 electoral college votes and the most popular votes of any presidential candidate in history, Mr. Biden attained a victory that was paramount to many Democrats, who saw a second Trump term as nothing less than a threat to democracy. Yet on the electoral landscape, both parties find themselves stretched thin and battling on new fronts, with their traditional strongholds increasingly under siege. Indeed, Democrats and Republicans are facing perhaps the most unsettled and up-for-grabs electoral map the country has seen in a generation, since the parties were still fighting over California in the late 1980s. This competition has denied either from being able to claim broad majorities and prompted a series of election cycles, which could be repeated in 2022, in which any gains Democrats make in the country’s booming cities and states are at least partly offset by growing Republican strength in rural areas. The election also represented a continuation of this trench warfare between two parties that are increasingly defined by their activist flanks and limited to only incremental advances. “We are more divided than any other time in my lifetime,” said Haley Barbour, the former Mississippi governor and Republican National Committee chair, whose first job in politics was on Richard M. Nixon’s 1968 campaign. “But usually when we’re at parity we’re bunched up in the middle — now we’ve got parity but with extreme polarity.” Mr. Biden and the Democrats viewed this election as an opportunity to deliver a crushing repudiation to Republicans and the movement known as Trumpism, while Mr. Trump and his allies saw the chance to cement a durable governing coalition led by the far right...
RTWT.
Thursday, November 12, 2020
'My Digital Landscape'
I'm shaking my head.
Over at Legal Insurrection, blogger Leslie Eastman is upset with the mainstream media. See, "My digital landscape is changing post election."
What, is she the right-blogger version of Rip Van Winkle, just waking up after four years and sees she doesn't like the leftist press? Pfft.
I changed my "digital landscape" years ago, and especially in 2016 when Trump won. And now she's mad at Fox News? I rarely watch it. Bret Baer drives me crazy. Neil Cavuto's a clown. They booted Shepard Smith a while back, and that barely made any difference in the leftist drift at the network.
She along with millions of other right-wing voters are mad at Fox News and any outlets that don't parrot the MAGA line. So, they're bellowing about how they're never going to watch Fox News again! (*Eye-roll*)
Look, I've said it a million times: Know your enemy. If conservatives further segregate themselves in an information bubble it will only exacerbate existing divides. We'll keep drifting toward two nations, and political violence will become more and more acceptable. A lot of folks don't care, okay? Then quit blogging and fighting about it all the time, because it's useless. Just pack up now to Idaho. Get your supplies, provisions, and ammo. Hunker down and wait for the new millennium.
I'm not doing that. Not yet. I'll worry about moving to the hinterland when I retire.
I read and blog mainstream articles all the time. I actually like reading the L.A. Times and the N.Y. Times. If you're open minded, there's lots of cool stuff. Here's a good piece on Dave Grohl keeping it real during the pandemic, "Dave Grohl, 10-Year-Old Nandi Bushell and One Very Epic Drum Battle."
You didn’t need to know every note of Nirvana’s angst-rock classic “In Bloom” to marvel at the spectacle of a little girl drumming along to the song in perfect synchronization last November, her face scrawled over with joy and passion.
The internet is an open playing field for regular people performing impressive feats, and over a couple of years, Nandi Bushell, a resident of Ipswich, England, had attracted a solid audience by expressively covering famous songs by a genre-diverse range of artists including the White Stripes, Billie Eilish and Anderson .Paak. Sometimes her father, John, and brother, Thomas, accompanied her, but Bushell was the star, combining technical virtuosity with bright-eyed showmanship (and some enthusiastic yelling). The sight of Bushell wailing away immediately impressed Dave Grohl, the Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer who played “In Bloom” on the band’s 1991 breakthrough album, “Nevermind.” Grohl is not a social media user, and he only learned about the viral clip when the album’s producer, Butch Vig, sent it to him. “I watched it in amazement, not only because she was nailing all of the parts, but the way that she would scream when she did her drum rolls,” Grohl said in a recent video interview. “There’s something about seeing the joy and energy of a kid in love with an instrument. She just seemed like a force of nature.”*****
Not everything's politics. Leftist take to politics in place of religion. Conservatives need to avoid that like the plague. Just read widely, fitting your tastes. Watch Newsmax on YouTube, where streaming is no charge.
And everybody should be reading Instapundit daily. I should be reading over there more often, frankly, as well as AoSHQ. And don't quit Fox. I mean, don't quit Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham. They're great. If it wasn't for them, there'd be absolutely no conservative programming on prime-time network television in this country. If you don't support them, you're hibernating. You're cutting off your nose to spite your face. Sheesh, just flip the channel and watch something else if you can't stand Martha MacCallum.
And everybody's saying they're quitting Twitter to go to Parler? Why? I mean, what's so great about it? And Gab? Great place for neo-Nazis to gather, but not for me.
Besides, nobodies over there anyway. All the mainstream journalists are on Twitter. I follow them. (A lot of them.) Not because I like them, but because they might have some information I need. Frankly, I hate them, but they're useful. It's transactional. Don't get emotional about these things. If I'm booted off Twitter, then I won't use a short-message service. And Facebook? It's a lost cause. I quit using it the day after Trump won in 2016. I couldn't take it anymore. It was HATE, HATE, HATE nonstop. I can do without. I'm starting to post links to Facebook again, for the hell of it. But I don't linger. I don't read the comments. Fuck 'em, and I'm talking about people on both sides who act like spoiled children. It's pathetic and ridiculous. People need to grow up and get a grip. Don't transmogrify into that which you hate.
I set my Twitter page to private (send a follower request there, if you want to see my tweets). And I took my personal information off my Blogger profile. I'm still employed at my college, and after the last 12 years of blogging, and tweeting, and teaching my college classes, I've decided to finally go incognito a bit. They will try to cancel you. Leftists will come after you at your place of employment. Far-left cadres on the job will undermine you and try to get you fired. I'm a tenure professor, and I still have to take all these precautions. I should've started blogging under a pseudonym in 2006, but I was stupid. I thought I'd be some be blog professor and build some scholarly readership, or some bullshit. Nobody cares about that. It's all political warfare all the time. Every institution of American life is infected with critical race theory ideology and you need to protect your family. California's going to decriminalize mushrooms. Don't get me wrong, I'm up for a good psilocybin trip just like the next guy, but what about the children?!! Well, leftists don't care about your kids. They're out to destroy the nuclear family and they're doing a bang-up job of it. Get out of California while you still can.
California's a beautiful but bad state. I'm stuck here until I retire, so I'm just gonna chill and not get steamed up about it.
Anyway, read and watch what you want. Don't let folks on either side dictate your choices, and if they do, fuck 'em.
More later...
'But as someone pointed out earlier, with AOC being blamed, justifiably, by many Democrats for her party’s poor performance, she has to change the subject. And changing the subject from abject failures, to internal enemies, is also a classic part of leftism in action...'
"B--, b--, but, ... they didn't run any Facebook ads! Its' campaign malpractice!"
Heh, he's right. Changing the subject.
It's Glenn Reynolds, at Instapundit, "LISTS AND PUNISHMENTS ARE THE WHOLE POINT OF BEING A LEFTIST; THE REST IS JUST WINDOW-DRESSING: AOC & Co.’s loathsome plan to keep lists of pro-Trumpies."
The Most Extensive Psychological Warfare Operation in History
Roosh:
You're about to face the most extensive psychological warfare operation in history. Every controlled institution in the world, many thousands of them, will present Biden as President of the United States. Don't let them demoralize you or take away the truth you know.
— Roosh (@rooshv) November 7, 2020
Wednesday, November 11, 2020
Megan Kelley: 'Pennsylvania is my favorite challenge' (VIDEO)
This video is incredible.
She's not about to set unrealistic expectations, and I agree that a lot of the challenges are long shots, but keep listening to the part about Joe Biden and his hilarious cluelessness and his ridiculously laughable calls for "unity."
At Newmax, which should be one of your main information pickup stations starting now.
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
Fighting Election Results, Trump Employs a New Weapon: The Government
I know most Trump supporters hate the New York Times, but if you want to beat your enemy, you need to know him. And sometimes the Old Gray Lady serves it up for us on a platter.
I love this piece:
President Trump has been marshaling his administration and pressuring his Republican allies into acting as if the election outcome was still uncertain, even as the rest of the world has increasingly moved to accept President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.https://t.co/j7XzTa3VK5
— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 11, 2020
WASHINGTON — President Trump, facing the prospect of leaving the White House in defeat in just 70 days, is harnessing the power of the federal government to resist the results of an election that he lost, something that no sitting president has done in American history.
In the latest sign of defiance, the president’s senior cabinet secretary fueled concerns on Tuesday that Mr. Trump would resist handing over power to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. after legal challenges to the vote. “There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.
Mr. Trump’s attorney general has at the same time authorized investigations into supposed vote fraud, his general services administrator has refused to give Mr. Biden’s team access to transition offices and resources guaranteed under law and the White House is preparing a budget for next year as if Mr. Trump will be around to present it.
The president has also embarked on a shake-up of his administration, firing Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper as well as the heads of three other agencies while installing loyalists in key positions at the National Security Agency and the Pentagon. Allies expect more to come, including the possible dismissals of the directors of the F.B.I. and the C.I.A.
But the rest of the world increasingly moved to accept Mr. Biden’s victory and prepared to work with him despite Mr. Trump’s refusal to acknowledge the results. Speaking with journalists, Mr. Biden called the president’s actions since Election Day “an embarrassment” that will not serve him well in the long run. “How can I say this tactfully?” Mr. Biden said. “It will not help the president’s legacy.”
The standoff left the United States in the position of the kind of country whose weak democratic processes it often criticizes. Rather than congratulating Mr. Biden and inviting him to the White House, as his predecessors traditionally have done after an election changed party control, Mr. Trump has been marshaling his administration and pressuring his Republican allies into acting as if the outcome were still uncertain, either out of faint hope of actually overturning the results or at least creating a narrative to explain his loss.
The president’s efforts to discredit with false claims both the election results and the incoming Biden administration is in many ways the culmination of four years of stocking the government with pliant appointees while undermining the credibility of other institutions in American life, including intelligence agencies, law enforcement authorities, the news media, technology companies, the federal government more broadly and now election officials in states across four time zones.
Throughout his presidency, Mr. Trump has tried to condition much of the American public not to believe anyone other than him, with evident success. Although the evidence shows there was no widespread conspiracy to steal the election in multiple states that Mr. Trump has invented, at least one poll showed that many supporters accept his claims. Seventy percent of Republicans surveyed by Politico and Morning Consult said they did not believe the election was free and fair.
“What we have seen in the last week from the president more closely resembles the tactics of the kind of authoritarian leaders we follow,” said Michael J. Abramowitz, the president of Freedom House, a nonprofit organization that tracks democracy around the world. “I never would have imagined seeing something like this in America.”
Mr. Abramowitz doubted there was much danger of Mr. Trump overturning the election. “But by convincing a large part of the population that there was widespread fraud, he is seeding a myth that could endure for years and contribute to an erosion of public confidence in our electoral system,” he said.
Mr. Biden has proceeded without waiting for Mr. Trump’s concession and spoke on Tuesday with the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Ireland.
Jill Schlesinger Talks Surging Dow (VIDEO)
"Stock markets got a major boost from news of Pfizer’s #coronavirus vaccine trial success, and the results from #Election2020."
Yeah, and Trump should be getting the political credit for the vaccine, but you know, the pharma-deep state coordinated with the Biden campaign to delay the news of the successful trial? I mean, c'mon, a 90 percent success rate isn't something to be hiding, that is, unless you're colluding with the Democrat-Media-Complex.
At CBS This Morning:
I'm glad my Roth IRA and 403(b) retirement funds are recovering, sheesh.
New Playmate Iryna
Thank gawd lol.
Licking wet 😱 TEXT FOR MORE here https://t.co/M03maYOVmJ pic.twitter.com/gVDoxxYCog
— playmateiryna (@IrynaIvanova) November 8, 2020
Sweaty but so tasty. TEXT here https://t.co/M03maYOVmJ pic.twitter.com/VXXjaz5pNG
— playmateiryna (@IrynaIvanova) November 9, 2020
Ms. Katie Update
On Twitter:
tell me something good pic.twitter.com/N6xXAuEyTZ
— Katie Bell🦋 (@katieeeeebell) October 10, 2020
And previously: "Wonderful Ms. Katie."
'I don't know why I'm convinced I get Mick Jagger, but this...'
According to Althouse:
This is sarcasm .... I got there via Ed Driscoll at Instapundit who doesn't seem to be reading Mick's tweet as humor, but come on.
I’m so looking forward to coming back to an America free of harsh words and name calling and be amongst people who I know have common ground and harmony. It’s a challenge but it can be done!
— Mick Jagger (@MickJagger) November 7, 2020
'My daughter has already noticed that the folks in her circle who are most into ‘activism’ of various sorts are mostly the ones whose careers and lives seem to be going the worst.” And this is certainly not a coincidence. Political “activism,” as promoted by the Left, is entirely destructive in its goals. An eternal war against an unacceptable status quo appeals to malcontents and misfits...'
That's Glenn Reynolds, quoted at the Other McCain, "The Enemies of Happiness."
Portland's antifa scum as a case in point:
Monday, November 9, 2020
'Today I Woke Up Ready to Fight'
See LoveBreedsAccountability, "FRAUD-20 Superspreader Creates Immediate Need for Ballot Testing, Testing, Testing":
Yesterday I prepared myself for the absolute worst. We are potentially at an end-times level crisis point for our nation and I needed to take a minute to process that and the implications. And, miraculously somehow, I came out the other side of yesterday feeling prepared for whatever happens. And that was important.
Because today I woke up feeling good. Today I woke up hopeful. Today I woke up unafraid.
Today I woke up ready to fight...
'Top Republicans in Washington are reluctant to call Joe Biden the president-elect publicly, fearing a rebellion by grassroots conservatives loyal to President Trump that would sink the party's Senate majority...'
From David M. Drucker, at the Washington Examiner, via Memeorandum, "GOP fears conceding Trump loss would spark base revolt and loss of seats."
RELATED: At Politico, "Pressure mounts on federal agency to affirm Biden victory:Biden cannot access government funds or communicate with federal agencies until the GSA certifies his win."
This Woman Just Invited Me for a Beer
It's Tania Gail, on Facebook. I have't seen her since CPAC 2011. She moved to Idaho and wants to go out for a beer lol.
I'll keep you posted, heh.
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