Good or Bad for the Jews

"Good or Bad for the Jews"

Many years ago, and for many years, I would travel to Morocco to visit uncles, cousins, and my paternal grandmother. Some lived in Tangiers;...

Monday, November 21, 2016

Could that be Optimism?

Regular readers of this little blog know that its aging and grumpy owner is not prone to optimism. The word "pessimism" is my default setting, much as my predictive text's default setting for that word is "possums."

I, however, might have to move off that default setting a few degrees and, at least, for a time. Look, and I hate to admit it, but I think things are getting better since that November 8 election.

We see the improvement in little things and some big ones. We have Mexico expressing willingness to take another look at NAFTA; Ford announcing that because of Trump's plans to make America more competitive, it is not moving part of its Lincoln production to Mexico; Apple is exploring moving IPhone production out of China and to the US; vast new oil discoveries in Texas just about guarantee US oil independence for years to come and prove a major blow to the already crumbling Saudi energy empire; consumer confidence is up; and, almost best of all, we see the Democrats, along with their media and Hollywood allies in something close to a total meltdown--reduced to rioting in the streets by paid brainless anarchists and hurling insults at the Vice-President-elect by overpaid brainless actors on Broadway. To my Democratic friends, let me say that I heartily encourage more of all of this. And, of course, lest we forget, we can almost certainly see the beginning of the end for the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Crime Family's money printing press. Hey, Qatar, no point in giving money to losers, right?

Trump has made some good choices for the National Security Council, the CIA, Chief of Staff, and Chief Strategist. I hope he continues on that quality glide path. I am further encouraged by the fact that all the sounds coming from the transition team seem to indicate that we have a president-elect who intends to keep his core campaign promises. We might see the end, relatively quickly, of the hideous Obamacare monstrosity; a scrapping of hundreds of Obama executive orders on immigration, environment, education, and other fields; a new tax regime; a new conservative Supreme Court; and a more common sense approach to foreign affairs. All good.

If this keeps up, I will have nothing to write about . . . anyhow, we might, might just have a Thanksgiving full of genuine hope and thanks for the first time in many years.

I shall try to restrain my possums.


36 comments:

  1. Just do what I always do. Misspell the word so badly the phone has no suggestions about what I might mean!

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  2. The spell-checker fills the role once performed by the British comedian "Professor" Stanley Unwin. I remember him from my boyhood. Deep joy!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UJZF5iRhNg

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  3. I recently read that the Obummers just bought their fifth residence ... putting them ahead of the Clintons. This suggests that our presidency has unfortunately become a guarantee of immense (and suspicious) wealth. Since Trump is already in the Croesus category, maybe this trend might be broken ... or am I being an opt moist?

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  4. I am thinking Trump is going to go with Mittens for Sec State. Not a bad choice. While I would have liked John Bolton, he may be a bridge too far.

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    1. Almost as soon as I heard this was a possibility, I took the practice FSWE online to see how hard it would be to become an FSO again. (Pretty easy, actually, as long as I remember that Democrat presidents are HEROES!) Romney would be a terrific SOS for many reasons.

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    2. No mercy for people who were already in once? I thought they might make it a tad easier for us....

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  5. Instead of "restrain my possums" shouldn't that be "retrain my possums" ?

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    1. "On the way from the Renaissance to our days we have enriched our experience, but we have lost the concept of a Supreme Complete Entity which used to restrain our possums and our irresponsibility. We have placed too much hope in political and social reforms, only to find out that we were being deprived of our most precious possession: our spiritual life. In the East, it is destroyed by the dealings and machinations of the ruling party. In the West, commercial interests tend to suffocate it. This is the real crisis."
      -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, more or less

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  6. Matt, the Seventh ReaderNovember 21, 2016 at 1:29 PM

    If improving trends leave with no comments on current events then you will finally have time to write that book we all clamor for.

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  7. Eventually, if all is well in America, you can write more about yours dogs, cars and guns as well as relating more fascinating stories from your time in SD; and I think I speak for most of your readers when I say we all enjoy those topics, and particularly the latter.

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  8. Ah, a fellow pessimist who has also seen a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. It is too dim to be an onrushing locomotive, so I will venture into the tunnel of hope.

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  9. As far as I can see, to restore somewhere near decent healthcare in the USA, all trump needs to do is:

    1) Repeal Obummercare
    2) Remove restrictive covenants which limits people from buying health insurance from within their state.

    After all, if I can live in Maine and buy a computer, a car or anything else in (say) Kalifornia, then why can't I buy healthcare anywhere either? How can it be sensible for a state line to run down the middle of a street and the people on one side of the street pay twice as much for the same healthcare as the people on the other side of the street?

    A truly free market in healthcare would do more to reduce premiums than anything else.

    Phil B

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  10. After so many broken promises from so many broken politicians I still only see possums. But there is always hope

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  11. "...reduced to rioting in the streets by paid brainless anarchists..." See, Trump is already reducing unemployment!

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  12. More tales of State Department days!

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  13. Trump just had a fabulous meeting with press magnates. I can already hear the thunder on Mt. Olympus. So far his instincts are pretty good.
    James the Lesser

    Ps. Do you really want to go back to that snakepit DOS?
    I do admit that the idea of some people at State
    having some difficulty sleeping is rather
    exhilarating !

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    1. Brother Amselem is _precisely_ the sort of FSO who should be brought (if he were willing) back into harness to assist the new SecState, whomever he/she may be.

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    2. Oh, I agree. I just wonder if he really wants to go back.
      James the Lesser

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    3. I would go back as long as I didn't have to go through a Senate confirmation

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    4. Yes, but could you work successfully in harness with/for a Mitty Mittens? He's the one #Never Trump type I find very hard to welcome into the fold. Would prefer Bolton, but can he be confirmed?
      On Watch~~~
      "Let's Roll"

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  14. I like possums! Like Badgers, they tend to be quite Conservative.

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    1. I've never eaten badger, but I have eaten masked palm civet. Hence, I'm game for badger, raccoon, possum, whatever turns its back on Heaven (I was vice consul in Guangzhou for two years).

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  15. I just heard that Trump has said he won't prosecute Hillary or her foundation. I agree. But, I did have a thought, why not have the IRS investigate them in a very public way. Now that has a lot of ironic potential.
    James the Lesser

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    1. The Justice Dept. (after 1/8/2017) should present the damaging evidence on both Bill And Hill to a grand jury ... get an indictment, full of particulars ... then Trump could pardon her base upon her bad health ... but not him. This way the history books can't lie to our grandchildren ... and he, hopefully, will spend his last days where he should have obeen located 25 years ago ... the hoosegow.

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    2. To much to do rather than go after the Clintons. Besides, their life will be so much more fun for us to watch...no Power? No more money being filtered through the Foundation. How long until it goes insolvent? Hillary gets to live out her days having not fulfilled her self proclaimed destiny. An ego that large getting crushed is a joyous sight. Gotta wonder what Huma plans to do for employment now. And poor Bill. Now he has to figure out how he can get Hillary out of the house so he can continue his trysts. And finally...Chelsea. Sorry kid, no selected Congressional career for you. And I doubt anymore "news agencies" will be willing to shell out millions to get inside access to the Loser in Chief.

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    3. I now hear that Clinton is being pressured to challenge results in three states by shadowy "computer experts". I wonder if the recent non investigation meme from Trump has anything to do with this? Challenge and lose (which is more than likely) we come after you. Also, if you really want ot see the US in an uproar politically go ahead and do this, the reaction will be furious. I can't even imagine the reaction if something like this is successful.
      James the Lesser

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    4. Electronic voting is a travesty for our republic and must be stopped.....in the next election cycle. It's quite to late for past elections, of course.
      We're have the resources to perform manual voting, we've just got to do it.

      There simply is no reasonable way to guard against electronic ballot stuffing. We can verify a lot with crypto, but not stuffing.

      - reader #1482

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    5. So the Clinton crime family slips Jill Stein a few mill to challange the results in three states ... just so their finger prints won't be on things. Sleezy for them, sleezier for her.

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    6. It's far too late now. Blood will run freely in the streets if the establishment steroid in to protect itself now. But from the appointments so far, the establishment can't really be too upset. If Trump and the gang are truly committed to congressional term limits we'll see a fight like we haven't since the 1860's, I suspect.

      - reader #1482

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    7. Feh,steps in, not steroids

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  16. I had an internet friend go on a meltdown on Facebook last night. I really could not believe it. She's recently been on two cruises and now says that she doesn't think she can travel with Trump taking office. She's afraid because she is 1)a daughter of a legal Hispanic immigrant 2) fat (yes, she included this), 3) has a lesbian daughter. I told her that she was being hysterical, as were her friends that cropped up to tell me that I was wrong. The woman even suggested Trump might put up death camps for women that get an illegal abortion. I simply can't fathom the mind set that can get worked up like this. I sent her a link to the Trump proposals and asked her to show me where it mentioned the death camps.

    But I really wanted to send her this: https://youtu.be/NxlrGDuk50o

    (And for anyone that thinks the CEO of Penzeys is a jerk: thespicehouse.com. It's run by his sister and she does not mix politics with business.)

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  17. Your friend's daughter was almost certainly molested when she was a child.

    Then she was raised by a fat hysteric.

    But they have enough dough to go on repeated cruises.

    This describes a fair chunk of the electorate these days.

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    1. Her family has a successful business. I usually just try and stay out of it, but I just don't feel like dealing with hysterics right now. If you have an adult woman behaving like that publicly, it sort of supports the argument that women shouldn't vote ;)

      The thing that really kills me is that her daughter and her partner went to Germany for a year. I would have been completely stressed out about that, but it would mean that you would have to acknowledge the possibility of harm by one of their immigrants.

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    2. The Facebook friend has a susceptible liberal mind it seems? International travel can require a clear mind and a grasp of fast moving situations. "Liberal mind" is almost an oxymoron. Dangerous in the hands of an adult.

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  18. I scrolled down all the comments and no one mentioned grabbing anything by the possum? Sheeesh !

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