Obama & Russia: Gulf of Tonkin, Redux?

Lots of excited tweets and press reporting about Russian "hacking," and Obama's "tough" actions against the Soviet Russian diplomatic presence in the USA. The State Department has ordered 35 Russian personnel out of the US, declaring them PNG, and shut down two large Russian owned compounds one on Long Island, New York, and the other in Centreville, Maryland. In its last three weeks in office, Obama's misadministration suddenly discovered that Russia spies on us, that many of Russia's diplomats are actually spies, and that those two compounds, owned by the USSR and Russia for decades, are used for "espionage." Ask the folks at Aberdeen Proving Grounds about that Maryland compound.

Wow! I guess Romney was right when he worried about the 1980's being back, eh?

There's a lot to say on all of this, but I will only say a bit--many others out there smarter than I are writing a lot about this. I am, however, just taken, really quite impressed, in fact, by how patriotic and national security conscious the Dems and the progs, in general, have suddenly become. Suddenly (there's that word, again) American security and sovereignty are at the top of prog and media concerns. They demand respect--Demand it, I tell you!--for the office of the President and his sole prerogative on foreign policy matters. We only have one President at a time, we are reminded whenever Trump's camp comments on anything having to do with foreign affairs. Those of us skeptical of some or much of the Russian "hacking" tale, get told that we have to believe the President and to stop siding with the evil Putin. I have to wonder if that will be the same line taken after January 20? Will Obama respect that admonition?

But, I digress, we have Commies Russkies to hunt down!

Re the "hacking," The Hill has published the FBI/DHS report on the matter. There are lots of people much better equipped than I to analyze it, BUT let me just note that on reading that report, I don't think it really makes the case. There are a lot of assertions but no real proof. Well, first it's not clear what the case is it is trying to make. Is it trying to convince us that Russia spies on the USA? Hey, Elmer, does the sun rise in the east? There are some interesting expositions on Soviet/Russian espionage techniques and history, and some flat assertions, but nothing that comes near being a smoking gun. Maybe that's in a more classified version of this investigation, and we will just have to wait, but for now, the "proof" is rather skimpy if the charge is the Russians "hacked" our elections in an effort to throw them to one side. As the report itself seems to indicate, access was gained to the DNC computers via an "old fashioned" phishing scheme that got a senior official (John Podesta, it seems) to give away his password and other information to "hackers" who then used his email account to gain access to the DNC. That's kind of a standard, run-of-the-mill Nigerian-Romanian-Chinese-Russian, etc. method. Anyhow, read the report; those more technically savvy than I can try to convince me that the proof is there for the accusation of Russian state "hacking" of our election.

As I have said MANY times, I am perfectly willing to accept, if for no other reason, on the basis of my own nearly 34 years in the Foreign Service, that Russian state actors engage in espionage and influence operations against and in the USA, Canada, UK, Australia, Germany, France, Italy, and elsewhere. I also am quite willing to believe that this administration has proven notably passive and inept in responding to Russian, Chinese, Iranian, Cuban, and North Korean penetrations of our computers and nets, both public and private. I also must wonder if all this "tough" response would be happening if Hillary had won the elections? Kinda doubt it.

One additional problem is that I am old enough to remember the actions of another Democratic President, the late LBJ, and the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which opened the door for our massive involvement in Vietnam, a place of no particular strategic or economic importance to us. There were a lot of creative accounts of the Gulf of Tonkin incident, not to say "lies" coming from the White House and Pentagon. I also recall many of the same people now demanding that we believe Obama as sitting in the front rows of the "Bush lied!" chorus when it came to our intervention in Iraq in search of WMDs. In that case, however, I would note that Bush did not lie; he relied on the intel provided him with great unanimity by agencies not just within our government but from around the world. Let's just agree that intel is not a settled science, it is subject to interpretation, and, of course, to political manipulation.

Let me note yet another problem I have: This particular administration is not known for truth-telling. The examples of outright lies by Obama and his people come tumbling out with the gentlest of pokes at the Great Prog Piñata: Obamacare, Benghazi, Iran Deal, Solyndra, Fast and Furious, job number reports, policy on Israel, etc. This is not a group of "folks" with an impressive record for telling the truth or for being concerned about our security and sovereignty. Suddenly they are doing both? Nah, still ain't buying it.

Happy New Year.

Uneventful Days

The holidays have so far proven uneventful in the Diplomad household. Lots of kids and their significant others, one granddaughter, and a new .45 cal 1911 Colt Commander enlivened the otherwise totally humdrum nature of our holidaying. Took the Commander to the range with one of my sons. It shot nicely, but I did have problems with one of the two magazines that came with it. The beast sticks when empty and is very hard to eject. On several occasions, it also failed to keep the slide open after the last round. Couple of misfeeds, too. It was just that one mag, so I retired it and bought a couple of Wilson Combat magazines (10 rounds); they seem to slide in and out quite nicely and I look forward to trying them out at the range in a couple of days.

Nearly gave the Diplowife a heart attack this evening when at dinner I announced that I would buy a 1965 Mustang. She raised hell, so, ever the clever negotiator, I dropped that proposed purchase and laid out "alternate plans" for a .357 Mag S&W Performance Center Model 627-5. The Diplowife, relieved that I would not bring home yet another "smelly old" car, quickly gave consent to this purchase. Hey, at times I do know how to negotiate! I will check out a couple of local gun stores tomorrow and see what they have on offer. We'll see if I fork out that kind of money or not.

I still remain livid over the Obama stunt in the Middle East. He is determined to undermine our one stable democratic ally in the region, Israel, and make the US irrelevant to that part of the world. He wants Trump to fail. Never in my lifetime have I seen that region in greater turmoil and Western policy and influence in more disrepair and disregard. I want, with our energy independence policy, to make the Middle East irrelevant to us; I do not want us to be irrelevant to the Middle East. There's a difference.

If nothing else I hope (forlorn?) that Obama's betrayal of Israel, driven by his leftist, pro-Muslim, anti-semitism, serves as a wake up call to America's dopey secular Jewish voters. They seem beyond all hope and just cannot bring themselves to dump the Democratic Party.

OK, I am going to try to finish watching a mixed up mess of a movie, "The Hollow Point," which is some Hollywood nonsense about bullet smuggling from US gun stores to Mexican cartels. Totally absurd, but I rented the movie, so . . .

Happy New Year to all in Year One of Trump.

Obama & Israel, "The hand that held the dagger . . . "

Another date that will live in infamy, December 23.

On that date, to borrow and update a phrase from FDR's famous June 10, 1940 speech on Mussolini's declaration of war on France, "The hand that held the dagger has stuck it into the back of" Israel.

Our execrable Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, abstained on the UN Security Council Resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the "occupied" territories (text.) This is not just another UN anti-Israeli resolution joining the ranks of thousands of previous ones.

Security Council resolutions are tantamount to international law. This one states,

Condemning all measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, including, inter alia, the construction and expansion of settlements, transfer of Israeli settlers, confiscation of land, demolition of homes and displacement of Palestinian civilians, in violation of international humanitarian law and relevant resolutions, 

Expressing grave concern that continuing Israeli settlement activities are dangerously imperilling the viability of the two-State solution based on the 1967 lines . . .

The Western countries that voted for this resolution should be deeply ashamed of what they have done. They will be seen as cowards by the Muslim world. This will not prevent any jihadi attacks in Europe, and, probably, will encourage them. They should also remember that there already is a two state solution: Israel and Jordan.

For decades, the US has used its veto power in the Security Council to stop these sorts of resolutions. We have, in private, expressed concern to the Israelis about overly "aggressively" establishing settlements  outside of the 1967 lines, but have never really pushed too hard. Previous administrations realized that the settlements were not holding up a "comprehensive peace treaty" between Israel and those sworn to destroy it, and by the way, western civilization, too.

We will see Israelis, private individuals and public officials, haled before courts in PC EU Europe and the ICC for living in "occupied territories." Those territories include, of course, eastern Jerusalem, or what used to be called the Jewish Quarter until 1948 when the Jews living there were expelled by Jordan's Army, and Jewish access to the Wailing Wall prevented. Israel, furthermore, continues as the only country not allowed to pick its own capital, and forced to consider a large portion of it off-limits to its own citizens.

Obama allowed this resolution to pass out of cowardly spite--notice he didn't even have the guts to vote for it, just to vote the equivalent of "present," much as he has done for most of his political career.

President Obama detests PM Netanyahu, and clearly has bought into the leftist view of Israel as a Western imperialist outpost, and, in essence, the cause of the current global jihadi explosion. This resolution will do nothing to further peace and, in fact, will make it harder as the so-called Palestinians will now see that they do not have to talk to Israel, they just have to come running to New York.

A reading of the resolution also shows that Obama has sought to throw a land mine in the path of incoming President Trump who had vowed to move our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In theory, by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel then the US would be in violation of the Security Council resolution as we would have helped alter the "status of the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967."

What can Trump do?

He has a ranges of options. First, of course, join Israel in saying we do not recognize the validity of the Resolution; since we "ONLY" abstained, we don't feel bound by its strictures. Second, we should move our embassy to Jerusalem. Third, we should make it very clear that we are ready to defund the UN if this is not repealed.

Readers of this blog know my long-standing position that we should get out of the UN. As Britain has left the EU, so should we leave the UN.

Pearl Clutching Amidst a "New Arms Race"

Russian leader Vladimir Putin declared that Russia would seek to boost its military potential including its nuclear weapons. Not long after President-elect Trump announced that the US should do so, too, and that, furthermore, if Russia or anybody else wants to get into an arms race with us, so be it (N.B.: pun on "Soviet," I know, I know). We can outlast anybody in such a race.

As those of you who bother to dip into the progressive swimming pool can attest, the mainstream media and the chatterers are getting the vapors over the thought of a Third World War! Trump has really done it now! His finger is on the button!

All this reminds me of the 1984 election when every morning I would leave my house in northern Virginia, and see my neighbor's car plastered with stickers that read, "Reagan '84, World War 85." I guess I missed the nuclear holocaust that befell us because I spent most of the 1980's overseas.

Once again, the progs demonstrate either their deep hatred for America or their incredible naiveté when it comes to global affairs. They do not understand, apparently, the concept of peace through strength.

You know who does? Putin does.

A few hours after Trump's announcements, Putin was downplaying the issue, saying he looked forward to visiting Washington. He even sent Trump a Christmas card.

Putin knows, as did his Soviet predecessors, that it does no good for his country to get into that sort of a confrontation with the United States (and the West) when the US is presided over by a determined patriot who understands power and negotiations.

I am going to go out on a limb here and make a bold prediction: there will be no war with Russia in 2017. In fact, we have an opportunity, unless it's ruined by US domestic politics, to get Russian cooperation in the war against terror. As a Jewish former US diplomat, I would love to see the world's two most powerful Christian countries work together to defeat the jihadis and counterbalance China's global pretensions.

Merry Christmas to one and all.

Is There No End to the Progressive Insanity?

As we denizens of the northern hemisphere head into the darkest days of the year (Curse you sunny Australia!), we find that the progressive insanity intensifies: It goes on and on. Not since the heyday of the communists and their soul mates, the nazis, have we seen such a concerted assault on democracy and the free expression of opinions and will.

Here in our now very bedraggled and beleaguered US of A, the electoral results of November 8 have launched the progressive elites into far outer space; blood and brain deprived of oxygen in the vacuum, they writhe, thrash and smash. I have written several pieces about this progressive phenomenon, but allow me to dwell just a little more on the subject. I find it fascinating.

The progs whom I know, and, of course, the prog-run media and the hordes of prog politicos, entertainers, pundits, and other members of the prog-dominated chattering class, had assumed, nay, incorporated into their very being the belief that Donald Trump would never get elected President. He was just a humoruos buffoon who had nothing to say to America, not anything of any value, that is. The American electorate would follow the lead and exhortations of their betters and reject the "orange monster."

Hillary Clinton, the progs anointed champion in this go-round, therefore, ran an arrogant, aloof, lazy, almost lackadaisical campaign, that ignored certain realities, e.g., the electoral college, the growing anger in the country, and just assumed that the same crowd who voted in Obama would do so again--and this time, extra bonus points, the progressive candidate had a vagina! The progs tried to laugh off and ignore Clinton's serious crimes, lack of ethics, and long track record of producing nothing except wealth for herself. Her lack of a message to the voters was ignored as irrelevant since "everybody knew" what Hillary stood for, and besides, look at whom she was running against (snort, chuckle). She trotted out the tired prog cliches, showing no particular enthusiasm for them, and made only the bare minimum of public appearances before markedly unenthusiastic gatherings. She seemed to show enthusiasm and energy only when appearing before elite gatherings of wealthy Hollywood donors where she spoke of Trump's supporters as "deplorables" and "irredeemables." Then the night of November 8 rolled around. The cocky arrogance, the DNC directed violence at Trump rallies, the dominance of the media, the expenditure of over $1.2 billion, the slick adverts, and the massive popular vote electoral fraud could not produce a win. Trump was elected, and elected the old fashioned way: hard work, targeting the areas most affected by the insanity of the Obama years, and--horrors!--by actually listening to the concerns of voters.

For many of us, the images of Hillary supporters melting down in tears and wails proved priceless. Then the fury began anew. First, the demands for recounts in three states critical for Trump's win. That quickly fell apart as the recounts showed Trump GAINING votes and began to reveal the extent of the Democrats electoral fraud in places such as Detroit, calling into question one of Hillary's proud claims that, at least, she had won the popular vote. Then, suddenly, the Democrats became interested in the Constitution, Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers, and the electoral college. With the complicity of a compliant mainstream media, they launched an absurd campaign to get 37 electors of the electoral college (out of Trump's 306 electors) to "vote their conscience," deny Trump the needed 270 votes, and, therefore, reject Trump as president. We had paraded before us an elector from Texas who gained fifteen minutes of fame by claiming that he knew of "at least" 20 other Republican electors ready to dump Trump and throw the election to Congress. The progs tried to sway the electors with violence, appeals to their patriotism and deep devotion to the Constitution. They wheeled out the usual tired Hollywood celebrities and "passionate" activists, whom the voters on November 8 already had rejected. These new patriots suddenly became incensed over alleged Russian efforts to influence our election! Mexico's efforts? Not so much . . . In the end, the "at least" 20 ready to reject Trump turned out to be two, and--Oh, endless joy!--FIVE electors previously pledged to Clinton jumped ship and voted for Colin Powell, Bernie Sanders, and--my favorite--Faith Spotted Eagle. It seems another two or three would have joined the defection from Hillary except that their state laws did not allow them. Not yet resigned to defeat, progs in Congress now talk about drafting legislation to ensure Trump's impeachment on day one if he doesn't divest himself of all his business interests . . . yawn.

I am sure on January 20 they will seek to disrupt the inauguration with their usual crowd of flag-burning, white-male-hating misfits. Our battle against our progs will be a long one.

Overseas, we see, yet again, another disaster produced by progressivism and its Molotov-Ribbentrop pact with Islam.

In Germany, governed by Angela Merkel, who competes with Obama and Trudeau for the gold medal as the stupidest Western politician, we have seen another slaughter of innocents by--ready for it?--a Muslim asylum seeker, this time apparently from Tunisia. He, it seems, murdered a Polish truck driver, seized his truck, and headed for a Berlin open-air Christmas market packed with happy shoppers. He slammed the truck into the crowd killing about a dozen people, adding yet another dozen names to the list of Westerners killed by Islam and its useful idiot enablers in the West. I hope the Germans get furious and end Merkel's destructive political career before she and her like end what remains of Europe.

In Turkey, of course, we have seen the assassination of the Russian ambassador. For some reason I doubt that either Putin or Lavrov will shrug and say, "What difference does it make?" I am sure Putin will find time from "faking" Podesta and Brazile emails to ensure that somebody is going to feel a world of hurt. The PC culture does not survive in Moscow.

Yes, the days up north are getting shorter, but soon that will change, and I can only hope that Trump is as bad as the progressives make him out to be and our political darkness also begins to lift.

This might be our last chance.

Intel Agencies and Russian Intent: Ain't Buying it

Quick one.

There's all sorts of press reporting out there that now--surprise!--our myriad intelligence agencies, the same ones that refused to brief Congress, have reached a unified conclusion that not only did the Russians hack into the DNC, they did it with the INTENT of making Donald Trump president.

Yes, about that bridge you want to buy, please sign right here and have the money wired to my account . .  .

We saw our fearless president in one of his rambling, seemingly endless press conferences, continue to try to stick the shiv into Trump's ribs. All sorts of nonsense of how he stood up to Putin on Russian hacking some months ago and told him to "cut it out." Right. And that after those blood-curdling words from the American president, we saw a decline and maybe even a stop to Russian hacking efforts . . . right. Obama, of course, told us that the intel agencies had concluded that the Russian goal was to make Trump president . . . right.

Don't buy it.

I have been around intel agencies and intel briefings almost my entire adult life. Most intel is garbage. Some of it is very good but that usually is very narrowly focussed and has to do with hard facts: e.g., "Army divisions X and Y have been put on alert and all leaves cancelled." The intent? Ah, well, that's a matter for conjecture and speculation unless--extremely rare--you have a reliable source right inside the other guy's highest and most inner circle who can tell you what is being said and planned for those divisions. As I said, very rare.

Just days ago, as noted, the heads of our intel agencies declined to send briefers to Congress to provide the intel on Russian hacking of the elections. Leaked reports indicated that the FBI and CIA were at logger-heads over the issue of Russian hacking. Now, suddenly, unanimity. Right.

Now, suddenly, we know the Russians, under direct orders from Putin, hacked with the intent of turning the election over to Trump.

Fake news.

Don't forget that this odious misadministration has a long track record of fiddling with intel. Political pressure was brought, for example, to declare us as winning against ISIS, when the intel showed we were not. The CIA and others were forced to find that climate change is a greater threat than terror.

Look, the Russians and Chinese and others have been running intel and misinformation operations against us and our allies for decades. This Obama administration has taken a very soft stance on all of this, up until Hillary Clinton lost the election on November 8. Suddenly, the administration, Hollywood, the media, and, of course, the Democratic political class are in a patriotic uproar over foreign intervention in our elections. Prior to those elections we were assured by Obama and minions that our system was solid as a rock and that it could not be tampered with.

What happened to change things? Clinton lost. That was not supposed to happen! Now, suddenly, our election system is highly vulnerable AND our whole election, it is more than implied, has been thrown to Trump by these foreign actors.

Take it from me: this is bogus. The intel agencies know nothing of the kind. They might be able to say we have been subjected to hacking, I am sure we have, but the intel lads and lassies have no idea beyond speculation, much of it politically motivated, as to what the Russians or others intended. In addition, is there any evidence that shows that blue collar workers in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, etc., voted for Trump based on the information "provided" by the Russians?

We have a situation today wherein the media and Obama seek to get us to forget what the "hacks," be they Russian or otherwise, revealed. I would note that the Russians did not make Hillary put an illegal unsecure private server in her bathroom closet and stuff it with highly sensitive information. The Russians did not make DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz try to rig the primaries against Bernie Sanders. The Russians did not have CNN personnel passing presidential debate questions to the Hillary camp, and on and on.

Is there foreign interference in our elections? You bet.

The biggest offender? Not Russia, but Mexico. Mexican officials publicly called on Mexicans in the US to oppose Trump; Mexico's over fifty--yes, fifty--consulates in the US (here) are hot beds of political activity and activism. Millions of illegal and legal aliens largely from Mexico and Central America vote, yes vote. We need to have an in-depth investigation into Mexico's interference in our elections, an interference that goes well beyond revealing embarrassing DNC texts.

There. That's an investigation the GOP should endorse, and the new SecState should take up the issue of Mexican interference in our elections.

A Few Words on The Cabinet

I was going to write about the progressives completely losing their minds and their masks as they carry on a mad onslaught to undo the results of November 8. I was going to write about how progressivism has revealed itself, yet again, as nothing but an "ideology" that demands power, power over individuals and their choices. I may yet write that piece but for now, let's take a quick look at President-elect Trump's main choices for his cabinet.

I like the cabinet he has picked and hope they all get confirmed quickly and without too much fuss.

I am full of hope that his SecState Tillerson, SecEnergy Perry, and EPA Administrator Pruitt will work together to spearhead achievement of what I consider one of the very top priorities for our country: US energy independence. These three are no-nonsense guys with a deep understanding of the energy business and an appreciation for how unleashing the tremendous energy potential that exists in the US--oil, gas, coal, nuclear--would give a tremendous boost not only to our economy across virtually all fields of endeavor, but also to our ability to act on the international scene.

One of the most amazing and not very remarked upon developments in recent years has been the almost total collapse of OPEC thanks largely to the American fracking revolution. As I have noted in prior postings (e.g., here, here, here, and here) DESPITE Obama misadministration opposition to US energy development, the US, thanks to its innovative private sector, stands on the verge of energy independence, something not seen for at least the past sixty or so years. The new administration, one in which adults are finally in charge, must ensure that we have government policies that allow that very welcome development to continue. Let me repeat, nothing could have a bigger, more positive, and more immediate impact on our economy and global standing than finally turning the US from being an energy importer into an energy exporter. No other single step, short of nuclear war, I guess, would have a more dramatic impact upon our foes and rivals in the world than have US oil and gas production become and remain a major player in the world oil and gas market. The impact would be felt in the ability of certain states to finance terrorism, e.g., Saudi Arabia, Iran, and in other states to finance dangerous international adventures, e.g., Russia, Venezuela. With the threat of energy blackmail removed, the US would have its international options dramatically increased.

I also like the choice of General Mattis for SecDef and General Kelly for Homeland Security.

The morale of my military friends has jumped northward quite significantly since Trump announced his choice for Defense. Mattis a man with a deep philosophical understanding of warfare, and, of course, a deep personal and practical experience with conducting modern warfare. He knows how to use military power, and the limits of that power.

Kelly will have his hands full trying to restore some semblance of sanity and sound operating principles to the Department of Homeland Security. DHS is a poorly cobbled together mishmash of disparate agencies with no clear guidance form the top as to what exactly they are supposed to do. Along with Defense, State, and so many other agencies, DHS needs a major reduction in size and refocussing of its mission on core issues.

OK. That's enough for now. I am feeling just a little TOO optimistic--and optimism is not my natural state--so I have to go to the gun range and embarrass myself.

Russia Throws the Election to Trump?

The Democrats continue to seek the cause of their November 8, 2016 defeat.

It reminds me of when we have an attack by a self-avowed Islamist terrorist, screaming Islamist slogans, possessing a computer full of ISIS propaganda AND enjoying the endorsement of ISIS. Such attacks are inevitably followed by anguished PC law enforcement authorities telling us how they are seeking a motive for the attack . . . some times a cigar IS a cigar. So we now see that the Democrats live in a land with no mirrors and must busily search for the culprit of their otherwise inexplicable electoral loss.

We've heard a variety of explanations. Let's start with Hillary did not really lose since the majority of "Americans" voted for her. The first thing to note, of course, is that almost half of Americans did not vote. Second, we should note that the Dems obviously do not live where the US Constitution holds sway since the presidential election is won or lost in the electoral college not by racking up popular vote totals  . . . that same Constitution, by the way, does not mention separation of church and state nor the right to abortion, but does rather explicitly recognize the right of the people to keep and bear arms . . . Moving on from that, we have, of course, millions of fraudulent votes; one day I hope we have a thorough investigation of that and a revamping of our insanely lax voting laws so that we can stop counting votes by foreigners, deceased people, and those who cast multiple ballots. We saw a glimpse of the fraud in the "recount" launched in Michigan when many thousands of votes in Detroit could not be recounted. Ah, yes, Detroit that hub of Republicanism . . .

Then, of course, we have heard from Clinton campaign gurus that they lost because of the FBI, then because Trump played the race card by appealing to white voters. Yes, of course! How blind of me not to see that race was critical in determining whether white voters went for the Democratic 70-year-old white candidate or they went for the Republican 70-year-old white candidate . . . race explains it all.  Misogyny? Yes, that explains why no women voted for Trump. Oh, wait. They did. And on and on . . .

Now they have latched onto an ol' standby, Moscow did it! The party that spent decades telling us to chill it on the anti-Red posturing--the same party, after all, that put Stalinist tool, Henry Wallace into the vice-presidency--and telling us that the USSR posed no threat, that we should seek detente with the Kremlin, that, we should note, the USSR had free medical care and education . . . Well, those folks are now obsessed with Putin. Yes, Putin, who heads up a country some 1.6 million square miles smaller than the old USSR, with a population of less than half the size of the old USSR, and a GDP less than one-tenth that of the USA . . well, he is the threat. In fact, we now have a whole media chorus claiming that Putin threw the US election to Donald Trump, and citing vague unnamed CIA sources as evidence.

I have written before about Putin and made clear I don't like his style of rule--authoritarian gangster--and I don't think we should blindly trust Moscow. That said, I have noted that Putin is a much more effective leader than Obama and has played his much poorer hand masterfully and at a level far above that of Obama-Kerry-Clinton. Putin has re-established Moscow as a major world power thanks, in large part, to the ineptness of Washington, London, Paris, Berlin, Ottawa, etc., in furthering and protecting Western interests. Obama has gutted our military, helped neuter NATO, opposed US energy independence, and prevented the USA from leading the fight against Islamist terror. Obama and company have made the world a much better place for Moscow and Beijing to pursue their interests at the expense of ours.

I have no doubt that Moscow and Beijing have no problem fiddling with our computer systems, stealing information, and trying to create as much havoc as possible. They've done that for decades and we need to be much more energetic in stopping them. But did Putin want Trump to win? Why? Not clear to me. Yes, Trump has made favorable nosies about seeking an alliance with Russia against Islamist terror, but he also has promised--and I believe he will keep that promise--to revitalize our military and industry and promote American energy independence, including, of course, fracking and other fossil fuel development in the USA--a devastating prospect for Russia's oil-based economy. The power balance will swing back to the US in a way it would not had Hillary and her cohorts taken power.

In conclusion, did Putin throw the election? I very much doubt it. I doubt those blue collar workers in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio, etc., were marching to the beat laid down by Moscow. Hillary and her cohorts engaged in unethical and illegal activities which came to light and the people did not like those activities. Hillary was promising those voters a continuation of the Obama economy and of the Obama brand of soul-crushing progressivism. The Russians did not create the shady Clinton Foundation, although they gave generously to it and got access to US uranium in exchange, the Russians did not have Hillary put highly sensitive material on her private server, they did not have the DNC pass debate questions to Hillary, they did not . . . . well, you can fill in the blanks.

Fake News and Buggy Whip Makers

Fake news! Wow!

This is very serious. Don't laugh. The progs are atwitter, gasping, and clutching their pearls over the scourge of "fake news"!

Go ahead, type in the words "fake news" in your search bar and you will get a flood of stories about "fake news," its pernicious influence on the 2016 elections, on your brain's ability to function, and, of course, lots of advice on how to avoid "fake news" which basically comes down to read only the establishment media.

Somewhere, George Orwell is laughing.

Let's start with the obvious.

"Fake news" has been round since history began. "Fake news," you know, what your grandmother used to call lies . . . not a recent invention. And, I am not just referring to governmental or other avowedly political propaganda--we are not just talking about Hitler, Stalin, and Kim Jung-Un. Much of history, of course, is routinely denounced as "fake," or one-sided, or "the victor's account." We have a whole university-intellectual-media complex devoted to deconstructing historical accounts and rewriting them. So this is nothing new. Every generation rewrites the past. The heroes of yesterday are the villains of today, and vice-versa. Nothing new.

While this is nothing new, the progressives and their media acolytes have got what they think is a way of explaining progressivism's string of defeats in recent months, including, of course, the election of Donald Trump. So the progs do what they always do: lie, insult, berate, and, above all, try to silence the voices of dissent, all in the name of truth. If you disagree with the progressives you are a racist, a misogynist, an Islamophobic nutcase, and, now, you are a promoter of "fake news."

I have written before about how progressives try to redefine words and make them tools of progressivism. I have also written before about how progressive "journalists"feel compelled to lie and distort in their pursuit of "truth." The clamor about "fake news" is another manifestation of the totalitarian impulse in progressive thought and action, and, of course, another manifestation of the willful blindness they practice when confronted by an otherwise inexplicable narrative. As we see, "fake news" is defined as that which does not comply with the progressive narrative; "fake news" is a depiction of events that does not support the prefabricated progressive vision of the world.

Look at what the mainstream media terms as the purveyors of "fake news" and you will almost inevitably see a list of conservative commentators. I would be honored to be on that list.

As I wrote before when discussing the progressive fabulist Brian Williams,

he is a hero and a product of the Hollywood-University-Media complex which has done so much irreparable damage to our nation and Western civilization. 

Williams joins the ranks of other progressive "journalists" such as, 

Dan Rather, who tried to throw an American election by pushing a patently false story about George W. Bush; 

Janet Cook, who concocted a much-awarded narrative of an eight-year-old heroin addict; 

Jayson Blair, who fabricated a number of much-commented on stories for the New York Times; 

Sabrina Erdely of Rolling Stone who spread the UVA fake rape story; 

and, of course, who could forget, The Lord of Them All, Commissar in Chief Walter Duranty, New York Times apologist extraordinaire for Joseph Stalin and his mass murders in Ukraine. 

Now, of course, we have many more recent additions to that list. Should we not name as "fake news" the lachrymose Ferguson tale of "Hands up! Don't shoot!" How about the lurid accounts of the Zimmerman shooting? How about the Baltimore killer cops? How about . . . well, you get it.

The progressive overlords of the dying traditional media outlets strike me as akin to the owners of the last buggy whip factory railing against the flood of Model T's pouring from the assembly lines of Henry Ford. As happened with buggy whips, which became nothing more than an ornament on some car owner's wall, so it is with the old progressive media destined to serve as liner for the bottom of our bird cages.

Oh, and by the way, just to end on an even happier note, I bought a 1911 Colt Commander today. It, apparently, will be among the very last Colt 1911s sent by Colt to California. Beautiful gun; got to wait ten days, however, and must pick it up before the new year. The gun store, I would note, was a hive of optimism as customers and employees commented on the victory of Donald Trump.

Progressive Head Explosion Number 979,564 . . . and Counting

Yep.

Those nasty air-filled prog heads continue to explode in reaction to President-elect Donald Trump's refusal to be just another politico.

The latest skull pop resulted from President-elect Trump taking a congratulatory call last Friday (December 2) from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen--please note, a democratically elected woman, no less. One would think that in this ten-minute call, the President-elect had agreed to give Apple, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft to Taiwan.

The press and some of my old colleagues at State are all abuzz that Trump has "violated" diplomatic protocol which holds that we do not recognize Taiwan and that only Beijing has a claim to governing China. This hoary protocol dates from the ancient mists of time . . . well, no, it dates from 1979 when Carter--our second-worst President--officially switched us to a One China policy, and ended formal diplomatic relations with Taipei (we still have an Institute there which for all practical purposes is an embassy.)

You know what else dates from the Carter era?

The terrorist and murdering regime of Iranian Ayatollahs, that's what. Yes, the very same ones with whom Obama has been playing kissy face--letting them have a nuclear weapon capability PLUS some $150 billion (at least) in frozen assets and renewed international respectability without demanding anything solid in return. For that "deal," of course, the progs hailed Obama as a hero, as a man who defies convention. The same thing with Cuba, of course, wherein Obama has given away our leverage over that execrable and dying regime in exchange for . . . well, not much, if anything.

But, let Trump talk to a democratically elected official from a place with which we do all sorts of business and whom we are pledged to defend . . . and POW!

I tire of the stooooooopidity . . . Go Trump!

Progressive Heads Continue to Explode

Sitting in my hotel room in NoCal listening to the news. The progs just can't help themselves. I am going to file a complaint with OSHA and EPA as I am starting to go deaf from the sound of prog heads exploding.

Where to start? How about with air conditioning?

The progs can't stand that Trump-Pence got Carrier to keep over 1000 jobs in Indiana instead of moving them to Mexico. Suddenly the progs are concerned about government interfering in the decisions of private companies. OK. Got it. The progs who have written an infinite number of  laws, regulations and programs that do precisely that, are now concerned that Trump used the power of the progressive state to benefit 1000 workers and do something that Obama and company did not have the creativeness or gumption to do. The bottom line is that over 1000 American workers who were seeing their jobs shipped away, now will see those jobs stay. The progs and the libertarian purists can argue all they want about the interference with a private company's decision but the bottom line remains that 1000 working and taxpaying Americans have had their jobs saved by a man who is not even yet president.

The progs have created a political and economic system that is increasingly hostile to free enterprise here at home while at the same time, with conservative Republican support, have established an international trade regime that encourages those companies to leave the country. Companies have been forced to make a rational decision within an irrational system. Trump promises to restore our system so that it is one that restores our country to its once formidable position as the home of free enterprise and creativity. We'll see, but for now I remain guardedly optimistic.

Meanwhile, I am going to get some good sound suppressing headphones. Got to save what is left of my hearing.

Hitting the Road

Our annual road trip to northern California is coming up. We will be loading up the ol' Expedition and heading up to the Sacramento area to hang out with my son, his wife, and their daughter. Somewhere I read that that makes me a grandfather, but I believe nothing in the media since I consider myself still 25 years old . . . .

I will have the ancient IPAD with me, for what good that does. So might write something or another, but can't promise it. Don't worry you'll get a refund.

Before I sign off, I must say, yet again, that I am feeling optimistic about Pres-elect Trump. He has picked some good people--I think Pence, in particular, is showing his worth--and he seems bound and determined to live up to his promises on Obamacare, tax reform, etc. I was impressed with how he followed up with Carrier and got them to stay in the USA instead of moving their plant to Mexico. I also think his "thank you" tour is a superb idea and shows that he has not forgotten the folks who elected him. He also shows a remarkable ability to troll the left with his tweets and to expose them for the hypocrites and low-info people they are. Masterful.

OK. On my way . . . well, in a couple of hours--after I watch some sic-fi on TV. Since I met the inventor of the time machine, I have been hopelessly addicted to time travel movies and books.  

Tough Times to be a Progressive

Progs are having a hard time with their narrative.

Events, i.e., facts, conspire against them.

Let's start our happy trip with November 8, although we really should start with Brexit (and here), but let me keep it close to home, for now.

Trump won the election for President, "fair-and-square," as once was said in this country. He followed the rules of the game, and won. He has 306 electoral votes; well over the required 270. For those progs and other low-info whiners crying about the popular vote, let me make a couple of points. In our country, the country established way, way back in something called the 18th century by really, really smart and brave Brits, we have a unique system of electing our presidents--and it works.

Our presidential election system has, in effect, 51 elections--46 states, four Commonwealths, and one District of Columbia. Each one of those "little" elections has electors assigned to it equal to the number of representatives it has in both houses of Congress; each state (in general) grants it electors to the winning candidate within its boundaries. Since we currently have 538 members in that Congress, a winning candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win. The idea of the now much-maligned electoral college is to serve as part of the intricate system of checks-and-balances that this band of really, really smart Brits instituted to avoid tyrannies by either a minority OR by a majority. Everybody gets a voice, regardless of whether they are big or little. Dear progs, please look at the UN that you love so much: every country there gets the same vote regardless of size: Luxembourg gets the same vote as China. Should we change that?

The gross popular vote is irrelevant. Back on October 28, 2014, I wrote a piece about how the Democrats would try to skew the popular vote. All that came to pass, and in spades. We had a President, no less, calling for undocumented people to vote and assuring them that there would be no legal consequences; Hillary's campaign, of course, included "outreach" to the "undocumented" and even hired "dreamers" for that outreach: All part of an effort, as I wrote, to make citizenship meaningless. I noted that we would see demands for citizenship as,

a smokescreen for electoral fraud. Citizenship is under assault from another direction, as well. Voting I.D. Yes, that is the main weapon being used and the one which reveals what is really going on. Our Attorney General Eric "Fast and Furious" Holder tells us that his agency will be very vigilant re attempts by states to use voter identification requirements to "suppress" turn-out. The DOJ has been filing lawsuits against states with voter I.D. requirements (here and here, for example.) The justification? The progs conjure up an imaginary poor rural black too stupid, too poor, and living in such a remote place that he or she just cannot afford or otherwise get valid state identification. Nonsense. Many states offer free identification cards, and, more important, poor, middle class, and rich black people have valid identification documents for driving, buying property, getting bank loans, voting, etc., just like everybody else. Progs have a Hollywood version of race in America which they sell to the willing media, and seek to turn into public policy.

Easily some three to four million illegal and legal aliens voted with an additional 2-4 million dead and multiple voters. Those votes went to . . . surprise ... the Democrats. I love how they are now criticizing Trump for saying this "without' evidence.  For years, the progs have conducted a successful campaign to destroy the evidence, and now they point to the lack of it. Nice try. No cigar.

Despite all that, the progs still lost. So now we see calls for a recount by "third party" Castro-admirer Jill Stein but only in states critical for Trump's victory. She has mysteriously raised millions of dollars for this effort, and has, it seems, roped in Hillary into backing it--assuming Hillary wasn't behind it with her friend Soros from the start. All part of the effort to delegitimize Trump as much as possible before inauguration. It will fail. The progressive narrative will take another hit.

Speaking of hits, the death of Fidel has shattered yet another icon in the prog pantheon. They can heap all the words of praise they want on the old tyrannical monster, but the fact remains that Cuba is infinitely less free, less prosperous, less happy, and less habitable than it was on January 1, 1959. Once the wealthiest country in Latin America, Castro's Cuba is now among the most irrelevant, poorest and most miserable in the region--although Fidel and family managed to squirrel away hundreds of millions of dollars and properties for themselves. Not long from now even the dodgy statistics produced about Cuba's miraculous literacy rates and its stunningly low infant mortality rates will be shown for the lies they are. I remember when the same stuff was said about Romania. Facts will not support the prog narrative.

As I wrote this, news reports of a "mass" shooting on an Ohio university campus had been coming in. The progs, including the execrable Tim Kaine, came out with their tweets and press releases blaming Ohio's "lax" gun laws for this "shooting." Lots of tweets implying white male, Trump supporting racists as the shooter(s). OOOPS! The only gun involved, it turns out, was in the hands of a good guy, a campus cop, who shot the thug dead with three well-placed rounds. The thug used a car and a machete to hurt several people (exact number is changing).

Oh yes, just by the way, the thug turned out to be a recently arrived and "vetted" Muslim Somali refugee . . . now we will see the search for a "motive" and demands for solidarity with the oppressed and fearful Somali community. Let's help the cops and guess what the motive might be . . .

Tough days to be a prog . . . love it.

Fidel Castro, RIH

Hard to believe that the old tyrant has finally died. I will write more about Castro later on but just want to record my initial reactions.

As bored readers of this blog might note, I have written quite a bit about Castro and Cuba. Much of my career at the State Department involved dealing with the Castroites at the UN, in South and Central America, and even in Asia. At the OAS, I spent much of my time on various efforts by certain Latin countries to get Cuba readmitted to the organization. In addition to my work, many of my dearest friends came from Cuba, and I often felt like an honorary Cuban. I visited Free Cuba (Guantanamo) twice while I was at SouthCom, and lived for nearly three years in Miami, a city made magical and wonderful by the Cuban migration.

The global left will fall all over themselves in tributes to this hideous mass murdering monster. We will hear nonsense about how he defeated illiteracy, brought medical care to the masses, established income equality, defeated imperialism, outlived his enemies, and on and on and on. None of those is true except for his living a long life--thanks, that is, to the Spanish doctors who saved him from the tender incompetent mercies of the vaunted Castroite medical system.

Cuba, yes, was a dictatorship in 1959, when Castro took over. The country never successfully established a stable, honest, democratic political system. Cuba in 1959, however, was far, far from being the shabby hell that the left and popular media have portrayed. It was a country with a highly educated and entrepreneurial middle class, full of doctors, lawyers, writers, artists, engineers, businessmen, etc., and was a haven for political and economic refugees from Europe. Cuba was a net importer of migrants; Cuba had a standard of living higher than much of Europe and higher than any other Latin American country. In sum, Cuba had a promising future ahead of it, a future wiped out by nearly sixty years of brutal Castroite dictatorship.

I hope, please God, that our inept President Obama will restrain himself and not go to the funeral or send the Veep, the SecState or anybody else. We owe at least that much to the millions of victims of Castro, and to the brave men we abandoned on Playa Giron.

¡Socialismo o Muerte! Socialism or Death! That was Castro's tiresome slogan for decades. Under his rule, however, that did not prove a choice. The Cuban people got both socialism and death, and now so has Fidel Castro, RIH (Rot in Hell.)

More to follow.

Ringing in Black Friday

Our Thanksgiving Thursday passed without major drama. We violated our recent tradition and had a turkey meal ordered from a local supermarket. It was OK. The Diplowife, of course, restricted herself to mashed potatoes and yogurt and stayed away as far as possible from the bird. We had all the kids together for the first time in a long time, and they and my father seemed to enjoy the day. Afterwards we drove south to our other house near San Diego. The three boys and I stayed up until all hours watching endless documentaries and YouTube clips of progressives melting down after the Trump victory. Lot of fun.

Today, the fear inducing day known as Black Friday because of the requirement that we engage in mindless shopping, saw the three boys and your humble servant at the gun range in Poway. It was packed! We, however, had reserved a couple of lanes on the 100 yard range and had a grand old time blasting away. We took a couple of 45s, a .357 Mag revolver, a .44 Mag revolver, the Henry Big Boy, a bazillion rounds of ammo, and lots of targets. Good time was had by all.

My ears are still ringing as the folks in a lane next to us had some monster rifle that shook my innards and my brain every time they fired it. Not even my high-tech electronic sound suppressing headset managed to kill that blast. So, I sit here ringing in Black Friday, waiting for the boys to come back from their run, and head off to the local Indian casino to compensate Native America for Columbus, Pilgrims, Custer, and the Department of Interior's policies.

Life is still looking a lot better since that November 8 result . . . Wisconsin recount be damned!

Hillary is Not My President!

A Thanksgiving Repost: Feathers!

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all, and a repost from The Diplomad's Thanksgivings past . . . .

Feathers 

Yes, feathers. Not the figurative kind that fill leftoid heads, but the real kind that cover birds. We are going light today. Our topic is feathers and how they nearly produced a civil war in the Diplomad clan, and how echoes of that strife apparently will reverberate on the 4th of July.

As the six regular readers of this blog are painfully aware, during the Reagan years I served for a time at the UN in New York. We loved New York City, even with all its inconveniences especially with two rambunctious boys. Schooling was a problem as the local PS was, well, pretty bad. When two of the vastly overpaid teachers at the school told us that they would never send their own kids there, we decided to yank our boys out and send them--at considerable cost to the Diplomad bottom line--to private schools. One went to a school run by Irish Catholic nuns, who wanted no parental involvement, "Thank you very much, but we know how to do this." The older son went to one run by strangely liberal, yet oddly conservative Jews who wanted lots of parental involvement in the school as long as the parents did what the school wanted. Hey, it's New York. Live with it.

Well, as it does every year, the Thanksgiving holiday rolled around. You must understand we had spent most of our lives overseas. The boys had been born in Spain, and hardly had been in the US. Educated abroad, they--God help me--had grown to love soccer football soccer with both of them becoming (and remaining to this day) rabid fans of Spain's La Furia Roja. Their grip on Americana was a bit weak. Please remember that as this saga proceeds.

Another piece of background you will need. My Spanish wife hates, detests, abhors, loathes, etc, feathers and any creature sporting them. She shows a special wrath for chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese. She cannot stand the thought of fowl on the meal plate. I have seen her blanche and break out into a cold sweat at fancy diplo dinners when served quail, duck or some other feather-bearing beast. It is not funny; better said, she has no sense of humor about this matter. My efforts to convince her that chicken tastes just like iguana have had no positive effect. Whenever we go to a restaurant, regardless of what she orders, she insists on, ahem, grilling the waiter on whether any foul fowl was involved in the making of her pending meal, "Uh, no ma'am, our salmon is, uh, salmon. It's a fish, not a bird." "Yes, yes, but the rice and the vegetables, were they cooked with chicken?" I am used to it by now.

Thanksgiving Day in New York, 1985. My older son, then about six was in a bad mood. I asked what was wrong, "You have no school today. Mom is making a nice Thanksgiving meal. What's wrong?" He glared at me, "The Pilgrims did not eat paella! They ate turkey!"

Explanation. Given the Diplowife's aversion to feathery creatures, our overseas Thanksgiving Day meals consisted of seafood paella. My wife had, ahem, implied in some way . . . oh, heck, she flat out told the kids that the Pilgrims ate paella with the Indians. Maybe she was thinking about Cortez and Pizarro, I don't know, but anyhow the kids had gotten into their heads that paella was the meal on Thanksgiving. Now in NY, the older boy had been asked the previous day to make a presentation at school on Thanksgiving. He, of course, reported that the English Pilgrims sat down and shared paella with the Native Americans. This caused a bit of a commotion and, I guess, led to some considerable ridicule, or what the politically correct nanny-staters now would label "bullying."

He was furious with us. He refused to eat paella and demanded a turkey. Even my wife was shocked into submission by the uncompromising fury coming from the tyke. It was Thanksgiving Day. I had to find a turkey in Manhattan! I dashed out of our building on the upper east side. All of the supermarkets were closed. A turkey! My kingdom for a turkey! I wandered the cold, darkling desolate concrete canyons, my despair growing and threatening to overwhelm me. I had let down my kids! The wages of sin, the consequences of falsehoods! God give me a sign that You will allow me to redeem myself . . . Wait! A deli! Still open but about to close! I ran in! Turkey sandwiches! They must have a turkey somewhere! A bizarre negotiation followed in which I finally convinced the suspicious Pakistani owner of the "Jewish" deli to sell me a whole kosher turkey at the price per pound of the sliced sandwich meat. I paid him a fortune--in cash--for a small bird about the size of a Chihuahua, and ran like the Grinch with my turkey under my arm.

My kids had turkey that day, and every other Thanksgiving since then has featured a big bird on the table. My wife refuses to sit anywhere near it, and has her own separate fish-based meal.

This will be an issue on the Fourth of July. The Thanksgiving paella got moved to Independence Day. The kids, now grown, of course, alas, are starting to make noises of impending rebellion against paella and in favor of hot dogs and other beast meat. The Diplowife mistrusts hotdogs, even the kosher all-beef ones, as stealth chicken missiles. She does not want anything with the potential of bearing fowl touching our BBQ grill or being anywhere near anything else that might be cooking. It appears that we might have a split Fourth meal. One side of the family eating chicken wings and hotdogs, and the other with the paella. Now that I think about it, this seems an appropriate metaphor for what is happening to our country.

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.

Makers & Payers vs. Takers & Players

Back in 2011, I wrote a piece about the battle between voters and taxpayers. I noted then that,

the real source of the crises facing the major currencies, and, in fact, our core economic well-being . . . comes down to a very simple and basic fact. The western nations have developed societies where those who pay for government services, in general, are not the ones benefitting from the services. In the United States, for example, we have the top one percent of earners paying 38-41% of all Federal income tax. We have nearly half of Americans who pay no income tax, and another large percentage 15-20% who pay minimal income tax (and lets not even get into "Earned Income Tax Credits".) We essentially have a society where some 25% of the income earners pay close to 90% of all Federal income taxes. That 25% does not consume anywhere near 90% of the services provided by the Feds.

The 2016 elections in the US showed that this battle certainly proved the case, again. Look at the electoral map, especially by counties, and you will see the country is awash in a tide of red; the Democrat strongholds of blue are little islands in a vast sea of Republican red. The Founding Fathers, in their great wisdom, designed our electoral college system to ensure that all parts of the country had a voice and that there would be limitations on the "tyranny of the majority."

According to the liberal media, of course, the majority, as represented by the popular vote, is actually Democratic, with Hillary winning the popular vote by perhaps a million votes. Irrelevant for a number of reasons. We, first of all, do not have direct election of the president, and it is unfortunate that the schools no longer teach the Constitution. There are, in addition, many electoral systems around the world where the popular vote does not directly translate into political power, including in most parliamentary systems. Even well-established and "democratic" parliamentary systems do not have direct election of the head of government, so we are not alone in that. Second, as noted, the electoral college system was meant as a brake on regional or urban majorities from being able to impose their will across our vast and very diverse country. Third, we might note, a typical Republican voter is more likely to be representing a family than many of the urban Democratic voters. Last, we might note, that there are some vigorous investigations underway, e.g. here, that are demonstrating what many of us have known all along (see here and here, for example): the Democrats launched a massive voter fraud effort for the 2016 elections, including having the President urge aliens to vote without fear of consequences. It seems that easily some three million votes were cast for Hillary by non-citizens, and nobody knows yet how many millions of dead voters weighed in for the Democratic candidate--all that, of course, in addition to the Democrats' usual drive to have multiple voting. I believe we could easily deduct some five to six million votes from Hillary's total.

All that, however, is irrelevant to the point of today's post: The red areas, overwhelmingly, are the parts of the country that actually make and grow things. These are the makers and the payers. Their energy and creativity support the blue takers and players. As we see in the anti-Trump riots now sputtering along in various parts of the country, and sure to make appearances at the inauguration ceremonies in DC next January, the people doing the rioting and breaking and playing around, obviously, have no jobs to worry about or families to support.

If President Trump keeps faith with those makers and payers, he will be a great president.

January 20, 2017 . . . It Can't Come Soon Enough!

Just got through watching President Obama (unfortunately, my President) give a little press conference before heading off for Greece, Germany, and Peru. This will be (Hallelujah! and RIP to the great Leonard Cohen) Obama's last foreign trip as our President.

Perhaps it's possible for a person to be more narcissistic, more condescending, and more out of touch with reality than our President, but I have seen no evidence of that.

This presser should be studied by students of psychology all over the world. The man has no ability to recognize that he has led his political party, not to mention his nation and great parts of the world, into disaster. He and his legacy have just been roundly rejected at the polls, and the one candidate vowing to erase that legacy from the books and our lives is waiting in the wings to replace him.

Everything Obama touched during his presidency turned to muck, yet he cannot and will not recognize that. Instead he gives paternalistic advice to his successor, sticks a shiv into the already sore and broken ribs of his own party's candidate--giving her campaign advice and telling her how he did it--and presumes to give us all a smug lecture on the ways of the world. He is off to console the foreigners on their sadness over the election of Trump; he has only praise for the disgraceful Chancellor of Germany who is his main rival for the title of Most Destructive Western Leader; he . . . oh, never mind.

Watch his performance for yourselves and try not to vomit.

Inauguration day is just too far away.

Towards a Pro-America, Pro-West Foreign Policy

For years, I have written in this humble blog that Obama and his team have created an unprecedented foreign policy disaster. The disaster bequeathed to President Trump is even greater than that left to President Reagan by Carter. The Carter mess, except for Iran, was relatively easy to correct, and Reagan did so with gusto and efficiency--bye, bye USSR. The Obama mess (see here and here, for example) is much more profound and dangerous, but it, too, can be fixed. I will provide a few steps that we need to take, in my view, to begin to fix our broken foreign policy.

The first step has already been taken: we have elected a President who, it certainly appears, wants America to "win." That seems almost needless to say but given that we currently have a President who openly stated he can't be bothered by concerns over whether or not America is winning, and a Secretary of State who infamously declared that it made no "difference" what had generated the Benghazi massacre, well, one can see that even a baby step in the right direction, is a step in the right direction--and to be welcomed.

A key component of power is leadership, a leadership committed to "winning" and a leader who has his people's back. We haven't had that for some time. It seems that Trump will be different; I can't imagine a President Trump abandoning his people to the jihadi mob in Benghazi, for example. Leadership can and does prove a power multiplier. We see that with Putin who heads up a nation much, much weaker than the USA, but who has played his hand masterfully, and greatly enhanced Russia's role in the world. We don't have to like Putin to acknowledge this.

Besides leadership, the primary requirement for successful diplomacy is wedding diplomacy to power. The two go together. We see, for example, Secretary Kerry's increasingly futile "efforts" in Syria which are hampered both by a lack of vision of an end game, and, of course, by an incompetent almost non-existent use of American power--I see Kerry is now beclowning himself in Antarctica. We have had an administration which has refused to recognize that successful American diplomacy requires a powerful military component and a leadership willing to pull the trigger. Yes, pull the trigger. We need right away to start a vigorous rebuilding of our military capabilities, and get the military away from distractions such as LGBT restrooms and lowering standards to get women into the Rangers.

Our military and diplomacy institutions must work closely with our allies, who must be encouraged to build up their own forces--Britain, in particular, needs to restore its once-formibable military clout. I would argue for a reinvigoration of the Anglosphere alliance, with Israel as an honorary member. We all confront similar threats to the existence of our nations, and will have to work together in confronting a nuclear armed Iran (Thanks Obama!) and the ever-present threat of jihadi terror. I see no reason for our current tense relations with Russia. We do not need to like or approve of Russia's government, but we should recognize that Russia could and would prove a formidable ally in confronting the jihadis, and in a flip of Nixon's China policy, in helping restrain growing Chinese big power aspirations. We should have no illusions about Russia but we should not be deluded about them, either. Russia is not a threat and offers an opportunity.

All power--sorry Mao--does not "grow out of the barrel of a gun." There are other key aspects to restoring American and Western power. One, of course, is energy independence. Despite absurd government policies, we have not been this close to having energy independence in many generations. That independence is a matter of economic prosperity and national security. We must develop our domestic energy resources, gas, oil, coal, nuclear, so that we cannot be blackmailed by tin-horn dictators or others wishing us harm. The US, Canada, UK, and Australia can achieve energy independence. We have to put in the casket all those idiotic "global climate warming cooling changing" so-called "theories" and recognize them for the dangerous and expensive hoaxes that they are. The polar bears are doing fine, thank you, better than our coal miners, in fact.

Energy independence will give us tremendous freedom of action on the world scene. OPEC is in collapse, and we should make sure that it continues so. It will also contribute to another key component of power, a prosperous and vigorous economy. Part of restoring our status in the world comes from having a growing economy, one that actually invents, designs and makes things. What a shock! Making things is important. I know the libertarians will disagree, but there are non-macro-economic factors to consider when choosing an economic policy. In theory, yes, free trade, natural allocation of resources, all that stuff is fine. In the real world, all that must be tempered by other considerations. For example, it might make more purely economic sense for the US and the West to buy our weaponry from China . . .  I think you can see the problem with going down that avenue. Part of restoring our power involves freeing as much as possible of the economy from regulation and taxation. The entrepreneurial spirit must flourish. Some restraints, however, will be needed to protect the nation. That's the way it is in the real world.

A sane immigration policy is also a requirement for re-establishing our power and protecting our economy. We must decide how much, if any, immigration we need (see here and here, for example, for previous discussions.) We need to enforce our existing immigration laws, and, yes, deport those we catch who are here illegally. The law must be respected. We should defend our southern border against the invasion to which it is now subjected. This is not racist or xenophobic. This is a matter of preserving our prosperity, sovereignty, laws, and, yes, culture--nothing wrong with that. We have the right, as do all nations, to decide who can and cannot come live in the country. There is no Constitutional or internationally recognized right to immigrate to the United States, or Britain, or Canada, or Australia, or anywhere else. I hope, in fact, that all those progressives "threatening" to move to Canada and Australia discover that Canada and Australia might not want them . . . and have no obligation to take them, even if it would make America a better place . . .

We cannot abuse our power. While we must never take orders from the UN or other international fora, we must recognize limits to what we can and should do in the world. We will have to deal with regimes we find unseemly and even odious. That's the way of the world. Most of the world will never become a Jeffersonian democracy, and we cannot expend our blood and treasure chasing that dream. Foreign policy cannot be a projection of domestic issues. There are vile totalitarian ideologies out there, one masquerading as a religion, which seek to subjugate and conquer us. Those can be resisted without engaging in silly nation-building exercises. Our military power must be overwhelming, but used only as a last resort--but when that resort is reached, it should be used overwhelmingly.

As Bastiat reminds us, there are always "unintended consequences." Whenever we undertake an action, we set in motion forces that we do not initially see or understand, and that could have serious consequences in the future. Rumsfeld said it best, "the unknown unknowns." While we need to try to foresee those consequences as best we can in our limited human way, we cannot let the fact that we will not usually succeed paralyze us. At times we have to deal with the immediate threat and worry about the future later. Defeating Nazi Germany and Shintoist Japan, for example, took precedence over worrying about creating power vacuums in Europe and Asia. Jihadis are a bigger threat than climate "change." One real enemy at a time.

Thanks to Donald Trump and the voters, we have a chance to step back from the edge of the cliff. Let's not waste it.

The Snowflakes Drift

One of our local freeways got tangled up last night because of a snow drift in southern California. Well, a drift of snowflakes, the oh-so precious kind. As part of their continuing war on democracy and the Republic, bands of leftist "protestors" (thugs, really, and probably many of them paid) decided to hold demonstrations of disgust for the election of Donald Trump. They did this, of course, with threats of violence, violence, vandalism, and a general disrespect for the rights of others, especially of working people trying to go on with their lives. These precious snowflakes can't stand the thought of somebody else getting the trophy they were promised, the trophy to which they were entitled. So we see gangs out demonstrating against President-elect Trump and presumably in favor of Hillary Clinton.

They, I guess, want the election canceled and the presidency given to Clinton; their wishes count more than our votes. Young unemployed thugs out rioting in favor of a 69-year-old grandmother who is in the pocket of Goldman Sachs and is one of the most corrupt and lawless candidates ever to appear on the American scene . . . ah, the Democrat Party, the party of progress . . .

The media, most of it, continue to show signs of very serious mental derangement. They have long been a danger to others, but now seem increasingly a danger to themselves. You don't need me to link to the stories, but check out the TV networks, much of cable, NYT, LAT, HuffPo, WashPo, and not to mention many of the foreign media who take their cue from the aforementioned beacons of progressive wisdom, and you will see ever increasing signs of suicidal behavior. They seem akin to those senior Japanese military who could not believe nor contemplate an American victory in 1945. They certainly need to have their second amendment rights curtailed, for their own good. No knives, either.

I am enjoying this, very much.

Trump

Wow! What a roller coaster ride that was!

I started the evening feeling a bit down, getting mau-maued by the media's relentless assault on Trump's chances, and not seeing how The Donald could do it. Must give credit to my youngest son who texted me throughout the night saying not to listen to the media and the polls, and that Trump would win. And he did ---by the way, my son won around $20,000 from bets he had placed long ago on Trump winning. Cocky kid.

I have so much to say about Trump's victory that I am almost speechless.

I just hope that he and the Congress come into office next January with all barrels blazing: repeal Obamacare; start on that border wall and get an immigration reform on the table, including defunding "sanctuary cities"; reduce and simplify taxes; kill tons of business killing regulation especially in the energy arena; begin the process of reducing the size and scope of government; name a good Supreme; address the shortcomings in our military; and let the world know that America is back. That can be started right off. No need to delay.

Anyhow, I am going to take my dogs for a ride down to our house in the Temecula area. I'll be writing a lot more and boring my faithful six readers for some time to come.

I think we saw a major victory for America, but it is one that will need to be preserved.

Congratulations to President-elect Trump.

Back from DC

Just got back to SoCal from a few days in DC, Virginia, and North Carolina. Biggest shock was the intensity of the electoral campaign in those regions. Here in Deep Blue SoCal, we get very little national political advertising and the election is not a major topic of discussion.

My DC-based son gave me an in-depth lesson on polling and how these things are manipulated to skew the results. In almost every poll he showed me, the Democrat sample is overrepresented, at times by quite a bit. Anyhow, he thought most of the polls are fakes designed to boost the chances for The Hillary. He is convinced that The Donald will win. I am more cautious, having gone through this before.

Whatever the result of the vote on the 8th, America will never be the same again. This is a watershed election much like those in 1860, 1932, 1964, and 1980. If Trump does not win, I see little chance in any foreseeable future for a Republican to take the White House. Even if he does win, the political and social tides are running against the GOP, and the traditional Anglo culture which made this country into a great nation.

Anyhow, I am hoping for the best, and resigned to the worst.

See you on the other side.

Going Away . . . for a Bit

Heading off to DC tomorrow. I'll be gone about a week. I should be back just before election day. Going to hang out with my ultra conservative son. Should be fun.

FBI, Circling the Drain?

I have had the honor and the privilege of working closely with the FBI many times during my nearly 34 years at State. We worked against Soviets, Cubans, East Germans, Bulgarians, drug dealers, pedophiles, criminal fugitives, money launderers, terrorists, fraudsters, and on suspected security breaches. I had tremendous respect for the professionalism and dedication of these FBI agents. They were world class in every way. My respect for the FBI was shared by many in foreign intelligence and security services with whom we worked. I remember, in particular, the British, who were markedly ambiguous in their attitude towards the CIA, had great respect for the FBI's investigative prowess and, as one Brit friend in the intel service said to me, "their humourless thoroughness." I had a lot of friends in the Bureau; they were terrific patriots with a morale and esprit d'corps rare among civilians and more akin to what I found with SEALs, Rangers, SAS, US and Royal Marines, and French Legionnaires. They were incredibly proud of their agency's history and accomplishments, and took it hard and personally when that agency or agents screwed up, e.g., Robert Hansen.

Given what we have seen of late, however, I, reluctantly, have to give vent to growing skepticism about the FBI and to the damage wrought on that jewel of an agency by political interference and correctness.

The investigation of the Clinton Crime Family and, in particular, that of SecState Clinton's use of  a private email server for classified information, and her use of the State Department as her and Bill's ATM leaves much to be desired. I, for example, cannot understand how an apparently morally upright and professionally competent Director, such as James Comey, did not go public with a resignation slammed down on the President's desk when Attorney General Lynch met "secretly" with Bill Clinton on that Arizona tarmac days before the FBI was to wrap-up its initial investigation into the Hillary Clinton email scandal. I do not understand how Comey could have made the public statement that he made on July 5 when he gave Hillary Clinton a pass on her scandalous, unethical, dangerous, and illegal use of a private server for official work. I do not for a second believe, despite what Comey said at the time, that nobody, including presumably Lynch, Obama, and the Clintons, knew Comey would recommend no indictment. I knew it the minute Lynch announced beforehand that she would accept whatever recommendation the FBI made. Right. Sure thing. Did Donna Brazile send you an email?

The FBI leadership made a hash of the investigation into Clinton. It was such a hash, that, reportedly, Comey's desk received a large number of outraged letters of resignation from agents justifiably angry over what Comey had done. He needed an excuse to try to save his reputation, when along comes Huma Abedin's husband El Perverso Anthony Carlos Danger Weiner.  Apparently, an investigation into his "sexting" with a minor girl revealed tens-of-thousands of emails on his computer which MIGHT have relevance to the original investigation into Hillary's emails. So, reboot: A public reboot via a vague letter to the Congress that requires a lot of reading between the lines.

The Dems, once full of praise for Comey, have exploded in anger calling Comey the most foul of names imaginable, including the foulest of all, "Republican." The Dems are desperately trying to put the focus on Comey and take it from the core issue: Hillary Clinton's despicable behavior.

But do they have a point? Yes, somewhat. I understand Comey's predicament. I understand that he called Lynch's bluff when she said she would not interfere and would accept whatever the FBI concluded.

That said, however, this would not have been necessary had the FBI done the right thing to begin with; I am just an amateur but it sure seems to me that the investigation did not press key individuals, including Hillary, very hard. Why wasn't this computer found initially? Was Huma Abedin's house searched? The letter sent to Congress by Comey, I have to say, was unfair to Hillary Clinton and to the electoral process. It is a massive innuendo which raises all sorts of questions that nobody can answer and leaves the field open to all sorts of speculation.

Now, that said, of course, we have the relentless deluge of Wikileaks data which has provided a context for concluding that Hillary and her Gang are crooks of the grossest kind. So maybe Comey was trying to get ahead of the Wikileaks? I don't know. Maybe he hates Clinton as much as Obama does--note Obama's defense of Comey. I don't know. All that and more is possible.

What I do know is that one of the last institutions held in high regard, the FBI, has been dragged into the political swamp created by the progressives. Another victory for the Alinsky brigades.

No Reason to Vote for Hillary

Trump was not my first choice for Presidential candidate. I liked Gov. Walker of Wisconsin: he had a long record of accomplishments; a track record of taking on the progs and beating them; a good sense of humor, and--like me--a face made for radio. He did not do well in the primaries and faded out. After that, I remind aloof, and briefly flirted with voting for Rubio . . . but in the end Trump's brash, non-PC style won me over. He was saying the things that the elite establishment does not want said. He was a full-throated practitioner of the first amendment. Sure, his conservative credentials were far from perfect (here)--and who has such?--and, in the end, I decided I would take a chance on a nationalist populist.  We got Trump warts and all, and some of the NeverTrump crowd will still not vote for him, unable to see past the warts to his message and the movement he heads. OK, fair enough.

Let's look at the other side of the battlefield: Hillary Clinton. For the life of me, I cannot think of a rational reason to vote for her UNLESS I was getting some sort of sinecure, or was able to get in on that Clinton Foundation scam to rip off poor Haitians to help a billionaire Irishman secure a mobile phone monopoly on that ravaged half island.

What has Hillary ever accomplished? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. At least nothing positive.

She has a record of corruption, lying, poor judgement, and ethical lapses that would have sent dozens of politicians to an early date on Political Boot Hill. Her vaunted feminism is a joke; why, for example, does she run as Hillary Clinton? Why not Rodham? She has latched onto her politically brilliant and morally compromised husband for a lifetime ride. Nothing is going to get her to loosen her grip on that trolley car. She and her husband have become fabulously wealthy playing the "We are here to help the poor" progressive game and have developed a loyal criminal entourage that puts those of drug cartel bosses and mafia dons to shame.

She is so corrupt that even, even Comey's FBI have decided to launch a whole new investigation of her and her friends.

Hillary Clinton is the most corrupt politician to emerge on the American political scene since, well, since Bill Clinton.

The whole thing makes no sense.

If you can't vote for Trump for whatever reason, then don't. But for crying out loud don't vote for Hillary Clinton . . .

OK, going to climb into my truck and head off to the airport. My son is flying to Chicago, and I am his personal Uber . . . in fact, I call myself Über alles . .  . catchy, that.

The Polls and My Shooting: Don't Count on a Bullseye

Finally made it to the range. Thought the Diplowife would join me, but she saw a Ross store and decided to go there while I went to do manly-man things.

Took my new .44 Mag plus my two .357 Mags. On this range run, I included my old reliable .357 from Guyana days, a wonderful piece of iron which I shamefully had neglected for some years. Cleaned it up. It shot wonderfully. That gun is over 55 years old and still works -- unlike its owner.

I did very well with the two .357s, and pretty well with the .44 when using .44 Special "Cowboy Action Rounds." Not so great when I went full .44 Magnum. OK, but nothing to brag about. Let's just say it's a good thing those splatter targets don't shoot back . . . I, however, did like the sound. Quite impressive even with a headset on.

My Washington-based son, a political junkie of the first degree, gave me a lesson yesterday and today on why the election polls are not to be believed. He says most polls have way over-sampled Democrats and make the invalid assumption that over 95% of Democrats will actually vote for The Hillary. He seems very confident of a Donald victory on November 8. I, however, am more cautious having gone through this in 2012, when I was pretty sure Romney would win. The electoral college remains a challenge for Trump, but . . . we'll see.

Now, of course, adding fuel to the fire of skepticism about the polls are some Wikileaks which apparently show senior Democratic activists discussing getting friendly pollsters to oversample Democrats in their polling data bases. I also find it suspicious how all the press are joining in a chorus of "It's All Over!" I can see this as a strategy trying to discourage Trump voters from going to the polls, but wonder if it might not have the opposite effect, and discourage Hillary voters who are markedly unenthusiastic about their candidate to begin with. I guess we will know the answers soon enough . . . assuming the illegal alien vote doesn't throw all calculations into the dust bin.

Best to disconnect from the media for a bit . . . allow sanity to return.

Love the smell of Hoppe's 9.

Reflections on my .44 Mag & the End of Our Civilization

Picked it up.

Oh, but first, our Spanish visitors left yesterday for Las Vegas in the company of my son, who knows his way around Vegas better than Elvis ever did--worrying, that. What euros our guests have left will soon clatter into the vault of some casino or another. Watch the euro-dollar exchange rate.

Yes, I picked it up.

California's absurd ten-day waiting period over, I drove my 'Stang this fine sunny Saturday morning to Turner's and picked up my new S&W 44 mag with a 6.5 inch barrel. A magnificent piece of work. Clint Eastwood has nothing on me now . . . well, except rugged good looks, international fame, and hundreds of millions of dollars . . . but besides that, nothing.

As I oiled and wiped my new S&W and put it to rest in the safe with the other 20 or so handguns (until range day, Monday), I couldn't help but think, "Does anybody really need a .44 Magnum?" I mean, "Aren't .357s and .45s enough for anybody?" Hmmm? The answer, of course, is, those are the wrong questions. The proper question is, "Why as a free citizen can I not have any gun I want?" In other words, where in the Constitution does it say the nanny state can determine what gun I can and can't own? I have no intention of holding up a liquor store, shooting up a church, or killing the neighbor's hideous cat. Why should the actions of criminals determine what I can or cannot do? Perhaps it's true that nobody needs a .44 Mag, a GT Mustang, a cigar, a fine whisky, a Harley, a speed boat, a large tattoo of an eagle, or an ill-fitting suit with a pink carnation in the lapel. But what if I want one, and can get one without taking anything from anybody or hurting anybody?

Freedom, baby, that's what it's all about, and freedom and its corollary fun are what progressives hate. If you are having fun, they are not in control.

This made me think about the current "uproar" over Trump's refusal to endorse the results of the November 8 election beforehand. That's the other thing progressives do. Not only do they tell you what you cannot have, they tell you what you must do and have: such as, give an ever increasing portion of your wealth to the progressives; wear a motorcycle helmet; wear seat belts; not eat your meat medium rare, and on and on.

In fact, I am going to go on about some of that "on and on."

Above all, the progressives want you not only to tolerate certain things they favor, they want and insist you endorse them. We, therefore, must not only go along with the progressive gag that there is no electoral fraud, we must endorse now the November 8 results of an electoral system we know is rife with progressive corruption of all sorts. We must not only tolerate gay marriage, we must endorse it; we must not only tolerate the sexual perversion known as transsexualism but must endorse it and allow these perverts to use bathrooms with our children. A baker, or a pizzeria owner must cater events his religion and conscience tell him not to. Speech codes determine the limits of discussion and even redefine the words we use.

We must all chant, "Diversity is our strength," when in many cities in our beleaguered Western Civilization, we cannot walk safely down the street, or take a bus thanks to the diversity that has been imposed upon us by progressive immigration laws and practices. Stockholm, once one of the world's safest cities, is now the rape capital of Europe thanks to progressive immigration policies; in fact, police there are instructed no longer to mention the "ethnicity" of the rapists. Here in the US, Trump states a truth that any Central American migrant headed north knows: women migrants in Mexico will be raped. He gets chastised for being a racist, for not refusing to see what is in front of his nose. We must not only tolerate the importation of thousands upon thousands of Muslim refugees who adhere to a creed that advocates our enslavement and death, we must embrace them; we must make up history showing that they have always been part of our culture; we must encourage MORE of them to come to the West. Any violence emanating from followers of Islam is to be attributed to lax gun laws,  and the failure to embrace the Muslims in our midsts even more lovingly.

They want us to be like Rohm's SA "Brownshirts" screaming, "Heil Hitler!" as they were executed by the firing squads sent by Hitler; like the victims of Stalin's purges forced to proclaim the greatness of the Comrade as they were lead off to receive a bullet in the back of the head.

Trump, win or lose, has managed to demonstrate how rotten our civilization has become under the tutelage of the progressives. We see in the volumes of Wikileaks documents how these progressives are so confident in their corruption and in their ability to manipulate us that they lay out their comments and plans in insecure emails and other texts. They can't imagine a world in which the stuff they say and plan might just be "triggering."

Triggering? Back to my .44 mag.

Molon Labe . . . and I just mailed in my ballot for Trump . . .