The same old story

Powerline: "Cuba runs out of sugar."

I think it was William F. Buckley who said that if you put Communists in charge of the Sahara desert they'd eventually run out of sand. 

Quiet quitting: White House edition

Twitchy: "'Couldn't Even Wait 26 Days'! Biden Fam Squeezing in 1 Last Tropical Vacay Before Leaving Office."

After this he's taking the family to Italy on the taxpayer dime.  KJP has been asked multiple times if Biden is going to do a traditional end-of-term press conference.  The answer is no.

Merry Christmas!

Talking with the enemy

Hot Air: "Dems Wonder: Should We Actually Talk to Conservatives?"

This goes beyond engagement, though, a point that Crockett and even Axios miss. It's not just that Democrats won't engage voters other than fellow true believers, limiting themselves to MSNBC, CNN, The View, and other progressive bubbles. (Bluesky would be another great example, where many of them fled to escape Elon Musk and the evenly balanced membership of Twitter/X.) It's that they argue either tacitly or explicitly that opposing viewpoints are entirely illegitimate and even part of foreign intelligence operations, alienating tens of millions of voters by attempting to suppress their points of view.

This is precisely why the mainstream media has failed so spectacularly.  It was warned about its bias and failure to be an honest broker so Republicans went to Fox News and Joe Rogan and America followed.

Why do I bother reading this dreck?

Boston Globe: "Biden’s tarnished legacy and the problem of moral luck."

You'll be unsurprised to learn that - gosh darn it - Biden was forced into all these bad decisions because of Trump.  Trump is the answer to every question and the excuse to every failing. 

A critic might argue that Biden chose to serve as president and that these are the circumstances in which presidents might find themselves. But that is not true. The circumstances created by Trump’s rise are sui generis. One’s successor going after one’s family is not baked into the transfer of power in a democracy.

Orange Man Bad therefore Hunter must go free.  Every time.

The mainstream media committed suicide

Twitchy: "‘Fake News’ Death Rattle: CNN Posts Lowest Year-Long Audience Averages in Its History."

CNN cannot survive their current downward spiral without major surgery.  Start with firing everyone.

Just stop, Boston Globe

Boston Globe: "As Trump causes drama in Congress, Biden stays silent and on the sidelines - Strategic or not, Biden’s public absence from a chaotic spending fight underscored a quiet final chapter of his presidency."

It's not 4-D chess strategy.  C'mon with this already.  

Written one month before the Trump-Biden debate

CNN's Oliver Darcy was very upset with the Wall Street Journal in early June 2024: "The Wall Street Journal’s story about Biden’s mental acuity suffers from glaring problems."

Never forget that the mainstream media actively engaged in this coverup:

“So it is here,” Cooke said. “All of the defenses that we hear from the press about how journalism works are fine on their own. It’s just that it’s not how journalism works when the subject is a Republican, and especially when the subject is Donald Trump.”

Exactly. 

Extra - NY Post: "Dems and their media lapdogs hid Biden’s senility for years, and the public must never forget it." 

Hindsight

Politico: "The Outright Worst Political Predictions of 2024." 

Tis the season

You don’t hate the lying legacy media enough https://t.co/gMtjbp2EMG

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2024

And now the WSJ tells us what we already knew

Ace: "WSJ, NYT Agree: Biden Was In Obvious Cognitive Decline Not Just at the End But For His Entire Term as Fake President."  

Remember this classic moment?  "Staffer dressed as Easter Bunny stops Biden from answering reporter’s question."  This is what the White House staff had to do for four years.

Now the truth can be told

Wall Street Journal: "All the News That’s Suddenly Fit to Print After the Election - New York Times readers finally learn that Biden policies spurred a wave of illegal immigration." 

Also, ICYMI, sheesh, who ever believed Joe Biden could serve four more years?  Crazy talk, that.

Follow this social experiment

Twitchy: "Wealth Tax: Governor Jay Inslee Just Guaranteed EVERY Rich Washingtonian Will FLEE His Tax-Happy State."

This class warfare was tried in Europe and it was a flop.  So let's very carefully set the rules and track the results of Washington's wealth tax.  Bezos already left but there are plenty of U-Hauls to go around. 

Our national Ponzi scheme

Reason: "Social Security Is Deeply Unfair. The Social Security Fairness Act Won't Fix That. - What is paid out to Social Security beneficiaries is not a return on workers' investments. It's just a government expenditure, like any other." 

Good. Do this.

New York Times: "Trump and His Picks Threaten More Lawsuits Over Critical Coverage."

Maybe - and I'm just spitballin' here - stop lying and you won't face a lawsuit.  You can start by giving back your Pulitzer for the Russia Russia Russia hoax.  

"Let me pay your student loans, boss!"

City Journal: "Why the Working Class Rejected Bidenomics - Blue-collar and nonprofessional voters understood that Democratic economics supported college-educated elites." 

You don't hate the media enough

Twitchy: "Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand Pressuring Biden to Put the Equal Rights Amendment Into Law."

What's worse is that the politics reporter for the New Yorker thinks the President can unilaterally amend the U.S. Constitution.  These people really live in a different world.

ABC News to make $15 million "donation" to Trump Library

Fox News: "George Stephanopoulos and ABC apologize to Trump, are forced to pay $15 million to settle defamation suit" - "As part of the agreement, Stephanopoulos and the network issued statements of 'regret' for comments that prompted the lawsuit."

This is the way.  ABC News will issue a statement of "regret" but what really should happen is an on-air apology from Stephanopoulos.

You're next CNN.  

Galaxy brain thinking

RFK Jr - not in power.
Gretchen Whitmer - current governor of Michicgan.
“Rachel” Levine - current head of HHS

Axelrod take - https://t.co/LmHklwPeev

— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) December 14, 2024

DOGE the USPS

Washington Post: "Trump eyes privatizing U.S. Postal Service, citing financial losses."

Even though it's a "stand-alone" entity, the USPS still siphons off billions of tax dollars every year.  I have no idea why it can't limit deliveries to three times a week.  Personally, I can wait an extra day for the junk mail I receive, almost exclusively. 

Please just go

Try to do minimal damage on the way out: "Sorry, team Biden — Americans don’t trust you on the drones or anything else." 

This wasn't 4-D chess

Daily Caller: "‘Smartest Thing They Ever Did’: Katie Couric, Jessica Tarlov Admit GOP Leaders Sending Migrants North Was Game Changer."

“On the immigration front, there was a tendency amongst Democrats, and especially Democrats who were discussing the issue, so people who do interviews or are part of the media, to minimize it over the first two and a half years when there were a lot of people coming in here,” Tarlov said. “And I thought that it was a stunt when they started busing migrants … to Martha’s Vineyard. It was the smartest thing they ever did.”

“Well, it’s interesting ’cause I have a friend who lives in Florida, and I said, ‘What did you think of Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott taking some of these immigrants and moving them to northern states?’ And she said, ‘I thought it was great because nobody really was paying attention before that.’ And I do think that this untold story was the strain on social services and communities, particularly along the border, this huge influx of immigrants was having,” Couric responded. “And I think the mainstream media, however you define that these days, kind of ignored that story to its peril.”

They realize this way too late.  I think a lot of people took notice of Martha's Vineyard's hypocritical reaction to a handful of illegals landing on their hallowed ground.  

Everybody's the hero in their own narrative

Julie Kelly: "The Wray Slayer - With Donald Trump's nomination of Kash Patel, the FBI appears to be in panic mode. Chris Wray is the first to fall but not before giving a fantastical account of his seven-year stint as FBI director."  

Where can I donate?

Twitchy: "Daniel Penny Considers Suing Alvin Bragg for Malicious Prosecution." 

Bizarro world where John Fetterman is the voice of reason

National Review: "Elizabeth Warren Is a Disaster for the Democrats" - "Her revolting statement on the assassination of Brian Thompson is a reminder of why Democrats should abandon her, and look more to the example of John Fetterman."

Vacant seat for an empty suit

Ace: "White House Officials: Trump Has Cucked Joe Biden So Completely He's Now the Currently Serving President." 

Accurate

Dude we ALL know they sent Jill Biden solo to the cathedral of Notre Dame because the last thing on earth they needed was Joe asking how the football team was doing.

— Jimmy Failla (@jimmyfailla) December 7, 2024

Froot loops

Hot Air: "Is It Any Wonder That No Sane Person Takes Fact Checks Seriously?"  

Power vacuum in Syria

Wall Street Journal: "Assad’s Rule Collapses in Syria, Raising Concerns of a Vacuum - Outside powers maneuver for influence as a regime that controlled the divided country for half a century melts away."

I was listening to an interview with a professor knowledgeable with Syria and the interviewer asked about Syria falling "in a couple of days."  The professor corrected him and said "it will be a couple of hours."  Good call!

Syria is at the nexus of the Russian & Iranian influence in the Middle East so who knows what's going to happen.  I'd like to say it's good to reduce Putin's reach but, well, we'll see.

Jackie Calmes might as well resign right now

Independent: "LA Times staff outraged and columnist quits over owner's plan to add ‘bias meter’ to coverage."

Jackie Calmes is an LA Times columnist who writes exactly one column: Orange Man Bad.  Over and over and over.  You'll be unsurprised to learn in her latest column that Joe Biden's pardon of Hunter is OK because Trump.

She is just the worst

Red State: "Karine Jean-Pierre May Have Just Given the Most Shameless Press Conference Ever."

At one point, KJP said that 64% of Americans supported the Hunter Biden pardon and I thought "that can't possibly be true."

It wasn't.  Just a flat-out lie.

Update - "Jean-Pierre shredded for wrongly claiming 64% of Americans support pardon: 'Literally got a poll backwards'." 

The unanswerable question

The Corner: "What Is a ‘Fair Share’ in Taxes?" - "In absolute terms, the top 1 percent paid $864 billion in federal individual income taxes in 2022, and the bottom 90 percent paid $599 billion." 

Financing meatballs

Now I've seen it all.  You can have Martha Stewart's meatballs with 5 easy payments:

$90 for FOUR pounds of turkey meatballs. Martha Stewart is out of her damn mind. pic.twitter.com/PcahnLg66U

— Joe Kinsey (@JoeKinseyexp) December 4, 2024

It's obvious

Red State: "Let's Face It, Donald Trump Is Already President."

I've seen the acronym "PINO" being used for Biden: President in name only.

Keep it up, guys, you're doing great

Shot: "‘Morning Joe’ hosts tear into NYT, other liberal media for caring about Hunter Biden pardon: ‘Hysterically imbalanced’."

Chaser: "MSNBC posts another critical ratings low among critical demo." 

Can't have that

Boston Globe editorial: "A father’s love for his son doesn’t require dissing the Justice Department - The accusations in Biden’s presidential pardon play right into Trump’s political narrative."

At a time when President-elect Donald Trump has done everything in his power to undermine the nation’s criminal justice system — to cast it as overly politicized, in large part because he too was the subject of a federal prosecution — did Joe Biden have to second that notion?

Yes, that's the real crime here: Biden playing into the idea the Department of Justice is politicized and engaging in lawfare for political gain.  Or - hear me out here - maybe there's some truth to it as evidenced by a former President having his underwear drawer raided at Mar-a-Lago?

Trust in the FBI is at a century-low level.  Joe Biden's statement didn't do that; his DOJ did.

Biden was always going to pardon Hunter

Charles C.W. Cooke points out this paragraph in the NBC news story about Biden's intention to pardon Hunter: "Biden’s Lying about Pardoning Hunter Was Part of the Plan."

In case you missed the key line, I’ll print it again:

They said it was decided at the time that he would publicly say he would not pardon his son even though doing so remained on the table.

Astonishing.

To his credit, Andrew C. McCarthy called it months ago:

There was never a scintilla of doubt that Biden would break his vow not to pardon Hunter once the election was over — as I said back in June when he made the vow. Then, in September, when Hunter suddenly pled guilty to all the charges right as his tax trial was about to start, I explained that this strategy made sense only if he knew he was getting a pardon and therefore had no incentive to negotiate a better plea deal — and I elaborated that the pardon would come after the election but before the sentencing dates so that, as a technical legal matter, Hunter would never be a convicted felon.

Totally spot on and in fact I remember his article about Hunter suddenly pleading guilty so he could get it over while Papa was still in the White House.

All that moral preening over the "rule of law" went down the drain:

Look, we don’t have to be heartless bastards about it. Many among us would opt to save a child from jail, even if it meant backtracking on all our fine moral grandstanding. But the problem is the Dems tied their political rectitude to Biden’s acceptance of the jury’s democratic deliberations. They used the Hunter case to morally distinguish themselves from the allegedly lawless bruisers of the Trump set. They swore, endlessly, that they would abide by the rules and restore normalcy to the Trump-rattled republic. And they didn’t. They ended up exploiting presidential power for personal favour to a degree Trump never did. Their claims to moral distinction lie in tatters. Their delusion of righteousness stands exposed as just that: a delusion. This is why this pardon matters.

As I've noted before, every speech and public utterance by Joe Biden is really just a testament to his superiority.  That's why he sprinkles speeches with lines like "I'm the guy who [fill in the boast.] before waxing on about his father and growing up in Scranton.  But I suspect even Dementia Joe realized the enormity of this move which is why he dumped it on a Sunday night and promptly flew to another continent. 

The least-surprising headline ever written

NBC News: "President Biden set to issue a pardon of his son Hunter Biden."

C'mon, nobody ever believed his original promise.

No one is above the law.

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 31, 2024

The Left hates free speech, continued

Quick!  To the echo chamber!  Twitchy: "Flee Speech: Is Dem Party’s Solution to Debate and Dissension a Big Blue Bubble?"

The final ignominy for Joe Biden

Washington Examiner: "Biden exits at all-time low, Trump in with highest approval."

There are so many things I dislike about Joe Biden but foremost on this list is his inability to accept even a small amount of blame for anything.  This is why the disastrous withdrawal of Afghanistan was an "extraordinary success."  That's why when inflation spiked to 8.3% it was "basically even."  And then he absolved himself from the wide open border because Donald Trump voiced his disapproval of an immigration bill...in February 2024.

As Americans consistently told this Administration that they were struggling, Biden never wavered from his message that we have the "best economy in the world."  You stupid rubes.

Yesterday, in his latest bid to protect his ego, Biden suggested that the reason he's not getting credit is because the news media is too negative:

I think there’s an explanation for that.  If you think about it, what do you — I’m — it’s not a criticism of the press — and I mean this; you know me too well — (laughs) — is that you turn on the television and you don’t see a lot of good news.  Even the stuff that is good news doesn’t seem to sell very well.  And so, when you turn on the TV, everything looks bad.  Everything looks bad. 

Yeah, Joey, it's because of your terrible Presidency and not because more people are tuning in to Fox News.  I'm old enough to remember Jimmy Carter and, although his Presidency is not viewed favorably, he was largely buffeted by crises out of his control such as the Iranian hostage ordeal and an oil crisis.  Biden opened up the border ("they should surge here!"), triggered inflation with his massive spending bills, drove up the national debt to unseen levels, abandoned Afghanistan to the Taliban, and generally made America a weaker nation.

Congrats, Joe: worst President ever.

Everybody's watching Fox

Financial Times: "Fox News reaps benefits of Donald Trump victory - Liberal audiences tune out while Robert Murdoch’s channel attracts record numbers."

This stat is crazy: "During “primetime” evening hours in the weeks since the election, 73 per cent of the total cable news audience was watching Fox, while 16 per cent tuned into MSNBC and 11 per cent to CNN." 

Meathead departs X

Breitbart: "Rob Reiner deletes X/Twitter account following Trump victory, spent years spreading wild accusations."

The Community Notes feature done him in.

This might be my favorite thing from 2024

This was the moment when I realized that it was game over for the media: pic.twitter.com/9ejWfoGPAk

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) November 27, 2024

For years - decades! - I've been popping off about the bias of the mainstream media and its complete lack of objectivity when covering Democrats v. Republicans.  In my opinion, that absolute nadir was the coverage of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.  Here was a guy (with young daughters) who was dragged through the mud on literally zero evidence because he was a Conservative.  It was disgusting.  The media followed up with the four year facade that Joe Biden was sharp as a tack! dontchaknow.  Morning Joe burned his credibility in a glorious bonfire with his "cogent" speech.

It looks like the media is finally getting its comeuppance: "MSNBC Viewership Craters 38%, CNN 27%, While Fox News Audience Jumps 41% Post-Election."

Good.  Burn them all to the ground and replace them with Joe Rogan.  Sell MSNBC at a flea market.

The mainstream media did this to themselves and half of America tried to warn them.  But they lived in an echo chamber and huffed on the farts of their own self-importance.  See you on the unemployment line.  Learn to code and all that.

It's glorious.

And we're all thankful

Hey, we got Washington after all!

BREAKING: With almost all votes counted, every state has shifted toward the Republican Party. pic.twitter.com/UJTmeg72jH

— Leading Report (@LeadingReport) November 27, 2024

They regret it didn't work

Jonathan Turley: "“Reimagining” the Resistance: Lawfare Warriors Express Regret But Not Remorse After Election."

I always thought lawfare was a losing proposition along with Colorado's attempt to throw Trump off the ballot in that Americans viewed it as a way to subvert democratic choice. 

Please make this happen, part 2

Breitbart: "Trump may kick establishment media out of White House briefing room, make seats for new media."

This is great news.  We don't need Jim Acosta hogging the microphone anymore.

Please make this happen

Red State: "Marjorie Taylor Greene to NPR: The DOGE Is Coming for You."

If there's one low-stake outcome I want to see from this election, it's the defunding of NPR.  I saw this story earlier today and then listened to NPR on the way home for the first time in months.  It is still the left-wing echo chamber it's always been with the endless parade of Americans unhinged by the election of Trump.

Our national Ponzi scheme

Jeff Jacoby: "The myths that hide why Social Security is unsustainable - Beginning with FDR, politicians have promoted fables and fibs about the nation’s largest spending program."

To test your understanding of Social Security, here is a short quiz:

1. How much money is in the Social Security trust fund?

2. How much money have you saved in your Social Security retirement account?

3. How much money are you guaranteed to receive in monthly benefits when you retire?

The answer to all three questions is the same: None.

Social Security and its solvency used to be a pet project of mine but no more.  It's obvious that politicians from both sides of the aisle are just going to ignore the problem until it goes belly-up in a couple of years.

Honestly, it has no basis in modern times.  At the time Social Security was created, manual labor was still a thing and it wasn't reasonable to ask Grandpa to dig a ditch every day to stay out of poverty.  As Jacoby notes, seniors are now the wealthiest segment of society, getting regular payments from younger workers who will be royally screwed when it's time for their retirement.  

Preach it, my brother

NY Post: "Joe Rogan explains why liberal media ‘hemorrhaging’ audiences: ‘You’re not accurate, you’re delusional’" 

It was obvious not even in hindsight

New York Post: "Lawfare and nonstop smears from Democrats only contributed to Trump’s triumph."

As I like to note, Trump's largest single day for campaign donations was the day he was "convicted" in the bogus New York hush-money trial.  (Only a judge can convict with an actual sentence.)  That should have been the tip-off that a large number of Americans were against lawfare.

What Media bias?

The growth of propaganda in legacy media is easily tracked simply by counting word frequency https://t.co/aW6qqOetez

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 23, 2024

Heartless governor to immigrants: GTFO

Boston Globe: "Healey to seek six-month limit on stays in emergency shelters; officials say current approach ‘not sustainable’."

Governor Maura Healey said Friday she will seek to cap stays in emergency shelters for homeless and migrant families to six months, marking her latest effort to contain spending within a strained shelter system that is projected to cost the state nearly $1.1 billion this fiscal year.

That's right here in Massachusetts.  And right before Christmas!

It's over

Former prosecutor and CNN contributor (don't hold that against him) Elie Honig: "Somebody Needs to Tell the Manhattan DA’s Office That the Trump Case Is Over."

It’s over. Yes, there are legal issues that the parties and the courts can unwind if they care to — Trump’s immunity claim, first and foremost. But this case won’t carry on while he’s president, as the DA’s office has apparently recognized, and maybe not even while he’s president-elect.

The Manhattan DA's office will stretch this out as long as they can until January 20th and then unceremoniously dump the charges on a Friday night to minimize the news coverage.

By the way, Honig agrees with the notion that lawfare backfired and helped Trump:

Beyond that, Bragg’s charge was such an obvious stretch that it played right into Trump’s persecution narrative on the campaign trail. Trump’s serial prosecutions inarguably helped him emerge from the pack and win the Republican primary. There are too many factors to credit or blame any one of them for Trump’s showing in the 2024 general election, his best ever. But it’s clear now that the general populace was entirely unmoved by the hush-money case. Heck, in Manhattan itself — the scene of the crime! — Trump did five points better in 2024 than in 2020, moving from 12 percent to 17 percent of the vote. Trump gained more percentage points in Manhattan than he did across the entire country.

It’s over now; Bragg’s case will never reach a conclusion, and Trump is headed back to the White House. He’s not getting sentenced now or in 2029. The DA has done enough damage. It’s time to let it go.

All that effort to paint Trump as a felon and the Left won't even have that.

Quote of the day

Red State: "MSNBC in Panic, Now Rachel Maddow Takes a Big Hit With Comcast Changes."

"It turned into one giant circle j--k and echo chamber."

Sure did!  Now it's going to be sold for the copper cables in the drywall.

You know what to do, Gov. Abbott

Hot Air: "Mayor Wu Says She's Not Helping ICE Take Illegals Out of Boston."

Don't forget about Denver, also.

Meathead is nuts

PJ Media: "Rob Reiner Drives Himself Bonkers Post-Election, Checks Into a 'Facility'." 

The "rename MSNBC" game is ON

NY Post: "MSNBC staffers ‘in a panic’ as NBC-parent Comcast plans to spin off channel — and possibly change its name."

Sounds like we should call it "Bluesky TV": an echo chamber where opposing viewpoints are ruthlessly suppressed. 

You guys have your own place now

Hot Air: "Things at Bluesky Going as Well as Could Be Expected."

It appears that the X-substitute is broken up between two camps: 1) people who post things "offensive" and 2) the people who try to ban group #1.  There is no middle ground.

MSNBC, we hardly knew ye

Shot: "Creaky Ancient Leftist Mike Barnicle Tells MSNBC: "I Don't Know How We Make Ourselves Relevant Again"."

Chaser: "Comcast Greenlights $7 Billion Spinoff of NBCUniversal Cable Channels - New venture will house channels like E!, USA and MSNBC; company to announce several leadership changes."

Buh-bye.

The mainstream media commits suicide

Pretty sure I've used that title before but here comes Megan McArdle in the Washington Post: "McArdle: Liberal Media Bias is Hurting Democrats."

Those of us who used our own eyes were right. Those (including the NY Times) who relied on White House talking points about "cheap fakes" were embarrassingly wrong. And that's the ultimate point McArdle is making. You can't lie your way to victory when almost everything is happening on camera. All you can do is ruin your own credibility.

Credibility ruined:

Morning Joe went to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring and save his job.  Because of his principles.

Extra non-fake news: "The Associated Press says buyouts and some layoffs are ahead as it seeks to cut its workforce by 8%."  

Full stop

Red State: "BREAKING: PA Supreme Court Stops the Steal." 

Meanwhile, here in the People's Republic of MA

Outkick: "Protesters Rally Outside Dem. Rep. Seth Moulton's Office After He Spoke Out Against Males In Women's Sports."

To his credit, Moulton hasn't backed down with a groveling apology.

Lawfare was a huge mistake

I strongly agree with Sasha Stone here: "Sorry, Democrats. America is Just Not That Into You."

Lawfare was a big mistake, the biggest, because it sent the message to us, the voters, that the Democrats couldn’t earn our votes on their own. They could only win if they put Trump in jail.

Nothing did more to turn the Trump story into the Hero’s Journey than that. By the end of it, a growing number of Americans hated them and couldn’t wait to see them voted out of power, myself included.

The Alvin Bragg conviction was a tremendous joke, particularly the bootstrapping of misdemeanor charges into felonies by legal hand-waving.  Americans saw through it.

Extra - Victory Girls: "Democrats: It’s Not Us, It’s You." 

Getting tired of winning

NY Post: "‘The View’ star Sunny Hostin deletes X account, goes after Elon Musk amid controversial ‘white women’ comments."

Hostin was trolled on the social media site last week after she blamed “uneducated white women” and Latino men for Trump’s victory.

It's their go-to move.  

So many graphs

Patrick Ruffini: "The realignment is here."

The most striking graph here, as Patrick points out, is how Democrats became the party of educated snobs while the Republican party is now the part of the working people.  

Don't sell yourself short, Dems

NPR: "Did Democrats lose on the economy or the culture wars?"

The kids LOVE J.D. Vance

Red State: "Vibes, Baby: NY Times Interviews Late Deciders Who Broke for Trump, and the Left Simply Can't Deal." 

The X-odus

I'm pretty proud of that title.

Legal Insurrection: "Liberals Run Away From X Because Diverse Opinions Make Them Feel Unsafe - “Every time I opened it up,” one X user said, “it would throw things at me that put me in a bad mood.” Yes, the truth is like that."

Ace: "Sexual Assaulter and Gay Pincushion Clown Don LeMon Dramatically Announces Three Times He's Leaving Twitter, Never to Come Back."

As the kids say: this isn't an airport, you don't need to announce your departure. 

But wait…. There’s more! https://t.co/5QwHAeDRAo pic.twitter.com/K7HiLAWK4F

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) November 14, 2024

The panic is real

Twitchy: "LA Times Replaces ENTIRE Editorial Board, Owner Says ALL Voices Will Be Heard."

Ace: "Semafor: The Marxist Propaganda Media Is Grapping With Its Own Impotence and Irrelevance."

Guardian: "Guardian will no longer post on Elon Musk’s X from its official accounts."

Variety: "Don Lemon Quits X, Citing Elon Musk’s Change to Move Legal Disputes to Texas Courts."

NY Post: "ABC brass scramble to bring in pro-Trump voices to ‘The View’ and other shows: ‘Panic mode’." 

The wins just keep on coming!

Reuters: "Comcast weighs spin-off of declining cable networks after strong third quarter"

Comcast, opens new tab said it was considering spinning off its cable networks that include CNBC and MSNBC into a separate company, as the media industry grapples with a decline in traditional TV viewership due to cord-cutting by consumers shifting to streaming.

Meanwhile at CNN: "CNN boss Mark Thompson to lay off hundreds after Election Day ratings wipeout: report."

Womp womp.  Learn to code.

Extra - Hot Air: "Dejected Democrats Have Had Enough of MSNBC." 

Hey, stopping fascists ain't cheap!

Red State: "Donald Trump Was Such a Threat to Democracy That Oprah Charged $1 Million to Endorse Kamala Harris."

Is this even legal?  

Interesting choice

NY Times: "Trump Expected to Name Marco Rubio as Secretary of State - The president-elect appears to have settled on the Florida senator to be the nation’s top diplomat."

I famously did not vote for Trump in 2016 and instead voted for Rubio in the Republican primary.

Yes, listen to Variety

Twitchy: "Variety Mag Doubles Down, Says We Need MORE Celebrities Lecturing Us on Politics."

That's why Americans watch the Oscars!  For the lectures. 

We finally found out how to get fired from the Biden administration

NY Post: "FEMA official who allegedly told workers to avoid Florida homes with Trump signs fired." 

That is good news!

David Harsanyi: "Good news: The public has stopped listening to mass media"

If the 2024 presidential contest proved anything, it’s that the mass media no longer drive the national conversation. They can no longer stoke fear and outrage in average voters. They can no longer prop up terrible candidates. And, like him or not, President-elect Donald Trump’s success with black, Hispanic, and Jewish voters, if exit polls are even close to correct, proves that the entire “fascist” scare was a flop.

Indeed, the establishment press are less trusted than virtually any major institution in American life. It is a well-earned ignominy. It’s also a tragedy for a free nation that we have a barely functioning press. Reporters probably tell themselves they’re disliked because they’re fearless truth-tellers. But, far more likely, it’s a referendum on their deceit.

The Wall Street Journal had a similar article: "Trump’s Win Cemented It: New Media Is Leaving the Old Guard Behind - Podcasts are exploding, TikTok is a news source, and traditional media is shrinking in reach and influence."  Americans no longer trust the mainstream media which is a hive mind of leftist thought and its decline is well-deserved and overdue.

Extra - Kim Strassel: "A Landslide Against the Media - News organizations tried to prop Biden and Harris up. How did that work out?" 

What a performance

This is a spoof, right?  Right?

White Dude For Kamala Harris Meltdown In Front Of Austin City Council. pic.twitter.com/eIo9w0kyer

— Alex Strenger (@TheAlexStrenger) November 8, 2024

What would we do without experts?

CNN: "‘Death by a thousand cuts’: How experts warn Trump could use an authoritarian playbook to go after the media."

That "could" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here.  As the Babylon Bee says: Trump was going to be a dictator in his first term but forgot. 

We won't have KJP to kick around anymore

Honest to God, she's just the dumbest person to ever be a White House press secretary.  Today, a very reasonable question: for years President Biden has been calling Trump a threat to democracy but now Biden says everything is cool.  The subtext is "were you lying then or are you lying now?"

It should be a very expected question but KJP doesn't have the gray matter to answer.

Another Senate seat for GOP

Associated Press: "Republican David McCormick flips pivotal Pennsylvania Senate seat, ousts Bob Casey."

Casey was famously running ads in Pennsylvania talking up his work with Trump.

A-Mazing

Trump won Starr County TX, most Hispanic county in America at 97% by 16 points.

Last time it voted republican was in 1892.

— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) November 6, 2024

The mainstream media commits suicide

Long X post from investor Bill Ackman.  Excerpt:

When the story of this election is written, I expect it will be as much about how half of America woke up to the reality that they have been manipulated by the media. This should lead to an abandonment by many of the MSM as their primary source of information. It will push more people to @X, to podcasts and other empirical sources, and it will lead to a more informed public. 

He notes that the MSM perpetuated the illusion that Biden was "fit as a fiddle" because saying otherwise would help Trump.  When they couldn't maintain that story, they needed to create a new illusion about Kamala Harris because Trump.  Eventually, Americans saw through the ruse.

Quid pro quo Joe?

Andrew McCarthy: "Trump victory should be death knell for Democrats' lawfare - Will Democrats learn the lawfare lesson?"

Let's make a deal:

President Biden could provide a powerful example of statesmanship — he could finally, on the cusp of leaving office, act like the unifying president he promised to be at the start — by pardoning his predecessor and successor. It would certainly make it easier for the nation to accept the president’s inevitable pardon of his son, Hunter, who is awaiting sentence on gun and tax charges. It could also provide the political space Gov. Kathy Hochul would need to pardon Trump over the caterwauling of New York progressives — hopefully, Democrats are reading the returns showing inroads Trump made with their traditional constituencies in the Empire State.

Lawfare was terrible for the country. The resounding win Americans have given Trump should be its death knell.

Trump for Hunter?  Joe should take that deal since all of Trump's ridiculous cases are going to be thrown out on appeal.

Nice work if you can get it

By the way, so far this week Joe Biden has completed the following tasks:

1) Made a phone call.

Prediction

Now that I'm done with election predictions, here's a new one: Biden will pardon Hunter.

He might as well just do it today and get it over with.  We know it's going to happen.

Spot on, man, spot on

Adam Coleman: "Trump's Massive Win Is A Referendum On What The Democratic Party Is No Longer - They lost the plot and abandoned liberal values, common sense, and the working class"

Cardi B's public endorsement doesn't impact the decision of someone who has less than $400 in their savings and praying they won't have a financial emergency. No one gives a damn about what millionaires in Hollywood want or who they support when we are trying to survive.

Great essay.  Americans have had enough.

Trump wins - mainstream media hardest hit

Honestly, I was 99% sure that Trump was going to win.  For months I said this would be a "fundamentals" election where Americans were going to vote against the horrible record of the Biden-Harris administration and return to the "mean tweets" era of Trump.  People don't give a damn about that stuff when it costs them 20% more at the supermarket checkout line.

But never in my 50+ years have I seen such an onslaught of negative coverage as the mainstream media over the past year.  My God.  There's a reason (as Jeff Bezos noted) they're considered less trustworthy than used car salesmen.  I'd like to believe the MSM would reflect on their biases but they had a chance in 2016 and blew it. 

One other benefit from Trump's victory: we'll be spared the impassioned essays on the electoral college since it looks like Trump also won the popular vote.

Win-win baby!

God bless America

They impeached Trump twice.
They arrested him four times.
They took him off the ballot.
They tried to kiII him twice.
They he won a landslide.

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) November 6, 2024

Programming update

We've arrived in the point in the evening where I've switched over from Fox News to MSNBC to laugh at the meltdown.

Prediction: 312-226

I meant to post this earlier but I predicted this about a week ago at least in a text thread with my college roommate.

For the record, I feel pretty sure about Pennsylvania and Wisconsin but I'm on the fence with Michigan which could go either way.  If I'm wrong about Michigan, it's still 297-241 for Trump.

The DJT proxy vote

The Trump Media group stock is soaring in after-hour trading:

Economy is #1 issue and most say it sucks

Twitchy: "CNN's Chris Wallace Says It Would Take a 'Miracle' for Kamala to Win As First Exit Polls Released." 

The Paper of Record

Kamala Harris Confused By Process Where She Needs To Get Votes To Be Selected https://t.co/SpaxZbzZWn pic.twitter.com/NHa3uNhDqY

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) November 5, 2024

Good encapsulation

Unreported Truths: "Why I'm voting for Donald J. Trump - He is an imperfect vessel - to say the least - but the country needs change." 

Extra - This one is good too from Clay Travis: "Why I'm voting for Donald Trump."  His #2 bullet point is "Democrats broke 250 years of American precedent by trying to put their chief political rival in prison for the rest of his life."  This one has a lot of resonance with me: the lawfare against Trump was just absolutely ridiculous from paying back loans to the mystery "second crime" to advance the hush-money trial to the raid at Mar-a-Lago.

If only Trump had been a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory" he could have gotten off scot-free!

NY Times focus groups say...

New York Times: "Our 61 Focus Groups Make Me Think Trump Has a Good Chance of Winning."

A main takeaway from our groups is that a cross-section of independents, Republicans and Democrats liked how America was under Mr. Trump — they liked the economy, the perception of relative global stability, the restraint of divided government and the image that this outsider businessman was not beholden to Washington insiders, lobbyists and big money (the unholy trio of turpitude for many of our participants). There were plenty of things that they didn’t like about Mr. Trump — his behavior and tweets most of all — but those didn’t matter as much. Then Covid happened and Americans wanted a more stable leader. Listening to all of these voters over the years, I can’t help but feel that Mr. Trump probably would have been re-elected in 2020 if not for Covid. And his refusal to concede the 2020 election and his behavior on Jan. 6 turned our focus group participants against him more than anything else he did. Perhaps that will be enough to defeat him this week.

As for Mr. Biden’s challenges, one of the signal failures of his administration has been telling Americans that the economy was getting better and better. They kept telling us: Not for me. Americans hate inflation, full stop. If there was a common denominator for our groups across 2022, 2023 and 2024, it was experiencing and loathing inflation, such that I see it as the single most important fact of life in Tuesday’s election. That can’t be overstated.

I feel like I've been saying for a year now that this will be a "fundamentals" election where Americans may be put off by Trump's boorish behavior but conclude that peace and prosperity are more important.

Most accurate 2020 pollster says...

NY Post: "Trump leading Harris in every swing state: new poll."

Very close in every state, but you'd prefer to be Trump here.  Go and vote.  

Back to the basement, Joey

Red State: "Kamala Harris Tells Joe Biden to Take a Hike, Cancels His Campaign Events." 

I wonder if this will get the same attention as that PR joke

NY Post: "Tim Walz refers to Elon Musk as ‘that gay guy’ – his campaign claims he misspoke."

The word "gay" probably has an apostrophe here.

Why Kamala didn't go on Rogan

Because she would have to answer questions.  Wall Street Journal: "Kamala Harris Runs From Economic Reality - Voters are worried about border security and inflation but all she wants to talk about is ‘fascism.’"

Whatever her proposals, Ms. Harris’s overriding problem is that she can’t run away from the Biden administration’s record. Her campaign’s closing message is that Mr. Trump is a fascist threat to the republic, which is something you come up with when you can’t defend what your administration has been doing for the past four years about inflation, the economy, border security and other issues that voters care most about. Ms. Harris has spent a lot of time ducking serious interviews and deflecting tough questions so that she could focus on telling people what they already know about Donald Trump. Will it work? Not if Mr. Trump’s own closing message resonates.

The mainstream media is going to try to drag her husk over the finish line.

These MFs in the MSM

How do these people look at themselves in the mirror?
Do they have even a shred of self-respect?
This is "1984 Ministry of Truth" level lying. https://t.co/QOAJAYvUWv

— Sam Alexander (@TiredOldManinAL) November 1, 2024

The apostrophe whisperer

Jonathan Turley: "Dumpster Fire: White House Press Office Faced Internal Criticism Over the Rewriting of President Biden’s Garbage Comments."

Ace: "White House Orders Government Stenographers to Alter the Transcript of Biden's "Garbage" Comments, Turning the Historical Record Into a Democrat Lie."

I'm old enough to remember when Democrats flipped out over Trump using a Sharpie on a map.