DOES ANYONE BELIEVE 2019 WILL BE BETTER? 2018: a year of living hatefully.

FIRST LADY MELANIA TRUMP: Victory Girls Person Of The Year for 2018.

POWERLINE: 2018 in review. I have two favorites this time:

Shadow likes to play with buttons....

Maybe we'll get lucky and it won't get worse....

Now go and see the rest.

WHAT'S A FEW MORE DEAD AMERICANS if it means the Democrats can score political points?

Every day that they refuse to allow the man we elected president to fulfill the most basic function of a national government - securing its national borders - they make a deliberate choice to accept more dead Americans. Oh, and more crime, poverty and welfare costs too. They are willing to let it all happen because their power means much, much more to them than your prosperity, your security, or your life.

Read it all.

"WALLS DON'T WORK" is for the little people.

DEMOCRATS AREN'T JUST CRAZY; THEY'RE PREJUDICED AS WELL: Kamala Harris and Mazie Hirono are trying to bar observant Catholics from public office.

HERE’S AN IDEA FOR 2019: Stop whining, Offendapotamus.

WHAT A SURPRISE: Baltimore is losing population. I wonder why. Not.

UM, IT IS DECEMBER 31ST, MR. AVENATTI. Would you care to revise your prediction?

SHERIFF DAVID CLARKE (RET): Embracing the term Progressive is appalling.

[T]hese leading Progressive architects weren’t reformers—they were arrogant, elitist, racists whose attitudes had shaped public policy... [T]hey supported forced sterilization and believed in socially engineering a master race. They despised Jews, Asians, Catholics, women and the disabled. They thought these groups were too stupid to vote and should be prevented from doing so. Their interpretation of Democracy was control of the masses by a small group of bureaucratic experts.

Read it all.

AND THEY'RE JUST DUMB ENOUGH TO TRY IT: If Ocasio-Cortez's 'Green New Deal' succeeds in 2019 it will be the most radical plan offered in decades.

HEH: EVEN THE LEFT is complaining about Facebook.

I'm not on Facebook and even I find it annoying.

IT'S NOT ENOUGH TO MOCK THEM; we must break them.

SO WHO IS THE PUPPET MASTER? With identical tweets, Pelosi and Schumer reveal themselves as mouthpieces.

PROGRESSIVES: America is expendable. So are you.

You know-nothings in Jesusland must stop interfering with our plans for a progressive utopia.

DON SURBER ON THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN: Maybe they should learn computer coding.

Hillary would approve - if they weren't government employees.

CAT FIGHT! McCaskill and Ocasio-Cortez scrap.

More like a kitten fight....

POWERLINE'S WEEK IN PICTURES has posted. Here's my favorite:

Wonder Woman. Now go and see the rest.

LADY LIBERTY has a message for Congress.

TRUE FOR ALMOST ALL PROGRESSIVES: It’s not that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez knows nothing, it’s that what she knows is wrong.

YES, LET'S SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMENT so we can go to the beach.

WHITE IS THE NEW BLACK: Women's March event canceled over concerns of being 'overwhelmingly white'.

DON SURBER: Trump shows why troops love him.

BE KIND to your novice shooter at the range.

I TOLD YOU SO: Trump vindicated, media silent.

UGLY: Documenting San Francisco's homeless problem one tweet at a time.

ADDED NOTE: Closing America's mental institutions was a bad idea.

THERE'S BEEN ANOTHER DELAY in the global warming apocalypse.

WITH ART LIKE THIS, who needs the National Endowment for the Arts?

POWERFUL MOMENT – Member of United States Army told the President he came back into the military because of him. And President Trump responded “And I am here because of you.”

More here.

OH, MY: We're running out of wind.

Put wind turbines in Democrat strongholds - with all that hot air, there ought to be plenty of wind energy.

THE ANSWER IS YES: Did the New York Times just suggest we treat gun owners as terrorists?

THE EXODUS of New York City’s endangered middle class.

One sector doing a booming “business” is food pantries. Despite a city unemployment rate of 4 percent, New York food pantries report elevated levels of demand, especially during the holiday season.

More than 1 million New Yorkers now worry they won’t have enough food for their families.

And they're the middle class.

DEMOCRATS AT WAR with century-old firearm technology.

Hell, they're at war with anyone who disagrees with them about anything.

THEY CAN'T HELP MAKING FOOLS OF THEMSELVES: Melania Trump gets mocked for wearing Timberland boots while visiting troops in Afghanistan.

MORE GOOD GUYS with guns.

PRESIDENT TRUMP PROVES MEDIA WRONG. Again.

THE DEMOCRAT 'B' TEAM: Why Biden, Bernie and Beto shouldn’t get cocky.

I would nominate Bloomberg, (Eliza)Beth, Booker, (Sherrod) Brown, (Jerry) Brown, and (de)Blasio to fill out the 'B' team. And I'm sure there are at least 4 more B's to make a baker's dozen.

Now - where is the 'A' Team?

THE GOVERNMENT SHUT DOWN? Who noticed?

Nice comment about the aftereffects of a 'Republican' shutdown....

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION: What we have learned so far (Part I), (Part II), and (Part III).

"TRUMP FINALLY WENT FULL TRUMP. That is, he actually did what he promised, and the establishment lost its collective Schiff."

VICTORY GIRLS: The Hogg goes to Harvard. I'll give him a year, maybe two, before he slinks away.

SO, MR. PRESIDENT, 'You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive'.

And learned the lesson that the American polity hasn't.

GOFUNDME WALL CAMPAIGN hits $16 million in 6 days.

Heh. A counter-campaign to buy "Ladders Over Trump's Wall" has raised $137K.

JUDICIAL NOMINEE FACES SENATE SCRUTINY over Knights of Columbus membership.

MORE: Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Knights of Columbus?

I DON'T NEED EVIDENCE, I need subpoenas.

RAND PAUL TO THE LEFT: "How about you just admit you hate the President, love war and have been wrong for the last twenty years on every part of foreign policy?"

DON SURBER: Day 4 of no government.

The effects of the government shutdown have gone from bad to worse. Last night was eerily silent. Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

Now go read the rest.

YES, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus.

Not quite what you expected, eh?

AND A TRUMP CHRISTMAS to Congress.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM SHADOW'S WORLD:

And Mele Kalikimaka and Feliz Navidad from where we used to live....

IT'S ONLY A PARTIAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN: Ocasio-Cortez calls for furlough of congressional salaries.

She's probably pissed because she's not on the payroll yet....

DON SURBER: Day 3 of no government. From the comments:

As a show of solidarity with the hordes of furloughed government workers, I have chosen not to go to the office today or tomorrow.

Solidarity ends Wednesday, however. I've got too many deadlines coming up.

Read it all, including comments.

NO BORDERS, NO WALLS! NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio builds ‘privacy fence’ around Gracie Mansion.

Maybe Trump could get Democrat support for his border wall if he called it a 'privacy fence'....

SAN FRANCISCO BUSINESS OWNER: "We live in a pretty f**ked up city."

So when will the city fathers mothers persons of indeterminate gender you voted for notice?

IRREPARABLE DAMAGE TO THE BUREAU: Former FBI agents sound off on James Comey.

I THINK 'BOTH' IS THE CORRECT ANSWER: Is MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow a bigot or just ignorant?

I'd say we are better off with a private Christian university that affirms the teachings of Jesus Christ, than a government-run university that affirms the teachings of Karl Marx.

Religion may not be fulfilling for everyone, but secular progressivism is fulfilling for no one.

DOUBLE DOWN: An ethics lesson for USA Today’s “queer” bullies.

Bigots with bylines....

THEY WERE AGAINST HIM BEFORE THEY WERE FOR HIM: Mattis to be replaced by deputy, will leave January 1.

'They' being journalists and Democrats.

SO CLIMATE CHANGE IS BAD? Millions moving to warmer climates.

Linked from Whatfinger News.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: It was always about the wall.

The solidly blue states of the American Southwest, including Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico, voted red as recently as 2004 for George W. Bush. Progressives understandably conclude that de facto open borders are good long-term politics.

And you can see it playing out in Congress right now.

SO VERY TRUE: Folks in Flyover country are getting sick and tired of politicians.

Linked from Whatfinger News.

PUNCHING BACK: Stephen Miller hands Wolf Blitzer his ass on a silver platter.

I JOURNEY to the land of Social Securities (sic).

I've never had the wait - or 'be interrogated' - at my local Social Security office, and I have to admit that for a federal government organization, the service was pretty good.

Linked from Whatfinger.

POWERLINE'S WEEK IN PICTURES, Merry Christmas Edition has posted. My favorite:

Think about it ... then go see the rest.

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? Elizabeth Warren wants the federal government to start manufacturing ‘affordable’ prescription drugs.

Like 'affordable' ObamaCare? Like 'affordable' Medicaid? Like 'affordable' Medicare?

POWERLINE: Name that criminal defendant!

I am so old, I can remember when intelligence officials leaking top secret information to women they were sleeping with was frowned upon. At one time, the fear was that such women might be Russian spies. Now, it is reasonable to assume that they are Democrats.

But it's a Democrat, so no big deal.

WELCOME TO CHRISTMAS in Washington, D.C. Santa's reindeer have the right idea.

Linked from Whatfinger.

"THEY HATE YOU": Victor Davis Hanson explains the globalist mindset.

JORDAN PETERSON ON ‘BABY IT’S COLD OUTSIDE’: the Left is too P.C. to comprehend playful seduction. But "it gives activists who don’t have anything better to do something additionally useless to complain about and be annoying, so there’s always that."

I'd use the word 'stupid' but after all is said and done, 'P.C.' and 'stupid' are synonyms.

REP. LUIS GUTIERREZ (D-IL) berates ‘remorseless’ [Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen] Nielsen for six minutes and leaves before she can respond.

When he finished [berating her], Nielsen said his accusations of lying were "fighting words."

As she spoke, Gutierrez got up from his chair and left the chamber. Nielsen smiled and said, "He couldn't be bothered to stay, so I'm happy to tell the rest of the committee."

Morons like Gutierrez can't help making fools of themselves.

POLITICO: the unsufferable James Comey.

BREAKING: Government shuts down at midnight; sun still rises.

Democrats chagrined.

A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN is imminent.

Heh.

NO WONDER THEY CAN'T GET JOBS....

Trump critics (picture taken from this article).

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON on President Nobama.

WAIT ... WHAT? California Gov. Jerry Brown thinks Democrats want too much spending and regulation.

He realized he spent it all....

FLOTUS FASHION: Who are you going to believe, Fake News or your lyin’ eyes?

DON'T UNDERESTIMATE dumb voters' appetite for idiot leftist politicians.

NOW THAT Baby it's cold outside has been banned, Don Surber has a list of other Christmas songs to ban.

OHIO GOV. JOHN KASICH: I can’t shake the feeling that I’d lose to Trump in a Republican primary.

He's right.Try a Democrat primary; he'd be head and shoulders above the current competition.

THERE'S NO SCALE LARGE ENOUGH: Measuring left-wing authoritarianism in America.

...a more fundamental definition of authoritarianism would be: The belief that one’s values are superior to the values of others and that one’s beliefs can therefore be ethically imposed upon those with inferior morals.

Not to claim that conservatives are guilt-free, but that definition is as precise a one as I have ever seen of the progressive/liberal mindset.

OBAMA'S NET NEUTRALITY IS DEAD and the U.S. is better off.

THERE'S A REASON WHY NEWS REPORTS ARE CALLED 'STORIES': Writer touted by CNN as 'Journalist of the Year' forced to resign for fabricating stories.

ONLY IF PROGRESSIVES LEAD THE WAY: Human extinction might be a good thing.

SHE'S TIRED AND HASN'T EVEN STARTED WORK YET: Adulting is hard; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez needs a vacation.

THE LIBERAL MEDIA: where what passes for news reporting is mostly spin and opinion, liberally laced with anonymous leaks.

GET WOKE AND DIE: live by identity politics, die by identity politics.

IT'S ALL ABOUT POLITICS: The Democrats were for border control before they were against it.

Hypocrites....

THAT DANGED CONSTITUTION is the only thing standing between Progressives and tyranny.

NAH, WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' WALL: California man, previously deported in 2014, goes on 24-hour 'reign of terror' before dying in police chase.

OOPSIE! Starbucks’ new bathroom policy not working out as hoped.

MEDICAL ERRORS: the third leading cause of death in the United States.

I'm skeptical, but there is no good data on medical errors.

YES. NEXT QUESTION. Are liberals authoritarian?

STAY TUNED: A no-nonsense judge looks at the Flynn prosecution.

POOR BABY: It must be tough learning that you're expected to work for that Congressional salary.

CNN: Melania doesn't understand what it means to be First Lady.

And CNN obviously doesn't know what it means to be a news network.

WITH PREJUDICE, HOPEFULLY: Top Republican predicts Flynn guilty plea will be thrown out due to FBI wrongdoing.

TOXIC STUPIDITY: Progressives, the mainstream media, and anything 'experts say'.

POWERLINE: the real war on Christmas.

It's spelled ISIS.

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: DC quietly preparing for shutdown, lest they disturb the Yellies.

TRUMP TRAPS Pelosi and Schumer on live television.

SO WE SHOULD BE HAPPY PACKED IN URBAN HIGH RISES LIKE BEES IN A HIVE? Single family zoning is an urban dinosaur.

Perhaps the author can explain why so many television commercials show people in their homes and yards in the suburbs? Or fleeing the city for the great outdoors?

FROM POWERLINE'S Week in Pictures, our cats'favorite:

There are many more good ones, including the Ninjabread cookies, the bag of idiots, and Socialist Claws. Go see them all.

ROGER L. SIMON: Good riddance to ObamaCare. Personally I doubt the ruling will stand scrutiny by the Supreme Court, but I'm hopeful, especially if the Republicans work swiftly to propose new legislation.

REDCOATS.

WHAT A SURPRISE: Higher rents correlate to higher homeless rates.

CLEARLY SEXIST: Bras for women.

The comments are hilarious.

IN SUMMARY, President Trump seems to me to be one of the best American presidents I’ve ever seen.

Click through the PowerLine link and read the whole thing.

MEXICANS' PRICELESS REACTION TO CARAVAN confounds liberals.

IT ONLY TOOK 69 YEARS TO RECOGNIZE THE OBVIOUS: "I'm not a person of color."

GET WOKE, GO BROKE: The Weekly Standard, RIP.

FINANCIAL BOUNTY HUNTERS TESTIFY: Clinton Foundation operated as foreign agent.

But there was no collusion....

A NON-SURPRISING OBSERVATION: It isn’t homophobia/sexism/racism/assault/rape/lawbreaking when lefties do it.

THE VIRTUE-SIGNALING IS STRONG IN THIS ONE: California's chief justice quits GOP over Kavanaugh confirmation.

If she's that upset perhaps she should quit the bench.

GRAB THE WATER, the Wicked Witch is back.

WHY HE IS A GREAT PRESIDENT: President Trump joins Wreaths across America at Arlington National Cemetery.

FREE STUFF IS EXPENSIVE: We don’t have a revenue problem, we have an overspending problem.

POWERLINE: Getting it wrong on democracy.

VICTORY GIRLS: Trey Gowdy's final interview with Martha MacCallum.

It's worth every minute to watch.

SPACESHIP TWO reaches the edge of space.

THIS COULD (SHOULD) GET INTERESTING: The DOJ Inspector General found 19,000 'Lost' Strzok and Page texts.

UPDATE: Maybe not.

FORTY-SIX YEARS AGO TODAY the last American departed the moon's surface. No one has ever returned.

DEMOCRATS: Transparency is for little people (and Republicans), not us.

THE HUBRIS IS STRONG IN THIS ONE: Amy Schumer promises to stop trying to look ‘super f*ckable’.

'BUNGLING BOB' MUELLER'S bad day.

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS is a government shutdown.

Me too.

VICTORY GIRLS: The ass in seat 1A and its turkey. People who require 'emotional support animals' should be immediately sent to a mental health facility. Inpatient.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Comey continues to display his lack of credibility.

Comey's sanctimoniousness and misdeeds pose lots of questions. Is Comey a mere hypocrite? Or in guilt does he project his sins onto others? Or does he by design pose as a moralist to help insulate himself from future legal jeopardy?

Or all of the above?

I vote for all of the above.

MARC THIESSEN: Democrats' negotiating strategy can be summed up in one word - insanity.

Well, insanity has been their hallmark for years....

FAKE NEWS: Washington Post story alleges Intelligence Community concerns about Trump.

If it weren't for fake news, the Washington Post would have nothing to print.

GOODYEAR SHUTS DOWN IN VENEZUELA; gives tires as severance.

Funny how bad luck seems to follow progressives everywhere....

KURT SCHLICHTER: Don’t underestimate dumb voters’ appetite for idiot leftist politicians.

YOU FIRST, AL: Rep. Al Green [D(umb)-TX] hints he’ll move to impeach Trump for ‘bigotry’.

More proof Democrats are insane.

MICHAEL COHEN: Convicted of not breaking the law.

INCOMING NY ATTORNEY GENERAL vows to make a laughingstock of her office.

She's a Democrat; it shouldn't be difficult.

JAMAL KHASHOGGI is the right Time Person of the Year. But ...

Let’s remember that before he fled to the US a year before he was cruelly murdered in Istanbul, Khashoggi became rich working for a Saudi royal family that was, and remains, among the world’s worst persecutors of journalists. He edited government-controlled Saudi newspapers, which are without exception regime propaganda outlets, and headed TV news channels that were owned by Saudi princes.

Then he outdid himself by working as a media adviser to a senior Saudi prince in London and Washington. He embraced with unbridled enthusiasm his role of justifying Saudi regime atrocities in the Western media. He even denied on the BBC that anyone was ever tortured in Saudi Arabia.

For those posturing politicians on TV every day, let's be clear: Saudi Arabia is no paradise, and Jamal Khashoggi was no angel.

BETO FOR PRESIDENT: “Dems love a Kennedy. Beto might not have the pedigree, but he has the requisite driving skills.”

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON on international disequilibrium in trade, religious freedoms, and immigration.

A THOUGHT for Democrat presidential wannabes Cory Booker and Kamala Harris: if you see racism everywhere you look maybe you're the racist.

ON GOOGLE'S COMMITMENT to diversity and inclusion: Every minority/victim group in exact proportion to their percentage in the general population provided, of course, they all hew to the same progressive 'philosophy'.

TUCKER CARLSON explains the Democrats' commitment to impeach President Trump.

Trump’s a criminal! He’s going to jail! For committing a smaller version of the same made-up crime that we in Congress have committed for years and forced you to pay for. By the way, we’re never apologizing for that, because we don’t have to and CNN isn’t going to make us. Screw you, America, and your stupid election. We’re in charge.

Because he's a Republican.

CALIFORNIA wants to tax text-messaging. "Please do this California government. It just might make millennials start to vote Republican."

BUT, BUT ... THE ELITES ARE NEVER WRONG: Getting it wrong on democracy.

HEH:

Linked from Instapundit.

YOUR MOBILE PHONE is tracking you everywhere you go.

NSA must be jealous.

CLIMATE CHANGE is the new Nazi. Here's an example:

CNN then: Caravan just a Trump political stunt
CNN now: Caravan a symptom of climate change!

It's CNN, naturally.

CONGRATULATIONS, MR. PRESIDENT: Trump administration undermines ObamaCare.

Now go and repeal more regulations.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Defeat and the dossier explain everything.

[W]hat is currently destroying the concept of the American system of jurisprudence are not the self-serving lies of such a minor shady operator [Michael Cohen], but rather the deliberate and more artful prevarication under oath of the nation’s top intelligence and law enforcement officers.

President Trump needs an Attorney General who will vigorously enforce the law within the deep state political class, Republican and Democrat alike.

JAMES COMEY: simply not believable.

GET WOKE, go broke. It's hard to stay in business when you insist on offending your customers.

SORRY, LIBERALS: Wage gap the result of differing choices made by men and women.

To use the Left's favorite phrase, "Experts say...."

HEH: Fake news is Time's Person of the Year.

IMPRIMIS: A short history of American medical insurance.

Read it all but pay particular attention to the final section - a way out. Then read Newt Gingrich's proposed Republican pledge on health care. I'm not enamored of all his prescriptions, obviously, but when it comes to price transparency, patient privacy, insurance options, and association purchasing, he's spot on.

I just wish that he would have emphasized that which should be obvious: insurance is a hedge against the catastrophic, in which you spend a few bucks every month - or year - and hope you'll never need to use it, not a prepaid service plan covering things you'll never need, want, or use.

But that's a forlorn hope, as automobile and homeowner insurance are rapidly morphing into service plans (with the appropriate increase in cost).

"STAY IN SCHOOL, PLAY HARD, AND WORK HARD — slimy journalists' careers depend on it."

It's The Babylon Bee, but this time it's not satire.

DEMOCRATS DIMOCRATS ARE SO SMART their agenda is beyond the ken of mere voters. I remember Sen. Hirono from the Kavanaugh hearings; she's so damn dumb she couldn't even read her prepared (for her?) notes without stumbling.

More here.

Based on the recent comments of Hirono, Ocasio-Cortez and other assorted Democrats, it seems to me that they believe zero is the high end of the IQ scale....

SOCIAL JUSTICE: Why we can't get along any more.

I think mockery is the best antidote to the SJW infection. Don't ignore them, mock them.

WHAT DID WE JEWS DO WRONG to deserve an Israel-bashing Socialist who couldn't spell cat if you spot her the 'c' and the 'a'?

A SENATOR FROM VERMONT (make a guess) who says burning fossil fuels is going to be the death of us all torched a shitload of gas flying private around the country to campaign for other people.

Conservation is for little people.

ACCORDING TO NBC NEWS ANCHOR CHUCK TODD, Trump voters in 2016 were “gullible” and victims of gaslighting.

If he and the rest of his birds vultures-of-a-feather want to see gullible and gaslighting, they should look in a mirror.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Welcome the New Old Left.

Same stupid, different year.

MAKE YOUR COMMUNITY UNAFFORDABLE: fill it with government workers.

On the bright side, I was able to sell high....

SURPRISE, SURPRISE: Gun ownership saves lives.

Even when not used.

IN TRUMP'S WAKE, sanity is catching on.

THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez misquotes the Constitution and threatens to run for President.

WHAT A WAY to tell everybody their government tyranny concerns are unfounded!

GUESS WHO? The Grinch who stole journalistic credibility. Yes, I know it's obvious, but the cartoon is good.

AMERICAN GREATNESS: Progressive politics aren't. "The progressive war has always been one over power not principles or even consistent politics."

FROM LAST WEEK, PowerLine's Week in Pictures. My favorite:

From this week:

Go and see them both.

THE COLLEGE FIX: Conservative law professor takes on progressive nonsense.

Amy Wax is right: defund the Ivies. And while we're at it, quit funding the parasites. They don't need a college degree to get a job at Starbucks.

THANKS, OBAMA: Social Security/Medicare has just notified us that the 2.8% cost-of-living increase for 2019 will actually result in a 2.3% decrease in our net monthly income due to a 49.4% increase in Medicare Parts B & D premiums.

To top it off, thanks to the booming economy that the former President just took credit for, our [401K] retirement savings are down 6.5% this year and our 2019 RMD (required minimum distribution) is estimated to be down by 4.9% despite the fact that the percentage required to be withdrawn is increased each year. [The RMD is the government's excuse for a 'wealth tax'; the money has to be withdrawn and taxed even if we don't need it.]



What really chaps my ass, though, is that after age 65, my choices for health care coverage (formerly known as health insurance) are exactly two:

(1) one size fits all Medicare, and
(2) self-pay.

The former stinks, and the latter is unaffordable because the former is major-league nontransparent (true, of course, outside of Medicare as well). We could have easily paid our medical expenses out-of-pocket, even at double Medicare's parsimonious reimbursement rates, were we allowed to opt-out of Medicare and simply purchase major medical (i.e., hospitalization) insurance.

ISN'T SOCIALISM GRAND? Socialists upset that 'capitalists' protected their own homes from the California wildfires.

FACEBOOK IS SOOO SORRY it 'mistakenly' censored pro-life ads.

It's only sorry it got caught.

YOU WORK, I EAT: The Democrat Party writ large.

THE FARCE IS STRONG IN THIS ONE: Why Trump is getting more popular.

They can't believe their lying eyes....

GLOBAL WARMING NEWS: Polar bears like it.

GET WOKE:

Linked from PowerLine's Week in Pictures.

ABOUT PROTESTS, Ammo Grrrll wonders: "What do the naked ladies say?"

[N]othing says “War is hell” like wrinkled cleavage. Remember, young people: That tasteful little rose tattoo at the TOP of your breast can, in later years, become a long-stemmed rose down by your waist. Think before you ink.

Good advice.

IMPRIMIS: America's Cold Civil War.

THE FRENCH ARE REVOLTING and I love it.

THEY SHOULD HAVE ASKED INDIANA JONES. Biblical scholars believe they may know where the Ark of the Covenant is hidden.

AUTUMN LEAVES INSTALLMENT X, A DOLLAR SHORT AND DAYS LATE

Looking back at previous posts, I see that instead of a day late, I'm a week and a day late. How time flies when you're not paying attention....

Here's 2018's final edition of the autum leaves series. First, as usual, the view from our deck:

The pond is clearly visible, all the underbrush has died out, and fallen leaves cover everything. The same is true of the view of the fire pit  and down toward the road.

Leaves cover everything. I keep blowing leaves off all the walkways around the house; the leaves keep coming down. There seem to be an infinite number as there has been very little wind.

The house now is clearly visible from the pond path and there's nothing but inches of leaves on the hillside. The downed tree was left for erosion control, but the thick bed of leaves is actually more efficient.

The pond is finally (mostly) clear of fallen leaves, but the walking paths are riddled with them. They are going to require a lot of maintenance over the winter to clear them up for walking next spring.

The house and stairway (111 steps, if interested) are clearly visible, as is the walking path above the stairway to the dock.

Until next year....

I WAS TRYING TO WATCH THE MACY'S THANKSGIVING PARADE ... but the "talking heads" wouldn't shut up.

I gave up.

AFTER EVERY ELECTION:

After every election....

GET CYNICAL, GET ANGRY. Stay free.

MCSALLY CONCEDES: The 'meth lab of democracy' is just a meth lab.

Pity.

ADAM SCHITT SCHIFF SAYS if the acting attorney general doesn’t recuse himself from the Mueller probe, he’ll have to answer to Democrats.

Somehow I don't think Republican appointees answer to Democrats....

IT'S HARD to be dumber than a fence post, but progressives are up to it. Here's a brief history of Hitler vs. Trump that perhaps they can understand.

Godwin's Law is their last resort.

TURNABOUT IS FAIR PLAY: VOX co-founder Matt Yglesias gets doxxed after defending harassment of Tucker Carlson.

He'll whine, of course, but progressives are constitutionally incapable of learning from experience.

IT'S VETERAN'S DAY and Michael Ramirez says "Thank You."

So do I.

AUTUMN LEAVES INSTALLMENT IX

Timing is everything. These pictures were taken earlier today while it was bright and sunny; it's now very cloudy with rain on the way. Here's the view from our deck:

More leaves have fallen and the colors are mostly gone. Compared to last week, the pond is now completely visible from the deck.

The leaves from last week are gone - winter has begun.

Our house is now almost completely visible now that the few remaining leaves are gone. So is the fallen pine tree from last week's photo. We pulled nearly 30 feet of the trunk up to the road where it'll eventually be cut up for firewood; the remaining 20 feet or so have been used as a retaining wall to prevent the pond path from eroding.

The dock view isn't nearly as good as last week; the colors are gone and so are the remaining few leaves.

The pond view is washed out, as usual when taking pictures almost directly toward the sun. The angle is a bit different from last week. The bench has been moved by our neighbors, so it's no longer a good reference point. Even so, the leaves are almost all gone; our house and the stairs to the pond are clearly visible, and finally the ridge we live on is visible through the trees.

Last week's pictures are here, and I suspect next week's pictures will be the last for this season.

THOUGHTS FROM THE AMMO LINE: Tell it like it is, Ammo Grrrll.

Of all the crap that Obama delivered from on high unto us bitter clingers, perhaps the most ludicrous was his constant pronouncement that whatever we wanted – Voter I.D., secure borders, lower taxes, race-blind admissions – was “not who we are.” To which I always wanted to scream, “How would YOU know who WE are? You spent all your formative years either eating Curried Dog in a madrassa in Indonesia, or smokin’ dope in private school on an island paradise. Your experience as an ‘American’ carries exactly the same weight as Lizzie Warren’s experience as a Cherokee. Like Sgt. Schultz, you know nothing! You can’t even throw a baseball!”

We've tried European-style socialism for eight years and found it wanting. Now it's time to return to American-style capitalism.

CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION: Does diversity really unite us?

POWERLINE: The elections aren't over yet.

POWERLINE'S WEEK IN PICTURES is excellent - and long - this week. My favorite:

Go see the rest - and don't miss Nacho moving to Louisana....

ENTITLED HIPSTER finds himself disenfranchised by his own arrogance and stupidity.

[T]his is the kind of ass who shouldn’t be allowed to vote. They have no sense of civic responsibility or respect for the law. They want what they want when they want it and get all pissy when that doesn’t happen. I’m sure he’ll get a better perspective on the importance of following directions once he has that nice PhD in military history and is working at Starbucks.

Agreed.

TECHNOLOGY: speeding up Darwinian evolution.

NEW AND USED POLITICIANS for sale.

This is a result of a boredom-induced Google search earlier today. I haven't tried it because I'm unwilling to give up my privacy but for those of you willing to give up a few cookies, it might prove interesting.

“YOU GOTTA LIKE A DISTRICT where voters prefer a dead brothel owner to a Democrat.”

HEH: CNN's Jim Acosta has press pass suspended by White House.

Well deserved.

JOY BEHAR IS AN IDIOT. Here's proof.

HOYT ON HEINLEIN ON HOYT: Vote No on Democrats.

I write SF/F and even my mind can’t imagine the new depths of crazy they’ll plumb next.

I've been a science fiction fan for well over 60 years and even in my extensive reading I can't remember reading anything at this level of crazy....

VOTE FOR YOUR LOCAL REPUBLICAN KNUCKLEHEAD. Even if you’d like someone better. You go to war with the underwear you got on.

RANDOM THOUGHTS on election day:

Vote as if Democrats hate you. They do.

Democrat tolerance is limited to the obedient.

Now go vote.

IF YOU'RE A MILLENNIAL, please don't vote. You're too stupid to be taken seriously.

YOU THINK liberals are miserable and paranoid now? Just wait.

AUTUMN LEAVES INSTALLMENT VIII:

Here's the usual deck view. What a change a week makes! We've had high winds this week, so the dead leaves are gone - and the ones still on the trees have dramatically changed colors.

Even around the fire pit the leaves have been blown from the trees. What few are left are those desperate hangers-on that will probably still be there next spring.

The house view has something new this week: a 53-ft pine tree trunk. The tree broke in two a couple of months back, but caught in other trees and was leaning, supported by the other trees. It finally came down two days ago, crossing over our pond path in two places. The remaining stump is a good 8 feet high, and I'd estimate another 10-20 feet of debris from the top scattered about.

The dock view is one of the best I've taken this year. Because it's low and surrounded by hills on three sides, it wasn't as affected by the winds. Still, the color changes are significant.

Finally, the pond view from the back side. It's a bit washed out because the sun is so low in the sky.

Here are last week's photos for comparison.

GUN CONTROL DONE RIGHT: South Carolina mother-of-3 shoots home invader.

BOB CORKER DEFENDS CARAVAN MIGRANTS: What would you do if you lived in countries like theirs?

Umm ... try to fix them, maybe?

POWERLINE'S WEEK IN PICTURES: pre-election edition. My favorite:

Choose wisely. Close seconds were my daily trek to school, the cat organizer, and the Democrats' post-election candy bar. Go and see them all.

VOTE BLUE if you want to see more nekkid women feminists.

BEWARE OF GEEKS BEARING GIFTS: The calculating philanthropy of Silicon Valley.

It's long, but read it all. My take: Silicon Valley philanthropy is about saving the world, not people, so if killing off a few million of the impoverished is what it takes to save the world, so be it. It's the old 'you have to break a few eggs to make an omlet' argument.

ENVIRONMENTALISTS: Save the world; dump your pets.

Frankly, I think environmentalists contribute more to global warming climate change than pets do.

TOM STEYER, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Caravan organizer admits failure in bid for Mexican buses to United States border.

Heh.

YOU'RE LOSING, AREN'T YOU? Bernie Sanders calls Trump 'most racist, sexist, homophobic, bigoted president in history'.

Pathetic.

SEEN ON A CHURCH MESSAGE BOARD:

Heaven isn't a trick.
Hell isn't a treat.
Happy Halloween.

Wise words.

NO, SHE'S NOT CRAZY. You are.

A DEMOCRATIC PARTY HALLOWEEN.The original Michael Ramirez cartoon is here.

WHEN ADOLESCENTS GIVE UP POT, their cognition quickly improves. When Democrats give up pot, they become Republicans.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN:

And keep America great.

GEORGIA’S DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR calls for banning AR-15s.

Georgia's Democrat candidate for Governor is gonna lose ... bigly.

QUIT THINKING, JUST DO IT! Streisand 'thinking' about moving to Canada – again – if Democrats don’t prevail.

BLEXIT: African-Americans declaring independence from liberalism, the welfare state and the Democratic Party.

Heh. And overdue.

THE DEMOCRAT MID-TERM PLATFORM: "Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?"

SO NOW YOU KNOW IT ISN'T ABOUT ASYLUM: Migrant caravan, rejecting Mexican offers, continues drive north.

It's about free stuff....

EXPERTS: Anatomy does not determine gender. To be fair, neither does a brain determine sanity.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN, AND THEIR FOLLOWERS ON THE LEFT are a continuing in-kind contribution to Trump 2020.

AUTUMN LEAVES INSTALLMENT VII

The first picture today is the deck view, just not taken from the deck but from the terrace below it. The only real difference from last week is the dearth of leaves. The deciduous trees are mostly leaf-free now; only the evergreens are left unscathed. The pond is now clearly visible from the house.

Nothing has really changed around the fire pit. We've seen some color changes in the last week through the neighborhood, but just not here.

With most of the leaves gone, the house is now pretty clearly visible through the 'forest'. The remaining trees are mostly evergreen, and the ground cover, mostly weeds, has died off.

Here's the usual pond view, taken from above the dock. I used the telephoto lens today, so the dock itself isn't in view.

Rather than the usual 'wayback' view from across the pond, this picture is taken from the east side of the pond, looking back toward the hill at the top of which is the road. It's one of the few places in the neighborhood where there is actual color other than shed, dead, and green.

For comparison, last week's pictures are here.

WIDE-SCALE U.S. WIND POWER could cause significant global warming. And for that matter, so can widespread use of EV's.

NUMBERS USA: Immigration, World Poverty and Gumballs.

FIVE DEMOCRATS who don't have a clue about the 'immigrant' caravan.

And all five can easily afford to buy one. Or three....

I THINK MICHAEL RAMIREZ got the Democrats' "civility" trope right.

HOW THE MOB WAS MADE: an introduction to toxic infatuation.

At the end of the day ... it is worth looking behind Hillary Clinton’s little emission about civility. What she meant, of course, was that civility was only possible when Democrats are in power. Only then can the noblesse oblige. The tort that makes civility impossible, in other words, is that Donald Trump won and she didn’t.

Read it all.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: The white-privilege tedium.

WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT YOUNG PEOPLE while trying to buy a car.

Unfortunately I think it's a fair assessment of too many of the Millenial generation.

KYRSTEN SINEMA reminds us that Democrats hate housewives.

Now that you know, vote. But don't vote early; don't give the Democrats the opportunity to find extra votes at the local cemetery.

THE DEMOCRATS' best campaign ad ever.

WHITE SUPREMACY IDENTITY POLITICS:

The current lawsuit challenging Harvard University’s use of racial preferences in admissions is about “white supremacy,” according to the school’s supporters. So, too, was the defense of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh against the charge of sexual assault, according to Kavanaugh’s critics. Never mind that the plaintiffs in the Harvard lawsuit are Asian-American students who were denied admission to the school despite academic qualifications superior to those of whites, and that Kavanaugh’s accuser was white herself. The roiling mass of resentments and one-upmanship that is identity politics is becoming ever more irrational in the Trump era.

Now go read it all.

ALEXANDRIA OCCASIONAL-CORTEX OCASIO-CORTEZ attempts to write about human rights. And fails spectacularly.

FINGER FOOD: The Left's 'civility' initiative.

As most people probably know by now, one James Thomas, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Ole Miss, advised: “Don’t just interrupt a Senator’s meal, y’all. Put your whole damn fingers in their salads. Take their apps and distribute them to the other diners. Bring boxes and take their food home with you on the way out. They don’t deserve your civility.”

I have a better idea: fire all the social justice warriors in academia and redistribute their salaries to the homeless. They deserve more civility than do progressive SJWs.

FROM MY EMAIL:

Recently, Henry Kissinger did an interview and said very amazing things regarding President Trump. He starts with: "Donald Trump is a phenomenon that foreign countries haven't seen before."

The former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger gives us a new understanding of President Donald Trump's foreign policy and predicts its success: "Liberals and all those who favor (Hillary) Clinton will never admit it. They will never admit that he is the one true leader. The man is doing changes like never before and does all of it for the sake of this nation's people. After eight years of tyranny, we finally see a difference."

Kissinger knows it and he continues with: "Every country now has to consider two things: One, their perception that the previous president, or the outgoing president, basically withdrew America from international politics, so that they had to make their own assessments of their necessities. And secondly, that there is a new president who's asking a lot of unfamiliar questions. And because of the combination of the partial vacuum and the new questions, one could imagine that something remarkable and new emerges out of it."

Then Kissinger puts it bluntly: "Trump puts America and its people first. This is why people love him and this is why he will remain in charge for so long. There is not a single thing wrong with him and people need to open their eyes." When he boasts that he has a "bigger red button" than Kim Jung Un does, he so transcends the mealy-mouthed rhetoric of the past, thereby forcing a new recognition of American power.

Kissinger once wrote: "The weak grow strong by effrontery – The strong grow weak through inhibition!" No sentence better captures the U.S. - North Korea relationship.

Trump is discarding the inhibitions and calling the bluff on North Korea's effrontery: His point is that the contrast of American retreat under Obama and its new assertion of power under Trump creates a new dynamic that every one of our allies and of our enemies must consider. Our allies grew complaisant with Obama's passivity and now are fearful due to Trump's activism. And they must balance the two in developing their policies: They realize that the old assumptions, catalyzed by Bush 43's preoccupation with Iraq and Obama's refusal to lead are obsolete. So, Trump is forcing a new calculus with a new power behind American interests. Those (here and abroad) who rode the old apple cart, worry about its being toppled. But, as Kissinger so boldly stated: "Trump is the one true leader in world affairs and he is forcing policy changes that put America first"

This is the most accurate statement of what the American Citizens who live outside of the swamp want and expect from their government.

I like the list of 13 things that I, as a senior American citizen, want. Trump is at least talking about issues that most Americans are concerned about. My mantra about Trump is this: Truthfully, we are in agreement with most of what he says. We are getting older and our tickers aren't what they used to be, but what matters is that he covers most of the 13 things we as seniors want, at least I do for sure

1. Hillary: held accountable for her previous wrongs!

2. Put "GOD" back in America!

3. Borders: Closed or tightly guarded!

4. Congress: On the same retirement & healthcare plans as everybody else.

5. Congress: Obey its own laws NOW!

6. Language: English only!

7. Culture: Constitution and the Bill of Rights!

8. Drug-Free: Mandatory Drug Screening before & during Welfare!

9. Freebies: NONE to Non-Citizens!

10. Budget: Balance the damn thing!

11. Foreign Countries: Stop giving them our money! Charge them for our help! We need it here.

12. Term limits for Congress

And most of all.

13. "Respect our military and our flag!" And our law enforcement.

Since it came to me via an email chain, I cannot vouch for it as accurately reflecting Henry Kissinger's thoughts, but I can say it accurately reflects mine. I would only add to the initial statement ["Donald Trump is a phenomenon that foreign countries haven't seen before"] the thought that he is properly skeptical of the credentialed experts who neither understand the American people nor are courageous enough to stand up to the bullies of the world.

CALIFORNIA RANKS AS POOREST STATE, one of the worst for income inequality.

Progressives believe in wealth distribution; what they're accomplishing is poverty distribution.

NOT MUCH: What do college chief diversity officers accomplish?

THIS ... is CNN.

HEH. WHITE PRIVILEGE DOES EXIST - just not in the way the Left prefers.

NOT VERY: How diverse is 'elite' America?

ROGER SIMON: The caravan(s) means the wall will be built.

I certainly hope so.

DEMOCRATS really, really plan to win in 2018.

I'D GO FOR IT except for the chance she could get confirmed.

IT'S A TAX ON THE POOR: Lottery players with less money still play it big.

You expected something different?

A DOSE OF THEIR OWN MEDICINE: Crowd drowns out anti-Trump Dems Adam Schiff, Brad Sherman at California debates.

Will they learn from it? Doubtful.

A SOLUTION TO GUN CONTROL: Think about this for a moment:

In 1865, a Democrat shot and killed Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States.

In 1881, a left wing radical Democrat shot James Garfield, President of the United States - who later died from the wound.

In 1975, a left wing radical Democrat fired shots at Gerald Ford, President of the United States .

In 1983, a registered Democrat shot and wounded Ronald Reagan, President of the United States .

In 1984, James Hubert, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 22 people in a McDonald's restaurant.

In 1986, Patrick Sherrill, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 15 people in an Oklahoma post office.

In 1990, James Pough, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 10 people at a GMAC office.

In 1991, George Hennard, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 23 people in a Luby's cafeteria in Killeen, TX .

In 1995, James Daniel Simpson, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 5 coworkers in a Texas laboratory.

In 1999, Larry Asbrook, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 8 people at a church service.

In 2001, a left wing radical Democrat fired shots at the White House in a failed attempt to kill George W. Bush, President of the US

In 2003, Douglas Williams, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 7 people at a Lockheed Martin plant.

In 2007, a registered Democrat named Seung-Hui Cho, shot and killed 32 people in Virginia Tech.

In 2010, a mentally ill registered Democrat named Jared Lee Loughner, shot Rep. Gabrielle Gifford and killed 6 others.

In 2011, a registered Democrat named James Holmes, went into a movie theater and shot and killed 12 people.

In 2012, Andrew Engeldinger, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 7 people in Minneapolis .

In 2013, a registered Democrat named Adam Lanza, shot and killed 26 people in a school in Newtown, CT.

In Sept 2013, an angry Democrat shot 12 at a Navy shipyard.

As recently as 2016, an angry Democrat attacked and shot up a Republican Congressional baseball practice in D.C., wounding US Congressman Steve Scalise.

Clearly, there is a problem with Democrats and guns. Not one NRA member, Tea Party member, or Republican conservative was involved in any of these shootings and murders.

It should be illegal for Democrats to own guns. We don't need gun control, we need Democrat control. Guns don't kill people, Democrats do!

Remember... your vote counts!