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?