Former POTUS favours reciprocity vs tariffs and protectionism

On 5 September 1901, William McKinley, 25th President of the United States of America, was in Buffalo NY, speaking at the Pan-American Exposition. The Republican president surprised many by shifting his stance on tariffs to favor reciprocity -- a system of mutual exchange with other nations. 

Lest the current POTUS challenge the summary that follows, or accuse Walt of making the whole thing up, we have a transcript of his speech, from the University of Virginia Miller Center.

President McKinley argued that the United States, as a manufacturing powerhouse, needed to export its surplus goods and, in turn, should be willing to import foreign products that could benefit its own industries and labour force. 

This speech marked a significant change from his earlier protectionist policies, which had been known as the McKinley Tariff.  He proposed a policy where the US of A would lower tariffs on certain foreign goods in exchange for other countries reducing their tariffs on American products.

President McKinley recognized that the nation's growing production capacity required foreign markets to absorb its excess goods, as it could not rely on domestic consumption alone. And he stated that this system of receiprocity would be mutually beneficial, enabling America to sell more abroad and make domestic purchases that would create greater demand for American labour. 

The speech signalled that the era of pure protectionism was ending, so the United States needed to engage in "friendly trade relations" to avoid commercial wars and reprisal. The high tariffs of 1890 had led to price increases for consumers and were blamed for Republican losses in the 1890 mid-term elections. 

President McKinley was never able to implement his new reciprocity policy, owing to his having been assassinated the following day by Leon Czolgosz, a young anarchist, who shot him at close range. The President died eight days later, to be replaced by Theodore Roosevelt.

Sunday Funnies

Cazart! AP calls Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto the winner of the Nevada Senate race. Apparently a truckload of... wait for it... mail-in ballots arrived in the dark of night, putting the lady on top of Adam Laxalt [Where are you going with this? Ed.] by about 6666 votes. Hm. 

Apparently the truck came from Las Vegas. Hm. I can't help but thinking of the fictional Nevada Senator Pat Geary (played by G.D. Spradlin) in The Godfather Part II. 

Although AP shows the Senate standings tied at 48-48, with Alaska and Georgia to be finalized, in practice, counting in the "Independent" Bernie Sanders, and Vice-President Harris' casting vote in the event of a tie, it looks as if the Democrats will be in control of the Senate. So Americans can look forward to two years of Congressional stalemate.

Two years of wrangling, two years of stagnation, two years of frustration. Not a pleasant thought for a Sunday morning, so fuggedabahtit for now. Here's a brilliant bit of humour from English comic actors Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.

Further viewing: The two starred in the cult classic Bedazzled, which you can find on YouTube if you look. It's worth watching just to see Raquel Welch as Lillian Lust!

What happened to the red wave?

Let's get the clichés out of the way first.

"The red tsunami looks more like being a red trickle."

"It's too close to call."

"Democracy has been saved from the Republicans"

Yada yada yada

Mrs Walt told me it was going to be a long night. She was wrong. (Lifetime pct .004.) I was able to turn off the idiot's lantern before midnight, and enjoyed an untroubled sleep knowing that there will be weeks of wrangling before we arrive back at where we were two years ago, with a Congress just about evenly divided. 

The difference this time... let us pray... is that the GOP may have enough seats to maintain control of the House of Representatives, if the Speaker and other House leaders can keep them together, which will be like herding cats. [No more clichés, please! Ed.]

As I write, awaiting the crack of dawn (after which I will seal up the crack and go back to bed), it looks like the Senate could be split 50-50, as before. That means a potential deadlock on almost every contentious issue. That can't be good for America.

My analysis of how all this came to pass will have to wait until the waters are a little less muddy. 

Further reading: "Five early takeaways from the midterms", by Niall Stanage, on The Hill, 9/11/22. Discouraging, but looks pretty accurate to me.

Waiting for the 8th - "Election denier"? Who? Me? You bet!

"Election denier" is the latest term of opprobrium coined by the lickspittle media... or their Democrat masters... to describe those of us who dare to say that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. It goes into the thesaurus as a synonm for Republican, fascist, white supremacist, Nazi, racist, yada yada yada.

You can call me whatever you like, but I saw it happen before my very eyes, following the same pattern as the "democratic" elections in Zimbabwe some years before. Yer man is losing, so you stop the counting, because it's late or because the power's out, whatever. Then all goes dark and, comes the dawn, yer man is suddenly ahead!

During the night, it seems, truckloads of ballots have appeared out of nowhere (read: Philadelphia), which pushed yer man into an insurmountable lead. GOP poll watchers weren't asleep. They were kept in the dark, literally, at some distance from those who tabulated the results. Et voilà.

Walt awaits the results of Tuesday's mid-terms. Let's suppose (and pray) that Republican candidates win some close races, like... errr... the Pennsylvania Senate race. Will the Dumbocrats then complain that some great fraud has been committed and the election stolen? Can we then call them "election deniers"? Can we? Huh?

Further reading: "Corporate Media Already Preparing to Deny 2022 Election Results", by John Nolte, Breitbart News, 7/11/22.

Waiting for the 8th - VIDEO: Demented Joe claims wind and solar cheaper than fossil fuels, so shutting down coal will save us $$$

If you still don't believe President Brandon is out to lunch, check out the latest evidence of his tenuous grasp on reality as he claims "green power" -- wind and solar -- is cheaper to produce than energy from fossil fuels, oil and goal. So (he says) it's in America's best interests to shut down coal. Completely. And immediately. 

Senator Joe Manchin III (D-WV) called Demented Joe's comments "outrageous and divorced from reality," adding that "they ignore the severe economic pain the American people are feeling because of rising eneregy costs." Here's the panel from Fox News.

  

Walt wonders which way Senator Manchin will vote on Tuesday. Which way would you vote, if you were Joe Sixpack, paying $8 a gallon to fill up your Ford F-150 while you save up money to buy a new F-150 Lightning? I'll see you on the beach!

Green footnote, submitted by Agent 6 for our True Facts contest: The city he lives in (which I won't name to protect his privacy) has a large fleet of electric buses. Sadly, it doesn't have a large number of charging stations connected directly to the grid, so has had to buy a diesel generator to make up  the electricity deficit!

Waiting for the 8th - Looking for GOP wins in Arizona

As I said on Friday, the Democrats are pulling out all the stops to prevent electoral disaster -- the loss of both the state house and a Senate seat -- in Arizona. They can see that the Republicans have momentum [catchword of the year. Ed.]. But don't take my word for it. Consider this report which appeared on Friday on the Clinton News Network.

Republican momentum in Arizona deepens Democratic worries over Senate

Nowhere in the country has the struggle between election denialists and democracy defenders [The phrase "election denialists and democracy defenders" perfectly encapsulates the Dumbocrat party line. Only they are the champions of democracy while those who think they stole the 2020 election are in denial. Walt] played out in more vivid detail than in Arizona, where Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly’s ability to hold off late momentum from Trump-backed GOP nominee Blake Masters will be key to Democrats’ hopes of defending their narrow Senate majority. 

Now running for a full six-year term, Kelly – a retired astronaut and the husband of former Rep. Gabby Giffords – entered the race in an enviable position as a formidable fundraiser with a personal brand that lent him bipartisan appeal in Arizona, where a third of the electorate are independents. But the economic headwinds facing Democrats, as well as President Joe Biden’s low approval ratings, [!!! Walt] have complicated his political fortunes. 

Republicans need a net gain of just one seat to pick up control of the Senate on Tuesday, and Democrats are already on defense in Nevada, Georgia and New Hampshire. Arizona has emerged as one of the most important battleground states in the nation – not only for Senate and governor this year and likely the next presidential contest – but also because it is the fulcrum of key demographic changes that are testing the reach of both parties. 

As I said, the Dumbocrats are shit-scared. So they brought out the big guns, not just the Prez, obviously annoyed to be awoken from his retirement slumber, but Hellery Clinton. How desperate do you have to be to think that adding their shrill voice to the democracy-is-doomed chorus will save the furniture for Mr Kelly and their gubernatorial candidate, Katie Hobbs. Listen to what Ms Lake and Mr Masters had to say, in conversation with Sean Hannity.

Walt predicts a win for Kari Lake. As for the state house, you pick `em. Lifetime pct .988. I'll see you on the beach.

Waiting for the 8th - President Trump at Latrobe PA on Saturday

Waiting for the 8th - Who's REALLY running America?

Until today, Walt hadn't heard of MassResistance, a national pro-family activist group. A quick scan of the website was enough for me to bookmark it, and I'll probably be getting involved, as they seem to be solidly on the right side. [Geddit? Ed.] 

Brian Cameker, the executive director of MassResistance, and recently wrote "Who has really been running our country?", published yesterday in American Thinker. Since it's so close to Tuesday's mid-term elections, we trust they won't mind our reposting it, in full, without asking first. The emphasis is mine. 

On the day that Joe Biden was sworn into office, he signed dozens of extensively radical executive orders. Then the Biden administration began populating the federal government and the federal Judiciary — including the new Supreme Court vacancy — with hundreds (probably thousands) of the most extreme anti-American people imaginable.

The administration has re-crafted an enormous number of laws and regulations — often illegally — to push the hard-left, woke, LGBT agendas throughout business, government, education, and society in general. U.S. foreign policy, including the hideous abandonment in Afghanistan and unhinged Ukrainian response, has clearly been coordinated to weaken America and strengthen our enemies. Our military is being emasculated — and proselytized to consider patriotic Americans as the enemy.

The Biden administration ignores our immigration laws and welcomes millions of illegal aliens to swarm across our southern border, and then methodically ships them to cities across the country (and even gives them cell phones to use).

The administration's aggressive "green new deal" is paralyzing our transportation system and causing crippling inflation never seen in this country before. Federal agencies, spearheaded by the Justice Department and FBI, have viciously become weaponized against conservatives, at the same time allowing "Antifa" and other left-wing hoodlum groups to terrorize citizens at will.

As many have observed, it's a controlled demolition of America.

All of this destruction is being attributed by our political establishment to a man with obvious dementia who can barely read through a single sentence on a teleprompter, can't remember names, and cannot discuss anything of substance.

Republicans and conservatives love to beat up on Joe Biden. It makes great campaign fundraising rhetoric. But nobody can possibly believe that Biden in his perpetual mental fog actually planned any of this, wrote any of it, ordered it, or even knows any details about it.

And let's not forget that Biden became president not by actually campaigning, but through a massively coordinated effort involving billions of dollars and the most powerful corporations and political organizers in America to subvert the U.S. election process.

No prominent Republican politician is willing to publicly ask — and demand answers to — the obvious question: who is really doing all of this, using Biden as a mindless front man?

And why should they? Biden is a great political punching bag. Bringing up the hard question could have uncomfortable consequences — especially in this political climate.

This is not conjecture. A friend of mine who is involved in D.C. political circles had the opportunity this past year to ask that question — who is really running the country? — to a Republican congressman and a U.S. senator, both prominent conservatives. Both of them nervously dodged the question and insisted that "taking on Joe Biden" is what the GOP needs to do.

So who is the power behind the curtain? A lot of people say it's Barack Obama, or maybe Susan Rice. But the truth is that neither of them is capable of orchestrating something on this scale. Obama never really got anywhere on his own, and Susan Rice is a middleweight at best.

This has all the fingerprints of the Soros organization. The people there are extremely intelligent and proficient, they passionately hate America, they've been leading up to this for several decades, and they have access to untold wealth and influence. Everything mentioned above is something they are more than capable of organizing and carrying out.

But most of this couldn't have been accomplished during Biden's first two years without the cooperation of the 50 Democrat U.S. senators and the Democrat majority in the House. And then there are the cowardly Republicans in both houses, including the leadership, who consistently put up a "gentlemanly" fight that is destined to lose.

Right now, job number one is openly exposing the "shadow government" that is really running America, and doing everything possible to drive them completely out. Seeing what is happening now (and learning from the past), it is not an exaggeration to say that we are all on a freight train headed to hell. If we don't derail it soon, there will eventually be no turning back.

Comment from Walt: The latest Rasmussen generic poll shows Republicans with a 5-point lead over the Soroscrats. Please don't be lulled into complacency. Every single American who wants to bring sanity, order and prosperity back to the country needs to get out and vote on Tuesday! I'll see you on the beach.

Waiting for the 8th - The Pelosi story

Just for days from now, Americans will be voting in the mid-terms elections, to see who gets control of Congress. Senate seats are up for grabs in several states, including four that Walt is watching closely: New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona. Polls in all four show Republican candidates with leads so thin as to be within the statistical margin for error. Meaning they're toss-ups.

The Dumbocrats, though, are shit-scared. One might think their private polling shows they're going to get trashed in both the Senate and House races. That would leave President Brandon an even lamer duck that he already is. So they're pulling out all the stops to prevent disaster.

Demented Joe has reassured wavering Dems that, yes, he will run again in 2024, so not to worry. At the same time he is suggesting that it's possible that the elections might be rigged against him. Are we to believe that the Deep State, which arranged for him to win in 2020, will now arrange for his party to lose?

And now they're playing the "threat to democracy" card! As if a Republican victory would somehow be contrary to the will of the people. In their TDS view of American politics, the Democrats are the only champions of democracy. Whoever disagrees with them is against democracy, and possibly insane!

[What about the Pelosi story? Ed.] [I'm getting there! Walt] Therefore... if someone attacks a Republican politician, that's OK because they are defending democracy. But if someone attacks a Democrat... or the Democrat's spouse... the attacker must be some kind of evil, racist, misogynist, Nazi, white supremacist who supports Number 45.

So this week we have the bizarre story out of California (where else) of Paul Pelosi, househusband of Nancy "I Don't Drink... Much" Pelosi, the Speaker of the House for another couple of months. 

Mr Pelosi, age 82, is resting after being attacked with a hammer in his home last week by David DePape, age 42, a Canuck (gasp!) who was in the USA illegally (gasp!!!).

Mr DePape, now charged with attempted murder, has been characterized by the lickspittle media as a Berkeley hippie [What? In 2022? Ed.] who lives in a hippie commune decorated with gay pride flags and BLM banners. But that's just camouflage, you see. In reality, CNN, NBC et al. tell us, Mr DePape is really a crazed Trump supporter, attacking democracy!

Accordingly to the LAPD, they attended the Pelosi house in response to a 9-1-1 call. Mr Pelosi answered the door but denied he was in distress. He didn't try to leave the home. Instead, he took several steps back into the foyer, where police say they saw an intruder -- David DePape -- strike him with a hammer. 

It's unclear if Pelosi was already injured or what his mental state was when he took steps back into the home before he was struck by the hammer. And now NBC is saying, "We still don't know what happened between Mr. Pelosi and the suspect for the 30 minutes they are alone and in that house."

Really? The initial story put about by the fake news outlets was that Mr DePape was after Nancy Herself. But, luckily for democracy, she wasn't home that day. Politico initially reported a third person was in the house and that this third person opened the door for police. Politico has now retracted that report and criticized those who believed their initial report for "spreading disinformation."

So we're back to just Mr Pelosi and Mr DePape, alone together in that big ole house for at least half an hour, doing goodness knows what. Any suggestion that Mr DePape was Mr Pelosi's bumboy would be unkind. After all, there's nothing wrong with being gay in Biden's America. (See "Best Hallowe'en costume seen at White House", WWW 31/10/22.)

One other explanation springs to Walt's admittedly twisted mind. Can you say "false flag", boys and girls? I knew you could. Don't forget to vote! I'll see you on the beach!

VIDEO: Michael Matt: How to make America great again

In The Remnant Underground videos, Michael Matt, editor of The Remnant newspaper, usually talks chiefly about the crisis in the Roman Catholic Church. Lately though, Mr Matt is focusing on American politics. That's because recent elections, particularly the upcoming mid-terms, are contests between good and evil. Seriously! 

In spite of the Democrats' attempts to demonize President Trump and all his works, the fight is not so much between good people and bad people, but about whether America shall be ruled by people who espouse the morally evil policies of the left. Like abortion. 

President Brandon says that if the Democrats retain control of Congress, the first thing he will do is send them a bill to codify Roe v. Wade. He wants to make abortion on demand -- the killing of babies -- the law of the land. That's evil. Seriously!

Mr Matt says such policies, and those who promote them, must be resisted. How? Florida governor Ron DeSantis says we must "put on the full armor of God" and "stand firm against the Left's schemes." 

As Mr Matt says, it's good to hear Governor DeSantis and other politicians, such as Kari Lake, running for the governorship of Arizona, bring God into the debate. Watch this.... 

Mr Matt asserts, and Walt agrees, that there are rights and wrongs here, and we must stand up, speak up, and vote for what's right! The way to make America great again is to make America Christian again!

Further viewing: Click here to see the full episode (41:45) of The Remnant Underground, on Remnant TV.

VIDEO: "Worst ever televised debate"

Not being a resident of Pennsylvania -- and thank goodness for that -- I didn't get a chance to see last night's so-called debate between the two candidates for the United States Senate, Dr Mehmet Oz (R) and John Fetterman (D). 

Watching this reportage from Sky News Australia's Paul Murray, I thank goodness again. Imagine being a Pennsylvanian and thinking it was actually possible that some of my neighbours might vote for Mr Fetterman, who gives every appearance of being in worse shape, mentally, than Demented Joe. I mean... really??!!

It is possible that Mr Fetterman might beat the Good Doctor. Last I heard, although Dr Oz has momentum, polls show the race as too close to call. And don't forget the Philadelphia Factor.

Democrat poll-watcher calls a precinct captain: "How many votes have you got?"

Reply: "How many do you need?"

God save the United States of America!

Further reading: "After Oz-Fetterman Debate, Pennsylvania Votes To Have No Representative In The Senate", Babylon Bee (of course!), 26/10/22.  

Mid-terms: Why is it so quiet out there?

I can't figure it out. Here we are just six weeks (give or take) from the mid-term elections, the importance of which to the US of A can't be overemphasized, and one would think nothing special is going on. It's as if the nation is holding its breath.

On September 1st, President Brandon made a speech exhorting his followers (Sid and Doris Bonkers, of Loudon County VA) to do whatever it takes to defeat -- he put it more strongly than that -- "MAGA Republicans", who he called a threat to the United.States.

Picking up on that theme, Rep. Tim Ryan, who the Dumbocrats hope will beat J.D. Vance for the Ohio Senate seat, said the United States needs to "kill and confront" what he says is "extremism in the Republican Party. 

While admitting that Democrats "aren’t right on everything," Ryan stated during an interview Tuesday on MSNBC (who else) that he is willing to talk with others on how the USA can move "out of this age of stupidity."

Mr Ryan's comments come less than two weeks after his opponent was very critical of Hunter's dad's speech, claiming the president broke his campaign promise of uniting the country.

A Suffolk University survey conducted with 500 Ohio voters over two days in early September found that if the election were held immediately instead of in November, 46.6% of respondents said they would lean toward or vote for Mr Ryan, while 45.6% said the same for Mr Vance -- a statistical tie.

Last Thursday, in what might be perceived as an effort to increase his tiny lead, Mr Ryan attempted to distance himself from President Brandon, suggesting that the president shouldn't seek re-election in 2024. Many Americans would agree.

The utterances of Messrs Biden and Ryan aren't getting a lot of play in the lickspittle press, who seem to fear that their exhortations to do violence to Republicans can only have the effect of stiffening their resolve to turn turn the Dems out of office wherever possible, in November. Why wait for 2024 to excise the cancer that is killing America?

According to pollsters, an unintended side-effect of the "kill the Republicans" rhetoric has been to make it harder to identify Republican voters.  Call it the "shy Trumper syndrome". Why would anyone admit to a pollster or other nosy parker that they intended to vote GOP, at the risk of being doxxed and having protesters or possibly the FBI show up at your home? Just sayin'...

Another happening that has been under-reported in the mainstream media was the release of My Son Hunter, the feature film which reveals how Hunter Biden, the spoiled son of Sleepy Joe, has used his connections with the Man in the Oval Office to enrich himself and others. [Who? Ed.] The lickspittle media are ignoring -- "Nothing to see here, folks" -- what they and the White House can't deny.

The only story getting any serious play this past week was the bussing [or "busing" -- I can't decide. Ed.] of 1000s of illegal aliens from Texas, Arizona and Florida to "sanctuary cities" such as Chicago, New York, Sacramento, and Washington DC, whose mayor wants the National Guard to turn them away. Oh yeah, that happened in Martha's Vineyard too. I'll come back to this story later today.

Poking the panda: why did Nasty Nancy go to Taiwan?

Breaking news! Reliable sources report that a plane landed, in the middle of the night (local time) at Taoyuan International Airport (TPE), serving Taiwan "Republic of China".

Out stepped a tired and over-refreshed Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the Speaker of the US House Representatives, who insisted on making the trip despite warnings from President Brandon and Xi Jinping, emperor of the People's Republic of China.

Nasty Nancy's visit to Taiwan, which Communist China claims as its territory, marks the first time in 25 years that an American official of her level visited the "rogue province". The previous visit was in 1997 by then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA).

I'm all for supporting Taiwan, and I think it would be great if the US reversed its support for Mr Xi's "one China" policy, but I don't think that's why Nasty Nancy is there. Looks to me like an attempt to start a fight with China to distract Americans from Senile Joe's failures at home... just in time for the mid-terms.

The Harris-Biden administration opposed her trip out of fear it would further destabilize the relationship with China at a time when the US of A is suffering from high prices of goods, supply-chain disruptions, and the futile pursuit of a green energy agenda, all of which the administration hopes it can work with China on.

Ms. Pelosi first planned to take the trip in April but postponed it after contracting the Wuhan flu -- to which the Taiwanese government attempted to alert the World Health Organization (WHO) in December 2019. As we know, their warning was ignored. She brought with her a delegation of Democrat politicians, anxious to get some good photo-opos to impress the Chinese-American voters at home. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, declined to go.

VIDEO: President Trump's speech to March 12th rally - FULL

Before you watch the video, let me give you the typical lickspittle media spin on whatever President Trump says. Yesterday, Yaho00 picked this up from CBS News and WAPO. The emphasis is mine. 

Former President Donald Trump on Saturday floated a horrifying scenario during a speech to some 250 elite Republican donors: He said the U.S. could bomb Russia with jets disguised with Chinese flags, then sit back and watch those nations go to war. 

Specifically, Trump said the U.S. could “put the Chinese flag” on F-22 fighter jets and use them to "bomb the shit out of Russia," according to a recording of his speech that was obtained by The Washington Post. "And then we say, China did it, we didn't do it, China did it, and then they start fighting with each other and we sit back and watch," Trump said. 

The audience laughed at the comment, which seemingly was made in jest, a source told CBS News. 

Did you catch that play? Even when they think the Donald might be joking, they are so shit-scared that he's serious that they report it as a shock-and-horror story! Either that or they are deliberately trying to fool gullible people into thinking that a vote for Trump is a vote for war. Makes me want to vomit!

Anyway, here's the complete video (just over an hour) of President Donald Trump's speech to another hyuge America First Republican rally in Florence SC, yesterday, March 12th.

 

I hope you noticed that, at about the 12:30 mark, President Trump did say something about the lamestream line that his personality would get America into a war. Russia (he said) didn't attack anybody while he was president, because of his personality, because they knew America was strong again. 

Now, under the leadership of an Alzheimer's patient and a whore (see Walt's previous post), here we are, waiting for the balloon to go up.

America is now just months away from the 2022 mid-term elections. Circle the date on your calendar, and vote to Make America Great Again!

Florida, the new Zimbabwe

Regular readers of WWW [as oppoed to "irregular" border-crossers. Ed.] will know that Walt has an abiding interest in Zimbabwe, the failing African state whose name has become a metaphor for incompetence and corruption -- two nouns which have been much in use since November 8th as journalists and pundits struggle to describe the gubernatorial and senate elections in the Not-so-great State of Florida.

The ZANU-PF party has ruled the Land of Bambazonke since independence, thanks to its expertise in the rigging ["running", shurely! Ed.] of elections. For instance, when their candidate is trailing in the vote count, they simply stop counting! That's what happened in 2013 when weeks after polling day it was announced that President Mugabe had received the most votes, but not enough to prevent a run-off. The opposition candidate then withdrew from the race, leaving Comrade Bob to win in a landslide. See "'Incidences' from the Zimbabwean election", WWW 2/8/13.

They didn't risk having to compete in a run-off this year. All the results of July's polls were announced within 48 hours, except for that of the contest for the presidensity. After a couple of days of "They're coming just now," the government-appointed Zimbabwe Electoral Commision announced that Bob's successor, Comrade ED [No relation! Ed.] had won 50.8% of the vote, just enough to avoid a runoff. See "ED wins Zimbabwe presidential election - quelle surprise!" WWW 2/8/18.

Does this remind you of any election in any place you've been hearing about lately? How about Florida? In particular, how about Broward and Palm Beach Counties? I have no bias against those counties -- used to live there myself -- but can't help but notice that the stench of electoral corruption is worse than usual this year.

"Preliminary results" announced in the wee hours of Wednesday showed Republican Governor Rick Scott leading incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson in the contest for a US Senate seat, and Republican Ron DeSantis ahead of Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum in the race for the state house.

To nobody's surprise, the lamestream media refused to "project" a winner, saying it was too close to call, absentee ballots hadn't been counted, a recount was possible, and so on. Why? Because the election machinery was in the control of "non-partisan" officials such as Broward County's Supervisor of Elections, Brenda Snipes, who President Trump said "has had a horrible history..."

Here, from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, is what POTUS was talking about.

• In 2004, approximately 58,000 mail-in ballots were not delivered to voters.
• In 2012, nearly 1,000 uncounted ballots were discovered a week after the election.
• Election results in the 2016 primary were posted on the election office's website before the polls closed.
• A court ruled Snipes had broken election law when she destroyed ballots from the 2016 election 12 months after it, instead of the 22 months required by federal law.

Republicans blamed problems in Broward County on the design of the ballot there. “The ballot was laid out in an incompetent fashion by the incompetent supervisor of elections,” said Mr Scott's attorney, Bill Scherer, apparently referring to Mrs Snipes.

The analysts at FiveThirtyEight questioned whether the position of the Senate race on the Broward County ballot (at the bottom left-hand corner of Page 1) meant some voters skipped over the race. In Broward, some 26,060 fewer people casts voted in the Senate race compared with the governor’s race, a difference of 3.7%.

Mr Nelson's attorney, however, said he believes the problem was with the machine counters -- nothing to do with Mrs Snipes. "I am pretty confident what you are going to see are markings that were not picked up by the machines or a calibration issue that was not registering that part of the ballot," he said.

Reports that Brenda Snipes received her training in public administration in Zimbabwe are untrue. She comes from that hotbed of democracy, Talladega County AL. It's just a coincidence that the start of a statewide recount, which began Sunday morning, has been delayed by a series of technical glitches with the counting machines... in Broward County.

Stay tuned for the revised and improved results, due at 1500 EST on Thursday. Or call Mrs Snipes' office for the official figures. If you can't wait, call anytime!

Further reading: "What can we expect from Florida recount — 2018 edition?" by Brendan Swisher, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 10/11/18.

"Blue wave" a mere ripple; Trump still POTUS!

The sun rose in the east this morning. So did President Donald J. Trump, satisfied, I'm sure, that his presidency and his plans to MAGA are in no more danger of being derailed by the socialist Democrats than they were 24 hours ago.

As early as 1800 FMT (Fort Mudge Time) the lamestream media pundits and perplexed pollsters were starting to wonder when they were going to see the Democrats' "Blue Wave". Hours went by, and the social justice tsunami failed to materialize. Talk of mountains and molehills? The threatened Blue Wave turned out to be a mere ripple! Here's the Fox News results map showing how things turned out. [Memo from Ed. to Fox News: Hope you don't mind. We don't make any money out of WWW, and we gave ya a plug!]

This morning's official line from the Clinton News Network, the NY Times and WaPo, is that the Democrats "took back control of the House of Representatives", while the Republicans "hung onto the Senate." Hey! Look at the map! There are 435 seats in the House. At last count, with 23 seats not yet declared, the Demns got 219 -- one more than half! Some "control"! As for the Senate, with one seat still undecided, the Republicans increased their numbers to 52.

What does this mean for the future of the US of A and for federal politics over the next two years? Militant Democrats are already hatching plots to use several powerful committees, which they will now chair, including the lower chamber's Intelligence, Ways and Means, Foreign Affairs and Judiciary committees, to stall the President's legislative agenda and generally do as much damage as they can to POTUS.

Using subpoenas, they will be able to seek access to President Trump's long sought-after tax returns. They will also be ratcheting up the probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The lefties are talking again about impeachment, chances of which are, realistically, slim and none.

The usual "analysts" are saying that Republicans will no longer be able to pass legislation without help from the Democrats, meaning that pushing through conservative bills -- on immigration and tax reform, for instance -- will become more difficult. Likewise, the Democrats are claiming to have "saved Obamacare" and protected the rights of those with pre-existing health conditions.

The fact is that derailing the President's legislative agenda is not going to be that easy. The Demns have a larger, but more fractious caucus, with several left wing-nuts like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez keen to turn America into another "people's republic". But there is a larger group of moderates, many of whom only mentioned the word "Democrat" in six-point type at the bottom of their signs and campaign literature. They know that they will be up for re-election in just two years, and had better not oppose POTUS too violently or irrationally. Look what happened to the Democratic senators who opposed POTUS' nomination to the Supreme Court. Every Demn senator in a competitive race who voted against Judge Kavanaugh lost!

And the Republicans are still in charge of the Senate, more so than before. Any attempt to impeach President Trump, even if it passes the House, is doomed to failure, as the trial would have to take place in the Senate, where 66 votes are required to remove POTUS from office.

The Senate is also where the President's nominations to top Cabinet and judicial posts are confirmed, and this will be easier now than it was in the case of Justice Kavanaugh. This means the President and the Republicans will be able to seat more conservative federal judges, possibly including one or two more justices of the Supreme Court, should a couple of ancient lefties shuffle off this mortal coil in the next two years.

White House spokesthingy Sarah Huckabee-Sanders described the Senate results as "historic" and told reporters the election was "a huge moment and victory for the president." And just a few moments ago, the President Himself tweeted, "Now we can all get back to work and get things done!" Indeed. The first thing I'm going to do is go out to collect on my election bets. Lifetime pct .988.

Further reading: Thanks to Agent 3 for sending us the link to "So much for the Democrats' hammer blow against Trumpism", by Kelly McParland in today's National Post. Key quote: "His opponents still don’t grasp what it is about the president that appeals to the 40% or more of Americans who appear willing to stand by him no matter what."

UPDATED: Where's Hillary and Bill? Waiting in the (left) wings!

Here we are, just 24 hours from polling day. The lamestream media are already citing "scientific polls" which show the Democrats poised to take back the House of Representatives from the evil Republicans, but, they concede, the Republicans may just manage to "hang on" to the Senate. Of course, they admit, the pollsters and pundits got it wrong in 2016, but, they assure us, that couldn't happen twice in a row... could it???

Meanwhile, I'm busting my wrist changing channels (yeah, I still watch TV) to see what's happening out there on the campaign trail. I see President Trump (YES!) holding rallies in the flyover states, with three (3) scheduled for today, including the grand finale tonight, co-starring Rush Limbaugh and my buddy Sean Hannity. Go get 'em, guys!

On the other side of the aisle, I see President 0 (that's "zero", as in zero accomplishments, zero concern for the future of America), dropping his G's and shouting himself hoarse, urging "folks" (whether citizens or not) to get out and vote for "hope"... and "change", of course. Whoa! Haven't we seen this movie before? How did that work out for you? And how are you now, two years into the presidency of someone who believes in not just talking but acting!

Not seen on TV in the last week: Nancy Pelosi, Elizabeth Warren, and Mad Maxine Waters. And yes, I have watched CNN and PBS! Speaking of the Clinton News Network, I have also been mildly surprised by the absence from the Blue Team of Mr and Mrs William Jefferson Clinton. Wouldn't you expect the Democratic heavyweights (geddit?) -- one a former President and the other a former Secretary of State, Senator and First Lady -- to be out there stumping for the Smurfs (geddit?). My sources tell me that numerous Democratic candidates have issued stern warnings to Hellery and Slick Willy to stay the hell away from their territory!

That doesn't mean that the Clintons are inactive, though. They are getting ready for a speaking tour, modestly titled "An Evening with the Clintons", which is going to play such Democratic hotbeds as New York, San Francisco and, errr, Toronto next year. If you want to bathe in bullshit for a couple of hours, you'll have to shell out anywhere between $136 and $1712, the latter being the price of orchestra seats at New York's Beacon Theater on April 11th. $136 is the price for seats in the back, behind a pillar.

Ask yourself why Mrs Clinton and her husband (the one who she says has been "cleared" any kind of sex crimes) would mount such a tour. And why in 2019. It's not as if they need the money, although donations to the Clinton Foundation have kind of dried up of late. Think about this...

If the Republicans keep control of the House in tomorrow's mid-terms, the re-election of Donald Trump seems like a sure-as-little-green-apples thing. But if the Democrats win the House and the Republicans keep the Senate, that leaves a divided Congress, and a President who's going to have even more trouble implementing his MAGA programme. And that sets the stage for a real contest in 2020. Who better to champion all that is good and progressive than Hellery Clinton, who (the "resisters" say) really won the 2016 election but got euchred by that silly, old-fashioned Electoral College?

Keep the possibility of a Clinton comeback in mind when you go to vote tomorrow. Could America stand another four or eight years of that "First Family"? Oh noooooooo!!!

FURTHER READING (added 12/11/18): "Bribe her, distract her, trip her if you have to, but don’t let Hillary Clinton run for president again", by Vinay Menon, in the Toronto Red Star, 12/11/18. Wins a Wally award for the longest headline of 2018, but worth reading to see a liberal giving a truthful warning to the Demns.

VIDEO: Why you should vote Democrat in the mid-terms!

Earlier this month Walt posted a campaign ad for the new People's Party of Canada. Although it was a spoof, produced by the lovely and talented Jill Colton, a source in Mad Max Bernier's office tells me they got a lot of new members. I hope this little piece of satire, by Allie Beth Stuckey, will have the opposite effect.



Further viewing: "The faces of the unhinged mob that is the 'Democratic' left", WWW 12/10/18.

Footnote: Ed., who is a stickler for proper English usage, has drawn my attention to the name of M Bernier's new party -- the "People's Party of Canada", not "Peoples' Party of Canada". There's only one Canadian people, eh! Diversity, BAH!

Best cover comment on the mid-terms

From the New  York Daily News.

I like this. Like it a lot! The world, or at least an important part of it, might just become a better place, thanks to all Americans who voted with their heads this time.

Americans! Get out and vote Dems out!

Dear American readers, today is DO day. "DO" for "Democrats Out"!

When you go to the polls, ask yourself how the hopey-changey thing has worked out for you and for the US of A? Are you satisfied? Do you think the country is headed in the right direction? NO?! I thought not. Well, you can't get rid of President Obarmy, but you can tie his hands by voting out the tax-and-spend, big-government, screw-the-real-Americans Democrats.

Don't wait for 2016! Start fixing America now!

This message was NOT sponsored by the Republican or any other party. Walt takes full responsibility for it. Now please take responsibility for your country and get out and vote the damn Dems out!