It’s Monday, December 5th, 2016…but before we begin, a few random thoughts on the passing scene.  First, a brief note on the bullsh*t which continues to bubble from Barry’s brain:

“We were talking about the issue of a divided country. Good journalism continues to this day. There’s great work done in Rolling Stone.

Yeah…great work!

The challenge is people are getting a hundred different visions of the world from a hundred different outlets or a thousand different outlets, and that is ramping up divisions. It’s making people exaggerate or say what’s most controversial or peddling in the most vicious of insults or lies, because that attracts eyeballs. And if we are gonna solve that, it’s not going to be simply an issue of subsidizing or propping up traditional media; it’s going to be figuring out how do we organize in a virtual world the same way we organize in the physical world. We have to come up with new models.“

Yes,…new models; new models which ensure only the promulgation of Progressive propaganda.  Holy 1984, Batman; Orwell predicted exactly what the Islamofascist-in-Chief is saying!  We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again: like Billy Borders of High Plains Drifter infamy…

…what B. Hussein has is bad, all bad; and he can’t leave office, America…or this life…soon enough to suit us.

Second, as evidenced by his cabinet appointments … 

…and his willingness to talk to Taiwan…

Trump’s Taiwan Play

The phone call with the island’s president looks like a calculated move.

Besides, how brilliant can any policy promoted by a peanut farmer be?!?

“Americans had to get used to Donald Trump breaking all the rules of presidential campaigning, and it looks like the world will have to adjust to a President Trump who will also violate diplomatic convention. One early lesson is not to overreact to every break with State Department protocol as if it’s the start of World War III.

The U.S. media had their 19th nervous breakdown Friday after the Trump transition said the President-elect had taken a congratulatory call from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen. Mr. Trump also later tweeted that he had spoken to “the President of Taiwan.” Doesn’t he understand this simply isn’t done? No American President or President-elect has talked to a Taiwanese President since 1979, and this violation of tradition is being portrayed as a careless, bone-headed provocation to Beijing.

Well, maybe it was calculated—and perhaps even useful. Trump Asia adviser Peter Navarro has advocated cabinet-level visits to Taiwan and an end to the U.S. bow to Beijing’s “one China” policy, which insists that Taiwan is part of China and shouldn’t be treated as an independent state. Perhaps that goes too far, but it is past time for the U.S. to recalibrate its Taiwan policy…”

…The Donald continues to put his money where his mouth was…at least for now.

By the way, if you haven’t heard Jim Mattis in the flesh, he’s a breath of fresh air after the mindless, politically-correct myrmidons who’ve dominated the Pentagon for the last eight years:

What an invigorating change from likes of Ass Carter, Chick Hagel, Lyin’ Leon Pinhedda, Boob Gates and a Pentagon brass, most of who, as Ulrich von Hassell said of the Wehrmacht generals under Hitler, have been “out to make their careers, in the lowest sense.”

 And America’s military readiness and national security be damned.

We’ll let the immortal Staff Sergeant Bob Barnes summarize our thoughts on such spineless, self-serving sycophants:

Now, here’s The Gouge!

First up, a picture truly worth a thousand words, as the Russian-made jeep carrying Castro’s ashes breaks down in the middle of the funeral procession and has to be pushed:

The only thing more poetically just would be an Obamacare ambulance conking out…while taking a Code-Blue Barry to Bethesda!

Next up, as Kimberly Strassel records at the WSJ…

Democrats Send Their Regrets

Blowing up the filibuster, keeping Pelosi in charge—the list of mistakes is long.

“Regrets? Delaware Sen. Chris Coons has a few—and not too few to mention. At the top of his list is his party’s decision in 2013 to blow up the filibuster for most presidential nominees.

“Many of us will regret that in this Congress,” a dejected Mr. Coons told CNN on Tuesday. “Because it would have been a terrific speed bump, potential emergency brake, to have in our system to slow down the confirmation of extreme nominees.”

Cue Sinatra and “My Way.” That’s how former Senate leader Harry Reid, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and President Obama ruled for eight years. They planned each charted course, each careful step. Now, they’re not finding it so amusing…”

This epitomizes prototypical Progressivism: do whatever you want…engage in the most destructive, anti-social, lawless behavior imaginable…then expect others to abide by rules you’ve refused to recognize while bearing the consequences of your earlier actions.  It’s the Legislative Branch equivalent of Sandra “The Slut” Fluke seeking to engage in indiscriminate sex and have taxpayers fund her birth control. 

In a related item, the great Victor Davis Hanson suggests Progressives…

Beware the Law of Unintended Consequences

Moderation and humility help politicians avoid results contrary to what they earnestly want.

“Thanks for offering up the Oval Office on a platter, you Progressive douche pump!”

“The mix of politics and culture is far too complex to be predictable. Even the best-laid political plans can lead to unintended consequences, both good and bad — what we sometimes call irony, nemesis, or karma.

Take the election of 2008, which ushered Barack Obama and the Democrats into absolute control of the presidency, House, and Senate, also generating popular goodwill over Obama’s landmark candidacy.

Instead of ensuring a heralded generation of Democratic rule, Obama alienated both friends and foes almost immediately. He rammed through the unworkable Affordable Care Act without a single Republican vote. He prevaricated about Obamacare’s costs and savings. Huge budget deficits followed. Racial polarization ensued. Apologies abroad on behalf of America proved a national turnoff.

By the final pushback of 2016, the Obama administration had proven to be a rare gift to the Republican party. The GOP now controls the presidency, Congress, governorships, and state legislatures to a degree not seen since the 1920s. “Hope and change” ebullition in 2008 brought the Republicans salvation — and the Democrats countless disasters.

The Republican establishment hated Donald Trump. So did the conservative media. His unorthodox positions on trade, immigration, and entitlements alienated many. His vulgarity turned off even more. Pundits warned that he had brought civil war and ruin to the Republican party.

But instead of ruin, Trump delivered to the Republicans their most astounding political edge in nearly a century. The candidate who was most despised by the party unified it in a way no other nominee could have.

…Almost every major initiative that Obama pushed has largely failed. Obamacare is a mess. He nearly doubled the national debt in eight years. Economic growth is at its slowest in decades. The reset with Russia, the Asian pivot, abruptly leaving Iraq, discounting the Islamic State, red lines in Syria, the Iran deal — all proved foreign-policy disasters.

No thanks whatsoever to the current occupant of the Offal Office.

Yet Obama has been quiet about one of the greatest economic revolutions in American history, one that has kept the U.S. economy afloat: a radical transformation from crippling energy dependency to veritable fossil-fuel independence. The United States has become the world’s greatest combined producer of coal, natural gas, and oil. It is poised to be an energy exporter to much of the world.

The revolution in fracking and horizontal drilling has brought in much-needed federal revenue, increased jobs, weakened Russia and our OPEC rivals, and given trillions of dollars in fuel savings to American consumers.

Yet Obama opposed the energy revolution at every step. He radically curtailed the leasing of federal lands for new drilling, stopped the Keystone XL pipeline, and subsidized inefficient and often crony-capitalist wind and solar projects. Nonetheless, Obama’s eventual failure to stop new drilling ended up his one success.

Hillary Clinton, in her presidential bid, did everything by the playbook — and therefore her campaign went catastrophically wrong. Her campaign raised more than $1 billion. She ran far more ads than did Trump. She won over the sycophantic press. She got all the celebrity endorsements. She united the Democratic party.

Logically, Clinton should have won. The media worked hand in glove with her campaign. Her ground game and voter registration drives made Trump’s look pathetic.

Yet all that money, press, and orthodoxy only confirmed suspicions that Clinton was a slick but wooden candidate. She became so scripted that even her Twitter feed was composed by a committee.

The more she followed her boring narrative, the more she made the amateur Trump seem authentic and energized in comparison. Doing everything right ended up for Hillary as doing everything wrong — and ensured the greatest upset in American political history.

The ancient Greeks taught us that arrogance brings payback, that nothing is sure in a fickle universe, that none of us can be judged successful and happy until we die, and that moderation and humility alone protect us from own darker sides.

In 2016, what could never have happened usually did.“

And we for one couldn’t be any happier.  Here’s the juice: be it the fault of B. Hussein or Hillary…or both, when it comes to the Dimocrats’ political fortunes…

We turn now from unintended consequences to acts whose consequences are all too predictable; and thus, we’re left to conclude, are as wholly intentional as cops dying because of the lies purposefully perpetuated by The Left through BLM:

Obama administration stiff-arms lawmakers questioning secret refugee deal

“Nearly 2,500 refugees from terrorism hotspots around the world are bound for the U.S. after being rejected by Australia, but not even top lawmakers can get answers about who they are.

In an unprecedented move, the U.S. State Department has classified details on refugees to be resettled in America via a secret deal made with Australia. The bi-lateral agreement, which Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called a “one-off,” involves 2,465 people currently being held in Papua New Guinea and Nauru who will now be transferred onto U.S. soil.

The move has also raised a red flag among Congressional oversight members. In a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Secretary of State John Kerry, key lawmakers Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., complained about the lack of transparency.

Sure they are…provided they’ve been thoroughly vetted and bring a useful skill.

“This situation is concerning for many reasons,” read the letter, charging that “your departments negotiated an international agreement regarding refugees without consulting or notifying Congress.” When staffers probed the number of individuals being considered for resettlement, they were told it was “classified,” even though refugee admissions are traditionally public. Officials, however, did confirm countries of origin to be Iran, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq and Sudan, as well as some deemed “stateless.”

Iran, Sudan and Syria are the three countries on the U.S. current State Sponsors of Terrorism list. But Barnett said the “stateless” category is most worrisome. “These could be Burmese Muslims, who have posed assimilation issues for every nation which has taken them,” said Barnett. “It’s a dangerous precedent which says, ‘We’ll take any ethnic group with which you don’t get along.’”

…The Goodlatte-Grassley letter also asked why Australia and other countries refused to take in the refugees. “If they’ve been vetted and deemed inadmissible, the U.S. can’t say, ‘You don’t want them, so we’ll take them,’” said Barnett…”

As an article in The New Observer notes, despite the fact…

“Rather than allowing a lucky few to settle here, refugees are better served by upgrading refugee camps and removing barriers to their repatriation.”

As would be everyday, taxpaying Americans…who aren’t protected by 24/7 armed security…like those who continue to release improperly-vetted Islamists into the Heartland.

On The Lighter Side…

Hat tip to Balls Cotton for a number of the memes included in today’s edition.

Finally, we’ll call it a wrap with another sordid story straight from the pages of The Crime Blotter, and this just in from the Sun Sentinel via Bill Meisen:

Dead man found inside SUV with pile of parking tickets on windshield

For four days, city parking officers slapped tickets on an SUV parked three blocks from the Broward County Courthouse. When Carolyn White noticed the pile of citations, she wondered what was going on. She stepped closer to the car to peek inside. “Oh my God, please tell me this man is not dead,” White thought.

Inside the Isuzu Axiom was the body of Jacob Morpeau, 62, of Miami. He was sitting in the driver’s seat, and his upper body lay face down over the SUV’s center console. His hand held a credit card, White said.

The Broward County Medical Examiner’s office later said Morpeau had died from natural causes and had been ill with hypertensive cardiovascular disease. What’s not known is how long Morpeau’s body had been inside the Isuzu.

…Fort Lauderdale officials declined to comment on the situation. An email from the assistant clerk said the city dismissed the $160 in parking fees, “due to extenuating circumstances.”…”

Miami: talk about a city with a heart!

Magoo