The Last Hurrah

My beloved Child Bride and I just returned from our polling place. They said it’s been about average as far as turnout.
At least where we live, they require you to show your voter registration or an ID. We use paper ballots so there is little chance for problems. My contempt for my faux republican congressman, Adam Kinzinger, has never been in question. Our true conservative rep was squeezed out when the democrats gerrymandered two GOP districts together in 2010. The democrats didn’t even bother running anyone to oppose Kinzinger this cycle. He does what the bosses tell him, so there was no need.

I haven’t watched network news for years and have no intention to start. Monitoring the nets, there are some reports of fraud, one lawsuit in Nevada, and reports of really long lines in a lot of places. This post is to clear some of the things I have cached from yesterday and today. After tomorrow the point will pretty much be moot. None of it makes much sense. That might start an ugly trend.

THE LEFT GOT THE VAPORS OVER THIS:
Ted Nugent Gropes Himself on Stage at Trump Rally: ‘I’ve Got Your Blue State Right Here, Baby’
Musician Ted Nugent hit the stage at a Donald Trump rally in Michigan Sunday with some off-color gestures during the final weekend of campaigning.
The 67-year-old rocker grabbed his crotch on stage to mock the notion that his state could swing left on Election Day. He said, “I’ve got your blue state right here, baby! Black and blue!”

Chelsea And Obama Take Turns Addressing Clinton Rally From Lectern Adorned With Presidential Seal

REMEMBER AFTER McCAIN ROLLED OVER AND HANDED HIM THE OFFICE IN 2008? THE NEXT DAY HE HAD A PHONY SEAL MADE UP THAT SAID ‘OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT-ELECT.’
‘If I don’t win, I will consider it a tremendous waste of time, energy, and money,’ Trump says of race for the White House he claims he spent $100M of his own money on
Republican said he thinks he’ll be the victor tonight winning the swing states of Iowa, Ohio and New Hampshire
Sneered at Clinton campaign for accepting questions in advance of debates – said Clinton would have been thrown out of West Point
He brushed off his opponent’s mega rally on Monday night in Philadelphia with 33,000 people, bragging that he had 28k without celebs
Trump claimed that he did the heavy-lifting financially, donating $100 million to his campaign so that he was not beholden to ‘fat cats’
Financial records from the end of October have him giving $66 million – a $34 million shortfall from what he’s been claiming


Senior adviser Valerie Jarrett has convinced President Obama to FIRE FBI director James Comey after the election
After persistent prodding by Valerie Jarrett, President Obama has agreed to fire America’s top cop
A White House source familiar with the decision says Jarrett and the president held lengthy discussions over the past several days about the political and legal ramifications of firing FBI director
The president was furious with Comey for reopening the FBI’s investigation of Hillary’s emails
But he was reluctant to move against Comey for fear that it would open him to charges of obstruction of justice.


Nevada judge denies Trump request to separate early voting ballots
A Nevada court judge denied a request Tuesday from Donald Trump campaign lawyers to issue an order directing a county registrar of voters to preserve and separate ballots from voting machines in four early voting sites in Clark County, Nevada.

Dan Kulin, a spokesperson for the county, told CNN that no early voting stations extended their closing times. They did, however, process voters who were in line at closing time to allow as many people to vote as possible.
“From the polling, it appears that Nevada is so close that the Trump campaign thinks it’s worth challenging any violation in voting protocol. The numbers that came in could represent several thousand people across the four precincts, which could determine who wins the electoral college vote or change the Senate race,” said Robert Lang of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He said the Trump campaign is “smart to put a marker down for a future challenge, considering what happened in 2000 in Florida.”

MAYBE TRUMP IS ON TO SOMETHING; CHECK THIS OUT

Nevada Poll Workers Break Law: Caught Wearing ‘Defeat Trump’ T-Shirts
Several of the poll workers in the CNN report were wearing “Defeat Trump” T-shirts!
TAKE A CLOSE LOOK AND TELL ME THE ONES WEARING THE SHIRTS AREN’T ALL (PROBABLY) ILLEGAL MEXICANS

Officials: PA Voting Machines Incorrectly Registered Straight Republican Votes
The error was due to a calibration issue in Lebanon County’s voting machines, where five machines out of the 270 machines available in the county malfunctioned, Penn Live reported.
Voters saw the errors after they reviewed their ballots before officially filing them.

Man Attacks FEMALE TRUMP SUPPORTER at Florida Polling Station
A woman handing out campaign literature supporting Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was attacked and thrown to the ground by a man outside a Jupiter, Florida polling station according to a report by Palm Beach Post reporter Lawrence Mower. The woman used pepper spray to defend herself after the man started screaming in her face. The man then grabbed her by the neck and threw her on the ground.

Bare-Chested Female Protesters Arrested At Trump Polling Place
Two topless women stormed Donald Trump’s Midtown Manhattan polling place on Tuesday in protest of the Republican candidate.
The women, in their mid-20s, arrived to the P.S. 59 polling site just after 8:15 a.m., ripped off their shirts to reveal a message for Trump.
“Trump, grab your balls” was written in black paint across one of the protester’s bare chest and stomach.

Older Trump Supporter Ruins CNN Reporter’s Narrative

When an older woman waiting to vote Tuesday was asked by a CNN reporter if she was excited to possibly witness the first female president, she yelled back “No!”

WIKILEAKS: Campaign Manager Says ‘Clinton Had Little Consideration For Ethics’
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has “little consideration for ethics,” according to Robby Mook, her campaign manager.
Mook’s comment was included in a devastating list he compiled of problems associated with Clinton’s decision to appoint a longtime friend to her campaign after he helped her raise $72 million for the U.S. Expo at the 2010 Shanghai World’s Fair.

Woman dons a burka and attempts to vote as Huma Abedin in New York City in stunt to expose voter fraud
A woman donned a ‘full burka’ and posed as Huma Abedin at the polls
Video was created by Project Veritas, which released videos in October suggesting Democrats hired people to incite violence at Trump rallies
Project Veritas, which claims to ‘investigate and expose corruption’, has repeatedly come under fire for its heavily edited videos
In video released Monday, the Abedin imposter was given a paper ballot

MSNBC Anchor Has Gush Fest With Clinton Aide
MSNBC anchor Craig Melvin was chummy with Hillary Clinton’s deputy communications director, Kristina Schake, on Tuesday morning, asking her not to forget about him “when you move down to Washington and you take a job inside the West Wing.”
Near the end of the interview on Election Day, Schake went through a list of talking points praising Clinton.
“One of the hallmarks of Hillary’s career, her entire life in public service, is she’s always worked across the aisle and found common ground,” Schake said. “Every major accomplishment of her life from children’s health insurance to improving the foster care system to make kids adopted.”
Melvin interrupted Schake and joked that she was still on message with her talking points.
“Kristina Schake always on message,” Melvin said

BREAKING: All Election Systems DOWN In The State Of Colorado…UPDATE: Back Up…

Back up, was down for about half an hour.

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After the Election, Unleash the Francis Option

Article by Tom Hoopes reprinted from aleteia.org/2016/11/07/after-the-election-unleash-the-francis-option/

No matter what the outcome of our Nov. 8 election, Catholics’ job is clear: Seize the moment to draw people closer to Jesus Christ.

In other words, it’s time for the Francis Option.

The “Francis Option” is a complementary approach to the “Benedict Option.”

Pope Francis spelled out the “Francis Option” himself in his apostolic letter Evangelii Gaudium.

“I dream of a ‘missionary option,’” he says, “so that the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channeled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation” (No. 27).

Consider the contrasts: St. Benedict’s monastic communities did the necessary work of preserving the foundation of the Church as Rome fell to ruins. After that, St. Francis’s mendicant communities went out and started rebuilding.

Clearly, both these approaches are needed (I owe my faith to the Benedict Option)— but Pope Francis emphasizes the latter.

After the election has disgusted and degraded us, the Francis Option invites us to be witnesses.

Political culture has become a cesspool — and if it wasn’t clear before, an election pitting the lewdness of Donald Trump against the Anthony Weiner revelations proves it.

The answer, Pope Francis says, is us.

“Today’s world stands in great need of witnesses, not so much of teachers but rather of witnesses,” he said. “It’s not so much about speaking, but rather speaking with our whole lives: living consistently, the very consistency of our lives! This consistency means living Christianity as an encounter with Jesus that brings me to others, not just as a social label. … Witness is what counts!”

The world won’t embrace the faith until they see joyful, authentic Christians. They need to see new John Paul II’s, Mother Teresa’s, Francises. There are no other options: That has to be us.

After the election, people want policies that promote goodness and truth. The Francis Option offers them.

Our politics have become bankrupt — and if that wasn’t clear before, the “astonishing flaws” (as Archbishop Charles Chaput put it) of this year’s candidates make that clearer than ever. They seem like a dare from fate to both parties, saying: “How many of your principles are you willing to violate to support a candidate?”

To write my book What Pope Francis Really Said I went through several hot-button issues to see what Pope Francis — and the Church — say about them. Taken together, Pope Francis’s words spell out what a family-centered political vision looks like.

• He calls for an economy that is focused on consumer value and jobs for families rather than empty consumerist appeal for the sake of stock prices.
• Pope Francis models true compassion to homosexual and transgender people in place of the false charity of gender ideology.
• He sees that peace is no more a pipe dream today than it was in Poland, where Pope John Paul’s solidarity cleared away the messes war had left.
• Pope Francis is passionately pro-life and pro-woman, from conception to natural death.
• He wants to welcome immigrants all the way into the arms of Jesus Christ in the Church.
• Pope Francis wants to transform the world’s respect for nature into a respect for human nature.

The election showed how badly people need healing. The Francis Option heals.

The violence and vitriol of the campaign is just one symptom of the deep wounds in our society. The most tragic sign is a heartbreaking new statistic: Teens today are as likely to die from suicide as they are from traffic accidents.

It is in this world that Pope Francis sees the Church as a “field hospital after battle.”

Archbishop Samuel Aquila said, “The ‘Francis Option,’ I would argue, places the emphasis on bringing God’s forgiveness to those on the spiritual and material outer limits of society, while also strengthening the health of our local communities with the balm of God’s mercy.”

That means embracing God’s mercy and reaching out to others with the works of mercy.

In his first encyclical, Francis put it this way:

“There is an urgent need to see once again that faith is a light, for once the flame of faith dies out, all other lights begin to dim. The light of faith is unique, since it is capable of illuminating every aspect of human existence. A light this powerful cannot come from ourselves but from a more primordial source: in a word, it must come from God.”

The Benedict Option shields the flame of faith from the harsh winds. The Francis Option sets fires everywhere so that the wind would only blow it higher.

——————————
Author Tom Hoopes is writer in residence at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, and author of the upcoming book What Pope Francis Really Said.

The Mask Is Off

Polling organizations show the race has been tightening for weeks. They have to do this to keep interest of a casual public. Many have predicted Trump will outperform Hillary in swing states such as North Carolina, Florida, and Pennsylvania. Nate Silver, whoever he is, has an outfit called 538. The last week he’s been giving Trump and edge by about two points. Today is election day. They don’t have to pretend anymore.

Celebrity Pollster Nate Silver Calls The Election For Hillary Clinton On Election Eve
As of Monday evening, Silver’s ever-shifting prediction model at the website FiveThirtyEight says Clinton currently has a 70 percent chance to beat Trump in Tuesday’s election.

Emerson College Polling Predicts Clinton Wins By Landslide

A presidential candidate only needs 270 votes in the Electoral College to win, and if Emerson College Polling is accurate—Hillary Clinton will far surpass that amount.
Emerson College is predicting the Democratic nominee will win 323 to 215.
Emerson predicts Clinton will win the swing states of Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Republican nominee Donald Trump is predicted to win Iowa and Ohio.

‘Broward Is Stealing Florida,’ Says Republican National Lawyers Assn.
“As an aside, and a good question is “how many mismatched signatures have there been?” It’s under 100 for 178,000 mail-ins. Clearly, the signature people are approving EVERYTHING.
“Once ballots have been opened, there is no ability to challenge a signature, which is why the opening must be approved by the board in a public meeting.
“To date there have been 178,000+ ballots opened illegally in Broward County.
The SOE public explanation of the affidavit, makes no sense, although apparently it has been accepted by the Broward County state attorney. The state attorney appears to have blessed illegal activity. The explanation based upon the issues about the ballot request forms and the fact that the Pitney Bowes Room is strictly computerized makes no sense.

Final Prediction By UVA’s Center For Politics: Hillary Dominates The Electoral Map
According to the University of Virginia’s Center For Politics, which is headed by longtime pollster and political scientist Larry Sabato, Clinton is going to dominate the electoral map on Election Day.

The year of the Latinos: Hispanic voting surge shaking up presidential election
Experts say that the Republican presidential nominee’s rhetoric on immigration has mobilized Hispanics in a way that has never been seen before. And while most Latinos seem to be voting for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, she is not what is driving them to the polls in record numbers.
WITH HILLARY’S NO-BORDERS SCHEME, BEFORE THE NEXT ELECTION THERE WILL BE 4-6 MILLION MORE ILLEGALS, MEXICAN AND MUSLIM, AND THE DEMOCRATS WILL NEVER LOSE ANOTHER ELECTION.

Uh Oh: LA Times (Which Has Trump Leading) Projects 352 Electoral Votes For Clinton
Since September, the LA Times poll has had Donald Trump ahead by anywhere from one to five points. Still, the last poll they conducted had Trump ahead by five points, so what is their Electoral College projection? A massive landslide for Hillary Clinton, with 352 electoral votes:
Our projection would give Clinton 352 electoral votes, while Trump would end up with 186. That would put Clinton’s electoral majority midway between President Obama’s 2008 win and his 2012 reelection.
Of these last picks, Ohio and Arizona were the hardest. Polls have been close in both states.
Ohio does currently seem like a jump ball, but we lean toward Clinton winning there because of the strength of her get-out-the-vote operation.

Clinton Up Six In Latest Virginia Poll
Clinton was ahead with 48 percent to Trump’s 42 percent in a survey by the Wason Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University. Clinton’s margin in the state had been as high as 15 percent in previous CNU tracking polls, but her six-point margin held up in the final week.
A swing state that had gone blue in the last two presidential elections, Virginia had seemed so safely in Clinton’s column that both sides pulled TV ads from the state back in the summer.

CBS Preemptively Demands: Will Trump Be ‘Graceful,’ ‘Gracious’ Loser?
Talking to Conway, Rose scolded, “If, in fact, you don’t win and Hillary Clinton wins, can we expect Donald Trump to be a graceful loser who will say, ‘This is America and I want to wish Hillary Clinton the best and offer my support to her as president’?”
As though he can see the future, Rose theorized:
ROSE: Which raises the question if there is this huge turnout of Latinos and huge turnout of educated women who normally only vote Republican in terms of the suburbs, does Donald Trump have only himself to blame?

Clinton Will Win, But Her Victory Will Be Short-Lived
The Party Crasher predicts Clinton will win the Electoral College vote 322-215, capturing virtually all of the swing states, as President Barack Obama did in his 2012 victory. Reports of Trump closing the gap at the end are reminiscent of past elections where the polling margins tightened in the closing days, only to widen back out at the end—including 2012, which was also what followers of the stock market would recognize as a “dead cat bounce.”

Reporter to Clinton: Is America Ready to Accept You?
EXPECT THIS KIND OF HARD-HITTING, PROBITIVE INTERROGATIONS FOR THE NEXT 4 YEARS….JUST LIKE THE LAST 8.

One reporter asked Clinton if America finally understands her and is ready to accept her as its president.
“It seems to me over time you’ve been ahead of your time. Often times misunderstood. You have encountered a lot of prejudice. Do you think that today America understands you and is ready to accept you?” the reporter asked.
“Well, I think I have some work to do to bring the country together. As I have been saying in these speeches in the last few days, I really do want to be the president for everybody,” Clinton said.
NBC’s Andrea Mitchell jumped in to ask Clinton if she really could do that. Clinton firmly answered yes.
“I love this country and I believe in our people,” Clinton said.
Clinton laughed before her advance team pushed her and the traveling press pool to board the campaign plane.

Andrea Mitchell Loses It Over ‘Extraordinary,’ ‘Magical’ Hillary Rally in New Hampshire
With credit to my colleague Brent Baker for spotting this classic case of Andrea Mitchell flashing her liberal bias, the MSNBC host and NBC News correspondent could barely contain her excitement for a Sunday night Hillary Clinton rally that she described as being both “extraordinary” and “magical.”

Stocks soar on poll predictions of a Clinton victory – and it’s the bank which paid her and her husband millions for speeches doing best
Wall Street sees shares up with the banking sector leading the way as investors believe Clinton will win
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 2.08 per cent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq up 2.37 and the S&P 500 2.22
Goldman Sachs was up more than 3 per cent – it has paid both Bill and Hillary Clinton for speeches
Investors have tended to see Clinton as a more status quo candidate. On the other hand, Trump’s stance on foreign policy, trade and immigration has unnerved the market.
‘Markets like certainty and predictability,’ said Jeff Carbone, co-founder of Cornerstone Financial Partners in Charlotte, North Carolina. ‘I don’t see another 5 percent bump on a Clinton win, but I could see a 5 to 7 percent pullback on a Trump win.’

Newsweek pre-picks winner, sends ‘Madam President’ issue to stores – company calls it a ‘business decision’
In what will surely fuel cries that the fix was in all along, just as Donald Trump has been saying, Newsweek printed a special edition issue announcing Hillary Clinton as the winner.
The “Madam President” issue has already been shipped to stores, according to the N.Y. Post

The Birdies Go Tweet Tweet Tweet

Since it’s almost over, might as well finish with a flourish.

First a few silly tweets as a palate cleanser