Just One Thing: Voters come back to splitting tickets (at least enough for Trump to win)
Leftist Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from middle- and working-class Queens, NY, asked her millions of Instagram followers why so many voted for both her and Donald Trump. The answers are interesting and here are a few: “Trump and you care for the working class.” “I feel like Trump and you are both real.” “Both wanted change so I went with Trump and ‘blue’ for the rest of the ballot to put some brakes.” “I feel that you both are outsiders compared to the rest of DC, and less ‘establishment.’” These answers make some sense. I don’t think AOC seems wise or even particularly smart, but she does seem real (in the sense that she seems like a REAL Gen-Z bartender from Queens who spent way too much time being brainwashed with gender studies in a northeastern liberal college.) And Trump feels the same, which is odd because he’s a billionaire but less odd knowing that he’s from Queens. And, of course, NOTHING about Kamala Harris seemed genuine.
One More Thing: For Trump family, Elon Musk is "first buddy" and quasi-uncle
Sure looks like Elon Musk will have massive influence on the Trump administration. That's probably mostly good. Elon has some dumb ideas but lots of good ideas and seems to care about the Constitution.
Axios: 1 big thing: The Trump, Musk fusion
Inside the budding Trump-Musk power duo
Now that's what I call "access": Elon Musk Joined Trump’s Call With Ukraine’s Zelensky - WSJ
Kai Trump (second tweet below) is President Trump's granddaughter and an accomplished golfer
Today's Guest
Charlie Gasparino is Senior Correspondent at the Fox Business Network. He wrote an interesting article for the NY Post about Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus who passed away last week. Bernie's life story is remarkable and Charlie had the chance to talk with him multiple times including one of Bernie's last interviews.
One of his last interviews: Bernie Marcus on the state of the US: 'The train is already off the tracks' | Fox Business Video
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Other Stuff
Let's start with a wonderful story: Notre Dame's bells ring out across Paris for the first time since fire
(For more, see the video at the end of today's Blogcast.)
Now, the worst story of the last several days: Israeli soccer fans were attacked in Amsterdam. The violence was condemned as antisemitic | AP News
This "protest" in Belgium is basically this generation's version of a Nazi rally. The media and many "liberals" worldwide tolerate it because they think these evil bastards are Democrats or at least leftists. And they might well be; after all, much of Naziism was also economically leftists; it is "national socialism" after all. But these people should not have safe harbor anywhere.
It’s easy to root against a place that elects such bad politicians and keeps making the same mistakes, but I love Denver and it’s the most important city in Colorado. I love it but I don’t like it very much right now, and I think lots of others feel the same…including tourists, and that’s what needs to change: Downtown Denver's weak recovery costing city millions in tax revenues
Trump is picking his national security and foreign policy team first. Overall, not entirely my first choices but not bad (except for Stephen Miller), and certainly names people have heard of unlike in his first term; Staffing up | Semafor
Here's the latest: Trump Picks Kristi Noem to Lead Homeland Security, CNN Reports
I couldn't have been the only person to assume that the big stars showing up for Kamala Harris were doing it for free because they wanted Harris to win. Turns out many/most were paid, and paid a lot, to tell other people to donate and to go along with paying higher taxes, etc. Disgusting.
Furthermore, how do you raise a BILLION dollars and LOSE and come out of the process in debt? I'm not saying Trump was good on the federal budget but his team sure did handle the campaign spending with much more discipline than Harris did. (Well, Trump is always more careful with his money, or money that can be spent on him, than he is with other people's money.)
An example of smarter Trump spending: Trump’s 2024 Victory Turned On Influencers, Not Social Media Spending. | Story | insideradio.com
These are the kinds of government failures that everyone should be upset about: VA Care Program lacks care
I used to say, “parents don’t let your kids go to Columbia or Harvard”. Now it’s almost any so-called good school except for Hillsdale. Classes canceled at Harvard, Penn, Columbia over Trump win: 'As a queer, immigrant woman of color,' 'I cannot go' 'about my day' | Blaze Media
Will President Biden give Ukraine permission to use western weapons to attack further inside of Russia, just to avoid the chance that Trump won’t grant that permission?
Ukraine launches large drone attack on Moscow in ongoing conflict
Biden to lobby Trump not to abandon Ukraine during upcoming meeting | Fox News
Sir Keir Starmer plots to thwart Donald Trump on Ukraine
That’s a really bad typo: Mattel Pulls ‘Wicked’ Dolls After Listing Adult Porn Site on Packaging
As usual, the story ended up not being what many people, including yours truly, thought the story would be: AP VoteCast takeaways: Gender voting gap was unremarkable compared with recent history | AP News (in particular I thought there was some chance of massive turnout by women, against Trump, as there was against other Republicans two years ago. But it didn't happen that way.)
The guy who quit is THE perfect example of why Trump won: Moulton's aide resigns following remarks on transgender athletes
Dems regret not adequately gaming the system to their benefit: “We’re (expletive) idiots”: Some Democrats regret Colorado’s new redistricting process now that their party is in charge - The Colorado Sun
(And I must admit that it's pretty lucky for the GOP to have a 50/50 split with Dems in terms of members of the House of Representatives in a state that went for Harris by 11% and for Biden by 13.5%.)
Don't forget: Colorado follows California on many energy/fuel requirements: California Gas Prices Expected to Skyrocket after New Fuel Standards Approved | National Review
About that bad poll: Ann Selzer: We’ll look at data to try to understand Iowa Poll miss
Key quote: “A few months ago, one woman still making up her mind said something that has stuck with me. Trump disgusted her, but Harris scared her. I doubt I can find data that can reveal how common these thoughts were.”
I’m not going to do a deep dive on this but just want to note that it’s fun to see such division on the Dem side for a change: Harris, Biden camps blame each other for loss
Gotta be pretty darned disgruntled to do something like this. I mean, clearly he was willing to hurt innocent people: Former Disney employee accused of hacking menu system and changing peanut allergy information - CBS News
Here's the actual Criminal Complaint
Denverites do something rare: Vote down a new tax on themselves. Ballot Issue 2R: Denver voters reject affordable housing sales tax - The Colorado Sun
Why the hell were they given a "safe space" in Qatar to begin with? The answer is probably money, not that Qatar is low on that, or else they just support Islamofascist terrorism...or both. Now I wonder if anyone other than Iran would take them but I also haven't seen any indication that the terrorists were given a deadline to leave:: Diplomat says Qatar quitting Gaza mediation role, Hamas to be booted from country | The Times of Israel
UPDATE: Wait...what? Qatar denies expelling Hamas despite Biden administration claims
Bummer: Vikings didn’t actually wear horned helmets. — History Facts
Today's Videos
The bells of Notre Dame ring for the first time since the 2019 fire (but not all at once)
(A year and a half ago, my listeners and I had the chance to be near Notre Dame on our trip to France but it was eerily quiet on the Île de la Cité.
Let's toast with a glass progressive tears. (I think I don't like the term "liberal tears" anymore even though it does roll off the tongue better because not all liberals are crazy. In fact, I'm sure some moderate liberals even voted for Trump. Not many, but some.