We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
The way I see it. Conservatives like me did not elect Donald Trump. The Liberals did by driving ordinary working class Americans round the bend with their left-wing insanity, their incredible arrogance, and their contempt for America and Americans. Trump is the ordinary American-in-the-street’s rejoinder. And they obviously deserve it.
As an anti-Trumper, he advises not listening to Trump at all but to just see what his admin is doing
The final night of Hanukkah and Christmas is bursting out all over. Lots of things to cover so let us commence. Leading off we have President Trump who delivered a national security speech for the ages. Calling his strategy "principled realism," it is exactly that. In short, for the world to be a better and freer place, America must be an economic and military powerhouse. He also urged tighter, saner immigration policy and renewed his pledge to build the border wall. With the Dow Jones poised to hurtle through the 25,000 point barrier, business and consumer confidence is at an all-time high; certainly at a level we have not felt in nearly 20 years. The President knows and understands that American decline is not inevitable. Despite the lost decade of the Obama years, where we had political and cultural elites who not only thought that the best we could do was manage the decline but who actively took a sledgehammer to our institutions to hasten the decline, this president's first year in office has been a rhetorical and actual declaration of "not one inch further."
The Palestinian statelet is in no way viable, and the Palestinian cause is less and less useful to the Islamic powers with each passing year. … and the Palestinian cause has in no small part devolved from instrument of civilizational conflict to instrument of ordinary grift, a phony jihad used to fortify the alliance between fanatics and financial interests that is the default model of government throughout much of the Muslim Middle East.
Let's not fool ourselves. "I believe Juanita" doesn't just mean that you're generally in favor of believing women when they report sex crimes. It means you believe that for eight years our country was in the hands of a violent rapist.
My Alabama friends say they'll vote for Moore regardless, given the alternative. He was not their choice in the primaries, but the primaries were screwed up. They also hated Trump personally, but voted for him anyway. Lots of voting is voting against, not voting for.
I'm not talking about Urban Hiking, which we always do in Europe and in NYC. I'm talking about off-road "hill walking" which is how they term challenging hiking in Europe.
Mrs. BD and I have explored most of the parts of Italy (and pretty much all of Sicily too). Still need to get to Bologna, tho. Anyway, Mrs. BD's favorite area is Umbria. It has the mountains and the villages, the Sibillini national park, the black truffle, norceria, and of course Norcia itself which is all about food, St. Benedict, and our friends the Monks of Norcia. Also, Assisi - but one visit to that tourist trap is enough.
"Aulicism." This is a rare word that means "A courtly expression or turn of phrase" or — and this is a historical usage — "A tendency or attitude amongst clergymen to become attached to the secular ways and values of court, or to seek political influence and power, at the expense of devotion to religious and spiritual matters."
"There are only 2 genders. Change my mind." Crowder video
"I hate to use the word 'corrupt,' but they become so dirty that ... who is watching the watchmen? Who is investigating these people? There is no one."
2.2 Million New Jobs Since Election... Record low unemployment rate for manufacturing...Hispanic unemployment rate drops to 4.7% - LOWEST in history of USA... MORE...
Drudge headline:
CNN BOTCHES ANOTHER 'BOMBSHELL' THREE BIG MEDIA SCREW-UPS IN WEEK TRUMP UNLOADS
It’s another black mark for CNN. I have said before that CNN should abandon all of its television programming, and simply fill the screen with a sign that says, “We hate President Trump.” That would save a lot of trouble, and avoid quite a few factual errors
It is as if a hurricane has swept through Washington. Each fallen pillar represents a very deliberate reversal of the status quo ante policies of Barack Obama. The entire edifice the former president erected in his eight years in office is in the process of being systematically demolished. Unsurprisingly, Crain's Chicago Business reporter Greg Hinz reported a very unhappy former president warning that Trump was nothing less than a new McCarthy, Nixon, or Hitler while speaking at the Economic Club of Chicago...
President Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel will be as a stab in the heart to the Arab World. But anything else would be to succor Arab hopes that Israel might some day be defeated and eliminated
... cities and states keep making these CDBG-funded loans on the dubious assumption that distressed areas suffer primarily from lack of investment, which government can remedy with taxpayer money. There’s little evidence that such government lending works, though, and much of it turns out to be frivolous. Recently, for instance, local officials have lent $80,000 in CDBG money to a brewery and tasting room in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin, $205,000 to an apiary in northern Michigan, $25,000 to a T-shirt store in Batavia, New York, and $90,000 to a distillery in Gardiner, Maine. Funders seem to have a particular fondness for spirits. Living- ston County, in New York’s Finger Lakes region, announced a competition last year to provide loans using $600,000 in CDBG funds to four craft breweries that agreed to open in the county. The Finger Lakes region already boasts about 100 small breweries.
Exactly right. Unlike career politicians, Trump keeps his campaign promises. Let's face it: the Palis are nothing but trouble and nobody in the world likes them. Even Putin says Jerusalem is Israel's capitol.
The top story today continues to the be the continuing insanity of the Mueller "investigation" which, with the Torquemada-ing of Michael Flynn has officially morphed from trying to find/fabricate evidence of "collusion" into a political witch hunt into "obstruction."
If it's about obstruction, perhaps the FBI ought to investigate itself
In a series of heavily criticized tweets (aren't they always) Trump is asserting that the FBI's reputation is in tatters. Of course, he's right. This isn't justice as it's supposed to be, not even faintly. It's Kafka meets Orwell in the Deep State.
Robert Mueller may not realize it, but the conclusion of his investigation, whatever it is, will never be accepted by a huge percentage of the public. As the French say, Mentir est honteux. Lying is shameful. Mike Flynn may have lied, but so, undoubtedly, has the FBI, multiple times, more than Flynn could ever dream of doing or be capable of doing. And they're the ones we're supposed to trust in the end.
Why ‘The Last Jedi’
The Western Elite
Geological Phenomenon: 
Starving Polar Bear Video
How to
Duck-like dinosaur fossil, plucked from black market,
Photo: Lamborghini tractor
Photo 
On Advent: