So.....nukes? Now what?

Reports of Russia launching an ICBM (whether nuclear or not, is not clear) at Ukraine this morning, in a major escalation of the war:

Scott Presler VS. Bucks County Commissioners

Well done.

Sunny Hostage, I mean Hostin, apology

Everyone's probably already seen this already but I was really busy today. Sunny Hostin looking like a hostage in this video, reading what shouldn't have to be forced on the clucking hens at The View.  Then again we all know what that show is...

First Dem candidate for 2028

Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, putting on a smiley face for 2028.  Make no mistake, this move is entirely political. Democrats cheating has been an issue in the state for years. NOW Josh Shapiro has something to say about it? I'm not buying it. He has a chance to look like an above board guy with a case of cheating so blatantly obvious that there's no way to stand in support of it.  So why wouldn't he denounce this? There's no downside for Democrats because the cheating won't help. It's opportunism, plain and simple.

Lawyers and volunteers were everything

In my last post I talked about hitting the ground running. Here's why I think that is possible.  The last election Trump was defeated by a very poorly organized GOP. Republicans were locked out of counts in critical battleground states. There was no army of lawyers, no army of volunteers in 2020. Republicans got played so badly that it was inevitable that if Let's Go Brandon didn't win, they could have easily manufactured a win under those tilted-playing-field conditions. This is why so many Republicans reasonably think the 2020 election was stolen by the Democrats.

Remember Hillary Clinton telling Let's Go Brandon not to concede on election night? That's very telling. Why didn't that happen this time? The GOP, while not fully there yet, was so much better prepared with lawyers and volunteers. The Democrats could not organize any sort of shadowy light night rally for Kamala Harris, they knew they had to concede. The popular vote better reflected the reality of regular people, because there was far less possibility of cheating.

Yet despite all the claims by the media that cheating has never happened, it's still going on - out in the open even:

I am saying, we are living in a developed and powerful country on earth where we have to mention the keyword “valid” next to absentee ballot. How do I now believe they are valid? Who says they are valid (see the video below)? I thought the idea of ballot stuffing and other things… https://t.co/VFGoKtDBig

— NC Man (@NCMan2020) November 16, 2024

Trump's team was so organized they couldn't steal the presidency. There were many in the media predicting (or perhaps propagandizing) a Harris victory blowout. Then they were expecting a long week of counting in the swing states. Now Trump is clearly a lot more popular after four years of Brandon/Harris failures as a contrast, but it's not all his popularity that helped him win. The GOP's laser focus on the cheating was a huge boost that led to an election night win for Trump. It's clear Democrats moved the focus to congress because they had to do so. That team of lawyers the GOP assembled should be actively pursuing these other cheats on behalf of the GOP right now.

The main point though, is to point out that president Trump is coming into this term far better prepared than he was in 2016.  That being the case, hitting the ground running is far more likely this time around. He was prepared for election night, and it won him the election.  He has a team assembling much faster than in 2016. Day One should be great.

Hit the ground running on Day One

Frank Miele, in RCP wrote the following, on the topic of unity vs. compromise, and whether both are possible simultaneously;

...This time around, Trump knows he only has four years to fulfill his plans. So he’s moving with lightning speed to do exactly what Abraham Lincoln accomplished in his four years in the White House: unite the country by demonstrating strength, wisdom and patriotism.

This ambitious goal perhaps explains Trump’s seemingly antagonistic selection of Cabinet secretaries. Matt Gaetz for attorney general? Robert Kennedy Jr. for Health and Human Services? Pete Hegseth for Defense? Tulsi Gabbard to oversee the intelligence agencies, including the CIA? There were other qualified candidates for all those positions, but would they have fought as fiercely as these picks to revolutionize the agencies they would helm?

Turning back to our Civil War model, after first selecting traditional generals who were consensus choices, Lincoln decided to go with his gut and promoted Ulysses S. “Unconditional Surrender” Grant and “scorched earth” William Sherman to bring the enemy to their heels. Trump seems to be after the same kind of unsparing determination. Go big or go home.

There's an interesting point in the first sentence of that quote; he only has four years. While that is true, a highly successful four years could lead to another four or eight years of a Republican presidency (likely with JD Vance as the candidate). That would be great, but it requires a great deal of success, across multiple streams of issues; inflation, GDP growth, government efficiency and waste reduction, deep state reduction, natural resource development, border security, crime reduction, military strength, and international peace to mention some of the most prominent ones. 

That's a tall order that necessitates Day One readiness and an agreeable congress. Any Republican not prepared to support the president's agenda has to be dealt with in the most forceful way possible. President elect Trump would be well served to start aligning allies and building a solid support base in both the senate and the house, immediately.  That's something that would go on behind the scenes and we are likely not going to see in the public eye.

The other part of the Day One readiness is the Executive Orders on minute one. I have no doubt the president is already preparing or even mostly prepared for that one already. 

If the president's agenda is rolling from Day One there will be strong results in two years.  The president will be able to retrain control and perhaps even grow the GOP majorities in the house and senate.  The only way to impress the left out of their haze of dream-lies is to Make America Great Again, and quickly. Good results will require rapid movement. It's a snowball effect; good results will help accelerate further good results, which all will improve electoral success.  The good news is it's entirely plausible. It's a tall order, but the right team is being assembled.