Good morning from my condo in Coquitlam, British Columbia. I had to fly up here yesterday for a doctor appointment which turned out to be fairly “good” news, relatively. There will be no resectioning of my liver. It is assumed that I will die before the liver kills me.

I have another reason to be here today. The wife and I have been trying to decide for the past year as to whether to sell this condo or not. We bought it in 2012 when I was working at Sharpe Sound. It was more convenient than my farmhouse in Tappen, BC, and a lot more modern.

Here’s the thing: I have pretty much reached the end of my road. I probably have a couple-three “good” years left in me, before my dirt nap, and it has always been my intention to do what my parents, and my mother’s parents did before me: live out my remaining time in Tappen.

The timing is ironic. Before you jump to conclusions, the election has absolutely nothing to do with my ‘escape’ from the US, and everything to do with economics. The US is an absolute shithole for retirement. You would be hard pressed to find a worse place to retire than anywhere within the US. Oh sure, Gaza or Ukraine are probably a whole lot worse, but we are talking about a war zone, not a place you would look at for retirement purposes. (although, prior to the war, Ukraine was a fairly decent place to live)

I’m heading back down to Seattle in a couple of hours.

But let’s get to the headlines that caught my eye this morning:

The Trifecta

Republicans Win Control of House, Cementing a G.O.P. Trifecta Under Trump

Republicans cemented their control of the House on Wednesday after holding onto a handful of critical seats in Arizona and California and defeating incumbent Democrats in key battleground districts, handing the G.O.P. a governing trifecta in Washington to enact President-elect Donald J. Trump’s agenda.

It was not yet clear what the margin of the Republican majority in the House would be, and preliminary counts pointed to the likelihood that they would again hold only a slight edge over Democrats. Votes were still being counted in some critical contests in the West, and a few other races were still too close to call.

The resignation of Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida on Wednesday after President-elect Donald J. Trump said he would nominate him for attorney general further complicated the math for the G.O.P. But Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic leader, had already conceded that his party had fallen short, and The Associated Press declared that Republicans had effectively won control of the chamber after calling an Arizona race for Representative Juan Ciscomani.

The margins are thin in both houses, and if Trump continues to poach members to fill his government, it could make it even thinner.

I am expecting to be proven right when John Thune decides that maybe it is time to do away with the filibuster and other brakes that the Senate has been working under forever. If Trump expects to get even half of his wants passed through Congress, they are going to have to go for the ‘nuclear option’.

A change in Senate Leadership

Republican senators elect Thune to lead them into the Trump era

John Thune’s political persona is light years away from Donald Trump’s: He’s a wonky and friendly Midwesterner who spent six years as Mitch McConnell’s No. 2 Senate Republican leader.

He even supported one of Trump’s primary rivals in 2024.

And Thune wielded those same qualities to get elected on Wednesday as the majority leader of a Republican-controlled Senate under Trump.

After fielding hours of private questions from his colleagues on Tuesday evening about how he would enact the president-elect’s agenda, Thune prevailed in a tight election to succeed McConnell. Although he’s a McConnell protege and an adherent to the Senate’s clubby traditions, Thune also responded to the clamor in his party to do things differently than the current leader – and his colleagues rewarded him.

Senate Republicans voted to promote Thune over Sen. John Cornyn, a former No. 2 leader, and Sen. Rick Scott, the favorite of many Trump allies. Trump did not weigh in on the race as all three candidates spent time cultivating him this year, despite efforts by many in his network to cast Thune as an unwelcome continuation of the McConnell era. After Scott was eliminated in the first round of voting, Thune picked up enough of the Floridian’s votes to beat Cornyn, 29-24.

I’m sure that McConnell will be happy to be out of that mess.

The transition of power

Emboldened Trump returns to Washington to meet with Biden

President-elect Donald Trump returned to the nation’s capital Wednesday for the first time since winning election, meeting with congressional leaders, sitting in the Oval Office with President Biden and announcing a flurry of high-profile nominations for his Cabinet.

The visit to the White House and Capitol Hill offered a visual preview of Trump’s emboldened second term, in which Trump-friendly Republicans are expected to have full control of Congress to carry out his wishes.

Republicans in the Senate selected a new leader Wednesday, John Thune of South Dakota, who has vowed to align the chamber more closely with Trump than his predecessor, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who occasionally bristled at Trump’s attempts to bypass rules. Among Thune’s promises: agreeing to Trump’s demand to recess appointments to the Cabinet that would skirt the Senate confirmation process.

“I’m coming after everything you’ve ever loved, Joe”

Fleshing out a Cabinet

Trump taps Gabbard for director of national intelligence

President-elect Trump announced Wednesday that former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard would serve as his director of national intelligence, a remarkable turnaround for a former Democrat accused of peddling Russian narratives.

“For over two decades, Tulsi has fought for our Country and the Freedoms of all Americans. As a former Candidate for the Democrat Presidential Nomination, she has broad support in both Parties – She is now a proud Republican! I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community, championing our Constitutional Rights, and securing Peace through Strength. Tulsi will make us all proud!” Trump wrote in a statement.

The Director of National Intelligence oversees an agency that helps coordinate actions among all the U.S. intelligence agencies and is responsible for putting together the President’s Daily Brief, arming the executive with the information it needs to make key national security decisions.

Gabbard has expressed beliefs that counter the conclusions drawn by U.S. intelligence, particularly when it comes to Russia and Ukraine.

Gabbard could face an uphill battle for confirmation to the role, particularly given criticism over being too aligned with Russian talking points.

Nothing like having a Russian asset as the DNI.

Trump picks Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general

President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday that he will nominate Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida as U.S. attorney general.

Gaetz has submitted his resignation from Congress, House Speaker Mike Johnson revealed at a news conference Wednesday evening. The resignation will not take effect until it is announced on the House floor.

Trump, in his Truth Social post announcing Gaetz’s selection, wrote that the 42-year-old lawmaker “has distinguished himself in Congress through his focus on achieving desperately needed reform at the Department of Justice.”

Gaetz replied on X, “It will be an honor to serve as President Trump’s Attorney General!”

Conspiracy theories always rely on the use of questions. This morning, the Left-o-Sphere is asking the question,

Why did Trump pick Matt Gaetz to be Attorney General?

The follow-up question is did Trump do it to save the ass of Matt Gaetz?

The conspiracy theory is that Trump nominated Gaetz so that he could resign before a very damaging ethics report was going to be voted on for release. By resigning, it effectively closes a serious ethics investigation looking into Gaetz involving sex with underaged girls and the used of cocaine and molly. With Gaetz now officially out of Congress, the report will be classified and shelved, never to see the light of day.

Well, cool story, bro…

Using the KISS principle, it could just be that Donald Trump picked Matt Gaetz because he knew that it would freak people out. Also, Donald Trump ran on the plan to take a wrecking ball through the institutions of government. Can you think of a more descriptive ‘wrecking ball’ than Matt Gaetz?

I’m seeing this as more of a coinky-dink.

The ethics report was always going to come out at the end of the session, no matter what the report says. The fact that it won’t come out now only ADDS to the HUGE question that will hang over Matt Gaetz strange looking head from now on:

Is Matt Gaetz a pedophile and an illegal drug user?

By closing the ethics file, it leaves the question hanging. It won’t matter that the FBI came to the conclusion there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Gaetz. They didn’t say there wasn’t evidence, just no evidence they could use. The ethics investigation could have found out exactly what evidence there was out there, and made a determination as to whether any ‘ethics’ were violated.

Look, if I were in Matt Gaetz position, I would demand that any report that could exonerate me be released to the public immediately, and even if the report was unfavorable, I would also want the opportunity to defend against it.

We will never know now, so the question will always hang over his head.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Blink 182 – Leaving on a Jet Plane cover

Escaping from America

Go bags, passports, foreign assets: Preparing to be a target of Trump’s revenge

A retired U.S. Army officer who clashed with senior officials in Donald Trump’s first White House looked into acquiring Italian citizenship in the run-up to this month’s election but wasn’t eligible and instead packed a “go bag” with cash and a list of emergency numbers in case he needs to flee.

A member of Trump’s first administration who publicly denounced him is applying for foreign citizenship and weighing whether to watch and wait or leave the country before the Jan. 20 inauguration.

And a former U.S. official who signed a notorious October 2020 letter suggesting that emails purportedly taken from a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden could be Russian disinformation is seeking a passport from a European country, uncertain about whether the getaway will prove necessary but concluding, “You don’t want to have to scramble.”

All spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid undermining their own preparations. The planning, they acknowledge, responds to a hypothetical worst case in which a second Trump presidency ushers in systematic suppression of free speech and criminalization of dissent. Trump’s victory alone has set off alarms among some of his most outspoken critics, as well as within parts of the intelligence and national security communities he denigrated as the “deep state” and accused of subverting his agenda.

Their anxiety has intensified amid the drumbeat of picks for critical Cabinet posts. Trump said Wednesday he would make Rep. Matt Gaetz, the Republican firebrand from Florida, his attorney general and Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii and fervent critic of the foreign policy establishment who told world leaders to “embrace the spirit of aloha” after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, his director of national intelligence, a role overseeing the nation’s 18 spy agencies.

[…]

Scarcely any described firm plans to leave the country. But they’re also not brushing off the threats as they keep track of personnel named to influential government jobs. Following the selection of Gaetz to lead the Justice Department, many are watching whether Kash Patel, a Trump loyalist who appended a “deep state” list to his 2023 book, “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy,” lands a senior role at a top agency such as the FBI.

People on Patel’s list and other inventories of Trump antagonists have taken precautions ranging from the dramatic to the mundane. They include determining whether they’re eligible for foreign citizenship, examining the possibility of purchasing property abroad and considering whether to move money into overseas banks. The steps illustrate how seriously some potential targets of Trump’s retribution are taking the possibility that he or his allies could use the U.S. legal system against them, or that vigilante actors could take justice into their own hands.

“We’re monitoring who potential Cabinet members and core staff will be as we advise people,” said Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer who has represented government whistleblowers and has counseled clients about steps they might take now that Trump has been elected. “The reality is that, thankfully, this isn’t the 1930s; we have time to make decisions about what will be done and where people can go.”

Eva Longoria Reveals She Moved Her Family Out of “Dystopian” United States: “I’m Privileged”

“Most Americans aren’t so lucky,” the actress said of her choice to leave.

Eva Longoria revealed this week that she and her family have moved out of the “dystopian” United States, now splitting their time between Mexico and Spain.

“I had my whole adult life here,” Longoria told Marie Claire of the U.S. “But even before [the pandemic], it was changing. The vibe was different. And then COVID happened, and it pushed it over the edge. Whether it’s the homelessness or the taxes, not that I want to shit on California — it just feels like this chapter in my life is done now.”

The Desperate Housewives actress cited the election as one reason for the finality of her conviction. “The shocking part is not that he won,” she said of Donald Trump‘s victory last week. “It’s that a convicted criminal who spews so much hate could hold the highest office.

The key word in this story is “Desperate”.

More from the Fox News Cabinet

Trump’s Defense Secretary Pick Describes Liberals as ‘Domestic Enemies’ In Latest Book

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominated Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth blasted progressives and leftists as “domestic enemies” who want to turn the military into a “cartoonish circus” by imposing “woke” ideology in his latest book.

The book, called The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free, is Hegseth’s fourth and was published in June.

In it the Fox News commentator and former Army veteran rails against “political ideologues” and “Pentagon pussies” who he argues “undermined” the established “merit-based performance” metrics for recruits by pushing DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) and CRT (critical race theory). This, he argues, has weakened the armed forces and is part of a wider conspiracy by “Marxists” to undermine the United States’ security.

Top Ten Wildest Moments With the Fox News Host Trump Wants for Our Next Secretary of Defense

1. Clobbered a drummer with a poorly-thrown axe

2. Had a meltdown and stomped out of the Mediaite podcast after just 13 minutes

3. He aggressively lobbied for a pardon for a former Navy SEAL accused of war crimes, including shooting a little girl

Hegseth took an active role in urging Trump during his first term to pardon several service members accused of war crimes, most notoriously Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who was accused by his fellow SEALs of a series of war crimes, including shooting a school-age girl and an old man with a sniper rifle, and walking up to a teenage ISIS fighter who was being treated by medics to stab him to death with a hunting knife.

4. That time he argued with a teleprompter

5. He’s really mad about women enlisting and leftists “neutering” the military

“I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles,” Hegseth said on a podcast just days before Trump announced he wanted him as Defense Secretary.

6. He wrote that liberals were America’s “domestic enemies” and one of the “two fronts” the U.S. military had to fight along with “radical Islam”

Democrats and liberals — including former President Barack Obama by name — are denounced by Hegseth as America’s “domestic enemies” multiple times. He blasts the personnel who supported implementing DEI policies as “cowards hiding under stars,” “whores to wokesters,” “willing tools, taking orders from Ivy League leftists,” “[c]owards, then sellouts.”

Fighting these “domestic extremist” would be “round two” of the “war” we fought against “radical Islamist ideology for twenty years,” with our soldiers keeping “[b]usy killing Islamists in shithole countries.” Now, the war would come to the “home front” with the 2008 election of a “young, untested leftist” Obama included in Hegseth’s description of the “enemy” at home who “pounced” at the chance to “push its agenda” of “straight-up weirdo shit” to “trash our laws” and fail to “uphold their own constitutional oaths of office.”

Liberals did not deserve any credit for fighting America’s wars, in Hegseth’s telling of the tale. “The Left didn’t fight the wars. They stayed home and wrecked our house. America-wreckers, all of them. These domestic extremists are the real American ‘Jody’ — ask a veteran; they’ll tell you,” wrote Hegseth, referring to the military slang for a civilian who has an affair with a soldier’s wife while he is deployed.

Hegseth makes it clear that he does in fact mean to label the Left as enemies, writing that for military members, “our oath is to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against anyone who threatens it. The expectation is that we will defend it against all enemies — foreign and domestic. Not political opponents, but real enemies. (Yes, Marxists are our enemies.)”

7. He defaced his own Harvard diploma and sent it back in a fit about critical race theory

8. …and defended the rioters the next day, saying “They love freedom”

9. He enthusiastically embraced Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud and cheered on the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, 2021…

On the morning of the Jan. 6, 2021 protests that would later turn deadly, Hegseth was reporting live from the Ellipse, where then-President Trump and his allies would hold their “Stop the Steal” rally that would culminate in the march to the Capitol that erupted into violence as Trump condemned his own vice president, Mike Pence, for refusing to thwart the Electoral College certification.

10. He’s complained about vaccines but also says he never washes his hands because he can’t see germs

A metaphor of the majority of voters today: