The White House YouTube channel recently shared a video from Trump Tower titled The Golden Escalator That Changed History. It was posted on Wednesday, but it takes us right back to June 16, 2015 — the day Donald Trump announced his historic run for President. [VIDEO]
The video is nicely shot — kudos to the videographer. At the time, though, I honestly wouldn’t have paid much attention. In the years since, that Golden Escalator moment has become an iconic event. It launched a successful campaign that defeated a formidable opponent: a former Secretary of State and U.S. Senator who seemed poised to become America’s first female President.
[VIDEO] You're going to have to watch the video to see who he votes for. With that said if you've been watching his videos over the years you shouldn't be too surprised. Especially if you've watched another video he shared from earlier this past summer about "systemic racism"
I do get the sense, however, that politics isn't his forte. That as part of his appeal he doesn't always talk politics or social issues. In one of his videos many years ago he does approach covering the 2016 election and the inauguration of Donald Trump as President. He wasn't happy but wants to maintain his fanbase whether they're Republican or Democrat.
Regardless he expresses how not very happy about the state of American politics currently. Many weren't that happy in 2016 with who's running. And of course many aren't happy who's running in 2020 either and one of the people running is an incumbent.
The hat Neistat shows is hilarious and to be honest I wouldn't mind being caught wearing it. I can only imagine the looks once people read what it says. However, if they didn't care what it says it'll be just another Make America Great Again hat.
Perhaps I'll show you the hat like the hat you see in the above vid that I would really like to wear.
The funniest part about this is that the left or the progressive liberal in 2016 thought there was no way they'd lose the election to Donald Trump. They didn't think America would vote for someone who in reality was unproven as a political candidate. They were proven wrong, as often stated the election of Trump as President was America's way of saying no to the same old, same old.
Of course now that it's entirely possible that Trump could win re-election it seems violence is becoming a thing. And there is an uptick in incidents against Trump supporters, however, depending upon what source you read you might not hear much about it unless you read Legal Insurrection for example. ;)
Well we have until Tuesday to know how this election will turn out.
[VIDEO] The most satisfying part of this video from Liberal Hivemind is that we see former President Bill Clinton respond with his eyes or his lack of facial expressions to his wife and former First Lady, US Senator, US Secretary of State & 2016 Democrat Nominee for President Hillary Clinton field a question about the man who defeated her in '16 President Donald Trump. Ugh, I wrote a lot in that sentence...
Anyway, the former First Lady still can't help but go on and on about what happened in '16. Allegedly her husband put a copy of her book published after her historic run - she was the first woman to lead a major party ticket afterall - in the trash can.
I got to admit former President Clinton is the master. He's the guy whom had the great gift that make for a great politician and at that one that would be able to defeat a sitting President who won a war. Hillary on the other hand is a different story and there is a reason - leave aside the likeability or trust issues - she's not the first woman President of the United States.
There is video out there of Clinton who touted his wife as a very well qualified candidate and what did we get. Well we got Trump who's never before held an elective or appointed public office in his life - well '16 was going to be an election of firsts regardless. That was one reason why I wouldn't vote for him four years ago.
I could believe President Clinton wanted to come back to the White House even if he was the first gentleman - actually what would the first husband of the US have for a title? I could also believe the former Secretary of State would have enough of an ego along with the staff around her to think she doesn't need the political gifts of her husband. Perhaps the '16 election proved that, he could've made a different as we see what happened without him.
So I could believe as you see here that no matter what ranting the former Secretary of State as far as her amazing - though satisfying defeat - he seems uninterested and wishes she'd get off of it. Perhaps even for him the reality of what happened with his attempt to return to the Oval Office has finally sunk in. Meanwhile we see Mrs. Clinton still hasn't gotten over the sting of that defeat.
[VIDEO] Having seen the recent Michael Moore documentary Fahrenheit 11/9 a few points the movie made.
To start how did we get a President Donald Trump, I'm thinking Moore's point with that is the Democratic establishment blew the 2016 election. Besides the inevitable first woman President was expected to have it in the bag right. No one believed Trump could win it.
Next how did we get a President Trump if America is really a nation that trends to the left. We want universal health care for example. I could debate this I wonder what was the basis for the polls Moore cite to come to that conclusion about America's political leanings. And yes I know Moore himself is a lefty he's been around for years obviously.
Next and this is something I do agree with. I used to eschew this, but Michael Moore solidified this with me. America has a ruling class or perhaps a political class - I don't think Trump is part of that clique actually - regardless the influential who likely are very wealthy are the ones who are turning the levers of power in America. And I could conclude that they do this in a variety of ways perhaps economically and certainly through control of the media.
Here's another thing that makes sense to me the Democrats blew the 2016 the moment they "rigged" the nomination process to insure the inevitable woman President gets the nomination. I didn't know that although Sen. Bernie Sanders had won all the counties of West Virginia, the Democrat delegation to the 2016 convention threw their votes to Hillary Clinton.
Finally Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - a not quite ready for prime time congressional candidate from New York - is what Moore hopes is the future of the Democrat party. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is a Democratic socialist and is one of a number of candidates who are seeking seats in Congress. And Moore makes the case through media clips that the establishment (or the so-called ruling class) doesn't want them either. The Democratic socialists are too far to the left for America and seemingly those pundits even if they're not top Dem politicos are saying this on what I may consider liberal cable news networks.
I know that Moore makes more points than this in his movie. I think he made some great points to consider in addition to bringing to light more information on the Flint, Michigan water crisis which he claims was orchestrated by Gov. Rick Snyder. He throws in the activism of students who attended Florida's Parkland High School which unfortunately was the site of an active shooter. And of course promoting union activism - which is likely how Moore got his start in filmmaking.
One of the things Moore asks is how did a nation that trends left get Donald Trump? Perhaps America isn't that much of a leftist nation in the first place. Perhaps we could believe the hype that America wanted something different a President with very little political experience. Perhaps it was just Trump's time and it wasn't time for the first woman President. And certainly the inevitable first woman President Clinton and her team thought it was in the bag that she didn't have to really work for it. While on the other hand, Trump did the work he needed to do to win.
What this movie reminds me of is, some aspects of politics aren't as black & white. Perhaps a conservative in a red state probably has the same issues with the so-called ruling or political class as a leftist in a blue state. With that said, now we know why we do have a Ocasio-Cortez who defeated a longtime Democrat politico in New York.
With this film which is a take-off of Moore's earlier effort released during the Iraq War - Fahrenheit 9/11 - seems not to pull any punches. The label doesn't matter - Republican or Democrat - Moore didn't pull his punches.
I published another version of this post over at My Mind's Eye on Thursday. So today's post will be slightly different. It was video I shot going through Arizona on the way to California.
[VIDEO] Unlike the other video which shows the landscape outside of the train through the windows of the observation lounge, this video is of the inside of the consist that most Amtrak passengers will have access to. Seems to be a fitting video to give you an idea of what you can expect aboard a train. I shot this on the way to the west coast in 2016 aboard the Southwest Chief.
I start off in a coach car on the lower level where I take a shot of the rolling landscape. I head up stairs where you see the coach accommodations before heading towards the observation lounge. The observation lounge is where many passengers sit around to look at the landscape or often socialize with other passengers. What I didn't document was the cafe downstairs where passengers can purchase snacks and beverages from the lounge attendant.
Beyond the observation lounge is the dining car where passengers take their meals. If you have coach accommodations your meals are extra, when I travel by coach I wouldn't be as willing to eat in the dining car. They won't cost an arm and a leg but often they're not cheap. However, you will at least have breakfast, lunch and dinner and often require a reservation. As you may see in another video shared here on this blog, the seating is often communal meaning you will be meeting your fellow passengers as you take your mean. Well that is assuming you're not seating with a young person who is more interested in their mobile phones as happened at one point during my trip....
Anyway if you travel by coach you will have to pay for your meals, however, if you have a sleeper car accommodation meals are complimentary. The accommodation fee for a sleeper is what pays for your meals although think of a dining car as a restaurant. You may not have to pay out of pocket for your meals, however, you still should tip your server just to let them know you like the service. I would like to explain at length making your train reservations at a later time.
Beyond the dining car are the sleepers here I go through two of them until I had downstairs to look out both sides of the train at the rolling landscape. On this trip I was in a roomette with my mother and it was definitely cramped space. It was adequate though I would've liked my own roomette just didn't work out for this trip. The cramped space meant I'd have to take the upper bunk while my mother slept on the lower bunk. At least there were another place on the car for other carry-ons that it wouldn't be feasible to put in the roomette. I would like to explain the sleeper accommodation also at a later time.
This three minute video in a nutshell is documentation of riding a long-distance Amtrak train.
Susan Sarandon - you may know her as Tim Robbins' girlfriend and from Thelma & Louise - probably hasn't turned her back on progressivism, but she came out and said she believes the 2016 Democrat nominee for President was herself dangerous. From The Guardian:
Did she really say that Hillary was more dangerous than Trump?
“Not exactly, but I don’t mind that quote,” she says. “I did think she was very, very dangerous. We would still be fracking, we would be at war [if she was president]. It wouldn’t be much smoother. Look what happened under Obama that we didn’t notice.”
It seems absurd to argue that healthcare, childcare, taxation for the non-rich wouldn’t be better now under President Clinton, and that’s before we get to the threat of deportation hanging over millions of immigrants. “She would’ve done it the way Obama did it,” says Sarandon, “which was sneakily. He deported more people than have been deported now. How he got the Nobel peace prize I don’t know. I think it was very important to have a black family in the White House and I think some of the stuff he did was good. He tried really hard about healthcare. But he didn’t go all the way because of big pharma.”
Most of the article illustrates that she had been attacked by moderates and leftists who support Hillary Clinton. She said she had to change her phone number because people were messaging her threats because she wouldn't support Clinton for president. It's a shame that this groupthink mob mentality took over and she's being ostracized for her opinion and who she chose to support last year. If she supports anyone but Clinton, then she's as bad a Trump or whatever they don't like. What a false association....
I want to remind you of a friend of mine - he called me from his job on election night last year. It was sometime after midnight and he was on the graveyard shift and seeing how the election was going he was livid and called me up. We had been on the phone for almost 3 hours talking about a variety of subjects, because I wanted to change subject from Trump getting elected.
He didn't want Trump to get elected and in his words believed if Clinton had been elected we'd be screwed less than under Trump. Then on the flip side here Sarandon doesn't have much faith in Clinton, hell I didn't vote for Clinton last year and had little faith in either her or Trump. They were both unpopular last year and most of the voters in America made a choice and one or the other resonated with their core constituencies.
My friend said Trump is a rapist and a racist - also there's going to be a race war and it's time to move to Canada. Rapist I might somewhat understand it's on a hit mic that Trump claimed to have forced himself on a woman. As for being racist, was my friend just buying into the propaganda. Just think about it Republicans are often branded as racsists, the last Republican President George W. Bush probably was branded a racist during his term of office. It's really nothing new, though Trump with his big mouth - and especially his unwillingness to condemn the craziness that happened in Charlottesville, Virginia - could do nothing more than stir up the allegations of alleged racism. Or even the rise of the "white nationalist" faction of this so-called "alt-right".
Either way now I wonder how many people held the view of a Sarandon? How many people in the Democrat's base thought Clinton was a dangerous prospect as President? How many of these individuals made a different choice in election day last year?
Finally I hate to take this on the end of this post, let's also consider she commented on the sexual harassment and assault that's taking down so many powerful Hollywood men. She's not jumping on the bandwagon, but sees a different view of this situation.
The American version of "Brexit" happened. Trump's ascension to the White House is seen as something of a populist uprising in America. Especially an uprising of these white working class voters whom Donald Trump began to attract.
The themes were to secure our border - which has been said by a small amount of Republicans especially and we hear it through Trump. Another theme was bring back these manufacturing jobs which is something I'm not sure is achievable, however, Americans were good at making products and perhaps we need to get back to that. Drain the swamp is something I can agree with for sure. Let's not forget about immigration putting up a wall on the Mexican border and vetting who is coming into our nation - especially from these warzones in the Middle East.
I'm sure there were many who were uncertain about the direction the United States is going. To start, I had a friend who truly believed America will get screwed with Trump and we'd have been less screwed with Mrs. Clinton. His over the top reaction - and I don't view him as a progressive or liberal or left - certainly does match up with those Hillary Clinton supporters who thought about the worst instincts of Americans who voted for our current President. For example, America is still misogynistic or racist making a vote a black & white indication of the true values an individual holds.
While my vote didn't go to Trump one year ago, let me dispell that notion right now. American's didn't elect our former Secretary of State under President Barack Obama because they were misogynistic or racist, it was more likely because Ms. Clinton didn't really stand for anything. The fact that people supported her and expected her to win was more about the direction they believed America was going. Clinton becoming the first woman elected President showed them that America was more tolerant, but not because she had this great vision to "Make America Great Again".
See what I did there? That need not be only Trump's message - as it turns out enduring message adapted for his current jaunt into Asia plastered onto white hats and presented to the Japanese Prime Minister. Hillary even as a person decidedly a dedicated leftist politician - even for cynical reasons - could make America great with all those wonderful programs that I couldn't tell you what they were. Not because there were none, but nothing sticks out about her.
Another illustration of the expectations of last year and the shockwaves that resulted could be seen in this great SNL sketch that features Dave Chappel & Chris Rock. Chappel's character in this sketch already had some realistic notions far removed from those white progressive Clinton supporters. I shared the video on this blog last year.
With this said I would like to share some tweets that marks this day. I wanted to share some footage from election night 2016, but didn't find anything right away so I'm just giving you the one-year later reactions. And my focus will be on President Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Congratulations to all of the ”DEPLORABLES” and the millions of people who gave us a MASSIVE (304-227) Electoral College landslide victory! pic.twitter.com/7ifv5gT7Ur
You notice Trump in his competitiveness had to note the electoral college margin. 270 to win it and he crushed with securing 304 electoral votes. Winning a few states that were previously blue - Wisconsin, Michigan & Pennsylvania. What he did in 2016 is nothing to sneeze at and he put in the work to do so.
As for Hillary Clinton she shared this tweet highlighting the fact that Clinton actually won the popular vote last year while Trump won the electoral college vote. And I got wind of this via Gateway Pundit who let's us know that the twitter backlash to this from conservatives was quick.
One year ago, @HillaryClinton became the first woman ever to win the popular vote. Today, in honor of that legacy, we're launching the Hillary Rodham Clinton Day of Service.
[VIDEO] The above clip aired on FOX News earlier this month. It's very funny how we're still talking about the election. A huge swath of this nation - including Hillary Clinton herself - are still wondering how they lost the Presidency it was supposed to be a sure thing.
In light of the 2016 presidential results we hear a lot about interference by Russian hackers and now a wrinkle to this theory. A young DNC staffer who had been murdered may have leaked information from the DNC to wikileaks.
I first hear about this last week and posted a quick blurb at E.M. and then wondered: why would someone inside the Democratic Party undermine their party and their nominee for President?
Unfortunately we'll never know the answer to that as Seth Rich was murdered outside of his home in Washington, DC. There are some people are there who claimed they have contact with him before his death and was likely who he sent the information to. And hopefully they'll know why he leaked this information.
One conclusion everyone has come to if they believe this story...the Russians didn't provide this information regarding Mrs. Clinton's e-mails as our former Secretary of State or e-mails from the leadership of the Democratic Party. It was more of an internal operation no foreign influence at all!
Admitedly wikileaks and +Julian Assange are getting increased attention these days. Assange and that organization has always been around in someway, to be honest I've rarely paid much attention. At the same time his organization was able to influence the 2016 election and even better cleared up the thinking of a certain circle.
BTW, I've seen his interview with Sean Hannity, anti-corruption he says. Does anyone this he's exposed this with the Democrats and Secretary Hillary Clinton?
Also this was a good tweet by the Libertarian Party.
[VIDEO] Steve Kornacki of MSNBC got some of predictions wrong and some of them were key ones such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Others well like Texas, Georgia or even Flordia - which isn't mentioned here but you see in it blue on his map - goes without saying. Texas and Georgia are solid red states and weren't likely to flip blue especially with the former US Secretary of State.
I very much hope Kornacki wasn't making these predictions on election night. He probably wasn't but sadly for him someone mashed up the footage of his pedictions with various networks namely NBC, CNN, or FOX News calling the states he suggests could flip to give Hillary Clinton her victory. And yet as the video notes from those aforementioned election night newscasts Donald Trump has been elected the 45th President of the United States. What a year, what an election.
This article from the Christian Science Monitor I found on Tuesday over at Instapundit makes a case of how Black working class males can relate to the White working class males that voted strongly for Trump last month. The issues are similar if not much worse for the Black working class.
In the same breath there was mention of a local employment agency in the NY Times and client companies being sued for discrimination. The client companies who needed workers preferred hispanics to Blacks with the excuse for this being Blacks didn't want to do the work, however, the preferred workers according to the article were illegal and may not be as willing to stand up for themselves. Or more accurately, "They are so scared to raise their voice and say, ‘Hey, this is not fair.’"
This is old news in fact as this past summer the Capitol Fax blog posted about this.
Going into election night I had no idea where it would go. My gut feeling was telling me it was going to be Clinton/Kaine, however this was going to be a close election. I felt as if Trump/Pence had enough support to give the Democrats a run for their money. Everyone in this country who paid attention to polls and trends were shocked.
On election night, I missed whatever state put Trump over the top as far as electoral votes. It might have been Pennsylvania or Arizona. Either way I was on the phone with a friend who was absolutely livid that the Republicans were even ahead in this race, he just didn't understand. He as a Black male thinks it's time to move to Canada, it won't be safe here.
He's echoing what was said by protestors in Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood where they chanted that they "want a president not a f*cking racist". It's a common belief unfortunately perhaps as a result of statements the candidate has made during the campaign. This leads me to a conclusion I've just realized.
As much as I attempt to approach politics with logic and reason it's often emotional for people. Perhaps many people are passionate when an issue resonates with someone emotionally. Case in point my friend he likes to talk a lot about race, to be honest I'm not that comfortable with that subject but he looked at this election as a Black male. Clearly the issue of race for many people is an emotional issue and we need not look further than our history to realize this.
I'm not going to try to break down this emotion over Trump's surprise victory with anything resembling the scientific method. Everyone has their reason why they seem to have taken this election hard. Fact is neither candidate had been ideal and yes for now America still doesn't have a woman as President. Or indeed America elected a President that didn't reflect the ideals they wanted to prevail.
So to echo a blog post title written here, where do we go from here?
Brilliant maps said share this map so therefore it's shared. The beige colors represent those states with large numbers of voters who didn't vote. This may have made a different for President-elect Donald Trump and these voters could've elected the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. A huge what if admittedly!
I'm glad this wild election season is over though I recognize that this season had some surprising results.
It's been almost 16 years since Bill Clinton left office and despite his many flaws as a man or as President I know this of him. He was a gifted person at connecting with people, I couldn't say the same for his wife who became a US Senator or a Secretary of State. She may have been a true believe in leftist policies however she didn't have the same gift at connecting with people.
The President may have been successful in triangulation. He may have signed some Republican legislation into law, but it insured his continued political success. It may well have insured the future political success of the Democrats even if many were unhappy about it.
Too bad that his wife Hillary Clinton and her staff didn't believe him when he said target the white working class. If she wasn't going to win them over, start chipping away at the Donald's margins. The former President may have seen this coming and no one listened to him and those who supported Mrs. Clinton got the shock of their lives.
It's often been said that the many groups that turned out for outgoing President Barack Obama didn't turn out for Mrs. Clinton. Apparently the love many have felt in the past for Obama didn't extend to Clinton. If white working class people turned out in higher numbers then Blacks & Latinos at least didn't turn out for Mrs. Clinton.
For the record, I really didn't pay any attention to the polls. My guess on election day was as good as anyone else's. It seems many expected a President-elect Clinton, but were dismayed by a President-elect Donald Trump. Beyond that whoever won I figured that no one was likely to be happy with the outcome as both cadndiates were unpopular coming into last week's election.
BTW, let me leave you here with something funny. This past Saturday Dave Chappelle hosted SNL and with Chris Rock were involved in a sketch that satirized the dismay Clinton supporters had on election night once it went the direction it did.
The video above is from the fb page of Morehouse College. This was shot at the bell in front of the Sale Hall annex the day after the elections. If you've seen a 20 year old PBS documentary The Morehouse Men, this bell is what a Morehouse Man should answer whenever it rings.
As we see this is one response to Trump's election. It's enough that Dr. John S. Wilson, President of Morehouse College, had to speak on this as you see here. He discussing the fact that of the 600K or so Blacks that reside in Georgia not enough go to the polls.
He's basically responding or has his response to this year's election which saw Donald Trump become the President-elect of the United States. This outcome that many are baffled by has resulted in protests around the nation especially in downtown Chicago.
Does anyone here have any thoughts to offer as far at the recent 2016 elections?
I found this via Instapundit. Exit polling suggested that Trump did well among "minorities" or I should say better than Mitt Romney who ran for POTUS in 2012.
Early Wednesday morning, exit poll data began to circulate that showed Trump improving the GOP’s standing with both African-Americans and Latinos. Less clear was just how central a role this shift played. To see the dramatic effect, compare the 2012 and 2016 exit polls that split the result by race.
In 2012, the electorate was 72 percent white (which went 59 percent Romney / 39 percent Obama) and 28 percent nonwhite (which went 81 percent Obama / 18 percent Romney), yielding a total margin of plus 3.1 percent for Obama. In 2016, the electorate was 70 percent white (which went 58 percent Trump / 37 percent Clinton) and 30 percent nonwhite (which went 73 percent Clinton / 21 percent Trump), yielding a total margin of plus 0.9 percent for Clinton.
The overall result is a 2.3 percent shift toward the Republicans. (Totals won’t sum due to rounding, and they won’t match final vote counts, because these are the exit polls.) We can allocate that shift across three changes: the shift in the mix of white and nonwhite voters; the shift in preferences among white voters; and the shift in preferences among nonwhite voters.
Man I wish my skills include crunching numbers such as these. It would be easy to see these trends and see if they stay consistent or when they stall. Read the whole thing, there's more to it than what's excerpted here.
[VIDEO] This most interesting campaign has finally ended and in a Trump victory. Beginning January 20, 2017, we'll be living under a Donald Trump presidency. Unfortunately there are many who aren't happy, there are protests in downtown Chicago and as I've just learned on FOX News TV around the nation.
Considering the President-elect came into this election very unpopular I've figured that he as the victor of the 2016 presidential campaign would be a one-termer. Though I will admit looking only at the states he won, it was an overwhelming victory. He may still lose popular vote against Clinton but it was still an overwhelming victory he broke through in blue states such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin for example.
BTW, the whole win electoral college and lose popular vote happened in 2000, 1888, 1876, 1824, and 1800. 2000, 1876, 1824, and 1800 were disputed and ultimately a President was inaugurated.
The question now is whether or not the President-elect will show how ready he is for his new responsibility. Above his victory speech which sounds conciliatory. He didn't beat down Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Sloopin has a post about the championship rally for the Cubs last Friday. An estimated 5 million came to Chicago to see the parade and the rally in downtown Chicago. The 7th largest gathering of humans in the world. A lot of people have been waiting to see the unthinkable - a Cubs world series championship.
Consider this a mental break while we wait for more states to be called in this presidential election. There has been some interesting results, I was never sure what was going to happen but the results was never what was expected.
