With Thanksgiving this week we hear lots about Black Friday sales.  This used to be a big event, the one time of the year when merchandise was sold at serious discounts.  Like everything else, however, the sellers have ruined the Black Friday experience.  First, they diluted the Friday sale day by opening the stores on the night of Thanksgiving.  Never mind giving thanks and setting aside time for family and friends.  Not good enough.  Now some choke down their turkey so they can jump in the car and stand in line at crowded stores.  At least when the women leave to go shopping, the NFL gave us a third football game on Thanksgiving night.  The value of Black Friday discounts has further been diluted by the prevalence of mail orders through Amazon and Ebay, and other catalog companies, who deliver the goods right to your door, permitting you to avoid the the lines.  Personally, I’d rather pay 20% more not to sit in bumper to bumper traffic, hunt for parking, and brave the mall.  Black Friday also has been downgraded because it’s not just once a year anymore.  Now there’s Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday, and Black Friday in July.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.  If everything’s always on sale, then nothing’s ever on sale.  The Black Friday rant aside, let me remind the gentle reader that the title of this work is Black Thursday.  That’s because I’m not talking about sales on November 23rd.  Black Thursday was last week, Thursday November 15th.  We here in the New York Metropolitan area were paralyzed by – what?  A natural disaster, like a hurricane?  No.  A tornado?  No.  How about an earthquake?  No, not an earthquake.  It was … It was … six stinkin’ inches of snow.  That’s right, six inches of wet snow ground everything to a halt in northern New Jersey, New York City and environs.  For those of you who, blessedly, don’t have to contend with snow, understand that, while it’s true that November 15th is a bit early for us to see any significant snowfall, we’ve had heavier snow totals without the mayhem that reigned last week.  This time was different.  There were lots of excuses like, “The weather people got it wrong.”  Sure, the expected temperatures were teetering right at or near the freezing mark, and there were some reports that we’d get a dusting, or an inch, and then it would turn to rain.  On the other hand, The Weather Channel forecast pretty steadily warned of 5 to 8 inches of snow before the changeover to rain.  In any event, snow, rain, freezing rain, or whatever was likely to fall could have been minimized had the various governments in our area simply put some salt down on the roads.  They did not.  Where I live, the snow began falling just after 1 p.m., and yet no salt spreader or plow ever made an appearance, until it was too late.  My office is but 0.3 of a mile from my house, and I had a tough time getting home before 4 p.m.  I stopped to pick up some food for dinner.  I knew we were in trouble when the restaurant had closed 4 hours early.  Two school buses stuck in the snow near my street slowed me down at 4 p.m.  An hour later, it took my wife 40 minutes to navigate the 2 blocks home because the same two buses were still stuck.  The bus problem could have been avoided if someone had looked out the window and sent the kids home early, or if some salt was put down on the roads.  They didn’t, and it wasn’t.  My daughter teaches in Newark, some 12 miles from my house.  It took her 4 1/2 hours to cover those 12 miles, and she was lucky.  A friend of hers spent 11 hours in the car, going nowhere.  At one nearby school district, the buses never came.  The teachers and students spent the night at school, the teachers breaking open the cafeteria to cook dinner for the kids.  For six stinkin’ inches of snow.  Thousands were stranded on the roads.  Highways were closed.  Cars were abandoned.  The Port Authority Bus Station in New York became overcrowded.  Their solution?  They threw everybody out in the street and suggested that they “find an alternate way to get home.”  So much for the value of mass transit.  For some 3 years, they have been rebuilding the Bayonne Bridge, which has been closed every night and weekend for the construction.  It recently reopened, but whoops, it was made steeper than the old bridge, and no cars could get up the incline on the snow, so the bridge was shut down.  So much for modern engineering.  So where were the spreaders and plows?  New York can’t use this excuse, but then again, there is no excuse for New York, but in New Jersey, on November 15th, all the crooked, thieving politicians were out of town.  That’s right.  They spend the week after election day carousing in Atlantic City at the N.J. League of Municipalities Convention.  There, they celebrate their reelections, put their feet up, and are wined and dined by hundreds of potential vendors, who line up for a chance to peddle their services to the government.  Wednesday night, November 14th, featured the annual drunken bacchanal when the politicians let down (or take off) their hair.  They doubtless were not up early on Black Thursday, and in Atlantic City, it was just raining.  With their fearless leaders away, the salters and plowers failed to play.  While the politicians ate free food, the people really got screwed.  Government on all levels failed miserably, done in by six inches of snow.  If any of the elected crumbs felt guilty, they didn’t mention it.  And, luckily for them, they have till next August before they raise taxes again.  People won’t be thinking of snow then.  So let’s hear it for the politicians – HIP HIP HOORAY!  YOU STINK!  YOU STINK! On six inches of hot ice!

Well, well, well, on election night, more than a week ago, we were told that Republican Rick Scott had beaten 3 term Democrat Bill Nelson.  Scott, currently the Governor of Florida, was about 50,000 votes ahead of Nelson on November 6th and 7th.  Then something happened.  Broward County decided that there were still votes left uncounted.  Nobody really knows where these votes came from.  The Broward County Election Supervisor Brenda Snipes (who coincidentally looks eerily like my aunt Josie, if she was an African-American), began to find masses of uncounted ballots.  Now, Florida law is very clear on these matters, because, as some of you will no doubt remember, Florida in general, and Broward County in particular were smack in the middle of the mess that became the aftermath of the 2000 presidential election in Florida.  George W. Bush was about 1,700 votes ahead after election day.  Four or five recounts later, he was 537 votes ahead and elected president.  Of course, that took until mid-December and a Supreme Court decision, but we thought Florida would learn its lesson.  Clearly, it did not.  Despite the weeks of incessant madness that was the 2000 Florida recount, the State of Florida has clung to its absolutely crazy system of having each of its 67 counties have its own voting system.  For some reason, perhaps because it it’s cheaper, most Florida counties use paper ballots, that are run through machines to tally votes.  Anyhow, back to Florida 2018, and guess what?  No progress has been made.  Brenda Snipes has managed to hijack the Florida election.  What was a 50,000 vote win by Rick Scott, began to shrink after election day.  Theoretically, and that means in this case, according to Florida law, Broward, and the other 66 counties, were supposed to have all early votes tallied and posted by 7:30 on election night.  They failed to do that.  Mail ballots were supposed to be received by the end of November 6th, or else they wouldn’t count.  That’s Florida law.  Unfortunately, whenever ballots came in, Broward County counted them.  It would be nice to know how many such ballots were illegally tallied, but we don’t know.  And if we are to believe Brenda Snipes, she doesn’t know either.  In fact, if we are to believe bumbling Brenda, she has no idea how many voters actually cast their votes this year.  She’s supposed to know that.  It’s her job.  But she says she doesn’t know, or if she does know she’s not telling.  Brenda was supposed to disclose the number of voters.  She didn’t.  Brenda was supposed to report vote totals from mail ballots every 45 minutes.  She didn’t.  Brenda felt no duty to obey the law.  You see, she was elected, so the law be damned.  That’s how it works.  Government consists of the elected and the appointed.  The appointed are the people who actually do all the work, and the elected take the credit.  Except when there’s a screw-up.  When that happens, and it happens frequently, the appointed serve a higher purpose.  They take the blame for the elected crumbs who couldn’t find their own asses with both hands if you spotted them the left cheek.  Broward County has found tens of thousands of ballots just lying around.  Ballots have been found in storage rooms, and even in a car at the Fort Lauderdale Airport.  We extremist conspiracy theory believing conservatives are not permitted to suggest that what’s going on in Broward County is not incompetence h as election theft.  As this is written, Rick Scott’s lead in Florida is down to 12,000, Brenda Snipes having counted every vote, pseudo-vote and even having admittedly mixed in illegal ballots with real ballots, but she can’t remember which are which.  After all, she’s a public servant and she’s very busy.  Democrat lawyers have descended on Florida, and are circling like buzzards.  The gubernatorial election, in which Andrew Gillum conceded, has been thrown into the mix.  Gillum unconceded.  Recounts are ongoing.  Broward County, surprising no one, is lagging behind.  It’s decrepit counting machines overheated, so they have to start again.  When the machines are done, the hand counting will begin, and Democrat lawyers will demand that votes that are not cast for either Senate candidate, or were cast for both candidates really belong to Nelson.  Don’t doubt me.  Democrat lawyers already have argued that votes admittedly cast by illegal aliens should be counted, and the Dems are currently in Federal court, arguing, with a straight face, that the Federal court should order Florida to ignore its own statute that requires the signatures on ballots to be matched to the signatures on record.  God forbid that only real votes from real voters should be counted.  Count all the votes.  Or else. At some point, the courts will have to stop this travesty.  The Democrats lost, so they will scream foul, and their deranged donors will write more checks.  What needs to happen, assuming that the Dems don’t manage to steal the election for Gillum, is to have the Florida Legislature change the election law to standardize the method of voting in all Florida counties.  Florida, please, enter the 20th Century, never mind the 21st, and install voting machines that print out the vote tallies.  Enact laws that make it harder for people to cheat, including the elected A-holes who are supposed to fairly tally the votes, and then, and I know this is a radical proposal, enforce your Goddamn laws.  No system is perfect and no system is foolproof, but Florida’s system sucks.  Please fix it.   The election was supposed to be done by now, and we were supposed to be thinking of Thanksgiving and Christmas.  This has to stop.  You counted every vote twice.  Enough already.

Two years ago Donald Trump shocked the world, not to mention the establishment contingents of the Democrat and Republican Parties, when he was elected President.  At the risk of sounding like Captain Queeg, from The Caine Mutiny, they fought him at every turn.  They illegally surveilled him before the election.  The tried to frame him for collusion with Russians.  They appointed a special counsel to hound him, his family and employees, in hopes that they could rid themselves of this meddlesome populist.  Every action they have taken, aided by their media lapdogs, has been calculated to destroy Donald Trump.  Up to now, their series of failures to get rid of Trump has reminded me of something my late grandmother used to say about my late grandfather, “Every time he says he’s dying, he puts down another root.”  Every time the establishment has declared, “we’ve got Trump now,” he has emerged stronger than before.  If you thought the last two years has been fun and games in Washington, you ain’t seen nothing yet.  This week, Republicans added several new Senators to their majority, but they lost control of the House of Representatives.  The Dems will now run the House, which is supposed to do things like raise revenue, and deal with taxes, and all that other good stuff in Article I, section 8 of the Constitution.  Think their new control of the House will inspire them to pass legislation to help Americans?  Not likely.  According to ABC News, Democrats gained power having campaigned on the promise of providing a stronger check on the Trump administration.  That pledge could initiate bruising legal battles over congressional subpoenas, a stack of demands for documents and testimony from federal agencies — including Trump’s tax returns — and withering investigations into facets of Trump’s personal life, his family business, and his government.  Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee have been frustrated by Republicans’ decision to focus their investigation into Russian election interference on the conduct of the FBI, rather than any possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.  In other words, they’ve focused on what really happened, rather than on anti-Trump fantasies.  Now Democrats say they intend to seek testimony from more than 30 witnesses, including Trump family members and confidants, to address lingering questions they have about the Trump campaign’s activities.  In other words, how could he win if we decided he had no chance to win.  Rep. Elijah Cummings, the Maryland Democrat who is poised to take control of the powerful House Oversight Committee was more blunt, “I want to look at all the things the president has done that go against the mandates of our Founding Fathers in the Constitution,” said “We need accountability, transparency, integrity, and honesty from this Administration.” (At least he has an open mind).  NPR says “for months, Democrats in the House have been sending strongly worded letters to the Trump administration demanding documents and other information.  But if they win, rather than toothless letters, their requests would have the bite of subpoena power.  Former White House Counsel Neil Eggleston said, “When the subpoenas started coming, they start coming pretty fast and furious.  Congress puts a lot of pressure on to respond quickly and is quite vocal in the press about failure to respond quickly, and so there’s a lot of pressure on the White House counsel’s office.  (Maybe the President should let the Justice Department answer the subpoenas.  They’ve managed to stall the Administration for 2 years, denying Congressional Republicans subpoenaed materials).  Then there’s crazy old Maxine Waters.  Maxine has vowed to move from resistance to retaliation.  “First of all, if we take back the House, most of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus will be chairs of the committees of the Congress of the United States of America.  I will be the first African-American, the first woman to chair the powerful Financial Services Committee.  That’s all of Wall Street.  That’s all the insurance companies, that’s all the banks.  And so, of course, the CEOs of the banks now are saying, ‘What can we do to stop Maxine Waters? Because if she gets in, she’s going to give us a bad time.’  I have not forgotten you foreclosed on our houses.  I have not forgotten that you undermined our communities.  I have not forgotten that you sold us those exotic products, had us sign on the dotted line for junk, and for mess that we could not afford.  And in doing that, I have people who are homeless who have never gotten back into a home.  What am I going to do to you?  What I am going to do to you is fair.  I’m going to do to you what you did to us.”  Economic growth, we don’t need no stinkin’ economic growth.  So the Empire has struck back, and I don’t mean just Democrats.  Establishment Republicans took their balls and went home.  44 retirements of veteran Republican incumbents.  Some didn’t want to return having been term limited on their Committee Chairmanships.  A few were old enough that it was just time.  Many of the them were from the Never Trump wing of the lemming Republican Party.  At their core, these are people who simply can’t handle prosperity.  They bitched and moaned for years that they needed control to get their policies enacted.  We gave them control, but they rebelled at the fact that the chief executive, from their own Party, is not the mealy-mouthed, colorless appeaser that they prefer.  The accomplishments of the Trump Administration are meaningless to these people.  He’s not one of them.  Good riddance to RINO rubbish.  The President would work with the Dems if they’d play ball.  They won’t, and when they embarrass themselves and gridlock the government, Trump will put down another root.  Buckle up.

The poisonous atmosphere of our political discourse spilled over last week, as the news was dominated by the mailing of more than a dozen crudely fashioned explosive devices to a group of Democratic officials and assorted spokes-liars.  The one thing all the recipients had in common was their hatred of President Trump, who they denounce publicly at every opportunity.  Surprising no one, the media, and the Democrats (one and the same, really), blamed the President for the fact that a man, who according to his former attorney, was a mentally disturbed adult with a 14 year old brain, just snapped.  The best thing that can be said for him is that, luckily, he’s not much of a bomb-maker.  He used PVC to make supposed pipe bombs that lacked the blasting caps and detonators necessary to make them explode.  They had digital clocks that served no purpose, and weren’t very effective, as real mail bombs are designed to explode when the package is opened.  These weren’t.  These packages were designed to terrorize, and to call attention to a demented lost soul, who lived in a van covered in pro-Trump stickers, in Florida, but who still couldn’t correctly spell “Florida.”  In short, a nut, or what we call in New Jersey, a whack-a-do.  But, never letting an opportunity to bash Trump go by, the media drones are bleating that the bombs were sent to targets of Trump, and that it’s Trump’s fault, because he bad-mouthed the the recipients.  We should expect nothing less from the fake news.  Let’s start with the proposition that acts of violence are never acceptable in American politics.  There is no excuse or justification for for what the Mad Bomber did.  However, that out of the way, Donald Trump did not create the divisions that have poisoned our politics, and neither is he responsible for the coarsening of the debate in America.  That was going on long before Trump came down the escalator.  Trump participates in it, sure.  What’s more, he’s good at it.  He beats the Democrats at their own dirty game, and that, more than any other reason, is why they hate him, and must try to destroy him.  Democrats are used to, and much prefer, Republicans who are good losers.  Mitt Romney comes to mind.  They could accuse him of killing a woman, endangering dogs, and paying no taxes, and he would just keep smiling.  Like I said, a good loser.  Donald Trump don’t play that.  The recipients of the Mad Bomber’s  bombs had come in for criticism from Trump – after they attacked him.  Again, there’s no provocation that justifies mailing bombs to people, but facts are facts.  You hit Trump, he hits back – hard.  So Trump lacks civility?  Who got the bombs?  John Brennan and James Clapper went on TV and repeatedly accused Trump of crimes including treason.  Kamala Harris, when asked which member of the Trump administration she’d like to be in an elevator with, answered “do they have to come out alive?”  Cory Booker (Spartacus) exhorted people to “get in the faces” of Republicans.  Crazy Maxine Waters, apparently forgetting how many people lost their lives in the Civil Rights struggle trying to guarantee all Americans access to places of public convenience, exhorts her followers to run anyone who supports the President out of public places.  Under-educated, overpaid foul-mouthed cafone Robert DeNiro called Trump “a bullshit artist, and a punk,” went on TV and yelled “Fuck Trump,” and threatened to punch him in the face.  It’s not a movie, so my money’s on Trump.  Joe Biden said he wanted to “take Trump behind the gym” and beat him up.”  Let’s not forget Hillary Clinton.  She recently announced that “there will be no civility” until Democrats are back in power, when they presumably will enforce civility, on their opponents.  Eric Holder recently said, “when they go low, we kick them.”  That’s civil.  And don’t forget his old boss, Il Duce Obama, who famously proclaimed the Chicago-way of politics – “if they bring a knife, we bring a gun.”  Nobody in the media suggested that Il Duce lacked civility.  They were too busy kissing his ass.  Add to this the hooded bastards of Antifa, roaming the streets beating people and destroying property in the name of, what, progressivism?  Add to this sanctuary cities, and States, where the police don’t dare enforce the law.  Add to this a looming mob of thousands of Central Americans, who have announced that they are entering the United States, whether the government likes it or not, and Democrats who think that’s a fine idea, and who argue that any attempt to secure the border is racist.  Add to this so-called federal judges who are just itching to stop the government from doing its job, and its a wonder more of us don’t go nuts and run amok.  The media drones blaming the President for the Mad Bomber either didn’t notice, or decided to ignore that fact that Republicans have been targeted for violence by left-wing wing nuts.  Congressman Steve Scalise was nearly killed by a pro-Bernie Sanders nut yelling, “This is for health care,” between shots.  President Trump, his children, and his cabinet members were sent suspicious envelopes of white powder.  From May of 2017 too June of that year, 30 Republican Congressman were attacked or threatened.  The incidents included assorted death threats against the Representatives, their wives and children, physical assaults and road rage incidents.  That wasn’t an election year.  This year has been worse.  Senators McConnell and Cruz, and Trump cabinet members and staff have been accosted in restaurants and at home.  Congressional candidates have been attacked.  Last week, some people who apparently hadn’t heard that Democrats are dedicated to civility, tossed a boulder through the office window of Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy.  That’s probably the President’s fault too.  He should have supported a seven day waiting period before you can get a boulder.  The United States clearly would benefit from a less toxic political atmosphere.  Democrats say the President attacked them.  Trump says the Democrats attacked him first and he just responded.  That sounds disturbingly like the Israeli-Palestinian situation.  Let’s not go there.

We are coming down to the wire for the 2018 mid-term elections, in which the fate of the Congress will be decided.  The issue is quite plain and stark.  If the Republicans continue to control the House and the Senate, the President will be able to continue making progress on his policies, which to date, have resulted in better security, a stronger military, lower taxes, expanding government revenues, low unemployment, and so many new jobs that, for the first time in our history, there are more than seven million available jobs waiting to be filled.  If Democrats gain control of the House, which the “experts” are predicting, all Trump policies will grind to a halt.  The House will cancel the investigations which have disclosed the massive corruption of the FBI and the Justice Department in the 2016 election and its aftermath.  The FBI and Justice framed Papadopolous, and Carter Page, and railroaded Mike Flynn, and overlooked Hillary’s crimes, and then staged a coup against President Trump?  So what?  Cancelled!  The House will then begin a two year anal exam of the President’s finances, and will seek to impeach him, and Justice Kavanaugh.  Crazy Maxine Waters, who herself has been charged with ethics complaints for a shady financial scheme that resulted in a bank partly owned by her husband receiving a big bailout from the Treasury Department, will chair the Financial Services Committee.  That’s convenient.  The rule of law, which today is hanging by a thread, will be gone should the Dems regain control.  Antifa’s hooded bastards are roaming the streets doing violence.  The Dems don’t mind.  Even though Democrats like to lecture Republicans on the need to be civil, Crazy Maxine Waters is openly fomenting violent confrontations.  Would-be 2020 presidential candidate Eric Holder says, “If they go low (which Republicans never do) we kick them.”  Hillary Clinton, who as this is written is threatening to run again in 2020, has declared that there can be no civility “until we get back control.”  Now, I know CNN doesn’t want Republicans to use the word “mob,” but tell me that doesn’t sound just like Don Clinton the mob boss, “Unless you do what we say, accidents might happen.” “Nothing personal, it’s just business.”

The Democrats really don’t claim to support any policy that will better the lives of Americans.  They just want to impeach Trump, raise taxes and eliminate the borders.  They’re really not for anything, but they are against a lot of stuff.  Not only against it, they want things abolished.  First, they want to abolish ICE.  Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  Democrats want no borders.  Anybody who wants to come here, it’s OK.  As this is written, a mob, or as CNN prefers, “caravan” of 2,000, or 4,000 or is it 14,000 Central Americans are marching, and/or riding, through Mexico toward the southern border of the U.S.  They still have over 1,000 miles to go.  The President tried to get Mexico to stop them, but they have not been successful, or willing, to do so.  The march/ride continues.  President Trump has threatened to deploy the military to the border to repel them.  Not a good visual pending an election.   So abolish ICE.  Yeah, that’s a good idea.  The Dems also want to abolish the electoral college.  Why?  Well, because they lost the last election.  The electoral college was devised to prevent the big population States from dominating the small population States.  As the 2016 election results attest, it still works.  There would have been no United States without the electoral college, but no matter, the Dems are willing to throw it all away to keep their power.  They’re smarter than us, you see.  But that’s not enough for the Democrats.  They also want to abolish the Senate.  Of course, the Dems have forgotten, or have chosen to ignore the fact that the 17th Amendment already abolished the Senate that the Founders created.  Before 1914, Senators were chosen by the State legislatures, not by popular election.  The whole point was that, the House of Representatives was popularly chosen, and the Senate was chosen by the States, thus giving the States, which the Dems also fail to acknowledge were the entities that created the federal government, input into federal laws.  That’s right, Dems, the States created the Feds, not the other way around.  Without the 17th Amendment, the Senate in 2018 would be composed of more than 60 Republicans, not the 51 we currently have.  That’s because Republicans control most of the State legislatures in America.  So the 17th Amendment has already benefited the Democrats, just not enough to satisfy them.  It’s not fair, they say, that Wyoming has as many Senators as California.  Let’s add Senators on the basis of population.  Makes sense right?  Wrong!  If we had two bodies in the Congress which both were based on population, there would be no need for a Senate at all.  The House of Representatives would be enough.  Nebraska has a unicameral legislature.  The Founders had good reason to do what they did.  The Senate is supposed to be the States’ voice in the Congress.  But let’s abolish it, as long as it helps Democrats.  They’re not done though.  Dems also want to abolish the Supreme Court.  Not entirely, just as it currently exists.  They need the Court to ram through their policies, which are so unpopular, that even the Dems know they could never pass muster in the Congress.  The people don’t want them, and therefore, the Congress won’t pass them.  But no matter.  The Dems are smarter than the average voter, so they should be able to dictate their policies, regardless of public opinion.  The Dems have a plan, you see.  If five Justices are originalists, that is real judges, rather than liberal rubber stamps, then we obviously need more Justices.  So we’ll add two new ones every two or so years, until we get the right ones on the Court.  Then we can impose our polices, whether the dumb, gun-toting, bible-thumping sheep (that’s us folks), like it or not.  I have a better idea.  If everyone within the sound of my rant would just go out and vote Republican on November 6th, then we can help America by abolishing the thing that is the real threat to our survival in America, the Democrat Party.  They simply are too crazy to be in charge.  Abolish them.