Tom Faranda's Folly

Inventor of the Big MAC - gone to the McDonald's in the sky

Well they must be good for you - he died at the age of 98! I remember when they first came out ... See below the other items  he came up with for McDonald's.

Michael “Jim” Delligatti came up with the iconic McDonald’s burger nearly 50 years ago.

The franchise-owner from Uniontown Pennsylvania put the stacked treat on sale at one of his restaurants in 1968.

McDonald’s initially did not approve of deviating from its strict formula of simple hamburgers, cheeseburgers and milkshakes.

But the creation of a two-patty burger with lettuce, cheese, gherkins, onions and “special sauce” proved an instant hit, and was rolled out to his other 47 outlets across the US.

****

His son revealed that Delligatti ate at least one 540 calorie Big Mac every week, according to CBS.

In 1970, he invented the Egg McMuffin which paved the way for the breakfast menu which started two years later.

That's talent!

 

 

DEC officer mistakenly shot by deer hunter

This kind of thing is always in the back of my mind when I'm out on the Appalachian Trail. Hunting is not permitted within a couple of hundred yards of the Trail - but not everyone follows the rules or knows where the no hunting boundaries are.

The shooting occurred around 5 p.m. when DEC officers Lt. Eliza Bobseine and Officer James Davey were investigating a complaint of a reported trespass with shots fired in the area on Silvernails Road when they came upon fresh tire tracks, state police said.

While walking through the field, Davey was shot one time with a rifle in the area of his pelvis. The shooter, Alan Blanchard, 55, of Columbia County and his hunting partner, James Brown of Pine Plains, remained at the scene and assisted with rescue efforts, state police added.

****

Blanchard, who was charged with second-degree assault, is being held at the Columbia County Jail without bail.

World's oldest person - born 1899 - DOES NOT eat fruits or veggies

UPDATE: She is not the only person to live a long life on a questionable diet - Inventor of the Big MAC - gone to the McDonald's in the sky

Emma Morano born 117 years ago yesterday.

"When I first knew her she used to eat three eggs a day. Two raw, and one fried. Today she has slowed down a bit, reducing the number to two some days because she says three can be too much," her doctor Carlo Bava told Reuters TV.

"She has never eaten much fruit or vegetables. Her characteristic is that she always eats the same thing, every day, every week, every month and every year."

Video: "Great Barrier Reef Suffers Largest Die-off"

The Great reef off Australia - 1,400 miles long. A short Wall Street Journal video which does not answer the question "why"? Here's one explanation. And the reefs can recover.

 

NY Times covers news that Carrier keeping jobs in Indiana - one of Trump's promises

The Times portrays this as an "Only Nixon could go to China" type thing; as in Trump a businessman is the only person who could bend a big corporation without being called a socialist. Well that's a stretch. Only in the mind of the NYT? Hit the link - excerpt below the link.

Trump to Announce Carrier Plant Will Keep Jobs in U.S.

On Thursday, Mr. Trump and Mike Pence, Indiana’s governor and the vice president-elect, plan to appear at Carrier’s Indianapolis factory to announce a deal with the company to keep roughly 1,000 jobs in the state, according to officials with the transition team as well as Carrier.

Mr. Trump will be hard-pressed to alter the economic forces that have hammered the Rust Belt for decades, but forcing Carrier and its parent company, United Technologies, to reverse course is a powerful tactical strike that will hearten his followers even before he takes office.

****

It also signals that Mr. Trump is a different kind of Republican, willing to take on Big Business, at least in individual cases.

And just as only a confirmed anti-Communist like Richard Nixon could go to China, so only a businessman like Mr. Trump could take on corporate America without being called a Bernie Sanders-style socialist. If Barack Obama had tried the same maneuver, he’d probably have drawn criticism for intervening in the free market.

Rugby: Australia v. Ireland - great game -

Played in Dublin, and lots of attacking rugby.

 

The Netherlands: Who needs 12 step programs? Euthanasia for alcoholics

The formerly Christian Netherlands ... A three injection protocol is how lethal injection death penalties are carried out. This is "Progressive"?

After eight years and 21 stints in hospital or rehab, Mark decided that he had enough. He had two children but his marriage had collapsed; his parents cared for him and he had plenty of family support, but he was unable to dry out. Finally he asked for euthanasia. Physically he was quite ill and psychologically he was suffering badly. He met the minimum criteria for euthanasia in the Netherlands.

A woman doctor in a black dress and sneakers arrived to give him his lethal injection. She confirmed his decision and then gave him three doses. He died quickly. 

Mark's death underscores how little the world knows about real-life cases of euthanasia, as opposed to the sanitised versions which appear in politicians' speeches. Isn't this just another case of society giving up on a person who had given up on himself? What comes next? Will Dutch drug addiicts be encouraged to take the cheapest drug rehabilitation program ever? Just one needle and you are "cured" for ever...

Mr Langedijk is writing a book about his younger brother’s disease and his death through euthanasia which will be published next year. 

 

More info on the Peekskill bank robber

Who also tried to rob the local Food Town. Hit the link for his picture.

Joshue M. Flores reportedly slipped a note claiming he had a gun at the customer service counter at the M&T Bank at 1019 Park St., formerly Hudson City Saving Bank, demanding all the money in the register at around 8 p.m. Friday, according to state police.

Flores ended up fleeing prior to obtaining any money, police said.

Following an extensive canvas of the area, he was soon located by troopers and Croton Police officers hiding in a nearby brook. Following a brief struggle, he was taken into custody.

Flores was charged with first degree robbery and fourth degree grand larceny.

****

While detectives were in Montrose checking for Flores at his residence, the New York State Police made notification that they had taken Flores into custody following an attempted robbery at the Food Town in Croton-on-Hudson.  

Pelosi Democrat challenger talks up his record of promoting "mindfulness" and meditation.

Which I guess qualifies him to be the head Democrat in the House of Representatives. He has no other legislative record after 14 years in the House, with the exception of naming a few local Post Offices. You can't make this stuff up.

The book Trump read - that shaped his campaign ...

Yes I know plenty of people think he's a dumbbell. This is quite interesting - Below is something off the Newsweek website (I thought Newsweek was completely defunct, but I guess not) which I found linked on Ann Althouse blog. I read her blog several times a week.

Donald Trump has read a book:

In 2012, [Rick Santorum] was the runner-up to Mitt Romney in the Republican presidential primaries. Ensconced since then in a Washington, D.C., law firm, Santorum had written a book that attracted little attention: Blue Collar Conservatives, Recommitting to an America That Works. But Trump had read the book, very carefully, in fact, and was intrigued. He called Santorum and asked if he would come to Trump Tower for a visit.....

Santorum agreed, of course—he was thinking of making another run at the White House, using that playbook. (He did, but got bum-rushed early in the primaries.) Trump then surprised Santorum even more by questioning him on details of his book and economic policy in general. What could be done with trade policy to help the working class? Was there any way to turn around the massive bilateral trade imbalance with Beijing? Could the White House be used as a bully pulpit to pressure American companies to stop sending manufacturing offshore? On and on they went, and Santorum left the meeting wondering what might happen if you mixed the power of celebrity with a blue-collar tent revival.

We now know the answer. Trump’s improbable run to the presidency—which was nearly derailed on several occasions by his lack of discipline—was guided by a conviction that he could, as political consultant and longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone said last year, “rewrite the [electoral] map” by smashing the “great blue wall” of Midwestern Democratic states. And smash it he did.

 

Peekskill bank robbery suspect caught; tried to rob Food Town

Perhaps not the cleverest person ... I posted this yesterday Peekskill Bank robbery!, the latest below.

A 26-year-old Montrose man and suspect in a Peekskill bank robbery was apprehended later in the day Friday after he tried to rob Food Town in Cortlandt, according to lohud.com.

Joshue Flores, 26, of Montrose was charged with first degree robbery and fourth degree grand larceny, police said.

Flores entered M&T Bank on Park Street in Peekskill Friday afternoon and displayed a note threatening to use a weapon, according to police.

While Peekskill detectives were checking for Flores at his residence, state police took him into custody following an attempted trobbery at the Food Town in Cortlandt, police said. Peekskill police interviewed Flores at the state police barracks and filed charges.

Officers were ables to identify Flores after distributing his photograph to the media and local businesses, police said.

Peekskill Bank robbery!

Wow. I didn't know people still robbed banks. Isn't identity theft safer for the thief? hit link below for brief story.

A suspect is on the loose following a robbery early Friday afternoon at the M&T Bank on Park Street in downtown Peekskill.

Farandaville (Briarcliff edition) Thanksgiving

Four hot women; seven goofy guys.

Christiane Amanpour speech about the "existential threat" of Trump

Yeah crazy. Christiane Amanpour, the former CNN talking head with the outrageous accent.The theme _ "We shouldn't be objective, we should start telling the truth." Huh?

Today - the birthday of Solanus Casey

on his way to Sainthood.

WaPo: Russia spread "fake news" to damage Clinton during election

If you're interested, here's the link - not sure why it's in the Washington Post business section.

Russian propaganda effort helped spread ‘fake news’ during election, experts say

Short Thanksgiving story - whale of a tale!

Sent to me by my friend Ron.

No funny pictures of turkeys saying “eat pork” or pictures of cornucopia… in fact, no traditional pictures associated with thanksgiving at all.

Just a wonderful story about the what we DON’T know about the creatures God created on this earth… (that includes us.)

The Whale...  If you saw a recent front-page story of the San Francisco Chronicle, you would have read about a female humpback whale who had become entangled in a spider's web of crab traps and lines. She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth.

A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farallon Islands (outside the Golden Gate) and radioed an environmental group for help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so badly off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her. They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her.

When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed them gently around as she was thanking them. Some said it was  the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives. The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth said her eyes were following him the whole time, and he will never be the same.
  
May you, and all those you love, be so blessed and fortunate to be surrounded by people, this Thanksgiving and always, who will help you get untangled from the things that are binding you. And, may you always know the extreme joy of giving and receiving gratitude.
 
I pass this on to you, in the same spirit.

Peace,

Ron

Trump NY Times meeting interview full transcript

Just posted on the NY Times website. Hit the link.  I had a quick look and will read it at some point shortly -

Following is a transcript of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s interview on Tuesday with reporters, editors and opinion columnists from The New York Times. The transcription was prepared by Liam Stack, Jonah Engel Bromwich, Karen Workman and Tim Herrera of The Times.

Here's a brief excerpt from the beginning of their meeting.

TRUMP: O.K. Well, I just appreciate the meeting and I have great respect for The New York Times. Tremendous respect. It’s very special. Always has been very special. I think I’ve been treated very rough. It’s well out there that I’ve been treated extremely unfairly in a sense, in a true sense. I wouldn’t only complain about The Times. I would say The Times was about the roughest of all. You could make the case The Washington Post was bad, but every once in a while I’d actually get a good article. Not often, Dean, but every once in awhile.

Look, I have great respect for The Times, and I’d like to turn it around. I think it would make the job I am doing much easier. We’re working very hard. We have great people coming in. I think you’ll be very impressed with the names. We’ll be announcing some very shortly.

Everybody wanted to do this. People are giving up tremendous careers in order to be subject to you folks and subject to a lot of other folks. But they’re giving up a lot. I mean some are giving up tremendous businesses in order to sit for four or maybe eight or whatever the period of time is. But I think we’re going to see some tremendous talent, tremendous talent coming in. We have many people for every job. I mean no matter what the job is, we have many incredible people. I think, Reince, you can sort of just confirm that. The quality of the people is very good.

REINCE PRIEBUS, Mr. Trump’s choice for chief of staff: [inaudible]

TRUMP: We’re trying very hard to get the best people. Not necessarily people that will be the most politically correct people, because that hasn’t been working. So we have really experts in the field. Some are known and some are not known, but they’re known within their field as being the best. That’s very important to me.

You know, I’ve been given a great honor. It’s been very tough. It’s been 18 months of brutality in a true sense, but we won it. We won it pretty big. The final numbers are coming out. Or I guess they’re coming out. Michigan’s just being confirmed. But the numbers are coming out far beyond what anybody’s wildest expectation was. I don’t know if it was us, I mean, we were seeing the kind of crowds and kind of, everything, the kind of enthusiasm we were getting from the people.

As you probably know, I did many, many speeches that last four-week period. I was just telling Arthur that I went around and did speeches in the pretty much 11 different places, that were, the massive crowds we were getting. If we had a stadium that held — and most of you, many of you were there — that held 20,000 people, we’d have 15,000 people outside that couldn’t get in.

So we came up with a good system — we put up the big screens outside with a very good loudspeaker system and very few people left. I would do, during the last month, two or three a day. That’s a lot. Because that’s not easy when you have big crowds. Those speeches, that’s not an easy way of life, doing three a day. Then I said the last two days, I want to do six and seven. And I’m not sure anybody has ever done that. But we did six and we did seven and the last one ended at 1 o’clock in the morning in Michigan.

And we had 31,000 people, 17,000 or 18,000 inside and the rest outside. This massive place in Grand Rapids, I guess. And it was an incredible thing. And I left saying: ‘How do we lose Michigan? I don’t think we can lose Michigan.’

And the reason I did that, it was set up only a little while before — because we heard that day that Hillary was hearing that they’re going to lose Michigan, which hasn’t been lost in 38 years. Or something. But 38 years. And they didn’t want to lose Michigan. So they went out along with President Obama and Michelle, Bill and Hillary, they went to Michigan late that, sort of late afternoon and I said, ‘Let’s go to Michigan.’

It wasn’t on the schedule. So I finished up in New Hampshire and at 10 o’clock I went to Michigan. We got there at 12 o’clock. We started speaking around 12:45, actually, and we had 31,000 people and I said, really, I mean, there are things happening. But we saw it everywhere.

Rugby: Ireland v. New Zealand - the two match series

UPDATE: Original highlights were taken off youtube - "Copyright infringement" so here are the replacements, off the All Black web channel.

Great stuff as Ireland broke their record of never having beaten the New Zealand All Blacks, defeating them in their match at a sold out Soldier's Field in Chicago on November 5th. This also broke New Zealand's world record of 18 consecutive wins. Then the return match, played in Dublin on the 19th with the All Blacks winning.

Highlights from the Chicago game -

And here is the Dublin return match (Not shown - the angle confirming NZ's 2nd try).

WSJ: "Weekend Sip: A Thanksgiving Merlot"

Is this interesting and revealing ... or just wine snobbery?

New York Magazine: "Experts Urge Clinton Campaign to Challenge Election Results in 3 Swing States"

Right. This is pretty vague - and it is THE New York Magazine.

The group, ... believes they’ve found persuasive evidence that results in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania may have been manipulated or hacked.

Well, hmm. "Believes ... may have been manipulated or hacked..." Coincidentally, if those electoral votes all went to Mrs. Clinton, that would flip the win to her.

When you read the whole short article you get the impression they believe that Mrs. Clinton didn't get enough votes, but she just should have!?

 

SciAm: "Dementia Rates Falling Among U.S. Seniors"

Good news from Scientific America. And only 11 paragraphs long with some hypotheses on why this is happening. Short and sweet.

The percent of older US adults with dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, declined from 11.6 percent in 2000 to 8.8 percent in 2012, a decrease of nearly a quarter, scientists reported on Monday.

The percent of seniors with dementia fell to 8.8 percent in 2012; accounting for the greater proportion of those who were 85 years or older, the decline was even greater: to 8.6 percent, the team reported in JAMA Internal Medicine.

One possible factor is education. The older adults in the 2012 group in the new study had, on average, about one year more education than the 2000 group. More education can produce greater cognitive reserve, in which people have enough backup synapses and neurons that losing some to Alzheimer’s still leaves them short of dementia. But the researchers found this didn’t explain the entire decline.

Curiously, being overweight or obese was associated with a decreased risk of dementia. Carrying excess pounds generally raises the risk of diabetes and heart disease, which are thought to increase the risk of dementia, but “late-life obesity may be protective,” wrote commentary authors Ozioma C. Okonkwo and Dr. Sanjay Asthana of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. That may be especially true when people receive effective treatments for diabetes and heart disease, which also became more common with later generations.

 

 

Rodney Dangerfield's birthday today - he'd be 95

 

First two minutes - very, very, funny. And a young Jay Leno.

"I'll tell you, my wife, my wife ..."

Trump nukes the media

Not mentioned - the fact that CNN cheated to help Clinton in her debates with Sanders.

Haha. Note Kellyanne Conway's comment below.

“The meeting took place in a big board room and there were about 30 or 40 people, including the big news anchors from all the networks,” the other source said.

“Trump kept saying, ‘We’re in a room of liars, the deceitful dishonest media who got it all wrong.’ He addressed everyone in the room calling the media dishonest, deceitful liars. He called out Jeff Zucker by name and said everyone at CNN was a liar, and CNN was [a] network of liars,” the source said.

******

Trump spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway told reporters the gathering went well.

“Excellent meetings with the top executives of the major networks,” she said during a gaggle in the lobby of Trump Tower. “Pretty unprecedented meeting we put together in two days.”

The meeting was off the record, meaning the participants agreed not to talk about the substance of the conversations.

The hour-long session included top execs from network and cable news channels. Among the attendees were NBC’s Deborah Turness, Lester Holt and Chuck Todd, ABC’s James Goldston, George Stephanopoulos, David Muir and Martha Raddatz,

NYT: Studies show little benefit to taking nutritional supplements

Nevertheless, the well-respected NY Times article author Jane Brody continues taking them - and so do I.

There is certainly some documentation that some supplements - like Turmeric Curcumin, which I take - have some value.

Here's the NYT article -

In an editorial entitled “The Supplement Paradox: Negligible Benefits, Robust Consumption” accompanying the new report, Dr. Pieter A. Cohen, of Cambridge Health Alliance and Somerville Hospital Primary Care in Massachusetts, pointed out that “supplements are essential to treat vitamin and mineral deficiencies” and that certain combinations of nutrients can help some medical conditions, like age-related macular degeneration. He added, however, “for the majority of adults, supplements likely provide little, if any, benefit.”

Perhaps most enlightening were the data on the characteristics of supplement users. In all probability, they were among the healthiest members of the population. They were more likely than nonusers to report being in very good or excellent health, to use alcohol moderately, to refrain from cigarette smoking, to exercise frequently and to have health insurance. Other studies have shown that supplement use is also more frequent among those who are older, who weigh less and have higher levels of education and socioeconomic status.

This means that in trying to determine possible health benefits of a supplement, researchers must control for all such characteristics in order to isolate the contribution of the supplement. Just looking at a large group of people, even following them for decades and finding that supplement users were healthier or lived longer, proves nothing if other influences on health and longevity are not taken into account.

Faced with equivocal or negative findings of health benefits from supplements, in 2013 the United States Preventive Services Task Force, an independent group of physicians who base their advice on solid evidence, opted not to recommend the regular use of any multivitamins to prevent cardiovascular disease or cancer in people who were not nutrient deficient.

All of which makes one wonder why people, myself included, opt to take one or more dietary supplements. Those who take a daily multivitamin/mineral supplement typically cite “nutritional insurance” as their rationale. Knowing that they often eat erratically or fail to consume recommended amounts of nutrient-rich vegetables and fruits, a supplement containing a broad range of vitamins and minerals seems the easiest and cheapest way to fill in any gaps.

"Romney looking forward to Trump Administration"

Kiss and make up I guess. Listen to the idiot press.

 

NY Times Nicholas Kristoff takes on FOX News

In the person of Tucker Carlson. Even though I disagree with Kristoff on plenty of stuff I do respect him. He's a rarity among Times columnists in that he's not arrogant, condescending, a liar (Krugman), or glib and flippant. In short, a real thinker.

A good six minute back and forth.

 

Media switches from "transition in disarray" to "terrible" choices

Haha. This from U. of Wisconsin law professor Ann Althouse blog -

Lots of news coming from the transition team today — Flynn, Pompeo, Sessions. I guess that the MSM will do an abrupt shift from its theme of the last few days — that the transition is in disarray and falling way behind. The new theme — let me guess — is: all the President's men are terrible.

 

Kimmel: How to retire in comfort

A funny two minutes!

 

Jesse Jackson: President Obama should give Presidential pardon to Hillary Clinton

Another case of truth stranger than fiction. Jackson was speaking at the U. of Michigan. I agree, she should be pardoned just the way Nixon was.

"It would be a monumental moral mistake to pursue the indictment of Hillary Clinton," Jackson said. He said issuing the pardon could help heal the nation, like Ford's pardon of Nixon did.

Speaking at President Gerald Ford's alma mater, The Rev. Jesse Jackson called for President Obama to issue a blanket pardon to Hillary Clinton before he leaves office ...

Stopping short of saying Clinton did anything wrong, Jackson told a large crowd of University of Michigan students, faculty and administrators gathered at daylong celebration of his career that Obama should short-circuit President-elect Donald Trump's promised attempt to prosecute Hillary Clinton for use of a private e-mail server.

 

"Bill Gross: Trump Will Be 1-Term President in Failure for Populism"

The former investment head of Pimco and widely acclaimed bond guru. We'll know if he's right in a couple of years.

Gross became the world's most famous bond fund manager at Allianz SE's Pacific Investment Management Co, where he ran Pimco Total Return and worked until 2014, when he joined Janus.

In his outlook, Gross said he did not vote for the Republican Trump or Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, and admitted that Clinton probably would not have done much better redistributing wages toward the working class.

He said it was "doubtful" that Trump's plan to repatriate huge corporate profits to the United States for infrastructure spending would succeed, saying that a similar effort in 2004 resulted in large stock buybacks, dividend payouts and corporate bonuses, but no noticeable pickup in investment.

Gross said Trump's policies mark a "continuation of the status quo," and that government could step in with a "Help America" jobs program to bolster labor in ways that overleveraged, cost-conscious corporations might not.

Regardless, Gross said "populism is on the march" and could last for decades unless workers' share of gross domestic product reverses its downward trend. Trump's immigration, tax and trade policies might not promote that outcome, he said.

"Global populism is the wave of the future, but it has taken a wrong turn in America," he wrote.

"Investors must drive with caution, understanding that higher deficits resulting from lower taxes raise interest rates and inflation, which in turn have the potential to produce lower earnings and P/E (price-earnings) ratios," Gross added.

Washington Post: How the Democrats plan to reorganize

From a few days ago.

In the wreckage of Hillary Clinton’s unexpected loss, liberal lawmakers and advocacy groups have started plotting a major overhaul of the Democratic National Committee, with the aim of using the staid organization to reconnect the party with working-class voters it lost to President-elect Donald Trump

In an interview, Sanders said ... that the DNC needs to be reoriented so that it becomes less of an insider’s club “preoccupied” with raising money and more of an advocate for the concerns of the working class.

“You can’t tell working people you’re on their side while at the same time you’re raising money from Wall Street and the billionaire class,” Sanders said. “The Democratic Party has to be focused on grass-roots America and not wealthy people attending cocktail parties.”

Sanders acknowledged the need for the party to continue its function as a fundraising vehicle, but suggested a model akin to his presidential campaign, which raised much of its money from small-dollar donors.

Worth mentioning: Clinton received 90% of Wall Street $$$ compared to Trump. Trump set a record for # of small donors. 

Sanders said the reasons for Clinton’s loss were “fairly obvious” and cited two factors: lower turnout by the Democratic base and the Republican nominee’s far greater appeal to white, working-class voters, which Sanders dubbed “a humiliation for the Democratic party.”

“White working-class people are deserting the party in droves,” Sanders said.

 

 

 

 

Paul Ryan back as Speaker of the House

Unanimously picked to continue.

"Welcome to the dawn of a new unified Republican government," Ryan declared at a news conference a few hours before the closed-door leadership elections. "It feels really good to say that, actually. This will be a government focused on turning President-elect Trump’s victory into real progress for the American people. Our team is very excited, and we cannot wait to get to work."

NY Times on Mrs. Clinton and the white, Catholic vote

Here is the original article in the NY Times

www.nytimes.com/2016/11/10/us/politics/hillary-clinton-campaign.html  

and here is a commentary from last Friday's Wall Street Journal "Best of the Web" column -

 

Mistaken Identity Politics. The voters Mrs. Clinton didn’t want.

 

How did the most qualified person in the history of mankind manage to lose an election she was certain to win? Assuming the world survives the Trump era, historians will long ponder that question. But we found a clue in this amazing anecdote, which opens a Hillary Clinton campaign postmortem by the New York Times’s Amy Chozick:

Last year, a prominent group of supporters asked Hillary Clinton to address a prestigious St. Patrick’s Day gathering at the University of Notre Dame, an invitation that previous presidential candidates had jumped on.

Barack Obama and Joseph R. Biden Jr. had each addressed the group, and former President Bill Clinton was eager for his wife to attend. But Mrs. Clinton’s campaign refused, explaining to the organizers that white Catholics were not the audience she needed to spend time reaching out to.

Chozick does not cite a plausible rationale for that belief, most likely because there isn’t one. White Catholics are a highly competitive demographic, not one that either party can afford to write off or take for granted.

In 2012, according to an exit-poll analysis by the Pew Research Center< /a>, Mitt Romney outpolled President Obama among white Catholics, 59% to 40%. Trump led Mrs. Clinton this year, 60% to 37%—a three-point decline in the Democratic total and a four-point widening of the GOP margin.

A chart from the Public Religion Research Institute shows that three of the Obama states Trump carried—Florida, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania —have higher proportions of Catholics than the nation as a whole. Still-uncalled Michigan, where Trump leads in the current count by 0.3% of the vote, is just below the national average. If Mrs. Clinton had carried those four states, she would be president-elect with 307 electoral votes.

Ignoring white Catholics tactic; here is how Chozick describes the strategy:

She ceded the white working-class voters who backed Mr. Clinton in 1992. Though she would never have won this demographic, her husband insisted that her campaign aides do more to try to cut into Mr. Trump’s support with these voters. They declined, reasoning that she was better off targeting college-educated s uburban voters by hitting Mr. Trump on his temperament.

Instead, they targeted the emerging electorate of young, Latino and African-American voters who catapulted Mr. Obama to victory twice, expecting, mistakenly, that this coalition would support her in nearly the same numbers. They did not.

Pursuing college-educated suburbanites was smart, if obvious. Disdaining uncredentialed whites was obviously foolish. And the Notre Dame snub was foolish for another reason: Not all Catholics are white. Obama received 75% of the Hispanic Catholic vote in 2012, to 21% for Romney. Trump narrowed that gap by 13 points—26% to Mrs. Clinton’s 67%.

Bob Woodward & Washington Post on Presidential transition

Here's Woodward - of Watergate fame and still a great journalist - on a scary subject - 

President-elect Donald Trump is about to learn the nation’s ‘deep secrets’

Though Trump has been given some intelligence briefings on threats and capabilities, there are a series of separate briefs scheduled for the president-elect into what Obama has called “our deep secrets.”

It's actually sobering to read about ...

 

Comedian Amy Schumer not leaving the country after all

But she is in mourning and seems to have a low opinion of the prez-elect ... I never found her humor, uhhh particularly funny.

"Anyone saying pack your bags is just as disgusting as anyone who voted for this racist homophobic openly disrespectful woman abuser.” “Like the rest of us I am grieving today,” she continued. “My heart is in a million pieces. My heart breaks for my niece and my friends who are pregnant bringing children into the world right now. Like everyone else I am horrified that people believed these bumper sticker slogans filled with hate he spewed. People who voted for him you are weak. You are not just misinformed. You didn’t even attempt information....

 

"Any word from Trump"

Haha. Sent to me by my friend Linda.

Brigid and her Retreat sisters

Neat. Brigid after lunch as her three day ACTS Retreat was ending. This is 26 of the 37 women on the Retreat. Soccer player drinking the coke on the left belongs to Feliz, second from left at the back with the big smile, who directed the Retreat.

And here's Brigid, along with our hiking buddy Jeanne Marie, and Doreen. Looks like they enjoyed themselves.

 

Exit polling - did people polled tell the truth?

Having posted about the religious vote based on exit polling, How the religious vote went   I had a look at the CNN polling data which you can find here.

Some of this data has to be inaccurate because for some of the answers, if the data is correct Hillary Clinton should have easily won. Perhaps some of those polled told the pollsters what they thought they wanted to hear?

And I also saw some NBC exit polling which said the African American vote for Trump was 12%, much higher than other exit polling. so who might be right?

Self-described Black Trump supporter apologizes - sort of

Sent to me by my friend Joe - I suspect this is the sentiment of many people as he spikes the ball. A million views on youtube in past three days.

NY Times "rededicates" itself to reporting honestly

As the Publisher rather sheepishly implies that maybe they weren't all that honest during the election cycle.

His Friday letter to readers is here if you hit the link:

New York Times publisher vows to 'rededicate' paper to reporting honestly

Here's the publisher's letter - and there's a good columnn in the NY Post today titled "NY Times: We blew it on Trump". Evidently the NYT is losing subscribers.

To our readers,

When the biggest political story of the year reached a dramatic and unexpected climax late Tuesday night, our newsroom turned on a dime and did what it has done for nearly two years — cover the 2016 election with agility and creativity.

After such an erratic and unpredictable election there are inevitable questions: Did Donald Trump’s sheer unconventionality lead us and other news outlets to underestimate his support among American voters? What forces and strains in America drove this divisive election and outcome? Most important, how will a president who remains a largely enigmatic figure actually govern when he takes office?

As we reflect on this week’s momentous result, and the months of reporting and polling that preceded it, we aim to rededicate ourselves to the fundamental mission of Times journalism. That is to report America and the world honestly, without fear or favor, striving always to understand and reflect all political perspectives and life experiences in the stories that we bring to you. It is also to hold power to account, impartially and unflinchingly. We believe we reported on both candidates fairly during the presidential campaign. You can rely on The New York Times to bring the same fairness, the same level of scrutiny, the same independence to our coverage of the new president and his team.

We cannot deliver the independent, original journalism for which we are known without the loyalty of our subscribers. We want to take this opportunity, on behalf of all Times journalists, to thank you for that loyalty.

Sincerely,

Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr.
Publisher

Dean Baquet
Executive Editor

 

City of Orlando to convert Pulse nightclub into memorial

Good idea - they are buying it.

 

How the religious vote went

Preliminary data from Pew Research - some text and and several easy to read charts. This is all preliminary stuff and more detailed and accurate exit polling data is still a week or two away.

How the faithful voted: A preliminary 2016 analysis

Over 80% of Evangelical vote went to Trump/Pence.

Catholics voted 52-45 for Trump/Pence.

Jewish vote 71- 24 for Clinton.

"Religiously unaffiliated" 68-26 for Clinton.

People who attend church once a week 56-40 for Trump.

People who never attend Church 62-31 for Clinton.

 

 

 

A classic: Democrats & media agree, Trump will NEVER be President

This is very funny. 106 seconds long and you must see ...

 

Colbert: "Don't Move to Canada Just Yet"

From Wednesday night, a little long. Over a million views already. As he suffers all the way to the bank.

 

Leonard Cohen

Ahhh, gone at 82.

Here's a little bit about his writing of Hallelujah, maybe his most famous song -

Even before three hundred other performers made Hallelujah famous with their cover versions … Dylan recognized the beauty of its marriage of the sacred and the profane. He asked Cohen how long it took him to write.

“Two years,” Cohen lied.

Actually, Hallelujah had taken him five years. He drafted dozens of verses and then it was years more before he settled on a final version. In several writing sessions, he found himself in his underwear, banging his head against a hotel-room floor.

 Here he is - although I think others have done his song better ...

Van Jones tries to explain his "whitelash" comment

I was watching CNN when he made the remark Tuesday night - born of frustration over his side losing. Jones of course a rabid Democrat who worked in the Obama Administration and now is a commentator on CNN. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt even though he sounds bigoted. 

 

Today's WSJ - superb analysis of election political and economic ramifications.

If you can get a copy, do. I haven't finished working my way through it all, but will.

Yesterday's stock market rally

The markets fell Tuesday night and Wednesday morning in overseas trading - and I think that may have been because of the incredible bad publicity Trump had been getting abroad. The conventional thinking - which I also believed - was that Hillary Clinton as the status quo candidate was most acceptable to equity markets. Markets hate change or uncertainty, and since Trump represented those things, if he were to win than there'd be a short term drop of 5-8% in stock prices.

So instead the stock market (as measured by S & P) rose Wednesday and closed up 1.4%. That's a pretty nice gain - especially if you bought on the lows (which I didn't).

Here's a good minute and a half discussion off CNN - Trump not the bogie man!

 

How Trump did with Hispanic voters

Three out of ten voted Trump