Not that long ago New Hampshire celebrated what was the oldest continually celebrated holiday in the nation. Amazingly it was a celebration of the demise of a prerevolutionary Governor of the state. It was the oldest holiday because of its prerevolutionary origins. I would think that a holiday that celebrates the demise of the leader of the government would be popular in this era. It was replaced thirty five years ago by a much more politically correct holiday. The national holiday that we celebrated today. Well maybe not everyone celebrated it. In actuality, most people had to work. It is a federal holiday for the fortunate that get to celebrate federal holidays.

Sadly the people that helped create the Holiday that some of us now celebrate now embrace the methods of control that they once fought against. Martin Luther King day or Civil Rights day, was once a celebration of equality and a rejection of stereotypes. Today dozens of elected lawmakers took it upon themselves to reject the results of the latest election. This was the first election that I participated in in anything other than a voter. These lawmakers are lead by a lawmaker that had fought for equality under the law. I sincerely believe that now these same lawmakers believe that I am less than equal. Fortunately they are a minority of elected lawmakers. Thankfully the majority of lawmakers believe that I have an equal voice as my fellow citizens. For that I celebrate.

Today’s events bring just two words to my mind. Term Limits! I can think of no better reason.

I was asked how the Mexicans were going to pay for the wall. I replied tariffs and fees, though I don’t really know.

Let’s say the wall costs one thousand dollars a foot. The total cost would be ten and a half billion dollars. Or a little more than five million dollars a mile.

There are many good people that want to become citizens. I really don’t know if there is a fee to become a citizen, but I have read that illegals pay footage fees of four thousand dollars and up. It is said that there are twenty million good Mexicans living here illegally. If they were all to pay $500 for residency, the wall would be paid for. I am not saying that would happen, it’s just one possibility.

Another possibility is three hundred fifty million people cross the boarder a year. If they were to pay three dollars a piece. It would take ten years to pay for the wall.

Then of course our daily trade across the boarder. It is more than a billion dollars a day. It would actually take a very small fee or tariff to pay for the wall. But once again, I don’t know how those rules work either.

So no, I don’t know how the wall will be paid for. But I am sure it will be. I just see it as a jobs program.

During Barack Obama’s speech last night, did I hear him use the words Islamic and Terrorist in the same sentence? The words were not consecutive, but I thought they were in the same sentence.

That being said there were some good bits to the speech. I must admit he has huge effect on his supporters. They were screaming like Manchester United made a cup winning goal. He will have lots of power after he leaves the Presidency. I hope he uses it positively.

Sadly the president has a strong affection for racism, he just can not let it go. Today the most racist white person in a more than a decade was sentenced to death. So I say a prayer for the Emanual Nine. They are heroes.

Yesterday I was watching confirmation hearings for our next Attorney General on the Crazy Collusionary Criminally Corrupt Cable News Network ( I am not a single media outlet type of person ). Senator Jeff Sessions was doing an outstanding job answering the various questions. As usual, the Democrats always seemed to ask questions about racism. Turns out Jeff Sessions successfully prosecuted numerous KKK members back in the day. He pretty much eliminated the Klan as a functional organization. Ted Cruz did a fine job of bringing that out.

Senator Sessions was doing so well I wondered how the Crazy Collusionary Criminally Corrupt Cable News Network would rain on his parade. That’s when it happened. Wolf Blitzer broke into the confirmation hearings with an exclusive special report. Oh this is normal, what ever happened to normal news.

The brazen Blitzer begins “The Russians have compromising evidence against President Elect Donald Trump”. Huh, really I was just wondering what you were going to do. I am going to have to get some tinfoil and build me a hat. You just read my mind.

“Crazy Collusionary Criminally Corrupt Cable News Network has exclusive unsubstantiated evidence that the Russians have compromising information in a detailed two page top secret report” says my buddy Wolf. Oh, Wolf you just made this up because you were bored?

“The President Elect, the President and the gang of eight have all seen the report” continues my main man Blitzer at the Crazy Collusionary Criminally Corrupt Cable News Network. Huh, you really don’t want me to listen to these hearings do you Wolf.

So I changed the channel and began to listen to Mike Rowe explain “How The Universe Works”. That was much more rewarding. Yah.

I would like to congratulate President Obama on several important accomplishments that he achieved during his presidency.

First and probably the most important is the reduction in the price of oil. The price of oil effects everything. As President W Bush said, “We are addicted to oil”. Myself, I have a low carbon footprint and drive an electric car. That said the low price of oil effects my friends and family in a positive way. I think President Obama made a deal or two to ensure cheap oil. I think tar sands and fracking had an effect on the price of oil. Also a deal with Iran may have increased the supply oil. The biggest effect on the price of oil was the creation of the Islamic State. Shortly after the fall of Mosul, and it’s oilfields to the Islamic State. The price of crude halved.

Secondly, I would like to thank him for revitalizing the firearm industry. The local economy depends on firearm manufacturing. Maybe it was Fast and Furious selling guns to the cartels and criminals that caused gun sales to soar. More likely it was civilians buying guns to defend themselves against criminals and cartels. Personally I am not involved with the gun industry, but friends and family are.

Finally I would like to congratulate President Barack Obama on his amazingly positive coverage by a enthralled press and media. I have heard many people say he is the “Coolest President Ever!”. Very little mention of policy or results, just he is cool. The mainstream press is almost universal in it’s praises. Then the entertainment industry is positively fawning in its praises. It’s a great American tradition to question it’s leaders, Obama has managed to get a pass on that. I have heard nobody say “It’s Obama’s Fault”. For that I wholeheartedly congratulate him on leading a great country.

For this is America. Time to peacefully turn the page.

“And I Will Replace It With Something Better” Hopefully this will be the biggest challenge of the Trump presidency. It’s something everyone will judge him on.  I for one have no clue what something better will be. So  I will speculate. First, what I think I know.

I have heard firsthand some horror stories about the Affordable Care Act. I also have a friend that is very happy that his adult children are covered under his employer’s insurance. For most people I know, either they work or they pay lots of money for insurance. The best insurance is had by union members. For the jobs I know insurance is reasonable for the workers, however for family members, it is expensive. Then there is government insurance, Medicare and Medicaid. I don’t know much about that.

When I have visited friends and family in the hospital, it seems that people with good insurance get lots of testing, some of it seems unnecessary. People with government insurance, well they seem ignored. Even if they are a Veteran. In reality, people with insurance also pay for the care of those who do not.

So what is better? A socialist utopia with a government sponsored single payer system funded by a massive increase in the capital gains tax. We could import a couple of Cuban doctors to run it.

Or maybe we could have a system run by the unions. They do have good coverage, and it would be funded by collective bargaining. Not sure how that would work for the unemployed.

Then there would the capitalist method. Walk into the hospital and it would be like McDonald’s, there would be a big sign with all the services offered, and the prices. Financing would be available.

So there are three choices I thought of. Fortunately there will be much smarter people than I working on it. Hopefully partisanship will not be part of it. I wasn’t happy with the Republicans constantly saying Obama Care wouldn’t work. Just once or twice would have been enough. I had hoped it might work, it would have made for more job opportunities. If it was going to fail, just let it fail.

Trump has his work cut out for himself on this one.

Cyber warfare is a real thing. I wasn’t going to comment on the latest kerfuffle as it is just a minor scuffle in a much larger battle. Truly there was no new information. Although it may be none of my business, I wonder if anyone hacked Hillary’s server. If the Russians had hacked the server and gave the contents to Trump, that would truly be newsworthy. I do recall that Guccifer had called the contents of Hillary’s server “A delightful garden”. Did he gain access? Unanswered. Also the known hacking occurred before Putin declared he would participate in our election.

That being said, we really do need to pay attention to cyber security. Something the Democrats failed to do. The known attacks on them were simple, and successful. It really could have been anybody. The recent high profile inquiry to a simple phishing spoof is a contemptible denial of responsibility.

Speaking of a contemptible denial of responsibility. What is acting, if it is not mocking? I watched the most beautiful of the beautiful people unilaterally mock us. We the people that make them beautiful. They deplore violence while at the same time endorse its use against those who don’t believe in their beauty.

It’s they, the self congratulatory beautiful people, who have made unbelievable money by mocking those beneath them, that are contemptible.

What’s yellow, succeeds against adversity, and tweets? Tweety Pie! Or otherwise known as Tweety Bird. For the trivially inclined, Tweety Pie will be seventy this year. Tweety always seemed to have the last word.

Not that I pay a lot of attention to tweets, I let the media sort them for me. However I will opine. Tweeting is an unfiltered instant message. Love it or loathe it, it is a revolutionary change in communication. Tweeting allows a huge reduction of total cycle time getting a message out. That’s an increase in efficiency of governance. Also it allows a message to be undiluted, and unspun. More importantly it allows the messages to be independently interpreted by the readers. No need to be told what someone thinks of the messages. In reality every time a message is relayed, the meaning changes. Tweeting is fast, direct, short and sweet.

Love him or loathe him Tweeting Don is revolutionary. I am pleased to hear about about his interest in the auto industry with a focus on jobs. Yes there are other things I am looking forward to, but he hasn’t started yet. Jobs though are a high priority, and that’s important.

Al Jazeera, the television network that enriched Al Gore, was intellectually a most interesting network. It represented the elite Arab point of view. At least until its demise at the hands of ISIS. A keystone of programming during the short life of Al Jazeera was a non flattering series on the crisis on our southern border. Being a northerner I do not have much of an opinion on the southern border. However, according to Al Jazeera the border is a chaotic place. I am willing to accept their point of view on this.

My father was a big believer in walls, especially the stone variety. Stone walls are quite common around here. He was constantly trying to get me, and others,  to build walls. I tried to negotiate a tractor for a wall. He just wanted me to build it for free though. He would say that I didn’t need a tractor, just use my hands to pick up the stones and carry them to the wall just like the old timers did. That is what he would say. I never did build him a wall.

I did build him some gates though, for what is a gate without a wall? To build a gate you need a wall. Donald Trump was quite specific. He was going to build a big beautiful gate along with his wall. With all the chaos and confusion, along with the corruption at the border, I thought it was a brilliant idea.

Unfortunately Trump’s adversaries, both Democrat and Republican,  are quite myopic. All they could see was the wall. Even worse, the Democrats, along with the media,  who seem to have used racism as a cornerstone, have declared the wall, as well as all those that support the wall as racist. This could not be further from the truth.

One of the things that made America great was Ellis Island. Ellis Island was a great gate. The ocean was the wall. Another gate was Plymouth Rock. One thing all great gates have in common is record keeping. The children of those that passed through those gates of history know from whence they came. Passing through those gates is a big moment in a families history.

So with Trump’s wall comes a gate. With a gate comes trade and immigration. Sure both are happening now, but by all accounts it is chaotic. So far, I have heard no one mention the gate. No person or media. For all of us, that is myopically sad.

A masterful stroke by Bernie yesterday. Seems a brilliant young staffer, who is destined to define American political agenda for the next fifty years, made a suggestion. It was an idea that had Bernie feel the Bern. The young staffer suggested that Bernie should retweet Trump in a larger than life fashion. It would be payback time. Bernie has finally dumped his affiliation with the most petulant and putrid party and climbed aboard the Trump train. Mind you that it will only be for a few stops, the young staffer has a grander plan. Onwards to the Great Socialist Party. First it must be adios to the corpulent and massively corrupt party of the elite ruling class. It is pretty obvious as we watch the party of the jackass collapse into the stench that occupies the lower strata of the great dismal, that it must be time for all to depart. Conveniently the Trump train has a full head of steam, and is taking on passengers for those who are willing to ride.

Today Bernie may be a party of one riding alone on the Trump train. But he will not be alone for long. When he departs the Trump train he will be at his home station. The crowds will be there again. But now it will be his party. He will be at the Great Bern Station, home of American Socialism.

There were certain similarities between the Sanders and Trump campaigns. So I cannot blame Bernie for climbing aboard. I do look forward to the coming debate of capitalism versus socialism. It seems to have been missing from the election. As a firm believer in a two party system I look for a worthy opponent to Trump. For competition does improve the results.