I was going to do a thanksgiving post, and didn’t. I’m still thankful to have food to eat, a place to live, clothes to wear, a vehicle, the ability to communicate, a family, and health that isn’t too bad, and myriad other things. Compared to other people, and even compared to myself in years past, things are pretty good in my life.

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I’m still thankful that Hillary Clinton wasn’t elected President, although there are efforts to force her election anyway, with pressure on electoral college voters and attempts to force recounts in states that were close. What was that about Trump not being willing to accept the results if he didn’t win? I can’t hear past the howling hypocrisy.

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So Fidel Castro is finally dead. No fawning eulogies from me. I’m not quite old enough to remember the Cuban Missile Crisis, but I had school teachers who lived through it. I do remember lots of Cuban exiles, fleeing this Socialist “paradise”. The Cuban people still aren’t free, but this is one big step closer.

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I’ve been watching President-elect Trump’s filling his cabinet. Mostly, he seems to be surrounding himself with good people. I don’t have many comments, but I’ll keep watching.

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In the knowledge base, I got to the point of of realigning Northeast European peoples. I had been wondering whether I hadn’t made a mistake in not grouping the Slavic peoples in one group, but if it is, the cultural geography in Eastern Europe is so complex that it’s not a big one. Northeast Europe has the Eastern Slavs of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, and the Western Slavs of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. I also have Hungary, but the Hungarian peoples moved to their current location in the middle Ages. Balkan peoples include what I am calling the East Romance people of Romania and Moldova, the Southern Slavs of Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia, Greek peoples, and Albanians. The Southern Slavs moved southwestward in post-Roman times, overrunning or displacing previous inhabitants and becoming separated by Hungary and the East Romance peoples from the other Slavic peoples. What I have seems to be a workable compromise reflecting current realities. I am working on getting finer subdivisions of history to use this rearrangement.
I have also been adding other nations and cities. I am getting into small island countries, such as those of the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean. A few more subdivisions will be coming. The next update will have these changes.

It appears that President-elect Trump has appointed Rience Priebus to be his chief of Staff, once he is inaugurated. I am at least familiar with that name, since Priebus has been the Chairman of the Republican National Committee. He took some criticism during the election but at least didn’t oppose Trump, apparently feeling that it was not his job to fight his Party’s nominee. Another appointment is Steve Gannon, to be a Counselor. I am less familiar with him; the real political junkies know more about him, and I am going to discount theories about him being a rabid racist.

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It is being reported that Paul Ryan is the leading favorite to be elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. I note that according to the Constitution, the House of Representatives chooses the Speaker; the President has nothing to do with it. In effect, it is the Republican Party that chooses the Speaker, since the Republicans have a majority of the House. Ryan was Romney’s choice as running mate and is known for opposing Trump’s nomination. It appears that this signals that the House of Representatives is not likely to go along with everything Trump proposes.

It’s possible that the “love trumps hate” crowd are an entirely different bunch of people that the ones still rioting in the streets about Trump’s election, but there does seem to be a bit of overlap. That strikes me as a better way to show hate than love.

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I suspect that the rioting is not spontaneous: that there are people inciting and organizing it. This is criminal behavior and should be treated as such. It may be that the civil authorities in places where it has been going on are sympathetic to the rioters and this is why they let it go on, but if this is the case, those civil authorities are negligent in their public duty.

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The major traditional media has a double standard, in which violations of the law are handwaved away if the violators have the right politics, but those with the wrong politics are aggressively persecuted for the appearance of evil. I find this odious.

It’s been said that one of the best ways to determine where a ship is going is to look in the wheelhouse. That said, the best way to determine what a Trump administration is going to do is to look at who is chosen to staff the administration. I don’t care to join the speculation: It will be soon enough when the positions are announced. It’s not as if President-elect Trump were going to ask or pay any attention to my advice anyway.
I had intended to do this for Obama, but since I am not a Democrat and wasn’t familiar with the various names, I couldn’t do a decent job. At least this time around, I know some of the names being floated by those speculating on the subject.

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I have a minor disagreement with Sarah Hoyt. She believes that massive and systemic fraud played a significant part in Colorado’s election results. I tend more to think that it’s the difference between urban and rural voting patterns across the country. In California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Minnesota, Ohio, Florida, and everywhere else I’ve looked, Democrat votes come predominantly in the large cities. Rural areas tend to vote Republican. I account for this by referring to urban dwellers who receive government payments of one form or another as “subsidized Democrats”.

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I keep losing track of Baldilocks, (http://baldilocks-talking.blogspot.com/) She has a post on the rioting in various places that says it better than I could:

“I’m So Afraid of Violent Trump That I’m Going to Break Things, Burn Things, and Beat People”

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I’ve been working on developing recent history (the past five years). I should be done with the latest pass of development of the Knowledge Base and will do an update when I’m done.

There have been reports of violent protests about the results of the election. From some of the same people who wanted conservatives to accept the results if Hillary won. I don’t recall seeing anyone advocating riots in the streets, although I know of a number who were investing in guns and ammunition in case the gun-control advocates won and started even tougher disarmament campaigns.

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Derangement Syndrome is the term used when the opposition to a office holder exaggerates their disagreement with the policies of an office-holder to the point of clinical paranoia. Bush did not herd his political opposition into internment camps and gas and shoot them. Obama didn’t turn FEMA into enforced re-education camps. Trump is not going to lead gang rapes against crippled Mexican lesbians. Get a grip on reality, people. While there are dangers in electing a dishonest corrupt fool to public office, they are usually more subtle and come with all kinds of warning signs.

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Proposals for the abolition of the Electoral College have been floated, again. I can confidently predict that this isn’t going to happen. First of all, it would require a Constitutional Amendment, which requires not only two thirds majorities in both houses of Congress, but a three fourths majority of the states. Second, the Electoral College was deliberately set up with a bias toward smaller states. Getting states such as Nevada, Wyoming, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maine, and Alaska to give up their constitutional protection from the tyranny of the majority and cede more political power to the likes of Los Angeles and New York City isn’t likely to happen, not when the citizens of those large cities speak disparagingly of flyover country. Not only won’t it happen, it should not.

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No, Calexit isn’t going to happen, either. Does anyone remember what happened the last time a state decided it didn’t like the outcome of a Presidential election and tried to unilaterally secede from the Union? Hint: it was on December 20, 1860.

Now, I hear people quite gleefully saying “go ahead, try it.” But no one sober and responsible really means it. California has saddled itself with high taxes and massive public obligations and its economy has been suffering as companies migrate to Texas and other places. Colorado, Utah, and Arizona won’t want to let California continue to claim more far more water out of the Colorado River than it puts into it. The rest of the country won’t appreciate the high tariffs and bureaucratic obstacles an independent California will charge for use of LA and SF seaports. The entire Pacific Fleet depends on California facilities, and the US won’t let them go lightly. It doesn’t take a great deal of considering the consequences to realize that this proposal should not be taken seriously.

America has dodged a bullet. Election of a mendacious, corrupt fool such as Hillary Clinton demonstrated herself to be would have had dire consequences. But it was too close. She should never have gained half the electorate.
Like many others of my acquaintance, I did not vote for Donald Trump as much as I voted against the Democratic nominee. Nevertheless, I have more hope of the future of the country I live in than I have had for the past four years.

I don’t especially believe Trump’s campaign promise to “Make American Great Again”. I don’t think he has that power. I also don’t believe the predictions of utter disaster from his Presidency. The media won’t be hiding his sins and shielding him from criticism they way they have done for Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. I expect the Republican majority in Congress to be rather fractious and unruly. If he demonstrates an imperious side, he may not get very far.

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The dominant Media are in shock, wondering how they could have been so wrong in predicting this election, and some of them are blaming themselves for not doing more to stop Trump. What they do not recognize is that they cannot be campaign workers and objective reporters at the same time. The more they consider themselves to be advocates for a political cause, the more they will be seen as partisan operatives with bylines, and the less they will be trusted as reporters. If they wish to be treated as objective reporters, then they need an unswerving dedication to the truth, whatever it may be, even if it is not flattering to them or the causes they favor.

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At the LDS general conference, I listened to the discourses in the Priesthood session given by Elder Holland “Emissaries to the Church”, and President Uchtdorf, “Learn from Alma and Amulek”. I have sometimes felt that in my service in the Church, I have been warming the bench. Of course, that could very well be that I’m not all that good a player. I decided that my life was a few degrees off course, and I needed to correct some things, so I’ve made a couple of changes. Not that I want to be too specific in public. I’ve also been pushing hard to get the “Teaching in the Savior’s Way” program implemented in my ward, and the recent Worldwide Training Broadcast on that topic has also given me some ideas.

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On October 29, I attended a 40-year high school reunion. I wasn’t going to go, but one of my best friends from High School drove down from Washington to attend and wanted to visit with me, so there was a last minute cancellation, and I grabbed the spot. I wasn’t very social in High School, and hardly of the people I knew and liked best were there, so I wound up standing around a lot looking for someone to talk to and not finding anyone. That’s not exactly a new sensation.
My friend mentioned that he had found a game for his son that dealt with space exploration and used real orbital mechanics. I thought it was interesting, so I asked him for a reference. Kerbal Space Program.
I downloaded and tried the demo, liked enough to spring the $40 for the full program, and have been involved in playing it, to the neglect of other things. I have a tendency to do this…I will get back to serious work on the knowledge base, as well as more political reporting and commentary than I have been doing, in fairly short order.