We are never ever going to have to see Hillary Rodham Clinton as President of the United States. The United States remains a stodgy old-fashioned country which has never elected a female chief executive.

For reasons none of us understand, relations between Russia and the United States have recently been growing dangerously hostile, with all sorts of saber-rattling gestures and escalating shows of force. Putin likes Trump, and Trump has the opposite of any kind of personal investment at all into whatever mysterious policy preferences of the Obama Administration have led to Russian-US conflict over Syria. The Trump Administration ought to be able to reset relations with Russia. Therefore, we do not perish in the near future due to a nuclear exchange.

We have the presidency and control of Congress and we have a mandate to repeal and replace Obamacare.

Merrick Garland (no fan of the Second Amendment, he) will not be getting confirmed by the Senate. Hopefully, Trump will keep his promise and appoint someone a lot more like Scalia.

The country is tired of living in perennial recession Obamaland. If Trump introduces those promised tax cuts, on top of replacing the Obamacare mandate, economic confidence should soon begin coming back, and with it the long-awaited real recovery.

We’ve been obliged to live for 8 years under a totally-unqualified Anti-American Affirmative Action president, just so the community of fashion could feel good about itself. Now they get to live under a totally-unqualified crude vulgarian elected by rural and working class Americans as a huge F You to them. What goes around comes around.

There’s no denying it. A Trump Presidency has got far more entertainment value that Hillary’s would have ever had. His gaffes will be funny. Hers would only have been painful to watch.

And, finally, The Donald is 70-years-old. He’s the oldest geezer ever elected president. All he needs to do is go toes up, and Pence is president, and Pence seems to be a very decent guy.

It does not look like Trump is going to win, but even those of us who recognize just how unqualified he is with respect to experience, intelligence, and character have had moments enjoying fantasizing just how unhappy the smug establishment community of fashion would be were Trump to win.

I can personally agree on this much with Damon Linker:

A small, irresponsible part of me would be pleased by a Trump victory. …

The part of me that as a young child longed to kick down the tower of blocks my playmate from down the street had so carefully and meticulously constructed would crack a smile at the ominous news. …

[S]ome of the consequences of a Trump triumph would be salutary, and I would enjoy seeing them happen. …

Progressives would learn that “history” is not on their “side.” Progressives believe in … progress. It’s their ideological faith, held as deeply as any religious creed. “Which side of history are you on?” — that’s the rhetorical question progressives are always tempted to pose when some event or trend seems to belie their providential convictions, and that’s very much been the case with the rise of Donald Trump. With Barack Obama, they believe, or want to believe, that the arc of history bends toward justice (with justice defined in such a way that it perfectly conforms to progressive assumptions about morality and government). Since I don’t believe that history has “sides” — and think that those who do are often led by their faith to make foolish mistakes — I would enjoy seeing the presumption flouted by a Trump victory, much as I enjoyed watching the surprise outcome of the Brexit vote send progressives on both sides of the Atlantic into hysterics. …

Hubristic Democratic elites would be humiliated. The establishment of the Democratic Party rallied around and nominated a deeply flawed candidate this year — one who is highly likely to preside over an administration continually dogged, and ultimately consumed, by scandal. Imagine the post-1972 Nixon White House for four years (assuming, of course, that Clinton manages to avoid impeachment and/or indictment for that long). It’s a sign of how much I detest Trump that I’ve consistently favored her over him every single day since he won the nomination. But on this one day, in this one column, I will admit that a small part of me would love to see the Democrats go down to a painful, humiliating defeat next Tuesday as comeuppance for their dumbass decision to coronate a Clinton this year instead of fielding a candidate who could have wiped the floor with Trump.

I’m able to safely entertain that outcome because it remains unlikely to happen. Clinton will probably win. Trump will probably lose. And most of me — the better part — will delight in the outcome. I’ll be especially thrilled if Trump defies the current polls to lose in the landslide I predicted two months ago and that seemed to be in the offing until Clinton predictably (and with just a little help from James Comey) managed to screw it up.

But even in that case, the thrill will be mixed with just a touch of disappointment.

Read the whole thing.

I’m back from the polls, btw. I wrote in Evan McMullin.

“How small, of all that human hearts endure, That part which laws or kings can cause or cure.”

The Express:

Shocked passengers took footage of the five-foot-long green viper as it dropped down to the seats below.

A university professor who was on the flight told how he helped capture it with a blanket – but showed he had retained his sense of humour and joked he had kept it entertained by giving it an in-flight magazine to read.

The jaw-dropping incident is said to have happened yesterday afternoon during a two-hour Aeromexico flight between Torreon in the northern state of Coahuila and the Mexican capital.

The plane’s pilot was reportedly given permission to make a priority landing when he reached his destination and animal control experts alerted so they could board when it arrived and take the reptile away.

Professor Indalecio Medina, whose video was today going viral, joked: “The flying snake. A unique experience on Aeromexico flight 231 from Torreon to Mexico City.”

He later added on social media: “I had to catch it with a blanket and obviously we gave it some magazines to read for a while.

“The snake arrived alive and kicking, frightened but without having paid its airfare.

“And best of all, priority when it came to landing and animal control experts waiting for the unexpected traveller.”

Bothrops bilineata or maybe Bothrops schlegelii.

Which ought to remind everyone that Comey was always a left-wing partisan tool.

Daily Caller:

he D.C. Court of Appeals reinstated Former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, to the bar. Libby was previously convicted of lying in relation to the Valerie Plame scandal and can now freely practice law again. He was disbarred in the District of Columbia in 2008.

According to the National Law Journal, Libby entered the courtroom with 11 letters of support from a federal appeals judge and other legal dignitaries.

Judge Laurence Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit wrote that Libby had a “reputation as a skilled and ethical government official.”

Disciplinary officials noted in their Sept. 23 report about Libby that he was found to be “forthright, candid, present, and recognized his situation with grace.”

Libby requested over the summer that the D.C. Court of Appeals reinstate him to the D.C. Bar. On Thursday, exactly 11 years to the day following arraignment, he the court granted his request.

Washington D.C.-based former U.S. Attorney Joe DiGenova believes the Libby decision is a “terrible blow” to FBI Director James Comey, who announced Sunday that the agency had no new conclusions on Hillary Clinton and her private server from the 650,000 new emails found on Anthony Weiner’s laptop.

“Scooter Libby was restored to the practice of law by the DC court of appeals because they believed that Scooter Libby presented evidence that his original trial had been corrupted by false testimony. And that false testimony was coerced by Jim Comey’s friend Patrick Fitzgerald and Comey was part of the team to destroy the vice president of the United States and it didn’t happen,” DiGenova said.

He added,” It’s such a smack in the face to Jim Comey. Comey and Fitzgerald tried to frame Scooter Libby, and they did, but then they didn’t get it done. And then of course that idiot George W. Bush didn’t give him a pardon he only commuted his sentence.”

Read the whole thing.

And here most of us thought Hillary was the witch!

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BoingBoing explains.

Evan McMullin

Ricochet’s Mr. D is going with Evan McMullin. I think his argument is sound.

Hillary Clinton is awful. No question. This is not a matter of who is marginally more suited for the Oval Office – neither one is. We know Hillary’s sins – deceitful, scheming, greedy, paranoid, vindictive, incompetent, and very likely criminal (feel free to pile on if I missed anything). She has experience, I’ll give her that, but it is not good experience. She was my Senator for eight years, and I can’t recall a thing – good or bad – she did in that time. As Secretary of State, her hands were tied by Obama, but she still embraces his policy choices now. I will concede she may be better on trade and foreign policy than Trump, but that’s not a given.

To say Trump is better is like saying Charles Manson is more likely to go to heaven than Joel Rifkin. He is vain, lecherous, ignorant, and dishonest. He has done nothing to show he has thought through issues, or even cared to learn the responsibilities and limitations of the office he seeks. He has the moral standards of a pig, and a well-earned reputation for being a dishonest business man. Like Hillary, he lies nearly as often as he speaks, but she at least can craft plausible falsehoods. He will lie in his second breath about what he said with his first, and expect you not to notice. He lied about his faith, yet had such contempt for the faithful that he didn’t even bother learning enough to make that lie plausible. He does not have the history of abuse of power that Hillary does, but that’s most likely because he’s never been in a position to do so.

This is not a question of which candidate is more suitable for office. In my opinion, neither one meets even the minimum standard to be called President. I believe both will be bad for the country. Both are unfit.

If you are convinced otherwise, that’s fine. I have regretted votes I have cast in the past, so who am I to tell say you are voting wrong? And even if you are, you are as entitled to do so as I am.

But the point is over the past year both candidates have had the chance to sway me – Trump more so because he was more of an unknown factor. Both have failed. Hillary is still under investigation, still has no rationale for running, and her pandering has only become worse. Trump is marginally better as a candidate, but he is no more honest or decent than he was a year ago.

On a national level, my vote will not affect the outcome of the election. It only matters perhaps in what message it might send (even then it will be but a drop in the bucket).

So I am tossing my vote to Evan McMullin. As a former CIA field operative, he has already risked more for his nation than either major party candidate. On paper, at least, his policies most align with mine. More importantly, he seems to be a decent human being. His lack of executive experience would likely have kept me from voting for him in the primary, but that would have been a case of less fit, not unfit. It is a vote I can cast with a clean conscience, and to me, that is what matters most. Many of you will vote for Trump with a clean conscience. More power to you. As Shakespeare wrote in Henry V, “Every subject’s duty is the king’s, but every subject’s soul is his own.”

Read the whole thing.