Here in the Northeast, the summers are short. Throw in a cold spring ahead of it, and it feels like it is already slipping away. Nature offers no guarantee to follow the calendar.  Memorial Day jumps the gun on summer, and Labor Day comes ahead of the end of summer weather. In between those days is a continuous lament by the complainers on the quick passing of summer. A radio personality reflected sadly on reaching the midway point between Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. Experiencing a cool June as we are, the complainers see time compressed. I am going to a wake tomorrow and a funeral the following morning. Compressed or not, I still have time, summertime. The sun will shine brightly as we say goodbye one summer day.

I see Donald Trump is still battling both political parties. He may be flawed, but he is ready for this pitched battle. Both political parties are still not ready for him.

A lady on the news this evening explained that she has not missed a Black Friday shopping in ten years. A family tradition she shares with her two daughters. The woman was around sixty years old, the daughters in their thirties, and all rather morose. They were sitting on a marble circular bench that ringed a tree inside the mall. Fatigue hung on them, and how the hell they have been carrying on this tradition for ten years is bewildering. The story ended with the mother saying, “they wouldn’t miss it for the world.” However, what they had sitting on that bench was not a tradition on par with yesterday. Saving money, hunting bargains is work, and frugality in Christmas shopping is admirable; tradition demands something deeper from us. Pushing, shoving, and in some cases outbreaks of serious violence, have never been good signs of a cherished tradition. We all like a bargain, but without the battle. The tradition of never shopping on Black Friday is a tradition we can all cherish.

In the end, the arrogance of the Bush and Clinton political machines did them both in. Thankfully so, for they were slowly dragging us down. Jeb and Hillary were the chosen candidates well before the election process started; they had all the money. Their arrogant sense of entitlement was their first step down to respective defeats. Amazing that the warning to guard against arrogance, old as human existence, went unheeded by both candidates. The media played a part. They promoted Jeb, for they felt he would lose to Hillary. He was pretty much a copy of her, with the great exception of being male. Women would vote for the woman, and not for the lightweight male copy. An easy win for Hillary was in the cards. Then along comes Trump. Abandoned by his own party, and essentially running against Republican and Democrat elites too arrogant to understand what was occurring, Trump was different. Jeb and Hillary’s nightmare, the outsider tough enough to endure, had arrived. They lost and the political machines that fostered their careers are no longer relevant. That is refreshing, and Trump has started to rejuvenate the political process of compromise that has been absent far too long. To those who supported Trump, this is an especially poignant Thanksgiving. To those who supported Hillary or Jeb, a little less arrogance can only be a blessing. The outsider will continue to surprise. Exciting times lie ahead.

Many people feel dejected about this election; they feel it is an ugly, nasty and unprecedented affair. It is unprecedented in  only one respect: a true “outsider” is heading to a victory over two corrupted parties.

Donald Trump is not a figurehead. Love him or hate him, he is his own man. President Obama is a figurehead. Hillary Clinton is a figurehead. Words and ideas are crafted for them by progressive elitists and donors.  Trump speaks clumsily at times and presses on, as we all do.  The stale, structured speeches of Obama and Hillary have worn thin. We need a man or woman who is independent enough to press on to solutions.  Love him or hate him, he is that person.