STEVE KRAKAUER: Why Trump Won, and the Establishment Lost.

Then there’s the trans ad. You know it — it became a centerpiece of the Trump campaign, and a storyline since the election over whether it truly had a tangible impact in moving votes toward the GOP candidate. It was based on reporting, interestingly enough, from CNN’s Andy Kaczynski, that even Erin Burnett was shocked about when she heard it spelled out for her for the first time on-air.

But the ad itself is worth exploring as the conclusion here to wrap up the answer for our friend Aaron. “Kamala supports taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners” is both true, and a jarring statement. She’s there in her own words about it. And not just prisoners, but for detained illegal immigrants — connecting the issue to a core concern of voters, and the border crisis. It’s — to use a term that was popularized and then abandoned by Kamala’s VP pick who literally no one will remember in two years — weird.

But the kicker is the end: “Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you.” Sure, if you use they/them pronouns, you’re definitely turned off by the ad. But that’s such an infinitesimal percentage of Americans, it resonates broadly. And most importantly, it has a double meaning. Yes, it’s about the obscure trans issue itself. But it’s also about Kamala being for “them” — the establishment, the elite, the people that don’t understand the everyday American and their plight. Trump… is for “you.” That’s easy. And it’s extremely effective.

And most importantly, it resonates because Kamala never had an effective counter. She couldn’t — she was installed as the nominee by “them.” She was for “unity”…with “them.” And she had the personality that was for “them” too.

We’ll see if Democrats take lessons from the 2024 drubbing. But the corporate press should understand that they were “them” in this election too. And if they want to re-establish any semblance of trust that has eroded over the past decade, they need to be seen as for “you,” not “them.”

Read the whole thing. As we’ve been seeing throughout November the DNC-MSM are showing no signs of learning from their mistakes during the election cycle. QED: Here’s a CNN Host Reacting to Tom Homan’s Promise to Dem Lawbreakers. (‘Make That a GIF Right Now!’)

CNN's Kasie Hunt visibly stunned after playing a clip of Tom Homan saying he would gladly throw Denver Mayor Mike Johnston in jail for defying Trump's deportation operation.

This is the best video you will watch all day.

Homan: Me and the Denver mayor agree on one thing. He's… pic.twitter.com/ab4XMw5GrK

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 28, 2024

ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: George Clooney Is Super Angry at Barack Obama, And I’m Just Loving It.

“We are not going to win in November with this president”, he declared. Biden, 82, heeded that advice 11 days later, ceding his campaign to Vice President Harris. And the minute Kamala’s historic bid for the White House came up short, Clooney started taking heat! “Since I’m in a deep depression and feel like lashing out at someone, what’s the plan now, George Clooney?” One of his many same-party critics writes on social media. “It’s all George Clooney’s fault!”

Meanwhile, Trump supporters gleefully taunted the uber-liberal star.

“Trump should not forget to thank Hollywood celebrities – especially George Clooney”, cracked one poster.

A political mole told RadarOnline.com it was Obama who urged Clooney to call for Biden – his own vice president – to end his sputtering campaign, fearing the fallout if he did it himself.

“Obama and Clooney have been tight for years, and George became Barack’s surrogate in leading the charge for Joe to step away”, explained the source. “Barack knew he would look like a traitor if he publicly called for Joe to be cut loose. And now, he’s trying to walk away from it all.

“George feels duped and vows he’s not going to be anyone’s political water boy anymore.”

Pass the popcorn.

TO BE FAIR, THAT’S NOT EXACTLY A MAJOR TRANSFORMATION FOR HER: JD Vance Has MSNBC’s Joy Reid Turn Into A Mumbling Mess With A Simple Meme.

CYBER MONDAY DEAL: 2024 Flying Orb Ball Toy, Galaxy Ball Cosmic Globe Boomerang. #CommissionEarned

2001: A VOICE RECOGNITION ODYSSEY:

Don’t know who made this, but it’s great.
(If you haven’t seen Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, it’s one of the best films ever made.) pic.twitter.com/H0wdkuCWtB

— Justine Bateman (@JustineBateman) November 30, 2024

TRUMP CAN DO A LOT: Higher ed accreditors emphasize nonpartisanship after Trump’s ‘radical left’ remark.

CYBER MONDAY DEAL: Up to 50% off clothes. #CommissionEarned

FREAKSHOW DEFUNDED, FREAKS FREAK OUT: University of Michigan Board of Regents targets DEI office for ‘defunding’ or major changes, faculty senate freaks out.

WELL, BERKELEY IS IN BAD ODOR NOWADAYS: Berkeley Professor Says Even His ‘Outstanding’ Students With 4.0 GPAs Aren’t Getting Any Job Offers — ‘I Suspect This Trend Is Irreversible.’ It’s also true that the Biden economy has consisted of a recession being covered up with a froth of government spending. That may change, even for Berkeley students.

DELUSIONS OF OWNERSHIP: In August of 2019 the new Commandant of the Marine Corps, issued his Commandant’s Planning Guidance where he plainly said he would not allow others to interfere with his new plans for the Marine Corps.

MINDS DO CHANGE:

For people who think I am close-minded and unbending: I have done a 180° on assisted suicide, and I changed my mind by reading and thinking with disabled scholars and activists https://t.co/ChS9hWkhHq

— 🍉 Dr. Thrasher 🔻 (@thrasherxy) November 29, 2024

AT AMAZON, Shop the Cyber Monday Sales. #CommissionEarned

OH, THE OUTRAGE! THEY CAST A JEW TO PLAY MARY!!! The absurd lengths to which anti-semites go to find justifications for their rotten malice are on full display in the gathering protests of the coming Netflix film about the Mother of Jesus. Rod Dreher documents demented stench today on The Free Press.

CHANGE: DePaul Professor Who Wrote Anti-Palestinian Article, Was Censured by Faculty Council, Loses Contract, Defamation, and Discrimination Claim.

MAJOR DISCOVERIES: “Cooking at home really saves lots of money. Guys, it just hit me that frugality can be the primary productive force.”

THE POLITICS OF CRYPTO CRIME AND PROSECUTION. “Mr Singh, who distributed millions in political donations to left-leaning organizations, walked free with only supervised release. Yet these disparate sentences tell only part of the story. Behind the headlines about financial fraud lies a more complex tale—one of political influence and strategic prosecution. The decision to focus on financial crimes while dropping political corruption charges has left a trail of tantalizing clues about a broader campaign of influence-peddling that may never be fully illuminated.”

GOOGLE DESERVES ITS PROBLEMS: Googling Is for Old People. That’s a Problem for Google.

The company’s core business is under siege. People are increasingly getting answers from artificial intelligence. Younger generations are using other platforms to gather information. And the quality of the results delivered by its search engine is deteriorating as the web is flooded with AI-generated content. Taken together, these forces could lead to long-term decline in Google search traffic, and the outsize profits generated from it, which prop up its parent company Alphabet’s GOOGL -0.17%decrease; red down pointing triangle money-losing bets on things like its Waymo self-driving unit.

The first danger facing Google is clear and present: When people want to search for information or go shopping on the internet, they are shifting to Google’s competitors, and advertising dollars are following them. In 2025, eMarketer projects, Google’s share of the U.S. search-advertising market will fall below 50% for the first time since the company began tracking it.

In responding to government antitrust inquiries, Google itself makes this point often: “Evidence at trial shows we face fierce competition from a broad range of competitors.”

This shift is due largely to users’ bypassing Google to start their search for goods on Amazon. It’s handing Amazon billions in advertiser dollars. Meanwhile, TikTok has less than 4% of U.S. digital ad revenue, but significant potential to expand its share of the pie. A recent TikTok pitch to advertisers reported on by The Wall Street Journal said that 23% of its users searched for something within 30 seconds of opening the app, and its global search volume was three billion a day.

The second threat is the rise of “answer engines” like Perplexity which, well, do what they say on the tin. OpenAI has added internet search to ChatGPT, Meta Platforms is exploring building its own search engine, and even AI chatbots that can’t search the internet are proving increasingly capable at addressing many questions. They’re also becoming ever more widespread, as Microsoft and Apple integrate them directly into the operating systems of all the devices they make or support.

The biggest problem is that Google doesn’t return good results anymore. Even similar services like Bing are better. AI tools are useful because when the significant results don’t appear on the first page, AI can read all 700 — or 7000 — pages of results to find them. Some of this is AI content, continuing what SEO did to skew Google results. Some of it — a lot, despite its low profile in this article — is Google futzing with its own results for its own purposes, both commercial and political. And many users lost faith in Google due to its deranking and demonetizing of right-leaning sources over “misinformation” that generally turned out to be true.

UPDATE: Non-paywalled version here.

EDITED BY JAMES YOUNG AND WITH A STORY BY YOURS TRULY:  Violent Blue Yonder: Aerial Alternate History (Arc of Ares).

#CommissionEarned

Victory, speedy and complete, awaits the side that employs air power as it should be employed-Marshal Sir Arthur Harris, Bomber Command

War in the air, like any other domain, is subject to the whims of Fate. Throughout history, humans have always asked “What if?” Violent Blue Yonder explores what happens when that question gets asked hundreds (or thousands) of feet above sea level.

WOULD THEY LIE ABOUT A THING LIKE THAT:  China claims to have unearthed the largest gold deposit in the world —worth $83B.

Spoiler, they lie about everything.  That’s what totalitarians do.

DEMS DIDN’T BELIEVE MEN COULD TELL WHEN THEY’VE BEEN INSULTED:  Sen. John Fetterman says fellow Democrats lost male voters to Trump by ‘insulting’ them, being ‘condescending’.

SHOCKED SHOCKED SHOCKED, BEHOLD MY SHOCKED FACE:  Kamala Harris still begging for cash weeks after election loss.

I HAD BEEN AUTHORITATIVELY ADVISED THAT SNOWFALL WOULD BE A ‘THING OF THE PAST’:  Upstate NY could get up to 6 feet of snow as NYC braces for cold snap.

A COUNTRY WHO DOESN’T ENFORCE ITS BORDERS IS NOT A COUNTRY:  Insane. No other country in the world would allow this, and we are already the most generous in terms of how many legal immigrants we allow in each year.

THE MEDIA WILL NEVER ADMIT IT’S ON THEM:  Would-Be Trump Assassin Ryan Routh Echoes Democratic Rhetoric, Calls Trump a ‘Dictator’ in Jailhouse Letter .

AND WE ALL KNOW FOR WHOM THOSE BALLOTS WERE. CLEANING UP OUR ELECTIONS IS IMPERATIVE:  MN City ‘Likely Disposed Of’ 21 Ballots In Race Decided For Dem Candidate By 14 Votes.