Monday Muckraking

• Well, the world didn't end Wednesday morning.  I followed my planned election night regimen the night prior, expecting to be severely depressed at bedtime, only to find that Providence had intervened.
• I've noted many times that DJT would not have been my choice to carry the 'R' banner, as well as that I believed Joe Biden would've been a better candidate for the 'D' team.
• Will the swamp be drained?  Who knows?  What is certain is that an HRC administration would have only resulted in a more toxic swamp, so at least there's a possibility of reform, a chance that would have been deader than a doornail in four years.
• A few protesters on the left coast are talking the possibility of secession or civil war.  Hyperbole much?    Texas has often been ridiculed vis-á-vis secession talk.  I have noted in the past that in Texas' case, the real secession would not be just our State (though there's something to be said for restoring its 1845 boundaries), but a wide swath of states from the Atlantic and Gulf, through the heartland, joining a couple or more of our Canadian neighbors, eh, with Alaska.
• The electoral map sure looked a lot like what I've described for years.  The notion of California, Oregon - and maybe Washington - starting a civil war by secession is pretty far-fetched, because unless there's a counter-force trying to keep them, it's not really a war, is it?  Still, the mind giggles at the notion of the 1st Oakland Mechanized Division rolling down the interstate in columns of Priuses, tie-dyed troops bearing bongs and salad-shooters, led by General Chelsea...wait for it...Manning.  ;-)
• The Hitachi 3.5 SATA HDD on my desktop PC has apparently expired, forcing me for the time to use my Lenovo tablet for blog-posting.  Oh, bother...  I'm going to ask my IT friend if he has a usable drive for cheap, as I'm not so much interested in getting a new PC.  If I had to, I could use a BT keyboard with the tablet, but still.  I won't try to blog from my phone.
• It's said that Ruger and S&W stocks (the market kind) took a hit, with the spectre of Kommissar Hillary now in the rear-view.  Since retail delivery channels were probably inventory heavy based on the expected election outcome, wonder if bargains will abound for Black Friday and the Christmas buying season?  I have been a .45 fan for a quarter-century, but got a slim/compact 9mm last BF at Academy.   Recent technology advances in the ammo industry have narrowed the performance gap considerably, so I'm contemplating a standard-size 9.  The last one such I owned was in the 1980s.
• Gwen Ifill has died.  I frequently watch the PBS news update at 9:00, which she co-anchored with Judy Woodruff.  Despite the general bias of the news media, her reporting seemed to me as competent and professional as any, and certainly well above such hacks as Chris Matthews and similar others.  Conspicuous by her absence on election night, we now know why.  Godspeed, Ms. Ifill.