Crawling out of their safe spaces after the election, the media are now advancing the narrative that President-elect Donald Trump is running behind in his cabinet selection process.

Never mind that he is ahead of where President Obama was at this stage of the game. Facts no longer have a place in modern mainstream reporting.

Obama went about assembling his cabinet as if it were from IKEA. He wanted to focus on the complexity and diversity of the source of the parts, not the quality and durability of the product. And that “product” performed like a $17 IKEA bedside cabinet.

Trump’s first pick, Sen. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, from the great state of Alabama for attorney general, is a good one. Being a citizen of the South and having named my son “Jeb,” I like scaring Northerners with names like “Jefferson” and “Beauregard” — it keeps them on their toes.

After eight years of Northern elitist rule, this will be fun. They won’t know if Jefferson Beauregard Sessions will first try to attack ISIS or mount an offensive to reclaim Richmond.

The South is proudly behind Trump and staunchly American. Go to any SEC football game and you will see our patriotism. We do not Kaepernick-kneel for the National Anthem or “Dixie” unless we drop our bourbon flask.

Sessions’ anti-illegal immigration stance was where he has bonded with Trump. However, as we stop illegal immigration (the operative word “illegal” gets conveniently lost in the media; they just say “immigration” — another misleading part of their narrative), we will reduce inflow. Moreover, some celebs might leave our country, so it’s a win-win. Trump is already making America Great.

As a subset of upholding immigration and other laws of our nation, Sessions will also have to deal with defiant liberal mayors like New York’s Bill de Blasio and Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel on their sanctuary cities policies.

They refuse to obey federal immigration laws, encouraging refugees to come to their cities. In dramatic, grandstanding statements this week, Mayors de Blasio and Emanuel told illegal immigrants that they would be safe in their cities.

Syrian refugees looked at Chicago murder stats and said, “We like our odds better here in Aleppo.”

Ron Hart, a libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author, is a frequent guest on CNN. Contact him at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Trump, Sessions bonded over illegal immigration

America's next crisis likely started around Halloween.

Many Americans buy more candy than they give away to children trick-or-treating. Since we want to be thrifty and most of us like candy, we keep it. We hold on to the candy to demonstrate that we are good stewards of money. We also hold on to it just to eat a piece, or two, or three, every day.

I've held on to Halloween candy before and eaten handfuls of it in a day. I normally gain weight if I eat more than 2,000 calories a day. This proves I'm not exercising enough, even though I might work off a couple of hundred calories at the gym — some days. I used to exercise 90 minutes or even two hours, and could still gain weight since I have the ability to eat more than I work off on a treadmill.

Next, comes Thanksgiving. I have a lot to be thankful for like most Americans. My wife has already been making and freezing cookies. The problem is I know that they are in the freezer — and I know where to find them in the freezer. I can take one out at a time and put it in the microwave. Occasionally, I have taken two out of the freezer. I hope we have some left by the time Thanksgiving is actually here.

For some reason, after Thanksgiving is over, we really begin to settle in to the holiday spirit, especially with Christmas programs, parades and festive songs begin on the radio.

I keep reading articles that Americans only gain about 1 pound during the holidays. However, if we only gain 1 pound each holiday season and never lose it, then after a few years we are in very sad shape. Let me quickly stop here and say, I think I gain 3 or 4 pounds around Christmas and then have to work all winter to lose it — and so far I have. However, losing weight just simply gets harder all the time.

We smile and know we all fight this battle of eating too much and exercising too little. Unfortunately, it's nothing to smile that much about. We kill ourselves eating too much and eating the wrong foods.

Too many Americans are obese. That only leads to serious health problems from heart issues to cancer and to diabetes. Diabetes is such a chronic problem in America. There are different numbers on diabetes. About 30 million people in our country are struggling with this health dilemma. Millions of people are undiagnosed. Diabetes leads to blindness, kidney failure and amputations of feet and legs.

We are in a crisis in America due to health care costs. We can't afford our medical insurance and it's almost always financially painful to go the doctor. The estimated annual health care cost of obesity-related illnesses is a staggering $190.2 billion or nearly 21 percent of annual medical spending in the United States. Childhood obesity alone is responsible for $14 billion in direct medical costs, according to healthcommunitieshealthfuture.org

My challenge is to try to get ahead of this and not let eating bad, inactivity and extra weight become a holiday crisis — again.

Glenn Mollette is an American syndicated columnist and author.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Stop the holiday cycle, prevent a health crisis

Donald Trump is our next president of the United States. It's amazing what Americans can do. Think about it:

America elected him to be our 45th president, but the political establishment bashed him.

Most of the prior Republican candidates opposed him. Mitt Romney opposed him. McCain did not support Trump. The Bush family was anti-Trump.

John Kasick, governor of Ohio, voted for McCain.

Rob Portman, senator of Ohio, did not support Trump.

President Barack Obama was obviously opposed to Trump.

Paul Ryan would not even include Trump at a speaking engagement in Wisconsin.

Wall Street opposed him.

We were told that women were opposed to Trump, and many were. However, I read one account after another of women working like crazy to elect Trump.

It seemed the entertainment world was opposed to Trump. Many celebrities said they would move out of America if Trump were elected.

LeBron James was opposed to Trump. I rooted for Cleveland to win the NBA championship. I'll root for them again but I kept wishing LeBron would just focus more on his jumping for the Indians. I thought he was a sensational cheerleader during the World Series.

Beyoncé, Jay Z and Lady Gaga all sang and danced to elect Hillary and defeat Trump.

I read where Latinos were opposed to Trump but that 29 percent of them voted for him.

Were all African Americans opposed to Trump? I saw numerous African Americans on television extolling Trump during the campaign.

Thus, we must ask the question, "Who in this country wanted Donald Trump for a president?" The answer is the American people.

I should stop and say enough American people in enough states wanted Donald Trump. When California was announced, with all 55 electoral votes going for Hillary Clinton, she went up in the electoral vote by a large number for a few minutes.

The electoral vote is wonderful if you are winning the electoral vote and not so great if you aren't.

The American people proved that our democracy works, much to the chagrin of whoever is on the losing side. We rediscovered, again, what Americans can do. We have the power of voting.

Democrats had more money to spend and more media on their side. Apparently, every minority group was supporting Hillary, as some media groups reported. Hillary's support was only missing one group, and that included most Americans who she deemed "deplorables.”

These everyday people are tired of working hard with little or no advancement. Paying more of their paycheck to support Americans sitting at home on welfare. Subsidizing millions of people flooding into our country with their hands out while our own veterans are sleeping on America's streets or standing in line for healthcare.

This is the group who is tired of breaking their necks to send their children to college, buy health insurance they can no longer afford while working harder and harder to stay afloat. All the while, it seems, that the government wants to make it harder and harder.

People found a way to get to the polls. Their vote certainly made history in electing Trump. We will now watch Trump and a Republican Congress for the next four years.

I do believe most Americans are hoping and praying for good things to come. We want national security, prosperity, good healthcare and a working, safe infrastructure.

We also want to maintain our American freedoms, like voting. Because if Trump and Congress let us down, we must do what Americans can do — and that is to vote them out in four years. 

Glenn Mollette is an American syndicated columnist and author.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Clinton lacked support from one pivotal group: 'deplorables'