The video above was taken at the Sydney launch of The Art of the Impossible, and now I am extraordinarily happy to add that Andrew Bolt has agreed to launch the book in Melbourne. Some details to work out, but will let you know when and where.

In the meantime, let me bid farewell to blogging for a bit. I am going into hospital in the morning for hand surgery that will make it difficult to type for a while.

And let me add that it is safe to watch the video since it is all Mark and Ross. For my views, you will have to read the book.

As a matter of fact, it could not have gone any better. Ross Cameron came and spoke on Donald Trump. Mark Latham came and spoke on Donald Trump. And then I spoke on Donald Trump. And as a coincidence it was also the 100th day since Donald Trump had become president. So a few highlights.

First, to find a room entirely full of Trump supporters is one of the most pleasant experiences I have had in many a while. For most of us, you know someone here or there, and occasionally come across someone else who, after oh so carefully venturing an opinion here and a comment there, and then listening very closely to the kind of response you proceed to sort of, very tentatively, go on to sort of venture into a slightly more open discussion until you find that well, bless my soul, this other person also would have voted for Trump, which since we are in Australia, no one actually does. This time, instead, it was a whole room full of such people – although it did turn out there was a media person from the Fairfax organisation who actually revealed him(her)self and in so doing, did not in even the slightest end up in fear for his/her life. But for the rest of us, a very good time was had by all.

And while a blogger’s life is spent in front of the console typing out whatever thoughts one has, public speaking is a different kind of art and we were genuinely blessed with Ross Cameron and Mark Latham. A reuniting of The Outsiders reminding of us of those Sky News vandals who have broken up the set. I could have listened forever – absolutely outstanding presentations but others who were there are invited to add their own thoughts – but eventually it was my turn, where, more or less, I followed the script I had outlined so I will only discuss a few added bits from the Q&A that came after.

So there was the question, what have I been surprised about these first hundred days, both on the plus side and then on the negative. For me, there has not been a negative of any kind. I am aware there are some who seem to think that these first hundred days should have been a major disappointment, but the only thing I have had confirmed, as I said on the night, was how useless the actual Republican Party is. Without Trump, nothing of any serious importance would change. The average of the spectrum across the party is Hillary-lite. Trump has made all the difference. As for what I have discovered that was unexpected on the plus side is how temperamentally sound he is. He does politics at an amazingly high level. No doubt he had plenty of time to learn the trade negotiating within New York and elsewhere about various projects he has had to bring through political systems of one kind or another. And now, having to deal with the consequences of Obama’s incompetence and outright anti-American malice, he has enough on his mind to occupy three presidents. I do have to say that more than ever, if you thought Obama was all right in some things and not so good in others, your political judgements are less than useless. If you are not endlessly grateful that it is Trump and not more of the same I really cannot tell you how great a fool I think you are. There are plenty of them, but their lives will only continue to work because they are oblivious of the harm Obama did and the good that Trump is capable of bringing, if he can only get the Republicrats to go along.

And the point I also made was that we do not live in Montana, where an isolationist US which has pulled its international outreach within its borders, will make little immediate difference. We are out here at the south end of Asia in the middle of the Pacific an isolated outpost of Western values. If you like this way of life and want it to continue, you had better hope that Trump continues to seek to enforce the Pax Americana that has existed since the 1940s.

The other thing that came up was my offhand comment to the effect that the parties of the left have never accomplished a single positive outcome on anything. They have brought with them mass misery through the various communist revolutions we have seen around the globe. But even where they have not been able to complete subvert our free communities and market economies, they have limited our freedoms and lowered economic outcomes, repeatedly impoverishing the bottom rungs of society by pretending to provide benefits they never quite seem to achieve. Every government of the left is eventually thrown out because of the damage they do, but back they come as soon as 50.1% of the population have forgotten the mayhem that comes with socialist practice. And having said it, I have not been able to conjure up in my mind a single counter instance where a party of the left has done some kind of general good. Meanwhile there is the shining example of Venezuela before us to remind those with the wit to understand exactly what happens if you let these people take over the political control-room with no means available to get them out again.

You can buy your own copy of The Art of the Impossible from the Book Depository for a mere $A32.48 with worldwide free delivery. The more I read the papers, the more I see the need for this book since it reminds you of the cultural-Marxist world we have been spared but which our brainless and fantastically ignorant media and political class will pull us back into the first chance they get. Read it and remind yourself of the narrow escape we have had, which will also hopefully fortify you for the ongoing assault by these 25-watt low-grade political elites and graduates of our schools of journalism.

The Sydney book launch for my blog history on the election of Donald Trump – The Art of the Impossible – is tonight. Not sure how many would show up to hear me talk about my book, but as very good luck would have it, my presentation will be preceded by Ross Cameron and Mark Latham discussing Donald Trump and my book. But then it will be me, and what a pair of tough acts to follow. However, I also have some things to say. So for those of you who cannot make it, this is a brief rundown of what I will say on the night if there is enough time.

1) I am endlessly grateful to both Ross and Mark for agreeing to help put this book on the map. I’m not sure I would have come along myself if they had not agreed to come. But there they will be and then it will be myself.

2) My aim is to explain why I wrote the book as a means to explain why others might find value and entertainment in reading it.

3) Reasons to read the book:

a) It will explain how essential for our future welfare and well being it was that DJT became president. It is not just that we don’t have Hillary, but that we don’t have any of the other Republicans who were running. The way in which Trump’s agenda is held up not just by the courts but also by the Republican Congress should be all the reminder you need that if the log jams in solving our problems is ever to be broken, Trump is the only one who might possibly do it.

b) It reminds you of how much opposition there was and is to everything DJT is trying to do, which for most of us on this side of the fence are the things we ourselves want done. Dealing with the disastrous residue of eight of the most destructive years in American politics under Obama’s terms as president have left major problems that need urgent attention.

c) The book is utterly unique in being made up entirely of blog posts that were written at the time and in the moment. There is no looking back at what happened in the knowledge that Trump became president. The posts all reflect the personal concern that some other Republican might get the nomination – which was not necessarily a catastrophe although I think no one else could have won – but more crucially once DJT became the nominee why it was essential that he won and Hillary lost. The book brings back to life some of the tension that never disappeared throughout the campaign and which reached a crescendo in that last week before the election itself.

d) It reminds you of the issues at stake. The fantastic fog and misdirection laid down by the media obscures almost everything that is essential. You are reminded of the kinds of things Trump represented, but also how if he did nothing else other than not be Hillary Clinton that he would have achieved an enormous amount. That he is carefully working to put his policy agenda in place will only come back to you if you are first reminded of that that agenda was. The book makes that agenda clear.

e) It is a primer in conservative political thought. I think of myself as conservative in the most traditional Burkean sense. I therefore think about every political issue from a conservative perspective. We in the West have a long historical tradition of doing things in particular ways with a set of values in place that have been built on our Judeo-Christian heritage. It has brought us prosperity and a measure of civic peace and tolerance unknown anywhere else across the globe. It is this world I wish to see preserved even though I know change in so many directions is inevitable. And while hardly anyone else sees Trump as a conservative, I most certainly do. It may take one to know one, but I absolutely and without question see DJT as a fellow conservative.

f) The posts are made up of three different elements each of which is interesting in their own right:

i) A description of the most important events during the campaign, discussed as they occurred
ii) My commentary on these events
iii) The various articles and posts put up by others that I thought were relevant

g) The book can therefore be read in a number of ways:

i) Starting from page 1 and finishing on page 389 (or page 2 if that’s how it strikes you)
ii) Opening the book and starting anywhere you like and then continuing anywhere else you like, either going forward or backwards into the past either sequentially or at random
iii) Reading my commentary and leaving out the rest or
iv) Reading the articles written by others and leaving out my commentary.

h) This is oddly a different kind of history. There have been personal memoirs of individuals who have been in the midst of events. But what blogging has done has been to introduce a kind of memoir by someone who was no more than a spectator but one who was nevertheless as able to remain involved with events even though living literally at the other end of the world.

i) But as far away as I might have been, I did see Donald Trump speak on the very day that finally ignited the campaign that would send him to the White House. And although having lived in Australia since 1975, I grew up in North America and have a North American understanding of the American political system, with my first political memory going back to “I like Ike” which makes it no later than 1956! Beyond just that, I have been part of the political world in Australia and tangentially internationally, having worked for the Chamber of Commerce in Canberra. And it’s by no means my first book but my ninth (with a tenth that has now come after this one). And to that we may add my interest in political and economic theory and history, all of which is the background for my blogging which is the art of the instantaneous reaction to events.

4) And if I have time after I have said all of this, I intend to read three sections from the book: (i) the first post discussing Obama’s America which was written on arriving in New York in July 2015; (ii) my reaction to hearing Trump speak ten days later; and then (iii) my post on “Sunshine Conservatives” which I wrote a month before the election in which I described and discussed the #NeverTrump crowd who are pretend conservatives at best, with no common sense and none of the grit needed to get anything done worth doing.

The book turned out to be better than I had any right to hope it would be. You can buy it here if you can’t make it on the night. I will let you know what Ross and Mark said after it is all over.

Ross Cameron and Mark Latham [!!!!!] will be launching The Art of the Impossible in Sydney on April 27 @ 6:15 pm. The best (and probably the only) book on an American presidential election ever written in Australia and the first book ever written entirely as a series of blog posts. It is a reminder just how necessary Donald Trump was and a reminder of how fortunate we are that he was elected.

This is where it will be held:

Metropolitan Hotel Sydney
1 Bridge Street
Sydney, NSW 2000

And this is where you will need to book your ticket.

But if you have already bought a copy of the book and would like to have it signed, just bring it along on the night and entry will be free – but you will have to buy your own drinks.