Wars Civil: 1864, 2020

Our own governor, Murderous Phil Murphy, who shoved geezer Covid patients into nursing homes Cuomo style, and gave New Jersey the worst per-million Covid death rate in the world, says schools will be able to start the year with virtual only classes. Bastard. We're screwed. We'll be invoicing the school district and the teacher's union (motherfuckers). Not kidding.

Our Inforos column on the junior senator from California will be out later today, but we'll share a few thoughts now. There's nothing brave or interesting about this pick. Harris is boringly conventional, the choice of the over-educated bi-coastal white liberal elite. She makes them feel comfortable. So she's pretty much the female Obama. Harris is eminently mockable, and the Trump campaign is doing so with great vigor and glee. They're having a good time with this. Hey W, McCain, Romney and other GOP-e acolytes of civility and deeds not words, see how that works?  Were Biden to win, Harris would be the de-facto president. Harris is a bad candidate and a bad person, just like Hillary!

Obviously.

Antifa was back in downtown Portland last night. Despite the nightly violence, the sitzpinkler DA wont prosecute those arrested by the police. Bad causes attract band people, as Robert Stacey McCain says, and to see what he means, one should checkout Andy Ngo's twitter feed to get a look at the freaks and weirdos who show up at these riots. One finds oneself constantly saying, 'She seems nice.' They're rioting in Seattle and Chicago too. This is a preview of our November, people. Stock up on guns and ammo accordingly. 

We've been doing some research on Nelson Rockefeller, newly sworn in president in The Great Nuclear War of 1975. We've gotten a feel for the man, at least how he conducts business. One trap we usually fall into in our books, and we've fallen into it here, is using the prez as a cipher through which readers learn lots of stuff. We've done so here, but it works. Rocky, as he was called, liked big challenges, big causes, but we think here he'll feel overwhelmed. He also liked committees, so that really works for how we like to do things.

We just finished a book about Grant's Overland Campaign of 1864. This may have been the first 'modern' campaign. The Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor were really just one long battle in which the two armies never broke contact. After each battle Grant just kept sliding southeast till he hit Petersburg. The Overland Campaign had more in common with Normandy than Waterloo. It was a nihilistic nightmare of slaughter for both sides. By 19th century standards Grant lost, but by 20th century standards he won by using up the Army of Northern Virginia. While some see a general fighting a war of attrition, we're in the camp that see's Grant constantly looking for an advantage in a quest to destroy Lee. Of course we're a Yankee.