Friday Before the Storm

Storm's a-coming. Let's hope the new sump and backup battery hold out. 

Ukraine says Israel has let it down, '“We would like to hear from Israel more open and more frank condemnation of the Russian aggression, especially on the political level,” Maksym Subkh, Ukraine’s Special Representative for the Middle East and Africa, told The Times of Israel on Sunday, “and we would like to hear those statements coming from the top political officials of Israel.” Putin has always been a friend to the Jew. I don't know that Russia and the Jews have ever gotten along this well. That's more important than supporting The Current Thing. Get fucked, comedienne. 

Campaign 2022 Report for NJ07: We can't go on YouTube and Mrs. Stroock can't stream a Phillies game without seeing ads for incumbent Democrat Tom Malinowski or GOP challenger Tom Kean. Malinowski links Kean to Trump and talks about abortion, 'I'm pro-choice, period,' he declares. Kean slams Malinowski on spending and crime. Kean also refuses to talk to the media. Has he learned? We think he has learned. Smart. Kean is definitely running more ads than Malinowski. We haven't seen many campaign signs yet. Too early?

New polling shows incumbent GOP senator Ron Johnson beating challenger Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin. Gradually GOPs once thought to be vulnerable are pulling ahead. Just as we expected. Circumstances, ideas, candidates. The circumstances alone are a tremendous drag on the Dems. The RCP averages will become a sea of red. 

Speaking of polls, Trafalgar Group is often slammed for being pro-GOP, but they are unquestionably the most accurate pollster. How accurate? Last year in New Jersey most pollsters had Phil Murphy winning by 8-10 points with a final average of 7.8 percent. Look at the pollsters who missed by five or more points, Monmouth, Stockton, and Big-10 powerhouse Rutgers*. You know, New Jersey universities. These polls vastly underestimated support for Jack Citarelli. We saw it with our own eyes, his signs were everywhere.** Trafalgar gave Murphy a 4 point lead. He won by 2.8 percent. Trust Trafalgar. 

After 6 years we have 407 followers on Gab. What would that be on Twitter, several thousand? Meh. We actually have two Twitter accounts, one for reading Tweets, one for Tweeting. The latter is probably a waste of time. We're going to ramp up our Gab activity and see what happens. 

We'll be finishing up The New American Order's refugee chapter today. It morphed into a Canadian chapter so gradually...The chapter is looking pretty good. Other subjects...just who the hell told President Ford to try to take out the Politburo with a nuclear attack on Moscow? This is mostly an excuse to write about Heath and Ryan from Looking Glass. 

It was 20 years ago right about now that we signed up for our MA program at American Public University. We chose the American Revolution. This was a mistake. We should have majored in the War Between the States, those term papers would all have been publishable and probably have led to a book. But we'd been out of Northern Virginia for a year, and even in the early 2000s there was a whiff of the old Confederacy to be had. Every day back then we drove on the Jeff Davis Highway. Anyway, we were sick of Civil War nostalgia. Oh well.

For some pointless nostalgia, here's a GE commercial from 1989:

GE, we bring good things to life. GE was a mega corporation that did a bit of everything, include own NBC. These commercials were everywhere in the late 80's and early 90's, especially Sunday morning Meet the Press and dare it be recalled, The Mcgloughlin Group and we're guessing NFL and college football. This is like the soundtrack to our formative years. 

*Mrs. Stroock has tickets to see her Nittany Lions humiliate the Scarlet Nights later this season. 

**Pundits who don't think campaign signs are a meaningful indicator of enthusiasm and support don't understand politics and should find something else about which to opine. Quilting competitions, maybe.