Will gets all Nostalgic

Yesterday we looked back to 2001. We're going to go back even further today, prompted by an old commercial we caught on Youtube from 1991.  Here's the commercial, Leon Redbone for Chevy. It feels like 1991. The aesthetic is dated but has aged well. Better than 1971, that's for sure. Also this year is the 30th anniversary of a tape us crazy kids made in June of that year.* That time of our lives, that year, a junior and 17, has always been special. When we look back, all we see is the sun. 

Don't know why, there was nothing special going on. We weren't really dating, we weren't on the football team or anything. The Giants won the Super Bowl. We had a bit role in the HS musical, Anything Goes. We still remember our line, 'Hey it's Reno Sweeney and her Angels!' We know all the words to the songs and can still do the dance numbers. We loved, loved, doing Blow, Gabriel, Blow.** 

We wore a lot of ripped jeans and T-shirts, floppy haircut. We looked like a modified version of a late 70's teenager, on purpose. That's the year we discovered classic rock. 

It was just happy. If we could bottle it....man. 

Sometimes we can capture the flavor, the essence of the moment.  We feel silly for reminiscing, but then we recall all the songs doing the exact same thing, Kid Rock, Don Henley, etc etc. 

Here's a great article from the Times of Israel about what a dirty, back stabbing, double dealing sonofabitch Bibi is. Surprise. As noted previously, a more circumspect man would have stepped aside two elections ago. It seems he's going to remain Likud leader in opposition. This blog considers that bad form. Come on Bibi retire. Write your memoirs. Think of the speaking fees you'll command in America. 

A great day before the page, er screen yesterday. On V Corps' front, General Franks will be releasing the 8th Mechanized Division for the NATO counterattack. We found the commander, General David Maddox. Our NATO status update 'shoot around' is turning out great. We have to do US III Corps now, moving out from it's assembly areas in the south Netherlands for the battlefield. After the Ruski advance is stopped on the Weser, they're gonna hammer them. Hmmm...Yes. We think SACEUR is gong to pull a Pershing and insist III Corps isn't used in bits but is assembled for a massive counterattack. Which is one of the reasons why the situation is so dire in NORTHAG. 

*The Black Tape of Mail. It's nothing bad or even interesting. Haven't watched in 15 years. It's in a box someplace in the basement.

**Yes, that presented some challenges in 1991

***We considered cropping that photo but then thought, Cut out the pretty girl, are you nuts?

Fridays

Well, the microwave installers came, took one look and said, 'We can't do this, boss.' They didn't even break out a screwdriver. I've never been ruder to a deliveryman in my life. We were mad, existentially so. We have a fridge and stove coming in the next weeks and we were seriously considering cancelling the entire order. But we held our fire. After 47 years we know that screaming at managers gets nothing done and when it's over one comes away feeling like a jerk.  Instead we unleashed Mrs. Stroock on the bastards. She does that sort of customer service stuff for a living. Let's just say things are working themselves out. 

In the Westminster system, Bibi would have stepped aside after the 2nd or 3rd deadlocked election. Hence the problem with Bibi. As we write this, he's trying to get MKs to defect from Bennet's coalition. This blog admires the man's fight, but it's over Bibi. Go write your memoirs.

Huh. People are just figuring out that the Wuhan Virus from Wuhan China was engineered in a lab, leaked (probably on purpose), and Fauci is a fast talking self promoter protecting his bureaucratic empire. Wait till these folks find out about the election. Reminder: Jeffrey Epstein did not kill himself. 

Below, apropos of nothing, the Friday flag, Bermuda:

Thursday News Round Up

NJ.com reported that NY enlisted private snow plows to help clear the snow, calling them 'Minutemen'. On FB we remarked, ' Language! Please try to avoid language like “minutemen” this is a radical militia construct. Try “snowhelpers” instead.' Good news here, as most people think we're daft. In fact, the word  'retarded' peppered the replies. 'That's sarcasm, right?' As we're wearing a black suit, white shirt, hammer and sickle tie while standing before the Soviet flag in our FB pic, some people just aren't so sure. 

The war profiteer's daughter was not defenestrated ....from her position in the GOP leadership. No moral or phyric victories A GOP that wants Liz Cheney leading it doesn't want Will.

The Times of Israel has new polling and it shows what an anti-Bibi coalition could look like: 'According to the survey, a coalition of Yesh Atid, New Hope, Yamina, Labor, Yisrael Beytenu, and Blue and White would win 61 seats, giving it a majority in the Knesset. With the left-wing Meretz, it would pick up 66.Netanyahu’s bloc, comprising Likud and the two ultra-Orthodox parties, meanwhile, would win just 44. Even with Yamina, such a coalition would still fall seven seats short of a majority. Leaders of other Zionist parties have not expressed a willingness to sit in a Netanyahu-led coalition.' That is the not-Bibi bloc 61, the Bibi-bloc 41. Who the hell would head up the anti-Bibi bloc is anyone's guess. We shrug. Sure, we like him, but Bibi's gotten a little old. He's been there a long time. Can't you find something else to do, Bibi? Think of the conservatives and evangelical Christians, Bibi could make a killing on the speaking circuit in America. 

Governor Kristi Noem (Total Hottie, North Dakota*) writes: "There are a lot of Americans whose frustration has been building for many years. Republicans have had opportunities to fix our healthcare system, reform immigration, and get our fiscal house in order, among many other things. Republicans have had chances to deliver for the American people. But we haven’t followed through." Problem diagnosed. Is Noem the candidate to take on '47 in 2024? Meh. Most of the rest of the article is conservative boilerplate. 

With the GOP having failed, here's what's next, Dave Portnoy and the rise of the Barstool Conservatives. The article pretty much describes where we are. Meh, do what you want, keep us out and LOL get fucked weirdo:  "What Trump recognized was that there are millions of Americans who do not oppose or even care about abortion or same-sex marriage, much less stem-cell research or any of the other causes that had animated traditional social conservatives. Instead he correctly intuited that the new culture war would be fought over very different (and more nebulous) issues: vague concerns about political correctness and "SJWs," opposition to the popularization of so-called critical race theory, sentimentality about the American flag and the military, the rights of male undergraduates to engage in fornication while intoxicated without fear of the Title IX mafia."

*We don't know which Dakota is which and can't be bothered to look it up. The East Coast Bias is real. 

The Weekend's Best Seller Was...

...Israel Strikes: War of the Red Sea.

Are YOU reading it? If not, why not?

Just like real life there's plenty of Knesset intrigue.

In real life, Likud and the Blue and Whites continue negotiations. At this point it looks like a three year agreement with Bibi stepping aside after 18 months. We can live with that.

The Israeli police keep breaking up large Hasidim gatherings. We are having the same problem here in New Jersey. There's a large Hasidim population down in Lakewood, about half an hour from here. The cops have broken up two home pop-up weddings, arrested the home owners, and closed a Yeshiva that was still housing students.

Readers will perhaps understand our disdain for this people.

Anyway:

Liberman and...the Arabs?

It looks like they might finally have found a way to drive ol Bibi down

Avigdor Liberman will join Gantz and the Blue and Whites provided they agree to certain secularist demands, like bus services on the Sabbath. The Arab Joint List may also join the Blue and Whites, provided they get a few goodies, like repeal of the Nation State Law*. Of course Liberman and the Joint List both hate one another, but they also hate the Haredi and Bibi.

Bibi's corruption trial begins on the 17th. 

*Says obvious, Israel is Jewish.

Bibi be Mine

Bibi, you magnificent bastard, you did it!

As of this writing Likud's late surge in the polls gives them 36-37 seats to the Blue and White's 33. Overall the right-bloc won 59-60 seats. Still short of a majority, so they'll have to find a couple of MKs to switch parties. 

Not our problem.

Blue and White leader Benny Gantz should step aside. He can't get the job done. 

Meanwhile Benjamin Netanyahu is the once and future Prime Minister of Israel.

Oh, his corruption trial starts the 17th.

Election Wrap

Biden's campaign of the undead staggers on to Super Tuesday.

In other news, on Monday the Israelis will have their third election in a year. We haven't written about it becuase we had forgotten about it. It looks like we'll have more or less the same result as the other two elections. For those requiring an update. Avigdor Liberman and his Israel Bitenyu party have refused to enter into a right-bloc coalition. They hate Arabs but they hate Haredi Jews even more. Hence the impasse.

Rumor has it, and by rumor we mean our Rabbi said on Friday, that Liberman will throw in with Benny Ganz and the Blue and Whites. Which is just fine with us. Ganz has endorsed the Trump peace plan. He ain't no Shimon Peres.

After that we have Super Tuesday! So lame. Readers should understand we're holding up our hand and making an L sign as we type this.

Oh no, not again

We haven't written much about Israel's Year of the Election because frankly we're bored to death by it.

Bibi has failed to form a government and returned the mandate to President Rivlin, whose asked Ganz and the Blue and Whites to try.

Here's a summation of where things are and where they might be heading.

In theory Liberman and Israel Bitenyu could join the Arab Joint List in a coalition with the Blue and Whites. Stranger things have happened. But we dunno, man. You're talking about a million Russian Jews who want to stomp Gaza flat and would be perfectly happy to expel Arabs from Israel. That's a hell of a tough sell.

Polls show the nation is sick of Netanyahu. Even we're a bit weary. Our sense is Bibi's finished. 

Third election? Come on, God, we went to services for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukhot. Don't do this to us. 

Lords of Kobol? Crom? The Many Faced God...is there anybody out there? Anybody at all?

Oil Sheiks: The Jews Ain't so Bad

If reader(s) are wondering why we haven't been commenting on the ongoing coalition talks in Israel it's becuase we're bored by the whole thing.

For what it's worth the parties are deadlocked, Netanyahu is closer to indictment and he just had to put down a revolt within Likud. Our sense is Bibi is finished. But who knows.

However, this from the Times of Israel is kind of interesting:

Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Sunday confirmed that he has been advancing non-aggression treaties with several Arab countries in the Gulf, a “historic” démarche he said could end the conflict between Jerusalem and those states.  “Recently I have been promoting, with the backing of the prime minister, a diplomatic initiative to sign ‘non-aggression agreements’ with the Arab Gulf states,” Katz wrote on Twitter. 

Iran is so bellicose they've driven the Jews and the oil-sheiks together. A messianic doomsday cult of a regime trying to get nukes will do that. Well done, Tehran, that's some first rate diplomacy.

And so we see the groundwork being laid for an Israeli strike on Iran. It's almost as if someone has read Israel Strikes, or something.

Truth be told, the Gulf State's Juden Hass was always pro-forma. Going to war with Israel or supporting the Palis would be work, and no Saudi wants that. Besides, Nobody in the Arab world actually likes the Palestinians. Nobody.

Right Leaning Israel

A new Israeli poll shows both Likud and the Blue and Whites losing ground and the smaller parties gaining ground. However:

Although Blue and White led the poll, the results showed that Likud together with its likely right-wing allies and ultra-Orthodox parties would still be able to form a majority bloc of 64 seats out of the 120 total in the Knesset, making Netanyahu the most likely candidate to be the next prime minister.

It's not as complicated as it sounds.

Imagine if the GOP broke up into its constituent blocks. There'd be  two main right parties, the GOP led by Jeb Bush, the Trump Party, then several smaller parties. These would include the Libertarians led by Rand Paul, the Constitutionalists led by Ted Cruz, a religious right party led by a Great Plains senator, a McCainist party led by Tom Cotton or maybe Marco Rubio- and so on.

However one wants to look at the Israeli elections, the right looks to be in good shape.

Bibi Holding

The Jerusalem Post tells us that two different polls show the Blue and Whites coming down from their post announcement high of 35-37 seats and in a tie at around 30 with Bibi and Likud. Worse for the anti-Bibi crowd, the right block of parties would win 61 seats, just enough to form a government.

We've read about Benny Gantz, the Blue and White Leader. He's a general, former IDF chief of staff. Over here that'd make him a celebrity and favorite, but not in Israel. Everyone's in the military over there and they get a new CoS every few years.

Benny Gantz’s first assignment as a young army recruit was to participate in securing Egyptian president Anwar Sadat’s historic visit to Israel in 1977.

Twenty-three years later, he was the last Israeli soldier to leave Lebanon after Israel’s unilateral withdrawal in 2000.

Today, four years after he left the army as its 20th chief of staff, he is the first person in a long while who has a realistic chance of replacing Benjamin Netanyahu as Israel’s prime minister.

Though he has zero political experience and the high-tech company he chaired for three years was a spectacular failure, Gantz, a tall, 59-year-old, father of four, seems to be convincing an increasingly large group of Israeli voters that he can lead the country better than his former boss.

We can't quite put our finger on it, but for us personally, there just doesn't seem to be much there-there. 

The race has regressed to the mean.

It seems to us that the Blue and Whites need to peel off guys like me from Likud. Even as Bibi seems just a little more despicable everyday, they're not doing it.

Wail on this Wall

The Times of Israel tells us that the Blue and White Party is going for the secular vote:

The original plan, which Blue and White will push for, includes three key provisions: a joint entrance to the main Western Wall plaza and the egalitarian prayer space; a new permanent pavilion greatly enlarging the existing modest prayer deck, which has served as a site for pluralistic prayer since 2000; and, perhaps most controversially, a joint council made up of representatives from liberal streams of Judaism and government representatives that would be in charge of overseeing the site.

This is a pretty big deal.

Israeli religious life is controlled by the ultra-Orthodox. 

While the Wailing Wall lays in Israeli territory, it is holy to all Jews. The ultra-Orthodox and or Haredi political/religious establishment still control the site becuase Bibi needs to curry favor with them.

We're not saying Bibi has lost our vote*, but he's certainly losing it.

We look forward to the rest of the Blue and White's platform which will be released later this week.

*entirely metaphorical

Bibi Withered

The Times of Israel tells us that Bibi is on the brink:

A decision by the attorney general to press charges, pending a hearing, in the criminal investigations against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could have a game-changing impact on the April 9 elections, a new Times of Israel poll shows. The ruling Likud party would lose both a significant chunk of support, as well as its ability to form a coalition after the vote, the survey, published overnight Wednesday-Thursday, finds.

The charges would knock Likud down from 30 seats to 25. 

Bibi and Likud have taken two major shots now, the other shot being the alliance with the Kahanists.

A third shot would knock out Bibi for good, no?

We here at William Stroock dot blogspot dot com could go Blue and White. Maybe it's time. Leaders often don't know when to pack in it. Churchill was forced out. So was Maggie.