Will's Wednesday Woes

The basement has been remediated. Our walls are gone. Next step, drywall estimates. Then carpet. And then....

Right now our library is a pile of books in the utility room. Twenty-five years ago we had one book case. When we moved to New Jersey we had four. Last week we lugged 12 book cases up to the curb. Each had been stacked with books. That's roughly 25 years of accumulation. We've been wondering, do we really need it anymore? What are we going to do, accumulate another 500 books over the next 25 years?

Our doubts have a lot to do with age and the passage of time. We don't mind that it's been nearly 30 years since we graduated high school or that we're pushing 50. For younger readers, age accelerates time. Going from 30-45 was a lot quicker than 15-30. Once we hit 50, 60 is right around the corner. We just know we'll wake up on July 19, 2033 and think, wow that was a quick decade. 

Our magazine article writing days are over, for the most part. We really don't need the books we got for a piece on the Fulani Jihad or WWII in the Middle East or the South Koreans in Vietnam. So we're just not sure there's a point to hanging on to all these history books. Over a thousand of them. Maybe we're just cynical and jaded. 

Zerohedge reports Californians have soundly voted no on recall. This blog is pleased. California wants Gavin Newsom. California asked for Gavin Newsom. California deserves Gavin Newsom. California uber-ales. As we compared Newsom and Justin before, for those interested, here's what's happening up in the land of hockey and canoe portage. We expect Fidel Castro's kid to win. 

Which brings us to What Will's Watching, Alone Across the Arctic: Adventurer Adam Shoalts canoes from Dawson across northern Canada to Baker Lake. The scenery is breathtaking. The man's endurance is astonishing. In all he travels something like 3000 miles. On many occasions he has to carry his canoe dozens of kilometers, then go back and get all his stuff.* 4/4

More good work on the The Final Storm. We went back through the Sovietski opener and then read through the Washington DC opener. We may need another scene there. We also did some side work on The Weser. We'll do some more today.

*It makes us sick to use so called 'metric numbers'.

California: Take Your Lance and Stick it

Via Instapundit, well this is...ironic? 

Peak Vox pic.twitter.com/vmpuhDmBKt

— Matt Mackowiak (@MattMackowiak) December 17, 2019

For those wondering, I'm a freelancer, in New Jersey, thankfully. While I've had written contracts for individual pieces, I've never had a contract for providing X number of articles in Y amount of time.

Basically, the good Marxists in the California state legislature are trying to force news organization, periodicals, etc to hire people full time. As if the year is 1975 and reporters must needs go into the office daily to file their stories.

Of course I write for a news outfit in Moscow, a military history magazine in London, a history magazine in Canada...

Bunch of dumbass, idiot, ass-fuck, Hispter-Millennial morons at Vox.

Shitheads.

The written word has never been cheaper and those who wish to write should really have a side-gig, say writing novels, teaching college history and/or Mr. Mom duty. We run a first rate dad-Uber-to-dance service and last night we made BBQ chicken quesadillas.

The immortal Robert Stacey McCain is always hectoring his readers to 'Hit the freakin' tip jar.' As they said in Vaudeville, don't clap, just thrown money. Hey, why don't you people click on one of those links and buy a freakin' novel?

California Trio

So the plan to split California into three states has made the November ballot.

Not being Californian we can't say how much sense the proposed three states make, though a North California based on San Francisco and a South California based on Los Angeles make sense to us. Click over for a map of the proposed three state solution.**

California is a state that sets it self apart. Here is a progressive utopia trying to enforce the rules of progressivism all it's own: high taxes, gun control, heck there's even an attempt to enforce Net Neutrality there. 

Anyone else notice Net Neutrality died yesterday? Yeah, me neither.

Of course as a New Yorker by birth we were raised to hate California on principal.

We think there is a 1/3 chance the United States will be in a civil war in a decade. We think there is a better than 50/50 chance that President Trump, or his successor, say President Pence or President Haley* will have to send Federal Troops to a progressive municipality to enforce Federal law the way Jackson did with the tariff or Ike did with school desegregation.

In that light, we feel some sort of separation is not only possible but preferable.

*We hope Haley.
**We actually know someone who owns a house on the Salton Sea

Break me off a Piece of that Cali-state

CNBC tells us that plans for a California breakup or outright secession continue apace:

A proposed California secession measure has been cleared to begin gathering needed signatures to qualify for the ballot.  

A similar effort by the so-called Calexit organizers failed last year.  

At the same time, there's an initiative backed by billionaire Tim Draper to split California into three states that could make the Nov. 6 ballot.  

Yet another proposal known as "New California" seeks to carve out rural counties into the 51st state and is critical of the state's sanctuary policies

Here's the plan to breakup the state:

On the surface this breakup map makes sense, though we admit we know nothing about the state. Any California readers want to weigh in? You people know who you are.

Fifty states is a nice round number but there's nothing preventing the creation of more. Perhaps some of these states no longer make sense.

In our own New Jersey the state is really two entities, the north in NYC's orbit, the south in Philadelphia's.* Northern Virginia (NOVA) really has nothing in common with Richmond or Newport News. Western Massachusetts doesn't even exist as far as the rest of the People's Republic is concerned.

Of course we subscribe to the 'Texans and other real Americans' view of the United States, so maybe California secession is for the best. 

 *The dreaded 609 area code.

Questions for the Republic of California: Border and Soverignty

Now that you've seceded from the Union and taken Oregon and Washington State with you, we've got some questions for you Cali:

1. Doesn't Hawaii have to come along too?
2. Might you try to take British Columbia along with you?
3. In which nations will you open an embassy?
4. Do you recognize Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel? A toughie.
5. What do you plan on doing about US military installations in California? You've got to expel American forces, no? What about the missile base at Vandenberg?
6. Will you institute tolls on Interstates leading into California?
7. How do you plan to control the border with Mexico, the United States and Canada?
8. What size army will you have? We suggest ten brigades + a reservist system similar to the Israeli model. Each reserve brigade can be based on a major city. You'll need a marine and airborne bde as well.
9.What size navy do you intend? We suggest two carriers like the Royal Navy and French Marine Nationale, five escorts per carrier (that'll come to 20 destroyers 6 cruisers), twelve attack submarines and the capability to deploy a marine brigade. With support ships, etc, etc, you're looking at a 50 ship navy. That doesn't even include the dozens of patrol craft you'll need for your long coastline.
10. Will the Republic of California have nuclear weapons?
11. As you are now the premier power in the Pacific, how will you deal with North Korea?

Califronia Californicated

The Washington Post just ran a story about the next governor of California, San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom. The gist of the article was Newsom basically saying, 'If you think California is leftwing now, wait till you get a load of me.'

For all his weirdness, Jerry Brown always was kind of respectable. Anyone elected to the governorship in 1974 is going to be a bit off anyway, right? And we always liked his 13% flat tax idea. But Newsom?

San Francisco...good god. Of course we're a New Yorker by birth, so as Detective John McClain once said, 'Fucking Californians'.

We've noted before that Republicans in California's interior are trying to breakoff from the rest of the state. For that matter the rest of the state is basically trying to breakoff from America. It's as if the great Facebook Friends on the Other side Purge is being played out for real. Our FB friend Kathy Shaidle likes to say that you should purge your leftwing friends. We have, at least the people who think Trump is a Nazi. Maybe it's time for America to purge California?