President Powell et al

The knee refuses to settle down even after laying off it for the last 10 days. At this point we're tempted to say fuckall, let's hit the gym anyway. Very often we've found that running with a sore foot clears out the the gout. Maybe just lifting today. It's time to get back to work. We'll see. 

What Will's Watching: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Tina Fey (who looks like and has the same mannerisms as our stupid older sister) plays Kim Baker, a newsroom writer elevated to Afghan television correspondent. Determined to get the story, Baker learns the ins and outs of war reporting. In the process she becomes an old Afghan hand addicted to the job. 'No, this is home,' she tells Martin Freeman, who manages not to make one think of hobbits in his role as a combat photog. Billy Bob Thornton is great as a tough and cynical Marine colonel. Farcical without being snarky.  3/4

For most of the last 30 years General Powell was a figure above the fray, a national hero. This blog believes Colin Powell was a good general and generally a good man. He isn't joining Meghan McCain's dad down there, we'll say that. 

So here's the question, had Powell become president, how would he have done? If we were gonna template, we'd choose Bush the Elder for a theoretical Powell Presidency. Powell would have make conservatives happy on some issues and infuriate them on others; for every Thomas a Souter. He'd try to work with the Dems but get knifed in the gut for his trouble. We just don't think Powell had the necessary political pit fighting skills to get much done. Frankly, this blog believes the Dems would have rolled him. But what kind of wartime president would Powell have made? Now there's an interesting idea. 

Via Powerline a long article by NRO's Dan McLaughlin about the Dems demographics and election prospects. Nut graph, as the J-School losers would say, the Dems have a longterm demographic problem, especially with Hispanic voters. McLaughlin goes on at some length about Ruy Teixeira's Emerging Democratic Majority thesis from 20 years ago, which argued a coalition of rich whites and minorities would rein. 

Teixeira disavows the thesis now*, as polls show working class Hispanics moving toward the GOP.  Why it's almost as if Hispanic Americans are a (what's the word?) diverse group of people with varying interests. Puerto Ricans are different from Cubans who are different from Mexicans, who are different from Guatemalans. Sorta like there's a big difference between Krauts and Eye-talians, no? Sub-headline: Latin world, not a monolith. 

If you're a second generation American whose dad fled Venezuela, you might think the US is a pretty nice place. And hell, maybe if your a Tejano you resent Latin Americans hopping the border illegally. You may be Mexican, but fuck all, you're also a businessman who doesn't like the supply chain crisis. 

Democrats, Marxists at heart, should understand that race isn't the determining factor in politics. Class is. 

If you have three kids, think a great Saturday is working on your truck with the boy while mom and the twins make lunch before the Arkansas/Texas Tech game and plan to attend Church the next day, this blog knows how you're voting. And if your a barren 35ish career woman who works at a Big-5 publisher who claims she likes sensitive men but secretly fantasizes about Don Draper [I know....-Ed] and spends her Sundays at the indy coffee shop reading the NYT's arts and culture section while wondering if it's too late to go to law school, we know how you're voting too.

Class not race. Why don't Dems get that?

*There's tons of useful insights in the original work, regardless. 

Powell on a Russian Wednesday

In which we collude with the Soviets using Colin Powell as cover: 'Colin Powell died October 18, killed by Covid-19. In truth he was already a very sick man and being treated for multiple myeloma, a kind of cancer that attacks the immune system. Despite being fully vaccinated, Powell was extremely vulnerable to Covid. America in 2021 being a nation lacking in empathy, partisans are using Powell’s death to argue over vaccine efficacy. he partisans will argue over Colin Powell's legacy as well. At his death, Powell is probably best remembered as President George W Bush’s secretary of state. In 2003 Powell made the Bush Administration’s case for war with Iraq before the United Nations General Assembly. He argued that Saddam Hussein possessed vast stockpiles of Weapons of Mass Destruction and this could not be allowed in the post-9/11 world. We know now this was untrue.' Click on through....

Back in the 90's, plenty of GOPs wanted Powell to run for president. It's possible he could have won in 1996. He would have done better than Bob Dole. But Powell never had a presidential run in him. We doubt he was politically tough enough to weather a campaign. Powell spent most of his career being revered. How would he have responded to the Clinton/Gore attack machine? Politically speaking now, this blog doesn't think Powell was tough enough to win a presidential race. On the campaign trail he would have been Jeb Bush in uniform.

We are working on the Australian F-111 scenes in The Final Storm. Target: Svobodnyy (SS-11 missiles with a range of 11,000 kilometers.) We are writing and watching tons of F-111 interviews and docs on Youtube. As one of the characters remarks, the Assies and Yanks are taking orders from Japanese AWACs controllers. We have no idea how this raid goes. The 'vark' can carry some really big bombs, like 4,000 pounds. They could at least damage silo caps, no? 

Will Writes: We mentioned yesterday that Colin Powell is a character in the World War 1990 series. We wrote the man as we saw him and did the same with the rest of the Bush admin characters that transfixed us during Desert Storm. We didn't over think things. We didn't pour through memoirs and bios to learn how Dick Cheney liked his steak, or why Paul Wolfowitz wore socks with holes in them.* Like we said, we wrote 'em how we saw 'em. An Amazon reviewer claims to have worked with these men and says we nailed their personalities. Who can say? It didn't take a genius to figure out John Sununu was a conceited jerk. As for Jim Baker, he's a son-of-a-bitch, the kind of man any good admin needs. For The Great Nuclear War series, we've gone deeper into Rockefeller's personality as readers will see the man more intimately. He liked art, women**, couldn't remember names, demanded subordinates offer solutions to problems, and would do work in the car outside the officer before heading to work. Our overall message here is don't over think. Just write.

What Will's Watching: Loudermilk. Two episodes in. Ron Livingston (Office Space, Band of Brothers) plays a former rock journalist. In the 90's he was totally a thing, riding the tour bus with Nirvana, Pavement, REM and the like, and looking the part. Now he's four years sober and burnt out. Filled with Gen-X cynicism and nihilism. This is Gen-X in middle age, a Gen-X Archie Bunker with wit.  Why yes, yes we will finish this season. Why do you ask?

*You're just gonna have to look that up.

** Just look up how he died. Heh.

The Accidental Colin Powell Week (Late Edition)

For younger reader(s), Colin Powell was a quite milestone when made Chair of the Joint Chiefs by Bush, and a sensation during Desert Storm. His memoirs were a best seller. Powell was probably the most respected and revered American of the 1990s. We don't want to get into the Gulf War, or Iraq or WMDs. The man was often wrong but a great American none-the-less. Powell was a man this blog can't help but admire. The quiet calm he projected could be terrifying. 'We're going to cut it off, and then we're going to kill it.'

Powell is a character in the World War 1990 series. We've tried to write the man as we saw him back during the Gulf War. In the books he's a mild-mannered general who manages to say what he thinks without saying anything that might displease the bosses. Powell always was more political than he let on. By the end of the series, the establishment GOP will be begging Powell to save them from Quayle. 

We should have something more on Powell tomorrow for you know who. 'Will,' our handler said, 'You are prepared to write obit about Imperialist Aggressor Powell, are you not, Comrade? He is topic of great interest in Soviet....I mean Russia.' We assured Maxim that we were working on a Powell article presently. In fact we were writing about General Powell on this blog. We were just saying to ourselves, 'You know, I wonder if Maxim wants something on Colin Powell,' when he contacted us by pre-arranged signal only he and ourselves know. 

We have a friend, American, but who immigrated here from a nation which does not necessarily share the same foreign policy goals as the United States and may in fact be quite close to Moscow. 'He's a piece of shit,' our friend said and returned to their breakfast kabob.

General Powell

Throughout World War 1990 we have portrayed General Colin Powell as mild mannered, confident, self assured and reasonable. This at least fits with his public persona during Desert Storm. There was something so lethal in the way he said of Saddam's army, 'We're going to cut of its head, and then we're going to kill it.

Time and again in the World War series, General Powell simply assess the situation and tells the president the truth. Its been a real pleasure to write about him, and even something of an honor.

'I serve at the discretion of the president,' he used to day as secretary of state.

Just so.

He was already something of a celebrity before Desert Storm. After the war he became, and remains one of the most respected living Americans.

Which means it was always nuts for Hillary! to try to drag him into here whole email disaster. Check this out:

“I told her staff three times not to try that gambit. I had to throw a mini tantrum at a Hampton’s party to get their attention. She keeps tripping into these ‘character’ minefields,” Powell lamented. He noted that he had tried to settle the matter by meeting with Clinton aide Cheryl Mills in August.

Who are these goddamn people? When someone like Colin Powell 'throws a mini tantrum' this should get their attention, perhaps cause one to reconsider what one is doing, maybe get out of town for a while. Or I should say, who do these goddamn people think they are? Cheryl Mills, Huma Abadin, they're political lickspittles. At the center of power? Please. To the Clinton's everyone is disposable. Just ask the long list of people they've stepped on and discarded during the last 25 years.

I hope its worth it.