We've always liked the heat...

...the Jews are a desert people. It calls to us, we yearn for it. 

Yesterday we sat on the back porch in the 90 degree sun and enjoyed a bear and an Arturo Fuente (short story), our first in a couple weeks. We like baking in this manner. Don't tell us we don't got no Southern Heritage.

We went and did a post at Helen's Page for Israel at War and her Enemies and got ourselves Instalanched again. The post did ok but not nearly as well as the post for The Austrian Painter. 

[Because the second post is for a short history-Ed]

Yes. It's obvious, but it's still nice to see what we know confirmed: the history book will not do as well as the alternate history book. There's only so much you can do. We actually pretty happy with the surge in Israel at War sales. 

We'll be doing another post today.

Mask mandate in New Jersey ends tomorrow and we can't wait. Which is kinda sad. They'll be requiring masks in school next fall even so. We will openly defy any chain store trying to make us wear a mask and dare them to do something about it.* 

We did some decent work on 76 yesterday and feel a lot better about the chapters in question. We realized that we had a chapter dealing with agriculture and politics and we needed to separate out the politics and concentrate more on the ag stuff. We wrote a Matt scene (he's getting close) and made it partially about farming in Indiana. Fields full of workers, short corn stalks, kids used to scare away insects, etc etc. 

Loyal reader Tyler Nelson askes about comprehensive casualty figures in World War 1990. We've listed some. Remember Akhromayev learned the Soviets have taken a million casualties. It's a good question really. We'll be able to talk about this in World War 1990: Election '92.

Remember, 1992 will not be a good year. Europeans are relieved but pissed. The president exhausted and out of it, not up to the task. America is ravaged by recession, much deeper than the real 1992 recession. It's got a veteran crisis, tens of thousands of wounded, men riven with PTSD, homeless vets, listless vets, unemployed vets. They'll attempt a victory parade that will turn into a disaster. This is really gonna be Pat Buchanan's time.

*Already have, actually

Wither Wuhan Not New York

Via Instapundit, Bret Stephens Writes

I write this from New York, so it’s an argument against my personal interest. But I don’t see why people living in a Nashville suburb should not be allowed to return to their jobs because people like me choose to live, travel and work in urban sardine cans. Gina Raimondo, the Rhode Island governor, was on to something when, a few weeks ago, she wanted to quarantine drivers arriving from New York. The rest of America needs to get back to life. We New Yorkers prefer our own company, anyway.

This blog has noted previously that it likes the idea of New Yorkers being hunted down and imprisoned. Nuke it from orbit, we say. Or at least destroy the Hudson River crossings.

We're Ground Zero adjacent here. New Jersey has 105,523 cases and 5,863 deaths, Somerset County 2,713 cases and 217 deaths, Bridgewater 315 cases and 39 deaths (out of 42,000 people). 

Stephens goes on to note that New Yorkers are a provincial lot, assuming that becuase they're getting ravaged by the Beijing Bug the rest of the country must be as well. Here one is constantly aware of the Wuhan Virus from Wuhan. But we suspect in say, Tennessee, or Texas or Missouri, Beijing's hand is barely felt at all.

Give me that Olde Time Dem

People like their Blue Dog Democrats. Old fashioned Dems in the mold of Truman, JFK, even Clinton. Back in the day we had senators like tough on communism Scoop Jackson, strong on defense Sam Nunn, monetary braniac Paul Simon and civic minded nationalist Daniel Patrick Moynihan, for whom we once voted. Heck, original Algore was a Blue Dog Dem, then his wiring went wrong and he became Box Car Al*.

Anyway, these were steady, responsible men. The country knew Blue Dog Dems wanted social change, but could trust them to keep the nation strong.

When we first got into politics we were a conservative Democrat. Morton Kondrake was our favorite pundit on the old McLaughlin Group.

The country would much rather pass the Oval Office from Truman and JFK to Nixon and Bush the Elder. This rough consensus did some great things between 1945 and 2000. 

Instapundit likes to say that all Dems have to do in November is not be crazy, but they can't even pull that off. Worse for them, the GOP is managing to fight off crazy this time around. See the recent WV Senate primary.

As the left goes really left, the right goes Trump and the center is left to choose. Between San Fran Nan and Trump, the center will choose Trump.

*The man once said that defense of the environment should be the 'central organizing principle' of our society. In other countries people who say things like that heard other people into box cars. Algore is the most terrifying politician of our lifetime.

Election 2018

Circumstances, Ideas, Candidates. You need these things to win.

Over at Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds points out that in a few dozen house races the Dem candidate is out fundraising the GOP candidate:

REMEMBER 2006: Democrats are outraising GOP House incumbents in dozens of races: The latest 2018 fundraising numbers look bad for Republicans. The press will be playing up Dem chances from now until November, of course, but I remember in 2006 telling folks in Washington that the GOP was in trouble and being ignored. And for ordinary folks, you can do a lot more by picking a race — even if it’s not in a state or district where you live — and volunteering/donating than by tweeting or posting blog comments.

2006 is a great reference point. Back then we thought the Dems would gain but believed the GOP would hold onto congress.

Ooops.

Right now the Dems are highly motivated and they're raking in the cash. Presumably they have good candidates and the money is following them. So that's one of our three factors for electoral victory.

Remember, Circumstances, Ideas, Candidates. You need two win. The Dems have one.

Bundy Ranch Nullified

We love this:

A federal jury in Las Vegas refused Tuesday to convict four defendants who were retried on accusations that they threatened and assaulted federal agents by wielding assault weapons in a 2014 confrontation to stop a cattle roundup near the Nevada ranch of states' rights figure Cliven Bundy.

In a stunning setback to federal prosecutors planning to try the Bundy family patriarch and two adult sons later this year, the jury acquitted Ricky Lovelien and Steven Stewart of all 10 charges, and delivered not-guilty findings on most charges against Scott Drexler and Eric Parker.

Here's part of the original Bundy Ranch standoff:

We don't pretend to understand Western land management issues but it seems to us the Bundy's are guilty as hell.

We don't care.

Back in our professorial days we used to teach about John Peter Zenger, the great 1730s New York newspaperman who published things that made governor William Cosby look bad. It was illegal to do so. The crown brought Zenger to trial and the jury, determining that Zenger was publishing true facts, nullified the prosecution.

We love jury nullification.

Here is what the great Professor Glenn Reynolds has to say on the matter:

If you are a member of a jury in a criminal case, even if you think the defendant is guilty of the crimes charged, you are entirely free to vote for acquittal if you think that the prosecution is malicious or unfair, or that a conviction in that case would be unjust, or that the law itself is unconstitutional or simply wrong. And if you do so, there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

Judges and prosecutors know this. But they don’t want jurors to know it, which is why we occasionally see cases like this one, in which jury-information activist Mark Iannicelli was arrested and charged with “jury tampering” for setting up a small booth in front of a Denver courthouse labeled “Juror Info” and passing out leaflets. Putting up a sign and passing out leaflets sounds like free speech to me, but apparently Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey feels differently.

We welcome more of this and say so proudly, which is probably why we never get called to jury duty.

45 Years On

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