Red Monday and 175 for 75

Mrs. Stroock celebrated Mother's Day with a Phillies doubleheader against the Mets, followed by an eight-point win by her 76rs over the Miami Heat to even the series at 2. 

Happy Victory Day to all of Stroock's Books Russian readers. I guess those capitalist pigs will finally pay for their crimes, eh, comrades? Should 'Victory Day' be spelled with a 'K'? 

Let's begin Victory Day with a special Monday Metal, the Sacred War, sung by the Red Army Choir:

Today would be an excellent opportunity to think about World War 1990: Battle of the GIUK Gap. Romanov, who was commander of Northern Fleet, will be back. So will our suicidal TU-22 Backfire pilots. General Alexander Lebed, commanding the 106th Guards Airborne Division will be a major character. And we're planning on writing about a Soviet submarine. 

Yesterday we mocked sales of the 'Doctor' Jill bio. Today we mock Meghan McCain. The Washington Examiner tells us Meghan's memoir sold less than 250 copies after a few days. Again, we can beat that. And our daddy wasn't even a senator.  Meghan titled her memoir Bad Republican. No, missy. Your daddy was a bad Republican. We wonder what John thinks when he looks up and sees what his daughter's up to.

By contrast...As of this very moment, The Great Nuclear War of 1975 has 175 ratings averaging 4.2 stars.  Sales once again look great this morning. We have a large and varied fan base. We also wonder if our Twitter account is improving sales. There's an undeniable correlation. Which doesn't equal causation. But still...Whatever the reason we are amongst the very best at what we do.

Ukraine is a Vital American Interest...

...Or so Adam Schiff and the other Congressional Dems told us during the first Trump impeachment farce. These reprobates are going to get us into a war with Russia just to prove they were right about Trump, aren't they?

Russia Today reports the Ruski's are evacuating their embassy in Kiev. Uh oh. Whatever Biden and NATO have been doing diplomatically obviously hasn't worked. Joe's is an administration that thinks comparing Manchin and Sinema to other Democrats like George Wallace and Jeff Davis will change their minds. So no surprise there. We tremble.

Zerohedge reports on a senatorial trip to Ukraine: 'In a move that echoes and recalls scenes of the late John McCain visiting the Maidan protests over a half-decade ago which eventually overthrew the prior elected Russia-friendly Ukrainian government, a large group of senators traveled to Kiev this week in order to show support and solidarity with Ukraine's leaders amid the ongoing showdown with Russia, which has amassed troops near the border.' They forget nothing and learn nothing. Echoes of John McCain indeed. We wonder what Meghan's daddy thinks of all this down there.

A fine piece By Andrew J. Bacevich at The American Conservative on how the foreign policy elite concocted this mess: 'Among foreign policy mandarins in present-day Washington, “spheres of influence” have become anathema. Prior generations of U.S. policymakers thought otherwise. Indeed, no great power in recent history has pursued the concept more assertively, albeit with mixed results. To pretend that spheres of influence are alien to the American tradition of statecraft is to engage in self-deception.' Really? We had no idea. Spheres of influence are a good thing. One must needs have a lot of letters after their last name to believe something as stupid as the opposite. Guys, just read Kissinger's The Congress of Vienna. This blog prefers Nicholson.

Let's see what the Globalist establishment thinks of all this. The German Marshall Fund has a long interview with someone named Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff, the GMF's VP and head of the Berlin office. Oh my. One must love the hyphenated name, no? actually Herr Kleine-Brockhoff talks a lot of sense about European military commitments, or lack of. He's not very bellicose at all. Overall we agree with what he has to say. 

Stroock to McCain: Drop Dead

Oh go away:

Everyones Father is important and I respect that. But mine just happened to be an American icon. He passed during a time in our country of deep divide. He represents to many the best of America. I honor him, love him, and talk about him. I do not deserve this unkind criticism. https://t.co/IDQbpb8fPj

— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) November 12, 2019

Hey, we voted for the man twice and gave him money. Look it up. Even we're sick of him, now.

We always thought McCain would have whooped Al Gore. But now we're glad he didn't get the nod from the GOP. A McCain Administration would have been a mess. He would have tried to please the media and appease the Democrats, and in the process alienated the GOP. 

McCain's last act was killing the Obamacare repeal. 

Some conservative he was.

McCain's biggest constituency was the media (which he admitted) and they rewarded the man by portraying him as a warmonger.

Trump Trolls the Dead

President Trump walks the Earth and John McCain doesn't.

For reasons unknown to us, Trump trolls him beyond. At least it annoys Meghan McCain.

Meanwhile the left, media, Democrats, Never Trumpers, pretend to be outraged.

Which is just too rich.

Remind us again who these people vote for in 2008?

See, now McCain is a national hero. In 2008, not so much.

The late senator is just the latest in a continuing series of late Republicans the Dems love.

McCain, W, and Misunderstanding Iraq

Spengler wright's an interesting piece about the establishment's funeral for John McCain. Though generally right, as Spengler always is, he misinterprets events in Iraq:

Bush, supported by Senator McCain and the Republican mainstream, spent $5.6 trillion chasing the phantom of democracy in the Middle East, not to mention more than 6,700 American dead, more than 50,000 wounded and millions of lives disrupted.

There were some establishment types who supported the liberation of Iraq*, but mostly the long slog to the liberation pitted Bush against the Establishment. This includes Europe, the UN, etc.  The New York Times spent months dragging out establishment GOP types like James Baker and Brent Scowcroft to argue against removing Saddam.

The liberation of Iraq was not an establishment act, it was a radical act

*Tom Friedman (we feel gross just writing his name), Michal Ignatieff for a example.

McCain, the what if?

Mark Steyn, whose said our name on air a few times, and whose laundry we would gladly take to the dry-cleaner, makes some interesting points about the 'vicious' John McCain. Do click over.

Indeed McCain was 'vicious' as the Canadian grandee says.

We like to think that had McCain been president on 9/11 he would have said to the Pentagon, 'The only plan I want to hear is how we're going to make Afghanistan into a radioactive wasteland by dinner.'

The Senator

John McCain has died.

We voted for him in the 2000 Virginia primary and again in the 2008 general election. Alas it was not to be.

This Breitbart obit matches our thoughts on the man exactly, especially the final sentence.

McCain was often a bad Republican, bashing Bush and Trump to get positive attention from the press, which he once bragged was his main constituency. Mavericking, we called it.  In 2008 McCain touted his endorsement by the New York Times. 

McCain was sometimes a bad Republican, but not all the time. Here's his speech at the 2004 RNC. Just watch McCain stick it to the traitor Michael Moore. 

He was a stalwart supporter of the Iraq Campaign. When the battle reached the crisis point in 2006 the press expected McCain to turn on Bush and the military. But he didn't. The media never forgave him for that. Ten years after the Surge, McCain was right.

McCain never stood a chance against B. Hussein O.

McCain had a sense of humor, often appearing on the old Don Imus show, cracking jokes and trading insults.

Pilot, POW, hero, senator, presidential candidate. John McCain was a great man and a great American.

Tuesday Tally

John McCain* is dying and making news. He doesn't want Trump at his funeral and he regrets picking Palin for veep. Thus McCain shows us his annoying moral narcissism. With that in mind here are the reasons why we can't stand Senator John McCain:

1-McCain is loved by the media, just so long he is not a threat to them. Hence they used him to hammer W, and now they use him to hammer Trump.**
2-McCain never understood that the media saw him as a tool with which to hammer conservatives.
3-McCain had his chance in 2000 and blew it. He would have whooped Al Gore.
4-McCain bragged about being endorsed by the New York Times.***
5-McCain sponsored Campaign Finance Reform. What's wrong with money in politics?

*We voted for McCain in the 2000 primary and in the 2008 general.
**One should always judge a man by his enemies.
***If one cannot judge a man by his enemies, then judge a man by his friends.

Filibustering Maverick

So John McCain, author of the original Gang of 14 deal in 2005 that saved the judicial filibuster now says he will vote to nuke the filibuster this week.

I'm biased of course, but I've been less hostile to Senator McCain than a lot of other Conservatives. Sure he works hardest against other Republicans, he loves the media and he loves to Maverick.

So stipulated.

McCain was Goldwater's protegee. He has a sense of humor and used to go on the Imus show a lot. He would have whupped Algore in 2000. And on the big issues of the last 15 years he's been right. He went all out for W in 2004, something I was not sure he would do.The press loved him right up until he refused to follow their narrative on Iraq. Rather than make serious, stentorian speech about the need to withdraw, he stuck to his guns and supported the Surge. So did I. Here's his 2004 RNC speech. Michael more got it hard and dry:

No I am not a sycophant. I've long thought he is a walking case for term limits and indeed its time to go.

That said, I'm glad he's around to be right on Neil Gorsuch.