Your Tuesday Post on Various

Great back to back days at the gym. Those hour long runs aren't getting any easier, even with the 15 minute trainings we've been doing at 4.5 with an incline. We even lost track of time and forgot how many songs we listened to. 

We had a couple of great Weser plot ideas on the treadmill. Introducing British tank lieutenant Gurmeet Veer.  Yes he's a Sikh and he will draw Soviet blood. Also, we're doing the thing where an American woman has to stay behind at the 2nd Armored Division (Forward) Kaserne because her father is on his death bed and can't be moved. Oh, and her maiden name is Katarina Romanovich. We're telling this story from the Soviet POV.

Steve Sailer has an interesting alternate history idea, What if Franz Ferdinand had lived? : 'Somewhat like Kaiser Wilhelm, Franz Ferdinand had a difficult personality, so it’s not inevitable that if he’d succeeded his uncle Franz Joseph as emperor in 1916 that he could have pulled off his plan for the survival of his empire (in particular, demoting Hungary to equal status with the Slavs sounds like a real challenge). But it also seems like he was the guy who had the most plausible plan for maintaining the balance of power in Europe by keeping his empire together. And that’s one reason that the Serb conspirators chose him as their victim.' We didn't do much with the Austrian Empire in The Austrian Painter, no more than a note that the empire broke up more or less peacefully, which would have been an accomplishment. The Slav can be unruly.

This blog remains in awe of the president's decrepitude and the presses' ability and willingness to hide it. The media is beating up on Willie Brown's mistress over her handling of the Biden border crisis and her terrible interviews. The question is why? She's the president in waiting. Is this coming from Ron Klain and 'Doctor' Jill Biden? Do they think they can get her to resign?  Is this an attempt to soften her up before she becomes president so Klain can remain the power behind the boudoir?

Sunday Various

It's Valentines Day. We got Mrs. Stroock the same thing we get her every year, being the best husband and father we can be within reason. Later we're going to look at appliances (don't even think about it).

Back to the gym and it was glorious. Forty minutes on the treadmill at 3.5. We made ourselves go from 30 to 40. Next time we'll reel off that last five minutes. Think of how much it hurts now, and how great it will feel at 45. Then we lifted weights. We felt great all day. The feet are in good shape.

We should probably comment on the Dem's disastrous day...

Dems head to the can, slip in the stall, whack head on toilet, balance themselves by sticking hand in the bowl, slip on wet floor coming out of stall and fall on the sink, which collapses under their own weight. In the next stall, Mitch McConnel leans over and licks his nuts. Outside, seven GOP senators unzip.

How does one solve a problem like Mitch McConnell? on the one hand, judges, on the other...This is disloyalty of the Nikki Haley kind. We were a few days away from writing a post about how deadly a combination a Rubio/Haley ticket would be. Glad we didn't write it. Little Marco is working on gun control legislation, we hear. Yeah, sorry, no. Disloyalty to Trump is disloyalty to Will. McConnel's Cocaine Mitch status is hereby revoked. 

One of our fellow North Americans commented to us yesterday that the Dems are going to keep trying to get Trump. Why yes, yes they are. It's almost as if the Dems want a war.* They're deranged that's just all there is to it. Is there anyone in the White House to say, 'Guys, wouldn't you rather work on the Green Nude Eel?' This blog's support for GOP candidates in 2022 is contingent upon those candidates promising to impeach Joe Biden (or '47) in 2023 and remove key Dem members from their committee assignments. We suspect tens of millions of Deplorables feel the same.

Yesterday a member of this blog's Confederate contingent (who should know better) made an unfortunate dishwasher joke. Mrs. Stroock has been made aware and is not pleased. We're both in trouble. For foreign readers, the American south is one of the great matriarchies in all human history. Down there the womenfolk rule by batting their eyes and asking you to get a Tupperware container off the top shelf or opening a jar of pimento cheese.

Reading Jerry Pournelle's Mamelukes, we saw a lot of combat sequences that were only 500 words, even less. These moved the plot along nicely. Over time readers may have noticed that our scenes get longer and longer, as we've felt short scenes are missed opportunities. But seeing how well they worked in Mamelukes, maybe we're wrong.

*I'm sorry is that inciteful? Lol, get fucked.

Heed Senator McCain's Distant Cousin

Robert Stacy McCain* is many things. A gentleman of the south, An old fashioned gumshoe journalist, newspaperman, editor, father, grandfather and the world's foremost expert on 70's era teenaged hooliganism. When RSM speaks, listen: 'My advice to conservatives since before Election Day has been to remain calm. If the news is depressing you or making you angry, stop watching the news. Find something pleasant to divert your attention from these daily provocations. Maintaining sanity in these crazy times can be difficult, but if you don’t work at it, you might end up jabbering about “lizard people” and doing something crazy and/or illegal.'

Indeed we were only vaguely aware of the Jewish space lasers congresswoman and aren't even sure of her name. Our first response was, 'The Israelis have space lasers? We certainly hope so. The Imams are right, the Jew is clever. And we only know anything about the 're-peachment' because Ace posted Trump's letter to the House Dems. LOL, get fucked, indeed.

Time being what it is, and the blizzard having played havoc with the Stroocklette's dance schedule, we've been running a dance-taxi service in the evenings rather then reading our blogs over an after-dinner coffee.**Lately we've been reading Instapundit and whatnot after 10. As a result, we're heading to bed pissed off. When one is drifting off to sleep thinking, 'Those bastards in the FBI will never take me alive' changes must needs be made. We've already cutback our blog and news consumption some. We're going to cut them back even more. And we're going to find something else to do at 9:30.

Remember, Robert Stacy McCain is always right.

*He's also a distant cousin of the late John McCain (Media Patsy, Hell)

**We've switched to decaf at night. Don't hate us. 

Inauguration Week Day 1: Let History Judge

'Don't worry about being a great man. Just be a man. And let history judge.' - Zefram Cochrane 

Well it's the second to last day of the Trump Administration. Four years sooner than we thought. Four years sooner than we want it. 

They stole the election. They stole it brazenly without shame or remorse. Don't ever let them tell you otherwise, and don't ever let them get away with saying it. Ever.

The Dems and media think they've shamed Trump out of existence. They think the narrative is set. They learn nothing and forget nothing. Sorry but that's not how history works. Lemme tell you people a few stories.

Harry Truman was practically run out of town. The press and the pundits thought he was weak and ineffective and blamed him for 'losing China'. When Ronald Reagan left office they said he was an amiable dunce 'sleepwalking through history'; they tried to tell us the 80's were bad. Bush the Elder was tired, bored and detached. 

Time passes. Historians sift through the record. New information comes to light. Eventually the nation comes to a collective understanding. 

All three of those presidents have aircraft carriers names after them. 

Twelve years now have passed since W left office, and this blog's opinion of his presidency hasn't really changed. Handling 9/11, liberating Afghanistan, winning Iraq, strong economy, handling the financial crisis. That's a B to B + presidency. 

So let's take a first quick look at the Trump record. Here are a few points.

-Greatest economy ever. New trade deals

-Defeating Isis. No new wars. Soleimani, al Baghdadi

-Handling of Covid: travel ban, PPE, Ventilators, Warp Speed

So there's a start. Weigh in below, reader(s). 

Swim out Past the Breakers...

Watch the world die...

People in the Biden transition team say free speech has been 'weaponized'.* Lefties at the CDC don't want to give the vax to white people. One of the Dem senate candidates in Georgia openly hates Jews.** We all have to pretend that Elliot Page is a man.*** The press tells us BLM and Antifa riots are 'mostly peaceful' and even if they aren't, they're right anyway. We're all going to get cancelled sooner than reader(s) realize. This blog suspects the first step will be citizen Trump getting banned from Twitter. It will happen slowly then all at once. We don't know where, when or how this stops anymore.

We don't know what to do anymore. Elections are useless. Anyone who thinks different should take a look at the little goodies McConnell slipped into the Covid relief bill. We don't think the culture war is worth fighting. The TV networks fired Rosanne and cancelled Tim Allen despite they're ratings. The critics slam Hillbilly Elegy for being sympathetic to poor white people. The elites at the cultural levers would rather be Woke.

At this point we think the best thing to do is pour a glass of whiskey, light up an Arturo Fuente Short Story, and watch it burn. Sorry, but that's the best we can do.

*Look, we've already lost the rhetorical battle.

**We've blogged on this phenomenon before and mean to do so again.

*** We mean to blog on this issue too. So, you're a man eh? No, not a dude. If she wants to be called Elliot we'll call her Elliot, this blog doesn't care.

In Which Will Embraces QAnon

We had a thought last night as we pondered the stunning brazenness with which the Democrat party has stolen the election. What if they did it on purpose? What if they made it so obvious that the legislatures in Pennsylvania, Michigan, etc. would have no choice but to set aside the vote and choose their own electors?

Reader(s) of this blog know exactly what will happen if the GOP legislatures did that. Massive protests, riots spilling out into the suburbs, probably riots staged in the exurbs so as to provoke MAGA folk into opening fire and creating a 'Kent State' incident.*

This is classic Cloward/Piven stuff.

Some of you, but not all, are thinking the election has broken Will's brain. Oh it has, we assure you, reader(s), it has. Remember the week after?

Call us a crazy conspiracy theorist if you like. But just remember the navy has released footage of fighter jets chasing UFO's, they're finding monoliths in the desert,  and Jeffrey Epstein did not kill himself. At this point believing the election was legit is the conspiracy theory.

*This blog endorses the Ohio National Guard completely and without hesitation. 

Friday Morning Ramblings

Whatever happens this election is a disaster for everyone.

People who think it'll be ok because the GOP will control the senate don't understand the stakes and don't understand how the Dems work.

That being said the Dems will get obliterated in the midterms.

Ben Shapiro said the Dems overcoming Trump's half million vote lead in PA is a 'heavy lift'. 

Ben Shapiro is so smart that sometimes he misses important details.

Of course the Dems overtook Trump in Georgia. 

You didn't think they would get to within 20K votes and walk away, did you?

For what it's worth, numbers people we follow say Trump will win Arizona and come back in Georgia due to military ballots.

We're not sure what it's worth.

Dear lord the fraud is so blatant, so obvious, so indifferent to appearances. 

Ace speaks for this blog.

We are impressed with the breadth of Trump's legal offensive.

It seems like they were prepared.

Before election day Trump won a bunch of election related legal victories.

Trump has already won a couple of legal victories in Pennsylvania.

So there's some hope on that front.

We agree that Trump and Rudy being New Yorkers gives them a certain 'street fighting edge'.

Some friends have said the election is in the bag because when it goes to the Supreme Court we have ACB.

We don't know, man. Conservative justices have a way of knifing the GOP. Just ask John Roberts.

We like to think Cocaine Mitch told ACB she was nominated in the expectation she would rule favorably for Trump.

The base is rallying. One didn't see GOP protests during the Florida recount.

Make it absolutely fucking clear that GOPs not publicly supporting the president can't count on the base's support.

Anyway, we reduced our election info intake by some yesterday, but not enough.

This needs to get down to seeing what's happening in the morning and then catching up over evening coffee.

We deleted our Twitter account. That thing was useful election night, but turned into crack.

There's nothing we can do, no point in mainlining it.

We started a book on the Allied war effort in Western Europe. But it didn't read well, you know what we mean? The pages were long and the type small. It was hard to feel like one was making progress. And the book was so big it was physically hard to hold.

Election Day Cometh Forsooth Again

We were going to do a post on how we've spent election days past, but we realized we did that in 2016. Click here to see how we spent election days past. We're not quite sure what we'll do with ourselves tonight. It's too cold for a cigar. We can't take ourselves for a walk. We ought to be able to lift weights in our basement. Maybe just a movie.

We haven't watched the returns since 2004 and don't plan to do so this year. It's too damn nerve wracking. We don't think it'll matter tonight because we doubt the networks will call the states. The Dems have already given the talking points to the media. Count all the votes, Red Mirage and all that. 

We don't think it'll be that close and believe around midnight Trump will declare victory. Late tomorrow afternoon even the media is going to see Trump has won. There will be litigation. In 2000 the GOP was blindsided by Sore-Looserman's Florida antics.  But this year Trump and the GOP are prepared. Remember how they fought off the Florida Dem's fraud attempts in 2018? What where saying is, that by tomorrow, it'll be obvious. Here's our call from 2016.

Even the Democrats are realizing their screwed. In a conference last night Biden's people said Trump is 'within one state of winning.' Robert Reich is bitching about the Electoral College again. CBS presented a scenario for a narrow Trump victory. They're boarding up businesses in the blue zones. These are not the actions of people who think they're going to win.

Anyway, off to make phone calls for Tom Kean. Here's our map:

Pre Election Day Q @ A

Thank you for agreeing to this interview.

You're welcome. I love news networks from the mother country and their posh late 20's interviewers.

You really think I'm posh?

Oh yes, university all the way.

Well that's kind of you to say, and I don't mean to seem unappreciative but....

But what?

Would it kill you to put on some pants?

You don't like my Union Jack Speedo?

It just seems a bit...inappropriate, don't you think?

Don't act like you don't like what you're looking at.

I'm looking at a middle aged man with chronic foot issues. 

Ouch.

Let's get started with some basic questions.

African or European?

What?

Nothing.

What is your favorite colour?

Why the hazel in your eyes, love.

Awwwww....

You seem flush. Can I get you a towelette?

Thank you, no. It's just that I'm getting a Don Draper vibe from you.

I bet you are.

Moving on....Who did you support in 2016?

Marco Rubio.

Why?

I thought he was the most electable candidate and could expand the base.

Who did you support after Rubio?

Ted Cruz.

Why?

He wasn't Donald Trump.

Where you 'Never Trump?'

No. I was 'Not Trump'.

Why?

I had policy ideas.

What were those policy ideas?

Neoconservative.

Are you still a Neoconservative?

Na.

Why not?

There's no arguing with Trump's results. He's completely change my mind about trade. I've had my fill of foreign intervention. Nobody cares about policy wonk ideas for garbage collection. Also, the old Neoconservative types are a bunch of losers, grifters, shysters...

Does this mean you have turned on George W. Bush?

Absolutely not. His kung fu is strong. Handling 9/11, liberating Afghanistan, winning the Iraq campaign, five years of strong economic growth and TARP, which may be his most important accomplishment.

So you think he was a good president?

As was his dad, whom I voted against in 1992. One day they'll name an aircraft carrier for W.

What are you now?

Andrew Breitbart, also Trump. In all things, Trump.

So when did you get on the Trump train?

Right away.

Why?

I loathed Hillary. She's deeply sick, caught syphilis from her sex addict husband and is almost certainly on the spectrum. 

Thank you...Moving on.

Please.

Why do you think Trump will win tomorrow?

Why do you think he won't?

Well, the polls....

Honey, if you believe the polls, you must be a great date.

Is that really necessary?

Oh it is, it truly is. Trump will win because of his record, his base, his campaign, his ground game, the enthusiasm gap. Come on, love. Every metric but the polls favor Trump, and even the mainstream polls are narrowing. CBS published a scenario for a Trump victory last night.

But...

But nothing. Listen, sweetheart, if you can't feel the movement, momentum, the shift toward Trump then you have zero situational awareness whatsoever. I hope you don't ride the tube by yourself.

Ride the tube? Perv.

I thought that's what you people called your subway?

Oh...Oh! I thought you were telling a bad American joke.

What, like something about a pogo stick?

Now you're a perv!

Your accent is slipping, love. Posh my sweet, muscular buttocks. I've listened to enough AC/DC in my time to recognize a Geordie when I hear it.

I'm sorry, that's all the time we have for today.

Will Spreads Russian Election Disinformation

 Our latest for Inforos:

Last week this observer wrote that presidential elections come down to circumstances, ideas, and candidates. If a party has any two of these it is in great shape. If a party has three, it’s invincible. With that in mind, let’s take a look at Democrat Party nominee Joe Biden. Joe Biden is a historical accident. The former Vice President stumbled his way through the primaries but outlasted stronger and more intersectionally viable, but deeply flawed, candidates like Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris. When the nomination came down to Biden and socialist Bernie Sanders, the Democrat Party threw its support behind Biden and convinced the rest of the candidates to drop out. In this way, the Democrat Party nominated a 77-year-old white man who has been in politics since the Nixon Administration...

Click on through...

Will Colludes with the Ruskis Without Shame or Remorse

 Our latest article for Inforos:

2016 was a bad year for political pollsters and predictors. At his website, FiveThirtyEight, data guru Nate Silver gave Hillary Clinton a 65% Chance of defeating Donald Trump. Silver’s prediction model was on the low end. The New York Times said Hillary had an 85% chance of winning. The Princeton Election Consortium put Hillary’s chances at 99%. Hillary Clinton was heavily favored in 2016. But she shouldn’t have been....

Try to run, try to hide, click on through to the other side.

Stroock to Biden: You're Toast

Zerohedge reports, 'In a recent interview with Revolver, former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon admitted that he's the architect of a coordinated roll-out of the Hunter Biden laptop contents, and that there's much, much more to come.' That's the story from here on out. And it will only get worse.

Bannon is a Breitbart alumnus. Speaking of, Breitbart reports Joe 'walked off' when asked about the family corruption. And sceptics thought the story wouldn't matriculate into the mainstream press.

We know that Carlos Slim's paper and Jeff Bezos' reclamation project are sitting on anti-Trump stories. But it won't matter. Trump being bad is baked in.

This blog has long maintained veep's don't matter and the first rule of veeps is do no harm.  Karl Rove thinks so as well. The man knows a thing or two about winning elections. That said KAMala's performance was sooooo bad....We asked a couple of old journos what they thought and each agreed the veep debate was disastrous for the Harris/Biden campaign. To paraphrase a friend, 'People got a look at Harris and didn't like what they saw.'

Historians will see the veep debate as the turning point.

Trump is out there doing two rallies a day. That's pretty remarkable stamina for a 73 year old man who just had the Wuhan Virus from Wuhan China. Biden comes out of his basement every once in a while, reads from a giant teleprompter and goes back to his basement. A lot of voters see that and say to themselves, 'Hey, Trump ain't perfect lord knows...but this guy is busting his hump for my vote and the other guy can barely make an effort.'

One last thing. The people we follow who follow* early votes and absentee ballot tabs say the Dems should be hitting the panic button and turning their keys.

*Larry Schweikart among others

Will's Combined Saturday and Self Improvement Update With Bonus Local Campaign Coverage

It worked! Yesterday we began the morning with some hard news websites* + Instapundit & Breitbart and laid off the other stuff till 6. Felt good.

Even the mainstream polls show Biden falling and Trump rising.  Biden is reduced to arguing that character counts. How'd that work for Bush in 1992? Do you even remember, Joe? Oh, and what year is it?

NBC News found that 50% of voters say they're better off now than four years ago. Gallup says the number is 56%. Biden said the 56%  shouldn't vote for him. We agree. Oh, and the Ras has Trump in the high 40's, which is just where Barry was in October of 2012. It won't be close.

Speaking of, they're sending Barry Soetoro to Pennsylvania because Biden totally leads by a dozen there. Big mistake. Barry has no coattails. None whatsoever. ***

The Hunter Biden scandal continues... Rudy promises it's only going to get worse, by which he means better. This blog waits with great anticipation for those photos to 'leak'. Whoops. They're dripping the intel. Gee, who invented that? God bless you Andrew Breitbart. I think of you everyday.**

On to business.

We have the September KDP numbers. Reads and sales from August to September dropped less than anticipated. We have been wondering for some time if this great sales year was due to the Wuhan Virus from Wuhan China. So we looked at April, which at least in the US was the worst quarantine month. Sales were as morbid in April as they were in March, February and January. So yeah, no. Our massive year is not Wuhan Virus from Wuhan China related.

The Great Nuclear War of 1975 is 90,000 words and growing. We can sort of see the end but we ain't there yet. It's a slog.

We are going through the last chapter of World War 1990: Nederland and are generally happy.

So here in NJ's 7th Congressional district we have a tight race between first time incumbent Tom Malinowski (D) and challenger Tom Kean Jr. For outsiders, Tom Kean Jr's father, Tom Kean Sr, was a popular governor in the 80's and 90's and the name is still important here in New Jersey. Junior is the state senate minority leader. 

There's every reason for the GOP to be confident here. Kean's people have plenty of campaign signs out and one can't go onto YouTube without seeing ads saying why Kean is so good, and Malinowski is so bad. Our daughters know both of their names and have asked us if it's true what they say about Malinowski.

Because it's 2020 this cynical, detached, lay-about Gen-Xr roused himself to action and has been making phone calls for Tom Kean Jr. at the Somerville HQ.

Senator, my daughters see you on You Tube all the time, can I have a picture with you? The Senator was happy to accommodate. His handshake was firm, his gaze steely. I could have gotten lost in those eyes.

[You gushing fan bot, JFC-Ed]

*Zero Hedge, NY Post, CNBC, Epoch Times, NJ.com

**No Breitbart, no Trump. It's that simple. Fuck you. War.

***Not even 2008. Hillary! would have swept all those Dems into office with her too.

Will's Friday Follies

We caught the last 25 minutes or so of Trump's townhall*. We liked what we saw and thought Trump's answers were strong. Of course we're biased. Do a couple more of those and be that guy, Mr. President. It seems to us that Joe gave Trump more fodder for campaign commercials.**

Readers are aware of the digital censorship about. We've been on Gab since 2016, but don't know what good it does. We're on Parlor too, same.

We're approaching The Great Nuclear War of 1975's halfway mark. Lots of fixin' a doin' but that's normal. We are generally pleased but once more are stumbling onto vignettes that leave us thinking, Oh, they're doing the thing in the place now? Oh...ok, I guess. Example: The president's staff decides they need a news anchor for daily radio broadcasts to the nation. Three vignettes later Paul Harvey shows up in Casper.***  Maybe It's just a flaw in our approach to the novel. We're not changing our approach.

Will we have this edit run wrapped up by 1 November? It's close, but we don't think so. Which is fine. Mrs. Stroock asked, 'What happens if you miss the deadline?' We shrugged indifferently, 'Nothing.'

*We weren't really planning to watch, we had late evening dance-taxi duty, anyway.

**According to wraps we read.

***Writing this we thought of a good bridge scene.

Various and Sundry

The Stroocklettes are going to real, honest to Adon, in-person school this morning, something they've not done since March.

We have a weekday morning to ourselves, something we've not had since March.

We're thinking of taking a morning trip to the gym, something we've not done since March.

In other news....

We caught some of Trump's Iowa rally last night. His stemwinder about Hunter and Joe was unusually focused for him. But we're not sure how much voters will care. We'd rather Trump tout his record. The NY Post* is drip-dripping the story. There are new revelations this morning, so we'll see.

Big Tech censoring The Post's story has amplified the story and become a story itself. Not smart.

If Iowa is locked up, why is Trump stopping in Des Moines? We know a guy there, and he said it was a thank you to the state party apparatus. Also, don't ignore your states. Hillary! ignored Wisconsin. 

Speaking of, we now believe Hillary! will run in 2024, assuming the syphilis or Parkinson's doesn't get her first. 

Trump is supposed to go on Savannah Guthrie for a townhall tonight. We think this is a mistake. But who knows? Maybe he just wants to compare ratings? 

Disney has greenlit Star Wars: Kenobi starting Ewan McGregor. This is an unusually good idea. Perhaps Kathleen Kennedy's** rein of terror really is over? If so may the Lords of Kobol bless you, John Favreau, sir. The Mandalorian was shockingly not bad.

We're wondering if we should re-conceptualize The Great Nuclear War of 1975. We've written chapters with themes, farming, the military, libraries, etc. Perhaps we should organize the book by region. For example, here's what's happening in Colorado. We've done that with one chapter, actually.

We should probably complete the Nederland edits and re-read a proof again. There's plenty of time.

*NYC's paper of record.

** Is the force still female?

How we used to Read Polls

By 2004, thanks to Real Clear Politics, it was possible to really follow the polls. Day in, day out RCP aggregated the latest polling data both national and state. RCP averaged national polls and came up with a pretty accurate reading for the popular vote. In 2016 RCP showed Hillary! with a two point lead. She won 48-46. The state poll averages for presidential and state races gave one a pretty good sense of where those races stood.

As we watched the polls come in we weren't concerned with the aggregate but the actual poll differential. That is, if five polls showed Senator Snort's lead at say, +3, +7, +2, +4 and even, we assumed he was leading. Of course it all came down to party ID samples. In 2004 the national party ID was even at 37. But a pollster could fiddle with the numbers and assume D+4 or D+2, what have you.

From 2004 through 2016 we trusted Rasmussen and Mason Dixon the most. In 2004 Zogby royally screwed up, waiting till 5 PM on election day and relying on faulty exits for his prediction of 370 EVs for Kerry. In our mind Zogby's reputation has never recovered. Newsweek, Time, etc were as crappy then as they are now. Gallup was very much in the middle, so was Fox. We noticed in 2004 that Fox was never right, btw.

Most pundits focus on the vaunted Indy vote. Last week Mark Steyn voiced skepticism at the Indy's importance arguing that base turnout was more important. What...? No!' we thought. And then we recalled that in 2004 Kerry won Indys by 3 and in 2012 Romney won Indys by 5. Hell of a lot of good it did them.

We don't read polls this way anymore. In fact, we don't read them at all. They're utter shite. This article by Scott McKay in The Spectator matches our own thinking exactly. We don't agree with him, he agrees with us. His top line points for a Trump win: 1-Nothing much has changed since 2016, 2-American culture is trending Trump's way, not Biden's,3- ground game advantage, Trump (bigly), 4-what is Biden selling anyway?, 5-and he who has more fun wins. Gotta tell you folks, it's fun being Deplorable.

For the record, this blog predicts polls in the coming weeks will show Trump gaining lots of ground.

Embracing the Horror Part II: The Plan

In 1999 the New York Mets put together a fun team with lot's of likable players and a scrappy, we can do it, personality. They seemed destined for the post season. Then in September they played six games in 10 days against the rival Atlanta Braves who kicked their asses. After that the rival Phillies swept a three game series. Not only were the Mets out of the division title race, they were now in danger of losing the wildcard.

This was an existential crisis. 

After the Phillies sweep, a Met player said simply, 'I'm going to go home and hug my daughter.'

So that's where we are, we thought. That's the situation. We're taking comfort in our blessings.

He was right, actually.

It's hard to ignore polling data that all says the same thing, and it's time's like this that we take stock.

A Biden presidency would effect our life not at all. We still have our beautiful wife, our three lovely daughters, our career, our home, our lake house, our motorboat....

After Barry won in 2012, Ace (whom there is no excuse for not reading, none whatsoever) said it was time for self reflection and self improvement. We think that's the tack we'll take. Be a better father and husband. Be a better writer. Stop being lazy and find better outlets for our op-eds. Our grandfather always told us it's not what happens to you but how you handle it.

We'll be keeping that in mind during the coming days.

The Mets won the wildcard by beating the Reds in a one game playoff, by the way, and made it to the National League Championship series....against the Braves: Here's one of the great moments in team history:

Embracing the Horror Part I: Acceptance

Yesterday we allowed ourselves to consider the possibility that Trump would lose. It wasn't pleasant. 

We recall election night 2000. When it seemed Algore won, we retired to our small study and poured ourselves a drink.

Yesterday evening we retired to our library. In 2000 we had three book cases. Today we have twelve.  We searched for comfort in the row on row of books, more than a thousand of them. We found none. Perhaps we could bury ourselves in a reading project, we thought. But we found no inspiration. We looked upon the books and thought, We're forty-seven. What's the point of all this anymore?

On a whim we picked up P.J. O'Rourke's Republican Party Reptile and re-read his account of a 1982 Volga River cruise in sponsored by The Nation. The essay was no less insightful and funny than when we first read it in 1997 or so. 

Out of the blue our closest friend facetimed us from Ireland, where he's lived some fifteen years or. We said our ancient greeting,  'Aye lad!'  He raised a glass, 'Oh good, you're drinking...' we said with irony. For no reason whatsoever we showed the man some of our books.

'Look!' we exclaimed, The Story of Civilization! Sure lots of people have it, but I've actually read about half of them!'

'Check this out, you see this book on Guadalcanal?'

'Um, yeah...'

'I bought that 30 years ago and still haven't read it!'

'Okay...?'

'Look at these, The American Heritage Series. I've got all of them! And see that shelf? That's all medieval history. Look at those primary sources, monks motherfucker!'

'Dude....Are you doing coke?'

'No, why do you ask?'

We talked amiably.

Indeed the library did seem futile. Some of those books have been unread for decades. We'll never read them. 

Bah, maybe it's just mood. We've had foot problems for over a month now. First gout in the right foot, then the lingering damage and general pain requiring three cortisone shots. Then our left toe got a gout and inflammation attack.  It was red and purple. A few days ago our oldest dropped a plate. We broke out the vacuum to clean up the shards and promptly ran over that same toe. It was at least as painful as getting kicked in the nuts. Once the toe healed we got another gout attack in the ankle. A month of this crap. A month of hobbling around, waking up at night feeling like out ankle or tow is in a vice.

And all that might be followed up by a Trump loss. By Adon's Ban...

On Believing the Polls

Even Rasmussen says Trump is getting creamed. 

If you believe Rasmussen then you have to believe NBC and CNN too. Or if you believe CNN and NBC then you have to believe Rasmussen, long held by this blog as the most accurate poll.

If we believe the polls, here's the explanation. Trump has botched the Wuhan Virus and the nation believes Biden will do a better job. Also the nation is simply tired of Trump.

But...but...the polls were wrong in 2016. 

Yes, and the polls today show Biden beating Trump by an even greater margin.

So they're just that more wrong.

No excuses.

That's the explanation.

Boy an awful lot of polls have to wrong...

Will Tells the Ruski's about the Proud Boys

 Our latest bit of Russian collusion:

So, President Trump contracted the Wuhan Virus. As of this writing it is unclear exactly how he got it or when, though the announcement of Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court is widely suspected. The president tested positive Thursday night and spent most of Friday at the White House before checking into Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Trump stage-managed every moment...

Click it, you know you want to.