Various to Start the Week

Ah...ennui (you pronounce it on-wi. What the actual F?). There you are, my lovely. 

We're 2/5ths of the way through The Weser this late morning and things are fine. Though details must needs be sorted; 2-69th this and Air Control that, etc etc.

That Kentucky tornado touched down about 50 miles from our ancestral home of Livermore (our maternal grandparents are buried there). A cousin is helping with the cleanup. 

Dan McLaughlin* has a piece on what we always predicted would happen. Hispanic voters are basically becoming white people, electorally. Sometimes they vote D. Sometimes they vote R. It really depends. Class, not race, is the determinative factor. Dems are Marxists at heart. Why don't they understand this?

Over at Ace of Spades, CBD argues that the time of Trump has passed and has some hard truths for those of us in MAGA nation. Maybe Trump has learned. Maybe he's a tougher and leaner fighter. Look it up, the man has lost weight, BTW. But Trump 1.0 won't do.

Over at The American Conservative, Curt Mills writes about Christopher Hitchens ten years after the man's death. Has it been that long? Long time readers will recall that Hitch makes a TV cameo in World War 1990: Operation Arctic Storm, arguing with Pat Buchanan**. This blog has long been a fan of Mr. Hitchens. Of late we've been watching YouTube clips of Hitch at his best. His arguments against religion are devastating and damn near irrefutable. None of it makes any sense.

What Will's Watching, On Max Headroom, the most Misunderstood Joke on Television. Younger reader(s) this was really one of those you-had-to-be-there 80's moments. Definitely an 80's meta thing.  Either you get it, or you don't. We remember Max Headroom well, but couldn't say from where he came. We mostly recall him from Coke commercials. But was Max Headroom a TV guy of some kind? This was the genius of Max Headroom. Also, he wasn't a computer but a real-life actor. Who knew?

Monday Metal. Wolf Mother's new album, Rock Out. Very meh. Here's the best track:

*Yes, McLaughlin has some Cuckinista tendencies. But they're tendencies. 

**We like Pat more now than we did then. Anyone William Kristol hates can't be all bad. 

Bob Dole Moves on to the Great Legislative Chamber in the Sky

Bob Dole has died. It's hard to believe that it's been 25 years since he ran for president. Dole's been out of the spotlight since the 2000s, but he was a giant of late 20th century GOP politics. And he was a GOP, not a conservative. While running the senate GOP, Dole raised spending and taxes and publicly clashed with the conservative Newt Gingrich. Back in those days House Majority Leader Dick Armey said the enemy wasn't the Dems, it was the senate.

Dole was the default and dull candidate of a very dull and lackluster 1996 GOP primary in which Pat Bucanan scared the hell out of the GOP-e. Understand younger readers, there was never any chance Dole was gonna beat Bill Clinton. In 1996 America was fat, dumb, and contented. There was no reason to vote Willie out of office. 

Dole was 73, and in 1996 that was really old. He was a terrible candidate in 1996. But he was a terrible candidate in 1988 too, when he lost the GOP nomination to George Bush. Dole mumbled and sounded like he was in a perpetual bad mood. Having spent decades in Congress, Dole's world was one of Meet the Press interviews, legislative conference committees and whip counts. On the campaign trail he spoke legislationese. Dole actually declared, 'We're going to veto Clinton/Gore!' In 1976 President Ford picked him for veep. Bob Dole lost a presidential election in three different ways in three different decades. Impressive. 

He had a sense of humor, they said and Dole was a regular guest on the old Imus in the Morning program. Wife Elizabeth ran for president too. The GOP responded with a narcoleptic yawn. She was eventually a one term senator from North Carolina, replacing the great Jesse Helms. Dole is probably best remembered today as one of those World War Two generation politicians.  

Reader(s) will hear a lot of eulogizing today about Bob Dole. But don't be fooled. The Dems said he was a racist too. 

Did you people know the Dole/Kemp '96 website is still up? Click on through to see what the internet looked like in the mid-90s. Here's an old bumper sticker a few minutes from our house: