We’re still in Austria (and will be until the 6th). It’s hot over here, but from what I gather it’s much worse back home.
It’s nice to be here — Vienna is, as everyone knows, a gracious and beautiful city. One of the first things you notice, though, is how unhurried it feels. In New York everyone seems to have twice as many things to do as they can fit into a single day, whereas in Vienna the ratio is apparently a perfect 1:1.
Vienna also seems, so far, almost completely untouched by the madness swirling around the world. That can’t last long, but with my daughter and her husband living here, I’m certainly grateful for as long as it does.
One feature of the city I hadn’t known about before is what’s called the Alte Donau — an oxbow lake created by the re-routing of the Danube in the 1870s. The water is clear and clean, and the lake is a delightful recreational oasis. We spent yesterday afternoon there boating and swimming.
I’ve been a little out of touch, but the political scene back home seems to have been particularly entertaining this past week. Thanks to Wikileaks having revealed the enormity of the DNC’s collusion with the media against the Sanders campaign, the Clinton coalition seems weaker than ever, and it appears that the Democrat convention has got off to a rocky start. Perhaps the best part of all was the public defenestration of the loathsome Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is out at last as the DNC chairwoman. (For you aficionados of political sleaze, how’s this: DWS rigs the primaries for Hillary, gets thrown under the bus for it, then Hillary pays her off with a campaign-staff appointment. There is no longer even a pretense of honest politics on the American Left these days, nor the least effort by the mainstream media to conceal their allegiances.)
I’ve written often that democracy in America was a nice try that has pretty much run its course; it seems now that millions of Democrats are starting to realize what a sham the whole thing is. Does anyone really believe that the Clinton candidacy — in which she never had more than one serious opponent, against whom the system was rigged from the beginning — is somehow the organic expression of the will of “the People”? Can there be any doubt any longer, for any American citizen, that your infinitesimal slice of sovereignty is worth, in any rational accounting, exactly nothing?
Meanwhile, Germany has suffered several jihadi attacks just in the past week or so, several of which were perpetrated by “refugees” admitted to the country by the arch-ethnomasochist Angela Merkel. The people here are in greater and greater numbers coming to understand the magnitude of their folly, far too late.
That’s all for now, I think. We are still on grandson watch; our daughter’s due-date has already come and gone.
51 Comments
I had hoped that “Notes from Abroad” would have meant a guest post by a female writer.
Yes, waiting on a grandson is almost as bad as waiting on a son or daughter to be born. But the real joy is holding them within an hour of birth. Congratulations ahead of time.
Perhaps you should take at least a glancing look at the facts before reflexively posting such uninformed and inaccurate talking points.
Neither DWS nor the DNC “rigged” the primaries. They have nothing to do with the primaries, which are run by the states. The rules for both the caucuses and the primaries are the same as they have been for decades, and were not tilted to favor or disfavor anyone.
There was no “collusion with the media.” Both the RNC and the DNC are in the business of playing the ref by feeding the media stories favorable to their candidates. Nor are the media allegiant to Clinton, and no thinking person who actually reads the reality-based media would conclude that they have been treating her with kid gloves.
Nor did the Russian hackers — who steal dirt the DNC but not, for example, Donald Trump’s tax returns, so as not to displease Putin — expose some nefarious plot to sink Sanders. Of course the DNC staffers favored Clinton, just as the RNC staffers favored Bush and Rubio: you go with the candidate who can win. They mused about the insurgent candidate who wasn’t a Democrat, stole files from the Clinton campaign, and kept his campaign going long past the point when his loss was a mathematical certainty. However none of their musings actually led to any action of consequence – it was just a lot of emails going back and forth.
The fact that Hillary only had “only one serious opponent” is because no other candidate of stature chose to challenge her, not because the primaries were closed to challengers.
And, of course, there was stark contrast to the national embarrassment of last week’s RNC convention. The only heavy hitter to show up pointedly refused to endorse Trump, while everyone else found an excuse to avoid the stink of a race hustler and con man as their nominee. The RNC violated its own rules to prevent a roll call vote by the Never Trump group (talk about a rigged convention!). There were no actual substance: Trump’s platform pretty much starts and ends with calling for the jailing of his political opponent (you can see why he gets along with Putin so well). When Trump and Giuliani speak, one expects factually false whoppers, fear mongering, and the usual right wing eschatology of an imminent apocalypse, but the decibel level of their Be Very Afraid message was startling. Unlike the upbeat and positive speeches last night, I have never heard such disdain and hatred for America as I did last week.
Which brings us to the point of this tedious screed.
As you recall, you wagered $85 that Hillary Clinton would not be the nominee. I offered you three options: a contribution to her campaign, a contribution to the International Rescue Committee, or your subscription to the print edition of the Economist. You have always been scrupulously honest — excepting the time when you lived on Hillsborough Road and used a marked deck in a poker game, with Herbie Hancock’s Watermelon Man playing in the background, although in fairness you expressed great shock when I pointed out that the backs of the cards had different designs — and you will doubtless do the right thing here.
When it arrives in the mail every week, you will read it (which is
why the bet is not for the digital edition, where the likelihood of logging in will be far less). Being exposed to the finest news magazine in the English speaking world will make it harder for
you to post the risible fatuities which you’ve posted today. Think of it not just as the liberation from the tendentious propaganda of right wing media, but as my present to you for your incipient grandfatherhood. I wish for your grandson the same things I wished for my daughter when she became a bat mitzvah:
ש××œ×•×”×™× ×™×‘×¨×š ×ותך ו×ת לשמור עלייך
יכול ×”××œ×•×”×™× ×œ×–×¨×•×— ×רשת שלו כלפיך להיות × ×“×™×‘ ×ליך
יכול ×”××œ×•×”×™× ×œ×”×¨×™× ×רשת שלו כלפיך ולתת לך שלו×
May the Lord bless you and guard you
May the Lord shine His countenance toward you and be gracious to you
May the Lord lift up His countenance toward you and give you peace
Nah Malcolm don’t. Don’t bother.
The dedicated and verified nitwits will stay unmoored regardless whether its gallons of Gorilla Glue slung their way or, oceans.
The OEM could have skipped his “tedious screed” entirely and simply offered his friend the Hebrew blessing. But that is not his style.
Nah Malcolm don’t. Don’t bother.
The dedicated and verified nitwits will remain unmoored regardless whether its gallons of Gorilla Glue slung their way or, oceans.
The reasonable sometime lands here’ll recognize immediately the cause of my stutter. It wasn’t the hillbilly browser that does bedevil me from time to time in the UK.
Yawn.
Of course a mighty national party machine can influence local elections in a thousand different ways — and when you have “journalists” for major media outlets running their stories by the Party before publishing them, it’s fair to think about collusion. The winsome Ms. Schultz surely wouldn’t have stepped down over nothing. Etc. I don’t know on what scale we measure political spin, but on the Fujita that great, rotating cloud you posted just above surely comes in, as predictably as always, at F4 or better.
But tonight I’m on vacation, and I can’t really be bothered to labor over your latest as sedulously as I’ve felt obligated to do for so many years. (If any of you readers, or all of you, would like to do your hard-working host a favor while he’s away, please feel free to pick up the ball.)
Getting to the important part: yes, there is a very good chance that the saintly Ms. Clinton — whose heart is as pure as the driven snow, who has never uttered a falsehood, and who has never desired aught but to sacrifice her happiness for the succor of the afflicted — will in fact receive the nomination of her (and I do mean HER) party tonight. If that happens, I will lose our wager.
The bet itself seems to be subject to some Vaderesque deal-revision of late, however, so let’s review its terms:
The original offer was made in February of 2015. I said this:
You replied:
(You also said, with customary accuracy, that you were willing to bet that Jeb “Please Clap” Bush would be the Republican nominee, but I didn’t want to take advantage of you. As we all know, predictions are hard – especially about the future.)
I didn’t want a milkshake, however, and said so:
You said nothing. I took your silence as implicit acceptance. There the matter lay, for almost a year. Suddenly, in January of 2016, there was this:
Me:
You:
Ah, the old bait-and switch! I was, of course, dismayed:
Me:
But, pushover that I am, I acquiesced:
But now this! Poor Lando’s got nothing on me:
Print edition? Again, the ground shifts beneath my feet.
Still not content, you take the whip in hand (note the “wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command”):
Here at last, I am afraid I am going to have to go full Tom Petty on you, and stand my ground. I will subscribe to the Economist, even though it was not introduced as a term of our wager until nearly a year after the fact. I will not, however, clutter and befoul our fragile planet, already brought to the brink of total destruction by the ravages of climate change, with the carcasses of trees that might otherwise be sequestering what you have so aptly called, ad nauseam, carbon “pollution” — and so I will be subscribing online. I will read it when there is a topic that interests me. (As you know, many topics do.)
If you think this unsatisfactory, let me remind you that it is one thing (a clean and simple and gentlemanly thing!) to wager a bottle of whisky, and quite another to demand that I put in escrow several hours of my time on a weekly basis — a single hour of which, when I charge for it, is worth considerably more than a bottle of Highland Park 15.
So: if Hillary wins the nomination tonight, I will have lost the wager fair and square — and I will subscribe to the Economist, and I will read it. That is, I think, a more-than-equitable discharge of my obligation. Don’t get greedy.
Re my impending grandson: thank you for your blessing!
Well. About picking up that ball.
There is a lawsuit. And I’ll bookmark One-Eyed’s comment for getting back to.
http://observer.com/2016/06/debbie-wasserman-schultz-served-class-action-lawsuit-for-rigging-primaries/
Malcolm,
Thanks for offering the opportunity to relieve you of wasting your precious family time with the completely useless drudgery of interacting with the OEM. I looked up the cost of HIGHLAND PARK 15 YEAR 750ML from “Mel & Rose” — it’s 100 bucks a bottle. I am pretty sure that an hour of my consulting time can buy me half a dozen such bottles. So I am forced to decline your offer.
Besides, I would much rather stick needles in my eyes.
Well the Harridan coerced her nomination…what an awful price paid in wrecked careers, lives ruined or lost and even the pliable notion that The Law doesn’t apply to some. If she wins in November, she will have truly gained a ‘Hollow Crown’. Those never rest well.
JK,
I checked out that link you provided. On the same page, there is a link to another (even more?) disgusting story:
Can there be any doubt that scum like Debbie Wasserman Schultz (who, unfortunately, is Jewish) is stoking such eruptions of hatred on campuses of formerly great universities like Columbia and the University of Chicago?
So there it is: I have now lost my wager.
With characteristic optimism I considered it impossible, back in early 2015, that even a nation so disordered and deranged as this one is could, out of more than three hundred million citizens, find nobody better than Hillary Clinton to put forward as the Democrat nominee. But as the Sage of Baltimore observed, “nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”
I will comply as indicated above.
Gentlemen, please.
Enough, thank you.
The Ladies and I are putting on our aprons, pouring an opening round – double shots of Highland Park 15, of course! – and soon we will bump our bustles on the butler door, bearing nibbles and bits.
Hush now, Gentlemen.
Let it be done, please.
Big doings ahead.
A woman is about to give birth to herself as a mother. A baby is waiting to be born.
And all this fuss, so misdirected.
Do the gentlemanly thing here, Gentlemen, do the time-honored thing. When waiting for a baby to be born . . .
Gentlemen drink!
Thank you, Eugenia.
Our daughter left for the hospital at about four this afternoon. A slow process of “induction” will begin sometime later on tonight.
Cheers!
Malcolm, all the best…
EE, nice to see you.
Good to see you too, Whitewall. Your people are all doing well I trust? Please, try one of the smoked oysters. Drawn from Bolinas Bay early this morning, just now hot outta the smoker. You like?
Hello there, TheBigHenry, may I freshen your drink?
Not sure what you’re drinking these days, JK. Happy to mix you whatever. What’ll it be?
The OEM too, Gentlemen. Right is right.
Liberty Belle, Musey, welcome!
To the entire company of the Ladies and Gentlemen of Man Chat, won’t you please join us in the Salon?
All are welcome!
Malcolm, we raise our glasses in praise to your child as she ventures into the unknown, soon to return with a child of her own.
Many blessings!
Now. Let’s settle in to wait, shall we?
Who has a story?
Why, thank you, EE. I’ll have another glass of Pinot Noir if you please.
When Malcolm announces the arrival of his grandson, I’ll have yet another glass and toast the happy event.
Oh, TheBigHenry, I do believe you are in luck, how nice. This evening we are pouring a lovely pinot, the grapes grown locally in Sonoma County, right outside of Sebastopol.
Glad to see you, so happy you could make it.
Pairing with the pinot tonight, the Ladies are offering tree-sweet Blenheim apricots – like jam they are, fresh from the orchard! – and, in case you desire greater fortification as we await the blessed event, the Ladies have also prepared bites of cedar plank cooked salmon topped with a pomegranate citrus glaze.
Welcome!
Pinot from Sonoma is one of my favorites. Thanx.
Well EE, as I expect you and the ladies turned on the air-conditioning er, you do have ac don’t y’all?
As age has crept up on me, heats been a damnable affliction as its affected my homebrew uptake … oh well.
Craft beer I suppose for me EE, an being as we’re appearing to be lounging around California, you mind EE if I implore nothing too fruity?
It bears on my digestion is all.
Oh, yeah, we’re comfy cosy, JK, so welcome and stay a while, won’t you?
So glad you could make it!
Heat surely do spoil the barm, now don’t it?
The Ladies and I do feel your pain, JK.
It’s a fact: ain’t nothing compares to homebrew, that’s true.
But perhaps a spot of moonshine might hit the spot? You’ll find Gentlemen of like mind up the mountain, in the shade, setting on the ground, leaning against the rough bark of a fallen redwood, doing a bit of a tipple.
The Ladies and I will keep back a couple of our home brewed Meyer’s Lemon Shandys for when your tummy is feeling a bit more adventurous.
Until then, welcome!
And here’s an old-fashioned San Francisco Anchor Steam to wet your whistle.
Tnx an’ mightily Eugenia.
Moon’d a time back been awful welcome at just about anytime .. but as I sayd its a matter of the heat.
Now I will also venture to say, if there’s sea breezes wafting by … and none’re very adventurous I might be tempted to risk slipping some a Arkansas’ finest past the California Agricultural Products Border Patrol .. just to compare with them redwoods fellers’ as we all surely recognize do we not?
What the heck I’ll slip a charter EE, pick me up at the airstrip. Yeah you’ll be quick as I already did a GPS earlier.
So Y’all … Malcolm’s interceded the suspense where the grandson granddaughters concerned. What y’all reckon’ll be the name?
Personally I’d go with Hubert. Or maybe Jackson.
***
Oops. Hold on. Not Jackson.
Stonewall. Jackson’d be a inheritable problem.
Tnx also Malcolm for seeing in advance the handiness of this here edit feature.
Miss Eugenia (a fine name… one of my great great grandmothers was a Eugenia), it is a delight to make your acquaintance. Like Mr Trump, I am a teetotaler, so I’m afraid I’m a bit useless at serving drinks. Happy to wash and dry the crystal and china, though, and I’ve brought a pound cake to contribute. :-)
Malcolm, prayers for your daughter’s easy labor, your grandson’s speedy birth, and to marvelous health for them both!
Last year, I read somewhere a prophecy for 2016 said the Lord would be shaking everything, and to neither despair nor be surprised as the masks began to fall both near and far. Certainly that one continues, and it’s been as shocking to see who *was not masked* as it has been to see who was. It’s good to know where everyone really stands. The pendulum has finally started its swing back the other direction. Better times are on the way.
Hubert.
Funny you should mention Hubert, JK. The Ladies were just mentioning how Harold is a good strong name and due a come back. What do you think of Herbert?
Not to worry about the heat. Pleasant evening, mid-70’s, clouds high on the mountain, faint breeze off the bay.
But just for added comfort, the Ladies have a mist blowing through the pergola.
The OEM just served grilled burgers topped with bleu cheese and cole slaw, and we are now in a state of postprandial bliss.
Oh, and JK, when you hop that plane, would you be a Gentleman and call for our Liberty Belle, then swoop down under for Musey too?
JK’s chartering a plane a plane, folks.
Pick you up at the airstrip? What nonsense!
Just put her down in the meadow and mosey on over.
Labors can go long, so best to pace ourselves. The sun is setting, let us rest while we can.
Hubert.
Huh.
Tina, a pound cake!
Thank you, my dear, how perfect.
Did you bring your swim suit? If not, no matter. One of the Ladies will have a suit to flatter and fit, then we Ladies can all take a dip in the morning.
I’m guessing your pound cake is also delicious toasted? How the Ladies will enjoy a slice of cake with coffee!
So glad you’ve made the scene, Tina.
Welcome!
A baby coming is such a joyous thing, let us all celebrate together.
Oh, certainly, some of the Gentlemen of Man Chat do tipple, it’s true (and then there was that whole thing between Malcolm and the OEM about the bet and the whiskey), but booze is entirely optional.
Teetotalers welcome!
How does Meyer’s Lemonade sweetened with a rosemary scented honey sound? Water from Calistoga is quite good too.
Iced tea?
Make yourselves at home. Curl up, get cozy.
We’ll hear from Malcolm when we do, I do imagine.
Night night.
EE, I read occasionally because I’m addicted butI’m weaning myself off. Thanks for the friendship.
My guess is William, not Hubert.
It’ll be Liam. Liam Brendan Wright. (My son-in-law is from Dublin.)
Should be soon now. Things are underway. Today, most likely.
Liam is William in Irish-speak. My father was William, my brother Liam. Many congrats Malcolm.
My father was a William too, Musey.
William seems to be quite common, my father as well.
Congrats and bless all.
William is a strong name…my grandfather was John William—-
Tina, I wish you could locate that prophecy for 2016 you mentioned. BTW, good to see you again.
Whitewall
In your search engine type/copy prophecy for 2016, several choices will appear for your choosing.
Here is one such link.
‘Uppers’ many thanks
Thanks, Malcolm, for your bulletin from the birth room. You and all of your family are in our thoughts this morning.
As your faithful Man Chatters await the birth of your grandson, young Liam Brendan Wright, please do take a little nourishment.
Peet’s Major Dickason’s is in the French press, cream from Old Bessie in the blue pitcher on the table, teas and fresh juices too, in the kitchen.
Please try some of Tina’s pound cake – delicious!
Goodness, my, but we have a goodly number of Williams among our collective ancestors. My grandfather too, Whitewall, was a John William, but we grandchildren knew him as Pompa – and a fine figure of a man our Pompa was too!
How will young Liam call his Grandfather Malcolm, the Ladies wonder.
Now where is that JK? Not like JK to be so late to the party.
Good to see you again, Musey, my dear. Have you seen JK? He was headed your way, I thought.
As we wait for the birth of young Liam Brendan, perhaps a morning hike or a swim in the pool?
Now where is that JK?
Eugenia, John William is indeed a powerful name. My GF had a brood of 7 children…my grandmother, clearly was quite ‘able’ right along with him.
As for JK…he might have had guard duty at the still last night and he takes that responsibility serious!
Lassie, Lassie!
You say JK is still up the mountain guarding the still?
Where is Timmy? Where is JK?
Lead the way, Lassie.
Woof!
He’s here!
OEM.
I have, open in front of me, the Leader on page 8 of the July 16 – 22 hard-copy edition of The Economist, headlined “The Dividing of America”.
Read it. Objectively. Analytically. Critically.
It is typical of the shoddy quality of The Economist’s leaders in recent years. No better than the drivel to be found in our left wing daily here in Melbourne, Aus.
“[T]he finest news magazine in the English speaking world” ?. If so, then weep for western civilization.
Yay!
He’s here!
Welcome to the world, little one.
Now, TheBigHenry, how about that second glass of Pinot Noir?
Your daughter is well we trust?
collinhutton, darling, won’t you please take a glass of champagne?
We’re celebrating a birth today.
Let’s raise a glass to the wee one, for the birth of Malcolm’s grandson, one wee lad by the name of Liam Branden Wright.
Welcome to the party, collinhutton.
Sorry.
We took a wrong turn over Albuquerque. Gonna refuel in Managua then head up there over the water. Weather shows a goodly fuel saver at fl20.
I knew I shouldna tested the corks.
Reckon the new mother’ll be mindin’ as she an the child happens on Arkansas they might hear the christened called to as Lum?
Okay okay, I’ll get on the plane.
Congrats Malcolm and to the kids. I hope all is going well. My son in London and American wife had their first, a boy, in London last week. A globalised world we live in today!
Thanks EE. I missed the announcement while composing and sending my intrusive comment to OEM. Too late (2am here in Aus) for champagne, but have now joined the celeb. with a shot of single malt. And so to bed.
Lovely, JK.
Do reserve a seat for collinhutton too, won’t you?
Now the baby’s here, let’s all relax and await the details, shall we?
The pounds of wee humanity delivered, the inches, the hours of labor . . .
Soon enough, the Ladies and I feel so sure, you Gentlemen can all get back to the slug fest that is Man Chat, but for now . . .
Might we hope for a picture of Grandfather Malcolm and The Wee Lad Himself?
Eight pounds, four ounces, and twenty-one inches long.
EE,
Yes, please; another glass of Pinot will do me just fine. And, yes, it is past noon here (barely).
“Mazel Tov” (Good luck) to the Wright/Pollack families. And “L’Chaim” (To life) one and all.
EE,
I have no daughter. Sigh. But I do have two sons and three granddaughters.
Three granddaughters? How lovely. Thrice blessed!
Try the Roasted Duck, TBH. Pairs nicely with the Pinot Noir, don’t you think?
The Ladies and I had a great time, Gentlemen, and we thank everyone for coming!
YAY!!! Congratulations on Liam’s birth! A nice healthy size too.
Thank you Eugenia, for hosting such a lovely impromptu party last night. It was just the right touch.
JK, LOL re Lum. I suspect it will be the same in Oklahoma too.
Whitewall, thank you :-) I rarely put any stock into self-styled professional prophets. I don’t follow any of them and generally believe God directs each of us individually (mostly via the Bible, but the Holy Spirit moves as He Wills). Especially, I distrust the new fads of trying to “baptize” soothsaying or fashionable popular delusions. Once in a while, I’ll have what I believe to be a “prophetic word” from our Father, but usually do not try to interpret it too much because I lack information to do so. I am sincere when I say that most genuine prophecy is best understood (and shared) after-the-fact. Exceptions might be made for en-courage-ment that strengthens faith without causing false expectations… which is why I found this refrain interesting.
So with all those caveats in mind LOL, here are links to some that were similar in many ways to the one I was thinking of. I know nothing about the people or sites and I don’t endorse them, just am linking to these articles in answer to your question: http://www.generals.org/articles/single/word-of-the-lord-for-2016/
And another:
https://truthprophecy.com/dreams/prophecy-2016/