Another open thread

Overslept this morning. Maybe you're awake. Or woke. Or something. Chime in!

All's well that ends well (but all is not well)

Doing it for 200 years

We finally have things figured out and we now know Fearless Maria will be headed to Saint Louis University in the fall. SLU wasn't necessarily her first choice, but I'm pretty sure it will be the right choice in the end. I really think the college chase is out of control. So many kids are chasing so few spots that the competition is becoming absurd. I've seen it written that many schools wouldn't accept their alumni today -- the board scores and high school grade point averages that could get you into a high-level school 25 years ago wouldn't be nearly enough now.

Has the product improved that much? I don't think anyone who pays attention would make that argument. Every day brings new word of some outrage of political correctness or scandal. Some schools seem to have sold their souls. Our friend Bike Bubba has been covering the unfolding scandal at his alma mater, Michigan State University, with great interest and even greater dismay. The stories coming out of Saint Olaf, a school Fearless Maria briefly considered, are scandalous. And it's clear that places like Evergreen State College are asylums, not academe. We line up to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to such places.

For what it's worth, Benster's school, Knox College, does a good job of keeping speech free on its campus. In many ways, Knox is a typical liberal arts college and is crawling with portsiders, but I had a good feeling about Knox from the outset, an impression that was verified when I heard its president, Teresa Amott, make a specific point that incoming students needed to listen to all voices, liberal and conservative, during her remarks at the opening convocation four years ago. Based on what I know about SLU, Fearless Maria should have a similar experience.

One standard, por favor

Ever since Andrew McCabe was cashiered from the FBI, one thing has been even more obvious than usual -- we aren't being particularly consistent. Jonathan Turley has noticed, too:

Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe penned an op-ed for The Washington Post to contest the allegation of his “lack of candor” with federal investigators.  I have been writing (here and here and here) on the contrast between the treatment of McCabe and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.  McCabe has been erroneously portrayed as “losing his pension” but has not been charged.  Flynn was charged and accepted a plea deal under 18 U.S.C. 1001 for making a false statement to investigators.  Now McCabe is raising virtually the same defense that did not work for Flynn: that there was a lot going on and he was “confused and distracted.”

But it's gonna work for McCabe. Back to Turley:

Given his willingness to hold forth publicly on his actions, McCabe does not appear to expect to be charged even though the Inspector General could refer a criminal allegation to prosecutors.

He lashes about at President Donald Trump and critics to assert ‘I did not knowingly mislead or lie to investigators.”  He then added this familiar defense: “At worst, I was not clear in my responses, and because of what was going on around me may well have been confused and distracted — and for that I take full responsibility.”

Responsibility without repercussion, of course. The ol' Janet Reno trick. Turley isn't done:

That is reportedly the same defense raised by Flynn who admitted to meeting with Russian diplomats during the busy transition period but did not disclose or confirm that they spoke about sanctions. He reportedly also did not make such a disclosure to Vice President Pence.  There was nothing unlawful in the meeting with the Russians or even unprecedented for an incoming national security adviser to discuss such points of tension between the countries.  Flynn did not seek legal assistance before the interview and was reportedly not told that the investigators were there as part of a possible criminal inquiry.

Emphasis mine. Let's set aside that Flynn's initial conduct wasn't even illegal. Flynn had a right to know he was being interrogated. Had he known, he could have refused to speak with the investigators until he had a lawyer. But the key is the disparate treatment. McCabe might have his pension delayed. Flynn has to sell his house to pay his legal fees. The good news is the judge overseeing the Flynn case, Emmett Sullivan, has no patience for government malfeasance. But Flynn won't get his money back, or his house, or his reputation. Lack of candor is bad enough. Lack of scruples is far worse.

A girl I knew

There was a girl I knew growing up; she and I were classmates in 7th and 8th grade, but I went on to the Catholic high school and she went to the public high school. She wasn't gorgeous, but she was attractive enough. We didn't get along because she thought, as many kids do at that age, that she was above me on the social pecking order. Every once in a while she would remind me of my lowly place in the St. Mary's pecking order. I didn't care for that, but I figured one girl's opinion didn't matter very much and there were other girls who were nice to me. I also assumed, even then, that her occasional eagerness to put me in my place was a function of her own insecurity about her station. At that age, girls who are attractive enough don't wield the power that the truly gorgeous ones do, and they know it. And, perhaps, she was right about me, but after 40 years none of that matters any more.

We moved on with our lives, heading in different directions. I got the hell out of my hometown as soon as I could and found my life elsewhere. She stayed in my hometown and eventually got married to a guy who worked as a welder in one of the many factories in the area. I was surprised when she friended me on Facebook, but I accepted her request. I would get an occasional glimpse into her life; she and her husband reared two daughters and they seemed like a happy family. She and her husband liked to take vacations and had the wherewithal to do it, apparently. I'd see photos of them in Mexico, in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, like that. From what I could tell, they had made a nice life. I never met her husband, but he looked like a nice guy.

Her husband died over the weekend, apparently without warning. I'm guessing he had a heart attack, but I haven't figured out what happened. Her grief is palpable; in the note she posted on FB she wrote about the future she and her husband had planned and all the things they wanted to accomplish as the grew old together.

I don't know what the future brings. Mrs. D and I have reared our children and they are both getting ready to move on to new things in their lives. We talk about our future from time to time, but we're usually so enmeshed in the present that we don't necessarily spend as much time planning for that future as we might otherwise. While I think planning for the future is still a good idea, life has other plans. If you can spare a prayer for the girl I knew, I'd appreciate it.

Follow the money

Always good advice. And in the case of the gun grabbers, the money always leads back to places you'd expect. Let Daniel Greenfield be your guide to the March For Our Lives:

Take Everytown, the noisiest and most dishonest anti-gun group on the scene. The one consistent thing about anti-gun groups is that that they are usually the opposite of what their name says they are.

Everytown for Gun Safety was formed out of two other groups: Moms Demand Action and Mayors Against Illegal Guns. Both are actually front groups for Michael Bloomberg, the lefty billionaire and former boss of the Big Apple, who used New York City resources to host at least one of its websites.

So Everytown is really New York City. 

If they can make it there, they'll make it anywhere. But there's more:

March for Our Lives is on every cable channel, but who runs it? The photogenic teen fronts are out front. But it’s obvious to everyone that a bunch of teens don’t have the resources and skills to coordinate a nationwide movement. Instead it’s the experienced activists who are actually running things.

The March for Our Lives Fund is incorporated as a 501(c)(4). Donations to 501(c)(4) groups are not tax- deductible. And they don’t have to disclose donors. That’s why they’re a great dark money conduit. 

And Greenfield is just getting started. You really need to read the whole thing.

Whole Hogg

I make a particular effort not to call someone a Nazi, because (a) almost no one outside of the Illinois 3rd Congressional District is an actual Nazi, and (b) calling someone a Nazi is usually a response based on emotion, rather than reason.

I'm going to make an exception this time.

I'm particularly disgusted with David Hogg, the rank opportunist student from Stoneman Douglas High School who has built a podium for his own glory on the bodies of his fellow students. This kid looks like a young David Byrne, but he's a straight-up Nazi, all in with the gun grabbing goon squads who failed his dead classmates. He's more than happy to disarm you to please his masters. But he doesn't like clear backpacks, apparently:

After attacking American's Second Amendment rights for over a month, calling the NRA "child murderers," Hogg complained about having to use clear backpacks at school.

Hogg claimed that the decision by Democratic Broward County officials violated his "First Amendment rights" as he also cited potential embarrassment for students going through "their menstrual cycle" because of their "tampons and stuff."

"It’s unnecessary, it’s embarrassing for a lot of the students and it makes them feel isolated and separated from the rest of American school culture where they’re having essentially their First Amendment rights infringed upon because they can’t freely wear whatever backpack they want regardless of what it is," Hogg said.

His understanding of the First Amendment is as faulty as his understanding of the Second Amendment. I think the clear backpacks are ridiculous, too, but when you allow the government to start taking your rights away, what do you expect? If there's a Bill of Rights issue at play here, he might want to try the Fourth Amendment, but higher math may be beyond his ken, based on the available evidence.

Hogg and his Hitler Youth pals are converging on Washington today, demanding other people be disarmed so he feels safer. I guarantee Hogg that Scott Israel, the Broward County Sheriff whose officers were contemplating their navels while the bullets flew, won't be disarming himself. And when Hogg and his compatriots are no longer useful to the apparat (and his sell-by date is approaching), his best case scenario will be a billet in the ditch in Crawford next to Cindy Sheehan, although if he keeps swearing in his interviews he might get the Kent State treatment instead. Such are the wages of loving Big Brother.

Meanwhile, I was able to obtain an advance copy of Hogg's speech today. Interestingly, he decided to set it to music:

The Stache is back

John Bolton, come on down:

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that former United Nations Amb. John Bolton will replace Gen. H.R. McMaster as his national security adviser effective April 9 -- the latest in a growing list of White House staff shakeups over the past year.

“I am pleased to announce that, effective 4/9/18, @AmbJohnBolton will be my new National Security Advisor. I am very thankful for the service of General H.R. McMaster who has done an outstanding job & will always remain my friend. There will be an official contact handover on 4/9,” Trump tweeted.

Bolton is hawkish and his mustache could be a prototype for Trump's border wall, so he's easily caricatured -- as I just demonstrated. He's spent a lot of his post-U.N. career as a purveyor of hot takes. He horrifies my libertarian-minded friends. He'll certainly be more of a hardliner than McMaster, a cautious man who was known to throw cold water on certain ideas emanating from the White House.

Is he a good choice? On balance, I don't think so, but he does represent a worldview that is well within the mainstream of American foreign policy. Pundits, even amateur ones, are supposed to be purveyors of certitude, but I honestly don't know the best approach any more. The previous two presidential administrations both screwed the pooch, but in different ways. I'm inclined to observe for now.

Just a hunch

Given the constant shrieking about the Leader of the Free World from his myriad detractors, it can be difficult to separate out what's happening from the noise itself. But I have a hunch that the noise level at the moment is more about desperation that the story is about to change, and change decisively. I can't prove it, but it feels that way. Let's check back in a month and see.

Crime time

The last 24 hours have been busy. Hennepin County finally got around to charging the cop who killed Justine Damond. A good guy with a gun stopped a shooter in a high school in Maryland. And the guy who was terrorizing Austin with bombs blew himself up as the police were closing in.

Of these stories, the one in Maryland is the most important, but also most likely to disappear from the news cycle, because it runs counter to the narrative. See if this argument sways you:

Speaking of fantasies

I'm not sure how Zal (whoever he is, but he's official) plans to stop all kids from getting guns, but I have to imagine a certain amount of fantasy, backed by overwhelming brute force, would be necessarily involved. Apparently in Zal's world, doing what works gets in the way of doing what he wants. And while a 17-year old is not legally an adult, it's misleading to refer to him as a child. Show us your plan, Mr. Zal. Tell us how you're going to prevent "children" from getting guns. Provide details, please.

We'll be watching the Damond case closely, but at this point I only have one conclusion -- it's still awfully tough to convict a cop.

Back in town

A few random thoughts:

We've been traveling a fair amount the last week, most of it two trips to Galesburg coinciding with Benster's spring break. He's almost done now and will be graduating in June. Fearless Maria will be starting her collegiate adventure in the fall; although we're now about 90% certain where she'll be, a few things could change, so we won't be certain until the end of the month.

We've been so busy that it's been difficult to find time to blog much, as you've likely noticed. Beyond that, I remain tired of the news cycle. I honestly think that, left to his own devices, Donald Trump would operate in fairly normal parameters as president, but from the jump he's been forced to fight every day just to take the reins. It's exhausting to watch from this distance; I can't imagine what it must be like inside the Beltway.

My photography project continues; on the way back from Galesburg we stopped in Plainfield, Iowa, a town that apparently has a population of 438, but I only saw one person in the short time we were there. I did see buildings that seemed to be derelict:

Action

I'm making a point to stop more often on these trips. There's clearly a story here, but I don't know what it is. I do know that at 2 p.m. on a Monday afternoon, this place seemed like a ghost town. I've had that vibe one time before, back in 2005, when we drove through Eveleth, Minnesota. All the action in Eveleth, including the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, was on the highway; when you went into the city itself, it seemed like no one was there. When we stopped in Waverly, Minnesota, a few weeks back, it was clear the town was alive. There are a lot of towns in the Midwest to explore and a lot of highways to travel. I suspect some of the better stories, or at least some of the more mysterious ones, are there, on what Frank Sinatra called "dots on the map."

Get with the program, kid

It's important to express your opinion, so long as it's approved:

Minneapolis police say no arrests have been made after a student carrying a flag with the word “Trump” on it was assaulted outside of Southwest High School.

Police say the altercation happened while students were outside of the building during National School Walkout Day Wednesday morning.

He totally had it coming. There's more:

As students were observing a moment of silence, two students confronted the flag-bearing student across the street from campus.

Six other students joined in the confrontation, taking away his flag, damaging his camera and inflicting minor injuries.

8 kids against 1. Sounds fair. But they took the kid out for cake later:

Have some

Here's a hint to our crusading young people. If your school allows you to walk out, you're not risking anything for your protest. You're enlisting in their cause. Do what you want, but understand you aren't speaking truth to power. You're getting in line.

Useful advice

Kurt Schlichter, again making the point that needs to be made:

I remember when we used to talk about character counting, but you know what? Our opponents mocked us for being uptight and uncool – remember all the talk about how sophisticated European leaders all had mistresses? Oh, us repressed hayseeds and our sanctity of marriage nonsense! Well, moral purity came up for a vote and we were outvoted by the very same people who want me to rev up some oh-so convenient caring.

Well, no go-backsies now that those Old Rules would be useful again. You liberals made the New Rules, and by doing so you deprived yourselves of being able to leverage human frailty to weaponize our morality and score a victory based on collateral antics where you can’t win on substance.

Yep. And there's more:

My favorite part is when you libs start with the Jesusplaining to me. I have to say, the best social media is the social media where I’m bombarded with demands that I conform to their version of Christianity where just a few tweets before they were explaining how we’re stupid about having our “invisible sky friend.” I gotta break it to ya – there are no series of theological contortions that result in us having to allow the election of a monster like Hillary. But hey, you keep trying. Eventually, if you nag us enough, we’ll totally take your advice about how to live our religious values.

Oh, since Christianity is so important to you, now do abortion. Just kidding!

How did Shakespeare put it, in the voice of Antonio, in The Merchant of Venice?

Mark you this, Bassanio,
The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart.
Oh, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!

It's not particularly complicated, folks. Our betters don't give a damn about anyone's morality. They only care about getting their way. Whether they purport to think better of you, they don't give a damn about you, or what you think, or what you want, unless you agree with them and support what they think and want.

Open thread

Not much to say today. Perhaps you have something to say. If so, add it in the comments. Meanwhile, a remnant of a place that seems to have been replaced with John Deere dealership, outside of Galesburg:

Do a little dance, make a little love

Lightning Round - 031418

Stuff happens:

• From what I can tell, Rex Tillerson and Donald Trump weren't on the same page for much of Tillerson's tenure as Secretary of State, so giving him the pipe makes sense. Mike Pompeo seems like a sharp enough guy and he's certainly better than, say, John Kerry or Hillary Clinton. Another round of confirmation hearings gives Chuck Schumer a chance to posture, too, so it's a win-win for everybody.
• I can't think of any Packers fan who isn't sad to see Jordy Nelson leave. He gave the Packers a decade of fine play at the wide receiver position and by all accounts was a mensch. It's a tough business, though, and wide receivers who can't run well don't generally deserve 8-figure salaries. I also know finding quality wide receivers is significantly easier than finding talent at other positions, including tight end, so picking up Jimmy Graham makes sense. I also think getting Muhammad Wilkerson for the defensive line on a "prove it" deal is a smart move. If he's motivated, he'll be a monster. If he's not, you get rid of him.
• As for the locals, I am still not sold on Kirk Cousins, but he's apparently coming to town. He throws a nice ball and he's been pretty durable throughout his career, but are you convinced he's a significant upgrade over the guy who led the Purple last season, Case Keenum? Last season the Vikings had the 3rd best quarterback in the division before Aaron Rodgers was injured. When Cousins takes the reins, they still will. Ask yourself, Vikings fans -- would you really take Cousins over Matt Stafford? And if Mitch Trubisky develops for the Bears, Cousins might be the worst quarterback in the division. We'll see if he's good enough to take the Vikings to the promised land. I wouldn't count on it. 
• By the way, the Bears are coming on. Watch and see.
• Most of the political stories we see are bread and circus events. Other stories are more important. Like this one. Click that link.

Charm Offensive

America's sweetheart, reminding us of our sins:

Hillary Clinton on Saturday partly blamed her 2016 presidential loss on white women and said that they voted for Donald Trump because their husbands told them to vote that way.

Clinton spoke at the India Today Conclave in Mumbai, India over the weekend, where a journalist introduced her as the "woman who should have been the president of the United States of America."

The event's host, India Today Editor Aroon Purie, asked Clinton how 52 percent of white women could vote for Trump after the "Access Hollywood" tape was released in the final weeks of the campaign, which featured Clinton making crude sexual remarks about women.

"Democrats, going back to my husband and even before, but just in recent times going back to Bill and our candidates and then President Obama, have been losing the vote, including white women. We do not do well with white men and we don't do well with married white women," Clinton said.

She went on to say that white women face an "ongoing pressure to vote the way that your husband, your boss, your son, whoever, believes you should."

That's sure to ingratiate her with potential voters. She wasn't done:

Clinton said that she was on the way to winning the white women vote until then-FBI Director James Comey sent a letter to leaders in Congress less than two weeks before the election stating that the FBI reopened its investigation into her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.

"All of a sudden white women, who were going to vote for me and frankly standing up to the men in their lives and the men in their workplaces, were being told, ‘She's going to jail. You don't want to vote for her. It's terrible, you can't vote for that.' So, it just stopped my momentum and it decreased my vote enough because I was ahead. I was winning, and I thought I had fought my way back in the ten days from that letter until the election. I fell a little bit short," Clinton said.

Get your Stepford on, ladies.

This is nonsense. It's 2018. Men and women make up their own minds all the time. I know plenty of married couples whose votes essentially cancel each other's out. I also see a lot of married white women who post left-wing memes and diatribes on social media all day long. I also know conservative women who have left-wing husbands. Mrs. Clinton is a married white woman herself.

She had more to say:

If you want to know the truth, I think the main reason she lost is pretty simple: we all know people like Hillary -- nasty, hectoring, dismissive. You can't avoid all of them, especially if they are relatives, or neighbors, or co-workers. But you don't have to have them in your living room every day if you don't elect them to office. Trump may be a lot of things, but he's not a misanthrope. Hillary Clinton is the worst retail politician I have ever seen.

Trudging

Things are happening and changing, but it seems like there isn't much news right now. Yes, it's significant that Donald Trump may meet with Kim Jong-Un, but it doesn't mean much until it happens. It took a while longer, but we're starting to move past the Parkland school shooting. Not surprising, really -- outrage is difficult to sustain, even for the perpetual motion machine that is our MSM. The economy is humming along. No one really cares about Stormy Daniels, because there's nothing particularly interesting about the story -- everyone has known Trump is a cad for 30 years.

We were off to Galesburg again this weekend. The Benster is home for the week, his final spring break before graduation. Fearless Maria is gone for the week, still on her band trip to Greece. We keep trudging through the snow piles, which are slowly disappearing as March unfolds. We've never been busier as a family, but we're moving so quickly that there's little time available to analyze the larger meaning of it all. In about six weeks we'll have clarity on any number of issues, but for now we put one foot in front of the other.

il miglior fabbro

Yes, you should read the whole thing when it comes to this piece by Lee Smith. But a pullquote is in order:

The same process of weaponizing foreign-intelligence collection for domestic political purposes that the Obama administration road-tested during the Iran-deal fight was used to manufacture Russiagate and get it to market. Except instead of keeping a close hold of the identities of those swept up during “incidental collection” of U.S. persons, departing Obama White House officials leaked the names to friendly reporters.

Leaking classified intelligence is a felony, which means that Obama officials, many in the intelligence community, who leaked the names of Americans whose communications were intercepted to the press, were breaking the law. A crucial concern, then, was the trustworthiness of the intermediaries chosen to publish classified intelligence. It is to those intermediaries that anyone seeking to understand how the press became an instrument of the U.S. intelligence bureaucracy’s information war must now turn.

[Adam] Entous, now The New Yorker’s man in Washington, had already proved his trustworthiness by shaping the story about Obama administration spying on congressional and American Jewish-community leaders in a way that was favorable to the administration, and disguised blatant abuses of power. More stories would now come his way, courtesy of the U.S. intelligence community.

Lots more. All at the link.

Closed circuit to Ted Cruz

This isn't difficult. Your opponent wants to be known as Beto. Just use a creative mispronunciation. If Barack Obama could refer to Sarah Palin's hometown as "Wasilly," Cong. O'Rourke's name simply becomes "Beta."

You're welcome. Carry on.

Photo of the day

Still in Waverly, Minnesota:

Love me some roadside Americana

It's a garage and art studio. Why wouldn't it be?

Home Truth

The always bracing Kurt Schlicter:

It should be no surprise that less than a year after a Bernie Sanders fan took a rifle and attempted to erase the Congressional GOP for the crime of having different political views that some cretin decided to send Donald Trump Jr. a packet of mystery white powder. After all, Don Jr. is not a progressive, so don’t his and his family deserve to be terrorized, if not murdered?

  Or did I misunderstand the progressives’ stand by their near total silence?

 Well, not total silence. The Twitter left sure had a ball with it, yukking it up. Dousing someone in fake anthrax – hilarious! And totally justified, in their minds, because Don Jr. supports his father and is conservative. That makes it okay. In fact, let’s help by posting his home address!

We're in a bad place. I have a college friend who thought it would be nifty and cool to dox a prominent conservative writer. This guy is a professional with a successful practice. He knows better, but we're at a point where treating your political enemies as subhuman is standard operating procedure and he's gone over to the mania. Schlicter has more examples in the linked piece. The bad place is going to get worse.

Fearless

We just dropped Fearless Maria off at her high school. Nothing new about that; we've done it countless times over the last four years. The reason is different this time -- she's headed to Europe on her band trip, along with about 80 other kids. She'll spend the next nine days in Greece. After she returns, we'll be back to the usual hectic winter drumline schedule for a month, and then in another month she'll be graduating from high school and headed off to college in the fall.

When we started this blogging business, Maria was in kindergarten. She decided she wanted to be called Fearless Maria because she wanted to be fearless. She's made good on the notion. We've had a lot of adventures over the years with the kids and it's almost coming to an end. Fear can defeat you before you ever get started. We should all strive to be fearless.

Shovel or blog?

Had to shovel -- the plow came through. Bad, heavy snow in the Twin Cities yesterday. This winter has now officially worn out its welcome. Maybe a real blog post tomorrow. Meanwhile, here's St. Mary's Church in Waverly, Minnesota, a magnificent structure:

Blessed art thou among women

Events continue to be in the saddle

Blogging has been pretty light lately; we've been busy and I've been battling illness and a few other vagaries. There are things to talk about, but I have to get past the current stretch before I can really start digging in again. If nothing else, the b&w photography project continues apace:

Lowry and Marshall, Northeast Minneapolis

Waverly, Minnesota -- Hubert Humphrey's hometown

Things are always for sale, but the offers vary depending on where you are.

Ahem

Two things, Mr. President:

• Protectionism and trade wars are a bad idea. Don't do it.
• Negotiating with yourself on gun control on television is a bad idea. Don't do it.

Thanks.

Sabometrics

If you follow Hollywood at all, you're probably familiar with Sabo, a "street artist" who takes over bus station signs and billboards in and around Hollywood, posting subversive messages. And by subversive, I mean conservative:

Way outside Ebbing, Missouri

The Hollywood Reporter has more:

With a nod to the Oscar-nominated Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, conservative street artist Sabo has hijacked three billboards in Hollywood to attack the entertainment industry for allegedly shielding pedophiles.

Reminiscent of the signage in the Martin McDonagh film, which is up for seven Oscars including best picture, with black text on a field of red, three consecutive billboards in Hollywood sprang up Wednesday, each calling out the industry.

“And the Oscar for biggest pedophile goes to…” reads one sign.

Another says, “We all knew and still no arrests.”

A third billboard reads: “Name names on stage or shut the hell up!”

Sabo has done this sort of thing many times before, quite effectively:

She did

This one is unfair -- estrogen has its uses. Jimmy Kimmel, not so much

He picks the correct targets, certainly:

A terrible blow, but that's how it goes

I'm a fan.