At Least The Signal Chat Was Secure

Bombing Iran, NYC Mayoral Race, &tc.

Dear Friends,

President Trump took the layup.

I think it was the right decision, despite murky legal questions about the President’s war-making authority. National Review’s Andy McCarthy and Charlie Cooke had a half-hour debate about those legal questions, which is well-worth a listen. I think Charlie is aspirationally correct, and Andy is practically correct. Trump should get Congressional authorization, but in reality Congress has long-since abdicated its role and the 2001 AUMF probably provides enough legal cover for Trump in this instance.

A lot remains to be seen. Did the attack really destroy Iran’s nuclear ambitions? CNN says, “No.” The Administration says, “Yes.” The U.N. probably needs to get on the ground and assess the matter. As for CNN’s report yesterday that the attack did not significantly damage Fordow, keep in mind that the “reporter” is the same person who cited anonymous “sources” to claim that the Hunter Biden laptop was fake. Literally, pay no attention to CNN. The left wants to minimize Trump’s accomplishments, and Trump and his cabinet officials don’t help matters with their obnoxious chest-thumping. We lack serious, sober-minded people on all sides of our political divide.

As for the mission itself, it was a marvel. It seems that Jeffrey Goldberg was left off the Signal Chat, so the appropriate secrecy was maintained. A couple of B-2 bombers headed west and made sure they were tracked going to Guam. Simultaneously, seven B-2s took off from Missouri and headed east. They flew for 18 hours with minimal radio contact, met up with F-35s for air support, each dropped their two bombs, turned around, and flew 18 hours home. That must have been an unbelievably boring couple of days at the office. All of the U.S. aircraft were completely invisible to radar systems. Just think of that. Not an Iranian aircraft scrambled, not a single missile fired in defense. Just silent, ghostly destruction. Folks in Russia and China are paying attention.

Then there are the bombs. 30,000 pounds apiece. I cannot even wrap my head around the size of those things. And those elegant, black, flying wings carry two. They dropped 14 of those things straight down ventilation shafts. If you aren’t impressed with U.S. Military hardware, you are apparently incapable of being impressed.

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In New York City’s mayoral primary yesterday, former Governor Andrew Cuomo lost to his rival. Normally, that would be good news, except that in this race Cuomo was, in our bizzaro-world, the guy you should have been rooting for. His opponent, Zohran Mamdani, is basically a card-carrying communist.

Good luck, New York. Be careful what you wish for.

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Other news and current events appear to be “outrages of the day,” as the gaping maw of the 24/7 news cycle churns away and desperate people trying to be relevant sprinkle clickbait like candy. Yawn. I won’t take the bait.

So I’ll finish off with a real outrage: the inability of the Minnesota Twins Baseball Club to win a game of Base Ball. It is an inexplicable curse. The last six weeks of last season and the first six weeks of this season were excruciating to watch. Then, suddenly, the team won 13 straight games and looked like the group of guys we’ve been waiting for. Then, we promptly fell off another cliff and are mired in misery.

I don’t know what there is left to do. There are no more buttons to push. You can’t unplug a team and try plugging it in again. After last seasons debacle, I openly said, “Fire everyone on the hitting coach staff.” The Twins actually then fired everyone on the hitting coach staff. If something doesn’t change very soon, the new crew might suffer the same fate, and Manager Rocco Baldelli’s head is going to be on the block. Although the Twins are notoriously slow to get rid of managers.

The good news is that we are not quite halfway through the season, and one of the glories of Base Ball is that there is a lot of time to recover from stretches like this. But they’d better get recovering soon. Like, today.

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Thanks for reading The Quarter Inch. Have a great rest of your week, and I’ll be back in your inbox on Friday, as usual!