Yes, that time of year has come around again

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It’s his birthday! Gid’s the type who will remind you of that, but he sometimes is reticent to reveal what, exactly, he expects as gifts. You can chose from any of the three suggestions below, or just give him an affectionate kiss on his cheek(s); he’ll love it.

Ascot, Jag, or Jaguar: your choice

Excerpts from JD Vance’s speech, and check out Bill Kristol's response: believe it or not, this man Kristol, this little worm, once posed as a conservative

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smarten up, fools

Vance in the Vanguard

Appearing at the annual Munich Security Conference today, Vice President J.D. Vance torched Europe in a manner they’ve never heard before. I kept seeing squibs from the speech on social media this morning, and couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

Some excerpts:

The threat that I worry the most about vis a vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor. What I worry about is the threat from within. The retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values: values shared with the United States of America.

I was struck that a former European commissioner went on television recently and sounded delighted that the Romanian government had just annulled an entire election. He warned that if things don’t go to plan, the very same thing could happen in Germany too.

Now, these cavalier statements are shocking to American ears. For years we’ve been told that everything we fund and support is in the name of our shared democratic values. Everything from our Ukraine policy to digital censorship is billed as a defence of democracy. But when we see European courts cancelling elections and senior officials threatening to cancel others, we ought to ask whether we’re holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard.

Vance was just getting started:

Free speech, I fear, is in retreat and in the interests of comity, my friends, but also in the interest of truth. I will admit that sometimes the loudest voices for censorship have come not from within Europe, but from within my own country, where the prior administration threatened and bullied social media companies to censor so-called misinformation. Misinformation, like, for example, the idea that coronavirus had likely leaked from a laboratory in China. Our own government encouraged private companies to silence people who dared to utter what turned out to be an obvious truth. . .

The organisers of this very conference have banned lawmakers representing populist parties on both the left and the right from participating in these conversations. Now, again, we don’t have to agree with everything or anything that people say. But when political leaders represent an important constituency, it is incumbent upon us to at least participate in dialogue with them.

Now, to many of us on the other side of the Atlantic, it looks more and more like old entrenched interests hiding behind ugly Soviet era words like misinformation and disinformation, who simply don’t like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion or, God forbid, vote a different way, or even worse, win an election.

Has Vance been reading Power Line’s Lexicon of Political Terms, in which we define “populism” as “When the wrong person or party wins an election”? This is a clear reference to the AfD (Alternative for Germany) party that may well come in first in Germany’s election next weekend, which will cause a political crisis. And the established but discredited ruling parties will richly deserve it.

Naturally this aspect is summoning the predictable response:

Much more on Powerline, which also has a link to the video of the entire 22-minute speech. One more clip:

And he pushed back on the Musk-ophobia building in Europe:

Speaking up and expressing opinions isn’t election interference. Even when people express views outside your own country, and even when those people are very influential – and trust me, I say this with all humour – if American democracy can survive ten years of Greta Thunberg’s scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk.

As bonus material, from another site, this:

NATO Sec-Gen Bends to VP Vance: ‘You Are Absolutely Right, We Have to Grow Up.’ “I also want to thank you personally for everything you have done over the years in engaging with Europe. It has been noted before, and it’s really important. And I look forward also from that perspective to our talks and on Europe stepping up, the European part of NATO stepping up. You’re absolutely right. It has to be done. We have to grow up in that sense and spend much more.”

Sale price reported

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218 Clapboard Ridge Road (the better, Round Hill end) (video here) has sold for $15.4 million on a $15.8 million asking price. That’s certainly a improvement over the last time this house was on the market, when it was listed in 2013 for $25 million (we ridiculed that price at the time, and did so repeatedly as the years passed and the price kept plummeting) and finally sold to these owners in 2017 for $9.650.

The house was completely and totally renovated in 2018 and listed with John McAttee, who priced it at $15.8 million and put it on the MLS 10/24/24. He had a contract in 77 days.

Two sales pending

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wesskum wood road, riverside

In bold defiance of the Greenwich ordinance that requires residents to move every 24 months, the owners of 45 Wesskum Wood Road lingered for 28 months, purchasing it for $3.050 million in August 2022 and only putting it back up for sale last week, at $3.9 million. Fortunately for them, a buyer has appeared quickly, and the town is unlikely to initiate enforcement procedures.

Cognewaugh

Cos Cob, of course, is not subject to the mandatory leave requirement because, frankly, who notices Cos Cob or, as we like to say, Byram East? In any event, the owners of 107 Cognewaugh Road have remained in situ, undisturbed, from 2007 until now. They listed the property for $3.1 million 15 days ago and it, too is now pending.

That Roz — mere hours into her leadership role and she's already got the Rapid Response Team churning in high gear! (UPDATED)

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The Democratic Party posted a list of the things it got done in one day and it reads like satire

They (unsuccessfully) tried to block one of their former party members, introduced a bill to impose socialized medicine, thwarted democracy by barring people from removing chemicals from their tap water, sent a strongly-worded letter, and won a county election?

UPDATE: Forgot this gem from a few days ago of the Schumer trying, and failing, to get his audience to join him in chant:

If you've been looking for The Tipi and The Zebra, we've found them for you

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They’re in New Canaan! At 485 Laurel Road, to be precise, new to the market and priced at $7.250 million. Jokes about stagers’ cliches aside, this property looks pretty cool. Renovated 1846 house, plus various outbuildings, all on 17.5 acres. God knows what the maintenance costs for this assemblage would amount to, but the entrance price seems reasonable enough.

Riverside NoPo sale

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86 Mary Lane, new construction, $3.1 million. That’s a record for modest Mary; next highest, renovations, were 23 Mary, $2.180 million in 2022; and No. 27, $1.950 million in April ‘24.

Everyone’s favorite failed builder, Jianhua Tsoi, who kept the foreclosure business alive and flourishing almost single-handedly in the mid-2000s owned this property back then, and tried unsuccessfully to find a buyer willing to pay him to build a $2.850 home on it in 2008; the only one interested in the place was the bank, who foreclosed and, eventually, sold the lot to this builder in 2023 for $566,000.