Machinations Political (Fiction)

Shabbat Shalom, Stroock's Books kibbutzim. 

We had a bout of rain last night with some more rain this morning. 

We caught three or four innings of the Phillies game yesterday while folding laundry. Just something to do in the afternoon after writing. 

We'll be touring Rutgers campus today for one of the school orientations. Go knights!

Well, the stock market took one on the chin yesterday.  We've seen a lot worse, actually. Covid, the Financial Crisis, the market opening after 9/11, the 1987 crash, etc etc. We are amused by all these conservative pundits extolling the virtues of tariffs after decades of extolling the virtues of free trade. Come on, guys. Our stance? Same as yesterday, we don't know. One thing, though. Why would MAGA hats worry about corporations and Wall Street? Know your class enemies. 

World War 1990: Thatcher's War political machinations...What's happening in the rest of the world while Ingham is running around New York? Political machinations of some kind. But what kind? And we still haven't figured out who's going to be the Veep after Dan Quayle takes the Secretary of Defense portfolio. The new Veep must be loyal to the admin and someone who doesn't want to run for president in 1992. 

Remember, James Baker is trying to manage the president, pick the new Veep and prevent Quayle from getting the GOP nomination in 1992. Nobody in the Bush administration in 1990 is going to be capable of making an interesting Veep pick, someone like Al Gore* or Sarah Palin or JD Vance,  or even Nelson Rockefeller. Baker's gonna pick a real loyal party man, right? And remember, this pick is just serving out the term. Scowcroft?

Hmmm...when Bush decides not to run in 1992, which GOPs jump into the primary? Bob Dole for certain. Sorry Bob, you're losing this primary too. Kemp? He's been at HUD for four years and will certainly have lost some cache with the Reagan supply-side types. Pat Buchanan is surely running. Who else? Yes, Quayle is going to win the GOP nomination. We don't yet know who's winning the election of 1992. Exit question: who will be Quayle's Veep choice?

Here's the World War 1990 series from the beginning. 

Machinations indeed.

DOGE report: more editing of World War 1990: Thatcher's War. We didn't make much progress yesterday. But ideas did percolate. 

We read the missile silo chapter in War Night.  Three more chapters to go. 

*Yes Algore was a very interesting pick in 1992. His selection made for a ticket of young, southern, new Democrats in stark contrast to the Carter/Mondale/Dukakis losers of the 80s. Also, Algore wasn't self-evidently evil yet....speaking of people running in 1992. We know who Gore's first Veep pick will be, heh. What about his second pick?

Trump Sets the Tone

Good morning, Stroock's Books participants, you brave few. 

Ah, a bit of rain yesterday with another bit of rain coming later. We expect spring like temperatures today. 

We got to the gym for a more or less complete cardio session yesterday. The rowing machine was no problem. We had to cut short the bike time, but overall we're pleased.

Tariffs? We've no idea. Though we must admit GOP orthodoxy on free trade these last three decades hasn't paid dividends, right? Right? What do the experts say? They're usually wrong.* Wait, did Ontario premier Doug Ford bend the knee? Eat more poutine, fatty.

And screw Canada. Seriously, if the CPC blows this race we'll never worry about or bother with Canada again. It ain't looking good. We've seen the phrase 'deep majority' tossed about. Fuck you, Shoresy.**

Related: our Northern Ontario Senior Hockey Association and Sudbury Blueberry Bulldogs T-shirts should arrive today. Set the tone, boys. Set the tone.

So War Night has been edited, proofed and read by a well wisher or two...and we still find mistakes and typos that these people missed. Which is why the author, any author, must needs read that printed proof one last time. Frustrating AF, but necessary. Exit question, do people reading the finished copy just not see typos? 

Some readers do notice the odd mistake and let us know in Amazon reviews. Thanks, you bilious bastards. We're glad you felt it necessary to take the time to point that out, scumbags. Ah critics. Without them, with what would we wipe the dog shite off the bottom of our shoe?

Behold this all-time banger from across the pond: 'I've just read a sample of a book about a nuclear war in 1975. The author clearly really wanted to have Margaret Thatcher as the Prime Minister for the aftermath, and hang the plausibility...Yes, 318 Labour MPs all conveniently under the path of nuclear bombs, allowing Margaret Thatcher to survive in one of Denis Thatcher's 'small estates in the country northeast of London'. MPs gathered in Parliament, in London. You don't say? Fuckwit. We could go on, but decorum gets the better of us. 

DOGE report: Yesterday we began a new scene in World War 1990: Thatcher's War and edited two others. 

We read the Lexington chapter in War Night and got the proof back from the proofreader.

*You know, when we began this blog almost exactly a decade ago, we called ourselves an unreformed (unrepentant?) Neocon. It's not that we think tariffs are great. As we write this the stock market is two minutes away from opening and we approach that with [Great fear and trepidation?-Ed], great fear and trepidation (Update: wow!). It's just that we think what America's been doing the last 30 years hasn't worked. And don't those poutine eaters up north slap tariffs on American goods?

**For what?!

Top Kilmer

Good morning, people of Stroock's Books. 

This morning the air is crisp, cold, downright wintery. 

We got to the gym yesterday for a weightlifting session. Knee was sore after, but not too bad. 

In Wisconsin last night the GOP lost the supreme court race but handily won the voter ID amendment. Don't ask us to explain Wisconsin voter behavior. In Florida The GOP easily won two house races. Overall last night doesn't tell us anything we didn't already know, Dems are motivated. Everybody won their home games. 

Related and we had no idea. JNS reports, 'Florida state senator Randy Fine, a Jewish Republican, won the special election for Florida’s 6th Congressional District on Tuesday in a race widely seen as a bellwether for the national popularity of Republicans.' We're everywhere. Oh, and he beat a Muslim convert! The imams are right. the Jew is clever. 

New Jersey's own Senator Corey Booker conducted a 24 hour filibuster yesterday, breaking a record held by Democrat segregationists. Congratulations. Booker's always been a manchild. Yes we've voted for Booker at least once (don't remember if we voted for Booker the second time). What of it?

The great Val Kilmer has passed. We first saw him play 1950s rockstar heart throb Nick Rivers in the Zucker Brother's comedy Top Secret. After that he played zany college student Chris Knight in Real Genius. Next Kilmer showed great range as Iceman in Top Gun. After watching Tombstone, we knew right away we'd seen one of the great performances of the decade.* We've never seen The Doors or Batman Returns. We'll remember Kilmer as that whacky 80s Gen-X icon. 

DOGE report: yesterday we edited two Thatcher's War scenes and wrote another. We thought we'd have Ingham burning down bars in Boston, but he's starting out in New York. Hello NORAID. [Knobhead. You're going to piss off people with explosives-Ed].

We did another story in War Night. We'll have the proofer's copy today. 

*Kilmer's most quotable role, no? We'll start: 'Why, Johnny, I'm sorry, I'd forgotten you were there. You may go now.'...'Wyatt I am rolling.'...'I got two guns. One for each of you.'...'I'm your huckleberry.'...'Say when.'...'Wyatt Earp is my friend...[I got lots of friends]...I don't.' Okay, pretty much everything he says in the whole damn movie. 

Will Mispronounces Stuff

A new month with new tasks. We don't do the April Fool's thing. This blog is too serious for jesting and bad jokes. Oh, and this blog's 10th anniversary is just seven days away. 

Yesterday we had a summer like thunderstorm followed by a long bout of rain [When did you become a middle-aged man with a weird weather habit? -Ed].  Temperatures remain cool. 

The knee feels 90% better. 

On Substack, journalist Toni Airaksinen posts photos of Israeli young women murdered by Hamas on 10/7. Angelic visions all. Bomb Gaza. Won't some kind soul click on this link? A group of Israeli teenagers dancing and serenading an old Israeli woman. The odds are what, 90 percent (?) she's a Holocaust survivor. That clip is from Jerusalem Day, 2023. There's the young nation of optimism and nationalism. There's 'startup nation'. That nation died on 10/7 with all those Israelis murdered that day. Israel Radar disagrees with our doom and gloom and sees a powerful nation emerging from the war. 

Related: 'A clip from CBS’s 60 Minutes is going viral after Lesley Stahl asked a freed Israeli hostage, “Do you think they starved you, or they just didn’t have food?”' Lesley Stahl should be castrated.* 

So every once in a while we write about our grognard. Yesterday we realized that we are almost certainly pronouncing grognard wrong [Ya think?-Ed]. It's pronounced 'groi-nerd' or something. [He also thinks 'segue' is spelled 'segway'-Ed].

DOGE Report: We edited several scenes in Thatcher's War and wrote two more. Those two scenes need plenty of work, but they're down.

We read two more War Night stories. We are pleased with what we've read. We are more pleased than we thought we'd be. The proofer finished proofing War Night and has dropped it in the mail to us. The proofer enjoyed the book thoroughly. As the proofer is a woman, we see this as a warning sign. Did we accidently write chick lit? 

Also, the grognard finished grognarding War Night and sent his edits. 

Oh, a friend pointed out that not one tank blows up in War Night. We finally wrote a novel with no exploding tanks. 

*We're quoting our late grandfather, who said the same thing of Susan Sontag after she blamed America for 9/11.

Monday, eh, ya Hoser

A happy new week to the people of Stroock's Books. 

We had a bout of rain last night and another bout is due tonight, most excellent. The air is cool and wet this morning. We'll put some seed down on the lawn this afternoon. 

Oldest Daughter has officially committed to Rutgers. We're Scarlet Knights fans now. What can a dad say? Why yes, we're getting a bit emotional. Yes we are. Oldest Daughter wants to be a lawyer, you see. We're all for it, so long as she becomes one of those lawyers with highway billboard adverts and midday television commercials. 'Cops got you on the hook? Just call Stroock!'

For the first time in what seems like forever we got in back-to-back days at the gym. Our workout is still truncated though, as we can't yet bend the knee comfortably for the rowing machine. Also, we're still not lifting as the knee buckles a bit. We'd hate to go down with a hundred pound bar in in our hands. That's 45.3 kilos to you damn Canadians. 

Segui... 

In the Toronto Sun, Joe Warmington looks at crowd sizes at Pierre's rallies and compares them to the somnolent crowds at Carney's rallies, and asks, 'Do you believe your eyes? Or do you believe polls?' This is a good question. This is exactly the argument we made nine years ago during the 2016 campaign. Don't believe the polls, believe what you see. In 2016 we saw a lot of MAGA hats and a lot of people who'd never followed politics enthusiastically supporting Trump. Exit question, why were the polls showing Pierre throttling Justin right if these polls are wrong?

Further polling thought...as we saw in 2024, different pollsters will have models of the electorate on election day. The mainstream American pollsters were all wrong. While Atlas, Trafalger, Rasmussen all found the Zeitgeist and called the race right. Some Canadian pollster has found the Zeitgeist. Second exit question: is there some rebel Canadian pollster out there? 

Related: our Northern Ontario Senior Hockey Association T-shirt is in the mail. IYKYK. 

Mark Steyn writes about lunatics chasing down MAGA hat wearers on the subway and the crazy people keying Teslas. We don't wear a MAGA hat these days, but we do don an Israeli hat when we go out and wear Israeli T-shirts to the gym. If someone gives us a hard time, and do note this has never happened, our response would be, 'Go fuck your own face,' or 'is mom's latest boyfriend a Jew?' 

More on the Jews...the Israelis are evacuating Rafah. Bomb Gaza. JNS reports that the Israelis and US have destroyed most of the Houthis' missiles. But it only takes one missile to send Israelis scrambling for the bomb shelters. Meanwhile Trump threatens Iran. We are not calling for American airstrikes on Iran [Aren't you though?-Ed]. But it would be soooo much easier for America to do it. Some serious people we follow think US strikes on Iran are very seriously possible. Exit question: just how much biblical level destruction can one B2 bomber deliver? 

DOGE report: Yesterday we did some thinking and researching about the next chapter in World War 1990: Thatcher's War. Basically, Ingham is going to run around Boston and New York blowing up IRA bars. We hate Boston and the Red Sox. This chapter will also be fodder for showing post war America and the build up to Thatcher's invasion of Ireland. 

We read the first three stories in War Night, finding very few mistakes. This task is not nearly as grueling as we feared. Our proofer finished War Night and put it in the mail. The Grognard has War Night now, and he's going to Grognard it with extreme prejudice. 

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 3/30/25

Good Sunday morning, Stroock's Books faithful and Christians looking for something to read after church. 

We finally got back to the gym yesterday. Our knee was sore but this morning it's less sore than it was yesterday morning. Our gym policy will continue unabated. 

Weather update: since we had abnormally high temperatures yesterday we power washed the back deck.  Also, last night saw a nice bout of rain, further helping to replenish the state's reservoirs. The weather is back to form, today, with temps in the mid-50s.

Sports: Nine homeruns? The Yankees hit nine homeruns yesterday? The Yankees beat the Brewers 20-9. The game sounds like a farce. 

Our people are reading War Night. We have yet to begin reading. Tomorrow right? Right? 

Will's Good idea for the week of 3/30/25. Alert reader(s) will have noticed that yesterday we said World War 1990: Thatcher's War is 52,000 words. That's right, the Derry chapters went back in [Which he did with great fear and Trepidation-Ed]. Thatcher's War is a novel in at least three parts, these being the immediate post war, the Derry unrest, and events to follow. The Derry chapters still need embiggening, though. 

Saturday Updates

Good Saturday, Stroock's Books reader(s), you brave few [He ain't kidding-Ed].

We got in a Judaism last night with another Kaddish for Mr. O'Neill. 

A bit of rain last night. Speaking of the weather, the temperature will climb to 80 degrees today. 

No gym yesterday, a game time decision and a wise one at that. The knee is a bit better this morning than it was yesterday morning. Maybe today. 

We are profoundly troubled by the collapse of the CPC in Canadian polls. Sorry Pierre, you have to have more than 'I'm not Justin' and 'I'm mad at Trump too' Speaking of, Trump is at least partially responsible for the Canadian Lib's rise, is he not? 

The Things.

More fits and starts with World War 1990: Thatcher's War, but at the end of the week we'd found the novel's center, its core, its inner light, if you will. We wrote the rough of a chapter where a bunch of world leaders are watching the funeral and pondering the state of the world a few weeks after WWIII. So far we have James Baker, Mulroney, Mitterrand, Kohl...we may add more. Hey, what's Dan Quayle doing at the funeral? World War 1990: Thatcher's War is 52,000 words. 

The War Night proof has arrived. We approach it with, you know it, great fear and trepidation.