Saturday Updates

Good morning, Stroock's Books weekenders. 

Arrgh...gout attack. Which make sense. Yesterday we did something really stupid. We lit an Arturo Fuente (our first in 17 days and 6th of the year) and cracked open a bottle of chianti. Serves us right. 

The Things.

We have lowered the price of World War 1990: Ireland, which has 29 ratings for a 4.2 average. Ireland also has its first one-star rating. Wanker.

World War 1990: Ireland Kindle Select pages read remain strong. But digital and softcover sales were way down last month, and that's a problem. A problem we don't know how to solve. 

A great week with World War 1990: The Managua Campaign.  FDN forces are advancing south from Ocotal (break out your map) while Task Force Bolivar is about to break out of the Choluteca gap, take Somotillo after a Sandy spoiling attack, and open the coastal plain to Managua.  World War 1990: The Managua Campaign is 45,000 words. May is going to be a great month. Maybe even the month [What does that mean?-Ed]. We dunno. 

We'll be crossing the dread Hudson River today (assuming this gout subsides). Meaning we'll have a combined three hours of drive time. During which we'll think about World War 1990: Battle of the GIUK Gap. 

Friday Ef it All

Good morning, comrades, and Happy May Day. Gonna have the Soviet National Anthem in our head all day. Just effing great. 

Time was we'd crack some May Day jokes here or on FB. But we're still pretty fucked off, so all we're going to say this May Day is better dead than red. 

FB tells us we posted this 12 years ago today: 'In honor of May Day I'm writing some of the Politburo scenes in the new novel right now.' That's World War 1990: Operation Arctic Storm, people. 

Mrs. Stroock and I met with our financial guy yesterday. We're doing fine. 

War of the ants. Lots of live ants. Lots of dead ants. We can't even tell where they're coming from. We just look up and, 'Oh, there's an ant.' Their resilience and ability to absorb casualties is remarkable.

Middle East....Hezbollah is waging a low level war of attrition against Israel with drones. Meanwhile Open Source Intel reports the Israelis destroyed 40 Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon. So relax, doomers. Also 'Unemployment sits at 3.2%, inflation remains below 2%, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange has climbed roughly 20% since January, and the shekel has strengthened about 7% against the dollar.'

Supreme Court...the Supreme Court wars began in the summer of 1987 when Ted Kennedy (of all people) led the charge against solicitor general Robert Bork's nomination to the court. There followed decades of Dem shenanigans against Republican nominees. This led to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refusing to hear Barry Soetoro's nominee to replace the late Antonin Scalia,  culminating with the Brett Kavanaugh fiasco, and finally Amy Comey Barrett's election year nomination to replace RBG. Have the Dems learned anything? No, of course not. They're promising to pack the court. What can we say, Dems. Ef around and find out. We enjoy their angst. 

Republicans should escalate the Supreme Court Wars by impeaching Justices Sotomayor and Kagan on the grounds that they were not properly seated because the president who nominated them was ineligible to hold office. 

As far as the court's VRA congressional district ruling goes, we make no predictions, except one. The redistricting race will affect the outcome of the midterms in ways we don't anticipate. 

Oh, and all this talk about the GOP having a huge structural advantage next decade is the inverse of the Emerging Democratic Majority thesis from the 2000s. How'd that work out

Maybe we Should call them 'inbursts'

 Baaaa...we swipe the air and drink our grog, or coffee anyway.

...The time last night is 7:45. We are sitting on the couch in a white-hot rage. The kind of rage we hold and turn inward on ourselves to the point where we wonder if our heart is going to explode. Our right eye is literally twitching. Because we had planned on an after-dinner cigar and a bottle of chianti - our first in 16 days. And it's raining... 

52 years and we still can't help or stop these inner outbursts (heh, we like that term). Sometimes we get the inner outbursts over important things. Raritan Valley Community College screwing us to the point where we go to campus in search of the fulltime professor stealing our classes. Sometimes it's dumb stuff. Like last night. 

There was a time when we took handfuls of pills to prevent those inner outbursts. Didn't work. We've had incidents when we go to bed and hope our heart doesn't explode. We've had incidents where we were so angry we went to bed and didn't care if it did. 

In truth we've been mildly ticked off all week. 

Good morning Stroock's Books reader(s) and welcome to the triumphant return of the Thursday Downer.  

We think the King's been an awfully good sport about the 1776 unpleasantness. 

War of the ants. We must have squashed 30 of them yesterday. We've no idea where the little commie bastards are coming from. We look and suddenly, there's an ant marching across the floor. The ants' nest is poisoned and they're out looking for a new location, right? This blog remains convinced that soon we will reach an attritional tipping point and achieve victory. 

The Crossing...the tensest part of the movie was the crossing of the Delaware. Washington had to get his army of 2,000 men across the river in only a handful of boats piloted by Massachusetts Colonel John Glover and his Marblehead men. Glover is a major character in the movie. Trusted by Washington, but also direct and impertinent.  Of course, loading and unloading of the troops takes longer than expected. Always there's the threat of the British spotting the boats and blasting them off the water. Several civilians hear the ruckus and come down to the shore to investigate. Washington is forced to detain them, and explains why. Near dawn the entire army is across. Washington stands the men and marches them to Trenton. 

DOGE report.

Progress, progress. It's messy but World War 1990: The Managua Campaign is coming along just fine. The FDN drive south from Ocotal is developing. 

So we asked our FB friends yesterday if they want to see World War 1990: Battle of the GIUK Gap. Our FB friends expressed great enthusiasm for the project. One is tempted...one is tempted...and we've no great ju-ju for The Fourth Day right now. The summer sneak in starts May 25. Upon this we shall dwell.

Will Saves the King

Good morning, Stroock's Books reader(s) and happy midweek. 

So we rang the Australian Hellenic Choir (Sydney, Australia) last night. Not kidding.* 

We were in a bad mood last night and ain't in so great a mood this morning. 

Oh look, gout this morning. Just great [Yes because the greatest driver for gout is stress and annoyance and you worked yourself up over some stupid choir on the other side of the planet-Ed].

War of the ants...lots of live ants spotted. As we write this one is crawling across the living room floor. Lots of dead ants too. We remain convinced out campaign is hurting the ants badly and that their presence indicates the nest is poisoned. 

'Mr. Speaker! Their Majesties' King Charles the Third and Queen Camilla!' We admit we never expected the House Sergeant at Arms to say that. Seeing King Charles address congress was neat. Sorry, it just was. HRH charmed us [Oh my -Ed] we couldn't help but like the man. And he spoke eloquently about our nation's shared heritage, culture, and sacrifice. 

For us, the King's speech felt like the last hurrah of the old Anglo-American alliance, the special relationship. HRH told some good jokes, too, do click over. 

We've always been less hostile to HRH then a lot of people. We never bought into the Diana crap. The king rose through the ranks of the Royal Navy to skipper a minesweeper. And Charles has spent his life doing charitable work. Why we almost regret that bit of unpleasantness 250 years ago. 

The Crossing....At first, Jeff Daniels seems an odd choice to play George Washington. And at first, we didn't quite buy into his performance. But as the movie went on, Daniels grew into the role. By the end of the film, Daniels looked and felt like the character in Washington's portraits. What we mean to say, is that by the end of The Crossing, we looked at Jeff Daniels and saw George Washington. 

Daniel's plays Washington as a man who is weary, tired, and facing defeat. Washington is bearing a terrible burden as he knows the fate of the Revolution lies with him. Daniels also plays Washington with just a bit of whimsy. 'Move your fat ass, Henry' Washington says to Henry Knox as he boards a boat to cross the Delaware. This actually, happened, by the way.  

After the victory Washington is relieved when his surgeon and friend Hugh Mercer tells him the army suffered no casualties during the battle. For the first time in the movie, Washington breaths easy. But Washington does not rest until he gets the army back across the Delaware. 'What can you be thinking? That we have won the war?' Washington asks his ebullient generals. 

*Related. So this happened 12 years ago:

Earlier at Veterans for Peace forum-
Peacenik: 'Israel is an apartheid state.'
Professor Stroock: 'That's a lie! If you think Israel is an Apartheid State, you don't know what Apartheid is!'
And then I buried him under an avalanche of facts.

[You've been acting like a knobhead for a long time-Ed].

Will is Torqued off

Good morning, afficionados of Stroock's Books. We need to get some bloodwork this morning. That means fasting. That means no coffee. We are persevering. 

And we're back! Two vials of blood and a paper cup. They're testing for...diabetes. We'd rather go into a diabetic coma then prick our finger the rest of our life. Nurse wasn't even pretty !@#$.

We remain annoyed and pissed off. We are sorely tempted to light an Arturo Fuente and crack open a bottle after lunch [Oh that'll fix everything-Ed]. Hey, it's been two weeks [That's not bad actually-Ed]. 

Israeli polls...since the Bennett/Lapid merger polls show...the Netanyahu block taking the lead? Don't take our word for it. Click here and here. The nation doesn't really like Bibi. So in a race between Netanyahu and a not-Netanyahu abstraction, the latter wins. But the merged parties (now called Together) are not an abstraction. They're flesh and blood and flawed. And in a race between Netanyahu vs Bennett, the public favors Netanyahu.

The Crossing...the setting in December 1776 is, as mentioned before, grim. The Continental Army has been fighting and losing for months. What's left of the army has retreated to Pennsylvania, safe until the British decide to follow them across the Delaware. The Pennsylvania shore is cold and barren with little sustenance to be found. The Yankee winter has only just begun and it's already brutal. These are indeed 'the times that try men's souls' as Thomas Paine wrote.

What's left of Washington's army is tired, cold, hungry, and about to disintegrate as the men's enlistments end on December-31st. The Crossing had a limited budget. And if one looks closely, one can tell Washington's encampment is just a half dozen tents, and a farmhouse with some wagons strewn about. For the most part the film relies on a few hundred reenactors. Still, what's on the screen looks good, and director Robert Harmon makes the viewer feel the Continentals' cold and misery. 

One thing, beyond Harmon's control obviously, was the weather. The snow here is represented by a few handfuls of flakes drifting across the camera. In fact a major snow storm hit New Jersey the night of the crossing. 

DOGE report.

Good day yesterday with World War 1990: The Managua Campaign. A very good day.

In Which Will Quotes Steel Panther

Good morning, reader(s) of Stroock's Books and happy Monday. 

The temp is 38 degrees. Enjoy Yankee spring. 

We spent most of yesterday miffed, annoyed, and downright angry about a host of small things. Mostly we stewed in our basement where we wrote a little. Then we went to the gym - which helped marginally. If we may quote the great Steel Panther, 'Fuck those fucking fuckheads. They can suck my balls.'

We remain a bit touchy. 

Sometimes we think we should drink and smoke more. 

Good back-to-back workouts over the weekend though.

In Israel Naftali Bennett and Yaer Lapid have merged their parties to form a united front against Netanyahu and his bloc. We saw one poll that showed 61 percent of Israelis would vote against Bibi and the right blog. But we saw another poll that showed the merge actually cost the opposition seats. As usual, Israeli polls are all over the place (just keep scrolling). 

Hmmm....on the one hand the merger presents a united front against Bibi. On the other the merger allows Bibi to focus on Bennett. He's already saying the Bennett/Lapid alliance will form another government with the Arabs. 

Our own preference is for a Likud led government that includes Naftali Bennett to whom Bibi will eventually pass the baton. 

For the record, this blog believes a Netanyahu v Bennett race would be good for Israel. Two leaders. Two visions. Two choices.**

Yeah...those of you who know us on FB know we're pretty pessimistic about the state of things after the latest assassination attempt on President Trump and the Dems/libs/left reaction to it. Reader(s) of this blog and FB friends know we've grappled with the matter of what to do if we're confronted with Juden-hass. That is, what's it take for us to throw a punch? What do we do with the Dem's fourth assassination attempt on the president succeeds?* You're goddamn right we wore our Trump T-shirt to the gym. 

American Revolution...so we watched The Crossing (2000) last week, starring Jeff Daniels as General Washington. The film presents the Continental's situation as urgent and grim, depressing even. This is 100 percent accurate. We needed a while to get into the movie, partly because we kept comparing it to the Trenton part of the 1984 George Washington miniseries which was able to film the Battle of Trenton in the snow. But the more we watched The Crossing, the more we liked it, and the more we liked Jeff Daniels George Washington 3/4. It's The Crossing week here at Stroock's Books. Enjoy.

DOGE report.

More working on World War 1990: The Managua Campaign yesterday. Those FDN task forces are going to take matters into their own hands and drive south, supported by their American air liaison who's organizing fuel drops for them.  

*Don't kid yourselves. The Dems will make another attempt on Trump's life. 

**Also getting Ben Gvir and Smotrich out of government is a good, very good, thing. Assholes. 

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 4/26/26

So that's three times the Dems/libs/left have tried to assassinate President Trump. Have they thought this through? What do they suppose happens if they get the president on their fourth try?* 

Here on out we expect a more circumspect Democrat party to think things over and turn down the rhetorical temperature. We kid, we kid. 

Baaaaah! We swipe at the air and drink our coffee.

Good morning Stroock's Books reader(s) and happy Sunday. 

We had quite the rain deluge yesterday. Good. We needed the rain. For a while we sat in the family room wondering why we didn't hear the sump-pump go off, as is our wont [Jesus Christ. The crap you come up with to worry about-Ed]. It went off. [Yeah. You know those things are designed to go off without anybody checking in, worrying or ever thinking about them by engineers who are a lot smarter than you-Ed]. We know. [In fact, in 21 years you are on you fourth sump pump and in all that time they've never just failed to activate-Ed]. Well there was the one before this one...[The first float switch got stuck and eventually the second float switch would have kicked on....knobhead-Ed].

Let's move on to Will's Good Idea for the Week of 4/26/26...[Lets-Ed]

Well, we need nuclear war short story ideas.

Also, we feel a lot of American Revolution magazine article percolation. And why not? [Because those magazines don't pay very much-Ed] Indeed. Still [Still what?-Ed] Nothing. Just still. 

*[Armed revolution from the right? President Vance orders the arrest of Democrat Party leadership? -Ed] I'm listening.