If it's Midweek, it's the Midweek Meander (with AC/DC asides)

A good midweek morn to Stroock's Books reader(s) everywhere except Canada. Bastards. 

Autumn looms. Right now, the temp is 59 degrees, American. Feels a bit early for such cool temps, even in New Jersey, no? 

We are sore from an afternoon at the gym. But we've two good (enough) nights of sleep. 

We are neglecting our lawn. 

We see no one bought Blooms yesterday. Thanks. We blame Canada.

This blog has no insights to offer on the passing of Dolly Parton. We're just not much of a Country music fan. Seriously, we can name, like three Dolly Parton songs. Three. Parton was one of those 'everywhere' celebrities of our childhood. We recently saw 9 to 5 for the first time in a couple of decades, a movie that was on cable all the time for a while. Parton is one of the reasons why that film is so much fun. Go ahead and give 9 to 5 a rewatch. Otherwise, kaddish. 

FB tells us that 11 years ago today we saw our last AC/DC concert, this one at the Meadowlands. Note, our previous AC/DC concert was at the old Giants Stadium just before they tore it down. AC/DC is on tour again, but we don't feel the need to see a show. They're old and so are we. 

Well how 'bout that! Back in Black just came on the radio here at Dunkin Donuts. Must be a sign. Easily one of the ten best chord progressions in rock. 

Related...2006...or our last good semester subbing. That autumn we were enamored with 1990s ACDC. Reader(s) should do themselves a favor and listed to 2000's Stiff Upper Lip. This is smooth yet gritty blues based album. Stiff Upper Lip was only six years old when we found it, but for us in 2006, 2000 might as well have been another planet. House, baby on the way, job, novel completed, a few magazines articles in print and many more coming. Seriously, click that link. 

We agree with this, 100 percent: 'Arguing against antisemitic lies is futile. Antisemitism must be confronted for what it has become: a political weapon against Jews and the Jewish state.' Go the full Andrew Breitbart. Turn the camera around and accuse the accuser. Of all the causes in all the world, why have you selected the Jews? Reminder, there is only one reason to oppose Israel. Just one. And it's ugly. Oh, and don't forget to bomb Gaza. 

Campaign note: we've spotted half a dozen Rebecca Bennett for Congress signs in our neighborhood. We're not surprised. Bennett's supporters are motivated, and who can blame them? She's a heck of a candidate. We also saw some Corey Booker signs. We didn't even know he was up for reelection. We've no idea who Booker's GOP opponent is. We did spot one Tom Kean sign. His campaign does strike us as aggressive, confident even. Kean has 100 percent name recognition, his father was a popular governor. He's also got a substantial money advantage. But money isn't everything.* 

DOGE report. 

We approach the tasks at hand with a mixture of ennui and resignation [Stop pronouncing ennui 'n-u-i'-Ed]. Get bent. 

Another chapter down in World War 1990: Thatcher's War. Today we read the Battle of Ardee chapter [Oh, fuck no -Ed]. Oh fuck no is right. 

We continue cleaning up the sub story in the 5th nuke novel. 

*Which is why GOP millionaire Doug Forrester was unable to buy himself the governor's mansion or a senate seat in the 2000s. 

Will Embraces Tuesday

All right, decent (enough) night's sleep. 

A good gym session, yesterday. All our numbers are down though. Is that fatigue or more likely age? One wonders. 

Autumn is creeping up on us. As we write this the temp is 55 degrees, Fahrenheit. In support of Trump's economic war on Canada, we're banning Celsius and metric numbers. Socialist bastards. Go eat a moose.

FB tells us that on this day in 2025 we moved Oldest Daughter into college. One year later she knows everything. It's like...[Dealing with 19 year old you?-Ed]. Exactly.

Campaign note: we saw a television commercial in which incumbent GOP congressman Tom Kean touts his support for Medicare and Medicaid. Memos must have gone out arguing that the Dem/DSA axis is vulnerable on healthcare, we suspect. The 90s GOP this is not. 

Unrelated...

Sometimes we feel like Sam Rothman at the end of Casino, putting down our pencil and staring forlornly into the distance as we recall the good old days; in our case our adjunct professor days. Sometimes we drive past Raritan Valley Community College and whisper, 'RVCC...RVCC...' We've even toyed with the idea of reapplying. 

A friend and former colleague who's still there urges us to do so. We came up with many reasons why we shouldn't. 'You are putting up obstacles to yourself,' our friend said. 'You're goddamn right we are,' we replied. 

Lord knows what's in our personnel file. We imagine an interview going something like this, 'It says here you resigned with three weeks left in the semester and when the department head said you can't do that you replied, "Just watch me" Pierre Trudeau style. And later when the department head told you might as well be saying "Do you know who I am?" you replied, "and?" Our words were something like, 'I bring a lot of value to this institution including dozens of articles and six novels and it's about time someone recognized that.'*

This Jason Arday scandal is giving us second thoughts. [Why? Did you think of offing yourself when it all imploded?-Ed] No but we had a stiff drink or three. The great Stephen L Miller supposes that large swaths of academia are defending Arday's plagiarism because they too are plagiarists. Miller is a lot smarter than we [Not hard to be-Ed]. No, Ed, it isn't. Plagiarism must be everywhere in academia.

We have never plagiarized. 

 And then there's all the woke craziness. 

All right, all right. If they called, we'd listen. 

They are not going to call. 

Our revenge has been literary. Won't some kind soul read Blooms?

DOGE report.

We read through the RAF aerial attack chapter in World War 1990: Thatcher's War. The ground invasion chapter awaits. We approach those chapters with...[Don't say it!-Ed]....great fear and trepidation. 

A decent round of editing what we already had in the 5th nuke novel's Soviet sub story. It's looking...okay, but we don't really know how we're getting to where we want to go. 

*The adjunct coordinator who triggered the crisis has one book in print with like, two reviews. Screw them. 

Keaned Out?

Aye, a new week here at Stroock's Books. [It's a new week everywhere-Ed]. It is, Ed. It is. 

Bah! Another rough night. No idea why. 

Yesterday was our 28th (!) wedding anniversary. What can a man say? Neither one of us wanted to celebrate. Heck, for our 25th anniversary we went to the Cheesecake Factory; with the girls. We wouldn't have had it any other way. 

Holy Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem. We knew Israel imported a lot of foreign workers, but not this many. The Jerusalem Post: 'Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been rapidly replacing its Palestinian labor force with foreign workers. 250,000 foreign workers are already in Israel, and their number is set to rise to 330,000.' Those jobs used to go to Gazans and West Bank People. Just another consequence of the war Hamas started.

Wow. A sign of good economic growth, no?  Israeli's economy is so strong it's got a labor shortage. Impressive, Bibi. Most impressive. Once again, we point out that only Bibi could have gotten Israel to where it is right now.

Report from New Jersey's 7th Congressional district. This race pits incumbent absentee Congresman Tom Kean Jr (he took off several months to check himself into the nuthouse and no one knew what was wrong or where he was)* against former Navy pilot Rebecca Bennett. Bennett is an excellent candidate, a clone of governor Mickie Sherrill, who won handily last year. 

Right now, Kean and Bennett are fighting the campaign on YouTube. We can't watch a video without seeing ads for both campaigns. Bennett is slamming Kean for taking a hundred days off while voting against paid leave (hard to argue with that). Kean is touting his work getting the SALT tax deduction limit raised (a big issue in affluent New Jersey). 

Also Kean is running ads pledging to defend Medicaid and Medicare. Which is an odd place for a GOP to be. Is this part of a national GOP strategy to claim the Dems/DSA will take away Medicaid and Medicare?

Anyway, the only poll we could find on NJ07 is from late June and shows Bennett winning 47-43. That's not bad for Kean, actually, given the circumstances. Kean, the GOP, and outside groups are certainly spending like he has a puncher's chance. Still, we think Kean's absence makes him extremely vulnerable. Bennett's ads on same are devastating. Advantage: Bennett. 

With Tom Kean after one of several phone bank sessions in 2020. He last that race.

From the Foreign Desk: Sir John A MacDonald

No Trade Deal for Canada

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney ran on a platform of getting a ‘fair’ trade deal for Canada, standing up to Trump and essentially portraying himself as Trump’s greatest rival. The Canadian Media have been falling all over themselves telling Canadians that Carney would easily get a deal and best President Trump. As of Saturday, that has not happened.

Trump told Canadians that he would impose a 50% tariff on a long list of Canadian products, including dairy, honey, certain automotive parts, furniture and wood products and…hockey equipment. It has long been a joke in Canada that Canada maintains a massive lead in Zamboni technology.

All joking aside, what does this mean for the Canada-US trade relationship? Quite a lot. Dairy products have long been an area in which the Canadian government provides massive tariffs against American products to protect the dairy industry in Quebec and, to a lesser extent Ontario. Most Canadians who live on the border with the US have a long history of buying milk and other dairy products in the US for the simple reason that they are cheaper. People farther from the border are stuck with the higher prices. This will cause severe problems for dairy producers in Quebec and Ontario, along with job losses.

In terms of lumber, there is a long and complicated trade dispute surrounding fees, crown land and whether Canadian industry is undercutting US producers. There is enough gray areas and differences in how the two countries manage the logging industry that an argument could be made either that the Canadian practices are unfair, or that American practices are. I’ll leave that to the international trade experts. With the caveat that even they can’t agree. Again, Canadian lumber and products are a huge export for Canada, but may not be anymore. More potential job losses.

Previously Trump also imposed tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, which is another area that will cause pain for Canadian producers. The same with many auto parts. While some auto materials are exempt, others are not and this could cause a lot of layoffs in Southern Ontario where many of the Canadian auto plants are based. Closed plants and thousands out of work are never a good look for politicians.

One area that I would note that Trump is NOT imposing tariffs is an important one. Oil, gas and energy (electricity). I think the reason is that Trump is very much in favour of increasing oil and gas production in both the US and Canada, while Carney and the Liberals are, at best, ambivalent. Justin Trudeau was dead set against any further expansion of oil and gas production.

So, why did Canada not get an agreement to avoid tariffs? There are several reasons. To start with, as I have said, Carney has portrayed himself as Trump’s rival, and the Liberals are very much on board with this portrayal. Since Trump came into office, the Liberals have wrapped themselves up in the Canadian flag and claimed that they are great patriots. This despite the fact that when Trudeau was in office, they called the Canadian flag a symbol of hate, division and colonialism and claimed Canada was a “Post National Nation”. Whatever that is supposed to mean. Put simply, the Liberals have made it clear that they are Trump’s enemies, and are now very surprised and upset that he has begun treating them that way. This is not the way that other US President’s have behaved in the past. Even George W. Bush was…quite indulgent of this attitude.

Second, I think Trump has run out of patience with Canadian attitudes and behaviour. Which means for him there really isn’t a downside of imposing tariffs. From my own reading, I do see a change in attitude among many Americans towards Canada and Canadians.

Carney, I think, has decided that he can simply wait Trump out. Put simply, Trump will be out of office in two and a half years (despite the claims on the left that he will make himself a dictator for life). Should the Republicans lose heavily in the midterms in November, Carney may only have to hold out a few more months. He is betting that someone more “reasonable” will be in office shortly. What he has not considered is what to do if that does not happen, or if Trump’s successor is also a Republican and….not as friendly to Canada. In that situation, there is a long term threat to Canadian stability and the Canadian economy. And no one has said that these are the only tariffs Trump will impose.

There is another factor to consider. While the trade talks have been big news in Canada (front page news pretty much every day) until a trade deal wasn’t reached, it really wasn’t a very big deal in the US. The tariffs are on about $20 billion in Canadian products and affect somewhere between 5 and 10% of Canadian trade to the US. Which is 80% of the Canadian economy. So, this is 10% to 20% of that trade. Carney has announced he will match those tariffs. The problem for Canada is that while trade with the US is 80% of all Canadian trade, for the US trade with Canada is only around 10%. And reciprocal tariffs will affect far less than that. Maybe only 2% or so. The US can accept that loss. Canada cannot.

So, why didn’t Carney make a deal? The last reason. While the trade talks were underway, there was a poll in Canada. That poll (apparently) stated that if Carney got a trade deal with Trump, Canadians wanted an election on the deal. Try to imagine the Liberals, and Carney, running an election stating that Canadians should accept a trade deal with the person they have spent the last decade portraying as a huge threat to Canada. They wouldn’t do it. They wouldn’t even accept the pressure to run an election on such a platform. Canadian premiers (with the exception of Alberta) have made great hay out of removing US booze from Canadian shelves and refusing to put it back on even if there was a trade deal. The so called “Laurentian Elite”, those that most people are convinced really run Canada have made it clear that they are completely opposed to the deal.

Put simply, Caney refused a trade deal because a trade deal with Trump would have destroyed him and too many others politically. Carney would rather stay in power while destroying the Canadian economy and calling it “Patriotism”.

Saturday Updates

Baaaah. We swipe the air and drink our coffee. We're groggy and sluggish. Last night we awoke half an hour after falling asleep with the sweats and just a hint of a night terror. You know the scene in Apocalypse Now where Kurtz describes a snail crawling along a straight blade? That. Otherwise, we've no way to describe the feeling and sense of one of those things. We got to sleep though, and slept in. 

Baaaah again.

Chipotle last night, the girls insisted. We had too many chips, as one does. Honestly, we prefer the tacos and burritos Mrs. Stroock and Oldest Daughter make. 

Let's get to the Things, shall we? [Why do you sound like the Critical Drinker?'-Ed] Dunno. [There you go again-Ed]. The Critical Drinker is always right. 

We have read through the first half of World War 1990: Thatcher's War, again. We are not as pleased as we were with the first read through last week. 

The first half of Thatcher's War shows the World War 1990: Ireland aftermath, new violence of the Catholic and Protestant variety, crackdowns on both, invasion prep, and Bush administration machinations. That's just the kind of crap we find interesting. 

Right now we're approaching the second half of the novel with...[Great fear and trepidation?-Ed] great fear and trepidation. 

The Soviet submarine story is coming along just fine. The 5th nuke novel is 50,000 words. 

Friday Title Held on Request

Good Shabbos, Stroock's Books kibbutzim. 

We are sore from yesterday's workout, the second back of a back-to-back. Rower, elliptical, rope pulley. We are unsatisfied with this routine. Should we add a fourth? Maybe. But what? 

Yesterday we saw a young man at the gym wearing a Robotech T-shirt. We almost wept. Not kidding [You sure you didn't get your period?-Ed]. We wanted to hug him, but he probably would have thought that was weird. 'I'm sorry, sir. You're going to have to come with us,' said the officer. 

We had quite the deluge of rain yesterday with another such deluge coming this weekend. Good. The state still needs the rain. The drought situation has vastly improved though. Here are the latest drought numbers.

Reading Jewish/Israel news means seeing at least one story about a Juden hass attack here in the United States; every day. Here's the latest attack, this time in Florida. We really don't know what to do about this. Or what we should do if the unthinkable happens. Punch back, we guess. 

Related Jewiness...At the Jewish News Syndicate, Jonathan Tobin talks about the failure of Groyper and anti-Israeli candidates in the GOP primary. J.D. Vance should take note, Tobin says. Quite right. This blog remains committed to Ron DeSantis, who has almost no chance of winning the GOP presidential nomination. Oh well. In 35 years of voting, the candidate we supported has never won the nomination....Tsongas, Alexander, McCain, Giuliani, Rubio, Desantis...Hmmm we can't remember who we initially supported in 2012. Which does not speak well for him. Rick Perry?

DOGE report.

E-book sales are down but KU pages read are up. Make it make sense. Reminder, book sales are an art, not a science. 

Another chapter in World War 1990: Thatcher's War read through. One more to go before the invasion. Next week.

The Soviet sub story in the 5th nuke novel is coming along. A retired law enforcement officer reminded us that in the modern USA, counties have sheriff's offices, not small towns. Horror movies always get that wrong, he says. Small-town sheriffs are a 19th century thing. See for example. 

A Ruski friend who is reading The Great Nuclear War of 1975 series would like to see a story about an average Ruski. No cosmonauts. No sub skippers. Just your average Ruski. Now that is not a bad idea.

Thursday Downer

Good afternoon, everyone who reads Stroock's Books, you hearty band, you. 

We awoke tired and sore, baaaaah! Good session at the gym, though. 

War of the ants. New ant colony, new ant poison. And we saw the ants taking the poison yesterday. We shall terminate this colony, terminate with extreme prejudice. 

America's national debt has crossed the 40 trillion threshold. Congratulations. We came out of the respectable 90s GOP that was interested in reforming government, cutting costs, and balancing the budget. They said we would starve children and throw old people into the street. Sorry America, we tried. One day the debt will blow up the economy. When that happens we'll say we told you so. 

Ben Shapiro talks about Lindsey Clancy, the crazy Massachusetts woman who murdered her three children. Shapiro sounds to us like a man who has dealt with post-partum depression and mental illness before. The episode fascinated us. Clancy sought mental help, was in therapy, was institutionalized, was medicated. Hoo-boy was Clancy medicated. And still she...

Long term reader(s) will recall we ourselves are bi-polar, what used to be called manic depressive. In 2005 we were diagnosed by a doctor with medical degrees and everything. Manic depression (we hate the term bipolar) means one is up, and one is down, often randomly and joltingly.  In our experience the highs are never as high as the lows are low. Our first episode was probably 1986. We were 12. then 1988. Again and again...Boy did Ozzie ever get it right. 

When we heard Clancy was on a lot of meds we got the willies, the yips. We used to be on a lot of meds. An anti-depressant, a mood regulator*, another anti-depressant...At one point the doctor wanted to put us on one of those 'enhancers' or whatever they're called that are supposed to boost the other three. And that's when we put a stop to it. Where three pills failed four is not the answer. We're still on one pill. It's hard to quit. 

Lindsey Clancy took some of the stuff we took, and that's terrifying. No, we've never been tempted to strangle our children.   No, we've never heard voices in our head [Hey what about me?-Ed] You're not even real, Ed. We made you up and at one point fired you over Me-Too concerns. So no, we've no sympathy for Lindsey Clancy. She should be locked up at an institution for the criminally insane. For the rest of her life. 

DOGE report. 

We had a decent enough day with both projects. The things are coming along. We are making progress. 

*Because on top of the manic depression god thought it'd be fun to give us a hair-trigger temper. And proving he is nothing if not persistent, god gave us dyslexia too. We insist reader(s) click on over and read that. 

In Which Will Stoops to Conquer

At last.

Colin Salt has stopped blogging at Fuldapocalypse, it seems. He posted sporadically, making one wonder what the point was. And Salt had a knack for writing posts that were at once too short and too long. Where a sentence would do he often wrote a paragraph. Other times he would stop at one paragraph when he had fodder for a couple of more paragraphs - and a decent length post approaching 800 words - standard article length. 

Salt reviewed a few of our books. He didn't like them. Here's some of what he had to say about us at Sea Lion Press's forum (his publisher): 

That's good of him.

One sided, huh? What's the other side in the Israel/Iran conflict?

Maybe not, but we have a good reputation amongst the reading public. And that's what matters. 

Anyway, we out sell Salt, massively as shown by rankings and number of reviews. Obviously. We're up here with The Titans and Colin Salt is not.