Israel Votes

Good morning Stroock's Books kibbutzim. 

It's election day in Israel. Finally. Of course the election today will probably solve nothing and we're in for weeks of horse trading and deal making. That's our prediction*. The reader(s) guess is as good as ours. 

Here's your final polling aggregate. Here the great Hugh Hewitt interviews former Israeli ambassador to the US Michael Oren about the election and his predictions. 

As of 9:53 AM, the Times of Israel reports turnout is unprecedented. Good. 

It will come to know surprise to long time reader(s), alert reader(s) and devotees that this blog endorses Benjamin Netanyahu. We considered a coalition led by Yadi Eisenkot or even Naftali Bennett. We agree with them on Haredi draft and welfare issues. The future will need new leadership. 

Benjamin Netanyahu may not be the man of the future, but he is the man for right now. No one else in Israel could have smashed Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, parried the backstabs of the Biden Regency, and resisted the Euros. No one. Vote Likud. Finish the job. A vote for Netanyahu is a vote for Victory. 

And besides, a Netanyahu victory would piss off all the right people. 

Polls close at four PM Eastern Standard Time. Exit polls (for what they're worth) follow. Here's a summation of what happens next. Reminder, President Herzog picks an MK to form a government. And away we go. 

We'll be attending a post-election forum/discussion at our synagogue tonight. 

Exit question: will the Israeli supreme court pull a Brazilian style fast one and tilt the scales for the opposition block? Reminder: Bolsonaro won. 

Baaaaah! Our left foot is bothering us now as we've been favoring it. Baaaaah! We swipe at the air and drink our grog, or coffee anyway. 

What Will's Reading. The Anglo Saxons, by Marc Morris. We love a good history book about England's ethereal, mist shrouded past. But first, what was Roman Britain like and why did it fall?

DOGE report. 

We have not heard back from Military History Matters about our article query. We move on. Next!?

We worked on the Hastings story yesterday. So far. So good. So what? Mr. Mustaine would add. 

We read through two World War 1990: Ireland chapters. We're read through a few more today. Also so far. so good. 

*Heh. A hung Knesset. During the negotiations Netanyahu and the US renew the war on Iran and topple the Mullahs. Bibi then negotiates a new government. He's clever, that one. Never, ever underestimate Bibi. 

Monday Big Blue and the Blues for Green and Yellow

Hahahah...our other foot is bothering us. 

Also...hahahahaha, Hot Air reports, 'The Fix Is In: Judge Who Was Lula's Personal Lawyer Extends Brazil's Voting for Two More Hours WELP'.  Actually, for a while we were watching returns and thinking, 'This isn't so bad, Flavio is extending his lead', as we were mistaking the red bar for the rightwing candidate [Knobhead-Ed]. Anywho, we know of no case world-wide where the right has been able to Stop the Steal. Congratulations, Lula on your come from behind 'win'.

Oh well, on to nicer things. 

All right, Big Blue. We haven't cheered like that for the Giants in...years. When Skataboo broke that long run in overtime, and Singletary followed it up with a TD, we actually cheered. 'Go! Go! Yes!' Like we said. It's been a long time. New QB JJ McCarthy looked pretty good too. Overall, an impressive overtime road win. Are the Giants great? No. Are they good? Maybe. They're certainly well coached for the first time since Tom Coughlin. 

The Giants have a lot of tough games ahead and will have to improve greatly. Teams like San Francisco and Seattle will punch them right in the mouth. But at least the Giants are no longer pushovers and can punch back. And it seems the Giants have a knack for winning close games. 

The Giants have a bye week and for now, we're just going to enjoy the win. 

Speaking of blue....and whites, Israeli elections tomorrow. Your guess is as good as ours. Hung Knesset if one believes the polls. Or Channel 14 could be right and the right bloc is ahead. Or the Supreme Court may pull some Brazilian style shenanigans. We shrug and get another cup of coffee. Amit Segal* presents four possibilities. Have fun sorting that out, people. 

We've got a couple of nice medieval history books on the way. One about The Dark Ages, the other about Anglo-Saxon England. we'll post a pic tomorrow or whenever the books get here. Heh, we just looked and they're just a few miles away. Aye, we haven't done any serious medieval reading since the 2000s. 

Related, so in 2004 we began work on this: 

That was a fun piece to do. And difficult. As we recall we had to put the project down for a month while we tried to get some other projects sorted out first. We used a lot of medieval sources, such as they are, including the Bayeaux Tapestry itself. The sources more or less agree on events. Several Norman charges, followed by English pursuit leading to heavy casualties. Then a sustained Norman archer barrage and a final charge. Somewhere at the end King Harold was killed. Whether he was killed in the final charge or before hand is a matter of debate. We believe he was killed by an arrow through the eye. 

We reread the article yesterday. It is essentially our notes for the Hastings story. The piece holds up surprisingly well. The article can be read in short our book, Great Medieval Captains. 

DOGE report. 

We began the Hastings story yesterday. We are pleased. 

We need to write the back cover text for After the Last Bomb. 

*Best journo in Israel right now. 

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 10/25/26

Good morning, Christian reader(s), and happy Sunday. Don't skimp on the post-Church lunch buffet. You've earned it. 

As we write this the womenfolk are getting ready for Mrs. Stroock's planned family photo. Wish us luck. 

We sent our last article query to Military History Matters, for whom we've written before. If they don't want to respond, hell with 'em. Still haven't heard back from REDACTED. What are we, black balled are something? Whatevs, yo. We already have one gig. We'll focus on that one...for now.

Elections in Brazil today. Our best guess is Bolsonaro wins. The last two polls we saw each had him ahead by two points. Given that previous polls underestimated Bolsonaro's numbers by 7 points, he ought to win right? Right? 

Related, the NDP premier of British Columbia called a snap election and just got his head handed to him by the Cons? Whoa, what a wipeout!

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 10/25/26.

The nuke novel MS is in. If this novel does well, and we have our doubts, we'll write a sixth nuke novel. This allows us to sit around thinking about new nuke ideas. It's good for the brain, for the creative flow, for the ju-ju.

We still need a title. How about, 'After the Last Bomb: Stories of the Great Nuclear War of 1975'. Yes, yes we think that's it. 

We begin what we think will be our final read through of World War 1990: Thatcher's War. Should take a week or ten days. We'll take our time.

The leader of this blog's Confederate Contingent is struggling mightily to give us ideas. We are grateful for the effort.

We'll start work on out Hastings story this week. Reminder, the Hastings battlefield we have walked. In truth, there's not much to it. It's a field. 

Saturday Updates

Good morning, Stroock's Books weekenders, and happy Saturday. 

We got in a Judaism last night. 

Huh, Lindsey Graham was gay? Who knew? Anyway...

So, Trump's DOJ has indicted Ilhan Omar, two FBI agents, and Virginia state senator Virginia Lucas. We see two things. First, Trump is trying to create a Dem corruption narrative. Second, Trump is telling the base, 'See? Remember when I said that I am your vengeance? Here's the vengeance'. 

The Things. 

We called it. We sent the fifth nuke novel to our people for editing and formatting. This is it. This is the novel. 

We feel like a burden has been lifted.

We've been researching the latest short story project, reading some delightful articles and books, about which we'll talk more about next week.

Also. We might feel the spark for one of those patented Stroock reading projects.  

We've still got to think of a WWII alt hist short story. 

The deck is cleared to begin what should (should!) be the final reading of World War 1990: Thatcher's War.

Will Goes the full Talmud - and on a Friday Too

Shabbat Shalom, Stroock's Books Kibbutzim, and happy Friday. 

We're walking around wearing our boot like Pirate Clark selling discount ottomans in a bad furniture TV commercial. Yes, we saw Back Rooms. Maybe we'll do a triple W about it next week.

A friend from a European country known for its art and cuisine (and does not have an NFL team named for its ancestors), after reading our Euro-AC post, sent us a video extolling the virtues of his home's proper REDACTED brick walls, 'So it's better. It's a better wall'.

On Substack we've attracted another Christian alt-right type who wants to bash Israel and tell us what's in the Talmud. We've no idea what's in the Talmud. Never cracked its spine. Oh well. As is standard, we just asked for the name of the pretty little Jewish girl that broke his heart in 8th grade, or if he's pissed that his Jewish step-dad's getting more pussy than him - to paraphrase Duff McKagan [Mature-Ed]. Huh, he (she) just called us a 'Talmudist'. Never heard that one before. 

Political note, national: Hot Air reports, 'M-SNOW Host: I'm Getting Skeptical About Talarico Polling After ...' Ed Morrisey goes on to argue that the polls are crap and we should ignore them. We agree. Maybe it's wish casting. But we don't think it is. We already know at least two polling outfits were putting out fake info. Polls are one thing. Your eyes are another. And you've got commonsense on the gripping hand. We'll know in a couple of weeks. 

DOGE report.

Another story read through. 

We think we're going to call it. 

At some point, you have to step back and say, 'There. Now it belongs to the ages'. Or as George once said, 'You don't finish art you abandon it.'

This novel needs a title, something like, After the Bombs. Something that doesn't sound like it's trying too hard. When the Bombs stopped feels like it's trying too hard, trying to sound important. Right now, the word doc is just titled Missile Stop. 

We began researching our Hastings/King Harold alternate history short story. We admit it was a little hard wrenching (wretching?) our mind away from nuclear war to medieval war. But we do feel refreshed, mentally speaking.

From the Foreign Desk: Sir John A. MacDonald

 ALBERTA SEPARATION?

Historically speaking, Canadian governments don’t like referendums. The 1992 Canadian referendum to bring Quebec formally into the Constitution (they did not sign it when Pierre Trudeau had a new one written) was defeated and that led directly to the 1995 Quebec referendum. Which was defeated so narrowly (less than 50.5% voted no) that Quebec separatists to this day claim that the vote was stolen.

So, why would Danielle Smith (Alberta Premier) decide to hold one on October 19? First, there is a law in Alberta that if a certain number of signatures are reached on a petition, the province will hold a referendum. That is how the question of holding a referendum on the question of holding a referendum to separate from Canada was started, right? Not quite. First of all, as the earlier sentence said, it was not a vote on separating from Canada. It was a vote to, sometime in the future, hold a vote to separate from Canada. Something that, personally, I don’t think was ever going to happen even if the question of holding a separation vote was successful. Everyone who was anyone in Canadian politics was on record saying that separation was a bad idea and that they were opposed to it. Both Conservatives and Liberals were united in this. Indigenous chiefs were on record saying that Alberta could not leave Canada without their approval (not sure where the legal basis for that comes from, but there you have it). Courts had, at one point, completely blocked the province from even asking the question, but was reversed on appeal.

But the vote failed. 75% of Albertans voted to not hold a vote on separation, and Danielle Smith has said that this ends the question. Personally, I think the fact that 25% of Alberta voting to possibly separate is extremely significant. That would be the end of the whole issue, right? Vote failed, no further votes to be held in the immediate future, the question is now settled.

There’s just one problem that pretty much all the media in both Canada and around the world have missed. You see, this wasn’t a referendum with just one question on it. It was a referendum with ten questions on it. And the results from the other nine questions are…a bit more interesting than anyone really wants to discuss.

You see, the referendum was only going to have nine questions on it, and the separation vote was added only a few months ago. The other nine were questions regarding immigration, voting, health care and Alberta’s relationship with Ottawa. And only one of those questions has (barely) been rejected.

Question one (separation was question ten) asked if Alberta should take more control over immigration. 55% voted yes. Question two (provincially funded programs restricted to Canadian citizens and permanent residents) 52% support. Question three (12 months residency before immigrants are eligible for social supports such as welfare) 53% support. Question four (charge fees for new immigrants to access health care) 52% support. Question six (Province should pick judges) 52% support. Question seven (Abolish the unelected senate – which is similar to the British House of Lords) 51% support. Question nine (provincial law takes precedence over federal law when federal law conflicts with provincial responsibility) 50.5% support.

Did you notice we missed two? Question eight was whether the province should opt out of federal health care programs but still receive funding with 48% support. That one pretty clearly fails. And the big one. A voter must show proof of Canadian citizenship to vote in provincial elections – 62% support.

Why these questions? Danielle Smith has said that she needs public support to implement these measures as Ottawa (specifically, Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney) is VERY opposed to these ideas. Don’t think for a second the problems that the US is having with uncontrolled immigration and voter fraud have not been noticed in Canada. They have. It’s just that the Conservative government of Danielle Smith in Alberta is the only one willing to actually do something about it. The voters of Alberta have given her a clear mandate to go forward on these ideas.

Will things change? To a certain extent. But on others, not a chance. The West has wanted the Senate abolished since the 1990s, if not earlier. They have been ignored. The idea that Ottawa would allow the provinces to choose judges? Will never, ever be allowed. Ottawa guards that prerogative jealously. Putting provincial law above or on par with federal law? Far too dangerous a precedent for Ottawa to even consider.

But the questions on health care? Limiting immigration access to welfare? Requiring proof of Canadian citizenship to vote in provincial elections. Yes, they can go forward, though I am sure that in Alberta, just as in the US, there will be constant judicial challenges. But it leads to anyone paying attention to start asking the question. Why are these common sense ideas so dangerous to the federal Liberal government in Ottawa. Hopefully, leading to questions and doubts in voters minds about whether the Liberals really have Canada’s best interests at heart. (spoiler alert: they don’t).

There’s one more thought that’s been buzzing around in my head for the last couple of days. There was a huge push to defeat the separation question, but the others were largely ignored. I’m wondering if Danielle Smith took a page from Donald Trump’s playbook and had the separation question added as a bit of misdirection. Get Carney focused on the separation issue while the program she really wants goes through. It’s a possibility. Canadian politicians learn from Trump too, they just don’t like to admit it.  

Will Gets the Boot

Baaaah...! The podiatrist gave us one of them fancy boots to wear and made a follow up appointment for two weeks. Baaah...! Actually we prefer the boot to the soft cast. One can remove the boot. 

At least the boot looks kinda cool. We're going to tell people we blew out our Achillies on an Arctic fishing expedition, or something. 'She's an eight-footer alright. But you should see the one that got away. Damn, polar bears.'

Gout, plantar, Achillies tendon...have we ever mentioned we're sick of our foot issues?

Political note, national: the polls are fake. They are part of an info op, ground prep for the coming Color Revolution. 

Political note, Israeli. Most polls show Gadi Eisenkot winning the most seats, but the oppo bloc failing to achieve a majority. Our guess is that President Herzog will give Eisenkot first crack at forming a government. There will follow six weeks of political rigmarole. If Eisenkot fails, there will follow another six weeks of political rigmarole. The Oppo bloc has some options here (hello Arab parties, which might actually be a good thing for Israeli society) but they're really in Bibi's wheelhouse. 

Do note, Channel-14 usually has Netanyahu and the right bloc winning 61 + seats. Channel - 14 is Israel's Fox News*, meaning they're incredibly biased for Bibi. But what if their guys found something the other guys missed? Why not? in 2026, most pollsters are guessing. 

[What do you think?-Ed]. Our best guess is a hung Knesset. Which means if you're sick of this crap, sorry. The politicking will go on, and on and on.

DOGE report.

We went over the grognard's notes, which we will do again today, and read through another story. 

We dunno. We think it's done, except for...

You know, it's been a while since we just sat at a coffee shop and stared off into the middle distance-thinking of story ideas [Weirdo -Ed]. Maybe that's what we need to do. 

Let's settle on a title, eh?

Soon it will be time to begin the first of two short story submissions. 

*We'll catch a few segments of Gutfeld. If nothing else, this blog appreciates self deprecating humor. But otherwise we don't watch Fox, or any other cable news. 

Grogged

Good morning, Stroock's Books weekenders, and happy Wednesday [What's a weekender?-Ed].

Up and down last night but we got in enough sleep. Them pills that is supposed to put us to sleep, among other things, just ain't gettin' the job done. We are annoyed.

The ankle has some residual soreness. We see the foot doctor in a couple of hours. 

Elections...can we get them over with already? Brazil, Israel, the US. We'd hate to break it to enthusiasts and pols, but the midterms here won't have much effect on policy or outcomes either way. Sorry folks, we've seen one house of congress change hands, both houses change hands, even both houses remain in White House hands. When the dust settles, the president (Clinton, W, Barry Soetoro, even Trump) goes on about his business. Reminder, this blog believes the Dems take the House, the GOP holds the senate. 

Hot Air has a couple of stories about Americans moving to Europe because of Trump, or MAGA hats or whatever...and then finding out Europe ain't so great. Big surprise. The Euro's idea of big correlates with the American idea of mid-sized. And no, idiot, Euro healthcare ain't free, and it's not as good as ours. Don't you people remember last summer when Euros came to America for the World Cup and marveled at things like Walmart and....air conditioning? Europe sucks and everyone on the Continent knows it. Exit question, what is the least-worst European country?

Related...we were speaking yesterday with a European friend from a country known for its art and cuisine (who's going to read the above later), and noted that the Fami de Stroock had been toying with the idea of a summer trip to France. Needless to say, after the riots and anti-Jewish pogroms we've called off the trip. Our friend pointed out that crime rates in say, Rome, are not worse than crime rates in NYC. We replied that we're not worried about being mugged. We're worried more about a street or restaurant confrontation that begins, 'What are you doing here, Yankee? And this that a Star of David around your daughter's neck'.

Also...Ynet tells us, 'Former U.S. President Barack Obama has come under fire from conservative and pro-Israel commentators over remarks about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in which he said Jews who sought refuge from persecution "took land off people" and "were excessive."' Whatever. This blog has long maintained that Barry Soetoro is not a smart man. And what he does know, he knows at the surface 'I read a magazine article about it' level. Also, Barry hates Jews.

DOGE report.

Fuck it, we said yesterday and sent the nuke novel MS to the grognard. Being the autistic weirdo that he is, the grognard returned the MS to us in like, three hours with notes. We've yet to read the notes but the grognard said he was pleased. [How come you never care if I'm pleased?-Ed]. Shut up, Ed. Go get me a cup of coffee, and take your time about walking away [Ok!-Ed].

Other than that, we read three more stories, they're fine. 

We worked on story order and think we've got the final chapter titles. 

We spent a lot of time thinking of another story, even a prologue. Nothing. Maybe we should think about a postscript. 

Or we may just call it at 55,000 words. 

Excuse us while we go look at the grognard's notes.