Powell on a Russian Wednesday

In which we collude with the Soviets using Colin Powell as cover: 'Colin Powell died October 18, killed by Covid-19. In truth he was already a very sick man and being treated for multiple myeloma, a kind of cancer that attacks the immune system. Despite being fully vaccinated, Powell was extremely vulnerable to Covid. America in 2021 being a nation lacking in empathy, partisans are using Powell’s death to argue over vaccine efficacy. he partisans will argue over Colin Powell's legacy as well. At his death, Powell is probably best remembered as President George W Bush’s secretary of state. In 2003 Powell made the Bush Administration’s case for war with Iraq before the United Nations General Assembly. He argued that Saddam Hussein possessed vast stockpiles of Weapons of Mass Destruction and this could not be allowed in the post-9/11 world. We know now this was untrue.' Click on through....

Back in the 90's, plenty of GOPs wanted Powell to run for president. It's possible he could have won in 1996. He would have done better than Bob Dole. But Powell never had a presidential run in him. We doubt he was politically tough enough to weather a campaign. Powell spent most of his career being revered. How would he have responded to the Clinton/Gore attack machine? Politically speaking now, this blog doesn't think Powell was tough enough to win a presidential race. On the campaign trail he would have been Jeb Bush in uniform.

We are working on the Australian F-111 scenes in The Final Storm. Target: Svobodnyy (SS-11 missiles with a range of 11,000 kilometers.) We are writing and watching tons of F-111 interviews and docs on Youtube. As one of the characters remarks, the Assies and Yanks are taking orders from Japanese AWACs controllers. We have no idea how this raid goes. The 'vark' can carry some really big bombs, like 4,000 pounds. They could at least damage silo caps, no? 

Will Writes: We mentioned yesterday that Colin Powell is a character in the World War 1990 series. We wrote the man as we saw him and did the same with the rest of the Bush admin characters that transfixed us during Desert Storm. We didn't over think things. We didn't pour through memoirs and bios to learn how Dick Cheney liked his steak, or why Paul Wolfowitz wore socks with holes in them.* Like we said, we wrote 'em how we saw 'em. An Amazon reviewer claims to have worked with these men and says we nailed their personalities. Who can say? It didn't take a genius to figure out John Sununu was a conceited jerk. As for Jim Baker, he's a son-of-a-bitch, the kind of man any good admin needs. For The Great Nuclear War series, we've gone deeper into Rockefeller's personality as readers will see the man more intimately. He liked art, women**, couldn't remember names, demanded subordinates offer solutions to problems, and would do work in the car outside the officer before heading to work. Our overall message here is don't over think. Just write.

What Will's Watching: Loudermilk. Two episodes in. Ron Livingston (Office Space, Band of Brothers) plays a former rock journalist. In the 90's he was totally a thing, riding the tour bus with Nirvana, Pavement, REM and the like, and looking the part. Now he's four years sober and burnt out. Filled with Gen-X cynicism and nihilism. This is Gen-X in middle age, a Gen-X Archie Bunker with wit.  Why yes, yes we will finish this season. Why do you ask?

*You're just gonna have to look that up.

** Just look up how he died. Heh.