Will Prepares to Wave Red

Good morning Stroock's Books commune.

Monday Metal (Supplemental): Two days till Iron Maiden at the Prudental Center, Newark, New Jersey. We've been thinking, what's your favorite Iron Maiden song? Tough to say, really. Here's one of them. Infinite Dreams:

You know, some fools think you can't use synth in Metal. 

We're seeing a sales surge this morning. No idea why. Which is almost as frustrating as having no sales as at. If one could just find the reason for the sales spike, capture it, and study it in the lab. Strange, the algorithm is. 

With just a little tweaking, with a few lines of dialogue and description, we have unsnarled the Georgia chapter of World War 1990: The Final Storm. That's eight scenes focusing on the lead up on the lead up to the Battle of the Roki Tunnel. It happens quickly, one minute troops are arriving in Tbilisi or Vladikavkaz, the next they're fighting at the Roki Tunnel. We think we can make it work. 

The family scenes in The New American Order are coming along just fine. These center on the main theme of a chapter,  and show the reader what life is like for a 'typical' family in post nuclear war America where a 75 + million people have been killed. We're talking about schools, there's a whole chapter dedicated to the subject in The Aftermath of 1976. But we have kids and if you have kids, school's important. Also, we used to be in the business, so we've always found in interesting. 

In a post titled, 'Dems Hitting the Panic Button', Powerline wonders why Generation-X is so strongly Republican. Easy. To paraphrase PJ O'Rourke, we were the Reagan kids. We took one look at the 60's and said, give me a haircut and a job. The great Tip O'Neill said about young people voting Republican in the 80's, 'The only Democrat president they remember is Jimmy Carter.' He may have been a 70's president, helping make the 70's the 70's, but Carter's aftertaste was all over the 80s.  

Nationally, we see generic ballot polls following our old Tennessee Test Case, with the GOPs gradually pulling ahead. Do note the RCP average had Blackburn winning by 5.2. She won by 10.8.  We saw Democrat pollster Doug Schoen warning of a Red Wave reminiscent of 1994 or 2010. By the way, pollsters screwed up in '94 too. Most pundits didn't expect the GOP to take the House. I was there.

Collusion update: We hear from our Kremlin handler that both Ukrainian and Russian forces are gathering on the Kherson front. The recent Russian missile and drone barrage seems to be in preparation for a major battle, in which both sides know what's coming and where. A first, no? We have also been warned by our Kremlin handler to avoid the Belarus border area. 

So, my synagogue's rabbi has a new book out, You should Know this: A Rabbie Explains Christianity to Jews.'Rabbi Wylen, a devoted Jew with a positive view of Christianity and a passion for interfaith understanding, responds to the questions that members of his congregation and classes are always asking, in a way that Jews can understand. This book will also be of interest to Christians who want to know how Christianity appears when viewed through Jewish eyes. Jews and Christians will each learn more about their own religion while learning to appreciate the other.'

Staying on the Hebrew beat, Israeli Radar reports the obvious: 'The Israeli Air Force is quietly but steadily boosting its readiness for a strike on Iran’s nuclear project. Israel’s military planners have built a detailed training plan and are methodically implementing it step by step, far from the public eye.' Hmmmm....they've been working on aerial refueling. Southeast over the Red Sea, north across Saudi Arabia. Sounds like a long trip. Why not seize an airfield in Iran? Heh. 

What would the third Israel Strikes novel look like? Forget being overtaken by events. It's not a problem. But here's a big one. Back in 2012 we assumed Assad would lose the Syrian civil war and be replaced by a general. We'd really have to start from scratch here. I mean, we'd need to relearn all the characters. Nagid, Peled....we can't even think of the Israel politicians' name. And once again, who's the enemy? Egypt? The Turk?

What Will's Watching, Phillies v Padres. A masterful pitching performance from Phillies starter Zach Wheeler, handed off to Seranthony Dominguez in the 8th and then Jose Alvarez in the 9th. This blog likes pitching. Removing a pitcher who has given up 1 hit in 7 innings makes no sense to us. But that's how the game is played now. Phillies 2, Padres nothing. Our Delaware girl is pleased.