Failure Cascade in California and Will's Basement

Good morning, Stroock's Books associates. 

Did we ever have a morning. At 4 AM we woke to an alarm, which turned out to be our water heater flood alert. The water heater was fine but water was on the floor and dripping down the water heater. We poked around, trying to find the leak source but found nothing. 

On a hunch, or a Hail Mary anyway, we tried the sump pump which is right next to the water heater. The pump worked, but the pipe spewed water right in our face. The clamp had become loose, and the pipe disconnected. The ensuing water blast splashed the water heater flood pan and activated the alarm. Mother!@#@#!

We reattached the pipe, tightened the clamp, and activated the pump. It kept running and running and wouldn't stop. On another hunch we went outside, at about 4:30 AM mind you, and checked the drain pipe. Frozen over. The water was coming back down the sump pump line and burst the clamp. We attached a much larger drainpipe, 6 inch diameter vs the 2 incher that froze over, and ran it underneath the deck. 

All is well now, we're 95 percent sure. 

How was your morning? 

LA is afire and Gavin Newsom is the arsonist. So is LA Mayor Karen Bass. Their tools were incompetence, DEI and environmental radicalism. What else can one say? From London to Maui, from New York to Los Angeles, the west is ruled by elites who actively hate their own constituents and aren't interested in fixing their problems. Tar and feathers.

We're gonna make a point about Gavin, Karen, even Joe, we're gonna compare 'em to Bibi. Yep, Bibi let Israel down on October 7th. Intel failed and so did the initial response to Hamas order of rape and murder.* However, Netanyahu's spent the last year waging unremitting and successful war against Israel's enemies. Think Gavin or Karen or Joe could do that? How 'bout Justin up north? Me neither.  

Gavin Newsom…
Gavin Newsom…
California, hang your head in shame
There’s an arsonist in California
And Gavin Newsom is his name.

Now in truth, we've been stealing that song for a long time, thirty years to be exact. Click here. That's Professor Doctor Tony Armstrong, our old advisor at Wesley College. Here's his history book, Breaking the Ice. We have a copy of it lying around here someplace. Anyway, we first saw Tony and The Dover Mountain band perform The King of Logan County at Smithers' Bar and Grill, Dover Delaware, in 1995. We just found the King of Logan County yesterday and this was the first time we've heard it in 30 years. Oh look we did a 1995 so Alive.

So we read through the first SAS vs IRA chapter in Thatcher's War. The chapter needs lots of work of course, but overall it's fine. Actually, what we're really gonna have to do is reread all the Irish and Troubles history books we read last August. Which is fine. 

Today we'll read through the St. Louis newsroom chapter in War Night. This story still needs a title. Wish us luck. 

*Some believe that the Israeli mad scramble to deploy extra troops to the northern border prevented a Hezbollah invasion. We shall see.