Shaking Up a Bit

Good afternoon, reader(s) of Stroock's Books and shabbat shalom. 

To shake things up a bit, we hit the gym at 1:30 yesterday rather than our normal 4:00. The time change was a bit awkward. Different people*, different vibe. A bit dead, frankly. We've long preferred the late afternoon when the gym is filled with young people and professionals knocking off work. We struggled through though and got a solid workout. 

So yesterday Liz Cheney buried her father. We looked and we've written some nasty things about Liz and Dick Cheney. We stand by what we've written**, but can't help but recall that Dick Cheney seemed a mild mannered and extremely competent Washington type. His 2000 veep debate with Senator Joe Liebermann still feels like an adult conversation between two serious men. We killed off Cheney via heart attack at the end of World War 1990: Operation Eastern Storm. In any event, rest in peace, sir. 

As World War 1990 progresses through the post war universe, the plot builds to the election of 1992.*** Here's a pretty good article in the form of a review of a book about the politics of that era. Nut-graph, as the J-School losers would say, history had ended and the US wasn't quite sure what to do about it. 

In World War 1990, World War Three has ended and the US isn't quite sure what to do about it. The Troubles in Londonderry and Britain's invasion of Ireland is an unexpected crisis, an unknown unknown in a world of known bad-knowns already.  

As Thatcher's War begins, President Bush is worrying about the teetering Soviet Union. Georgia insists it's independent, as does Vladivostok, and Boris Yeltsin isn't returning Moscow's calls. The Soviet crisis is in fact multiple independent crises. 

Meanwhile, peace brings war as Serbia is ratchetting up its campaign against the Croats and Bosnians. 

And why is Saddam moving troops around Iraq? Reminder, in World War 1990 Saddam invaded Kuwait three weeks into the war and there was nothing the US could do about it.

There's also the Cuban ulcer, as tens of thousands of US Marines, NG, and reservist troops occupy the island. 

DOGE Report: we read through World War 1990: Thatcher's War (or whatever) and then got started on the first battle of Derry [Londonderry-Ed] Chapter. So far so good. 

*No blue jeans guy, or guy we think is a retired pro athlete, or 8 month's pregnant woman, or woman who arrives in hospital scrubs, or father/son duo. We must be that old guy to the young fellas, or Israel guy at this point. 

**Liz Cheney is an execrable woman, a Washington leech chasing establishment approval. Screw her. 

***It is possible this series ends with an apocalyptic war between Israel and Iraq in 2000. We'll see.