Art of the Deal?

Good morning, Stroock's Books reader(s) and happy midweek. 

Baaah...a rough night. No idea why. 

At least we don't have to drive anyone anywhere today. 

The other day when working on the lawn we noticed that the tiny little Japanese maple we planted in 2006 had died. It never grew much but every year the maple had gorgeous leaves. Oh well. At least we got to break out the chain saw. 

Pointless nostalgia...2006 was our first full spring here in casa-de-Stroock, and we endeavored to be one of those lawn guys. You know, the kind that spends a couple of ours on Saturdays mowing the lawn, pruning the bushes, planting some new flowers, etc etc. We are no longer one of those lawn guys. 

Iran talks...the terms discussed seem so ludicrously favorable to Iran that they have to be wrong or part of some greater misinformation effort, right? Maybe Trump's making a maximalist offer so he can say, 'See, I tried', right? Maybe. Perhaps Trump's just trying to gin the oil markets*. Right? Right? Otherwise, what the actual ef?

A lot of MAGA accounts are chalking these terms up as a great deal. We don't see it, for now. 

Indiana...five of six called state senate races were one by Trump backed candidates against incumbents who refused Governor Braun's redistricting efforts. MAGA is the GOP. The GOP is MAGA. Note, we are a lot less hostile to Mike Pence than some on the right. What exactly was he supposed to do in 2020? Nevertheless...[Nevertheless, what?-Ed]. Just nevertheless.

Ohio...Vivek Ramaswamy easily won the GOP nomination for governor. Slick politicians are often compared to used car salesmen. But Ramaswamy reminds us of a game show host. We've no idea what his odds are in November. 

DOGE Report.

Mostly editing and rewriting yesterday, cleaning up the invasion chapters, getting everything shipshape and Bristol fashion. 

We've been writing a narrative battle scene from out East German Oberst advisor's POV rather than our typical back and forth between A and B. So far, so good, we guess. 

*Oil's down, like 12 percent this morning. We're going to wish cast that it's the oil thing.