Tuesday News and Musing Shoot Around

When the bunny intercepts and distracts Joe, a look comes over the man's face as if to say, 'Man, it's happening again.' This blog believes 'Dr.' Jill* is being groomed for the top slot in the corporation.

This blog would not be the first to point out the nation's gerontocracy. Joe, Nancy, Chi-Fi...It's a bipartisan thing. Chuck Grassley is 88 and running for reelection. Cocaine Mitch is a spry 80 by comparison. 

Speaking of... a great piece at Hot Air on Cocaine Mitch's leadership. This blog agrees with every word in the article. One of the judicial appointments he strongarmed overturned Joe's mask mandate yesterday. Mitch for Majority Leader, 2022! 

Don't get cocky, as the Instapundit says. The House will be a walk, but the Senate will be a slog. Google Herschel Walker and check out his baggage. He has a tough fight ahead. Cautiously though, things are coming together. 

Oh look, we went and got ourselves listed by the indefatigable Sarah Hoyt. A small sales spike follows. Thanks!

We are told by our sources on the ground that Russia's offensive in Eastern Ukraine has begun. The ground should favor Russia, and they have probably learned from mistakes, no? Or dare we say, nyet? So far Russia has shown no ability to adapt. We shall see. Developing....as Drudge used to say. 

Stroock's Books still predicts the war ends with major concessions from Ukraine. These include ceding the east, recognizing Ruski control of Crimea, and a guarantee not to join NATO. All of which could have been accomplished without war. 

Australian Gray Connolly has a twitter story about the New York Times falling for satire. These are the same people that fell for Jussie Smollett. They really think the world works like this. JFC.

We are reading Collapse, the Fall of the Soviet Union. Interesting stuff. Learning tonnes. 

As we have said before, our own Governor Phil Murphy knows how to read a room, 'Gov. Phil Murphy has ended the rule requiring face coverings on NJ Transit, a day after a federal judge voided the national mask mandate covering airplanes and other public transportation.' Smart man. 

Allright, that opening presidential inauguration chapter is really coming together. Haig listening in to the political part, Rumy and Cheney listening to the military part, a foreign leader listening to the foreign relations part...is what we need to write today. We have consulted with some of you people about this. We're thinking starting with the German Chancellor and bouncing over to the French president. That ought to set the European scene, right?

*EDs, not a real doctor.

New Magazine Article! And Other Posts

So Joe and Kamala went down to Georgia to stump for their voting bill and campaign against the Filibuster. One can debate the wisdom of going to Georgia and comparing people to Jeff Davis, Bull Conner and George Wallace and asking folks whose side they're on. But doing so the day after the Georgia Bulldogs win the college football national championship? Can't these people do anything right? 

And, uh, Joe? Bull Connor, George Wallace, Jeff Davis and the whole lot of segregationists were Democrats. Remember when you used to brag about knowing George Wallace? The Democrats have always been the party of slavery, secession and Jim Crow and work very hard till this day to keep schools segregated. That's whose side you're on Mr. mass-incarceration. 

The Times of Israel reports: 'Life in the opposition is tough. Six months after losing the premiership, Likud head Benjamin Netanyahu is busy fending off challenges to his enduring control of the party.' Bibi is fighting back of course. Bibi, It's time for a heart to heart. It's time to move on. Write your memoirs. Go on a speaking tour in the US. You'll make millions. Pop in on your friend Donald in Mar-a-Lago.  We can't get around to crowning you Israel's greatest PM if you won't leave.

The New York Giants fired coach Joe Judge yesterday. What took them so long? It's now been ten years since the Giants won the Super Bowl. During that time, they've finished above .500 twice and been to the playoffs once with no post-season victories. In the last six years the Giants have had three head coaches. The Giants are now in a period of extended suckitude. Something is wrong.

Our very latest article, in this month's edition of Military History Matters. This one's about the Battle of the Chinese Farm on the Sinai during the Yom Kippur War: 'The Egyptian attack across the Suez Canal on 6 October 1973 caught the Israelis by surprise. Egyptian sapper teams crossed the canal and neutralised Israeli defences on the east bank. At the same time, engineers built dozens of bridges across it. When the inevitable Israeli armoured counter-attack came, the Egyptians met them with teams armed with RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) and Sagger anti-tank guided missiles. The Egyptians destroyed dozens of Israeli tanks that day. By the end of the second day, the Egyptian Second and Third Armies, numbering a combined five divisions and 80,000 men, were ensconced on the east bank.' Click on through to read the rest...

Below, for no damn reason, a retro-commercial:

We haven't seen that commercial since it aired in the mid-80s. They still look so cool, don't they? We don't think we had one, but we did have the Sky Fighter. 

Will's Failproof Debt Plan

This blog is aware of the large subsection of MAGA Americans that think Mitch McConnel is a GOPe corporatists sellout. If reader(s) don't understand that Mitch has completely outmaneuvered the Dems on the debt ceiling and budget then they don't understand politics and should look for something else to follow. I know. How about  a spelling bees?*

Cocaine Mitch snorts fat lines through hundred dollar bills and messes with Dems, and he's all out of fat lines.

For the record, this blog supports defaulting on the debt. We're going to have to come to grips with our crippling National Debt sooner or later. Might as well get it over with. That 30 trillion isn't real money anyway. The experts predict doom. This blog predicts nothing will happen.

[So how would you payoff the debt, mate?-Ed]

Quad B, that's how.

[Quad B?-Ed]

Yes. Balance the Budget on the Back of the Boomer. We'd cut a hundred billion bucks from social security and another hundred billion from Medicare, follow on with a hundred billion cut to Medicaid and wrap it up with a hundred billion cut to the defense budget. 

[But the military...-Ed?]

...is bloated and top heavy. Worried about the military being underfunded? Well, just don't deploy it. There. Done. Prediction, the new Ford Class Aircraft Carrier will be a massive bust and boondoggle.

After that we'd slap a debt tax on gas as well as subway and bus metro cards so the urbanite feels the pain just the same as an American. We'll tax all purchases of entertainment, downloads, movie tickets, etc. [Know your class enemies?-Ed] That's right. We'll tax capital gains as total income, not a separate item. Sorry, no more 20% on your stock options (that's another tax that falls heavily on the Boomer). 

[You really don't like Boomers, do you?-Ed]

Who does?

*If you don't get that reference, stop reading this blog, Huckleberry. 

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 9/12/21 with Measured Commentary on the NFL and Joe

Baaaaaa, virtually no sleep. Don't get us started on the things.

We've thrown out just about everything we can throw out. Remediation people are coming on Tuesday. 

And like that, autumn is here. As we write it's about 55 degrees. We won't bother translating that into fru-fru Euro numbers. Metric system...what are we? Canadian? What's next, football fields that are 120 yards long? Speaking of which, it's a sports ball day. No. Hell no. Lift this voice, motherfuckers. 

One of the quirks about the Northeast is that aside from Notre Dame (for obvious reasons), college football isn't very big up here. Okay, Rutgers is kinda, sorta a thing in New Jersey. One does see a lot of Scarlet Knights gear. 

Mrs. Stroock comes from a Penn State family (that's where her folks met) and is devoted. She grew up with a cat named Nittany. We watch Penn State together, and over time we find we like the college game better than the league whose name shall not be spoken. Penn State is in the Big Ten Conference, as is Rutgers. Mrs. Stroock thinks Rutgers should be kicked out of the Big Ten. She's right. They're pretenders. Rutgers is not now, nor has it ever been ready to compete with the big boys. New Jersey's big high school football stars usually choose...Penn State. See for example, Newark's own Sequon Barkley. 

Foreign readers, don't trust anybody in the low down, dirty, no good South Eastern Conference. Imagine a futball league comprised of Argentina, Italy, Brazil, Germany, Spain and England, all cheating their asses off, all stealing the best players from around the world, virtually ignoring FIFA and just doing whatever the hell they want. That's the SEC. Folks down there became militantly pro-integration once they saw what black players could do for the football programs. One has to admire the SEC's brazen ruthlessness. Bastards.    

What Will's Watching, Voyager: We are becoming annoyed with the writers of this show. There's always 'interference' with the transporters, or the sensors or some such. We don't recall USS Enterprise having these constant technical issues. It's weak, contrived. Also, and we're far from the first to say this, the holodeck is dumb. In Voyager they hang out in a turn of the 20th century French dive bar. Why not use the holodeck to recreate something from the 22nd century? That's a hell of a missed opportunity. 

We looked over The Final Storm a bit yesterday and we have the Aussies and Vietnamese in a military and diplomatic stalemate. You know, maybe we should have the Australians drop the SAS and some paratroopers on Hanoi. That'd be a good short story at least. Post war, or post Final Storm.

Joe completely fucked up Afghanistan so he could have a moment on 9/11's 20th anniversary. Instead he didn't even speak yesterday. Good. Joe is...what's the word? [Unworthy?-Ed]. Yeah. [Disgrace?] Uh-huh. [A lying dog-faced pony soldier-Ed] For certain. It is hard to put into words our contempt for the man and his 65 million or so voters. Joe has no business being anywhere near a 9/11 commemoration. 

We didn't watch any of those. We're cynical and bitter about the whole thing. For 20 years the governing class from W through Trump failed us. The War on Terror is over and America's current situation is analogous to that of Britain in 1945, exhausted and broke. Don't believe me? Look who's president. Take heart America, you did not elect this man. 

Shore Monday

Good morning from the Jersey Shore. It's raining.

Tragedy struck yesterday as we actually bought a six pack of beer but didn't like our selection.

You know, driving down here we passed Maguire AFB. We'll be damned. There was a gigantic C-17 making its approach. You don't think...? We guess we could learn to like Afghan food. 

Look, folks, this blog understands your concern. A bit of Afghanistan is coming here. Remember, we are surrounded by Hindus. Yes, we hear a half dozen Indian languages. The women wear saris when going to Hindu temple. Diwali is as jammed packed with explosives as July 4th. At this point we're basically a British East India outpost on the Northwest Frontier. 

The kids in Chindia are American as any other. Our gym is packed with young Indian men lifting weights. Afterwards they go to the local deli for coffee and bagels. You don't get much more American than that. 

Oh, and Afghans are about as likely to become a reliable Democrat constituency as Cubans and South Vietnamese. 

The Times of Israel reports border clashes with palestinian rioters. This blog has a few thoughts on what the Israelis should do about it. We'd call it Operation Rachel Corrie. Simultaneously, Prime Minister Bennet met with Joe in Washington. Did Joe really fall asleep while the PM was talking? It sure looks like it. Go on, Dems. Prove it isn't true. 

An Ole Miss fan asked about the New York Giants. You see, Eli Manning, the most successful Manning* ever to play quarterback in the NFL, went to Ole Miss. We haven't been paying much attention to sportsball. I mean, damn, we don't even listen to sports talk radio anymore. But we feel the Giants should be in good shape this year. They better be. It's been a decade since Eli won their last Super Bowl. 

*Payton was .500 in the big game. Eli .1000.

Will's Afghansy Round Up

Please stop comparing Joe to Neville Chamberlain. The Prime Minister was a patriot, scarred like the rest of Britain by the Great War. They took 60,000 casualties on the first day of the Somme. The UK has never recovered. Chamberlain did everything in his power to preserve peace. Reader(s), you would have done the same. 

Also please, no Carter references. Jimmy Carter was an interesting and accomplished man. Peanut farmer, nuclear submariner, governor. Should have been a preacher. And yes, we can think of some things Carter did right, warning Brezhnev against killing Lech Walesa, for example. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, Carter understood things had changed and acted accordingly, pulling out the Olympics and SALT II.

Pajhwok News Network is still reporting, a source we've used on and off for years. This blog wonders how long they'll remain. Here's a report on the Taliban removing roadblocks in Kabul. The Biden Administration would call that infrastructure. Click on over while you can.

Our KGB handler in Moscow won't stop sending us obnoxious Afghanistan memes. He laughs, he mocks. In fact he's gone the full Samuel L Jackson on us. 'Charlie Wilson's War isn't so fun now, is it, Motherfucker!?' Then he went on at great length about Amy Adams.* 

The only reading project for which we have any juju is Afghanistan, and the shore is the perfect place to get things started. But doing so only makes sense were we to begin World War 1990: Operation Tet this autumn. That's a bad idea right? We need to finish The Final Storm, right? You tell us, people. We planned, but has god laughed?

*It's possible this paragraph may not be 100% true. We asked and our handler said no one in Russia is paying much attention. Then he did three vodka shooters and cursed at us in Russian. We couldn't really make it out, but we think we heard 'Stinger' a couple of times. Also, the Russian word for bitch.

Friday Sore and Groggy

Two days in a row at the pool with the Stroocklettes. That's plenty of exercise. We are sore and tired after yet another rough night. We doze off and have really intense dreams that last forever and awake to see we've been asleep for half an hour. It's almost as if this Kabala stuff doesn't even work.

Chindian update: Yesterday we saw a gaggle of 12 year old Indian-American boys playing cricket. Three more houses* in our immediate vicinity have been sold in the last 10 days. So we'll be seeing more cricket.  

Boy, we really should do World War 1990: Operation Tet next summer, no? The Soviets would be the sympathetic ones. One group holding on at the embassy, another at the airport...Da, da, Comrade. Nightingale Russia would think we're colluding. We'll flesh this out on the Sunday good idea.

This blog remains flabbergasted by Joe's incompetence. No, this blog is in awe. The screw ups are so bad one wonders if they're on purpose. It's the only explanation, no? Nobody is this bad at something. Look, Joe doesn't know what's going on. The administration is run by spinmeisters and flimflam boys. They thought they could talk their way through this as if the Afghan Crisis were just a bad jobs report. 

It isn't. This is a historic humiliation that will end with a hostage crisis and pallets of cash. The long term result will be more terror. Remember, OBL and company thought their victory in Afghanistan led to the downfall of the Soviet Union. They've been emboldened. Exit question: does anybody think the Feds could prevent another 9/11?**

The New York Post tells us about an American trapped in Kabul. Joe's fuck up is the Iranian Hostage Crisis and Hurricane Katrina rolled into one. At this point it's obvious that the marines and paras at the airport have been told not to do anything to antagonize the Taliban. That means Americans have been mistreated and abused within yards of armed US troops who could do nothing about it. In a Westminster country, Joe would have resigned in disgrace. 

Below, your Friday Flag:

Civis Britanicus Sum! An Empire that protected its citizens

*By our count that's seven home sales this year. 

**So it's up to us then. See something, say something. Stop laughing. Are you nuts? The next terror attack will go down because a bystander didn't want to be accused of and sued for racial profiling.

Tuesday Gloom

We awake tired, cranky, and generally pissed off. We are almost done with the '75 readthrough. When completed we'll go back over The Weser. Doing two readthroughs at a time is suicidal. An author would have to be mad to attempt it. Mad, I tell you. Baaaaaah! In the meantime we write The Weser one scene at a time.

Hot Air reports on Joe's speech. We really don't have anything to add, but aside from the dorks at MSNBC, it seems the speech went over about as well as a hasty and unplanned withdrawal from a combat zone.  

OBL thought the Soviets leaving Afghanistan was the first in a sequence of events that destroyed the Soviet Union. More importantly the Taliban, al Qaida, Isis, Hezbollah, etc etc are all emboldened. Joe's actions will cause more terrorism, not less. The Muslim only understands force and he views restraint as a sign of weakness. 

Our GRU handler wanted us to write about this. At first we were reluctant. We didn't want to come across as bashing the US for a bunch of commies. We ain't no purple haired soccer weirdo.*  But we've found a way to write about Joe's debacle that should satisfy our KGB handler without bashing America. 

Disgraced Neocon John Podhoretz argues that Joe could have 'done nothing' and this fiasco would not have happened. That is, had Joe maintained our 2,500 troops in Afghanistan...J-Pod points out that we hadn't suffered a single death since March of 2020. This is what we used to envision, actually. A far more credible Ben Shapiro has just about said the same. 

*Bronze medal, skank.

Will's Good Idea for the week of 8/15/21

Everyone's back home. 

The intel types said 60-90 days. We said a week and even that was optimistic. The New York Post reports the Taliban is 'at the gates' and the government is trying to negotiate a peaceful transfer of power. If you're the Taliban, why not just wait for the US to leave? Why fight for the city? Unless you want a bloodbath to make a point. Isis would.

Of course Joe screwed up the withdrawal. Just a few months ago Joe assured the nation that the Taliban couldn't storm Kabul ala Saigon. Joe was wrong. Joe is always wrong. Never underestimate Joe's ability to fuck things up, Obama said. In the end, Joe was completely unprepared for this situation and the boys in Washington have no idea what to do. 

The 'War on Terror' (even I'm using scare quotes now) is over. We lost, didn't we? It's debatable. As Zefram Cochrane once said, we'll just have to let history judge. So let's not hit the panic or despair buttons quite yet. However:

This.

All day. Every day. This. https://t.co/qrHsB2v06B

— Thomas Joscelyn (@thomasjoscelyn) August 14, 2021

Even Petraeus? We tweeted. Maybe even him. What happened to the Iraqi army after we left. Were these generals mere celebrities created by the media?

Now we come to Will's good idea for the week of 8/15/21. World War 1990: Operation Tet. The CIA and Special Forces work with the in A Muj to unleash a grand offensive in Afghanistan. Think about it. One Soviet force defending their embassy on the verge of being overrun. A relief convoy sent from the airport is ambushed. A major attack begins on the airport proper. The Soviets are the good guys, or at least the sympathetic ones. Note, Nightingale Russia, this doesn't mean we're colluding, it just means we're trying to write a novel that's a little different. The only time Afghanistan has ever been mentioned in the series is through Soviet officers who had been there. It's a thought. Of course, how much of this stuff can we write?

Will's Good Idea for Father's Day 2021

We've figured out the Dems' plan. Joe will die, or be set aside because of the dementia or some such. There may even be a humiliating incident live on camera which the Corporate Media attempts to turn into a sympathetic moment. They'll try to push the agenda through 'for Joe'. Kamala was brought up from Willie Brown's love nest precisely because she is so weak. She is malleable. Ron Klain will be the power behind the White House boudoir.  

We are reminded of the Egyptian Army's plea to the Soviets after the Israelis fried their falafel in '67, 'Our general staff has studied your Great Patriotic War. We've lured the Jews into Sinai. Now we wait for winter!' 

Kamala will be the weakest president to take the oath of office since Andrew Johnson, a southern Democrat distrusted by southern Democrats, northern Democrats, and the Republicans. There's no there, there. An empty head, a cackling middle aged woman who's had one too many glasses of white wine after yoga. An empty minivan pulled up to the White House and out stepped Kamala.

Dark and foreboding times await. Perhaps they are already here. Still, we agree with the sentiment expressed by Tim Pool and Michael Malice last week. We're pessimistic in the short run, but optimistic in the long.

Yesterday we did some great research for our Apache scenes. We read a memoir (by a Brit Apache pilot actually) and skimmed the US Army field manual. This gives us enough to write intelligently on the gunships. We promise no miracles, but the scenes should be pretty good. 

We actually came up with ad-hoc corps' plan of attack. They're attacking with the 8th Infantry Division on the left and the British 4th Armoured Division on right. But the attack is staggered, in echelon. The Americans are going in first to try to draw out the Soviet south, rear flank division for the Brits' to attack. The Brits will make mince meat of them and then, bam, there's the East German 9th Panzer Division. Hello, Jerry! We still need a general to command. We had thought about just having SACEUR do it, but that would preclude us from writing, 'Gentlemen, I've just gotten off the line with SACEUR. He says we're it.' Sounds like the commander should be a limey, no?

Well, it's Father's Day. And tomorrow is our Dad's 75th birthday. One day we'll write about our dad, but that day is not today. We're quite confident we're a good dad. Flawed, but who isn't? The girls get good grades, have friends, are creative, participate in extracurricular activities. Our teenager is, well, 14.  

In truth, Mrs. Stroock and we probably spend too much time with the girls. When they were younger, outside time was a family affair. This wasn't about helicoptering, it was about spending time with the kids. They'd play, we'd sit on the stoop with our guitar.  We did Mr. Mom duty with all three. We are an expert on being a stay at home dad. And if we may brag, we took summer 2013 off from teaching to make sure we got baby time in with our newborn. In ten years when they're 24, 21 and 18, we won't regret time not spent, that's for sure.

Inauguration Week Day 4: What the Actual Fuck?

By this blog's count at least three leftlib pundits broke down in tears on air yesterday. Seriously? For Joe Freakin' Biden? Euphoric tears of Joy for President Nap Time? Are they fucking serious? They're Fucking Serious. 

They did this before, you know. They did this twelve years ago when the Light Bringer came to Washington from William Ayers' apartment. Barry Soetoro was transformative, remember? He was the one who was going to redeem all our racial sins. Where there was injustice, Barry would bring justice. Where there was sorrow, Barry would bring joy. For he did say that he could lower the seas after winning the Texas Democrat Primary. Hope!

Now here the Dems are again, leg humping a new president. And in very short time they'll lug hump once more, next time over Willie Brown's girlfriend. Ah, we can see it now. Thousands of unfuckable feminist harpies gathering in Times Square and BLM plaza, screeching like teeny bobbers at the Beatles 1965 Shea Stadium concert whilst clad in their pussy-hats. Soon. So soon. This blog puts the over/under at 475 1/2 days. 

That just scares the crap out of us. Because those inclined to think the next guy (or gal) in line is sort of a god standing over the country* will also be inclined to think you're sort of the devil, or at least not totally down with the transgendered thing. Either/or. Joe 'you know, the thing' Biden is they're new light bringer. You, we, I, this blog, they're comin' after us, man. Paranoia has never been more justified or reasonable. And if this blog suddenly disappears, just remember that Jeffrey Epstein didn't kill himself.  

*Reference

Wither Baseball Will

 Joe Biden looked like a tuckered out, angry old man.

Also, did we mention Chris Wallace is a cunt?

Anyway...

We used to love baseball. Back in the 80's and 90's we could watch any ballgame, Tampa/Oakland, no problem. Pittsburgh's middle relief? They could use a lefty set up man...That's the kind of detailed knowledge we had for the game. 

We're not sure what happened, but about a decade ago our love for the game began to fade. The last time we were truly nervous about outcomes was 2009, the year the Yankees won their last World Series. By 2012 we had the Yankees' playoff games on in the background while we did something else. With baseball's special 16 team playoff format this year we should be in heaven, but no. Meh.

Instead, last night we watched Lakefront Bargain Hunt with Mrs. Stroock. We noticed a couple of things. At the end of the show, when the happy couple is reviewing the homes they saw, the wife does most of the talking and the husband merely nods. Smart. Last night was one of the rare occasions win which husband and wife disagreed. They appear to be at an impasse, we said. Oh, there is no impasse, Mrs. Stroock admonished. And by Adon's Ban* those prices. We saw 4 bedroom 2.5 bath lakefront homes going for under $400 K. WTF America? You know what that would go for here in Nueva Jersey?

This got us to thinking. and we asked Mrs. Stroock, if we were to move from New Jersey where would we go? What's the place you have in the back of your mind? Delaware, she said. Which makes sense, since Mrs. Stroock is from Delaware. Maryland. Maryland? we replied. Might as well stay in New Jersey, unless you want to live out in the Western part of the state. Two many mountains, she said.

Our top five relocation preferences are Texas, Kentucky**, Tennessee, Arizona and Delaware. We've never been to Texas or Arizona, Mrs. Stroock pointed out. We just like the idea of Texas, we replied. No, was her response. It appears we are at an impasse. Oh, there is no impasse, Mrs. Stroock said.

Quite right.

Moving, and we ain't doing it anytime soon, would be contingent on several things, but most importantly, we have people here, our father of course, and also a retired couple next door that's the girl's surrogate grandparents.*** They're family and also, they need us.

Besides, we like it here in Chindia.

*Reference

**Our mother was from Kentucky

***Kind of makes up for the jerks next door who used the town to wage war against us. Bah, nobody likes them anyway.

Debate Expert Stroock tells Readers what Will Happen

Alfred Thayer Mahan was an American naval theorist who advocated navies seek a 'decisive battle' to win naval superiority in one fell swoop. The Japanese tried this and ended up at Midway. Nimitz was more interested in incremental naval campaigns with clear objectives and ended up in Tokyo Bay.

Debate fetishists want the same thing. One decisive debate that alters and decides the race. The Kennedy/Nixon thing is and always has been fake news. Lloyd Benson landed the greatest debate zinger ever and went home at the end of the campaign. W slowly ground down Algore just by being competent and letting Gore be himselff; an overbearing, know it all, jerk. 

About the only decisive debate in our lifetime that  was 1980, Reagan vs Carter. Reagan looked competent, and then just sliced and diced Carter's record. 'Are you better off now, than you were four years ago

If the debate happens, and there's still time for Joe to pull out, we expect Biden to not drool all over himself or crap his Depends, and we expect Trump to be Trump. The real impact will take a few days to make itself felt.

Wither Biden, Wither Debates?

This blog maintains Joe is a no-show.

But what if he isn't?

What's the Dem's game for tomorrow? Biden barely leaves his basement now and half the days he doesn't even do that. They 'called a lid' again this morning, 10:00 AM and Joe is done. 

Larry Schweikart thinks Biden's nurses are reversing his sleep schedule so he's 'fresher' in the evenings.

We suppose Joe will have an earpiece for handlers feed him lines, but by the power of Grayskull, that will be a disaster. Trump will call it out, and just think what happens the first time Biden stops, puts his hand on his ear and says, 'What?'.

Trump can sense weakness like no other politician in living memory. He'll see Joe's and exploit them. Just ask Jeb! and Hillary!.

Maybe we're underestimating the enemy. I dunno.

We don't see how Dr. Jill and the rest of the Dems can send Joe up there if they didn't think he could handle it. Or maybe they're just crossing their fingers and hoping for the best.

Our Ruski pals have asked us to provide immediate post-debate comment. Normally we don't watch these things, but if you'd seen our Russian contact, well, you'd do what she asked to. Ah...a sweet and faire lass without a memory of the Soviet Union.

[You stupid, stupid Knobhead-Ed]

Your Post for 'That Day'

We said everything we have to say about this day last year. Was anyone really thinking about Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1960? We have nothing left. We're done. We don't care anymore.

Trump is bringing home more troops from that craphole and negotiating with the Taliban to end the war. Good.

Yesterday Oldest Daughter said she wanted to get her hair 'feathered' which prompted both Mrs Stroock and ourselves to laugh and ask if the year was 1981. This sent us off in search of pics of feathered hair, and then Farrah Fawcett and kicked off an unnecessarily long discussion of Charlie's Angels and the social impact thereof, leaving Mrs. Stroock to wonder why we know so much about Charlie's Angels. Well duh, and the internet didn't exist in 1987, but Charlie's Angels reruns did. We've always been a Kate Jackson man. 

Apropos of nothing we decided to start watching Dallas yesterday. Younger reader(s), there's no getting across just what a big deal Dallas was for a decade. Walk up to anyone under 40 and ask, 'Who shot JR?' Trust us. The opening theme alone is a classic.  We're whistling it right now and Mrs. Stroock is giving us the 'really?' look. The credits will go straight to your brain. Victoria Principal, my god but we were too young to appreciate her at the time. A goddess.  Also, Patrick Duffy's hair is glorious. We asked our Texas friend where we can get one of those fur-lined, brown, rawhide dusters. He was not amused. Being a Yankee, we're not even allowed to wear one. He's from Houston and informs us that Houston hates Dallas. 

The NFL opened last night. We didn't watch. Decorum prevents us from saying what we think the NFL should do, but lets just say it involves a goat, a chicken, a length of rope and a hell of a lot of fake blood. This blog doesn't need a field of socially promoted millionaire abusers lecturing it on race relations. Remember this is the league that gave Ray Rice two games for punching out his fiancé but Tom Brady four games because he might have known some balls were slightly deflated.  Someone's balls are a lot more than slightly deflated, Roger Goodell. NFL owners, given the state of things, you really think Goodell is worth 40 mil a year?

Screw them and screw you NFL. Go do something anatomically impossible.

Angkor must really be desperate. Last night one of Racist Joe's campaign lickspittles went on Brett Baer and got slaughtered. Joe was also interviewed by Jake News Tapper, where he admitted that Trump's USMCA is a better deal than NAFTA. The ad just writes itself. Can't anybody play this game? And people think Trump isn't going to go all Sherman's March on the Son of Segregation.

Speaking of, we just read about the fall [Liberation-Ed] of Richmond.  The Union army sent several black units into the city. That is Trump level trolling, people. Slaves rejoiced, a few went looking for the white children they cared for. A smattering of reedmen were just as distraught as the whites. It was their country too. People are complicated. So Lincoln sails to Richmond, is led through town by a procession of slaves who think they're seeing the messiah, and then sits in Jeff Davis' chair. That dang Yankee. Mrs. Lee's home was saved and put under guard to prevent looting.

Angkor Flails

Sometimes we feel like we're running around a Spanish cemetery looking for Arch Stanton. One of our close friends didn't get the reference, the uncultured barbarians. We are giving up on French and tempted to toss our guitars.

It is now clear there will be a new 'scandal' every week. Good luck with that. And fuck all, Schiff for Brains says there's a new whistle blower. Angkor learns nothing and forgets nothing.

Interesting polls showing Trump gaining massively with Black and Latin voters, but losing with whites, wine moms, etc. How is that possible? How is Biden peeling off white people? What has he done to do that? He hasn't done anything, so what we're seeing is shy plus mischievous Trump voters. Angkor knows it's going to get killed. Expect violence, act accordingly (EVAC).

Don Surber points out that even Nate Silver says right now the election is 269 to 268 electoral votes. Remember, in 2016 Nate Silver was wrong and Will Stroock was right. Always believe Will Stroock. Data died in 2016. Take your data and shove in your data hole.

We see the Oscars are instituting all kinds of race quotas to be qualified for best picture. Whatever, man. We've gone out of our way to include POC in our novels, we are one after all. Our people come from the desert. It calls to us. We can hear the desert right now, 'Come to me, Will. Wander me for 40 years as your ancestors once did.' Don't believe us on the POC thing? Well, the sun loves us. I mean we tan a nice apricot color. Try that with an Irish guy. And no decent mid-century country club would have allowed us to use the front entrance. What we mean to say is, we ain't white.

Anyway. Remember Colonel McGee, the TN National Guard Commander in Castro's Folly? We made him a Nashville lawyer, and law partner. A black man commanding a TN NG battalion in 1990 is no small thing. We just thought it added character. In A Line Through the Desert, Jake commands a tank with Cueves and Veras, because adding black guy would have been too obvious. 'Ha, I see what your doing!' the reader would have said. Recall the two ship commanders in To Defend the Earth....Why not?

A fan strongly urges us to do Palmerston's War next year. That's the plan. But we plan, god laughs. That would requite a December of research or re-research, to get us in the mood, get the ju-ju so to speak. At this point it'll be The Great Nuclear War of 1975 followed by The Final Storm....which means Palmerston's War would come next and then The Weser. We really think we could crank out The Weser fast. There's lots of good things happening with The Final Storm, right now. We need to do some Crimea stuff, we think, use that to lead into the Italians and set the stage for Esercito Italian. Setting the stage for the post WWIII books is at least 1/3 of The Final Storm's purpose.

Saturday Updates

We are back from the beach where we had a gout attack and our computer broke down.

Hence the absence of activity on this blog. We are writing this on Middle Daughter's Chrome Book. So bear with us.

It looks like the Dem's October surprise came early. That's how much trouble racist, rapist Slo-Joe Hiden'-Biden is in. If you believe their story, published by a lying, dog faced pony-solider like The Atlantic editor Geoffrey Goldberg, well, can we interest you in some Arkansas swampland? Also, this blog has done some real gumshoe journalism, and can report, via a trio of reliable yet anonymous sources, that Geoffrey Goldberg dresses in women's clothing and hangs around in bars, but only on the weekends. We later had the story confirmed by other anon sources.

After reading about The War of Northern Aggression up through Antietam, we think we're too tough on McClellan.  We're on a new book now, dear god, Fredericksburg. There's no way the Young Napoleon was worse than Burnside. Grant would have launched a holding attack and slid south. Right? The Wilderness is one thing, but there's no way he would have crossed a river under enemy guns and then attacked up slope.

We've decided we need a little more political intrigue in The Final Storm, and this would be a good place to introduce Senator Al Gore, who will be the Dem nominee in the World War 1990 election in '92. We know exactly how the race goes.

We no longer believe we'll have The Great Nuclear War of 1975 done by 21 September.

Since our computer was out, we did some productive outlining of Palmerston's War. We have four stories:

-The Battle of Washington DC, British army advances on west back of Potomac while ANOVA advances north then west looking for place to cross. Lots of ship to shore action. Who sees the two massive mistakes the Limeys are making?

-Contraband, in which a British warship deals with runaway slaves

-The Hudson River Campaign

-Ambassador CF Adams in London dealing with the British

-Something Great Lakes

-Something Great Sioux Uprising

Ideas welcome.

Joe Biden: Do I look like a Radical Socialist with a Soft Spot for Rioters?

No, Joe. You look like a lying dog-faced pony solder.

Will said Joe would fuck up the speech and he fucked up the speech. When Will says something will happen, it's becuase that thing will happen. Powerline has Jim Crow Joe's on air mini stroke. Yesterday was Dukakis in the tank and the biggest one day campaign disaster we've ever seen. We'd compare it to Pearl Harbor but Pearl Harbor was sneaky. When Trump knifes you he does it right in the gut, while looking you in the eye.* 

You'd have to be an inhuman monster not to laugh at Joe, a career grifter, intellectual lightweight, segregationist and brazen racist. Are we being cruel? You betcha!** We're no crueler than Jill Biden, who allows here diminished husband to be trotted out before the cameras. The Dems can't go on like this, yet they must. Keep Joe and they get embarrassed and humiliated. Remove Joe and they have to go with Sanders. Don't go with Sanders and the left of the party revolts. They might as well lose with Joe***.

We know your pain, Dems. That sinking feeling in the gut. That blackhole in your heart. The worry. The desperate search for some bit of good news. The panic....the panic....We know the feeling Dems, and we're glad you have it. We're so very glad. The Germans have a word for this, no? 

[Don't you think you're going too far?-Ed]

No. As Algore once said, you've got to rip their lungs out.

A nice enough day at the beach. The Oakridge Boys played in the park across the street, making for a very pleasant evening sitting out in the breeze. A pair of F-18s out of Maguire flew overhead. Heck, 30 years ago this summer we watched A-10s fly over this beach. The first time we'd ever scene them in the flesh. Back then an ex-marine ran the condo and pool, big, gruff barrel chested old guy right out of central casting. He taught us diving, I mean it was like boot camp. He just made us do it over and over again till he was satisfied we got it. Our point is we asked him about the A-10s. We're trying to remember what we were reading here that year...hmmm, usually we can recall that sort of thing. Yesterday we were sitting in the very same spot at the pool where in 1986 we plowed through Dennis L. McKiernan's The Dark Tide, just about the first real novel we ever read. 

We broke The Final Storm log jam. The first half of the book needs a chapter updating things with the Poles and Czechs, the Army of the Danube, and introducing a character or two we'll see in future novels.

Our study of the War of the Rebellion continues. Well those were some interesting maneuvers leading up to Second Manassas. Fascinating. This blog will take Pope over McClellan. Man, we thought MacArthur was a headcase. 

*Ask Jeb!.

**Reference.

***He's a racist.

Biden was the Bomb

PJM liveblogged Biden's speech. 

Last night we watched The Big Bang Theory. We're amazed that a lot of people think it's a dumb, middlebrow show with cheep jokes. We find it quite smart.

[I bet you do-Ed].

As for assessments of the speech, wait a few days.

The brilliance of Trump buying the WaPo masthead is that it made libs in the media freak out and draw even more attention to it. The buy also shows that the WaPo is run by whores who will do anything if you pay them enough money. How is it remotely appropriate for a supposedly independent newspaper to run political advertising? 

Whores. Skank, skeezy, whores.

And checkout the Trump ads running on the YouTube masthead. Not since 1988 has any GOP run anything that tough and hard hitting. Not Mitt, not McCain, not W., not that old guy from 1996.  Mr. we could use a man like Lee Atwater again. Younger reader(s) we urge you to click that link. Click it! That is some vintage Cold War political advertising, when the GOP one five of six elections.

Brutal.

Usually a convention gives a presidential candidate a bounce in the polls. Trump is at 51% in the Rasmussen and tied in Minnesota, which means he's really ahead in Minnesota. There's been a convention bounce alright.

Here in NJ07, D incumbent Tom Malinowski and R challenger Tom Kean Jr are having a contest to see who can run the best soft focus, Mr. Nice Guy ads. So far Kean looks like a wimp. Just like his dad when he chaired the 9/11 Commission. We might just vote for Malinowski. We like him well enough and he seems sane, something the party of Ms. Venezuela and Somalia's Finest desperately needs. At some point Malinowski is go to call you a Nazi, Senator. Whatchu gonna do about it?

We put down JFC Fuller's Grant book. He wasn't telling us anything we didn't already know. God almighty, it's awful. And to think we read all we could by this guy when we first got into military history 25 years ago. At one point A Military History of the Western World was our Baghavad Gita. And so we switched to Lee's Last Campaign...so far beautifully written, a real tribute without being sentimental. We're learning a lot.

Milwaukee Madness and Various

No, we still didn't watch, but this thing sounds like a disaster. Harris did not impress we are told. My friend William Katz has the roundup. Hillary! Hillaried. Obama looked drained and tired. Of course the Dem's are constrained by all the video conferencing and the GOP may have the same problem. We shall see. But the Dem's biggest problem is that their convention is a giant hate-bitchfest. They look like angry, screaming damaged people. Never look like angry, screaming damaged people. You gotta bring more than that to a convention. What the hell do these people stand for? We don't know.

Explaining this thing to the Soviet...er...Russian GRU is going to be interesting.

In our own NJ07 Congressional District, State Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean is taking on incumbent Tom Malinowski. This should be an easy pickup. The Kean name still means something in New Jersey and NJ07 is pink. We've seen a few Kean digital ads and so far, we're not impressed. Lots of soft-focus, working with the other side schpeel and what not. Give it time.

We think we can see the end of The Great Nuclear War of 1975.  We're working on a chapter were Rockefeller is visiting various infrastructure sights, canals, bridges, etc. Engineers are dredging the Rappahannock River in VA and turning Fredericksburg into the next great East Coast port. From there they can truck stuff up and down I-95 and into the interior on I-64. The main issue at this point in 1976 is building the storage and refinery capability to bring oil in from Alaska and the Middle East. They do that, they oughta be able to make it through the winter. Of course there's diminished harvest issues. But again, there's a hell of a lot less people to feed and livestock ought to recover somewhat. We just might have a rough by 21 September.

The more we think about it, the more we like the idea of an opening Caribbean/Central America themed chapter based on the Managua campaign. Maybe.

Also with each day, nay, hour, Palmerston's War makes sense as the project for 2021. Even though we think advertising doesn't work anymore, advertising Palmerston's War in Civil War and British history magazines oughta work. New readers, right? We'll also see.