Super Straight Friday Flag

A good day at the gym yesterday with 20 minutes on the treadmill at 4, rope pulley, Stairmaster and rowing machine. We are stiff and sore this morning [Phrasing! Ed]. Oh you're talking to me again? [I guess you are not personally responsible for that American hussie.-Ed] As has been noted elsewhere, America has finally struck a blow against it's oldest enemy, the British Monarch. Aww Ed, don't walk away in a huff...besides, you know how I dig you getting all pouty. Someone's a naughty girl... 

Our latest bit of Soviet collusion: Joe Biden has been president for 50 days and has yet to hold a press conference, will not address a joint session of congress and every time he holds an event, staff shoes him away before the press can ask him a question. In his last event Biden forgot the name of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and the cabinet department he runs, ‘I want to thank the… uhmmm… the former General, I keep calling him General.. my, uhh…. The guy who runs that outfit over there. I want to make sure we thank the Secretary for all he’s done.’ Very often if first lady Doctor Jill Biden is not sitting next to the president during his appearances, Vice President Kamala Harris will lurk in the background; most appropriately. Click on over to Lefortovo Prison.

The Times of Israel reports: "Israel has targeted at least 12 ships bound for Syria, most of them transporting Iranian oil, with mines and other weapons, according to a Thursday report. The attacks started in late 2019 and targeted both Iranian vessels, and other ships with Iranian cargo, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing “US and regional officials.” Dang. It's almost as if the Jews, sorry, the Israelis, have read Israel Strikes: War of the Red Sea. Man, we really got to get to work on the third novel.

Today William Stroock comes out as Super Straight. I'm only sexually attracted to cis-gendered biological women. #SSLGBTQ+. Below please find the Super Straight flag:

Our new favorite troll is telling our father about  the travel vloggers Kara & Nate. Our dad was a producer at NBC News from the mid-60s through the mid-2000's during which time he covered the fall of Saigon, Phnom Penh, etc. Well, Kara and Nate just had themselves a great time in Southeast Asia. Hanoi is one of Nate's favorite cities and Phnom Penh, while maintaining its French charm, is too touristy. Those sweet kids.  

The Chattanooga scene went just fine. We can't believe we didn't think till yesterday to put George M. Steinbrenner on the president's Select Committee on Reconstruction. Remember, before he bought the Yankees, The Boss was a ship builder. There's some character for you. 

The Confederate Contingent suggested having legendary 'Bama head coach Bear Bryant do something. For foreign reader(s), college football is absolutely huge down south, huger than futball is in Europe. Lemme put it this way. Many schools in the South stopped fighting de-segregation when the integrated northern schools started beating them. One can imagine how these conversations went, 'Listen Jim, separate but equal may be our way of life but you know what's also our way of life? College football. Now I don't think Jeff Davis or Bobby Lee would want us losing to Penn State or, heaven forbid, Notre Dame. Losing to Yankees....'

Something like that might not be a bad idea. Maybe not Bryant, since we have George Wallace running Alabama, but what if a big time college coach is running a state? Or, what if Don Shula (legendary coach of the NFL's Miami Dolphins), who's already on the above commission, is running Florida. Hmmm....who was coaching Ole Miss* in 1975?

*College of New York Giants QB Eli Manning (and his daddy) who was 2-0 against Tom Brady in the Super Bowl.  Payton, his less successful older brother, 2-2 in the big game, went to Tennessee.

Thursday Through

No gym yesterday. We figured three days in a row was enough and we were sore from lifting anyway. So with the weather being 50+ and sunny we had a cigar and Cavaliere D'oro instead. In truth it was too soon since the last. 

Dang, the Marines raised the Stars and Stripes over Hue and I can't find footage of it. Yes we're reading about Tet. When we finish that book we may read Mark Bowdin's book about Hue. We'll have to decide if we want that much detail. In the meantime we've started Lewis Sorely's A Better War, about Creighton Abrams in Vietnam. Dereliction of Duty is proving to be a hard slog. Lot's of descriptions of paperwork. We may put it down permanently.

So it looks like the oil spill off the Israeli coast was intentional. Over to you, Bibi. What you gonna do about it? This blog suggests destroying the Iranian nuclear reactor at Bushehr. The spill is a really great tactic, actually. The event has triggered us and we spent some time yesterday doing some idea building and character development for Israel Strikes: War with the Turks. Nothing is set, but things are moving in that direction for the summer. If we're gonna do this, the novel needs to be set. Plot outlined and characters ready. We're talking 1,000-1,5000 words a day.

Our latest piece at Substack is out: Three Wars with Pakistan: 'Before the Second World War, the Indian Army numbered 82 independent battalions. When the Japanese attacked Burma these were hastily organized into higher echelon formations, brigades, and divisions. The typical brigade contained two Indian battalions and one British. Most of the armored and artillery battalions were British as well. Despite the colonial nature of the Indian army, thousands of native soldiers rose through the ranks, becoming officers, many battalions were in fact commanded by Indians. By the end of the war, there were two and half million men under arms organized into 16 divisions each of three brigades. Indian divisions fought with great distinction in North Africa, East Africa, Italy and the Far East...' Click on over for subcontinental action.

More good work on The Great Salvation of 1976. So long as we don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good, we're in really good shape. We need to drop Anne Rockefeller in there more. The president's only surviving child, she's the de-facto first lady. Right now the side story is Ulan Ude. Why? well, we've fallen in love with the travel vloggers Kara and Nate, and they went there.* We'll see. We don't think our Westmoreland story in Korea will work. We're still thinking about putting off publishing the nuke books till next year and focusing on The Final Storm and Israel Strikes for this year.

*My word, Kara is just adorable. A enchanting vision. We cannot look away. That smile. One of those Millennial girls who wears tights all the time. We sigh.