The Soviet, Russian and World War 1990 Matrix...

...Or Will continues colluding.

Joe committed a classic Kinsley gaff by accidentally saying what his people are talking about in the Situation Room; using chemical weapons, sending the 82nd Airborne to Ukraine, and Regime Change Russia. What makes these geniuses think the next guy would be any better than Putin? Propping up Mr. Pro-Western Democracy Boris Yeltsin in the 90's led to chaos and eventually Putin. Biden's advisors really think they can remove Putin and create a Western European style social democracy in Russia, don't they? How's regime change worked out this century? These people learn nothing. Read some history on the plane trip to Davos next time:

A few observations on our third moral panic in three years. The Soviets have dug in around Kyiv and the Ukrainians are attacking there, or so it seems. Pundits claim the Soviets have run out of steam, and maybe they have. But what if they're also letting the Ukrainians use up their strength in local counterattacks. The Soviets have taken Mariupol (wonder if spellcheck recognized it before the war). That's an important victory for them.

[Soviets?-Ed]

We read through World War 1990: The Weser's opening chapter and came away pleased. There is little more we can do to it. The opening chapter sets up some NATO characters and NATO's general situation. Today we'll read the second chapter, which does the same for the Soviets. Characters include a Soviet Tank Regiment commander, the commander of the East German 9th Panzer Division, and a Soviet police battalion occupying an American base.

What Will's Watching, old Tom Clancy event. Here's Tom Clancy addressing the NSA in 1986. He talks about The Hunt for Red October, his career and his writing process. Interestingly a lot of the tech stuff Clancy wrote about was conjecture, and that conjecture was mostly correct. Funny as he says, 'So I'm working on this novel called Patriot Games.' We've only ever reread one Tom Clancy novel, Red Storm Rising, once in 1988 when we were fifteen and once again in 2003 when we were 29. We stopped with Debt of Honor. 

Saturday Updates

This is post 4846.

We had a great week at the gym with the machines, supplemented with two-mile walks. However, at the end of February we've utterly failed to take off any weight. 

We've read two books on Putin and Russia. We shall read more.

We dropped our phone screen time to about 2:40 or so. Not bad.

We think our KGB handler is pissed off and not talking to us.

This blog is impressed with Ukraine and its armed forces. The Ukrainians have shot down many Soviet fixed wing and helicopter aircraft. On the ground Ukrainian forces have exacted a heavy toll from the Soviets. The Ukrainian idea of defense mimics the Germans. That is, once the enemy takes ground, the Ukes launch a ferocious counterattack. There seem to be a lot of failed Soviet airborne assaults. The Soviets have trouble consolidating their gains. Last night the Soviets launched an airborne attack on Kiev and got significant forces into the city. Fighting continues in the capital. 

Here's a good account to follow for Ukraine war news. 

Overall we'd say the war is not going the way  STAVKA had planned, but the Soviets are still wearing the Ukrainians down. This blog believes sooner or later the Ukes will run out of men, ammo and time.

We just noticed we wrote 'Soviets' a lot. Oh well.

Things!

The Great Nuclear War of 1975 is done, fin. The files are uploaded. DRM are set. The price fixed. All we have to do is hit PUBLISH. Conception in the summer of 2020 to the verge of publishing. [So why not hit PUBLISH?] Dunno. 

We are reading a printout of The Great Salvation of 1976.

We put down World War 1990: The Final Storm. The process broke down. Too much work for meagre results. To put it another way. We had no ju-ju. We'll pick up The Final Storm in...April.

Because March is World War 1990: The Weser month. We've read through about 2/5ths of the MS and are highly pleased. The narrative works. Mostly we need to clarify, fact check and omit needless words. 

The Weser being in such good shape is proof of concept of the summer sneak in idea. Which WW1990 novel to write this summer? Battle of the GIUK Gap? We think Battle of the GIUK Gap.