Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Writing Updates...Centauri

Well, I sent the Pershing MS back to the agent, we'll see. Things look pretty good I would say.

Castro's Folly is done. We've had a shakeup here at Team Stroock, so Castro's Folly will not see publication until 2017.

In the meantime I am working World War 1990: The Final Storm. The rough will be completed this year with the book coming out in spring of next year, I should think.

In the meantime, or on the side, anyway, I'm going to be working on something else. Even I can't write endlessly about exploding tanks and tense cabinet meetings.

This project is called Centauri, and it is about a bunch of colonists on a habitable world orbiting, you guessed it, Alpha Centauri. Its a space western really, think The Searchers crossed with No Country for Old Men with a native feline species being the monsters and a native, stone-age sentient species filling in for the Indians.

Actually Centauri is already over halfway finished. It is a collection of stories, the first of which was completed in 2006. As its already 45,000 words long I thought I'd get Centuari wrapped up and out there; building the back list, so to speak.

Stories so far include:
-4.3 Light Years Alone
-Head Scarf
-Riders of the Centauri Range
-Aragon's Gambit

We'll be reporting more on this as we go. At the moment we're hoping to have Centauri out next year.

Rising Trump

So Mr. Trump is up up and away. Even the Reuters poll, which they admit the massively re-skewed against him, show a tie. Basically, Mr. Trump has closed a 12 point gap in a week.

The estimable blogger and author and wonderfully named Vox Day was laughing at polls last month that showed Mr. Trump down big. Then he laughed  at the notion that the election cake was baked already. I read skeptically, but after watching Mr. Trump vanquish Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, I wondered if Mr. Day wasn't right.

I think he was.

Mr. Trump reminds me of something I see in sports sometimes, specifically the NFL. That is a team that keeps winning and you can't figure out why. The first team that comes to mind is the 2001 Patriots. 11-5 and solid, they just kept winning game after game. They weren't a juggernaut, they weren't blowing teams out. They just won. The 2012 Ravens did the same thing. They just won.

I think that's what Mr. Trump is doing. He's just winning and its hard to figure out why. The left must be in full freak out mode right now. I know I would be. How can they be losing to this guy? I know I wondered how Rubio could be losing to him.

Mr. Trump's surge also reminds me of something else. In 2008 going into September John McCain was leading by about three points. That lead evaporated in a week, just like we've seen with Hillary!. The culprit was the financial meltdown. From that moment on McCain could not win. I wonder if Hillary's! meltdown isn't something similar.

It doesn't really matter. Nothing succeeds like success. Mr. Trump is certainly succeeding.

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Tuesday Tally

Top Five Defeats in American Military History

Camden, 1780: Lord Conrwallis kicked Horatio Gates' butt and put the entire south in jeopardy.

Kasserine Pass:,1942: In which the Germans demonstrated it completely outclassed  the U.S. Army in training, equipment, leadership, personnel....

Brandywine, 1777: Sir William Howe completely outflanked Washington who seemed paralyzed from the beginning to the end of the battle. Lost Philadelphia in the process.

Montfaucon, 1918: General Pershing sent the unprepared and untrained 79th Division against the German strong point of Montfaucon, key to the entire first phase of the Meuse-Argonne campaign. The 79th was slaughtered.

Bataan: 1942: The Japanese, after a long siege, forced the capitulation of the American/Filipino army on the Bataan Peninsula. Upwards of 70,000 men entered captivity.

*Why no Civil War? I can't decide if Vicksburg is an American defeat or victory, its the result of having a lot of southern ancestry. One grandmother from Kentucky, the other from Louisiana.

That said, here are the top five Civil War debacles (both sides)

Vicksburg, 1863: With this victory, Grant closed off the Mississippi to the CSA and opened it up to military movement and northern trade.

Fredericksburg, 1862: General Ambrose Burnside launches a frontal attack against entrenched Confederates and gets slaughtered.

Chancellorville, 1862: Stonewall Johnson out flanks Fighting Joe Hooker in a military maneuver for the ages while Lee holds Hooker in place with a bare division.

Gettysburg, 1863: Obviously.

The Atlanta Campaign: Sherman out maneuvered General Joe Johnston from half a dozen positions and then took Atlanta. Beginning of the end.




Thoughts on the Alt Right and Hillary!'s Speech on Same.

Well, one can tell that the Alt-Right has arrived because Hillary! made a speech about it.

What is it? Honestly I don't know, and I don't think it can be defined by what it is. Instead, let's define the Alt-Right by what it isn't.

First, its not the Newtonian policy-wonk conservatism that has dominated the right since 1992. These are more easily defined as the Neo-Cons. That's me. Its not Newt, its not Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz, certainly not Paul Ryan.

Now there's more than just a whiff of the old Pat Buchanan in the Alt-Right, except its not really socially conservative. Heck, one of the biggest voices of the Alt-Right is super-fag Milo Yiannoppolous.

The Alt-Right is many things, but what unites its various incarnations is its opposition to Cultural-Marxism. It sees the Republican Establishment and Conservative-Inc as sell outs to the Marxist narrative. Given that I'm a supporter of Conservative-Inc, and I don't see we've got much done in the last 25 years, its hard to disagree with them. As Abdrew Breitbart (PBUH) used to say, 'Politics is downstream from culture'.

Breitbart has become the flagship of the Alt-Right and Mr. Trump is there man.

On a personal note these folks have caused me to reconsider some of my beliefs, especially when it comes to trade. As noted before, I stand by the Iraq Campaign and my Neo-Con foreign policy in general. So if China attacks Taiwan, yes, I think we must go to war.

Anywho, is the Alt-Right succeeding?

Well, they got Hillary!'s goat, didn't they. That speech of hers last week was awful, lecturing and rambling. Now, its tempting to think in that speech she was giving orders to the media to go after Alt-Right outlets like Breitbart, Takimag, Am-Ren, etc etc...but she already did that over the phone. She thinks by calling out the Alt-Right she try to define it. The effort fell flat. Because we all know if the nominee were Jeb! Hillary would be having a reasoned policy discussion with him, right?

The Alt-Right's emergence reminds me of another electoral event, that is right-blogisphere's coming out during the Rather-gate controversy of 2004. This took the left completely by surprise and for a few months, the right actually made the narrative. That didn't last long, of course.

So the Alt-Right has thrown a giant wrench into American politics. Good for them.



Monday, August 29, 2016

Metal Monday

Hair Metal Edition

It can be rightfully said that Hair Metal killed metal. The story usually goes something like this: in 1991 Kurt Kobain and Nirvana came along and ran Metal out of town. It is true, but they are forgetting that Metal was already in the coffin. Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Sound Garden and Alice in Chains were the nails.

Behold:

Those riffs in the opener sound like they were written for a metalled up version of the California Raisins. The song and video are utterly vapid, made up entirely of late 1980's pop and tripe. It is nothing...

Sorry, had to go out listen to some Maiden after watching that.

So Metal was already dead, and the culprit was hair metal.


Briefly, this was metal dressed up, made up and teased  out. It had little in common with say Metallica and Slayer. It wasn't dark at all. Instead Hair Metal was about good time party down music. Some record exec somewhere figured out that metal band audiences were about 90% young men. Why not strip it down a bit and get girls to listen?

It worked. In the late 1989 my girlfriend and her BFF used to argue over who was hotter, Brett, from Poison, of Vince, from Motley Crue.

Poison is of course the best example.

Yeah, there it is.

And...


Ok, ok, I admit it. When I was first getting into metal in 87-88 the hair stuff is what I tried first. In fact the first metal album I ever bought was White Snake, Slide it in:

That's pretty heavy. And David Coverdale does have solid rock cred, no?

Look, its what was on MTV at the time.

Now a lot of solid bands where lumped in with the hair metal scene: Great White, Tesla etc....they weren't really hair bands but blues based hard rock bands. I'd also like to draw attention to Cinderella:

and...

You know what they sound like? : Lynyrd Skynyrd if Brian Johnson were the lead singer.

Their third album, Heartbreak Station is a masterpiece.

But after listening to the glam metal which rose to teh top in '87 and dominated in '88 I got into other things. That is, hair metal led by to Zeppelin and Sabbath and Metallica and AC/DC and on and on...

Besides, go listen to Nothing but a Good Time. There are some great riffs in there.

Sunday, August 28, 2016

Neo-Cons 1990

One of the things I've had a lot of fun with in writing World War 1990 is portraying people that became rather well known during W.'s admin. These are William Kritsol, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle etc. There they were behind the scenes in W.'s admin, and there they were in his father's admin. Of course, there they are in WW 1990.

Via the brilliant Steve Sailor, we find this:

A top former George W. Bush administration official says he will likely end up voting for Hillary Clinton after calling Donald Trump a security risk.
A bit rich, no? Wolfowitz's enemies and those who opposed victory in Iraq are having a lot of fun with that.

That's coming from me, a man who admires W., still supports victory in Iraq, and calls himself without shame a neo-con.

What, you think Saddam should still be in power?

Basically, in the WW1990 universe, Wolfowitz has been a major advocate for continued war with the Soviet Union. In this effort he has partnered with William Kristol, Quayle's chief of staff, who hopes to push the Veep into the top slot.

Now the interesting thing about this group is they were all cold warriors. When the Cold War ended, they cast about for a new enemy.  I was a subscriber to the Weekly Standard during the Clinton years and they talked endlessly about the looming Chinese threat.

Of course a more serious threat emerged in 2001. Wolfowtiz and company were in position to act on Islamic terror their way. One of the reasons why their 'Bomb the Bastards' policy was adopted by W. is because they had a coherent world view.

The realists were talking about containment, alliances, negotiations. The neo-con's reco's were very obvious given their world view. The United States and the West are under attack and we must respond forcefully. I agreed then and I agree now.

Sounds better than the realest school, I think. Yes, sure, why not make an alliance with the less odious Islamic nutjobs?

So there's Wolfowitz, Kristol, et al pulling strings in WW 1990 for a final showdown with the Soviets.

I must say I rather enjoy all the political maneuvering and think a book in this series dedicated to the election of 1992 would be a unique and fun read.

Familiar Titles

Getting ready to turn the MS on Pershing into my agent, been busting my hump on the damn thing the last few weeks.

Anywho out of curiosity I checked out the bibliography of a new book about the AEF and the Meuse-Argonne offensive.

I found it very comforting. About half of the author's sources are the same one's I'm using.

There's the memoirs of course, Pershing's, Bullard's, Liggett's. He's got the same general histories I have, Stalling's Doughboys, Eisenhower's Yanks. Prominent are the great bio's of Pershing, Smythe's and of course Vandiver's, the later a 1200 page magnum opus cum love letter.

He like's Edward Lengel's To Conquer Hell, about Meuse-Argonne  and Coffman's The Regulars about the old army.

There's also the collected works of Arthur Ferrell, who has spent a career combing through the archives and coming out with gems like the diary of Pierpont Stackpole, Liggett's aide de camp, and William Wright, commander of the 89th Division.

Interestingly he's using the same batch of books I am about the French, Greenlagh's history of the polius and her book on Foch,.

There's Viereck's As They Saw Us. I wonder if he's got an original or a reprint like me. Ludendorff's notes on the AEF are interesting, even if the man is completely nuts.

He's even using the same government office CD ROM of the army's 17 volume compendium of orders and plans about the war.

Guess I'm on the write track, eh?

Saturday, August 27, 2016

Trumped all Over

Well, its been an interesting month for Mr. Trump, no?

After a disastrous misstep, which I think will work out in the long run, Mr. Trump seems to have his feet under him.

What he has pulled off is remarkable.

For the first time since 1988, the Democrat is on the defensive. Benghazi, the Clinton foundation and now race, Hillary is reeling.

This is in no small part to those evil geniuses at Breitbart. Andrew's vision has been realized. These people are relentless.

Just in the last few days, after Hillary! began comparing Mr. Trump to the Klan, Breitbart has made the following points: Hillary used to praise Klan Kleigle Senator Robert Byrd, used to campaign with the Stars and Bars, and is a member of an all white golf course. Boom.

Bretibart and Infowars have expertly raised questions about Hillary!'s health. Hillary! and her media minions have tried to say this is sexist and ageist. It's a trap! as Admiral Akbar might say. Breitbart and coy just remind Hillary! and her media minions about what they did to Bush the Elder, Bob Dole, John McCain. Boom.

I had thought for most of this month that had the GOP nominated that nice young man Marco Rubio he'd be ahead 5-7 points, but I'm not sure I believe that anymore.

Breitbart came understand that politics id downstream from culture, his phraseology, BTW. He didn't care about debt ceilings or top tax rates. He understand the nature of the enemy, and they are the enemy. 'Fuck you. Its war,' said Breitbart.

As Algore once said, 'You've got to rip their lungs out.'


Friday, August 26, 2016

Whisky in the Jar

Disturbing news from Bloomberg:

On a warm evening in June, the thirsty crowd milling about a Brooklyn event space might have gladly sipped glasses of white wine, or crisp gin & tonics. Instead, all held drams of golden whisky in their hand.
The event was to celebrate the introduction of Toki, a new offering from Japanese whisky maker Suntory, with gentle almond and grapefruit accents and no age statement. It’s just one of a growing number of what we're dubbing “whisper whiskies”—pale-hued, refreshing spirits with a deliberately light, mellow flavor profile, offering an antidote to bold bourbons and brooding, smoky Scotches.

Brooklyn. It figures. The borough needs to be nuked for its own good.

Let's parse one key sentence:
It’s just one of a growing number of what we're dubbing “whisper whiskies”—pale-hued, refreshing spirits with a deliberately light, mellow flavor profile, offering an antidote to bold bourbons and brooding, smoky Scotches.
The speaker means to say,  'I'm menstruating'.


Whisky is not supposed to be like this.

Damn it man, whisky is given to wounded soldiers as they patiently wait their turn in with the doctor. Flasks of whisky are given to riders on desperate night time journeys with urgent messages for the general.  Men pass around the last bottle to steel their nerves before going over the top.  Destroyer captains drink it in great porcelain mugs as they skipper their ships into the broiling-gray North Atlantic.

I thank god everyday that my father was a Jameson man. I've been drinking the stuff since I was 19. Bushmills too. Luckily my the father of my childhood friend was from Galway, and introduced Tullimore Dew, dubbed a 'light whisky'. Maybe it was, but three fingers of that stuff would clear your sinuses, sweep out your arteries and give your stomach a nice warm sensation. 'Sure, I'll take a finger,' said Mr. O'Neill on several occasions.

And because I drank whisky, I learned to drink. One night me and the young O'Neill unscrewed a fare bottle of Tullimore, threw away the cap, and spoke of the things young men speak of till the bottle was thrown out. You know what I did then? I drove home stone cold sober, that's what. You know why? Because I could hold my liquor, that's why. At my bachelor party six of us, (Young O'Neill, Carlos, Paul, John, Mike)  ran up a $400 dollar bar tab. I've left off the last names as these are respectable men with careers, wives (or boyfriends madre di dios) and kids to think about.

At my epic 27th birthday party, the young O'Neill and I started at about 11 AM and ended at about 4...AM. I kid you not. The next day was the greatest walk of shame ever, as I brought two cases of beer worth of empties and two bottles of whisky to the recycling bin. Then we went to lunch.

One pours a couple of whisky's on a Sunday afternoon in the backyard Adirondacks with an old friend, or after the news of a great tragedy ( I had one when I thought Algore won the election), or in celebration of a birth. When my daughter's boyfriend asks for her hand, it will be done in my study, over a couple of glasses of Tullimore.

And you never get stupid about it.

Christ almighty, man, I used to drink the stuff neat, just to prove I could. Whisky is a man's drink, its not supposed to be light and flavored. You want that, go drink an appletini, colon poker.


Thursday, August 25, 2016

Be all that you can be!

My post about underrated generals and Mad Max Thurman put in mind of the army recruitment commercials of my youth.

But first, a taste of what came before.

Here's the army making the same basic pitch they had been for a century, three hots, a cot, a roof and clothing. $288 a month in 1973 was not bad. I know in 1968, my old man, working at NBC News was bringing home 87.50 a week. Yes, that's John Travolta.


This is the most 70's commercial possible. I guess the pitch is you can join and defer enrollment:


When Mad Max Thurman took over things, he totally changed the way the Army sold itself, and it fit perfectly the go-go-80's.

First Be all you can be:


This could almost be a McDonalds breakfast commercial. Action, adventure. Optimism.

Here's one making the same pitch but adding money for college:


And here's one talking about what the army can do for your professional career. Also, tanks:

Of course, these drove my 60's era parents batty. Goddamn hippies....

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

The Tuesday Tally-American Generals Edition

Ten Most Underrated American Generals:

Nathanael Greene: Washington's trouble shooter. Took command in the South after the defeat at Camden and ran the British ragged. The only man who could have continued the war if Washington had been killed.

Winfield Scott. Commanded the Mexico City campaign. Later formulated the Anaconda Plan of the Civil War.

Zach Taylor: Deftly maneuvered his army into northern Mexico, defeating the Mexicans at Monterey and Palo Alto. 

Arthur MacArthur: Commander during the key time in the Philippine Insurrection 1900-1902. A counterinsurgency every bit like Iraq. Father of you know who.

Hunter Liggett: Commanded a division, corps and later army in the AEF. After the first half of the Meuse-Argonne offensive ended in stalemate, Liggett took charge of 1st Army, cleaned it up, and managed the AEF's breakthrough on November 1st.

Joe Stilwell: Remembered as 'Vinegar Joe', Stilwell's Hukawng Valley campaign of '44 was a model advance using pin and hold tactics. He used one Chinese division to pin the Japanese, the other to hit their flank,  and then infiltrated the Marauders behind them; three times.

Creighton Abrams: Took over in Vietnam after Westmoreland. Basically won the war by 1972 via classic COIN tactics. He has a tank named after him. There is no McClellan tank.

Fred Franks: Commanded Schwarzkopf's left hook in Desert Storm. This was a complicated corps level maneuver through open desert.  Fought off the Iraqis and Stormin Normin who put enormous pressure on Franks to 'pursue' the Iraqis. Franks had to point out that he could pursue the Iraqis if they weren't yet retreating. Calm an reassuring amidst Stormin Norman's bluster.

Tommy Franks: Liberated Afghanistan with the low footprint operation and then liberated Iraq. 2-2, I say.

Bob Casey: The man who commanded before Petraeus laid a lot of the groundwork for his success.

And a few overrated...

Andrew Jackson: Did little more than beat back a British punitive expedition and slaughter some Creek Indians.

James Longstreet: fine when under Lee and given precise instructions, a mess when not, see his confusing movements during the Chattanooga campaign.

And the worst:

Horatio Gates, George B, McClellan, William Westmoreland, Rick Sanchez.

And the most confusing:

MacArthur: His defense of the Philippines made no sense, but his New Guinea campaign was brilliant. Inchon was a fine operation, but caught completely by surprise by the Chi-Coms. Then there was the little thing with Truman.

Honorable Mention:

'Mad' Max Thurman: Planned and executed the invasion if Panama. Also revolutionized army recruitment in the '80s, 'Be all that you can be!'


Nazis, I hate these guys

This looks like it could be kind of interesting:

Because in this day and age, all the social unrest is coming from white power groups. Look at how they torched Ferguson, Baltimore, Milwaukee....etc.

I kid, I kid.

Look closely, there's a shot of those lefty-anarchist types chasing down our Nazi friends. They're the good guys.

Hope For: a coming of age film where our protagonist learns to kick some ass and takes down a white power group.

Expect: a lefty passion play with Donald Trump references as subtle and nuanced as a 14 year old on his first date.

Pink Ghetto

In an interesting piece, author Jeb Kinnison talks about how women have taken over publishing:

Publishing is another field where women have come to dominate an industry — as in teaching, by the 1960s “There was a dearth of willing men and a plethora of educated, young white women qualified to [do editorial work] for low salaries.” Publishing had always employed large numbers of women in clerical and lower-level positions though men dominated editorial, managerial, and sales jobs. This began to change rapidly in the 1960s, and by the 1990s publishing was dominated by women, until today every part of the industry is female-dominated, from agents to editors to even authors. It’s often noted that the reading of books also became a primarily female-associated activity during that period, with women buying and reading far more books than men to the point where female-favored genres like romance outsell all other fiction.
This is why, one supposes Borders came to be dominated by books decked out in pink and purple and lavender pastels. This is how Twilight became a thing.

The list of  'chick-lit' books is endless. Each is about a pretty yet somehow single 20 something with an interesting career living in an exposed brick apartment in Manhattan, or Chicago if necessary.

They're all the same.

Which is fine. There must be at least a hundred indy authors writing alternate history. At least I steer clear of the Civil War. For now.

My foray into traditional publishing ended in 2009. Since A Line Through the Desert, I haven't even tried. I wonder if an office full of 20 something gals disappointed that their own 'Mr. Big' (yes I know a character from Nookie in NY, sorry)  hadn't come along just weren't interested in ALTD. Why would they like a novel about a tank driving, chain smoking, skirt chasing young man who says things like 'I've ridden a girl bareback before.'?

Writing has taught me about the massive chasm between men and women, or I should say, reinforced my beliefs about said chasm. When I was working on To Defend the Earth, I described the Chinese general, Chin-peng in a long sentence, noting his chiseled jaw and broad, metal decorated chest. For a man this says pages worth of description. Our minds fill in the details. The chick-editor at Amazon wanted me to go on and on about Chin-peng.

I read 50 Shades. Why wouldn't I? Sorry girls, this is what you're reading? In public? At the pool? Look, girls, this guy lead, I can't remember his name and I'm not going to look it up, is utterly shallow and predictable. He's the girl equivalent of the female lead one sometimes see's in military sci-fi. You all know the one I mean, fellas. A female naval officer say, really good at her job, but also pretty. Maybe she's a space marine with a scar across her high cheek bones and below her crystal-blue almond shaped eyes. Oh, and she's a tigress in the sack, or bunk I should say.

The last time I noticed the mass-woman-paperback  phenomenon was in the late 90's. I was running a swimming pool and noticed the 30ish moms ( they were all coming to my pool, I was 24, tan, 40 pounds lighter and walked around lifting a dumbbell wearing nothing but red swim-trunks, but I digress)...well, they were all reading Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Whatever the fuck that is.

Monday, August 22, 2016

Metal Monday

As the lead singer of Judas Priest, Rob Halford needs no introduction. Judas Priest's early metal albums were groundbreaking with their twin axe attack, metal only content, and of course their style. Of course the black leather and chains were Halford's idea, gotten from the London gay S&M scene.

It didn't occur to us back then.

Metalheads would do well to pick up Halford's solo albums on the 2000s, Resurrection and Crucible. As the solo work of a metal band singer, they rival Ozzie's work.

The albums are fast and hard hitting, recalling Judas Priest's early 80's work. The albums can also be quite personal, recalling Halford's personal demons. Of course these are his sexual preference, bottled up for decades, really, and drug addiction. The great metal singer's voice emits real pain at times.

If one is worried that the best lead singer in metal can't bring it anymore, I assure you, he's still got the pipes:

Here he is singing about his metal roots:

Enjoy. I know I do.

Sunday, August 21, 2016

Russians being Russians and Putin

Over at Counterfact's Facebook page, an interesting analysis of Russian military intentions:


Putin can choose to chip away at Ukraine one bit at a time, as he’s been doing. A faction within the army leadership, however, would reportedly prefer to demonstrate to the West their newly reforming Russian Army in a full-on invasion of at least the eastern part of the country. There’s thus some institutional pressure on the dictator to go all out and seize what he can as quickly as possible, before NATO can gather the political will and military wherewithal to intervene and before Ukraine can form its own solid line of resistance.

Read the whole thing.

Trumping

Just as I was saying Hillary! has a tough task ahead, Mr. Trump shot his mouth of and took a dive in the polls. Well, in the last ten days or so Mr. Trump has gotten his feet under him by delivering some fine policy speeches and this weekends magnificent PR stunt in LA (I wont try to spell it).

Lo and behold we see three polls now, led by the LA Times, showing the race is a tie.

This basically underscores what I've thought all along that the race is Mr. Trump's to lose.

The task is simple, Mr. Trump. Show us the man we saw at the convention and you'll win.

Now Mr. Trump has brought on Jim Bannon from Breitbart News. The Hill says this means war.

Damn right it does.

Breitbart in the last year or so has shot into the forefront of internet media outlets. They're traffic is topping that of giants like the Daily Beast and Huffington Post. They've done that by hitching their wagon to Mr. Trump, but also publishing interesting stories. They savage Hillary! in a way that Fox, or NR never would.  In the last few months I've found them indispensable.

As noted before in this blog, whoever the GOP ended up nominating wasn't running against Obama or even Hillary! They're running against the media.

Andrew Breitbart (PBUH) understood that.

Now so does Mr. Trump.

Saturday, August 20, 2016

World War 1990...the Prequel!

Yet another Amazon reviewer wants to know how the World War began and how it was fought.

Not necessarily surprising, I suppose but still. Strong seems the desire for a novel explaining how things got to the Battle of the Hanover Pocket.

I've written before how I thought dealing with the NATO counterattack against Warsaw Pact was much more interesting. That subject had never really been tackled before. If people wanted to read about the campaign is West Germany there is always Red Storm Rising, The Third World War, or Red Army.

What I think might be possible is a compilation of short stories about the war through the Battle of the Weser.

Possible subjects:
-West German Polizei
-West German Refugees
-Something about the Dutch or Belgian army
-Caretaker of a US base overrun by the Soviets
-The Battle of the Weser.

Readers are invited to make suggestions in the comments.

Friday, August 19, 2016

Even more Ruskis!

Well, that didn't take long:

Three Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and six injured by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, a top Kiev official said on Thursday.
Speaking at a press briefing the Ukrainian president’s spokesman on security, Alexander Motuzyaniyk, said rebels launched more than 500 mortar and over 300 artillery shells at government-held checkpoints on Thursday, local news agency Ukrainsky Novini reports.
"The last time we witnessed a similar intensity of fire using heavy armaments was a year ago," he added, referring to the flare up in the region last summer, which threatened to collapse the fragile ceasefire agreement in place since February 2015.
One supposes that Putin is trying to crave out a land bridge to Crimea. He's got a few months to do it. Who knows how President Trump would react. Readers will recall that we already discussed the measures President Bush took against Putin's invasion of Georgia in 2008, flying back a Georgian infantry brigade from Iraq, sending the U.S. navy to the Black Sea in a show of support, etc.

So Putin is securing the western flank.

He better, because Russia has long term problems. First, its demographics are alarming. In the last 25 years Russia has seen a steep population decline, a falling birthrate, and an aging population.  Your typical Russian is a chain smoking, vidka swilling 50-60 year old pining for the days of Brezhnev.

While the first decade of this century saw the dominance of Russia's Gazprom, that dominance is coming to an end thanks to Brazilian, American, and Israeli natural gas production. The Israelis are building a pipeline to Greece, opening up the European market to their massive Leviathan field.

Then there's China.

While Russia has been consolidating their western, China has been consolidating its eastern flank, most recently in the Spartleys in the South China Sea.  This effort  is aimed at the Pacific Rim and America, of course.

The author has always felt that China, once securing its Pacific bases, will stop short of war. Does it really want a conflict pitting it against Taiwan, South Korea and Japan backed by the United States. Is Taiwan worth all that? Why not just get rich selling stuff to the Americans instead.

Yes I know, similar arguments were made before 1914.

Now this is interesting:


Siberia – the Asian part of Russia, east of the Ural Mountains – is immense. It takes up three-quarters of Russia’s land mass, the equivalent of the entire U.S. and India put together. It’s hard to imagine such a vast area changing hands. But like love, a border is real only if both sides believe in it. And on both sides of the Sino-Russian border, that belief is wavering.
The border, all 2,738 miles of it, is the legacy of the Convention of Peking of 1860 and other unequal pacts between a strong, expanding Russia and a weakened China after the Second Opium War. (Other European powers similarly encroached upon China, but from the south. Hence the former British foothold in Hong Kong, for example.)
The 1.35 billion Chinese people south of the border outnumber Russia’s 144 million almost 10 to 1. The discrepancy is even starker for Siberia on its own, home to barely 38 million people, and especially the border area, where only 6 million Russians face over 90 million Chinese. With intermarriage, trade and investment across that border, Siberians have realized that, for better or for worse, Beijing is a lot closer than Moscow.
Read and quiver, Russians, because the Chinese are coming.


Friday Flag

Because I always pay my debts...

Thursday, August 18, 2016

More Ruskis!

Charles Krauthammer  I think, nails it:

"The entire northern part of the Middle East is now under an Iranian-Russian condominium, because this administration, in its naiveté, has allowed Russia and Iran to progress with no resistance and with nothing on our side," Krauthammer said.

Let's step back. Americans never really thought about the Middle East until the 1970's; the oil shocks, the Iranian Revolution, etc, etc.  Since then American hostages have been taken, a commando operation thwarted, we've escorted tankers in the Gulf, bombed Libya, sent and lost marines in Lebanon, saw Americans taken hostages in Lebanon, fought a war over Kuwait, kept Iraq under blockade in the aftermath, botched the Kurdish and Shia revolts against Saddam, later overthrew Saddam, spent five years fighting a war in Iraq...

So its been a difficult drain.

Now the question is why do we even care. I mean, no one gives a crap that people are slaughtering one another in South Sudan, or Congo. Well, they don't have oil, do they?

I like to think with the fracking revolution the U.S. can forget about this god awful place.

In his own travels in the Middle East, the great PJ O'Rourke pointed out that one drives past Roman forts, Byzantine stockades, Crusader castles, Ottoman enclaves, and British posts...no one ever really succeeds there.

I dunno, maybe I'm the one being naive now. Its an American thing. When you have an entire continent pretty much to yourself and two oceans separating you from everyone else, you start to think screw 'em all.

Why not?

No one in American cared about the rest of the world until the war  with Spain in 1898. After WWI we packed up and went home, and pretty much did the same thing after the Cold War. Americans like to get involved up to our necks and then go home.

The Middle East? Let the Russians have it. At least we know they won't pull any punches against these Islamic whack jobs. Enjoy Mr. Putin, enjoy...

Ruskis!

So Putin is getting ready to do something bad to Ukraine:

The Pentagon has identified eight staging areas in Russia where large numbers of military forces appear to be preparing for incursions into Ukraine, according to U.S. defense officials.
As many as 40,000 Russian troops, including tanks, armored vehicles, and air force units, are now arrayed along Ukraine’s eastern border with Russia.
Additionally, large numbers of Russian military forces will conduct exercises in the coming days that Pentagon officials say could be used as cover for an attack on Ukraine.
When Russia first went into Ukraine last year, I was shocked that Ukraine was completely unprepared.  The nations seemed to have no military to speak of, at least, not one that could fight back.

In contrast, when Putin went into Georgia in 2008, the Georgian military fought like mad, especially at the Roki Tunnel on the border. While the Georgians lost and were pushed back on their capitol of Tblisi, at least the military gave the Russians a bloody nose. I confess I thought the Georgians would stop the Russians in their tracks.

Russia payed little penalty for its invasion of Ukraine. The Ukrainian military was swept aside. Theoretically in NATO intervened more Russians would get hurt from falling over laughing than actual battle casualties inflicted by undermanned and under-armed NATO forces. These people can barely raise a hand at the terrorists in their own countries, what makes anybody think they'd die for the Donetz?

Let's see if Ukraine has learned any lessons.


Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Writing? What Writing? Or your update for 8/17/16

I'm in a weird place right now as far as writing is concerned.

Actually I'm not writing much at all the last month.

I've been editing, and editing, and editing....

One can tell because my editor, PBUH, isn't speaking to me.

That's how you know the job is getting done.

On one front we've cranked out To Survive the Earth. On another we're getting Castro's Folly ready for a proof. Then there's The Final Storm, which I've spent the last month fixing. 65,000 words and no end in sight. I think we'll hit 90,000 easy.

Don't even get me started on Pershing in Command, which I've been going over again. Worst part of that is I'm finding the cracks where stuff can get into. More bio, more details. I mean, one morning the idea smacked me right in the head: why not give a bit of background on each Kraut division? Indeed, why not?

And then there's that great idea I got not three hours ago. Its a doozy....damn....


Visitors!

I see a lot of people from Saudi Arabia stopping by. Why don't you guys say hello and leave a message?

You to, Russians.

And what's with all the Portuguese?

Drop me a line, people.

Issue Number One!

Well, John McLaughlin died last night.

For you goddamn foreigners McLaughlin was a Washington insider type who hosted a political round table on Sunday mornings. It was a precursor to the modern and unwatchable cable news shout fests, but much more interesting.

Here is an old episode and a guarantee I saw it:

There they are, Fred Barnes (conservative writer, future editor of the New Republic, a lib mag, btw, and co-founder of the Standard), Morton Kondracke (New Republic, later Roll Call and moderate Dem, Jack Germond (old school liberal columnist but well liked and respected), and Patrick J. Buchanan (you'll find the Uzi and the Rosaries under the seat, McLaughlin used to tell guests).

These are Washington insiders who had lots of contacts, would provide analysis, but not consensus.

There was John McLaughlin in the middle of it, presiding over the melee. 'Issue number one!' he would complain. He could end the debate with a single word, 'The answer is no!'

My favorite, and he would only do this once a month or so, was to end the discussion with a question, 'What is the likelihood of the nominee going though on a scale of zero to ten, zero meaning none ten meaning Metaphysical Certitude!'

Metaphysical Certitude actually made it into my first novel, A Line through the Desert.

In 1988 I was a bored 15 year old decked out in mullett and dayglo, flipping channels one Sunday morning when I stumbled upon this show. I was hooked.

McLaughlin's style could be easily parodied. SNL had a ball with it:

I can't find the clip, because Lorne Michaels ruthlessly enforces SNL copyright, but in 1992 they did a Japanese version of the McLaughlin Group, The Hakawa Group.

'Issue Number One: Why are all Americans Fat and Lazy!'

By the early 90's McLaughlin was something a celebrity. He hosted an NBC special with the cast of the then number one sitcom, Cheers. He and the group do a cameo in Independence Day.



He even  did a walk-on during an SNL parody skit of him.

For me the act got old, and I hopped of the McLaughlin train by 1998 or so. But it was fun.

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

The Tuesday Tally

Your Top Five Arnold Schwarzenegger movies:

Conan the Barbarian: One of John Milius' meditations on war and the meaning of life. One of the reasons Conan works so well is its puny budget. Art through adversity as they say. Look at Conan the Destroyer. Well produced with an ample budget. Its decent enough, but not great. Conan the Barbarian had edge, it feels like the original Robert Howard Conan.

Terminator: Another low budget classic and James Cameron's first serious movie. Arnold turned down the lead, understanding that being the villain could launch his career. Smart man. 'I'll be back' is still a catch phrase. Again, the low budget gave it edge, a night film in LA's seedier side.

Predator: Great cast, a testosterone fueled romp with a great alien villain. I have always loved the scene where  Dutch and his team take out the guerrilla base. Also Jesse Ventura's best role. John Singleton plays a very complex character. Feels like an 80's flick, taking place in Latin America, but not dated. More or less timeless.

Terminator II: Written about on this blog before. Just epic. It does feel very much like the early 90's.

Commando: I'm serious. Its a cheesy 80's action adventure with horrible dialogue and totally over the top action sequences. But if the question is, am I entertained, then the answer is yes. Dated but still fun to watch.


And the worst...

Last Action Hero: an epic bomb. Trying to do too much and be too cute. I saw it in the movies.

True Lies: Great cast, but I don't think its aged very well.

Raw Deal: Not one memorable moment from this movie.


Time...Time...Time...

Being 43, I've noticed that time seems to be flying by. Other people have noticed as well:

When we were children, the summer holidays seemed to last forever, and the wait between Christmases felt like an eternity.
So why is it that when we get older, the time just seems to zip by, with weeks, months, and entire seasons disappearing from a blurred calendar at dizzying speed?
Man is that ever true. School just seemed to last forever. I recall, when I was 18 and a senior in high school, I still had this aluminum Raggedy Andy garbage pale from the bedroom set my parents got me when I was 3 or 4. It seemed positively ancient.

Now I have neckties I've owned for 20 years and still wear.

Ten years ago, or so, a local coffee shop called the Daily Grind was my headquarters.  Most of A Line Through the Desert was written there. There was a young kind working behind the counter and asking me for advice. Which seemed weird in itself. Even then I had noticed that time seemed to be speeding up.

I told him, 'Austin, growing older means the acceleration of time, the absence of change and the lowering of expectations.'

I used to tell my students, 'Five years ago you were a completely different person. You know what I was doing five years ago? This.'

Ten years ago I was 33. I was finishing up A Line Through the Desert and writing a bunch of magazine articles on the Roman Republic. Now I'm 43, finishing up Castro's Folly, and finishing up a history book on John J. Pershing.

Monday, August 15, 2016

Metal Monday, Metallica Edition

Last week saw the 25th anniversary of Metallica's Black Album.

Black was ground breaking. It was a melodic and harmonic Metallica album, and heavy to boot. This came several years after their Injustice For All album. This was thought to be a big deal at the time, so important that Metallica even made a music video for it, their first:

Continuing backwards now, And Justice for All followed up the Classic Master of Puppets. If one seas someone walking around in a Metallica T-shirt, chances are its Master of Puppets.

This is a classic album, full of anger and rage:

Fuck yeah.

For the initiated Master of Puppets is considered one of the best Metal albums of all time, right up with Black Sabbath, or Led Zeppelin IV, or Judas Priest British Steel.

Metallica fans wanted more Master of Puppets. What they got was Black.

Now, producer Bob Rock saw what Metallica was capable of and was determined to get the best out of them on Black.  This was and is an utterly unique album. The interesting trick is that it sounds like Metallica, but better, more refined and a bit different. It reminds me of how producer Mutt Lang got Hysteria out of Def Leppard.

I bought black in 1991 and I'll never forget this. On the second day of school my senior year, I was getting dressed and listening to Black. Track one is the famous Enter Sandman, that ended, then came THIS:

Fuck yeah. I'm your hate.

I've carried it with me for the last 25 years. In all honesty Sad But True is more of a throw back to the Master of Puppet Days.

Now, there is thinking among hardcore Metallica and Metal fans that Black is a betrayal. What did they want, Master of Puppets II? Of course they did. Well you can't do it. Artist must grow and if they don't they aren't very interesting are they.

Here's when I came to understand just how good Black is. In 2003 I was getting my professional life together and coming back to my Metal roots. I purchased Black on VD for the first time and listened while writing (something I don't do anymore). Twelve years later it still sounded fresh and unique, twelve years after the fact people. Every track rocks, no filler whatsoever. Here's a hidden gem:


For my money that's Kirk Hemmet's best solo ever. Ever.

These Metalheads who think Black is an un-metal betrayal?

I see faith in your eyes...

Saturday, August 13, 2016

I hear you roar...you feel my punch.

So last night my girls had some friends over. As any modern middle aged father of three little girls knows, an assemblage of little girls must inevitably devolve into a dance party. Its gravity.

We cranked out some Youtube on the TV, with the five little girls screaming for their favorite songs. Eventually we got to this:

Which is fine.

My oldest is a tai kwon do brown belt. She loves the sport and I hope she sticks with it. A few months ago I playfully grabbed her ponytail. Instinctively her arm shot up and knocked by hand away. And let me tell you, it hurt a bit.

I don't necessarily mind the video of the girl kicking the crap out of all the boys. At that age they're more or less equal.

You roar, do you Katy Perry? You can do anything a man can do. Really?

Lemme show you what would REALLY happen:

The interesting thing, I thought, was the man in the 8 ball jacket. Look at how he hits that woman. He never balls his fist but strikes her with an open hand. It was just a slap really, and still that woman crumbled to the floor. He knew that if he hit her with full force he'd really hurt her. Obviously he didn't want that.

Now watch this:

That fight was over after the second punch. Look at that man, big burly with massive forearms. I bet he's a metal or construction worker or some such. Just devastating. That young man went home with bruises on his face, loose teeth, maybe a broken jaw.

Don't kid yourself ladies, you can't do everything I do. Chop that wood, push that lawn mower, carry those cinder blocks, lift that engine. Heck, steel and gird yourself against something unexpected or scary.  I don't think the gals have the self control I have. Spend a couple of days with your brain marinated in testosterone, see what's like.

There's a reason boys don't cry.

No caveats. I don't care.

Friday, August 12, 2016

Friday Flag

...because I've been binge watching season six.

Its probably too detailed for an actually medieval flag, but the green and beige with black writing really work.

Look's like its name, Stark.

Alternate Problems

Here's an interesting problem for writing alternate history.

It's 1990, right? The world is at war. Your Point of Divergence 1982.

So what happened between 1982 and 1990?

Working on Castro's Folly I've made a few references to Operation Just Cause, the invasion of Panama. Could that have happened in this universe.

What about a zillion other things?

How about Live Aid? Farm Aid? Sun City?

Here's a goody; did Chernobyl happen?

My general rule is to ad, not take away. For example, I had the Soviet Union give the Cubans a Kilo class sub. This is important for the plot, but never happened in real life.  But everything else that happened in the real world happened in the WW1990 universe.

One of the ideas I'm toying with is a novel to wrap up the whole universe. Set in 1992, this would be about that year's presidential election.

Now int he real world, early on it looked like President Bush was unassailable and all the Democrat heavy hitters stayed out. This cleared the path for an obscure governor from some state down south.

Is this still the case in WW1990.  Is it just Clinton in 1992? or is there someone else?

Let's see, you've got Mario Cuomo in NY (a liberal lion in his day). Fat Teddy the secretary killer in MA I suppose. Gephardt I suppose, he ran in 1988 after all. Dukakis redux? Ann Richards in Texas?

Frankly, I've found the Republican machinations far more interesting.

I think the reader will too.

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Oceans Puke

I'm a yuuge fan of the Ocean's trilogy. I don't even care that Oceans 12 makes no sense. I love its style and aesthetic.

The trilogy is Clooney's best work, he's box office poison otherwise (with exceptions). The movie caricature characters are surprisingly human and frail. The young Linus, confidence man and pic-pocket, wants to live up to his old man's standard, Reuben is old time, cigar chomping Vegas Jew with gaudy tastes. Speaking of, Danny and Rusty, in Ocean's 13 just want to help their friend and mentor. The brothers do nothing but bicker at one another. Don Cheadle is wonderful as a cockney. 'Like Barney...Ruble...Trouble!' Andy Garcia is great as the quasi-mobster casino owner.

Pacino sucks in Ocean's 13, but whatever.

What I love is that this series could be remade as a bunch of war movies with elite, troubleshooting commandos. With just a tweak it could be Expendables. The ever increasing series of challenges the thieves must overcome is ludicrous but fun nonetheless. But Danny, Rusty and the bunch are up to the task.

Word is, fresh on the epic failure of the Ghostbusters extra-absorbent remake, Warner Bros is doing an all babe Ocean's spin off.

I have a forlorn hope that producer Steven Soderburgh, who directed the trilogy, will keep things on track. Because the idea is interesting. It was interesting in the Ghostbusters plastic applicator remark, but the Social Justice Warriors screwed it up.

Fingers crossed.

Millennials Suck!

Yeah I know.

Millennials are lazy, entitled, spoiled, know it all brats.

What a deluge they've been subjected to the last year or two.

I don't buy any of it.

Ok, I do a little. I insist that most of what's going on is elite Millennials, the grads of Harvard, Duke, the over-achieving high school 4.0 GPA types. I submit that we are seeing with Millennials is not a product produced by Millennials but a product produced by a bubble of elite schools, neighborhoods and parents. The Millennials I taught at community college did not act like this. Most were too busy with jobs, or helping their moms at home, or had learned discipline and respect in the military.

These elite Millennials are having their first close encounter with elite Balding Boomers. The result is not pretty. It never is.

Look, kids, Balding Boomers hate everyone.

Remember, these are the twerps that in the 60's had the temerity to tell their parents that they were all wrong and they should listen to a bunch of spoiled over-privileged jerks. Their poor parents. Childhood marred by the Depression, youth lost in the war; all they wanted was a bit of peace and quiet. Instead they got the 60's man.

Then Generation X came along. Born in the 60's and 70's we took one look at our parent's formative decade and, in the words of PJ O'Rourke, said, 'Give me a haircut and a job.'

Maybe it was the result of being exposed to re-runs of Lucy, Beaver, Father Knows Best, the Dick Van Dyke show, etc etc, but us Xrs looked at things in the 70's and 80's, looked at how things were in the post-war boom, and wondered what the hell the Balding Boomers were complaining about.

Then the Balding Boomers noticed that we weren't just like them. By the early 90's they were slamming Generation X as lazy, entitled, etc, etc. Where was the protest? Where was the thirst for social change? We should have been living up to their legacy, but how dare we try anyway because we could never reach the level of the self appointed 'greatest generation'.

Our clothes were terrible. Or values were all wrong. Our music sucked. And don't even get the Balding Boomers started on MTV!

'We ended a war!' the screamed.

'Uhhh, no,' we screamed back 'the North Vietnamese Army did.'

Guess what, every knew generation seems strange to the one that came before. I got my own beefs with Millennials.  The hand slap, shoulder bump thing drives me nuts. And Honestly, guys, what's with the man-bun? But is it really any worse than the mullet I sported in 1989?

So don't take it personally Millennials. The Balding Boomers hate everyone, and now they're mad that their just as old and geriatric as grandpa.

As far as slamming Millennials, Generation X should know better.

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Reading Projects

Usually when I approach a subject in history I don't want to read one book on the topic, I want to read several. I love a good project.

I've been working on an article about the Grand Review of 1865, Washington's victory parade and send off of the Army of the Potomac and Army of the West. This naturally sparked an interest in the Civil War. I am learned on the topic but never been a buff, so to speak.

So to start I just blew through Bruce Catton's Grant Moves South and Grand Takes Command. Reading the later peaked an interest in the bloody Virginia campaign of 1864. Looking on Amazon I found a short volume on the campaign, about 250 pages. Even better it was part of a series that takes one through the Civil War by stages. I ordered the volumes starting with Vicksburg, the Chickamauga Campaign, the Atlanta Campaign, and the Virginia campaign.

Should be done in a few weeks.

What then?

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Russia Trumped

Now this is kind of interesting:

Bottom line, Mr. Trump is promising better relations with Russia.

Now, NATO has expanded east since the end of the Cold War, in most cases unnecessarily so. I really never understood the point. I suppose an organization that is expanding is healthy. Many in NATO have no doubt considered that. Of course, The Roman Empire over-expanded and look how that turned out for them.

NATO is mostly a Euro-weanie organization now. In Afghanistan the Italians refused to do anything after hours, the Norwegians refused to leave their base at night, and the Germans were fat. Ironically, about the only NATO member that I would trust to stand up to Russia is Poland. Putin would piss himself laughing at the Germans.

Someone my age had 'Munich' hammered into his skull, but do we really care if Putin has the Crimea? I suppose that's like asking, 'do we really care if Saddam has Kuwait?'

Ukraine seems to be a corrupt cleptocracy with barely a military. How one can exist right next to Russia and not have a top flight military establishment is beyond me. The Poles are arming themselves, that's for sure.

I've thought for a while now that Putin is taking advantage of Obama's weakness to secure his western flank. Ukraine cowed, expanded influence in the Middle East, etc etc, He's got a yuuge problem. First Russia is a sick man with an aging population and low birthrate, deathbed demographics in M. Steyn's words. South Russia is Muslim with the accompanying bloody borders. Worse, in the east is China.

China has been preparing for war with the U.S. for some time. Call me an optimist but I don't think it will ever happen. Americans like Chinese, Chinese like Americans. We have strong cultural ties now, with millions of Chinese-Americans here- hundreds in my neighborhood alone. There is also the economic interest. 'Shooting customers, bad for business!' I image the military being told.

I know, the same arguments were made about Europe at the turn of the 20th century.

Now this is where it gets interesting. China claims large parts of Siberia, especially the Pacific Coast around Vladivostok. If a billion Chinese decide to walk over the border, is there really anything Putin can do about it?

Monday, August 8, 2016

Metal Monday

I suppose the first Heavy Metal album I ever 'bout was White Snake's Slide it In, March of 1988.

The summer before I bought Van Halen's 5150, but I never really thought of them as Heavy Metal. One of the weird things about me [one? ed] is I remember everything and I remember the details of those things. I got 5150 in June of '86 at the Caldor's in Peekskill off of Rt 206. I can still see it there. I bought 5150 because this was making the rounds on MTV:


I bought 5151 because it rocked.

I bought White Snake in March of '88 because it was Heavy Metal.

Now in 1988 I was 14 and the glam/hair stuff was all over MTV. This led me soon to heavier metal, which needs no listing here.

I was just coming out of one of the worst parts of my young life and heading toward a few months of what was going to be the best part of my young life, but she's a subject for another post.

For reasons we need not recount, I was miserable, disenchanted, alienated and pissed off. I claim nothing special in this. I was primed for metal. It was a natural channel for my anger and said, in two words, what I'd bee saying all year: Fuck You.

I've been saying it ever since.

There's an even better way to say how I felt then. Often its how I feel now. To quote Bill Dickinson, 'Lord give me the strength to hold my head up- and spit BACK in their face!'

I've been doing that ever since too.

Nuked

Another article in the annual parade of articles about Hiroshima:


My grandfather was a forward observer. His job was to go in to the beach first, climb a tree, and call in directions for the artillery that would bombard the defenses at the Japanese landing beach. In front of the invading army, these binoculars were made to resolve the targets of the first artillery barrages to soften its arrival on the beachhead. Picture the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan; the planned invasion of Japan would have been an amphibious assault on the scale of D-Day.
Artillery spotters like my grandfather had just about the lowest life expectancy of any troops in ground combat. He very likely would have died up in that tree, calling artillery directions into his radio.
My grandfather was a sergeant running the triage in a medical unit that was going ashore with the first wave.

Really, they started it, we finished it.

Criticism of Hiroshima and Nagasaki usual centers around the idea that first, it was unnecessary, as if the war was a few weeks away from ending regardless. There is no way to know, of course. And guess what, the Truman Administration didn't know either.

Second, anti-nukers like to point out that there was a strong faction in a Pentagon that wanted to see what the bomb could do, and use it to scare the Russians. As if those two reasons are bad.

Third, racism usually comes up. Which is ridiculous. We built the bomb to use on the Krauts.

Of course, my Bevy of Chinese neighbors usually want to know why these people are concerned about Hiroshima and Nagasaki but don't have anything to say about the millions of Chinese killed by the Japanese. Nanking is but one example. How 'bout the 100,000 killed at the battle of Manila, or the Bataan Death March, or the Burmese Railway, or Korean comfort girl, or the Hell Ships or....

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Trumpety Trumped

I really have no idea what is happening.

Let's recap briefly. Trump criticized this Kahn fellow who gave a son to the nation. Not the way I would have gone.  This compounded with Hillary's! convention have made a bad week for Mr. Trump.

I've long thought that Hillary! is such a weak candidate that Mr. Trump can beat here. This morning I remembered the 2002 California Gubernatorial election. Here we had a very unpopular Gray Davis, he sounded and looked like his name, against the Bill Simon. Simon should have been in good shape but ran a horrible, bumbling off message campaign. Of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger did in Davis during next year's recall.

In many ways 2002 reminds me of what's happening now.

That said, I'm wondering if the Kahn thing isn't backfiring on Hillary!

First, Kahn put himself in the spotlight. Breitbart (PBUH) has uncovered via this magic information device called Google, that Kahn is a Democrat activist with close ties to Hillary! and Saudi Arabia, specializes in Muslim immigration law and has openly advocated for Sharia. Don't think this matters? As I write this Kahn is furiously scrubbing the internet. He knows it matters.

Second, Hillary! called the Benghazi mother a liar and lied about the whole affair. Its a great counter.

Third, because the press has been treating each case so differently, it allows Mr. Trump's people to turn this into a media scandal. This reminds me of the phony TANG scandal in 2004. That hurt Kerry and helped Bush immensely.

Trump/Breitbart seem to be turning this whole matter around. But we'll see.

Maybe Mr. Trump is a buffoon. We know he's a loud mouth. Or maybe he's operating on a level mere prognosticators such as myself simply don't understand.

After all, if the neocons like me, who want to play by the traditional rules knew what we were doing, we'd be talking about re-electing President Romney.

Rock of Ages....Rock of Ages...Still Rolling...

Ok, that's from Def Leppard's Pyromania album but still...

29 years ago today Def Leppard released Hysteria.

Mrs. Stroock and I saw Def Leppard just a few weeks ago. It was my fifth or sixth time, interestingly, all since 2005.  Never saw them in their hay day.

The interesting thing about Def Leppard is their roots are 70's era British glam rock. They parlayed this into a hard rock sound with Hello America and High n Dry. By 1983 they were becoming more refined. This is the influence of their producer, the legendary Mutt Lang. Hysteria is the culmination of Lang's influence.

Hysteria is a hard rock album in D, with the band's backup singing ability producing a wall of hard hitting harmony. The whole effect produces a wall of D previously unheard in hard rock or heavy metal.

Lot's of interesting things happening on Hysteria. Women is the opening track very hard hitting and underrated. Of course there's Poor Some Sugar on me, the song/video that got me hooked on the band, Hysteria, and Animal where the band's D sound really comes out. Even the deep tracks are remarkable. No filler here. Run Riot hearkens back to The Sweet (a hug influence for them) as don't Shoot Shot Gun and Excitable (the last one reminds me of Brian Johnson's Geordie).

Utterly unique and still around.

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Rush!

Rush Limbaugh has signed a new deal.

It's remarkable how long he has done his show and how long he has stayed on top.

Before Fox News, before Right Blogisphere, there was Rush.

'I am equal time', he used to say.

I first became aware of him in '92, 60 minutes did a piece on him. That fall, I listened to him for the first time. Freshman year at Wesley College, my new best friend and I were playing Madden and he put the radio on Rush.

I've listened to him on and off again ever since. Lately I'm in the off stage. Nothing against Rush, I'm just in more of a music mood these days. Besides, with three little girls, one doesn't get to chose the radio station much.

I have to say Rush has had pretty big impact on my life. Certainly my way of thinking, the way I viewed certain issues and life in general. Forget politics, the man has a great story; working with the Kansas City Royals, doing radio updates in Sacramento (his adopted home town) as he likes to say. I've always enjoyed listening to him talk about his path to success. Later in the week I'll try to dig up some videos and post them.

I think the greatest impact he's had on me came 20 years ago last spring. This was the age of Pat Buchanan, economic nationalism, and a lot of bitching and moaning about trade, down sizing, etc. Rush, a self made man if there ever was one, devoted a show to people telling their personal stories of recovery and success. Folks called in and talked about getting laid off, fired, their job shipped to Mexico and how the met the challenge and reinvented their lives.

That show has always stuck with me, in the coming years after it aired, helped me through some rough times.

Bravo Rush. And thanks.

World War 1990, how come....?

....I never wrote about the beginning of the war.

Now I should say, a good part of the first few chapters of Arctic Storm do deal with what happened in the opening stages in the war. But really, I never wanted to write about it.

This comes up, periodically.

A recent reviewer wanted to know where the opening volume was (its Arctic Storm, man). Occasionally someone writes a review and concludes by hoping I'll write about the Warsaw Pact invasion.

I dunno.

Tom Clancy already did this, you know. So did General Hackett, Ralph Peters, heck, even Ian Slater. Go look that last one sometime....

I don't really feel I have much to add to the genre. I generally agree with everything Tom Clancy pointed out in Red Storm Rising. Alert readers will recall I even have the Soviet invasion stopped at the Battle of the Weser, Just like Clancy.

Of course, if I wrote about the first couple weeks of the war there wouldn't be a lot of suspense, would there?

One thing that does have some appeal is the idea of a series of short stories, To Defend the Earth style.

What are the West German police doing? How about a a sort of West German teen dystopian story? A young Soviet soldier experiencing western consumerism for the first time. How about the Chinese politburo monitoring events?

This thing is starting to come together in my head....

Oh, damn it.

Monday, August 1, 2016

World Wars 1990

The heading is not a misprint.

The actually production of Castro's Folly should begin next week; proof cover etc.

But, bear in mind that book is still going to be a while off.

The Final Storm comes first.

This one's at 60,000 words and counting, I'm thinking it could go all the way to 90.000, but who knows.

Right now we've got three acts, buildup, Battle of the Polish Plain, Battle of the Kola. This week I'll be taking the axe to the Battle of the Polish Plain. At the moment i'm looking at it and thinking: another battle? Really? We'll see.

I like a lot of what's happening in this book. Plenty of naval action all over the world, including activity of navies that never got much attention in other Third World War techno-thrillers. That always used to drive me nuts. Why no Japanese or Italians, Mr. Clancy?

Heck in Cauldron, in which Larry Bond portrays a war between the United States and the EU (hey it was 1993) the French fleet, carriers and all, is never mentions. WTF?

Me, I've written this thing thinking, 'Any military that can join the war, should join the war.'

Which doesn't mean the Indo-Pak conflict will be flaring up, or North Korea will invade South Korea. The later would require Chinese acquiescence and assistant. Trust me, in the World War 1990 universe, the Chinese government definitely ain't interested.

Of course China attacking Siberia....now there's an idea.

Review This

So you're a veteran. You served with the INSERT UNIT HERE, that is prominently featured in Operation Arctic Storm or Operation Eastern Storm. You know your MOS in and out and still go back to the old base every once in a while.

Turns out the author made reference to Red-Hawk-Nine when everyone who was there knows that Red-Hawk's call sign was Nine-Nine. Or maybe you can prove that in 1989 the Soviets upgraded their T-80 tanks to include a double launch smoke canister. Or you have direct knowledge that a standard NATO .50 caliber MG could not penetrate a BMP's flank armor at three hundred yards.

Well bully for you.

I really don't care.

These kind of reviews annoy me the most. More than the reviewers who took the time to point out typos, more than the reviewers who just tell me that I suck. Fine I suck.

Now, I'm not talking legit mistakes. Hey, I've made a few, to quote Mr. Mercury. Brit reviewers helpfully pointed out that I made reference to an ensign aboard HMS Tenacious. Of course the Royal Navy has no such rank. Here's another doozie. I place the great Royal Navy base of Faslane on the North Sea when everyone knows its on the Irish Sea. Which once I found out made more sense to me.

Of course one must know what one doesn't know, as Donald Rumsfeld said.

95% of the things I write are true. Another 4% are truthy. Really, you're making a big deal about the 1% that's provably wrong?

Here's what I don't get about the latest Arctic Storm review.  They reviewer says I messed up big time but still gave me three stars.