The BSG -ID4 Matrix

We're huge fans of Independence day, having noted it not only here but in the intro in To Defend the Earth.

That fine pop-corn movie is highly derivative, which is fine. As Lemmy (PBUH) once said, 'fuck that's its all derivative.' Binge watching classic Battle Star Galactica we finally noticed something. Here, for the first time we see the BSG-ID4 relationships:

First, the BSG scanner:

Now an ID4 radar screen:

A classic BSG Viper shot:

And a nice shot from ID4:

Well played Mssrs Emerich and Devlin. Well played indeed.

Here's the To Defend the Earth intro:

Like a lot of people I've been interested in the idea of an alien invasion of Earth for a long time. I guess the first movie I ever saw about an alien invasion was War of the Worlds, I am referring to the 1950s version starring Gene Barry. I must have seen it sometime in 1980 or 1981 at the latest. I was horrified by the apparent helplessness of America's mighty armed forces, the way armored piercing shells bounced of the Martian's force fields, how even atomic weapons couldn't harm them. I was captivated by the Martian's steady, relentless advance and their eventual destruction of Los Angeles. The movie captured my imagination and has been a favorite of mine ever since.

Independence Day is probably the successor to War of the Worlds, at least for me, and the culmination of forty years of alien invasion movies. I was transfixed by the short 30 second ad aired during the Dallas-Pittsburg Super Bowl. Sneak previews were aired during the spring, these only whetted my appetite. I saw Independence Day the first weekend it was out and several times thereafter. Fifteen years later I think it holds up pretty well. Of course it's highly derivative of War of the Worlds. The moment the president gave the order to 'nuke the bastards' I knew they would fail, just like in War of the Worlds. I loved how Independence Day portrayed events at the highest level and the little details Dean Devlin and Roland Emerich put in the movie like the use of Stealth Bombers and F-15 fighter escorts for Air Force One.

A lot of novels have been written about an alien invasion. For my money the absolute best is Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. I first read it in 1993. Anyone who is familiar with this excellent novel will see its influence all over To Defend the Earth.
I've wanted to write my own tale of alien invasion for decades. What follows are several short stories I've written over the last six years. Some of these stories are about how people act under duress, about how they look into themselves and change. Some are about their relations with other people and how events affect them. Some are just good old fashioned battle yarns; if you like battles on land, sea, air and in space these are for you.

Pershing's War Game

A bit of good news, my war game simulating Pershing's late 1918 attack in the Rhine and Saar valleys has been accepted.

Basically at the time of the armistice Pershing had three armies on the River Meuse. Having cleared the Meuse-Argonne sector he was ready to pivot east into Germany's industrial heart.

This game simulates that offensive, planned to begin on 14 November.

Next up, the Israeli-Iran war.

Simon & Schuster sucks

WHY I"M INDY: Simon & Schuster writes. “Now free from the constraints of running, Hillary takes you inside the intense personal experience of becoming the first woman nominated for president by a major party in an election marked by rage, sexism, exhilarating highs and infuriating lows, stranger-than-fiction twists, Russian interference, and an opponent who broke all the rules." A publishing house wrote that horrible, run on, cliche filled sentence.

Now remember, S&S is one of the big five publishers. They are the big cheese, the head honcho, numero uno, el jeffe grande, the big enchilada....And the cancelled their 10 million dollar book deal with Saint Milo the Fabulous.

Milo moved a hundred thousand books on the first day. At ten bucks a pop he took home $700, 000, American.

Instead S&S has a book deal with Hillary!

I guess it will do well, if no other reason then out of morbid fascination. How bad could it be? That is the question.

If S&S is writing sentences like the above, can they really fix Hillary!'s work, whatever she turns in?

WIll's Good Idea for the Week of 7-30-17

Putin's War: Meet young Hang-Tae Tchien.

HT, as he likes to be called on the online gaming boards, loves video games, tabletop war games, and orders of battle. When war tensions ramp up with Russia he's actually excited and has loads of fun assembling OOBs and fighting out a conflict on the Sino-Russian border. Given geography is is obvious that the main front will be in Manchuria.

HT looks forward to seeing the Chinese Army up close.

Then the reality of President Putin's nature sets in and the conflict isn't so fun anymore. In fact its downright deadly.

Tiger's Tail: And the Sun Rises

Washington, Seoul and Tokyo had long considered the possibility of Chinese intervention in the war. Few felt this would come in the form of direct military action, though Chinese mobilization in the Manchurian military district worried some in the Pentagon. Most felt that the mobilization was simply a show meant to bolster future Chinese diplomatic moves.

Indeed it was widely expected that Beijing would exert great diplomatic pressure to end the war with a ceasefire in place. This would serve Beijing interests in two ways. First, by preventing American forces from advancing on and beyond Pyongyang. Second the diplomatic effort would make China hegemon in the region.

The later scenario was unacceptable to Tokyo. The defence ministry had assumed that Japanese ground forces would enter the war and with China making its move, that time had now come.

So began Operation K-GO.

Hamhung lies on North Korea's East Coast about 100 miles north of the border. From there the Hamhung River drains into the sea.  The Toksan airport lies northeast. While the airport had been visited by Japanese aircraft before, the runways were diligently repaired and the fuel tanks intact. As American forces were probing Pyongyang a battalion of the Japanese airborne brigade landed in the Hamhung River Valley and established blocking positions, while a second landed directly on Toksan airport. As these consolidated their potions and the third battalion landed south of the airport. With the airport intact the Japanese air force flew in three light infantry battalions to reinforce Toksan.

At the same time the first combat task force assembled by the Japaneses Navy since the Second World War arrived at the mouth of the Hamhung River. In all 20 ships, including two of the Japanese Navy's new helicopter carriers escorted one brigade of the Japanese Marine Division. This brigade landed unopposed and advanced north on the east bank of the river. Three hours later a second marine brigade was ashore. Thus the stage was set for the landing of two armored brigades the next day for the push into Hamhung proper.

Meanwhile, the news from the American effort at Pyongyang was grim...

Battlestar Babes...

You knew this post was coming.

Now, when we rediscovered Battlestar Galactica in late 90's we were stunned to discover that the show was filled with total babes.

We felt it was our responsibility to discuss this crucial matter.

When they cast the show, they really cast the show.

Let's get things off on the right foot. First off, Jane Seymour:

We come next to Maren Jensen:

And off course Laurette Spang:

And finally Anne Lockhardt:

Whose prettiest? Take your pick, man. This question rivals the great Mary-Anne/Ginger conundrum. The answer to that one is Mary-Anne or your worse than Baltar.

Older readers are by now wondering about a few infamous scenes from Battlestar Galactica. Don't worry, guys, I got you covered. I searched far and wide because I just care so damn much.

Bam!:

You knew this was next:

Gratuitous? Absolutely.

How they got any work done aboard Galactica I'll never know.

Friday Updates

Only one that matters.

The Austrian Painter is 50,000 words. The stage is set for the final chapter. We hope to get it done next week.

We hope lots of things.

Our Pershing's War game is at the publisher. Who knows.

After the Austrian Painter rough we'll be finishing up Whatever Happened to Jake and Patricia Bloom. God that needs a title.

We will also be getting ANZACs edited.

Tiger's Tail this weekend.

Rediscovering Galactica

As mentioned before once Battlestar Galactica went off air it pretty much disappeared from public view. The last time we saw it was in 1984, aired on reruns on WOR, Channel 9.

We would not see BSG again until 97-98 when the Sci-Fi Channel reran it.

Watching the show as an adult was a revelation (we'll get into that in another post) and kindled within us an urge to write for the first time in years.

I went looking for info, but frankly there wasn't a lot out there.

I did find this site, Kobol.com. The owner, Chris Pappas, lovingly gathered all the info and facts he could find about BSG, including the old writer's guide, scripts, etc. This site has been around for 20 years and what the reader will see if he clicks over is pretty much Kobol.com looked like in early 1998.

Glen Larson and company did a good job describing how the Galactica worked, He gave us specs and some tech info. That said if one wanted to know if Galactica had anti-ship lasers, missiles, etc, the info just wan't there. He didn't even really know how many battlestars there were.

So I wrote some fan-fic. Basically Commander Kane leads a squadron of four battlestars on a raid deep into Cylon territory where they destroy several baseships, space stations and planet-side facilities. Alert readers may notice the similarity between this bit of BSG fan-fic and the Battle of Luna in To Defend the Earth.

Heh.

On Trump and the Trannies

The title should tell the alert reader my thoughts on the issue. That is not really what this post is about though.

I was wondering why the President bothered with the ban at all, and why spend several tweets describing it. After some serious rumination I realized what he is up to.

The Democrats are the party of the mentally ill, sex criminals, perverts, race hustlers, and lay about state employees. Their base has gone completely bonkers since Trumps election. More importantly they are obsessed with boutique issues like trannies, bathrooms, etc, etc.

And remember something else about the modern Democrat party. As the esteemed M. Steyn has noted, for us normies if one agrees with us on A, B, C, D, but not E, that person is an 80% ally. But for the Dems, that person is a 20% enemy.

So the smarmy Jew in Brooklyn and the Alzheimer ridden old- bag from Haight-Ashbury have no choice but to but pour menstrual blood and feces all over themselves over trannies in uniform.

Meanwhile, Foxconn is building a massive new facility that will employ 13,000 in Wisconsin.

Well played, sir.

Trump, you magnificent bastard I read your book!

Dunkirk!?

The esteemed William Katz asked for my thoughts on Dunkirk. Here they are:

It is highly unlikely that I will see Dunkirk in the theater. I have been to the movies exactly three times in the last 12 years, and all were Star Wars. I saw Rogue One twice in 18 hours.

I will say this, and I have probably noted this before.

The Dunkirk miracle is the most British thing to happen in all military history, simply muddling through and improvising the British turned a disaster into a victory.

By the summer Britain had made good her material losses. She was the 3rd greatest industrial power on earth, after all.

Britain never really stood alone, and could draw on Canadian, Australian, Indian and New Zealand forces for help. The later three were crucial in the Med and Middle East theater. The Burma campaign was won by a combo of British and Indian troops, 2 million of the later.

It is extremely unlikely that a German invasion could have succeeded. First there's the Royal Air Force, which the Battle of Britain was begun to destroy. Then there's the Royal Navy, remember them? Crossing a river is hard enough, now try crossing the Channel. of course the Allies did four years later and all it took was a thousand ships and a hundred thousand men, not even counting the invasion force. D-Day was the most complex event in human history. Britain has been conquered four times, by the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons, the Vikings and the Normans. Its been a thousand years.

A cross channel invasion was well nigh impossible and White Hall knew it, which is why the told Adolph where to go.

The most important event in Britain in the 20th century was the battle of the Somme. The second most important event was the War Cabinet meeting just after Dunkirk where Winston told the assembled that he knew they would rather die face down in the street choking in their own blood rather than negotiate with 'that man' as he called Adolph.

Galactica's Best Episode

Sometimes the Battlestar Galactica writers turned in some real clunkers, but last night we watch Episode 12: Fire in Space.

Man did they ever nail this one.

Basically the Cylons launch a Kamikaze attack on the Galactica, with one raider hitting a launch bay and another taking out the bridge.

Here's the preview:

Young writers can really learn something by watching Fire in Space. It's a classic situation where a lion chases the protagonist up a tree, follows him up a tree, follows him onto a branch and the branch begins to break.

Let's review:

-Commander Adama is fighting for his life.  Lt Commander Tigh has to take over. Surgeons take a huge risk by operating on Adama under the threat of losing power. They have no choice.
-The Galactica has two major fires going. The fires are moving toward the ship's Energizer (read boiler) and firefighters can't contain it. These scenes are very well done and filled with tension.
-The fire is threatening to engulf the rec center where several of our main characters are trapped. They have to get out of the rec center but can't because the power is cut and they have to find breather masks because of all the smoke. Desperately they send a pet dagget into the air ducts to find help. To attract the dagget the bridge crew places some sweets at the entrance to one of air ducts and hope he finds them. Even after the dagget comes back with a bag of air masks tied to his tail the people in the rec center still have to worry about the fire. The dagget then goes back into the air ducts to save a downed fireman but the people in the rec center don't know that.
-Since the firefighters are losing the battle, in desperation Apollo and Starbuck go on a space walk to place explosives on the hull to open Galactica to space and starve the fire of oxygen. The explosives are placed but Apollo slips and floats into space. Starbuck goes after him.

Well done BSG writers. Well done indeed.

Statue This

Reader(s) may have noticed that we are highly critical of the Confederacy. There's no excuse for the institution and it deserved destruction. Sherman's march to the Sea and then through the Carolinas brings warm feelings to our heart. Frankly we enjoy the biblical level smiting he inflicted upon the secessionists.

We fly flags and we can and have flown the flag of Kek (praise Kek) before we would fly the Stars and Bars.

That said, Confederate descendants have every right to their heritage. Let them celebrate that heritage however they like. If a southerner has an ancestor who fought with Nathan Bedford Forrest in the Atlanta campaign let him be proud. If someone in Norfolk takes pride in his southern ancestors fending off the Yankees for three and half years, by all means take pride. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia accomplished remarkable things, militarily speaking. The wise military historian studies his campaigns.

This spate of statute desecration in places like Virginia and New Orleans is obscene. The effort is more than that, actually. Its an act of historical vandalism. All these more or less reasonable folks who say 'Yes but,' to the statue desecration better look out. Because the next targets will be George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.

So really, screw the statue warriors.

Battlestar Galactica: Watchable?

So we're about halfway through Battlestar Galactica and here are our initial thoughts.

First, the intro a credits are second to none in the world of TV scifi. Do we really need a reminder of this? I guess we do:

This opener combines Star Wars and Star Trek and the effect is awesome. What a score.

Glen Larson and ABC really outdid themselves on the production values. The sets are first rate. Galactica's bridge looks very military and realistic. The costumes are fantastic. The tan uniform with a brown waistcoat sounds like 70's hell, but the look really works. The higher echelon officers wear a sharp, deep blue uniform. For special occasions they don a fancy cloak, which is a nice touch.
If one is curious here is an interesting website, Kobol.com that has costumes and props.

The actual space combat sequences are quite good, and stand up to Star Wars. That said these became stock footage and whenever necessary they'd just que these up and remix the same 25 shots or so as needed. We also like the Galactica's AA guns the look feel and the sound of them firing. Listen closely and one will here a great bang as every laser fires. We have always enjoyed the act of activating the lasers turrets, with a bridge tech flipping one switch after another.

There are some good performances in this show. We're surprised to see that Richard Hatch (Apollo) can act. So can Dirk Benedict (Starbuck) at least within the parameters of his part. We also enjoy Terry Carter (as ship's XO Col Tigh) and Herbert Jefferson (as strait-man to Starbuck). There are some excellent cameos.

Now as to the actual show. The individual writing and dialogue is pretty good, but some of the episode ideas are lame. In one episode Apollo crashes on a Wild West planet. That said we love the episode, The Young Lords, where Starbuck crashes on a planet stuck in the Middle Ages. This show has some cringe-worthy tropes; look a cute kid and his electronic dog...

Overall Battlestar Galactica is basically World War II in space. Younger reader(s) note, in 1978 it was impossible for BSG to not be World War II in space.

As far as a science fiction show goes, how did producer Glen A. Larson do? Well, he took the time to create a canon, here it is.  The background and concept are solid and based on Larson's own Mormon faith. Science, what science? Oh well.

Overall, how do we rate this show? Look folks, it ain't Game of Thrones. It is an often predictable and formulaic science fiction drama from 1978, and it feels like 1978. But in the context of 1978 it was a good show and good drama. If one keeps these things in mind Battlestar Galactica watchable.

Monday Metal

Will gets the Led out:

Confederate Excuse Makers

We long ago grew tired of the American Civil War. This was probably because we attained our majority in the 1990's in the aftermath of Ken Burn's epic documentary of same and spent a good chunk of that decade living in Virginia, all be it the northern part.

We hold no truck with Confederate excuse makers. You know the type, the South was right...the Civil War was about state's rights...slavery would have died out anyway...blah, blah blah.

Let's get something straight.  Slavery would have survived into the 20th century.

The South had staked its entire identity on the notion that slavery was necessary and even humane. The South without slavery is like Britain without the monarchy or France without the Germans to surrender to.

As the economics of slavery became more and more untenable Richmond would have done everything it could to prop up the peculiar institution. Let's imagine laws dictating X number of slaves be held for X number of acres of farmland owned; subsidized slave purchases, tax breaks per slave held, etc. etc.

Heck think of the industry that would have been put out of business by slavery. Chain and collar manufactures, slave auctioneers, slave hunters. Heck a whole publishing market existed for books on the care and keeping of slaves. Any emancipation effort would have met with considerable opposition from this sector.

Sorry my Southern partisan friends, but your alternate Confederacy was based on slavery and without the peculiar institution had no reason for being.

So I'm Binge Watching Battlestar Galactica....

No, not the Sci Fi Channel reboot, the kitschy 1978 Battlestar Galactica.

We were born in 1973, which means by 1978 we acquired some concrete memories. 1979 is the first year we can really recall.

Dedicated science fiction fans know in 1978 ABC launched Battlestar Galactica, airing the show at 8PM on Sunday nights followed by ChiPs. That might be the most 1970's sentence ever written.

BSG went off the air in 1979. There were a few specials as well ass the universally loathed Galactica 1980, but after that the show was officially dead.

This was our most favorite, favorite show. It was so much more good then our stupid older sister's favorite shows, Three's Company and Eight is Enough and Charlie's Angels. We once threw an epic temper tantrum because we were out to dinner at the Benny Hanna in Ossining and we were going to miss our show. We rolled around on the floor crying, 'I want to watch Battlestar Galactica!'

Here's the BSG puzzle we coveted for what seemed like hours at the Shopwell:

Back then mothers would just let their little hellions run wild through the aisles while they shopped and did things like go to the help desk and cash a check so they had money for the weekend.

Here's a pic of some of our many BSG toys:

Man that takes us back nearly 40 years.

Funny thing, once BSG went off air the show just disappeared. It popped up in reruns in the NYC area in 84-85, but that's it.  The original two hour telemovie was available though and we rented it a few times in the early 80's.

BSG became stock footage. You'd see it on TV in the background of another show or in a Crazy Eddy commercial or a music video. There, Tom Petty, You got Lucky:

We didn't see it again till the mid 90's when the Sci Fi Channel aired it. We had not really seen BSG since.

We've been inspired to check out BSG again for a few reasons. First its an influence on our own writing, which we will go into later in the week. Second we've never really fully examined the show, and there are several episodes we have not seen since it went off air in 1979. We'd like to view it again, probably for the last time in our life.

Tiger's Tail: Obliteration

As American forces pierced Pyongyang's defenses the combined American-Korean four division task force pushed north from the DMZ against wilting North Korean resistance.

American aircraft set upon large North Korean formations. These included B-2 and B-1 strikes, and even old style arc light strikes carried about by trio's of B-52 bombers. Enemy forces before the advancing American-Korean task force risked too much by standing and fighting. However, local North Korean commanders noticed that American aircraft left retreating forces unmolested.

This was by design and on orders from the Pentagon. Reports from North Korean prisoners indicated that after they took Seoul and saw for themselves the luxurious lifestyle lived by their South Korean cousins, most soldiers simply lost the will to fight. As the tide of the war turned decisively against them North Korean morale collapsed. The Pentagon shrewdly ordered retreating formations be left alone hoping most North Korean soldiers understood that retreat was their only hope of survival.

There were those in Seoul who favored the complete obliteration of North Korean forces, but this was a minority position. Most agreed that an element of mercy was needed to bring about piece. One could afford to be magnanimous in victory.

Decisions were being made in other captiols as well. Beijing looked on with alarm as American forces advanced into North Korea and landed on the coast. Orders came from Beijing for forces in the Manchurian region to mobilize.

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 7-23-17

So it's 1950 and the Confederate States of America are the South Africa of this alternate history.

In the spring a mass revolt of the CSA's ten million or so slaves results in shocking bloodshed and the the death of hundreds of thousands.

In response the international community organizes a military expedition to end the CSA and slavery once and for all.

Volume I: the revolt. Volume II: the liberation.

Of crap....this is a good one....

Confederate This

So the guys behind HBO's Game of Thrones are developing a new series called Confederate, imagining that the South won the Civil War and slavery exists today.

Where to begin?

This is not in of itself a bad idea. However there is no plausible way that slavery could exist today if the Confederacy existed. In 1860 the American South was already isolated, not just from the north but the rest of the world. Immigrants were reluctant to settle in the south. Of the top ten US cities in 1860, only one, New Orleans, was in the south. The next southern city was Louisville at 12, and then Charleston at 22.  Old southern cities like Richmond and Atlanta were surpassed by new cities like Detroit and Milwaukee.

The economics of this idea wouldn't work either. In 1860 the north outstripped the south in factories, miles of rail, etc. etc, by 10-1 and they had no way to get the capitol to expand. Simply put, even before the war European investors were reluctant to put money into slave states.The Confederates assumed cotton was king, but as soon as the war began the Brits simply got their cotton from Egypt and India and one supposes they were relieved that the war gave them the excuse to end trade with the slave south altogether.

The economics of slavery are awful.

Now imagine if the Confederacy had slavery in say...1950. At some point the rest of the world is going to embargo the Confederacy, as it did with Rhodesia and South Africa, and frankly its not hard to imagine some sort of global expedition to liberate the slaves.

So there's no way your going to have slaves in 2017.

Frankly we're wondering if the GoT guys just want to make a parable and use the show for modern commentary. Look! In this alternate history Trayvon Martin is a Florida slave! Michael Brown works a field in Missouri! Implausible? We're talking about the same industry that just remade Ghost Busters into an all-chick feminist flick.

Hollywood can screw up anything,

We'll be delving further into this Confederate topic as the week drags on.

(Flag pic courtesy of Mr. Christopher Cobb, Monterrey, MA)

Tiger's Tail: Suicide Squad

As the war dragged on, the task force of two American and two South Korean divisions pushed north from the DMZ toward Pyongyang.With the 101st and 3rd Marine Divisions just miles west of Pyongyang American commanders had one question: would Kim order nuclear weapons used on North Korean soil? Would he even go so far as to nuke his own capital?

American planners had spent several days debating this question. Some even favored nuking Pyongyang preemptively and denying Kim that option altogether. Even the most optimistic planners looked on in dread at the prospect of fighting for Pyongyang.

In true communist fashion Kim mobilized the people of Pyongyang for the defense of the city. Every street was blocked, every building fortified. Every public structure turned into a citadel of mass communist resistance. With also Arab rhetorical flourish Kim promised a million deaths and a million more.

But outside Pyongyang, the landing force consolidated its position. One brigade of the 3rd Marine Division occupied the landing zone while one brigade of the 101st protected the route inland. This left a total of four brigades on the high ground west, southwest of the city.

Both Secretary Mattis in Washington and the task force commander on the ground agreed that inaction was undesirable but sending the full force into Pyongyang was too risky. Therefore a marine task force centered on one mechanized battalion and reinforced with an armored company was formed. Their mission was to breach North Korean Defenses in Pyongyang and advance to the Pathone River. Once the river was reached commanders on teh ground would decide if the task force would withdraw from Pyongyang or establish a foothold for further exploitation into the city.

Fourteen hundred marines donned their NBC gear Though their official designation was Task Force 1-6, almost immediately the men dubbed themselves Suicide Squad and their trek into Pyongyang 'Suicide Run'.

At sunup the Suicide Squad advanced down the Youth Hero Highway, northeast into Pyongyang. Over a nearly three and half mile run, past football stadiums and war memorials the marines encountered no resistance whatsoever and barely any sign of life. Within an hour lead elements of Suicide Squad reached the Pathone River Bridge finding it intact.

It was at this point that commanders determined there could be only one reason why they would be allowed to enter the city. Task for 1-6 turned around and sped back down the Youth Hero Highway, hoping they weren't to late.

Tiger's Tail will return tomorrow...

Friday Flag

Based Brandenburg

Friday Updates

Finally got my Pershing's War alt-history game to the developer.

Not much on the Austrian Painter this week except research. We are primed to have the rough done by the end of the summer.

Slugging through Whatever Happened to Jake and Patricia Bloom and will write the 2nd to last chapter next week.

Our crazy Australian form colleague is reading ANZACs.

We are nicely making way, as CS&N sang.

The ADL is Decadent and Depraved

So the terminally useless Anti-Defamation League has released a hit list of Alt-Right figures it doesn't like. On the list are people like Vox Day, Mike Cernovich and Gavin McInnes....oh and Milo!

We have loathed this organization since the early 2000's when Abe Foxman (convinced a Jew hater lay under every bed) was pestering Mel Gibson about The Passion of the Christ and worrying about a few neo-Nazis holed up in upstate New York.

So I went to the ADL's website expecting to see them harping about things not relevant to Jews, like Mel Gibson.

I was not disappointed.

About half the site has articles dealing with Israeli stuff. Lemme break it to you there, Abe, or whoever is running the ADL extortion ring, the Israelis don't need you. They have the IDF.

As of this writing we see pieces on 'How to be an Ally', on helping Mexicans report hate crimes, and something about gay love. You guys check the Torah lately for its thoughts on sodomy?

Look, whatever the ADL may once have been, now it is a converged social justice pressure group and a jobs platform for hyper-educated SJWs. Check it out on Linkedin. We see dozens of employees with vaguely defined white collar information jobs like the 'specialist' for this  and the 'coordinator' for that. I doubt any of these people could change a tire.

What will the ADL do when one of the people on their hit list gets shot? Heck of a law suit.

Somehow I think they have plenty of legal council.

Wanna see some real fighters for the Jewish people? Try Israel Strikes.

Breakthrough

Whatever Happened to Jake and Patricia Bloom desperately needs a title.

But we have had a major breakthrough.

We have written Jake's 1st Iraq chapter where he is in the 2003 liberation.

We have written Jake's 3rd Iraq chapter in country in 2008.

We weren't sure if the middle chapter about being an Iraq would be interesting.

We had a yuuge idea today. Why not write about Jake being back home after his 2nd tour in Iraq? That way we can have Patricia and the entire family, we can wrap up some loose ends about their past, etc, etc...

Yes, I think this is it.

By the way if your curious, here's the first book about Jake Bloom, A Line through the Desert:

Tuesday Tally: Late Edition

We've begun a project, binge watching some old sci fi shows of our youth. There will be further reports on this in the coming weeks.

With that in mind here's a list of soe great non Star Wars fighters.

From the Original Battle Star Galactica:

The Colonial Viper is a close rival to the X-Wing as far as being pleasing to the eye. Look at the design, look out those sleek lines.

Here we have the greatest sci-fi warship ever.

Galactica is the most badass star ship ever invented. That thing looks like a dreadnought in space.

Next we have the star fighter from buck rogers:

The Draconian fighter ain't bad either.

We also like the Draconian mother ship thingy.

From the short lives Space Above and Beyond, a Marine space fighter. Its a pretty radical departure from previous space fighters, no doubt on purpose.

And my favorite, Michael from Footfall,  and the inspiration for USS Was and Hornet in To Defend the Earth.

The dome is a push-plate for launching the ship into space  via several atomic bombs. Note the inclusion of guns from an Iowa Class battleship. Michael also has four space shuttles and several detachable 'stove pipe' fighter craft.

We'll do a cartoon version of ships later, so for now, enjoy an excerpt from the Battle of Luna in To Defend the Earth:

Masters looked at the sensor readout. The four Jai carrier ships were deploying in an arc on Wasp’s port. At its current speed DELTA would be behind Wasp in minutes. Wasp’s push plate drifted several hundred kilometers to the rear at a little more than half a G.

‘Very well. Mr. Huggins, continue engaging ALPHA, 16s only.’

‘Aye, Aye.’

 ‘Helm, accelerate to 2 Gs.’

‘Aye, Aye Captain.’

‘16s reloaded,’ reported Paradee.

Huggins responded with one word, ‘Shoot.’

Paredee sent another DU barrage into space. This time ALPHA didn’t bother with missiles. Instead its gunners flung a trio of atom bombs at the incoming shells. They had the range and vaporized the volley hundreds of miles before impact.

‘Captain, request permission to load burst shells,’ Huggins asked.

‘Granted.’

Huggins nodded to Paradee who hit a selector switch on the joystick reload button, sending specially modified DUB (Burst) shells up the spout.

‘Shoot.’

‘On the way.’

Paradee depressed all four triggers, firing another 16 shells into space. Again ALPHA fired a trio of atom bombs. This time when the DU shells were at the halfway mark Paradee pressed a button which fired a small rocket engine affixed to the back of each shell. The engine’s three second burst added hundreds of Gs to the shell’s speed, accelerating them well past the A-bomb’s detonation point. The Jai followed with a flurry of point defense fire, destroying a pair of shells and knocking three more off course. Emergency acceleration took ALPHA out of the path of another DU shell. But the other six impacted in a staccato line across the ship. Bulkheads cracked and decks collapsed as the shells tore into ALPHA’s hull. Seeing ALPHA’s distress, the other carrier ships brought their lasers to bear on Wasp subjecting her to several three second laser bursts.

‘Plates hot, but holding,’ reported Damage Control.

Sensors brought the visual scanner onto the ALPHA and magnified until the ship filled the screen.

‘Mr. Huggins, what do you make of that?’

Huggins hunched over and looked at its screen. ‘It’s trailing atmosphere from at least two hits. Looks as if one of the main engines is down.’

 ‘Engines hit?’

‘Could be Captain, we’re only getting one heat plume now. Its acceleration is halved to 1.1 Gs.’

‘16s reloaded.’

‘Shoot.’

Paradee shot another volley into space. This time ALPHA fired six A-bombs staggered in 112 mile intervals, each with random detonation points; all twelve DU shells were destroyed. ALPHA fired its forward and aft lasers and put a volley of missiles in space as well.

‘Captain, request permission to fire our forward battery.’

Masters was reluctant to reveal the existence of the forward lasers so early in the battle, still there was a chance to destroy a target.

  ‘Captain, new targets,’ said Rogers.

Masters looked at his screen and saw a pair of red Jai ships indicated just above the moon’s North Pole. ‘I see them.’

‘Two carrier ships, 1.2 Gs and accelerating hard. 1.3 Gs…Designate Targets ECHO and FOXTROT

‘Alright Mr. Huggins, you may employ the forward batteries.’

‘Aye, Aye sir.’ Huggins turned to his laser tech. ‘Spaceman Martinez, bring the forward batteries online and fire on my order.’

‘Sir.’

Martinez took hold of a joystick, pressed a button synchronizing the two forward batteries and brought them to bear and ALPHA. When the crosshairs on his view screen turned green he reported, ‘ALPHA targeted, Lieutenant.’

‘Fire.’

Martinez squeezed the trigger, producing a three second laser burst from each forward battery. ‘Direct hit, lieutenant,’ Martinez said.

 Masters punched a button, magnifying ALPHA’s image on his view screen. There was a large scorch mark on the hull and a gash several feet long and a few feet high.

‘We’ve hulled it,’ Huggins said. ‘Continue firing, fire for effect.’

Martinez fired the forward batteries, running the crosshairs down the length of ALPHA’s hull as he did so. At the same time the other Jai ships fired their own lasers and launched a volley of missiles.

‘Incoming,’ reported Rogers. ‘Bogeys from BRAVO, CHARLIE and DELTA.’

Master’s screen came alive with dozens of little red points, each representing an incoming bogey. He picked up his black phone. ‘Engineering, bring our acceleration up to 2Gs, I want distance between Wasp and those other contacts.’

‘Aye, Aye, Captain.’

‘That’s not going to work, Martinez,’ Huggins said, as the scattered laser bursts failed to penetrate the hull. ‘Pick one spot and concentrate on it until you bore through.’

Martinez chose a spot close to the fore of the ship and fired again. Two points turned black and then red until, ‘Target hulled, Captain…its leaking atmosphere.’ The hull plates between the two laser points peeled back under the stress and broke free.  The forward batteries had torn open a great hole in ALPHA.  Martinez picked another spot amidships and went to work.

‘More Bogeys!’ Rogers reported.

‘They can tell ALPHA’s in big trouble,’ said Huggins.

‘ALPHA is no longer accelerating. Maintaining constant course and speed.’

By then Martinez had opened up another gash in ALPHA’s mid section. Rather than move on, he fired into the gap again and again until there was an orange fireball within.

‘Oh my god,’ someone said.

            The force of an internal explosion ripped down ALPHA’s hull, collapsed the main deck and shattered all of the armor plates amidships. The blast blew the aft quarter away from the rest of ship which spun wildly on its own trajectory. What remained of ALPHA drifted under the momentum of 2 Gs. Spinning like a Ferris wheel, the rest of ALPHA began to break apart.

‘ALPHA destroyed,’ Huggins reported.

There was no time to celebrate as dozens of missiles were closing in on Wasp. Velarde calmly coordinated the ship’s countermeasures. He ordered the forward Gattlings decoupled, which allowed each to engage individual targets. Every few second a red point on the sensor readout disappeared. But there was nothing to be done about the Jai’s laser fire. Images from the exterior cameras flashed white and a second later there was an explosion near Wasp’s fore and then another. Wasp rattled with the force of the blast.

Click to Order

Battle Extraordinaire

We've always loved this movie and this battle:

This scene has got scope. Lots of tanks, troops. There's a clear battlefield. The opening barrage really gives one a sense of what it must be like to see a creeping barrage coming at you. The rhythm of the guns firing is quite satisfying. The overall effect is just brutal.

Look at the attention to detail here:

This shot has detail and scope:

Something else. The sound editing is great, from the guns, to the tanks, to the aircraft arriving on scene. Overall the scene is just perfectly edited.

This is how I try to write my battles.

The Neocon Challenged

Last week we took note of Tucker Carlson's explosive interview with Ralph Peters and Max Boot. Here's the episode with Boot, which is the more important of the two:

Boot is an intellectual. He writes books. He has a fellowship and a fancy pants foreign policy think tank.

Watching this clip one gets the impression that this was the first time in decades Boot's been challenged. He didn't do very well, did he?

Over at the National Interest we have an interesting article on the episode. Basically, Carlson was once a hawk but not anymore.

See, speaking as a neocons myself, the problem is your always looking for the next enemy. I subscribed to William Kristol's The Weekly Standard from the first issue. All through the late 90's they were ginning up China as the enemy. Now you have to remember something. During the Reagan Administration the people running the state department were neocons, guys like Wolfowitz and Pearle and Abrrams and a host of others. With the Soviet Union gone these guys had nothing to do.

Whether or not the Iraq campaign was wrong or worth it no longer matters. Ten years ago now we were finally winning via the Surge. For our part we are far more interested in the mechanics and details of the Iraq campaign than the arguments for and against. We think the evens of 2006-2008 are fascinating. We will go on record again as supporting the liberation Iraq, still.

The point is we have learned. Syria is basically a smaller version of Iraq and when it comes to intervention we have no stomach for it. That said we don't think a few tomahawk strikes on the Syrian air force are a big deal.

But it seems Boot and company are eager to get into Syria. Worse, they think Russia is the great existential threat. Just like China in the late 90's, the neocons must now gin up Russia as the enemy. Look, Russia is not our friend. We are not best buddies. We're never really going to get on. We rivals, we're adversaries. That doesn't make Russia an existential threat. What the hell do we care if Putin is monkeying around with Ukraine? Besides, Putin is killing a lot of ISIS terrorists, isn't he?

Hey, World War 1990: Arctic Storm, World War 1990: Eastern Storm, and World War 1990: Castro's Folly all have neocon characters like Kristol and Wolfowitz. There's a reason why as the series progresses they become more sinister. From World War 1990: Operation Arctic Storm,

Since the war began, Bull Feathers had remained open 24 hours a day. Located down the street from the Cannon House Office Building, the owner felt it was his patriotic duty to remain open so congressional staff had a place to unwind after Congresses marathon sessions. Besides, he was making a small fortune.

            The time approached midnight as the Vice President's chief of staff sat down at a table in the back corner, far away from the chattering young congressional staffers. The chief watched in amusement. Young people dropped shot glasses into beer classes and chugged. One young man did a Jell-O shot from between the breasts of a young woman, the pair shouted 'bipartisanship!' and high fived.  The chief  wasn't surprised by the display. His colleagues at the District's major universities, George Washington and Georgetown, reported that students were skipping class, ignoring course work and generally enjoying themselves. A certain fatalism had set in amongst the young, he had noticed, a consequence, he supposed of being raised on tales of nuclear Armageddon. He wondered what he would do if he were twenty years old.

            The chief finally saw the rest of his party. The under secretary of defense walked past the gaggle of young drunks and sat down. The two shook hands.

            'Bill,' the undersecretary said, 'Thanks for meeting me here.'

            'Not at all, Paul,' Bill replied. He pointed to his drink, 'Want one?'

            'Sure.'

            Paul flagged down a waitress and ordered a whisky.

            Bill nodded to the young people at the bar and said, 'You think they know something we don't?'

            Paul smirked, 'I think they're acting like young people.'

            Bill shook his head. 'The whole city is paralyzed. Those who haven't left town stay indoors. It took me ten minutes to get here from my house in Northern Virginia.'

            'I think those kids,' Paul nodded to the bar again, 'are using this as an excuse.'

            Bill sipped his drink and shook his head. 'I think if you had seen movies like The Day After as a kid, you might be fatalistic about the war.'

            'Eh. I saw On the Beach as a kid.' Paul sipped his drink. 'Business?'

            'Business,' Bill agreed.

            'Tell me, what does your boss think about the war?'

            'He doesn't,' said Bill. 'The Vice President is grateful that the President has found a role for him.'

            'I think inviting him to the NSA meetings is the right thing,' Paul said. 'I know the president insisted, in case something happens to him, he wants Quayle up to speed.'

            Bill nodded.

            'Let me ask you, what does the vice president think should happen next?'

            Bill laughed. 'So that's what this is about.'

            Paul nodded.

            'The Vice President is not in the policy loop and he hasn't expressed one way or the other what he thinks should happen next.'

            'Do you know what transpired at meeting at St. John  last week?'

            'No.'

            'Thatcher wants to invade Eastern Europe.'        

            'Jesus.'                                                                                                                

            'So does Kohl.'

            'They're serious?' Bill asked.

            Paul nodded.

            'What does the president think?'

            'He's cautious as you know.'

            'Is that bad?'

            'I didn't say it was bad. Just that he is cautious.'

            'What do you think?'

            'Think about this, Bill, and Thatcher made this point at St. John. What if the war stops, the Soviets recoup, and we have to do this all over again?'

            'Mmmmm,' Bill said in thought.

            'What if it's like 1918 and the Soviet Army feels it's been stabbed in the back?'

            'I see where you're headed.'

            'Now think about this, and I think you'll agree. What if we win the war decisively? What if we took away the Soviet's ability to wage war on the west?'

            'You mean, what if we free Eastern Europe.'

            Paul nodded.

            For a moment, Bill imagined the possibilities.

            'We can go even further, I think. '

---

 [SA1]really Will ?!?!?!?!?

---

Summer 1992: Nostalgia Boogaloo

We've mentioned before that 25 years ago last month we graduated from high school. Running a self diagnostic, we're pretty happy with where we are.

Forgive us for indulging in a little nostalgia but thinking of the first five or six weeks of that summer brings warm feelings to our heart, as Yoda would say.

We were out of high school, thank god, and working our summer job as a camp counselor and a life guard. We had a sense that we had come out of the bad part of our lives and good things were coming. We had a girlfriend, which was the fodder for Patricia Bloom in A Line through the Desert. No, I never snuck into her bedroom, you could barely get to second with her, frankly.

[yeah, you couldn't-Ed]

Still, that summer is the basis for A Line Through the Desert...

[So let me see if I have this right. You wrote an 85,000 word novel because this poor girl, at whom you used to throw rocks and firecrackers, wouldn't drop her knickers for you?-Ed]

Well, I....

[I thought so,-Ed]

Moving on...

[please-Ed]

We remember pleasant things, getting to second with the above mentioned girl, visiting Wesley College...oddly what's always stuck out about that trip is watching the movie Comrades of Summer at the hotel.

[that trip was with you mum, right? Oedipus much?-Ed]

We played a lot of Harpoon and were allowed an MGD after work.

Our best childhood friends, the brothers O'Neill from the Clan O'Neill, were visiting.

[You mean the O'Leary brothers in A Line Through the Desert?-Ed]

Yep. We saw Patriot Games together. Seeing Patriot Games with a couple of Irish kids whose family we to this day suspect has ties to IRA fundraising groups in the USA was interesting. 'The IRA doesn't do that...don't ever call an Irishman a Feinian...'

We all watched Blazing Saddles and we recall our girlfriend getting that same 'really boys?' look on her face that our mum got when seeing Blazing Saddles, to which our mum said, 'I knew I liked that girl.'

[Again with the Oedipus thing?-Ed]

This is one of those times when thinking back all we see is the sun.

August sucked, though.

Outro soundtrack:

Monday Metal

The Caine Mutiny-Twelve O'Clock High Matrix

Continuing our discussion yesterday of The Caine Mutiny, lets take a look at another movie that deals with leadership.

In Twelve O'Clock High Gregory peck plays Colonel Frank Savage, a staff officer who has been called in to fix a struggling bomb group. Here's his first encounter with Colonel Gately, the group air exec:

Savage ain't kidding. He basically abuses Gately throughout the film.

Now, toward the end, when Savage himself cracks, look what happens:

Gately runs over to see if Savage is OK and when he asks the now delusion Savage who he wants to take the lead ship, Savage says, 'Gately'.

Gately gives Savage the loyalty he needs, as Barney Greenwald says in the Caine Mutiny. Why? 'Because he's got the job or your no good.'

On a personal note the above clip is one of the most intense scenes we've ever watched.

By the way, alert readers may have noticed that the B-2 bomb group in Eastern Storm, Castro's Folly, and soon, The Final Storm, fly in formations named Strike Group Savage, Strike Groupe Gately, etc, etc.

The Caine Mutiny

Long time reader (s) know the Caine Mutiny is one of my personal top ten movies of all time.

Alert reader Marky-Mark asked for my take on the film's trial in which Merrick and Kieth are acquired for the crime of 'combining to make a mutiny'.

The real question before the court was weather or not Merrick and Keith were justified in taking control of the Caine during the typhoon. That typhoon was real, btw, author Hermoun Wouk was in it. The answer is yes, had Merrick not taken control of the ship, The Caine would have foundered.

Now let's start at the beginning. Keith is a a 90 Day Wonder Lt. JG assigned to the battered Caine. He immediately dislikes the lackadaisical Captain Devries. He runs a lose ship. Frankly after 18 months and several task forces he doesn't feel he needs to ride the crew. The crew more or less takes care of itself. 'Every man is ok,' he tells Captain Queeg when he takes command. When Devries leaves Merrick is visibly moved. Despite the fact that Devries rode him at every turn, Merrick is fanatically loyal. When Keith asked him why Merrick says, 'Willie, I still think one day you'll make a good officer.'

Merrick is Devries' XO. He is a competent sailor who knows how to handle a ship, and a navy reservist who would like to transfer to the regular navy. There is nothing extraordinary about Merrick, we even learn later that his HS and college grades were 'below average'. He is a good man. In the movies' final scene, when Lt, Keefer apologizes for not helping him during the trial Merrick just tells him to forget it. When his drunk lawyer confronts Keefer Merrick just says, 'Let's forget it, Barney.'

Here's the scene:

Here's the scene where Queeg asks for help:

This is the turning point. After turning tail, Queeg asks his officers for help. Led by Keefer they turn him down.

If the officers had given Queeg the loyalty he needed the business in the typhoon would not have come up.

In short the officers created the situation.