Tuesday, January 31, 2017

You're Fired!

President Trump fired  acting Attorney General Sandra Yates:


I couldn't resist.

Yates follows a grand Democrat party tradition stretching back to Jackson and going on to Calhoun to Davis, to George Wallace of ignoring or nullifying laws they don't like.

Then there's the case of Mary Francis Berry, an otherwise unemployable academic whom President George W. Bush tried and fail to remove from the Civil Rights Commission because, well, her term expired. Berry insisted her term hadn't expired and stayed on. I guess she blocked the Civil Rights Commission door.

Of course W. backed down.

He'd back down here too.

President Trump employed the ax.

It's almost as if he goaded Yates into being insubordinate just so he could make an example of her. I know I'm feeling all warm and nummy about it. Of course the inevitable Reagan comparison is being made.

Hearkening back to him is always dangerous for a conservative. That said, Reagan's firing of the air traffic controllers is an apt comparison. It was a crucial moment in his presidency. One that terrified the Soviet's actually whose take away was, 'This Ronald Reagan is madman who means he says, Comrade.'

With that in mind, for your viewing pleasure:



Publish This!

One of the great things about writing in 2017 is one can reach one's fellow indy writers. I know a bunch, including I'm glad to say the High Sparrow of indy writers, Chris Nuttall. I think he gets a royalty just for his name of the holy sepulcher being typed.

Anyhoo, recently I was chitchatting with my friend James Young about our halcyon days reading sci-fi. Now back in the 80's [oh good god, not another 80's post-Ed] one had two places to get books. Walden Books or B Dalton and that was pretty much it.

James and I were huge military sci fi fans at the time, but frankly the genres was hard to find. To their credit both chain book stores had pretty good sci-fi sections, but the shelves didn't carry a lot of books about space marines, and star carriers, and warp dreadnoughts and such. We both accumulated fairly large libraries of military sci fi, but this took decades. Even now my 80's-90's era collection fill just a few boxes. These are of course the works of David Drake, SM Stirling, David Weber and for me, his most benevolent eminence Jerry Pournelle.

If one goes to Amazon and peruses the digital shelf one will find a bountiful list of books that fall into the military sci-fi category. Their one nearly universal trait (Drake and Pournelle and Weber are still going after all), they're almost all indy writers. There they are, tales of Space Marines, and imperial interstellar battle fleets and dare I say, alien invasion.

We, the indy writers, much maligned by the traditional writers and the Big 5 publishers, are writing the novels we were looking for in our youth. And you know what? We're making money doing it. Man, the Big 5 publishers really missed the boat on that one. Oh well, they'll always have The Devil Wears Prada.


 

Monday, January 30, 2017

New Feature

We have a YouTube Channel.

First video:


Monday Metal, Seriously you Think that's Metal Edition

In A Line through the Desert, at Patricia's graduation party, Jake and his friends debate a vexing question of the late '80s: Is Bon Jovi Metal?

The answer today is of course not. But in 1988 that wasn't so clear. Bon Jovi songs had hooks. They had ripping guitar solos. They had power chords.

You don't think Dead or Alive is Metal?:

That's was the 18 year old virgin Jake Bloom argued.

How about Lay Your Hands on me?

That intro is flipping awesome. Again you got power chords, analmost Angus like hook, and a ripping guitar solo. Ahhh, I recall the first time I heard this song. A crisp September morn in the Hudson River Valley. The intro seemed to accompany the light mist reflecting back the rays of the autumn sun....that's as much imagery as you'll ever get form me, folks.

Then there's Bad Medicine:

Just a great catchy riff and when you got Sam Kinison in your video, one is in for a good time. It was an 80's thing.

Sweet mother of god, the babes. Look, younger reader(s). This was the 80's there was no internet. If you were lucky you had an older brother with some Playboys. I was not lucky. So this was it.

I mean, come on:

Or how 'bout:

I  mean, holy god:


[Hey, why does the blonde get two pics?-Ed]

What do you mean, 'why?'.

[Did you really spend ten minutes watching that video and snipping-Ed]

Did I ever.

Mrs Stroock: Why were you listening to Bad Medicine?

Me: 'You don't wanna know.'


Rolling Castro's Folly

Well as Doc Holiday (the Val Kilmer version, mind you) would say, Castro's Folly is rolling. We've cracked the top 25 of our category in the US, Great Britain and Australia, where we are threatening to go to number one. We've blown past people like Harry Turtledove and Philip K Dick. We're 'only' in the top 100 in Canada, which still ain't bad mind you. I guess you just can't sell a book about blowing Castro to bits in a country that just made his son Justin Trudeau Prime Minister. I'm not kidding about that, by the way. His mom used to hang with Castro, and well, compare the pics. He never did look anything like Pierre

Anyway, the Castro's Folly surge is a relief. Because my previous release, To Survive the Earth, is a failure. After six months its got one review. One freaking review.

This was and is stunning. To Defend the Earth was my second book and it did well. I've recounted before my thrill at seeing the sales meter move up a couple of ticks everyday. After watching A line Through the Desert no sell at all, TDTE was glorious.

With To Survive the Earth, Its not so much that I was worried that I had lost my touch, or my fan base. I was terrified that the market was changing and people were moving away from Kindle.

Phew.

What does this mean for my alien invasion universe? Nothing good. At this point we might keep writing but only put out a Kindle/Nook version. That would cut the publishing costs in half. We might run a single ad in a friendly publication.

Castro's Folly success means there's no reason not to press on, and we are frankly wondering why we would ever stop writing this series.

Sunday, January 29, 2017

New look

Just changed the blog around radically, mostly because I finally figured out how.

A few new features. The books section is running across the top of the screen. I've also added a page for my project, Pershing in Command.

Anyway, I like it.

Look Who Isn't Hitler Anymore

You knew this would happen, right? Liberals pining for the quiet gentlemen George W. Bush. The indefatigable Kyle Smith quotes:

Then, last weekend on “Saturday Night Live,” host Aziz Ansari praised Dubya in his monologue, noting that “George W Bush made a speech after 9/11, and it really helped. Things changed . . . He said Islam is peace.” Bush’s speech was met with overwhelming, bipartisan approval, Ansari noted: “It was about basic human decency and remembering why the country was founded in the first place.” Then the comic caught himself thinking, “What the hell has happened? I’m sitting here wistfully watching old George W. Bush speeches?’ Just sitting there like, ‘What a leader he was! . . . He guided us with his eloquence!’ ”
Of course Aziz Asnari is a misogynist  who brags about schtooping white girls.

The left loves no Republican like it loves the Republican of  the past.

I have noted for years that one day progressives will tell their grand kids they voted for W. He was a good president, and only a partisan incapable of understanding the other side thinks different. The case being:

-W rallied the nation
-W kept us safe after 9/11
-W liberated Afghanistan
-W is the victor of Iraq
-W prevented complete economic collapse via TARP.

There are a lot of small things I like about him, stem cells, AIDS drugs for Africa, the nuclear deal with India, but the above mentioned are the big things.

We've noted a lot of the bad things W did. Steel tariffs, campaign finance deform, NCLB, deficits, a lack of the big vision thing. I'll ad to that refusing to fight the media and the left.

Faults aside W was a good president. Heck, he was near great. One day he'll have a carrier named after him, just like his dad does now, another good president, by the way

W. was an inherently decent person, and the left made him out to be Chimpy McHitler. Sounds familiar?

Oh by the way, during the 2000 primaries, I voted for my man John Wayne McCain.

The Fabulous Return of Mike C

Long time readers(s) will recall that Mike C has read Arctic Storm and Eastern Storm and trashed them both. He even came to this blog once to make sure I understood just how much he thinks I suck.

Now, the interesting thing about Mike C is that he lives in my area, I mean, really close. He likes the Lamington General Store, Bridgewater Dinner and Trump National Golf Club. That last point is even more interesting because I know a guy who likes golf a lot, and he lives real, real close.

Well look whose back!

You see, the really interesting thing about Mike C is that even though he hates my writing he keeps coming back for more. I can only think of a few reasons to do it.

Mike C goes out of his way at one point to mention his Georgetown and Princeton pedigree. Hey Mike C, I have a pedigree two. AMU (online)! can you deal with that!?

Anyway, thanks for the review, Mike C. And I'll see you around the block.

Friday, January 27, 2017

Friday Updates

Not much going on, just plugging along here.

Operation Pacific Storm is moving along at 40,000 words. We have major ANZAC battles at Cam Ranh Bay and Haiphong.

A lot of percolation with Whatever Happened to Jake and Patricia Bloom, mostly about the chapter on Patricia in 2008 while Jake is in Iraq.

Nothing on Pershing in Command.

Castro's Folly got Instalanched this week and is moving decently with top 100 rankings throughout the Empire and Commonwealth.

Nothing on Pershing in Command.

Thursday, January 26, 2017

Putin laughs hard, slips, hits head and goes into coma, saving NATO


Shaken by Trump’s Criticism of NATO, Europe Mulls Building Own Military Force

I bloody well hope so.

Ok, not really. A pan-European Army would be worse than useless. It would be a provocation. Maybe the Euros would get lucky and Putin would laugh himself to death.

It's a real shame what's happened to NATO.

Back in say, I dunno, 1990, NATO's armed forces were small, but well trained and equipped. The West German Bundeshwer was the largest and best Continental army. Being German they really couldn't help themselves. The British were more professional and better trained, but smaller and lacked some of the punch of those mighty Panzer Divisions. Both the Netherlands and Belgians could put an mechanized army corps in the field. The French had one corps on the Rhine and could send another into action. For that matter France had a fine navy as did of course the Brits. Italy was probably a near equal to France in terms of land, sea and air power.

I wanted to portray a lot these armed forces in the World War series. Just wait till the Final Storm comes out, you'll see whole sections dedicated to the French and Italian armed forces. In Arctic Storm there are references to the Dutch Army, the BAOR is a major subject. In Eastern Storm we see some major West German characters.

We've come a long way.


That's Spain's defense minister in 2008. Somehow the blue berets are appropriate. Maybe she's having a boy?

During the last 15 years of war NATO has been more or less useless. Yes I know they send these contingents to Afghanistan or Iraq. A battalion a here, a regiment there. But its very minimal. Just of the top of my head I can recal stories about Italians refusing to escort convoys, Norwegians refusing to leave the base at night, Germans being too fat....

Yes, yes the caveats apply, of course.

The most important caveat are the English speaking nations. Lookie here, alongside the Yanks in Afghanistan are the Brits, Canadians, Australians, Kiwis. All fighting the Taliban tooth and nail while the defense ministers of other NATO countries, well, do their nails:


Tuesday, January 24, 2017

The Tuesday Tally's Triumphant Return; Aerosmith Edition

Picking up on yesterday's Aerosmith themed Monday Metal, today we have Will Stroock's authoritative list of the best Aerosmith songs.

-Love in an Elevator: A long, almost jazzy song, which has for my money the best Joe Perry Solo ever.
-What it Takes: One of the aforementioned schlock ballads, but off of Pump not Get A Grip. I love the outro.
-Walk this Way: Of course, but being that age, I prefer the Run DMC version.
-Sweet Emotion: Duuuh. Interestingly they re-released this in 1992, when I was 18. Cool video too. Great intro with the bass, and a great riff (easy to play too) the drums....actually, there is nothing about this song which is not awesome.
-Jaded: One of their later songs, with Mili Kunis in the video. I just like the 'my, my, baaaaabyyyyyy-blue' rendition, and not just because I have two myself.
-Amazin': The video is sooooo 1993 in every way imaginable. Again, great guitar solo.

*Never liked Ragdall, and in retrospect, I don't like that comeback album at all which is ironic since I have the original vinyl I got for xmas in 1987.

Monday, January 23, 2017

Monday Metal...Aerosmith?

...Aerosmith?

Interesting article about Aerosmith:

It’s schlock, but like Mommie Dearest and Andy Warhol paintings, it’s some beautiful schlock that’s not without artistic merit.

I get that it’s fashionable to shit all over ’70s rock bands who persisted in the ’80s. As I said above, I’ve been guilty of this myself. Not without good reason, either. But the more I look at what Aerosmith did from Permanent Vacationto Get a Grip, the more I’m impressed with the songcraft of their comeback years.
I never stopped to think of of Aerosmith as schlock, but I see the point. They were kind of schlocky in their 'comeback years'.

Of course, being in Generation X, this was my intro to Aerosmith:

Still one of the ten greatest videos ever. I was 13.

Aerosmith was an important part of the soundtrack to my teenage years. My first girlfriend and I slow danced to Angel. I listened to What it Takes after said girlfriend broke my heart; and it drove me nuts when radio stations would lop off the long outro. Later Aerosmith had a trio of power-ballads that were required listening at my frat mixers. When I was getting things together in 2001-2002 I listened to Aerosmith's greatest hits and really experienced their 70's stuff for the first time.

Given the quality and breadth of their career I'd rank Aerosmith as one of ten greatest bands of all time. But that is the subject of another post.

Of course there is the question of whether or not they're a metal band. Their comeback coincided with the domination of heavy metal in '87. They were in the epic The Decline and Fall of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years:

Of course they're talking about jazz and R&B. The funny thing is they're just drying out here, they're still groggy. They're just realizing what they did.

Are they metal? Not really. As Steve and Joe say at the end of the video, they have a unique, utterly Aerosmith sound. No one ever quite sounded like them.

But there's a reason why That Metal Show was our source for all things 'hard rock and heavy metal'.

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Castro's Folly Maps...

...are up and can be found in the tab on the right.

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Mornings After Past

For the first time in eight years your humble author woke up to a Republican Administration. What do  I think? Well, we'll take about that in another post. The era of Obama is over, the era of Trump has begun. This puts me in mind of what I thought the day of and after Obama's inauguration.

I spent most of it in my office, working on various projects. I wasn't writing any fiction at the time so this must have been a magazine article or two. Like the rest of the conservative movement I felt shell shocked and thought it was time for us to reconsider and revamp what we believed. Hillariously I was following David Frum's New Majority website. God its still there. Of course he turned out to be a massive jerk. A Bush speech writer who wanted the president to utter the words, 'Axis of Hate'.

Anyway I never believed that new era, emerging Democrat Majority crap. Obama won 53 percent of the vote, or one point less than Bush 41 won in 1988. These people were delusional. Given the absolute evisceration the Democrat Party has taken over the last 6 years....I thought in 2009 the GOP needed to lay low the conservative movement needed to rethink. Obama and the Dems would overreach, they always do when in power, just ask Bill and Hillary. Indeed the GOP won massive gains in the 2010 off year elections.

Now after the 2012 election I didn't think much. Frankly, Hurricane Sandy had just come through and we had a week old baby. In the aftermath of that electoral disaster I thought the GOP had to adapt its data operation and get serious about electronic turnout. It couldn't possibly match what Barry was doing. And it had to get back into the pop culture. The biggest take away I had, mentioned here before, was that no one cared about arcane policy proposals. That was just a nebulous thought back then. Mostly I was thinking, Rubio '16!

Friday, January 20, 2017

Friday Updates

Only one that matters today.Castro's Folly is now out.

Hard copy here.

World War 1990: Castro's Folly
As the Soviet Union loses the Third World War on all fronts, the Politburo opens new fronts to bide time before it takes the final nuclear step.

-In Central America, Nicaraguan forces cross the border to attack the Contra Freedom Fighters.

-In Africa, Cuban and Angolan forces pick a fight with the South African Defense Force.

-In the United States, the Bush Administration desperately looks for troops while diplomats go to the Organization of American States and rally the America's against...

...Castro's Folly

Trumpean Predictions

-Obamacare's repeal will happen quickly and easily.
-The replacement will be a hodgepodge of conservative think tank ideas.
-Trump will have a strange, new respect for the Iran deal.
-Trump will sign dozens of executive orders against Obama's executive orders.
-Trump's biggest enemy won't be the Democrats or even the media, but the GOPe.
-Trump will appoint a very conservative justice to the Supreme Court.
-Democrat resistance will be hampered by Red State senators who want to keep their jobs.
-Trump will wage unrelenting war against the media.
-Trump will wage unrelenting war against the Federal civilian work force.
-There will be a comprehensive immigration reform bill that legalizes dreamers, contains employer enforcement mechanisms, builds a wall and forces Mexico to pay for it.
-Mexico will pay for that wall without any but the most pro-forma complaints.
-Most of Barrack Hussein Obama's legacy will be undone within the first 100 days.

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Write This Process Up

So working on World War 1990: Operation Pacific Storm, we're 35,000 words in. We've got the the New Zealanders ashore at Cam Ranh Bay and now we've got Task Force Australia off of Haiphong. The question is what happens next?

For a while it was blank, a big black space in my head [that's still there-Ed]. Oh ha ha, Ed. Anyhoo, after a few hours of percolation the contours started taking shape. An Australian frigate leading a landing ship ashore. The ramp coming down and troops jumping off and establishing a perimeter. Then comes a platoon of Leopard Tanks.

[Really, more tanks? Why can't you stop writing about tanks?-Ed]

I like tanks, Ed.

[I challenge you to write a novel without tanks. Just one. -Ed]

Shut the fuck up, Ed.

[Yes, Ed]

Getting back on point, what's their target? The SAS is taking the docks to the north. Ahhhh, Google Earth shows an airport just south of the city, the Australians will have to take that.

Now what do the Vietnamese do....

And so we're into it now, the Battle of Haiphong. The more I do this, the more I find most of the important stuff happens when I am not writing. That is, when I'm helping my girls with their homework my brain is processing the problem. I used to tell my students, read all the essay questions first, then answer the easiest and save the toughest question for last. You may not be thinking about the essay, but your brain is.

Heck, a lot of times the question is a matter of realizing that if one rates that A happens, then B and C must necessarily follow.

So Ok, the Australians are making for the airport. The Vietnamese would no doubt think the airport important so they'll garrison it. Maybe even have tanks themselves.

[Oh fuck, another tank battle-Ed]

I said shut the fuck up.

[Sorry-Ed]

Call me 'sir', goddamn it.

Maybe the Vietnamese stop the Australians who now have to figure out another way into the air port....

Ahhhhha! There's a problem for the Aussies to solve and eventually, a plan for getting into the airport. That ought to take 2,500 words at least.....

And now the damn thing is just writing its self. In the Stroock household we call it the' juju' and we love it.

Better get on that one:

Lt. Baker swung his .50 caliber forward as his platoon of four Leopard tanks advanced toward the airport in a wedge formation. Already he was suspicious of the tall grass before him. Vietnamese RPG teams could be hiding within....



Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Night Court

For the foreign reader(s) Night Court was an American sitcom that aired from 1983 through 1992. It was set in Manhattan criminal court and featured Judge Harry Stone and the people working for him. Here's the opening credits:

Those credits are crucial to understanding the show. Night Court takes place in a post 60-70's New York. The city is beaten up and run down. The cast is world weary and cynical, tough and cool. The late Selma Diamond represented this clearly and effectively:



Everything about that face and voice says 'tough old broad'.

In the court house the staff are surrounded by the cities' dregs; bums, drunks, hookers, flashers and the like. For that matter the courthouse itself looks rundown, mid-century modern scared by the New York of John Lindsay and Abe Beam.

I've binge watched a few seasons now. Its like going back home. When it aired Night Court was required viewing in Casa de Stroock. When I was 17 it aired from 6-7 on Channel 5 and then again at 7:30, on I think, WGN.

The show made John Larroquette famous. He won four strait Emmy awards for his work as the talented lawyer but rakish Dan Fielding. Behold:

Now, I gotta be honest. This show hasn't aged well. It's probably the last of the great sitcoms before Seinfeld comes along and destroys the old 'feel good' story arc.

That's ok. Its a bit of a time capsule of a New York City that doesn't exist anymore. I'm going to sign off now before I get nostalgic.

One last thing. As one can imagine, a lot of famous actors passed through the show on the way to their big gig. Terri Hatcher, Michael Richards...but  here's the best scene ever. Brace yourselves Sci-Fi fans:


Brexit, Brexit, May's Perfect Exit

Well, the PM made her Brexit speech this afternoon (London Time):

Theresa May has said the UK "cannot possibly" remain within the European single market, as staying in it would mean "not leaving the EU at all".
But the prime minister promised to push for the "greatest possible" access to the single market following Brexit.
In a long-awaited speech, she also announced Parliament would get a vote on the final deal agreed between the UK and the European Union.
I must admit that I'm a bit surprised that the PM is actually going through with the Brexit. After all, Prime Minister May was in the Remain camp.

This seems to be a simple case of Her Majesties' government respecting the voter's wishes. Maybe its because I'm just Yank. I mean, Barry kept getting walloped in off year elections and went right on doing whatever the hell he wanted. Nixon kept fighting until the bitter end even after he was impeached. He only stepped down because party elders told him to. After eight years of Barry pecking away at American political norms, I shudder to think what Trump is going to get away with.

The Brits put a lot more stock in traditions and norms. One of the things that baffles this simple Yank is the import placed on when and how a PM resigns. Fleet Street spilled a lot of ink on the when and how of Mr. Blair's eventual resignation. When Mr. Cameron (the wanker) lost the Brexit vote he resigned. No American politician would ever consider such and act.

We glorify out system in a way no British leader does, but they respect theirs more, don't they?

Monday, January 16, 2017

Monday (not) Metal Australian Edition

So naturally, given the focus of Operation Pacific Storm, we've been thinking a lot about Australia. This leads us to Australian music, and our favorite Australian band.

Being a god fearing, girl chasing, heterosexual American, for me that's always been AC/DC. I saw them once on this last tour and three times on the previous 08-09 tour, including the opener in Pottsville, PA.

Angus is not going to show up in Pacific Storm, and Brian Johnson is a limey, but I thought it'd be neat if Peter Garrett, lead singer of Midnight Oil and former MP in the Aussie Parliament, made a cameo or two. There's already a scene where a bunch of lefty cooks show up at the dock as troops are sailing off. Of course this happens in New Zealand, but whatev.

My introduction to Midnight oil came in 1988 when I was 14. For reasons we need not get into, I'm a little sentimental about the first half of that year. Anyhoo, here's the debut:

The song has a nice, driving bass line and I do like the overall arrangement. Peter Garrett is framed very nicely here. Of course, they're preening in the misery of others, but that's not my problem. I ain't no lefty.

Anyway, we;ll be working for a way to get Peter Garrett in here. In the meantime, enjoy.

Sunday, January 15, 2017

Referring Site of the Day, bad hair edition.

Damnnnnnn....Wonder what I wrote that piqued the interest of these merry-boys?

action.mediamatters.org

A few notes on Operation Pacific Storm

The 4th novel in the World War: 1990 series is coming along fine.

This will feature a combined South Asian force taking putative action against Vietnam. As the reader will imagine, the bulk of these forces will be Australian.

In 1990 Australia had quite an impressive military. On land they had one standing infantry division plus the capability to form two more. These included armored and mechanized elements and even an airborne brigade. Now, this was a light infantry formation completely inappropriate for the European battlefield. They certainly could have gone to the Middle East, but in the conflict the Australians were best used as a grand strategic reserve in case trouble arose in South Asia. In 1990 the Australian Army had decades of experience fighting in the jungle from Malaya to Borneo to Vietnam.

In the air the RAAF had two squadrons of F-18 fighters and two squadrons of F-111 fighter-bombers, making the RAAF the most powerful air force in the region.

The Royal Australian Navy boasted an impressive array of destroyers and frigates. The RAN also had half a dozen extremely quiet Oberon submarines. Now, Australia scrapped her last aircraft carrier, the Melbourne, in 1982, but I'm resurrecting it here. Melbourne could either carrier a squadron of A-4 Strike Fighters or a few dozen helicopters.

Australia also possessed an SAS Regiment, also vastly experienced in jungle warfare and special ops.

Now, a thousand miles to the East lies New Zealand. Upon researching their military hte author was a tad disappointed. In 1990 New Zealand had a pair of infantry battalions an artillery and armored squadron. In Pacific storm these are combined to form the 1st Provisional New Zealand Brigade. New Zealand had a squadron of A-4s  and a trio of frigates. Interesting, beside this neglected regular force the Kiwis maintained and SAS Regiment.

Despite their small size, In this novel, the Kiwis are going to be a lot of fun.




I have a Dream....

....That someone will make this commercial.

One of the features of American life is seeing on TV people dressed up like our national heroes and trying to sell us stuff. Every President's Day we see Lincoln and Washington hocking cars, or fixed rate mortgages or some such.  Every 4th of July men wearing tri-corner hats are offering us great deals on electronics.

Don't even get me started on Christmas. For that matter, why no Orthodox Rabbi's selling us cheap auto-insurance during Hanukkah? We have Christmas in July, why no no Hanukkah in August?

Do they do this in other countries?

Does Nobunaga sell deodorant in Japan? How 'bout Bismark offering 36 month financing on Volkswagens in Germany. Maybe Gandhi can offer Indian families package vacation deals to Bali?

Why not?

But my biggest beef is that this time of year there are no Martin Luther King commercials. Think of the potential.

'I have a dream....that every American can get a thirty year adjustable rate mortgage for no money down!'

I ask again, why not?

Friday, January 13, 2017

Magazine Publications: Vinegar Joe

Over the years I've published about a hundred magazine articles. This is one of several magazine articles I've written about the Second World War in Burma:

Nicknamed “Vinegar Joe,” Stilwell did not make friends easily. He detested the British officer class, which he thought was snobbishly addicted to pomp and privilege, and he was no fonder of intractable Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, whom he nicknamed “Peanut” for his chronic timidity and foot dragging in the face of the enemy. Chiang, he said, was nothing more than “a grasping, bigoted, ungrateful little rattlesnake” who was more than happy to receive American supplies and equipment, while letting someone else—the British or the Americans—do his fighting for him.

The piece was at first about the Chinese army fighting in Burma. Several divisions were present, including two of the best in the Chinese Army. The editor of Military Heritage decided this was too narrow a focus and wanted the piece to be more about the American effort and Vinegar Joe Stilwell. Plenty of info about the Chinese made the cut though:

Outnumbered and without air support, the 200th repelled several Japanese attempts to cross the Sittang and get around its flank. Over the next several days, however, the Japanese slowly ground down the 200th Division and by March 22 had turned both its right and left flanks. Meanwhile, the Chinese 22nd Division, commanded by General Liao Yao-hsiang, had taken position north of Toungoo, with the 96th Division following close behind. A strong counterattack could have stopped the Japanese advance in its tracks, and Stilwell worked desperately to organize one. However, most Chinese commanders were experts at doing nothing and had ready-made excuses for why they could not obey Stilwell’s orders. By March 30, faced with annihilation,an enraged and dismayed Stilwell allowed the 200th Division to pull out of Toungoo, leaving behind more than 1,000 dead.
This was actually the first of many articles I've written on the war in Burma. I've written a 7,000 word article outlining the entire campaign, Slim's masterstroke at Meiktila, Orde Wingate and the Chindits. General Ferguson, commander of the 77th Chindit brigade.

Also, I've covered Merrill's Marauders. Heck I wrote a novel about them:

Captain Kim Taylor has had enough of the Second World War. After Taylor barely survived the Germans in North Africa, the authorities found him passed out in a Kentucky barn with a mayor's teenage daughter. They gave him a choice, the Pacific or prison. Now Taylor is reluctantly leading a recon platoon with the 5037th Regiment (Provisional), the misfits of the U.S. Army better known as Merrill's Marauders....

Friday Updates

OK folks, the soft cover version of Castro's Folly is out.

Jake and Patricia is coming along at 42,000 words. Next week we'll be working on the chapter about Jake in Iraq in 2003 with the 3rd Infantry Division.

Operation Pacific Storm is 31,000 words. Basically that's the setup, decision making and gathering of forces.

Nothing new on Pershing in Command.


Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Writer Unblocked

I don't believe in writer's block. I am usually loath to tell aspiring writers what to do, other then telling them to write. But the one thing I will tell them, is that if you have writer's block, get out of this line of work.

I have about nine ideas I want to write about right now.

I have noticed that sometimes I'll be working on a scene and I wont know how to end it, or I won't know where to go next. Things grind to a halt. Back in 2003, when I first started work on A Line Through the Desert I decided this meant I shouldn't be writing about the scene I was writing about. The example that comes to mind is a scene where our protagonist, Jake Bloom, was jogging and fantasizing about his girlfriend and future wife, Patricia. I had not idea where to go from there and eventually axed the scene.

This was probably for the best.

I've had a similar scene in Whatever Happened to Jake and Patricia Bloom (or whatever its called). I should note that the scene is similar in that I don't know where to take it, not in that I have Jake fantasizing about Patricia. For a week I've been wondering if I hadn't taken the scene too far and needed to pare it back. We're talking several thousand words here.  Then I realized all the parts necessary to the scene were all there but just jumbled up. I re-jumbled them and voila, the scene works just fine and says what I want.

On a related update, this little revelation gets Whatever Happened to Jake and Patricia Bloom up to 42,000 words. Sections completed:

-Patricia home in 93-94 while Jake is in Somalia
-Jake in the Army Green to Gold ROTC program
-Jake in Iraq 2008

This book will basically be two sections, Patricia and break from roughly where A Line Through the Desert ends till 2005, and then Jake and Patricia in 2008, stand along.

The next big section to do is Jake in the liberation of Iraq with the 3rd Infantry Division in 2003. He'll be commanding an armored company (almost used the British spelling there) and no, he won't be on Thunder Run.

Referring Site of the Day

I am from Ukraine!

www.macro.ua

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

The Army Matrix Pool

Being something of a wargammer, I've designed three, you know.

[Why does it say 'Designer: Eric Harvey'-Ed]

Because Eric Harvey took the game the designed, made a few changes and called it his own.

 Anyhoo, I tend to look at world order of battle tables and think, now how can I get them into the fight.

The World War:1990 series has seen many temptations in that regard.

In Castro's Folly (this week people), we're throwing the interesting and complex South African Defense Force into the fight.

In Pacific Storm, the ANZACs are mobilizing, and what's the point of the Japanese having that fine navy if the author ain't gonna write about it. I mean just look at all those high tech (for 1990) destroyers and frigates, and don't get me started on that force of 200+ F-15Js.

Man, are there ever some orbat temptations in this universe.

I mean, here we have the South Korean Armed forces, the Israelis of Asia. What about Taiwan? There's another fine military. Why I bet their just begging to get into action.

Then there's the big cheese, the Sub-continent. India and Pakistan. I suppose I should call it 'the big samosa.  Both nations have large, well appointed armed forces (and nukes to boot).  And they hate one another. So we've got that going for us. Which is nice.

Why not fight?

Of course, in any Indo-Pak war taking place in 1990, the U.S. would be much more inclined to help Pakistan.

We learn from out mistakes people and I guess that was a big one. Of course, the Pakis were helping us supply the Afghan Muj....still looking for an upside on this one.

Oh the temptations. As the reader will see soon, we succumbed to them in Castro's Follyh.

Referring site of the Day

Czech tech enthusiasts:

www.tech-blog.pl

I like to think its because of Eastern Storm, but who knows. C'mon guys, you show me another novel that features the Plastic People of the Universe.

Monday, January 9, 2017

You suck, Media

For the last decade I've loved watching the media die. Its been a slow death, I wish it could be slower. These over-educated, self-important buffoons can't figure out why their industry is dying 

Via Instapundit we have this internal memo from the Boston Globe on its latest bought of restructuring. Here's my favorite part:

Newsroom culture. It will analyze how we can become a more nimble learning culture, with a collective understanding that we need to constantly experiment and change, tolerate failure, and become more entrepreneurial. This will require more training across the room, but what kind of training do we need? How do we transform our mindset? How, in general, do we behave more like a startup and less like a legacy company as we fight for our lives?
Workflows. Consider this the byplay between print and digital. What's getting in the way of us becoming a more streamlined and effective digital-thinking organization? How do we take advantage of every position we have? Again, who needs what training? Do we need a separate print desk? Can we free up department heads from the obligation of filling sections? Do we have the right technology?
Editorial mission. This looks at where we devote our resources -- and why? Should we still be covering the same beats we have for the past half century? Should we have beats? Should we have departments, or at least the ones we have now? Is there a better way to present our material online and in print? Can we get away from certain kinds of stories and coverage areas and redirect our resources to focus on specific aspects of greater Boston?
That's a of word salad on internal process, what goes where, who gets what. Process is real important here.

Now here's a clip of Tucker Carlson trying to get to the bottom of a story with a Newsweek journo Kurt Eichenwald:


Now, about the 3 minute mark he starts talking about how he was reporting a story, who he talked to, when and such. Again we see an obsession with process rather than news. In their world its the process that it's important. Eichenwald even says, 'I'm giving reporting process here'. Eichenwald spends six minutes trying to take us through the process. The end of this is breathtaking as he over explains the CIA. 

Imagine asking Eichenwald if the sun rises in the east, he couldn't give a one word answer, he'd have to explain the process by which he reported that the sun rises in the east.

These organization are the are news and in their minds, they are the news. 

Its not the news that matters to them, its the process by which they report the news that matters to them.

As the late Andrew Bretibart (PBUH) once said, dear media, it's not your business model that sucks, it's you that sucks.

Sunday, January 8, 2017

Rogued

So I saw Rogue-One on Friday.

First a bit of context. Alert reader(s) will recall I'm 43. Those in my demographic cohort know what that means. I had all the toys, I had the pajamas, the curtains, the bedspread. I had a pirated copy of Star Wars in 1980, nineteen freakin eighty. Do you have any idea what that means? It didn't even come out on VHS until like 1985. I can say all the lines in order with all the proper inflections. Not kidding. If you're a woman married to a man just a few years older than me then you have the Princess Leah slave girl outfit in your closet.

[No!-Mrs. Stroock].

Yeah but...

[I have spoken! - Mrs. Stroock].


 I was ten at the time I didn't really care and the Ewoks never bothered me.

Yesterday I took my oldest to see Rogue-One.  Saw the movie twice in eighteen hours. That's the third time I've been to the movies in the last decade people.

[So I guess you liked it -Ed]

I came out of the theater with my fists held high in the air, metal devil horns pointed toward the gods in ultimate triumph and proclaiming, 'rock on!'.

At this point I think a strong case can be made that Rogue-One is the greatest Star Wars movie of the five.

[Five?-Ed]

We don't recognize the prequels in Stroock Manner.

[oh-Ed]

There are lots of great characters. I thought the ass kicking Baze Mabus and his cohort the blind mystic Cheut Inwe were particularly fun and interesting. Forrest Whitaker should get an Oscar for his portrayal of the extremist rebel Saw Gerrera, broken and skeptical he doesn't know how to do anything but fight. The Imperial Director Orson Crennic was also memorable I felt. The droid K-2 lives up to expectations.

Felicity Jones is a revelation and this middle aged man has found his new celebrity crush.

There's a lot of clues and set ups in this movie that are aimed at people my age and people like me, I loved all them. Bail Organa is going to go talk to his reclusive Jedi friend!

The last forty five minutes or so, the assault to get the Death Star plans, well, its like Saving Private Ryan in space. Great combat sequences, exciting, detailed in the way I prefer, gritty. Lots of old friends show up here too. This battle is easily the rival of the epic fight on and above Endor in Return of the Jedi. You know what other movie it reminded me of? Serenity. I think there some derivation from Serenity to Rogue-One, and there's nothing wrong with that.

The battle is also unpredictable. The ending is particularly brutal, almost like a horror movie and this very nicely links it in with the beginning of Episode IV. Throughout, this movie is about loyalty and sacrifice and boy is there a lot of sacrifice.

This movie is tough and gritty. Its better than The Force Awakens. Is it better than Empire Strikes Back?...

Saturday, January 7, 2017

Friday Updates on Saturday

This was delayed because we saw Rogue One last night. We will be seeing Rogue One again this afternoon

Pacific Storm is 30,000 words and counting. We have the first part of it together, more or less. Our intro with the Vietnamese attacking Hong Kong and Manila. Prep in Australia and New Zealand. Furious meetings in Japan. Schemes in China (you didn't think the third world war was going down without China getting some attention, did you?)

Whatever Happened to Jake and Patricia Bloom (or whatever its called) is 40,000 words. Two chapters, are in really good shape.

We are expending some mental energy on The Austrian Painter about the World in 1964 where no WWI happened.

Pershing in Command. No luck whatsoever and we are wondering if maybe we shouldn't just put this out ourselves and be done with it.

With Pacific Storm I'm in a place where where we really feel the momentum, not only for this volume but for the whole series. Remember, I've already written the Final Storm. Honestly, at this point I just want to get the series completed and move on to other things.

Oh, the soft cover for Castro's Folly will be out next week.

Thursday, January 5, 2017

Ten Years On

About ten years ago a lot of things began happening for me. Going into the winter of 2007 I could look back at the last year or two and feel things coming on. My first novel, A Line Through the Desert was finished. I'd had a half dozen articles in print, including the lead cover story in S&T on Hastings and a few months later, Marlboro.

This was also the time, and I remember the next six months or so vividly, that I took on Mr. Mom duty. That's right, I was the stay at home dad taking care of our newborn while Mom worked. It was a cold winter, here in northern New Jersey, and we were stuck inside till about April, more like May really as in this part of the country April is gray and wet.

I learned the job and was lucky. Our oldest was a baby that slept form 7 to 7 after a few months. The first time she slept all the way through the night Mrs Stroock and I thought she was dead. But  the time she was awake, man it was tough. She was a hard baby, I realized later when we had our second, who just sat in my arms and spit up on me every five minutes or so. The oldest needed to be entertained constantly, and it was not until the winter of 2009 that I actually found something she would sit and watch without me, Monsters Inc it turned out.

Anyhoo, during naps I wrote. This was the time when I plowed through maybe a dozen magazine articles. These included William's conquest of England, the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia that year, Operation Defensive Shield, the Hezbollah War, the New Iraqi Army, etc. etc... I wouldn't start writing fiction seriously again till 2011, though I cranked out a short story from time to time. Some of these can be read in To Defend the Earth.

Well the oldest is ten and tween in all its glory and I have eight, soon to be nine, novels out.

Wonder what happens the next ten years.

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Long Time Passing... or Where have all the Babies Gone?

Via Breitbart (PBUH) we see a report on population growth in the US:

Shortly before Christmas, the U.S. Census Bureau put some coal in the nation’s holiday stocking. It released data highlighting a worrisome trend: The population grew a subdued 0.7 percent, the lowest rate of growth since the Great Depression years of 1936 and 1937. Declines in the birthrate and the slowing pace of immigration are to blame.
Key term here, 'Great Depression'.

During the economic turmoil of the 1930s people stopped having babies. This is nothing unusual. The same thing happened during the 1970s. In both cases people put off having kids because of general economic pessimism. Ok, at least part of the 70's baby bust was new social norms. This created a weird demographic cohort, Generation X. We are of course about 45 million people the first bout of offspring by 75 million baby boomers , millions of whom put off having kids. The author saw this first hand. When his parents took him to their 20 year class reunion n 1984, he and his sister were the oldest kids there. Everyone else had toddlers or no kids at all.

The Baby Boomers went on to have another 85 million or so kids, the Millennials.

I always laugh at cultural Marxists who think no one had sex until Woodstock because the WWII Generation was a bunch of prudes. Listen, folks, that's a generation that came home and had kids three, four, five at a time. And its not like they didn't know about birth control. Every GI and Marine was issued condoms with his K Rations.

Babies are a good thing, and in good times, people like to have them.

Another thing that makes me laugh is the economic argument about the 1950s. Lately the left has taken to telling us how great that decade was for workers, wages, etc. True of course, but there are several important economic facts at work here:

-A massive post-war infrastructure of factories and equipment
-Economically, we were the only game in town. We'd just smashed the number 2 and 5 economic powers on the globe, number 3 was about to go into steep decline, and number 4 was the USSR
-A population that for the last three years had been working good paying jobs but with nothing to buy and thus, massive savings
-15 years of pent up demand
-A worker shortage

That worker shortage was brought on by two factors, first there were at least half a million men now dead or disabled, probably closer to a million. That economic dominance remained until the late 1960s when Europe and Japan were back on their feet, helping give us the economic doldrums of the 1970s. Second factor, the baby bust of the 1930s.

So we have a big baby bust in America right now. Hey, just like the 1970s and the 1930s.

Still want to argue the Obama years were prosperous?


 

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Alt Right Dawn

Regular readers know I'm an unapologetic neocon . I stand by everything.

It's been great watching the likes of Milo, Vox Day, Mike Cernovich et all build this alt-right empire, succeed and win. I've followed Milo for a while now and during the last few months gotten into Vox Day and company.

That company is single-handedly building the infrastructure with which to battle the left. I'm talking here about things like Gab and Infogalactic. I'n on Gab, if anyone is interested and do a couple posts a day. Of course these mostly direct people to this blog.

It's great fun and the end result has been President Trump.

A word of caution though. A decade ago, going on a decade and half now, people like me who jumped on blogisphere with both feet. We celebrated our victory in 2004 (anyone doubting Bush's victory was good for all man kind should consider Jean Francois Kerry's speech last week). Later we went out and bought Hugh Hewitt's Blog and Glenn Reynolds Army of Davids.

Well, we resisted on our laurels and the left blew right past us. For a few months they were on the defensive and we thought we'd cracked the code. It ended with Katrina and for the decade the right, nice respectable Republicans like me were on the defenses.

The left - the Social Justice Warriors - they're back at it. There will be a response to their defeat. I don't know what it is. But if what the did to W after Katrina is any indicator, well....

Monday, January 2, 2017

Saving Private Abedin

Huma Abedin, Hillary!'s young lesbian concubine, is about to suffer the fate of all those no longer of use to the Clintons. She should ask Lani Guinier, Joycelyn Elders, Webb Hubbel, Bill Richardson and host of others what happens next.

Huma is about to be cast out into the wasteland by the coldest, most heartless, reptilian, ice-villain to ever slither out from under the rocks.

To be sure we are talking about a Saudi raised and trained of somewhat limited talents. Huma knows all the right people, in this case the Clintons, but they no longer want to know Huma.

Despite never holding a real job, and never having to make her own way, Huma does have options or option I should say.

Huma should run for her husband's old congressional seat.

Think about it. For starters she's got the Islamist vote sown up. She'll also has the self loathing Jew vote locked away. The careerist gals of her district will looooove this.

Think of the media bio: put upon, wronged woman runs for office. How many of the harpies reading the teleprompter at WCBS, WNBC and WABC have the same bio? I bet its most of them. The press is going to looooove this story. It writes itself, no? Lord knows these people can't do any writing themselves.

She'll win.

From there the options just open up. Independent congressmuslim. Permanent seat in Congress held as personal property ala Adam Clayton Powell or Charles Rangel or stepping stone to higher office. Two branches there, either mayor of NYC (oh there's a story) or US Senate. The later is a race to see who can get in position to replace Chuck Schummer, our own Huma or Web Hubell's daughter Chelsea.

Yes, your humble writer will just looooove that!

So go for it Huma. You know all the right people in NYC and the Muslim Brotherhood. I'll support you.

I'm Huma Abedin and I approved this message!

Monday Metal: Gridiron Edition or Thoughts on the New York Giants

See how I did that? This is why I get paid the big-bucks people.

The New York Giants are 11-5 and the 5th seed in the NFC. This is good.

They have the best Giants defense I've since since at least 2000, maybe 1990 (I turn into a sentimental fool over that team).

The offense is Eli Manning to Odell Beckham, but running back Paul Perkins has been coming on lately.

This team has an uncanny knack for making big plays. Just see yesterday's game.

That game, a 19-10 victory over the Foreskins would terrify me if I were playing the Giants. A game without meaning for Big Blue, the defense came out and kicked ass anyway.

They remind me a bit of the 2000 Ravens, great defense, bad offense, with the former carrying them to victory.

If this team won the Super Bowl, we would have to rate them as one of the great defenses ever.

That's a big 'if'. Win a playoff game first.

Of course in 2007 and 2011 I was satisfied with a single playoff victory. Look how those seasons turned out.

Sunday, January 1, 2017

2017 Predictions

-The New England Patriots will win the Super Bowl
-They will defeat the Seattle Seahawks
-The New York Giants will win a playoff game
-The Chicago Cubs will win the World Series
-The Democrats will chronically underestimate President Trump
-President Trump's greatest enemy will be the GOPe (Ryan, McConnell)
-Obamacare will be repealed quickly and easily
-Trump will get on splendidly with Vladimir
-Geert Wilders will be the next PM of the Netherlands
-Marime Le Pen will narrowly lose the French presidential election
-Someone will try to assassinate Donald Trump

2016 In Review

A good year, really. They'er all good years now which was not always the case. One day I'll have to write about that, but today is not that day.

Eastern Storm is out, as is To Survive the Earth. Eastern Storm did well while To Survive the Earth did not do well. I still haven't figured out why on that last one. Castro's Folly was completed (soon people, soon) while The Final Storm was almost completed (probably this year, people).

In progress are Pacific Storm and Whatever Happened to Jake and Patricia Bloom (or whatever it will be called).

Pershing in Command was finished and turned over to the agent. No luck there so far.

Washington in Command was begun

Interestingly I wrote and published my first two Civil War magazine articles, one on Sherman's March, one on the Grand Review.

This blog has done pretty well. Growing content and audience.

2016 was the year most of my political prognostications were wrong, except for the final prognostications on Mr. Trump.

My Trump headlines, newest to oldest:

Trumpsuaded
Up Town Trump You Up
Mr. Trump for the Win
Keep on Trumpin'
Go Trump Yourself

Thanks again, Mr. Trump, for saving me from President Clinton.