March Current Event Round Up

This is kinda a tradition now, where I do all the little observational posts I would normally write on Facebook, all at once, here, whenever I’m banned. (and I’m currently on my 12th 30 day!). So if you guys want to share this around over there out of spite, great.

A. The most important news of all, SERVANTS OF WAR is out now, and I’m gonna spam this one like my ammo budget depends on it.

B. We are going to do something kind of fun to promote SERVANTS OF WAR in a couple weeks. This will be kind of an experiment. I’ll talk about it here and Jack will talk about on the FB fan page when it gets closer. FB ruined Book Bombs, so this will be screwing around with other forms of social media to see what happens.

C. Okay, the big one. WW3. Last time I did an update post about this I said I’m not an expert on global geopolitics, and unlike most of the internet I’m not going to pretend to be one. And the only thing I know about military issues is how the contracts work and how to fix the DOD’s terrible spreadsheets. So, just personal opinion, while recognizing my strategic limitations so all the self anointed Von Clauswitzes don’t come yell at me AGAIN, real brief version… fuck Vladmir Putin. I’m rooting for the little guy and I hope the clock is ticking towards when some oligarchs get pissed off enough Putin “commits suicide” by thirty rounds of 5.45 to the back or drinks a polonium milkshake.

C2. By root for, I mean I think we should have a 4 for $10 Javelin missile blow out sale. We’ve got ATGMS! We’ve got Stingers! We’ve got bombs and more bombs! You’ve got Russians? NOT ANYMORE! Because at Crazy Lockeheeds, everything must go!

C3. By root for, what I don’t mean is that I’m going to be a hypocritical scumbag like Stephen King, and expect my countrymen to kill and die so I can proclaim my virtue because I Care So Hard. If you feel that strongly there’s a Ukranian Foreign Legion and they’re taking volunteers… Oh wait… No. He didn’t mean like that. He meant your sons need to “take those punches” (i.e. get shot or burned to death). Not him.

D. Now, what I do know something about is observing human nature in this country, and many people are dumb, gullible, and partisan enough that they’ll tend to believe whatever reinforces the narrative they want to believe. There’s also Neil DeGrasse Tyson syndrome, where being smart about one topic doesn’t make you smart on other topics. So they’ll make up some bullshit, and rather than adjust as more information comes out, they’ll die defending Bullshit Hill.

E. On propaganda and the fog of war. Duh. Of course it exists. Its always existed. Every side does it. The internet just makes it faster.
However all those “legends” the deboonkers are so smugly debunking… You kind of miss the point. That emotional manipulation exists for a reason, and its important. You just need to try and recognized when it is aimed at swaying YOU, rather than to motivate the people doing the fighting.

F. On that note, I wrote this on Twitter last night:
Some people – “You’ve got to recognize the propaganda war, man! Don’t get played!” Same people – “I’m gonna knee jerk react to anything George Soros is in favor of in a way that I come off sounding like a shill for a dictator during an invasion!”

F2. Look, I get it. When you find yourself on the same side of a debate as people you’ve seen be sleazy liars for years, it is going to make you question yourself. But even a blind pig finds an acorn sometimes. If George Soros said hydration is good for you, you wouldn’t stop drinking water to spite him. The enemy of my enemy isn’t my friend. He’s just my enemy’s enemy.

G. Kinda related, but this is going back to domestic rather than international suckitude… Joe Biden is a drooling moron. Everything he touches turns to crap. Of course we don’t want that jackass leading us in a war. Don’t let vile progs shame you as a traitor. War sucks. War extra sucks when your leadership is a feckless imbecile and all the same generals who got butt fucked in Afghanistan are still running the show. When nobody got fired for that mess, that’s a clue they’re not going to rise to the occasion in the future.

H. So how about that State of the Union? The most positive thing I can say about it is that whoever is in charge of administering the pre-speech dementia drug/stimulant cocktail did a better than average job. Good work, team.

H2. Sure. We’re enabling a war by importing like 20% of our gas from a tyrannical douchebag, but GREEN ENERGY! (rainbows shoot from Joe’s hands and a unicorn flies by pooping free healthcare)

H3. Oh hey, NOW democrats are totally in favor of FUNDING the police. That whole massive spike in violent crime, totally not their fault. Now that rioting, looting, and burning cities isn’t helping them by holding voters hostage, democrats love them law and order again.

H4. Also, as the whole world is watching the exact kind of situation the 2nd Amendment was meant for, Ukraine is handing out AKs to anybody with a pulse, and Eric Swalwell’s “your AR-15 doesn’t do any good ’cause we can just nuke Nebraska” argument has once again been demonstrated to be the stupidest fucking thing ever, so obviously Joe Biden wants to push more gun control “because deer don’t wear Kevlar.” No. But you fuckers do.

H5. And finally, after years of calling half the country racist nazi hatemongers, and the “plague of the unvaccinated” didn’t die during “the winter of death and despair” NOW IS THE TIME FOR US TO SET ASIDE OUR DIFFERENCES AND COME TOGETHER. I swear these shitheads can’t help but channel an abusive trailer park husband. I’m sorry I hit you, but you deserved it.

H in Total. Well that was something. The SOTU was everything sucks, but its not our fault. Here are even more promises to fix the things we broke… I look forward to the midterms when you fucking scumbags take the worst loss in a century, get kicked out of office, and die penniless in a hobo camp.

Oh who am I kidding. None of these people will die penniless in a hobo camp. That’s what all that insider trading is for!

I. On that note, even the Democrat’s friendliest polls predict a bloodbath. We are now up to 31 democrat congressmen retiring (because they get to see the accurate polls) like rats fleeing a sinking ship. And its only going to get worse because the last year has demonstrated to even the squishiest of fence sitters that democrats simply suck ass and everything they believe is wrong.

J. That said I fully expect the Republicans to totally squander this. You can never go wrong assuming they will let you down. How badly they squander it will depend entirely upon how well everybody goes RINO hunting in their states this year. And this is the year to do it. I’d like to see the Great White RINO go extinct. (sadly, Mitt is safe this cycle, and he’s the greatest, whitest, hair gelliest RINO there is).

J2. Seriously, there is change in the air. The GOP can usually be counted on to suck and fail, but even there things are shifting. People are sick of this shit, and I’m seeing more and more Republicans turning into a party of regular, working, normal, sane people. People who could be on an episode of Dirty Jobs, pay their taxes, buy guns, don’t want their kids taught insane bullshit in school, and don’t give a shit what color you are. I’m sure this causes the Mitt Romneys of the world to shed salty tears of sadness at their hedge fund board meetings.

J3. On that one, mea culpa, Orange Man. I got you so wrong in 2016. I thought you were going to govern like a New York Democrat. That was the second biggest political misjudgment I’ve ever made (with #1 being that Mitt Romney wasn’t just a ziplock bag of hair gel in human shape).

K. In local news, you all saw that school letter I wrote. (and by you all, I mean half the country now apparently 🙂 ) I can’t go into too many details, but good stuff has happened. You all need to get involved in your local politics and do something. Anything. Step up. Get the word out. This is the year for decent people to push back.

L. Did I mention Servants of War is out? If you go buy it Steve won’t have to be an accountant anymore. Won’t somebody think of poor Steve in all this? Accounting is hard.

M. Since we are talking about writing, holy moly, Brandon Sanderson’s kickstarter. He made like $13 MILLION dollars IN ONE DAY, selling 4 books directly to his fans. Wow. Well freaking done. When it comes to author hustle and churn, that man is the GOAT. He’s one of the only guys out there who makes me feel like a slacker. Respect.

N. I’ve seen some authors get depressed or jealous over someone else’s success, or try to turn it into an indy vs. traditional thing. That’s just silly. (my old pal the Guardian’s Village Idiot is apparently SUPER BUTT HURT but that moron is just sad nobody recognizes his brilliance, and he’s better than everyone else, even though he doesn’t actually write anything) Don’t do that to yourself. If somebody else makes a dollar they didn’t take that dollar from you. The pie is infinite. I think it’s kinda awesome. (and also, Tor had better be kissing some ass today, because if he sticks around there it is only out of loyalty/pity).

O. Justin Trudeau is really super lucky WW3 rolled around to push his stupid doughy face out of the news cycle. Justin Trudeau makes Mitt Romney look like a vertebrate. What a scummy little wannabe tyrant.

P. But for Americans, the real lesson there is the tactics that dirt bag used against the people who stood up to him. In the old days they’d just kill you to shut you up. Now they freeze your bank accounts and make it so you can’t work or feed your family, until you comply. They take away your voice and your legal ability to push back, taking options off the table until only the worst apocalyptical options are left… and if you use those, then they’ve got an excuse to kill you.

P1. All of these effeminate little sneering leftists are one bad day away from being Pol Pot. All of them. Never forget that. Once they reveal who they are they need to be driven from office and never let anywhere near any sort of authority ever again. They will happily destroy you and everyone you love.

Q. Okay, that was getting dark… So new episodes of WriterDojo every Wednesday! (little happy shameless self promotion there). The show has been a lot of fun to do, and I’m glad you guys have been enjoying it (and hopefully getting something out of it!)

R. Book of Boba Fett… What the hell was that? That was possibly the single most inconsistent thing I’ve ever watched. I can’t really describe my reaction as a viewer, because it was all of them. Binging it is like – Good. Good. Okay. WTF? Bad. Weird. Good. Awesome. Awesome. Cool. WTF? Dumb. Dumb. Seriously, Disney, I now you guys are an evil mega corporation, but you are a RICH evil mega corporation. Get your shit together.

S. Just so you know being a writer doesn’t just ruin reading books for fun, it also makes watching TV harder, because when you watch something that should be good, but the writing decisions are just stupid, you end up sitting there thinking of all the ways you could have done it better. Just be aware of that before you jump in on this career field. Its why I like to paint minis while I listen to audiobooks or stream shows in the background. I’m way less judgey that way.

T. There will be more info coming about the MHI game. I’m not ignoring your questions, its just that was a teaser and on a bunch of those questions the guys actually making the game are going to have to answer them. I’m just the dude who makes up all the crazy monster stuff. 🙂

U. Thought of another one, sign up for the newsletter. It’s ONLY book and merch related stuff. So if you are one of those people who loves my books but hates my politics (yeah, they do exist, oddly enough) the newsletter is only upcoming products and updates. And we don’t spam you. I maybe do one a month if I remember.

Normally I try to make it all the way to Z, but SOTU and WW3 got a lot of addendums!

Servants of War, On Audible Now
This is Comedy Gold

96 thoughts on “March Current Event Round Up”

  1. I don’t mind propaganda. As long as it’s either good quality propaganda or at least funny propaganda. I’m still chuckling after seeing the Odessa A** Bandit and the Shark of Kiev.

  2. Larry

    Regular people are fed up. They saw businesses and jobs evaporate when the Zoom class shut down the economy. Without blinking. Where I live the first shutdown closed the equivalent of 40% of the regional economy.
    And the damages will take decades to correct.
    Then the vaccine mandates
    So regular folk will elect those who don’t hate them and want them dead.
    xavier

      1. Wow, didn’t take long for a CISG to show up. Then again, I invoked the name of the dark lord, so I shouldn’t be surprised.

        1. As a long term poster here, I will say this. VD is a tyranny simp, and has been for as long as I’ve read his stuff.
          Putin is a tyrant and an evil evil man- because poisoning critics with polonium is something evil people do.

          Hint- consider Poland’s attitude towards Putin’s Russia, and why they don’t like him. I’ll stand with Poland and Ukraine.

          1. >Putin is a tyrant and an evil evil man- because poisoning critics with polonium is something evil people do.

            None of which has any bearing whatsoever on the question of whether Russian national interests are threatened by the prospect of a large, well-armed NATO puppet with American nukes parked on its border.

          2. AS to the whole Nato/ EU thing, maybe the Ukraine wants to do stuff to keep the nation that literally raped and murdered countless millions of their people and worked hard to destroy their culture for a few centuries out?
            And isn’t this invasion kinda proving the Ukrainian point that they can’t trust that Stalin worshiping bastard no further than they can spit the Chernobyl secure containment building?

    1. Ok, that was enlightening. Vox is apparently an anti-semite of the radical variety (ZOG? REALLY?) and is pitch hitting as a Russian propaganda troll….
      As an aside, I’m a bit confused as Vox calls the Ukraine government under the control of the “Zionist Overlord Government” (ZOG) but yet Putin lists one of the primary reasons for attacking Ukraine as being the need to “De-Nazify” the country…Jews are now nazis? Was ist?
      What little interest I may have had in his scribblings is gone.

      1. Look up the azov battalion, they’re not the worst of it but they are deeply embedded in the politics too. And yes it’s nuts.

      2. Overt Anti-Semitism is THE infallible red flag that a person or organization is evil, bad, horrible, no good, and not to be trusted. Period.

      3. It’s akshually ‘Zionist Occupation Government’, which gives a rather different flavor to the term.

        There’s no real contradiction there either. The Azov Battalion, who have played a major role in the fighting from the very beginning of the crisis, are literal cartoon Hollywood nazis, yet they are given moral and material support by both the Ukrainian puppet government (headed up by a Jewish president), and by the western powers collectively referred to in some quarters as ZOG. War makes strange bedfellows.

        1. Wondering why you think American nukes are a) stationed in Europe (your inference), and b) usable. Ruin 6% of the world’s wheat, and be identified for retaliation where the slightest flash will kill millions in panic fleeing our cities?
          The bedazzled smartphone you have isn’t giving good answers.

          1. We put Pershing 2s in Europe in the ’80s because the Soviets had nukes in Eastern Europe (I e. outside the USSR), and we wanted a bargaining chip so that we could negotiate the Soviet nukes out of Eastern Europe. The Soviets complained that we were imperialist warmongers when the Pershing 2s were deployed, but shortly came to the table to talk it over. There haven’t been any nukes in Europe since, outside of maybe one of our boomers making a port call over there (and I strongly doubt they do that).

            There’s been no serious discussion of putting nukes back in Europe since. Russian claims that the US would put nukes in territory adjoining Russia is pure propaganda.

            We did have nuclear artillery shells for our 8″ guns in Europe at one time. The idea was that we could hit an advancing Soviet armored column on the highway. The radioactive wrecks would be difficult to safely clear, blocking the road. The Germans weren’t too keen on this idea, for some reason. (/Sarc off)

        2. I give the Nazi thing in Ukraine as much credit as I give Lil’ Castro labeling the Truckers, or the Puppy Kickers labeling us, or the Trump haters labeling Orangemanbad.

          As for your acuhually about ZOG, dude, taking up a term used by the groups who proudly call themselves Nazis- a label with the full implication that an evil (((Jewish conspiracy))) rules the world and manipulates events (muwahahaha!!)- yeah, it’s not some harmless and useful label. It’s an unspoken affirmation of what those people believe.
          And experience has shown that people who do that will quietly Glyer their way into full bore Squad level anti-Semitism.

    2. I haven’t looked at his site in years. I can agree with some of his takes on publishing but I diverge on the world politics.
      Putin’s pure old school KGB Soviet. Of course Putin has got excuses for everything. The Russians were the world’s all time disinformation champs.

  3. Honestly, I’m worried that even supplying weapons to Ukraine will backfire against the US.

    The US has done materiel support before, in other countries and for other foreign wars. And it usually blows up in our faces.

    1. Best thing to do for weapons supply to the Ukraine is supply weapons and ammunition compatible with what they already have.

      In my opinion, that’s been America’s biggest mistake going into places like Afghanistan; teaching them our technological way of warfare, and then expecting them to have the education, infrastructure and ability to support themselves after we leave.

      Oh, and if you haven’t already, take a tour of The Ukraine via Google Maps or other app. Go to overhead photos. Most of Ukraine is farmland. A few moderate sized cities, a passel of itty bitty villages, some mountain ranges surrounding the country, and lots and lots of fields and pastures for farming. You know why Russia attacked in the middle of winter? Frozen ground. The mud in Ukraine has to be experienced to be believed. Drive a tank into a wheat field after a rain or irrigation, and watch it sink over it’s treads.

      1. They left it too late, Mike. All those pictures, there’s not much snow cover. Right now they’re experiencing the “still frozen a foot down, soup on top” conditions that make doing stuff in winter around here in Ontario so hit-and-miss. One day you can skid a log with the tractor, next day you’re up to your hubs in goo.

        That’s why all the Russian’s stuff is lined up on the roads and not dispersed into the woods and bushes. It really makes me question the competence of their leadership, know what I’m saying?

    2. To be honest, the amount of arms and other supplies we send to Ukraine is really irrelevant. We’ll be high on the list of evil countries to blame anyway. The interesting development with the EU is (IMO) the more significant as Ukraine has applied for EU membership which has already been voted on and approved. I’m thinking that part of the reason for all the weapons and othr supplies going to Ukraine is that the EU wants Ukraine to survive long enough to be a member so that the EU (and not necessarily NATO) can chime in on the situation since Ukraine will have become EU territory and requiring assistance from member nations. If I’m off base with this idea I’d like to hear alternative viewpoints.

      1. The vote is not binding, nor are the promises that have been made so far.
        The European Parliament has much less power than the parliament of a real country (not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, probably a good thing). Their vote is just a show of support. As for the declarations of the chief of the EU, that Ukraine is one of us and we want them in the EU, they can be interpreted in the same way, as encouragement. It is not in any case a decision to throw open the gates.
        It is possible that the decision has been taken, but the leaders of the main European countries (France and Germany) have not announced their support yet, so it is not clear. Even if the decision has been taken, it will take many years until Ukraine actually joins the EU, as joining is a long and arduous process.
        It is equally likely that there will only be an EU-Ukraine partnership.
        In absolutely no way will Ukraine join the EU before the current war is over.

  4. I just looked at Sanderson’s Kickstarter, and it’s now over $16 million. There are 29 days left: how high will it get? He can spend a ton to deliver high quality and still make money out of this. Amazing.

    1. Agreed with Carlos as well, just checked, in the time I was reading the two newest blog posts, and as I type this, it’s at 17,099,203, and that’s “only” 67033 fans. Heck I’m still listening to his video on it right now.

      Just got Servants of War, get some ammo on me and thank you sir! Gotta finish the newest John Van Stry books (oh look he commented down below) first. God I love this blog.

      Only books I’ve read by Sanderson was the end of the Jordan Wheel of time series. which was pretty good to be fair. I swear he had a spreadsheet of names and column for ending of “good/bad/meh” and Bela the horse went home and never spoke of her adventures. Or as a commenter made on that comment to me years ago, Bela was “The Creator” and that’s why she never said anything.

  5. One comment re: SOTU.

    I find it interesting that the solution to every problem the US has is always more Government control and more Government spending.

    Want to stop crime, spend more.
    Want to vote, Government control.
    Want nice borders, control and spending
    Want lower inflation, increase spending, and price controls
    Want cheaper medicines, control/spending
    Want less control and less spending, increase control and spending.

  6. “You all need to get involved in your local politics and do something. Anything. Step up. Get the word out. This is the year for decent people to push back.”

    Running for town select board again this year. (Got beat by about 180 votes last year.) Allegedly this level of election is “non-partisan”, but that’s pure hooey. I’m the only conservative Republican in the race, and I’m facing 3 prog-soc Dems for the two seats open. At least it’s not as looney as our school board election (2 seats, 7 contenders: 4 Dems, only 2 conservatives and 1libertarian anarchist.)

    And yeah, if I win, I get to spend 20-30 hours a week, with no compensation (other than some personal pride), where at LEAST half the people I’m working for will hate my guts.

    Do the job: keep taxes as low as possible, avoid regulating anything that ain’t broke (and let the people fix it themselves if it is), and stop telling property owners what they can’t do with their own property.

  7. Larry, interesting that Farcebook gave you a 30-day right when your book was coming out, eh? One might suspect some sort of, I don’t know, partisanship on their end?

    Re: Justin Trudeau, in news from the front as it were, there are still a few trucks driving around Ontario today with “Truck Trudeau!” signs and Canadian flags flying. The resistance didn’t go away when they towed all the rigs in Ottawa, they just kinda flowed like water and now they’re everywhere.

    Watching the Canadian government react to Ukraine has been interesting, because we just got to watch them react to the Freedom Convoy. The same faces that lied and lied and LIED about the convoy are out there again, soberly laying down all the “truths” that we are supposed to line up and support.

    The thing is, while watching them lie when you -know- what happened is stressful, but watching them lie when you don’t know what happened is excruciating. I mean, they might even be not-lying. That does seem unlikely, but we don’t know.

    Not to put too fine a point on it, Canada buys $500,000,000/yr of crude oil and gas from Russia, to supply the East Coast of Canada. We have out own oil wells and refineries on the East Coast. We have more oil than Saudi Arabia out West. There was going to be a pipeline project so we could be energy self-sufficient, and the Liberals killed it.

    So the trucks are still honking and the flags are still flying, just not on the Canadian media. The whole country is getting a 30-day timeout from Shiny Pony.

  8. When it comes to writing, always let the success of others INSPIRE you. Because now you have seen what can be done.
    So go after it.

    People who read don’t just read one author and then set down the book and refuse to read until the next one comes out. They read constantly. Which means no single author can answer the demand that exists. No single publisher can even do that!

    1. I like seeing other authors succeed, because happy readers are more willing to throw money to authors. Especially if $FAVORITE AUTHOR$ can’t keep up with demand. We aren’t all Chris Nuttall or Danielle Steele. (I’m not a fan of romance, but dang I admire her work ethic.)

  9. Larry,
    I think it would be pretty cool if you were able to use kickstarter to get a book of the month club going. Sanderson has definitely shown that publishing books via that platform can lead to success. I think it would be really cool if you got some of your author friends together (hi Steve) and everyone contributed one book. Use some of the big names to generate interest, and it could bring readers to some of the newer authors. You could sell it as an anthology on steroids if you went for an overarcing theme. Or maybe have an anthology for the last book where everyone writes a short story from another author’s book. It would probably be a lot of work, but I think a lot of fans would jump on the idea with credit cards held in supplication.

  10. I’m surprised you didn’t mention your new collaboration book Servants of War that is out now.

  11. Book of Boba Fett – it wasn’t as publicized as it should be, but that was Mandalorian season 2.5. It was never meant to be a standalone show. If more people had known that, expectations might have been managed.

    Russia is a major supplier of every crop nutrient, so prepare for pain. Nitrogen price is up 3x. Phosphorus 2x. Blue Diamond Farming owner putting out big warnings. International Trade Commission has tariffs in place that created monopolies.

    If you really want to keep track of the energy in the Republican populists vs the Establishment is, I encourage everyone to watch speakers at CPAC. They host a free livestream during the con, plus you can find panel videos on Youtube etc. Trump was a guest at CPAC years before he ever contemplated running for president. CPAC Florida was just this past weekend and CPAC Dallas is in early August.

    SOTU – didn’t watch. Commentary on it later was enough.

    Sanderson Kickstarter – author group pointed it out last night and it was well over $14 mil and growing by the second. The ticker kept updating constantly. Interestingly – apparently, the success of his previous Kickstarter gave customers more confidence in small author-run campaigns. It made Kickstarter a more viable platform for fiction authors.

  12. LOL, you’re definitely on a roll today! And yes, kudos to Brandon S! And of course Scalzi tried a little of his usual passive/aggressive BS about the Kickstarter! Grrr…

    1. Heh. Scalzi is upset about Brandon making bank instead of him? I didn’t see that but it makes me laugh. (I got reminded the other night that Brandon and Scalzi were both up for the Campbell for best new writer at the same time, and Scalzi won) 🙂
      I’m cheering him on. I hope he breaks 30 million.

      1. Scalzi is claiming Sanderson benefited from “white privilege”.

        No. Sanderson benefits from great imagination, hard work and a big fanbase. Scalzi should look into it.

        1. Seriously?
          White privilege?
          Hahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahaa
          hahahahah
          ahahahahahah
          ahahah
          Oh man that’s awesome.

          Yes. The dude raised like 17 million bucks so far because he’s white. That’s the ticket.
          By that logic then Scalzi should do a kickstarter because he’s like the whitest dude I’ve ever seen. He’d make billions.

          1. I did some digging and Scalzi’s exact words are:

            “Before anyone else mentions it, yes, indeed, Brandon also benefits from operating on the Lowest Difficulty Setting of life, here in the US, and its entirely possible some opportunities were open to him as a straight white male that weren’t open to others (and still might not be in many ways).

            Update: This comment has made some of the Usual Suspects very salty. My frothy little dudes, being a straight white male gives you a leg up in this society, yes, still, stop pretending otherwise.”

          2. If by salty he means anybody with a functioning brain thinks that sounds like some asinine posturing from a dude who is whiter than mayonnaise, sure. Run with that.

          3. Something else that “gives you a leg up in life” is the ability to crank out product at a preternatural rate. Sanderson has that because he writes all. The. Time.

            He’s a guy who wrote 13 books before he sold his first one, and averages two thousand words a day, every day. He’s built a loyal fanbase over the years with all of that output. So now that he’s produced four EXTRA novels over the past couple years, he and his fans get to reward each other. He gets money; they get surprise novels and swag.

            Personally, I haven’t checked out his stuff yet (I’m more sci-fi and urban fantasy than high fantasy), but I have admired his sheer ability to perform for a long time.

  13. On Book of Boba Fett: The thing that just destroys the visuals is EVERYTHING being 100% clean and in perfect shape on the one planet that should not be the case. Look at a publicity still from the OT, and Boba Fett’s gear clearly looks like it has been through hell, but in Disney’s trash even the clothing on literal corpses are in pristine condition. One of the key parts of the OT’s visual design was that the world was “lived in” and had wear and tear.

  14. As for the WriterDojo episode: I’ve learned the following speakers thing from various free to attend (Minus lunch. Whole thing is sponsored by various vendors.) localish trade conventions. 100% agree and can safely say it applies to more than writing.

    And on the rambly professionals: I’m reminded of Jerry Miculek talking about anything other than Jerry Miculek. He is a fantastic shooter, but he is a TERRIBLE teacher and a great example of how someone can be very good at something and not able to teach it. I’ve noticed that a lot of my favorite YouTube channels have presenters with some kind of instructional background, even if that has NOTHING to do with the subject they’re doing videos on (like the former Navy helicopter instructor who has comprehensive videos on historical armor).

  15. Just purchased Servants of War. Really looking forward to this.

    Congratulations on the pushback against the school board. Seriously – eff these people.

    On Ukraine, respectfully disagree. Ukraine is a vile little crime state being used as a base of operations (money laundering, human trafficking) by the same disgusting globalist psychopaths that have been wrecking the West for decades. Moreover, Russia has every bit as much right to prevent NATO from swallowing Ukraine as the US did to prevent Russian nukes from being installed in Cuba back in the 60s. This whole thing could have been prevented if our ruling class had exercised a modicum of good judgement and trustworthiness. But where even the Soviet politburo eventually saw sense and blinked during the Cuban Missile Crisis, our elite have consistently behaved like petulant, spoiled, evil children and it has brought us to the brink of a great power war with a nuclear state.

    Putin may not be a nice man, but he’s one of the only, perhaps the only, world leaders with the capacity to give the Davos crew a black eye. At the end of the day, my hatred for our own elites is much, much stronger than distaste over his tactics. Putin never shoved CRT down my throat; he didn’t shut down the economy over a cold and try to get me fired for not getting vaxxed; he didn’t force our kids to wear masks for two years, when they weren’t being “educated” over zoom; he didn’t close Canada’s border and keep me from seeing my family for two years; he didn’t steal the US election; he didn’t flood the media with 4 years of “Trump is a Russian puppet” lies; he didn’t destroy US and Canadian energy independence; he didn’t burn down American cities over Fentanyl Floyd’s drug overdose; he didn’t cause the opioid epidemic that is rotting out the heart of America; he didn’t throw open the borders and bury western countries under mass immigration.

    But now I’m supposed to forget all of that because le ebil Russian Hitler has invaded a Davos puppet state, and rally to the flag our leaders habitually mock and burn?

    Nah.

    1. Your Cuban missile comparison doesn’t work. Nobody was trying to put nukes into Ukraine. Meanwhile, even as people were making that excuse Putin has put nukes in Belarus.
      And everything else you said, see what I said above about not drinking water to spite George Soros.

      1. Ukraine isn’t yet a NATO member, so not eligible to host nukes. My read is that part of the Russian motivation was forestalling that possibility (aside from obvious others, like natural gas reserves, water for Crimea which Ukraine cut off from the 2 million people living there, and narrowing the entrance into the Eurasian steppe). But I’m not going to pretend I’ve got a direct line to the Kremlin; this is just me playing armchair Clausewitz.

        As far as the Soros/Schwab/Biden/Trudeau axis, different priors I guess. They’ve lied so much that if they said water is wet I’d have to dip my hand in some to check if that was still true.

    2. “prevent NATO from swallowing Ukraine…”?

      Seriously!?

      You make it sound as if the US is bullying nations into joining NATO. “Join NATO or else!” Or that, say, Romania would be prohibited from leaving NATO if it decided to do so.

      As for the rest, Putin attempts to foment political chaos in the US. He’ll back anything he thinks will divide this country. During the big investigation into Russian political expenditures in the US, it was discovered that on at least one occasion the Russians helped to finance two competing demonstrations, on opposite sides of an issue, both being held in the same city and on the same day. If Putin isn’t quietly financing CRT-advocacy groups, it’s only because he thinks they already have enough money.

      1. Ya mean that the Russians- former home of the Comintern and decades of subversion and propaganda- run by an ex KGB guy JUST MIGHT BE LYING!!!!
        And the country who is still sponsoring, aiding, and abetting Soviet oppressive crapholes like Venezuela might not be the good guy!!!
        How dare you! Imma go read some neo-Tankie news sites about how Putin is a good guy now, because reasons.

    3. @John Carter

      “On Ukraine, respectfully disagree. Ukraine is a vile little crime state being used as a base of operations (money laundering, human trafficking) by the same disgusting globalist psychopaths that have been wrecking the West for decades. . . . This whole thing could have been prevented if our ruling class had exercised a modicum of good judgement (sic) and trustworthiness.”

      I agree with you. People who do not trust the MSM to report the truth on Trump slavishly follow the MSM reports from Ukraine. Neither the left nor the right media report from Russia. Few in the US know that Ukraine shelled the ethnic Russians in Lugansk and Donbass for months. Putin said, “Hey! Stop that. Let’s talk this out.” In diplomatic terms, Zelensky replied, “Go fuck yourself.”

      1. I’ve heard a different version. Those ‘ethnic Russians’ were actual Russians, instigators sent by Putin to pose as ‘separatists’, stir up trouble and then cry for ‘help’ to end their ‘oppression’.

        The same old Soviet game the KGB spent decades perfecting. Good thing they’re gone, eh? What’s that? Putin was a KGB thug? Well, now, ain’t that interesting?
        ———————————
        Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!!

        1. @Imaginos1892

          When I did this for a living, I would have taken your position, examined it, and discarded it with arguments against it. Which is more likely to be true? That hundreds of thousands of Russians were stuck in the Kleptocracy of Ukraine after the Fall of the Soviet Union (FOTUS)? Or that Putin conscripted half a million Russians, trained them secretly, furnished them with forged Ukrainian identity papers, and they infiltrated the border in order to instigate a separation movement in Lugansk and Donbass?
          Like Joe Rochefort said, “Well, you may be right, but that would be like doing a tonsillectomy through the rectum.”

          1. No. What happened was after the Holodomor, Russia moved in Russians where there were only dead bodies left. Then over time they moved in MORE Russians. Especially when ‘disidents’ were sent to Gulag. Russians were moved in.

            There are far fewer than half a million separatists. That’s another pretty standard maneuver, toss on an extra zero or so to make your numbers look better. Russia’s been doing it for decades. So do the Sheiks in Iraq. Say they have 10,000 men? Probably have 1,000 max. Another method is to take the total population and say they’re TOTALLY for it because you polled 10 of them (all your shills) and they all were rabid secessionists.

            The Russians did this EXACT same thing in Georgia in ’08. In Africa through out the Soviet Union. In the ‘Stans ditto. This is their favorite tactic. They set it up almost automatically then funnel in their own rabble rousers or buy off the corrupt end of locals.

          2. Adding a caveat: In Africa they didn’t send in Russians as population. They simply picked the side they thought would be favorable and sent in rabble rousers to put them in power, but that was the only step they skipped.

          3. @Wyrd Bard

            “There are far fewer than half a million separatists.”

            I believe you, O Voice of Wisdom, but let us verify.

            I found that the current population of Lugansk is 399,559. Call it 400,000. In Lugansk, the proportion of Ukraines to Russians is 3:2. So we have 160,000 Russians in Lugansk. Let’s round down to 150,000 so that we do not overstate the number of Russians in Lugansk.

            The only population figure I found for Donbas was that in 1959 Russians there totaled 2.5 million. The proportion of Ukraines to Russians was 3:2, like Lugansk. So 3.75 million Ukraines.

            So in Lugansk you are correct, O Voice of Wisdom. There are not 500,000 Russians there. But there aren’t 500,000 of anybody there.

            How do you explain the 2.5 million Russians in Donbas, O Voice of Wisdom?

          4. She just told you, dumbass, Stalin moved them in after starving the Ukrainians out. That’s what ‘Holodomor’ means. More recently, Putin has been moving his bullyboys in there for years.

            Maybe if you paid attention to what people actually write, and learned something about history, you wouldn’t post such stupid shit.
            ———————————
            It takes two to make peace. It only takes one to make war.

          5. Considering that you have claimed that “Ukraine shelled the ethnic Russians in Lugansk and Donbass for months,” you do not deserve a response. Either you actually believe that to be true, or else you know full well that that’s a lie that Putin put out to “justify” his invasion, and you don’t care. In the first case, you are so naĂŻve that Putin could sell you a bridge over the San Franciso Bay and you’d believe him. In which case you’re not worth arguing with, beyond pointing out that you’re believing what Vladimir Putin is saying: ’nuff said. In the second case, the case where you know full well that you’re parroting Putin’s lies, then you’re a knave who deserves no consideration from honest people.

            But on the off chance that you just really are that naĂŻve: just because someone is an ethnic Russian living in Ukraine does not mean that they’re a separatist. Think about that for a minute. Then go back and look at what you wrote: where, anywhere in your argument, did you advance any evidence for how many of those ethnic Russians are separatists? And, even if you could find any such evidence, do you really think such polls would be trustworthy to take at face value?

          6. That’s kind of like saying there’s 9 million Mexican separatists in Texas because that’s how many Latinos live in Texas.

        1. That is a good question. I do not have an answer. I expect Putin has an answer. Not an answer I agree with nor find reasonable, but I am not Russian.

      2. Russia has its own puppet media outlets available in English via RT and Sputnik. It’s not as if it’s hard to get the Russian take on current events.

        1. Also, if Ukraine falls, I suspect within a year Moscow will be claiming that Moldovan (and possibly Romanian, though Romania is a NATO member that actually meets the military expenditures requirement) artillery is shelling the autonomous region of Transnistria.

          Assuming Moscow isn’t already claiming that, of course.

        2. @Junior

          Even CNN has a larger audience than RT and Sputnik. I forgot RT and Sputnik existed.

          Look, Putin is not a nice guy. His agents poisoned Alexander Litvinenko with polonium. If you don’t know what polonium is, where you get it, and how unbelievably dangerous the stuff is, look it up. Not gonna do your research for you. The KGB effectively put a flashing neon billboard over Litvinenko proclaiming “Yes. We killed him.” They wanted the world to know.

          We know Putin is a killer. So is Kim Jeong-eun and Trump met with him. Perhaps the world would be a better place if all the national leaders spoke only the truth and the boys and girls at the UN opened each session by clasping hands and singing Kumbaya. But that day is not today.

          IMO Putin is easy to deal with. He asks two questions: 1) Is this good for Mother Russia? and 2) Is this good for Russians? If you can show him how your deal satisfies 1 or 2, he will take it. If you answer ‘No’ to both questions, Putin will find a solution you do not like.

          1. #2 never gets asked. Russians are his tools and property. Which is why rivals disappear, newspapers who criticize him get bombed by ‘chechnyan insurgents’, and things like death by radioactive tea and 9mm brain hemorrhage are still going strong.

            Putin is a very different case than Kim Jong-un. Kim Jong-un was backed into a corner and Trump played on that, as well as giving South Korea the chance to broker most of the deal, which handily turned THEM into the Elder Statesman in the region.

            Putin isn’t a little teeny tiny country worried about Big Brother (the Chinese for N. Korea). He IS big brother and wants to be big brother for the whole world. He is Tsar Putin. And is continuing the Russian policy (both Soviet and Tsarist) of ‘the only way to protect Russia’s borders is to expand them.’ This is the same Bull they’ve been pulling for centuries.

            In Georgia there were ‘separatists’ and ‘ethnic Russians’ (becuase the Russians had moved them in as was their policy with any place they occupied.) Most of the Separatists had russian army uniforms or at least paychecks signed by the Kremlin. His miscalculation there was that the West in the form of the US would be too distracted by the ’08 election to care about a podunk little country. He was wrong. This time he waited until he was sure he could pull it off. He seems to be wrong again.

            Why are they storming Kiev? Several historical reasons:
            1) the Ukraine is the breadbasket of Russia.
            2) the Ukraine is where Russia first came to prominence as such under Vladimir the Great. This is a source of great irritation for Moscow.
            3) the Ukraine is a test run for how far he can push right now.
            4) the Ukraine is a distraction from domestic problems.
            5) the Ukrainians haven’t rolled over like they’re supposed to and this is intolerable to him.

            He’s an egotistical KGB THUG. His moves are straight out of the USSR’s play book. They’ve pulled this BS in the ‘stans. In Africa. Literally everywhere they saw an opening. It’s one of their favorite moves even though it almost never panned out the way they wanted

          2. #2 never gets asked. Russians are his tools and property. Which is why rivals disappear, newspapers who criticize him get bombed by ‘chechnyan insurgents’, and things like death by radioactive tea and 9mm brain hemorrhage are still going strong.

            Putin is a very different case than Kim Jong-un. Kim Jong-un was backed into a corner and Trump played on that, as well as giving South Korea the chance to broker most of the deal, which handily turned THEM into the Elder Statesman in the region.

            Putin isn’t a little teeny tiny country worried about Big Brother (the Chinese for N. Korea). He IS big brother and wants to be big brother for the whole world. He is Tsar Putin. And is continuing the Russian policy (both Soviet and Tsarist) of ‘the only way to protect Russia’s borders is to expand them.’ This is the same Bull they’ve been pulling for centuries.

            In Georgia there were ‘separatists’ and ‘ethnic Russians’ (becuase the Russians had moved them in as was their policy with any place they occupied.) Most of the Separatists had russian army uniforms or at least paychecks signed by the Kremlin. His miscalculation there was that the West in the form of the US would be too distracted by the ’08 election to care about a podunk little country. He was wrong. This time he waited until he was sure he could pull it off. He seems to be wrong again.

            Why are they storming Kiev? Several historical reasons:
            1) the Ukraine is the breadbasket of Russia.
            2) the Ukraine is where Russia first came to prominence as such under Vladimir the Great. This is a source of great irritation for Moscow.
            3) the Ukraine is a test run for how far he can push right now.
            4) the Ukraine is a distraction from domestic problems.
            5) the Ukrainians haven’t rolled over like they’re supposed to and this is intolerable to him.

            He’s an egotistical KGB THUG. His moves are straight out of the USSR’s play book. They’ve pulled this BS in the ‘stans. In Africa. Literally everywhere they saw an opening. It’s one of their favorite moves even though it almost never panned out the way they wanted

          3. @Wyrd Bard

            “1) the Ukraine is the breadbasket of Russia.”

            O Voice of Wisdom, I believe you, but let us verify this statement.

            Wheat is a winter crop. For the 2019-2020 year, Russia produced 77 Mtonnes of wheat. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/largest-wheat-producing-countries.html (The page gives Russia’s production as 77,000 tonnes, but that is an evident error.) That is 27 Mtonnes more than the United States. Russia exported 37.5 Mtonnes, more than any other nation. https://www.rbth.com/business/332948-russia-leading-wheat-exporter

            How does that compare with Ukraine?

            In the same period, Ukraine produced 29 Mtonnes of wheat. Total.

            Hmm. Russia exported more wheat than Ukraine produced.

            Tell me again, O Voice of Wisdom, how is Ukraine the breadbasket of Russia?

    4. “Ukraine is a vile little crime state”

      A statement of dubious accuracy at best, and even if it was accurate, the only thing that would distinguish Ukraine from Russia in that regard is size.

      And that laundry list of things that Putin didn’t do to you is also a list of things that no Ukrainian ever did to you either.

      Get over yourself.

      1. The only leader of a large state even close to Putin’s corrupt vileness is his buddy Winnie the Xi.

        1. Disagree–the worst Pooh has done much worse stuff than Vladdiekins, though that may be because he has more power to do evil rather than being more personally vicious.

  16. On S, not knowing why a show sucks doesn’t make it suck any less. It just makes figuring out why it hurts an exercise in invisible elephant groping.

    And if you’re the sort that spins out plot bunnies, you’ll be spinning them out regardless of whether you know how to farm them or not. You’ll just have a yard full of hungry bunnies and no idea what to do with them.

  17. C3 Agree. What is creeping me out about the whole thing is how many DC types are giggling about like a toddler who just got a new cookie.

    All I can think is they’re seeing skies full of dollar signs and speaking gigs at all the poshest events, and completely missing the “if we f- this up badly enough the whole beltway could be glowing by next week.”

    I don’t trust the competence of these folk to hold an orgy in a brothel, much less negotiate a successful resolution to the equivalent of a hostage situation with enough explosive to level Philly.

  18. Sanderson’s Kickstarter is at US$ 19,159,352 now and rising at a rate of maybe a thousand dollars per minute.

    Should break 20 million easily and then some; good for him!

    That makes it 5 million per book; that’s gotta be better than his normal fee already, right?

    1. There are 28 days to go. I’m having a hard time imagining where it tops out.

      I don’t know how much Sanderson makes per book right now, but even after production costs, he should come out of this pretty well.

      Good. He deserves it. Anyone who can crank out four EXTRA books because his schedule freed up deserves to cash in if he can.

      1. It’s slowed down a lot, which is to be expected. Most Kickstarter spike within the first day or two, and then slow dramatically. The lack of unlockable goals also means that it likely won’t spike again, as everyone already knows exactly what they’re getting from a buy-in.

        1. Just hit 22 million.

          Even after taxes, production and shipping, he’s going to be able to buy gas for his car.

          (Gratuitous shot at the current administration.)

  19. F2. The enemy of my enemy is just the enemy of my enemy, not an friend. And we have a metric shit ton of pudding-head enemies that don’t like each other.

    H2. Let’s cause more inflation and damage! Global warming is coming!!! (Even though the “green” whores/leaders keep buying mansions at sea level locations and maintaining the carbon footprint of a small city.)

    H4. Still waiting for that sweet deal on arms that the Taliban got when Slow Joe pulled out of ‘stan and left 83 billion dollars worth of war material.

    H5. Not going to make nice with the people that wanted to go Rwandan Genocide on my ass just because I didn’t fall for their stupid crisis tricks. Not forgetting or forgiving, just taking notes, collecting evidence and making lists of idiots to remember.

    J, Too many RINOs that have blackmail material in their closets and no balls. So much corporate and PAC money…

    K. Come on folks! Get busy on the local and state level. A small group of us got our mayor fired and a state law enacted to prevent conflicts of interest on the local level. Didn’t take much time but a few hours a month.

    Plus, have a backup plan or two if the “authorities” try to execute a digital kill switch against your personal economy.

  20. WW3: There are no good guys in this fight. Ukraine is the epitome of a corrupt puppet state that every western pol wants to get a piece of, Putin is a monstrous megalomaniac (wood-chipper material IMO), and most if not all of the Western leaders are treating the situation as an extension of domestic electoral policy when they’re not posturing for the cameras. Enforce no-fly shoot-em-own zones AGAINST A NUCLEAR POWER? WTF? ARE YOU CRAZY?

    This is a battle in a sty between a dirty vicious boar and the sow he wants to rape. We should stay the hell out of it as much as we can. It’s no worth a nuclear exchange. No matter who is at fault (and Putin fucking well bears the main burden of it) The US government NEEDS to put the national interest FIRST before doing something everyone else will regret.

    The situation reminds me so much of July 1914, the month between the murder of Franz Ferdinand and when the first orders to start mass mobilization were cut. Hundreds of millions of people watched helplessly as war-mongers, the feckless, and the clueless decided it was in the national interest to lasso entire populations of countries and drag them down into the meat grinder with them.

    1. Using the old Cold War playbook of supplying weapons and logistical support to Ukraine while hitting the Russians with sanctions seems fairly sensible to me.

      1. Agreed. After Afghanistan, I have no faith in our current military and civilian leadership to do anything other than defecate the bed. On top of that, their current pointless sanctions, refusal to reactivate the keystone pipeline, and shutting down Russian citizens’ access to Visa/Mastercard while not going after the oligarchs’ American assets, prove that the current regime couldn’t find their asses with both hands, a roadmap, and a compass – and incompetence is the absolute best-case scenario here.

        We need to give the Ukrainians the tools to turn Afghanistan into an 80s-style quagmire for Russia, but given all the other issues on our plate, that’s the most we’re going to be able to do.

  21. I’m sorry to say this, Larry, but I’m actually happier when Facebook bans you. I deleted my Facebook account in 2020, so I can’t read anything you post there. I come to this blog hoping that you’re posting your commentary here instead, and a Facebook ban means I’m more likely to get what I came for.

    I know Facebook is useful to you for promoting your work, but it’s run by evil leftist scumbags. So I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. The sooner Facebook collapses and implodes, the better off our society will be. But for now, it’s an unavoidable aspect of life in the 21st century..

  22. So, I’ve been advised that Ukraine has either the largest or second largest untapped natural gas reserves in Europe. Apparently the discoveries are big enough that if they get in production, Russia’s power base as an energy broker is over.

    The up shot is, ensuring Ukraine is either in Russian hands, or at least unable to produce natural gas is an existential problem for the Russian state.

    It’s also apparently very close to the existing pipeline infrastructure, so all they need to do is get it out of the ground and it starts hitting European markets.

  23. }}} (with #1 being that Mitt Romney wasn’t just a ziplock bag of hair gel in human shape).

    How about:
    “prevaricating humaniform ambulatory container of excreta”?

    Yeah, sounds about right to me.

    “bovine excreta” if you want to be more specific. 😛

  24. ive paused about halfway through reading this discourse to as a question( that may already have been addressed in ther second half) and to make an observation.
    first, the observation..
    this has been an incredibly informative thread with very low acrimonious bullshit..thank you one and all, im incredibly ignorant of the issues at hand and this has really helped.
    onto my question.
    ive heard that the 13th largest reserves of natural gas in the world were discovered in Ukraine back in 2012, and that this was a major influence on the last 10 years resultant geopolitical fuckery.
    is this in fact the case?
    if true how relevant is that in regard to motivations?
    please dont beat me up lol
    ( ps apparently one of the last comments in this thread brought this
    up. im eager to hear the replies.)

    1. Natural gas discovery is an unlikely scenario, especially how much push back the Nord Stream II receives. What would be the reason for both Ukraine, US, and Western Europe to scream that Nord Stream II is the control tool for Putin, if there were deposits just “ready” to be used? But to be honest, I don’t know. As a son of three generations of geologists I know that such things get either “Secret” or “Top Secret” designations.

      From my perspective, the single biggest reason for the war from Putin’s perspective is not allowing NATO on the Western border. The veneer of civility in this world is kept by the promise of mutually assured destruction. The moment the nuclear shield of Russia is compromised, it seizes to exist as an independent country capable of making its own history.

  25. There’s also Neil DeGrasse Tyson syndrome, where being smart about one topic doesn’t make you smart on other topics.

    Pleeeeease. It’s “Neil Dunning-Kruger Tyson syndrome.”

  26. By root for, I mean I think we should have a 4 for $10 Javelin missile blow out sale. We’ve got ATGMS! We’ve got Stingers!

    The 3d printer kids should be working on budget ATGMs and MANPADs now. There are other ways than shaped-charges to defeat armor, and other ways to deliver those warheads precisely into the commander’s cupola of that armor than rocket motors. I’m visualizing a mortar bomb guided by a laser designator carried by a cheap drone, my contribution to world peace.

  27. Is Servants of War going to be available as an eBook from Apple Books? I only see the Audible. I do see is elsewhere, but AB is the easiest for me to buy and share among the family.

Leave a Reply to Rusty Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *