Plotting…

Posted on by July 28, 2024

And scheming…

Or trying to figure out what to write next…

Two short stories done, now to see if I make it through the slush piles. The next one up is for the Tom Burnett Memorial Library benefit anthology, Cowboys which is due 30 September.

I’m thinking a 15 year old on his first cattle drive up the Chisholm Trail. Already got some good background stuff plotted out, working on characters to play with, and gotta go find one of my references about cattle drives…

IF I can remember where the @#$%# I put it… or whether I loaned it out.

It was great to see Mike, Nick, Sarah, Wally, Mechelle, et al this past weekend for a bit.

Now back to the salt mines.

And a little Navy humor for y’all. Jeff Bacon!

Oh damn…

Posted on by July 27, 2024

I need to sell more books!!!

Yes, the blued Colt Python is back!

  • Type: Double-action revolver
  • Chambering: .357 Mag./.38 Spl.
  • Barrel Length: 4.25 or 6 inches
  • Rifling: 1:14-inch LH twist
  • Capacity: Six Rounds
  • Frame: Carbon Steel
  • Finish: Polished Blued
  • Overall Length: 9.75 or 11.5 inches
  • Sights: Red Ramp front, fully adjustable rear
  • Grips: Walnut Target Stocks
  • Weight: 42 or 46 oz.

Sigh… I ‘was’ being a good boi and not spending money on one of the new ones…

DC…

Posted on by July 26, 2024

Is gonna DC… IYKWIM…

At least 11 anti-Israel protesters arrested in Washington, D.C., had their misdemeanor charges dropped Thursday evening, one day after protesters scrawled graffiti across federal property and burned an American flag in the nation’s capital.

The charges for the 11 protesters who had their cases dropped included crossing police lines and disorderly conduct at the protest attended by thousands in Washington on Wednesday, according to the Washington attorney general’s office. Additionally, at least seven people charged by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington were released pending their next court hearing, according to Washington Superior Court records obtained by the Washington Examiner.

Full article, HERE from the Washington Examiner.

If you’re from the ‘left’ side of the aisle, anything you do in DC is fine…

You’re gonna walk on those charges, as long as DC has any control. Where it gets interesting, is when the charges are federal, not DC Metro. THEN things become a bit more, shall we say, ‘fun’. Those charges seldom get dropped because they end up in the federal court system, which is an entirely different ballgame (or used to be).

Today, I’m not sure there is much difference… sigh

A day late…

Posted on by July 25, 2024

And a few million short…

California has nearly one-third of the entire homeless population in America. About 180,000 people live on the streets or in some of the state’s 1,300 homeless shelters. It’s not just a scandal. It’s a tragedy. And the major cause of homelessness is the cost of housing in the state.

<snip>

California’s homelessness problem is homegrown. The Supreme Court just did the state a huge favor by ruling in the case of Grants Pass v. Johnson that local governments could use “anti-camping” ordinances to clean up the unsightly, unhealthy, and dangerous homeless encampments around the state. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) wasted little time in issuing an executive order to clean up the encampments.

Full article, HERE from Pajama Media.

Two quick questions…

Where are they going to put them/ship them?

Who is going to pay for that?

The homeless ‘circuit’ on the west coast runs from San Diego to Seattle, following the weather patterns. They ‘winter’ in LA/San Diego and ‘summer’ in Seattle and Portland.

Most of them do not want to be off the streets, they are comfortable there.

This is going to be interesting to watch, and I’m thinking I’ll need more popcorn for this.

If, big IF…

Posted on by July 24, 2024

You are either bored, or need a laugh…

I was the guest this week on Writer Dojo. HERE is the link to their site, with the options to listen to the podcast.

We talked primarily about writing, education of writers, and being panelists at various cons.

Like I said, if you’re bored or need a laugh… sigh…

About time…

Posted on by July 23, 2024

Cheatle is gone from USSS, finally.

Ronald Rowe Jr., the Secret Service deputy director, was tapped Tuesday as the acting director of the embattled agency while the Biden administration searches for a new leader following the near-assassination of former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania earlier this month.

The agency’s current director, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned earlier Tuesday, one day after enduring blistering criticism by bipartisan lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee for the agency’s failures in nearly allowing a 20-year-old sniper to kill Trump during a Pennsylvania campaign rally on July 13.

Full article, HERE from USA Today.

After her disastrous ‘lack’ of testimony on Monday which was so bad even democrats were calling for her resignation, she’s gone!

The deputy at least has been on the detail (with Bush 2004-08), so he knows what it takes. And he’s been there over 20 years, so he’s got a lot of corporate knowledge. Let’s hope he can get things straightened out before something ‘else’ happens!

I wonder if we will ever get straight answers to ALL of the issues from last week’s attempted assassination, especially with the Fibbies and DHS effectively investigating ‘themselves’…

Sigh…

No surprise…

Posted on by July 22, 2024

Commiefornia strikes again…

California is awash in incomplete and misleading publicly-collected data, and experts say it’s letting policymakers and politicians get away with running the state into the ground.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao touted in recent months a massive decrease in crime, but it was later revealed that Oakland published misleading non-violent crime data by comparing incomplete 2024 figures with complete figures from previous years, giving the false impression of improving crime to policymakers and the public. The crime statistics in Oakland are indicative of a larger issue in the whole state, which has routinely used misleading and incomplete data to hide the magnitude of serious issues like homelessness, the COVID-19 pandemic and crime that have ultimately harmed average citizens, according to experts who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Full article, HERE from Daily Caller.

As is typical for them, there is NO accountability for anything that happens. It’s always ‘sumdood’, or ‘I didn’t know’, or some other BS…

Which is why my daughters are paying over $6/gal for gas, power is sketchy (but buy more EVs), companies are leaving as quickly as they can, (X et al), some in the middle of the night even.

And the drain is impacting their tax collection, insurance companies are quitting doing business there (too expensive), and law enforcement has their hands tied by .gov and the cities…

Sigh…

Can we just give it back to Mexico, build a wall, and be done with it???

Now…

Posted on by July 21, 2024

It’s getting interesting…

After days of saying he was ‘in it to win it’, we got this today!

He didn’t endorse Kamala Harris in the letter, that endorsement came later on Twitter. I think this was probably to keep access to the money in the Biden-Harris campaign cookie jar. If they go for anybody other than her, they lose the access to something over $200M in campaign funds (if I understand the law correctly).

It’s going to be really interesting to see who the Democrat party elite decides to run since they got rid of Joe. The Democrat convention could be REALLY interesting if they go with an open convention, with the most popular two running as failed candidates in November.

My question is if Biden has acknowledged to no longer be fit and cannot handle running for reelection due to his age and infirmities (which seems to be what he’s done), is he still staying on as President? If so, how?

Is there a 25th Amendment action coming?

Beats the hell outta me, but it is fun to watch the left absolutely melting down and somehow making this Trump and Vance’s fault!!!

YMMV, IANAL, etc…

Book promo…

Posted on by July 20, 2024

First up is John Van Stry with the fourth Wolfhounds book- War Child

As always, click on the cover for the Amazon link!

The blurb-

Speaker Phillip T Neill has finally gotten his hands on Chase, and he’s definitely got plans. First there will be a little lesson taught. Then there will be a show trial! A big fancy show trial with all of the media there as it’s broadcast live across the entirety of the Democratic People’s Republic of Solaria!

While the outcome may be predetermined, it doesn’t matter to Speaker Neill, he knows that Chase is a fraud and the idea of destroying the little gutter snipe before the entire Republic makes him smile. Then, after he’s done and the fake prince has been sentenced to death, Speaker Neill has a show planned for the Morgan pretender that the people will remember for a long time.

Of course Chase has other plans about how this trail is going to proceed, even if the ending is predetermined. One of those is to go down swinging, while exposing Phillip for the stupid and vicious man that he really is.

And maybe, just maybe, there are other people out there who have plans of their own as well…

Next is James Totten with the 9th in his Breaching series- South Korean Blues

The blurb-

North Korea gets real quiet when the Chinese Communist Party Kingpins die in an orbital strike from the US Space Force. South Korea gets presented with a once in a generation oppertunity to reunite Korea with Seoul in charge. Will crossing the DMZ going noth present that much of a problem? What can be done to prevent the NKPA from rushing reinforcements to the DMZ? The NKPA has special forces that can enter the South through invasion tunnels. What about the North Korean leadership and the nucelar weapons? Will the US get directly involved or sit on the sidelines? What in the heck is “Rapid Weseal?” Find the answers to all of these questions and more in this fast paced novel of World War Three becoming a global conflict.

Last but not least, Raconteur Press is out with anthology number 32- Or All Will Burn- At All Costs

The blurb-

Whether in a murky forest, the void of space, or under the bed, the innocent are often in peril. Hazards abound in the outer darkness and only a parent stands between it and their children. Here are tales of parents wiling to endure whatever perils they must to ensure the safety of their kids, at all costs.

Aw s**t!!!

Posted on by July 19, 2024

One little security patch…

Took down half the world yesterday morning.

A major cyber outage has grounded flights and disrupted businesses and media organizations throughout the world.

The technology glitch caused chaos on Friday morning with Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and United Airlines issuing statements saying that their flight operations had been impacted. Emergency response systems were down at police agencies and healthcare providers in Phoenix, Arizona, forcing some police and ambulance providers to dispatch cars manually, per The Arizona Republic.

Banks and financial services firms from Australia to India and Germany warned customers of disruptions.

Full article, HERE from Fox News. And HERE from the AP.

So, Windoze machines worldwide got the infamous blue screen of death this morning. Servers and who knows how many more machines???

And it’s not an easy fix. MS has to be booted in safe mode, then ‘cleaned’, THEN the new patch reapplied. That is not a 30 second issue.

Meanwhile, folks were without credit cards, ATMs, bank operations, etc. Soooo, if they didn’t have cash on them, they were…broke. Most folks ‘I’ know carry at least a $20 stuffed away somewhere in their wallet or purse as a ‘just in case’.  I know I’ve had to use that a couple of times when travelling and needed gas and the station’s credit machines weren’t working. I’ve also seen it happen at a major grocery store chain before too.

Much less the issues with airlines worldwide having to resort to…’paper’ to do things, and lines hours long with little/no results (and no hotel vouchers, so they were stuck at whatever airport they were in), with little hope of getting a flight anytime soon.

Microsoft has always had ‘issues’ with the kernel, which is usually what causes the blue screen of death, but to have a security update do it is… sad, because MS has NEVER been a graceful failover system since the DOS days.

Thankfully, MAC and Linux machines didn’t have the issue, otherwise, I believe we would have seen and entire world stoppage!

And I can’t help but wonder what some folks would have done with that…