Summer Reading
Vengeance and Retribution is now available. (340 pages – 90,000 words in length)Welcome to 1865 and the fourth book in the Duelist Series, written as historical fiction. This book tracks the conspiracy to kidnap and later assassinate President Abraham Lincoln, who has just been elected to a second term in office. As the year begins, the Southern Rebellion is exhausting itself as Wilmington, North Carolina, falls to the Union in February after Fort Fisher was captured in January, a month earlier. Galveston remains in Confederate hands, but the armies of Lee and Johnston could not be resupplied from Texas. The conspiracy to kidnap President Lincoln and hold him to ransom the Southern States has taken on new urgency. But will it meet with success?
Vengeance and Retribution is about the assassination conspiracy, the Knights of the Golden Circle and affiliated successor groups, but it is set on a larger canvas that includes European banking concerns. In 1863, the French bank Erlanger et Cie (based in Paris) sold a massive $15 million bond (about £3 million) for the Confederacy. Buyers in Europe could use these bonds to buy Southern cotton. Who backed Erlanger? The British merchant banking firm Fraser, Trenholm & Co., based in Liverpool, acted as the unofficial European bank for the South. They managed Confederate funds, financed blockade runners, and helped pay for Confederate warships built in British shipyards. Who backed them, or did they act alone? From a strictly historical point of view, the banks that backed the banks which supported the Confederacy from Europe and funded the Imperial invasion and (French) conquest of Mexico were hanging on a limb as 1865 began. Would the Golden Circle (which had morphed into the Sons of Liberty – Copperheads) by that time be able to pull off a miracle and save their bacon at the eleventh hour?
The duelist series enters a new phase in the era’s political intrigue. No matter how things ended for the Confederacy, the British, a maritime power, came out ahead. In Mexico, there was every indication that France, a land power, would also come out ahead. The bankers who pulled the strings would rule the world. Names are named. As always in history, unlikely characters are brought together by fate. How will a soiled dove, an educated Indian, and an improbable cast of characters imprint themselves in the tides of men and empires?
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The story is historical fiction and spans the period from late December 1864 to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln on Good Friday, April 1865. As I have mentioned, there will be a fifth book in the series – Interventions. I hope to have it out by the end of 2026. The fifth book will pick up where the cliffhanger ending in Vengeance and Retribution leaves you. I think it’s the best book in the series so far, primarily because the series is over 1,200 pages in total (all four books), and there is a depth of character that an author can explore when a series is longer. Many characters will be familiar to the reader as the plot deepens. As you’ll realize by the end of Vengeance and Retribution, the rabbit hole is even deeper ahead.
Bullet Points:
** The argument for reparations for slavery is presented. A discussion of slaveholding civilizations over history. (see more about slaveholding and Islam below)
** Boating with EdB (left) = More boating with EdB – h/t SteveH – what about fishing? Advice here. Case in point.
** How did that experiment work out, and what is our take-away from all that? The question you have to ask yourself is whether we EVER learn ANYTHING from history. It doesn’t seem so, does it?
** Why shouldn’t Iran (the IRGC and its millions of dependents) continue to fight? They are not interested in “deals”. The ruling elite and their minions view this conflict as an existential struggle and treat it as such. What are we treating it as? There is definitely a disparity. When the question should be, “what is it worth to keep Iran from getting nukes?” vs “a dollar or two more per gallon at the pump”, the answer should be clear. Apparently to many Americans, it is not.
** International virginity chart. I don’t know how accurate the chart is. (In the USA, under 18 is felony statutory rape)
** President Trump is racing against the clock with the fate of his ballroom tied up in court. He has enlisted a team of 250 workers to push ahead with construction 20 hours a day, seven days a week, to complete as much work as possible as quickly as possible. This week, there are plans to install one million pounds of rebar and pour 3,000 cubic yards of concrete for a project that is now two-thirds complete, the administration said in a court filing. Build first, ask forgiveness later… It seems to be the only way to deal with deep state issues. Question of the day: Is it better to ask for permission or to ask for forgiveness in the era of the Deep State?
** What happens when you’re a pirate and your luck runs out?
** Fauci aide pleads guilty to various charges relating to pushing the “natural causes” origin and efforts to discourage the COVID lab leak theory. We’ll see where this leads. (more here)
** Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) – please rise for the national anthem… Ok, taking it from a woman’s perspective.
** “All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.” -T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom
** Married life.
** Is it too early to start my Christmas shopping list? No, I don’t think so.
** Undercover journalist 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐎’𝐊𝐞𝐞𝐟𝐞 walked into an Anchorage polling place and asked for a ballot under the name of Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s own brother, Brian. The poll worker was ready to hand it over — no ID required, no questions asked (Gateway Pundit). Murkowski’s office didn’t say a word about the hole in its own state’s election security. Instead, it went after the man who found it: “𝘝𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘸.”
𝐌𝐮𝐫𝐤𝐨𝐰𝐬𝐤𝐢 𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐀𝐜𝐭, the federal bill requiring proof of citizenship to vote — the exact fix that would have stopped this scheme before O’Keefe ever walked in the door. It isn’t the first time this month O’Keefe operatives have caught election workers waving people through. Days earlier, undercover footage in Minnesota showed poll workers explaining a state “vouching” law that allows a single voter to vouch for up to 8 others without ID (Alaska Story).
** (ISW) Russian state-owned bank Vnesheconombank (VEB) fired Chief Economist Andrey Klepach following media reports of a negative economic assessment he offered that contradicts Russian President Vladimir Putin’s theory of victory in Ukraine.
** Did I just catch Spiderman’s girlfriend cheating on him? (Dune 3 trailer)
Meme of the Day
h/t Ian the Texas LawDog
Life in the inner-city eating bread earned by other men and showing gratitude.
Another Islamic Scholar Speaks
(San Diego, CA) A California Islamic scholar just declared that women captured in war become slaves who can be sexually used because the Quran makes it “halal.” Uthman ibn Farooq, based in San Diego, has taught that intimacy with female prisoners of war is not adultery or sin because Allah made it lawful.
The UK banned him from entering the country in 2025 over these views. In a video, he calmly explains the classical rule: captives become property and sexual access is permitted. This is not an isolated fringe rant. Similar radical statements keep surfacing. (Great find, Claudio) The Quran makes everything clear.
Identify the Ships
1 & 2
3
4
5
Monsoon for two months – continuing yesterday and today
Monsoon moisture continues to move into the area. Expect precipitation chances to increase over the next couple of days. I was going to the lake canoeing today, but lightning will continue and – yeah. It’s been a cool, wet summer in the Arizona highlands.
End
Identify the Ships:
1. SC-1-class submarine chaser. This ship was not completed.
2. SC-497-class submarine chaser
3. Flower-class corvette HMCS Vancouver
4. Bellona subclass of Dido-class light cruiser
5. French T-47 class destroyer Maillé-Brézé
In ten minutes, Surly. I thought that you might mistake the modified Dido-class, but you nailed it. In this case, it is the Black Prince. (Black Prince was loaned to the RNZN after the war and was briefly operational in 1947 before part of her crew mutinied, and she was discharged.) Outstanding.
Christmas wish list –
My father used to say I stayed in the Active Reserve (Australian) for so long because they gave me firearms M60 etc and supplied the ammunition / explosives. There was a degree of truth in that. Though I had a reasonable armoury at home.
I can relate, RCC. It’s always more fun to waste government ammunition than it is to waste your own IMHO.
One of several reasons I got out after one enlistment, lo these many decades ago, was even as infantry, I didn’t get to shoot much.
Air Force. Shot twice. One full auto qual.
How do they stay proficient?
Good question.
You don’t.
USAF GA Air Guard. I was Commo and on the Combat Arms team. I shot my M9 and A2 every drill weekend. The only time I did not make expert marksman was when the girl in our shop that doublechecked all outgoing paperwork and was responsible for me making E-7 needed help at the range. She shot my target and I shot hers. Her target had 49 out of 50 and mine had 6. I shot perfect after a remedial shooting class. We did not fool anybody.
Then there was the time I scored 66 out 50. There were also 30 strays on my target. There were 15 hits on the target next to me with 1 score.
I preferred the semi auto over full rock and roll or the harts and mind burst or let me find a M14. Make every round count.
Vengeance and Retribution.
Just purchased a first edition Kindle version and splurged on the audio for my next long drive.
Not sure if its a “first edition Kindle” but I just bought a kindle version as soon as I woke up! Please keep writing!
I’ve started on #5 – Interventions – and I hope to have it out in November. So much depends on the actual time I have available and whether I start a “straight” job in the next month or so that will be a distraction from writing.
Hard to get the kindle edition I just bought autographed, but it is easy to store…
“the Knights of the Golden Circle”
The first I heard of this was when I read Daniel Greenfield’s book Domestic Enemies: The Founding Fathers’ Fight Against the Left .
I highly recommend the book. I interviewed him on it.
Bruckheimer used that in National Treasure 2…looked it up and it was true. Thought it was cool he used actual history sprinkled throughout NT1 and 2.
We’re still waiting for NT3 and the answer for ‘What’s on Page 47’ of the President’s Book of Secrets. At this rate, and an aging Cage, guess it’s going to stay as one of life’s untold mysteries.
Have you seen Cage in Spider-Noir? I loved it.
Also The Old Way.
Not yet, in the Watchlist, good to have a reference tho.
President Lincoln: That is the picture we have come to associate with him, gaunt and clearly under a high degree of presidential stress dealing with more things than most of us could know, and it shows on his face.
***
Reparations: Yet another grift from the entitled 13% and their pandering political hacks…for votes that continue to keep that same 13% in soft slavery. No one in our modern era is due a damn thing from anyone else…get a job. (Micro rant)
***
The Big Beautiful Ballroom Build (B to the Fourth Power): Love it! Tell ‘em to suck an egg Mr. president, what are they going to do, impeach you for using private funds to fix a mess other Presidents could never do. That video of PDJT taking the “press” corp around the White House showing them the proper way to fix the mess other administrations had no clue how things should be, asphalt v. Granite, marble v. Whatevertheheck someone else installed…etc. Reporters were dumbfounded…because they have no clue what the trades are or entail, and executing a project build plan is as foreign as the moon to them. Same goes for these interfering judges.
***
Pirate: One word: Parley…because “they’re more like guidelines” 🤣
***
Christmas Shopping…Now THAT would have come in handy on the OC Boardwalk when as a 12 yo I was trying to shoot out the red star on paper to win the big prize…instead we got a BB gun and 20 shots.
***
EdB…Lookin’ good there my friend, and the Mrs. too. Keep it rolling…just don’t look suspicious when CBP rolls up asking what you are doing out in your [private] boat and to see your papers. Better toss some rods in there so you can say you’re fishing…and hide the mondo magnet used to retrieve ‘lost cargo’.
Ps. Farooq Needs to be tossed from our shores (preferably in the deep sea)…no place in America for locusts fomenting that garbage mentality. I will assume Democrats (not the least bit ‘democratic’) will give a free pass to this insanity because it works into their demented game plan of destruction our Constitutional Republic.
He loves Palestine. Why can’t he be shipped to Gaza, where he’d feel more at home? A one way ticket (coach) – pretzels and a snack on El Al Airlines.
After 9-11 I took the family across the Detroit River to Canada for dinner.
We looked up at the Ambassador Bridge which looked like a parking lot, but on the water we were free to go.
Weird.
“Question of the day: Is it better to ask for permission or to ask for forgiveness in the era of the Deep State?”
Ans: NEITHER: The DILLIGAF principle. Simply, do the thing. If you’re correct it’ll fly. If you’re not, it and you will crash. If someone is hurt, apologize (which is different than asking forgiveness from a person.)
PS Works in all venues except marriage….
Yeah…don’t try this at home.
Apparently I am a dangerous man.
*
I would have thought my daydreaming dangerous because if I’m not paying
attention, I might run you over with the bus, but Lawrence’s version is certainly
more romantic.
– Kle.
If you roll over THE RIGHT PEOPLE with a bus…it’s heroic. Instead of “One Riot, One Ranger,” it can be “One Riot, One Bus Driver.”
DO NOT lead Klebert onto temptation. He will righteously drive you headlong into it.
If you are PDJT you are getting neither permission nor forgiveness.
I tend to act first and maybe beg forgiveness later if it turned into a FUBAR.
It usually works out ok. Mostly
That Cruiser I told you about spent more time in the woods chasing whitetails than I figured. Pine needles everywhere.
A little rough but cleaned up nicely.
Mechanically very sound. Motor strong, tranny is smooth, steering is tight and 4wheel gear solid.
Skid plate has a dent but nothing like if it was in your neighborhood.
I’m impressed with it, really.
I love mine.
Marriage
Now I understand how the ex ruined, on average, two cars a year.
Exactly.
In 81 years I NEVER asked for permission to accomplish a task to accomplish the mission in my private, corporate or public life as a volunteer. I got a lot of ass chewings and wrist slaps, but kudos afterward. I always had my employees or peers backs as their leader. I learned early in life (at nine years of age) not to be a snitch.
Nobody appreciates it when you rat on them, and upper-level management may use a rat, but they will never trust them.
Agree with one exception; theft. That once bit me in the ass.
The company I worked for was owned by two brothers, members of the LDS church. One was a Stake President and the other a Ward Bishop. They were aware of the thefts but were handling it as a church matter as the theives were LDS. Pissed me off and I moved on. A portion of my income was the profit sharing plan while the owners raised prices to cover the losses.
I know of situations where family member employees did the same sort of thing. In one case, the family members were tasked to deliver food to sheep herders (Mexicans) and stripped the delivery of everything good for themselves. I knew the thief (a turd then, a turd now) and the dad who allowed it to the detriment of the Mexicans who wouldn’t complain. I have other axes to grind with the thief. I haven’t seen him for 50 years and it’s a good thing. I’d work to see him suffer if he crossed my path, which is unlikely.
Agree with one exception; theft. That once bit me in the ass.
The company I worked for was owned by two brothers, members of the LDS church. One was a Stake President and the other a Ward Bishop. They were aware of the thefts but were handling it as a church matter as the theives were LDS. Pissed me off and I moved on. A portion of my income was the profit sharing plan while the owners raised prices to cover the losses. I’m not talking petty cash. The thieves were driving down the railroad right of way and taking truck loads over the fence.
Woo hoo! More reading material!!! Re ibn Farooq, maybe somebody needs to take his wife/daughter ‘captive’ and enjoy them and see what he says then…
Ibn Farooq would not ever find out if the women could prevent it. Being raped is punishable by stoning.
Will review the book, which I’m looking forward to read. Vaguely on topic, more than a few of my church people HATE Lincoln, they really do. And, obviously, I wish the Sceptered Isle had gone all-in for the South. But they didn’t, now look at them.