All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!
The bosses of the Democratic party and the bosses of the Republican party alike have a closer grip than ever before on the party machines in the States and in the Nation. This crooked control of both the old parties by the beneficiaries of political and business privilege renders it hopeless to expect any far-reaching and fundamental service from either.
Theodore Roosevelt
If you’ve ever been into cameras you’ll notice occasional affinity between a particular camera and lens combo. One such pairing is my #2 camera, a Sony a7IV, a Tamron 70-300 f5.6 zoom. The shots are crystal clear, the colors vibrant and a nice smooth bokeh (the out of focus area). The lens isn’t expensive as things go these days but I consistently get great results.
That’s right get your free pdf copy of “The Sniper.” All that’s needed is to provide your e-mail address and view my harrangue at the end of the book to leave a review on Amazon. What’s fairer than that? Don’t answer that! It’s a rhetorical question as part of my sales pitch. Let me know if there are any problems with the download. This is my first attempt to use BookFunnel.
Click Here for Link to Sniper Giveaway
This is my definition of “old timey music.”
So, I’m making the plunge. I’ve joined BookFunnel and I’ll be running a giveaway for e-copies of the “The Sniper” starting pretty soon. The trick now will be to get as much visibility for the giveaway as I can. So, I’ll publicize it here (of course) and I’ll put up a post on X and I’ll tell everybody I can think of that likes this kind of story. My plan, such as it is, is to use the giveaway to garner as many reviews as I can and try to get the book more attention. And after that I’ll put it up on Kindle Unlimited to tempt the general public that tests out its fiction one page at a time.
Will it work? Well, I certainly hope it will but I’ll find out for sure whether I can interest the world at large. I was listening to the Critical Drinker interview Andy Weir about the success of two of his books being turned into movies. But I was just as interested in his story about self-publishing. His “The Martian” was self-published on Amazon and struggled to find an audience in the beginning. So, it’s kind of that one in a million-success story that inspires the other 999,999 writers out there toiling away in obscurity. So just to clear the air ahead of time, for the movie version of “The Sniper,” I want Adam Baldwin to play Bogey and Gary Oldman to play Cutter. Nick Searcy would make a good Chastain. As for Connors, I haven’t made up my mind. And the other parts are also up for grabs but definitely no Hollywood weirdos; that’s for sure. I think Christopher Walken would make a good President Miller. He’s always able to provide a memorably psychopathic character when required. Of course I’m hoping to get myself a bit part. Sort of like how Stan Lee always got a cameo in the Marvel superhero movies. Maybe I can be one of the clerks at the airport in Baghdad. I think I could really handle the part with style and finesse. Sort of a latter-day Olivier.
But I will say it is a little discouraging to see just how much grunt work there is in navigating the world of self-publishing. The experts don’t really seem to know that much more than the people wandering around in the dark like me. Sure, they have a sense of things like keywords and how to attach to other books that are already popular but it doesn’t seem like they can tap into any magic formula for shining a spotlight on a new book. It reminds me of that Glenn Campbell song “Rhinestone Cowboy,” “Where hustle’s the name of the game and nice guys get washed away by the snow and the rain.” Of course, that’s a little dramatic because I’m doing this from the comfort of my dining room where it’s relatively warm and dry. But metaphorically I’m pounding that digital pavement so I can sing the blues along with Mr. Campbell.
The worst lesson that can be taught to a man is to rely upon others and to whine over his sufferings
Theodore Roosevelt
I am fascinated by the spectacle of the deep blue states like California and New York. These places are something like 60% Democrat, 40% Republican so there is no meaningful hope of conservative policies being enacted. Even when they elect a Republican as governor it’s with a Democrat super-majority in the legislative houses. So, nothing will change the social policies and even the ruinous fiscal policies can only be tweaked slightly because the public sector unions won’t allow their gravy trains to be interfered with and these entitlements make up an enormous part of the state’s fiscal burdens.
And with all that said, it looks like the days of reckoning may finally be upon these places. I watched the New York State Governess Hochul begging former New York billionaires who’ve moved to Florida to forgive her and her exorbitant business taxes and ruinous environmental policies and absurd energy costs and come back to New York. Pretty please with sugar on top. This was during an interview on Politico about the eroding tax base and its impact on the progressive agenda that New York City Mayor Mamdani was proposing and for which he needed Hochul to approve even more ruinous increases in taxes on corporations and the wealthy. She tried to explain to the doofus from Politico that places like Florida and Texas don’t have state income taxes and lure corporations like J P Morgan and Tesla out of New York and California by letting them keep most of their money in exchange for bringing jobs and prosperity to their neighborhoods.
And I noted that the two highest ranking candidates in the field for the California governor’s primary are both Republicans. And since they’ve combined all parties in the primary and then allow only the two highest vote getters into the general election it’s possible that no Democrats will get on the ballot. Now of course the Democrats in a place like California will do whatever they have to do to rig the election so I’m sure they’ll have a Democrat on the ballot.
But that’s neither here nor there. The interesting situation is that both of these states (and several other deep blue states) are staring down a complete fiscal meltdown of such mammoth proportions that junk bond status for their state debt is the least of their worries. And honestly if the Republicans had any brains at all they would refuse to even run any candidates for state office at all. They should just walk away and let this catastrophe hit their states right between the eyes. There are so many facets of their situations that are dysfunctional that the next four years may finally wipe out all trace of credibility for the Democrat party. With the banks leaving New York and the tech companies abandoning California I foresee all those public union retirement funds going completely unfunded very soon. And with all those baby boomers retiring it will sound like a convention of scorched cats outside the offices in Sacramento and Albany for the foreseeable future.
So, Republicans, get wise to the situation and just step back and watch these bozos get what’s coming to them good and hard.
