The Difference Between a Nazi and a Communist

For years, I’ve heard people say that Nazis are ultra-right-wing, and Communists are ultra-left-wing. In the recent political environment, the media and other ignorant fools are fond of calling conservatives “Nazis.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

What is the real difference between the Nazis (Germans during WWII) and the Soviet/Chinese Communists? Nothing. They are exactly the same. They are just from different countries.

The word Nazi means “National Socialist Party.” The Nazis were totalitarian socialists, just like the Soviets were. Just like the Chinese are.

Look at what the Nazis did when they rose to power. They took away guns from their citizens so the citizens couldn’t fight back when the real oppressions began. They took away private ownership of industry and made it the property of the state. They took control of every aspect of Germany’s economic engine. Then they began arresting people who had ideas that the Nazis didn’t like. Some were executed, and some were sent to labor/concentration camps. Then they went after the Jews and did the same thing. Then they went after any other racial group that they thought was inferior and did the same to them (e.g. the Romani gypsies). The secret police (Gestapo) was everywhere, ready to intimidate and arrest anyone who spoke out against the regime.

The Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China did the exact same thing when their Communist governments rose to power. They disarmed their citizens, seized industries and turned them over to the state, took control of every aspect of their economies, imprisoned those they didn’t like or who spoke out against the regime, executed millions, and used their secret police to intimidate and arrest anyone deemed a threat to the regime.

So how did the misconception that Nazis were conservative get started?

It was one of the best propaganda campaigns ever instituted. It worked so well, in fact, that the lie is still believed to this day.

Germany and the Soviet Union were rivals. They were both totalitarian socialist regimes, and they both wanted to dominate the world. They did not want to share power, which meant that they would never work together to bring about world socialism. They both wanted the world for themselves. Germany knew it would need allies to fight the Soviets, but it could only win allies by making the world think there was actually a difference between the Nazis in Germany and the Soviets in Russia (other than the fact that they were from two different countries). So Germany coined the term Fascist as a way to describe what the Nazis “really” were. They promoted the idea that Fascists were conservative—the opposite of the Communist Russians. Of course, that was a lie. A lie that is still believed today. Fascism has never been implemented by conservative governments, who believe in freedom, including freedom of speech. Fascism has always been a tool of the Socialists as a way to suppress freedoms, including the freedom of speech as a way to silence dissent. But the Germans convinced the world that their Fascist government was somehow different from the Soviet brand of Communism. It was a magnificent lie, but still just a lie.

And look at how well that lie worked. Today, Antifa (“Anti Fascists”) are Socialist goons who attack conservatives, claiming that conservatives are Fascists. In fact, it is the Antifa thugs and their socialist supporters who are the Fascists, because they seek to suppress the conservative’s right to speak out against socialism—totalitarian or otherwise—and most of these thugs and their supporters are too ignorant of this fact to know that they are what they claim to hate.

Conservatives are still called “Nazis” today. Antifa and other anti-conservative pro-socialist movements attempt to denigrate conservatives by attaching to them such a hateful tag as “Nazi.” But Nazis are by definition Socialists, and it is the Antifa and anti-conservative pro-socialist goons who truly act and think like the Nazis did, like the Soviets did, like the Chinese do.

So, there is no difference between Nazi, Soviet, and Communist Chinese. They are all totalitarian socialist regimes, and it was and is their stated goals to control the world under the iron fist of oppression. Calling a conservative “Nazi” is absurd and only displays the ignorance of the insulter. Fascists, Nazis, Liberals, Progressives, Socialists, and Communists are all left-wing philosophies. No matter the name, they are the same.

Please remember that the next time you want to use one of these terms to insult someone.

Sensitivity Editing: What is the World Coming to?

I recently came across the term “Sensitivity Editing,” which is described as sensitivity reading looking for and changing terms that currently have a pejorative subtext (e.g. you “can’t” call food exotic because someone has decided that it’s xenophobic and racially insensitive; someone please explain this to me).

Frankly, this makes my blood boil. I am sick and tired of having to avoid certain words because some group or another has decided to make a fuss and take offence from it when no offence is intended. I will not go back and re-edit my published books to remove an ever-changing list of “forbidden words,” and I will not cave to social pressure to watch how I say what I say in my current books. I have readers all over the world, and what one finds offensive in once place, another finds perfectly acceptable and correct. I will use the words that I think best describe my intent, and if people choose to get offended by those words, then I invite them to not ready my books. But I will never–NEVER–bow to the PC culture because it is a lose-lose scenario. It changes constantly and is both impossible to keep up with and ridiculous to acknowledge as having any validity.

This nonsense has gone too far, and we need to fight it rather than meekly submit to it.

July 4th, 2021 Tribute

On this 4th of July Holiday weekend, the day set aside to celebrate the founding of this great nation, let us remember those brave patriots, those citizen soldiers, who strove to overcome overwhelming odds to secure for us and for all future generations the blessings of liberty and freedom. Their sacrifice guaranteed us the rights that ensure our continued freedom. Before we just blindly give these rights away or allow them to be rewritten or reinterpreted for someone else’s political or social agenda, let’s stop and think of all those who died to secure those rights and ask ourselves: what do we leave to future generations if we sacrifice the blessings of liberty and freedom today that those who have gone before us fought so hard to defend, promote, and leave to us? What will be left of this great country if we abandon that which has made it great and unique in the world? What will future generations say of our cowardice as compared to the example set by the patriots whose blood was shed so that we might live free?

NEW BOOK RELEASE ANNOUNCEMENT: “The Trinity Gambit”

William Speir’s 17th published novel, The Trinity Gambit, will be released in print and eBook on Tuesday, August 11, 2020.  The eBook and softback editions will be available via online retailers everywhere. The dust jacket hardback edition will only be available directly from the publisher: Progressive Rising Phoenix Press.

Below is the book’s summary:

THE TRINITY GAMBIT
An Action Adventure and Espionage Thriller by William Speir

The world is at war… again. Three regional wars rage across the globe. Only the United States, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, and the Caribbean island nations have yet to be dragged into one or more of the conflicts. But it is only a matter of time. The United States—recovering from a recent and divisive Civil War, surrounded on all sides by determined aggressors, and watching its allies fall one by one—must not only determine how it will defend itself against the forces bent on complete domination, but how it can come to the aid of the few remaining nations that are still free.

Kate Davidsen with the CIA, and Steve Barksdale with the NSA—two members of the intelligence community assigned to assess the current situation—along with their boss, Gregory Rosemont, the Presidential Special Advisor for Global Intelligence, uncover a terrible truth: the world is not embroiled in three separate wars; there is a single enemy playing a global game of chess behind all three regional conflicts—an enemy that the United States isn’t prepared to fight. Liang Hao, a Chess Grandmaster and the Chief Strategist for China’s initiative to conquer the world, has been directing China’s military and economic power to manipulate world events for over thirty-five years. When Canada appears about to fall under China’s control, Kate and Steve realize that the only way to defeat Liang Hao’s strategy is not through military conflict, but by changing the game so that China must abandon its existing strategy and scramble to devise a new one.

When it is discovered that China is moving its Pacific fleets into the Atlantic to destroy the last resistance in Europe, bringing the entire eastern hemisphere under Chinese control, Kate and Steve—with the help of Colonel Kostya Petrov of Russian Military Intelligence (GRU)—devise a bold plan to thwart China’s plans by helping the surviving Russian and European ground, naval, and air forces evacuate to the United States to bolster the defense of the western hemisphere and to help liberate Latin American, which has unwittingly fallen under China’s influence.

The United States sends part of its Atlantic Fleet to Norway, but before the evacuation of the Russian and European military forces can be completed, the Chinese fleets are spotted approaching the Atlantic from two directions. They are weeks ahead of schedule, and one of the two fleets will arrive off the coast of Norway before the US Atlantic Fleet is ready to depart. A confrontation between Russian submarines and the Chinese Fleets in the Arctic Sea Lanes and the Mediterranean end of the Suez Canal is all that stands between a successful evacuation of Europe and a total disaster for both Europe and the United States.

In a story ripped from today’s headlines and spanning thirty-seven years, The Trinity Gambit is a story of intrigue and sheer determination as Kate and Steve work tirelessly to turn the tables on their Chinese adversary. Set in the Arctic, Afghanistan, Canada, China, Columbia, Great Britain, Mexico, The Netherlands, Norway, The Sudan, the Suez Canal, Russia, and the United States, The Trinity Gambit is an Action-Adventure and Espionage Thriller that will not disappoint.

Coming Soon: The Trinity Gambit

My new novel will be released later this year.  Here is the summary:

THE TRINITY GAMBIT
An Action Adventure and Espionage Thriller by William Speir

The world is at war… again. Three regional wars rage across the globe. Only the United States, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, and the Caribbean island nations have yet to be dragged into one or more of the conflicts. But it is only a matter of time. The United States—recovering from a recent and divisive Civil War, surrounded on all sides by determined aggressors, and watching its allies fall one by one—must not only determine how it will defend itself against the forces bent on complete domination, but how it can come to the aid of the few remaining nations that are still free.

Kate Davidsen with the CIA, and Steve Barksdale with the NSA—two members of the intelligence community assigned to assess the current situation—along with their boss, Gregory Rosemont, the Presidential Special Advisor for Global Intelligence, uncover a terrible truth: the world is not embroiled in three separate wars; there is a single enemy playing a global game of chess behind all three regional conflicts—an enemy that the United States isn’t prepared to fight. Liang Hao, a Chess Grandmaster and the Chief Strategist for China’s initiative to conquer the world, has been directing China’s military and economic power to manipulate world events for over thirty-five years. When Canada appears about to fall under China’s control, Kate and Steve realize that the only way to defeat Liang Hao’s strategy is not through military conflict, but by changing the game so that China must abandon its existing strategy and scramble to devise a new one.

When it is discovered that China is moving its Pacific fleets into the Atlantic to destroy the last resistance in Europe, bringing the entire eastern hemisphere under Chinese control, Kate and Steve—with the help of Colonel Kostya Petrov of Russian Military Intelligence (GRU)—devise a bold plan to thwart China’s plans by helping the surviving Russian and European ground, naval, and air forces evacuate to the United States to bolster the defense of the western hemisphere and to help liberate Latin American, which has unwittingly fallen under China’s influence.

The United States sends part of its Atlantic Fleet to Norway, but before the evacuation of the Russian and European military forces can be completed, the Chinese fleets are spotting approaching the Atlantic from two directions. They are weeks ahead of schedule, and one of the two fleets will arrive off the coast of Norway before the US Atlantic Fleet is ready to depart. A confrontation between Russian submarines and the Chinese Fleets in the Arctic Sea Lanes and the Mediterranean end of the Suez Canal is all that stands between a successful evacuation of Europe and a total disaster for both Europe and the United States.

In a story ripped from today’s headlines and spanning thirty-seven years, The Trinity Gambit is a story of intrigue and sheer determination as Kate and Steve work tirelessly to turn the tables on their Chinese adversary. Set in the Arctic, Afghanistan, Canada, China, Columbia, Great Britain, Mexico, The Netherlands, Norway, The Sudan, the Suez Canal, Russia, and the United States, The Trinity Gambit is an Action-Adventure and Espionage Thriller that will not disappoint.

The Baggage of the Past

For years I have said, “You cannot go back; you can only go forward.” Recently, this was demonstrated to me in a very real way.

As many people know, I was a Civil War Reenactor for many years. I joined the hobby in the early 1990s, met some great people, saw some amazing places (Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Manassas, The Wilderness, Sharpsburg/Antietam, Vicksburg, Olustee, Brooksville, Pleasantville, Richmond, Atlanta, Charleston, Shiloh, and others from Maryland to Texas), and eventually met the gentleman who would introduce me to my wife of 22 years. The sounds, the smells (the wool of the uniforms, the leather accessories, the canvas tents, the burning wood of hundreds of campfires, the gunpowder), all filled my senses and gave me a profound feeling of reliving the past in a very real way.

Yes, there were the usual cast of characters in reenacting: the half-pint little dictators who believed that their reenacting rank was their real rank and let it go to their heads both at reenactments and in their real lives, the “thread counters” who would find fault with everything that you did because it wasn’t 100% authentic in their minds, the yahoos who thought that they were still fighting for the causes of the war… but there were also the vast majority—like me—who were there to experience and to teach the trues history of that turbulent time period. And before you ask, yes, I had both a gray and a blue uniform in my closet.

Shortly after I got married, I began moving around the country because of my work, making it impossible to be active in reenacting. But I never stopped loving the hobby. When we finally settled in a place where I knew we’d be staying for a while, I was able to become active again, and my family joined me. This brought new joy to the experience for me.

Then, about five years ago, I found myself on the receiving end of a coordinated effort to rob me of the joy derived from reenacting. Two different groups of people from two different reenacting organizations that I belonged to went out of their way to harm me, my reputation, and my position in the two organizations. Their tactics and motivations were so disgusting that I left the hobby. But unlike before, this time I sold all of my uniforms and equipment, my collections (except for a few pieces of memorabilia that held special meaning to me), and the bulk of my book collection, which was extensive. I turned my back on the thing that had literally changed my life and had been the cornerstone of my activities for over twenty years.

In the years since, I have often missed the hobby and the people I used to know. But the longer I was away, the harder it became to stay connected to those people—including the man who introduced me to my wife and had been like a brother to me for nearly thirty years.

In the early days of reenacting, two films had a tremendous impact on me: Glory and Gettysburg. When I watched those films, I could smell the smells, hear the sounds, and feel like I was right there with the actors on the screen. But a few weeks ago, Glory was on television. It had been years since I watched it, and I was curious. I sat down, turned on the movie, and… nothing. No sensory experience at all. I was just a guy watching a movie on television. This was unexpected. Was reenacting no long part of my life’s blood? I had to put it to the test. I pulled out my super-deluxe copy of Gettysburg, loaded it into the player, sat down, started the movie, and… nothing. No sights, no sounds, no smells… even my memories of having been to Gettysburg dozens of time didn’t come into play. It was gone from me. Like a thief in the night, the hobby was now dead to me.

Looking back, I miss the people, I miss the way reenacting once brought me joy, but I don’t miss the nonsense and the folks who go out of their way to ruin the hobby for others—as if they and they alone have the right to determine who get to be part of “their” little club. I fell victim to those folks, and they succeeded in tainting my experience so well that even my memories are harder and harder to recall with any joy.

I now live in the same metropolitan area as when I first began reenacting. I don’t associate with any of my fellow reenactors, I belong to no reenacting or battlefield preservation organizations, and I participate in no heritage events. It’s as if that part of my life never happened. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say that reenacting’s only purpose was to introduce me to my wife, and once that happened, the hobby no longer had purpose for me, and my mistake was trying to continue in the hobby long after its purpose was done. I was trying to go back to those happy times leading up to meeting my wife, instead of moving forward with my life. I’ve learned my lesson.

The journey with my wife continues, but without the shackles of the past trying to hold us back from where we’re supposed to be and what we’re supposed to be doing. Some amazing things have happened to us since leaving the hobby, and I predict that the best is yet to come.

Like spring cleaning—getting rid of items around the house that are no longer needed—we all need to clean out our lives, removing those items that no longer add value, that no longer move life forward, that no longer have a purpose. You cannot go forward if you’re clinging to the baggage of the past. I discovered that the hard way. Don’t be like me!

Apple iTunes Has (Accidently?) Turned Into Ransomware!

If you use Apple iTunes and you have ever changed the email address associated with your Apple Account (Apple ID), PLEASE READ THIS.

I use iTunes Version 12.10.4.2 for Windows 10. Since 2007, I have has three different email addresses tied to my Apple Id (changes in ISPs), I’ve used iTunes on 4 different computers and 5 iPods, and I’ve never had a single problem at all moving my songs between computers, listening to my music, or syncing my iTunes with my iPod… until last week.

For the first time ever, when I plugged in my iPod to sync my music, iTunes told me that my computer wasn’t authorized for my iTunes account. I entered my Apple Id and authorized my computer (it’s new). When I tried to sync, I got the same error message, but it had pre-filled in the email address that I first had with my Apple ID (not my current email, which I’ve been using for over 6 years). Since that email address is no longer attached to my account, the attempt to re-authorize failed. At that time, iTunes locked out 62 songs that I had purchased under that email address (out of 650 songs that I purchased using that email address), and deleted them from my iPod. The files are still on my computer, but I can no longer access or play them.

I called Apple Customer Support, and after over an hour talking to 5 different “geniuses” in customer service, technical support, application development, and management, their solution was to suggest that I just repurchase those songs since Apple no longer had the purchase records from that email address. And to make things worse, they couldn’t guarantee that the rest of my songs purchased under that email address and the other old email address (over 1100 songs altogether), wouldn’t be locked out the next time I accessed iTunes.

Where I come from, any computer application that seizes files on your computer, locks you out of them, and then demands that you pay money to get them back, is called Ransomware, and that is exactly what iTunes has become. I escalated this to Apple Corporate, but so far they haven’t even done me the courtesy of acknowledging receipt of my complaint.

I absolutely refuse to pay to get back something that I already bought through iTunes and have had no problems playing for the 13 years that I’ve been an iTunes user, and I don’t believe that I should be victimized by Apple’s poor record-keeping. If they’ve lost old purchase records, that’s on them, not on me.

I don’t believe for one minute that I’m the only person who has had this problem. And if you’ve ever changed the email address tied to your Apple ID account, you’ll probably have it, too, at some point. We need to let Apple know that this is unacceptable and that we expect them to fix their problem. Demanding that we pay again for what we’ve already purchased through them is not a solution; it’s a crime. Don’t let them get away with this. Speak up.

#AppleSucks #iTunesIsRansomware #IWillNotBeAVictim

Announcing the Release of My Latest Novel!

Announcing the Release of “The Legacy of Shadows – Book 9 of the Knights of the Saltire Series”

My latest Action-Adventure Novel was released today and is now available via Amazon at the following links! Other retailers will be carrying it soon as the title makes its way through the distribution channels.

Hardback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1950560090/

Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1950560104/

Ebook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y8V251R/

Have Your Manuscript Edited or Don’t Publish It

As a published author, I cannot say enough about the need to edit – multiple iterations of editing –any manuscript before it is published. And I also cannot say this strongly enough: the worst person to edit a manuscript is the person who wrote the manuscript! Authors are simply not objective enough to edit their own content ruthlessly, and our minds see what we intended to say, rather than what we actual wrote/typed on the page.

It typically takes me two years to complete a manuscript: 23 months of research, story development, outlining, and drafting the manuscript in my head, and one month to actually type the manuscript on my computer. Most people only see the last month and think that I crank out manuscripts wicked-fast. That’s not true, but I do type quickly once I get going.

I personally use a multi-layer approach to manuscript editing. As I complete a chapter, I have three members of my editorial team perform a grammar and line edit. That way, once I’m finished with the first draft, I’m also finished with the second draft. Then the manuscript goes into the content/continuity edit phase, where the story is mercilessly picked apart to determine if: the story is interesting, the story as written is entertaining, the pacing is appropriate, the characters and dialogue are believable, and all parts of the story agree with each other. This last part is key, because as I change one part of the manuscript, I have to remember to change the other parts that reference or build on the part that I just changed. I have had to change entire opening scenes before – including ones that I built the entire story around – because while I loved the scene, it really just didn’t work. I would not have realized that on my own; it took an editor to make me see it and force me to rethink major parts of my story’s plot.

Once the content/continuity edit phase is complete, I put the manuscript aside for a month or so. Then it goes into final edit, which looks for grammar issues created by applying the various edits (there always are some), and takes one more look at content and continuity. Only after that edit is finished do I submit the manuscript to my publisher.

However, that’s not the end. Sometimes, my publisher will suggest changes to strengthen the story or remove extraneous/inappropriate material, which then have to be applied to the manuscript. And once those changes are applied, my publisher sends the manuscript to at least two proofreaders, who look for any remaining typos or issues. Now, you’d think that all typos would have been caught by this point, right? Wrong. Editors and authors are only human, and things get missed. My newest novel, “The Legacy of Shadows,” just came back from the first proofreader, who found 65 typos. Sixty-five! And I’m grateful for every one she found. There’s nothing worse than a typo that takes someone out of the story, ruining the experience of the reader.

When it comes to editing, there are no shortcuts. It is a long, sometimes tedious, often expensive process, but without it, a great story will be lost amidst lousy writing. And with three million new titles published every year, no author can afford to allow lousy writing to be published. Do yourself and your readers a favor: have your manuscript professionally edited – multiple times – before it is published. If a quality story is what you’re trying to produce, you really have no choice.

Emotions Are A Choice

Here is a truth that no one likes to hear:

No one else – and I mean NO ONE else – can make you angry, sad, or happy. Being angry, sad, or happy is a CHOICE that you and you alone make. Granted, people may do things or circumstances may occur that make it easier for you to choose to be angry, sad, or happy, but it is still your choice. Your emotional state is an extension of you, not a reflection of others.

If you want to be angry, then be angry. But Own It! Acknowledge that you’re not angry because of what someone else said or did, but because you CHOSE to be angry. If you want to be sad, then be sad. But Own It! Acknowledge that you’re not sad because of what someone else said or did, but because you CHOSE to be sad. If you want to be happy, then be happy. But Own It! Acknowledge that you’re not happy because of what someone else said or did, but because you CHOSE to be happy.

You are in complete control of how you react to the situations around you. Stop blaming others for your emotional state. If you enjoy being an enraged person or a pissy person or a frightened person or a worried person or a weepy person, then by all means knock yourself out. But if you want to be a happy person, then BE A HAPPY PERSON. Choose to be happy, and you WILL BE happy. It’s that simple. Stop making it complicated; it’s not. Make your choice, own it, and live it!