- Author of sci-fi/fantasy, horror and adventure/thriller fiction

OUR WAR Coming in 2019

November 30, 2018 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

I’m very happy to announce that my next major release is coming from Orbit in August 2019. In this novel, a brother and sister become child soldiers fighting on opposite sides of a second American civil war. The novel is about their struggle and the lives of the people they come into contact with. It’s prescient and powerful. I hope you’ll check it out!

Here’s a description:

After his impeachment, the president of the United States refuses to leave office, and the country erupts into a fractured and violent war. Orphaned by the fighting and looking for a home, 10-year-old Hannah Miller joins a citizen militia in a besieged Indianapolis.

In the Free Women militia, Hannah finds a makeshift family. They’ll teach her how to survive. They’ll give her hope. And they’ll show her how to use a gun.

Hannah’s older brother, Alex, is a soldier too. But he’s loyal to other side, and has found his place in a militant group of fighters who see themselves as the last bastion of their America. By following their orders, Alex will soon make the ultimate decision behind the trigger.

On the battlefields of America, Hannah and Alex will risk everything for their country, but in the end they’ll fight for the only cause that truly matters — each other.

BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION (2015)

April 10, 2018 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION (2015) is the first documentary to take a deep look at one of the most influential Black political movements of the Twentieth Century–the Black Panther Party. The film is based on archival footage and interviews with 50 people, including former members, FBI informants, police officers, and others. Watching it, I was amazed at what they achieved, the opportunities they wasted, and the level of government oppression directed at them.

The Black Panther Party formed in California in response to de facto segregation and police brutality. Citing open carry laws, they began arming themselves and shadowing police officers and otherwise patrolling neighborhoods. In response, the State of California and then Governor Ronald Reagan passed legislation to make open carry illegal, with support of the NRA. When Black Panthers showed up in Sacramento during debate on the bill with weapons to make a point, many people were amazed at their audacity, and a national then international movement was born.

From the beginning, the Black Panthers held to a 10-point manifesto. They wanted economic opportunity, decent housing, education, jobs, freedom, a jury by their peers, the release of prisoners, exemption from the draft, and justice. They started child nutrition and other welfare programs in their communities. Their look–black leather jackets, sunglasses, berets, and a gun–influenced fashion, became a Black Power symbol, and helped drive the “Black is beautiful” movement. Despite the male urban guerilla image, the majority of members were women.

The party’s political activity quickly drew the attention of Herbert Hoover, the authoritarian director of the FBI, who focused COINTELPRO activities on destroying the party. Party leaders were subjected to constant harassment, arrest, surveillance, informants, and misinformation designed to create rifts in the leadership. While the open, head-on repression was brutal, it was the more subtle tactics such as sowing dissension that destroyed the party in the end, along with poor leadership in lack of direction. Some of Hoover’s paranoia was earned–the BPP constantly postured and openly called for armed revolution against the United States government. Hoover was particularly paranoid about a “black messiah” figure who would unite Blacks with liberal Whites and start a major political movement, which led to the police assassination of Fred Hampton. The FBI’s tactics were straight up police state stuff, brutal and un-Constitutional.

In the end, the viewer is left to decide if the party served its ideals or got sidetracked in posturing, but either way, it is certain that the Black Panther Party had a profound effect on a new political and cultural awakening for African-Americans in the ’60s.

OCCUPIED (2015)

January 29, 2018 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

In OCCUPIED (2015), a Norwegian TV series now available on Netflix (created by bestselling author Jo Nesbø), Russia undertakes an “iron hand in a silk glove” (soft in appearance but ruthless in reality) invasion of Norway, resulting in an amazing political thriller that had me on the edge of my seat.

Several years in the future, turmoil in the Middle East reduces oil production. The United States achieves energy independence and withdraws from its commitments there as well as NATO. In Norway, a green party, headed by Prime Minister Jesper Berg, ceases all oil and gas production after a hurricane devastates the country and causes a movement to halt climate change. The country is switching to a thorium-based energy source and hopes Europe will do the same. Desperate for energy and unable to switch in time, the European Union gives Russia the green light to seize Norway’s oilfields in the North Sea and impose other demands on the country. (No wonder this show upset the Kremlin.)

In this turmoil, we follow a number of engaging characters. Jesper Berg, the prime minister, tries to collaborate with the Russians to get them to leave, compromising his government and its platform in the process. One layer of the show is the politics inside the government and Berg trying to outsmart the Europeans and the Russians in a diplomatic cat and mouse game. Djupvik, one of his bodyguards, rises to become an important player in both Norwegian and Russian intelligence, producing another layer that functions as a spy thriller. Thomas Eriksen, a journalist, takes on Berg, the Russians, and the growing Free Norway underground, while his wife’s flagging restaurant revives due to patronage by Russian officials, marking her as a collaborator. Then we have the Free Norway underground, which grows steadily in popularity until it’s functioning as a full-fledged terrorist movement.

In each episode, these characters are increasingly put through the wringer as the occupation challenges their principles, puts them into no-win situations, and steadily raises the stakes as the first season nails a riveting climax. A lot of the time, you’re not even sure who’s a hero or villain in all this, who is trustworthy to whom, and if what they’re saying is true. The result is an intense story that operates simultaneously as a political, international, spy, and police thriller, with frequent unexpected surprises. The main premise may seem a stretch, but everything that happens is realistic, the characters in particular are endearing and realistic, even the minor ones, and the pacing and dialogue are terrific. Highly recommended, and I’ll be keeping my eye out for season 2, which has already aired in Norway and other countries.

(On a side note, the show is spoken in Norwegian with a little English and Russian. The Norwegian language is wonderful, and so are the people, all of them attractive and living in what seems to be an orderly, clean, and caring society. Unintentionally, the show acted as a tourism commercial for me, I’d love to visit some day. The only really odd note for me is the song that opens each show. The lyrics are great if you tune in, but the tone is really off.)

SAVING CAPITALISM (2017)

December 6, 2017 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

In SAVING CAPITALISM (2017), a documentary on Netflix, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich highlights the major points in his book with the same title while having conversations with ordinary Americans about how changes in the economy are affecting them. This spot-on analysis of how American democracy has become corrupted by corporate influence, and what this means for the economy and average Americans, is essential viewing for people of all political stripes.

Reich is a Democrat who was Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, but his analysis speaks to anger that crosses the cultural divide in America and speaks to almost everybody in a nonpartisan way. The documentary shows him talking to conservatives and libertarians who humorously agree with him but then fall back on stereotypes about liberals to insist there shouldn’t be agreement. Reich’s central thesis is that a free market doesn’t exist in America, there is simply government making rules that define the game. Deregulation is more about changing the rules to suit big business than it is eliminating regulation. He charts how the rich and big business accumulate wealth, which they use to accumulate power, which they use to change the rules to benefit them, and how this hurts democracy and workers. The result is a country that is a de facto oligarchy designed to serve the few instead of everybody. The horrifying Republican tax bill–which gives massive tax breaks to corporations and the rich, which will come at the expense of Social Security and Medicare–is a perfect example of this. Reich predicted anger and resentment about income inequality in the 90s, when he found himself increasingly marginalized in the Clinton Administration, and it explains why many of the same people supported both Sanders and Trump. Both candidates spoke to income inequality, though arguably only one actually meant it. It’s a stark raving fact that the middle class has been steadily shrinking for decades and all economic gains are going to the top 1%.

The people in SAVING CAPITALISM recognize the same problem but have different solutions. The leftist may come away from SAVING CAPITALISM saying, maybe capitalism shouldn’t be saved. In fact, Reich’s analysis is so frank and bleak it makes you wonder what can be done. While socialism and capitalism can work well together, pure socialism, even democratic socialism, may not be the answer and in any case couldn’t be achieved with anything short of violent revolution. The conservative or libertarian will come away saying, if crony capitalism (the government rigging the game on behalf of a small group of corporations) is inevitable, we should keep capitalism but take away government’s ability to make the rules. But that would eliminate what little economic security Americans have left, and stick them with the bill for all, instead of most, of capitalism’s externalities (costs that businesses impose on society, such as pollution, poor safety, etc.). Instead of ensuring fairness, capitalism would run amok. The bottom line is both sides want Americans to have more economic security, believe government is focused on catering to the rich and big business, and that if the system doesn’t change, America will decline. The key is to ensure government sets the rules of the same with the interests of Americans, and to do that they need to take power back from corporations and the rich, which would mean getting money out of politics. On that, at least, I think most Americans can agree.

Reich has the facts but no easy answers. But maybe that’s enough for one documentary–to at least get everybody to recognize we see the same problem (crony capitalism and government slanted to the rich, creating a two-tiered society) and want the same thing (democracy responsive to average people and more economic security), and can therefore debate solutions from a common understanding of what the problem is.

Regardless of what your politics are, or whether you even care about politics at all, you owe it to yourself to watch this documentary right now. It’s a crash course on what’s wrong with our political/economic system that will make you think and piss you off.

The Bonus Army of 1932

November 2, 2017 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

In 1932, the Bonus Army–some 17,000 American WWI veterans and their families and supporters (about 43,000 in total)–gathered in Washington, DC to demand the bonuses they were promised by the government for their service in the war. The law creating the bonuses stipulated they couldn’t be redeemed until 1945, for which they’d earn the principal plus compound interest, but many of the veterans had been out of work since the beginning of the Great Depression, and wanted the bonuses paid out in cash now.

After the protest, about 10,000 of them camped in “Hooverville” shantytowns in the city. An attempt to move up the date of the payout was defeated in Congress. Initial attempts to dispel the Bonus Army ended in violence and the camps unmoved. The shantytowns were controlled by the veterans, who made streets and sanitation facilities and held parades every day. Despite “Red Scare” rumors that went around the city, the protesters maintained good discipline.

President Herbert Hoover ordered the U.S. Army to remove the Bonus protesters. Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur commanded a force of infantry, cavalry, and tanks that approached the camps. The cavalry and tanks were commanded by Major George S. Patton. Civil service employees left work to watch from the streets. The Bonus Army thought the soldiers were marching to honor them and cheered. Patton ordered the cavalry to charge to cries of “Shame!” from onlookers. The infantry followed with fixed bayonets and tear gas to drive the protesters from the camp.

The protesters fled the first camp across the Anacostia River to their largest camp, at which point President Hoover ordered a halt to the attack. MacArthur ignored the order. Stating the Bonus Army wanted to overthrow the government, he ordered a fresh assault, resulting in 55 veterans being injured and another 135 arrested. The camps and all the veterans’ belongings were burned.

Major Dwight D. Eisenhower, one of MacArthur’s junior aides, disagreed the military should be used against fellow veterans. He later recalled, “The whole scene was pitiful. The veterans were ragged, ill-fed, and felt themselves badly abused. To suddenly see the whole encampment going up in flames just added to the pity.”

A second Bonus March in 1933 had a different result. Franklin Roosevelt, recently elected president, offered the veterans jobs in the Civilian Conservation Corps. Most took the jobs. Three years later, the Democrat-controlled Congress overrode FDR’s veto and paid out the bonus nine years early.

The Business Plot of 1933

November 1, 2017 by Craig DiLouie 1 Comment

The Business Plot, or Wall Street Putsch, was an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States and install a nationalist, business-friendly dictatorship. It involved prominent rich men, including Prescott Bush (George W. Bush’s grandfather), who controlled many of the country’s biggest corporations, including Chase Bank, General Motors, Standard Oil, Dupont, Heinz, and others.

They were unhappy with the election of Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt as president in 1932. FDR was trying to get the New Deal passed and wanted to abandon the gold standard, which the rich saw as a road to inflation, undermine their wealth, and use it to subsidize the poor. “This is despotism, this is tyranny, this is the annihilation of liberty,” one senator lamented. The New Deal, they predicted, would lead to the country becoming bankrupt and adopting communism. Some on the Right believed Roosevelt was secretly a Jew bent on world domination.

The plotters promised $3 million and planned to build an army of 500,000 Great War veterans from American Legion branches. The plan was for this army to seize Washington (on the pretext of the president’s poor health) and install a popular military figure as the country’s new executor, while FDR remained a figurehead. They approached U.S. Marine Major Generator Smedley Butler, who’d fought in France, Latin America, and the Philippines. Butler was approached by American Legion leaders in on the plot. If he declined, apparently the plan was to approach U.S. Army General Douglas MacArthur. Veterans of Foreign Wars Commander James E. Van Zandt later told the press he’d also been approached.

Smedley Butler exposing the Business Plot

Butler immediately notified the government of the plot. Congress held hearings on it. The documents were sealed until only recently, some deleted (but inadvertently exposed and then published). You can read everything here. Congress found the plot to be “alarmingly true.” The committee declared it “received evidence showing that certain persons had made an attempt to establish a fascist organization in this country. There is no question that these attempts were discussed, were planned, and might have been placed in execution when and if the financial backers deemed it expedient.”

None of the alleged plotters were questioned by Congress (claiming it had no reason to based on “hearsay”), nor anybody formally charged. As the plot was uncovered while in the planning stage, it is difficult to say whether it might have gone from discussion to action. The press and numerous politicians considered it a “cocktail putsch,” something discussed but never seriously acted upon, though there was evidence it was actively being plotted. In 1936, William Dodd, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, which at the time was under Nazi rule, wrote a letter to FDR that stated: “A clique of U.S. industrialists is hell-bent to bring a fascist state to supplant our democratic government and is working closely with the fascist regime in Germany and Italy. I have had plenty of opportunity in my post in Berlin to witness how close some of our American ruling families are to the Nazi regime… A prominent executive of one of the largest corporations told me point blank that he would be ready to take definite action to bring fascism into America if President Roosevelt continued his progressive policies.”

The Congressional committee would go on to become the House Committee on Un-American Activities, which later would not afford the same courtesy to suspected communists as it did to the Wall Street and corporate tycoons. Smedley Butler, meanwhile, would go on to pen his famous speech/short book, WAR IS A RACKET, in 1935.