The American Civil War Podcast

I was literally going to bring this up: from the beginning, American Generalship in its finest always emphasized the questions of supply and strategy, including the consideration of diplomacy.

Also, Taylor and especially Winfield Scott defeated Mexico on that basis.

@dril.bsky.social has the perfect response to this:

Laughing J. Jonah Jameson

Hmm, could the chief prelate of the Prince of Peace think that peace is a good thing we should be working towards by active example in word and deed?

No, he's must be a Marxist! (/s)

I bought his first book, "If Chins Could Kill" and saw him in a little bookstore on a signing tour. But the line was so absurdly long my friends and I decided not to wait.

He really is just as funny and charismatic in person.

When I was young, WW2 seemed so long ago - before even when my parents were born!

As I've grown older myself, I realize this was an illusion. But it still feels like a lifetime passed between, say, WW2 and Hair Bands even as the difference between 2006 and 2026 feels barely-noticable.

No: that's almost the point, but it's certainly at least the byproduct.

In Trump 1, he was constrained by competent, if not always very decent, advisors. Trump 2 put in, as I have said before, freaks, cranks & grifters because they'll do anything at all for him without considering consequences.

I certainly hope not, but Iran has been successful in delivering drones for Russia's use. They can keep up retaliation attacks indefinitely if they so choose.

My, "There's just no way that Donald Trump is gonna allow this country to get into a multiyear conflict with no end in sight" shirt is raising a lot of questions already answered by the shirt."

Dang. It's entirely possible the CIA really did say, "Here are three utterly-disastrous scenarios for your war. In Scenario A, we all die. In B, most of us die. And in Scenario C, half of us die."

Trump: "I see what you're getting at: Scenario C is the clear winner."

CIA: "Riiiiiight."

Dammit Zach!

I try to say, "No he's not *that* funny" but you go and produce these absolute zingers.

Though not without failure and mistakes, he drove his foe away from the very gates of Richmond in a brutal seven-day struggle of nearly-constant battle. By the end, he proved he might very well be the champion the Confederacy sorely needed - and McClellan was not the man the Union required.

The American Civil War Podcast | Patrick Bryant | Substack A podcast recounting the epic saga of the American Civil War, the personalities and lives of Americans North and South, African or European, and the climactic clash of arms. Click to read The American...

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Episode 97: The Seven Days that Shook the Union

uscivilwar.substack.com

Three weeks into command of the Army of Northern Virginia, General Robert E. Lee embarked on a daring, do-or-die assault on the Army of the Potomac.

Historic perspective: The Secretary of War, when we had that dept, was really Secretary of the Army. Secretary of the Navy was a different post.

It tended to be dominated by Federalists who preferred to avoid any major wars. 🤷

I'm being comedic, but more seriously I imagine they most definitely did not plan for it, but they also very clearly have no concept of long-term thinking and may stumble into a ground war in Iran which is, under no circumstances, a war we should fight.

CENTCOM: INDOPACOM doesn't want you to know this, but Patriot missiles are free. You can just take them. I just used 1,000 Patriot Missiles for fireworks.

And also, deploy so many assets to the MidEast it's unclear that we even could do anything ti support Taiwan.

Aye. It's not just that he made "a" mistake. That would be understandable. It's that he's made a series of decisions that imply he's either deeply stupid or completely comfortable with rank anti-semitism.

Neither of these suggests he is a good long-term political investment.

This administration doesn't really do "planning" though.

This is relentlessly awful, but I am honestly shocked that Hegseth somehow reached even the rank of Major - an honorable position, certainly and learned absolutely nothing about war.

I mean just nothing whatsoever. Did he ever read anything about any war, ever?

I just wrote twenty pages expressing my frustrated inchoate rage at General McClellan and she just eviscerates the sitting President in six words.

She's like a Time Lord whispering, "Doesn't he look fatly?" and destroying somebody's entire career retroactively.

It's true. Fighting Game enthusiasts are already broken. There's no horror from beyond the stars which could do worse than they've done to themselves.

For *fun*.

Papa Nurgle looks at him and says, "Honestly, my forces of putrid corruption and moral decay can do better".

Slaanesh left him on read.

Khorne refuses to acknowledge him no matter how many wars he starts.

The Great Horned Rat.... actually sometimes hangs out at Mar-A-Lago.

Hmm, I certainly don't want the Daedric Lord of the Hunt to stalk to Earth, but suppose now is the appropriate time given, y'know, everything.

en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Bl...

I'm starting to feel this "Sam Altman" fellow might not be a charismatic business genius.

Fortunately I've still got all these great role models to look up to, like Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Ellison, Sam Bankman-Fried...

Denethor, Steward of Gondor, crying out, "Flee! Flee for your lives"

Live feed from the State department:

Christ that's pure evil.

If I had a nickel for every time the government shot off lasers for no good reason, forcing the emergency closure of nearby airports, I'd have two nickels.

Which isn't a lot, but it's weird it happened twice.

You are correct: A fancy AI is actively harmful here.

It's like engineering a billion-dollar Precision Force Delivery Machine to replace an ordinary hammer. The difficulty is in two areas: collecting the data fast, and responding even faster. You need reliable, brutally-efficient systems for this.

Question about the nomination of the Surgeon General. This arose because I checked the listed requirements, which is that the SG must be a member of the corps of the USPHS.

Do they now just make the nominee part of the corps, making the requirement irrelevant?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_...