What's this from?

One of my stronger political beliefs is that we should Truman Show Eric Adams so I can regularly watch him run fake New York

It shouldn't, but it surprises me how many people in the "innovation" community in the Pentagon have absolutely 0 clue this is happening. Diligence is nerd shit.

The National Defense Strategy still matters. Let’s get it right There is no substitute for comprehensive written guidance that outlines an administration’s vision for national defense.

www.defenseone.com/ideas/2025/0...

lol

Pentagon plan prioritizes homeland over China threat This marks a major departure from the first Trump administration, which emphasized deterring Beijing.

This is yet another reminder that Elbridge Colby believes in nothing so much as he believes in Elbridge Colby’s career, and it’s been okay to not take him seriously since January 6, 2021. www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

I am guilty of this myself. I write some defense articles, get them published, pat myself on the back. What's the point? Wasted letters at this point.

Either match your budget to your strategy or your strategy to your budget. It's a simple equation at the end of the day, but no one wants to face that math.

I need someone to write this history because I've always wondered what the hell happened along her journey

Turns out a standing military getting about 1 trillion a year requires some conceptual system that allows for some level of integration between services and competing equities.

Sigh. JCIDS reform, SPEED Act, FORGED Act, all that stuff just misses the point. What we face are largely human issues, and Congress still wont be clear eyed about its own role in exacerbating them. Shuffling around concepts and structures wont fix it.

One of the key lessons for political coalitions is that they are pretty much always fleeting.

Fire me a follow at some point and I'll shoot you a DM

It's functionally all progressives of varying degrees, but organizationally nonpartisan. Off the record conversation and all that jazz.

Group is generally in the 22-33ish range. Policy/political hopefuls for the most part. Interested in defense but not much knowledge about the mil side of things. I'm trying to bring in more people from that side of the ledger to these conversations.

@sodrock.bsky.social @bafriedman.bsky.social @uticaeric.bsky.social @brasidas.bsky.social and others:

Looking for some people to speak on civ-mil relations to a group of young professionals. Any suggestions on someone good?

3x the budget and let me command the galactic star fleet that comes from it

And as others have highlighted more effectively than me, they're all downstream of the DoD icky idea.

Eh there's a lot to unpack in that answer, and I don't think it's the same answer for Sullivan/Rhodes. Rhodes is a great example of a person with no expertise or ability in the things he advised on. He did the main thing you can do to get to power asapwhich is luck into a powerful person liking you.

If you're interested in career chat stuff shoot me a DM at some point

Oh there's definitely something to it lol

The Chattanooga contingency agrees.

As someone who is likely to be forced to industry or banks, I really hope your point here takes hold lol

I can try to sneak in as a contractor and just exist for a few years, but it feels like that will never move you up the professional ladder with politicals. Plus I won't be able to write/publish the way I want to.

Pretty much everything sucks and this was a good opportunity to complain.

The defense bench for Dems isn't even that big. My young prof groups are dominated by state/usaid folks. Not many that want to learn the real details of defense, and essentially no paths to do it for the few that want to. This has tough effects for DoD in Dem years and I'm worried will get worse

As someone that considers themselves one of those aspirings, it's fucking grim. I've been run out of the Pentagon, and I REALLY don't want to work in industry/tech/finance. The think tanks are trying to play a game with the trump admin that they'll never win, and are barely hiring in the first place

The outside context problem is a serious issue for A LOT of things going on currently. I'm not quite sure how to get past it in my writing.

The funniest part of all these discussions is that ***the Ukrainians themselves*** wouldn't replicate this method of fighting if they had the option.

Great thread for someone such as myself that tends more AI skeptical.

I shouldn't be surprised that the "China Hawks" are failing but the sheer strategic incoherence is almost funny