This was the Bronx in the 80’s

My only quibble is that in Seattle, the food/coffee/beer renaissance happened in the 90's. Definitely a case of 'the future is already here, its just not evenly distributed'

Cancer wasn't quite a literal death sentence like HIV was, but you had a barely coin flip chance of making it across the board 5 years, and a whole lot of different kinds that were close to a death sentence in 1980 that are extremely treatable today

Don’t think folks understand what quality of care 80s healthcare was. Then there’s the environmental toxins, the food (the food/coffee/beer renaissance did not take place until 2010-ish, Italian roast espresso is considered ritzy in White Collar). Material quality post oil crisis was awful.

You would much much much much rather be a median American today, or even a bottom-quartile American, than in the 1980s. It's not even a close call. The standard of material prosperity is so much higher now that it can be hard to even make the comparison.

I've been thinking about Covenant a *lot* over the last month. Genuinely terrifying.

good episode as ever

New article on PME in the NDU Press. ndupress.ndu.edu/Media/News/N...

For years I've been looking for the right guest to do a pod on this. The car-sales model that is dictated by law in the US -- you must go to a dealership & suffer for hours in order to buy one -- is one of the most nakedly anti-social special interest giveaways in history. Needs to be killed dead.

In my book Ex Supra I showed the US running out of ammo, specifically JASSMs, as a cautionary tale. DOD: At long last, we’ve run out of JASSMs.

I do think they’re trying to kill Paparo with stress at this point.

Some 50% of traffic is now bots or LLM pulls. The web as we knew it growing up is fading to the background like all other public infrastructure.

Like it's not a KC-130, it's a Combat King, which is and always has been specifically designed to do this exact mission (penetrate opposed airspace to extend range of the Jollies)

Ah yes, America, the country famous for not at all publicizing its military conflicts.

Chat, what are flares?

Person of Interest is the true to nyc show bc the cabbie pays no mind to the man with the grenade launcher in his back seat.

Apparently asymmetric warfare is just any rock-paper-scissors battlefield interaction.

Who is Andre the Giant

Sorry it’s the Bondulance one and it’s not even close bc while I love “moons haunted” and quote it regularly, bondulance makes me choke on my own laughter every time.

USAF is placing all bets on ISR in orbit. And the thing is, the Army already played this game when it thought 2000s era RPAs would replace the need for ground reconnaissance. Neither are untouchable and we will regret it.

Also has anyone checked on the AV Boyz, was that their bird over Iran?

It’ll still fly tho

Particularly good and eye-opening episode of Second Breakfast with @tonystark.bsky.social and @uticaeric.bsky.social. Find it on the China Talk feed!

This week on Second Breakfast: CSAR in Iran, AWG and lessons (not learned), the latest Army purges, and the War of 1812. (And an outro song about the lost E-3 Sentry) open.spotify.com/episode/0l2q...

Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman took this picture of Earth from the Orion spacecraft after completing the translunar injection burn. There are two auroras (top right & bottom left) and zodiacal light (bottom right) is visible as the Earth eclipses the Sun. 🧪🔭 #Artemis www.nasa.gov/image-articl...

Let’s talk about how this works and why we have older devices. When I started doing cabin integration back in 2017, we actually had a 2020 launch date. We bought the tablets the crew used for Artemis II back then. To not spend as much, we limited our choice to devices that were in the ISS catalog.

They named it what

The year is 2032 and ADM Paparo has once again been denied retirement from being CDR INDOPACOM because all the purges removed anyone capable of replacing him until 2035.

It’s notable that Hegseth’s team is unable to effectively throw mud back at SECARMY.

The phrase "Hollow Army" has been at the top of mind lately

Hmmm getting tough to not see the pattern developing here

Did he intentionally time this announcement for the anniversary of the second Fort Hood shooting

Increasingly convinced they’re just relitigating the miltwitter era

For those that are unaware, there are several leading GOs rn that track their lineage to OSS founder Wild Bill Donovan

Quick reminder that the Chief of Staff of the Army is not in the chain of command.

I don’t think a USMC GO gets the nod, the Army has its own constituency in the Senate. From what I’ve reliably heard, LaNeve’s name was already being circulated prior to this week on the Hill (probably by LaNeve). I’m also not certain of his passing the senate, there will at least be a hold.

This is where his National Guard is showing because no officer who's ever been in charge of an active duty barracks wants to introduce firearms into that environment.

"at $2 million a pop, that comes out to about $100 billion in revenue for Iran—more than one-quarter of Iran’s nominal GDP, and nearly twice the country’s annual budget. Unlike the U.S., these tariffs really can fund the country." prospect.org/2026/04/02/o...

I’ll never forgive Pete for making me back a CAV officer for a leadership position

How long between enacting this policy and the first drunken barracks firearm murder? I say six months but some have called me an optimist.

Office politics, there's a whole thing there between LaNeve scheming for the CSA job and Pete convinced he's about to be replaced by the current Secretary of the Army The role of the service chiefs in operational stuff these days is vastly overstated in the popular understanding

Great thread

And so our return begins. To the next chapter of humanity beyond our pale blue dot. There is so much more out there for us than our screens and grievances limit us to day to day.

“My solution to the bad officers is that all the good officers should quit and let the bad officers remain in charge and allegiant to the cult leader” is not the brilliant idea a lot of you think it is.

look it's FDD so, yknow, but Israel routinely sells US secrets to Beijing, I didn't know Poland had an intelligence service, Ukraine is still riddled with Russians, the UAE is actively doing influence ops (poorly) on the US, Japan tries, and don't tell Seoul anything you don't want Beijing knowing

I think the Supreme Court is going to rule against Trump's attack on birthright citizenship 7-2.

The new front cover of The Economist.