A solid 10 Nov deep cut.

Welcome to the DoD, where we SYSTEMATICALLY underinvest in IT (in ways that would get a real CIO in the real world fired). These chipmunks pushed a mandatory update, and I’m now LITERALLY mission fail, when I’m the shutdown single point of failure for a fuck load, with no tech support. FUUUUUUCK!

Right now, I want just one thing in life. I want use of the phrase “laser focused” to be made a felony.

“Can you be a true bird-watcher if your main source of joy is not, you know, the birds?…The audience of Listers is made to understand the tragedy of many of these men and women who look and act like birders but whose primary love is no longer the birds themselves…” Part of why I don’t keep a list.

Sunday night is for football and “Carcassonne of the South Seas.”

I only watched 4 of the 5 @mls.bsky.social playoff games today, but in those the @proreferees.bsky.social representatives were universally not up to the challenge. THEY. ARE. NOT. GOOD. ENOUGH. Their incompetence and inconsistency leads to problems they’re not competent to manage.

Fun. It can’t be worse than this.

What do you do when you leave work at 2130 (after 14 hrs), can’t go home, have to “camp out” for work tomorrow (so you can do it again), and your brain is fried? Tonight, I watch old episodes of @wilwheaton.net’s TableTop. m.youtube.com/watch?v=DpsQ...

I love @99pi.org’s podcast and @romanmars.bsky.social, and I’m glad they’re telling this story, but it reminds me of Stephen Bloom’s “Postville.” podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/9...

The thing I struggle with, the thing with which I’ve struggled my entire life, is whether I matter. m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPGB...

I haven’t done the math to know if this is definitionally hyperinflation…but it isn’t good. Charts show Argentine peso to US dollar exchange rate. Fiscal and monetary policy so janky it outruns the 2025 US dollar this way is an epic self-own.

Ok…I’m stealing this thread and sharing (with attribution) with every student and advisor where I teach.

Look at these clowns, celebrating past glory. Since @dcunitedofficial.bsky.social let Olsen go in 2020, here are some other numbers: 5x seasons 4x head coaches 4x GMs 2x wooden spoons 0x playoff appearances ~120 DIFFERENT players The GM, head coach, and players are not the problem. #SellTheTeam

Looking forward to cracking open this new arrival from @iantb.bsky.social.

“What Would I Do Without This World Faceless Incurious” Samuel Beckett www.best-poems.net/samuel_becke...

A thought for journalists (looking at you, @nytimes.com): If one source says it’s raining, & another source says it isn’t, you don’t report both uncritically. YOU GO THE HELL OUTSIDE & report how the assertions correspond to the evidence. You’re reporters for fuck sake, not stenographers!

It’s a matter of information. If the rule is to always include the serial comma, its absence conveys information. We get more clarity. God knows we could use a little clarity.

“They are the most curious creature of all. Hyper-focused. Single-minded. Intense. Devoted. Often single. They speak in reverent tones and hushed whispers and can walk with preternatural silence across a bed of leaves…” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I’m a birder. I came to this thing, not quite an obsession (except when it is), relatively late in life. There are classic works that capture and communicate what this is. Now, I have a new one. This is good. So. Fucking. Good. m.youtube.com/watch?v=zl-w...

I would normally suggest that the @chargers.bsky.social are dead to me, but we don’t celebrate the misfortunes of the dead. When I was young, I hoped for the Raiders and Cowboys to lose, and I prayed for a Chargers win. Today, I hope for and celebrate anything ill that befalls the Chargers.

Walking home from the office tonight & carrying a wire hanger. (Don’t ask.). This hanger is from a German dry cleaner, I’ve had it (& its compatriot) for YEARS, & it’s an example of Germans doing the simple things SO WELL. Strange that a HANGER tells you everything you need to know.

It may seem a trivial thing, but I have a life hack for happiness. If you can, try the best salsa in the history of salsa. (Is it the best? YES! I’m not taking questions.) Is it available only in the Albuquerque area? Unfortunately, yes. The “hot” is my fave, but a dare. The medium is perfect.

The robot umpire can’t come fast enough. The jackass at the plate owes the @padres.com a written apology and public penitence.

I may be the only one who obsesses over these things when I not a fan of either team—no homer bitching allowed—but: 1) the ref is having a terrible night, and 2) I’m glad Tony Meola, a great keeper and a SHITE commentator, is on a network I so rarely watch.

“…I guess their ethics advisors got furloughed…”

The federal government is having a normal one. Just got an email from the Department of Veteran’s Affairs blaming the Democrat Party for the government shutdown and saying some services may be disrupted as a result. I guess their ethics advisors got furloughed.

I’m gonna just leave this oldie-but-a-goodie from @pptsapper.bsky.social right here. angrystaffofficer.com/2016/12/14/s...

“Death, taxes and Kari Lake being rebuked in court.” 🤣🤣🤣 www.msnbc.com/msnbc/amp/sh...

It’s hard to argue with this list, & I’m largely down w/the order. I know why Olivier is #1, but I really like Branagh’s completist (if turgid) take. What about Mekhi Phifer’s trip as Othello? Or the glorious teen-comedy take on “Taming of the Shrew” in “10 Things…”?

Your social media team appears to suck, as does the team. It’s not and it was never the coach. #selltheteam @dcunitedofficial.bsky.social

Fascinating. phys.org/news/2025-09...

I watch LinkedIn & see GOs for whom I worked, for whom I wouldn’t cross the street if I had to pee & they were on fire—ignorant, inarticulate, incompetent, mean, etc.—welcomed to boards & positions of leadership for who they know & not who they are. They have no other value. That’s unutterably sad.

Angry, sad, helpless, committed, and hopeless is a weird combination of feelings.

Whelp. We had a good run. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

I have 3 axioms that help me decide when to talk to people I disagree with: 1. To debate a subject is to concede that the subject is debatable. 2. To reason with a person is to concede that the person is reasonable. 3. To ask for evidence of a claim is to concede that the claim might be true.

This is a deep cut for the math nerds in the audience…and I could not love it more. (Hyperbolic geometry was my life for a minute.)

1/x I don’t disagree with this one bit (though I “read like a graduate student” only when I must). I do have expanding thoughts (that don’t contradict Kerg, I hope) As Sir Michael Howard advised, read with an eye to “width, breadth, and context.” press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/v...

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Join host @prbeckman.bsky.social for a conversation with @briankerg.bsky.social about the School of Advanced Warfighting and the training of operational planners. thestrategybridge.org/the-podcast

We have a new #StrategyBridgePodcast episode with @prbeckman.bsky.social dropping tomorrow! Stay tuned! thestrategybridge.org/the-podcast

Few history takes nauseate me more than referring to July 1863 as a “turning point” in the Civil War. The Federal victory at Gettysburg restored strategic stalemate to the East. The greatest impact of the fall of Vicksburg was enjoyed by Midwestern mercantilists. The war still hung by a thread.

Battle doomscrolling by posting 5 small pleasures in life: 1. Sitting on the porch w/Merlin, listening to the birds. 2. Train connections w/no wait. 3. Pa amb tomàquet w/Rachel. 4. Students who smile or wave…I don’t care why. 5. Watering our flowers.

Both episodes in this 2-parter from “Decoder Ring” are fascinating. I’m particularly struck by this one. My current reading is showing, but bizarre stab-in-the-back & Lost Cause oddity from some janky/mendacious administrations is both classical & contemporary. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

If you know, you know.

I do, in fact, remember the 21st night of September. I remember several…and I’ve forgotten more than a few. m.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs06...

An interesting and excellent article from Tom Bruscino. I’m perhaps a little less inclined toward the strong emphasis on “war fighting” in what military professionals write (my priors are showing), but it’s vital. It’s also a pleasure to see what close study can mean to future warfare.

To paraphrase George Carlin: Some people are stupid. Some people are full of shit. Some people are fucking nuts. Sean Hannity is, and ever was, all three.

Military officers should have civ-mil relations embedded as a core part of their PME directly at commissioning, not once they reach field grade Maybe then it might sink in