Killed a wasp in class today with a copy of Robert Pape’s “Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War” (which is an argument that you can’t bomb your way to victory) Not sure what the allegorical meaning of this is, but it seems to fit

not unrecognizable but he does look like if Belgium had a dictator

It's like regular Trap but with more emphasis on Belt and Road instead of Old Town Road. I'll also see myself out.

Ok but what about Thucydides Trap Music I’ll see myself out

War beginning: easy peasy, lemon squeezy War ending: hardy tardy, what the fuck this lemon has spikes in it and keeps dripping acid on me

Today in “the Civil War never really ended”education, we have segregationist Alabama Gov George Wallace and presidential candidate campaigning at the Gettysburg Centennial among Confederate reenactors who joke about finally taking Washington in ‘64

... I did not know Palantir hired an actual Mosley to run their UK & Europe operations. That's on the nose.

*stares in 20th Maine* Don’t make us come down there again

Someone was VERY brave at the vet this morning Rosie hath endured yet another bout of being kidnapped for her health (which is excellent), the poor dear

The week on the Untitled History Podcast, @pptsapper.bsky.social joins me and we take a look the war of 1812. Ya know. That time when the US tried to capture Canada, but instead got taught how flammable the White House was... #history cms.megaphone.fm/channel/the-...

Roger B Taney be sitting in hell and laughing his ass off

I really think Elisha Hunt Rhodes would dig Real Housewives of Rhode Island I have nothing to back this up other than anyone who can process the experience of the Civil War like he did probably is up for some messy meaningless drama

We know what writers block is, but is there a word for knowing exactly what you want to say and how you want to say it but lacking the will to put it on a page? Because that’s my problem at the moment And yes, it could be sheer laziness, but I really need it to be something more dramatic

Shout-out to both my sister and nephew for waking up at 04:30am tomorrow morning to spend the whole day as poll workers for Ohio’s primaries, which don’t close until 7:30pm FYI, rural voting districts badly need poll workers on election days

A visibly emotional Anne Hathaway responding to a trans kid--who named herself Ella after Ella Enchanted, and thanked Hathaway for her courage as an ally--saying "Ella, sweetie, I want to make something absolutely clear: It takes zero courage to love you"......now I might cry too

By gutting the Voting Rights Act, the Supreme Court is killing the Second Reconstruction. The first Reconstruction shows how Congress should respond. Me and Daphna Renan in the NYT on the tools we have to save democracy from a hostile Court.

As SCOTUS was dismantling the Voting Rights Act today, I was leading a staff ride at Antietam, the single bloodiest day in American history and the campaign that permitted Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, beginning a century-long path to the VRA All of that feels incredibly fraught

Making my way thru Ken Burns Baseball again and my admiration for Branch Rickey continues to grow

It’s the 250th year of American independence, and the Pope and the King of England are reminding Americans of their revolutionary values, principles, and ideals Somewhere, John Adams is confused as fuck

Need something to lift your spirits? There’s a PBS documentary filled with interviews of the women who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball Team. Basically, “A League of their Own” but in the words of some fabulously wonderful women

Well this is just what is best in life (Not pictured: the massive purr coming outta this cat)

My favorite picture of Terry Pratchett

Today is the official release date for my new book about free people of color in the Civil War era. My first book events are coming up next month in the Boston area. I’ll be at the Cambridge Public Library on 5/13 and the Museum of African American History on 5/14. Both events start at 6 pm.

Be the Sir Terry you wish to see in the world.

Joe Hooker only ever lost one battle in his career, that being at Chancellorsville where in losing he also managed to inflict incredibly high losses on his adversary. But that one loss wasn’t why he was relieved from AoP command: it was his inability to get along with his civ and mil superiors

This time of year is always an amusing time to be a New England apologist for the Revolution All the non New England states are like “spring 1775! Yeah! We formed some companies and did some stuff and yelled a lot!” Meanwhile, New England is like “yeah, here’s an entire fucking field army”

Phelan is out

1918 called

The Other Resignation Letter That Robert E. Lee Wrote on This Day in 1861 #CivilWarMemory open.substack.com/pub/kevinmle...

I watched my father’s coffin lowered into the grave via a FB messenger video chat, with one sister holding the phone and the other on another screen. It was April 2021. None of us has recovered. My dad’s brother died last week & all the old grief came rocketing back in ways I couldn’t foresee

This Is Just To Say I have turned off the AI features that were in the update and which you were probably hoping to monetize Fuck you they were stupid so unnecessary and so annoying

Maya Angelou on the joys of being edited

Just took a reading comprehension test that said I scored higher than 92% of army war college attendees Reader, I am hungover af and sleep deprived. This does not bode well for those we are selecting for higher command and responsibility.

Wait until they hear about cars

Thucydides alert! "What made war inevitable, in other words, was not merely the presence of rival great powers, but the fact that one of those powers was abusing the rules of the system that had enabled its rise to greatness in the first place." Gift link www.nytimes.com/2026/04/19/o...

Watching Wishbone episodes on YouTube and man, I forgot just how great this show was And also, Joe’s mom can get it

CORRECT

251 years ago this morning just before dawn, 19yo William Diamond beat the assembly on his drum to call the Lexington Company of Militia out to the town green to form up as a British column had been sighted Diamond would fight through the whole war & have a family I’m his g-g-g-g-grandson

One of my favorite things is finding gems unrelated to what I’m researching A Texas guy in the ‘70s related to a local paper that during the 1916 border mobilization, he witnessed the 1st NH Inf band play “Marching Thru Georgia,” causing a nearby GA unit to threaten to attack. Regulars intervened

New guest post up on the ‘ol blog. Grateful for people who have the energy to write when I do not angrystaffofficer.com/2026/04/16/c...

When Secretary Austin made people his first priority, it wasn’t for some sort of namby-pamby normative good. It was because people win wars. People man ships. People manage blockades. If people can’t do that, the blockades, ships, and wars fail. We lose.

New guest post up on the ‘ol blog. Grateful for people who have the energy to write when I do not angrystaffofficer.com/2026/04/16/c...

Should I be concerned? Or are torties always developing themselves?

This is Champ, the bat retriever: the best boy Original post

Visitors to my house might wonder why there’s a musket ball in my utensil drawer To them I would say…stay ready ain’t gotta get ready? Honestly, no idea how it got there or why it stays there. It’s just part of the law that if a thing is in a kitchen drawer for a year, it just is there now

"Someone tried to strangle Sneako", "Clavicular just had a drug overdose", I refuse to believe that understanding any of these headlines is better for me than chain-smoking

"I owe more to Canadians than they'll ever know. In my baseball career, they were the first to make me feel my natural self." -- Jackie Robinson #JackieRobinsonDay

here's how the FBI extracted deleted Signal messages from an iPhone: Watch more about this, and subscribe, here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNUO...

The evil I wants it.