I could probably remove the party filter and still be on one hand. And that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t fight the Cult of the Gizmo, it’s extremely dangerous. But we should be clear-eyed that this is a campaign for the indefinite future. Americans are weak to the Cult of the Gizmo unfortunately.

*reads military news from non-mil specialized outfit, sighs* Per SOUTHCOM, FORD is sailing with three DDGs, BAINBRIDGE, MAHAN, and WINSTON CHURCHILL. SOUTHCOM’s press release describes CHURCHILL as the “integrated air and missile defense command ship”, which presumably means she is the designated…

Love this by @gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social: "The plot against the United States is not a Philip Roth-esque conspiracy built by conspiring fascists in the shadows. The plot against America is more banal. It is the desecration of our basic sense of what it means to be a good citizen of our Nation."

Some inspiring words on cinema in the streaming era from the Pope. Yes, THAT Pope.

Some are calling him one of the stupidest motherfuckers in American defense policy (me)

It’s a black swan event that does actually happen. The tricky part is this particular swan has the largest strategic and non-strategic nuclear arsenal in the world, spread out over the largest country in the world. Ezpz

Alternative units of measure include a destroyer, about 20-25 F-35s depending on the lot, and quite a few missiles.

Increasingly hard to resist the view we should have intervened from the get-go, potentially with maximalist aims, nuclear threats be damned

sharepoint answers the question of “what if google drive hung every time you changed a font”

For those unfamiliar with probably the best airport from a functional perspective in the country, Hartsfield has five runways. That’s a plane per runway every ten minutes, instead of the usual 2.5.

If I may pivot off this, this does bring one to the areas of advantage a carrier does have. First and foremost, a carrier can provide elevated sensing. The curvature of the Earth is a problem for all sensors, but the gap in sensing between a surface ship and aircraft is of category difference.

What does it take to convince you that: A. American hegemony is good for you/America and B. “Be[ing] the world’s mom and dad”is good for American hegemony. There’s also a wave of ethical arguments but cold assessments of American cost benefit still favor this overwhelmingly.

It also seems to me to be suicide for fear of death. What exactly do we fear from China that’s worse than command-economy-ing ourselves into manufacturing and out of all the industries we’re world leaders in? Friendshoring makes sense. Fantasies of autarky are just that.

As an engineering project, I’m quite curious how Lego got the saucer and the upper secondary hull built, especially with the ability to separate off what looks like one small button in the video. Larger Star Wars UCS models have been using technic as the skeleton and “hanging” the skin off that.

(Surprising no one) I have thoughts on this, but first and foremost is that the American public wants what classes as a moral good of building things but absolutely don’t actually do that. We also want the wealth and easy work lives of our service economy. And we seem to want that more.

Fun fact, this movie is about the same period in history that ended up (indirectly) causing: 1. Teddy Roosevelt’s Peace Prize 2. The fall of the Russian Empire and the rise of the USSR and its own cause is inextricably linked to the Emancipation Proclamation.

As usual, SecDef Rock not only can’t miss but has broad critiques layered into the razor sharp way the bullshit is sliced apart.

I’m not the only one jumping on this, but sweet baby Jesus in the manger what the actual fuck is a non-militarized security framework? I’m serious, how do you plan to deter an invasion without hard power? Leaflets? Sanctions by a government-suddenly-in-exile? Protests?

This. As others have called it, it’s an O-3 mindset in a job above O-10

No, NO All of their decisions in the movie suck and are bad!!! They talk themselves into striking before a single ICBM of unknown origin even hits!!!

Your regularly scheduled reminder of one of the pioneering groups of what is now called operations research was a group of teen and twenty something women led by a gamer too ill for sea duty trying to do their part to defend their island home.

For the gazillionth time, this. They’re right *on average*. That’s not the same thing as either right or smart.

Yeah I reread this this morning hoping to find some sense, and it got worse. This launch platform is being towed by a HEMTT, a *ten ton truck*. You can’t drive that over huge fractions of the theater, and it sticks out everywhere it can go. This is insane. www.twz.com/wp-content/u...

So as a moving out present to myself, I got the Sembo J-50 kit and the Sluban J-36 kit. Banged out the J-50 tonight, the following is my assessment. Short version, solid kit, worthy of consideration if it’s your kind of thing.

I am once again calling for a Democrat presidential inaugural address on January 20, 2029, demanding the immediate surrender of Bukele’s government for international prosecution, the return of *all American citizens and lawful residents*, and preparations for immediate independent elections.

Tired: the cia is an agent of covert regime change abroad and that’s bad Wired: the cia is an agent of covert regime change abroad and that’s not only good but essential to democracy

Given the gross inaccuracies in the film, I’m really struggling with this recommendation. Nuclear war is bad; so are ill-informed public’s that will choose and pressure leaders into bad choices and worse outcomes based on poor education.

Is reminding you that the Battle of Moscow was ongoing when we joined the war enough for you or do I need to attach a map of where that is too? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_...

I’m glad it’s well-made enough people who don’t understand the subject matter will miss why it’s completely horseshit. Wait…

I’m getting tired of saying this, so I’m going to say it one more time, *slowly*. If in a INDOPACOM fight swarming UAS are the greatest threat to the US Navy, we have already won the war. If we are close enough to the target that kill chain can be closed, we’ve already won.

We’ve been over this repeatedly. No. It’s a bad idea. We can’t base close safely, so you’re basically *starting* with the differences on this map. And some IPC transits will be longer.

Oregon National Guard Adjutant General, General Gronewold says if they are federalized, that he will advise the Title 10 commander to utilize National Guard Troops to PROTECT protesters at ICE facilities. This is the right answer.

Naval History folks, anyone know of good books on the naval war in the War of 1812, preferably featuring the shenanigans on the Great Lakes? #navalhistory #history

Today in Too Clever by Half License Plates: II11111

Imagine being in charge of nuclear weapons, in charge of developing the weapons systems of the future, of battleships and tanks and bombers and fighter jets and you spend your time mad about whether people are shaving.

*begins briefly skimming history of where in Europe who invented what in America immigrated from*

It’s difficult to succinctly explain the issues with the Quantico stunt, but in terms of strategic mentality issues, this is pretty good

I’m doing an online historical campaign with friends, and I’ve ended up the overall commander for the German side in an ahistorical 1914. I’ve decided my players will be awarded modern FRG awards for gallantry for a very simple reason: anyone mad about not using historical will be madder at this.

I just want to live in a country that gives me the legal right to burn a flag -- but no reason to want to do so

I’m calling for a complete and total shutdown of people talking about what the infantry does or doesn’t need as standards until they demonstrate they know two things: Infantry != all soldiers Future war will not require infantry as it once did/any semblance of understanding where war is headed

There’s a reason I consistently describe Stellaris as an RPG. The gimmick is that your role is somewhere between God, fate, and the inevitable course of history.

This is genuinely “Don’t fight a two front war” level insight, down to not accounting for hostile agency. This is probably in The Art of War, which is very much not a compliment to those hawking it as a revolutionary strategy.

One of the first things I learned after becoming a DON civilian, from a then-Army Captain, was the difference between a warrior and a soldier. One of these is an amoral killer. The other is a disciplined professional who understands the power s/he wields. It’s hard to make the former into the latter

Generally killing people and breaking things, while the point of the vast majority of our capabilities at some point, is considered the last resort. And LOAC restrains who you can kill and what you can break for a reason.

When I complain that people don’t understand the needs of 21st century warfare, this is what I’m complaining about. I don’t care how much you and your buddies bench press, you’re not hand-loading a LRHW AUR. And keyboards don’t care about your deadlift.

This is probably correct, and even as you go up the chain there will often be people either in or on the loop. Machines can’t think, they can only fundamentally react, and I know of nothing on the horizon changing that. The less you need machine speed the less useful the machine is.

An excellent treatise

Ok but the strategic bombing campaign did have effects that were favorable to the Allies. Note that I did not say they were defensible ethically or strategically, just that people forget one of its effects that probably shortened the war by years in my view.

Fine, I’ll throw my grenade. The foreign power most likely to kinetically intervene in the American Civil War was the Russians in the side of the Union.