A majestic visitor to the garden!

I'm sorry, OPERATION RASH ROD notwithstanding, "Peace Through Strength" means you don't have to expend a bunch of expensive munitions and dunk F-18s to get people to stop doing shit you don't want them to do. I am once again begging the "War" Department to bring back "Win Without Fighting!"

Rubio is such a doormat SecState. Do anything, say anything to get power but once he has it can't even call some random 4th tier advisor wounded by a corruption scandal to tell him, "nobody gives two shits what you think of the Brits, Tom." They're calling it the most cucked cabinet ever.

Well said, too many similar memorials

I am spending all weekend changing all of our course materials from DoD to DoW, and honestly, Pentagon is Pete is such a half-ass quitter. Why no National War Strategy? No National War Authorization Act? No War Health Agency? They're too chickenshit to issue War Instructions (DOWIs and DOWDs).

Disappointed the MTG discourse is not MtG discourse.

I approach all yardwork like this.

Don't mind me, just doing some Christmas shopping

"As you know, I maintain an open door policy," says manager who always keeps door closed in 1:1 closed door meeting that was scheduled via text to my personal phone.

Yeah yeah, he's offering you punditry in the ass, at the Malibu Beach Inn...

I would turn the TV off and never watch another minute of the series if the same character worked at a publication called "Vanity Fair."

Just doing a little early decorating for Xmas lol

This is what a lot of the fed defense universities did at the beginning of the year. The "AI analysis" was really stretching the term. It was mostly Ctrl+F for a series of banned words and no actual follow-up discussion to defend important content.

Album of the Year candidate for me. Unique and groovy. It's really grown on me.

JTF SS?

After the panel: A: "Damn, you guys were feral..." B: "Bullshit. She fucked us with the FAR and then says the only way to appeal is to put it on SECDEF's desk. She ate the shit she deserved." Scenes lol

Honestly my best work this year. Had good focus. A clear vision. Fiero even. Gonna turn it into a War on the Rocks piece, but just have to decide whether my framing is derogatory or laudatory. I'm back, baby.

My main use of Reddit nowadays is to log on and click "show fewer posts like this" about 12 times so that if the website is ever useful again my algorithm will be 🔥🔥

8:18am is as good a time as any to tell people they must report to the office. And by that we mean get here after lunch if you can bc traffic is a thing.

On some level they’re aware Trump can’t fulfill the vision they wanted and by missing the opportunity all they’ve really done is create a roadmap, clearing out debris, for totalizing liberal backlash

We just got the updated guidance to change everything to Department of War ASAP last week. Prior to that it was just use your best judgement (lol). It's definitely not a small task now that there's this feeling the name is a shibboleth, and leadership is afraid someone high up will see an old copy.

The standard of evidence that members of big media outlets hold toward Donald Trump requires 3 parts: 1) I saw Donald Trump do the thing. 2) Donald Trump said he did the thing. 3) It would be good for Donald Trump to have done the thing. The only one that's negotiable for them is #1.

Just sitting here wishing someone other than Mark Hertling (laudatory) would find the minimum amount of courage to speak out on the open bigotry and sexism guiding Pentagon, but I do understand the need to talk about our CRITICAL ACQUISITIONS CHALLENGES without actually criticizing anyone.

More books should have an epilogue where they just restate the main elements of their thesis, but with absolutely zero hedging or fucks given.

I remember the first few security cooperation and humanitarian response courses we did after the destruction of USAID, where military students would ask if this would be an "opportunity" for DoD to expand onto USAID's portfolio. Some students were absolutely convinced that was the plan. It wasn't.

I would simply not post and tell my comms person to take the day

This might be the best deal available, and fine. The deal's not worse next weekend, it's better-timed and gives you a chance to message with unity, to make clear what you stand for. How this happened, what's going on in the party, is destructive to the party, way more than where the issue dials are.

I made a pizza last night. Alice Waters' focaccia recipe for the crust was awesome

Honestly, what a leadership debacle. Obvs the shutdown has to end, and I think Dems did achieve some political wins, but tonight's chaos and disunity just pisses so much of that away. If it wasn't planned, it's awful leadership. If it was, it's wayyyy too cute and still pisses everyone off.

The timing on this climb down by a truly incompetent set of Dem appeasers is nuts. You have days of headlines upcoming this week about POTUS fighting in the courts to NOT PAY SNAP BENEFITS! Why would you bail the GOP out this week!!??

A new Portugal. The Man album (Shish) is out and it's generally a lot. Feels extremely personal. Some weird, some epic, but definitely worth a listen. The opener, Denali, is a great welcome to the album. Knik is some of their best work, especially the guitar on the back half.

I know Ryan Adams crashed out hard, but Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings turned Heartbreaker from an 8/10 to an 11, all time top tier album.

I'm interested in this one as a learning example. You're active duty, you're leading a team doing a key leader engagement in a county like Ghana. Goal is to build trust, create contacts, gain access. On the last day of a 3-day engagement you get gifted these. What do you do in the moment?

Just remembering that the conventional wisdom that was building in the minds of senior officers around me in March was that despite all that was going on, at least the guidance was clear and consistent. I don't hear that much anymore. Lol.

And for this stupid, cringe FAFO horseshit to work in IR you should probably at least have some consistent signaling about what you as a nation consider to be Fucking Around worthy of Finding Out. Russia obvs doesn't see jerking Witkoff around or flying drones around Poland as Fucking Around.

I'm confused, a goldeneye is a duck right? Why not make the logo a duck? Why the weird eye?

"Nazi scientists created exquisite technological marvels!!!" Sherman rocket launcher tank

With apologies to the CQ stans on here

Gen CQ Brown is back, baby, and he's got something to say about the colors of money in War on the Rocks. The Profession is absolutely fine, why do you ask?

Absolute failure to read history aside, this paragraph argues that Congress actually has a role if a president decides to unilaterally send the nation into a war of choice, but that it actually doesn't because defunding a war in progress is politically untenable. Flawless logic from the WSJ

"OH SO YOU SUPPORT A BRUTAL DICTATOR BC YOU DON'T WANT THE PRESIDENT TO UNILATERALLY PROSECUTE AN ILL-CONCEIVED WAR OF CHOICE IN A COUNTRY WITH 100 OTHER CHALLENGES, LED BY A TEAM OF TOTAL MORONS WHO INCAPABLE OF BASIC OPSEC?" Guys, he's losing. Have a minimum level of self respect.

I thought these two were related and we were threatening to raid Nigeria for provisions like the Grande Armée.

How much trade does Alito think goes on between two countries facing "an imminent threat of war?" READ THEORY

Foreign Affairs excited to break into the "What the Actual Fuck Are You Talking About" genre: www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

JD Power and Associates also awards Donald J Trump its highest rating in the categories of Big Hands, Ending Wars, Mental Acuity, Handsomeness, and Presidenting.

Yeah, at least a few people rn in the White House looking for the East Wing assembly instructions

Just gonna go ahead and post this one again:

CIA EXTENDS ELECTORAL STREAK WITH STATEMENT WIN ON HOME TURF

WaPo call me I'm a prognosticator and you need a token ResistLib Free Markets, Free People, Free Virginia amirite?

My entire day has basically been this meme repeated every 90 minutes, but this post was pretty fucking funny.