Trump II reminds me a lot of my mother and her Christmas cards.

(Yes, I have a mother, shocking I know)

See my mother is a slave to formality, and the process. She is a great hostess and friend. Until you wrong her.

Every year she sends out Christmas Cards. She would sit down the week after Thanksgiving and pull out this leather address book and start writing.

No services. No pictures. Every card a hand written note.

Except in this book you saw names with big black lines drawn through them. The Unfortunates.

Men who know their strengths and their enemy's weakness, and are disciplined enough to refuse the battle the enemy offers are the most dangerous type of warriors.

When you combine that with hard, disciplined fighters, you become unbeatable. Like at the Battle of Assaye 1/ In 1803, the British Empire finally decided the time was right to bring India into the fold entirely. The British East India Company, essentially a band of merchants with their own army, pitched a plan to the conquer the rest of India to London.

Real Story: I lived at this outpost that was a solid 5 iron shot from an international border. One day some idiot decided to put a huge aerostat balloon there.

Worried it would break loose and float across the border with the good cameras, we put together a plan. A 50al

https://twitter.com/notwill42/status/1873884175927054468

I had a friend send me a copy of the WW2 Era field manual 23-60, that had a real section of the M2 in aerial defense mode.

We paid some pog at a FOB to build us a 6 foot tall tripod, and mounted that beast next to the TOC.

If you have ever spent much time in Japan, you’ll know that despite being massive xenophobic racists, the Japanese also love to appropriate American culture where they want. After WW2, Japan was struggling with the cultural impacts of American occupation So they proactive approach and doubled down on baseball … and KFC on Christmas. Christmas KFC is a massive tradition in Japan. Like a Black Friday for mid grade fried chicken.

The Japanese aren’t super good at understanding Christmas, but they banzai the Colonel’s bucket.

We often think about war in terms of weapons, strategy, and logistics. Looking at the full spectrum of variables often misses the most important one: the men who do the fighting.

Whatever the weapons or technology, wars are decided by men. Like at the Battle of Lanzerath Ridge 1/ It is 16 December, 1944. The US invasion of mainland Europe is just over 6 months old. The Allies have broken out of the hedgerows of Normandy and raced across France, but then ran right into the German Siegfried Line.

Alright: Economics and Grand Strategy mit Voodoo.

Grab a drink and a seat

First, tariffs are neither good nor bad in and of themselves. They are a tool. Like a hammer. You can use a hammer for too long, without a plan, and wrong. That isn't the hammer's fault. It is yours. The two big arguments for/against tariffs are

1. They will raise prices. (they will)

2. It is undemocratic, let the free global market decide (ok Klaus Schwab, Milton Friedman, how did that work out for us?)

At a basic level a tariff is a tax imposed on an imported good.

When you go out and vote, it isn't enough to vote straight party only on local elections... the ones that matter the most.

Know your school board candidates, know which ones share your values.

This is from a proposed teacher contract in Michigan

They sense danger coming... Basically, they want to make anything they do or say in front of your kids hidden from parents....

And they want immunity from being fired for it.

They want to be able to say or do anything, without parents knowing or having any recourse.

Imagine America handing a majority Iroquois or Comanche the right to vote in 1800. Imagine an America where native tribes outnumbered European colonials. Americans forgets it got EXTREMELY lucky with its indigenous population. Colonial powers who look to maintain long term success have one of three options:

1. Outnumber the locals
2. Integrate the locals
3. Dominate the locals

The US lucked out with #1, but it was an option not available to colonists in Southern Africa.

A great leader is nothing without great followers and great followers are likewise nothing without a great leader. It is the symbiosis of these two, fame soaked hero and honorable commoner, in which the greatest glory is made.

The Bastion of Castille

The Siege of Malta pt 3 1/ It is August 19th, 1565 and the Ottoman siege of Malta had entered it’s third month. It had been 56 days since the fall of St. Elmo had turned the full attention of Sultan’s army to the twin peninsulas of Birgu and Senglia.

Making the ultimate sacrifice for one's cause is often seen as the greatest testament of faith. Occasionally, in the direst of circumstances, fate demands that testament be delayed in order to exhaust ones enemy

Like at the battle of Fort St Elmo

The Siege of Malta, pt 2 1/ As the Ottoman forces began landing on the tiny, rock strewn island of Malta, they found a garrison of Knights Hospitaler ready for them. Grand Master Jean de Valette had used his time on Malta wisely, and had prepared three fortresses which guarded Malta’s Grand Harbor.

Couple things
1. Body armor is > than “fitness” in a gunfight
2. Fitness is > than body armor for long term survival.
3. Buying good body armor is the single most important thing you can do today to increase survivability by tomorrow
4. Don’t listen to C/Is. Especially idiots Body armor can save your life. Once a gunfight starts, it is chaos and random. Anyone telling you “body armor only covers 9% of your body”, “I can be a harder target to hit if I’m fast” or “I can only stop one round” have no idea what they are saying.

Clashes of cultures are not new. We think our ancestors unified in the face of existential defeat at the hands of the invading hordes

But it is a lie. More often it was a small group, with no where to run, that stood and turned back the horde. Like at the Siege of Malta in 1565 1/ By 1565 the centuries old conflict between Christianity and Islam in the Eastern Mediterranean had swung firmly in favor of the sons of Allah. Reconquista had secured Spain, but the last of the Crusader kingdoms in the Middle East were little more than a memory.

So I can see why people didn’t like Civil War, but I did. Here’s why: the press are the main characters, but they are not the heroes. They are almost all portrayed as repugnant buffoons. I think a lot of people maybe thought it was a movie about how cool the press were, but the movie is making fun of them. I think

It portrays them as adrenaline junkies without the integrity to pick a side and help.

Everyone they meet either mocks them or ignores them.

Some time ago a friend of mine got blown up in the Arghandab.

He was medevaced to Landstuhl. I was in Europe at the time so I drove through the night and tried to meet his plane when it landed.

Took me like 6 hours to get there, but I made it.

https://twitter.com/dalestarka10/status/1826713090039419320

Got to the hospital at like 3am, he was already there but still unconscious.

Flirted my way past the duty nurse and sat with him for the next 10 hours.

They had him restrained and intubated so when he woke up he was not in a great mood. They got the tube out of his throat.

This is my favorite scenes in one of my favorite war movies. It was recommended to me by an officer who passed away this week. One of the finest I’ve ever known.

It talks about being beholden to one’s brothers, being there when they need you and you need them.

War is those men The scene before Captain Flagg had just won his lady’s hand. He had captured a German officer and had been given leave in Paris. He had been in the trenches over a year, and a Marine all his life.

And then his Sergeants walked into the bar

You know what. Let’s talk about the Thompson.

It wasn’t the best sub machine gun of World War 2

But it was by far the coolest

https://twitter.com/6voodoo/status/1815555196812145016

With its half wood, half metal construction it blended old and new just like the Second World War did.

It was the end of the old world, and the beginning of the new.

I get it. Americans love fighting by the Marquess of Queensberry rules, always have

Most American wars, have been relatively civil.

But look at World War 2. It was really three separate wars

Soviets vs Germany
US/Uk vs Germany
US vs Japan

Two of these were horror shows…why?



Why did the Eastern Front and the Pacific see brutality unlike the Western Front?

The answer is the conduct of the enemy.

Japan brutalized civilians, starved and executed prisoners (when they took them). It is no wonder the former begat the later

I get it, you hate the government. It lies to us. You are right. But holding up a guy who was at best an ineffective journalist, and at worst helped to kill Americans is not the middle finger to the man you think it is.

Julian Assange is not the hero you make him out to be I'll leave out all of the "he is a Russian/CIA/NSA/Mossad/MSS/Big Fridge asset!!!" because he might be, but that is entirely besides the point and can't be proven

He is like many other edgelord heroes... does one thing that can be interpreted as cool, but real failed. Miserably

We live in a zero defect culture, and the slightest offense can render past good deeds moot. However our national also loves a heroic achievement, set against the odds where the stakes are desperately high. We must learn to honor the heroism, like at the Battle of Chapultepec 1/ By September of 1847, the Armies young United States were closing in on the capital of the descendants of the Conquistadors in Mexico City.

Have had some Port, so we are going to talk about 1917… which is a great movie.

But mostly it’s great because every officer with a real role in the story is a good officer. The movie eschews the traditional out of touch and dumb officer trope for something better

Here we go





Major General Erinmore

Erinmore is by far the most interesting officer in the movie, mostly because he is the polar opposite of the “lions led be donkeys” myth.

He is caring, competent, and open minded. He does what a good general should. He analyzes the situation, and then sends men into the fight.

He also quotes Kipling

Alright rag bags listen up, I hate this and boats and the water, so let’s get this over with.

There is a fundamental misunderstanding of why Battleships stopped being used after WW2. Blame the pre-Aliens History Channel. Battleships stopped being relevant not because of the rise of airplanes, but because 1) the limitations of their offensive firepower and 2) only one navy could afford them, and their enemy fielded none. There were to be no Jutlands in WW3