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Charlie Thomas

@cthomasjamh.bsky.social

6.5K followers 790 following 3.1K posts

Professor, African Military Historian, Co-Editor of the Journal of African Military History. Opinions expressed are solely mine. My book, Ujamaa’s Army, is available now!! https://www.ohioswallow.com/9780821425596/ujamaas-army

www.ohioswallow.com

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Charlie Thomas @cthomasjamh.bsky.social · Nov 12

For all my new followers, hello! I am a historian of African militaries and African military history- and I recently published a book on the Tanzania People's Defence Forces' fascinating history! Here's a thread about why you should read it! bsky.app/profile/ctho...

Charlie Thomas @cthomasjamh.bsky.social · Sep 28

"But Charlie!" you may say, "why should *I* care about the Tanzania People's Defence Force!?" Well let me tell you a few cool things about them!

1. Following independence most African states just inherited whatever colonial troops existed as their militaries. This often led to coups and mutinies.

Charlie Thomas @cthomasjamh.bsky.social · Sep 28

Whooooo! Although I know other folks have already gotten it, my author copies finally arrived. It's been a long road and it still feels unreal to actually have the physical copies in hand!

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Charlie Thomas @cthomasjamh.bsky.social · 42m

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Nk8... Having read this recently, I'll say again it is an achingly beautiful and occasionally harrowing story. This looks gorgeous and maybe even realizes a large part of the book, but my god why would you want to make this film?

Train Dreams | Official Trailer | Netflix

YouTube video by Netflix

www.youtube.com

Charlie Thomas @cthomasjamh.bsky.social · 2h

Beyond admittedly the hilarious dance, the main question is why are they shooting at him? Why are they shooting at anyone that is peacefully demonstrating?!

Danny K @dannykpolitics.bsky.social · 2d

WATCH: ‘Portland Frog’ pepper balled by ICE agents

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Charlie Thomas @cthomasjamh.bsky.social · 4h

You do not, in fact, “gotta hand it to the Tsar”

Reposted by Charlie Thomas

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 4h

repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself

violent alien @blipstress.bsky.social · 4h

An actual hot take: Too many authors are afraid of editors watering down their voice or whatever and not afraid enough of editors letting you put any old slop on the page.

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Charlie Thomas @cthomasjamh.bsky.social · 4h

It was at Connections. Apparently one of the Czar’a cousins was put in charge of the navy and he was actually pretty competent. He ran a series of naval wargames that all showed Japan would whup them at a fleet battle. He tried to convince the Czar to not go to war but… well then Tsushima.

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Charlie Thomas @cthomasjamh.bsky.social · 4h

Oh man did I tell you about the talk on the 1900 Russian Naval Wargames?

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Charlie Thomas @cthomasjamh.bsky.social · 6h

I am really hoping that after this we get to see the AI prompts and videos they’ve been sitting him in front of.

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utopia deferred @utopia-defer.red · 7h

ngl we can try to rationalize as much backsliding as we want but “game cancelled because black protagonist killing white terrorists during reconstruction deemed too political” is pretty bad as far as I consider things re: mainstream popular culture

Stephen Totilo @stephentotilo.bsky.social · 7h

SCOOP: Last year, Ubisoft cancelled an Assassin's Creed game set during Reconstruction. Was to feature a Black Assassin who, among other things, fought the rise of the Klan

Sources: Leadership nixed it over concerns re: U.S. political climate, backlash to Yasuke

www.gamefile.news/p/scoop-ubis...

Scoop: Ubisoft cancelled a post-Civil War Assassin’s Creed last year

Company leadership deemed the project too controversial for the moment, sources tell Game File

www.gamefile.news

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Charlie Thomas @cthomasjamh.bsky.social · 6h

I literally would have bought whatever console required to play this. Thanks a pantsload to every manchild who lost their sanity online after being informed of the existence of a person of African descent who existed in the Shogunate.

Stephen Totilo @stephentotilo.bsky.social · 7h

Scoop: Ubisoft cancelled a post-Civil War Assassin’s Creed last year

Company leadership deemed the project too controversial for the moment, sources tell Game File

www.gamefile.news

Reposted by Charlie Thomas

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 6h

the NYT's Harvard thing is genuinely weird. imagine being obsessed with the politics and social standing of a school you went to three decades ago

James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 6h

Shocked, just shocked, by this important scoop on front page of today's NYT. /s/

Based on report that came out ... nine months ago

And behavior long predating that

("Skip a class? Perish the thought!!" Says anyone who ever worked on a college newspaper, which covers a lot of people in the media.)

NYT front page headline: "Harvard Finds Skipping Class Part of Culture."

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Daniel Gilmore @gilmored85.bsky.social · 6h

Really must be emphasized that all of the ppl at the NYT that are obsessed with Harvard are big time losers

James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 6h

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Charlie Thomas @cthomasjamh.bsky.social · 6h

Yeah, having SCOTUS step in at an unprecedented rate to lift injunctions by reason of “it’s harmful if the executive can’t do this” is basically god mode. On the other hand, you bought God Mode for four years and now even Normies want to tear apart SCOTUS as currently constructed.

Reposted by Charlie Thomas

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 12h

The elimination of USAID is a moral atrocity and all involved made a choice to enable, and then lie about, ending the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) - Mohammed Taher clutched the lifeless body of his 2-year-old son and wept. Ever since his family's food rations stopped arriving at their internment camp in Myanmar in April, the father had watched helplessly as his once-vibrant baby boy weakened, suffering from diarrhea and begging for food.
On May 21, exactly two weeks after Taher's little boy died, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat before Congress and declared: "No one has died" because of his government's decision to gut its foreign aid program. Rubio also insisted: "No children are dying on my watch."
That, Taher says, "is a lie."

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 11h

i desperately want everyone involved in the destruction of USAID to have to, st the very least, answer to the american people for the suffering and misery they have caused apnews.com/article/myan...

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

apnews.com

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Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 10h

JUST IN: A federal judge has granted the New York Times’ demand for a list of Elon Musk’s security clearances. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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Denny Carter @dennycarter.bsky.social · 11h

I think of this image a lot

Elon Musk wielding a chainsaw, celebrating the starvation of human beings due to DOGE's coup of the U.S. government

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Charlie Thomas @cthomasjamh.bsky.social · 10h

Otoh, if I were able to predict the future then I wouldn't be currently furloughed and arguing on the internet. Regardless, I was flippant in my initial response and for that I do apologize.

Charlie Thomas @cthomasjamh.bsky.social · 10h

TL;DR While I am happy that Gov Pritzker and Gov Newsom are out there because honestly we do need some sort of public opposition, the only indication that countermessaging Miller himself is important is if we accept Miller's theory that opposition is shallow, which I do not think is born out.

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Charlie Thomas @cthomasjamh.bsky.social · 10h

stance/actions are inherently toxic and that it will leave an impression (as the Floyd protests seem to have done according to polling data) and also that Steven Miller is a deeply unpopular figure (recent polling has him at -11), then the idea of a need for a countermessage is relatively weak.

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Charlie Thomas @cthomasjamh.bsky.social · 10h

No, I read it here and I think you have some interesting insights into the idea of all of this as performance to raise the salience of the issues, but why are we accepting Miller's conception of the attention economy/strength of opposition here? Because if we instead believe that his

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Hard Drive @hard-drive.net · 22h

This image was taken moments before a boat carrying dangerous amounts of Rare Candies from Slateport City was destroyed by American forces

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Charlie Thomas @cthomasjamh.bsky.social · 12h

Right? I mean I guess if we want to assume all models are about charging your base it’s smart, but when Miller is front and center he also alienated moderates and mobilizes opposition votes. What are we even doing here?

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Charlie Thomas @cthomasjamh.bsky.social · 13h

Does he mean Native American or from the subcontinent? Just morbid curiosity.

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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 13h

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Nathan Kalmoe (he/him) @nathankalmoe.bsky.social · 15h

apnews.com/article/myan...

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

apnews.com

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