I have eyes everywhere.

I do miss my Dad every day. The wounds never heal, but we become accustomed to them.

“The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”

From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

YES. My wife and I did Wilderness to Appomattox (over a few trips), and it was collectively more moving—and illuminating—than I could have imagined.

I LOVE Shiloh. I don’t get to go there as much—living in DC across 5 assignments has that effect—but it’s a heartbreaking and inspiring ground. I’ve been trying (not very successfully) to really understand it tactically and strategically.

Since I brought up Monocacy, I’d be remiss if I didn’t remind everyone of the lovely thing from @notabattlechick.bsky.social.

thestrategybridge.org/the-bridge/2...

To be fair, though…I have that sense all over the battlefield. I have that sense at Shiloh. I have that sense at Monocacy. I have that sense all through the Overland Campaign.

The Army had something of this flavor with the “America’s Army” series. The example isn’t perfect, but it’s amusingly close for a FPS-style game.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/9...

But what if I REALLY want to explain realpolitik to you? I yearn! I burn! 😉

No argument. I was just qualifying the statement that Venezuela and Panama are precisely analogous in a legal or practical sense, not intending to contradict your larger point about what legality means for orders at our level in practice.

“Johnny Goodgeneral” is going into my lexicon.

Not “exactly like.” Status as head of state (with associated legal status) is different to a degree. (That the president gets to decide not to recognize status makes them more similar.) The request from a “responsible” Panamanian party might make them different.

But…yeah.

I actually taught from this video a couple years back. 🤣

That guy is such a buffoon. If he took two undergraduate Econ courses (and understood them), he’d know how dumb this is.

It’s also an effective political taking point, because people are dumb.

👆👆👆

Ditto. My memory of her really come from “Dear Brigitte,” which was old when I first saw it. (I love that sequence of movies by Koster featuring Jimmy Stewart.)

I finally finished—delays a testament to time not my own & my own weakness). But I wanted to finish before crossing the line of departure on spring, since I won’t read anything but class material until Apr.

It’s uneven & in places bizarre (unsurprising for the needle it threads)…but excellent.