Charlie Thomas
@cthomasjamh.bsky.social
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
Pinned
Charlie Thomas
@cthomasjamh.bsky.social
· Nov 12
"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.
1. Following independence most African states just inherited whatever colonial troops existed as their militaries. This often led to coups and mutinies.
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!
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...
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
if you want good federal government you need good federal government workers, and if you want good federal government workers you need to compete for them in the labor market.
apparently this is controversial now and i don't think it should be.
apparently this is controversial now and i don't think it should be.
November 11, 2025 at 7:37 PM
if you want good federal government you need good federal government workers, and if you want good federal government workers you need to compete for them in the labor market.
apparently this is controversial now and i don't think it should be.
apparently this is controversial now and i don't think it should be.
A little on the nose here…
New WSJ: After flying an FBI jet to see his girlfriend sing at a wrestling match, FBI director Kash Patel took the jet to a private Texas hunting resort called the Boondoggle Ranch. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
Kash Patel’s ‘Effin Wild’ Ride as FBI Director
In just one week in October, he ticked off his bosses with premature comments about a terror investigation squeezed in a trip to the ‘Boondoggle Ranch’ on the bureau jet.
www.wsj.com
November 12, 2025 at 3:17 AM
A little on the nose here…
Yeah it’s really hard to explain to people that we literally just decided Phonics was too old fashioned and it wasn’t important for kids to know words, just the rough meaning of a sentence based off of strategies borderline illiterate kids used. It’s insane!
features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/
features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/
November 11, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Yeah it’s really hard to explain to people that we literally just decided Phonics was too old fashioned and it wasn’t important for kids to know words, just the rough meaning of a sentence based off of strategies borderline illiterate kids used. It’s insane!
features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/
features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
Everyone is dunking on poor Noah Smith for getting lost and frustrated at Heathrow Airport and blaming him, which is victim-blaming and I am quite disappointed in all of you. Put the blame squarely where it belongs: on whoever failed to pin his name and destination to his sweater-vest.
November 11, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Everyone is dunking on poor Noah Smith for getting lost and frustrated at Heathrow Airport and blaming him, which is victim-blaming and I am quite disappointed in all of you. Put the blame squarely where it belongs: on whoever failed to pin his name and destination to his sweater-vest.
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
Reupping my disclaimer, today is a holiday of course.
Routine reminder that:
1. This is a strictly personal account and does not represent employers
2. I'm currently laid off and have no 'duty hours' nor access to government equipment or resources
3. Rose 🌹in my name right now is in solidarity with hometown Portland which is NOT burning down
1. This is a strictly personal account and does not represent employers
2. I'm currently laid off and have no 'duty hours' nor access to government equipment or resources
3. Rose 🌹in my name right now is in solidarity with hometown Portland which is NOT burning down
My pinned tweet through Presidents of both parties: Sen. Leahy reminds an appointee that federal employees swear an oath to the Constitution, not of personal loyalty to any one man or woman.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlSI...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlSI...
November 11, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Reupping my disclaimer, today is a holiday of course.
The Affordable Care Act turned 15 this year.
FOX NEWS: So what would Trumpcare look like?
DR OZ: Well, these are all ideas that we're still working on
DR OZ: Well, these are all ideas that we're still working on
November 11, 2025 at 7:41 PM
The Affordable Care Act turned 15 this year.
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
The most honest person about this is my friend who insisted that the Dems should simply have dissolved the government and kept it shut down until 2027. I do not think this was a reasonable thing to expect, but he's forthright about it.
I want people to describe to me, slowly, the actual mechanism by which ACA subsidies could be restored by the minority
November 11, 2025 at 6:54 PM
The most honest person about this is my friend who insisted that the Dems should simply have dissolved the government and kept it shut down until 2027. I do not think this was a reasonable thing to expect, but he's forthright about it.
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
I think the most credible mechanism is that the results of the VA/NJ/GA/NYC elections scare Republicans to the point they cave on subsidies to get the issue out of the news. The problem of course is that Republicans doubled down instead.
I want people to describe to me, slowly, the actual mechanism by which ACA subsidies could be restored by the minority
November 11, 2025 at 6:57 PM
I think the most credible mechanism is that the results of the VA/NJ/GA/NYC elections scare Republicans to the point they cave on subsidies to get the issue out of the news. The problem of course is that Republicans doubled down instead.
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
It's really incredible how the norm against the deployment of the military against Americans at home has completely degraded. What this man is describing is a flagrant violation of Posse Comitatus.
Rep. Pat Harrigan: "I have asked Josh Stein, our governor, to consider working with President Trump to allow the National Guard to come into Charlotte ... use the National Guard as a force multiplier and they can a lot of load off the Charlotte PD."
November 11, 2025 at 7:00 PM
It's really incredible how the norm against the deployment of the military against Americans at home has completely degraded. What this man is describing is a flagrant violation of Posse Comitatus.
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
DoD was generally only requested to support at most 10% of validated foreign disaster response missions annually, just to give a sense of how massive the USAID effort was. It leveraged domestic and int'l partners, brought private industry in, provided technical expertise to impacted countries.
November 11, 2025 at 3:23 PM
DoD was generally only requested to support at most 10% of validated foreign disaster response missions annually, just to give a sense of how massive the USAID effort was. It leveraged domestic and int'l partners, brought private industry in, provided technical expertise to impacted countries.
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
Wonderful to see this news that the Kennan Institute will continue its vital work, now as an independent center.
Dismantled by DOGE, a Foreign Policy Center Finds New Life
www.nytimes.com
November 11, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Wonderful to see this news that the Kennan Institute will continue its vital work, now as an independent center.
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
Elon: Hard times call for hard men. Only through discarding empathy can the West survive the struggles to come.
Also Elon: Old lady is big meanie for bullying me. 😢
Also Elon: Old lady is big meanie for bullying me. 😢
November 11, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Elon: Hard times call for hard men. Only through discarding empathy can the West survive the struggles to come.
Also Elon: Old lady is big meanie for bullying me. 😢
Also Elon: Old lady is big meanie for bullying me. 😢
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
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.
USAID is still gone, no other country has shown either the will or the ability to fill in the services whose disappearance is going to kill millions of people, and no one in the media or political class cares that we are going to kill more people than the Holocaust before this is over 👍
November 11, 2025 at 3:06 PM
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.
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
sometimes, though, a boat does get stuck
we as a society need more tales of doomed mariners, and yet shipping is safer than ever
November 11, 2025 at 3:48 AM
sometimes, though, a boat does get stuck
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
Prominent Afrikaners are pushing back after President Trump announced no U.S. officials will attend the G20 in Johannesburg, rejecting his claims of "white persecution" in South Africa as false and politically driven.
Prominent Afrikaners refuse to be 'pawns,' and hit back at Trump's claims about South Africa
Prominent Afrikaners are pushing back after President Trump announced no U.S. officials will attend the G20 in Johannesburg, rejecting his claims of "white persecution" in South Africa as false and politically driven.
n.pr
November 11, 2025 at 2:09 AM
Prominent Afrikaners are pushing back after President Trump announced no U.S. officials will attend the G20 in Johannesburg, rejecting his claims of "white persecution" in South Africa as false and politically driven.
So what I’m hearing is he wants to send money to people to say, subsidize their purchase of private insurance off of a centralized marketplace? Genius! Why didn’t we do that earlier?!?!?
Trump: "I want the money to go into an account for people where they buy their own health insurance. It's so good. The insurance will be better. It'll cost less. Everybody is gonna be happy. They're gonna feel like entrepreneurs. They're actually able to go out & negotiate their own insurance"
November 11, 2025 at 1:14 AM
So what I’m hearing is he wants to send money to people to say, subsidize their purchase of private insurance off of a centralized marketplace? Genius! Why didn’t we do that earlier?!?!?
This is actually my Dad D&D group (although right now we are playing Vaesen). I am 90% certain they agreed in the first place to just have socialization and that’s fine by me.
bar trivia is pretty good, bowling or pool or whatever would also be fine, this is mostly a well-solved problem
as the husband of a mahjong addict, dudes need to identify an activity that can be done relatively easily in groups with minimal financial commitment so they can get out of the house for 2-3 hours on a school night, have two beers, and shoot the shit with their buddies.
It won't be mahjong tho.
It won't be mahjong tho.
November 11, 2025 at 1:05 AM
This is actually my Dad D&D group (although right now we are playing Vaesen). I am 90% certain they agreed in the first place to just have socialization and that’s fine by me.
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
“The efforts of some of Trump’s allies to remake American identity as a matter of exclusionary heritage is fundamentally at odds with American history and American character. We are a diverse country, and we always have been.” Love this by AEI’s President www.aei.org/opportunity-...
www.aei.org
November 10, 2025 at 3:39 PM
“The efforts of some of Trump’s allies to remake American identity as a matter of exclusionary heritage is fundamentally at odds with American history and American character. We are a diverse country, and we always have been.” Love this by AEI’s President www.aei.org/opportunity-...
So this is about the fourth time I've seen a media outlet blare out that President Trump is doing Tariff Checks!!!!!!! before about 2-3 paragraphs in they finally mention "Oh yeah, by the way this would require congress and also they aren't collecting enough money to actually do this."
“.. The plan could cost the US government double what it's projected to take in for 2025 and undercut Trump's argument that tariff revenue will be used to help pay down federal debt.” 🤡
@bloomberg.com
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
@bloomberg.com
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
November 10, 2025 at 10:57 PM
So this is about the fourth time I've seen a media outlet blare out that President Trump is doing Tariff Checks!!!!!!! before about 2-3 paragraphs in they finally mention "Oh yeah, by the way this would require congress and also they aren't collecting enough money to actually do this."
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
I own and have read all of these, and I highly recommend them! I am NOT a big horror fan, so if you really like gore and jump scares and being terrified, some these might too tame for you. Generally, Cherie takes me right to the edge of being entertained without freaking out. YMMV.
Who wants some CHEAP BOOK LOOT? Right on, I've got your back - behold: Here's what's newer, older, and super-cheap on promo from around the internet today...starting with IT WAS HER HOUSE FIRST but including GRAVE RESERVATIONS and MORE: www.cheriepriest.com/blog/novembe...
November Deals from around the Internet — The Haunt*
Hello and welcome to Monday (such as it is). Spooky season may have passed, but book deals know no such limitations - so here’s what I found around the web, for your bargain-purchasing and leisure-rea...
www.cheriepriest.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:07 PM
I own and have read all of these, and I highly recommend them! I am NOT a big horror fan, so if you really like gore and jump scares and being terrified, some these might too tame for you. Generally, Cherie takes me right to the edge of being entertained without freaking out. YMMV.
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
November 10, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
books have no tech tree, no fog of war
November 10, 2025 at 8:13 PM
books have no tech tree, no fog of war
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
“We fought as fighters, not as women”: women’s participation in ethnonational armed groups in #Ethiopia
By Hilina Berhanu Degefa
www.xcept-research.org/publication/...
By Hilina Berhanu Degefa
www.xcept-research.org/publication/...
"We fought as fighters, not as women": women's participation in ethnonational armed groups in Ethiopia - XCEPT
Ethnonational mobilisations — characterised by a strong sense of national and political identification, whether organised along ethnic, religious, or regional political identifications — tend to…
www.xcept-research.org
November 10, 2025 at 7:15 PM
“We fought as fighters, not as women”: women’s participation in ethnonational armed groups in #Ethiopia
By Hilina Berhanu Degefa
www.xcept-research.org/publication/...
By Hilina Berhanu Degefa
www.xcept-research.org/publication/...
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
that's in part because costco feels so old fashioned. the approach generally seems to be, "will this provide additional value to our customers?"
November 10, 2025 at 6:20 PM
that's in part because costco feels so old fashioned. the approach generally seems to be, "will this provide additional value to our customers?"
Sharing this again because this is just so spot on. I had hoped that even regional orgs might be taking things seriously with ECOWAS intervention into the Gambia, but with South Africa being slow off the mark in Cabo Delgado and no one saying a word about Sudan it seems we are back at no coordiation
Trump threatening to attack Nigeria. Only accepting white "refugees" from South Africa. Warfare and insurgency in Sudan and the Sahel. foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/07/a...
Africa Needs a Continental Body With Teeth
The African Union has become a back-scratching club of heads of state.
foreignpolicy.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Sharing this again because this is just so spot on. I had hoped that even regional orgs might be taking things seriously with ECOWAS intervention into the Gambia, but with South Africa being slow off the mark in Cabo Delgado and no one saying a word about Sudan it seems we are back at no coordiation