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uscivilwar.bsky.social
The American Civil War Podcast
@uscivilwar.bsky.social
Social page for the American Civil War podcast, located at: https://uscivilwar.substack.com/

Get in, loser. We're damning torpedoes!
I liked Rogue One.

As an ensemble film, it's kinda rough as the characters ultimately don't really know one another very well and several barely interact. This story feels stretched to cover six protagonists, three antagonists, and couple side characters.
I disagree on the grounds that Rogue One makes me, the viewer, feel feelings effectively. Is it a messy chop-job rescued in the edit that is often disjointed?

Yeah, but it works - for me, but also clearly for a lot of audiences. And that's all that matters.
rogue one is bad folks. i have believed this since i saw it in theaters and no subsequent rewatch has changed my mind. basically a chop job until the final sequence, which is good (for star wars)
November 26, 2025 at 12:35 AM
I don't play CoD, but I scrolled on Metacritic, and, uh...
November 18, 2025 at 1:55 AM
This is a hyper-specific desire, but I want a Zorro RPG along the lines of Kingdom Come: Deliverance.

You would have a 'de la Vega' and 'Zorro' identity (using both to uncover villains' plots). There'd be swordfighting, riding, exploring California, finding treasure, perhaps estate management, etc.
November 11, 2025 at 5:41 PM
I've been planning to start a discussion of this. Because I criticized @mcmegan.bsky.social recently, and absolutely intend to do so again, I feel it's important to agree with her on this:

Many of Trump's policies were also bad under previous Presidents, but this was rarely acknowledged.
Embrace the healing power of 'and' - GWOT-era targeting, especially for drone strikes, was often excessively permissive AND it is the case that current Venezuelan boat strikes would, so far as I can tell, not have been permitted under that framework (not the least because there's no valid AUMF).
November 2, 2025 at 6:37 PM
I feel like a Great Gatsby party while trying to kill basic food assistance for the poor is a little too on-the-nose for historians. Who is going to believe that such a creature really existed?
"They were careless people ... they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness."
Per Danny Kemp via press pool

Trump is at the Halloween party at MAL

“Official theme is Gatsby and ‘a little party never killed nobody’, we’re told.”
November 1, 2025 at 3:26 AM
[comedy post]

I wanna know who, just WHO!, is responsible for the absolutely state of Gaelic spelling.

There is no rational world - NONE! - in which "Samhain" is pronounced "Soween".

dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciatio...
Samhain | Pronunciation in English
Samhain pronunciation. How to say Samhain. Listen to the audio pronunciation in English. Learn more.
dictionary.cambridge.org
October 31, 2025 at 12:28 AM
To expand upon my comments here, Douthat's statement is indicative of complete vacancy of the heart. It's a non-argument that applies to anything you want, and hence has no value. It applies to every thuggish fool ever born, and every scum in power imagines themselves as the same Very Special Boy.
I don't object to the Times printing this; sometimes the best way to expose cockroaches is to shine a nice, bright light on them. Douthat, however, deserves the public's contempt.
October 25, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Lead: "Americans should pepper-spray themselves: It's unfair to put all this work on ICE."

By Ross Douthat.
October 25, 2025 at 5:26 PM
“It’s just, if we build this robot army, do I have at least a strong influence over that robot army, not current control, but a strong influence? [...] I don’t feel comfortable wielding that robot army if I don’t have at least a strong influence.”

finance.yahoo.com/news/elon-mu...
Elon Musk defends $1 trillion pay package: ‘I just don’t feel comfortable building a robot army here and then being ousted’
Tesla CEO Elon Musk warns “corporate terrorists” are trying to take away his $1 trillion pay package—and control over building out the company’s AI and robotic future.
finance.yahoo.com
October 25, 2025 at 4:38 AM
Mike Johnson is something of the Lord North of our time, except more pathetic in every sense.

Let me explain.

1/9
Not sure "if Trump could have silenced dissent by shutting down rallies, trampling on your freedoms, he would have" is quite the argument that the speaker thinks it is.
Mike Johnson: "The irony was that they called it the No Kings Rally, but if President Trump was a king, the government would be open. If President Trump was a king, he would've closed the nationals parks and the National Mall so they couldn't of had the rally out here."
October 20, 2025 at 4:03 PM
I went out to protest today myself. I will upload footage later. The key is that I went to what I assume would be a very small, low-key protest: Suburbs, well distant from even a smaller town center, Red county.

Sidewalk was packed a block in every direction, shoulder to shoulder or even more.
October 19, 2025 at 5:12 AM
It's late, and I am tired, but that is sometimes the best time to work. or maybe the best time to answer this question is always "right now".
Okay this is a weird ask but:

Does anyone know of any writing that explains exactly how/why people have inherent worth and value? Because I’m really struggling with feelings of self-loathing.
October 16, 2025 at 4:52 AM
So, I apologizer for linking to reddit, but in a very, uh, "interesting" decision CNN evidently edited-out this rather "interesting" exchange with Stephen Miller.

Miller claimed Trump has "plenary powers," which is tantamount to claiming the dictatorship.

www.reddit.com/r/instant_re...
From the instant_regret community on Reddit: Stephen Miller states that Trump has plenary authority, then immediately stops talking as if he’s realized what he just said
Explore this post and more from the instant_regret community
www.reddit.com
October 7, 2025 at 11:13 PM
I would further add that these WW2 stories, even had they hadn't been un-researched nonsense, were not necessary to the point. You can reasonably argue that our military procurement is too slow or inflexible. But that would require work to understand complex issues.
Like this is such a wrong statement that anyone making it should not be taken seriously at all (this piece annoyed the shit out of me at the time and I have not had the opportunity to litigate it lol)
October 6, 2025 at 5:55 PM
New Podcast!

Episode 93: In the Valley, Part 4
The Great Reversal: Front Royal to First Winchester

uscivilwar.substack.com
The American Civil War Podcast | Patrick Bryant | Substack
A podcast recounting the epic saga of the American Civil War, the personalities and lives of Americans North and South, African or European, and the climactic clash of arms. Click to read The American...
uscivilwar.substack.com
September 29, 2025 at 2:33 AM
To begin with, I can't specifically comment on the validity of the arrest. Maybe the arrestee was some horrible monster. I find that singularly unlikely because real criminals are not usually thrown into minivans.

I am commenting on the absurd "policing" demonstrated here.
NEW: ICE agents violently arrested a man in a busy Hyattsville, MD intersection this week, at one point brandishing guns and pointing them at bystanders.

I spoke to multiple witnesses—including a local priest whose church is a sanctuary for undocumented people: www.thehandbasket.co/p/ice-agents...
September 27, 2025 at 2:36 AM
We can explain Confederate Theory of Victory, because they 100% had one.

In 1861, it was: "We will mass-mobilize a militia all all White men, slaves will obediently labor as the social order dictates, and Britain (maybe France too) will side with us for cotton.

This was proven wrong by 1862.
yeah this guy is dumber than donkey shit
so this is what counts as an intellectual for the modern right, huh
September 25, 2025 at 5:16 PM
The most satisfying feeling in the world:

Carefully analyzing a question, double-checking your math, testing the outcome and deliver the perfect answer.

Most agonizing feeling in the world:

...immediately noticing you were looking for a Min instead of Max.
September 24, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Not many know this, but I became an insane Yakuza/Like A Dragon fan with Yakuza 0.

This? This is exactly the thing I want, in exactly the way I want it.

store.steampowered.com/app/3937550/...
Pre-purchase Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties on Steam
YAKUZA KIWAMI 3 is an extreme remake of the action-adventure beat 'em up Yakuza 3 featuring ex-yakuza Kazuma Kiryu's fight to protect those he loves. DARK TIES is a brand-new game featuring Yoshitaka ...
store.steampowered.com
September 24, 2025 at 2:23 PM
I this was an interesting comment, though I would need to digest it.

Certainly the orcs are pitiable. My interpretation of Tolkien is that they would be far better if not regularly crushed under by Morgoth or Sauron. No creature able to sing goofy little songs can be altogether wicked.
Just sort of struck me that there's one Middle Earth people who really do live for war, and that's the Orcs. They even talk like modern professional soldiers. I think Tolkien did have some sympathy for them but he certainly never intended for them to be at all admirable.
September 22, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Love to see great communications that really get at what the audience is looking for.

www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/bl...

#Bloodlines2
September 11, 2025 at 12:28 AM
I hate to copy @bretdevereaux.bsky.social twice in one day. Seems rude. However, I noticed something which seemed slightly off.

Is it just me, or does this sound a little *too* similar to his Cadorna article?

youtu.be/Vryh8h_1JaQ?...
Biggest Idiots In War
YouTube video by Simple History
youtu.be
September 9, 2025 at 9:44 PM
I noticed many responders have successfully erased the nonsense of that era. Some professors were severely attacked for trying to teaching difficult topics.

The protestors also deserve free speech, but that does not make their actions inherently wise.

www.thefire.org/research-lea...
September 9, 2025 at 7:15 PM
James McPherson's Battle Pout of Freedom.
Slightly diminish a book

Salem’s Easement
Slightly diminish a book

A Tale of a City
September 9, 2025 at 4:46 AM