Coffeesforclosers

Thanks! The only historical interpretations of America I tend to dismiss out of hand are the Progressive ones. Charles Beard and his "Everything boils down to economics" pap is the definition of reduction to absurdity.

May as well throw in Rousseau and see what comes out! I put Trumpy's thoughts on Calvinism and its influence on the Revolution into ChatGpt. It laid out about a dozen different historians from four or five different schools of thought on the subject, and their books. Best use of Chatgpt I've ever come across

Are you sure about Calvin's influence specifically? I'm curious, since the 13 Colonies were a haven for Protestant non- conformers and Calvinists weren't really known for their pluralism (but then again, no one really was at the time). What parts did they like?

The documentary starts by stating the Iroqouian Confederacy may have influenced Ben Franklin's ideas on the Albany Plan of Union. That's pretty much it.

I thought they were talking about the Albany Plan of Union.

I hope you're right, that seems like a workable set of compromises. ...but it'd be great if this could have happened without all the fumbling, ham-ham handed nonsense that Marco Rubio managed to patch up.

How Rubio Tried to Bring a Pro-Russia Peace Plan to Middle Ground: While President Trump attacked the Ukrainians, Secretary of State Marco Rubio flew to Geneva to seize control of negotiations that were going off the rails.

Grenier is a very good book on colonial war making, specifically vs. Indians. He's taking on Russel Weigley of The American Way of War fame, and Guy Chet's Conquering the American Wildness: The Triumph of European Warfare in the Colonial Northeast. Gnaddenhutten is one of many, many massacres we perpetrated while practicing "extirpative war". Grenier's actually got the balls to say the first American Way of War was a-ok with torturing and killing noncombatants, burning their homes and fields, and paying people for scalps in order to win. He's also got the signed documents and letters from the Continental Congress, Founding Fathers and state legislatures to prove it, which is the important bit.

Reading books. I'm working through Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy's The Men Who Lost America. Dean Snow's 1777 is very good. Just re-read Jonathan Grenier's The First Way of War...actually does Burns cover the Gnaddenhutten Massacre at all?

This can't be repeated enough.

...again.

Sounds like a really strong, humanitarian argument for ending the war as soon as possible. Should be pretty easy to do with skilled diplomacy and a fresh set of eyes. Especially now that Sleepy Joe is gone. It's not like we're sleepwalking through a bloodbath that Biden couldn't prevent and Trump can't end.

Translation: All those world leaders and US Allies think the proposal is a bag of *****. But so long as you take some time to fluff the President's ego, he'll change his mind or lose interest and do whatever. We'll just have to wait and see, this will probably take about two weeks to sort out.

Here's the actual proposal, so people can read it.

So since he's apparently a great guy, can we get a "MAMDANI-MAIN STREAM ANTI- COMMUNIST" thread? Or something like it? We can stuff it full of tweets where Jack Posobiec stands there looking ######ed and the President sings his praises?

She said it's because Trump is a pedophile with the cash and influence to make her life a living hell. She doesn't want to fight a fight she can't win. Nothing dumb about that, but we can definitely talk about her courage and convictions...

I'm coming around to this point of view. McDermott seems to be running short of ideas on D, like later-years Belichick. In that his core concepts seem to be married to specific physical traits at specific positions, which build structural weaknesses into his units. Simply put, you can't run a defensive philosophy based on forcing the opponent into long drives when: 1. Your run defense is catastrophic. 2. You're mediocre at best on 3rd down.

Random thought that's been rolling around in the NFL part of my brain. I wonder if the Bills are mulling over whether to accept that Josh is going to have a short, brilliant career as a multi-threat QB. Or whether they'll keep him in the pocket and try to morph him into a "Dice them up with football IQ" type guy who plays until he's 38-40. My heart wants them to cut him loose and let him play however he wants, knowing he may well be toast by 32 or 33. My head says our window is his career, so his career should be as long as they can make it.

I'll be at the game with my crew, a pack of cigarettes, 90ish Labatts and a 48" Blackstone with all the meats. The rest is up to the Bills.

☝️ Works for Blackrock Capital...

Welp, that's quite the indictment of Josh (who is untouchable) and McDermott (who is untouchable for now). Brady's scheme is sound and the WRs aren't the problem. Quite honestly the most depressing thing I've read today. The fish is rotting from the head.

Doesn't matter how many you build if Private Equity immediately buys them at 50% above listing in straight cash.

Huh. And here I thought Schumer was a senile old coot who thought The West Wing was a documentary.

AI is either the bubble of all bubbles, or it's going to make huge swathes of white collar and service work obsolete. Either way, main street will get *****, and the rich will get richer, or get bailed out.

In fairness to Mamdani, this thread is full of places where he already lives rent free.