The emperor presides over gladitorial matches in front of the imperial palace while war rages in Parthia.

Either need more rigs or fewer exports.

Based on discharge inscriptions, the Roman army retired around 150 veterans per 5,000 soldiers, representing about 3% of its troops each year. The military would also lose another 2% to natural rates of adult mortality. However, since somewhat less than half of all soldiers lived to complete their 25 years of service, the actual rate of mortality among soldiers was likely higher, at around 3%-4%. This means that each year the military lost around 6%-7% of its manpower to retirement and mortality. With an imperial army size of around 400,000 legionaries and auxiliaries, the Roman military required 24,000–28,000 new recruits simply to maintain its size. Each decade, this massive and complex military machinery would need to recruit, train, and churn out 240,000–280,000 new soldiers to defend the empire, essentially replacing most of the soldiery each decade.

Blood Memory is sparking when the fiddle kicks up youtu.be/imgPOUjLtZM?si=0T2R…

Trump posting West Wing clips while B-52s are in the air, the Persian Gulf is blockaded, and missiles are raining down on the Gulf Arabs should be an IR academic's dream. Imagine all the avenues for interpretation. Get creative!

Joseph Johnston trying to figure out Confederate logistics and the command structure in the West before Vicksburg falls.

Can a Shahed even target a moving aerial target? Is it more likely that the Apache was trying to down the drone and got into trouble?

The Saudis and Emirates rn

After the surrender of Confederate forces under Confederate General Richard Taylor in Citronelle, Alabama, on May 4, 1865, the respective staffs of both sides met at a social luncheon. Union General Peter Joseph Osterhaus, a recent "German 48er" immigrant, approached General Taylor and spoke in broken English. Osterhaus told Taylor that Southerners would now be instructed in the true American principles to learn to become good Americans. Taylor, the son of a President and the grandson of a Revolutionary War soldier, responded with biting, witty sarcasm. From Taylor's memoirs, "I apologized meekly for my ignorance, on the ground that my ancestors had come from England to Virginia in 1608, and, in the short intervening period of two hundred and fifty-odd years, had found no time to transmit to me correct ideas of the duties of American citizenship. Moreover, my grandfather, commanding the 9th Virginia regiment in our Revolutionary army, had assisted in the defeat and capture of the Hessian mercenaries at Trenton, and I lamented that he had not, by association with these worthies, enlightened his understanding. My friend smiled blandly and assured me of his willingness to instruct me. Happily for the world, since the days of Huss and Luther, neither tyranny nor taste can repress the Teutonic intellect in search of truth or exposure of error. A kindly, worthy people, the Germans, but wearing on occasions." The absurdity of an immigrant Union officer, ignorant of American Founding principles, political history, and culture, lecturing an old-stock Southerner, whose family had been here from the very beginning, on Americanism.

If Kharg gets hit hard, the GCC are in for a rough time.

Love it when the Invisible Hand flips the circuit breaker on the free-market.

I've been documenting my journey into my family roots and there are two discoveries that have surprised me. When I began I had assumed that I was largely Scots-Irish, primarily because of my last name and my mother's maiden name: McCollough. Turns out I am Scots-Irish a little, but almost in name only. The two big surprises are that I am far more New England Brahmin and Southern Gentry. Four of my ancestors arrived on the Mayflower and at least two on the Arabella. (My twelfth great grandfather was Robert Parke, John Winthrop's secretary.) When it comes to Southern Gentry I am related to Pocahontas in two ways--one uncontested, and the other contested: she's my 13th great aunt through her sister (uncontested) and my 12th great grandmother (contested--I'm a "Blue Bolling'), meaning some of my southern ancestors were at Jamestown from the start. I admire each branch for different reasons--the New England Brahmins I admire for their piety, their literary legacy (I'm related to Thoreau and Hawthore), but most of all, their contributions to the American founding. When it comes to the southerners, it is their loyalty and their conspicuous bravery. They traveled west, ending up in Missouri during the Civil War--where my third great grandfather, Captain Nate Bolin--commanded a guerrilla band of Bushwackers (one account said it consisted of 500 men). His exploits are so amazing I intend to write about them. When it comes to the sins and faults of my ancestors, I have no trouble admitting them. If you can't honor your ancestors, faults and all, you're ungrateful, self-righteous, and stupid.