Weekly Round-up 1/26/2024

A little tardy with this

Good afternoon everyone,

I apologize for the delay with this, I’m training for a half-marathon now and I have exactly 57 days to get to the point where I won’t embarrass myself too badly. Although the route is apparently the flattest in the entire state, I had no idea what a time sink this would be when I signed up.

This week had a staggering 3 new articles.

The first tried to explain the disastrous failure of the DeSantis primary effort. I don’t know anything about political campaigns, so the technical aspects of this failure went mostly unexplored. Instead, I try to articulate how, on the most fundamental level, DeSantis and his cronies simply didn’t “get it.”

The second covered Wrangel’s exile and return to Russia to take supreme command in the closing days of the Russian Civil War. Wrangel had a great quote where he articulated his personal vision and gave what I think is eternal good advice for what to try to achieve when the chips are down. Definitely a man to learn from.

Finally there’s my obligatory contrarian take on the Texas border crisis. I think it’s very important that while conservatives have the momentum, they maintain a narrow focus on immigration and avoid provocations that will allow liberals to redirect the conversation to elsewhere. Tangentially related listening: Check out this podcast on the book “A Disease in the Public Mind,” which covers the decades-long rhetorical buildup to the American Civil War.

If you enjoyed these articles or any of my other work, please upgrade to a paid subscription. It’s only $5 a month. I like this stuff putting together but it takes a lot of time and I can’t work for free. Paid subscribers have access to all the podcast episodes and a large array of paid-exclusive history articles. Every subscription makes a big difference to me, please please upgrade right now.

The throwback article of the month is:

Post-Post-American Identity (Free) - Reflections on a very important topic today: American identity. The article rejects proposals to “move on” from America (and drop immigration as a core issue), whatever the real world situation is, and proposes a new path forward.

Here are the paid-exclusive history articles:

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Communists opened fire on a Veteran's Day parade in Washington, 1919. 4 dead, 4 wounded (Paid) - Details the Centralia Massacre, a mass shooting committed by members of the far left labor union the International Workers of the World, and the subsequent cover-up which saw all of the shooters legally exonerated on dubious grounds and then released from prison

Forgotten Counterrevolution: The Boston Police Strike of 1919 (Paid) - Recounts the infamous 1919 Boston Police Strike, three days of terror inflicted on Boston by an alliance of immigrants, labor unions, and street criminals that were only ended by State Guardsmen and rightwing vigilantes flooding the city

America’s “Fighting Mayor” vs the 1919 Seattle General Strike (Paid) - Provides an introduction to the 1919 Seattle General Strike, which in my mind represents a good “opening shot” to the failed (and largely forgotten) leftist revolution attempted in 1919. The crisis was successfully resolved due to the heroic efforts of Mayor Ole Hanson, a very interesting figure in his own right who is also profiled in the article

In March 1914, socialist mobs invaded and shook-down churches all over New York City (Paid) - Provides an introduction to the socialist/anarchist International Workers of the World union by detailing a series of violent “protests” they staged in New York City during an economic downturn, targeting local churches. It turns out that people didn’t like the “Wobblies” for pretty understandable reasons

Anarchists almost blew up St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1915 (Paid) - Gives an introduction to anarchist terrorism of the period by recounting the fall of the “Bresci Circle” after a conspiracy to blow up a cathedral in New York City was discovered and infiltrated by the (then brand-new) NYPD bomb squad. The investigation itself is interesting but the trial afterwards, in which liberal lawyers created a bogus civil rights controversy to distract from the bombings, is perhaps more revealing

Sacco and Vanzetti were always guilty (Paid) - Provides an overview of the Sacco and Vanzetti case, placing it within the context of the surrounding leftwing terror wave and other unrest. Although a “wrongfully accused” narrative has been built around the pair over the last century, it turns out that the evidence against them was pretty overwhelming and they were both members of a terrorist network

The 1932 Bonus Army scandal was always communist propaganda (Paid) - Gives a rundown of the infamous gathering of 20,000 veterans with 20,000 other followers in Washington, DC that ended with the US military running everyone out at bayonet point. Surprise: it was a communist psyop

How Marshal Mannerheim saved his country by quitting and telling everyone to fuck off (Paid) - An introduction to the 1918 Finnish Civil War (more on this to come) and the actions that led to Marshal Mannerheim, the national hero of Finland, rising to his role of supreme commander of anti-communist forces

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Here are all the podcast episodes available now (most are paywalled):

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Ep1: Redditors of the Reddit Moon (Paid)

Ep2: Robocop: Rogue City review (Free)

Ep3: "War to the Knife" takes a shit on your stupid Civil War 2 fantasy (Free)

Ep4: "The Glorious Cause" is the best book on the American Revolution (that I've found) (Free)

Ep5: Your opinion on The Killer (2023) determines whether or not you have bad taste (Paid)

Ep6: Bitter master director Ridley Scott takes his time shitting out historical epic no one wanted (Free)

Ep7: This is the one (1) movie that you absolutely need to watch literally right now (Paid)

Ep8: Revenge thriller episode (Paid)

Ep9: Ride with the Devil (1999) is the best Civil War movie that I know you haven't seen yet (Free)

Ep10: 🚨ALERT🚨 Japanese launch devastating surprise attack on moviegoers' heartstrings (Paid)

Ep11: Total Recall (1990) was the sci-fi slaughterhouse America needed and deserved (Paid)

Ep12: I watched a bunch of the new DailyWire+ original movies last week... (Paid)

Ep13: If you don't force your family to watch this movie for Christmas, they will despise you (Paid)

Ep14: Emergency surprise free Christmas review of the Prometheus Engineer chronicles (2012) (Free)

Ep15: "A Disease in the Public Mind" is the most important book to read about the Civil War and America today (Free)

Ep16: Someone finally made a good Afghanistan War movie and nobody noticed (Paid)

Ep17: If you don't watch this new movie in theaters, you are betraying me and yourself (Paid)

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That’s all I’ve got for this week. Reply with what you’re reading/watching/playing. I really do read your recommendations. See you soon!