Letter from Lyndon Johnson to the Smothers Brothers, 1968
Former Marine & M1A1 Master Gunner || Iraq War Vet || MA Russian Studies U of Illinois, Russian military doctrine & conventional ground forces || Casual enthusiast, spies & spy craft || Second World War junkie || Collector of books || More cars than sense
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Letter from Lyndon Johnson to the Smothers Brothers, 1968
RIP Robert Redford
Today In 1988: Cincinnati #Reds pitcher Tom Browning hurls a perfect game vs. the Dodgers at Riverfront Stadium! #MLB #Baseball #History
Farewell to a man who led his life with dignity and purpose.
Let’s never forget.
They lost loved ones in 9/11. We invited them to leave a voicemail in their memory.
remember how much it sucked when a covid vaccine was like 9 to 36 months away and then felt like a fucking miracle when it arrived
How's this for a top three in FP1?! 🥇 Hamilton 🥈 Leclerc 🥉 Sainz #F1 #ItalianGP
Good night everyone.
I was today years old when I found this out (thank you Dr Sheldon Cooper).
Greatly saddened to learn that Oscar nominee Graham Greene has died. A magnificent presence in his every role. Rest well...
"She did not die defending the Constitution. She died trying to overturn it. She was not protecting lives at a gate in Iraq; she was forcing her way through windows in the Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power." New from @markhertling.bsky.social:
Remember when COVID vaccines were first available? Remember how they saved lives and helped us move toward normalcy? Remember how relieved and grateful we were? Remember how amazing our healthcare workers were? Remember how science rescued us?
www.newsweek.com/2025/07/18/f...
WATCH: Aerial footage of the massive haboob near Chandler, Arizona. Video by Trenton Hooker.
Old enough to have seen this broadcast live into our rural New Zealand lounge int he 80s and distinctly remember being blown away by the creative art of it all. #MiamiVice youtu.be/-aMCzRj3Syg?...
We would be 1,500 years ahead if it hadn't been for the church dragging science back by its coattails and burning our best minds at the stake. ~ Catherine Fahringer
Can't even fake the old school kip right...go guard I suppose 🤡
Supporters have launched a fundraising appeal to help two veteran FBI agents recently fired for what appear to be political reasons: www.supporttheirservice.com
I don't know why this lad is building a subterranean city for cats, but I'm all for it.
At one point our tank had MRE bags/duct tape over all the hubs packed with GAA as the cheap plastic covers had all cracked/broke. Not to mention a bore evac at a 45° slant after smacking the back deck with a hole in the side...it should kinda work. Cheers again for the trip back down memory lane!
As a former Jarhead tanker, story checks all the boxes of life in Iraq on an M1A1...made me laugh and brought back memories. Road wheels? Only without rubber please. Replacement track pads? 4 shop narration voice "what are these items of which you speak?"
Salman Rushdie on what people often misunderstand about “Slaughterhouse-Five” and its refrain, “So it goes.”
Apollo 8: Earthrise RIP Jim Lovell 😢
“Neither Mr. Driscoll nor Mr. Giardina is eligible to retire. Mr. Giardina’s wife died last month of cancer.” www.nytimes.com/2025/08/07/u...
Twenty years ago yesterday, an IED wiped out 1st Squad, 3rd Platoon, L Co, 3/25 Marines in Barwanah, Iraq, killing 14 Marines in an amphibious tractor in one of the worst losses of the GWOT for the US military. One squad member was in a different vehicle and survived. Here he is recounting it:
On this day in 1991, the music video for Alive was filmed during a live performance at RKCNDY in Seattle. It became MTV’s first ever non-lip synched video. Side by side are some behind the scenes footage shot by Kevin Shuss and the final video. 🎥: Kevin Shuss
If you want a weird but true fact to talk about: Dexter Holland, lead singer of The Offspring, was instrumental in this. His doctorial thesis in molecular biology was sequencing mRNA in HIV. The paper was also heavily cited in creating the COVID-19 vaccine.
this is me driving to work every morning
deadline.com/2025/07/der-...
Today is one of the most fateful dates in history: The Austrian Emperor declared war on Serbia in 1914. It was the beginning of the First World War. Churchill wrote to his wife: ‘My darling...Everything tends towards catastrophe & collapse. I am interested, geared-up & happy.’
All-too-brief NYT piece speaking with a few of the dwindling Japanese soldiers of WWII. A stark passage reveals our proximity to the end of their living memory: "There were only 792 Japanese war veterans still collecting government pensions as of March." Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/w...
I *am* a constitutional scholar and you are correct.
Ozzy Osborne 1948 - 2025
As bandleader, Osbourne discovered a new side of himself — an entertainer whose sharp wit and lust for partying was just as outsized as his music — and let it overcome him. He could preside over a séance and a kegger with equal panache.
Or...you could just clean your toilet on the regular like a normal human and forgo the environmental death bomb.
Apollo 11. Rarely seen shot of Eagle, the Moon and Earthrise, taken on this day, July 21, 1969. Mike Collin's alternate photo is extremely well known, but this one - shown remastered and cropped - is an absolute beauty!
A manual on fighting Tiger tanks was published #OTD in 1943. In addition to the tank's weak points, it described tactics used by Tiger units and instructed commanders to continue firing at disabled tanks until their total destruction in order to prevent recovery. #tanks #history #WWII #WW2
Cyril Coles. Probably the world’s first tank fatality in combat. #FWW #WW1 #Tanks #gwg
Medical debt shouldn’t ever be a thing in a developed country. No other Western industrialized nation has it.
It’s only Wednesday
russian FSB concocts 'terrorism' charges two months after abducting 24-year-old Crimean #Tatar woman She was held incommunicado, without any charges laid, for 69 days, with the FSB doubtless using this time to torture or otherwise force the young woman to ‘confess’ to whatever they demanded
80 years ago this morning—at 5:29 AM (Mountain War Time)—about 35 miles southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, the nuclear age began with a big bang. Contrary to widespread assumptions, the area surrounding the remote Trinity test site was not uninhabited, and the fallout did not drift away harmlessly.
Teamed up with the weather channel and my friend Jim Cantore to remind Arizonans to stay safe this summer. Stay hydrated, limit time outside, and check in on your elderly friends and neighbors.
HAPPY SHUTTLE SUNDAY www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvHz...
The American Armored Force was created #OTD in 1940. In five short years they went from having a handful of laughable medium tanks and a few hundred decent lights to thousands of competitive and even progressive vehicles used across the world. #tanks #history #WW2 #WWII
I should be mad but honestly this video of my expensive standing desk being delivered with uh, less than industry standard care, is sending me I cannot stop laughing
You don’t have to love America right now. Not the one under assault from a vengeful despot. But I do hope you care enough to reflect on the commitment of our founders to form a union & free the new nation from a mad king and the yoke of oppression—care enough to be willing to fight for America now.
Happy Independence Day! To commemorate the Bicentennial in 1976, an F-4 Phantom II from the VX-4 Evaluators was given a special Star-Spangled Banner and eagle paint scheme.
The Battle of Kursk began #OTD in 1943. This was one of the largest and best known battles in WW2, which many consider a turning point that showed once and for all that the Germans would never again be able to reclaim initiative on the Eastern Front. #tanks #history #WW2 #WWII
Today proves that Republicans were serious about one promise: to cut taxes for the wealthy. All the rest was bullshit.
Send it
Not a fan of colourisation in general but this young man's face, in colour or black and white, says something about war that was true in 1916 and remains true today.
Inspired by a post elsewhere, when ya gotta go ya gotta go
amtrak’s marketing team gets it
Finally, some vet bros peeling off. I can’t believe how bad this bill is. Or how audacious those pushing it are right now.
This is just punitive. Federal employees already make less than private sector counterparts. Historically, feds have been motivated by a desire to contribute to the civil service, as well by the merit-based system that provided stability and fairness. A 15.6% contribution is a slap in the face.
There are certain days in history that change everything. 28 June, 1916 was one of those. In the early hours of that day my Great, Great Uncle Thomas Wilson clambered from his trench in front of Hairpin Craters, not far from Hulluch, as part of a raid on the German lines. 1/ #ww1
Okay, that's pretty good.
Crassness has its place. Personally, I love rough language and cheap soda pop - but I’m dangerous like that. And I don’t give a fig whether the President of the United States is highborn or low, or whether they prefer The Ghetto Boys to Gershwin. michaelianblack.substack.com/p/the-presid...
BTW, this is the machine you’re supposed to rage against..
As a former intelligence specialist photo Imagery interpreter I can confidently say this nuclear site was NOT obliterated. Just like 9/11 lit a fire under 🇺🇸, this unprovoked attack on Iran by the USA has only kicked the hornet's nest. We've just ensured war for the 2nd quarter of the 21st century.
A day of terrible echoes: Napoleon's troops began crossing into Russia today in 1812. 129 years later, Hitler's Wehrmacht did the same. A force of 3 million men invaded: unleashing the largest and most destructive conflict in history.
From Hunter S. Thompson’s ESPN page 2 column one week after 9/11.
it’s even more demoralizing when the history you’re repeating is history you were around for the first time
No way.... 😂😂😂😂😂 Keep an eye on the "asphalt".
Cranking rounds in the Dress Blue Charlie's at that, probably the origin of the shirt stays.
Happy 50th anniversary to the movie Jaws. This is probably the greatest line in cinema history:
“…by the time the United States entered WWI in 1917, the state of domestic aviation was so dismal that the U.S. government could not find a single American aircraft fit for military service. Thus, the country that invented powered flight would take to Europe’s war-torn skies in foreign-made craft.”
#Booksky
Anyone know anything about the “I’m getting pulled over” shortcut that’s apparently available on iPhone? Is it legit or a scam? www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/...
I'm all for the flag. I fly mine, everyday. At home and at office. But these 100 foot flagpoles flanking the WH are going to be a monstrosity. America's strength is in its ideals. As expressed best in the Declaration of Independence. And in places like the Bill of Rights, in the Gettysburg Address,
Watch the new trailer for 'The Naked Gun' starring Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson. In theaters August 1st. [📽 via Paramount Pictures] #NakedGun #TheNakedGun
The people who post on official government accounts are now amplifying a vision of America that is forever dominated by whites, at almost any cost. Here's how DHS and the White House are now using an image apparently created by an unapologetic white nationalist.
A question being asked by Ukrainians.
“Democracy is under assault right before our eyes,” Newsom warned. “The moment we’ve feared has arrived. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
Please give a read and maybe even a subscribe. Thanks! @trygveolson.bsky.social @therickwilson.bsky.social dbarkhuff.substack.com/p/rule-numbe...
Welcome to the archives.
No truer words #booksky
US Army M1A2 SEPv3 main battle tank rolling down Independence Avenue in Washington D.C. last night.
Being in the country illegally, is in fact, not a criminal offense. It's a civil violation. On the level of severity of a traffic ticket. If this weren't true, every unlawful person present would have a right to a jury trial.
Sly Stone, pioneering leader of funk band Sly and the Family Stone, has died at 82
👋😐☕