T. J. Stiles's Avatar

T. J. Stiles

@tj-stiles

American historian and biographer. Pulitzer Prize for History for "Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America" Pulitzer Prize for Biography & National Book Award for Nonfiction for "The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt”

2,915
Followers
361
Following
4,032
Posts
15.11.2024
Joined
Posts Following

Latest posts by T. J. Stiles @tj-stiles

Weird that the Trump administration was not ready for mass Iranian drone strikes, when "flood the zone with cheap and dirty attacks" is the Trump playbook.

07.03.2026 04:46 👍 10 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Iran should surrender to Denmark.

07.03.2026 02:51 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Never forget the war on us.

07.03.2026 02:29 👍 8 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
Post image

Quick question: How can they surrender to us if we're not at war with them?

07.03.2026 02:19 👍 24 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 2

Yeah but they might have gone fishing off the coast of Venezuela.

07.03.2026 02:16 👍 6 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

The killing of Iranian children during an illegal war is an impeachable offense (not to mention a grave crime) and Congress should really act like it.

15 Republicans in the Senate could end this nightmare before it somehow gets even worse.

07.03.2026 02:13 👍 9828 🔁 2705 💬 342 📌 111
Post image

Friday: "Unconditional surrender!"
Saturday: "How about a tuna sandwich? Nice albacore, not that dark chunky tuna."
Sunday: "From now on you must all speak English! And write it with my weird capitalizations."
Monday: "All I want is a reunion cookout in Prospect Park."
Tuesday: "No more pants!"

06.03.2026 21:37 👍 30 🔁 7 💬 1 📌 0

Tolstoy: This guy. ROFL.

06.03.2026 21:16 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Step 1: Self-righteously declare English to be the official language.
Step 2: Fire everyone who can read or write English.

06.03.2026 21:11 👍 11 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0
Post image

The #BondiTop

06.03.2026 20:18 👍 1484 🔁 361 💬 51 📌 16
Preview
Fifty Years of Public Service
Personal Recollections of Shelby M. Cullom, Senior United States Senator from Illinois

"...Mr. Lincoln certainly would have receded and would have dealt with the South with an iron hand, as Congress had determined to do, and as General Grant was compelled to do when he assumed the Presidency."

And Cullom was no fire-breathing radical.
www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2...

06.03.2026 20:17 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

From Shelby Cullom's memoirs:
"...When the Legislatures and Executives of the Southern States began openly passing laws and executing them so that the negro was substantially placed back into slavery, practically nullifying the results of the awful struggle, the untold loss of life and treasure,..."

06.03.2026 20:17 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

The important thing is, they're laser-focused on affordability.

You know, how it's not really a problem.

06.03.2026 19:00 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
Radar bases housing key US missile interceptor hit in Jordan and UAE, satellite images show | CNN New satellite images from several key military bases in the Arabian Peninsula suggest that Iran is seeking to degrade air defenses by destroying US-made radars that detect incoming missiles and drones...

Oof. Multiple THAAD radar systems have reportedly been destroyed by Iran. That’s bad.

I’ve also seen some surprise that Russia is providing Iran with targeting data for US forces, but that was expected. We’ve been providing Ukraine with targeting data for 4 years.

www.cnn.com/2026/03/05/m...

06.03.2026 12:30 👍 2089 🔁 690 💬 124 📌 28

“You *need* me on that wall, shooting at you!”

06.03.2026 17:24 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

We have yet to hear the threat precisely described. In fact, it has been transparently misrepresented. The ends seem to change daily—and they are mere tossed-off comments. A complete failure to think it through. And means? We seem to be merely firing off our munitions stocks for the point of it.

06.03.2026 17:23 👍 14 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0

In war, one shapes means to the ends. The ends are determined by the level of threat. Gulf War, 1991: Threat seen as limited, ends were limited (no occupation of Iraq), means sufficient. Iraq War, 2003: Threat overstated, ends wildly overstated, means inadequate to grandiose ends.

Iran now? Oy…

06.03.2026 17:23 👍 21 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0

Yeah, I mean, who keeps track of who pays taxes? Or how much? Is that even a thing? Here at Customs, it’s just, “Put your money in the shoebox. We trust ya!”

06.03.2026 16:46 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0

Rules of engagement are integral to strategy. Diplomacy is integral to strategy. Pete “rules of engagement are stupid” Hegseth thinks objectives are just targets. Objectives in war as well as peace include a stable, achievable end state, which can never be reached by destruction alone.

06.03.2026 16:42 👍 9 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

I will miss Kristi Noem's inimitable constitutional insights, as when, asked by Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H. at a Senate hearing to define "habeas corpus," she replied, "Habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country."

06.03.2026 02:15 👍 2225 🔁 390 💬 68 📌 23

Not long ago, the idea that any president would shrug off the likely deaths of Americans in a terrorist attack he provoked would have been treated as absurd. Risible. Laughably risible even. But here we are.

It turns out it was Trump who had Trump Derangement Syndrome the whole time.

06.03.2026 04:37 👍 17 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
Preview
‘Soulless hotel conference space’: Trump’s East Wing ballroom is poised for approval despite scathing public feedback | CNN Politics President Donald Trump’s massive East Wing ballroom project is poised to get its final approval from a government commission that oversees planning for federal buildings and land in the nation’s capit...

Donald Trump stacked the commission in charge of approving his golden ballroom with loyalists.

Yet even they can't deny that a majority of Americans oppose the project.

Destroying the White House East Wing to feed Trump's ego will be a stain on our history. www.cnn.com/2026/03/05/p...

06.03.2026 00:28 👍 724 🔁 195 💬 79 📌 11
Notes on Nationalism | The Orwell Foundation "By ‘nationalism’ I mean first of all the habit of assuming that human beings can be classified like insects and that whole blocks of millions or tens of millions of people can be confidently labelled...

In 1945, Orwell wrote in "Notes on Nationalism," "Pacifist: Those who ‘abjure’ violence can only do so because others are committing violence on their behalf."

Again, he did not mean the violence would be committed *against* pacifists.

Prosecute Noem.

www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-f...

05.03.2026 21:01 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Yes, folks, this is a bad paraphrase of something Orwell actually wrote (see reply). However we know that Orwell did not mean that the violence would be committed *against* the people sleeping peacefully in their beds.

Noem presided over summary executions of two peaceful U.S. citizens.

05.03.2026 21:01 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 2 📌 0

[Exit Murderer.]

05.03.2026 18:25 👍 5449 🔁 1272 💬 45 📌 46

Markwayne Mullin gets the job?

On Capitol Hill you can tell when Tommy Tuberville and Markwayne Mullin play chess from the loud cries of, "King me!"

05.03.2026 19:22 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
Trump Administration Live Updates: President Ousts Noem as Homeland Security Secretary

But Stephen Miller is still in charge.
www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03...

05.03.2026 19:17 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 3

Yeah, well, I had a say in picking the U.S. leader. It’s not all it’s cracked up to be.

05.03.2026 16:59 👍 16 🔁 1 💬 2 📌 0

In case you forgot what Trump’s role model is up to.

05.03.2026 16:52 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

among other things, it's very very funny to imagine Trump having granular knowledge and strong opinions about various obscure Iranian regime figures possibly in the running.

05.03.2026 16:32 👍 2373 🔁 331 💬 255 📌 34