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Drops of Spilled Ink

29 June - 25 August

Aug 25, 2023
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Drops of Spilled Ink

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I got very busy with a thesis project and a protest, so weeks have gone by without a digest post. Expect a more regular pace of posting in the future.

29 June - I made an assessment of where the chips were falling in Russia.

Polemology Positions
The Wagner Mutiny Was An Inside Job
Sergey Surovikin, commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces (RAF), was arrested along with a deputy for his reputed role in the Wagner mutiny last weekend, The Moscow Times confirmed yesterday. Thirteen RAF aircrew were reportedly killed by Wagner air defense assets during the abortive munity…
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3 months ago · 6 likes · 3 comments · Matt Osborne

30 June - I posted a a recording of my Twitter/X space with Donovan Cleckley.

The Distance
Gender Critical Story Hour 2: Poetic Boogaloo
Listen now (55 mins) | Donovan Cleckley joined me on a Tiwtter space the other night to hold another edition of Gender Critical Story Hour. He read selections from the work of Shel Silverstein. We discussed the controversial poet’s biography, the themes of his work, and the value of the poetic form for dissecting genderwoo. I even recited a Silverstein poem I learned decades …
Listen now
3 months ago · 12 likes · Matt Osborne

5 July - It was time to focus on the American Civil Liberties Union again.

The Distance
The ACLU Is Working On A 'Citizens United' For Dylan Mulvaney's Womanhood
You can come to Washington, DC on 11 August 2023 and remind the ACLU what democracy looks like. Click here to use the Eventbrite…
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3 months ago · 57 likes · 3 comments · Matt Osborne

9 July - Someone needed to contextualize the situation in Zaporizhzhia with the historiography of the very first decisive combined arms campaign.

Polemology Positions
Air Superiority Is Essential To The Combined Arms Revolution In 1918 And 2023
This post will be locked for two weeks. Academic historiography is not free. Victory on the Western Front in the final ‘Hundred Days’ campaign was a complex military endeavor. Tanks, a million fresh American allied troops, and even the derided cavalry arm all played a role. However, “at the heart of the new form of warfighting was a combination of artillery and aircraft,” Gary Sheffield and Peter Gray write in the introduction to their 2013 history anthology…
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3 months ago · 3 likes · Matt Osborne

10 July - This story about an intersectional car-crash of woke was too much fun to write.

The Distance
Transgender Bishop Defrocked For Being The Systemic Racism In Evangelical Lutheranism
“The Bishop and [her] family seek to avoid dairy, when possible,” the Rev. Dr. Megan Rohrer (they/he) told Evangelical Lutherans planning to host the transgender cleric and her family. Not to worry if you forget, though: “They are not allergic and will not be offended if it is offered to th…
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3 months ago · 45 likes · 8 comments · Matt Osborne

12 July - This is a series of articles from the spring of 2022 combined and reissued behind a paywall.

Polemology Positions
When Demigods Die: MacArthur's Men And Their Intelligence Failures In The Korean War
“The emperor came to him, he didn’t go to the emperor.” John Russell Allison served Gen. Douglas MacArthur as a civilian economic advisor in Tokyo from 1945-1951. In his unpublished memoir, Allison alludes to the famous photo of the general with Hirohito, noting that MacArthur “didn’t even dress up for the occasion. He’s in open collar, and the emperor is in formal morning coat…
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2 months ago · 4 likes · Matt Osborne

12 July - Reacting to the David Grusch story, I recognized the cultic elements of UFOlogy grasping for mainstream attention once more.

Osborne Ink
We See The Story We Want To Believe
I don’t believe in aliens or flying saucers. There is only one way this will ever change. Show me the flying sau…
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2 months ago · 4 likes · Matt Osborne

14 July - Ali Alexander is an occasional feature of this website.

Osborne Ink
Ladd Ehlinger Dishes On Alleged Pedophile Ali Alexander
Listen now (6 mins) | Filmmaker Ladd Ehlinger talked in my Twitter space a couple of weeks ago to reveal some disturbing past behavior by Trump superfan and 1/6 organizer Ali Alexander. Ladd and I have been calling out this man’s grift and grooming of young men for a decade. Politics were never the point with Ali and his activities were never really about winning that kind o…
Listen now
2 months ago · 3 likes · Matt Osborne

16 July - Another assessment of Ukrainian tactics as they were revised in the course of the counteroffensive.

Polemology Positions
Mines, Machinery, and Manpower in Ukraine
The Economist recently interviewed Ukrainian combat engineers fighting in Zaporizhzhia who “say progress would be much faster if Ukraine had sufficient engineering equipment and air cover to make a mechanical push viable.” As I have explained for paying subscribers in recent weeks, combined arms breakthrough…
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2 months ago · 4 likes · Matt Osborne

21 July - Another post about the ACLU. They are not what they once were. Every American should be worried, for they have far too much power and hteir activist agenda is no longer in line with core American civic values.

The Distance
Yes, The ACLU Is Capable Of Feeling Shame
Beloved feminist icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg “directed the work of the ACLU Women’s Rights Project from its founding in 1972 until her appointment to the federal bench in 1980,” according to the American Civil Liberties Union website. Ironically, “Ginsburg deliberately chose the ACLU as the vehicle for her legal work, rather than an organization with a nar…
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2 months ago · 48 likes · 3 comments · Matt Osborne

22 July - Here is a paywalled article about a prehistoric battle.

Polemology Positions
World War BC? On Tollense, Troy, And The Deep History Of The Professional Soldier
“Over 10,000 human bones were found. This is the largest series of human remains that we have from this period in this region,” archaeologist Detlef Jantzen told Deutche Welle in 2017. Painstaking digs of the prehistoric battlefield at Tollense, Germany had by then revealed “a whole series of bronze weapons, such as lances, arrowheads and knives … a few wooden clubs which were used for battle as well as — and this is also remarkable — the remains of about five horses. Even though it's unclear exactly how many there were, it does show that horses died on that battlefield…
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2 months ago · 5 likes · Matt Osborne

26 July - Another paywalled article, combining articles published in the spring of 2022, that came out of an intensive seminar on the historiography of Islam.

Polemology Positions
Jihad and the Limitations of Caravan Logistics
First published 14 April 2022, when I had just 55 subscribers. Now going behind the paywall. According to many biographies of the prophet, the superb order and discipline of Muhammad’s followers attracted a fair number of converts. Muhammad “only needed to move a hand and everything that he desired was carried out,” Swedish historian Tor Andrae wrote. “A religion which can drive men so far is an extraordinary religion,” remarked one man so impressed by the unquestioning obedience of Muslim warriors that he converted that same day. Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib, an uncle of the prophet and a noted veteran of the Fijar Wars, converted after observing the Muslim community in Mecca. Emigrating to Medina with the prophet, Hamza led the first attempted raid against the Qurayshi caravans, fought in the vanguard at the Battle of Badr, and died at the Battle of Uhud, foremost among martyrs, the '“Lion of Islam…
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2 months ago · 1 like

17 July - Following David Grusch’s nothingburger testimony, it was time to expose what he was likely hiding behind his scary-sounding terminology.

Osborne Ink
Some Examples Of 'Non-Human Biologics' That Could Fall From Space At Any Moment
Laika the dog died in orbit in 1957. Her remains disintegrated on re-entry in 1958…
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2 months ago · 2 likes · 1 comment · Matt Osborne

28 July - A major retailer hates women.

The Distance
Office Max/Office Depot Prints 'PUNCH A TERF' Cards at Eight Locations and Counting
July 27, 2023 (Chicago, Illinois) - Despite private assurances of the company’s respect for its female customer base, and a promise that print jobs encouraging violence against women violate its corporate policy, Office Max / Office Depot continues to print materials that read “Punch a TERF…
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2 months ago · 63 likes · 1 comment · Matt Osborne

28 July - When I finished drafting my thesis, I held this impromptu Twitter/X space and let loose on my topic. It’s a huge story and telling it is giving me historian impostor syndrome.

Polemology Positions
Connecting East India Company v John Fowke to the Outbreak of the English Civil War
Listen now (64 mins) | Yesterday I held an impromptu Twitter space. I had just finished editing a new draft of my thesis. It is one hundred pages long and connects the outbreak of the English Civil Wars to a Chancery Court lawsuit over an unpaid saltpeter bill. It was time for reflection. I wanted to think aloud. Thanks to everyone who listened live…
Listen now
2 months ago · Matt Osborne

30 July - Following the Kerch Bridge strikes, Ukrainian strategy began to resemble the outline I have drawn for months and months.

Polemology Positions
Ukraine Wants To Break The Russian Army In Zaporizhzhia And Retake Crimea By Fire
Nine days after Ukraine struck the Kerch Strait bridge, Russian lines broke at Kilschiivka, south of Bakhmut. The town remains contested. Twelve days after Ukraine struck the Kerch Strait Bridge, Russian lines broke at Robotyne and Staromaiorske. The gains remain contested. Both pulses seem likely to repeat this week, weather permitting…
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2 months ago · 6 likes · Matt Osborne

31 July - Yes, I watched it. As a cultural watershed, it completes the arc of anomie and loneliness in a culture that has less actual sex and intimacy than ever before.

The Distance
Disconnection Barbie (Ken Sold Separately)
I did not hate Barbie. I sat with my mother and consumed a tub of popcorn and enjoyed myself. The last reel of the film is a bit didactic and self-absorbed and not as much fun as the rest. Yes, there is feminism. Yes, there is analysis. But this film is about girls, and how they live in a world half full of boys, in which time destroys beauty and the li…
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2 months ago · 28 likes · Matt Osborne

2 August - Ruy Teixeira reads the same polls I do, sees the same things.

The Distance
More Polls Show Voters Will Punish Democrats For Pushing An Extreme 'Trans' Agenda
Forget about all the haters in 2024. Worry about the ‘double haters.’ Americans who hated both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump broke for the latter in 2016, electing him. Then voters who hated both Trump and Joe Biden in 2020 crossed over to Biden, electing him…
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2 months ago · 62 likes · 8 comments · Matt Osborne

3 August - The ACLU is terrible for children and other living things.

The Distance
The ACLU Always Values the 'Free Speech' of Pedophiles Over Women and Children
“The lawsuit involved here, were it to succeed, would strike at the heart of freedom of speech,” the American Civil Liberties Union website still says today, 23 years later. “The case is based on a shocking murder,” they admit. “But the lawsuit says the crime is the responsibility not of those who committed the murder, but of someone who posted vile mat…
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2 months ago · 48 likes · 5 comments · Matt Osborne

4 August - This was fun to write. A paywalled article comparing how different artists used the same events, and even the same pictorial elements, to compose very different views of Napoleon.

Polemology Positions
The Siege Of Toulon And The Revised Stature Of Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleone Buonaparte (Italian spelling) saw Toulon as his destiny, Phillip Dwyer writes in his 2008 Napoleon: The Path to Power. Two weeks after his arrival the delegates of the Committee of Public Safety, Augustin Robespierre and Antoine Christophe Saliceti, recommended the Corsican captain for promotion to major and…
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2 months ago · 3 likes · Matt Osborne

6 August - I turned a random encounter on Substack Notes into a post at The Distance.

The Distance
Dear Democrat
Dear Democrats, You don’t have to explain it. You feel that you must continue to vote for Democrats. Those Democrats will be happy to have your vote while they continue to silence your friends, hurt children, and confiscate women’s rights, sports, and spaces…
Read more
2 months ago · 51 likes · 21 comments · Matt Osborne

6 August - A friend supplied photos and video to recall a famous WWII assassination.

Polemology Positions
Killing Hitler's Hangman: How Prague Remembers Operation Anthropoid Today
John Harris is an academic historian and a friend who recently visited Prague. He took some photos and videos of the site of Operation Anthropoid. Being an early American history specialist and not a military historian, he asked if I would like to use them for a FREE essay. Many thanks to Dr. Harris…
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2 months ago · 3 likes · Matt Osborne and John Harris

8 August - Nobody wants a Trump-Biden election — except for Trump supporters and Joe Biden.

Osborne Ink
We Will All Want Pardons In 2024
There was always a “there” there. Something was there. Donald Trump, fearing a strong challenge from then-former Vice President Joe Biden, wanted “dirt from Ukraine” so much that he got himself impeached. We all remember it. Ethics were compromised, constitutional procedures ensued, Trump was shady but n…
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2 months ago · 5 likes · Matt Osborne

8 August - A digest post of recent articles on artistic portrayals of siege. This is a niche area of art history that I relish. It’s okay if I am the only one.

Polemology Positions
Arts of the Siege: Volume II
Poliorcetics is the art of attacking and defending cities and fortresses. This is an annotated link post of my writing on artwork depicting the poliorcetic past. Vol. I is linked at the bottom…
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2 months ago · Matt Osborne

9 August - The witch-hunt in modern times.

The Distance
We Will Award Steve Wardlaw £1 Million For The Elusive 'Anti-Trans' J.K. Rowling Quote
It happened again. Someone in the UK popped off with a strong reaction to a column by a gender critical voice, in this case an article by journalist Hadley Freeman, based on what they thought they knew about author J.K. Rowling. According to his Twitter bio, Steve Wardlaw is the chairman of an “LGBT-friendly insurer” called Emerald Life. He is a “part-ti…
Read more
2 months ago · 85 likes · 4 comments · Matt Osborne

10 August - I watched the show so you don’t have to.

Osborne Ink
The Netflix MH370 Conspiracy Theorists Don't Understand How Radio Signal Jamming Works
When MH370 went missing in 2014, a million conspiracy theories took wing. Netflix has chosen the four most interesting ones for a new three-part series that could benefit from some fact-checking. Cyndi Hendry remains convinced that she saw ‘wreckage’ all over the South China Sea, identifying specific parts of the Boeing 777 from low-resolution satellite…
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a month ago · 4 likes · Matt Osborne

10 August - A reposted book review.

Polemology Positions
Forgotten Sunrise: Shiv Kunal Verma's Epic History of the Second Kashmir War
Originally published 18 May 2022 when I had 59 subscribers…
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a month ago · 1 like

14 August - A new book review, this time of an important volume that will share the shelf with Helen Joyce, Kathleen Stock, and Abigail Shrier when the history of this bizarre medical fad is written.

The Distance
The Silent Uprising: A New Book Reveals How Parents Cope With Children In The Gender Cult
“There are three types of people that are threatening and, therefore, absolutely intolerable to the trans ideology narrative,” write Josie A. and Dina S. in the new book Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans: Tales from the Home Front in the Fight to Save Our Kids…
Read more
a month ago · 84 likes · 1 comment · Matt Osborne

14 August - Another assessment of Zaporizhzhia, and a review of how Ukraine developed the strategy now in use. Further progress this week has met my expectations.

Polemology Positions
What The Hundred Days Of Ukraine Looks Like On Day 69
When Ukraine first began preparing Zaporizhzhia for their counteroffensive in April, fourteen months into the war, I set forth an idea of what Ukrainian success would look like. I wrote that the operational goals were to “inspire collapse of depleted Russian formations.” Noting that “there are apparently no substantial troop reserves to rush into second…
Read more
a month ago · 6 likes · 4 comments · Matt Osborne

15 August - One of the activists I met in Washington, DC wanted to talk about the new PITT Parents book. We had quite a discussion.

The Distance
Discussing 'Parents With Inconvenient Truths About Trans' With 'A Slightly Twisted Female'
“Being a parent is ‘conversion therapy’ now,” I told Brittney Rouxx today. Going by the moniker Slightly Twisted Female, Rouxx is one of the women who turned up last Friday to protest the American Civil Liberties Union with me. (I’ll have more to say about that later this week.) She is a fierce advocate for mothers and children with a background in radi…
Read more
a month ago · 19 likes · 2 comments · Matt Osborne

16 August - The Georgia RICO case against Trump is not a joke. People saying otherwise are only fooling themselves.

Osborne Ink
Donald Trump Cannot Run For President
RICO, the shorthand reference for the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, is well-established law. The United States Supreme Court has upheld the 1970 statute establishing RICO and expanded its powers to the states. Now that former President Donald Trump has been charged in Georgia with taking part in a conspiracy to commit elect…
Read more
a month ago · 5 likes · Matt Osborne

21 August - Isn’t it exhausting? Aren’t we all exhausted already? I have no idea how we are going to make it.

Osborne Ink
Now Every Week Can Be Infrastructure Week
Remember ‘Infrastructure Week’? Donald Trump was going to hold a press conference today, he said, until he canceled it on Thursday, avowing instead that his attorneys will vindicate his election-fraud theory while defending him in Georgia. Never mind that his election-fraud report contains the ‘findings’ that Sidney Powell…
Read more
a month ago · 2 likes · Matt Osborne

22 August - Paywalled for two weeks, here is a tale I have discovered in a small town, that will likely form part of my first published book project. Nothing solid, but stand by for announcements.

Polemology Positions
Operation Crossbow and the Mysterious Final Flight of Lt. Melvin Donald Putnam
This post will be locked for two weeks from publication…
Read more
a month ago · 1 like · Matt Osborne

23 August - A closer look at the wider lens of Genspect, an organization doing great work to help families cope with declarations of ‘gender identity’.

The Distance
We Used To Just Call It 'Being A Parent.' Now It's Called 'Conversion Therapy'
On Sunday, I joined Christina Goeke, one of the activists who helped organize the recent protest against the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, DC, and her friend Edwina, to discuss the new book by Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans (PITT…
Read more
a month ago · 23 likes · 2 comments · Matt Osborne

23 August - I have wanted to tell this story for a while now because it resonates with with people seeking their ‘true selves’ in the 21st century.

The Distance
Change Artist: One Man's Long, Strange Trip Around the World in Search of His 'True Self'
“Two strains of mind and action have always been in conflict in my life,” Ignatius Timothy Trebitsch-Lincoln wrote in the opening of his dubious jailhouse memoir, Revelations of an International Spy. “In one of them predominates the quiet fervor of the mystic and the imaginative sensitiveness of the artist. In the other, craving for excitement, passion for deduction and analysis, and love of applause overshadow all other leadings.” The year was 1916. Styling himself “a diplomatic spy,” the 37-year old Hungarian-born Trebitsch Lincoln had been arrested on charges of forgery, and was fighting extradition to the United Kingdom, where he was wanted on charges of fraud. As the United States had no domestic law against espionage against third party nations within American borders, fraud was the charge that London could use to extradite him…
Read more
a month ago · 3 likes · Matt Osborne

24 August - The final denouement of the Wagner mutiny demanded my attention.

Polemology Positions
Prigozhin's Jet Didn't Crash Itself
How quickly fortunes can fall. Recent rumors about Alexander Lukashenko refusing to finance Wagner’s payroll make more sense now that Belarus has cut their camp communications in the moment of crisis. Yevgeny Prigozhin was rich, but his company has state-level resource requirements beyond his individual means. When Lukashen…
Read more
a month ago · 1 like · 1 comment · Matt Osborne

24 August - I have begun a new series of articles about the ideological indoctrination of Australia and the long march of ‘gender’ gibberish through institutions there.

The Distance
Australians Have Been Instructed to Wear Purple Today or Face the Consequences
Today is Wear it Purple Day in Australia, an annual fundraising and awareness event for LGBTIQAlphabetical young people. Held every August since 2010, Wear it Purple Day was inaugurated after the suicide of Tyler Clementi, an American teenager from New Jersey who had been captured kissing another male on video…
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a month ago · 16 likes · 6 comments · Matt Osborne

Thirty-seven articles in 57 days, a thesis, and a protest. I guess that’s productive?

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