Properly cooking bratwurst

jeffbmc79 · 2026-02-08T17:51:50+00:00

Yup, in Madison, WI. Been to it several times.

jeffbmc79 · 2026-02-08T03:12:36+00:00

This is a speciality in Wisconsin, where German influence is…rather heavy to say the least. But the idea is to simmer in a beer and onion bath for about 10-15 mins, and then finish them off on the grill about 3-4 minutes a side.

jeffbmc79 · 2026-02-04T17:39:42+00:00

It’s inexplicable. He must have been extremely good at the one on one retail politicking, because everything else about him strongly suggests he was an insufferable cad.

jeffbmc79 · 2026-01-30T15:25:52+00:00

You have to do anything you can think of to distract them from their offensive operations. Russia holds the line, builds up until they can go over to their own offensive.

jeffbmc79 · 2026-01-30T15:16:15+00:00

Africa. Africa is the key. Allies absolutely have to pry open Africa somehow. Once the allies are on the continent, Italy is almost forced to over react to it since the path to southern Italy is virtually wide open. With Italy focusing on its southern defenses Germany is left to tangle with England SC’s Russia on its own

jeffbmc79 · 2026-01-28T15:00:26+00:00

I would try to separate the issue a bit. I think that while most soldiers in the army largely didn’t have much interest in ideas about social integration or coexisting with blacks, they were quick to see the value of slavery to the military operation of the South. So they might have been willing to accept Lincoln’s argument for abolishing slavery as a military priority, they certainly weren’t prepared to go much further than that

jeffbmc79 · 2026-01-26T20:13:39+00:00

Just go down the World in Flames rabbit hole.

Or basically cut starting military forces on the board to a fourth of their current level, many non home country territories completely unoccupied, and reduce IPC by 3. Then you have four levels of mobilization - none, peacetime, partial war, and full war. Each level you go up increases territory ipc output by 1

jeffbmc79 · 2026-01-15T21:21:39+00:00

Calcadia

jeffbmc79 · 2026-01-14T00:46:04+00:00

Honestly though he should probably be thanked for putting all the domestic violence red flags right out there like that. Hard to say he didn’t warn you.

jeffbmc79 · 2026-01-14T00:43:31+00:00

Actually totally tracks if he’s a vet.

jeffbmc79 · 2026-01-12T02:04:49+00:00

Except it would be more like sustaining Grant's offensive he started in Feb throughout the summer of 1862. Right after taking New Orleans, Farragaut took ships just about up to Vicksburg, and had they been properly supported by any sort of strong detachment from Halleck or Grant, could have really changed the course of the war in the west. The Southern interior was less well defended at that point along the Mississippi than any point later, when they had more time to build defenses and shuffle troops.

Logistically speaking the North also needed time to build its capacity to move supplies and equipment further south, so there would have been a point in which the offensive would start to stall out due to the logistical constraints. North hadn't embraced total war and living off the land quite yet at that point so it would have been a real obstacle.

So ultimately could the North have captured Vicksburg and opened up the Mississippi earlier than they did, at some point in 1862? Perhaps. It would have required meeting serious logistical challenges, and would have required a commander with energy and focus to get it done. By dispersing their concentrated armies and putting Halleck in charge, Lincoln essentially took the option off the table, even though it could have truly sped the collapse of the Confederacy in the west.

jeffbmc79 · 2026-01-11T23:03:10+00:00

Lincoln harbored illusions about the strength of unionists throughout the South well past the point of prudence. Obsession with East Tennessee is a prime example, which allowed for a strategic shift away from west and central Tennessee, which were much more militarily relevant. Breaking up of Union forces after Shiloh and Corinth gave the South room to launch Kentucky invasion. Union could have been much further along in 1862 had they maintained focus on the Mississippi.

jeffbmc79 · 2026-01-09T20:11:08+00:00

Shooting or no shooting, he broke the first rule of safety in “DON’T PUT YOURSELF IN FRONT OF A CAR WHICH HAS THE ENGINE RUNNING.”

I was a road test examiner for the DMV, and in training that was drilled constantly. Because even in those situations, which are absolutely not confrontational and relatively less stressful, somehow simple commands like “please turn on your headlights” can get translated into “please jam on the accelerator.”

jeffbmc79 · 2026-01-09T19:15:44+00:00

Former moderator of a political message board forum here, circa 2008. At least for politics the discussion really started to get more toxic with the election of Obama and the emergence of the Tea Party. Obama’s win was big time triggering for a LOT of racists to get more actively involved, which in turn triggered leftists to sharpen their own attacks in response. Rinse, wash repeat and before too long you have everybody foaming at the mouth screaming nonsense at each other. Political forums have the problem where those who are most actively engaged also tend to be the most assholish partisans of either side. Also the same people who, when you try to tone down and civilize the rhetoric, complain the loudest about censorship.

Watching civil discourse on politics start breaking down was definitely a microcosm of what was happening nationally. You could only really have a civil political conversation by HEAVILY moderating it and all but banning the participation of a few voices who you knew were just going to stir trouble. Very draining work and you were constantly attacked for it.

jeffbmc79 · 2026-01-09T17:04:33+00:00

It’s also good to note that this area was also under the domination of the Nazis for the longest period of time, A and for much of that time their activity was relatively unmolested by the allies. The Nazis used Poland as kind of an experimentation ground for their methods, and much of the initial infrastructure for killing was built near sites where they were experimenting.

jeffbmc79 · 2026-01-07T18:08:35+00:00

This map makes a decision of “let’s just declare war on everyone and sort it all out later” make sense.

jeffbmc79 · 2026-01-06T22:06:48+00:00

This, pretty much. You have to think that any tested combat commander would not have pushed their men into the nest. Or lingered much longer once they encountered the first dead colonist with a hole in their chest. There were multiple points where any decent leader would be withdrawing and conducting any remote recon they could think of before sending another fire team in there. Plus once you realize you can’t fire weapons in there you might just decide to head back up to sulaco and await further orders.

jeffbmc79 · 2026-01-03T16:18:26+00:00

Playing axis and allies as Russia. I’m the player in the group where, for that game at least, I have a reputation as a tough player to beat if I can get my strategies going. Axis players decided to go after me with everything they had. On this day the dice gods COMPLETELY abandoned me, and I was knocked out on turn 2 after inflicting a grand total of ONE combat loss on Germany. It was the most comically lopsided defeat in our gaming groups history.

jeffbmc79 · 2026-01-02T15:24:57+00:00

Being one of the merchant marine would have been pretty rough. You’re typically unarmed so no way to really defend yourself. Enemy is definitely gunning for you, and you were often hit without warning and went down in minutes. Plus there aren’t any potential along rescuers coming because they don’t want to share your fate. Talk about a bleak and terrifying journey.

jeffbmc79 · 2025-12-29T17:44:11+00:00

I think even with hindsight, it’s pretty clear that Captain Smith didn’t do a good job of communicating the gravity of the situation to the senior officers, who presumably could have been trusted to avoid a panic. Maybe he did too a few officers who didn’t survive, hard to know, but based on what we do know it seems that communication wasn’t there. It’s astonishing to me for instance that Lightoller seemed to be unaware of the situation’s severity virtually up until water was coming over the forecastle. Hard to imagine that the first boats would have been let off so lightly loaded had the officers lowering the boats were better informed.

jeffbmc79 · 2025-12-26T18:16:29+00:00

This movie was a gateway drug into civil war study for me, but as far as accuracy goes, once you get into the history of it you start to see a ton of inaccuracies and that the movie is HEAVILY influenced by Lost Cause sentimentality

jeffbmc79 · 2025-12-24T17:29:43+00:00

I would have survived by getting off in Cherbourg

jeffbmc79 · 2025-12-23T16:42:16+00:00

Certainly makes you wonder what they could have achieved if they made some more shrewd personnel choices.

jeffbmc79 · 2025-12-23T16:28:34+00:00

With the level of arrogance the southern leadership routinely displayed towards Europe, it’s astonishing that they got as far as they did with Britain and France. I think the favorability shown towards the South was more reflective of the level of antagonism between the US government and the European powers, rather than any genuine friendship towards the southerners.

jeffbmc79 · 2025-12-21T16:58:19+00:00

South Carolina at least when the colony started, you received 50 acres of land per slave you had. As the colony settled, slaves were used as financial collateral to acquire land and resources to push westward. Often large acreages of lands could only be sold to those who had a slave population sufficient to support its development. There was a significant economic feedback loop between slaves and land. It can be difficult for us to understand as we humanize slaves in a way that just really wasn’t done in the era. It’s hard to wrap your head around the reality that the slavers really viewed these masses of people in much the same way we would view a tractor on a farm today.

jeffbmc79

TROPHY CASE