Disaster Prep from the Ashes
🇺🇸 Plus an Artillery Punch recipe for the Inauguration that is as old as the nation itself
As published by Daily Caller
There’s usually a warning.
Before Hurricane Katrina, multiple reports cautioned that New Orleans risked massive flooding.
Prior to the 9-11 attacks in New York and Washington, the CIA warned President Bill Clinton that al-Qaeda planned to hijack commercial aircraft to target America.
Leading up to the U.S. defeat in Afghanistan, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) (my former boss) warned Gen. Mark Milley that the United States abandoning Bagram Airfield was a dumb idea.
And three months prior to what is shaping up to be the most expensive disaster in American history, former President Donald Trump spent seven minutes on the Joe Rogan show warning about the dangers of California’s water and forest management.
Sadly, it seems warnings are seldom heard. In fact, few people like a prophet, especially when they’re right. Since the mythological Cassandra predicted the fall of Troy, human nature has spurned prophets and their warnings about the future.
The U.S. military falls prey to the same aversion. The Pentagon excels at after-action reports in what commanders call a “hotwash.” It is the wargaming beforehand that often gets flubbed, fueling the old saw that armies always prepare to win the last war they fought.
It doesn’t help that our intelligence agencies so often get it wrong. During Biden’s administration alone, they trotted out doozies such as: the Afghan government could withstand the Taliban for 6 to 9 months after American troops withdrew; Ukraine would fall to Russia within days of an invasion; and, just two weeks before October 7, that everything was quiet in the Middle East. Swing batter batter batter.
The main problem with American intelligence and leadership at the moment is a lack of imagination. Imagination runs on intuition and creativity — traits that aren’t first to mind when most people think “government employee.”
Yet we need creative leaders who ask themselves “how would I handle a similar event?” and “what’s the next crisis most likely to hit my area of responsibility?”
It’s a mode that seems to come reflexively to Trump. Perhaps it’s the mindset he’s cultivated as a developer — a muscle that helps him identify the most likely risks and rewards the future might hold. The 45th and soon-to-be 47th president seems likewise drawn to other imaginative people like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who are currently reimagining the scope and breadth of the federal government.
🥊 Chatham Artillery Punch
Our soon-to-be 47th president does not drink alcohol, but chances are that Washington will be awash in booze come this weekend. If you’re entertaining a large crowd to celebrate the inauguration, you might consider this presidential favorite, which dates back to our first POTUS.
Artillery Punch hails from the Chatham Artillery unit of Savannah, Georgia, established in 1786. Created to welcome President George Washington during his visit to Savannah in 1792, it traditionally combines various strong spirits (including rum, brandy, whisky, and sometimes gin) with wine, tea, and citrus juices. It gained a formidable reputation as "the drink that never fails to lay the guests under the table," and was famously described by one Confederate general as being "strong enough to make a rabbit fight a bulldog." The recipe has evolved over time, but its wallop and its glorious Southern history make it a must at balls and military functions alike.
INGREDIENTS:
12 fresh lemons - you'll want both their peels and juice, so pick good ones
2 cups of light raw sugar
One bottle (750ml) of VSOP cognac - don't skimp here, it matters
One bottle (750ml) of your favorite bourbon
One bottle (750ml) of proper Jamaican-style dark rum
Three bottles (750ml each) of brut Champagne, thoroughly chilled
A 5-pound bag of ice
METHOD: Use a vegetable peeler to strip the lemons, leaving the bitter white pith behind. Drop the peelings into a big bowl with the sugar and get medieval on them - use a muddler or wooden spoon to really work the peels into the sugar. You want to release all those fragrant oils. Cover your bowl and let it hang out somewhere warm for about an hour - this gives the sugar time to get all syrupy and coax out even more of those essential oils. Give it another good muddle when the hour's up.
Now, take those lemons you peeled earlier, cut them in half and squeeze every last drop of juice into your sugar-peel mixture. Give it a good stir, then strain the whole thing through a fine mesh strainer into something you can easily pour from. Transfer this liquid gold into an empty 750ml bottle, top it off with water if there's any space left, and pop it in the fridge until party time.
When you're ready to serve, combine your cognac, bourbon, rum and that lemon mixture you made earlier. Add enough ice to chill things down while leaving room for the star of the show - the Champagne. Give it a good stir to get everything properly chilled and mixed. Finally, top it all off with your chilled Champagne, flash your winningest Grand Old Party smile, and serve up the taste of victory.
🥃 Parting Shots
If you’re new to Tastes of Victory, you can access all the ToV newsletters right here on Substack. You can also jump to:
🥓 My opinion pieces on America’s National Security, including my past work in Newsmax, The Washington Times, and other outlets.
🥧 Favorite stories from the archives from my writing for Southern Living, Vanity Fair, Forbes, and Esquire.
🧂 And if you really want to dive into what’s going on with national security in Washington, don’t miss my work as a senior fellow with America First Policy Instituteand as a weekly columnist for the Daily Caller News Foundation.
🥃 Did you want try some of my books? Warning: just reading them might cause unexpected weigh gain. But if you fancy diving into my food trapezoid of bourbon, salt, bacon, and pie they’re right here on Amazon.
nice recipe