Top all-time · #10443
Phillips P. O'Brien
Personal blog · phillipspobrien.substack.compoliticshistory
Phillips P. O'Brien writes Phillips’s Newsletter, a personal blog at phillipspobrien.substack.com about politics and history. Since 2022, 7 different Hacker News readers have linked it 45 times, most often “The US Is Attempting Regime Change in Venezuela”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (2) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers cite Phillips P. O'Brien's Substack analysis of the Ukraine war, including its manpower claims, and of US policy toward Venezuela and Cuba's oil reliance.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 2 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Whatever intrigues me--these days the Russo-Ukraine War with regular departures. Click to read Phillips’s Newsletter, by Phillips P. OBrien,
Most-linked posts?
- The US Is Attempting Regime Change in Venezuela2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-01-03
What Hacker News says?
> continuity of supply is why forcing them into real non-operating bankruptcy is inconceivable. Nothing more onerous than Chapter 11 Correct. But that’s still bankruptcy. It wipes out the shareholders and lets the creditors, which presumably includes the government, reörganise the company as it sees fit. (I’d start with cleaving BDS from the rest of Boeing.) > it's not clear to me whether it can be resolved until th…
Comment linking /p/war-and-deterrence-in-the-indo-pacific
on “US prosecutors recommend Justice Department criminally charge Boeing”Submitted The Ukrainians Just Pulled Off the Most Successful Operation of the War as a story · 69 points
HN discussion> hasn't come to a full on naval battle since WW2 though, so a lot of naval strategies and technology is theoretical Even then, aircraft carriers being unsinkable was a myth. “In 1942 the US lost as many carriers as the Japanese—and a larger percentage of their overall carrier force” to the extent that it “was almost out of carriers in the Pacific in late 1942.” “Why the US ended up winning the war in the Pacific wa…
Comment linking /p/war-and-deterrence-in-the-indo-pacific
on “Satellites Spotting Ships”Submitted War Crimes Seem to Be Official US Policy Now as a story · 55 points
HN discussion> If China and the U.S. get into a conflict, like every war it will be a question of war production This describes attritional war [1]. Not all wars are attritional. American war planning has, since the Cold War, extracted a peace dividend in not maintaining its warmaking industry, relying, instead, on stockpiles and quick victories. In China, for the first time since the Soviet Union, we have an adversary who could…
Comment linking /p/war-and-deterrence-in-the-indo-pacific
on “Why Can't the U.S. Build Ships?”Submitted The Prigozhin Coup seems pretty damn well organized as a story · 39 points
HN discussionPeople who actually know about the Ukrainian war are countering the idea that Ukraine is running out of men: https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/the-fewer-soldiers-on... As they point out: "... the issue of Ukraine’s supposed manpower crisis. This idea has been a key part of the analysis for more than two years now, analysis saying Ukraine was on the verge of military failure." The Ukrainians are adapting their b…
Comment linking /p/the-fewer-soldiers-on-the-front-line
on “Facing a demographic catastrophe, Ukraine is paying for troops to freeze sperm”Submitted Paying the Price for Trusting the USA as a story · 33 points
HN discussionRead: https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/the-us-is-attempting-... Prof. Philips P Obrien's analysis is an interesting one, also highlighting Cuba's reliance on Venezuelan oil, which complicates the situation further.
Comment linking /p/the-us-is-attempting-regime-change
on “Loud noises heard in Venezuela capital, southern area without electricity”Submitted Russian strategy of war crimes escalation in Ukraine (winter 2026/2027) as a story · 21 points
HN discussionP. P. O'Brien observes, based on WWII between Japan and the U.S., "that the US is basically taking an enormous gamble. The gamble is that US technology and front-line forces are so superior to the Chinese, that they can intimidate the Chinese from going to war or, if a war broke out, that they could devastate the Chinese military relatively quickly without the war turning into a longer-term war of attrition" [1]. Be…
Comment linking /p/war-and-deterrence-in-the-indo-pacific-3fe
on “While We Quibble and Fool, the China Builds”Submitted Can Ukraine Isolate Crimea? as a story · 12 points
HN discussionSubmitted China Has the Whip-Hand in Russia's War War in Ukraine as a story · 11 points
HN discussionSubmitted Georgia Shows Why Ukraine Must Win as a story · 10 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Kharkiv Offensive Is a Russian Strategic Failure for Now as a story · 10 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why can Ukraine win? Because its military is (at least) 3 times as efficient as a story · 9 points
HN discussionSubmitted The US Is Demonstrating That It Cannot Oppose China as a story · 8 points
HN discussionSubmitted AI is starting to Rule the Battlefield as a story · 8 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Unravelling of the American Age Is Accelerating as a story · 7 points
HN discussionSubmitted Misunderstanding Soviet Power in WW2 and Russian Power Today as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted The US Is Attempting Regime Change in Venezuela as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Kharkiv Offensive Is a Russian Strategic Failure for Now as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Lack of Honesty Is the Ultimate Killer as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why Buying Weapons Is So Dangerous: A Saudi Case Study as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Each Day the US Weakens Itself as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Crossing Two Red Lines at Once as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted AI and War Is Being Oversold as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Primer on the Difference Between Long and Medium/Mid Range Strike as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted No Taco: This Is Complete US Strategic Failure as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The First Stage of Ukraine's Plan for Crimea Seems Almost Done as a story · 3 points
HN discussion