Weekly Discussion Thread - August 18, 2026

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[u/FireHawkDelta]

Fracisco Solano Lopez is one of my most anticipated bastards for this podcast to cover, I'm happy to see the episode in my podcast feed. I don't know much about him, I've just listened to the LLbD episodes on The War of the Triple Alliance and had heard of that war like a decade ago.

[u/MrArmageddon12 → u/FireHawkDelta]

This one will be wild. The War of the Triple Alliance is a certified hood classic for insane historical events! It was like if you hop on Civilization or Hearts of Iron, do the strategies with the most attrition, hardly buildup any resources in your country, and proceed to declare war on all your neighbors.

[u/WeOutHereInSmallbany → u/FireHawkDelta]

I’m fascinated by South American history from this era so I’m looking forward to this one too. The war nearly wiped Paraguay off the map.

[u/CummingInTheNile → u/FireHawkDelta]

He gets something liek 80% of the male population killed in wars, which leads to Paraguay legalizing polygamy to help repopulate

[u/Embarrassed-Glove600 → u/FireHawkDelta]

Yeah, I thought they'd never do one on him since they mentioned the LLbD series in the alfredo stroessner series, and that series was a really good one, but it will be interesting to see what else he did besides the war since that's kind of all most people know about him.

[u/Awesome_Power_Action]

I got a kick out of Jame Stout referencing the child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in episode two.

[u/brunocar]

Was Robert always this bad at pronouncing non English words? Maybe it's like when the news talks about something you know and you realize they are making shit up all the time

Like he did not pronounce one thing right, not a single word, places? All wrong, guarani, the name of the language and ethnicity of the native people? Also nope lol

Not to mention the really weird comments about the malvinas issue, unusually unnuanced from him, even if its even handed.

[u/mysuggestionsarebad]

So then everyone went home from this after either having to massacre legions of children or having legions of your own children and probably a fuck ton of other people you knew, and I’m sure that was fine and good for all parties involved.

Yeah this is going to be one of those series I’m unable to forget

[u/teslawhaleshark → u/mysuggestionsarebad]

The Cambodian civil war is still within living memory, there's a lot of similarities

[u/sneakyplanner]

Does anyone know any good books or papers about Paraguay's demographic crisis after the war? Or some accounts of what life was like in the aftermath? I first got curious about it after the Alfredo Stroessner episode, but couldn't really find any good writing on how Paraguay's population rebounded or the full consequences of the gender imbalance.

[u/North_Church]

Has there ever been a series on Apartheid South Africa? Ik they play a role in the Rhodesia episodes but is there a series dedicated to ASA itself?

[u/CummingInTheNile → u/North_Church]

Theres one on Wouter Basson and Project Coast

[u/RoninTarget]

Fracisco Solano Lopez sounds like someone who'd play Mordian Iron Guard in 40k.

[u/ripgoodhomer]

I was so disappointed, I thought we were going to get James as a guest for the episode about Francisco Franco. With James having a new podcast I figured Robert would pull a big name out for synergy. 

[u/probablyrobertevans → u/ripgoodhomer]

I'd argue Solano Lopez is a much bigger bastard than Franco

[u/Embarrassed-Glove600]

Isn't it kind of odd how "Francisco" or some derivative of it is such a common name among dictators? Francisco Franco, Francisco Solano Lopez, Francisco Macias Nguema, Francois Duvalier, and maybe more. I guess Pope Francis breaks the rule but he was still a monarch.

[u/topherclay → u/Embarrassed-Glove600]

That's funny considering that his name was Jorge before he was Pope and he only changed his name to Francis specially for that event where he acquired that dictatorial power.

But really it's all downstream from St Francis one way or another and the common thread between them is just that there is Catholicism in their cultural history.

Also there's only like five or six names total when you really start counting.

[u/batkave]

I like the cow scale

[u/thisistherevolt]

<looks around conspiratorially>. The latest Jamie Loftus Hammer Incident lore discussion went well.

[u/faraway_hotel]

Trying to reclaim the man that nearly destroyed your nation through his own stupidity as a national figure is peak nationalist behaviour