Senator Duckworth is a national treasure.
I refuse to let them believe that everyone in government has forsaken them.
So I crossed the border to Tijuana to spend #VeteransDay with them, recognizing the sacrifices they made for the country they love. pic.twitter.com/JUyZNl9OBw
— Tammy Duckworth (@SenDuckworth) November 12, 2019
These are daughters and sons who are struggling with wounds both visible and otherwise, yet are unable to get the VA medical care they need because they’ve been deemed less important than partisan politics. pic.twitter.com/JZB3sEDL0I
— Tammy Duckworth (@SenDuckworth) November 12, 2019
We should be ashamed, heartbroken & furious by the treatment of these Veterans. I certainly am. But we should channel those feelings and use them as motivation to do better.
To be better.
These Veterans fought for us for so long.
It’s past time we start fighting for them too. pic.twitter.com/vc9DKpGbnx
— Tammy Duckworth (@SenDuckworth) November 12, 2019
And the President, the Vice President, Stephen Miller, DHS Secretary Kelly, DHS Secretary Nielsen, Acting DHS Secretary McAleneen, Acting USCIS Secretary Cucinelli, Acting Director of ICE Homan, Steve Bannon, and every single American that supports these officials and their actions is a national disgrace. And the next president, provided she or he is a Democrat, damn well better bring these veterans home and hold all of the above to account. I don’t care if some of these veterans have criminal records, I don’t care if some of them have serious PTSD or other issues from their service that led to those criminal records or otherwise somehow violating their immigration status. I don’t care if some of them are undocumented. They raised their hands, they took the oath, and they served the US, many if not most in harm’s way, which is something no one in the Trump family has ever done across five generations in the United States. These people disgust me!
Open thread!
Adam L Silverman
I’m pretty sure it was Kattalis that was asking about a specific post regarding firearms and the Holocaust I posted here. I saw the comment way late after the thread went dead and will put a front page post up with the two firearms related posts I’ve done here and the one I accidentally did at TTAG.
Yutsano
I want the head of Stephen Miller. I want that kapo to bleed his dirty blood on the ground. Then that ground needs to be burned and marked as a reminder that betraying humanity just to advance your own personal agenda is unworthy of modern society. . Yes I’m bitter. I see this as his responsibility. Fuck his nativist racism.
Uncle Jeffy
Tammy’s my Senator – and she’s given more in defense of this country than that orange fart cloud in the White House could ever imagine. All of those bastards should be in prison.
Mary G
Tammy Duckworth is indeed a treasure. I get an extra thrill seeing her in her wheelchair. Representation matters.
Laura Cooper, who was ignored because she testified late on the day the Freedumb Caucus staged “Our Great Sit-In Until We Realized We Had Broken the Law Filming in the SCIF, the Pizza Wasn’t That Good, and We Got Bored” had some tea to spill:
This kind of denies the Republican theory that Schiff is leaking, because there hasn’t been anything on her until the transcript came out today.
CBS story:
feebog
It boggles the mind that any active duty military person or veteran could support this traitor and his shitshow administration. Every Democratic candidate should be asked if their DoJ will investigate, indict and try these criminals. Any equivocation on this should be disqualifying.
Bruuuuce
I long for January 21, 2021 with President Warren and VP Duckworth.
Mary G
Jay
justawriter
Back
By: Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
They ask me where I’ve been,
And what I’ve done and seen.
But what can I reply
Who know it wasn’t I,
But someone, just like me,
Who went across the sea
And with my head and hands
Slew men in foreign lands …
Though I must bear the blame
Because he bore my name.
Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
opiejeanne
@Jay: She’s my choice. She’s a wonderful candidate. I’m angry about the way the MSM is ignoring her, erasing her.
smintheus
This Republican impeachment strategy memo is incredibly sad stuff. They think they’ve identified 4 pieces of evidence that are “fatal” to the allegation that Trump held up military aid to extort Ukraine. Here is what they’ve got:
So, everybody has to pretend not to understand the “transcript” of Trump’s call; and pretend to believe Trump’s denials of intent; and pretend not to remember that State Dept. employees state under oath that they were discussing the hold up of military aid with the Ukraine government; and then draw truly wild inferences from Trump’s inept failure to permanently prevent the release of the military aid.
That’s the evidence that will prove Trump couldn’t have done it. Yikes, these people are even stupider than they always seemed.
opiejeanne
@justawriter: Oh my!
Jay
opiejeanne
@smintheus: My dear sainted grandmother, not the other one, liked to call people like this cheerful prevaricators. She was far too kind.
justawriter
@opiejeanne: I wish the war poets were better remembered than they are. We are bombarded with the great lie, Dulce et decorum est, Pro Patria Mori.
opiejeanne
Adam. I have lost track of so many things we have to undo, so many awful, mean, nasty, terrible things they have done. I hope we will have time to undo all of the damage. I hope our former friends will forgive us for what we’ve allowed to be done in our name.
And Putin can go to hell.
Jay
@opiejeanne:
When I run across good news about some of the great cantidates you guys have, I try to amp them by posting them here,
Just as I try to take down RWNJ talking points and Plutocrat “assasination” plots that get repeated here.
Jay
Oh, and thank you for this post Adam.
People need to remember and be reminded, regularly, otherwise it falls down the memory hole and gets normalized.
The Dangerman
@opiejeanne:
We don’t need no water let the motherfucker burn
Burn motherfucker burn
/bloodhound gang
Jay
Jay
Ruckus
Bears repeating.
Often.
@opiejeanne:
As we’ve both said of her on several occasions. To me she is the most professional, the most natural leader. That would make her scary to conservatives.
Jay
Mary G
ABL and her pupper, Spaniel Day Lewis, were attacked again on the street by a pit bull fot the second time:
Jay
Jay
Jay
Kattails
@Adam L Silverman: Yes it was, relevant to a local issue of Democrats supporting a red flag law & having their images put on posters showing Nazis, old USSR flags etc. Because as we all know, those Democrats are constantly singing the praises of Nazis and dictators. It’s OK, I always show up late to things, but a link or repost would be great thanks so much!
I am endlessly thankful for every individual in the current government who has held out and stood up for our hard-won democracy and institutions. Even the non-glamorous, hidden jobs that keep it all running; the environmental people, everyone who’s been disparaged and under siege for the last two years.
Mary G
Maggie had to work on the holiday, poor thing.
Drag her good, Maggie.
Jay
Jay
Jay
NotMax
@Jay
“Make the check out to Cash.”
//
Jay
Ruckus
@opiejeanne:
Right now I’m Harris/Castro for the ticket.
She’s already impressed me, he’s doing a good job at it.
Mary G
Science funny:
When I started college in 1972 I met and briefly dated a guy from Caltech. There was one woman in his whole dorm. She had them all wrapped around her little finger.
Ruckus
@Jay:
The brain trust that is the underground VA administration – trumps golf customers, want to privatize the VA. Make it a profit center and be able to cut off all those sick people that use it if they cost more than a bottle of aspirin a year. That is wholesale cost BTW. They don’t want to cut off the budget, just change who benefits to themselves.
Jay
NotMax
@Ruckus
Last I looked, Castro had not yet reached the threshold for being on stage for this month’s debate (deadline is this Wednesday). He’s already on record that it will be “the end of my campaign” if he fails to qualify by then.
Jay
Jay
@Ruckus:
I thought they were above ground at MaragofuckyourselfLego,
Not hiding out in Cheneys “undisclosed location”.
Jay
Stuck in moderation,
Yes, I know what I did, I just couldn’t help myself.
Ruckus
So tomorrow I get to take an 1 1/2 hr test, designed to make me respond the same as what put me in the ER 6 weeks ago. To find out if they guessed right on the diagnosis. So looking forward to it.
smedley the uncertain
@smintheus: They think the base is stupid. They are right.
Jay
Ruckus
@NotMax:
That makes sense, I like his style.
I think he’d make a great VP, he or Stacy Abrams. If this ends his campaign I think he’d be very smart to hook up with one of the leaders as a possible VP.
He’s really been saying the right stuff lately, but I never really saw him as a front runner, and I have no real idea why.
Jay
@Ruckus:
Good luck, best wishes,
Jay
Jager
I went to the Ventura County Veterans Memorial Event today, ran into an old friend who was a door gunner in Vietnam. We had a burger and a beer after the service. Next to us at the bar was another old vet who told Dan and me the story of his service. Harvey joined the Army right out high school in 1960, trained as a Medical Specialist, sent to an Armor unit’s medical detail in Germany. His first fall in Germany a Medical Service officer showed up and asked. “Any of you medics know how to ski?” Old Harv raised his hand knowing as he said, “I didn’t know how to ski worth a shit”. The Army assigned him to a US Military Ski Patrol and he spent the winter at Garmisch Partenkirchen assisting GIs and their dependents. The patrolmen lived in a nice lodge, got a healthy per diem, wore USA ski clothes and skied on first-class equipment. Summer came, back to the field, fall came, back to the slopes. Harv said, “I don’t know about you two, but I had a great fucking time in the Army.”
Mary G
@Ruckus: I hate feeling like a guinea pig.
NotMax
@Jager
There’s a joke in there about it “being downhill after that” but I’m too involved with din-din at the moment to conjure up the entire sketch.
:)
Jager
@Jager:
I tried to edit the post but it got stuck, Armor not Amor, but I think old Harv got his share
rikyrah
@Yutsano:
Yes???
Head on a spike??
TS (the original)
@Mary G: Maggie letting you know she talks to administration officials – very important people.
Ruckus
@Mary G:
It’s worse actually being one.
At least this is being one for my own good.
But sometimes there just isn’t any other way to find out what’s what.
Jager
@NotMax:
I think old Harv didn’t mind the downhill considering the upside
Jay
Jay
Jay
Jay
Ruckus
@Jager:
HS classmate was drafted, sent to Army language school in CO, they kept him as an instructor. His 2 yrs, boot camp, CO, discharge. He didn’t seem to mind, he was expecting to go to Vietnam.
Some where in the back of the mind I recall someone else who had a similar ski story.
Hell, I got to go on 3 NATO tours, we were the first USN ship to dock in the port of Den Helder, Netherlands since the end of WWII. Went to Copenhagen, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Portsmouth, UK, we sailed all over the North Atlantic, crossed the Atlantic, in winter – headed for Charleston, SC – ended up near Nova Scotia, had to then sail down the coast. Nice trip, I got to stand on the bridge and watch solid water hit the windows as the pointy end (or bow if you will) completely submerge under the next wave. It did that for days on end. This is the ship I was on.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: It does have a pointy end. Hope you pass your test tomorrow.
NotMax
@Ruckus
Heh. Tangentially reminded of the (very) B-flick Windbag the Sailor.
;)
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
There’s no actual passing. Either I have what they think I might or we’re back to square one.
@NotMax:
Was just discussing with my neighbor today the ins and outs of USN unofficial and official boat terms. Such as pointy end, flat end, right, left, floor, celling, door….. Lifers hated that. I think it was because they learned the “accepted” terms over a number of years and thought we were making fun of them. They were right.
Mary G
He’s crazy, but this is masterful trolling:
opiejeanne
@Jay: I’ve seen that, Jay. I appreciate it.
opiejeanne
@Jay: I think I worked out that my great grandfather’s and his brother’s photo studio were both nearby. I never heard my grandfather talk about it but he must have heard his Pop talk about it, the old boy was such a story-teller. Then again, my grandfather never mentioned that he worked as a “runner” for the Columbia Exhibition in 1893, when he was about 11, but my dad told me a little about it after I read that book, “Devil in the White City”..
opiejeanne
@Mary G: Me too, except there was no other option when I was diagnosed with Hepatitis C, type 4 in 2005.They knew how long to run the protocol of Ribavirin pills and Interferon injections for a type 4, so they treated me for 12 months. They knew how long to treat each of the other 3 types, but 4 was the rarest in the US. Out of thousands of patients, I was only the 8th Type 4 they’d seen at the Kaiser hospital, but they had a program that worked, so they guessed.
I was their first Type 4 success story.
Sometimes you just have to be the guinea pig.
Dan B
@Ruckus: Don’t know if you’ll read this left coast night owl comment but thanks for posting this interview with Julian Castro. My dream presidency would be Harris / Castro or maybe Klobuchar. I would love to have Warren as AG or head of CFPB, and truthfully Biden as Sec of State, and Booker, Pete, and several orher non-zillionaires in the cabinet. With the zillionaires whisked off to ambassadors to Brunei, Uganda, and a host of other post colonial oligarchies – the tin pot ones who will never be influential on bgg the world stage. Brunei and Uganda worship sexual purity / kill the perverts so socially progessive zillionaires pose a mind exploding challenge.
An old activist can dream, right?
debbie
The Trump Administration is the lowest of the low, just for deporting veterans.
J R in WV
@Ruckus:
Upstairs and downstairs really got their goat. I mostly used the Navy terms, unless there was someone (a lifer) listening who I knew it would irritate. Bathroom, also too.
Very proud of Senator Duckworth, glad to have donated to every one of her campaigns for elective office. She is doing good work for America!
Thanks, Adam, for posting about the good Senator. A brave combat veteran she is indeed, still brave and doing just as dangerous work today.