These tweets all used to be about the Russian military until they spent a year getting tricked into pulling a string that dropped a piano on their headshttps://t.co/yGD2ZxWKQ9
— Zack Budryk (@BudrykZack) December 31, 2022
One gets the impression the self-defined Defenders of Tradition wouldn’t be whining half so loudly if it were TFG taking a selfie with the same troops. (Of course, Trump wouldn’t have allowed any military members below the rank of general within ten feet of his flabby self, unless they were fetching him Diet Coke or hamberders on a nicely polished tray.)
I am struck by the stupidity of this thread and of this shitposting account.
A little context. This is an Air Force logistics unit in South Korea. Everyone is young and many are nonwhite … because that's the military. The average age is 23 and half of millennials are nonwhite. https://t.co/Y5eO06GH2U
— George Chidi (find me on Mastodon) (@neonflag) December 31, 2022
The idiocy about “wokeness” or the “lack of testosterone” in this shot isn’t just wrong. It’s deeply ignorant about how the military works and what valor looks like.
The people in this picture are the most likely targets of a North Korean first strike if Kim Jong Un gets froggy.
It takes no testosterone to kill people with modern military weaponry. A woman can guide a missile or drop a bomb as easily as a man. More, perhaps: there’s some evidence that female pilots can pull more Gs in a tight turn than men.
But lethality is not the measure that matters.
The distinction between troops and civilians is the uniform. By that, I mean it is marking oneself as a legitimate target in warfare, to distinguish yourself from people who should not be killed.
It’s not killing that matters. It’s the willingness to be killed to protect others.
Every one of those airmen has said that they’ll die if they have to, and serve about 50 miles south of North Korea and a dictator actively planning to kill them. The base is a prime first strike target. The flight time of a hypersonic missile to that base is roughly 60 seconds.
But shitty anti-woke blowhards like this are perfectly willing to throw troops under the bus in order to send racist signals to their mouthbreathing followers, all pretensions about supporting the troops be damned. The “controversy” is worth the clicks.
America’s far right knows no moral value that is more important than an opportunity to denigrate gays and Black people. Fact.
They’re siding with Russia against the United States. This is what it looks like.
Almost every reply to that idiot troll's post is accounts who are paying Melon $96 a year and have like 50 followers. It's hysterical.
— Dan Murphy (@bungdan) December 31, 2022
I think there's a poorly hidden sense of low-key horror, though, among those types, that the They/Them Army could totally wind up crushing their totalitarian senpais.
— Zoomer Antimillenarian ???? (@surcomplicated) December 31, 2022
[senpai]
Go yell at some more clouds grandpa https://t.co/hKuxiwjKNZ
— Mike Black (@MikeBlack114) December 31, 2022
99% of "Zelensky bad" takes are just microwaved "Woke Military" takes.
— Eric L. Robinson (@UticaEric) December 31, 2022
Baud
Woke military = military that won’t support a fascist overthrow of democracy.
Nukular Biskits
Why do they hate Murka?
Nukular Biskits
Dammit! I just KNEW I had beat Baud to #1!
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
Many have tried. Few have succeeded.
lowtechcyclist
“End Wokeness” asks, “Is this actually what our military looks like?”
It sure is, and I’ll be damned if I can see what’s wrong with that. Maybe I’m just too ‘woke’ to be bothered by the presence of women and people of all sorts of different racial and ethnic backgrounds in our military.
And yeah, they’re rooting against our military because being against ‘wokeness’ has become more important to them even than being for the U.S. of A. Traitors, every one of them. Fucking fifth column.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
LOL
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Somewhat OT but it is an open thread.
Has anybody followed Sirota’s crusade against Buttigieg’s handling of Southworst living down to it’s reputation by those of us who hate Southworst?
I know Cole’s posted a couple of pieces related to exactly what a DOT Secretary could do and refuting the kinds of criticisms Sirota’s been making.
I’m with Cole because I work for DOT (not FAA), know how, in broad terms, this stuff works here. Plus, Sirota is a dishonest hack who frames every issue to center himself.
jackmac
Love the photo with VP Harris. It’s a nice slice of what is now Real ‘Murka.
rikyrah
@Baud:
Truth
Kent
“Woke” simply means to be awake or aware.
The opposite of “woke” is to be permanently asleep and unaware. The technical term for such people is “Zombies”
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: Baud, Baud, Baud… Why do you want to become someone’s special project? Don’t tease the bear, Baud!
:)
Happy New Year!
Baud
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Sirota = Bad faith.
rikyrah
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
He is still mad that Secretary Pete beat Bernie in Iowa in 2016.
That is the bottom of his attacks against Secretary Pete.
Baud
@Chief Oshkosh:
Happy New Year.
Baud
@jackmac:
Yes, the nice thing about the fake outrage is that it highlights Kamala. How many people would have seen that photo otherwise.
kindness
The Right wing hates America. I mean real America. They only want to see white men, no one else really counts.
MattF
When that post first showed up on Twitter, I replied:
And I still believe that’s the important question. The Chinese army may perform a good goose step, but that image doesn’t tell you what they will do under fire.
CarolPW
I actually think that they might be woke enough to not torture prisoners or massacre villagers, while also being deadly against proper targets. Kind of makes me happy.
Redshift
@Nukular Biskits: For almost my whole life, Republicans have trumpeted how they love America while hating most Americans.
jackmac
@Baud: Pissing off MAGATs and doughy right wing man-babies (how do you tell one from the other?) is a very satisfying thing.
Gin & Tonic
Has it completely escaped these bozos’ attention that the traditional-values un-woke russian military is being dismantled by that of a country they probably couldn’t find on a map 18 months ago? A military which embraces everyone who is willing to fight, regardless of gender or sexual orientation?
gene108
Interesting that VP Harris blends right in with all that diversity behind her.
Old Dan and Little Ann
@Kent: The same morons who love to say or type, “Wake up,sheeple!” are the same who complain about wokeness. Make up your mind, maga douchebags.
SpaceUnit
Personally, I’m glad they’re upset.
Kay
Some people age gracefully and expand their thinking and some people are brittle and when things change they can’t adjust and they break.
It doesn’t matter that much though- no one needs their permission to join the military and “half of millennials are nonwhite” is just a fact.
Redshift
@lowtechcyclist:
That is exactly it. They are authoritarian patriarchal white supremacists, so the right people being on top is what matters, not effectiveness or patriotism or service.
pat
What am I missing? Someone was complaining about Kamala visiting our troops in South Korea and being photographed in front of a group of those troops and….the troops are not all white guys??
Jeez, get a life.
Nukular Biskits
@Redshift:
I have worked for military contractors for over 35 years and have (mostly) daily contact with military personnel, most of whom now are young enough to be my kids.
Our military (or at least the branch I work for) represents what America should be, IMHO. And that’s what blowhards like Buzz Patterson and Jerry Boykin (both of whom, BTW, are regulars on American Family Radio, and Tony Perkin’s “Washington Watch”) fear so much.
As a white guy, born & raised in the Deep South, I’m used to hearing thinly-veiled racist shit like this from HypoChristians (not my term … found it elsewhere on the intertubes) who think I’m one of the klan until I confront them.
Another Scott
@MattF: +1
It’s impressive that all those guys can march in a grid in perfect time, but that actually being an important military maneuver fell out of favor sometime around the 1780s.
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@pat: “EndWokeness” was fishing for clicks.
HTH!
Cheers,
Scott.
JoyceH
@Old Dan and Little Ann:
What I find interesting is how quickly the concept of ‘sheep’ has been turned into a negative. Because all of the sheep-denigrators are alleged Christians, and Christianity has used that sheep and shepherd imagery for literally two millennia! A church’s congregation is often referred to as the ‘flock’! But now, not sheep, nuh-uh!
Old Dan and Little Ann
@JoyceH: Consistency is not their strong suit.
Baud
@Another Scott:
We need to fix the bayonet gap.
Ruckus
@Kent:
I understood that the proper term for the opposite of woke is fucking asshole, because that’s where they park their tiny, tiny minds, where it’s dark because the sun don’t shine and the only thing they hear are their own farts.
Am I mistaken?
Another Scott
@MattF: And another thing…
France24 (from August):
Similarly here – comparing an image of a parade group with a bunch of grunts hamming it up in a selfie is the worst* kind of apples-and-oranges.
[eta:] * – well not the worst, but pretty bad.
Cheers,
Scott.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Woke is code for non-white and non-male.
Another Scott
@Baud: ICWYDT.
Cheers,
Scott.
Ruckus
@Old Dan and Little Ann:
Consistency and reality are a massive struggle for them, both more things they refuse to recognize. But then I believe, from the proof they provide, that it must be difficult to actually understand much with one’s head so firmly placed in their exit orifice.
Nukular Biskits
@schrodingers_cat:
This comment is the reason I wish we had a “like” button here.
patrick II
These guys have watched too many Rambo movies. They even photoshopped Trump’s head onto a muscle-bound Rambo picture. Wars really aren’t won by a big guy wearing a bandana and carrying a bow and arrow.
I have seen plenty of pictures/videos of Ukrainian women army members, and they seem to be doing pretty well against the Russian he-men.
raven
Pat Lang used to bitch and moan that all the combat arms troops were white and all the refm’s were of color.
Baud
@raven:
Refm?
Betsy
Hog jowl. Like bacon, but with crack.
mdblanche
They’re still salty about the Battle of Leuctra.
raven
Nick Adams (Alpha Male)
@NickAdamsinUSA
I hate to be conspiratorial, but it seems like the University of Georgia football team is getting every single call from the woke leftist PAC-12 referees. Don’t forget about the NCAA’s extreme bias against outspoken Christian alpha male athletes like CJ Stroud.
raven
@Baud: Rear echelon motherfuckers, you know, like me. At least 80% of the troops in Vietnam were support troops. Such it has always been.
Another Scott
Speaking of cranky white guys not getting the point, and thinking we won’t notice – DarthPutinKGB reminds us that VVP has a multitude of fake photo-ops with a band of actors.
Cheers,
Scott.
sdhays
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Wasn’t Sirota Trump-curious to some degree at one point?
Regardless, he’s revealed himself to be disingenuous grifter for awhile now. He’s dead to me. He could have the cure for cancer and I wouldn’t give him the time of day.
Amir Khalid
@Another Scott:
I was was thinking the very obvious thought that every army looks good on parade. And that’s clearly what the otherwise craptacular Russian military is best at. But to learn that the Russians have entire divisions dedicated to looking good on parade? I begin to wonder about their priorities.
Dan B
@Gin & Tonic: It’s interesting to note that Ukraine just passed LGB rights. The contrast with Russia grows more stark. I don’t know if that applies to the military or includes trans rights but it’s headed in that direction.
kalakal
@mdblanche: It’s all been downhill since they stopped putting Black Broth in the ration packs
Brachiator
@Gin & Tonic:
Yes. Pretty much everything escapes their attention.
Steve in the ATL
@raven: sic semper buckeyes!
oatler
Let’s make “woke” last year’s word. Along with “epic” and “iconic”.
chrome agnomen
@oatler: sure, the word maybe, but not the concept. woke, like liberal, and a lot of other words, were made toxic by the right. but I never stopped referring to myself as liberal all through the foul bush years. woke is like that. woke is everything the right hates, so how can it be bad?
kalakal
@Another Scott:
Absolutely. That poster is a racist idiot.
I see absolutely nothing wrong whatsover with that picture of the US military, quite the reverse.
Gravenstone
@raven: I’ll be mildly disappointed if that isn’t a parody account. Unfortunately, I realize there are far too many people out there with their heads permanently lodged up their asses.
raven
@Steve in the ATL: Jesus I’m exhausted. I fly out Friday morning and it’s interesting, ticket prices have dropped like a rock.
Fake Irishman
@Steve in the ATL:
This Michigan grad co-signs.
Now I will go back to being bitter about yesterday’s other semifinal (both games were incredible though)
raven
@Fake Irishman: Harbaugh is a fucking dope.
EarthWindFire
@raven:
No one who uses the term alpha male hates being conspiratorial. Nope.
kalakal
@Gravenstone: No idea wether that account is a parody or not but the bullshit expressed in it is a real right wing obsession. As far as they’re concerned only manly white men are real soldiers and all soldiers are always wandering around armed to the teeth in dpcs* and body armour. I wonder these gits who claim to be military experts ever get embarrassed by their ignorance**
*Disruptive Pattern Camoflage – not sure what the US term is
** Of course not, who am I kidding?
raven
@kalakal its twitter
https://twitter.com/NickAdamsinUSA/status/1609405356236771329?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1609405356236771329%7Ctwgr%5Eb8f357a3e2d93b11222a480c0516ec8cdaad77ff%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fblutarsky.wordpress.com%2F
kalakal
@raven: Ah, got my topics mixed up. That’s embarassing
Geminid
@sdhays: Sirota and his crowd have sneered at Pete Buttegieg ever since the 2020 primaries. First Buttegieg kept Sirota’s candidate from establishing momentum by winning Iowa. Then a few weeks later Buttegieg and Amy Klobucher endorsed Joe Biden right before Super Tuesday.
That blew up the Sanders camp’s strategy of claiming the nomination with a series of plurality wins in a crowded field. It would not be an exaggeration to say that David Sirota hates Pete Buttegieg.
He is a very bitter man. And the more successful Joe Biden and the Democratic Party are, the more bitter he becomes.
Gin & Tonic
@Dan B: Ukraine has a long way to go, but it is on the right road. I’ll note that I periodically see openly (proudly) gay military people on Twitter.
Another Scott
OpenThread – Do any of the hep cats here understand what Sinema was saying here in the gif at the top of this Wonkette story?
She seems to be directing an insult or something at someone (presumably in the gallery) to her right, but I can’t figure out what it means. (I suppose it could be a variation of Obama’s brushing dirt off his shoulder, but it seems more smarmy than that…)
TIA.
Cheers,
Scott.
Bill Arnold
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Active disrespect is earned, and Sirota has been working(grifting) hard to earn more of it.
Ken
Impossible. Back in the 1840s, science showed that the fierce acceleration of a steam locomotive would wrench the wombs from women’s bodies.
Kayla Rudbek
@Baud: rear echelon MF’ers
Carlo Graziani
@oatler:
You know, actually, I’ve been wondering about something adjacent to this.
The conservative loonie-bin has this well-heeled media operation with a well-oiled bullshit machine that can take any political issue, raise it out of its context, seize on the aspects that frighten or enrage the base, attach one or two terms of derision or vituperation to them, such as “woke” (it works better if those terms are seized from stodgy, inept left-wing discourse), and blast them across their mediasphere.
This tactic generally renders those issues beyond reasoned political discourse, transforming them beyond recognition. Instead of discussing the original political issues—such as racism in the criminal justice system (e.g. Ferguson)—one finds oneself shouting with idiots about irrelevancies or made-up shit about woke-ism forcing kids to hate themselves if they should learn that once Americans owned slaves in their history classes, etc. Which is the point. It’s misdirection, political diffusion. And it works.
Well, I’ve been wondering about what kind of countermeasures could be effective. Obviously, reason is a loser here. Earnest counter-argument is exactly what is getting its ass kicked by the demagogues. However, in 2022, we did see a new international effort to screw with demagogues, and step all over their message, in a way that was remarkably succesful: The North Atlantic Fellas Organization—NAFO!
So, what about a version of NAFO, except directed against FOX, and Tucker, and Elon, and the rest of that slime-sphere? Similar concept, similar target, the same, really (there can be no possibly doubt that there were pipes running between Russia and the Murdoch organization, and may be still). And massive organized humorous derision has been a lot more effective in sanitizing fetid propaganda than PSAs.
A custom NAFO just to torment Tucker. Just a thought.
raven
@Kayla Rudbek: You rang?
Omnes Omnibus
As I pointed out on the bird site, that’s what troops look like except that these look happier than most. SoonerGrunt noted in explanation that they were Air Force and that explained that.
Uncle Cosmo
‘Tut mir leid, Amir, but ‘taint necessarily so. Some years back I watched the vid of a Victory Day parade (it was an anniversary, maybe the 60th) in Moscow where
PutinVova TeenyWeenie had invited the victorious Allies (even the Poles, quel chutzpah!) to send units to march. Them that the Brits and French (and even the Poles!) sent put on a good coordinated show…but the US contingent, which IIUC was for the sake of logistics hastily assembled from an Army unit then based in Germany, looked, um, ragged to downright sloppy. It was a little embarrassing –Til I reflected that those troops spent a lot more time and effort training to fuck up the enemies of Uncle Sam in highly explosive and kinetic ways than in “parade-ground soldiering” (an epithet of scorn for many years now). And considering the pasting the orcs are getting from an army only trained by the Amis, I wager none of the few remaining Russki officers of sound mind would care to go toe to toe with the trainers…
Jay
I grew up in the Maritimes. The closest thing there was to a “visible” minority were the Micmac and Malacete, whom were only visible because they were from “The Rez”, other than a few, very rare, Black Canadians, descendants from the slaves the Loyalists brought with them. After an epic winter of hockey conflict, we had an epic summer of canoe trips and bushing. Due to predominantly Bill Mason, there was a revitalization of Canoe Culture, and while Micmac canoes are the most versatile, the Malacete canoes are the most beautiful. After you have hauled an HBC Freighter canoe up a mountain portage and down the other side, with all the gear for a 30 day paddle, stuff changes big time.
Moved to YVR in the early 70’s. Boiled dinners, jazz still surviving, some hippie culture and loggers in gay bars. 4 POC in my school of 750. 2 Indigenous sisters, (60’s scoop), 2 Sikhs.
Late High School, Indian Sikh refugees from Uganda, Vietnamese, the food got better, and the culture,……….. man.*80’s, bar scene, Punk, Eviro, Dr. Peter, Act Up, wow.
Old Scary White Dude, who bakes ginger sugar cookies for work, plus gluten free, egg free, nut free versions for Phrab, because you can’t leave people out. (He ate one, epi pen handy, loved it, no reaction, but his allergen free sister ate the other 5 before he could go back for seconds).
His mom made a Jain bean curry stew with phala brown rice as a thank you, I made some Naan to sop up the juice. It was wonderful.
I like being “woke”.
Uncle Cosmo
@raven:
Some of us Ravens fans have been saying that for years – about his older brother. And more are saying it every frackin’ day…
Another Scott
@Uncle Cosmo:
Made me look. Reddit.com (from 2010):
Cheers,
Scott.
raven
@Uncle Cosmo: Their old man was screaming “what the fuck are you doing” down the stretch.
Sister Golden Bear
@raven: Tell me you’ve never watched a game with PAC-12 referees without telling me you’ve never watched a game with PAC-12 referees.
It would be surprising if the PAC-12 refs weren’t making bad calls.
Fake Irishman
@raven:
I think you made a small grammatical mistake there by adding an extra article.
schrodingers_cat
@Nukular Biskits: Aww thanks!
Fake Irishman
@Sister Golden Bear:
Does the PAC-12 have professionals, or part-timers like the Big-10 does? (Hey you all, could we have a consistent definition for holding? Targeting, whatever, but holding would be nice?)
Omnes Omnibus
@Uncle Cosmo: @Another Scott: There is value in the discipline and precision of close order drill. Parade ground soldier is only an insult if the unit can’t cut it in the field. The 3d INF and Marine ceremonial units can do flashy parade ground shit as well as any one out there. FWIW I was not particularly good at the parade side of ceremonial things. I usually got tagged as an escort officer for VIPs because I was presentable up close and could be charming.
James E Powell
@kalakal:
It’s parody. Kind of like youth football coaching legend & Georgia football superfan @3YearLetterman.
Van Buren
@kalakal: It’s always a good time to remind them that the all inclusive Union Army kicked the lily-white rebel army’s ass.
Omnes Omnibus
@James E Powell: @3YearLetterman is one of best things on Twitter.
James E Powell
@Omnes Omnibus:
I can’t believe people still get taken in by him.
Omnes Omnibus
@James E Powell:
Nick Adams is just dumb enough to be real.
Jeffro
OT but once again, Balloon Juice was ahead of the curve by, oh, a few years here in noting that “centrist” Biden was open to (and has promoted many) “progressive” priorities:
gene108
@Dan B:
Several months ago, I saw a short piece (maybe BBC?), on a gay man serving in the front. He came back home for R&R and there were some scenes with him and his boyfriend.
Gay marriage isn’t allowed in Ukraine and he’s gotten some grief from family, but the other soldiers he served with were accepting.
The gist of the piece was Ukraine has been willing to set aside its anti-homosexual positions and move forward, because Ukraine is both trying to Westernize and needs all the manpower it can get for its military.
Geminid
@Another Scott: I thought that scene looked familiar and I tracked down an AP file photo in a recent story about Sinema’s switch to Independent. The photo caption was:
The caption did not say what Sinema was gesturing about, but I’m guessing it had to do with something Portman just said. Senator Shaheen apparently thought Sinema’s gesture was funny because she was laughing.
This was on the site for TV station KOB-4 Albuquerque, KOB.com. The story is dated December 9, 2022 and headlines, “What Sinema’s switch means for the Senate.”
Jeffro
Holla
Movie studios! Let’s have an action flick featuring millennial and/or Gen Z commandos without a single white guy on the team, and have them wipe out some Orban analogue and his moronic henchmen/GQP stooges using all kinds of tech, smarts, sass, and skills.
The resulting strokes all across RWNJ America should tip elections in our favor for the next decade.
lowtechcyclist
@raven:
‘alpha male’ whines about being treated unfairly in a game.
The very definition of a manly ‘alpha male’ man, right?
James E Powell
@Omnes Omnibus:
I feel like the name gives it away, but I could be wrong.
I don’t find him to be very funny.
Anne Laurie
@Jeffro: Took the liberty of fixing your link, so people could read the whole thing!
(Should be a paywall-free ‘gift’ link)
dnfree
@Another Scott: I’d also like to know what that gesture is supposed to mean besides “I’m cooler than you”.
Geminid
@schrodingers_cat: The reason Republican think “Woke” is such a good code word is that it comes out of Black American vernacular and sounds like it. It even almost rhymes with “Black.”
They think it’s the perfect dogwhistle and they can’t quit it.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
This whole thing is a bit hilarious since one of this country’s foundation myths of this country is a ragged militia of farmers and shop keepers defeated and army in smashing red uniforms who look grand on the parade ground.
Geminid
@dnfree: From the context detailed at #91, my guess is that Portman, who had the microphone, had said something about the Infrastructure bill’s detractors and Sinema was saying, “We’re cooler than them.”
You only see Sinema clearly in the Wonlette clip. You see Portman’s shoulder and parts of Joe Manchin.
You don’t see Shaheen laughing, but that would spoil the effect. The people at Wonkette know their audience has a lot of animus towards Sinema, and as a political scientist I follow noted, hate sells.
raven
@Sister Golden Bear: I don’t ascribe to the whining about refs. I done it for real and, if one hasn’t, they generally don’t know what they are talking about.
Anne Laurie
It ‘means’ Manic Pixie Dream Sinema’s doing the Cool-Girl Dismissive Hair Flip. It’s only confusing because you don’t usually see it used by people old enough not to be carded when buying beer.
lowtechcyclist
@Jeffro:
I’m not in a position to say whether Warren deserves as much credit as that writer suggests, but either way I appreciate the fact that she’s not out there trying to grab a share of the spotlight.
Another Scott
@Geminid: Thanks for the pointer. I found the C-Span clip.
Start around 4:07. Transcript (typing errors mine):
I’m flabbergasted. I can’t believe that she thought it was worthwhile to interject that and do the animated gif thing.
I mean, WTF??!
[ sigh ]
Her comments afterwards about “bipartisanship” is fine, and on-brand for her, but it all sounds like an act to fool the rubes when she, just before, does that stupid “she looks great” crap when she’s not reading from a script.
YMMV.
Cheers,
Scott.
MisterForkbeard
@kalakal: They’re trying to pretend that they’re not whining about non-whites and women. They’re now screaming that all of them look ‘soft and weak’, though they’re also joking about Kamala ‘being the only mannish one there’.
The rightwing is a real cesspool. So much shit just…. floating there. And they love it.
Geminid
@Another Scott: I wasn’t making any representations about the merits of Sinema’s gesture, just trying to provide context. It was interesting, though to see that Senator Shaheen thought something was funny.
But of course Shaheen did not know then what we know now about her colleague from Arizona. If she had, Shaheen probably would have frowned and given sinister Sinema the side eye!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@lowtechcyclist: there’s much to admire about Warren, but that piece reflects a very different political reality than the one I live in, especially as her signature political issue and strategy of the last two years have just been put into limbo, exactly as her critics said they would
WaterGirl
@Anne Laurie: Brutal, and well-deserved!
Barbara
@schrodingers_cat: To your point, what about that photograph makes anyone assume the political orientation of the military personnel who are in the picture?
Geminid
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: One of the best books I’ve read about the Revolutionary War is Joseph B. Mitchell’s Decisive Battles of the American Revolution (1962). Mitchell tells the story of the war within a framework of ten battles over 6 years and the campaigns they were part of.
One of Mitchell’s themes is that it was the regular troops of the Continental Army that won the battles that won America’s Independence. The one exception was the Battle of Bennington (Vermont) where about 10,000 miltiamen besieged and captured a force of Hessian soldiers, thereby dislocating Burgoyne’s advance on Albany.
Mitchell points out that this contradicts the popular myth prevalent in later years, that the militiamen had played the most important role in winning independence. Another writer explained that this myth was not surprising: any stranger visiting an American tavern in 1790 would have learned that not only did the militia win that war, but every man in that tavern had helped the militia win it!
Mitchell does give credit to the militiamen who fought for General Morgan at Cowpens, South Carolina and for General Greene at Guilford Courthouse (which is now inside the city limits of Greensboro, North Carolina).
At Cowpens, Morgan deployed his few hundred militiamen in a line 100 yards in front of his six hundred regular infantrymen. Morgan instructed the militia to wait for the command, fire one shot at Colonel Tarleton’s advancing British, and then retreat and reform behind the knoll in front of which he had posted his regulars.
“And I will be there to make sure every man does his duty,” Morgan promised. They believed him. Morgan had learned command skills as a young teamster and he had a reputation for bending man and beast to his will.
So the militia fired and ran, and then the British and American regulars shot it out at 50 yards range. When Morgan brought the militia back into the battle his regulars advanced and the British line broke. Colonel Washington, who commanded a small cavalry unit, almost captured Tarleton but after a brief encounter the murderous Englishman escaped.
General Green repeated Morgan’s tactics at Guilford Court House. He had enough militia so that Cornwallis’s troops had to endure fire from two militia lines before engaging Greene’s regulars.
The British were eventually able to drive Greene’s small army from the battlefield, but Cornwallis’s force took severe losses doing it. He could not chase down Greene’s army and had to give up on conquering North Carolina. So he left for eastern Virginia, set up camp at Yorktown and waited for a British fleet to come fetch him. But the fleet never came.
matt
Well I guess if misogyny is your thing this makes sense. I see no other reason to piss your pants because there are women in a picture of troops.
AnotherKevin
@chrome agnomen: Amen. I was in a bar about a week ago, getting along fine with a woman sitting next to me, and she steered the discussion towards politics and it became clear she was very conservative. She asked me if I was “woke” – I said that she would have to define it for me first before I could answer … (of course she couldn’t). Didn’t get much further before I had said Trump’s January 6 effort to overturn the election was inexcusable. She said something about Nancy Pelosi’s responsibility for that. I responded distainfully, called the bartender for the check, and walked out, without further looking at or saying a word to her. Don’t put up with “woke” being an insult.
TerryC
@Kent: ”
The opposite of “woke” is to be permanently asleep and unaware. The technical term for such people is “Zombies”
I say that if you aren’t woke you are a sleeple.