Total posts: 8,696
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@Lemming
I was in the Navy for 5 years, never went on a ship though, oddly enough.
Thank you for your service!
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I know Ragnar is a veteran but I'm not sure I know for certain that there are other military veterans on this site. Who here is a veteran of the military? US or otherwise?
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@RationalMadman
You're right, ties for first get awarded one pt each. My oversight. Sorry.
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@Bones
If someone changes their gender, it is bigotry to refer to them in the way that they presented years ago: we accept people for who they are currently. If this were considered a good standard, then why is it acceptable to refer to an unsavoury tweet from a decade ago by a person who has since changed?
I think I would want the specific circumstances before agreeing that mere reference qualifies as cancellation or even that the same standard ought to be applied to both cases.
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@RationalMadman
Looks like
one pt for 2nd place in ZONE02
three pts each for 1st place in ZONE05 and ZONE06.
For a total of 7 pts....am I missing something?
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@RationalMadman
@Vader
@Discipulus_Didicit
FINAL GAMEBOARD:
%%%%%%%%%%%%
Supa=X
RM =O
Disc =#
_____________________
ZONE_01______+4X/+1#
XXXX
#
_____________________
ZONE_02_____ +5X/+3O
XXXXX
#
OOO
_____________________
ZONE_03______+4# /+2X
XX
###+#
_____________________
ZONE_04___________TIE
#######
OOOOOO+O
_____________________
ZONE_05______+3O/+1#
OOO
#
_______________________
ZONE_06_______+3O/+2X
X+X
OOO
#
______________________
ZONE_07_______+5X/+3#
XXXXX
OO
##+#
RESULTS!____________________
SUPA_X____11 POINTS
____________________
DISC_#______6 POINTS
___________________
RM_O_______7_POINTS
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Let me know if you think I made any mistakes!
Good Game! Thanks for playing
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@RationalMadman
@Vader
@Discipulus_Didicit
ROUND_4 GAMEBOARD:
%%%%%%%%%%%%
Supa=X
RM =O
Disc =#
_____________________
ZONE_01______+4X/+1#
XXXX
#
_____________________
ZONE_02_____ +5X/+3O
XXXX+X
#
OOO
_____________________
ZONE_03______+3# /+2X
XX
###
_____________________
ZONE_04______+7#/+6O
#####+##
OOOO+OO
_____________________
ZONE_05______+3O/+1#
OOO
#
_______________________
ZONE_06_______+3O
X
OOO
#
______________________
ZONE_07_______+5X/+3#
XXXXX
OO
##+#
____________________
SUPA_X____10 POINTS
____________________
DISC_#______9 POINTS
___________________
RM_O_______8_POINTS
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Let me know if you think I made any mistakes!
You will each deploy ONE last pawn after which points will be tallied and results determined.
Game turns will last no longer than 24 hrs. Failure to submit moves in under 24 hrs may result in forfeiture of that turn.
Good Luck! Please submit actions via PM now
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@RationalMadman
@Vader
@Discipulus_Didicit
two deployments rec'd. waiting on one more.
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@RationalMadman
@Vader
@Discipulus_Didicit
ROUND_3 GAMEBOARD:
%%%%%%%%%%%%
Supa=X
RM =O
Disc =#
_____________________
ZONE_01______+4X/+1#
XXXX
#
_____________________
ZONE_02_____ +4X/+3O
XXX+X
#
OO+O
_____________________
ZONE_03______+3# /+2X
+XX
###
_____________________
ZONE_04______+5#/+4O
###+##
OO+OO
_____________________
ZONE_05______+3O/+1#
OOO
#
_______________________
ZONE_06_______+3O/+1#
OOO
#
______________________
ZONE_07_______+5X/+3#
XXXXX
OO
##+#
____________________
SUPA_X____10 POINTS
____________________
DISC_#____ 10 POINTS
___________________
RM_O______8_POINT_S
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Let me know if you think I made any mistakes!
You will each deploy THREE more pawns over the course of the game.
You each have TWO pawns to deploy for round four.
You each have ONE pawns that can't be deployed this round but can be deployed in the final round.
Game turns will last no longer than 24 hrs. Failure to submit moves in under 24 hrs may result in forfeiture of that turn.
Good Luck! Please submit actions via PM now
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@RationalMadman
@Vader
@Discipulus_Didicit
two deployments rec'd. waiting on one more.
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@RationalMadman
That's right, ZONE_05 should read:
_____________________
ZONE_05______+3O/+1# ]
OOO
#
_______________
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@Vader
@Discipulus_Didicit
ROUND_2 GAMEBOARD:
%%%%%%%%%%%%
Supa=X
RM =O
Disc =#
_____________________
ZONE_01______+4X/+1# ]
XXX+X
#
_____________________
ZONE_02_____ +3X/+2O ]
XX+X
+#
+OO
_________________
ZONE_03______+3# ]
##+#
_____________________
ZONE_04______+3#/+2O ]
##+#
+OO
_____________________
ZONE_05______+3O/+1# ]
OO+O
#
_______________________
ZONE_06_______+3O/+1# ]
OOO
+#
__________________
ZONE_07_______+5X ]
XXX+XX
OO
##
___________________
SUPA_X____9 POINTS
___________________
DISC_#____9 POINTS
___________________
RM_O____8_POINTS
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Let me know if you think I made any mistakes!
You will each deploy SIX more pawns over the course of the game.
You each have THREE pawns to deploy for round three.
You each have THREE pawns that can't be deployed this round but can be deployed in subsequent rounds.
Game turns will last no longer than 24 hrs. Failure to submit moves in under 24 hrs may result in forfeiture of that turn.
Good Luck! Please submit actions via PM now
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- Are you vaccinated?
yes
- whether you are or aren't please state why
My doctor recommended it.
- Which vaccine,
Pfizer
- why that vaccine?
Had the highest efficacy rates at the time.
- Do you support vaccine mandates?
This is a much larger question than just vaccines and we should specify mandated by who. Generally, I am fine with OCEA and State and local and employer mandates that I wash my hands after going to the bathroom if handling food. It follows that any agency so authorized can likewise authorize similar hygiene requirements consistent with standard health and safety practices. It seems irrational and inconsistent to me to say that the employers should mandate basic hygiene for Wendy's employees working the drive-thru window but can't mandate basic hygiene for nurses or plumbers or teachers. There's no value in breaking out health mandates according to political popularity.
- Do you believe Covid is a left-wing conspiracy?
The Trump Administration and Fox News certainly chose to inflict onto Americans the worst national pandemic response of any country with the result of hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths. Whether a substantially improved US health and sanitation response would have prevented the emerging global endemic is now unknowable.
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@Vader
@Discipulus_Didicit
two deployments rec'd. waiting on one more.
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@Vader
@Discipulus_Didicit
ROUND1 GAMEBOARD:
%%%%%%%%%%%%
Supa=X
RM=O
Disc=#
%%%%%%%%%%%%
ZONE_01______+3X/+1#
XX+X
+#
________________
ZONE02_____ +2X
X+X
________________
ZONE03______+2#
##
________________
ZONE04______+2#
#+#
________________
ZONE05______+3O/+1#
OO+O
+#
_________________
ZONE06_______+3O
O+OO
__________________
ZONE07_______+3X
+XXX
+OO
+##
___________________
SUPA_X____9 POINTS
___________________
DISC_#____8 POINTS
___________________
RM_O____6 POINTS
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Let me know if you think I made any mistakes!
You will each deploy TEN more pawns over the course of the game.
You each have FOUR pawns to deploy for round two.
You each have SIX pawns that can't be deployed this round but can be deployed in subsequent rounds.
Game turns will last no longer than 24 hrs. Failure to submit moves in under 24 hrs may result in forfeiture of that turn.
Good Luck! Please submit actions via PM now
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@Vader
@Discipulus_Didicit
only one deployment rec'd so far...
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@Vader
Is one of the most pathetic prosecution I’ve ever seen. I think anyone here could be a better prosecutor than the ones going on in the trial. Yet the media still claims there’s bias
How does the former preclude the latter?
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@Vader
@Discipulus_Didicit
Please submit actions via PM now.
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Play Colonel Blotto!The tactical lotto!Most highest totals:That is our motto!
ROUND0 GAMEBOARD:
Supa=X
RM=O
Disc=#
The starting board is as follows:
________________
ZONE01______+2X
XX
________________
ZONE02_____ +1X
X
________________
ZONE03______+2#
##
________________
ZONE04______+1#
#
________________
ZONE05______+2O
OO
_________________
ZONE06_______+1O
O
__________________
ZONE07_______EMPTY
___________________
SUPA_X____6 POINTS
___________________
DISC_#____6 POINTS
___________________
RM_O____6 POINTS
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Let me know if you think I made any mistake.
you will each deploy FiFTEEN more pawns over the course of the game
Deployment rules are:1) You can place armies on any of the seven zones.2) It IS permitted to place zero armies on a certain zone for a round.2) Once placed, no armies can be moved between zones3) All players are allowed to see the new board after each round4) FIve armies are placed by each player during round one. Four are places during round two, three during round three and so on.5) SCORING is determined at the end of FIVE rounds.
- Most pawns in any zone is awarded 3 points
- Ties get one point each
- Second most pawns in any zone is awarded 1 points
- Ties for second most pawns get 0 points awarded'
6) Only the final tallies in each zone at the end of five rounds count toward determining a winner.
You each have FIVE pawns to deploy for round one. You each have TEN pawns that can't be deployed this round but can be deployed in subsequent rounds.
Game turns will last no longer than 24 hrs. Failure to submit moves in under 24 hrs may result in forfeiture of that turn.
Please submit actions via PM now.
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@Discipulus_Didicit
-->@oromagi @RationalMadman @SupaDudzChallenge: supa v disc v rm same map and rules as above.You down to do this, Oro?
OK, altho RM has blocked me so he's going to have to stay on top of notifictions himself.
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As long as we only tag people that agree with us, we don’t have to acknowledge reality, right?
right
and sorry, fix'd:
Apparently, FOX News renders regular viewers incapable of formulating a cogent thesis.
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Probably someone that doesn't murder them at foreign airports for photo ops.
I 'll remind READERS that Greychicken has requested mod-enforced special immunity from my rebuttals for the purpose of lying with impunity
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@949havoc
You had your shot belittling Trump. You no longer have him to kick around.
The point is that you supported him in spite of such remarks. Why would any of us credit any value to an opinion that stood by a Commander-in-Chief who objectively despised the troops under his command? All by themselves, these FOX verified remarks are disqualifying for any President as well as any followers who fail to condemn, pretend it didn't happen, hold the opposition to exponentially higher standards than the type of men they vote for.
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@sadolite
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“One constant among the elements of 1914—as of any era—was the disposition of everyone on all sides not to prepare for the harder alternative, not to act upon what they suspected to be true.”
― Barbara W. Tuchman, The Guns of August
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“One constant among the elements of 1914—as of any era—was the disposition of everyone on all sides not to prepare for the harder alternative, not to act upon what they suspected to be true.”
― Barbara W. Tuchman, The Guns of August
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Channel Firing
That night your great guns, unawares,
Shook all our coffins as we lay,
And broke the chancel window-squares,
We thought it was the Judgment-day
And sat upright. While drearisome
Arose the howl of wakened hounds:
The mouse let fall the altar-crumb,
The worms drew back into the mounds,
The glebe cow drooled. Till God called, “No;
It’s gunnery practice out at sea
Just as before you went below;
The world is as it used to be:
“All nations striving strong to make
Red war yet redder. Mad as hatters
They do no more for Christés sake
Than you who are helpless in such matters.
“That this is not the judgment-hour
For some of them’s a blessed thing,
For if it were they’d have to scour
Hell’s floor for so much threatening....
“Ha, ha. It will be warmer when
I blow the trumpet (if indeed
I ever do; for you are men,
And rest eternal sorely need).”
So down we lay again. “I wonder,
Will the world ever saner be,”
Said one, “than when He sent us under
In our indifferent century!”
And many a skeleton shook his head.
“Instead of preaching forty year,”
My neighbour Parson Thirdly said,
“I wish I had stuck to pipes and beer.”
Again the guns disturbed the hour,
Roaring their readiness to avenge,
As far inland as Stourton Tower,
And Camelot, and starlit Stonehenge.
-Thomas Hardy
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They died crying in their minds like little babies. They forgot the thing they were fighting for the things they were dying for. They thought about things a man can understand. They died yearning for the face of a friend. They died whimpering for the voice of a mother a father a wife a child They died with their hearts sick for one more look at the place where they were born please god just one more look. They died moaning and sighing for life. They knew what was important They knew that life was everything and they died with screams and sobs. They died with only one thought in their minds and that was I want to live I want to live I want to live.
― Dalton Trumbo, Johnny Got His Gun
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“The trenches', wrote Robert Kee fifty years later, 'were the concentration camps of the First World War'; and though the analogy is what an academic reviewer would call unhistorical, there is something Treblinka-like about almost all accounts of July 1st, about those long docile lines of young men, shoddily uniformed, heavily burdened, numbered about their necks, plodding forward across a featureless landscape to their own extermination inside the barbed wire. Accounts of the Somme produce in readers and audiences much the same emotions as do descriptions of the running of Auschwitz - guilty fascination, incredulity, horror, disgust, pity and anger - and not only from the pacific and tender-hearted; not only from the military historian, on whom, as he recounts the extinction of this brave effort or that, falls an awful lethargy, his typewriter keys tapping leadenly on the paper to drive the lines of print, like the waves of a Kitchener battalioon failing to take its objective, more and more slowly towards the foot of the page; but also from professional soldiers [...] Why did the commanders not do something about it? Why did they let the attack go on? why did they not stop one battalion following in the wake of another to join it in death?”
― John Keegan, The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme
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Phases
I.
There’s a little square in Paris,
Waiting until we pass.
They sit idly there,
They sip the glass.
There’s a cab-horse at the corner,
There's rain. The season grieves.
It was silver once,
And green with leaves.
There’s a parrot in a window,
Will see us on parade,
Hear the loud drums roll—
And serenade.
II.
This was the salty taste of glory,
That it was not
Like Agamemnon’s story.
Only, an eyeball in the mud,
And Hopkins,
Flat and pale and gory!
III.
But the bugles, in the night,
Were wings that bore
To where our comfort was;
Arabesques of candle beams,
Winding
Through our heavy dreams;
Winds that blew
Where the bending iris grew;
Birds of intermitted bliss,
Singing in the night's abyss;
Vines with yellow fruit,
That fell
Along the walls
That bordered Hell.
IV.
Death's nobility again
Beautified the simplest men.
Fallen Winkle felt the pride
Of Agamemnon
When he died.
What could London’s
Work and waste
Give him—
To that salty, sacrificial taste?
What could London’s
Sorrow bring—
To that short, triumphant sting?
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Guns,
Long, steel guns,
Pointed from war ships
In the name of the war god.
Straight, shining, polished guns,
Clambered over with jackies in white blouses,
Glory of tan faces, tousled hair, white teeth,
Laughing lithe jackies in white blouses,
Sitting on the guns singing war songs, war chanties.
Shovels,
Broad, iron shovels,
Scooping out oblong vaults,
Loosening turf and leveling sod.
I ask you
To witness--
The shovel is brother to the gun.
"Iron" by Carl Sandburg
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@fauxlaw
I asked: Who should Veterans vote for in 2024?
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In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
John McCrae - 1872-1918
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Dulce et Decorum Est
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
-by WILFRED OWEN
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For two decades, the lives of our service members and their families and veterans have been shaped by the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Since 9/11, hundreds of thousands of Americans have served. So many are still serving today in harm’s way, and we cannot forget them.
The American people are forever grateful and in awe of what you’ve accomplished.
But in fulfilling their mission, so many veterans and their families and caregivers have been through hell. Some facing deployments after deployment, spending months and years away from their families, missing birthdays, the anniversaries, and collections [celebrations].
I remember one of the last times I flew into Iraq, in the so-called “Silver Bullet.” I remember walking up to the cockpit. And the crewmasters along with the pilots were up there, and I said, “How many of you is this your first tour?” No one raised their hand. There were five people. “Second tour?” No one raised their hand. “Third tour?” Two raised their hand. “Fourth tour?” Two raised their hand. “Fifth?” One raised their hand.
Folks, on Veterans Day we have to always remember that there’s nothing low-risk or low-cost about war for the women and men who fight it.
I carry with me, in my pocket, every single day — I have my staff check with the Defense Department — on the back of my schedule I have U.S. daily troops in Afghanistan, killed and wounded; U.S. daily troops in Iraq, killed and wounded.
52,323 [53,323] — not “roughly 53,000” — every one of these individuals has a family, has a unit at home. 53,323 American servicemen and women wounded in the conflicts of Iraq and Afghanistan; 7,074 gave their lives — the last full measure of their devotion.
Untold thousands more returned home — as our Secretary can tell you — with unseen psychological wounds of war, the enduring grief borne by our Gold Star families.
These are the costs of war that they’ll carry — we’ll carry as a nation for decades to come.
And to all veterans, service members, their families, caregivers, survivors: I want you to know that our administration is going to meet the sacred obligation that we owe you.
We’re going to work with Congress — Republicans and Democrats together — to make sure our veterans receive the world-class benefits that they’ve earned, and meet the sacred — the specific care — specific needs that they each individually need.
That means expanding presumptive conditions for toxic exposure and particulate matter, including Agent Orange and burn pits.
We’re going to keep pushing on this front to be more nimble and responsive. We’re reviewing all the data and evidence to determine additional presumptive conditions that make sure our veterans don’t have to wait to get the care they need.
It also means prioritizing mental health care that is necessary to treat the invisible wounds that so many of our veterans carry, including pursuing our newly released comprehensive public health strategy to reduce military and veteran suicides.
I want to say clearly to all our veterans: If you’re struggling — you’re so used to never asking for anything. If you’re struggling, reach out. Call the Veterans Crisis Line.
If you’re having trouble thinking about things, it’s no different than if you had a wound in your arm.
And mak- — it’s also making sure that the growing population of women and LGBTQ+ veterans receive appropriate services and support.
And as we continue our efforts to defeat the pandemic and build back better, it means keeping the needs of veterans front and center.
The American Rescue Plan included $17 billion to support VA’s COVID-19 response, to get vaccination — vaccine shots in arms as fast as possible, and to fund programs that provide rapid retraining assistance for veterans who may have lost their jobs in the pandemic, housing assistance, debt forgiveness, and to invest in improving VA facilities and the living conditions of vulnerable veterans.
Through Jill’s work of Joining Forces, we’re also working to support our veterans and military families, survivors, and caregivers so they can have what they need to thrive. They deserve it.
As Secretary McDonough noted, this Veterans Day also marks the centennial of one of our most hallowed American monuments:
the Tomb of the Unknowns.
A hundred years ago today, an American soldier of the first World War — as the tomb says, “known but to God,” end of quote — completed the voyage from an unidentified battlefield in France, over the rough Atlantic seas, here to Arlington National Cemetery.
He lay in state under the Capitol Rotunda for two days on the same plinth that held the body of Lincoln, as 90,000 Americans came to pay respects.
On the final leg of his journey, he was escorted from the Capitol by the President of the United States, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, members of Congress, General Pershing, and the Chiefs of Staff — Medal of Honor recipients all walking, as the Washington Post said, processing “without parallel” to give honor due to American service mem- — American service members — not just the anonymous soul today entombed in gleaming marble, but the generations of Americans who dared all, risked all, gave all for the cause of freedom.
To commemorate, in the wounds of the member — in the words of a member of Congress who proposed the legislation creating the memorial, an American warrior who, quote — and this is the quote — who “typifies…the soul of America.” You veterans are the soul of America. America’s soul.
It’s why our veterans have always fought, always been willing to put themselves on the line. That the first unknown lies now with his brethren — unnamed warriors from later wars. Fellow patriots who picked up the mantle of honor and made it their burden.
And today, 100 years later, we keep a sacred watch over their graves. Generations of elite sentinels have taken the post, pledging their “eternal vigilance.”
We lay wreaths. We renew our oaths. We stand in solemn awe of such fidelity. Because for us to keep faith with American veterans, we must never forget exactly what was given to us, what each of them was willing to put on the line for us.
And we must never forget that it is the mighty arm of the American warrior — never bending, never breaking, never yielding — generation after generation that secured for us the blessings of a nation that still stands today as the beacon of liberty, democracy, and justice around the world.
May God bless you all. God bless all American veterans and those who proudly earned that title. And may God protect our troops.
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Folks, being President of the United States, you are afforded many opportunities to try to express your love, commitment, and admiration for the American people. And I must say to you that the single greatest honor I’ve been afforded as President is to stand before so many of you, those Medal of Honor winners out there, and talk about Veterans Day and veterans.
I want to welcome all the Cabinet members and honored guests joining us today, including the father of our Secretary of State, who served in the Army Air Corps during World War Two, Ambassador Donald Blinken, whose birthday is today. Happy Birthday. (Applause.) Thank you for your service to our country.
And I just want to tell you, I know you’re a little younger than I am, but, you know, I’ve adopted the attitude of the great Negro — at the time, pitcher in the Negro Leagues — went on to become a great pitcher in the pros — in the Major League Baseball after Jackie Robinson. His name was Satchel Paige.
And Satchel Paige, on his 47th birthday, pitched a win against Chicago. (Laughs.) And all the press went in and said, “Satch, it’s amazing — 47 years old. No one’s ever, ever pitched a win at age 47. How do you feel about being 47?” He said, “Boys, that’s not how I look at it.” They said, “How do you look at it, Satch?” He said, “I look at it this way: How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?”
I’m 50 years old and the ambassador is 47.
But all kidding aside, Mr. Ambassador, thank you for your service during World War Two, as well as your service as an ambassador. And thank you for raising such a fine man, Tony Blinken, our Secretary of State.
To all our veterans, past and present, we thank you, we honor you, and we remember always what you’ve done for us.
I’d like to recognize one of our national heroes who is here today: Medal of Honor recipient, Mr. Brian Thacker. During the Vietnam War, then-First Lieutenant Thacker put the safety of his fellow troops above his own, providing cover fire against an attacking enemy, and even calling in artillery fire on his own position so our forces had a better chance to withdraw.
Wounded, unable to leave the area, he evaded capture for eight days until finally federal — friendly forces retook the position. Yours is a remarkable story; it will never be forgotten.
And we’ll also never forget the stories of American leaders and icons we’ve lost recently who shaped our nation in ways that are hard to measure.
I’ve lost, like many of you, three good friends in the last month:
General Colin Powell, a child of immigrants, who grew up to be the joint — Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretary of State. A man who was a friend but who earned the universal respect of the Americans and people for his leadership in uniform and out.
And a guy who became good friends in many times I was in and out of Iraq as a Vice President and a senator — General Ray Odierno, who I met multiple times in Iraq, and who did so much to help get us to where we are today and who always put the troops and its veterans first. It was an honor to have my son, Major Biden, serve under his command at the time.
And my friend and colleague — who was mentioned already — the United States Senator, Max Cleland, who, as a triple amputee, knew the cost of war as well as anyone could ever know it and went on to champion the dignity and care of America’s wounded veterans throughout his life.
We lost all three of these incredible veterans in the last several weeks, and our hearts go out to their families.
These are stories that inspire generation after generation of Americans to step forward to defend our nation.
And, today, we pay homage to the unrelenting bravery and dedication that distinguish all those who have earned the title of “American veteran.”
It’s an honor that not only a small percentage of Americans can claim, and one that marks those who are able to claim it as brothers and sisters. It’s a badge of courage that unites across all ages, regardless of background — because to be a veteran is to have endured and survived challenges most Americans will never know.
You’ve come through the trials and testing, braved dangers and deprivations, faced down the tragic realities of war and death.
And you’ve done it for us. You’ve done it for America — to defend and serve American values, to protect our country and our Constitution against all enemies, and to lay a stronger, more secure foundation on which future generations can continue to build a more perfect union.
Each of our veterans is a link in a proud chain of patriots that has stood in the defense of our country from Bunker Hill to Belleau Woods, Gettysburg to Iwo Jima, the Chosin Reservoir to the Kunar Valley.
Each — each understood the price of freedom, and each shouldered that burden on our behalf.
Our veterans represent the best of America. You are the very spine of America, not just the backbone. You’re the spine of this country. And all of us — all of us — owe you.
And so, on Veterans Day and every day, we honor that great debt and recommit ourselves to keeping our sacred obligation as a nation to honor what you’ve done.
We have many obligations to our children, to our elderly, to those truly in need. But I’ve gotten in trouble way back when I was a young senator for saying we only have one truly sacred obligation. We have many obligations but one truly sacred obligation: to properly prepare those and equip those who we send into harm’s way and care for them and their families while they’re both deployed and when they return home. This is a lifetime sacred commitment. It never expires.
And for me and for Jill and for the entire Biden family: It’s personal.
When Beau was deployed to Iraq, after spending six months in Kosovo as an Assistant U.S. Attorney trying to help — he was trying to set up a criminal justice system, I got a call from him one day. He said, “Dad, what are you doing Friday?” And I said, “What do you need, hon? I’m — what do you need?” He said, “I’d like you to pin my bars on.” I said, “What in the heck have you done?” He said, “Someone’s got to finish these wars, dad.” True story.
Jill and I learned what it meant to pray every day for the safe return of someone you love. So many of you have done that.
Our grandkids learned what it meant to have their dad overseas in a warzone instead of back at home, for a year, tucking them into bed and reading that story every night. Thousands of Americans — tens of thousands have had that experience.
As the English poet John Milton wrote, “They also serve who only stand and wait.”
So, to all the mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, spouses — all those who stand alongside our veterans — and their families, caregivers, survivors: You are the solid steel spine that bears up under every burden, the courageous heart that rises to every challenge.
We’ve asked so much of you for so long, and our nation is grateful.
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Happy Veteran's Day!
Let's play good President/bad President:
JOE BIDEN today:
Our veterans represent the best of America. You are the very spine of America, not just the backbone. You’re the spine of this country. And all of us — all of us — owe you.
DONALD TRUMP Veteran's Day 2018:
According to the Atlantic magazine, during a trip to France to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 U.S. Marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as
“suckers.”
Indicating that he didn’t understand why the United States had intervened at all in Europe in 1917, Trump also reportedly asked aides,
“Who were the good guys in this war?”
The Atlantic article, portions of which have been corroborated by the Associated Press, the Washington Post, and Fox News, also reported that when Trump aborted a visit to another World War I cemetery, blaming the weather, he remarked,
“Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.”
In addition, Trump reportedly said that the presence of maimed U.S. veterans would upset spectators at a military parade, commenting,
“Nobody wants to see that.”
Who should Veterans vote for in 2024?
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@Ramshutu
*googles Tucker Carlson vaccine mandate Biden*
Apparently, regular FOX News renders viewers incapable of formulating a cogent thesis.
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@Vader
@Discipulus_Didicit
gg & thanks
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I'm a lot busier than usual but I would still be willing to host one or two sets - I would change up the number of slots, pawns, and turns each game
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@Benjamin
Thx for invite. I will weigh in if time allows but coal is really our expert on this subject. He hasn't been around much lately but I'll tag him and hope for some reply.
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HEAVEN
Everyone is trying to get to the barThe name of the bar, the bar is called HeavenThe band in Heaven, they play my favorite songThey play it once again, they play it all night longHeaven (Heaven) is a placeA place where nothingNothing ever happensHeaven (Heaven)Heaven is a placeA place where nothingNothing ever happensThere is a party, everyone is thereEveryone will leave at exactly the same timeIt's hard to imagine that nothing at allCould be so exciting, could be so much funYeah, HeavenHeaven is a placeA place where nothingNothing ever happensYeah, HeavenHeaven is a placeA place where nothingNothing ever happensWhen this kiss is over, it will start againIt will not be any different, it will be exactly the sameIt's hard to imagine that nothing at allCould be so exciting, could be this much funHeaven (Heaven) is a placeA place where nothingNothing ever happensHeaven (Heaven) is a placeA place where nothingNothing ever happens
-David Byrne/Jerry Harrison
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@sadolite
-->@oromagiYou can believe everything the media, govt and the internet tells you or you can understand and learn from history. You cant do both.
Says the guy who mistook Russian and Chinese propaganda for US news a few weeks back.
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Nancy Pelosi was Guy Fawkes?
.....deep.
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God save the queen
The fascist regimeThey made you a moron
Potential H-bombGod save the queen
She ain't no human beingThere is no futureIn England's dreamingDon't be told what you want to want to
And don't be told what you want to needThere's no future, no future
No future for youGod save the queen
We mean it, man
We love our queen
God savesGod save the queen
'Cause tourists are moneyAnd our figurehead
Is not what she seemsOh, God save history
God save your mad paradeOh, Lord, God have mercy
All crimes are paidWhen there's no future how can there be sin?We're the flowers in the dustbin
We're the poison in your human machineWe're the future, your futureGod save the queen
We mean it man
We love our queen
God savesGod save the queen
We mean it, manAnd there is no futureIn England's dreamingNo futureNo futureNo future for youNo futureNo futureNo future for me
-Sex Pistols
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Oh! Take me back to dear old Blighty,Put me on the train for London Town,Take me anywhere,Drop me anywhere,Liverpool, Leeds or Birmingham'Cause I don't care,I should like to see my...By land, by sea.Farewell... to this land's cheerless marshesHemmed in like a boar between archersHer very Lowness with her head in a slingI'm truely sorry but it sounds like a wonderful thing"I say, Charles, don't you ever craveTo appear on the front of the Daily MailDressed in your Mother's bridal veil?"And so I checked all the registered historical factsAnd I was shocked into shame to discoverHow I'm the 18th pale descendentOf some old queen or otherOh has the world changed or have I changed?Oh has the world changed or have I changed?As some 9-year old tough who peddles drugs(I swear to God, I swear)I never even knew what drugs wereSo I broke into the PalaceWith a sponge and a rusty spannerShe said: "Eh, I know and you cannot sing!"I said: "That's nothing, you should hear me play piano!"We can go for a walk where it's quiet and dryAnd talk about precious thingsBut when you're tied to your Mother's apronNo one talks about castrationWe can go for a walk where it's quiet and dryAnd talk about precious thingsLike Love and Law and PovertyThese are the things that kill meWe can go for a walk where it's quiet and dryAnd talk about precious thingsBut the rain that flattens my hairThese are the things that kill meAll their life, they make love and then pierce through mePass the Pub who saps your bodyAnd the church who'll snatch your moneyThe Queen is dead, boysAnd it's so lonely on a limbPass the Pub that wrecks your bodyAnd the church - all they want is your moneyThe Queen is dead, boysAnd it's so lonely on a limbLife is very long when you're lonely
-Morrissey
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VICTORY PARADE
My girlfriend is a miracle.She’s so young but she’s so beautiful.So is her new bikini trim,A waxed-to-neatness center strip of quim.Now there’s a word you haven’t heard for a while.It makes me smile.It makes me think of James Joyce.You hear his Oirish voice.It’s spring on Broadway, and in the center strip mallThe trees are allExcited to be beginning.My girlfriend’s amazing waxing keeps grinning.It’s enough to distractFrom the other drastic actOf display today—Osama bin Laden is dead!One shot to the chest and one to the head,SEAL Team 6 far away from my bedAbove Broadway—in Abbottabad, Pakistan, instead.Bullets beyond compareFlew over there,Flew through the airTo above and below the beard of hair,A type of ordnance that explodedInside the guy and instantly downloadedThe brains out the nose. Our VietnamIs now radical Islam.I tip my hat and heart to the lovely tiny lampshadeAbove her parade.
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The Travail of a Child Who Has Left the Land of the Holy Shrines
''Father, where is the way out [of all our troubles]?
When are we to have a settled home?
Oh, father, do you not
See encircling danger?
Long have you made me travel, father,
Through deserts and through settled lands.
Long have you made me travel, father,
In many a sloping valley,
So I forget my kinsfolk,
My cousins, and all men.
How is it our house has vanished
From our sight, leaving no trace?Why has my mother not returned?How strange! Has she taken a taste to travel?And my dear brother -- may I be his ransom!Understand the Taliban Takeover in AfghanistanTime has passed and he does not appear.Why in our area do we seeNothing but parapets and pits?Is it because America has comeManipulating funds and media?You, father, do not craveAn easy living from mankind.It is eternity that awaits usIf God should will us to prevail.Tell me, father, for I findNo brief, enlightening explanation.''''Forgive me, son, for I am struckBoth powerless and speechless.My tongue is tied. My eyes are flowing springs.My consciousness is hell.What can I say when living in a worldOf contention and of recklessness?What can I utter to a world bereftOf physical and moral vision,Where nations are bought and soldIn an inflationary and speculative trade?Forgive me, son, for nothing do I see
In our terrain but a declivity.
A decade has passed, whose years were spent
In homelessness and wanderings.
Of whom do you enquire? Of a people
Reduced to stupor?
I have migrated westward
To a land where flows the Nile.
Of Khartoum I love the character,
But I was not permitted to reside.
So then I traveled eastward
Where there are men of radiant brows.
Kabul holds its head up high
Despite the hardship and the danger.
Kabul, with a smiling face,
Offers all-comers shelter and help.
Sheik Yunus there appears
A lion who strikes terror when he roars,
As, marked by manliness and pride,
Does our commander, Mullah Omar.''
''Why, father, have they sent
These missiles, thick as rain,
Showing mercy neither to a child
Nor to a man shattered by old age?
Father, what has happened
So we are pursued by perils?Father, what has happened
So your likenesses are on placards?
Is your redeeming of an ancient house
A crime that cannot be forgiven?
Here are we, [locked] in tragedy:
All safety gone -- it does not show itself.
It is a world of criminality, my son,
Where children are, like cattle, slaughtered.
Zion is murdering my brothers,
And the Arabs hold a congress!
They are America's henchmen,
Blinded and devoid of vision.
[Nothing but] ink on paper. They neither
Are truthful, nor have they made a difference.
Why have they not equipped a force
To shield the little one from harm?
This, by your Lord, is a major brand
Of shame to be recorded,
A treachery being pieced together --
Is our defense to come from traitors?
I swear by God the great
That I shall fight the infidel.''
-Osama bin Laden
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Favorite Iraqi Soldier
Into his kit when sent to the front he had tuckedhis black three-piece suit and through nightafter night of the frightful bombing, whichnot only wiped out but pragmatically entombedhis luckless comrades in a marvel of technologicaldecadence, he had kept the suit protectedso that at the surrender he had stripped nakedand slipped it on. This is when the photographercaught him, that among thousands of defeatedthere walked on Iraqi in a three-piece suitwho tried to express by his general indifferencethat he had stumble into all this carnage simplyby accident and was now intent on strolling away.I am a modest banker tossed on the wrong bus.I am a humble stockbroker who took a wrong turn.And he passed through the American linesand began hitchhiking south. Did he electto relocate in Kuwait? Fat chance! Did hewant the lovable Saudis as new neighbors?Quite unlikely! What about the opportunitiesoffered by the Libyans, Tunisians, Egyptians?Truly hilarious! Was there any place in Africawhere he hoped to lay his head? Decidedlynot! What about Europe where he could startas a servant or chop vegetables in the backof a restaurant but work his way up? Completelycrazy! Or North America where he could diga ditch but with the right breaks might buya used car? Too ludicrous! What about SouthAmerica where he could pick fruit or Asia wherehe could toil in a sweatshop? You must be nuts!In his black suit he is already dressed for the partand hopes to hitchhike to one of those Antarcticislands and stroll around with the penguins.Good evening Mr. White, good evening Mrs. Black,your children swim quite nicely, they lookso hardy and fit. No one to give him ordersbut the weather. No one to terrify himbut the occasional shark. No one to be mean tobut the little fish, who were put into this oceanto serve him and who he praises with each bite.Thank you, gray brother for the honor you have bestowedon my belly. May you have the opportunityto devour me when my days on earth are done.
-Stephen Dobyns
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Here comes the helicopter -- second time todayEverybody scatters and hopes it goes awayHow many kids they've murdered only God can sayIf I had a rocket launcher...I'd make somebody payI don't believe in guarded borders and I don't believe in hateI don't believe in generals or their stinking torture statesAnd when I talk with the survivors of things too sickening to relateIf I had a rocket launcher...I would retaliateOn the Rio Lacantun, one hundred thousand waitTo fall down from starvation -- or some less humane fateCry for guatemala, with a corpse in every gateIf I had a rocket launcher...I would not hesitateI want to raise every voice -- at least I've got to tryEvery time I think about it water rises to my eyes.Situation desperate, echoes of the victims cryIf I had a rocket launcher...Some son of a bitch would die
-Bruce Cockburn
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