It’s Veteran’s Day in the good old US of A! Thanks for your service, suckers, and losers. To show our gratitude, the in no way affiliated with our president-elect*, Project 2025 has something for you.
This has been a rough six days for all of us, and it’s only going to get worse. I could offer platitudes like it’s not our lesson to learn and remind you that the leopards are coming for them, but that’s cold comfort right now. In honor of the holiday, maybe listen to an actual vet instead. At around 8 minutes, it’s a long, but I felt a little better after hearing it—a very little, but I’ll take what I can get right now. Maybe consider donating to his organization.
Be kind to yourselves, DeadSplinters.
* puke face emoji
To their credit, ESPN just rolled out a new documentary about Pat Tillman which is not a whitewash of how much he was against the Bush wars and how badly the US military and the press rewrote his story after he was killed in Afghanistan.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/42232145/pat-tillman-life-death-legacy-nfl-veteran-watch-stream
Of course, the whitewashing continues, including by the NFL and ESPN in its other coverage. The Athletic decided to run a soft focus story which waves off the nightmare in favor of talking up the Cardinals efforts to rewrite his story.
It’s especially galling because for decades the family of Tillman has been calling on everyone to just tell the truth, and almost everyone pats them on the head and just keeps going.
The truth is always the first casualty of war.
I meant to read the Jon Krakauer book about this but honestly forgot. Thanks for the reminder.
That’s a nice rendition, thank you.
Holy shit.
I’m bitter and hateful. Not really fit to be around.
Same. Trynna hold it together cause I’m with my family. Immediate family, that is. I’ve already declined my Thanksgiving invitation and will be skipping Christmas too. I may not talk to my siblings again until shit hits the fan.
Me too, which is probably why I laughed so hard when I read that.
st martens day here…so ive got singing kids with lanterns today….only 2 so far….might be all we get as the weathers kinda craptastic…might not be tho
welp worst case scenario…i has loads of leftover chocolate…
oh noes
We had lousy weather on Halloween and only had 70 trick or treaters. That’s less than half our usual amount. ☹️
There was a letter to the editor in my local paper from a vet. It’s paywalled but he basically said don’t bother thanking him for his service ever again since electing Trump basically stomped all over it and he knows that none of us actually give a shit. Phrased much better than that but that’s the gist.
It’s astounding that so many vets and active service members vote for him.
Since it’s veteran’s day, I’m sharing this one;
Sailing to Byzantium is the poem I picked for the back of Dad’s Funeral program, because he was Catholic (as I am nominally😉).
It fit him, between the Dementia, as the kidney disease weathering him away over the years, and making him so much smaller than the massive man I knew growing up.
And it also fit him incredibly well, because Byzantium was Constantinople, and became Istanbul–and Dad sailed there, when he was stationed aboard the Zippo.
And, Dad really loved reading, and he did like poetry.
So when I was looking for a poem for him, that fit him–Because of Rip’s occasional sharing of Poems here at Deadsplinter, I *knew* I’d find the right one for Dad either amongst Keats’ or Yates’ work, and I knew that once I saw it, I’d know which one was the right one for Dad.
So when I found Sailing to Byzantium?
I knew *this* was the Poem to memorialize Dad, because it just *fit* so well.💖💝💗