In 1948, several members of Harry Truman's cabinet opposed American support for the new state of Israel. They argued that if the US helped create and maintain a Jewish state in the Middle East it would perpetually spur Arab violence against Jews and Americans.
🧵 The anti-Israel faction in the White House noted that the establishment and maintenance of a Jewish state required the displacement and disenfranchisement of non-Jews in a region where Jews made up roughly one percent of the population.

In September 2000, a new Washington think tank called the Project for a New American Century issued a report titled “Rebuilding America’s Defenses.”

The report, which wasn't mentioned in the media, called for the US to aggressively expand its power across the globe.
🧵 “America should seek to preserve and extend its position of global leadership," the report said, "by maintaining the preeminence of U.S. military forces.”

One of the more striking but little-acknowledged features of military life during World War II was the ubiquitous GI drag show.
🧵 “From Broadway to Guadalcanal, on the backs of trucks, makeshift platforms, and elegant theater stages,” writes historian Allen Berube, “American GIs did put on all-male shows for each other that almost always featured female impersonation routines.”

You've probably never heard of Seth Smith or Tony Walker. I had never heard of them until today, even though I live just a few miles from where Walker fired a bullet into the back of Smith's head, two years ago, on June 15, 2020.

🧵 Seth Smith was a junior at the University of California in Berkeley and carried a double major in economics and history. A stellar student, Smith was likely to get into the London School of Economics, where he hoped to attend graduate school.

I love the few remaining liberals who support free speech. But they continue to uphold Franklin Roosevelt as their hero.

Here's some of FDR's record with the First Amendment:

🧵 Roosevelt appointed avowed loyalists to the Federal Communications Commission who announced that licenses would be revoked for broadcasters who aired programs critical of the government.

Fourteen years ago, James Corbett, an English teacher living in Japan, began posting videos and articles about his research into the contradictory and often false claims made by government agencies about the September 11 attacks.

THREAD Corbett immediately set himself apart from the 9/11 "Truther" movement by showing not that the government engaged in closed-door conspiracies but in open and often deliberate misrepresentations of the facts related to September 11.

The bullshit, the drama, the guns, the armor
The city, the farmer, the babies, the mama
The projects, the drugs, the children, the thugs
The tears, the hugs, the love, the slugs
The funerals, the wakes, the churches, the coffins
The heartbroken mothers, it happens, too often The problems, the things, we use, to solve 'em
Yonkers, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Harlem
The hurt, the pain, the dirt, the rain
The jerk, the fame, the work, the game
The friends, the foes, the Benz, the hoes
The studios, the shows, comes, and it goes

In 1934 Hitler sent word from Berlin to the White House encouraging President Roosevelt to be proud of his “heroic efforts in the interests of the American people.”

THREAD

https://twitter.com/ReaganWorld/status/1319456500205547520

The President’s “successful battle against economic distress,” wrote Hitler, “is being followed by the entire German people with interest and admiration.”

THREAD
“There is another historical myth that enjoys nearly universal acceptance in the gay liberation movement, the myth of the 'eternal homosexual.' The argument runs something like this: gay men and lesbians always were and always will be….

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1316223453570228225

"This myth served a positive political function in the first years of gay liberation….But in recent years it has confined us as surely as the most homophobic medical theories, and locked our movement in place….I want to argue that gay men and lesbians have not always existed...

We all know that "all men are created equal" was written by a slaveowner.

How did Jefferson resolve this contradiction? In his Notes on the State of Virginia, which he published in 1785, Jefferson argued that the “men” in the Declaration of Independence did not include negro slaves, because they were incapable of the self-discipline that wage labor and self-government demanded.