The thing I’d love to see come out of the Walz swiftboating is an acknowledgment that most everyone in the military is extremely insecure about what they actually did and constantly compares their service to others’ service. And how unhealthy and wrong it is. 🧵 If you volunteered (or were drafted) to serve, you did more than the vast majority of the population, including me.

If you volunteered during wartime, you stepped forward knowing it could cost you your life or limbs.

Tell me you’ve never served without telling me you’ve never served.

Hard no.
And not just a “no.”
A “no,” followed by a “fuck you.”
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/… The Washington Post Editorial Board members would likely all qualify as “high earners” by CBO means testing standards.

How much would they sell half their leg for?
Their hearing?
Their ability to sleep?
Being able to watch a fireworks show, or stand in a crowd at a concert.

I’m at the mall chaperoning four 11 year old girls on a shopping spree. Kill me. I’m so tired. I need a B12 shot, a quad latte & 3 lines of cocaine. Dave & Busters is next. Why did I agree to this?

Indulge me in this rant. Or don’t. I don’t care.

We’re sacrificing good Americans by the thousands each year, many of them children, because a few people insist that someday they might need to overthrow the government.

I call bullshit. Guns are fun to shoot. That’s the real reason why gun fetishists are standing in the way of tougher gun laws.

I harbor no illusions that these gun lovers will ever take up arms to protect our form of government, even if there was “tyranny”.

How do I know?

Can we also talk about WHY this guy represents Green Hills?

Ridiculous, inexcusable, corrupt gerrymandering.

A short 🧵

https://twitter.com/shannonrwatts/status/1640410270014263299

This is Rep Andy Ogles’ stupidly drawn, purely politically motivated District:

The story I’ll tell my grandkids to describe GWOT is my husband deployed to Afg hearing over the radio that his best friend was killed in Iraq &calling me in the middle of the night to ask me to go to his house at first light so his widow wouldn’t be alone when she got the news. And I did. I grabbed a couple of coffees and was going to tell her that I “was just in the neighborhood” — at 7 am — and planning to just sit there & wait. But the notification team was already there. And they were glad to see me. And then we cried for weeks.

In 1999 PFC Barry Winchell was murdered by other soldiers for dating a drag performer.

Last weekend a former soldier took down a civilian who was murdering people at a drag show.

That’s how far the Army has come & how far the civilian community has fallen. 🧵 In 1999, I used to watch Calpurnia Addams, Winchell’s girlfriend, perform at The Connection —a massive, fabulous, gay club—in Nashville. I went there all the time & never once worried about a mass shooter or any kind of violence.

If only the Chair of the party that benefits from loose gun laws & anti LGBTQ rhetoric was empowered to do something…🙄

https://twitter.com/GOPChairwoman/status/1594396085103067141

Most of us have very little to offer besides thoughts and prayers. We can contact our representatives (& we have), we can protest (& we have), we can write OpEds, post on social, harangue everyone we meet (& we have, have & have). But we can’t meaningfully influence policy.

We tried *good guy with a gun*.

It didn’t work.

Why?

Because the “good guys” aren’t where we need them to be.

Because when they are there, they don’t act.

Because they leave their guns unlocked at home & their hurting, lonely teenagers gets their hands on them. 🧵 We tried their way. It didn’t work.

Because it was never about good guys with guns.

It was just about guns.

It was never about preventing tyranny.

It was about collecting toys.

It was never about being courageous.

It was about *looking* courageous.

Everyone: it’s not possible to make Bragg any more obnoxious

Naming Commission: Hold my beer.

https://twitter.com/lmartinezabc/status/1529147009013362689

Do we get to call it “Ft Lib” for short? Because that would be fun.

Maggie here has spent the last 2 years parked in a field waiting for us to bring her home and today we finally did. Now the work begins! Job #1? Evicting all the tree frogs who moved in. I’m almost as excited about writing Maggie’s story as I am driving her. Almost. A teaser: We first met Maggie in 2003, parked behind a neighbor’s house in Fayetteville. She had belonged to his now-deceased father and our neighbor couldn’t bring himself to part with her.

I support gun rights.

But I’m tired of talking to my kids about school shooters. My 9 y/o’s school had an accidental drill today after somone pulled an alarm. They were terrified. For many long minutes they thought it was real.

Today is Giving Tuesday! I’m honored to work closely with a lot of fantastic mil/vet non profits. Need a recommendation? I just recently got a behind the scenes look at all the good the USO does for troops and military families. I was actually crying by the end of the presentation. Fantastic stuff! secure.uso.org/OM_BRD_dd/?sc=…

Afghanistan has dictated every major, & most minor, decisions of my past 18 years. I do not know how many friends I’ve lost there. 30? Maybe more? I stopped counting & don’t dare try now. Afghanistan is why I had to give up my career. Afghanistan is why I gave birth alone. It’s why I buried my father alone. It’s why my husband is in only one of the family portraits we have. It’s why my husband’s body is aged before his years, & we’re grateful for that. Because he’s breathing. Because his body is whole. Because he doesn’t have cancer.

I’m married to an enlisted soldier. There have been many times the money ran out before the month did. I know well the thrill of triple coupon days. I can fix anything in our house (seriously) because he was always gone and we couldn’t afford to hire someone. And I have a Rolex. It was a college graduation present. During the lean years, it was also an insurance policy. I knew that I could always sell it if I had to. Sometimes I would put it on, walk into a store where I couldn’t afford anything, & watch the clerks treat me nicer after seeing it.

If you have a writer in your life you should know that they’re always watching you and looking for material they can use. Everything is copy. I just heard about a 65 y/o woman with a vanity license plate that reads “N2Pain”...

Thread— my friend Megan, a nurse in Michigan, posted this on FB last night:

“I walked into work on the 18th and was told my assignment was down on the pavilion (new section of our floor) which was now full of Covid patients. 1/17 It wasn’t until partway through my shift, that it really hit me what I was exposing myself and my family to (even with my PPE, I still worry what I am bringing home). I ended up calling my parents from the break room sobbing around noon to tell them that we needed to 2/17

Can I tell you what a military reunion is really like? I’ve been through a bunch. I’m the SME.
You wait. You worry. You haven’t seen this person in months. Maybe even a year. So much has happened in that year. You want - desperately- with every cell in your body, for it to be a sweeping moment. You want to rush into each other’s arms. You want everything to be like your wedding day. You want your kids to recognize him - desperately - but you’re terrified that they won’t. Especially since he’ll be in uniform & they arent used to that, & there are so

A close friend just boarded a tiny cruise ship in a foreign country & saw her nemesis at the lifeboat drill. Like NEMESIS. The last time they saw each other was when they SUED each other! They are assigned to the SAME LIFEBOAT! I am riveted. Picture it: 2 wealthy ladies in their 60s. 1 used to be married to the others’ brother. There is decades of bad blood between them & a very expensive lawsuit. Haven’t seen each other since depositions. The one who won is sitting at the lifeboat drill crocheting a blanket...

@shannonrwatts @shannonrwatts