U.S. Politics

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

12 minutes ago, peterms said:

‘hate vs. heritage’ debate; that confederate emblems represent heritage as opposed to racial animosity.

I just stayed in a Hotel in Maastrict that has some Roman ruins in the basement where you have Breakfast. (100 % true),  heritage and history,  I was sitting next to it eating some coco pops a few hours ago and they are crying about some cattle worrying half-wit that had dodgy political leanings, a few years ago.  

Hmm,  what they talking here, 1700's,  it's not really that great is it.  If Europe built a statue for people of,  funnily enough similar stature who did a battle or some stuff of a similar nature,  they would be all over the place. 

I mean how much heritage are they losing,  they are not even rusty yet ffs.

 

 

 

[mjmooney]

22 minutes ago, Amsterdam_Neil_D said:

 

Hmm,  what they talking here, 1700's,  it's not really that great is it.  

1860s. 

Edited August 17, 2017 by mjmooney

[Villaphan04]

 

[magnkarl]

6 minutes ago, Villaphan04 said:

Uhm, I haven't heard that name in a very long time. Didn't he make up stories about how to deal with terrorists, which has been debunked several times afterwards?

I also seem to remember that he was one of the worst generals of WW1.

[sne]

So have Trump blamed the tourists in Barcelona yet?

Edited August 17, 2017 by sne

[mjmooney]

16 minutes ago, magnkarl said:

Uhm, I haven't heard that name in a very long time. Didn't he make up stories about how to deal with terrorists, which has been debunked several times afterwards?

I also seem to remember that he was one of the worst generals of WW1.

He also blundered around Mexico for several months in 1916, totally failing to catch Pancho Villa. 

Not sure where Islamic terrorists come into it. 

[LondonLax]

6 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

He also blundered around Mexico for several months in 1916, totally failing to catch Pancho Villa. 

Not sure where Islamic terrorists come into it. 

Trump likes to tell a (made up) story about how Pershing would dip bullets in pigs blood and shoot Muslims with them to deter other Muslims from committing acts of terrorism. 

I presume the stories play well with his base. 

[mjmooney]

11 minutes ago, LondonLax said:

Trump likes to tell a (made up) story about how Pershing would dip bullets in pigs blood and shoot Muslims with them to deter other Muslims from committing acts of terrorism. 

I presume the stories play well with his base. 

Ah, right, the Phillipines. Whatever. 

[Chindie]

Trump loves a fake story. Appropriate really.

A tweet was doing the rounds of a NY Times article earlier that somewhat brilliantly reports that Trump has a tribute to a US Civil War battle on one of his golf courses, claiming he was proud to be able to conserve the battlefield on his land.

Apart from the fact the battle was 11 miles away.

[mjmooney]

3 minutes ago, Chindie said:

Trump loves a fake story. Appropriate really.

A tweet was doing the rounds of a NY Times article earlier that somewhat brilliantly reports that Trump has a tribute to a US Civil War battle on one of his golf courses, claiming he was proud to be able to conserve the battlefield on his land.

Apart from the fact the battle was 11 miles away.

Close enough in the U.S.

The Woodstock festival was held 43 miles away from Woodstock. 

 

[magnkarl]

I dug out my old lexica from a yonder year and it seems Pershang was the first US commander to let black Americans fight for the US Expeditionary Force. He didn't want to command them himself so he attached them to a French unit. In other words, right up Trump's alley.

In other news I haven't opened a lexicon for about 10 years - weird feeling.

Edited August 17, 2017 by magnkarl

[NurembergVillan]

12 minutes ago, magnkarl said:

I dug out my old lexica from a yonder year and it seems Pershang was the first US commander to let black Americans fight for the US Expeditionary Force. He didn't want to command them himself so he attached them to a French unit. In other words, right up Trump's alley.

In other news I haven't opened a lexicon for about 10 years - weird feeling.

Definitely a lexicon and not an encyclopaedia?   

[ml1dch]

22 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

Close enough in the U.S.

The Woodstock festival was held 43 miles away from Woodstock. 

 

To be fair, the Glastonbury festival isn't in Glastonbury either.

[mjmooney]

13 minutes ago, magnkarl said:

I dug out my old lexica from a yonder year and it seems Pershang was the first US commander to let black Americans fight for the US Expeditionary Force. He didn't want to command them himself so he attached them to a French unit. In other words, right up Trump's alley.

In other news I haven't opened a lexicon for about 10 years - weird feeling.

Hence his nickname "Nigger Jack" - later modified to "Black Jack". 

[peterms]

This is telling.

Quote

“They were having terrorism problems just like we do,” Trump said. “And he caught 50 terrorists who did tremendous damage and killed many people. And he took the 50 terrorists, and he took 50 men, and he dipped 50 bullets in pig’s blood.”

He claimed that Pershing then “had his men load his rifles and he lined up the 50 people, and they shot 49 of those people. And the 50th person, he said, ‘You go back to your people and you tell them what happened.’”

A debunked bit of nonsense, oddly combining milennia-old magic stories, current racist tropes, and tall tales told in pubs.

You might expect this from some smackhead at a bus-stop, or a semi-literate child struggling to impress.  This comes from a man who holds the position formerly known as "Leader of the Free World".

Oh, my.

[magnkarl]

1 hour ago, NurembergVillan said:

Definitely a lexicon and not an encyclopaedia?   

I was trying to add some flare to the fact that it's a book that's almost as old as Pershang.. In truth it's an encyclopedia, however some old people used to call them lexica for some reason. I guess it's got to do with the Hebrew translation for it meaning branch of knowledge. 

It must have been specific to my family growing up I think. I haven't heard anyone else in England say lexicon when they meant encyclopedia. To use the books twice in a day I looked up the term lexicon in the encyclopedia and it states: The term lexicon is ambiguous both in prescientific and in linguistic usage, since it may mean either a dictionary or an encyclopedia. The latter two terms are employed in linguistics whenever the distinction matters.

And now I need to dust down my bookshelf. Taking those books out has left trail marks on my shelf and the missus will kill me.

Edited August 17, 2017 by magnkarl

[snowychap]

2 hours ago, magnkarl said:

I was trying to add some flare

Edited August 18, 2017 by snowychap

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

8 hours ago, mjmooney said:

1860s. 

I feel a bit of a fool now,  they must be World Heritage Sites then that are easily on par with Stone Henge and the Great Wall of China.

It's laughable really,  there are things on the antique roadshow everyweek that are twice or three times as old.  words removed.

Somebody got killed over one of these statues ffs.

 

[Seat68]

54 minutes ago, Amsterdam_Neil_D said:

I feel a bit of a fool now,  they must be World Heritage Sites then that are easily on par with Stone Henge and the Great Wall of China.

It's laughable really,  there are things on the antique roadshow everyweek that are twice or three times as old.  words removed.

Somebody got killed over one of these statues ffs.

 

My house was built 20 years after that.

[mjmooney]

Arguably the most significant factor in any war is the way the victors deal with the defeated. Look at the two world wars. After WWI, Germany was hammered with punitive financial reparations. The result was economic catastrophe and seething resentment that made ideal conditions for the rise of the Nazis. The lesson was learned after WWII, and the Marshall Plan was created to do the exact opposite - pump in money and aid to trigger regeneration in (West) Germany and Japan. It worked. 

The American Civil War was more like WWI, in that the defeated southern states experienced years of deprivation during the so-called 'Reconstruction' era - northern 'carpetbaggers' asset-stripping anything they could get their hands on. And with the collapse of the slaveholding economy, things were no better for the former slaves, most of whom simply became poor unemployed, even worse off than the 'poor white trash'. The divided, resentful society that resulted resonates to the present day. 

It's no wonder that Civil War statues still have this emotive power.