TDS Time Machine | Memorial Day

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We live in a proud nation, one flush with opportunity and prosperity, and filled with a robust generation of Americans who have valiantly fought for their right to party. But believe it or not, there was a generation before this generation that fought for something far greater the right to party in Europe. And this Memorial Day they were honored by none other than President George W. Bush, who placed a wreath.

On the tomb of the Unknowns.

None are bestowed upon Bush, not for his war record, but because he himself knows so very little.

It is not in our nature to seek out wars and confluence, but whenever they have come, when adversaries have left us, no alternative American men and women have stood ready to take the risks and to pay the ultimate price.

Bush knows.

He paid the ultimate price during Vietnam, a weekend a month in the Texas Air National Guard that he'll never get back. Bush also signed legislation to construct the World War II Monument at a controversial site in the middle of the National Mall.

Which is my huge honor to set my name on this bill ordering construction of a monument.

That will stand for the ages.

Not only will I sign the bill, I will make sure the monument gets built.

You're a bad mother Washo man the crowd. The crowd applauded the president's forcefulness, but didn't really go for the new design he had proposed. But even the most cynical among us knows what Memorial Day weekend is really about.

Huge movie openings.

Disney's three hour popcorn and soda sale factory Pearl Harbor this year's offering. It took in seventy five million dollars. The film's grand scale, swelling score and star cross love story is an attempt to harken back to Hollywood's golden age of big screen epics. Oh and be sure to try Wendy's new Pearl Harbor Berger. It's a sneak attack on your hunger.

Despite a.

Which finger works better. Despite the box office numbers, critics took a huge dump on this film, with The Wall Street Journal saying it's a quote lame comedy, dubious history, fumbling drama, and a love story so inept us to make a pacifist.

Long for war.

When historians look back on the years since World War Two, it will perhaps be best remembered as the years when America looked back on World War Two. U sixth anniversary of D Day ceremonies honoring those who served in the Great War abounded this week, and, as is customary in any discussion of America's sacrifice in that great global conflict, the natural first stop is Tom Hanks, who joined a group of veterans in Normandy, France, to talk about his

We also hope to educate those who are unaware of our own history.

That's Band of Brothers on HBO, right after a Sex and the City episode about Volvadinia. Dignitaries attending the ceremony and the screening of the show included the grandchildren of Winston Churchill, Franklin, Delano Roosevelt, and Dwight David Eisenhower. Afterwards, they all agreed that they shouldn't trust the grandchildren of Joseph Stalin. Meanwhile, in Bedford, Virginia, Resident Bush dedicated a National D Day memorial in front of a crowd of

They have seen our nations through World War and a cold rule. Our shared and our shared values and experiences must guide us now in our continued partnership.

It was a gritty performance. It was a fine performance, especially considering that mere minutes before his speech, Bush thought he was going to be talking about the D Day from Animal House.

Donald Trump was busy getting our military in shape so he can finally fulfill our country's month old dream of conquering Green and First, we're going to need to have as many troops as possible.

President Trump has signed several executive orders to reshape the military, including directive banning transgender service members.

Okay, did I say as many troops?

I mean fewer troops, right, You know what they say in the army, less is more.

Look, maybe they don't say that. I don't know, but that's Look.

I don't have a problem with transgender soldiers. As someone who peaes himself anytime he hears a loud noise. I think we should be grateful to anyone who's willing to put their life on the line so I don't have to. But hey, yeah, okay, but I'm open minded about being closed minded. So what's the issue here?

President Trump signed an executive order calling transgender people unfit to serve.

One part says being transgender is quote not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.

Another says being trans conflicts with quote an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one's personal life.

Yeah, well, look, you know it makes sense that the military has to be honorable, truthful, and disciplined. You know, sure, this is your secretary of Defense. But that's all the more reason. That's all the more reason that the rest of them have to have their shit together. It's like how every Beatles album had to be packed with hits to make up for that one song that Ringo wrote about wanting to fuck an.

Octopus or whatever. I gotta say.

The military sure has a lot of ethical rules for their mission of killing people. Hey, you want to blow some guys head off, you better say please and thank you. But to be fair, Trump had another argument against trans soldiers as well.

They specifically cite readiness with transition surgeries. If you have a transition surgery, the recovery time and the narcotics that you have to be on as part of the process could affect your.

Readiness for up to twelve months.

Oh, up to twelve months. Do you know how long our wars last.

I think they'll have you back back in the game in no time. Vietnam War eleven years, Afghanistan War twenty years, even our storage wars last fifteen season. First of all, transgender people make up point one percent of the military, So Commander in Chief, you're ruining the lives of people who are dedicated to serving America while doing nothing to affect the larger military. I don't see why a transition

Medic I need a medic over here.

We gotta get this guy a laby a stat Also, what do you mean readiness? Modern war is just telling a drone to drop bombs. I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter what your sex is to go like this.

That's how they drop momp. How are we treating all veterans?

Well, we were doing really well until Trump decided to fire six thousand of them from their federal jobs in the last three months.

Yeah, and why do you do that?

Well, you know, I guess this is a guy who hugs the flags as he loves America, but then fires six thousand veterans. I don't think he cares about us.

Yeah, so what like, what was the what was the would he give any reasonable fire? There is no reason.

It's part of their cuts across federal government. Veterans after they serve in the military tend to want to serve the country, continue to and a civil service. So thirty of the federal workforce are veterans. And so this president has fired more veterans than any other veterans than any other president in modern history.

Okay, six thousand encounting. And how is that?

How is that?

Okay, we get it all right. I don't like it. Well, and that's that's specifically. Was it Doge or was it something else?

It was no, just across the board cuts. When you fired this many federal employees, you're going to lose that many veterans. But dot has also come out and they've announced they want to cut eighty thousand personnel just from the Department of Veterans Affairs. That's their next target.

But okay, and that I don't know. Are these people they can lose or is it going to run? Is it running fine?

Now?

What's the situation in the Veterans Affairs It was getting better.

We passed the Packed Act, which was bipartisan, which basically signed up a million more veterans who were exposed to cancer causing toxic smoke from burn pits. They're finally getting the care that they need. And now we have those folks on board, and now they're going to fire all the people who.

Take care of those folks. Okay, and so I'm pissed. Okay, can anyone stop this?

Well, we can try to stop them. We are fighting them every step of the way. In my case, I've been able to get some veterans their jobs back. They fired veterans from the Veterans Crisis hot These are people who answered the phone when a veteran is contemplating suicide. They pick up the phone and NI get an answer within eight seconds.

So at least they used to.

And so some of the folks who work in that hot line were fired and they reached out to me and we were able to get them their jobs back.

So we are fighting back, so like one at a time, one at a time. So there's jobs, there's jobs all lost, but then there's overall just like veteran healthcare, right, Yeah, they've had.

To cancel operations. The spouses, the family members of disabled veterans are not getting support through their hotline appointments and are being canceled or now they're having to wait even longer. We would just turn in the corner. We were actually reducing the number of homeless veterans. We were just adding more veterans getting more benefits. But remember this is a president who says people who are wounded or died for

Okay, So just to just to put it out there, this is also a guy who arguably a lot of veterans would also vote for at the time. So how do you reconcile that? I mean, well, I think what.

They bought was this rhetoric from him that he was going to you know, he wants going to make America great, strong and powerful, and yet all he's done is made us weaker, sicker, and less secure.

Okay, so yeah, so I mean, I guess the relevant question is do you think it's changing the opinion of the people will voted for him?

Oh?

Definitely.

Have you seen what's been happening at these Republican town halls where people across the country is showing up in tom haws and saying, what are you doing to our veterans? I'm a veteran, why did you cut my benefits? I had a veteran reach out to me from Tennessee because he was declared dead right and didn't get his didn't get his regular checks.

Once he did, he.

Didn't reach out to me through Ouija born he actually reached out to me.

But okay, but again the question is, okay, so we all have obviously, you know what kind of preaching to the acquire here. Obviously the people who didn't like who didn't want to vote for his president, still we maintained that we shouldn't have vote for his guy. The question is what about the veterans specifically, because you're more in touch with that community. When do you feel that there is a change in sentiment that was previously overwhelmingly in

So that is changing the sentiment. The other thing that's happening is all of this rhetoric against women serving, against LGBTQ veterans serving. You people forget that there's been a generational change within the military.

Uh.

Gen xers are now the old people. Millennials are now the upper management and they've only ever served.

And well happy to be here and finally to take now the field. They're not the field. Great gen X people, I'm gen X Yeah, okay.

So so so Millennial millennials are now the majors, colonels.

They're not.

They're now colonels, right, they're not sergeants majors, you know, they're now higher ranking, and.

So you say this, but then it's like, but they think they he kind of said what he was going to do before he ran, was before he got appointed against you know, women in military. They still won. So my question is is anything that's happened changing the sentiment. It is because I think a.

Lot of them didn't believe that that was what was going to happen, and they saw the reality of the fact that the military cannot do its job without women in service. The military cannot truly do its job without diversity in the in the force where people can speak different languages around the world. You want soldiers who can speak Swahili without forces in Africa. You want, you know,

And white people can't speak so human.

Well, you know, but you want native speakers, right, you want you want more diversity. You want that, you know, diversity inclusion is a good thing. You want people who have those backgrounds. You want somebody like me who speaks taient in Indonesian to be able to go in and and and speak those local languages. And we also have people in charge of the military now, the millennial generation who have only ever served equally without don't ask, don't tell.

Okay, at least we're finally getting to address in a substantive manner Trump's chaotic stewardship of what was the world's most stable economy and how Americans are going to have to sacrifice financially and tamp down their consumerist impulse and that is what has driven so much of our economy and I guess our waste. And I'm sure the President will use this interview with Welker to cheer lead the effort to a more financially responsible future.

For all of us.

We're gonna have a big, beautiful parade, a military parade. We celebrate we have the greatest military people peanuts compared to the value of doing it.

We can't afford not to do it.

Why don't you believe in me?

If you hadn't spent so much on dollars in pencils.

We weren't even talking about this and see, but this is the brilliance of Trump. In the same interview where he says to Americans, sorry about your Christmas, suck it up, he talks about.

A ninety million dollars.

Parade that just so happens to fall on his birthday and is totally worth it.

We have the greatest missiles in the world. We have the greatest submarines in the world. We have the greatest army tanks in the world. We have the greatest weapons in the world, and we're going to celebrate it.

I don't know, mister President, if you know how submarines work.

But.

Dragging them down Pennsylvania Avenue will most likely void the warranty.

The US military the most powerful and respected organization in the entire world. Few have what it takes, the discipline, the strength, the bravery, the sacrifices made to serve our country. But according to the Trump White House, there's an enemy with him.

Everything's transgender. Everybody transgender.

That's all you hear about.

The Supreme Court will allow the Trump administration to begin enforcing a ban on transgender service members.

No more pronouns, no more dudes in dresses. We're done with that shit.

And I had some hard hitting questions, so as the Daily Show senior war correspondent, ONLYI had the guts too.

Wow.

Paper cuts ah once recovered. I met with some transgender individuals to hear their unqualifications.

My name is Lieutenant Ray Timberlake. I'm in the United States Navy and I've been serving for about seventeen years.

My name is Clayton, and I've been trying to go for a pair rescue PJ in the Air Force and it's a special warfare career field.

I'm Second Lieutenant Nicholas Talbot with the United States Army Reserve. I've been in for a little over a year.

I'm Joe Allis. I'm a Chief Warrant Officer too, and the Virginia Army National Guard. I've served for fifteen years. The U sixty wars is a.

Blackhawk at A one twelve war stories, but I've flown Spirit airlines twice, so they're no danger. They seem qualified to me, But there are others who think their weakening are military.

They can't go to sea, they can't fly airplanes in combat.

They can't deploy with the army into combat areas.

We should never allow anyone in the military to undergo transition surgery, which would make.

Them medically unqualified to deploy.

This idea that we spend years of being non deployable is just simply undreue. I've never missed a deployment. I can fight tonight.

They've paid for nothing for my transition. I paid out of pocket because I wanted to be mission ready as fast as possible. Six weeks I was deployable again, and I'm deployable today. They spend many times more on biagra than they do on gender firming care.

If we don't have viagra in the military, then who is going to take care of Pete haiksas whiskey Dick. I mean, that's not how I want to serve my country. Turns out, the US military spends eight times more on viagra than gender a firming care, over thirty seven million more to be exact. And on top of that, replacing transgender troops could cost an estimated nine hundred and sixty million dollars in recruiting and training, which ain't easy.

It's it's very physically intense. After going through a pretty extensive medical exam to even get into the military. Going to basic training. It's a lot like what most people think it is. It's like it's pretty Yeah, it's boot camp.

I did theater camp. It's tough. My tour duty was South Pacific. Belly High's calling belly high? Is that Haltwood. Yeah.

All the trans people that are serving go above and beyond the standards, and they do their job every day.

But it's interesting to hear that we are too strong for sports but too weak for the military.

Being too weak for both, I was curious why anyone would want to kick out these dedicated individuals.

If I'm in a foxhoul, I don't want to know whether this guy next to me is wondering if he's a woman or a man, or flip back back and.

Forth, because everyone knows when you're fighting on the front lines, the real enemies are the preferred pronouns of the person next to you.

So I go by rank and last name. If someone uses a pronoun that I don't prefer, I really don't care. To me, it's a distraction. Like my job is to fly the helicopter.

I'm curious what the reaction has been to you. Being trans in the military.

I received an outpouring of support when I came out.

They're my family and ad my back.

At the end of the day, all anybody cares about is whether I can perform my job when I have that uniform on.

Lucky nice to have respectful co workers. I work at this guy running.

He's a total dick. He's just a dick.

So if the people in the military itself don't care, then why do the administration impose an executive order stating this.

An adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual sex can float with a soldier's commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle.

I was named an honor graduate at Basic Training, so I would say, you know, at least someone out there agrees that I have some honor and some discipline in me.

Would you leak war plans on signal? Are you that disciplined?

I don't have any plans to do.

So good to know.

If more people met trans people like us, then there would be no issue.

If the world's on fire, these are the folks I want in the fox hole. But would they want me? Do you guys think I would be an asset in the US military.

How many push ups can you do?

It's sort of like jazz. It's all about the push ups you don't do. And right now I'm not doing millions.

How fast can you run two miles?

Well, I can drive it in under forty seconds.

Yeah.

So I was at Fortsville, Oklahoma for training. It was about one hundred and twenty degrees fahrenheit most days.

Yeah, that's not gonna work for me. If I'm in the sun for more than seven minutes, I get heat rash.

Just like that.

Have you ever tried an MRI?

Uh?

Yeah, And it told me that it was just a little fracture in my foot.

I think what you're talking about a MRI. No MRI is a meal that's ready to eat.

Yeah, military ship.

While lawsuits are still pending and the fight's not over, I imagine these troops have lost the appetite to fight for a country that refuses to acknowledge they even exist.

President Trump is my commander in chief, and I will gladly answer the cough he calls me up to active duty.

America's my home, this is my country, this is you know, where I want to be and who I want to fight for.

I'm willing to serve, I'm able to serve, and I can get the job done.

I'd say, come to the fleet, come to the field, comes to you. What the thousands of transgender service members do every day in support of our nation's defense.

Sounds like patriotism to me.

But what do I know?

I didn't serve because of closed.

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