I just got to the part in the Pat Tillman book about rescuing Jessica Lynch - which apparently Tillman’s platoon was standing by for in case things got messy.
I had no idea that the convoy she was in accidentally wandered in to a heavily armed Iraqi stronghold, and that all of Lynch’s injuries were from the humvee she was in crashing in to one of her own vehicles.
At least according to Jon Krakauer - they literally drove all the way through Nasiriyah, home of a ton of the Elite Guard, which the heavily fortified Iraqis had been anticipating a huge battle, then realized their error and turned around and drove back the way they came. At one point armed Iraqi guards manning a checkpoint waved and smiled that them. Only when they had turned around did the stunned Iraqi troops start firing on them.
The original story was that they were ambushed, and she emptied her gun firing at Iraqis before being captured. Of course that story was only selectively leaked to the media and not official, so they could have plausible deniability later.
I don’t think bed sharing was that rare in the 17-19th centuries. Lincoln used to ride circuit for the court, which traveled to different counties. I think most of the lawyers shared beds.
And it’s not like Lincoln was never criticized, ridiculed, or made the subject of malicious rumors.
I actually remember reading about this in a bio of Lincoln and the author seemed to think it wasn’t super weird for two dudes to share a bed for a while back in those days. It’s like in Moby Dick, dudes just shared a bed out of necessity sometimes.
I’m not sure Lincoln was gay, but the sharing bed things was more than just a once in a while thing when he was traveling. He shared a bed with a roommate for the better part of 4 years, and there are rumors that a specific soldier would spend the night in his bed when Mary Todd was out of town.
Also, I like this sweetsummerchild-esque quote:
"Larry Kramer, the author and AIDS activist, said that Mr. Tripp’s book “will change history.”
“It’s a revolutionary book because the most important president in the history of the United States was gay,” he said. “Now maybe they’ll leave us alone, all those people in the party he founded.”"
I wouldn’t generally share a bed with another guy, but if I had the opportunity to share a bed with Lincoln I would have to take it. Hard to say exactly where I would draw the line at with presidential bedmates though - might be a good thread idea.
Putin is supporting the attempted assassination claim.
Russian President Vladimir Putin backed Lukashenko’s claim of a coup plot, complaining in his annual state of the union address “that even such flagrant actions have not been condemned by the so-called collective West. Nobody seemed to notice. Everyone pretends nothing is happening.”
