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The highest-ranking Black Medal of Honor recipient’s article on the Department of Defense’s site has been removed and marked as “DEI.” Why?

Major General (Retired) Charles Calvin Rogers was the highest-ranking African-American to receive the Medal of Honor. If you were to Google him right now, one of the results would be for his “Medal of Honor Monday” feature article on the U.S. Department of Defense’s site.

The result looks like this:

If you hover the cursor of the link (the underlined text that reads “Medal of Honor Monday: Army Maj. Gen. Charles Calvin …”), your browser will display the URL (a.k.a. “web address”) for that page, which reads as follows:

https://www.defense.gov/News/Feature-Stories/Story/Article/2824721/medal-of-honor-monday-army-maj-gen-charles-calvin-rogers/

Notice the last part of the URL. It reads medal-of-honor-monday-army-maj-gen-charles-calvin-rogers/. Note those first words. Medal. Of. Honor.

Now click on that link. Instead of his Medal of Honor feature story, you get this “page not found” page instead:

Click the screen shot to visit the web page.

Look at the URL in the address bar in the screenshot above. It reads as follows:

https://www.defense.gov/News/Feature-Stories/Story/Article/2824721/deimedal-of-honor-monday-army-maj-gen-charles-calvin-rogers/

Notice the last part of the URL. It reads deimedal-of-honor-monday-army-maj-gen-charles-calvin-rogers/. Note that it now has four words instead of the original three: DEI. Medal. Of. Honor.

What happened is called a URL redirect or URL forwarding, and it’s something you can do if you’ve moved a web page to a different location and you want people going to the old URL to be able to find the page. It’s one of those things that’s intended to keep a web site’s pages reachable as it grows and some of its pages get rearranged.

But this URL redirect has been used to redirect visitors to Major General Rogers’ article to a URL  with “dei” added to it, which is a URL for a page that doesn’t exist. The web site then does what web sites are supposed to do when you try to visit a non-existent page: it serves up the “page not found” page.

This change has two effects:

  1. Any attempt to access Major General Rogers’ article will fail. His article has effectively been erased from the web.
  2. His earning of the Medal of Honor is being downplayed, and he has been marked as a “DEI hire,” where “DEI” is the new shorthand for “Not white, therefore not really qualified.”

In case you’re wondering how he earned the Medal of Honor, it’s explained in the article, which was thankfully archived at archive.org:

On Oct. 31, 1968, then-Lt. Col. Rogers’ artillery unit was positioned at Fire Support Base Rita in southern Vietnam. It was close to the Cambodian border and the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a supply route that the North Vietnamese Army used to shuttle supplies and troops into South Vietnam.

That evening, Rogers noticed a lot of activity across the border, but the rules of engagement said he couldn’t fire into Cambodia, so he waited. The NVA didn’t follow such rules, though. Around 3:30 a.m. on Nov. 1, they bombarded FSB Rita with heavy mortars, rockets and rocket-propelled grenade fire. Soon enough, their soldiers breached the defensive perimeter of the base. Finally, Rogers’ battalion could attack, and he made sure he was right at the forefront of the action.

Rogers ran through a hail of exploding shells to rally his dazed crewmen into firing their howitzers back at the much larger enemy. Despite being hit by an exploding round, he led some of those men in a ground battle against enemy soldiers who’d breached the howitzer’s position. Rogers was again wounded during that foray, but he continued fighting, killing several enemy soldiers and driving the rest back.

Rogers refused medical attention and instead worked to get the defensive perimeter set back up.

When more enemy troops poured through a different section of the defensive line, Rogers directed that artillery fire, too, and led another successful counterattack on the charging forces, encouraging his men throughout the difficult endeavor.

 

At dawn, the enemy tried to overrun the base a third time, so Rogers continued directing his unit’s fire. He even joined a struggling howitzer crew after several men were hit by enemy fire and the gun had been rendered inoperable. Rogers helped the crew get the massive gun operating again, but in doing so, he was hit a third time. He could no longer physically help his men, but he continued to direct and encourage them.

Rogers’ valor helped push back the enemy that day, which finally retreated for good. Twelve U.S. soldiers died and dozens more were wounded; however, Army records show that the casualties on the enemy’s side were much higher.

Rogers’ wounds were eventually treated, and he returned to the U.S in August 1969. On May 14, 1970, he received the Medal of Honor from President Richard M. Nixon during a White House ceremony.

You can read the entire archived article here. You should be able to read it on the Department of Defense’s website. Why isn’t that so?

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U.S. post-election post #7: Don’t worry, it’ll trickle down…

Tap to see the source.

This is yesterday’s daily New Yorker cartoon, created by Brendan Loper.

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U.S. Election post #7: Advice from someone who’s seen the world

"Many don’t realize that the first people a certain German dictator sent to his concentration camps weren’t everyday Jewish citizens, but his political opponents.

So, when Trump rants about retribution, locking up his opponents, and giving them "very long sentences," I can’t help but take him seriously… because history teaches us that is what fascist dictators do during their ‘day one’ period to consolidate their power.

To keep fascism out of our lives, vote for democracy!

—Rick Steves, travel writer, author, activist
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This 9/11 post took a “Milkshake Duck” turn

Part 1 of a series of tweets by Bill Ellmore (@BillEllmore):

I was booked on United Flight 93 on 9/11, 2001, flying nonstop from Newark NJ to San Francisco CA. Around midnight the night before, a coworker called me urging me to change my flight to fly into San Jose instead. This meant I had to give up my 1st class seat and move to a flight that left 20 minutes later (from the same gate) with a stopover in Denver.  I was very reluctant but I did it. 

When I got to the airport, I watched people boarding flight 93 and I was upset that I was not leaving earlier, in my 1st class seat on a direct flight. I didn’t notice or care about the people as they were boarding, only myself.  

When I finally boarded my plane, we were 7 planes behind flight 93. When we were 3 plans away from we taking off, the pilot told us to look out the right side of the plane because it appeared the Twin Towers had been hit by a plane. I thought it might have been a small Cessna until I saw the second plane strike the other tower. 

We were grounded just before taking off. I changed that day. I now take every opportunity to get watch and if possible, get to know the people I’m boarding a plane with. I never hesitate to give up my seat for a later flight if requested. I’ve had two children since 9/11 and went to multiple mission trips to war torn countries. Every day I wake up breathing is another gift from God. 

Never forget 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Tap here to view the original post

Okay, so far so good…

Part 2 of a series of tweets by Bill Ellmore (@BillEllmore):

The reason my coworker told me to change my flight was she took the same flight on 9/10 and the commute from San Francisco to Mountain View would make me late for my meeting whereas traveling from San Jose to Mountain View would be faster in the morning.
Tap here to view the original post.

All right…

Response tweet from Mark Davis (@MarkDavis8919):

she saved your life with advice, which you followed. 

what ever happened to your coworker?

Response from Bill Ellmore:

Sad to say, I ultimately had to fire her for poor performance. It was difficult
Tap here to view the original post.

Wait…what?

Response tweet from “Sourdeath Sam” (@SourdeathSam):

Bro coulda just said “she is working elsewhere now but I wish her well”

Response from Bill Ellmore:

Sorry for being honest
Tap here to view the original post.

I hope he extended her a little extra understanding for providing some life-saving advice, but there may have come a point where dismissing her (and ideally with a generous severance package) would have been fair.

Still, a response like the one “Sourdeath Sam” suggested would’ve been far better. Bill’s response to Sam’s suggestion is a poor excuse — “I’m just being honest” often really means “I’m a dickhead, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Milkshake duck?

Watercolor-and-ink Illustration of a duck drinking a milkshake through a straw.

The term milkshake duck is internet slang for something or someone that achieves internet stardom or “viral” status and public adoration and endearment, and then soon after, some terrible fact about them comes to light.

It comes from this classic tweet/post from The Site Formerly Known as Twitter:

Tweet by @pixelatedboat:

The whole internet loves Milkshake Duck, a lovely duck that drinks milkshakes! *5 seconds later* We regret to inform you the duck is racist
Tap here to view the original post.

For more about milkshake ducks — including some examples — consult the Milkshake Duck entry of Know Your Meme.

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And now the circle is complete

Photos of Elon Musk and Henry Ford with the caption: “Elon Musk went from being the Henry Ford of our generation (admired carmaker, brilliant salesman) to being the Henry Ford of our generation (conspiracy theorist, Nazi enabler) — Frank Lesser, @sadmonsters”
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In honor of this special day…

Mug featuring Charles and Camilla with the text “To all the side chicks: there’s always hope”
Thanks to Mike van de Water for the find!

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What Donald Trump will take away from this experience

Donald Trump in an interview with the caption: “You know, the ironic thing is that I’ve made a career out of not paying people whom I owe...and then I actually pay one person, and look what happens.”
Tap to view at full size.