AlternativeTulsa

News and Views for Tulsa's Reality-Based Community: Ideas, Politics, Letters, Art, Environment

[TheRealThelmaJohnson @TheRealThelmaJ1]

After ignoring repeated warnings a DHS Border Wall Contractor just bulldozed a 1000 year intaglio (giant figure carved into the ground) that was an archeological wonder and one of the oldest surviving in the SW

[Jonathan Lemire @JonLemire]

“Deleting accounts of the past not because they are false but because they are true betrays a curious lack of confidence. Do the censors fear that Americans will cease to love their country once they know the full story?” https://t.co/aca8xa2A7S

[AlternativeTulsa @AltTulsa]

His lies and exaggerations are piling up.

[The Bulwark @BulwarkOnline]

Trump has been saying we've won the war with Iran for the past 100 days.

Are you tired of winning yet?

[FactPost @factpostnews]

The Trump administration has moved to allow dumping of toxic coal waste, shielding corporations from water pollution lawsuits.

[AlternativeTulsa @AltTulsa]

No corruption here at all, folks. Not even a little bit.

[FactPost @factpostnews]

The Trump administration has killed a federal criminal investigation into GOP Sen. Jim Justice's coal companies.

Justice had allegedly violated the Clean Water Act tens of thousands of times.

[PapaJonezy @PapaJonezy]

@TrumpWarRoom @JDVance

[Governor Newsom Press Office @GovPressOffice]

Hey DOGE and NEWSMAX, can we get an update here?  

Turns out preventing a flesh-eating parasite from invading U.S. livestock wasn’t government waste…

[Ted Lieu @tedlieu]

cc: @SecRubio

[AlternativeTulsa @AltTulsa]

None of this is true.

[The Bulwark @BulwarkOnline]

Trump on an Iran deal: "Two or three days…We have a good chance of doing it. We should be able to do it in one hour, if you want to know the truth. I don't think there are any sticking points. We're very close to having a very, very good, strong, powerful deal."

[Crazy Vibes @CrazyVibes_1]

A Nazi commander loaded his pistol, pressed the cold metal barrel directly against the forehead of an American soldier, and gave a chilling ultimatum: "Order the Jewish soldiers to step forward, or I will shoot you right now."

What happened next in that frozen prisoner-of-war camp changed history forever, yet the man who stared down death kept it a secret for the rest of his life.

It was January 1945, and the bitter winter of World War II was at its peak. Inside Stalag IX-A, a notorious German prison camp near Ziegenhain, thousands of American soldiers were trapped behind barbed wire. Among them was Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds, a twenty-five-year-old from Knoxville, Tennessee. As the highest-ranking non-commissioned officer in his section, Edmonds was responsible for the lives of 1,275 men.

One day, the camp commander, a fanatical Nazi major named Siegmann, issued a terrifying directive.

He ordered that the following morning, all American prisoners of Jewish faith must step out of the ranks during roll call. Everyone knew what this meant. Separating the Jewish soldiers was the first step toward sending them to extermination camps.

Inside the dark, freezing barracks, the prisoners panicked. Some of the Jewish soldiers considered stepping forward willingly to protect their Christian brothers from Nazi wrath. But Edmonds refused to let that happen. He looked at his men and gave a clear, definitive order: "Tomorrow, everyone steps forward. Everyone."

The next morning, the ground was thick with snow. Major Siegmann walked out onto the parade ground, expecting to see a small, isolated group of Jewish soldiers standing apart from the rest. Instead, he stopped dead in his tracks. All 1,275 American soldiers had stepped forward together in perfect unison.

The commander turned red with anger and stormed over to Edmonds. "They cannot all be Jews!" Siegmann screamed.

Edmonds stood completely still, looked the Nazi straight in the eyes, and replied: "We are all Jews here."

Enraged, Siegmann drew his Luger pistol and pressed it against Edmonds' forehead. The tension was suffocating. Hundreds of men held their breath, waiting for the gunshot. But Edmonds did not blink.

"According to the Geneva Convention, we only have to give our name, rank, and serial number," Edmonds said, his voice steady and calm. "If you shoot me, you will have to shoot all of us. And when the war ends, you will be tried for war crimes."

Edmonds knew the German army was collapsing and the Allies were advancing. Siegmann knew it too. The Nazi commander looked at the wall of unified men, realized he could not break their spirit, and slowly lowered his gun. He turned around and walked away without saying another word.

Because of that moment of defiance, two hundred Jewish-American soldiers survived the Holocaust. When the war ended, Edmonds returned to Tennessee, married his sweetheart, and raised a family. He never bragged about his actions, never looked for medals, and never even told his own children what he had done. To him, protecting his men was simply his duty.

Decades after his death in 1985, his son uncovered the truth by talking to the survivors. In 2015, Edmonds was officially recognized as Righteous Among the Nations, the highest honor Israel bestows upon non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. He remains the only American soldier to ever receive this recognition.

True heroism does not look for applause, and love will always be louder than hatred.

By standing together in the snow, those soldiers proved that when we refuse to abandon each other, ordinary human beings can become absolutely invincible.

[Jennifer Griffin @JenGriffinFNC]

Robert Coles, Pulitzer-Winning Child Psychiatrist, Is Dead at 97. A great man whose course I took freshman year. He had an enormous impact on my decision to become a journalist and how I choose to tell people’s stories. RIP, Professor Coles.
https://t.co/QX36jqnJql via @NYTimes

[Bob Elder @southernphd]

I never met Gordon Wood, but I have a story about him.

In one of my grad school seminars, we read Wood’s Creation of the American Republic. The sheer erudition and evidentiary depth of the book bowled me over.

Back then, before kids and before life accelerated to warp speed, I used to call my mother every Sunday to catch up. Lots of times, we ended up talking about what I was reading that week in my grad seminars or for leisure. Mom had an omnivorous mind, and she was always looking for something else to read. She was a true intellectual—curious about almost everything, always eager to integrate new arguments or ideas into her existing schemas of how the world worked or to have those schemas challenged and changed.

When we talked that particular Sunday, I think I tried to describe to her part of Wood’s argument about the relationship between the state constitutions during the Articles of Confederation era and the federal Constitution. Maybe I was tired, maybe I didn’t completely understand her questions, but the end result of the conversation was that Mom had questions about Wood’s argument that I didn’t answer satisfactorily. I told her that she should probably just read the book, and we said goodbye.

She did eventually read the book, but the next Sunday, Mom started our conversation by saying, “Well, I had a lovely conversation with Gordon Wood this week.” For a split second, I thought she was joking, but then I remembered who I was dealing with. I started to sweat. “How?” I asked. A whole variety of unlikely scenarios in which the foremost historian of the American Revolution and my mother, who lived in Wichita, Kansas, might have met ran through my mind. “Oh, I just looked up his office phone number on Brown’s website and called, and he picked up!” Mom said. I decided I would have to find another profession.

As it ended up, Gordon Wood spent about an hour on the phone with my mother answering her questions about the Constitution. Ever since, I’ve had a soft spot for the man when I imagine him picking up the phone in Providence and finding Becky Elder from Wichita on the other end of the line. His generosity in that moment spoke very well of him.

Rest in peace, professor.

[Norman Ornstein @NormOrnstein]

If FIFA had any integrity-- clearly it does not-- it would suspend the World Cup matches in the US until it stopped this disgraceful madness

[The American Prospect @TheProspect]

With this outbreak, the Trump administration is finding out that effective government is the only thing preventing serious disruptions to commerce, if not terrible hardship for farmers, consumers, and everyone else. https://t.co/yB2pYtkBYb

[AlternativeTulsa @AltTulsa]

Uh-oh.

[GOP Ls @GOP__Ls]

🚨 EXPOSÉ: DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has been using a $70 million government private jet to fly home every Thursday.

[AlternativeTulsa @AltTulsa]

It was always an unworkable plan.

[Common Dreams @commondreams]

Please Note, Trump's Vicious Attack on Migrant Workers Has Not Created a Golden Age of Job Creation for Americans https://t.co/m40UW7ppS4

[Ted Lieu @tedlieu]

Dear @WhiteHouse: Have you apologized yet?

DOGE was a massive failure. The DOGE Bros were a toxic combination of cluelessness, arrogance and laziness. They made no effort to understand the vital programs they destroyed, like programs that were designed to prevent screwworms.

[Bill Kristol @BillKristol]

An appropriate post from Zelensky on the anniversary of D-Day. Nothing from Trump. Which is appropriate, since Zelensky is a fighter against tyranny, unlike Trump.

[AlternativeTulsa @AltTulsa]

Attention @SecMullinDHS. Your folks are doing it wrong.

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

Karen Newton, 65, from Hertfordshire in England, left home in late July 2025 for the road trip of a lifetime through the United States with her husband Bill. Valid passports. Valid visas. Weeks on the road through California, Nevada, Wyoming and Montana. Then they tried to cross into Canada and things fell apart. Canadian officials said Bill didn’t have the right paperwork to bring the car across the border. When the couple turned back to the American side, U.S. border agents found that Bill’s visa had expired. 

Karen’s tourist visa was valid. Her British passport was valid. She has no criminal record. None of it mattered. She was handcuffed, shackled, and spent the night sleeping on the floor of a locked cell before being driven 12 hours through the night to an ICE detention centre. She and her husband spent the next six weeks there. 

She is now warning anyone planning to visit the United States that the situation is “totally out of control” and advises people not to go while Donald Trump is in office. 

A British grandmother. A valid visa. Six weeks in chains.

[Dovi Safier @safier]

“It was one of the most monumentally unselfish things one group of people did for another.”

-#DDay veteran Andy Rooney on the young 🇺🇸 🇨🇦 🇬🇧 soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy 82 years ago.

Required watching for every young person today!