Jon Batson

Don’t touch the thermostat. Close the fridge. Turn that light off. Did you leave the water running? Were you raised in a barn?

[Jon Batson @jon_batson]

@VladTheInflator @grok All humans are created in God’s image and are of equal value regardless of variations in IQ.

[Larry Williams @LarryWilliamsTI]

Absolute gold from a brand-new Clemson student to @wyffnews4:
“I’ve been in South Carolina for, I don’t know, six days, had Cookout. I’m never leaving. I don’t know why anyone would go to Michigan.”

[Jon Batson @jon_batson]

@Mrgunsngear That price gone already?

[Jon Batson @jon_batson]

@politicalmath Who wouldn’t want large corporations and the government to have the means to track your every movement and purchase and implement a system that could control your movements and purchases?

[Jon Batson @jon_batson]

@CwNewbie11 Stuart's absence and his lack of intelligence on the Union strength and position made him leary of falling back rather than pushing the fight in Gettysburg. Funny, because we're back to vague orders to Stuart as to why he was absent.

[Jon Batson @jon_batson]

@CwNewbie11 I didn't mean to insinuate I disagreed with his decision either, but the possibility of Gettysburg being a defensive high ground battle for Lee is provocative to think about. So much of history could turn on that decision.

[Jon Batson @jon_batson]

@CwNewbie11 But if you're not there to assess the situation yourself don't you have to include discretion or risk a whole corps? Did Lee complain? I thought he withheld complaints about Ewell's decision.

[Jon Batson @jon_batson]

Amazing

[Hidden History @HiddenHistoryYT]

82 years ago today, eight American sailors jumped onto a sinking Nazi submarine in the middle of the Atlantic.

What they pulled out of it changed the war. And the Navy buried the whole story for years.

First, you need to know that U-505 was already cursed. German sailors called her the unluckiest boat in the fleet. In October 1943, during a brutal British depth-charge attack, her own captain shot himself in the head in the control room, in front of his crew. He remains the only submarine commander in history known to have killed himself underwater in combat. His second-in-command calmly took over, rode out the attack, and sailed her home.

Eight months later, her luck ran out completely.

June 4, 1944. Two days before D-Day. Captain Daniel Gallery's hunter-killer group, built around the escort carrier USS Guadalcanal, had been stalking U-boats off West Africa. Gallery had an idea his superiors considered borderline insane: don't sink the next one. Capture it. No US Navy crew had boarded and taken an enemy warship on the high seas since 1815.

The destroyer escort USS Chatelain caught U-505 on sonar and fired a salvo of hedgehog bombs. The U-boat broke the surface 700 yards away. Gunfire raked the conning tower, wounding her captain. He gave the order to abandon ship.

The Germans rushed out so fast they botched the scuttling. The sub was flooding, but her engines were still running. She was circling the battle at six knots, empty, sinking, and very possibly rigged with demolition charges.

So Lt. Albert David and eight men from USS Pillsbury chased her down in a whaleboat, leaped aboard, and climbed down the hatch into a dark, flooding submarine that could explode or go under at any second. They shut the scuttling valves, disarmed the charges, and stopped the flooding.

Down there they found the prize: Enigma cipher machines and roughly 900 pounds of codebooks and charts. Current settings. The keys to the German navy's secret communications.

But here's the catch. The treasure was only valuable if Germany never found out. One leak and Berlin changes every code overnight.

So the Navy ran one of the great cover-ups of the war. The sub was towed 1,700 miles to Bermuda and given a fake American name: USS Nemo. Around 3,000 sailors were sworn to total silence. The 58 captured German crewmen vanished into a POW camp in rural Louisiana, hidden even from the Red Cross. Germany declared U-505 lost with all hands and notified the families. The dead men were alive in Louisiana, and their boat was working for the US Navy.

The secret held until the war ended.

Lt. David received the Medal of Honor, the only one awarded in the Atlantic Fleet in all of WWII.

And the submarine? In 1954, Chicagoans raised $250,000 to bring her home. She was towed across Lake Michigan and dragged through the streets of Chicago to the Museum of Science and Industry.

She's still sitting there right now. You can walk through her.

[Jon Batson @jon_batson]

I was mowing my lawn and an inexplicable pang of grief overwhelmed me. My wife confirmed it when she ran from the house with the news moments later. RIP

[The White House @WhiteHouse]

Today, we remember a legend.

On this day in history, Harambe would have celebrated another birthday. An icon that became part of internet history, American culture, and an entire generation’s timeline.

Tomorrow marks 10 years since we lost him. Ten years since the moment the world stopped scrolling and collectively mourned something bigger than a meme.

He became a symbol of loyalty, strength, chaos, unity, and the strange beauty of the internet bringing millions of people together for one cause: never forgetting Harambe.

Everyone remembers where they were when they heard the news. And somehow, a decade later, his legacy still lives on.

Gone, but never forgotten.
Rest easy to a true patriot. 🕊️🇺🇸

May 27, 1999 — May 28, 2016
Forever in our hearts.

[Jon Batson @jon_batson]

@ColinGuerra_10 It’s the new president isn’t it?

[Paul @WomanDefiner]

Today I learned the people who make pure silicon are basically the Samurai sword makers and master blacksmiths of our era and that even if China gets Taiwan they wont be able to make chips anywhere near as good as the US can because we have the purest quartz in the world.

[BaseballHistoryNut @nut_history]

Chipper Jones sharing his favourite Bobby Cox ejection story

Rest easy, Bobby Cox

[Super 70s Sports @Super70sSports]

Super Sky Point to Bobby Cox, who piloted the Braves to 14 division titles and a World Series triumph. Perhaps most impressively, he was ejected 161 times during his Hall of Fame career. That’s an entire season of righteous anger. Tell St. Peter to watch balls and strikes. #RIP

[Dale Murphy @DaleMurphy3]

We were saddened to hear the news today of Bobby’s passing. So thankful for the chance to play for him. What can I say? He saved my career. Hung in there with me during my early days and made the decision to move me to the outfield. Changed my career/life forever. From Nancy and I, and the whole Murphy family—thank you, Bobby. Rest in peace. @Braves

[MLB Network @MLBNetwork]

MLB Network mourns the passing of Hall of Fame manager Bobby Cox.

[Jon Batson @jon_batson]

@TheLunarSurfer So much nostalgia. Miss being able to watch those Braves teams whenever I wanted to.

[The Southern Conference @SoConSports]

Catamounts win game four!

@CatamountSB x #itsallhere

[Jon Batson @jon_batson]

Great comment scroll

[Barack Obama @BarackObama]

Michelle and I can’t wait for you to visit the Obama Presidential Center!

Starting on June 19, the Center will be open to the public, and you’ll be able to check out the Museum along with public spaces like a new branch of the Chicago Public Library with a reading room, a two-acre playground, a fruit and vegetable garden, and more.

Tickets available at https://t.co/ahkDMKalIn.

[Jon Batson @jon_batson]

@JudiKhan1 @RepAdamMorgan