Dave Patel

Strategic partnerships @UUtah | board @sltrib | former @huntsmanschool @DeptofDefense @SenateGOP | e pluribus unum

[Voices of WW2 @VoicesofWW2]

On this day in 1944, Theodore Roosevelt Jr. died in his sleep in a stone farmhouse in Normandy. He was 56 years old, and he had spent almost his entire adult life trying to be worthy of a famous last name.

He was the eldest son of President Theodore Roosevelt. In the First World War he went to France and was gassed and badly wounded at Soissons leading his men. That same summer his younger brother Quentin, a pilot, was shot down and killed over France. Ted came home with lungs and a leg that never fully recovered, and before he even left Europe he helped found the American Legion so that ordinary soldiers would have someone looking out for them.

Between the wars he did almost everything. Governor of Puerto Rico. Governor General of the Philippines. Businessman, explorer, writer. He could have spent the Second World War safe behind a desk. Instead, at 54, arthritic and walking with a cane, he talked his way back into uniform and into combat.

By 1943 he was fighting in North Africa and Sicily under Terry Allen, and their loose, unpolished, soldier-first style rubbed General Patton the wrong way. Patton had them both relieved of command. Roosevelt didn't sulk. He asked for another job, any job, as long as it kept him near the fighting. They made him assistant commander of the 4th Infantry Division.

Then came D-Day. He hid a heart condition from the Army doctors. He wrote to his commander three separate times, in writing, begging to go in with the very first wave rather than watch from a ship. He was the only general to land in the first wave on any beach that morning, the oldest man in the invasion, walking through machine gun fire with a cane in one hand and a pistol in the other.

The boats came in a mile off course. Officers froze. Roosevelt limped up and down the beach under fire, studied the ground, and said, "We'll start the war from right here." Then he spent the morning waving men forward and sorting out the chaos so calmly that terrified 20 year olds looked at this old man with a cane and decided that if he wasn't scared, they wouldn't be either.

His son Quentin, named for the uncle killed in the last war, landed at Omaha Beach the same morning. They were the only father and son to come ashore together on D-Day.

He died a month later. A heart attack in his sleep. And here is the part that gets me. On the very day he died, the orders had just come through promoting him to major general and giving him his own division. He never saw the paperwork. He never knew he'd earned the Medal of Honor either.

At his funeral his pallbearers were seven of the most famous generals of the war, Bradley, Hodges, Collins, Barton, Huebner, and George Patton. The same Patton who had fired him. Patton wrote in his diary that Roosevelt was one of the bravest men he had ever known.

Years later Omar Bradley was asked to name the single most heroic thing he witnessed in all of World War II. He didn't pause. He said, "Ted Roosevelt on Utah Beach."

[Billy Binion @billybinion]

Nothing could have prepared me for this correction. Throw me a funeral. I am deceased.

[Dave Patel @mtlogandave]

@bchambers1 @RepBlakeMoore @SenJohnCurtis @BasedMikeLee They don’t care.

[signüll @signulll]

“can i start you off with an appetizer, maybe 30 tortillas?”

“god no, i can’t eat that many tortillas!”

“how about if cut them up into triangles, fry them in seed oil, & serve them with some salsa?”

“omg that sounds delightful”.

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

This New York Times piece is worth your time. Here’s what is happening, as simply as I can put it.

Back in January, Trump sued the IRS, an agency he controls, demanding $10 billion over the leak of his tax returns a number of years ago.

IRS lawyers did their jobs. They wrote a memo laying out the defenses that could beat the suit, including the fact that Trump filed too late. His own lawyer was in court when the leaker pleaded guilty in October 2023, more than two years before Trump sued.

The Justice Department never showed up to court. Never argued back. Never used the defenses sitting on their desk.

The judge got suspicious and ordered both sides to explain whether they were actually opposing each other or just colluding. The day before that brief was due, Trump dropped the suit.

Same day, his Justice Department announced a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded “anti-weaponization fund.” 

Trump gets a formal apology. The IRS agrees to drop any audits of him and his family, even though a 2024 Times report found a loss in an ongoing audit could cost him over $100 million.

The acting Attorney General, Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, picks the five commissioners who decide who gets paid. Trump can fire any of them. Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are not ruled out.

This is the most corrupt thing I’ve ever seen from an American president.

Where in the hell are my Republican colleagues?

https://t.co/La0nlLuz1r

[La Giornata Tipo @parallelecinico]

A sinistra, nel 2016, un ragazzo si trova in Nicaragua, è lì da due anni dopo aver abbandonato il basket e la famiglia per “portare la parola di Gesù Cristo” tra le persone più disagiate del paese. Una notte subisce una rapina e viene malmenato da quattro persone: gli serviranno sei mesi di cure dentistiche e due denti finti nuovi.

A destra, questa notte, c’è un ragazzo che ha trascinato Cleveland in finale di Conference dominando gara 7 contro Detroit, con 23 punti in 25 minuti in uscita dalla panchina. In bocca ha il paradenti perché, per esperienza, sa bene che i dentisti possono costare come un attico in centro storico a Milano.

Entrambi i ragazzi rispondono al nome di Sam Merrill.

[Dave Patel @mtlogandave]

@pchuntsman Cost will be more if it’s as big as promoted. Return to local community will be lot less. But we believe in socializing costs and privatizing gains. So yes, Borat like skit, but with enormous costs for all of us plebes!

[Paul Huntsman @pchuntsman]

There is some really bad reporting here. A project that cost $100+ billion, and only yields ~ $100 million to local community is really bad math. Until Google, Meta, Blackstone show up, this is a Borat like skit. https://t.co/8KPSvHn2Pj

[Jenni @hashjenni]

Until my final breath I will never understand how January 6th wasn't an instant dealbreaker for every single American voter

[Neil Stone @DrNeilStone]

I can't figure out if vaccines work or not.

Tough one.

Need Sherlock Holmes on this one.

[John Arnold @johnarnold]

Venezuela : Iran :: Intel : Spirit Airlines

Just because it worked once doesn't mean it's always a good idea.

[University of Utah @UUtah]

Improving the lives of millions: A team of @CofHealth researchers & @UtahCoE engineers has shown that their portable, lightweight hip exoskeleton can reduce the energy required to walk by nearly 20% in individuals with hemiparesis after a stroke.
https://t.co/PnXJMW7d3s

[University of Utah @UUtah]

A new artificial intelligence supercomputing system managed by the University of Utah is slated to come online this summer, supported by $15 million in one-time funding approved by the Utah Legislature.

https://t.co/A6spixCUIg

[Russell Moore @drmoore]

That one can excuse or ignore this while claiming to be “pro-life” is a sign of a seared conscience. God have mercy on us all.

[Gurwinder @G_S_Bhogal]

That the Internet was going to make everyone less ignorant.

[Reid Wiseman @astro_reid]

There are no words.

[DD Geopolitics @DD_Geopolitics]

🇺🇸🇮🇷 The Trump Timeline:

🔸️Jan 18: “Iranian patriots, help is coming. We are moving in.”
🔸️Feb 28: “We are launching the decisive operation. It will be very fast.”
🔸️Mar 2: “We will win easily.”
🔸️Mar 3: “We have won the war.”
🔸️Mar 7: “We defeated Iran.”
🔸️Mar 9: “Strike Iran. The war is almost over—clean and decisive.”
🔸️Mar 12: “We have won, but not completely yet.”
🔸️Mar 13: “We won the war again.”
🔸️Mar 14: “We need help to open the strait.”
🔸️Mar 15: “If you don’t help, I will remember it.”
🔸️Mar 16: “We actually don’t need help—I was testing loyalty. If NATO doesn’t help, consequences will follow."
🔸️Mar 17: “We don’t need NATO help and don’t want it. No Congress approval needed to exit NATO.”
🔸️Mar 18: “Allies must cooperate to open the Strait of Hormuz.”
🔸️Mar 19: “US allies must step up and help open the strait.”
🔸️Mar 20: “NATO is cowardly. We may phase this out.”
🔸️Mar 21: “We don’t use the strait. Others need it, not us.”
🔸️Mar 22: “Final warning. Iran has 48 hours. Iran is finished.”
🔸️Mar 23: “One more week, then we bomb power plants.”
🔸️Mar 24: “The war is nearing its end.”
🔸️Mar 25: “We are negotiating with Iran.”
🔸️Mar 26: “Iran is begging for peace. They gave us a gift. We delay strikes on power plants.”
🔸️Mar 27: “I and the Ayatollah will jointly manage the Strait of Hormuz.”
🔸️Mar 28: “Regime change has occurred in Iran.”
🔸️Mar 29: “Negotiations with Iran are going extremely well.”
🔸️Mar 30: “We are prepared to destroy Iran’s oil and energy infrastructure and occupy Kharg Island.”
🔸️Mar 31: “We are ready to end the war without opening the strait.”
🔸️Apr 1: “War ends in 3 days. We will bomb them for 2–3 weeks back into the Stone Age.”
🔸️Apr 2: “We destroyed three major bridges. Why haven’t they called us yet?”

[Chetuya Chinagolum @Chetuyachinago]

So basically, ever since NATO refused to dance to Washington's war drums in the Middle East, there has been this lobotomized trend of Americans pushing for their "sweet and all-powerful" country to pull out of NATO to "teach Europe a lesson."

It is worth noting that I've seen plenty of room-temperature IQ takes on this platform, but this one right here takes the trophy.

Understand that America cannot pull out of NATO because doing so would be tantamount to a high-speed suicide.

1. BASES ARE NOT CHARITY HOUSES:
Fact is that, American bases scattered around Europe are not a collection of homeless shelters for soldiers. They are being used by America to project raw power. They are the forward-operating gas stations of American hegemony. Those bases allow the US to protect trade routes and strike anywhere on the planet in a matter of hours. America has the ability to force and bully the world into using the dollar to buy oil today specifically because of these bases. Without these bases acting as drainage pipes around the Persian Gulf, America would not stand a single, solitary chance against Iran.

So Americans, understand that you u are not "protecting" the EU; you're squatting in their yard so you can keep your boot on the world’s throat.

2. CLOSE ALL TRADE:
Again, even with a rudimentary, fifth-grade knowledge of Economics, it’s not difficult to see that should America decide to close all trade with the EU, Americans will be eating their own shoes within weeks.
Cutting the EU off would send the US stock market into an unprecedented nose dive and ensure that the "Made in the USA" sticker becomes a pathetic relic of a bygone era.

You’re not "punishing" the Europeans; you’re amputating your own legs here.

3. THE TECH BAN:
Refusing to sell military equipment to Europe may sound "alpha" to the Twitter keyboard warriors until you realize that American military industries like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Raytheon employ hundreds of thousands of Americans. Closing that market corridor is an automatic sack letter to that entire labor force, which would collapse the US economy overnight.

Furthermore, the EU won't just sit there and cry like a baby,they will simply outsource their military equipment from Russia and China, and case closed.
The American economy would effectively grind to a halt while your rivals cashed the checks.

4. INTELLIGENCE SHARING:
This is the most delusional part of the entire manifesto. Intelligence sharing is a two-way street. If America refuses to share intelligence with the EU, then the EU shuts the blinds on America likewise.

If their radar detects Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles from North Korea, China, or Russia heading for US soil, and you've "cut them off," they are not going to pick up the phone either. Before your own local radar can even pick up the signal, half of America’s major cities would already be buried under the rubble.

Conclusion:

This "Catturd" manifesto is a bluff written by people disconnected from reality who have enjoyed the safety and luxury of a US-led world for so long they’ve forgotten how they got it.

You can't be the "greatest nation on earth" while hiding under your bed and refusing to talk to the neighbors.
Cutting off the EU is not "America First." It’s America Finishing Last, alone, irrelevant, and blind, while the rest of the world moves on without the dying and outdated empire.

[Michael Antonelli @BullandBaird]

Imagine the math required to make this guess and aim 4 people at a point in space