Operation Red Dawn

Leave it to Texas to turn a seemingly simple military training exercise into a coup attempt. Greg "Wheels" Abbott is not even six months on the job and he panicked, going with a story broke by Alex Jones on Infowars to call on the state militia to protect the Great State of Texas against presumed invaders from the North -- the U.S. Army. One can understand Alex getting his panties in a wad, but as governor you would think Greg Abbott wouldn't fall for such paranoid nonsense.

Instead, we see Operation Red Dawn, a massive mobilization of state militia groups, only loosely affiliated with Texas. These are private armies under the cover of the second amendment, which as a Texan I think you would be far more worried about than the U.S. Army, which is actually answerable to someone. Of course, in this case it is the President, which is what got conservative Texans all lathered up, thinking Obama was overthrowing their state government and imposing a military junta.

It wasn't just Texas. The US Army released a map in which it showed the locations of its training sites in the Southwest, showing Texas and Utah as "hostile" territories. Lt. Col. Mark Lastoria had to brief residents in Bastrop, Texas, to insure them this was not a military coup. However, Sen. Ted Cruz put in a call to the Pentagon just to make sure everything was on the up and up.

One of the lone conservative voices of reason in the State of Texas was former Governor Rick Perry, who told his fellow Texans to "stop being insane." I imagine he had a few harsh words for his buddy "Wheels" for acting the way he did. but maybe Greg was just helping out his former boss, giving him the opportunity to look "Presidential." After all, Rick is trailing pretty far behind in the GOP presidential straw polls.

Another possibility is that "Wheels" may have just been checking the preparedness of his state militia forces. Apparently, they have been under the supervision of Chuck Norris, Texas Ranger, who was ready to mobilize his units at a moment's notice.

Of course, these groups are itching for any opportunity to brandish their weapons. Just last year, the Oathkeepers were out in full force to protect Brother Cliven Bundy when the Bureau of Land Management had the audacity to confiscate his cattle after he had refused to pay grazing fees for 21 years. Old Cliven claimed the BLM had no jurisdiction in Nevada. That wasn't how the state courts saw it, but no matter, the BLM was forced to stand down, endearing Bundy and the Oathkeepers to conservatives across the nation.

You can never be too vigilant. No matter how much we love our troops, until they are honorably discharged they still serve the federal government and are subject to the caprices of a socialist President who would love nothing more than to impose his will on the nation. At least that is the way Greg Abbott and Ted Cruz see it. Cruz even went so far to say that President Obama is responsible for this unrest, accusing the White House of not being "trustworthy" and that this kind of paranoia is "the natural consequence."

It will certainly make for a good movie script. Red Dawn was remade in 2012, this time with a North Korean invasion in the Pacific Northwest, but I don't think many persons remember it. What Americans seem to fear most is the enemy within.

O Pioneers!

It is hard not to think of Nebraska without thinking of its greatest writer. Here is a marvelous piece by Capote, Remembering Willa Cather . I remember seeing a stage production of O Pioneers! and being deeply moved by its raw emotions. I had read My Antonia before, and soon found myself hooked, like Capote was by the simple elegance of her prose and the way she was able to evoke so many feelings through her characters. Much of it came from the fact that she had lived those experiences herself. Her father dragged the family from Virginia to Nebraska in 1883, when it was still a young state, settling in the town of Red Cloud. named after one of the great Oglala chiefs. Red Cloud was still alive at the time, living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, in the aftermath of the "Great Sioux Wars" of 1876-77. I don't know whether Cather took any interest in the famous chief, although it is hard to imagine not. Upon his death in 1909, he was eulogi

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Welcome to this month's reading group selection. David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908. At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades. Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society. I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran. Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro

Colonel

Now with Colonel Roosevelt , the magnum opus is complete. And it deserves to stand as the definitive study of its restless, mutable, ever-boyish, erudite and tirelessly energetic subject. Mr. Morris has addressed the toughest and most frustrating part of Roosevelt’s life with the same care and precision that he brought to the two earlier installments. And if this story of a lifetime is his own life’s work, he has reason to be immensely proud. -- Janet Maslin -- NY Times . Let the discussion begin!

Dispatches from Vilnius

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