I’m sorry I didn’t upload this before, if there are some amongst you who want to discuss the, er, situation. I have been obsessing about this election for months now and I think that now we’re here I find I’m too anxious to watch the returns coming in as a Trump victory would be the biggest disaster for this country since, I dunno, the civil war? I took a peek at Twitter about twenty minutes ago (I refuse to use its other name) and the people I follow are all sounding very gloomy and now I’m more tense and scared than I have ever been about this election. The Russian bomb threats aren’t helping the situation. I don’t know if I’ll even check the news again tonight (who am I kidding, I will) but if you guys feel like chatting here’s a place to do it.
@Snowberry
I am a very amateur weaver, but when I looked up “Wiphala,” my immediate reaction was “That’s a weaving gamp.” I like weaving gamps – they are a cool and interesting design tool I have yet to try myself.
The Wiphala isn’t as complex as a weaving gamp can be, but flags shouldn’t be that complex anyway. For examples of some truly intricate gamps, see here:
https://handwovenmagazine.com/the-draft-what-is-a-gamp/
I don’t see why “Make M/F/N versions of both outfits” would be a problem, unless it’s dedicating six whole emojis to this thing being simply too many?
So, their solution to that is “let the censors win without a fight”? Fucking cowards.
The above isn’t an argument against including those emojis. It’s an argument for doing so while trustbusting the tiny oligopoly of handset makers and mandating full owner control and customizability of devices, so even if a manufacturer out of cowardice omits some emoji or even ships with a touch-keyboard program that refuses to let you use them even with copy-paste or what-have-you, you can just install a third-party keyboard program and have at it.
I love flag related things. But, speaking of crafting, a bit of trivia.
When the US government was deciding on a flag, it was originally envisaged that civil organisation would have the stripes horizontally and military organisations would have vertical stripes.
Apparently though that’s harder to sew so it was generally abandoned.
Except for one quasi military organisation.
Former President Jimmy Carter died.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/12/29/us/former-president-jimmy-carter-death
Overall a good man.
I swear Jimmy Carter was the last true Christian in politics.
@Alan: For your deficient insular learning, I remind you that the USCG is a branch of the Armed Forces, just like the Navy and Army. They have their own Academy for commissioning officers, and personnel stationed overseas. Been in plenty of shooting wars. And of course they greatly pre-date the Air and Space Forces.
@ GSS Ex Noob
Ah, thank you for enlightening me. Our Coast Guard is primarily a rescue service. The crews are all unpaid volunteers. They have some pretty cool ships and helicopters though.
It’s 2025 in Gävle and the Goat is unscathed.
US Coast Guard facts – Ask a Coastie what the USCG is, and the traditional response is “The nucleus around which the Navy forms in times of war!”
Currently the USCG is part of Homeland Security, but it’s always existed in a sort of liminal space. Back when it was part of the Department of Transportation (in peacetime), they functioned as cops on the sea, which (bear in mind I’m not an expert in maritime law) meant they could board non-US ships without starting a war. I’ve heard that smaller Navy vessels keep a USCG flag handy whenever they want to be sneaky … it helps that Navy and Coastie uniforms look reasonably alike to the average layperson.
In times of war the USCG shifts under the umbrella of the Department of Defense.
Too often derided as “puddle pirates,” the USCG has to do more with less every year, because search & rescue plus law enforcement duties aren’t as sexy as the wartime stuff.