Categories
Donald Trump Military The Trump Adminstration

Navy Vet: Trump Wanted Military To Swear An ‘Oath To Him’ And Perform Illegal Acts If He Ordered Them

Theodore Johnson is Navy veteran who is currently a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice who writes for The Bulwark that former president Donald Trump believed that being commander-in-chief meant members of the military “swore an oath to him personally” and he could order them to do whatever he wanted, even if such orders were unconstitutional or illegal.

Johnson says he came to those conclusions after reading two recent news stories:

  • The release of a draft resignation letter from Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
  • Trump’s insistence that he was allowed to keep thousands of classified and top-secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago golf resort

These historic occurrences speak to just how deeply Trump believed the military not to be an instrument of national power but an apparatus for personal use. Milley composed his resignation draft after being asked to participate in Trump’s ego-stroke theater — first by conducting a military show of force against Americans upset about George Floyd’s killing days earlier and then being unwittingly drafted into Trump’s infamous march across Lafayette Square after it was forcibly cleared of protesters. Regarding the classified material squirreled away in Mar-a-Lago, the underlying explanation from Trump and his supporters appears to amount to little more than that it was his to do with as he pleased without any regard to the potential damage to our national security interests.

Those events, Johnson continues, made it clear exactly what Trump believed when it came to a president’s power over U.S. armed forces:

These occurrences bring to the fore a troubling issue usually lurking in the background of civil-military relations: When a president believes his interests supersede the nation’s — or, worse, that his interests become the nation’s — the democratic principle of ‘civilian control of the military’ exposes the armed services to co-option as a partisan tool for domestic politics.

There have also been reports that Trump considered using the military to disperse protesters after the May 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis by police officers, which leads Johnson to conclude:

“Civil-military relations mostly held during the Trump presidency, a testament to the resilience of the institution and to our democracy. But dangers remain. If our country’s toxic polarization, hyperpartisanship, and intentional stoking of social tensions for political ends are not sufficiently addressed, we may find ourselves dangerously close to the precipice once more—and if Trump or someone following the Trump model comes to power again, we may well tumble over the edge.”

If Donald Trump happens to wind up in the White House again, this country will quickly become an authoritarian police state and the Constitution will no longer be the controlling document of our republic. All of us, as citizens and voters, must make sure that doesn’t happen.

Categories
Congress GOP Military

WATCH Matt Gaetz Make An A*s Of Himself During A House Hearing With Secy. Of Defense Austin

During a House hearing on Tuesday with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) made a fool of himself by suggesting that the Defense Department is wasting taxpayer money on teaching “socialism” and diversity to U.S. troops.

When Gaetz made the bogus socialism claim, Austin immediately pushed back, remarking:

“Well, I certainly don’t agree with embracing socialism.”

Rather than let the Defense Secretary finish his remarks, Gaetz interrupted and went off on a rambling, fact-free rant:

“My follow-up question, if we don’t embrace it, why did the National Defense University put out a statement saying in this talk he will argue that the right answer lies in ending Western arrogance and promoting a new egalitarian horizon on a global scale, a new form of ecological and post-colonial socialism? So why would we invite people we don’t agree with to evangelize views and values that we don’t share at the National Defense University when we should be learning strategy about how to combat our enemies and make assessments that are accurate?”

Austin attempted to explain that the military often studies possible new strategies and better ways to prepare members of the armed forces, but yet again Gaetz refused to let Austin finish his remarks:

“Mr. Secretary, I’ve shared with you the context. The context wasn’t to better understand socialism so we can defeat it, the context wasn’t learn about it so that we can offer countermeasures. The concept was that it’s time for socialism, and the reason I know that’s the context is because the lecture was pulled from a book written entitled Time for Socialism.”

When Austin tried to get more information about what Gaetz was referring to, the congressman refused to let him speak:

“I control the time. You guys have been blowing a lot of calls lately on matters of strategy, Mr. Secretary. You guys told us that Russia couldn’t lose, that the Taliban couldn’t immediately win. I guess I’m wondering, what about the $773 billion that you’re requesting today is going to help you make assessments that are accurate in the face of so many blown calls?”

The Defense chief did manage to get a barb in at Gaetz, telling him:

“The fact that you’re embarrassed by your country. That’s what you’re saying.”

That led Gaetz to accuse Austin of being too interested in diversity:

“Maybe we would be better at home if the National Defense University actually worked a little more on strategy and a little less on woke-ism. That was baked into your flawed assessment. I saw that the Obama administration tried to starve our military and it seems the Biden administration is trying to starve our military by force-feeding it woke-ism.”

“Woke-ism” is not a thing. It’s a buzzword created by right-wingers who are looking for ways to attack the men and women of the U.S. military while simultaneously claiming they support the troops.

They also claim that anyone who disagrees with them hates the United States. But the real hatred is theirs, and they cannot stand when someone dares to disagree with their bigoted, narrow-minded view of the world.

Here’s the video:

Categories
Congress GOP Military Veterans

‘Angry’ US Army Vet Shreds Lauren Boebert For Her Childish Antics At SOTU Address

During Tuesday evening’s State of the Union Address, President Joe Biden brought up the issue of U.S. military veterans who have been exposed to toxic materials that are destroyed in what are known as “burn pits” on forward bases in places such as Iraq and may be responsible for the brain cancer which killed his son, Beau:

 “One of those soldiers was my son, Major Beau Biden. I don’t know for sure if the burn pit that he lived near was the cause of his brain cancer, and disease of so many other troops. But I am committed to find out everything we can.”

As the president was speaking, Colorado GOP Congresswoman Lauren Boebert stood and shouted, “13 of them!” Boebert was apparently making reference to the 13 service members who were killed in a bombing during the U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan last year.

That heckling enraged many people, including U.S. Army veteran Eileen Rivers, who excoriated Boebert in an op-ed she wrote for USA Today, noting that while we should welcome political disagreement, “there is also something wrong with reducing what should be thoughtful political discourse – done at the right time with real information – to a shameful and antagonizing heckle.”

Rivers went on to add:

“The congresswoman’s comments about a 20-year war perpetuated by leaders in both parties were misleading and lacked context. She not only lowered discourse, she disrespected the office of the presidency. I am a veteran. I spent four years of my life in the Army as an Arabic linguist. I come from a family of veterans. And I am angry.”

Most importantly, Rivers says she wants to make it clear that Lauren Boebert — who has never served a day in any branch of the military — is not the right messenger for such a message:

“When she stifled the president, she was also stifling me. Surely others who have lost loved ones felt that, too.

“Boebert does not speak for me. And neither do other members of the GOP who reinforced her sentiments on social media.”

Lauren Boebert is a pustule on the U.S. Congress. She needs to be excised by the voters in November.

 

Categories
Donald Trump Military WTF?!

Trump Managed To Make His Pathetic Veterans Day Message All About Himself

Donald Trump (a.k.a. Cadet Bone Spurs) decided he’d release a message in honor of Veterans Day 2021, but he should have gone and played golf or hidden in the nearest bunker instead of issuing what turned out to be little more than a self-serving whinefest and a pathetic attempt to remain relevant a year after he lost in a landslide to President Joe Biden.

In the 38 second video, which was posted on Twitter by his spokesperson, Liz Harrington, Trump said he wanted to pay tribute to “all of those incredible people” who “serve so well and so strong and so powerfully.”

And then came the whining:

“We love you, our nation respects you, the world respects you, and we will come back. Our country has gone through a lot. The last period of time has been very, very tough, watching what you had to watch, but our country will be back and will be back stronger than ever. Happy Veterans Day.”

It’s important to keep in mind that this is the very same Donald Trump who reportedly said that Americans who fight and die for their country are nothing but “suckers” and “losers.” And yet he he loves them? The only person Trump loves is himself. That’s all a malignant narcissist like him is capable of.

The failed, one-term, twice-impeached former president was immediately hit with furious internet backlash:

https://twitter.com/GigiJackieD/status/1458809836724965376?s=20

https://twitter.com/usorthem3/status/1458803280197431309?s=20

Categories
Donald Trump Military Nukes The Trump Adminstration

Joint Chiefs Chair Believed Trump Was Suffering From ‘Mental Decline’ – Took Control Of Nukes From Him

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley believed that former President Donald Trump was suffering from “serious mental decline” and took top-secret measures to assure he didn’t launch a nuclear attack or other military action according to Peril, a new book from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodward and Washington Post reporter Robert Costa.

According to CNN, Milley took the action on Jan. 8, just two days after the Capitol riots which Trump help instigate with a fiery speech to his supporters:

Woodward and Costa write that Milley, deeply shaken by the assault, ‘was certain that Trump had gone into a serious mental decline in the aftermath of the election, with Trump now all but manic, screaming at officials and constructing his own alternate reality about endless election conspiracies.’ Milley worried that Trump could ‘go rogue,’ the authors write.

“You never know what a president’s trigger point is,” Milley told his senior staff, according to the book.

Milley then called a secret meeting at the Pentagon and told top military officials in charge of the National Military Command Center that they shouldn’t take any orders from Trump or his staffers unless it first passed through the Joint Chiefs Chairman:

“No matter what you are told, you do the procedure. You do the process. And I’m part of that procedure,” Milley told the officers, according to the book. He then went around the room, looked each officer in the eye, and asked them to verbally confirm they understood.

Additionally, Milley also reassured Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi that the nation’s nukes were secure:

“What I’m saying to you is that if they couldn’t even stop him from an assault on the Capitol, who even knows what else he may do? And is there anybody in charge at the White House who was doing anything but kissing his fat butt all over this?”

Pelosi continued, “You know he’s crazy. He’s been crazy for a long time.”

According to Woodward and Costa, Milley responded, “Madam Speaker, I agree with you on everything.”

Then-CIA Director Gina Haspel reportedly told Milley that she was worried about a coup attempt being initiated by Trump or some of his top aides:

When Trump refused to concede in November 2020, Haspel warned Milley, “We are on the way to a right-wing coup. The whole thing is insanity. He is acting out like a six-year-old with a tantrum.” Haspel also worried that Trump would try to attack Iran.

“This is a highly dangerous situation. We are going to lash out for his ego?” she asked Milley, according to the book.

And yet this is the very same Donald Trump who is considering a run for the GOP nomination in 2024. He doesn’t belong in politics or anywhere else other than a mental institution or prison. Trump is and always will be a clear and present danger to the United States and our republic.