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Maybe he's commissioned them some nice new uniforms from Hugo Boss.
Can we skip forward to the part where orange Mussolini offs himself sad and alone in a bunker?
I hope that general clocks this worthless nazi fuck dead in the face.
You touch an important subject: will the military go along with each and every - often unconstitutional - demand he puts on them?
Any unconstitutional order should be disobeyed. Any illegal order should be disobeyed. It’s pretty simple, really: are you being told to fire on Americans? Yeah, don’t.
Soldiers are deliberately put in positions where they aren't capable of determining the constitutionality and legality of orders at their level... and they have no protections if they disobey orders without, eventually determined in a military court, cause. I wonder how those tend to go.
Exactly what I came here to post.
Epitome of “This meeting could have been an email”
Hard to kneel in an email
Republicans are deliberately doing meetings instead of e-mails. E-mails leave a digital trail and their contents can be used against you, while things said at a meeting leave no evidence.
A meeting with All The People instead of leaving an email out there. From the 100% OpSec Signal drunk.
Incompetent embarrassment on top of incompetent embarrassment.
Or they use Signal like Hegsheth did to plan multiple military attacks.
Funny how everyone knows what this is really about. Loyalty tests.
grooming
So, the Epstein list?
Oh he didn’t mean like that …
I thought he did. Figured it was to remove the lower age limit for military service.
I really hope this pushes a lot of senior leadership over the edge. I’m sure there are a good number who were doing the “this is fine” routine up to now, but this should remove all doubt that they are dealing with a child. I hope he strikes the most combative, patronizing tone possible.
I was thinking the same thing. I've been disappointed over and over again this year, but I still have some hope that something's gonna give.
I hope he strikes the most combative, patronizing tone possible.
We're talking about Hegseth. That's the only tone he has.
They actively sat on their hands waiting to see who would win when trump led a violent insurrection against Congress and the VPOTUS. There is no line.
But, to add on: In a past life, I had to interface with a lot of military folk as part of my job. And... there is basically a horse shoe effect.
The lowliest of enlisted? They "care" but they also "have no power" and "am legally obligated to do what I am told" and "Fuck you for not respecting the sacrifices I am making for your freedom". The most senior of NCOs and the most junior of COs are the ones who actually have opinions and might actually "resist" but it tends to be "I got a mortgage and four kids" levels of resistance where they mostly just look for jobs elsewhere. Then you get higher up on the officer chain and it is just endless political toadied who will insist "I believe in the military, not in the politicians" all while looking for exciting new mouthwashes to give Ice and Fire blowies because they want a promotion.
All the generals in that room? Inside they might be rolling their eyes. Outside? They'll be cheering and acting like an industry plant at a press conference because they know there are cameras on them and they wall are hoping that someone above them gets fired and they get that job.
Nail on the head. There's also the whole "we'll prepare you for a job outside the military" that seems to just churn out more contractor and civilian government/military jobs. Hell, its heavily incentivized for prior military to get a GS job, double up on that retirement pay.
Yeah...
I can go on very long rants about how much I hate the "support the troops" mindset and how much of that was a manufactured response to how the draftees who raped and murdered their way through Vietnam were vilified at rallies. But people seem to still think the year is 1988 and war is unthinkable and everyone in the military is just there for free college. And while there were still people doing that going into The War On Terror... we had almost two decades of a forever war.
And that shows. While I dislike the ableist connotations of it... the reality is that there are people who are going to get the most out of a college education and there are people who... aren't. And the former? They know that the military is just going to mean they are 2-8 years older than everyone else applying for the same positions and are probably going to be doing so with PTSD from the killing and possibly even rapes that get covered up (fun reminder: The reported rate of sexual assault among female active-duty US military members was 6.8 percent as of 2023. That is what the military admitted to...). That isn't to say there aren't some true geniuses coming out of the military and getting a PhD and so forth but... they are the ones who knew what they were getting into when they enlisted and all that entails.
So increasingly you just have the crowd who joined because everyone in their family "served" and the people who bought in to "the only way you can get out of the generational poverty we have forced you into is to kill some brown kids for us". And you get "I joined the military to learn to work on cars".
So yeah. Very much a recruiting pipeline for cops and other "thug with guns" occupations. And if you exhibit even basic competence at the combat side of things? You have your pick of PMCs looking for deniable killers.
And, just to be clear: The US Military is a WONDERFUL job if you are not the right demographic to be dragged behind a building and raped and you don't mind using force against whoever you are told. In a lot of ways, it is the single best experiment proving the value of UBI and managed economies. But... understand that it is a job about enabling the murder and subjugation of enemies of the state. And that you won't need to get on a 13 hour flight to find said enemies in the very near future.
As an aside: I love the Business (ha!) Insider youtube videos where they do an "authorized account" interview or just look at a "day in the life" of a military adjacent role. And if you want a truly fucking terrifying video, go watch the recent one where they interviewed a former Blackwater mercenary. That shit was even more horrifying than the white supremacist biker who was pretty open about the murders he committed (I want to say he narced to avoid consequences? Been a minute).
a manufactured response to how the draftees who raped and murdered their way through Vietnam were vilified at rallies
I was at those rallies, and I saw people punched and spit on. Those people were demonstrating against the war. I was one.
The story of returning draftees being given a bad reception is projection. Nobody blamed the poor teenagers who got rounded up and sent over. It was well known that it was the fault of the top politicians and the generals. But the only thuggish behavior I ever saw was from the counter-demonstrators who were bused in to harass demonstrators, as if billy clubs, tear gas and false arrest weren't harassment enough.
They actively sat on their hands waiting to see who would win when trump led a violent insurrection against Congress and the VPOTUS. There is no line.
That's not completely true. They repeatedly made these pretty unusual public statements re-emphasizing that the federal military has no role in domestic politics, and reminding the people they're leading exactly what to do about any weird orders that came their way. It's only statements, sure. But also, it shows they were paying attention and had the right way of looking at it in mind.
I actually have a lot more faith in the main military of the US than I do in domestic law enforcement to have the right reactions about ICE and the overall takeover, and obviously a hell of a lot more than the "oh we can't have a government shutdown, that would be ever so inconvenient" crowd that is supposed to be an opposition party. Personally I think they probably already despise Hegseth, but anything like this that he wants to do to pour salt in the wound, provide them direct personal aggravation and make himself look even more like a self-important jackass, I'm in favor of.
Yeah... Fuck off with that "they were just following orders" nonsense. At least let the jackboots be the ones to say it.
re-emphasizing that the federal military has no role in domestic politics
Congress and the VPOTUS were being actively hunted by a large armed group. Local law enforcement clearly was not qualified to handle it and the exiting POTUS, who has well documented ties to russia et al, was actively supporting the insurrection.
That is not "domestic politics". That is an attack on US soil. But, because nobody had confirmed enough of the mob had russian accents, it was clearly not the military's problem. Unlike, say, kids protesting or getting a bit too rowdy after a sports game where suddenly the national guard are all ready to start busting some teeth.
But also, it shows they were paying attention and had the right way of looking at it in mind.
Personally, I don't think "We side with the winners" is the right way of looking at it. But you do you.
Fuck off with that “they were just following orders” nonsense.
The subject of my comment was that they were specifically instructing the people under them not to just follow orders.
Congress and the VPOTUS were being actively hunted by a large armed group. Local law enforcement clearly was not qualified to handle it and the exiting POTUS, who has well documented ties to russia et al, was actively supporting the insurrection.
Here's a pretty good outline of how things fucked up so badly. Most of that is talking about the National Guard, not the federal military which I was specifically talking about. They're very different.
I don't really have much to add to that summary. You might say that some mid-level commanders in the Guard should have seen what was going on and just charged in without waiting. I get that, you might be right. I don't think the federal military should have done the same thing. They're designed to kill motherfuckers at a big scale. I think if they'd charged in and started shooting anyone who was still in the Capitol who didn't belong there it would have been a lot worse than what happened. Maybe not. I don't think it's totally crazy or "waiting to see who wins" for them not to do that though.
Unlike, say, kids protesting or getting a bit too rowdy after a sports game where suddenly the national guard are all ready to start busting some teeth.
If you want to talk about the National Guard all of a sudden, then sure. Like I say, they're very different; most of the Guard are basically civilians who do a little bit of military work on the weekends. They do flood relief, they work alongside ordinary people every day during the week (mostly). They did kill some kids at Kent State several generations ago in a wildly different time of American politics and viewpoint, barely removed from the Red Scare times and World War 2. What happened after that? What sports event, what kids protesting and when? I feel like you're thinking of some totally different event that didn't involve the Guard, or just wandering off into thinking that your stereotypes about how things work are reality without any connection at all to actual events. For most of the BLM protests, the Guard functioned more or less to protect the protestors against the police for example (while getting bottles thrown at them and people yelling at them as if they were the enemy.)
The goal is to piss them off enough to resign.
Yeah, piss off all the leaders of your military and expect them to all just collectively quietly fade away, that does sound like the kind of political strategy a complete idiot who has read no history would pursue
There may be flaws to the plan. As a management style it tends to increase short term profits, which is why they do it. Of course it also tends to destroy the company, but the wealthy never worry about that.
The thing is this company has a nuclear arsenal so the whole world's on the payroll (so to speak)
Loyalty oaths to trump because the constitution is toast
Death awaits.
Figured in all likelihood this was either going to be something fucking disastrous or the most asinine bullshit possible. Nothing in the middle, just either "fuck it, civil war time" or whiskeyleaks found the 'call the banners' button and just could not fucking contain himself.
Hopefully it does indeed prove to be the latter, like it sounds to be.
Edit - also love that they picked the most b list supervillain photo possible for him
Whiskeyleaks is a superb nickname for him.
it’s gonna require a pledge - more purge incoming. hope for some miraculous reason they just gang up on him and beat the shit outta this foolish man. what useful idiots are running the show :/
I'm sure the DOD's new official stance that journalists are only allowed to publish what the DOD says they are allowed to publish is affecting the stated claim this is about beard length and not about purging the military ranks and loyalty or waging war on American citizens.
Crusader tattoos to be mandatory
More like measuring willingness to play along with their shit.
Trump is worried that he don't have the complete, unwavering support of all the generals. And he should be worried, since he calls service members "suckers and losers." So Hegseth is gojng to make a propaganda video by making all the generals raise their right hands on TV and swear an oath to "preserve, protect and defend" Trump and ONLY Trump. And then Trump will show up and turn the whole thing into a rally.
Then Fox News will say, "See? Trump has the generals unwavering support!" as if anyone taking this "oath" couldn't simply lie about it.
Some Van Riper motherfucker who kind of wants a new career anyway has a chance to do something pretty funny at this thing, if so.
What a nice moment to do a terrorist attack and wipe all the generals, right?
Does this asshole even think once a day? Maybe when he is shitting, so his only neuron doesn't overheat?
Yeah this is a bad idea for 100 reasons.
That’s one of the “biggies”.
Those generals have more important places to be than a farking pep rally.
Since I'm sure this will be a closed door meeting, I can't wait for a handful of generals/staff to spill the beans on what really goes down.
I sort of don't believe this. We'll see what really happens.