While I’ve generally admired the meritocratic approach of the US military (“Don’t bug us about ideology, what works? And who can make it happen?”), it’s disturbing that the system still allowed somebody as political as Mike Flynn to pile up 3 stars.
Until the last few decades, U.S. presidents as presented in movies and on TV were the good guys, versus certain of the military as the bad guys. Actors who played presidents usually did so in a dignified manner —as did Henry Fonda, for example.
Of course the mannerisms of presidents were parodied beginning long ago, in newspaper cartoons and movies, during their own administrations and since. Television allowed subsequent parodies wide viewing. Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford imitators did increasingly disrespectful parodies of those presidents.
Then, it seemed acceptable and nearly routine to portray presidents as ignoble and corrupt, to be restrained by more principled and wiser advisers. (However, with Nixon, even the advisers were bad.)
Skip through Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II, and the portrayal of each president was less and less respectful. I wonder how Obama will be portrayed (On the cartoon series “Rick and Morty,” he appears vain and vindictive.)?
And now, Donald Trump and Joe Biden: Trump is certain to be portrayed as he actually was and is. It would be easy to parody a parody — Trump imitators just have to watch video clips and copy.
However, if General Milley is a representative example (forget General Flynn), the highest powers in the branches of the military (and those retired) are now the guardians of government principles of order within the Constitution.
If this is true, the traditional principles of president and military (at least those in high command), have reversed as presented in popular media. A president can be a believable bad guy; the military the good guys. The lower ranks in the military seem, however, to be infiltrated by a large number of far-right sympathizers — so this may change in future. It will be terrible if all the branches of government plus the military are taken in by seditious factions.
General Milley is a good man, and a very good soldier. He was in between a rock and a hard place under tRump. His oath is to obey orders from the Commander-in-Chief. But when those orders are illegal any soldier has the right to refuse the order. The burden of proof lays with the soldier, who is not a lawyer. However, I was disappointed in the General when tRump led them all out to confront the protesters. Barr and the rest were just tRump toadies, but I would have preferred General Milley to have stepped up then. It seems to me that stepping up now, as those like Barr is just covering their 6.
Trump praises ‘loving’ supporters who bludgeoned Capitol cops: ‘I wanted what they wanted’
Donald Trump praised the U.S. Capitol rioters who brutalized police officers during their violent insurrection aimed at overturning the presidential election results.
“There’s never been a base that screams out, with thirty-five thousand people, ‘We love you! We love you!’” Trump told the reporters. “That never happened to Ronald Reagan. It never happened to anybody. We have a base like no other. They’re very angry. That’s what happened in Washington on the sixth. They went down because of the election fraud. The one thing that nobody says is how many people were there, because if you look at that real crowd, the crowd for the speech, I’ll bet you it was over a million people.”
The journalists asked Trump what he had hoped to accomplish on Jan. 6, and he again focused on the crowd’s size and defended their actions.
“I would venture to say I think it was the largest crowd I had ever spoken [to] before,” Trump said. “It was a loving crowd, too, by the way. There was a lot of love. I’ve heard that from everybody. Many, many people have told me that was a loving crowd. It was too bad, it was too bad that they did that.”
The mob attacked police officers with flag poles, chemical irritants and other weapons, and videos show the violent clashes that contributed to five deaths and left scores injured as Trump supporters stormed the building to pressure lawmakers to overturn his election loss.
America after Trump: Mental health expert says ‘Dystopian science fiction … is actually happening’
Donald Trump’s regime continues to reveal its “secrets.” But these are largely confirmations of what was both publicly and privately known for years about Trump and his allies’ perfidious and despicable conduct, disregard for human life, and scheming against American democracy.
New reporting has confirmed what was long predicted: Trump was willing to do anything to stay in power after being defeated in the 2020 election, up to and including ordering the U.S. military to turn against the American people.
Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, along other high-ranking military leaders, feared Trump as a potential Hitler and saw the potential for a “Reichstag fire” incident. Milley reportedly expressed concern in private that Trump would command his neofascist followers, both within and outside the government, to support a coup attempt and otherwise create chaos and violence.
Perhaps most worrisome, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others at the highest levels of government were concerned that Donald Trump would use nuclear weapons in an act of spite, perhaps to create a global disaster that would permit him to remain in power indefinitely.
If Trump had successfully ordered the United States military to keep him in power by usurping the will of the American people, the result could well have been a second American Civil War. The nation was saved from such an outcome, at least for the moment, through good fortune and the choices of a few real patriots such as Gen. Milley and his allies.
Unfortunately, Trumpism was not routed or finally defeated, and the Trump coup is ongoing. Trump remains in firm control of the Republican Party. At least 30 percent of the American people have been seduced by the Big Lie that the 2020 election was “stolen” from Trump.
Call out their agenda for what it is: “a radical fascist agenda”. And it fits and it works because that is what it is. They want to subvert our entire nation for a Trumpublican takeover, democracy and fair representation be damned. They are trying to take away the complete foundation of democracy, free and fair elections, and to put back in place the crazy strong man they have sold their souls to. Link Trump to strongmen like Castro, Chavez, and yes, even one Trump admires, Adolf Hitler.
Don’t argue nuance with them, just call out their lies and distortions and their policies of hate and fear, hate and fear. Its all they do, but we never say it.
Finally, call what happened what it was, an attack on America. It was more dangerous than 9/11 because it was truly trying to overthrow our country, something Bin Laden could never dream of doing himself. And call Trump the dangerous would-be dictator that he is.
Republicans/conservatives/regressives: “Take Back Our Country”
What, were they forced to leave? Do they want others to take the country and make it good again? (and what is “good”) Do they want to give it back to the Indigenous People? Are they just following a failed ideology?
Too bad we weren’t allowed to make Al Gore President, when it was found that he actually did win the election. Too bad the Supreme Court was allowed to overstep their bounds and stop a legitimate recount. If Al Gore was not made president then, there is no way a person, Donald Trump, who lost the election is going to be made president now. It’s a fantasy for small minded Trumpers.
In the case of Al Gore, it really too bad it couldn’t have been done. As it’s very probable we may never of had a 9/11 under Al Gore, which means we would not have had to pull out of Afghanistan or Iraq, as we would not have had an excuse to go to war with either. Not to mention all the crazy that is tied to 9/11.
There would have been no unnecessary Bush tax cuts to the rich, the balanced budget with surplus to actually pay down the deficit would have been maintained. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid would likely have been expanded. The only thing that holds that back or requires cuts to those programs is the surplus is their fall back for their lack of revenue and spending on wars. A deficit that will be with us long after we’ve left. Also, we would have had money for infrastructure projects before roads and bridges inch closer to critical failures. Likely free internet everywhere. Oh, the different world we might be in now.
New book about Trump reveals Pentagon omitted things from Jan. 6 timeline — and ex-special counsel wants to know why
“Despite Milley recommending that the Pentagon call up neighboring National Guard unites immediately, Ryan McCarthy hadn’t gotten around to it until more than 2 1/2 hours after the Capitol was breached. About 750 Guard troops from Maryland would soon begin arriving, along with 620 from Virginia,” the book says.
The DOD also omitted from their timeline a 4:39 p.m. call between Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows along with Mitch McConnell, who joined the call sounding “furious.” The item is in the Rucker/Leonnig book but doesn’t appear in the Pentagon timeline.
“Does Army Secretary McCarthy finally get around to calling Maryland’s Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD) at 4:40 p.m. only after 4:39 p.m. call where McConnell sounds furious about DoD lack of action?”
The Nodding Head almost 3 years ago
Bow before His Ignorance
Huzzah for His Arrogance
Pirouette and do the dance
Pucker up, down go his pants!
claudio645 almost 3 years ago
How many times do we have to point out the emperor has no clothes before his lemming-like followers wise up?
Richard S Russell Premium Member almost 3 years ago
While I’ve generally admired the meritocratic approach of the US military (“Don’t bug us about ideology, what works? And who can make it happen?”), it’s disturbing that the system still allowed somebody as political as Mike Flynn to pile up 3 stars.
piper_gilbert almost 3 years ago
Screaming about the rising crime rates and the CRT will put him back in the White House. The Dems have no counter to these tactics.
Michael G. almost 3 years ago
Pongo wants to secede from FL and become an independent kingdom.
PraiseofFolly almost 3 years ago
Until the last few decades, U.S. presidents as presented in movies and on TV were the good guys, versus certain of the military as the bad guys. Actors who played presidents usually did so in a dignified manner —as did Henry Fonda, for example.
Of course the mannerisms of presidents were parodied beginning long ago, in newspaper cartoons and movies, during their own administrations and since. Television allowed subsequent parodies wide viewing. Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford imitators did increasingly disrespectful parodies of those presidents.
Then, it seemed acceptable and nearly routine to portray presidents as ignoble and corrupt, to be restrained by more principled and wiser advisers. (However, with Nixon, even the advisers were bad.)
Skip through Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II, and the portrayal of each president was less and less respectful. I wonder how Obama will be portrayed (On the cartoon series “Rick and Morty,” he appears vain and vindictive.)?
And now, Donald Trump and Joe Biden: Trump is certain to be portrayed as he actually was and is. It would be easy to parody a parody — Trump imitators just have to watch video clips and copy.
However, if General Milley is a representative example (forget General Flynn), the highest powers in the branches of the military (and those retired) are now the guardians of government principles of order within the Constitution.
If this is true, the traditional principles of president and military (at least those in high command), have reversed as presented in popular media. A president can be a believable bad guy; the military the good guys. The lower ranks in the military seem, however, to be infiltrated by a large number of far-right sympathizers — so this may change in future. It will be terrible if all the branches of government plus the military are taken in by seditious factions.
ncorgbl almost 3 years ago
General Milley is a good man, and a very good soldier. He was in between a rock and a hard place under tRump. His oath is to obey orders from the Commander-in-Chief. But when those orders are illegal any soldier has the right to refuse the order. The burden of proof lays with the soldier, who is not a lawyer. However, I was disappointed in the General when tRump led them all out to confront the protesters. Barr and the rest were just tRump toadies, but I would have preferred General Milley to have stepped up then. It seems to me that stepping up now, as those like Barr is just covering their 6.
Ontman almost 3 years ago
He really is a very small ‘man’.
Nantucket Premium Member almost 3 years ago
If someone read the book to him, they’d have to say “Donald” or “Trump” every couple of minutes to get his attention.
Radish the wordsmith almost 3 years ago
Trump praises ‘loving’ supporters who bludgeoned Capitol cops: ‘I wanted what they wanted’
Donald Trump praised the U.S. Capitol rioters who brutalized police officers during their violent insurrection aimed at overturning the presidential election results.
“There’s never been a base that screams out, with thirty-five thousand people, ‘We love you! We love you!’” Trump told the reporters. “That never happened to Ronald Reagan. It never happened to anybody. We have a base like no other. They’re very angry. That’s what happened in Washington on the sixth. They went down because of the election fraud. The one thing that nobody says is how many people were there, because if you look at that real crowd, the crowd for the speech, I’ll bet you it was over a million people.”
The journalists asked Trump what he had hoped to accomplish on Jan. 6, and he again focused on the crowd’s size and defended their actions.
“I would venture to say I think it was the largest crowd I had ever spoken [to] before,” Trump said. “It was a loving crowd, too, by the way. There was a lot of love. I’ve heard that from everybody. Many, many people have told me that was a loving crowd. It was too bad, it was too bad that they did that.”
The mob attacked police officers with flag poles, chemical irritants and other weapons, and videos show the violent clashes that contributed to five deaths and left scores injured as Trump supporters stormed the building to pressure lawmakers to overturn his election loss.
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-capitol-riot-2653839768/
Death Cut madman Trump should be in prison for inciting a riot in which people died.
RonnieAThompson Premium Member almost 3 years ago
Thanks to those who posted links.
Radish the wordsmith almost 3 years ago
America after Trump: Mental health expert says ‘Dystopian science fiction … is actually happening’
Donald Trump’s regime continues to reveal its “secrets.” But these are largely confirmations of what was both publicly and privately known for years about Trump and his allies’ perfidious and despicable conduct, disregard for human life, and scheming against American democracy.
New reporting has confirmed what was long predicted: Trump was willing to do anything to stay in power after being defeated in the 2020 election, up to and including ordering the U.S. military to turn against the American people.
Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, along other high-ranking military leaders, feared Trump as a potential Hitler and saw the potential for a “Reichstag fire” incident. Milley reportedly expressed concern in private that Trump would command his neofascist followers, both within and outside the government, to support a coup attempt and otherwise create chaos and violence.
Perhaps most worrisome, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others at the highest levels of government were concerned that Donald Trump would use nuclear weapons in an act of spite, perhaps to create a global disaster that would permit him to remain in power indefinitely.
If Trump had successfully ordered the United States military to keep him in power by usurping the will of the American people, the result could well have been a second American Civil War. The nation was saved from such an outcome, at least for the moment, through good fortune and the choices of a few real patriots such as Gen. Milley and his allies.
Unfortunately, Trumpism was not routed or finally defeated, and the Trump coup is ongoing. Trump remains in firm control of the Republican Party. At least 30 percent of the American people have been seduced by the Big Lie that the 2020 election was “stolen” from Trump.
https://www.rawstory.com/john-gartner-on-trump/
Radish the wordsmith almost 3 years ago
Call it what it is: “The Radical Fascist Agenda”
Call out their agenda for what it is: “a radical fascist agenda”. And it fits and it works because that is what it is. They want to subvert our entire nation for a Trumpublican takeover, democracy and fair representation be damned. They are trying to take away the complete foundation of democracy, free and fair elections, and to put back in place the crazy strong man they have sold their souls to. Link Trump to strongmen like Castro, Chavez, and yes, even one Trump admires, Adolf Hitler.
Don’t argue nuance with them, just call out their lies and distortions and their policies of hate and fear, hate and fear. Its all they do, but we never say it.
Finally, call what happened what it was, an attack on America. It was more dangerous than 9/11 because it was truly trying to overthrow our country, something Bin Laden could never dream of doing himself. And call Trump the dangerous would-be dictator that he is.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/7/19/2040611/-Call-it-what-it-is-The-Radical-Fascist-Agenda?utm_campaign=recent
Frankfreak almost 3 years ago
Republicans/conservatives/regressives: “Take Back Our Country”
What, were they forced to leave? Do they want others to take the country and make it good again? (and what is “good”) Do they want to give it back to the Indigenous People? Are they just following a failed ideology?
nyg16 almost 3 years ago
hey Mar-a-Fatso " you can kiss my ass"
GiantShetlandPony almost 3 years ago
Too bad we weren’t allowed to make Al Gore President, when it was found that he actually did win the election. Too bad the Supreme Court was allowed to overstep their bounds and stop a legitimate recount. If Al Gore was not made president then, there is no way a person, Donald Trump, who lost the election is going to be made president now. It’s a fantasy for small minded Trumpers.
In the case of Al Gore, it really too bad it couldn’t have been done. As it’s very probable we may never of had a 9/11 under Al Gore, which means we would not have had to pull out of Afghanistan or Iraq, as we would not have had an excuse to go to war with either. Not to mention all the crazy that is tied to 9/11.
There would have been no unnecessary Bush tax cuts to the rich, the balanced budget with surplus to actually pay down the deficit would have been maintained. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid would likely have been expanded. The only thing that holds that back or requires cuts to those programs is the surplus is their fall back for their lack of revenue and spending on wars. A deficit that will be with us long after we’ve left. Also, we would have had money for infrastructure projects before roads and bridges inch closer to critical failures. Likely free internet everywhere. Oh, the different world we might be in now.
Radish the wordsmith almost 3 years ago
New book about Trump reveals Pentagon omitted things from Jan. 6 timeline — and ex-special counsel wants to know why
“Despite Milley recommending that the Pentagon call up neighboring National Guard unites immediately, Ryan McCarthy hadn’t gotten around to it until more than 2 1/2 hours after the Capitol was breached. About 750 Guard troops from Maryland would soon begin arriving, along with 620 from Virginia,” the book says.
The DOD also omitted from their timeline a 4:39 p.m. call between Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows along with Mitch McConnell, who joined the call sounding “furious.” The item is in the Rucker/Leonnig book but doesn’t appear in the Pentagon timeline.
“Does Army Secretary McCarthy finally get around to calling Maryland’s Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD) at 4:40 p.m. only after 4:39 p.m. call where McConnell sounds furious about DoD lack of action?”
https://www.rawstory.com/pentagon-omissions-jan6-timeline/
Radish the wordsmith almost 3 years ago
Top US Gen. Mark Milley told Stephen Miller to ‘shut the —-up’ when he said BLM protests were turning US cities into war zones, book says.
Andylit Premium Member almost 3 years ago
The modern Brownshirts are the Antifa thugs.
wiatr almost 3 years ago
Anyone who reads that to him needs body armour.