Topic: A Succint Analysis

Just today, I read the following by Representative Mikie Sherrill, a format Navy pilot. I am reposting it here in its entirety. I totally agree with it.

QUOTE:
So much for a “meritocracy.”
Last night at the Pentagon, President Trump and Secretary Hegseth dismantled a core principle of American democracy: the apolitical military. Let me explain what’s going on and why it is deeply dangerous for our country:
Secretary Hegseth announced that he is firing some of our nation’s top military leaders — including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General C.Q. Brown, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti, and a number of three and four star Generals and Flag Officers.
You don’t rise to our military’s highest positions without decades of leadership and commitment to serving missions across the globe. Four-star General C.Q. Brown has been serving our nation since 1984. Four-star Admiral Lisa Franchetti has been serving since 1985. Both of these individuals earned their barrier-breaking positions because they devoted their lives to taking on our nation’s toughest challenges — and they have the resumes to prove it.
Yet, Secretary Hegseth called Admiral Franchetti a DEI hire in his book, and criticized General Brown because of his commitment to promoting diversity in our armed forces. This move isn’t about strengthening our armed forces, and it isn’t about merit. It's about Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump implementing their political agenda.
Additionally, Trump and Hegseth fired the top Judge Advocates General, who are the military’s top lawyers. These are the individuals who interpret law for our commanders, and ensure that we’re fighting in accordance with our values.
Normally, our military’s top leadership serves under multiple administrations — Democrats and Republicans alike. At the beginning of a presidential term, the leaders in these positions typically stay in place — some of the leaders fired yesterday even served in Trump’s first administration.
Now, Trump and Hegseth are trying to gut the military’s leadership so they can use the armed forces to carry out their personal, political agenda. This move will threaten America’s national security, show weakness to dictators worldwide like Vladimir Putin, and give Donald Trump unchecked power to abuse our military.
As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, I joined my veteran colleagues to demand answers from Hegseth and hold him accountable for this brazen, dangerous abuse of power.
In the United States Armed Forces, you swear an oath to the Constitution — not a person, not a political party. It’s an oath I took for the first time at age eighteen when I entered the Naval Academy, and have taken numerous times throughout my career. I will never abandon that oath, and I will always fight to protect the men and women who risk their lives to serve our country. 
– US Representative Mikie Sherrill, Former Navy Pilot.

END QUOTE

Bill

Quote Post 1

Re: A Succint Analysis

Once they have the military, we're done. His coup will be complete, and we'll no longer be a democracy. I'm sickened and sad, and I can't even imagine how you must feel, Bill, having served for so many years. The only thing I can hope is that if the military is ordered to open fire on protestors or oversee concentration camps (like the one in Guantanamo right now) they will refuse to obey or blow the whistle and expose the atrocities. I don't know what we can do, I really don't. I'm surprised there are not more protests in the streets, but my fear is Trump would declare martial law and assume total power. We are witnessing the end, and I hope like hell I am alive to witness his end.

Quote Post 2

Re: A Succint Analysis

Well, there is a "check and balance" that takes effect if Felon47 attempts this. It is called "Posse Comitatus" and, so far, it is still a law firmly embedded in our land.

Take a look at this: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ … -explained

Bill

Quote Post 3

Re: A Succint Analysis

In addition, the Insurrection Act allows the president — with or without the state government’s consent — to use the military to enforce federal law or suppress a rebellion against federal authority in a state, or to protect a group of people’s civil rights when the state government is unable or unwilling to do so.

The Department of Justice has for years asserted that the DC Guard can operate in a non-federal, “militia” status, in which it is not covered by the Posse Comitatus Act. By this interpretation, presidents can use the DC Guard for law enforcement whenever they choose.

In this way, the Trump administration brought a large, federally controlled military force into Washington and used it for civilian law enforcement, all while skipping over the procedures in the Insurrection Act and evading the political costs of invoking it. That is exactly what the Posse Comitatus Act is meant to prevent.

These three passages have me very worried. Laws don't matter to that son of a bitch either, so I'm doubly worried. It's a great thing in theory, but nothing is sacred anymore, least of all the Constitution. Nothing would surprise me anymore.

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Re: A Succint Analysis

One would hope that a good, solid majority (better than 98%) of military members would refuse an illegal order to suppress any civilian disturbance simply at the order of one person (the President). The legislative branch must pass an approval vote to such use before I'd ever lift a finger.

Bill

Quote Post 5

Re: A Succint Analysis

B Douglas Slack wrote:

One would hope that a good, solid majority (better than 98%) of military members would refuse an illegal order to suppress any civilian disturbance simply at the order of one person (the President). The legislative branch must pass an approval vote to such use before I'd ever lift a finger.

Bill

I think this would be the case, too. The morals of the individual and not the whole and definitely not our government will be the only thing to save us.

Quote Post 6

Re: A Succint Analysis

cookbooklady wrote:
B Douglas Slack wrote:

One would hope that a good, solid majority (better than 98%) of military members would refuse an illegal order to suppress any civilian disturbance simply at the order of one person (the President). The legislative branch must pass an approval vote to such use before I'd ever lift a finger.

Bill

I think this would be the case, too. The morals of the individual and not the whole and definitely not our government will be the only thing to save us.

Fully agree. There's only one place for Trump and his cronies--jail.

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Re: A Succint Analysis

Felon47 should have been there before the election. If the court system hadn't been handcuffed by big business and the like, this would have happened. The biggest problem would have been the Supreme Court, already bought and paid for my Felon47.

Bill

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Re: A Succint Analysis

Maybe this is old news, but I just came across this in one of the groups I'm in: It's from Senator Chris Murphy, (D - CT)

Report from the Senate Floor:
Last night in the Senate, something really important happened. Republicans forced us to debate their billionaire bailout budget framework. We started voting at 6 PM because they knew doing it in the dark of night would minimize media coverage. And they do not want the American people to see how blatant their handover of our government to the billionaire class is.

So I want to explain what happened last night and what we did to fight back. The apex of Republicans’ plan to turn over our government to their wealthy cronies is a giant tax cut for billionaires and corporations. And they plan to pay for it with cuts to programs that working people rely on. Popular and necessary programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP, are all being targeted. In order to pass the tax cut, Republicans have to go through a series of procedural steps. Last night, they took the first step which requires them to pass an outline of their plan, but with it, any senator can offer as many amendments as we want. So my Democratic colleagues and I did just that.

Now, we knew that Republicans would largely unanimously oppose them, but we had two objectives here. One, Republicans were forced to put their opinion on record — many for the first time — on the most corrupt parts of Trump and Musk’s agenda. Two, as I’ve been saying, I am going to make every process and procedure as slow and painful as possible for as long as my colleagues choose to ignore the constitutional crisis happening before our eyes.
So what did we propose? We proposed no tax cuts for anyone who makes a billion dollars a year. We made them vote on whether or not Elon Musk and DOGE should have limitless access to Americans’ personal data. We made them vote on whether to protect IVF and require insurers to cover it. Every single amendment Democrats proposed was shot down. On almost every single amendment, Republicans universally opposed it. Every Republican voted against our proposal to prevent more tax cuts for billionaires. The corruption and theft is happening in the open here.

The whole game for Republicans is taking your money and giving it to the wealthiest corporations and billionaires — even if it means kicking your parents out of a nursing home or turning off Medicaid for the poorest children. They know what they are doing is deeply unpopular. They are offering a tax cut to the most wealthy that is 850 times larger than what they are offering working people. Oh and by the way, any tax cuts for working people are going to be washed out by higher costs for basic necessities, like health care and food. It’s a fundamental injustice.

Thanks to your pressure and support, many of my Democratic colleagues have joined my effort to do everything we can to make sure they cannot destroy democracy and steal your money in the dark of the night. We are being loud about what is happening. I’m going to continue to grind the gears of Congress down as much as possible to make it that much harder and slower to get away with this corruption. That’s why the votes lasted until nearly 5 AM.

This is a five-alarm fire. I don’t think we have two years to plan and fight back. I think we have months. It’s still in our power to stop the destruction of our democracy with mass mobilization and effective opposition from elected officials. So we can’t miss any opportunity to take advantage of opportunities to put Republicans on the record and shine a light on what is happening.

And you have a role to play in this as well. I need you to amplify what’s happening, support the leaders who are fighting for you to make sure they can continue speaking truth to power against Musk and Trump’s billionaire cronies, and show up at rallies and town halls. Use every tool at your disposal to send a message loud and clear about how you expect my colleagues to lead and fight in this moment.

Every best wish,
US Senator Chris Murphy (D - CT)

Quote Post 9

Re: A Succint Analysis

I've seen a few clips of Sen. Murphy. He's a dynamic speaker and if anyone can rally supporters, it's him.
Bill

Quote Post 10