Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth gave a flopped presentatin in Quantico to Flag officers and senior enlisted: WWTT?

Hundreds of Officers. Two Long 😴🥱Hours of Political Theater.

Echo opinion by W.J. Hennigan in The New York Times

Mr. Hennigan writes about national security issues for NYT Opinion from Washington.

Maine Writer- to host this expensive wateful meeting on the day before a goverment shutdown (aka "SHITdown") loomed when American military and their families would not be paid was a very STUPID idea and wreckless timing.  #WWTT❓

Never had so many admirals and generals been summoned from Europe, Asia and the Middle East to a single military base. 

Hegseth must be fired❗ "Quantico meeting played out was largely a political-rally performance in front of service members who, by rule, aren’t allowed to engage in partisan activities."

Because such a gathering has no apparent modern precedent, you would think that the event on Tuesday in Quantico, Virginia., was for a good reason. But that wasn’t the case.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to fly in more than 800 of America’s most senior military officers to sit through two hours of banal, rambling speeches reflects how far the Pentagon has come in eight months of this administration, becoming subject to President Trump’s politics and the idea that troops should be used at home.

The military was once again used as a backdrop for Trump’s ongoing clashes in America’s culture wars. What played out was largely a political-rally performance in front of service members who, by rule, aren’t allowed to engage in partisan activities.

Instead of hearing about a key strategic military shift or department restructuring, Hegseth informed them about the administration’s plans to tighten fitness and grooming standards, before Trump delivered an hour’s worth of gripes and ruminations on political life that included taking potshots at his immediate predecessor.

Appearing in front of a large American ostentatious flag display, Patton-style, Trump was surprised when the military officers greeted him with silence rather than uproarious applause. “I never walked into a room so silent before,” he said. “Don’t laugh. Don’t laugh. You’re not allowed to do that. Just have a good time. And if you want to applaud, you applaud. And if you want to do anything you want, you can do anything that you want. And if you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room.

Of course, there goes your rank. There goes your future. But you just feel nice and loose, OK, because we’re all on the same team.”

It was delivered as a joke — one of many the president made that drew uncomfortable laughter over the course of his address — but Trump has pressure-tested the military’s apolitical posture. He did it this year in a speech to troops at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, and he did it repeatedly on Tuesday.

He criticized President Joe Biden, taking an unusual swipe at a former commander in chief in front of American forces. He doubled down on rancor when he claimed the United States faced “a war from within.” Cities led by “radical left Democrats,” he said, are unsafe places. “We’re going to straighten them out one by one,” he said. “And this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That’s a war, too.”

Trump’s inclination to use military forces in blue parts of the country has quickly become a defining characteristic of his second term. Rather than the usual practice of deploying U.S. forces into communities confronting an emergency or natural disaster, Trump sees them as a means to establish law and order. He’s already sent the National Guard into Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and on Tuesday he suggested they were going into Chicago “very soon.”

These American cities, he said, should be used as “training grounds” for the troops.

In his address, Hegseth criticized the “stupid rules of engagement,” that he claimed constrained soldiers in combat. This could mean that military lawyers are re-evaluating what actions are permissible on the battlefield, but he stopped short of detailing what changes were occurring.

It’s hard to believe, given that his speech ran nearly an hour, but outside of suggestions along these lines, there might not have been a single new piece of information that was relayed to the hundreds of officers compelled to attend the meeting, the total cost of which will probably never be publicly disclosed.

Instead, Hegseth spoke at length about the urgent  need for U.S. service members to maintain clean-shaven faces, 🙄 conduct daily workouts and execute physical fitness tests twice a year.

“Unfortunately, we have had leaders who either refused to call BS and enforce standards or leaders who felt like they were not allowed to enforce standards,” he said. “Both are unacceptable. And that’s why today, at my direction, the era of unprofessional appearance is over. No more beardos. The era of rampant and ridiculous shaving profiles is done.”

He described how he was fed up with “fat troops” and “fat generals and admirals.” Equally important, he continued, was the elimination of political correctness and “woke garbage” within the ranks.  Hegseth punctuated this point by defending his decision to fire more than a dozen military leaders, many of whom happen to be women or people of color.  (OMG❗😡- this is bullshit💩 💩and disrespectful to our American military.)

While the senior officers managed to keep silent for much of this meeting, Trump is expected to continue to test the military’s nonpartisanship during future on-base appearances. 

Service members will be tested to hold true to its apolitical tradition — a responsibility that could be as consequential as any they might find while in uniform.

Trump is a political weak leader - a Wisconsin echo opinion

Wisconsin echo - "If Trump won’t engage in genuine political compromise with his political opponents, then he is proven to be a poor American president without any grasp of what relates to the common good"

An opinion letter published in the Lacrosse Tribune news:

We must critically evaluate Donald Trump’s autocratic demand that any proposal to keep the US government opened must contain a $5.7 billion commitment to expand the wall (the border wall) between Mexico and the United States.

Has Donald Trump overstepped his legitimate range of authority with this demand?

We know he believes that his action is fair and rationally based, but is it? We do know that Trump’s scientific acumen is weak, his spelling ability is weak, his respect of the opinion of professional scholars is weak, and his grasp of what the majority of the American people want is weak.

So, we must ask whether Trump has a moral, ethical and legal foundation for his wall-building demand.

History and constitutional law answer this question for us and the answer is “no” -- there is no justification for Trump’s position here; at least this is morally and ethically certain and it is arguable that Trump has no legitimate authority to impose his will on the American people, when there is no Congressional support for such action.

So, I appeal to the American citizenry to openly rebuke Trump for overstepping his realm of authority. If he persists in his vainglorious* misbehavior, he deserves to be expelled from political office. If he won’t engage in genuine political compromise with his political opponents, then he is proven to be a poor American president without any grasp of what relates to the common good.

Which side of this debate are you on?

Jac Bulk, La Crosse, Wisconsin

*excessively proud of oneself

South Carolina echo letter to the editor - "Trump you are fired!"

Tell Trump: ‘YOU’RE FIRED!’

To those who voted for Donald Trump: 

An echo letter to the editor published in The Herald, a South Carolina Newspaper

Do you remember his campaign statement — “Vote for me. What have you got to lose?”. Unless you’ve been living under a rock — plenty (!).

You must shout your outrage to Donald Tr?” (said Trump,) who has already increased our US national debt by trillions of dollars, enriched the Russian Oligarchy by more millions of dollars, and put over 800,000 people out of work for a month, all with the alleged Trump skill as a greatly failed deal maker. 

Saying, I’m sorry, I made a mistake, isn’t in the Trump vocabulary, but perhaps he will understand something more familiar. YOU’RE FIRED!!

David Gray, Fort Mill

Republicans - a political party without a vision or a candidate but supporters who don't seem to get the disconnect

Republicans can't explain how their cruel Draconian position on the stupid 2013 budget sequester and ultimate government shutdown can help the economy. 

An example of the impact was reported in MaineBiz, as horrible Republican economics negatively impacted businesses related to Acadia National Park in Maine.

A federal report found communities near Acadia National Park

lost an estimated $16.2 million during the government shutdown last October, the third-largest estimated loss for national parks in the country.

The Portland Press Herald reported the National Park Service said park attendance at Acadia dropped 67% last October, compared with visitor numbers for that month over the past three years. The economic impact loss was estimated for communities within 60 miles of the park and added to a $262,133 revenue loss for the park itself.

The report found that only Great Smoky Mountain National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee, at $25.6 million, and Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, at $17 million, had larger estimated losses from the partisan budget impasse that caused the government shutdown.  

Republican speak out of both sides of their mouths. They claim their objective is to improve the economy while, at the same time, obstructing, via sequester and shutdowns, the access people have to jobs they already have!

Moreover, Republicans are a party without a vision for how to restore American jobs, while claiming they want people to achieve the American Dream, via hard work. There's a major disconnect between what Republican say and how they respond to solutions to the problems they're creating by obstructing solutions.

Without a message, Republicans still stir up trouble, because they're somehow able to convince a skeptical electorate not to trust government. Hello? Acadia National Park, the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and the Grand Canyon National Park, among other sites, attract many millions in tourists and money because government invested in these natural treasures. Government created, through amazing conservation efforts, the very economic success so many people enjoy and pay to see in these and other parks.

It's hard to understand the smoke and mirrors Republican use to deceive those who fall into lock step behind their double talking rhetoric. Nevertheless, without a credible leader, they have no one who can communicate a credible vision for America's future.  

Republicans will spend millions of dollars to win political power in 2014, when their party has no vision or candidate to communicate how they intend to fix the problems created with the stupid budget sequester and the avoidable government shutdown. These are problems the GOP created while they're wasting tax payer money obstructing the obvious solutions. 

In fact, 2016 is the time to vote hypocritical Republicans out of office. American simply can't afford to pay for more obstructionist government.

Hearing from People on the Street - Shutting Down Government Because of One Law is Very Unpopular

Republicans continue to listen to one another about continuing the government shutdown but are deaf to those who strongly disagree with their minority point of view. Hypocritical Republicans are quick to use public opinion polls when the data works to their advantage, but they're acting irresponsibly when their right wing points of view are in conflict with the polls.  

Listen up, Republicans, it's time to acknowledge the polls opposing the shutdown. Only Congressional Republicans are obstructing progress to lift the shutdown and, while they're at it, it would be a good idea to life the stupid budget sequester as well.

Americans I'm hearing from are angry at Congressional Republicans for not giving Obamacare a chance. Too slowly, the word is getting out that Obamacare is a law and it's not worth shutting down government to prevent its implementation.

Eventually, Republicans will have to accept the health care reform law called Obamacare and admit accountability for a preventable government shut down trying to prevent its implementation. 

House Speaker Boehner knows he simply can't be the fall guy for the next level of obstruction because, otherwise, our nation will collapse under his incompetent leadership. Therefore, CNN's John King reports he's sending an early signal that, ladies and gentlemen of the Republican caucus, 'we are not going to be part of defaulting.' Boehner's obituary is already going to read he was the leader of a bizarre three-ring circus on Capitol Hill, wasting tax payer money on 42 waste of time House votes to repeal the health care reform law and leading other obstructionist job killing antics. He doesn't want to say he was the speaker when the government for the first time defaulted.

US taxpayers are funding the salaries of every person who is holding the government hostage with their extremist entrenchment against Obamacare. Worse, the staff people in every Congressional office and supporting constituent services are also on furlough.

These employees of the Congress are experiencing low morale as a result of the shutdown. It's no coincidence that Congress voted retroactive pay for all government workers when this mess is cleaned up, because a good number of furloughed employees are among their own staff personnel.

Congress is acting irresponsibly by ignoring the public's overwhelming opposition to the government shutdown. It makes no sense, but Republicans have shown, in the past, how they're not too impressed with how arithmetic works. Obstructionist Republicans believe math, only when it works in their favor. 

This ignorance of arithmetic must show up in the 2014 election. Americans finally realize how Republicans are controlling our democratic government with their right wing extremism. 

When Republicans break the law, trying to prevent the implementation of the Constitutionally upheld Obamacare, they're acting out against one law to hold the entire government hostage. Television ads are already showing up to portray Republicans as spoiled children trying to get their own way. It's hard to imagine how these ads will play out in a cacophony of anti-extremism noise in the 2014 and 2016 elections.  

Orwellian Fox News Rhetoric- When is a Government Shutdown Not?

Doublespeak is language that deliberately disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words. 

Republicans have been dancing in apoplectic glee and salivating over the probability and, now, reality of pushing a government shutdown. Their purpose has been to flex their minority party Napoleonic syndrome. They boasted about intending to shut down government, rather than see the implementation of health care reform, aka "Obamacare". Napoleonic driven right wingers don't want another helpful benefit, along with Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid or Veterans Benefits, to support the economic and medical well being of Americans. Selfish.

Now that the orgasmic apoplexy has been achieved, Republicans are waking up to the realization that Americans are really mad about this frenzied action and the preventable harm it's causing.

In the face of public outrage, right wing zealots are now back peddling, like the hypocrites they are, to mitigate the shutdown with doublespeak. Right wing and duplicitous Fox News has adopted Orwellian thinking. Now, the "shutdown" is a "slowdown".

Orwellian language doesn't mitigate the harm Republicans are doing by using minority rule to get their own way. 

In straight speak, maybe Republicans understand "failure". 

Extremists are having a war party over the shutdown of government. Not soon enough, however, they'll go down in flames in the annals of history, with all the others in world history.  

History will shut down on every one of these cruel right wing ideologues and there's no euphemism or Orwellian language to change the reality of their ultimate political demise. Rather than a slowdown of extremism, the government shutdown will finally slam the door on the Republican party as we know it.