What goes through my my mind when I read the news with my morning coffee. …Or for the Simon's Rockers in the group, this is my response journal.
Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar died June 4 in Mali. No criminal charges have been filed.
Navy SEALs are the focus of Green Beret’s homicide investigation – The Washington Post
WTF? IF there is anything to this than military discipline has completely failed and the leadership needs to be changed among special forces units.
And nearly half of troops of color surveyed said White nationalism is thriving in the nation’s military.
Troops Say White Nationalism is Greater Threat to Nation Than ISIS Conflicts | Colorlines
Dereliction of duty on the part of leadership. Pure and simple.
After Trump Claim, White House Still Lacked Casualty List: Email undermines veracity of Trump’s statements about Gold Star families.
Exclusive: Pentagon Document Contradicts Trump’s Gold Star Claims
Of course it does.
The former military and civilian officials were responding to a comment Trump made Monday after being asked why he hadn’t yet reached out to the families of the four American Special Forces members killed in a recent ambush in Niger.
“If you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn’t make calls,” Trump said at a Rose Garden press conference with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. “A lot of them didn’t make calls. I like to call when it’s appropriate.”
…But to me, the most important takeaway of this latest Trump lie isn’t simply that it was false, or that it injected politics into what is normally a bipartisan tradition of respecting the nation’s war dead.
Instead, I was struck by the fact that the comment inadvertently highlights the disrespect, bordering on contempt, that Trump has for many in the military, including its top generals. Put another way, Trump’s comment says less about Obama’s relationship with the military and more about his own.
…Trump’s feuds with the military range from matters of strategy (the generals prefer using diplomacy to resolve the North Korean nuclear standoff; Trump has effectively threatened war) to social issues like Trump’s transgender ban (which many in the military oppose) and issues of basic human decency like Trump’s refusal to outright condemn the recent neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia (every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff did so unequivocally).
…Like his predecessors, Trump gives orders that will in some cases inevitably result in the deaths of American troops. He owes it to them and their families — and to the broader military for which they gave their lives — not to turn those losses into political attack lines. And he owes it to them — and to us — not to tell lies about what Obama, Bush, and other presidents treated as a hard but sacred part of their jobs.
Cheeto is Chief reaches new heights of fucktardary every day he is in office.
[A] member of Congress says she heard the call.
Trump reportedly told the widow of a slain soldier, “He knew what he signed up for” – Vox
Oy!!!!!
It’s been nearly two weeks since U.S. forces were ambushed in Niger, an attack that left four American servicemen dead.
…The Pentagon has not provided a detailed accounting of the ambush by 50 ISIS affiliated fighters which left four US soldiers dead and two wounded and has said the incident remains under investigation. But CNN has talked to half a dozen US officials who describe details of the chaos and confusion which led to the troops being left on the ground for nearly an hour before help could get to the remote area of southwestern Niger where they were operating.
…When four American servicemen are killed, it’s not unrealistic to think the president who routinely tweets random passing thoughts would at least briefly acknowledge their sacrifice.
The deadly ambush Donald Trump hasn’t yet acknowledged | MSNBC
hmmmm
Amnesty International is urging the United Nations to take swift action on allegations that one or more of its peacekeepers drugged and raped a 19-year-old woman in Central African Republic last month.
United Nations peacekeepers in Central African Republic
Rape is violence. It is the opposite of peace. Peace keeps who engage in violence like rape should be punished as harshly as the militaries they belong too will allow. Not only are they abusing the citizen they are there to protect, they are working against the mission they serve. Flagrant disobedience is the enemy of any well disciplined fighting force. Jail is the very least the offenders should receive.
The first seven months of the Trump administration have already resulted in more civilian deaths than under the entirety of the Obama administration. Airwars reports that under Obama’s leadership, the fight against ISIS led to approximately 2,300 to 3,400 civilian deaths. Through the first seven months of the Trump administration, they estimate that coalition air strikes have killed between 2,800 and 4,500 civilians.
Researchers also point to another stunning trend—the “frequent killing of entire families in likely coalition airstrikes.” In May, for example, such actions led to the deaths of at least 57 women and 52 children in Iraq and Syria.
The vast increase in civilian deaths is not limited to the anti-ISIS campaign. In Afghanistan, the U.N. reports a 67 percent increase in civilian deaths from U.S. airstrikes in the first six months of 2017 compared to the first half of 2016.
Donald Trump’s Presidency Is Only 10 Months Old, But New Data About His Airstrikes Is Alarming
sigh….
Morale aboard a US warship operating in the Pacific reached such a low ebb that one sailor described serving aboard the ship as being akin to being on “a floating prison,” according to surveys obtained via the Freedom of Information Act.
: Report: Massive morale problems aboard US Navy ship – CNNPolitics
hmmmm
An Army veteran who took a knee with a folded flag as President Trump’s motorcade passed by him on Wednesday says the president’s criticism of NFL players who kneel during the national anthem is “totally wrong.”
https://twitter.com/colincampbell/status/913381077036740609
Army vet who kneeled by Trump motorcade: Trump’s NFL attacks ‘totally wrong’ | TheHill
hmmmm
“So just in case you’re unclear on where I stand on this topic, I’m going to leave you with my most important thought today,” he said. “If you can’t treat someone with dignity and respect, then you need to get out. If you can’t treat someone from another gender, whether that’s a man or a woman, with dignity and respect, then you need to get out. If you demean someone in any way, then you need to get out. And if you can’t treat someone from another race, or a different color of skin, with dignity and respect, then you need to get out.”
Amen.
Boyer wrote an open letter to Kaepernick earlier this season, and it caused the two to meet up and discuss America and honoring the anthem.
…”We sorta came to a middle ground where he would take a knee alongside his teammates,” Boyer says. “Soldiers take a knee in front of a fallen brother’s grave, you know, to show respect. When we’re on a patrol, you know, and we go into a security halt, we take a knee, and we pull security.”
…Boyer described him as “very receptive.”
“Very receptive. He said, ‘I think that would be– I think– I think that would be really powerful,'” Boyer recalls. “And, you know, he asked me to do it with him. And I said, ‘Look, I’ll stand next to you. I gotta stand though. I gotta stand with my hand on my heart. That’s just– that’s just what I do and where I’m from.'”
Here’s how Nate Boyer got Colin Kaepernick to go from sitting to kneeling – CBSSports.com
hmmm
A female US Marine has made history by becoming the first woman to complete the Corps’ famously gruelling infantry officer training.
The lieutenant, who wants to keep her identity private, graduated in Quantico, Virginia, on Monday.
She will soon be assigned to lead a 40-strong platoon.
US Marines get first female infantry officer – BBC News
Ooo-rah!
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis announced Tuesday that he is freezing the implementation of President Trump’s ban on transgender people serving in the military, saying that he will first establish a panel of experts to provide advice and recommendations on how to carry out Trump’s directive.
Transgender ban frozen as Mattis moves forward with new review of options
hmmmm
“When I was 13 my congressman told me I couldn’t fly in combat… I said they just hadn’t met me yet… I knew I could do it but most of them told me I couldn’t…. I’m Amy McGrath and I love our country. I spent twenty years as a U.S. Marine, flew 89 combat missions, bombing Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, I was the first female marine to fly in an F-18 in combat… Some are telling me a Democrat can’t win this battle. …We’ll see about that.” – Amy McGrath
Dayum grrrrrrl….
Oohrah!
The commanding officer, executive officer and senior non-commissioned officer of the USS Fitzgerald have been removed from their duties for cause amid the fallout surrounding the deadly collision between the USS Fitzgerald and a cargo ship off the coast of Japan on June 17.
USS Fitzgerald’s leadership removed from their duties over June collision – CNNPolitics
hmmm
The irony wasn’t lost on the military.
82nd Airborne Division Calls Out Man Giving ‘Nazi’ Salute While Wearing Their Hat
hmmmmm
The head of the VA is going to meet with doctors and other employees at the VA’s medical center in Manchester who turned whistleblower after concluding their patients could not get proper care.
Whistleblowers Come Forward Over Problems At New Hampshire VA Hospital | New Hampshire Public Radio
hmmm
But while Trump’s tweet states that he consulted with his generals and military experts ahead of making the announcement, US defense officials have indicated that many of the top brass were caught off guard by the policy change.
…The Joint Chiefs of Staff, including chairman General Joseph Dunford, were not aware President Donald Trump planned to tweet a ban on transgender service members, three US defense officials told CNN — the latest indication that top military leaders across all four service branches were blindsided by the President’s announcement.
…Adding to the confusion is that Trump’s decision came without a plan in place to implement it.
…For now, Dunford has informed service members that there will be “no modifications to the current policy until the President’s direction has been received by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary has issued implementation guidelines.”
Donald Trump transgender ban tweet blindsided US Joint Chiefs – CNNPolitics.com
What a ridiculous, incompetent loser the Cheeto is. He is a laughing stock loser with a capitol “L.”
Thousands of troops currently serving in the military are transgender, and some estimates place the number as high as 11,000 in the reserves and active duty military, according to a RAND Corporation study that has been cited by the Defense Department.
…“For the past year, transgender troops have been serving openly and have been widely praised by their Commanders, as is the case in 18 allied militaries around the world including Israel and Britain,” Belkin said. “Yet members of Congress are denigrating the value of military service by transgender troops, and Service Chiefs are pressuring Secretary Mattis to continue the transgender enlistment ban despite having no new arguments or data to back up their long-discredited assertions.
…Trump’s announcement comes two weeks after the House rejected an amendment to the annual defense policy bill that would have blocked the Pentagon from offering gender transition therapies to active duty service members. Twenty-four Republicans joined all 190 Democrats voting to reject the measure.
Trump announces ban on transgender people in U.S. military – The Washington Post
sigh….
Comments From The Peanut Gallery 