Friday, October 20, 2017

Government of the military, for the military, by the military....

He's certainly done more damage.....

I had this tweet, from Trump's feed (he re-tweeted it) as an example of Trump creating a bubble and then moving into it.  It's an echo of what Trump told the Heritage Society on the 17th:

“(We) have ended finally the war on clean, beautiful coal. People are going back to work,” he said. “Over the last nine months we have removed job-killing regulations at a record pace. In fact, in nine months, we have done more, they say, than any President in history.”

I was going to leave it behind among the drafts gathering dust, and then Huckabee Sanders took the podium to berate reporters who dare to question a "Marine general":

“She also had quite a few comments that day that weren’t part of that speech and weren’t part of that video that were also witnessed by many people that were there,” Sanders said, referring to “what Gen. Kelly referenced yesterday.”

The reporter pressed: Would Kelly respond to reporting on his inaccurate statement?

“I think he’s addressed that pretty thoroughly yesterday,” Sanders said.

“He was wrong yesterday in talking about getting the money,” the reporter countered.

“If you want to go after Gen. Kelly, that’s up to you,” Sanders said. “But I think that, if you want to get into a debate with a four-star Marine general, I think that that’s something highly inappropriate.”

Just let that sink in a minute.  Gen. Kelly's veracity and authority is his uniform and military service.  Did Rep. Wilson say bad things off camera, where Kelly could hear it but not where the cameras could catch it?  Except that's not what Gen. Kelly said:

And a congresswoman stood up, and in the long tradition of empty barrels making the most noise, stood up there and all of that and talked about how she was instrumental in getting the funding for that building, and how she took care of her constituents because she got the money, and she just called up President Obama, and on that phone call he gave the money — the $20 million — to build the building. And she sat down, and we were stunned. Stunned that she had done it. Even for someone that is that empty a barrel, we were stunned.

So she stood up and sat down off camera, and "we were stunned."  Stood up and addressed whoever would listen after the speeches were over and the cameras turned off?  Sorry, not buying it.  But the point is, I dare to question a Marine general because he is not superior to me, and his lies are not better than the truth, and his word is not to be trusted any longer.

And I don't give a damn what uniform he wears or how many medals he has on his chest or what rank he holds.

And then we're back to what Trump said, which everybody agrees he said except Trump, apparently.  And if there was a "misunderstanding," the fault is on the family, because fault can never rest at the feet of anyone in this White House:

“Certainly if the spirit of which those comments were intended was misunderstood, that’s very unfortunate. As the President has said, as General Kelly has said, who I think has a very deep understanding of what that individual would be going through, his comments were very sympathetic, very respectful,” Sanders said. “And that was the spirit in which the President intended them. If they were taken in any other way, that’s certainly an unfortunate thing.” 

What is this childish perseverance in having this last word on this subject?  What is wrong with these people?  There is not a person in that building who is not beneath contempt and unworthy of the high office they serve.  And to defend this insanity, this pusillanimity, on the grounds that we can't question Marine generals?

Barack Obama is right; our democracy is at stake; and not just in an election in Virginia.

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