Sunday, November 24, 2019

So this happened (again, via Tweet)


What, by the way, do cost overruns (?) have to do with this?  Asking for a friend.

Trump had to get his pound of flesh from this, so Gallagher retires with his SEAL status intact.  It's telling Trump thinks one more strike against the chain of command is a win; but there we are.

For the first part, this contradicts what was reported earlier:

Which makes this simply a mess, for which Spencer bears some blame:
Which makes me think Spencer's letter of termination (he didn't resign) is, and was released as, a CYA measure, which is not really a good look no matter who is finally to blame.  Except on reading it (finally!  what can I say, I'm busy!), it's clearly a middle finger to Trump, especially the paragraphs about military order and the rule of law, two things Trump clearly disdains and tramples like the ignorant child he is.  Of course, that's a good way to point away from DOD reports that Spencer was negotiating with the White House behind Esper's back.  ETTD, indeed. Still, the letter is not a resignation:
And it makes it pretty clear Trump told Esper to do it, but leave Trump out of it.  Which is the other problem here:
Which raises a more important problem/issue:
I don't know who has standing to challenge the appointment of a new SecNav (?), but this kind of quite literal lawlessness is a pervasive problem all on its own.  Trump wants to keep his (tiny) hands clean by foisting the order onto the SecDef.  Notice Trump had nothing to do with it, which is the responsibility he wants desperately not to be saddled with, because that responsibility carries with it blame on Trump for his stupid tweets in the first place, and for his bull-in-the-china-shop approach to military command structure.  This quite honestly has nothing to do with Spencer or even Esper anymore, and everything to do with Trump.  So, of course, Trump did it because of cost overruns.

Huh?

His lawlessness and disregard for law is like a stone through a plate glass window; the cracks from the initial impact just keep spreading and spreading, and the window itself is now useless and must be replaced.  How much of government and understanding of governance (not to mention military order) will we have to remove and replace (and how do we do that?) when Trump is finally gone?

Every day he proves himself not only unfit for office, but a clear and present danger to the government and the Constitution.  And he knows it, and refuses to be held responsible for it, and that only makes the matter worse.

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