A couple of days ago a video showed up on social media that featured U.S. House members, Chris DeLuzio, Chrissey Houlahan, Maggie Goodlander, and Jason Crow. U.S. Senators Elisa Slotkin and Mark Kelly were also involved. All six have a couple of things in common. First, they are all democrats. Second, they all either served in the military, or the federal intelligence community before being elected to office.
The gist of the video, which addressed current members of the American military and intelligence services was, " You can refuse illegal orders." They drove their point home even further by adding, "You must refuse illegal orders." You know, the ones that violate the Constitution, the document everyone has sworn to support and defend. Those admonishments, by the way, aren't anything new. No one who has ever worn an American uniform has ever sworn to support and defend anything else, including Commander in Chiefs.
There are two United States military oaths for enlisted men. Both open with the line about supporting and defending the Constitution. Further on it varies slightly depending on enlistment in the National Guard, or the regular military. The full-time military oath reads in part, "I will obey the orders of the President of the Untired States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice." The oath for the National Guard says. "I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the Governor (of whichever state) and the officers appointed over me, according to law and regulations."
In addition, members of the military--and presumably intel services--are taught that, "following orders," is not a defense for committing illegal acts. We pretty much ruled that out immediately after the end of World War II when hundreds, if not thousands of Germans used it to justify their participation in the mass murders of Jews, Gypsies, Gays, and anyone else deemed an enemy of the state. To put it simply, just because Herr Himmler told you to do it, didn't mean you should.
To many of us, the video seems like a reasonable reminder. Especially given the President, Donald Trump is threatening to occupy American cities with not just units of the National Guard, but members of the Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard--acts he claims he can do whenever he wants no matter what the courts say. (Even the resurgent white nationalist, Oath Keepers want in on this action. Recently founder Stewart Rhodes said, "Right now, under federal statutes, President Trump can call us up as the militia if he sees it necessary.")
The reaction to the video from the right edge has been a tad hostile. Displays of faux horror and outrage are common. Words like dangerous, irresponsible, and treasonous have been bandied about. Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson was quoted as saying, "...I will say unequivocally that it was a wildly inappropriate thing for so called leaders of congress to do to encourage young troops to disobey orders." (No one in the video encouraged troops to, "disobey," orders, but why quibble over details.)
None of Johnson's ire, or anyone else's for that matter, compared to the reaction from the White House though.
What we saw in response to the video from the President of the United States was unhinged madness. He first posted, "Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!!LOCK THEM UP???" Later he reposted a message from a follower which simply said, "HANG THEM." Later still, he wrote, "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR. Punishable by DEATH!" Finally, the President reposted a series of comments from users on his forum, Truth Social. Among those he included posts that claimed the video was an act of insurrection. and another demanding the democrats be, "indicted."
That tone and content is the type of shit you'd expect out of Adolf during his last days in the Berlin bunker. It is rabid lunacy so far out there it begins to morph into dark surrealism.
So much so, when I read the messages, I immediately flashed to the ventriloquist/comedian, Jeff Dunham. One of the characters in Dunham's act is a skeletal dummy named, Achmed, the dead terrorist.
Yes, that's right, Donald John Trump, President of the United States, has lost every last one of his marbles. He has become the embodiment of a ventriloquist's prop--a ghoulish caricature of a human being whose tag line is, "Silence! I kill you!"
Three plus years to go. Fuck.
11-21-25
No comments:
Post a Comment