The last time around, Trump’s efforts to pack the Defense Department with cranks and flunkies came too late to bring the military under his full political control. The president and his advisers were slow-footed and disorganized, and lacked familiarity with Washington politics. They were hindered as well by the courage and professionalism of the military officers and civilian appointees who, side by side, serve in the Defense Department.
… In a second term, Trump would combine his instincts for revenge and self-protection. He would seek not only to get even with an officer corps that he thinks betrayed him, but also to break the military as one of the few institutions able to constrain his attempts to act against the Constitution and the rule of law.
Isn’t it pretty well understood that the reason Senator Tubberville was holding up all those military promotions was to keep the slots open for Trump loyalists.
He’s still holding the top General slots open for just that reason.
He’s still holding up a lot of other spots by holding those top general slots as well. For the lower promotions to go through, they need the people moving into their top general slots to vacate their positions. And for the even lower ones, they need the lower ones to move up.
Tuberville essentially said that he’s not going to hold up the entire line of people, just a few at the head of the line. But holding up the head of the line means the rest of the line is impacted.
It’s really a sad day when I have to choose to side with the American military as the lesser of two evils.
The world is fucked and it’s largely due to American elites and the military they controls interests.
Who could have guessed allowing private interests a large say in our government would have ended up this way?
Just be thankful that the military has always been known as very apolitical in US history. With how this boat keeps rocking, though, I hope it stays that way.
I’m not American, so their apolitical stance within your system is sort of irrelevant to me. Their effect on the world is very much not apolitical.
They follow the orders of a civilian government, nothing more, nothing less.
That’s what apolitical means for the military, which is what our military is doing.
What it means for a military to be political is if the soldiers and officers start publicly supporting or denouncing various politicians on political bases. Trying to intrude on civilian government kind of stuff.
Hate to say this but military unit cultures can shift incredibly quickly. All it takes is for a few pirate Eddie Gallagher types to get put in charge and the tide shifts instantaneously.
Let’s say pirate Trump neofascist loyalists get selected to lead 15-20% of units. There will be a tidal shift in the willingness to disobey or ignore illegal orders or simply turn a blind eye to illegal and immoral conduct. It’s quite depressing and terrifying how quickly loyalty to moral behavior falls apart especially with military populations that already attract many of the most susceptible to extremist ideologies.
That’s why I hope things won’t go that way since there’s a real possibility of that happening…
Oh well.
I’m worried we’re gonna be some level of politically fucked no matter what but I’m 100% sure that if Trump wins or is handed the election like W in 2000 the United States will cease to exist not only as we know it but potentially as an entity altogether. It will be civil war, because as fucked up as our system is there are still decent people in positions of power to resist what he tries to do and he will send the military in to enforce.
That’s already a civil war to me but when citizens resist and there’s mutinies from any percentage of soldiers that refuse to fire on their countrymen it will become a full conflict and that will cascade one way or the other to the rest of the country. Maybe not every city or county, but enough of them.
he will send the military in to enforce.
Gonna be more than a few deserters. I don’t think the president can even deploy federal troops stateside, and you better believe the national guard aren’t going to shoot their neighbors.
Not a local state’s national guard. They will send in other states.
Probably but a very non insignificant percentage are gonna support him
My bet is a silent takeover with little resistance.
Of course it would be. Dictatorships aren’t really possible in a country with a military that refuses to march against its own people.
And a military that is willing to kill its own people has recently shown that it’s pretty bad about going up against other armies.
The republican traitor filth must be brought low.
Not big on that language; I’ll be happy with seeing Republicans lose elections.
Yeah, that worked out fucking grand last time, when we let the traitors get away with it.
The problem isn’t “traitor” but “filth” - that’s language which tends to incite extrajudicial violence.
The filth need to be treated as harshly as allowed by law. End of story. Fucking traitors.
Treason has legal penalties for a reason.
If they dont want to be called filth they shouldnt A) WANT ME AND ALL MY FRIENDS DEAD B) be traitors
Going high got us here. They want us dead.
I hope there are stay behinds in case the military goes against the public, but I doubt ut
