The Purge
Can't blame him: What if "his" generals were to accidentally support the Constitution?
I had already been thinking about this. Der Drumpfenfuhrer can strut around being proud of his naked racism and his complete disregard for the sick and the poor, but when enough people have had it—when they start joining strikes and blocking highways, and that sort of thing—sooner or later some MAGA politician, or maybe even Cheetolini himself, is going to call for assistance from the military. And then what?
One of Little Donnie’s favorite phrases is “my generals.”
At the the end of Heather Cox Richardson’s “Letters from an American” yesterday, I find this:
“… And Americans’ concerns about Trump acting like a dictator are unlikely to be calmed by tonight’s news that Trump has abruptly purged the leadership of the military in apparent unconcern over the message that such a sweeping purge sends to adversaries. He has fired the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Charles Q. Brown, who Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested got the job only because he is Black, and Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the Chief of Naval Operations, who was the first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff and whom Hegseth called a ‘DEI hire.’
“The vice chief of the Air Force, General James Slife, has also been fired, and Hegseth indicated he intends to fire the judge advocates general, or JAGs—the military lawyers who administer the military code of justice—for the Army, Navy, and Air Force. Trump has indicated he intends to nominate Air Force Lieutenant General John Dan “Razin” Caine to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Oren Liebermann and Haley Britzky of CNN call this ‘an extraordinary move,’ since Caine is retired and is not a four-star general, a legal requirement, and will need a presidential waiver to take the job. Trump has referred to Caine as right out of ‘central casting.’”
Because that remains Trump’s frame of reference.
I would remind all my fellow geezers that our troops are no longer a diverse group of youngsters from across the class-spectrum of American life. This is not the American military of the Vietnam years. This is the military of Afghanistan and Iraq. At the risk of offending some very good and brave people, I do not have great confidence that all officers and troops will be worrying about what constitutes an illegal order. Fingers crossed.