Wham
CNN reports the latest insanity:
In an unprecedented purge of the military’s senior leadership Friday night, President Donald Trump fired the top US general just moments before his defense secretary fired the chief of the US Navy and the vice chief of the Air Force.
Trump announced he was dismissing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Q. Brown and replacing him with Air Force Lt. Gen. John Dan “Razin” Caine – an extraordinary move since Caine is retired, according to an Air Force official, and is not a four-star general.
Trump called Brown a “fine gentleman” and an “outstanding leader,” while hinting at the firings to come. “Finally, I have also directed Secretary [of Defense Pete] Hegseth to solicit nominations for five additional high level positions, which will be announced soon,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Minutes later, Hegseth released a statement announcing he’d fired Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the chief of the Navy.
The removal of the second Black man to serve as America’s most senior general and the first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff appears to send a strong signal from an administration that has outlawed diversity and inclusion efforts across the military and wider government.
Hegseth called Franchetti a “DEI hire” in his 2024 book, in which he wrote: “If naval operations suffer, at least we can hold our heads high. Because at least we have another first! The first female member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — hooray.”
Hegseth on Friday also said that Gen. James Slife, the vice chief of the Air Force, had been fired, and that he was “requesting nominations” for the Judge Advocates General for the Army, Navy and Air Force, indicating they will be replaced.
Systematically firing a woman and a Black man for being a woman and Black respectively.
This is hell, nor are we out of it.
Presumably nominees for replacing these fired officers will be chosen for their loyalty to Trump. He wants people in charge of the military who will be willing to fire on civilian protestors. Why shoot someone on 5th avenue yourself when you can get your own hand-picked general to do it for you? You keep your hands clean(ish), and can fire him if you need a fall guy.
Holy shit. This is bad.
Assigning a retired junior officer definitely points in that direction. Presumably you could find any number of other Four Stars that are white men that’d fit the bill.
YNnB:
Except that chain of command makes the senior officer responsible for what is done by those below him/her. And the POTUS is right at the top of all military chains of command. So endless debate as to the extent of the (ish) in clean(ish.)
Or in the naval tradition, maybe the captain should go down(ish) with the ship.
And a word from the Founding Fathers is appropriate here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ue5F57dZMU
Another way to look at this is that the oath some of us swore is to protect the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. Trump really does not want people with guns around him who believe that oath. He wants people with allegiance to him personally, not the Constitution or the country. When it becomes clear to everybody who believed in that oath that he is enemy, domestic, he needs those people at home on their couches, not running the military.
@Papito #5
Isn’t being on the couch Vance’s job?