Especially important is the warning to avoid conversations with the demon. We may ask what is relevant but anything beyond that is dangerous. He is a liar. The demon is a liar. He will lie to confuse us. But he will also mix lies with the truth to attack us. The attack is psychological, Damien, and powerful. So don’t listen to him. Remember that - do not listen.
Children of America: You are not stupid. Don’t let them continue to treat you like you are.
This is such a stupid debate. Most residential restrooms and porta potties are unisex bathrooms. If privacy is such a concern why don’t we just stop building public restrooms where the stall’s walls don’t go all the way to the floor.
We could be using our time to pass non-partisan legislation that essentially everyone would agree with, like banning civil asset forfeiture absent a criminal conviction.
So they’ve lost so much confidence in their ability to grow their streaming service that they’ve decided to pivot to the highly reliable… restaurant industry?
Well, ya know who does have a duty to support the constitution? Literally everyone in the military.
I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God. - Oath of Enlistment
I ___, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God. - Oath of Commissioned Officers
Notice that they both specify “all enemies, foreign and domestic”.
Every service member that’s had the opportunity to engage Trump the same way they do any other enemy to US, and chosen not to do so, has violated their oath.
There’s about a dozen layers of nuance that need to be addressed before we advocate for all million or so military members to rise up against presidents (or congressional representatives, or judiciaries, or…)
The first of which is the definition of “enemy.”
It’s a huge fucking stretch to expect individual soldiers to be able to declare who is or is not an enemy when you’re not under imminent danger or protecting any critical assets. Supervising officers largely do not make that decision. Unit commanders largely do not make that decision. Even combatant commanders largely do not make that decision. The same way we do not expect US Naval ships facing harassment from Iranian rocket boats on a daily basis to decide that “today’s the day” and start a war with Iran is how important this distinction is.
The military needs an actual order, coming from some combination of the Joint Chiefs and the National Security Advising team in order to define enemies and engage in combat. Congress (should) officially declare enemies of the United States. There is some current debate on if the US needs to officially declare “enemies” in order to add gravity to some charges like treason, but my understanding is that China is no more an enemy of the US than Russia is.
Thus, expecting the military to rise up against a president is expecting them to jump every level in the chain of command and take on the impossible decision of deciding what’s in the United States’ best interest themselves. I think that’s generally considered a shitty take.
Agreed, with literally everything you said. The ‘shoulds’ and expectations for our military as a whole don’t really give way to what the oaths imply; but focusing specifically on the oaths, I stand by my earlier comment.
I was active duty enlisted when Trump took office, and his traitorous behavior became more glaring to me (and, y’know, the rest of the world) every time he opened his mouth. Found myself thinking about the oath a lot, in that for enlisted, Trump represented a paradox. Officially or not, he made himself a domestic threat to the constitution - the ONLY threat addressed specifically by the oath I had taken; but in the very next line, we swore to obey the orders of… the domestic threat to the constitution.
More of a thought experiment than anything else - I was a medic, that hypothetical was never going to be put to test for me lol.
But then I’d see footage of Trump hobbling past some Marine to descend a stair case or something, and I’d look at that Marine just standing there as he passed, and think “You fucking coward.”
Not to say I’d have the balls to do any different - I wouldn’t be too keen on getting shot by secret service, or spending the rest of my life in prison either; but still, failing to act in that situation is a violation of the oath.
For what it’s worth, joining the military and serving contributes more to society than you probably think. The fact that you and your peers are able to have these discussions while performing your duties speaks volumes to how much the US military has improved over generations past. I have no doubts that any blatantly unlawful or unconstitutional orders coming down from the president wouldn’t be met with pushback.
Yeah, people always talk about civil war 2.0 situations like “you think your six shooter is going to do shit against an air strike?!” like it would just unilaterally be the military + ‘loyalists’ vs the odd liberal that got lost one day and wandered into a gun store.
The military does lean red, but overall we’re varied like any other slice of society. It’s not going to be some “execute order 66!” situation with a bunch of stormtroopers just suddenly gunning down the people they work for/with.
Even in basic training they put a lot of emphasis on following LEGAL orders, had a class segment on the Nuremberg trials, showcasing Hugh Thompson Jr. as a positive example of what to do when faced with illegal situations, shit like that. Contrary to popular media, the military does NOT want its troops to be a bunch of mindless drones.
It’s also an appealing career field to violent sociopaths who struggle with things like obtaining a GED, so, y’know… grain of salt. Oh whoops, I already said it leans red - pardon the redundancy.
It is not only the military who takes the oath to support the Constitution and defend it against all enemies. It’s generally most Federal employees. I took the oath as a requirement for one of my former jobs too and I’m not military. I was proud to take that oath and I still uphold it for life.
This is one of the few things Trump actually excels at. Every time you think he’s gone as low as he could possibly go, he somehow finds a way to sink even lower.
It would be impressive if it weren’t so dangerous.
Eh, it’s easy not to remember them too fondly when your local market is so dinkum that the only option was nationally syndicated trash masquerading as a local rag. Maybe there’s somewhere left in America that’s still a Norman Rockwell picture of idyllic rural charm and integrity where Real Intrepid Reporters get the hard hitting scoop in between writing heartfelt human interest stories about beloved 101 year old grandmothers and their puppies. But that sure as fuck ain’t what happens here. My “local” paper is actually a Gannett product, and aside from whatever they just import from AP and regurgitate verbatim, every actually vaguely local article is chock-a-block full of factual inaccuracies and trash journalism. Their copy editing is crap, too. Some of the stuff that makes it to print looks like it was written by an eighth grader. They charge money for this shit. I won’t be too sad to see it go, if it did.
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