CSotD: Reporting from the Fringe
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An easy choice for lead-off, given the serious nature of the issue and the joy of seeing Jones back in the saddle, though he’s far from over his stroke.
But if the drawing hand still requires more focus and effort than before, his essay writing is as sharp as ever.
Bok offers what I take as an opposing view, though perhaps he’s pointing out the difficulty of figuring out what constitutes an unlawful order.
As noted here the other day, you don’t need a law degree or a ruling from a JAG to recognize that being ordered to shoot babies is not legal, but if you’re at My Lai, declining to do so offers its own set of practical difficulties.
On the other hand, if you’ve been blowing up people in boats when you could have intercepted, jailed and brought them to trial, I could see how, during a few days off, you might rethink matters and decide against fulfilling the next mission.
AFAIK, your options would be to go to your chaplain and hope for help in getting re-assigned, refuse the mission and go to the brig, or desert, and I’d strongly recommend against the latter. The brig can be hell, but even a Big Chicken Dinner is finite, however it impacts your future career. Desertion leaves you in the shadows forever.
In any case, as Bok suggests, you’d be wise to pick up an attorney before things get out of control.
Meanwhile, Trump’s desire to execute people for questioning his right to give unlawful orders borders on an unlawful order itself.
The imaginary situation in Jones’ cartoon would involve an unlawful order, but we have a real case wherein Dear Leader has ordered investigation of a 25-year veteran for the crime of publicly stating the law.
This policy of weaponizing the law against those who oppose him has not gone well against James Comey or Tish James and it won’t go well against Mark Kelly, but the outcome in court may not be relevant. My own rep, Maggie Goodlander, has already had a bomb threat apparently stemming from her presence in that video.
It’s certainly worth remembering that Mark Kelly got into politics after his wife, Rep. Gabby Giffords, was shot in the head at a public gathering in which others were killed or wounded.
Hate-filled deranged lunatics are why he’s in Congress to begin with.
It has, by contrast, been fun to watch the wheels come off as the third-runner-up in the 2010 Miss Colorado USA pageant misfiled papers in the Comey indictment, which, ironically, left her lying to the judge, which was more or less what she was supposed to be prosecuting Comey for.
Espinoza may be unkind in suggesting that Bondi has a Trump-approved staff of female eye-candy, but you sure have to do some digging to disprove the accusation, because the Venn diagram of Cute and Competent doesn’t seem to crossover a whole lot at the White House, while you could draw up a substantial list of women for whom those circles more than intersect and you’d find yourself with a list of women Dear Leader publicly expresses hatred for.
Bearing in mind that, in his first administration, the Hounds of Hell were loosed upon a cartoonist for observing that one of the prominent women in Trump’s entourage just seemed like a regular person. He lost his job in the avalanche of hate mail that followed.
So much for average looks. So much for the First Amendment.
I’m going to disagree with Daniel Boris on this one, with the disclaimer that I’ve been watching Ken Burns’ American Revolution in parts and haven’t gotten to Saratoga yet. But I saw the part about Arnold going to Quebec with Daniel Morgan, and, boy, there’s a pair that the Hollywood Argyles would describe as “mean motor-scooters and bad go-getters.”
I wrote a 24-page tabloid historical handout for the 225th Anniversary of Saratoga and suggested this shirt, which a reenactor on the committee had made and which sold out immediately. So I’m familiar with Gentleman Johnny’s Farewell Tour.
Arnold was the hero whose bold actions cost him a leg but were absolutely central to the American victory at Saratoga, and, while he purposefully ignored Granny Gates’ orders, he didn’t defy them, nor were they illegal, though perhaps ill-advised.
This was what made his betrayal so shocking and notorious: There’s one helluva a large difference between imaginary heel spurs that keep you out of battle and the loss of a leg in the midst of battle, and it’s hard to disillusion people who shouldn’t have trusted you in the first place.
At least it oughta be.
Juxtaposition of the Day
Arnold’s plan was discovered before it went into action, not by intrepid investigation but by Maj. Andre having the bad luck of being mugged by some rebel militia who came across the incriminating letters while attempting to steal his boots. Our current turncoat revealed the plans himself by standing up and boasting of them.
I’m holding off on Ukraine Peace Deal commentary because it seems to be in deep flux, but the internal arguments seem to be whether you can see Putin’s lips move, while the controversy appears to be based on loose lips that revealed things way too early.
Which isn’t that different than having papers fall out of your boot in the middle of a mugging, except that Andre didn’t decide to go barefoot out of pride.
If you’d like a list of people Washington would hang, Andre would be on it. Which he was.
Some folks would do well not to invoke ol’ George.
Fact is, there are times when Dear Leader seems to be trying to find out how far he can stretch things. Now he’s making war on Minnesota’s Somali community, as he did in Maine in his first administration. Michigan, meanwhile, is a substantially Muslim state that Trump only carried by a razor-thin margin in 2024.
Muslims there could be a toss-up, unless they were made to feel they’d been betrayed.
Juxtaposition of the Day #2
It almost feels like he’s shedding supporters on purpose. Quick! Look in his shoes!
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