27 Comments
7dEdited

This administration is not concerned with the rule of law and Hegseth is so far out of his depth that it is a danger to national security.

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It would seem that this regime indeed recognizes rule or law, and hope to dismantle it. MAGA seems to hark to when the Colonies were subject to the rule of a king, and "Republican" in modern parlance means "against a republic".

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My fervent hopes that government of the people, by the people, for the people, not perish from the earth.

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It seems that since Reaganomics, it’s become government of the rich, by the rich, for the rich to insure the poor and labor perish from the earth

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Thank you for this vital post. The firings of the senior JAGs really does seem like it is a prelude invoking the insurrection act and ordering the military to suppress protests, perhaps even take action against state or local governments that refuse to go along with Trump’s self-coup.

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Call it what it is: one more step along the road to a Putinesque dictatorship. We have maybe two years to turn this around-maybe.

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It is without doubt an ominous signal.

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That is, martial law.

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Let's not forget that Trump in his first term granted executive clemency to three court-martialed U.S. military officers who committed war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan and wanted the military to shoot peaceful protestors in the legs. This time around, there will be no Mark Esper or Gen. Milley to stop him.

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The selection of Hegseth was disturbing enough; this is just another step in degrading the institution of the armed forces, which paves the way for some scary possibilities.

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Firing JAG officers is pretty much throwing in the towel for any form of military justice. My uncle was a JAG officer during his career with the Navy. I had a great deal of respect for him, his work and his dedication to the country. As an Air Force non-com I learn about the UCMJ and the rules by which member of the military needed to adhere. This is a total tragedy of the highest and worst order.

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Historically, fascists care nothing about the law. For them, the ends justify the means. This is extremely serious as there literally is no countervailing force to the violent armed militias that threaten "enemies of the people." So much for checks and balances if they are defined in such loosey goosey fashion. We are so screwed if the military no longer takes their oath to uphold the constitution seriously.

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I hope to live to see the day, and that's iffy, that the retirement remarks of Gen. Milley are engraved in granite somewhere in our nation's capital.

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And the disasters keep on coming. Incompetent cabinet and agency heads sacking competent and knowledgeable people doing their jobs is going to hurt us all in the end. The more we observe, the more we learn that the rule of law means nothing to these people. In the case of the military, Hegseth presents a clear and present danger.

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Hegseth on FOX yesterday said Gen. Brown was not the right person at this time? This opens the opportunity for the bad guys to bend international law of combat. Commander-in-Chief is a convicted felon that pardons 1500 "brown shirt" insurrectionists. Hegseth will have no JAG lawyers looking over his shoulder---I'm afraid as a country it will be harder to hold our heads high to the world.

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Thanks for this timely information.

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Hegseth is working to politicize the military; against a couple of centuries of tradition. He should be excised just for thinking about it.

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In the early days the Nazis just coopted all the lawyers. Eventually they didn't need them. More here: https://nazigermany2019.eadrummondhistory.lmu.build/nazi-lawyers-how-the-nazis-co-opted-the-german-legal-profession-and-codified-their-reign-of-terror/

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Hegseth is not a fan of the Geneva Conventions, and only came to Trump's attention with his campaign to let off Americans already convicted of war crimes.

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I have been saying this for three days to my friends and colleagues who have no clue what TJAG is or does, what the UCMJ is all about and, certainly not last, that FFOTUS will put into place TJAGs who are full-blown sycophants...thereby guaranteeing that there will NEVER be an illegal order. God help our country.

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Hegseth and a slew of unqualified heads of important agencies all were spawned and nurtured by that den of detestable television programming - Fox News. The three most evil and heinous individuals (Trump, Murdoch & Putin) have now been brought together in a collaboration to destroy Democracy.

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If there is one thing the Trump Administration, and Trump, "aint"it's subtle.

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"...and with the ominous specter of the president potentially using the Insurrection Act to call out troops for domestic law enforcement operations (something we haven’t seen since 1992), "

Should that be 1962 rather than 1992?

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A quick google tells us it was 1992, in California at the request of the governor after 4 white police officers were acquitted for the beating of Rodney King and riots ensued.

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Thank you for this info. It makes sense that it was the Rodney King case. I had looked it up also, but it did not mention the Rodney King case, instead it mentioned the case of a black student having to be escorted to his first university class in 1962.

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No problem. We have to have each other's backs - for sure.

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