Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

…and a burning sense of injustice to juice the soul.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Second rate reporter says what?

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Military / General Kelly Was Shit All Along

General Kelly Was Shit All Along

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Answering Betty’s question, he was scum all along:

A directive to immigration officials across the country to try to portray undocumented immigrants swept up in mass raids as criminals came directly from then-Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, The Intercept has learned…

The redacted emails, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by students at Vanderbilt University Law School, show that while hundreds of undocumented immigrants were rounded up across the country, DHS officials tried — and largely failed — to engineer a narrative that would substantiate the administration’s claims that the raids were motivated by public safety concerns. In the emails, local ICE officials are ordered to come up with “three egregious cases” of apprehended criminals to highlight to the media.

The February raids ­— the first in an ongoing series under this administration — led to 680 arrests nationwide, including arrests of dozens of individuals who had no criminal history. In Austin, Texas, where 51 people were arrested, the majority of those arrested had no criminal record.

But while dozens of undocumented immigrants were detained, the administration sought to shape the narrative that “by removing from the streets criminal aliens and other threats to the public, ICE helps improve public safety,” according to statements by the agency.

First, anyone who is not already shit would not work for Trump.

Second, there is a load of rot in the General Ranks. It seems like every other day another General Officer from one branch or another is arrested or courts-martialed for egregious shit- here’s one being tried for raping a kid, here’s one having an affair with an enlisted man’s wife, etc., etc. Just read the Army Times and Navy Times. There is a lot of rot in command, and this is just the sex stuff. We haven’t even broached the whole Navy command scandals, including the Navy kickback schemes or the whole Fat Leonard stuff, and the whole Air Force being populated with religious nuts, and on and on.

And then we go into the “warfighters” who were all hastily promoted during the Bush years and are all over the place pushing their bullshit. For every Mike Flynn you know about, there’s ten more out there. Our entire military command structure probably needs to be gutted and rebuilt from the ground up.

Reader Interactions

157Comments

  1. 1.

    A Ghost to Not

    His stint at DHS told us everything we need to know.

    Meanwhile, in Gator country:

    GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Audience members began heckling and chanting Thursday at a speech by white nationalist Richard Spencer, hoping to drown him out during an appearance at the University of Florida that sparked protests and intense security.

    Spencer struggled to deliver his speech, but was mostly drowned out by shouting and boos. At one point he said, “You know that what I am saying here will change the world.” At another point, he called the audience a mob.

    People chanted, “Black lives matter!” and “Go home, Spencer!”

    “Are you adults?” Spencer asked at one point. “It doesn’t look like it.”

    Spencer called the crowd “shrieking and grunting morons.’

    They responded by chanting, “Let’s go, Gators!”

    Many were protesting outside, as well.

    denverpost

  2. 2.

    hellslittlestangel

    The Orange Better One’s White House has a rigorous vetting process to keep out decent human beings, so yeah, the best you can say about Kelly is that he is a turd whose stink is not quite so bad as to immediately induce vomiting.

  3. 3.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Petraeus leaking identities of undercover agents to married mistress, and hiding evidence from FBI, in addition to covering it up.

  5. 5.

    Patricia Kayden

    First, anyone who is not already shit would not work for Trump.

    Thank you. That should be obvious to anyone paying attention to this regime. You don’t work for Pol Pot and then run around claiming that you are virtuous. That’s not how things work.

  6. 6.

    Spaniel

    I am not surprised at GEN Kelly defending Trump, but I am floored at the reasons he is defending Trump right now. Blaming the Congresswoman in the car, who was friends with the mother, who was a childhood friend? Then the “sacredness” of days of yore?

    Kelly has publicly shown his loyalties, for better or worse.

  8. 8.

    Redleg

    I have been suspicious of Kelly for some time now. I don’t recall his exact role with the Trump campaign (I think he was some kind of adviser on military issues), but it does seem to me that he and Trump developed a relationship prior to Trump making him DHS secretary. I don’t want to impugn Kelly’s motives or intentions, after all, he may be an honorable person. On the other hand, anyone who will provide flak for Trump’s bullshit might be ethically challenged or just plain wingnutty. Having been an Army officer, I know that there are lots of right-wing shitheels among military officers and hoped that Kelly isn’t one of them. Perhaps his recent outburst is a one-time deal that came from his raw emotions concerning dead GIs, his own son included. Perhaps the rigors of dealing with Trump’s daily nonsense has rattled Kelly. I guess time will tell whether this becomes a pattern of lousy behavior or just an anomaly.

  9. 9.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Redleg:

    I don’t want to impugn Kelly’s motives or intentions, after all, he may be an honorable person.

    He may be an honorable person? An honorable person who attacks a Congresswoman for speaking the truth? He’s pretty much also calling the widow and the widow’s family liars because they also heard Trump make the “he know what he signed up for” comment. Kelly has no honor. There is no “may be” about it.

  10. 10.

    Chris

    Second, there is a load of rot in the General Ranks. It seems like every other day another General Officer from one branch or another is arrested or courts-martialed for egregious shit- here’s one being tried for raping a kid, here’s one having an affair with an enlisted man’s wife, etc., etc. Just read the Army Times and Navy Times. There is a lot of rot in command, and this is just the sex stuff. We haven’t even broached the whole Navy command scandals, including the Navy kickback schemes or the whole Fat Leonard stuff, and the whole Air Force being populated with religious nuts, and on and on.

    I like Truman’s quote about MacArthur: that if being a dumb son of a bitch was against the law for generals, three quarters of them would be in jail. (Note that Truman was himself a war veteran).

  12. 12.

    A Ghost to Not

    Kelly is the product of our compromised military.
    I know the USAF is compromised by Christianist extremists, the rot must run through them all.

  13. 13.

    SFAW

    @Redleg:

    I don’t want to impugn Kelly’s motives or intentions, after all, he may be an honorable person.

    So are they all, all honorable men

  14. 14.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Redleg: Or it’s simply under his tough guy image Kelly is just a spineless jellyfish and did Trump’s bidding. Narcissists surround themselves with an entourage of minions who are desperate to keep the narcissist’s approval.

  15. 15.

    rk

    @Redleg:

    . I don’t want to impugn Kelly’s motives or intentions, after all, he may be an honorable person.

    I have no such hesitation. He’s a loathsome POS just like his boss. Except, that he is smarter and therefore far more dangerous. He is sucking up to the boss and I suspect his long game is to gain power by manipulating the moron. A more sophisticated Steve Bannon.

  16. 16.

    Chris

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Jerry Boykin, “My god is stronger than your god”

    There’s been a minor scandal rocking West Point for weeks now where it turns out that one of the cadets who just graduated was a communist who wasn’t shy about promoting his ideology, inappropriately in several cases. My officer relatives have been in a red-hot fury about this for quite a while, enraged because, so they say, a person with allegiance to such a blatantly hostile and unconstitutional ideology has no business serving in the U.S. military.

    My own thought was that we not regularly get senior officers, some of whom have made it all the way to general, demonstrate that they have no concept of the First Amendment and/or hold genuinely racist/fascist views (Boykin, Flynn, virtually any Air Force Academy graduate after a certain date) and nobody seems to catch it, or care, until it’s plastered all over the media. And that, of course, is accepted.

  17. 17.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @SFAW:

    I don’t want to impugn Kelly’s motives or intentions, after all, he may be an honorable person.

    So are they all, all honorable men

    Snort. I was literally just going to post exactly that.

  19. 19.

    Mnemosyne

    @Redleg:

    I don’t want to impugn Kelly’s motives or intentions, after all, he may be an honorable person.

    After today, I think we can answer that question definitively: he isn’t.

  20. 20.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I hate to keep citing Frum, but I’m glad at least one Republican is picking up on how bad this speech was, cause MSNBC was in full soldier-blindness

    David Frum‏Verified account @davidfrum 2h2 hours ago
    Rewatching Kelly, my perception – maybe wrong – is not a defense of Trump but disaffection from civilian culture. Which is ominous too
    Not many people noticing Kelly’s reference to those who showed disrespect to Gold Star families “at convention last summer”

    I know that last bit jumped out at me right away. He’s suggesting the Khans had no right to object to trump suggesting they, and their son, were second class citizens. And it was definitely a defense of trump, a performance for trump, and I believe sincerely felt. Kelly is trumpist, all the way down.

  21. 21.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    You know, the last two weeks make sense from the point of view of Trump as a narcissist; he’s been deliberately creating needless controversies and the forcing every member of his staff who’s ever strode up to him to humiliate themselves to fix it. Kelly is guilty of telling Trump no when Trump restricted who could call Trump so Trump has to punish Kelly.

    I would not be surprised to learn Trump asked Kelly’s advice on what to say to the widow, deliberately screwed it up like a punk and them blamed Kelly and ordered him to defend Trump for it.

  22. 22.

    gene108

    Been thinking about the “generals will save us” notion.

    I think, when you look at the totality of Trump’s Cabinet, what stands out about Mattis and MacMaster is they are (1) qualified to run their departments and (2) not actively trying to undermine the goals of their departments.

    I guess the hope with Kelly is that he’d bring some discipline to Trump’s operation, and he might have done it a bit, by getting Bannon and Gorka out of the White House. But I don’t think anyone will really change how Trump behaves as President.

    Trump is a man bereft of any redeeming qualities. And to work with him you surrender any of your redeeming qualities.

  23. 23.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    Our entire military command structure probably needs to be gutted and rebuilt from the ground up.

    Hopefully nothing like the “Great” Purge

  25. 25.

    gene108

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    @Redleg: Or it’s simply under his tough guy image Kelly is just a spineless jellyfish and did Trump’s bidding

    Kelly likes what Trump is selling and wants to help the team. Based on his actions at DHS and now this, it is pretty clear Kelly is fully onboard with Trump’s racist, anti-immigration platform.

  26. 26.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @A Ghost to Not:

    “Are you adults?” Spencer asked at one point. “It doesn’t look like it.”

    Spencer called the crowd “shrieking and grunting morons.’

    They responded by chanting, “Let’s go, Gators!”

    Many were protesting outside, as well.

    Christ. Sounds like a whole lot of whining on Spencer’s part. Almost nobody on his side showed up to his little Nuremburg rally.

  27. 27.

    Patricia Kayden

    O/T but don’t cuddle your chickens. Or you may get salmonella.

    A “large contributing factor” to the surge, Nichols said, comes from natural food fanciers who have taken up the backyard chicken hobby but don’t understand the potential dangers. Some treat their birds like pets, kissing or snuggling them and letting them walk around the house.

  29. 29.

    lamh36

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:Hmmm…what is it about the Khans and “that woman” (as he called Rep Wilson, and you know damn well he knew her damn name) that would make his default attitude to them be so dismmissive…

    I have an idea….

  30. 30.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @gene108: Based on his actions at DHS and now this, it is pretty clear Kelly is fully onboard with Trump’s racist, anti-immigration platform.

    Yup, birds of a racist, authoritarian feather

  31. 31.

    geg6

    Love to see Adam’s take on this. And Bateman’s over at Pierce’s joint.

    I’m not military and never served, though I deal with vets every day at work as a VA certifying official. Lots of family who served in all the 20th century wars. But no Gold Stars and no real military experience myself. Be interested to get an idea as to how this will be received by active duty and career military and their families.

    I find it appalling and dishonorable, but have no idea how those with real stakes in the game might feel about this.

  32. 32.

    Mnemosyne

    @geg6:

    Apparently Adam has a close friend who knows Gen. Kelly well. I suspect that I feel her pain — I lost several relatives to the insanity of Fox News.

  33. 33.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @gene108: eh, racism is a bribe for the base or to make it impossible to for anyone in Trump’s circle to escape him because of the collective guilt. Trumpism is about the glorification of Donald Trump. Maybe Kelly’s enough of an idiot to think he’s Making American White Again (or more like stopping that B***h Hillary Clinton from harshing The Band Bro’s fun like with the Tailhook Scandle), but in reality he’s just a Trump minon.

  34. 34.

    Cacti

    Basically what Cole said.

    There’s no such thing as an honorable person who works as a high level Trump staffer.

    Trump is horrible person, and anyone in the inner circle either knows that and is okay with it, or is willing to overlook it for the sake of their own advancement.

  35. 35.

    Mnemosyne

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Kelly is guilty of telling Trump no when Trump restricted who could call Trump so Trump has to punish Kelly.

    And how did Trump get back at Kelly? By screwing up a phone call.

    Never underestimate the cunning of a toxic narcissist. They’re not always the brightest, but they are the most willing to play dirty and humiliate you in the same way they feel you humiliated them.

  37. 37.

    J R in WV

    If I recall correctly, whenever major wars start, the peacetime general officers are most all fired, and their juniors who have common sense and can fight their troops/planes/fleets are promoted quickly. Then after the war they all retire and are replaced by the by-the-book asses.

    Especially the AF, which is going to have a hard time purging the religious nut jobs and replacing them. In the Army/Navy there are mustangs who came up through the ranks (is the same term used in both services? I dunno, never shot the breeze with many O rank people.)

    Those folks can probably carry the load when required. By the Book types are useless without the Book, which is too big to carry around with you.

  38. 38.

    cokane

    ya well said cole. again trump’s boorishness is really just the tip of the iceberg. lot of rot in the system

  39. 39.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @geg6: Be interested to get an idea as to how this will be received by active duty and career military and their families.

    A retired colonel who appears on MSNBC said a couple days ago that he was hearing from military friends were enraged by trump’s buffoonery. I think Kelly today gave those people, at least the old white ones who agree with Kelly that the hippies and their fellow travelers ruined our great Republic of the 1950s, permission to blame not-trump, especially that loud black lady

  40. 40.

    Mnemosyne

    @gene108:

    I’m sure that there are people of color who worked with Kelly who are shocked to find this out about him. But it’s hard to underestimate the ability of a racist to separate people into “good ones” and “bad ones.” The fact that he was able to deal face to face with POC in the Army doesn’t mean he’s not a racist. It just means that he was able to slot them into the category of “good ones” while continuing to hate everyone else of the same race.

  41. 41.

    Jeffro

    No doubt the officers named in the above comments run the gamut from bad to worse – stains on their respective branches of service and the country.

    Having said that…just like with any other group of people, I’m not going to slam all generals or our entire military command structure. Sorry. We hate it when folks paint this group or the other as being all bad. Military officers (hell, people in the military, period) should get the same treatment at a minimum. I’m not overly attributing virtue to them, either. But let’s get real.

  43. 43.

    dogwood

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    Frum has been the only person on either side of the aisle who has been saying anything about the dangers of turning the government over to the military. If we are depending on the military to save us then we are throwing away the fundamental principles of the country.

  45. 45.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @geg6:

    Love to see Adam’s take on this. And Bateman’s over at Pierce’s joint.

    As a big admirer of both men, I’d be interested to know if they (a) follow each other’s blog postings; (b) know each other in real life.

    Agree I would like to see each of them comment on this.

  49. 49.

    cokane

    @sylvania: u know, despite greenwald and scahill and some other nonsense op-ed writers, the intercept does actually publish pretty good reporting from some folks!

  52. 52.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    Everyone keeps looking for the magic solution. The EC will save us. The vote will be audited. Congress will not certify the vote. The Senate Investigation. The Mueller Investigation. The generals are serving to act as a brake on Trump. Blah blah fucking blah.

    The only way this ends is with bodies in the street, not in the 60’s anti war way, but in the Tiananmen Square, Arab Spring, South Korea kinda way. That’s not going to happen until people get hurt a lot worse than the are. What comes out of that, win or lose, will be nothing like the America we grew up in. I am sad that I’ve lived to see it.

  53. 53.

    Jeffro

    @Baud: General Allen is a truly impressive individual – I heard him speak in a seminar group about 2 years ago, and he clearly had his shit together forwards, backwards, and upside down. He and Jim Stavridis really made a hugely positive impression on how I view high-ranking military officers. That said, as I noted in #42 above, that’s just those two individuals, so I try not to get carried away.

  57. 57.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    OT:

    Manu RajuVerified account @ mkraju
    Trump intvwd people at Giuliani firm and Kasowitz firm for US attorney jobs in NY, sources

    Preet BhararaVerified account @ PreetBharara
    It is neither normal nor advisable for Trump to personally interview candidates for US Attorney positions, especially the one in Manhattan.

    Renato Mariotti‏Verified account @ renato_mariotti Oct 18
    I’ll say what PreetBharara can’t — the Manhattan U.S. Attorney is reportedly investigating Trump businesses and needs to be independent.

  59. 59.

    Elizabelle

    Hilarious.

    PBS Snooze Hour graphic.

    John Kelly, with the chyron

    Killed in Action.

    And maybe he was.

    Trombone Shorty interview up later. Love him. He’s traveled with the Foo Fighters.

  60. 60.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @JPL:

    Kelly had one job today, and that was to disrespect Congresswoman Wilson feed uppity black woman to base. That was it.

    /fixed

  61. 61.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    @Baud: Well, hell, Baud, I was gonna vote for you,
    But seriously, do you really think there are going to be fair elections in 2018 or 2020? I mean shit, the 2016 election was pretty fucked up, given the huge amount of voter suppression out there.

  65. 65.

    eemom

    First, anyone who is not already shit would not work for Trump.

    All you need to know, right there. The rest is just icing on the shitcake.

    This, while about Tillerson in particular, perfectly describes the soullessness common to all who work for trump.

  68. 68.

    Ruckus

    @geg6:
    I am as I’ve said here before a vet from the Vietnam era. There are a number of us on here. raven, Mike in NC, JR in WV and others who’s names don’t pop into mind. I can’t speak for them but to be honest, a general officer who isn’t an asshole would amaze me more. I doubt any of the brass was in as long ago as I was but there may be a few. I also know that there have to be some who are honorable, who do view bigotry as an absolute no and who think that the military is better because there are woman in jobs they never used to be allowed to do, who understand how the military fits into our government and society and why and would if necessary die for their country.
    BTW in return for the people at the VA who have thanked me for my service, thank your for providing for vets. Some of us need all the help we can get.

  70. 70.

    nasruddin

    @Mnemosyne:
    Narcissists attract other narcissists and related personality disordered folks. You would think it wouldn’t work out, but
    it does (as much as any relationship with a narcissist does).

  71. 71.

    Fair and Balanced Dave

    It’s not just generals. My first CO when I was in the Navy was a captain named Ralph Tindal. He was a total asshole and when he left, the crew actually had t-shirts printed up that said, “I survived Ralph Tindal” (the man who succeeded him turned out to be one of the best officers I ever served under). A few years after I left the Navy, I discovered the Navy, in its infinite “wisdom” promoted Tindal to Admiral. A few years after that, I discovered that Tindal was basically the Navy’s version of Harvey Weinstein

  75. 75.

    Millard Filmore

    @Comrade Scrutinizer:

    What comes out of that, win or lose, will be nothing like the America we grew up in. I am sad that I’ve lived to see it.

    That reminds me … how is the work on avoiding the default on our national debt going?

  78. 78.

    Baud

    OT:. Interesting. (CNBC)

    IRS to block, suspend tax returns that lack Obamacare disclosures

    The IRS said it will not accept electronic tax returns, and will suspend paper returns, that do not disclose whether the filer had health insurance coverage during the year.

    The IRS’ move, which will bolster compliance with Affordable Care Act rules, comes as the Trump administration takes other steps to undercut the law.

  79. 79.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @A Ghost to Most: Oh, I was hoping it was the college mascot who laid him out.

    I mean, seriously, who wouldn’t like to see the Philly Phanatic lay out Drumpf

  80. 80.

    Jeffro

    @Elizabelle: I think he was at that FF 20th anniversary show they did at RFK Stadium about a year and a half ago (maybe two and a half years ago?) It was one of the first shows Dave Grohl did with his mobile rock-n-roll ‘throne’. LL Cool J just about stole that whole show! But Trombone Shorty was good too.

  81. 81.

    Ruckus

    @J R in WV:

    By the Book types are useless without the Book, which is too big to carry around with you.

    It also helps that you can read and understand the book. Really helps if they know the book as looking stuff up every 10 minutes sort of slows down the process. It really, really helps if they know and understand the book, because just throwing it at people doesn’t actually accomplish much.

  82. 82.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Chris:

    …virtually any Air Force Academy graduate after a certain date…

    Dominionist recruitment there started in earnest in the early to mid 80s. Reagan’s focus on the USAF drew a target on the thing, I’m convinced.

  86. 86.

    Yutsano

    @Baud: If you’re doing a paper return it’s a small box that is actually pretty easy to overlook. But every electronic filing program has it as an unskippable question. And this has caused a huge spike in return process suspension since 2014 so I don’t know why they’re bothering to mention it now. It’s not a new thing.

  90. 90.

    efgoldman

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    know each other in real life.

    I asked Adam once, and he said he was familiar with Bateman’s work, but they’d never met.
    I suspect there’s not enough whiskey in Florida….

  92. 92.

    Elizabelle

    @Jeffro: I was there. And LL Cool Jay got his respect. I remember Gary Clark, Jr. too.

    Wonderful show.

    I forget which rocker next broke a leg and Dave Grohl lent out the throne …

  93. 93.

    lamh36

    OT, but turn to CSPAN now to see a REAL President speaking right now!

    PBO speaking at Northam rally

    “It’s good to be back. Are you fired up? Ready to go?”

  94. 94.

    Ruckus

    @Fair and Balanced Dave:
    I was stationed on my last ship for about 6 weeks. That captain had been a flotilla commander on the opposite coast and was, as I was told a real fuck up. When it came time for his promotion the navy was not going to move him up any higher so they sideways transferred him to a larger ship. It was to say the least a career ending move. We were in the yard and he’d pull the gangway every morning so that there would be no doubt if you weren’t on board a the right time and you’d get 3 days bread and water. With all of your rate mates standing 24 hr watch so they couldn’t leave either. I have other stories but that should be sufficient to portray his assholeyness.

  95. 95.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud: But you are first in our hearts.

    That said, yeah. Sad but true about nice guys — not necessarily coming in first.

  98. 98.

    Elizabelle

    He looks so polished and trim and intelligent. Sleek as a seal.

    Talking about the wonderful Justin Fairfax right now.

    “You’ve got people who are in this race for the right reasons.”

    Decries cynicism about govt and public service.

  100. 100.

    Kay

    A military veteran glowingly featured by Fox News earlier this month for his pro-Trump artwork and his record as a “war hero” admitted Thursday to lying about his military service. John Garofalo, 72, was featured in a Bryan Llenas report as having served seven years as a Navy SEAL, receiving 22 commendations, including two Purple Hearts, and having been listed twice as missing in action during Vietnam. Garofalo, who personally carved a presidential seal to gift President Trump, is a “tough, tough man,” Llenas said, after calling him a “hero” during an interview. Fox News anchor Eric Shawn later remarked: “God bless John Garofalo. We certainly hope maybe the president is listening.” However, when the Navy Times reached out to Garofalo on Thursday, he confessed to having lied about his military service.

    Well, he’s backing the right guy! Birds of a feather.

  102. 102.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Elizabelle:

    Sad but true about nice guys — not necessarily coming in first.

    A really nice guy will wait for his partner to come first.

    Oh, I may have mis-read.

  106. 106.

    Steeplejack

    Aw, hell, no. Tweety leg-humping Kelly. He is such a patsy for steely, manly men.

    (Lagging behind on the DVR, as usual.)

  108. 108.

    Jeffro

    @Steeplejack: That’s just sad. Perhaps Kelly smells of Aqua-Velva or something and only Tweety has had the privilege of being close enough to inhale his daddy issues like that?

  111. 111.

    Mnemosyne

    @Baud:

    Or Americans could, you know, stop making excuses for not voting for Democrats.

    You make me laugh. And then I start crying and can’t stop. ?

  112. 112.

    Elizabelle

    Obama teasing his audience: off year elections. “Democrats get a little sleepy.”

    And then they’re surprised. How come we can’t get things through the statehouse? How come we can’t get things through Congress?

    Because you slept through the election.

  113. 113.

    Elizabelle

    “I think that it’s great that you hash tag. And that you meme.

    But I need you to VOTE.”

    Jokes that he has more time to watch TV now. DC gets the same advertisements.

    Don’t boo. Vote.

  114. 114.

    Mnemosyne

    @nasruddin:

    They also attract folks who had a narcissistic parent and want to psychically repair that relationship, which of course can never happen, but they keep throwing themselves at that brick wall over and over and over again.

    My guess is that Kelly is himself in the Cluster B group, but I’m just talking out of my ass on that.

  115. 115.

    Elizabelle

    Obama: “I don’t think that someone who was performing surgery on soldiers and children is now cozying up to gangs.

    That strains credulity.”

  116. 116.

    Jeffro

    @Elizabelle: If it’s not Aqua Velva, has to be Old Spice – every young man’s first cologne/after-shave-before-he’s-even-old-enough-to-shave. BJ gentlemen, am I right or am I right?

    (although I am right and old…nowadays it’s probably Axxe or whatever)

  117. 117.

    Elizabelle

    You notice I have not been commenting a lot on politics lately.

    But one thing I know:

    If you have to run a campaign based on dividing people, you’re not going to be able to govern them later.

    talks about “not fanning anti-immigrant sentiment.”

  118. 118.

    Elizabelle

    re assault weapons:

    we can protect our rights and our kids at the same time.

    to effect of He’s about solutions.

  119. 119.

    Elizabelle

    @Jeffro: Old Spice was too busy for me.

    Aqua Velva: smells like the sea. Something fresh.

    Heck, I gave some thought to wearing it myself. But, not right …

  121. 121.

    Quantumman

    Trump is an IQ and morality black hole. He sucks the IQ and morals right out of anyone near him. Probably follows an inverse square law. DO NOT get close to him. His sucking index is infinite.

  122. 122.

    Elizabelle

    Obama says, through his mother, he’s a 8th or 9th cousin removed from Jefferson Davis.

    “Think about that. I bet he’s spinning in his grave.”

    LOL. Not sure Trump can claim such a longstanding American heritage.

  124. 124.

    Elizabelle

    “Why are we deliberately trying to misunderstand each other and be cruel to each other … that’s not who we are.”

  127. 127.

    john fremont

    @Baud: And that Navy Admiral who turned down an offer to work for Mattis over at the Pentagon earlier this year. Mattis was a college of his from his Central Command tour IIRC, yet he still turned down that appointment. Perhaps this admiral could see that the White House was going to cut the legs out from under anyone at the Pentagon or the State Department who may have butted heads with them.

  128. 128.

    NorthLeft12

    I am a little surprised at the gist of this thread. There seems to be far more focus and outrage on Mr. Kelly’s lying for his boss, than there is for lying to the American public about the reasons for the mass deportations while he was head of Homeland Security.
    What a weaselly creep he is. They could have easily only targeted criminals for deportation, but chose to just label anyone they caught the same way. The best explanation is laziness, the next is incompetence, but the most likely is plain racism…..just like his boss.

  130. 130.

    Hoodie

    Reading Kelly’s bio, he strikes me as the Jack Nicholson character in a Few Good Men, “protecting you sheep from the wolves, blah blah, you can’t handle the truth!” Good soldier, but a bit self-righteous and buys too much into his own bullshit. Therefore, a lousy politician outside of the constraints of military culture, more Patton than Ike or Marshall. He’ll do the job of keeping order in the WH, but he is not going to be a foil to Trump. That takes other skills.

  131. 131.

    Corner Stone

    @Steeplejack: I was waiting for it. It was about as bad as I expected but not crazy over the top Tweety love. You did get the sense that he had been polishing his knee pads for the first part. And he certainly hates Rep Wilson for saying anything.
    I was disappointed in Jason Johnson who is usually much more clear and forceful, even in the onslaught of Tweety spittle inflected interruptions.

  132. 132.

    Elizabelle

    One very odd thing about Obama speech: he speaks of Ralph Northam, and Justin Fairfax, but why nothing about Mark Herring, our very superb attorney general running for re-election.

    What is up with that?

    And the end. And “Signed, Sealed and Delivers Plays.”

    And Mark Herring is there with the other candidates, and they join arms.

    Is Obama not speaking of him since he’s sitting Attorney General? Hmmm…

    C-Span about to do Mike Pence campaigning for Ed Gillespie. Time to lose C-Span.

  134. 134.

    efgoldman

    @Jeffro:

    If it’s not Aqua Velva, has to be Old Spice

    Long, long time ago, but I think it was Skin Bracer.
    Also went thru the 70s musks (Jade East, Hai Karate) Canoe, 4711, Brut, and several years ago settled on Pinaud Clubman. I get it wicked cheap in the barber shop.

  136. 136.

    misterpuff

    @Steeplejack: I thought he’d be over the moon about Bush, but the General stole his heart. And Tweety pooh-poohed the Congresswoman mud as politics. Oh and he said Kelly was “Presidential”. He fell hard!

  137. 137.

    J R in WV

    @A Ghost to Most:

    I was in USN boot camp in 1970 at Great Lakes. They were pretty full at the time. First Sunday we were all inspected and marched to a huge hall used the rest of the time for indoor exercises, Sundays it was a “church”.

    The “pastor” was Southern Baptist holy roller, everyone here is going to hell, doomed to hell, unless they find Jesus Christ at their personal savior RIGHT NOW!! Pissed me off big time.

    So Monday I told Company Commander (Chief Petty Officer/ Drill Instructor) I wasn’t going to be attending Southern Baptist church next Sunday, nor any other government sponsored so-called religious ceremonies. End of my statement. He was dumbfounded, put me at attention and stomped off.

    Came back and spent, maybe an hour yelling at me. Acted like I told him I didn’t believe in God – I don’t, but or course that wasn’t what I said. I got more and more pissed, and more and more stubborn. So he took me to the “Brigade Commander, who was master of all the companies in the barracks, an actual officer (probably a Warrant Officer) of some kind, who also yelled at me for quite a while.

    But I did not attend any more church services in boot camp. And I will confess, there wasn’t much actual pissing on me, I was smart enough to learn what they were teaching, and did well on the tests, managed the obstacle course, best shot in the company. So I was OK, they made me watch videos on ethics every Sunday by myself. I would have expected some Jewish and Quakers, but not. I wasn’t going to tolerate the hellfire, brimstone and hatred of those not willing to be saved by Jesus.

    Didn’t get to go the Rec Center after church, no big deal. Eventually got the Honorable Discharge, after lots of hard work.

  139. 139.

    Mnemosyne

    @J R in WV:

    I think it was efgoldman who said he suddenly became a very devout Jew while he was in boot camp, because it meant he got out of having to do stuff from Friday night until Saturday sundown. ?

  141. 141.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Mnemosyne: My longest running spell of church attendance was the eight weeks of Basic. We could hang out in a rec room and drink sodas before and after the service – which was quick and non-denominational Protestant.

  148. 148.

    Corner Stone

    @Jeffro:

    Herring has been absolutely awesome and is a clear progressive champion in VA.

    Maybe he did not want to be a distraction.

  151. 151.

    Vhh

    @Comrade Scrutinizer: yup. Institutions tend to fail when there is a narcissistic psychopath leading the destruction. Violence and death of some sort is required unless luck intervenes. W was responsible for 5-10K US deaths and his admin survived, albeit in tatters. We are going to need a bigger hearse with Trump. A 100k+ deaths in Puerto Rico? A NoKo nuke on Hawaii? Internal insurrection? A convenient stroke out as with Stalin?

  152. 152.

    Brachiator

    @Yutsano:

    But every electronic filing program has it as an unskippable question. And this has caused a huge spike in return process suspension since 2014 so I don’t know why they’re bothering to mention it now. It’s not a new thing.

    Last year, at least, the IRS turned off the edit check for the checkbox. They are turning it on again. They have to let people know about this. I’m a bit surprised that news about this has spread so quickly outside the tax and accounting world.

  154. 154.

    Redleg

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Most people have had bad moments in their life where they have done something that is hurtful to others or that brings shame to themselves. As a behavioral scientist, I have learned to judge people by the patterns of their behavior more than by single actions (extreme single actions like murdering people are among the exceptions). Kelly’s comments re: the congresswoman were repugnant and out-of-line. His defense of Trump is understandable, given his role in the administration but I believe he could have defended Trump without attacking the character of the congresswoman.

    Given what I have heard about his military service, I am not prepared on the basis of this incident to say he has no honor. To me, honor isn’t a categorical binary construct of 0 or 1 but rather a continuous variable. If Kelly continues to engage in this Trumpian behavior then I would say that he is losing honor.

  157. 157.

    Stan

    @J R in WV:

    If I recall correctly, whenever major wars start, the peacetime general officers are most all fired, and their juniors who have common sense and can fight their troops/planes/fleets are promoted quickly. Then after the war they all retire and are replaced by the by-the-book asses.

    Especially the AF, which is going to have a hard time purging the religious nut jobs and replacing them. In the Army/Navy there are mustangs who came up through the ranks (is the same term used in both services? I dunno, never shot the breeze with many O rank people.)

    Mustangs are pretty rare and VERY rare at the top level. There were a few in WW2 who rose to 2 or 3 star level.

    When George Marshall became Chief of Staff of the Army in 1939 he did carry out an extensive purge. Eisenhower, for example, was a mere Colonel in 1939 and got jumped over a ton of people senior to him. Despite what many say about him he earned his way to the top. War does have a tendency to expose talent or the lack of it. See US Grant for example.

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