Independence Day, followed by Thanksgiving, are my two favorite holidays. I’ve no stomach to celebrate either this year. But since we could use a new open thread, here you go.
“This meeting can do nothing more to save this country.”
Open thread!
by Adam L Silverman| 136 Comments
This post is in: America, Open Threads
Independence Day, followed by Thanksgiving, are my two favorite holidays. I’ve no stomach to celebrate either this year. But since we could use a new open thread, here you go.
“This meeting can do nothing more to save this country.”
Open thread!
by Adam L Silverman| 182 Comments
This post is in: America, An Unexamined Scandal, Domestic Politics, Election 2016, Open Threads, Politics, Silverman on Security
Over the past several weeks, a number of people have noticed that the President’s campaign, as well as the President, seem to be sending some very unique messages using some very unique imagery. On 18 June, Media Matters caught the President tweeting out this alleged Antifa symbol:
This is not an Antifa symbol. It is the symbol the NAZIs made political prisoners wear. Here’s the symbology classification system as explained by the US Holocaust Museum Encyclopedia Holocaust:
Here’s the new America First T-Shirt being offered for sale by the President’s campaign store:
Here’s a better screen grab of the logo:
And this is the partieadler, or (NAZI) party eagle and its description from the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) website:
The Nazi Eagle is a symbol developed originally by the Nazi Party in Germany in the 1920s (also becoming a symbol of the German government after the Nazis took power), based loosely on traditional German coats of arms. Following World War II, the symbol was appropriated by neo-Nazis and other white supremacists worldwide, with many variations. The symbol originally featured an eagle clutching a swastika, but many variations replace the swastika with some other hate symbol, such as SS bolts or a Celtic Cross. Occasionally, extremists will leave the circle blank where the swastika normally would appear; this seems to be more common in countries where the swastika is prohibited.
It should be noted that eagles are a common symbol among nations worldwide, including the United States, and not every image of an eagle is derivative of the Nazi eagle. It is not uncommon, for example, for some Americans to mistake the Blue Eagle logo of the Roosevelt-era National Recovery Administration for a Nazi-derived symbol.
Here’s the National Recover Administration’s crest so you can see for yourself that it looks nothing like the parteiadler or the logo on the America First T-shirts.
But it isn’t just the imagery. The Trump Make America Great Committee purchased 88 Facebook ads that used the NAZI symbols for political prisoners in the screen grab at the top of the post. 88 is the code that neo-NAZIs and white supremacists use for Heil Hitler. Recently the President, in defending monuments and statues to Confederate military leaders and personnel, tweeted out this 14 word tweet, which included two words with capitalized “H”s right next to each other:
This is a battle to save the Heritage, History, and Greatness of our Country! #MAGA2020
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 30, 2020
The 14 words is the most popular white supremacist slogan and statement. From the ADL:
“14 Words” is a reference to the most popular white supremacist slogan in the world: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” The slogan was coined by David Lane, a member of the white supremacist terrorist group known as The Order (Lane died in prison in 2007). The term reflects the primary white supremacist worldview in the late 20th and early 21st centuries: that unless immediate action is taken, the white race is doomed to extinction by an alleged “rising tide of color” purportedly controlled and manipulated by Jews.
Because of its widespread popularity, white supremacists reference this slogan constantly, in its full form as well as in abbreviated versions such as “14 Words”, “Fourteen Words,” or simply the number “14.”
A sober person would say that this is just a coincidence. That argument would have more validity if the President and his campaign and his administration did not have a history of using this type of symbolism. One of the President’s 2016 campaign ads, in July of 2016, was a picture of Secretary Clinton’s face and a Star of David (six pointed star/Jewish star) imposed over piles of cash. Which he tweeted! Another of his campaign’s final ads during the 2016 election included the faces of then Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, and Holocaust survivor, billionaire, philanthropist George Soros as exemplars of corruption.
The use of this imagery is not an accident. Without having to actually go looking for them, including the T-shirt the President’s campaign just made available for purchase, I was able to come up with a number of examples using clearly anti-Semitic imagery and language. But it goes beyond these campaign ads, merchandise, and tweets by the President. For instance, the initial number of children that HHS was reporting had been lost in the system after being separated at the border was 1,488. This amount of coincidence takes a lot of work!
The dog whistle is clearly passé. Why whisper when you can scream!
Obligatory!
Open thread!
by Adam L Silverman| 56 Comments
This post is in: 2020 Elections, America, Criminal Justice, Gun nuts, Open Threads, Religious Nuts
Apparently the Karens Malevolent Association, Palm Beach Local #12, had a meeting today!
Meanwhile, in Florida.. pic.twitter.com/HBviAlNPQi
— God’s wonderful breathing system back turner (@majorityfm) June 24, 2020
Oh my. Here’s the rest of the testimony of the first woman. She appears to be alluding to Pizzagate, among other far-right conspiracy theories. pic.twitter.com/J10IB3AXTY
— John Aravosis ?????️? (@aravosis) June 24, 2020
That’s a lot of concentrated crazy even for south Floriduh!!!!!
But what is Floriduh! Man up to while Floriduh! Women are doing their performative insanity? He’s getting indicted!
JUST IN: Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg has been indicted by federal prosecutors for stalking and the unlawful use of a means of identification of another person, the Department of Justice announced. https://t.co/sW3IqfkrXm
— FOX 35 Orlando (@fox35orlando) June 23, 2020
SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg has been indicted by federal prosecutors for stalking, and for the unlawful use of a means of identification of another person, the U.S. Department of Justice says.
United States Attorney Maria Chapa Lopez announced the charges on Tuesday. The indictment stated that Greenberg attempted to cause substantial emotional distress to a political opponent who worked at a Florida school. He had letters sent to the school where the employee worked. These claimed to be from an anonymous student of the school. The letter claimed that the school employee had engaged in sexual misconduct with a student.
However, the indictment stated that Greenberg knew this was false.
In addition, Greenberg set up a Facebook account that claimed to belong to a concerned teacher at the school, the indictment said. He made postings with that account falsely claiming that a school employee had engaged in sexual misconduct with a student.
The indictment also said that Greenberg had an imposter Twitter account made of his opponent, where he claimed that he was a segregationist and in favor of white supremacy.
More at the link!
Was this at all predictable? Why yes, yes it was! But how you ask? Allow me to introduce People’s exhibits A and B!
Yes, let’s give the creepy stalker guy guns, what could possibly go wrong?
I’m pretty sure that has to be Congressman Gaetz’s adopted daughter, Nestorina, who no one knew about…
With friends like Gaetz and Stone, Greenberg is going to fit right in in prison!
Open thread!
by Adam L Silverman| 144 Comments
This post is in: 2020 Elections, America, Domestic Politics, Military, Open Threads, Politics, Silverman on Security
During Vice President Biden’s interview by Trevor Noah on The Daily Show, Noah asked him what he thought would happen if the President refused to leave office if VP Biden is elected president in November. Vice President Biden ultimately replied that the military “would escort him from the White House with great dispatch”. You can watch the question and the answer beginning with Noah’s question at 1:41 of the video within the tweet below.
.@JoeBiden thinks Trump will try to steal the election and has an idea of what will happen if Trump loses and refuses to leave the White House. pic.twitter.com/rsy6EXTMhN
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) June 11, 2020
As you can see and hear for yourself, VP Biden contextualized his answer within all the push back the President has received over the past two weeks from retired general officers (GOs) and flag officers (FOs), as well as the statements issued by each of the currently serving Service chiefs, the currently serving Senior Enlisted Officers for each Service, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He also referenced the President’s standing with US military personnel in terms of their support.
While I appreciate Vice President Biden’s recognition that the President is setting the conditions to either not concede if he loses, to contest the election’s outcome if he doesn’t like it, or both, the simple reality is that the US military is NOT GOING TO REMOVE THE CURRENT PRESIDENT IF HE REFUSES TO CEDE POWER SHOULD VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN BE ELECTED TO REPLACE HIM!!!!!! And, perhaps, just as importantly, you DON’T WANT THEM TO DO SO!!!!!! The unprecedented popular criticism of a sitting president by retired senior military leaders may be boosting people’s spirits, but I can guarantee that those gentlemen, and so far they’ve all been men as I’ve not seen or heard one retired female general or admiral call the president out publicly, these retired senior military leaders don’t have the power or the authority to call out the troops to ensure a peaceful transition. The currently serving ones, no matter how much their retired colleagues’ and peers’ public statements have stiffened their resolve to push back against the President and his senior political appointees to ensure that the US military stays as much out of US politics as possible, are not going to operationally insert US military personnel into American politics by physically removing the President if he refuses to cede power to VP Biden should VP Biden defeat him in November.
I guarantee that the Service Chiefs, who don’t actually have any forces under their direct command with the exception of their staffs and the Service academies and senior leader colleges and schools, are going to do everything in their power to ensure that US Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines stay at their posts, at their home stations and in garrison. Civil-Military (CIV-MIL) relations, specifically that there is civilian control over the military through the elected president and his Senate confirmed senior political appointees, as well as through oversight conducted by elected members of both chambers of Congress, is something we work very, very hard to inculcate within US military personnel.
I spend a lot of time dealing with general officers and one specific admiral who used to be my boss/frontline supervisor. Many are retired, some are still serving. A few of the retirees have made public statements pushing back on the President. The most recent caught me unawares as I didn’t even know he had a Twitter account.
We are long overdue for a change…VOTE on 3 November. #AmericaOrTrump https://t.co/aeWRi3jl5L
— Don Campbell (@tanksrme16) June 10, 2020
I have spent a very large amount of time over the past thirteen years advising general officers, consulting for and with them, working for them, and teaching several senior colonels and captains that eventually went on to earn flag rank. And, as I’ve indicated before in comments, I have largely been very lucky as I’ve been fortunate to get to work with some of the very best who were excellent senior leaders and officers, but also wonderful people. And I know that isn’t always the case or, perhaps, even the norm. But one thing I’ve learned, one thing I know for certain, is that what we’ve been observing over the past several years as a few retired senior military leaders openly pushing back and criticizing the President and his senior appointees has now given way to well over a dozen, is unprecedented. We are in a unique moment. As we’ve discussed here ad nauseam since November 2016, the current president and his administration are something unique in the history of the US. My view of the public commentary and pushback by retired senior military leaders is that it too is unique. It is the result of this unique moment. At the same time it is not a signal that the US military is going to somehow take on the role of domestic protector of the political outcome aspects of American self government via our democratic-republic. And this is a good thing. We want a military, just like we want a Department of State and Department of Justice and FBI and other Federal law enforcement and the Intelligence Community and the rest of the Federal government to report to, take lawful orders from, and submit to oversight from the duly elected officials of the United States regardless of what party those officials are from.
I am very glad that Vice President Biden seems to be taking the signals that the President, his senior advisors and surrogates, his supporters, his base, and the conservative news, social, and digital media ecosystem is sending that seek to delegitimize the 2020 elections at all levels before a single general election ballot has even been cast. And I’m taking VP Biden’s statements on this as a sign that his campaign is also taking it seriously. I know a number of outside groups are also doing so. Some of them involve strategies to get out the vote so the result is overwhelming and not close enough to be contested or hijacked. Others are developing legal strategies for how to respond as the five months between now and the election and the seven months until the next inauguration tick away. My professional estimate as a subject matter expert in low intensity warfare is, should things go really wrong in regard to the President and the Republican Party at all levels of government contesting the election, even before the election occurs, that get out the vote and legal strategies will be important, but insufficient. Others have made public their specific concerns. Perhaps the US Secret Service will politely, but firmly escort the President to Marine One for his last flight on what would normally be designated Air Force One, but because he would no longer be president would be identified as the 89th Airlift Wing’s Special Air Mission, but the military isn’t going to suddenly emerge to ensure that a newly inaugurated President Biden can move into the White House. And while that may be frustrating for people to read or hear, they should be glad that it won’t happen because it would make a constitutional crisis that much worse.
Open thread!
by Adam L Silverman| 276 Comments
This post is in: 2020 Elections, America, Domestic Politics, Military, Open Threads, Politics, Silverman on Security
I know many here will roll their eyes because in the opinion of many, myself included, he has waited far, far too long to break his silence, but Secretary Mattis has finally issued a public statement regarding President Trump to The Atlantic. And he moved to contact decisively! (emphasis mine)
IN UNION THERE IS STRENGTH
I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled. The words “Equal Justice Under Law” are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand—one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values—our values as people and our values as a nation.
When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens—much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.
We must reject any thinking of our cities as a “battlespace” that our uniformed military is called upon to “dominate.” At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict—a false conflict—between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part. Keeping public order rests with civilian state and local leaders who best understand their communities and are answerable to them.
James Madison wrote in Federalist 14 that “America united with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition than America disunited, with a hundred thousand veterans ready for combat.” We do not need to militarize our response to protests. We need to unite around a common purpose. And it starts by guaranteeing that all of us are equal before the law.
Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that “The Nazi slogan for destroying us…was ‘Divide and Conquer.’ Our American answer is ‘In Union there is Strength.’” We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis—confident that we are better than our politics.
Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.
We can come through this trying time stronger, and with a renewed sense of purpose and respect for one another. The pandemic has shown us that it is not only our troops who are willing to offer the ultimate sacrifice for the safety of the community. Americans in hospitals, grocery stores, post offices, and elsewhere have put their lives on the line in order to serve their fellow citizens and their country. We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Square. We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution. At the same time, we must remember Lincoln’s “better angels,” and listen to them, as we work to unite.
Only by adopting a new path—which means, in truth, returning to the original path of our founding ideals—will we again be a country admired and respected at home and abroad.
That Secretary Mattis chose to compare the President to the NAZIs, which I highlighted above, cannot be ignored or downplayed. Regardless of what anyone thinks of him, especially in light of his willingness to serve as the President’s first Secretary of Defense or by keeping his thoughts to himself since resigning, Secretary Mattis is a highly educated, highly thoughtful, and very deliberate individual. His Marines called him the Warrior Monk to respectfully describe his austere, scholarly, and bookish lifestyle as a Marine bachelor. He preferred the call sign CHAOS – Colonel Has An Outstanding Solution. He despises being referred to as Mad Dog. Secretary Mattis is a sober, thoughtful, deliberative Marine and senior military leader. The choice to compare the President to the NAZIs was not made willy nilly, it was not a knee jerk turn of phrase. It was deliberate and in that deliberateness it is intended to signal to the current and retired senior military leaders, as well as to the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines of the US military and all the DOD and Service civilians that the President is a clear and present danger to the Republic, to freedom and liberty akin to the US’s greatest foreign foe of the 20th Century. It is also intended to signal that those who follow him are akin to the NAZIs themselves, that they are not interested in the ordered liberty the Founders and Framers attempted to establish through the Constitution and the creation of a self governing democratic-republic. And it presents Americans with a very stark choice: you can support the United States and the Constitution and the idea of a self governing democratic-republic, no matter how imperfect, or you can support the President. You cannot support both!
No worse enemy, indeed!
Open thread!
Secretary Mattis Finally Breaks His Silence!!!!Post + Comments (276)
by Adam L Silverman| 58 Comments
This post is in: America, Bleg, Civil Rights, Domestic Politics, Open Threads, Politics, Racial Justice, Silverman on Security
Last night on the Twitters, Cole asked:
While they are distracted by the peotests let’s rip down all the confederate monuments, change the street and scool names, snd change the names of military bases.
— John Cole (@Johngcole) June 2, 2020
Well have I got an announcement for you!!!!!
Last year I connected with LTC (ret) Troy Mosley who is the founder and president of Citizens Against Intolerance. I came across his op-ed, reprinted here, on why it is important to rename the 10 US Army bases that are currently named for Confederate generals and reached out with some information for him. This led to a couple of emails, then some phone calls, and since last fall I’ve been functioning as a senior advisor to Citizens Against Intolerance as he and several other volunteers got things up and running. Now that all of our paperwork is in order and our website is finalized and running, I’d like to invite everyone to check the group out. Our About page is here and says:
Citizens Against Intolerance LLC was established to mitigate or end all forms of discrimination in America. Intolerance which grows out of ignorance foments hatred and is destructive. America’s founding fathers set out to do something never before done in the world, create a society where one’s birth right did not determine their future. These lofty goals were expressed in America’s declaration of independence and codified in the Bill of Rights. This idea was so novel that even the early framers did not agree entirely to whom America’s great promise was intended. It is our belief that the framers were deliberately vague in expressing precisely who were the intended benefactors of America’s great promise. It is our contention that the framers left the heirs of America’s promise to be determined by future generations.
There is a gap between what is specified in America’s founding documents and what is experienced daily by America’s citizens. Women are not paid equal wages as men for the same work. Black Americans receive prison sentences 20% longer than white Americans for the same crime, even minority service members are several times more likely to be court-martialed in the US armed forces than white service members. Black women are 2-6 times more likely to die in child birth. The inequality in America is expressed in the educational achievement gap, the wealth gap, and there are even socio-economic determinants to health. Citizens Against Intolerance will work to forge relationships with like-minded organizations to establish public law and policy that eliminates or mitigates the effects of racism, sexism and homophobia in America and the world. To this end we are committed to:
MISSION
To advocate for full inclusion that is just, verdant and equitable, and provide organized resistance to all forms of discrimination by advocating for public policy and laws that remove barriers which support systematic discrimination based on race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, gender identity as well as all other forms of discrimination.
VISION
To forge a society where all citizens believe their potential is unlimited by race, gender, or sexual orientation bias, where American institutions are replete with examples of the diversity and inclusion across all races, ethnicities, and sexual orientations and identities.
VALUES
Inclusion: The development and promulgation of best practices that promote the participation of diverse populations and the identification and removal of systemic barriers that prevent the participation of entire segments of the population. Love: The unconditioned admiration for humanity. Integrity: Doing what is right. Scholarship: This organization places a premium on the pursuit of knowledge, and the advancement of evidence-based technologies, tactics, techniques and procedures.
We are up on Twitter at: @CitizensAgains8. On Facebook (not my idea given how everyone knows my thoughts on Facebook) at: @DiversityandUnity. And we have an Instagram account to, but I can’t for the life of me find the link, so you’ll just have to trust me.
And, of course, we have a petition for you all to sign!
You all know what to do!
Open thread!
An Announcement for the Balloon Juice Community: Citizens Against IntolerancePost + Comments (58)
by Adam L Silverman| 170 Comments
This post is in: America, Domestic Politics, Open Threads, Silverman on Security, War
Not to pick on Mistermix, especially because everyone makes the same mistake, but this is the Stars & Bars, better known as the national flag of the Confederacy:
To be specific, this one is the fourth national flag of the Confederacy, which was flown from 10 DEC 1861 through to the end of the Confederacy. Earlier versions, revised each time more states seceded and joined the Confederacy, had 7, 9, and 11 stars in the blue canton.
There were two other national flags of the Confederacy. The second was known as the stainless banner and had the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia as the canton on a white field. The third, the blood stained banner, was simply the second national flag with a vertical red stripe running opposite the canton. The red vertical stripe was added because there were concerns that if the stainless banner was flown in the field, and the canton was not visible, then it would be mistaken for a flag of surrender. Irony abounds. These two flags are below.
(That isn’t actually a bunch of white space above, it really is how the white field of the flag appears on the page)
While there were a number of other unofficial Confederate national flags, what most people call the stars and bars is not. Yes it has stars on it and yes it has bars on it, or, more accurately, a blue saltire cross. In Project Lincoln’s video, the Confederate flag that opens, closes, and is the most predominant throughout is actually the second Confederate Naval jack, which is below.
You’ll notice the lighter blue of the saltire compared to the cantons of both the stainless and blood stained banners above, which are the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia. Most manufacturers of these flags don’t pay too much attention to the actual color of the blue so it ranges from an even lighter blue than on the naval jack, to the blue above, to the dark blue of the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, which is below.
And while the square battle standard of the traitors serving with and under Lee does make a brief appearance in the ad, the average, and in many cases the above average, neo-Confederates and white supremacists who like to fly their preferred flag or hang it on the wall or adorn their trucks with stickers of it are too stupid to realize that they’re really demonstrating their enthusiasm for the Confederate navy. Which is kind of nice because they don’t get a lot of love. Regardless, most American racists are too stupid to know they are flying the wrong flag. Just let that sink in for a minute.
The real flag of the Confederacy is the Confederate flag of truce, which was actually a white dish towel with three pencil line thin vertical red stripes along it’s right edge. It was all the Confederates had with them that they could use as a white flag when Lee surrendered to LTG Grant.
We’ll leave the last word with W. T. Sherman!
Open thread!
A Point of Personal Pedantry: Fun With Flags EditionPost + Comments (170)