So are the members of the military finally going to come to their senses and realize the republicans are not their friends?
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Was gonna say that de-escalated quickly.
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Thank you. Because a post repeating the same headline in umpteen different tweets shines very little light on what the story and its background actually were.
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Brought to you by Donald Trump and his Acting Government.
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Like the worst kind of Amateur Dramatics. The set wobbles, nobody knows their lines, the prompt has lost his place, everyone’s timing is off, and none of the costumes fit.
Is ‘Donald Trump and his Acting Government’ like ‘Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear’?
“Outrageous, alarming” (Sadly, those are the only apposite words from that song’s lyrics. The rest are wholly inappropriate for this three ring circus.)
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All the articles are focusing on him calling the Captain “stupid.” But the real issue was his allegation that Crozier had “betrayed the trust” of the Navy. That is a loaded term that has a legal meaning, and an officer accused of such a thing would be court martialed. So absent Modly’s resignation, Crozier probably could have demanded a court martial in order to clear his name. That would be a public spectacle that the Trump admin would not have wanted.
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Resignation my ass. This is the kind of action that cries out for an old fashioned keel-hauling. Who’s with me mates?
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Flogging round the fleet seems called for.
I think it must be apocryphal, as I can find no reference, but I once heard of a naval punishment of being forced to drink seawater until it came out the other end the same colour as it went in. Likely lethal as often as not.
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His “apology” was particularly insincere, even by the standards of insincere apologies; because his original epic(actually surprisingly tedious given how provocative it was; he has the oratorical skill for lower-middle management) rant was founded on the premise that either Crozier was dumb and naive in failing to expect that the memo would leak; or that he was deliberately conspiring with the media and their agenda against the navy.
The “apology” was to the effect that he certainly never considered Crozier dumb or naive; absolutely zero mention of option #2. He wasn’t honest or cogent enough to put it in so many words; but it was essentially “I’m sorry if you were offended by the mistaken impression that I was calling you stupid when I was accusing you of treason.”
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Going by the (obviously) leaked audio(there is truly no triumph of intellectual consistency like complaining that the captain used the merely secure email system; not the TS-rated secure email system, over the PA system of a docked aircraft carrier which is not a quiet or distant thing); it appears that his ratings were not high. You really have to step in it to have the audience shouting “what the fuck?!” at you when you massively outrank all of it.
Since Trump seems to tack between the two guiding principles of operating his administration like a mafia family and operating it like a reality TV show; that sort of public flop was probably it for him.
It’s also possible that Modly was a trifle behind the times; and calibrated his act for the “the chinese virus is no big deal and will be going away any day now because of my brilliant leadership” period; rather than the “I am a wartime president and there will be death” period; that transition was pretty jarring.
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We apologize again for the fault in the military discipline.
Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked have been sacked.
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The recursion will continue until morale improves.
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… pour encourager les autres.
Sackings of shit, all round.
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Trolly, Modly, Derply.
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Yeah, Modly must really have been “stupid or naive” to think he could unprofessionally bad-mouth a beloved captain to his crew for saying something that got leaked to the press, and that it wouldn’t get leaked to the press.
Huh, it continues to be the case that with these Trumpers, it’s always projection.
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Wait, it seemed to me that being stupid and naive was a requirement for working in this administration…
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He didn’t just mock the commander, he mocked the crew for “cheering him off” basically telling them they shouldn’t have liked him so much in the first place. He came across as the asshole school principal everyone hates.
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I’m a little torn about this. Yes, he’s the commander of a flat-top carrier; however, he has a chain of command that includes Vice Adm. William R. Merz (head of the 7th fleet) and Admiral Philip S. Davidson, Merz’s boss who heads the Indo-Pacific Command.
I have no doubt they were aware of the situation and were working on things. Give them a little credit.
Crozier, in his cc-all email, announced to the world, that one of the USA’s Pacific battle groups was compromised. He announced a current weakness in America’s readiness to defend itself. Something the PLAN (Chinese Navy) WILL try to exploit.
An idiot? 200% he was. Could he be trusted to actually fight in battle? Who knows. This was his test.
As for all the hate directed at Navy Secretary Thomas Modly and that he’s “pissed off every man and woman in uniform in this country” please remember, the US Armed Forces report to the civilian government. When that ceases to be, then you’ll need your 2nd ammendment.
God Bless all the men and women of the US Armed Forces stationed in the Indo-Pacific. Their work out here really means something.
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I’m not worried about all this. What I was worried about at the time was that the people of Guam, essentially a US colony, were expected to give up their rapidly twindling places in the ICUs of the country for US sailors that shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
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Acting Navy Secretary, he has never been confirmed.
It was leaked.
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