Trump to Purge Generals

[F1fan]

No it's because Miley has an impressive background and seemed capable and dedicated.

Then @wellwisher is incorrect.

The botched and incompetent pull out of Afghanistan under Biden runs counter to his former manner on how he commanded his forces.

There were many problems with the withdrawal. Of course if it was so important for Trump why didn’t he withdraw them in his 4 years? He just kicked the can down the road and left it to Biden. He honored the date Trump set, and the afghan army failed immediately.

I don't know what had happened to the general , but obviously the Biden administration had a lot to do with it.

Another claim and no evidence. Typical. Miley is still highly regarded and Trump isn’t.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Then @wellwisher is incorrect.


There were many problems with the withdrawal. Of course if it was so important for Trump why didn’t he withdraw them in his 4 years? He just kicked the can down the road and left it to Biden. He honored the date Trump set, and the afghan army failed immediately.

Another claim and no evidence. Typical. Miley is still highly regarded and Trump isn’t.

I said Miley has an impressive background, not that he himself is impressive. @wellwisher can still be correct.

No American general that I know of would ever pull out of Afghanistan like that. Face it. It was incompetence to the extreme resulting in death of American and allied lives and leaving equipment and vehicles intact for the enemy to aquire and benefit from. Not good.

I doubt Miley is going to get rid of that major blot on his record as a military general. History isn't going to forget that debacle by a long shot. Miley is forever tainted and is not as highly regarded as you may think.

 

[Shaul]

I alHow about you? You're already Medicare and Social Security age. Can you afford to lose those? You probably don't think that that could happen, but I ask you the same question: If that's what Trump and the Republicans want, who will stop them? Not you.

I could do fine without them. Although I am eligible for full retirement age benefits I am postponing applying for them until age 70. I will receive 24% more that way. Plus I don't need it. I have other sources of income.

I also reject your premise. Trump will not compromise Medicare nor Social Security. That is an unfounded myth, mostly spread by anti-Trump fear mongers.

 

[F1fan]

I said Miley has an impressive background, not that he himself is impressive. @wellwisher can still be correct.

His rank and character speaks for itself. Both are things MAGAs don't honor or respect.

No American general that I know of would ever pull out of Afghanistan like that.

You must know know hundreds of generals given your vast military experience. Too bad they didn't put you in charge, eh?

Face it. It was incompetence to the extreme resulting in death of American and allied lives and leaving equipment and vehicles intact for the enemy to aquire and benefit from. Not good.

There was plenty of mistakes to go around. It's a pity military actions are seldom perfect.

I doubt Miley is going to get rid of that major blot on his record as a military general.

It's a MAGA blot and means nothing to people of integrity.

History isn't going to forget that debacle by a long shot. Miley is forever tainted and is not as highly regarded as you may think.

Miley has character, Trump is a criminal. That is what history will remember.

 

[Twilight Hue]

His rank and character speaks for itself. Both are things MAGAs don't honor or respect.

You must know know hundreds of generals given your vast military experience. Too bad they didn't put you in charge, eh?

There was plenty of mistakes to go around. It's a pity military actions are seldom perfect.

It's a MAGA blot and means nothing to people of integrity.

Miley has character, Trump is a criminal. That is what history will remember.

Again your habit of twisting around people's posts is nothing short of exemplary.

Obviously I don't know any generals, as I was enlisted and woefully insignificant as far as rank goes. I have however literally seen hundreds of generals during my time spent at Fort Sam Houston Texas while undergoing AIT training there as a reservist before I went full-time into an infantry unit later on.

I would say in regards to the pull out in Afghanistan , it goes well beyond a 'mistake' as most generals with such a debacle under their belt would likely be transferred, or they would just simply retire their Commission. Clearly it was no huge surprise that he had indeed retired his commission in 2023.

What history will remember is that massive cluster f*** we call the "pull out" in Afghanistan.

As I am sure the families of those who had died, will not forget that massive cluster f*** that had happened during the 'pull out' in Afghanistan, and who the people were at the time , in charge of the whole cluster f*** that we called the 'pull out' in Afghanistan.

That is what history will remember.

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

I could do fine without them. Although I am eligible for full retirement age benefits I am postponing applying for them until age 70. I will receive 24% more that way. Plus I don't need it. I have other sources of income.

I began getting Social Security at the earliest age possible, 62, because I didn't trust that the benefits wouldn't be curtailed eventually and if so, it would be before I could recoup what I lost by waiting. That choice seems prescient now, especially since we haven't spent that money. Like you, we're not dependent on it, and so it just accrues in savings, where it earns about 9% interest after taxes. Better that those funds be under our control now than still in the US treasury, assuming that we can keep them under our control.

Imagine what it must feel like to be paying into Medicare and Social Security now believing what I do. It's like paying premiums to an insurer on the brink of insolvency. Working MAGA will remain blissfully unaware that they are paying taxes for benefits in the future at risk of not being there then.

Trump will not compromise Medicare nor Social Security.

You just need to apply the dog test to decide this. It's a simple test of means, motive, and opportunity:

You defrosted a steak on a plate which you put on the table but forgot to put it back into the refrigerator before you left for work. Your dog is home alone, loves steak, has never been trained, and can get to the steak. Question: did the dog eat the steak?

Of course it did. If it had the will and the means to get to it, there is no other possible outcome unless the dog dies of a heart attack trying to get to the steak.

Ask yourself whether this is something the Republicans want, and if they do, whether Trump also wants it or can be convinced to come on board to assault these programs like he did unsuccessfully with Obamacare last time. Then ask yourself, if that's what they want, who can stop them?

What do you suppose the Republican agenda is? Are there any clues anywhere?

80% of House Republicans released a Budget that:​

​

Cuts Medicare and Social Security while putting health care at risk for millions​

1. Calls for over $1.5 trillion in cuts to Social Security, including an increase in the retirement age to 69 and cutting disability benefits.
2. Raises Medicare costs for seniors by taking away Medicare’s authority to negotiate prescription drug costs, repealing $35 insulin, and the $2,000 out-of-pocket cap in the Inflation Reduction Act
3. Transitions Medicare to a premium support system that CBO has found would raise premiums for many seniors.
4. Cuts Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program by $4.5 trillion over ten years, taking coverage away from millions of people, eroding care for seniors, children, and people with disabilities, and taking us back to the days where people could be denied care for pre-existing conditions and charged more for health insurance simply for being a woman. (source, Mar 2024)

That is an unfounded myth, mostly spread by anti-Trump fear mongers.

Myth? It's a prediction, and I just gave you the foundation of the argument. I expect the Republicans to be more aggressive than the outline above. That's what they were willing to admit to when a Democrat was in the White House, the Dems controlled the Senate, and they were trying to regain power. That's all changed.

I have no reason to say anything about Trump that I don't believe sincerely. The conversation is no longer about trying to warn people against choosing Trump. It's about adapting to the coming wave of authoritarianism, racism, sexism, kleptocracy, and kakistocracy. You probably don't see those things as real concerns, and it's hard to decide in advance how much they will impact any given life, but we are taking precautions.

We've already removed ourselves from America and have half our savings and our home in Mexico. Our American savings are in a State Department account for Americans with no current American address, which means expats and some military. That may need to be moved to Mexico. It's a plum sitting there for Trump to steal as soon as one of his villains mentions sticks a document in front of him to sign unread. They and he'll likely want to hurt expats however he can, as we have preferred another country and are spending in a foreign economy, which doesn't help him or his cronies.

The wife is still nervous about consolidating our savings in one country and economy, but I believe the greater danger is having money Trump can control. Still, we can lose half our savings and do fine, although we might feel losing both that and our Social Security benefits.

The other adaptation we're investigating is applying for Mexican citizenship. We don't want to be dependent on an American passport, and if we're technically Mexican, we can avoid having our savings data reported to the American government - something we never minded before but now have a reason to be concerned about. We're not certain that Mexico wouldn't freeze or turn our savings over to Trump if he his minions demanded they do if we're only American nationals living in Mexico.

This is FATCA:

• "The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which was passed as part of the HIRE Act, generally requires that foreign financial Institutions and certain other non-financial foreign entities report on the foreign assets held by their U.S. account holders or be subject to withholding on withholdable payments."

Our expectation is that as Mexicans and with our accounts naming us as dual citizens, the Mexican government can ignore the American government and fail to report our data to it.

Let's see who's closer to correct - people who poo-poo away of these threats, or those who see them as real and take them seriously. If you understand Trump as I and millions of others do, you understand that he personally has achieved his goal of attaining power and authority which no former president has enjoyed or wanted to abuse, and that he intends to use to enrich and glorify himself and to exact revenge for the humiliation he has suffered these past four years.

Furthermore, he will open the floodgates of government to cruel people like Miller and Bannon who have a political agenda different from Trump's personal agenda. These are the people who have strong opinions that are too complex for Trump to understand, and which wouldn't interest him anyway if they aren't in the service of him personally.

Here is some excellent advice for Americans: the past is no longer a reliable predictor of the future either politically or in terms of weather statistics. Things rarely or never seen before will characterize the future, especially in those two areas. Hurrican Helena devastated towns never touched by hurricanes before - homes uninsured for wind and water damage because it wasn't realistic to carry such insurance in those regions.

People should also expect to see a similar transformation of the political landscape. Things not thought possible and not on people's minds will begin manifesting. Think about how many MAGA will experience the deportation of loved ones that they weren't expecting. My wife's MAGA nieces are both married to Mexican-Americans (we think they have green cards or American passports, but their immigration status is actually unknown to us). Trump has been targeting legal immigrants as he did in Springfield OH, and doesn't consider Mexicans of any status American anyway since they're brown. Yet they voted for Trump no doubt under the assumption that the past predicts their husbands' futures.

My wife's nieces are MAGA living in the States and each are married to Mexican-Americans. I don't know if they have green cards r passports, but if the demonization of Haitians in Springfield OH is any indication, even legal may be at risk. They aren't really American to Trump and his team of bigots anyway if they're brown. They no doubt are counting on the future resembling the past when these men were safe and welcome.

 

[PureX]

What could he do? He could shoot them in the face if he feels like it, and without resistance or repercussion. Who would stop him? Secret Service? He could shoot them next.

This is the military, Dude, I'm pretty sure they would shoot back, and be far better at it than Trump or whatever jack-booted minions he could muster up.

It'll take a while for most to assimilate what has just happened. The man now has unchecked power, unchecked by man or Trump's nonexistent conscience. He has the support of both houses of Congress and the Court has given him immunity in his official functions, which is whatever he says it is. Or maybe you'd like to challenge him on that.

It's going to be a crisis of courage. Who will stand up to him and his intent to destroy America, and who will try to ride his insanity train for their own gain?

Watch what becomes of people who stand up to him. Judge Mercham won't dare sentence Trump to prison now. His daughter would be dead by morning and he's likely end up in jail himself, which might happen anyway.

That absurd. He isn't even sworn in. yet.

Watch what happens to people who have stood up to him in the past.

If no one stands up against him, and Trump isn't dead or completely out of it, things will get very ugly.

What do you suppose Trump wants now that he has unlimited power? Besides money, he wants glory, praise, and revenge. The details and timeline for how that manifests is uncertain, but his agenda and values are an open book. My personal concern is that he'll want to emulate his heroes Hitler and Putin and go after empire (maybe we didn't move far enough away), and possibly to harass expats by seizing bank accounts and threatening our citizenship status, although I don't know what the value of the latter would be except that we'd be stateless without it.

I expect our Social Security to disappear, because it's what the Republicans want, and the man is pure malevolence. We can weather that, but I'll bet most seniors can't, and over half of them are MAGA. Won't they be unpleasantly surprised. Medicare will suffer the same fate, but that doesn't affect us, as we have no access to our Medicare benefits while living abroad. Seniors living in the States including MAGA seniors will be hurt by that,

I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see what's going to stop what I'm envisioning.

Apparently, he was once a better person, but Vance is an opportunist and a social parasite now. He says what's expedient. You shouldn't believe a person of such low character.

It doesn't matter what Trump wants. The question is what will he be able to get away with? He will do some damage, no doubt. But he will pay the price for it sooner or later. And his fellow republicans will turn-coat on him the moment it's expedient. As all politicians do.

And Vance is both irrelevant and in danger as long as Trump exists. Good reasons for him to want to see Trump taken out. What kind of alternative Vance would be as president is anyone's guess. Washington is FULL of liars and climbers. It's the standard profile of an American politician. Probably of politicians, everywhere.

 

[esmith]

What if more people from an extensive culture like ours want to serve and can already demonstrate aptitude and physical ability to do so? No one is talking about "experimenting". What could possibly exclude gays, for instance, from serving if they already meet the necessary prerequisites?

Did I mention gays in any of my comments? Didn't think so!
Suggest you try someone else.

 

[Viker]

Did I mention gays in any of my comments? Didn't think so!
Suggest you try someone else.

Then what is this "woke" that we're talking about? Still trying to get to the bottom of it all. I want to know what's got people in a frenzy.

 

[esmith]

Then what is this "woke" that we're talking about? Still trying to get to the bottom of it all. I want to know what's got people in a frenzy.

I can not explain "woke" it could mean many things to different peoople.
Suggest you obtain a read Pet Hegsseth's Book "War on Warriors" if you want a idea on how he sees the military.
here is a link to a very brief synopsis on what he thinks:

The War on Warriors Book Summary by Pete Hegseth

The most detailed book summary of "The War on Warriors" by Pete Hegseth. Get the main points of "The War on Warriors" with Shortform book summaries.

www.shortform.com

 

[F1fan]

Again your habit of twisting around people's posts is nothing short of exemplary.

Yes, I twist absurd, counterfactual posts back into reality.

Obviously I don't know any generals,

Yet that doesn't stop you from making judgments way outside any facts, and even contadictory to facts. That's the job of we critical thinkers.

I would say in regards to the pull out in Afghanistan , it goes well beyond a 'mistake' as most generals with such a debacle under their belt would likely be transferred, or they would just simply retire their Commission. Clearly it was no huge surprise that he had indeed retired his commission in 2023.

Well Trump set a withdrawl date in February of 2020 and Biden honored it in August of 2021. Trump had a year to prepar for a safe wirthdrawl. And when he lost the election he refused to transition team. When Biden took the oath of office in January they had very little intel from the Trump administration. They were in a big hole and had to scramble. This was part of the reason the withdrawl just 6 months later was compromised.

And whomever was in charge down the chain of command did what they could to meet Trump's date. It seems to have been too early as the Afghan army collapsed within days. It probably wasn't smart to set a date so far out that the Taliban could prepare. They had a year and a half. And as we know the Trump administration at the end of his term was not functioning well. There were many missing members of the government because there were resignations and no one wanted to work for Trump.

What history will remember is that massive cluster f*** we call the "pull out" in Afghanistan.

Let's hope they use facts unlike you. Historians volunteer into an objective and factual methid, so whatever is recorded it will be honest. It's good that MAGAs have not sabotaged the ethics of history, MAGA is too far removed from honor, dignity, and ethics to create any historians.

As I am sure the families of those who had died, will not forget that massive cluster f*** that had happened during the 'pull out' in Afghanistan, and who the people were at the time , in charge of the whole cluster f*** that we called the 'pull out' in Afghanistan.

The families of service members will always suffer for their loss. The thing is it was a bad idea for Trump to set a date. Was there a plan? Biden had to pick up the pieces of an inept Trump and honor the withdrawl. That may have been a mistake, but it was the honorable thing to do.

That is what history will remember.

History will also remember the disinformation of the right wing media. The lies will not go unnoticed, and it will be judged unacceptable in hindsight. The whole MAGA phenomenon will be a dark era of American life and politics. The USA will move on past the darkness of MAGA, just as we moved on past the Civil War, and the divisions that form of racism caused. I predict the people who value freedom will reject MAGA for a more liberal framework of governing. Enjoy your four years of extremist authoritarian leadership, because it will be rejected in a big way after that.

 

[F1fan]

I can not explain "woke" it could mean many things to different peoople.

To those who are categorized as "woke" it means social justice, honesty, fairness, ethics, charity, decency, etc. To those whose character is fflawed it's a nasty word used as an insult. If you haven't noticed the character traits of the "woke" are such that they don't care what mean and undignified people believe about them. It's seen as a pity that the far right have lowered their standards to a level that basic every day decency is seen as a negative.

Suggest you obtain a read Pet Hegsseth's Book "War on Warriors" if you want a idea on how he sees the military.
here is a link to a very brief synopsis on what he thinks:

The War on Warriors Book Summary by Pete Hegseth

The most detailed book summary of "The War on Warriors" by Pete Hegseth. Get the main points of "The War on Warriors" with Shortform book summaries.

www.shortform.com

From what I have learned about this guy, namely his lack of experience, his extremist views, his exagerated performaces in public, and his sexual assault legal troubles, I have no interest in anything he says. He's disqualified.

What is it with Trump wanting to fill his cabinet with sex offenders? Does he not want to be the only one?

 

[esmith]

To those who are categorized as "woke" it means social justice, honesty, fairness, ethics, charity, decency, etc. To those whose character is fflawed it's a nasty word used as an insult. If you haven't noticed the character traits of the "woke" are such that they don't care what mean and undignified people believe about them. It's seen as a pity that the far right have lowered their standards to a level that basic every day decency is seen as a negative.

From what I have learned about this guy, namely his lack of experience, his extremist views, his exagerated performaces in public, and his sexual assault legal troubles, I have no interest in anything he says. He's disqualified.

What is it with Trump wanting to fill his cabinet with sex offenders? Does he not want to be the only one?

Everyone has their own opinions.
However, if someone thought that Tim Wals could become the President was a good idea; I have no respect for their opinion.

 

[Revoltingest]

....if someone thought that Tim Wals could become the President was a good idea; I have no respect for their opinion.

It's risky to broach that subject.
What does it say of your opinion that you prefered
a felonious, treasonous, doddering, rapey, narcissistic bigot.
(I'd add "lying", but Harris is too...just less so.)

 

[esmith]

It's risky to broach that subject.
What does it say of your opinion that you prefered
a felonious, treasonous, doddering, rapey, narcissistic bigot.
(I'd add "lying", but Harris is too...just less so.)

What is the old saying......Lesser of two evils
The American voter has spoken.....get over it.

 

[Revoltingest]

What is the old saying......Lesser of two evils

A maxim that I've oft said....much to the
objection by the left (usally).

The American voter has spoken.....get over it.

Perhaps you are the one who must get
over the fact that your choice should be
subject to valid criticism.
We don't owe him the kind of blind fealty
demanded in other countries.

Lèse-majesté - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Viker]

What is the old saying......Lesser of two evils
The American voter has spoken.....get over it.

50.1% of the popular vote is not significant enough to say anything other than a narrow and slight majority have spoken. That 50.1% chose Project 2025 (the greater evil) because of the price of eggs and trans athletes.