demagogue on 3/12/2024 at 20:55
To clarify, I'm talking about administrative dismissals, not like Stalinesque purges where they're executing people. So much of their program seems to revolve around personnel this time around.
But definitely in the plan is dismissing top military leadership and installing some kind of qualification test for leadership positions that'll probably look like a political loyalty test. The other worrying thing is deputizing the military for the immigrant roundup. Whenever you're giving military civilian police mandates, that's always been bad news and blurring the line between internal and foreign conflict. I really hope the masses, courts, congress & everybody else raise hell against politicizing the military in particular.
RippedPhreak on 3/12/2024 at 21:46
The Democrats already began political loyalty tests for the military - to ensure left wing loyalty. So the reverse will be nothing more than fair play.
demagogue on 3/12/2024 at 22:22
Maybe in a world that follows what you just made up. The (
https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/91dd0811-cf0a-40e5-9f63-7e536b3a6ff8/content) data for our world show active military has always and still leans conservative & Republican, including leadership. The one trend you can point to is that the number of independents among officers has decreased over the last 40 years (46% to 22%) and the number of partisans has increased accordingly, still leaning right (p. 14).
The military code also explicitly prohibits political affiliation being a factor in staff decisions. If you really care about fair play, you don't want that rewritten to say the opposite.
Pyrian on 3/12/2024 at 22:58
Quote Posted by Starker
Whatever you may think of the charges or the investigations, at the end of the day lying on a gun form is a crime and given the gun violence epidemic in the US, gun owners should be held under increased scrutiny and not only if they are celebrities on Fox News.
Call me back when "addict with an arsenal" Don Jr. comes under the slightest scrutiny and his Daddy doesn't pardon him.
RippedPhreak on 4/12/2024 at 00:13
Quote:
The military code also explicitly prohibits political affiliation being a factor in staff decisions.
So if they aren't openly saying it, that means it isn't happening? It's a bit more subtle than that. If they start to think you might have a problem with firing on a crowd of unarmed civilians, you just don't get promoted, and you get eased out the door with less-than-glowing OERs.
heywood on 4/12/2024 at 00:48
Quote Posted by RippedPhreak
The Democrats already began political loyalty tests for the military - to ensure
left wing loyalty. So the reverse will be nothing more than fair play.
Of course that's made up nonsense. This is becoming a classic disinfo strategy. Before you plan on doing something completely unethical and probably illegal, falsely accuse the other side of doing it over and over until everyone has tuned out, then go ahead and do it.
The idea that the military is controlled by woke leftists is comically absurd. More like a bunch of center-right RINOs.
This is just an excuse to stack the top with loyalists who will put Trump and party before their oath.
BTW, Trump wants to change the military's rules so he can use it to fire on crowds of unarmed civilians, which previous military leadership stopped him from doing during his first term. Domestic law enforcement isn't one of the military's missions but Trump wants to make it one. You good with that?
Starker on 4/12/2024 at 00:59
Quote Posted by Pyrian
Call me back when "addict with an arsenal" Don Jr. comes under the slightest scrutiny and his Daddy doesn't pardon him.
Silly Pyrian, standards are for libs.
lowenz on 4/12/2024 at 01:00
You can always spin that "woke libtards" are just a tool of a state deeper than the deep state, let's call it diaper state!
demagogue on 4/12/2024 at 01:26
For the record, I'm well aware of tacit loyalty qualifications. Next to the US, the government I know best is Japan, which many don't appreciate has been a one-party state almost it's entire Postwar history, and when you have one party entrenched like that, it's not surprising to see that they have a practice of placing LDP-loyal judges in more important courts and pushing LDP-critical judges to the periphery, which has had a real effect on outcomes. And when you look at the data on it, they try to keep it on the down low, but they can't hide it.
So I know what it looks like. And I'll hear someone out if they want to make a similar argument for the US military, but seriously if you look at the reports out there -- all kinds of think tanks and consultancies like writing on it -- the case isn't there as far as what I've seen.
What I would believe is that for Magats, the Overton window has shifted so far to the right that they perceive non-partisanship or centrism itself as "radical left". To begin with, in any objective political scale or if you do comparative studies, Democrats are going to consistently fall right of center. So the fact that they get routinely assumed to be "radical left" tells you a lot about the Trumpist mindset right there.
DuatDweller on 4/12/2024 at 01:54
Well Japan is entrenched in favors between elders and youngsters obeying them, not to mention the industrial lock up with Keiretsu having several layers of importance and interactions at several levels (this determine which company will be the top dog for example).
Is not surprising that one party is locked up into power, way too many favors owed to important people.
