Friends, times they are a-changin'! The Navy has removed the Captain of the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt because he wrote a critical letter about the service's response to the coronavirus, which leaked to the press. Biden has now jumped all over the case, coming to the Captain's defense. Biden's motivation is clear enough: anyone who criticizes Trump MUST be a true American hero -- for, clearly, in this moment of national peril, there's no greater service one can perform than Trump-hatred. The facts of the case do matter a little, though. The key question is: was the letter written so that it could be leaked? Did the Captain himself leak it? If so, that's a breach of the chain of command that more than justifies his removal. I don't prejudge the case, personally. Biden does, however. He scents presidential weakness, so he pounced. That he may do permanent harm to the country -- by politicizing the armed services -- seems not to matter. In fact, I'm seeing signs that the (borderline neurotic and almost always duplicitous) attacks on Trump's coronavirus leadership may be working. Trump's poll numbers are wavering. That's depressing, but not entirely surprising. People are sheep. If you repeat something often enough, they'll believe it... Of course, we've got a long way to go before this virus is licked...and even longer to go before November.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-navy-biden/biden-trump-administration-showed-poor-judgment-in-removing-warship-commander-idUSKBN21L07Y
In other news, the Swedes just keep on truckin'. Extraordinary. Seems to me we ought to be asking the question: if lockdowns are so great, then why are the countries without them looking better in some metrics than many of the countries with them? I'm not saying lockdowns are necessarily ill-advised, but they ought to be evidence-based. I'm failing to see a lot of critical thinking in the application of these severe restrictions. It's more like a mad rush to the exits...
https://spectator.us/lockdown-please-swedish/
Sorry, nothing new here. Remember when the DemoRATS called Lieutenant Colonel Vindman as their witness during the impeachment hearings? That was a first move in the DemoSH*T strategy to create disloyalty to The President among The Armed Forces. That's how deadly this stinking party is now.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of The U.S. Navy, I have a long time very good friend who is a retired Army Officer (Vietnam Veteran). His son is a Major in the Army, and recently went to an all services graduate school in California where he earned his M.A. degree. While there, he told his Dad that generally speaking, the Navy people there were very arrogant and aloof, and for the most part very left wing politically.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of the U.S. Navy (again), this is a service full of contradictions, in my opinion. For example, every time The U.S. Congress has exonerated and absolved Admiral Husband Kimmel of blame for the Pearl Harbor debacle, the Navy still refuses to do so, as recently as 2016. Admiral Kimmel was the Commander of the Pacific Fleet on December 7, 1941, and became the primary scapegoat for the Pearl Harbor disaster. Ample evidence clearing his name is still not accepted by the Navy. This tends to be stupid, because one would think that the U.S. Navy would want to be completely free of any blame for Pearl Harbor. And above all, The U.S. Navy was the favorite service of our first crypto Socialist President, FDR.
ReplyDeleteWell, according to my husband, the Marine, that Navy Commander needed to be relieved of duty. You do NOT go outside the chain of command. He/ the commander leaked it to the press.
ReplyDeleteSweden, in just my humble opinion, has it right. grin
Dr Waddy and all of those I'm so very glad to join in commentary:The Navy is perhaps the most aristocratic and traditional of the services. I witnessed that first hand in my Navy service in Newport and on a fleet flagship 1968-72. I think I know why that is: the commanding officer, both of a fleet or of a ship, must have wide latitude because of his often weather oriented or the particular attack positions he may face.
ReplyDeleteThe Captain of the TR might well be facing consideration for Admiral's rank, as , I know, do so many supercarrier Captains. He may well have sacrificed this ambition in his comments.This suggests that he may have been sincere.
What disturbs me terribly is Ray's observation that his son experienced much left wing conviction among his fellow officers or at least in his instructors.
So much of the military career (a very laboriously earned career always) requires a "go along to get along surrender). I know I saw that in the NY State Corrections Dep't.
Has "Political correctness" captured the US Officer Corps? If so, God help us and have pity on them. I must doubt it.
Of course the vindictive antimilitary intentions of those who seek to ride the feckless Biden to executive control are reflected in his comments. He is but a puppet.
Jack
ReplyDeleteLet me clear something up, immediately. I will put this in caps to emphasize my point. FIRST OF ALL, MY SON HAS NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO WITH WHAT I STATED IN MY COMMENT. I AM SPEAKING ABOUT THE SON OF A FRIEND OF MINE WHO HAPPENS TO BE AN ARMY OFFICER. THIS YOUNG MAN WENT TO THE ALL SERVICES GRADUATE SCHOOL IN CALIFORNIA TO EARN HIS M.A. DEGREE. WHILE ATTENDING THE SCHOOL HE OBSERVED THAT THE NAVAL PEOPLE THERE GENERALLY SEEMED TO BE ON THE LEFT OF THE POLITICAL SPECTRUM, AND FOR THE MOST PART DID NOT LIKE TRUMP. THIS IS HARDLY AN INDICTMENT OF THE NAVY, IT IS JUST AN OBSERVATION OF AN ARMY OFFICER AT A GIVEN TIME.
SO IF YOU STILL DO NOT UNDERSTAND MY PREVIOUS COMMENT I WILL REPEAT WHAT I JUST SAID, AGAIN AND AGAIN.
THANK YOU.
Ray: I stand corrected; its plain in your initial comment that you were not speaking of your son. But that noticeable leftist views may be evident in the eyes of a creditable witness in the Navy today is, I maintain, worth noting.
ReplyDeleteJack
ReplyDeleteThanks. I suspect that leftist views are scattered throughout all of our services.
Of course this is nothing new. Remember Smedley Butler (two Medals of Honor) who retired from The U.S. Marine Corps during the 1930s as a General, and then wrote "War Is A Racket", and went completely left? He died in 1940 I believe.
So leftist views in the Armed Forces are hardly new. Check Butler out, and I believe there are a couple of biographies about him, one is titled "Maverick Marine" as I recall.
Thanks again.
Sincerely,
Ray
And on the subject of the corona virus, don't forget that 100 years ago The United States got to spread a specific influenza virus which started in Kansas of all places. This virus killed at least 50 million people globally, and possibly as many as 100 million. Anyone interested in learning more about this, I strongly recommend reading "The Great Influenza......" by John Barry.
ReplyDeleteHistorically speaking of course, there have been pandemics in history to include lots of people killed by cholera, and bubonic plague. Now you can get cholera and plague shots. My point is that pandemics are hardly new. If the corona virus was that horrible (and I am not being flippant) but then why aren't all those Swedes dropping dead sitting in their sidewalk cafes in Stockholm and elsewhere.
I'll bet that one year from now that most Americans will forget this virus ever existed, unless of course they lost someone. My takeoff point on this comes from Nancy Bristow who wrote "American Pandemic....." about the Influenza pandemic of 1918-20, and how a lot of Americans forgot it real quickly not all that long after it happened, and today, a great many Americans have not even heard about it. That pandemic killed a lot of Americans, probably many more than this corona virus will kill in this country.
ReplyDeleteRay: I ran into people with leftist views in my time in the Navy (68-72); what would really concern me is if they started to predominate. I've looked on the military as a bulwark against a left I am convinced wants to destroy our country. The military is such a respected institution in our culture now. I'll do some reading on Smedley Butler.
ReplyDeleteI cannot gainsay anyone who has been in combat, let alone as a Medal of Honor winner. I was not in it and I think that anyone who has has a kind of wisdom we who have not cannot acquire, no matter how sympathetic we may be. I do believe it is historically proven necessary for good people to fight, in order to prevent the wicked from working their sociopathic evil, as per the 20th century and in predatory crime. But I know that good men like the author Ambrose Bierce and Pres. William McKinley were permanently disabused by the Civil War of any trust in war. McKinley went to war in 1898 with only the greatest regret.
Ray: I think our country to be the most financially and medically strong and resilient country of all and I trust we will recover from this. Perhaps the Swedes have set us an example of favoring a medical game of chance over certain economic trouble, perhaps itself resulting in deaths? Honestly, I think the question open.
ReplyDeleteWe are certainly getting a test of that notion after our dictatorial NY Governor's order to upstate to"give up the ventilators". Yeah, well at least it probably ends his Presidential hopes; upstate, as political scientists have long recognized, is a microcosm of the real America for which Cuomo has such contempt and his message is unmistakeable: "there are people who count but then there are those who are less equal". President Trump's assertion that totalitarian Cuomo has death squads (triage?) on his mind, is rendered much credibility by Cuomo's pronunciamento and I can only hope President Trump will take him in hand.
Ray, I know most soldiers, sailors, and airmen voted for Trump and support the GOP, but as for the officer corps... It would not surprise me if much of the military elite shared the DC insiders' contempt for our president. Quite a few of them have also been hoodwinked by the diversity agenda.
ReplyDeleteQuite right, Linda! Insubordination and/or deliberate undermining of one's superiors is not acceptable in ANY military. Again, I don't know if the Captain did the leaking himself, however.
Jack/Ray, one of the crosses we conservatives have to bear is the simple fact that, the more education one has, the more likely one is to be ideologically unsound. That's depressing, but it's undeniable. One assumes that the bias among professors and intellectuals explains most of it. I assume, though, that these trends hold true for military men too.
Ray, there are Swedes dying in this pandemic too, but if, at the end of the say, about the same proportion of Swedes die as Americans, or Britons, or Germans, then we will be justified in asking: what was the point of the near-universal lockdown??? Again, if Swedes are dying at a higher rate, or are on course to do so, NO ONE has brought any evidence of this forward, to my understanding.
FYI, I read today that the vast majority of COVID-19 sufferers who go on ventilators die on them. All this fighting over ventilators may be relevant to prolonging life, but not necessarily to saving it.
Dr. Waddy: A military officer's career is so laboriously won and can be ended by a single, momentary mistake. The road to command is grueling and it is very much to ask of one who has succeeded to take a nonetheless principled stand disfavored by those who can break him or her.
ReplyDeleteGiven the still probably dominant culture of the military , together with the demanding nature of its rites of passage (eg. the academies) I would guess the majority of officers disdain the practice of promotion simply to satisfy a preset numerical goal thought by such as Hillary to be necessary proof of opportunity.But when people like her originate the orders, the orders must be carried out. Ironically, the military has apparently has enjoyed much success simply by demanding the same standards of all.
I hope you're right, Jack, but the military is not immune from the baleful influence of our popular culture, academia, the press, etc etc. I can't say how much they've been subverted, but I doubt very much that the values of old prevail in the officer corps as they once did.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy: An article I read recently lamented the "fact" that the volunteer military attracts mainly those inclined to the military culture, to the obvious detriment of the transcendent objective of "diversity" (of arbitrary leftist mandated category, NOT of thought). What better illustration could we find of the mindset behind all leftist social engineering? "Human nature? Pshaw! And we'll back that up, you better believe it"
ReplyDeleteHa! There's an obvious solution: stop all that reactionary ordering-people-around business in the military and make it more snowflake-friendly! What could be easier? I assume our enemies on the battlefield would be understanding and would stop firing live rounds? It would be racist to refuse!
ReplyDelete