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Mike Miller's avatar

I hated doing dog and pony shit. You spend 2 weeks prior cleaning with no lib. Officers going apeshit over everything. Stress out everyone to the max for a 15 minute PT session photo op. I cannot imagine having the responsibility of the largest military in the history of the earth and all that entails and preferring struggling pull-ups for some E2s

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Ken Klippenstein's avatar

It's all so stupid.

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JennyStokes's avatar

I very much doubt that USA is now the largest military on this earth.

When did they last win a war? Grenada!

Outdated weapons and dumb people.

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5h
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JennyStokes's avatar

NO. Jeez they can't even build new weapons let alone build aeroplanes. They need rare earth/aluminum and pieces from all over the world.

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Matt Mc's avatar

They have shown that they will “go to war” with anyone- including the American citizens they are supposed to be defending. Perhaps this is a more honest description of the department, but I suspect the new name is meant to embolden future actions against the people who have paid for this clown show.

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Michael Wallace's avatar

My grandfather used to tell me stories about his clandestine work securing Intel during the Cold war. THAT was real readiness prep. This admin is nothing but fascist photo ops and strongman routines. Also, I hope they didn't give Noem a loaded gun jfc

And we're forced to take these kkklowns serious. And I use that word specifically with those letters because that's what they are. From Hegseth to Miller, from Vought to Vance.

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Tom's avatar

The Photo Op / Psuedo Event administration is a good way to describe these jokers, but they also do plenty of petty and mean things IRL. Truly just a bunch of preening, fake-ass scumbags who have never read a book and are drunk on power.

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Thomas's avatar
6hEdited

Prior to 2015, Mr Hegseth's visible tattoos would have prevented him from enlisting in the military. Only with the increased difficulty in recruiting suffient numbers of soldiers, airmen and sailors were the standards changed. Since becoming Secretary of Defence, Hegseth has recently added more body art, perhaps to celebrate his elevated status.

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Lori's avatar

his beloved hair is out of regs too

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Shahid Buttar's avatar

Everything with him is simply a matter of appearances. It’s on brand for people with fragile egos, from the president all the way down to his masked ICE thugs. https://open.substack.com/pub/shahidbuttar/p/the-rise-of-the-fragile-tough-guy

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Paul Snyder's avatar

This is all like we’re living in a Venture Bros. cartoon.

Way back when I had contacts in State, I mentioned that the whole “Homeland” term carried a lot of problematic Nazi connotations

“Bah… No one thinks this shit through as much as you. Nobody will even notice” was the response.

Now we don’t have long to wait until the OSS is resurrected as Thiel’s standalone entity. Only with the “SS” cleverly Nazi’ed up.

What the heck. DOD hasn’t really been in the “Defense” game for quite a while anyhow. 😑

Thanks again, Ken

AND…

When we hear that the DOW has crashed, do we guess stocks or the military?

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Carol Draizen's avatar

I was appalled by the Nazi sounding name of Homeland Security when Bush did it but they’ve since been laboring incessantly to make it real.

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Tankster's avatar

You have relatives in the Fatherland? Fatherland was a nationalistic term used in Nazi Germany to unify Germany through its culture and traditions, drawing inspiration from ancient Germanic roots. The Russians used Motherland as the symbol of a country that nourished and supported its citizens during times of crisis.

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Lori's avatar

I guess Department of War is at least more honest.

Also, Ministry of Peace was already taken.

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Joy in HK fiFP's avatar

If we want it, no one's gonna stop us! Got that?

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Carol Draizen's avatar

I spend so much time rolling my eyes at the Bobblehead Band of Dunces that is our “cabinet”, I’m afraid they’re going to come loose from my eye sockets. Nevertheless, the department of war is certainly more historically accurate. I’m wracking my brain to remember the last “defense” we were forced to mount but other than Pearl Harbor & the Revolutionary War I’m at a loss.

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JennyStokes's avatar

Well the US did win the war in Grenada!

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Tankster's avatar

President Heel Spur. My Vietnam was not getting an STD. Punk.

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Martin Reznick's avatar

Lots of interesting stuff! A few thoughts, for what it's worth.

Zuckerberg et al. wear t-shirts and hoodies to signal their competence and reliability as well. Steve Jobs did the same: his headspace was so precious that he did not want the burden of daily dressing decisions (and he wanted everyone else to know this), so he only wore the Archer turtleneck. The t-shirt and hoodie reflects a commitment to outcomes and contempt for the trappings of old east coast economy success. But just like only a managing director can wear suspenders, only an exalted tech asshole can wear a certain kind of $800 t-shirt credibly. Different clothes, same signaling mechanism.

The obsessive focus on military grooming seems to go back at least to the beginning of Jocko Willink's podcast. He's told the anecdote that some Russian commander believed they lost the First Chechen War because they allowed Russian troops to grow beards and slack on basic grooming. Obviously they lost the war because the Russian army was hopelessly corrupt and inept, but blaming it on the beards is a delightfully face-saving explanation. It's a useful enough analogy provided you aren't simple-minded enough to take it literally. Given the media these clowns consume and their very much on-the-record simple-mindedness, I would surprised if they were *not* governing based on half-remembered podcast anecdotes.

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Denise O'Leary-Siemer's avatar

Yep! It’s a cluster ……!

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Jay's avatar
4hEdited

So He is just returning to the department’s original name? These guys love “history” but they don’t actually know history. For those tuning in, Pre-Cold war, Department of War, post WWII Department of Defense. The power of names and how they can obfuscate their reality. Great work as always Ken. You and Beth keep up the Good Fight.

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DrOranj's avatar

Sure, they can't keep a plane on an aircraft carrier during evasive maneuvers, but damn do they look good!

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Clif Brown's avatar

You're right, Dept. of War is an honest description whereas "defense" is a cover, but creating pumped up names goes way back - sanitation engineer instead of garbage collector, team member or associate instead of employee. When Mike Eisner was head of Disney he wanted to call employees "cast members"

On masculinity, America has a very big problem. Those ICE guys with Noem show the problem, putting on a tough image that borders on brutal. Show those biceps but not the eyes. Big pickups with loud mufflers and blackout windows are part of the same pathetic idea of what it is to be masculine. All of this nonsense accompanies the decline of civility and promotion of the military as we've seen for some time in flyovers of football games.

Trump loves his power and demonstrates it for no other reason than to show all that he has power and that intimidation is for him a reward of office. I call him John Wayne with a lobotomy. His actions are thuggish with a delight in punishing those who cannot contest his decrees.

The midterm elections of next year seem so far away, but we should all be carefully looking at those who are going to be running for Congress as we need to deprive The Bully of the control he has of it now and to reject any Zionist candidates who would keep us on a leash for the Warrior State.

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Tom's avatar

>>>Kristi Noem posing with ICE agents (Protip: never point your gun at someone you aren’t shooting)<<<

Maybe there was a puppy looking out the 2nd story window to the guy's left?

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