What Point?

Posted on by Thor

The 1,107 graduating Cadets at West Point have been studying remotely since March 19, 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The spring break was extended indefinitely due to the spread of the virus across America. By studying at home, cadets helped stop the spread of the disease. Despite these successful safety measures, President Donald Trump insisted that he wanted to give a commencement speech in front of all the cadets at West Point.

Every cadet had to return to West Point two weeks weeks early to self isolate so that the POTUS who never wears a mask in public and often does not social distance might be kept safe. “Trump’s reckless decision to gather 1,000 Cadets at West Point for a speech puts our future military leaders at increased risk – all to stroke his own ego,” Army veteran Senator Tammy Duckworth wrote in April.

“Because travel increases your chances of getting infected and spreading Covid-19, staying home is the best way to protect yourself and others from getting sick,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote on it’s website. On top of this, New York State has had the highest number of cases of Covid-19 in America. West Point is just a 90 minute drive north of New York City which has been the epicenter of the outbreak of the virus.

Prior to the ceremony every cadet had to take Covid-19 tests to keep the POTUS safe. The ceremony flouted New York Governor Andrew Cuomo‘s social distancing directives for graduations in the state to be limited to 150 people. Sixteen of the graduating class tested positive for the Covid-19 upon their return to campus. The 16 cadets are receiving treatment but are not showing symptoms of the disease, Lieutenant. General Darryl Williams, West Point’s superintendent, told USA Today. Other than the 16 cadets, 71 of the more than 5,000 faculty, staff and civilians at West Point have also tested positive for COVID-19 since March, USA Today reported. I am sure that Trumps SS would kept anyone who was infected far from the president.

A rift has become evident between the executive branch and the military. The government’s highest ranking military official, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley apologized for his role in Trump’s now infamous photo op in front of Saint John’s Church last Monday June 8, 2020, saying “I should not have been there.” Hundreds of West Point alumni, two days before Trump’s address, also called out the top Pentagon leaders, for failing to uphold the Constitution in their responses to nationwide protests.

Top Army leaders and Defense Secretary Mark Esper were “open” to the discussion about re-naming military bases that are named after Confederate generals who lost the civil war. The  GOP-led Senate Armed Services Committee approved a new amendment that would require military bases named after Confederate soldiers to change their names – setting senators on a collision course with the president. Trump tweeted that he “will not even consider” renaming military bases. The bases are located in  southern states that helped Trump secure his 2016 victory, and as Election Day approaches, he needs their support.

The class of 2020 West Point graduates entered their commencement ceremony on the Plain Parade Field wearing white face masks. Once they got to their socially distanced folding chairs they could remove their masks. There was no family of friends allowed. I imagined that if I was a graduate I would probably make a scarecrow to wear my hat. The POTUS probably wouldn’t notice the difference. The scarecrow could easily stand in for the military salute photo op.

The presidents speech was sleepy and insipid. I read his speech, but don’t pay attention to what he says anymore, I just watch what he does. He hobbled  off the stage after the cadets all threw their caps in the air. 16 0f those caps might have been carrying the Covid-19 virus.

Bible Photo Op

Posted on by Thor

Apparently Donald Trump was fuming mad that the press reported that he was moved to a bunker below the white house when demonstrations got violent on Sunday night. He at first denied being moved to the bunker but later admitted the security precaution. He decided it was necessary to exhibit a show of force that had US Military, National Guardsmen and Federal Officers firing tear gas, rubber bullets and flash bombs on a peacefully assembled crowd in front of the White house in Lafayette park on Monday  June 1, 2020.

Polls have been showing support slipping among white evangelical Christians. He therefor decided to walk to Saint John’s Church, The Church of Presidents, along with several aids and his daughter Ivanka Trump who was the only one wearing a mask. He had ordered an assault on US Citizens for the sake of this PR stunt. He was handed a bible and looked at it like he had never seen one before.

The President has been threatening to use the US Military to crush any protests in Cities around the country.  However he is barred from doing so by the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 which outlaws the willful use of any part of the Army or Air Force to execute the law unless expressly authorized by the Constitution or an act of Congress. Trump pushed for out-of-state National Guard members to patrol the streets of Washington, DC, against the mayor’s will; deployed 1,600 active-duty troops on the capital’s doorstep; and threatened to send more forces around the country to arrest vandals.

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper spoke about, dominating “the battle space” as if the protests and riots in American cities were taking place in a third world country.  A retired top military officer who also just stepped up the plate is former US Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, who wrote in The Atlantic Tuesday evening: “It sickened me yesterday to see security personnel—including members of the National Guard—forcibly and violently clear a path through Lafayette Square to accommodate the president’s visit outside St. John’s Church. I have to date been reticent to speak out on issues surrounding President Trump’s leadership, but we are at an inflection point, and the events of the past few weeks have made it impossible to remain silent.”

Several Democratic governors on Monday June 1, 2020, pushed back against President Donald Trump’s threat to deploy the U.S. military unless they dispatch National Guard units to “dominate the streets” in reaction to the violence that has erupted across the country. Pentagon Chief Mark Esper, who walked behind Trump to the church said he does not support using active duty troops to quell the large-scale protests across the United States triggered by the death of George Floyd. Esper claimed that he had no idea that they were walking to the church for a photo op. On Wednesday June 3, 2020 Esper said, that clearing the park “was not a military decision, not a military action.”

James Miller, an undersecretary of defense at  the Pentagon resigned, citing Secretary of Defense Mark Esper’s role in President Donald Trump’s photo op. “You may not have been able to stop President Trump from directing this appalling use of force, but you could have chosen to oppose it. Instead, you visibly supported it,”  for policy, wrote in his resignation letter to Esper.

The White House announced on June 3, 2020 that the president could instate the Insurrection Act which is a 1807 federal law that allows the president, in dire circumstances, to deploy military and federalized National Guard troops inside the country to suppress civil disorder, insurrection and rebellion. Mark Esper said, “We are not in one of those situations now. I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act.” Trump’s show of force has turned the military into a political tool.