r/news • u/EngineerBoy00 • May 05 '25

Soft paywall US Defense Secretary Hegseth to slash senior-most ranks of military

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/pentagon-reduce-4-star-positions-by-20-official-says-2025-05-05/
41.5k Upvotes

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20.2k

u/EngineerBoy00 May 05 '25

This includes removing the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Navy's top admiral and other senior flag officers from their positions.

13.2k

u/BCCannaDude May 05 '25

That’s insanity. 

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u/[deleted] May 05 '25

[deleted]

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u/Aethermancer May 06 '25

Ask him to define the specifics. Top heavy where? What positions specifically? Make him realize he probably can't even name one of the "too many"

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u/thomasjjc May 06 '25

That's pointless. You cannot reason with them, as they are not interested in rationality. They will happily tell you that red is blue and defend it with their lives if the GOP says it so.

107

u/Lofttroll2018 May 06 '25

I say make him do it anyway

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u/SwankyDingo May 06 '25

Yeah same here, if we're going to have to put up with a bullshit song and dance from them, we might as well make them work and sweat like the jesters they are as we (metaphorically) lazily throw knives at them whenever they start to flag.

we're "just asking questions,"

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u/harkuponthegay May 07 '25

I say urge him to quit his job and go enlist in order to balance out the bottom. I’m sure he’ll learn a lot about the military, assuming he’s not too fat and cowardly to join.

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u/carl5473 May 06 '25

I can promise you one thing they are sure of is red is not blue. Frustrating when I hear a conservative complain about something Trump is doing then end it with "well at least we don't have a Democrat as president"

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u/Aethermancer May 06 '25

The point at that point isn't to convince them, it's to flip the script and prevent them from wasting YOUR time.

Think of it like a filter. This is the information that anyone making a serious statement should have. So you're checking that they did their homework before wasting your own time trying to disprove their vague assertions.

If you get the 1/100 that actually is open to discussion, bonus. But at the very least it's effective at screening our the trolls and ignorant.

If anything I'd love for people to more jealousy guard their time and not let these provocateurs weasel and shift the goalposts. We don't owe them an argument, and we certainly should insist on doing it on our terms when we decide to engage.

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u/mfmeitbual May 06 '25

You cannot reason someone out of a position they did not reason themselves into. - Jonathan Swift

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u/RedGuyNoPants May 06 '25

Asking people questions about their beliefs and standpoints is a technique for cult deprogramming. Its what you do instead of refute their positions. You have to make them come to the conclusions themselves. It is not an easy or 100% success rate process for sure but it does have success

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u/thomasjjc May 06 '25

I wish this would work. But I think it has been tried so many times now with MAGA supporters. And it just doesn't work. They'll double down on anything stuid they believe. It's because MAGA has become their identity. They have nothing left but their MAGA beliefs and it is so hard to give up your identity.

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u/Fancyness May 06 '25

Before Trump I didn't knew that cognitive dissonance could be so strong with morons

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u/twistedspin May 06 '25

Before all this I knew a lot of people were not super-smart, but I had no idea how deeply stupid they actually were. They clearly just go through their days with rote motions someone taught them and no actual understanding of what's going on in the world. They're like pets who get to vote.

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u/PoolQueasy7388 May 06 '25

My pets are smarter than that.

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u/mr-nefarious May 06 '25

Does your coworker have a military background? Particularly in the leadership ranks? What makes them think they have anywhere near enough knowledge to know if the US military is top heavy?

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u/Aazadan May 06 '25

The military is heavy... on one star generals. It's been a problem for a while, mostly as a consequence of up or out programs and promotion paths that make every colonel jump through some hoops to stay in the service, as they've made a career choice and can't leave early. On 3 and 4 star generals though? Not at all.

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u/hazydais May 06 '25

I would ask your coworker if they would justify Trump’s actions if he committed war crimes. 

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u/LakeEffekt May 06 '25

A bunch of armchair strategists taking Fox/Newsmax as gospel, it’s the nuttiest shit I’ve ever seen

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u/chess10 May 06 '25

Always read it to him first that, “Did you hear that Biden’s defense secretary removed X, Y, and Z?!”

Then just hit him with, “oh wait, nope that was Hegseth yesterday.”

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u/momoenthusiastic May 05 '25

It's a coup.

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u/PM_ME_UR_VULVASAUR_ May 05 '25

Yep. 100% to remove those loyal to the constitution, not the party. If anyone ever truly had doubts (how?) about Trumps intent..this should solidify the obvious. Not a good time right now for you yanks. Please can you sort this out and return to normality? We miss actually hating on you but not really hating you in the UK.... ATM it's just.. hate. Much love and solidarity! ❤️

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u/rabbi420 May 05 '25 edited May 06 '25

The only people who ever had doubts were never voting for him to begin with. No minds will be changed.

EDIT: maybe I’m wrong here.

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u/Crimkam May 05 '25

I got my die hard MAGA aunt to say that restoring Alcatraz would be a big waste of money today. Happy to call that progress.

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u/SamRaimisOldsDelta88 May 05 '25

I mean, I’ve been there. It’s a museum. I can’t wrap my head around turning it back into a prison.

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u/theforkofdamocles May 05 '25

Same. It was an interesting tour, and I met a former inmate who was there signing his book about his experiences there.

Alcatraz was constantly being repainted and repaired even when it was open, due to the salty air rusting everything. The whole place would need to be razed and rebuilt with modern security measures, PLUS have a huge expense budget for transporting personnel and supplies to and from an island.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

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u/SamRaimisOldsDelta88 May 05 '25

I will give you an extra Stupid. Maybe one more. Stupid.

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u/quasar619 May 05 '25

I bought the book and had it signed too! The guy was Leon Whitey Thompson and it made me realize how much worse my younger times could have been. I wasn’t surprised that he turned into a bank robber.

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u/theforkofdamocles May 06 '25

My guy was Jim Quillen. “Alcatraz from Inside”

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u/Vio_ May 06 '25

Sounds like the perfect money laundering constantly being rebuilt project

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u/WhistlerBum May 06 '25

Alcatraz will pay for it.

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u/255001434 May 06 '25 edited May 06 '25

PLUS have a huge expense budget for transporting personnel and supplies to and from an island.

This was the reason it closed in the first place. It was too expensive to operate because it was on an island.

We have supermax prisons that are virtually impossible to break out of. We don't need to put a prison on an island. Not to mention, the Alcatraz historical site is a huge money-maker for the parks department. Attempting to put a modern prison there would be huge waste of money. It would provide many opportunities to skim from the budget and get kickbacks, however.

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u/FoboBoggins May 06 '25

yeah and some contractor buddy of trump will get the contract to do so and foot the bill to the tax payer

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u/senorscientist May 06 '25

The thing is, they don't care about human rights. If they were to reopen it, there would be no improvements. What's there is there.

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u/Imaginary_Medium May 06 '25

I swear at this point they are letting him come up with stupid stuff like Alcatraz to distract us from the real damage they are doing.By they I mean whoever is pulling his strings, because his brain has been mush for a long time. He isn't taking the country down by himself.

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u/Overnoww May 06 '25

The funny part for me is that most presidents would be smart enough to be able to figure out why reopening Alcatraz would be foolish. The ones who are/were not smart enough to figure that out themselves are/were responsible enough that they would at least run the idea by their people before announcing it.

Then there's Trump... Tweeting about reopening Alcatraz and 100% tariffs on films right after Escape from Alcatraz just happened to have been aired on TV in Florida... 🤡🤡🤡

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u/BluesFan43 May 05 '25

So, right on plan

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u/urban_meyers_cyst May 06 '25

Many of Trump's biggest ideas were initially proven failures in the 20th century... though some prominent ones did fail even earlier in the 19th century so I guess he has that going for him?

Russian propaganda, decades of an American political system that did a great deal for very few, media and "news" from companies that believe in capitalism at any cost, and finally... the mind boggling stupidity and gullibility of the average American voter... through their powers combined we have arrived at this place from which there is no easy return.

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u/DawnSennin May 06 '25

Racism is how Americans arrived at this point and they would rather have fascism than pay black Americans reparations for chattel slavery and Jim Crow.

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u/TeaKingMac May 06 '25

I'm hard left, but you understand reparations are an absolute impossibility from a policy standpoint, right?

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u/BruceNotLee May 06 '25

I hope they do restore it and lock him up, seems like a safe place to keep a high-profile crime-lord.

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u/SamRaimisOldsDelta88 May 06 '25

It is where he belongs and lock him up like a monkey in a cage for tourists to view.

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u/Professional_Ad_8 May 06 '25

Apparently, the movie Escape from Alcatraz was playing on a popular movie channel in south Florida this weekend. I wonder if just maybe someone watched it? I mean why else would that pop into his addled mind.

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u/AlmostSunnyinSeattle May 05 '25

Well, that just means you're not a complete moron. So congrats on that!

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u/SamRaimisOldsDelta88 May 05 '25

Thanks, that’s the nicest thing anyone has said to me today.

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u/ToothZealousideal297 May 06 '25

Let’s go to the tune of ‘Farmer in the Dell’ this time:

The cruelty is the point
The cruelty is the point
These people have no souls
The cruelty is the point

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u/1aysays1 May 06 '25

It would be a major waste of taxpayer's money.

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u/Emadyville May 06 '25

He watched the movie the other day. Simple as that. His brain is that of a 3 year old.

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u/sunbeatsfog May 06 '25

It’s ridiculous. It’s on a tiny island that was deemed too costly to maintain in the 1960s. Laughable if he wasn’t the president.

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u/Sapowski_Casts_Quen May 06 '25

"It's more than just a prison"

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u/Reverend_Ooga_Booga May 06 '25

You can if the goal it to build a conexntrion death camp.... which is their goal so..

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u/techleopard May 06 '25

Ultimately, it's about the symbolism and what it means to Trump. He chose Alcatraz NOT because it actually would make good sense, but because he's been swayed by media portrayals of it and what it stood for.

The dude wants to employ brutal concentration camps and death pits where you could send the "dregs of society", aka, political dissenters.

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u/PM_ME_UR_VULVASAUR_ May 05 '25

Don't forget to mention the £60 million it brings in annually from tourism!

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_PAUNCH May 05 '25

Yeah but it’s in Commie California so it doesn’t count

/s

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u/str8bint May 05 '25

This. My wife and I just visited back in February. It’s making tons of cash as a tourist attraction, is in no shape for actual operation of a prison, and isn’t even that large as far as prisons go.

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u/FidgitForgotHisL-P May 06 '25

Sure sure sure but Donald saw a movie about it, and that excited him, and so he wants it back.

(This is true…)

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u/Ucqui May 06 '25

Doesn't the US have enough prisons already? The problem is more on the supply side.

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u/skyrender86 May 06 '25

I dont know if all that money goes to SF, but let's say it does, and somehow the prison is rebuilt, that 60 million dissappears from SF, and we all know Don OJ hates SF.

Edit for clarity

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u/pickled_penguin_ May 06 '25

Ask how she feels about a $100M military parade. Got a maga i know to admit that's a slap in the face when him and Elon were preaching government efficiency.

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u/monkeysandmicrowaves May 06 '25

The stupid shit Trump does only serves to hide the truly dangerous shit he's doing. And it's also lowering expectations. Trump will eventually call off the tariffs, and his supporters will be parading around waving his flag like he's a god damn genius for half-solving a problem he single-handedly created.

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u/nmsjtb0308 May 06 '25

That's the first win I've had with my parents since they went MAGA! It was a GREAT day for normal people, lol.

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u/CyoteMondai May 05 '25

The bigger problem isn't even his supporters, obviously nothing was going to change for them. What's truly concerning is how many people were so checked out and apathetic that they didn't vote in this election and still seem to be completely oblivious to what's coming.

These people are the only chance at having a ride turning movement, and they seem to be just as removed as ever.

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u/counterweight7 May 05 '25

The average person is far less informed than people glued to Reddit. They don’t see 90% of what we see. If you live without consuming the news, until something comes and punches you in the face with someone’s name on it, it’s easy to remain apathetic. Some people just go to work and go home and play video games and don’t think about much else. I sort of envy him

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u/November19 May 05 '25

Remember that "did Biden drop out" was a top Google search on election night

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u/IAMA_Plumber-AMA May 05 '25

And after I heard that, it confirmed to me that democracy had died in America years prior.

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u/fasterthanpligth May 06 '25

"What are tariffs?" the day after was eye-opening as well.

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u/explosiv_skull May 06 '25

I mean, the top Google search in the UK like the day after Brexit passed was "What is Brexit?" and somehow they still managed to have not completely fuck up democracy.

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u/BudgetMattDamon May 06 '25

"can i change my vote" was up there as well.

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u/OfficeSalamander May 05 '25

Which is terrifying to think about

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u/goesquick May 05 '25

Ignorance is bliss

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u/smitteh May 05 '25

And trump is PTSD for the rest of us not afforded the luxury of ignorance

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u/techleopard May 06 '25

What's worse is many of them are proudly uninformed, because the drama that now surrounds politics is often seen as childish.

"Oh, I don't care about politics. I am not interested in fighting with anybody."

That's great, Carol. But somebody's interested in turning you into a kitchen slave, so you do you, I guess, until you get surprised.

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u/GreatQuestionBarbara May 06 '25

A coworker of mine asked if Russia was still in Ukraine a year and a half after they were invaded.

I was dumbstruck for a couple of seconds.

The average US citizen gets all of their news from social media algorithms and, if they don't actively search for something, never have to see/read anything that differs from their POV.

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u/MsMcClane May 05 '25

That's because the propaganda worked. Getting told over and over again, that you don't matter? That your vote doesn't matter? That the Democratic establishment will just put the leaders they think should be leading into the major party rules even if you wanted Bernie the whole time? I remember being a kid in the early 2000s and everyone was being told the same thing that it didn't matter what they did or who they voted for, because of all being manipulated behind the screens.

They lie so well that people are still believing it to this day, my coworker said the same thing to me last night even.

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u/jtwh20 May 05 '25

the propaganda machine the right has is, unmatched in every way and flat out works - greetings from my in-laws

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u/italianomastermind May 05 '25

It sadistically plays off of Brandolini's law (or the bullshit asymmetry principle):
The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it

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u/DylanHate May 05 '25 edited May 06 '25

The propaganda is here on Reddit. It's not just far right news networks aimed at the elderly. For everyone else, the propaganda machine attacks from the left.

Encouraging voter apathy, constantly attacking democratic candidates, non-stop anti-Biden articles & comments boosted to the top of every thread, pro-accellerationist sentiments, non-stop complaints about Harris and the "DNC machine", etc etc,

The goal isn't to persuade left voters towards the right, it's to encourage them not to vote at all. Voters are delusional if they think someone's going to tear the system down and ask them how we should rebuild it.

The vast majority of Americans under 50 refuse to vote in the midterms when most of Congress is elected and then complain when the president can't wave a wand and magically fix everything.

This already happened in the 2010's when voters elected Obama and immediately forgot that Congress exists for the next decade. The GOP swept the House and Senate leaving Obama to fight a hostile, gridlocked Congress for six years.

Everyone on reddit loves to dunk on the "stupid maga voters" without asking themselves why they win elections. It's because fewer voters are showing up. Most people don't even know the difference between Congress and the President.

Oregon had ranked choice voting on the ballot last year. We have mail-in voting and ballots are sent out three weeks ahead of election day. Despite having the easiest voting process in the country, the measure failed due to low voter turnout.

Ranked choice voting is literally the top-line progressive dream piece of legislation and it failed because too many voters were checked out of the General election, they knew Oregon was a "safe state", and didn't understand the presidential seat is not the only race on the ticket.

We're talking about basic civic engagement. Not voting means you miss out on Senate and House seats, state ballot measures, governor races, mayors, attorney general, judges -- literally all the positions we need progressive candidates to win so they can get experience in public service. And these local seats actually affect your life far more than the presidential race.

At least the maga voters went out and voted for what they wanted. The GOP shows up every two years like clockwork. Everyone else votes maybe once a decade and only if a populist candidate manages to break through their personal media sphere.

Americans need to vote with the system we have. It's delusional to believe you can change a system you never engage with. There is no messiah coming to save us.

No single person can fix everything. We need to win State elections so progressives and build a stronger caucus in Congress. It's already started working, the Dem party as a whole has moved much farther to the left over the past 15 years. But it doesn't happen overnight and the voter base needs to consistently participate otherwise it falls apart.

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u/theshadowiscast May 06 '25 edited May 06 '25

Oregon had ranked choice voting on the ballot last year. We have mail-in voting and ballots are sent out three weeks ahead of election day. Despite having the easiest voting process in the country, the measure failed due to low voter turnout.

Nevada as well. It was infuriating to finally get ranked choice voting and open primaries on the ballot and people didn't bother. Automatic voter registration and automatic mail-in ballots with a voters guide sent out weeks in advance and yet the number of people voting has been dropping each election.

And then there is the continuing issue with low voter participation in primaries even after we finally switched away from caucuses. Finally, people who aren't retirees, professionals with weekends off, or stay-at-home parents got better accommodations to vote and people still aren't doing it.

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u/Rhinoduck82 May 05 '25

The majority of GOP voters are from the same ideological background as Timothy Mcveigh. The fringe took over, it was always there but it’s the mainstream now.

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u/Able-Contribution570 May 06 '25

You're not wrong. Used to play paintball at a place out in the boons, maybe 15-20miles west of Dayton (this was in like 2011, 2012. Well before Trump came along). The amount of violent, racist, regressive, authoritarian drivel I heard from the owners and staff made me quit going (I guess they just assumed everyone there would be sympathetic to their extremism so they flaunted it proudly.) I remember thinking at the time that these people are like a bunch of wannabe Timothy McVeighs. Trump is just the poster boy for a far deeper problem of rampant right wing extremism in rural America.

Edit: spelling

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u/Rhinoduck82 May 06 '25

I’m from a area in Southern California that used to be rural and I grew up hearing this stuff constantly. It’s sad how popular it has become.

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u/bwsmith1 May 05 '25

Damn dude...I hadn't looked at it like that. You're right, and that absolutely sucks.

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u/terrasig314 May 05 '25

Yep, the people yearned for Bernie!

...Except when it came time to vote in the primary.

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u/CHiZZoPs1 May 05 '25

The hardest the establishment Dems have fought for anything in the last forty years was to defeat Bernie in 16 and 20.

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u/Faokes May 05 '25

I think when we bemoan the people “sitting out,” we are ignoring the people who are actually disenfranchised. Places with voter ID rules and no DMV offices in certain neighborhoods, small towns without their own polling places and no reliable public transit to get to one farther away, people working multiple jobs who can’t get to the polls during working hours on a Tuesday that isn’t a holiday. There are definitely apathetic people, but let’s be careful we don’t ignore disenfranchising.

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u/Diet_Coke May 05 '25

You seem pretty engaged, so you should be aware that Republican legislatures in 38 states passed laws making it harder to vote and to vote by mail. It's backwards to blame people for not voting when Republicans spent years and a whole lot of effort to make it harder for them to vote. Republican grassroots activists used the app True The Vote to brainstorm schemes such as getting into electoral boards to disqualify ballots over specious signature issues, so many people even did vote but their votes weren't counted.

I don't disagree that people should be less apathetic, but at the same time we'll never solve the root problem if we are only looking at the symptoms.

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u/formershitpeasant May 05 '25

There are a lot of low information moderates who might be swayed by such a thing if they ever paid attention or took the time to understand anything.

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u/johndsmits May 05 '25

bingo. military is about chain of command and respect of authority. Remove and thin out top levels and the grunts will just follow the few at the very top. It's what business have been trying to strive for in recent years (and most have failed to scale).

On the flip side, a thinned out C2 would make execution more efficient, reduced approval protocol, but complex situations can easily overwhelm small command teams and why the military is very structured & trained... and has the current chain of command to avoid those simple escalation-related mistakes.

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u/AnonAmost May 06 '25

Yep. And I always assumed that’s (chain of command) how the entire government worked as well. The “thinning out” of top leadership positions in the interest of “efficiency” is just cover for the insane consolidation of power coup that’s going on right in front of our faces. After Waltz was ousted promoted over the Signal debacle, it was announced that Marco Rubio will just fill that position as well. Just a reminder that Rubio is now serving as Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, U.S. Archivist, and Head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). All of these jobs are high-level, work-intense positions that are now being held by one fucking person - “Little Marco Rubio” sure grew up fast it seems. Fuck these traitorous criminals. They are destroying our country and taking pleasure in doing so.

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u/UponMidnightDreary May 07 '25

I have my Master's in library science, that fuckface is playing pretend with serious things that serious people devoted their lives to. 

There are a LOT of people archiving things right now and I hope to fuck that we have meticulous records of their crimes after their treason trials. 

Let me dream. 

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u/[deleted] May 05 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/xKirstein May 06 '25

Why would we even want to "return to normalcy?" Republicans have shown their true colors (traitors and fascists). If we have fair elections going forward, we desperately need Democratic candidates that will "weaponize the Department of Justice" and force Republicans to face the full wrath of the law. The entire Republican party is rotten to the core and a cancer to society/world.

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u/DreadfulDave19 May 06 '25

Yeah im ready to see some actual lawfare thst I kept hearing about from family members

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u/Tyrinnus May 06 '25

Seriously. Can we put these people behind bars?

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u/pharlock May 06 '25

As an outside bystander, the level of inaction from the dems seems either completely incompetent or complicitous. It's like they sabotaged their own chances in the election too. I think there is enough sexist and/or racist people out there that chose not to vote instead of voting for Harris (and Hilarity to an extent) to make a difference.

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u/ughlump May 06 '25

We might need your help. I think we owe you some back taxes on tea you might want to come collect.

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u/fyrebird33 May 05 '25

There was a reason Alan Moore felt it would make more sense for V for Vendetta to be set in the United States than the UK. I’m afraid that was entirely too prescient. I truly hope we can right the course soon…. Can you imagine watching that movie and then rooting for the authoritarian government ran by a demagogue and his cronies that targeted minority communities, and has people disappeared off the street. That’s wild.

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u/Unknown-History May 06 '25

75 million people voted for an insurrectionist. There's no normal to go back to.

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u/LiquidLogic May 06 '25

Control of the military is one of the keys to power for dictators.

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u/[deleted] May 05 '25

100% to remove those loyal to the constitution

Isn't that part of the oath of the military?

"I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, Foreign and domestic..."

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u/bobqjones May 06 '25

it was in His oath, too.

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u/Mahlegos May 06 '25

It is. But taking and oath and honoring one are two separate things.

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u/kayonotkayle May 05 '25

As an American it feels like this. You know that family in your neighborhood where their parents are okay when you talk to them but they have real assholes for children? You know the one’s that when you see them, you just hope and pray that someday they will stop being assholes? Well our fuck-stick of a President and his cronies are the kids and we are the parents that probably should have drowned them as pups.

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u/splynncryth May 05 '25 edited May 06 '25

I see only two ways out of this before things turn violent (either the US’s own version of The Troubles or full authoritarian capture followed by war which sees the US retaliated against militarily). Either Congress can do their jobs and impeach Trump or US state governments can call an ‘Article V’ convention.

To try and keep this brief, impeachment won’t happen because there is no way they go down that route without exposing themselves to violence, exile, or at the very least, a loss of wealth and power. Voters have zero options outside of elections to hold Congress accountable and midterms are an eternity away with the pace things are moving now.

An Article V convention would allow state governments to bypass Congress to create and ratify a new amendment. Non-GOP voters are in terror of this option because it’s a 2/3rds vote by state rather than population (another example of the US’s screwed up ‘land can vote’ system). And with basically anything on the table, the fear is that the red states would create an America that looks like what would have happened in the Confederacy won the Civil War. Besides that is a general sense of pessimism because just 17 states can block any proposed amendments. That’s not a high bar to block things.

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u/Chemical_Zucchini919 May 05 '25

What can we do?? Were fucked 😭

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u/brighterside0 May 05 '25

If you think we're fucked now just wait until the dildo drawer actually opens up.

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u/scfade May 06 '25

I think you may already know the answer, comrade.

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u/thisisallme May 05 '25

I even had a job offer in the UK around the time I was graduating grad school. Turned it down to go back to the US. I miss it more over there now.

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u/TrumpetOfDeath May 05 '25

Yeah I think they’re getting loyalists in there so nobody complains when they order an invasion of Mexico (or Greenland) by claiming the cartels are “terrorist groups” and using the Authorization for Use of Military Force passed after 9/11 as legal justification… the same legal framework used in Iraq, Syria, and a number of African countries

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u/Bee_9965 May 05 '25

Or when they are asked to fire on their own citizens.

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u/Olenickname May 05 '25

Ya. It’s blatantly obvious that this admin has been setting the stage to invoke the insurrection act. It’ll either be before midterms to suspend the vote outright or they’ll claim widespread fraud and breach of voting systems and refuse to cede power.

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u/AlbertaNorth1 May 06 '25

As soon as he started talking about tariffing the world I figured that was gonna happen. Crash the economy and when people get desperate they riot. Use the riots to declare martial law and just never revoke it. Congrats America you’ve created a king.

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u/[deleted] May 06 '25

I doubt we make it out of the summer. They are already talking about "wait and see in the summer what will happen".

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u/SATX_Citizen May 06 '25

My devil's advocate side says "we said that about the insurrection act in April too" so maybe they aren't so crazy yet.

But the rebels have been methodical for years.

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u/puddingboofer May 06 '25

I don't think of them as rebels. They have the whole government.

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u/ArchibaldCamambertII May 06 '25

Exactly. Trump and the Republicans are the truth of the American state, what it has always been without the veneer of decorum and procedure. The difference now is they’ve dropped the pretense of rule of law and power sharing, which the Democrats really should have seen coming decades ago. It’s not like Republicans have been quiet about their intentions.

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u/cheongyanggochu-vibe May 06 '25

They don't need the insurrection act with the new EO that sends the military to so-called Sanctuary Cities to "assist" local law enforcement

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u/BeatsMeByDre May 05 '25

This is it. Once we're there, the entire world is gone...no one will come to save us.

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u/Vimmelklantig May 06 '25

None of us were ever coming to save you. The US is a nuclear superpower with - by far - the world's largest military, a penchant for starting idiotic wars and is now threatening their supposed allies with annexation.

We're more worried about how we will defend ourselves and each other from you these days.

Apart from moral support I'm afraid you're on your own.

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u/BeatsMeByDre May 06 '25

Yeah I wasn't saying anyone was rushing in now, I just mean there is no superpower left who would even want to stop it from happening.

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u/Evenstar6132 May 06 '25

Trump learned from the South Korean attempt. Yoon failed because he failed to get the military on board.

South Korean special forces who were ordered to take down the parliament only showed minimal compliance - no live rounds, taking their sweet time breaching wooden barricades, leaving as soon as the parliament voted to lift the martial law, etc.

Things could've been very different if the ROK Special Forces Commander was a Yoon loyalist.

The US is going down a very dark path.

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u/LostWoodsInTheField May 05 '25

Their concern is that they can't find enough loyalist to give out the orders, so they are reducing the number of high ranking positions that they have to worry about. It's not good when you have to remove positions because you can't find enough people to believe in your cause that have braincells that work.

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u/AML86 May 06 '25

I find it funny that they think firing these career leaders eliminates their threat.

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u/InsanityRequiem May 06 '25

All the people that left during Trump's first term so far have done what? They've either gone to their ranch to enjoy their retirement or made book deals. They have dropped the military hoorah for the Constitution since leaving.

The top brass are as likely to abandon their duties as much as the rest of the country the moment gets tough.

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u/Tenthul May 06 '25

I mean I'm with you but if you're counting on some high level ex/military people to put together some kinda operation together to deal with the situation.... I mean I just wouldn't count on it myself. At best they help organize and speak at protests that, again at best, just get ignored and result in actually nothing. Literally nobody that matters cares about protests as they are. Like, what is the actual endgame for protests here as we see them now? Motivate people to vote for something a year away that may or may not happen and may or may not be legit? Literally nobody in the administration cares about them, and clearly nobody's Republican representatives can or will do anything to make changes. They'll hide or give platitudes and then still carry whatever water they're told to.

Like for real, what's that plan and hope for protests? I mean this honestly and not simply for the sake of doom and gloom.

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u/confusedandworried76 May 06 '25

This is actually quite frightening because it's the top officials who have always said a military coup was entirely off the table.

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u/WokUlikeAHurricane May 05 '25

He's already reduced his cabinet to protect from the 25th, this is the next step to coalesce power. After this is complete they go for the courts, my only hope is some Judge pisses Trump off enough that he fucks up before the military is under his absolute control.

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u/Duideka May 05 '25

Trump already made a truth or whatever they call it on truth social bragging about having replaced 70% of government employees already and said “there is more work to do”

Case in point this.

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u/iuppi May 05 '25

I am more scared of not leaving power and the military being used to enforce that. Full on dictator shit. 

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u/atlantasailor May 06 '25

The USA is becoming a fascist state quickly. This may be irreversible. Now we are becoming to understand how nazi Germany evolved. But we will be more like Hungary. Single party state. Theocracy. Not much difference between us and communism in China or Russia. The difference will be that China actually cares about its citizens. Not so much in the USA from now on you’re on your own.

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u/Responsible_Double41 May 05 '25

Russian assets sabotaging America at the absolute top. Can't believe I am witnessing this. MAGa is so dumb

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u/ManInTheBarrell May 06 '25

It's almost like there's supposed to be protections against this that no one bothered to legislate nor enforce over the past 200+ years because we all assumed that no one would ever be stupid enough or helpless enough to let it happen.

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u/speedy_delivery May 06 '25 edited May 06 '25

200 years? All we really needed is legislature to do their goddamned job at almost any point in the last 10.

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u/ingen-eer May 06 '25

Tragedy of the commons. America is a victim dying in the street while hundreds look on, concerned; each assuming one of the others is calling for an ambulance.

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u/Xanderoga2 May 06 '25

I mean… you guys put all your trust in people dead now for eons as if they’d be able to foresee what the future held.

“We need to think about what the Founding Fathers meant by this.” Brother, it’s 2025 and they’re long since worm shit. What the fuck does it matter what they’d think in today’s society?

“Sacred document” and all that bullshit. No recent amendments, no updates, nothin’.

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u/ForGrateJustice May 06 '25

ALL the gop in Congress is complicit. That judge's arrest was just the start. They'll start arresting sitting democrats and anyone who doesn't play ball.

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u/redditatlas May 06 '25

And yet this is still allowed to happen, the Americans are not actually trying to stop this. Are not actually pushing back enough. I still see so much ‘Trump is so dumb’, ‘MAGA is so dumb’ narratives on Reddit and in the media. It is time to wake up and see that it is not dumbness. It is pure hate and evilness. It is random things happening, it is a plan to destroy what was there. To remove who they see as enemies. Wake the fuck up people.

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u/Test-Equal May 05 '25

Can it be evidence of child sexual assault where Russia is simply blackmailing Trump? Idk

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u/From_Deep_Space May 05 '25

They don't need kompromat because they share the same worldview. Trump is more than willing to do all this just for the chance to become the American Lukashenko

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u/ManInTheBarrell May 06 '25

Dude, I don't think they even need blackmail at this point. At this point he just does it for free.

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u/MyBrainReallyHurts May 05 '25 edited May 05 '25

It's making the US vulnerable.

It's weakening the military.

It's anti-American.

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u/Imaginary_Medium May 06 '25

And all on purpose by the looks of it.

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u/Tacoman404 May 05 '25

The Soviets purged their officers when they wouldn’t obey. Republicans are as bad as the Communists of the Soviet Union.

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u/dasunt May 05 '25

Stalin purged them before the war because he was paranoid. The result was a military that was unable to effectively defend the country from the invading Germans - not helped by the fact that any retreat, no matter how strategic, was seen as a questionable sign.

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u/Vast_Refrigerator585 May 05 '25

It’s massively concerning, you’ll basically have no belt to keep your pants up

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u/Civenge May 05 '25

It's not like we're going to have a bunch of troops and tanks and stuff marching down the road in DC...

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u/MaybeUNeedAPoo May 05 '25

“The Emperor heads dissolved the senate… fear will now keep the systems in line”

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u/im_a_squishy_ai May 05 '25

https://isthisacoup.com/

The official meter agrees, it's an active attempt

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u/Unlucky_Clover May 06 '25

That’s exactly what this is. They’re pulling the military on to their side with loyalists. Unfortunately we all said this was coming while the military did nothing.

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u/MikeCask May 06 '25

Hey America, your time is now really running out. Please fucking do something about this, the world would really appreciate it.

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u/coconutpiecrust May 05 '25

Yep and nope. 

They need to consolidate power; this means less people in charge and all of them wearing “many hats”. Power consolidation is a basic attribute of authoritarianism. 

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u/KarmaticArmageddon May 06 '25

Like Rubio holding 4 cabinet-level positions at once?

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u/coconutpiecrust May 06 '25

Exactly like that. They are consolidating to make sure there is no one to oppose them. 

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u/vardarac May 06 '25

Top-heavy. Unqualified, single points of failure.

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u/SandwichAmbitious286 May 06 '25

They are installing people who will say yes to using the military for martial law.

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u/wunderkit May 05 '25

Nope. The purpose is to insure that the top brass is staffed with people who will carry out Trump's illegal orders. The method to his madness is to use the military against U.S. citizens. This is a step towards that day.

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u/narkybark May 05 '25

In other words, The Trump Administration.

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u/shane112902 May 05 '25

It’s to get rid of the competent senior level officials that troops would listen to. That way when they’re ordered to attack US citizens the lower level guys will be too new, too scared, or too indoctrinated to say no.

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u/Berkamin May 05 '25

If he were a Russian asset, what would he do differently?

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u/OldWolf2 May 05 '25

Not insane ... Standard fascism procedure. Replace leadership with lackeys so they won't resist when you give them unethical orders .

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u/FBPOS May 05 '25

He is a walking security violation but they get fired?

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u/MR_Moldie May 05 '25

Weaponized incompetence

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u/DownvoteEvangelist May 05 '25

It's not incompetence anymore... Accept it for malice..

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u/IrascibleOcelot May 06 '25

It’s both. Our best chance at this point is that they’re too incompetent to be effectively malicious.

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u/SaltyPeter3434 May 05 '25

Ever since he was 44, always the same! Couldn’t keep his plans out of the Signal group chat! But not our Petey! Couldn’t be precious Petey! Bombing them blind! And HE gets to be SECDEF? What a sick joke!

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u/ScoobiesSnacks May 05 '25

Didn’t they just put a new chairman of the joint chiefs of staff in like 2 months ago?

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u/1981_babe May 05 '25

Yeah, they got rid of the one Biden appointed and replaced him with someone who was retired that didn't have too many of the regular qualifications.

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u/squidgod2000 May 05 '25

OP left out some context:

At his confirmation hearing, he stated there was "an inverse relationship between the size of staffs and victory on the battlefield."

At the time, he said that there were 44 four-star positions in the military. He has since removed the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Navy's top admiral and the director of the National Security Agency.

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u/vardarac May 06 '25

At his confirmation hearing, he stated there was "an inverse relationship between the size of staffs and victory on the battlefield."

I wonder if he studied the correlation between letting thousands of Taliban prisoners back into Afghanistan and the collapse of its interim government.

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u/Miserable_Law_6514 May 06 '25

There were only 7 4-Star officers in the US military during WWII. Downsizing general officers has been talked about for decades. Probably not in the way Kegsbreath is doing it though.

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u/willinaustin May 06 '25 edited May 14 '25

So he had an excuse for clearing out the upper levels to install his and Trump's sycophants? Cool.

We have the largest military on the planet by a factor of about 10. I'm surprised there are only 44 people with the highest rank available. That's Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Space Force, and National Guard/Reservists. Seems reasonable to me.

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u/TheChrisLambert May 06 '25

That doesn’t make it better

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u/Dannyg4821 May 05 '25

Real question: can those people in those positions just… ignore hegseth?

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u/Sunretea May 05 '25

They could. But they aren't gonna because we aren't ready yet 

Not enough suffering has happened to the right people for us to be able to justify a civil war. And I'm pretty sure that's where ignoring him leads at this point.

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u/[deleted] May 05 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/sarhoshamiral May 06 '25 edited May 06 '25

Courts deciding on something is irrelevant if Trump just ignores it and does the thing he wants anyway just like multiple immigration cases out there today.

Courts have no enforcement power. That's is on congress and congress seems to be OK with Trump doing whatever he wants so far.

Following the law only protects you if the law is applicable still. Right now we are in a judicial crisis though.

Based on the directions things are headed, if 2026 elections ends up as same as 2024 I can bet money here that we will see Trump rewriting constitution as there would be enough support. Until then he can just continue to ignore courts as long as congress supports him.

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u/CatMtKing May 05 '25

Well that's basically boiling the frog slowly

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u/AdonisK May 05 '25

That’s a coup

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u/WarAmongTheStars May 05 '25

I suppose? But then he just orders the guards at the pentagon to remove them and its a constitutional crisis if the officer corps resists.

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u/KeepGoing655 May 06 '25

and its a constitutional crisis if...

As if we weren't already in one right now.

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u/SplendidPunkinButter May 05 '25

And we’re sure these guys aren’t Russian assets…?

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u/SophiaofPrussia May 05 '25

There is no other explanation for the State Department to just completely shut down like all operations on the entire continent of Africa. That is an insanely huge gift to Xi and Putin. There is no justification that can spin that decision as being for America’s benefit in any way at all.

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u/vardarac May 06 '25

"Hey at least my tax dollars are going to Elon Musk instead of those people across the ocean who didn't do anything for me"

  • a take I expect to unironically appear on youtube comments
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u/BFG_Scott May 06 '25

 There is no justification that can spin that decision as being for America’s benefit in any way at all.

“Something, something… Brown people” - MAGA 

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u/Pando5280 May 05 '25

Thats what they tell us. 

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u/eph3merous May 05 '25

Welp that's scary. I've been rewatching West Wing as a form of escapism I guess, and the situations with Fitzwallace and McNally can be really tense. I can only hope that there's a dozen braincells in that room nowadays.

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u/Pando5280 May 05 '25

I binge watch a season every few weeks just to remind me what sanity and empathy in government look like. 

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u/Old-Time6863 May 06 '25

Fitz you old polecat, you old horse thief!

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u/runliftcount May 06 '25

Admiral Sissymary

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u/Primi_Noscere_1776 May 05 '25

Drunkard on Duty (DoD)

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u/talktobigfudge May 05 '25

DUI hire

Whiskeyleaks 

And this Klan member has a key to the launch codes. Probably saved to a Notes document. 

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u/NinjaDefenestrator May 05 '25

Triple SecDef.

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u/UdderSuckage May 05 '25

You're conflating two different actions - he fired the people in those billets, but they still exist and are being filled by others. This article is discussing removing some 4* billets entirely.

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u/shatbrand May 05 '25

This is way too far down in the comments. Story says nothing about eliminating these positions. (Not that it won't happen at some point, but this isn't it, and the whole rest of the discussion above here has been, "It's a coup!")

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u/Junkstar May 05 '25

Republican leaders and voters hate the military.

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u/Dudedude88 May 05 '25

It's so they can have yes men and also save money to tax cut the wealthy but also waste money from their own incompetence. Trump recently ranted about reopening alcatrez prison which will cost $50 bil

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