That’s a very fair point.

Bottom line is that I’m skeptical of this guy, but this is my take on his whole deal.

He reminds me of a lot of young, infantry people I’ve met in my time: young and full of stupid decisions. I genuinely believe that he got a Totenkopf without realizing what it was. That sounds like something an idiot, young infantryman would do. However, I don’t for a second believe that he didn’t know what it was until recently. That’s a bald faced lie for someone who claims to be a student of history. My read of it is that he realized what he had on himself and he was too ashamed to actually do something about it and instead tried to just keep it a secret. That is, he tried to keep it a secret until he was outed for it. If this is the case, he should have just come clean about it when it came out and just said this, but he didn’t.

As for everything else, I’ll extend him some grace on some (except one) post. Being a trolly edgelord is whatever. Infantry, especially at the time, was very sheltered from the military sexual assault issues, and war is really hard on someone. It can send you to really dark places, especially if that’s all you’ve known. So, apologizing for saying stupid, offensive things and demonstrating change is fine. The one thing I am having a hard time reconciling is the “black people don’t tip” post. He’s actually defending that, which…is a choice. If he disavowed it saying that it’s something he observed but is obviously untrue, then fine, but he didn’t.

I don’t think he’s a closet racist or a closet nazi. I think he might just be kind of dumb. If he’s elected, at least he won’t furrow his brow and vote with Trump on everything.

That’s a great overview of it. I think you’re right; as soon as Trump dies (and I do think it requires his death, not just leaving office), MAGA will fall on each other like wolves. This is why I’m not concerned about “who comes after Trump” because in choosing, MAGA will splinter and self-destruct. I’m actually concerned about actually getting there. If Trump dies (naturally is best), and the country isn’t completely destroyed, we’ll have a hell of a cleanup project, but I think it could be fixed in a generation or two.

The fact that MAGA potential heirs are starting their succession fight tells me that they know and are privately acknowledging that he’s not healthy and are trying to get a headstart in kneecapping the opposition.

I’m cautiously optimistic after these polls and hoping that they learned their lesson after caving the last time. I think the potential for bad polling spooked them the last time, but with this, they might find their spines and get some concessions from the Republicans. At this point, we really need some sort of victory.

But I always leave room to be disappointed.

But there is something the courts can do that doesn’t involve punishment: simply order the administration to re-hire the IGs with back pay and scrub the termination from the record. That’s the actual legal remedy in this situation.

Same. At this point, I’m only buying stuff that’s local to my community from small businesses. I don’t want to help American mega-corps, and I don’t want to contribute to any tariffs going to fund the government.

I worry that poor execution or bad decision making is what will sink the progressive movement. People assume that Johnson’s poor performance is due to inherent issues with democratic socialism, when in fact it he’s just not good at his job.

Exactly! It’s why I’m not concerned with Mamdani based on what I’ve seen. He seems fairly level-headed, and he has a bit more governing experience than Johnson had.

Not all progressives have the right disposition and skills to do great things - and if progressive voters can’t or won’t distinguish between policy and performance, then the movement is likely to fizzle out.

We need to have the ability to self-criticize and be pragmatic. There’s room for pragmatism without compromising core beliefs.

Absolutely! Some of it is definitely racism, and it is at the root of some criticism. His issue is that he seems to attribute virtually everything that’s negative or even questioning to racism. Honestly, I get why he’s defensive because of that, but that doesn’t make it any less of an overreaction.

Questioning investing in the south and west sides (to be clear, a good thing) is probably rooted in racism. Questioning why another pastor is being nominated to some position is probably not. He treats both the same.

So, being from Chicago, Johnson’s problems are mostly personal and of his own making. Like the article highlights, his staffing and approach has been pretty abysmal. He has a tendency to appoint unqualified pastors to positions (which, to be fair, is classic Chicago graft and not unheard of in the city with other mayors), and he doesn’t handle criticism well (that is, everything is “because he’s a black man” even if the criticism is justified). Plus, antagonizing the very popular governor from the same party is just a stupid thing to do. Some decisions are taken haphazardly (like trying to house migrants on toxic land). Others are just insanely stupid given the history of Chicago and basic financial literacy, like trying to take out a high interest loan to satisfy the Chicago Teachers’ Union or paying over $1M per unit of affordable housing.

The closest thing to an indictment of progressive policies is how Johnson wants to balance our budget, i.e. through taxes, even though Chicago is one of the most highly taxed places in the country already. He seems constitutionally incapable of reviewing for waste in the budget, of which there is plenty thanks to graft built up over decades. In this case, we don’t really need more of a tax in the city; we need the money that’s already being sent to be used more effectively. Decades of financial mismanagement and straight up corruption (which are, to be clear, not Johnson’s fault) led to where we are now. Even that, though, is not really because he’s progressive.

In all, Johnson’s problems are not because of overarching progressive policies; it’s because he personally makes poor decisions and doesn’t really have a grasp on how to effectively govern. While I haven’t looked too far into Mamdani, if he can simply make sound management decisions and not alienate those who should be allies, he’ll have a better time.

Isn’t it an international human rights violation to make somebody stateless?

Yes.

Somewhat related but I always half-joked that Clarence Thomas’ anti-civil rights rulings were a long con to outlaw interracial marriage so he could divorce Ginny.

I already know the vote will fail, and even if it doesn’t the Senate won’t convict. But, Jesus, the Democrats need to do something. Even a symbolic gesture is welcome, and it’s better if it can gum up the works and make Trump’s agenda come to a screeching halt.

You do get promotions in the Army reserve.

Correct.

They are taking jobs that could have been a promotion for an experienced reservist.

Probably not. This little think tank was just stood up. Title 10 gives the maximum numbers of officers per service per grade ( https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/523), and I wholly doubt that five new O-5s make an actual difference to getting to that cap. I also doubt we are anywhere near the maximum numbers of authorized officers. There is a retention crisis after all.

Beyond that, they would have to compete within their own competitive categories, so whatever category these people are in is the only one (minorly) affected. In fact, what is most likely is that the Secretary of the Army authorized to add five to the quota for that competitive category to mean that no one gets negatively affected. When officers are directly appointed to senior grades (which does happen), it’s not a big deal.

Look, I agree that this is bad, but it’s not malicious…just dumb and a waste of time and money while cheapening the service career officers have. In the end, this is just a publicity stunt and an eval bullet for some General somewhere. There’s plenty more to be outraged about from this administration than direct commissioning five idiot executives who will likely not do anything of substance.

LTC’s either have command or staff positions and often approve things like operations orders and contracts.

They are not going to have command. The article itself says they’re going to some “Innovation Corps,” which just sounds like some boondoggle assignment on a staff. They will have no actual Army job. They’re just going to be pushing contracts to their companies. That’s bad, but it already happens, so it comes out as just nothing. They are almost certainly not going to be in anyone’s chain of command.

Plus, I’d bet they’ll probably be at the Pentagon. An O-5 there has as much authority as an O-1 in the “real” military.

There’s virtually zero chance they’ve been put there for no reason

Probably just some flag officer’s good idea fairy or a way for a flag to secure a job after retirement. Again, not good, but very par for the course for DoD stupidity and/or corruption.

There are plenty of actual things to get outraged over. Having some tech bros play Army as O-5s is not that important. The DoD already gets bent over a barrel by Palantir and other companies to use their software; it’s wasteful and supports terrible companies. That’s what to get outraged over, not some idiots being appointed as O-5s.

I get the sentiment, but this is really a nothing-burger. They’re coming in as reservists, so they won’t compete against active duty at all. I don’t have much experience with the Army, so I don’t know how their promotions work with regard to MOS. However, I’d imagine they aren’t competing against other MOSes. There’s also a history of doing this with doctors and lawyers.

In general, this is dumb and just a way for some idiot executives to play Army every so often and feel really big and important while doing nothing of value.

Yep, but those who resign for moral reasons will be more likely to take actual actions to protest/stop what’s happening. The military will have a hard time recruiting competent people in that environment, though, and the people taking the vacancies will likely have diminishing competence as time goes on.

To put it in perspective, if more officers retire at 20, they’ll generally be O-5s (Lieutenant Colonels or Commanders), and so the next year’s promotion cycle will need to promote more O-4s to cover the vacancies. This will then trickle down, and suddenly, you have officers who have been O-3s for just a couple of years being promoted to O-4 rather than waiting longer and gaining experience.

In that scenario, there will be less efficiency in planning and execution and far more incompetence, and if being used against civilians, more brutality. But incompetence is easier to defeat in the long run. Seeing the incompetence and brutality will deprive the military of the smartest recruits who staff the important IT, intelligence, cyber, etc. communities. So, while they may get true believers, a lower proportion will be competent.

No matter how it shakes out, it will get very bad.

Not wrong. At “best,” we’ll see a fracturing of the military…which could be much more trouble than it’s worth. I’d expect a small wave of resignations/desertions (since resignation for an officer takes a long time). The remainder of good people will actively try to avoid and sea-lawyer their way out of doing any damage to civilians without violating orders. There will be a good chunk who will happily fire on US civilians, though.

It’s important to spread the message far and wide that they are not alone

This right here. Disobeying orders is hard, and upholding one’s oath when being told from all sides is hard, especially when friends and colleagues are going along with it. You don’t want to be the squeaky wheel who makes trouble for everyone. It can become easy to think that you’re alone if surrounded by people “just following orders.” It’s made harder still when considering that a single morally courageous action can throw away a career and potentially land you in the brig.

Plus, actual veterans and service members think it’s stupid. “Thank you for your service” is a punch line.

Sounds like it’s going to be a violent summer. As soon as the first protestor gets injured or killed, this will start to spin out of control.