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misfitwashere · 6 days ago

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February 22, 2025

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

FEB 23

Last night’s Friday Night News Dump was a doozy: Trump has purged the country’s military leadership. He has fired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Q. Brown, who Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested got the job only because he is Black, and Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti, who was the first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff and whom Hegseth called a “DEI hire.” As soon as he took office, Trump fired U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Linda Lee Fagan, giving her just three hours to vacate her home on base. Last night, Trump also fired the Air Force vice chief of staff, General James Slife.

In place of Brown, Trump has said he will nominate Air Force Lieutenant General John Dan Caine, who goes by the nickname “Razin”—as in “Razin Caine”—to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Joint Chiefs of Staff is the body of the eight most senior uniformed leaders within the United States Department of Defense. It advises the president, the secretary of defense, the Homeland Security Council and the National Security Council on military matters.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the highest-ranking and most senior military officer in the United States Armed Forces and is the principal military advisor to the president, the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council, and the secretary of defense.

Caine has held none of the assignments that are required for elevation to this position. His military biography says he was a career F-16 pilot who served on active duty and in the National Guard. Before he retired, he was the associate director for military affairs at the CIA. The law prohibits the elevation of someone at his level to chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff unless the president waives the law because “such action is necessary in the national interest.”

Marshall notes that Trump is “reaching far down the pecking order to someone who isn’t even on active duty in the military for the critical position not only as the chief military advisor to the President…but the key person at the contact point of civilian control over the military.” In Trump’s telling, his support for Caine comes from the military officer’s support for him. “I love you, sir. I think you’re great, sir. I’ll kill for you, sir,” Trump claims Caine said to him. Trump went on to claim that Caine put on a Make America Great Again hat, despite rules against political messaging on the clothing of active-duty troops.

Trump appears to be purging military officers with the intent of replacing them with loyalists while intimidating others to bow to his demands. It seems worth recalling here that Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) stalled the nominations of 451 senior military officers for close to a year in 2023. On February 10, Trump purged the advisory bodies of the military academies for the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard, saying: “Our Service Academies have been infiltrated by Woke Leftist Ideologues over the last four years…. We will have the strongest Military in History, and that begins by appointing new individuals to these Boards. We must make the Military Academies GREAT AGAIN!”

The purge of military leaders wasn’t the only news last night. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth indicated he intends to fire the judge advocates general, or JAGs—the military lawyers who administer the military code of justice—for the Army, Navy, and Air Force. “Among many other things it’s the military lawyers who determine what is a legal order and what’s not,” Talking Points Memo’s Marshall pointed out. “If you’re planning to give illegal orders they are an obvious obstacle.” “Now that Trump has captured the intelligence services, the Justice Department, and the FBI,” military specialist Tom Nichols wrote in The Atlantic, “the military is the last piece he needs to establish the foundations for authoritarian control of the U.S. government.”

National Security Leaders for America, a bipartisan organization of people who served in senior leadership positions in all six military branches, elected federal and state offices, and various government departments and agencies, strongly condemned the firings, and urged “policymakers, elected officials, and the American public to reject efforts to politicize our military.”

Observers point out how the purging of an independent, rules-based military in favor of a military loyal to a single leader is a crystal clear step toward authoritarianism. They note that Trump expressed frustration with military leaders during his first term when they resisted illegal orders, saying, as then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley did, that in America “[w]e don’t take an oath to a king, or a queen, or to a tyrant or dictator, and we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator…. We don’t take an oath to an individual. We take an oath to the Constitution, and we take an oath to the idea that is America, and we’re willing to die to protect it.”

Observers note that during his first term, Trump said he wanted “the kind of generals that Hitler had,” apparently unaware that Hitler’s generals tried to kill him and instead imagining they were all fiercely loyal. They also note that authoritarian leader Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union purged his officer corps to make sure it was commanded by those loyal to him.

While the pattern is universal, this is a homegrown version of that universal pattern.

In order to undermine the liberal consensus that supported government regulation of business, provision of a basic social safety net, promotion of infrastructure, and protection of civil rights, reactionaries in the 1950s began to insist that such a government was socialism. A true American, they claimed, was an individual man who wanted nothing from the government but to be left alone to provide for himself and his family.

In contrast to what they believed was the “socialism” of the government, they took as their symbol the mythologized version of the western American cowboy. In the mid-1950s, Americans tuned in to Gunsmoke, Rawhide, Bonanza, Wagon Train, and The Lone Ranger to see hardworking white men fighting off evil, seemingly without help from the government. In 1959 there were twenty-six westerns on TV, and in a single week in March 1959, eight of the top shows were westerns.

When Arizona senator Barry Goldwater, in his white cowboy hat, won the Republican presidential nomination in 1964, the cowboy image became entwined with the reactionary faction in the party, and Ronald Reagan quite deliberately nurtured that image. Under Reagan, Republicans emphasized that an individual man should run his life however he wished, had a right to use a gun to defend his way of life, and that his way of life was under attack by Black Americans, people of color, and women.

It was an image that fit well with American popular culture, but their cowboy was always a myth: it didn’t reflect the reality that one third of cowboys were Black or men of color, or that cowboys were low-wage workers whose lives mirrored those of eastern factory workers. The real West was a network of family ties and communities, where women won the right to vote significantly before eastern women did, in large part because of their importance to the economy and the education that western people prized.

In the 1990s that individualist cowboy image spurred the militia movement, and over the past forty years it has become tightly bound to the reactionary Republican project to get rid of the government Americans constructed after 1933 to serve the public good. Now it is driving both the purge of women, people of color, and Black Americans from public life and the growing idea that leadership means domination. Trump and Hegseth’s concept of “warfighters” in an American military that doesn’t answer to the law but simply asserts power is the American cowboy hideously warped into fascism.

In a press conference in Brussels, Belgium, on February 13, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters: “We can talk all we want about values. Values are important. But you can't shoot values. You can't shoot flags and you can't shoot strong speeches. There is no replacement for hard power. As much as we may not want to like the world we live in, in some cases, there's nothing like hard power.”

That statement came after a troubling exchange between Hegseth and Senator Angus King (I-ME) during Hegseth’s nomination hearings. King noted that in one of his books, Hegseth had said that soldiers—he referred to them as “our boys”—"should not fight by rules written by dignified men in mahogany rooms 80 years ago." King noted that Hegseth was referring to “the Geneva Conventions,” a set of international rules that try to contain the barbarity of war and outlawed torture, and he wanted Hegseth to explain what he meant when he wrote: "America should fight by its own rules, and we should fight to win or not go in at all."

Hegseth explained that “there are the rules we swear an oath to defend, which are incredibly important, and…then there are those echelons above reality from, you know, corps to division to brigade, to battalion. And by the time it trickles down to a company or a platoon or a squad level, you have a rules of engagement that nobody recognizes.” “So you are saying that the Geneva Convention should not be observed?” King asked. “We follow rules,” Hegseth said. “But we don't need burdensome rules of engagement that make it impossible for us to win these wars. And that's what President Trump understands.”

Hegseth refused to say he would abide by the Geneva Conventions. He refused to condemn torture.

This idea that modern warfare requires torture shines a harsh light on Trump’s January 29 order to the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security to prepare a 30,000-bed detention facility at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to detain migrants Trump called "the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people.” Rather than simply deporting them, he said, “Some of them are so bad we don't even trust the countries to hold them because we don't want them coming back, so we're going to send them out to Guantanamo.”

Now it appears the White House is moving even beyond turning the military into cowboys with unlimited powers. On Thursday the White House posted on X a 40-second video that purported to be of migrants, in shackles and chains, faceless as the chains clank, with the caption “ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight.” As Andrew Egger explained in The Bulwark, ASMR videos use video cues to create feelings of relaxation and euphoria, or “tingles.”

No longer is the cruelty of utter domination a necessity for safety, it appears. Now it is a form of sensual pleasure for its own sake. As Jeff Sharlet wrote in Scenes from a Slow Civil War: “Listen to this, the White House is saying. This will make you feel good.” It is, he points out, “a bondage video” in which “[t]he sound of other people’s pain is the intended pleasure.”

Elon Musk posted over the video: “Haha wow,” with an emoji of a troll and a gold medal.

While MAGA seems to have turned an American icon into the basis for a fascist fantasy, President Theodore Roosevelt, who took office in 1901 after the assassination of President William McKinley, had actually worked as a cowboy and deliberately applied what he believed to be the values of the American West to the country as a whole. He insisted that all Americans must have a “Square Deal”—the equal protection of the laws—that the government must clean up the cities, protect the environment, provide education and healthcare, and stop the wealthy from controlling the government.

And, when Roosevelt learned that American soldiers had engaged in torture in the Philippines, he deplored those acts. He promised that “determined and unswerving effort” was “being made, to find out every instance of barbarity on the part of our troops, to punish those guilty of it, and to take, if possible, even stronger measures than have already been taken to minimize or prevent the occurrence of all such acts in the future.”

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#heather cox richardson #letters from an american

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usafphantom2 · 6 months ago

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Air Force “Starting At The Beginning” With NGAD 6th Gen Fighter Requirements Review

Signs that big changes are coming to the USAF's NGAD combat jet plans, or that the program may be supplanted entirely, are growing.

Joseph Trevithick Posted on Sep 4, 2024 3:52 PM EDT

Lockheed Martin

The U.S. Air Force is re-examining the very core of its requirements for a new sixth-generation stealth combat jet as part of its ongoing review of that element of the larger Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) initiative. The service also says the reassessment touches on broader questions about the full mix of capabilities it expects to use to achieve air superiority in the future.

Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Slife and Andrew Hunter, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology & Logistics, talked about the NGAD combat jet and related issues during a live-streamed talk at the 2024 Defense News Conference earlier today. The Air Force confirmed in July that it put its sixth-generation tactical aircraft plans on hold amid budgetary pressures and questions about the underlying requirements. The service has insisted that it is still planning on eventually pushing forward with this effort in some form, though what the aircraft might look like in the end, including whether or not it will ultimately require a pilot, has already been increasingly uncertain.

A rendering of a notional sixth-generation stealth crewed combat jet. Collins Aerospace

“So, from a requirements perspective, what I would say is we’re going back and starting at the beginning with what is the thing we’re trying to do,” Gen. Slife explained. “And so you kind of get two different answers if you frame the question as ‘how do we conduct – how do we achieve air superiority in a contested environment?’ That would be one way to frame the question. A different way to frame the question would be, how do we build a sixth-gen manned fighter platform? I mean, those are not necessarily the same question, right?”

“And so we kind of go back to what is it we’re trying to do up front? And I don’t know exactly how we are going to achieve air superiority in a contested environment,” Slife continued. “It may involve a manned sixth-gen fighter platform, but we’re kind of going back and looking, you know, from the beginning.”

Since “when we did the initial Analysis of Alternatives for NGAD, … you know, frankly, our technology base has advanced in ways faster than we anticipated,” he added. “And so we see … capabilities that we have that perhaps we would want to be part of this mission space going forward that weren’t baked into … where we started with the NGAD system.”

Gen. Slife specifically highlighted questions about whether the current plans for the NGAD combat jet present a path to an aircraft that is best optimized to work with the Air Force’s planned future fleets of Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drones. This is something that Air Force officials, including Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall, have now highlighted on multiple occasions. The service’s number two officer also talked more generally today about the potential desire to incorporate new technologies into the aircraft in response to an ever-evolving threat ecosystem.

A rendering of a national sixth-generation crewed stealth combat jet flying together with a trio of drones. Collins Aerospace A rendering of a notional sixth-generation crewed combat jet flying together with a trio of drones. Collins Aerospace

The crewed sixth-generation combat jet component of NGAD traces its roots back to a requirement for what was originally termed a Penetrating Counter-Air (PCA) platform ostensibly to succeed the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter, which emerged publicly in the mid-2010s. This, in turn, was an outgrowth of work the Air Force had done in cooperation with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Frank Kendall, now Secretary of the Air Force, was involved in those efforts, which he has said produced at least one flying demonstrator aircraft.

Before questions about its future began emerging earlier this year, the planned NGAD combat jet had already evolved into a much more capable, but also costly aircraft than the F-22, as The War Zone has explored in detail in the past. In July, Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach, head of Air Combat Command, said there is now currently no timeline for retiring the F-22.

“Our approach going forward is going to be [about things as] part of our force as a whole, right? So it’s it’s not any individual platform that’s going to deliver air superiority. It’s the entire force,” Assistant Secretary Hunter said today. “And we know that we have many things in our force that we will continue to have into the next several decades. We’re going to have an F-35 force. We’re going to have a F-15EX. We have F-22s. And so what is the role that we need to have to supplement… those capabilities that we will know will be resident in our force to deliver that full capability that we need.”

A row of F-22s, the aircraft the NGAD combat jet was ostensibly envisioned to replace. USAF

In talking today, Slife and Hunter both highlighted a broader shift within the Air Force toward a focus on ways to achieve core mission requirements rather than around specific platforms to meet those needs.

“We tend to get affixed by the prefix. You know, what I mean by that is, what can we do with airplanes that start with a C? We carry cargo because they start with a C. What do we do with airplanes that start with a B? Well, we drop bombs. Why? Because it starts with a B,” Gen. Slife said. “And, you know, in an Air Force where we have launched cruise missiles out of the back of C-17s [as part of a program called Rapid Dragon] and dropped people out of the bomb bay of… B-24s [during World War II] and things of that nature, I don’t even know what a cargo airplane is, or a bomber is, or a fighter is.”

“I know what the mission that we have to get done is, but I don’t know that we need to build an airplane to do the mission,” he continued. “We need to build a system that can do the mission.”

“I think it definitely prioritizes towards having flexibility in our approach … not being over-specified for any particular problem set or any particular approach to the problem set,” Slife added about this mindset.

Slife and Hunter highlighted the CCA program’s iterative development approach as an example of this way of thinking. General Atomics and Anduril are currently developing drones as part of work on an initial tranche of CCAs, also known as Increment 1, focused primarily on the air-to-air combat mission.

A rendering of General Atomics’ CCA design. General Atomics

An artist’s conception of Fury, the design Anduril is now developing further as part of the CCA Program’s Increment 1. Anduril An artist’s conception of the CCA variant of the Fury drone. Anduril

“So what should Increment 2 be? Do not assume and it may not be just an evolution of Increment 1. It could be an entirely different set of missions. Could be [an] entirely different kind of an aircraft,” Hunter said. “And so part of that initial work is, again, starting with a large vendor pool, what are the good ideas out there? We’ll have some ideas [about] what we think Increment 2 needs to do as part of a broader force, and that’s part of this broader look at air dominance and how we’re going to deliver that.”

The Air Force says whatever CCA designs it picks for any of the program’s increments that additional companies could be brought in to help produce them at scale. The service has assembled a larger pool of vendors to provide subsystems and otherwise support that effort, as well.

“We want to see what good ideas industry has so we don’t box out things that might be the right path forward, because we started by asking the wrong question,” Hunter added.

It’s interesting to note here that Air Force Gen. David W. Allvin, Chief of Staff of the Air Force, spoke about the importance of iterative development, and a vision for the acquisition of aircraft going forward focused on “building to adapt” rather than “building to last,” at the Global Air and Space Chiefs Conference in London earlier this year. Allvin’s talk was backed by a presentation that included a graphic created using generative artificial intelligence, seen below, showing a notional light stealth fighter concept. Though described as being for illustrative purposes only, this was still a very interesting visual to see amid these ongoing discussions around the future of the NGAD combat jet, as The War Zone has previously explored.

YouTube Capture

The comments today at the Defense News Conference also put remarks about the status of the NGAD combat jet that Gen. Allvin made during a talk at the Hudson Institute think tank last month into a new light.

“I want to clarify that, just because specifics and words matter. It’s the pause on the NGAD Penetrating Counter-Air platform. NGAD stands for Next Generation Air Dominance. It’s not a thing. It is a family of systems. Within that NGAD family of systems is Collaborative Combat Aircraft, is the open systems and government reference architecture, is some of the sensors that we’re developing, is some of the [other] technology. So all of those, that family of systems, is still going forward,” Allvin said at that time. “We want to make sure we evaluate that [the NGAD combat jet requirements] versus others, given the pace of the threat and how fast the threat has evolved, versus the imagined or estimated threat at the time it was being developed. And so I don’t have an announcement as to whether there’s going to be a contract award at the end of the year or not, but the rationale for the evaluation is because … we want to make sure that we don’t do something that’s a one-way door when we haven’t really looked at that design in the context of all the other things that it makes [sic; takes] to meet the requirement.

Concerns about at-best flat-lining defense budgets in the coming years together with ballooning costs associated with critical programs, especially the new Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile and its associated infrastructure demands, are also putting pressure on Air Force modernization plans across the board. It has been projected in the past that a single NGAD combat jet could cost roughly three times that of a stealthy F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, or around $250 million based on publicly available data.

“I wouldn’t rule anything out, but I also wouldn’t rule anything back in,” Gen. Slife said today.

While the future of the NGAD combat jet continues to be very uncertain, signs are growing that the Air Force could move to complement or even supplant its previous plans to acquire those aircraft with one or more other platforms.

Contact the author: [email protected]

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justinspoliticalcorner · 5 days ago

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Don Moynihan at Can We Still Govern?:

President Donald Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk justify dismantling the civil service as cost cutting. The federal government has “billions and billions of dollars in waste, fraud, and abuse,” Trump claimed earlier this month, and Musk has complained about a “staggering amount of waste of taxpayer money.” Their actions—a barrage of executive orders, memos, layoffs, and attempts to unilaterally eliminate entire agencies—have sparked outrage, but Musk sees that only as proof of their achievements: “They wouldn’t be complaining so much if we weren’t doing something useful.” To start, let’s dispense with the notion that the government is too big. It is not. As a share of the workforce, federal employment has declined in the past several decades. Civilian employees represent about 1.5 percent of the population and account for less than 7 percent of total government spending. According to the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, seven out of 10 civilian employees work in organizations that deal with national security, including departments—such as Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security—that the public supports. The reality is that the federal government has long faced a human-capital crisis. Since 2001, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office has classified human-capital management—the number of people who are successfully recruited to fill skilled positions—as an area of “high risk” for the federal government. The workforce is older than the private sector, and the federal government already has a hard time hiring people. The Trump administration has created a toxic work environment. I’ve spent 25 years studying public administration and have never seen anything like the deep sense of dread that federal employees are now experiencing. I spoke with workers who feared reprisal if their names were published. One told me that there’s an “eerie” mood in the Census Bureau office: “No one can openly discuss anything.” Another civil servant said that people who’ve worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for decades are afraid and “can’t believe what’s happening.” [...] Back in December I wrote about the the possibility that Trump would pursue and unprecedented politicization of the military by purging its senior officers. Well, it happened. The Joint Chiefs of Staff, Charles Q. Brown Jr, Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the who lead the Navy; and Gen. James Slife, the vice chief of the Air Force, were all pushed out. Some takeaways.

Three senior officers were let go. The two most senior were a Black man and White woman. This reflects an ethos among the Trump administration that DEI is not just training programs, but the presence of non-White males in senior positions. Brown is being replaced by a three star general, who may need a Congressional waiver because he lacks sufficient experience as a commander. It reflects a pattern of less experienced and qualified White men replacing Black men: Hegseth replacing Lyold Austen, and Trump replacing Obama.

The other three who were removed were lawyers, the Judge Advocates General for the Army, Navy and Air Force. Why them? They are not involved in any conflicts. Why are they as important as the Joints Chief of Staff? The answer is that this is part of a broader pattern where Trump has been targeting General Counsels and other lawyers across government. It has long been part of his second-term strategy for governing.Having loyalist lawyers in place will make it much harder for military officers to resist Trump’s orders. Hegseth has been critical of military lawyers constraining officers in the field. In practical terms, this might result in a legal blessing and greater practice of what is commonly regarded as war crimes. Hegseth’s selection for Secretary of Defense came after he lobbied Trump to pardon convicted war criminals. Now it is simply less likely they would be prosecuted. Military loyalist lawyers can also greenlight the use of military as a domestic police force, by invoking the Insurrection Act.

Authoritarians focus on controlling the bureaucracy, but especially the legal system and national security system. Whatever else Hegseth says about readiness or DEI, Trump’s military purges are about control. This may be only the start of a series of actions to build an American military centered on loyalty to Trump.

…and Complacent Judges

At this point, we are putting a great deal of hope in the judicial branch. A good measure is how many judges put emergency injunctions in place to stop harm from occurring before they rule on the legality of the actions. We are seeing such orders. On the other hand, we are also seeing judges allowing the Trump administration to move forward based on the faulty assumption that they are operating under normal conditions.

Don Moynihan wrote over the weekend about the unfolding Trump/Musk coup, targeting the military and civil service.

#Don Moynihan #US Military #Judiciary #Trump Regime #Trump Administration II #Government Accountability Office

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newstfionline · 4 days ago

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Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Republicans Face Angry Voters at Town Halls, Hinting at Broader Backlash (NYT) Some came with complaints about Elon Musk, President Trump’s billionaire ally who is carrying out an assault on the federal bureaucracy. Others demanded guarantees that Republicans in Congress would not raid the social safety net. Still others chided the G.O.P. to push back against Mr. Trump’s moves to trample the constitutional power of Congress. When Representative Pete Sessions, Republican of Texas, arrived at a crowded community center on Saturday in the small rural town of Trinity in East Texas, he came prepared to deliver a routine update on the administration’s first month in office. Instead, he fielded a barrage of frustration and anger from constituents questioning Mr. Trump’s agenda and his tactics—and pressing Mr. Sessions and his colleagues on Capitol Hill to do something about it. “The executive can only enforce laws passed by Congress; they cannot make laws,” said Debra Norris, a lawyer who lives in Huntsville, arguing that the mass layoffs and agency closures Mr. Musk has spearheaded were unconstitutional. “When are you going to wrest control back from the executive and stop hurting your constituents?” After a monthlong honeymoon for the G.O.P. at the start of President Trump’s term, lawmakers are confronting a groundswell of fear and disaffection in districts around the country.

The U.S. Economy Depends More Than Ever on Rich People (WSJ) Many Americans are pinching pennies, exhausted by high prices and stubborn inflation. The well-off are spending with abandon. The top 10% of earners—households making about $250,000 a year or more—are splurging on everything from vacations to designer handbags, buoyed by big gains in stocks, real estate and other assets. Those consumers now account for 49.7% of all spending, a record in data going back to 1989, according to an analysis by Moody’s Analytics. Three decades ago, they accounted for about 36%. All this means that economic growth is unusually reliant on rich Americans continuing to shell out. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, estimated that spending by the top 10% alone accounted for almost one-third of gross domestic product. Between September 2023 and September 2024, the high earners increased their spending by 12%. Spending by working-class and middle-class households, meanwhile, dropped over the same period.

Donald Trump sacks America’s top military brass (Economist) The first shot against America’s senior military leaders was fired within hours of Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20th: General Mark Milley’s portrait was removed from the wall on the E-ring, where it had hung with paintings of other former chairmen of the joint chiefs of staff. A day later the commandant of the coast guard, Admiral Linda Fagan, was thrown overboard. On February 21st it was the most senior serving officer, General Charles “CQ” Brown, a former F-16 pilot, who was ejected from the Pentagon. Other top brass were cashiered, too, among them Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the chief of naval operations; and General James Slife, the deputy head of the air force. The judge advocates general of the army, navy and air force—ie, the services’ most senior lawyers—were dismissed, too. They are casualties of the culture wars that the Trump administration is waging against “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI). General Brown is the most prominent black military officer; Admirals Fagan and Franchetti were the first women in their jobs. Senior military officers serve at the president’s pleasure. But their dismissals may prove as chilling to recruitment as any of DEI’s excesses.

They crossed the Darien Gap to reach the US. Now, boat-by-boat, migrants are returning (AP) They once braved the jungles of the Darien Gap, trekking days along the perilous migrant passage dividing Colombia and Panama with a simple goal: seek asylum in the U.S. Now, boat-by-boat, those migrants—mainly from the Andean nations of Venezuela and Colombia—have given up after President Donald Trump’s crackdown on asylum, and are returning to the countries they once sought to escape. Many of those same people waited months, sometimes more than year in Mexico to get an asylum appointment in the U.S. through a Biden-era CBP One app, which ended under Trump. “ When Trump arrived and eliminated the application (CBP One) all our hopes went up in smoke,” said Karla Castillo, a 36-year-old Venezuelan. It’s part of what authorities call a “reverse flow” of migrants. The speed boats depart from a rural swathe of Panama and cross the seas in packs, hopping island to island until they reach the northern tip of Colombia.

Clashes In Cúcuta (Guardian) Colombia’s northern Catatumbo region has been experiencing record levels of violence since January, as armed militant groups clash to gain control over the area. Over the weekend, the mayor of Cúcuta, a major city in the region, declared a 48-hour curfew as the Colombian army fought to keep the militant National Liberation Army (ELN) from gaining control over the municipality. “It’s very tense. The police and military are on every corner and everyone is in a state of panic because we are all wondering where they are going to bomb next,” said one resident. Colombian President Gustavo Petro has sought to set up a dialogue with the country’s various armed groups, but the diplomatic approach has clearly proven fruitless—now, some 122,000 are in need of urgent humanitarian aid, according to one NGO.

Argentina prays for native son Francis, the first Latin American pope in history (AP) “Francis, the city prays for you.” Those were the words projected onto Buenos Aires’ most iconic monument, the Obelisco, over the weekend as Catholics from across Argentina flocked to churches to pray for the recovery of Pope Francis, the first Latin American pope in history. It comes as the pope, a native of Argentina, remains in critical condition Sunday with a serious lung infection in a Rome hospital, where he was admitted on Feb. 14. In its latest report on Francis’ health condition, the Vatican reported Sunday that the pope was conscious but still receiving “high flows” of supplemental oxygen after going through a respiratory crisis and blood transfusions. His precarious health has pushed people of faith from across the world to pray for his speedy recovery. But in Argentina, where he once served as a bishop, concern is especially high.

Merz says US is ‘largely indifferent’ to the fate of Europe (BBC) Germany is set to have a new chancellor, with Friedrich Merz the likely candidate after his Christian Democrats (CDU) topped Sunday’s elections with 28.6% of the vote. Merz will now try to form a coalition, likely with outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats who came third. One party that will not be included is the far right Alternative for Germany (AfD) after Merz ruled out working with them. Speaking on Sunday night, Merz said the “absolute priority” is to “strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that we can achieve real independence from the US,” which has become “largely indifferent” to the continent’s fate. This tone from the close US ally is a seismic shift in transatlantic relations.

Alternative for Germany (DW/NYT) It is a historic result for the Alternative for Germany party (AfD): just 12 years after the far-right party was founded, it has become the second largest political force in Germany. With ~21% of the vote, it almost doubled its result from the last German election in 2021. On election night, the AfD lead candidate Alice Weidel lashed out at the CDU’s leader and likely next chancellor Friedrich Merz. In reference to Merz’s promise made several years ago to halve the AfD’s vote share, Weidel told her supporters: “They wanted to halve us, but the opposite has happened!” The success of the Alternative for Germany is a sign of the times. Across Europe, far-right parties once on the fringe have gone mainstream, borne into power or closer to it by popular anxieties over migration, cultural identity and the fraying political and economic orthodoxies of the past generation.

UN rejects US resolution that urges an end to the Ukraine war without noting Russian aggression (AP) In a win for Ukraine on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion, the U.N. General Assembly on Monday refused to approve a U.S.-backed resolution that urged an end to the war without mentioning Moscow’s aggression. Instead, it approved a European-backed Ukrainian resolution demanding Russia immediately withdraw its forces, which the Trump administration opposed. The United States had tried to pressure the Ukrainians to withdraw their resolution in favor of its proposal, including a last-minute appeal by U.S. deputy ambassador Dorothy Shea. Ukraine refused, and the assembly approved three European-proposed amendments adding language to the U.S. proposal making clear that Russia invaded its smaller neighbor in violation of the U.N. Charter.

Zelensky Pushes Back Against U.S. Mineral Deal and Announces European Summit (NYT) President Volodymyr Zelensky pushed back on Sunday against demands from the Trump administration for billions in Ukrainian natural resources and for holding peace talks that exclude Ukraine, while announcing plans for a major summit of European leaders on Monday. The Ukrainian leader’s efforts to shore up European support while pressing ahead on negotiations with the United States came despite ominous messages from President Trump in recent days belittling Mr. Zelensky and issuing threats if Ukraine does not soon agree to a minerals deal. Mr. Zelensky, speaking at a news conference in Kyiv, said that he was willing to step down if it meant peace in Ukraine. His remark came days after Mr. Trump questioned his legitimacy and called him a “dictator without elections,” echoing a Kremlin talking point.

Japan and Philippines agree to deepen defense ties (AP) Japan and the Philippines agreed Monday to further deepen their defense collaboration and talk about protecting shared military information in the face of mutual alarm over China’s increasing aggressive actions in the region. Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and his Philippine counterpart, Gilberto Teodoro, forged the agreements in a meeting in Manila where their concern over China’s actions in the disputed South China Sea and East China Sea was high in the agenda. Japan and the Philippines are treaty allies of the United States, and the three have been among the most vocal critics of China’s assertive actions in the region.

Israel sends tanks into West Bank for first time in decades, says fleeing Palestinians can’t return (AP) Israeli tanks moved into the occupied West Bank on Sunday for the first time in decades in what Palestinian authorities called a “dangerous escalation,” after the defense minister said troops will remain in parts of the territory for a year and tens of thousands of Palestinians who have fled cannot return. Palestinians view the deadly raids as part of an effort to cement Israeli control over the territory, where 3 million Palestinians live under military rule. The West Bank’s urban refugee camps are home to descendants of Palestinians who fled during wars with Israel decades ago.

Netanyahu says Israel won’t allow Syrian forces ‘south of Damascus’ (AP) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will not allow Syria’s new army or the insurgent group that led the ouster of former President Bashar Assad to “enter the area south of Damascus” as his government made clear Israeli forces would stay in parts of southern Syria for an indefinite period. Netanyahu’s comments Sunday at a military graduation led to new concerns over the Israeli presence, and sway, in a swath of southern Syria as Damascus’ new leaders attempt to consolidate control after years of civil war. Defense Minister Israel Katz added that Israeli forces will remain on the peak of Mt. Hermon in southern Syria and in a buffer zone “for an indefinite period of time to protect our communities and thwart any threat.”

#headlines #news

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yourreddancer · 5 days ago

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Heather Cox Richardson

February 22, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Feb 23

While the pattern is universal, this is a homegrown version of that universal pattern.

Hegseth refused to say he would abide by the Geneva Conventions. He refused to condemn torture.

Elon Musk posted over the video: “Haha wow,” with an emoji of a troll and a gold medal.

—

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4bttnra · 6 days ago

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Heather Cox Richardson

February 22, 2025 (Saturday)

While the pattern is universal, this is a homegrown version of that universal pattern.

Hegseth refused to say he would abide by the Geneva Conventions. He refused to condemn torture.

Elon Musk posted over the video: “Haha wow,” with an emoji of a troll and a gold medal.

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bllsbailey · 7 days ago

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CNN's Kaitlin Collins Suffers a Meltdown After Trump Admin 'Purge' Starts at Pentagon

The team in the Trump 47 White House has proven that it doesn't believe in the concept of taking off early for the weekend, as evidenced by a steady stream of action from those quarters over the past month since Inauguration Day. They stayed true to form this week, as we shared earlier on Friday, with President Trump firing the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from the Biden administration, and nominating a new JCoS chair.

My colleague Bob Hoge wrote:

Donald Trump made yet another high-profile personnel decision Friday, firing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. "CQ" Brown Jr.—a vocal advocate for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), which Trump has promised to rid the government of—and is nominating Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine as his replacement.

Read More: You're Fired: Trump Cans Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, Presumably Over Emphasis on DEI

But that wasn't the end of the announcements from the Trump administration about changes on their way for several branches of the U.S. military.

Indeed, new Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth released a statement later on Friday evening, giving details on planning for "new leadership," while highlighting the commander in chief's "core mission" objectives:

Under President Trump, we are putting in place new leadership that will focus our military on its core mission of deterring, fighting and winning wars.

He commented on both Gen. Brown's departure from the JCoS post and Caine's nomination to it:

The outgoing Chairman, Gen. Charles "CQ" Brown, Jr., USAF, has served with distinction in a career spanning four decades of honorable service. I have come to know him as a thoughtful adviser and salute him for his distinguished service to our country. ... General Caine embodies the warfighter ethos and is exactly the leader we need to meet the moment. I look forward to working with him.

Hegseth then shared that he has also relieved the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Lisa Franchetti and Air Force Vice Chief of Staff, General James Slife, of their duties, describing their careers as "distinguished," and thanking them for "their service" to America. The DefSec didn't stop there.

In addition to requesting nominees for those roles, Hegseth said he would need three more leaders to fill the positions of the Judge Advocates General for the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Liberal town crier, CNN's Kaitlin Collins pictured with boyfriend below

alerted her handful of viewers to the "purge" that was underway, in an X post:

The post read:

A major (and long rumored) purge is underway at the Pentagon tonight. After President Trump ousts the Joint Chiefs Chairman, Secretary Hegseth fires the chief of the Navy, the vice chief of the Air Force and says he's “requesting nominations” for the Judge Advocates General for the Army, Navy and Air Force, indicating they'll be replaced. We'll have the latest at 9 p.m. ET.

CNN hasn't been a serious news outlet for years, of course, but the behavior by their anchors truly has reached new lows of late.

Read More: Is Kaitlan Collins Another Luigi Mangione Groupie? CNN Darling Reportedly Deletes Troublesome Texts

WATCH: CNN Host Left Even More Apoplectic by GOP Rep. After Raging Over Defunding of USAID

What more can you say about these people that hasn't already been said? The histrionics from Democrats' leftist media allies over completely normal administrative moves like these are awesome to witness. But if recent examples of Collins' "journalism" are any guide, she might want to consider easing up on the caffeine just a little, for her own health.

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georgemcginn · 1 year ago

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General Officer Announcements

View Online IMMEDIATE RELEASE General Officer Announcements Sept. 6, 2023 Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III announced today that the president has made the following nominations: Air Force Lt. Gen. James C. Slife for appointment to the grade of general, with assignment as vice chief of staff, U.S. Air Force, Pentagon, Washington, D.C. Slife is currently serving as deputy chief of staff,…

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tachtutor · 4 years ago

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U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command Wants A New Aircraft That Can Fly Reconnaissance Missions And Bomb Enemy Forces

Defense One: New Plane Key to Special Ops Vision for Africa, General Says Air Force Special Operations Command is planning flight demonstrations in coming months. A new aircraft that can fly reconnaissance missions and bomb enemy forces is key to U.S. special forces’ future in Africa, the head of Air Force Special Operations Command said Tuesday. Lt. Gen. James Slife spoke as the Biden…

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johnboothus · 5 years ago

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We Asked 10 Bartenders: Whats the Most Underrated Gin?

Gin is the base for countless classic cocktails, such as the French 75, the Gimlet, the Negroni, and, of course, the timeless Gin & Tonic. Its subtle aromatics, lent by botanicals like juniper, has won it fans on both sides of the bar worldwide. However, in the U.S., gin trails behind other spirits in terms of sales volume.

Bartenders are trying to change that. Some mixologists are so passionate about gin that they’ve opened bars dedicated to it — a couple are highlighted here — and many others have tales of how gin touched their lives and inspired their cocktails.

Below, 10 bartenders from across the U.S. name the gin bottles they feel aren’t getting enough love.

“Gin was my first love and the gateway to my infatuation with spirits. The Botanist is a favorite of mine. I’m drawn to the more balanced botanical profile along with the terroir characteristics of the Islay Coast. It sips great neat and makes a hell of a 50:50 Martini.” — Brittany Ingalls, Bartender, Silver Lyan in the Riggs Hotel, Washington, D.C.

“At the Gin Room we have a back bar of over 300 gins, yet we find ourselves often gravitating towards certain gins. One particular favorite out of Sweden, Right gin, gets overlooked. Few people have been able to execute a citrusy, peppery gin that can cut through and stand up in a cocktail. When Right was created by Lyons Brown, the goal was to create a truly balanced gin, and they succeeded. Right allows all botanicals to stand on their own, and not to allow one to dominate over others. The botanical blend in Right (juniper berry, black pepper, coriander, lemon peel, bergamot, key lime, bitter orange, and cardamom) balances beautifully with the citrus and acid elements of a Gimlet. Right gin should be on every enthusiast’s back bar.” — Natasha Bahrami, Owner, The Gin Room, St. Louis, Mo.

“Unlike Japanese whisky, Japanese gins have yet to make a huge appearance in the U.S. market. I believe the category of Japanese gins will be the next big thing. Ki No Bi Gin has been around since 2016 and is seldom seen in bars. I’m completely obsessed with the velvety texture and the subtle notes of yuzu and gyokuro tea it brings. It makes one of my favorite Martinis of all time.” — Sharon Yeung, Head Bartender, The Roosevelt Room, Austin, Tex.

“Drumshanbo gin, because it’s made in Ireland and gin is generally something that isn’t thought about [there], since Ireland is more well known for their whiskeys. It’s not an expensive gin and it’s fairly easy to find, too! It uses gunpowder tea as one of its core ingredients to provide savory and herbal tones. It’s a delicious gin with some really interesting flavors of spices, citrus, and more. It makes some pretty unique Bee’s Knees and Martinis.” — Jason Nguyen, Bartender, The Jones Assembly, Oklahoma City

“There are so many categories of gin on the market now that it is difficult for me to just choose one. If we are talking new-style, I think Blue Gin by Forthave Spirits would be the most underrated in that category. It is soft and delicate with subtle notes of watermelon rind, honeydew, and cucumber. I definitely recommend this just by itself, on the rocks, with tonic, or in spirit-forward cocktails. Forthave Spirits is based out of Brooklyn, N.Y., and those folks also make a fun aperitivo and amaro.” — Harry Chin, Bar Director, Here’s Looking at You, Los Angeles

“I personally think the most underrated gin is The Botanist Islay Dry Gin. It is a great artisanal gin distilled by the great Bruichladdich Distillery. It contains 22 locally hand-foraged botanicals from the Islay region of Scotland. These 22 local ingredients mixed with the natural spring water from Octomore Spring in the isle of Islay make for a true representation of a Scottish spirit. This is a perfect gin for a Gin & Tonic to a classic gin Martini or your favorite gin cocktail.” — James Bolt, Owner, The Gin Joint, Charleston, S.C.

“I wouldn’t go with one gin in particular, but rather a style of gin. ‘Old Tom’ is not as dry as more present-day favorites. It caters to a sweeter palate than London Dry varieties yet it’s not quite as malty as the classic Genever. Old Tom gin appears in some of my favorite cocktails like The Martinez, a Gin Old Fashioned, and the booze-forward Bijou. My favorite go-to is Ransom Old Tom which is uniquely aged in a wine cask. An honorable mention goes to Gracias a Dios gin. The agave-based botanical gin from Oaxaca is a breath of fresh air in the cocktail world.” — Björn Taylor, Assistant General Manager, Lefty’s Brick Bar, Gin Bar, and Vixen’s Wedding at Arrive Hotel, Austin, Tex.

“Future Gin is owned by four women and is also distilled by a woman in Downtown L.A. The women here have made a recipe of botanicals that celebrate the bounty of California: juniper, grapefruit peel, Meyer lemon peel, coriander, grape leaves, avocado leaves, and black pepper. Gin being such a great mixing spirit, this did well at Olmsted in a cocktail we made with chamomile, honey, and lemon. But, really, it imparts itself well in a simple Gin & Tonic, my personal favorite. This is a great example of an independent, artisanal brand that is pushing the envelope in flavor and the future of gin.” — Zwann Grays, Wine Director, Olmsted, Brooklyn

“Tanqueray is a very underrated gin. It’s typically associated with urban culture due to the popularity of Snoop Dogg’s ‘Gin & Juice.’ Its subtle floral notes make it perfect for a Gin Gimlet.” — Johnny Caldwell and Taneka Reaves, Co-founders, Cocktail Bandits, Charleston, S.C.

“There are many, but when asked to pick one (or a few), I would say the St. George line from California. The Dry Rye [Gin] is 100 percent pot-distilled rye, which affords a strong structure and spice that is perfect in craft cocktails. The St. George Terroir is a delicious sipping gin that makes a wonderful Martini with notes of deep woods, sage, and citrus.” — Kara Slife, Beverage Director, The Annie Café & Bar, Houston

The article We Asked 10 Bartenders: What’s the Most Underrated Gin? appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/10-most-underrated-gin-brands/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/we-asked-10-bartenders-whats-the-most-underrated-gin

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isaiahrippinus · 5 years ago

Text

We Asked 10 Bartenders: What’s the Most Underrated Gin?

Below, 10 bartenders from across the U.S. name the gin bottles they feel aren’t getting enough love.

The article We Asked 10 Bartenders: What’s the Most Underrated Gin? appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/10-most-underrated-gin-brands/ source https://vinology1.tumblr.com/post/190911357119

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usafphantom2 · 2 years ago

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USAF puts HARMs on MiG-29s, cruise missiles on C-130s, cargo on B-52s

If the US cannot give Western jets to Kyiv, it has a plan B.

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 09/21/2022 - 21:19 in Military, War Zones

In recent months, the U.S. Air Force has modified the Ukrainian MiG-29s to transport Western anti-radar missiles, transformed U.S. strategic bombers into cargo carriers, and transformed air transport aircraft into long-range attack aircraft, authorities said this week, while Russia and the changing Indo-Pacific security environment forced the service to think outside the box.

The modifications to the MiG-29 of the Soviet era, which were made by an undisclosed USAF contractor, will allow Ukraine to use U.S. AGM-88 high-speed anti-radiation (HARM) missiles. It is a way to obtain capabilities compatible with the west of Kiev without the political decision to supply fighter planes from Ukraine to the U.S. And the U.S. Air Force is interested in seeing what else can be done, said the Chief of Staff General C.Q. Brown Jr.

Ukrainian MiG-29 firing an AGM-88 HARM anti-radar missile.

"These are the conversations I want to make sure we are having," Brown said at the annual conference of the Air and Space Forces Association on the outskirts of Washington, DC. in some of them to see what options exist."

The Air Force Special Operations Command and the Air Force Research Laboratory are testing another option: to palletize U.S. cruise missiles so that they can be launched from the rear of a cargo plane. Last fall, a pallet was pushed out of an MC-130J during the flight. After the parachutes stabilized the descending pallet, a simulated AGM-158B Joint Air-Surface Standoff Missile - Extended Range (JASSM-ER) was successfully launched.

Rendered image of an MC-130 with Rapid Dragon capacity.

It could be a way to obtain cruise missile capacity for NATO allies and other countries whose smaller military personnel do not have bombers, but have some kind of cargo plane.

"We have many allies and partners who have cargo planes, and they don't necessarily have, you know, heavy bombers ???? the way the United States does," said Lieutenant General James Slife, who leads the Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC). "If we can offer them capabilities similar to ours with the charging platforms we have, we will be helping our partners become more capable."

"NATO partners are probably at the forefront of this, but I think this applies to other places as well," Slife said. "There is nothing particularly complicated about the pallet."

General Mike Minihan, head of the Air Mobility Command, said that the concept is being extended to the C-17s, larger aircraft that can carry even more cruise missiles.

"If you use the same kit that was equipped on the C-130, it would be palletized loads, but it would be more than 30 that can be released, as opposed to a dozen," Minihan said. He considered himself a fan of the concept, because it would reduce the time that valuable air transport planes stay on the ground and vulnerable, if they do not need to land to unload the ammunition.

"The question that always arises is: 'Well, you need to carry cargo. So you will become that, kind of an attack aircraft, and then not fulfill your cargo mission?' But the reality is that I have to carry the cargo anyway," Minihan said. "I have to get this ammunition. If I'm not releasing her in flight, I have to take her somewhere to someone who can."

The USAF evaluates the use of C-17 with palletized weapons.

Palletized cruise missiles are not the only way AFSOC is changing the way the C-130 is used. For months, he has been testing a seaplane kit for his MC-130J Commando II to allow it to take off and land on the water - something that can be critical in a conflict with China. The concept is undergoing wave tank tests and the U.S. Air Force plans to test the amphibious warplane next year, he said.

While AFSOC has been testing how to turn cargo planes into bombers and amphibians, the Global Attack Command has been experimenting with how to turn bombers into cargo planes.

Cargo pallet inside a B-52 weapons compartment.

The Barksdale Air Force Base, headquarters of the 2nd Bomb Wing, tested a concept of In-Board Cargo System, or BOCS, in August, in which four B-52H Stratofortress were equipped with two cargo containers that fit inside the pump compartment. Each container can carry up to 5,000 pounds, which means that the B-52 can carry its own maintenance equipment or other cargo.

Brown said that the change is about creating uncertainty.

"The way I looked at this, just as I talk about multi-capable aviators, multi-capale platforms give us the opportunity," Brown said. "It also complicates and creates limits for our opponents."

"We kind of restrict our thinking when we think, you know, 'C' planes only carry cargo, 'B' planes only bomb," Minihan said. "I think there are combat commands looking for a B-52 to carry cargo? I don’t know. But if there is room for this and it can create efficiency, why wouldn't you do that?"

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Source: Defense One

Tags: Military AviationBoeing B-52H StratofortressMiG-29 FulcrumRapid DragonUSAF - United States Air Force / US Air ForceWar Zones - Russia/Ukraine

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Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. It has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.