#resulting in her death and then burying her to cover it up | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

democracyunderground · 4 months ago

Text

"In April 2020, Vanessa Guillén, a 20-year-old Army private, was bludgeoned to death by a fellow soldier at Fort Hood, in Texas. The killer, aided by his girlfriend, burned Guillén’s body. Guillén’s remains were discovered two months later, buried in a riverbank near the base, after a massive search.

In the meeting, Trump maintained a dignified posture and expressed sympathy to Guillén’s mother. “I saw what happened to your daughter Vanessa, who was a spectacular person, and respected and loved by everybody, including in the military,” Trump said. Later in the conversation, he made a promise: “If I can help you out with the funeral, I’ll help—I’ll help you with that,” he said. “I’ll help you out. Financially, I’ll help you.”

Natalie Khawam, the family’s attorney, responded, “I think the military will be paying—taking care of it.” Trump replied, “Good. They’ll do a military. That’s good. If you need help, I’ll help you out.” Later, a reporter covering the meeting asked Trump, “Have you offered to do that for other families before?” Trump responded, “I have. I have. Personally. I have to do it personally. I can’t do it through government.” The reporter then asked: “So you’ve written checks to help for other families before this?” Trump turned to the family, still present, and said, “I have, I have, because some families need help … Maybe you don’t need help, from a financial standpoint. I have no idea what—I just think it’s a horrific thing that happened. And if you did need help, I’m going to—I’ll be there to help you.”

A public memorial service was held in Houston two weeks after the White House meeting. It was followed by a private funeral and burial in a local cemetery, attended by, among others, the mayor of Houston and the city’s police chief. Highways were shut down, and mourners lined the streets.

According to a person close to Trump at the time, the president was agitated by McCarthy’s comments and raised questions about the severity of the punishments dispensed to senior officers and noncommissioned officers.

In an Oval Office meeting on December 4, 2020, officials gathered to discuss a separate national-security issue. Toward the end of the discussion, Trump asked for an update on the McCarthy investigation. Christopher Miller, the acting secretary of defense (Trump had fired his predecessor, Mark Esper, three weeks earlier, writing in a tweet, “Mark Esper has been terminated”), was in attendance, along with Miller’s chief of staff, Kash Patel. At a certain point, according to two people present at the meeting, Trump asked, “Did they bill us for the funeral? What did it cost?”

According to attendees, and to contemporaneous notes of the meeting taken by a participant, an aide answered: Yes, we received a bill; the funeral cost $60,000.

Khawam, the family attorney, told me she sent the bill to the White House, but no money was ever received by the family from Trump. Some of the costs, Khawam said, were covered by the Army (which offered, she said, to allow Guillén to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery) and some were covered by donations. Ultimately, Guillén was buried in Houston.

Shortly after I emailed a series of questions to a Trump spokesperson, Alex Pfeiffer, I received an email from Khawam, who asked me to publish a statement from Mayra Guillén, Vanessa’s sister. Pfeiffer then emailed me the same statement. “I am beyond grateful for all the support President Donald Trump showed our family during a trying time,” the statement reads. “I witnessed firsthand how President Trump honors our nation’s heroes’ service. We are grateful for everything he has done and continues to do to support our troops.”

The statement from Patel that Pfeiffer sent me said: “As someone who was present in the room with President Trump, he strongly urged that Spc. Vanessa Guillen’s grieving family should not have to bear the cost of any funeral arrangements, even offering to personally pay himself in order to honor her life and sacrifice. In addition, President Trump was able to have the Department of Defense designate her death as occurring ‘in the line of duty,’ which gave her full military honors and provided her family access to benefits, services, and complete financial assistance.”

A desire to force U.S. military leaders to be obedient to him and not the Constitution is one of the constant themes of Trump’s military-related discourse. Former officials have also cited other recurring themes: his denigration of military service, his ignorance of the provisions of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, his admiration for brutality and anti-democratic norms of behavior, and his contempt for wounded veterans and for soldiers who fell in battle.

Retired General Barry McCaffrey, a decorated Vietnam veteran, told me that Trump does not comprehend such traditional military virtues as honor and self-sacrifice. “The military is a foreign country to him. He doesn’t understand the customs or codes,” McCaffrey said. “It doesn’t penetrate. It starts with the fact that he thinks it’s foolish to do anything that doesn’t directly benefit himself.”

I’ve been interested in Trump’s understanding of military affairs for nearly a decade. At first, it was cognitive dissonance that drew me to the subject—according to my previous understanding of American political physics, Trump’s disparagement of the military, and in particular his obsessive criticism of the war record of the late Senator John McCain, should have profoundly alienated Republican voters, if not Americans generally. And in part my interest grew from the absolute novelty of Trump’s thinking. This country had never seen, to the best of my knowledge, a national political figure who insulted veterans, wounded warriors, and the fallen with metronomic regularity.

Today—two weeks before an election that could see Trump return to the White House—I’m most interested in his evident desire to wield military power, and power over the military, in the manner of Hitler and other dictators.

Trump’s singularly corrosive approach to military tradition was in evidence as recently as August, when he described the Medal of Honor, the nation’s top award for heroism and selflessness in combat, as inferior to the Medal of Freedom, which is awarded to civilians for career achievement. During a campaign speech, he described Medal of Honor recipients as “either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they’re dead,” prompting the Veterans of Foreign Wars to issue a condemnation: “These asinine comments not only diminish the significance of our nation’s highest award for valor, but also crassly characterizes the sacrifices of those who have risked their lives above and beyond the call of duty.” Later in August, Trump caused controversy by violating federal regulations prohibiting the politicization of military cemeteries, after a campaign visit to Arlington in which he gave a smiling thumbs-up while standing behind gravestones of fallen American soldiers.

His Medal of Honor comments are of a piece with his expressed desire to receive a Purple Heart without being wounded. He has also equated business success to battlefield heroism. In the summer of 2016, Khizr Khan, the father of a 27-year-old Army captain who had been killed in Iraq, told the Democratic National Convention that Trump has “sacrificed nothing.” In response, Trump disparaged the Khan family and said, “I think I’ve made a lot of sacrifices. I work very, very hard. I’ve created thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs, built great structures.”

One former Trump-administration Cabinet secretary told me of a conversation he’d had with Trump during his time in office about the Vietnam War. Trump famously escaped the draft by claiming that his feet were afflicted with bone spurs. (“I had a doctor that gave me a letter—a very strong letter on the heels,” Trump told The New York Times in 2016.) Once, when the subject of aging Vietnam veterans came up in conversation, Trump offered this observation to the Cabinet official: “Vietnam would have been a waste of time for me. Only suckers went to Vietnam.”

In 1997, Trump told the radio host Howard Stern that avoiding sexually transmitted diseases was “my personal Vietnam. I feel like a great and very brave soldier.” This was not the only time Trump has compared his sexual exploits and political challenges to military service. Last year, at a speech before a group of New York Republicans, while discussing the fallout from the release of the Access Hollywood tape, he said, “I went onto that (debate) stage just a few days later and a general, who’s a fantastic general, actually said to me, ‘Sir, I’ve been on the battlefield. Men have gone down on my left and on my right. I stood on hills where soldiers were killed. But I believe the bravest thing I’ve ever seen was the night you went onto that stage with Hillary Clinton after what happened.’” I asked Trump-campaign officials to provide the name of the general who allegedly said this. Pfeiffer, the campaign spokesman, said, “This is a true story and there is no good reason to give the name of an honorable man to The Atlantic so you can smear him.”

In their book, The Divider: Trump in the White House, Peter Baker and Susan Glasser reported that Trump asked John Kelly, his chief of staff at the time, “Why can’t you be like the German generals?” Trump, at various points, had grown frustrated with military officials he deemed disloyal and disobedient. (Throughout the course of his presidency, Trump referred to flag officers as “my generals.”) According to Baker and Glasser, Kelly explained to Trump that German generals “tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off.” This correction did not move Trump to reconsider his view: “No, no, no, they were totally loyal to him,” the president responded.

This week, I asked Kelly about their exchange. He told me that when Trump raised the subject of “German generals,” Kelly responded by asking, “‘Do you mean Bismarck’s generals?’” He went on: “I mean, I knew he didn’t know who Bismarck was, or about the Franco-Prussian War. I said, ‘Do you mean the kaiser’s generals? Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals? And he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.’ I explained to him that Rommel had to commit suicide after taking part in a plot against Hitler.” Kelly told me Trump was not acquainted with Rommel.

Baker and Glasser also reported that Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, feared that Trump’s “‘Hitler-like’ embrace of the big lie about the election would prompt the president to seek out a ‘Reichstag moment.’”

Kelly—a retired Marine general who, as a young man, had volunteered to serve in Vietnam despite actually suffering from bone spurs—said in an interview for the CNN reporter Jim Sciutto’s book, The Return of Great Powers, that Trump praised aspects of Hitler’s leadership. “He said, ‘Well, but Hitler did some good things,’” Kelly recalled. “I said, ‘Well, what?’ And he said, ‘Well, (Hitler) rebuilt the economy.’ But what did he do with that rebuilt economy? He turned it against his own people and against the world.” Kelly admonished Trump: “I said, ‘Sir, you can never say anything good about the guy. Nothing.’”

This wasn’t the only time Kelly felt compelled to instruct Trump on military history. In 2018, Trump asked Kelly to explain who “the good guys” were in World War I. Kelly responded by explaining a simple rule: Presidents should, as a matter of politics and policy, remember that the “good guys” in any given conflict are the countries allied with the United States. Despite Trump’s lack of historical knowledge, he has been on record as saying that he knew more than his generals about warfare. He told 60 Minutes in 2018 that he knew more about NATO than James Mattis, his secretary of defense at the time, a retired four-star Marine general who had served as a NATO official. Trump also said, on a separate occasion, that it was he, not Mattis, who had “captured” the Islamic State.

As president, Trump evinced extreme sensitivity to criticism from retired flag officers; at one point, he proposed calling back to active duty Admiral William McRaven and General Stanley McChrystal, two highly regarded Special Operations leaders who had become critical of Trump, so that they could be court-martialed. Esper, who was the defense secretary at the time, wrote in his memoir that he and Milley talked Trump out of the plan. (Asked about criticism from McRaven, who oversaw the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, Trump responded by calling him a “Hillary Clinton backer and an Obama backer” and said, “Wouldn’t it have been nice if we got Osama bin Laden a lot sooner than that?”)

Trump has responded incredulously when told that American military personnel swear an oath to the Constitution, not to the president. According to the New York Times reporter Michael S. Schmidt’s recent book, Donald Trump v. the United States, Trump asked Kelly, “Do you really believe you’re not loyal to me?” Kelly answered, “I’m certainly part of the administration, but my ultimate loyalty is to the rule of law.” Trump also publicly floated the idea of “termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” as part of the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election and keep himself in power.

On separate occasions in 2020, Trump held private conversations in the White House with national-security officials about the George Floyd protests. “The Chinese generals would know what to do,” he said, according to former officials who described the conversations to me, referring to the leaders of the People’s Liberation Army, which carried out the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. (Pfeiffer denied that Trump said this.) Trump’s desire to deploy U.S. troops against American citizens is well documented. During the nerve-racking period of social unrest following Floyd’s death, Trump asked Milley and Esper, a West Point graduate and former infantry officer, if the Army could shoot protesters. “Trump seemed unable to think straight and calmly,” Esper wrote in his memoir. “The protests and violence had him so enraged that he was willing to send in active-duty forces to put down the protesters. Worse yet, he suggested we shoot them. I wondered about his sense of history, of propriety, and of his oath to the Constitution.” Esper told National Public Radio in 2022, “We reached that point in the conversation where he looked frankly at General Milley, and said, ‘Can’t you just shoot them, just shoot them in the legs or something?’” When defense officials argued against Trump’s desire, the president screamed, according to witnesses, “You are all fucking losers!”

Trump has often expressed his esteem for the type of power wielded by such autocrats as the Chinese leader Xi Jinping; his admiration, even jealousy, of Vladimir Putin is well known. In recent days, he has signaled that, should he win reelection in November, he would like to govern in the manner of these dictators—he has said explicitly that he would like to be a dictator for a day on his first day back in the White House—and he has threatened to, among other things, unleash the military on “radical-left lunatics.” (One of his four former national security advisers, John Bolton, wrote in his memoir, “It is a close contest between Putin and Xi Jinping who would be happiest to see Trump back in office.”)

Military leaders have condemned Trump for possessing autocratic tendencies. At his retirement ceremony last year, Milley said, “We 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 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.” Over the past several years, Milley has privately told several interlocutors that he believed Trump to be a fascist. Many other leaders have also been shocked by Trump’s desire for revenge against his domestic critics. At the height of the Floyd protests, Mattis wrote, “When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens.”

Trump’s frustration with American military leaders led him to disparage them regularly. In their book A Very Stable Genius, Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, both of The Washington Post, reported that in 2017, during a meeting at the Pentagon, Trump screamed at a group of generals: “I wouldn’t go to war with you people. You’re a bunch of dopes and babies.” And in his book Rage, Bob Woodward reported that Trump complained that “my fucking generals are a bunch of pussies. They care more about their alliances than they do about trade deals.”

Trump has often expressed his love for the trappings of martial power, demanding of his aides that they stage the sort of armor-heavy parades foreign to American tradition. Civilian aides and generals alike pushed back. In one instance, Air Force General Paul Selva, who was then serving as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the president that he had been partially raised in Portugal, which, he explained, “was a dictatorship—and parades were about showing the people who had the guns. In America, we don’t do that. It’s not who we are.”

For Republicans in 2012, it was John McCain who served as a model of “who we are.” But by 2015, the party had shifted. In July of that year, Trump, then one of several candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, made a statement that should have ended his campaign. At a forum for Christian conservatives in Iowa, Trump said of McCain, “He’s not a war hero. He is a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

It was an astonishing statement, and an introduction to the wider public of Trump’s uniquely corrosive view of McCain, and of his aberrant understanding of the nature of American military heroism. This wasn’t the first time Trump had insulted McCain’s war record. As early as 1999, he was insulting McCain. In an interview with Dan Rather that year, Trump asked, “Does being captured make you a hero? I don’t know. I’m not sure.” (A brief primer: McCain, who had flown 22 combat missions before being shot down over Hanoi, was tortured almost continuously by his Communist captors, and turned down repeated offers to be released early, insisting that prisoners be released in the order that they’d been captured. McCain suffered physically from his injuries until his death, in 2018.) McCain partisans believe, with justification, that Trump’s loathing was prompted in part by McCain’s ability to see through Trump. “John didn’t respect him, and Trump knew that,” Mark Salter, McCain’s longtime aide and co-author, told me. “John McCain had a code. Trump only has grievances and impulses and appetites. In the deep recesses of his man-child soul, he knew that McCain and his achievements made him look like a mutt.”

Trump, those who have worked for him say, is unable to understand the military norm that one does not leave fellow soldiers behind on the battlefield. As president, Trump told senior advisers that he didn’t understand why the U.S. government placed such value on finding soldiers missing in action. To him, they could be left behind, because they had performed poorly by getting captured.

My reporting during Trump’s term in office led me to publish on this site, in September 2020, an article about Trump’s attitudes toward McCain and other veterans, and his views about the ideal of national service itself. The story was based on interviews with multiple sources who had firsthand exposure to Trump and his views. In that piece, I detailed numerous instances of Trump insulting soldiers, flag officers and veterans alike. I wrote extensively about Trump’s reaction to McCain’s death in August 2018: The president told aides, “We’re not going to support that loser’s funeral,” and he was infuriated when he saw flags at the White House lowered to half-mast. “What the fuck are we doing that for? Guy was a fucking loser,” he said angrily. Only when Kelly told Trump that he would get “killed in the press” for showing such disrespect did the president relent. In the article, I also reported that Trump had disparaged President George H. W. Bush, a World War II naval aviator, for getting shot down by the Japanese. Two witnesses told me that Trump said, “I don’t get it. Getting shot down makes you a loser.” (Bush ultimately evaded capture, but eight other fliers were caught and executed by the Japanese).

The next year, White House officials demanded that the Navy keep the U.S.S. John S. McCain, which was named for McCain’s father and grandfather—both esteemed admirals—out of Trump’s sight during a visit to Japan. The Navy did not comply.

Trump’s preoccupation with McCain has not abated. In January, Trump condemned McCain—six years after his death—for having supported President Barack Obama’s health-care plan. “We’re going to fight for much better health care than Obamacare,” Trump told an Iowa crowd. “Obamacare is a catastrophe. Nobody talks about it. You know, without John McCain, we would have had it done. John McCain for some reason couldn’t get his arm up that day. Remember?” This was, it appears, a malicious reference to McCain’s wartime injuries—including injuries suffered during torture—which limited his upper-body mobility.

I’ve also previously reported on Trump’s 2017 Memorial Day visit to Arlington National Cemetery. Kelly, who was then the secretary of homeland security, accompanied him. The two men visited Section 60, the 14-acre section that is the burial ground for those killed in America’s most recent wars (and the site of Trump’s Arlington controversy earlier this year). Kelly’s son Robert, a Marine officer killed in 2010 in Afghanistan, is buried in Section 60. Trump, while standing by Robert Kelly’s grave, turned to his father and said, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?” At first, Kelly believed that Trump was making a reference to the selflessness of America’s all-volunteer force. But later he came to realize that Trump simply does not understand nontransactional life choices. I quoted one of Kelly’s friends, a fellow retired four-star general, who said of Trump, “He can’t fathom the idea of doing something for someone other than himself. He just thinks that anyone who does anything when there’s no direct personal gain to be had is a sucker.” At moments when Kelly was feeling particularly frustrated by Trump, he would leave the White House and cross the Potomac to visit his son’s grave, in part to remind himself about the nature of full-measure sacrifice.

Last year Kelly told me, in reference to Mark Milley’s 44 years in uniform, “The president couldn’t fathom people who served their nation honorably.”

The specific incident I reported in the 2020 article that gained the most attention also provided the story with its headline—“Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers.’” The story concerned a visit Trump made to France in 2018, during which the president called Americans buried in a World War I cemetery “losers.” He said, in the presence of aides, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” At another moment during this trip, he referred to the more than 1,800 Marines who had lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for dying for their country.

Trump had already been scheduled to visit one cemetery, and he did not understand why his team was scheduling a second cemetery visit, especially considering that the rain would be hard on his hair. “Why two cemeteries?” Trump asked. “What the fuck?” Kelly subsequently canceled the second visit, and attended a ceremony there himself with General Dunford and their wives.

The article sparked great controversy, and provoked an irate reaction from the Trump administration, and from Trump himself. In tweets, statements, and press conferences in the days, weeks, and years that followed, Trump labeled The Atlantic a “second-rate magazine,” a “failing magazine,” a “terrible magazine,” and a “third-rate magazine that’s not going to be in business much longer”; he also referred to me as a “con man,” among other things. Trump has continued these attacks recently, calling me a “horrible, radical-left lunatic named Goldberg” at a rally this summer.

In the days after my original article was published, both the Associated Press and, notably, Fox News, confirmed the story, causing Trump to demand that Fox fire Jennifer Griffin, its experienced and well-regarded defense reporter. A statement issued by Alyssa Farah, a White House spokesperson, soon after publication read, “This report is false. President Trump holds the military in the highest regard.”

Shortly after the story appeared, Farah asked numerous White House officials if they had heard Trump refer to veterans and war dead as suckers or losers. She reported publicly that none of the officials she asked had heard him use these terms. Eventually, Farah came out in opposition to Trump. She wrote on X last year that she’d asked the president if my story was true. “Trump told me it was false. That was a lie.”

When I spoke to Farah, who is now known as Alyssa Farah Griffin, this week, she said, “I understood that people were skeptical about the ‘suckers and losers’ story, and I was in the White House pushing back against it. But he said this to John Kelly’s face, and I fundamentally, absolutely believe that John Kelly is an honorable man who served our country and who loves and respects our troops. I’ve heard Donald Trump speak in a dehumanizing way about so many groups. After working for him in 2020 and hearing his continuous attacks on service members since that time, including my former boss General Mark Milley, I firmly and unequivocally believe General Kelly’s account.”

(Pfeiffer, the Trump spokesperson, said, in response, “Alyssa is a scorned former employee now lying in her pursuit to chase liberal adulation. President Trump would never insult our nation’s heroes.”)

Last year, I published a story in this magazine about Milley that coincided with the end of his four-year term. In it, I detailed his tumultuous relationship with Trump. Milley had resisted Trump’s autocratic urges, and also argued against his many thoughtless and impetuous national-security impulses. Shortly after that story appeared, Trump publicly suggested that Milley be executed for treason. This astonishing statement caused John Kelly to speak publicly about Trump and his relationship to the military. Kelly, who had previously called Trump “the most flawed person I have ever met in my life,” told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Trump had referred to American prisoners of war as “suckers” and described as “losers” soldiers who died while fighting for their country.

“What can I add that has not already been said?” Kelly asked. “A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs, are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family—for all Gold Star families—on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.”

When we spoke this week, Kelly told me, “President Trump used the terms suckers and losers to describe soldiers who gave their lives in the defense of our country. There are many, many people who have heard him say these things. The visit to France wasn’t the first time he said this.”

Kelly and others have taken special note of the revulsion Trump feels in the presence of wounded veterans. After Trump attended a Bastille Day parade in France, he told Kelly and others that he would like to stage his own parade in Washington, but without the presence of wounded veterans. “I don’t want them,” Trump said. “It doesn’t look good for me.”

Milley also witnessed Trump’s disdain for the wounded. Milley had chosen a severely wounded Army captain, Luis Avila, to sing “God Bless America” at his installation ceremony in 2019. Avila, who had completed five combat tours, had lost a leg in an improvised-explosive-device attack in Afghanistan, and had suffered two heart attacks, two strokes, and brain damage as a result of his injuries. Avila is considered a hero up and down the ranks of the Army.

It had rained earlier on the day of the ceremony, and the ground was soft; at one point Avila’s wheelchair almost toppled over. Milley’s wife, Hollyanne, ran to help Avila, as did then–Vice President Mike Pence. After Avila’s performance, Trump walked over to congratulate him, but then said to Milley, within earshot of several witnesses, “Why do you bring people like that here? No one wants to see that, the wounded.” Never let Avila appear in public again, Trump told Milley.

An equally serious challenge to Milley’s sense of duty came in the form of Trump’s ignorance of the rules of war. In November 2019, Trump intervened in three different brutality cases then being adjudicated by the military. In the most infamous case, the Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher had been found guilty of posing with the corpse of an ISIS member. Though Gallagher was found not guilty of murder, witnesses testified that he’d stabbed the prisoner in the neck with a hunting knife. In a highly unusual move, Trump reversed the Navy’s decision to demote him. A junior Army officer named Clint Lorance was also the recipient of Trump’s sympathy. Trump pardoned Lorance, who had been convicted of ordering the shooting of three unarmed Afghans, two of whom died. And in a third case, a Green Beret named Mathew Golsteyn was accused of killing an unarmed Afghan he thought was a Taliban bomb maker. “I stuck up for three great warriors against the deep state,” Trump said at a Florida rally.

In the Gallagher case, Trump intervened to allow Gallagher to keep his Trident insignia, one of the most coveted insignia in the entire U.S. military. The Navy’s leadership found this intervention particularly offensive because tradition held that only a commanding officer or a group of SEALs on a Trident Review Board were supposed to decide who merited being a SEAL. Milley tried to convince Trump that his intrusion was hurting Navy morale. They were flying from Washington to Dover Air Force Base, in Delaware, to attend a “dignified transfer,” a repatriation ceremony for fallen service members, when Milley tried to explain to Trump the damage that his interventions were doing.

In my story, I reported that Milley said, “Mr. President, you have to understand that the SEALs are a tribe within a larger tribe, the Navy. And it’s up to them to figure out what to do with Gallagher. You don’t want to intervene. This is up to the tribe. They have their own rules that they follow.”

Trump called Gallagher a hero and said he didn’t understand why he was being punished.

“Because he slit the throat of a wounded prisoner,” Milley said.

“The guy was going to die anyway,” Trump said.

Milley answered, “Mr. President, we have military ethics and laws about what happens in battle. We can’t do that kind of thing. It’s a war crime.” Trump said he didn’t understand “the big deal.” He went on, “You guys”—meaning combat soldiers—“are all just killers. What’s the difference?”

Milley then summoned one of his aides, a combat-veteran SEAL officer, to the president’s Air Force One office. Milley took hold of the Trident pin on the SEAL’s chest and asked him to describe its importance. The aide explained to Trump that, by tradition, only SEALs can decide, based on assessments of competence and character, whether one of their own should lose his pin. But the president’s mind was not changed. Gallagher kept his pin.

One day, in the first year of Trump’s presidency, I had lunch with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, in his White House office. I turned the discussion, as soon as I could, to the subject of his father-in-law’s character. I mentioned one of Trump’s recent outbursts and told Kushner that, in my opinion, the president’s behavior was damaging to the country. I cited, as I tend to do, what is in my view Trump’s original sin: his mockery of John McCain’s heroism.

This is where our conversation got strange, and noteworthy. Kushner answered in a way that made it seem as though he agreed with me. “No one can go as low as the president,” he said. “You shouldn’t even try.”

I found this baffling for a moment. But then I understood: Kushner wasn’t insulting his father-in-law. He was paying him a compliment. In Trump’s mind, traditional values—values including those embraced by the armed forces of the United States having to do with honor, self-sacrifice, and integrity—have no merit, no relevance, and no meaning."

Jeffrey Goldberg is the editor in chief of The Atlantic and the moderator of Washington Week With The Atlantic.

18 notes · View notes

chivgf · 3 months ago

Text

sum slight to hold yall over until i finish ihy pt2

pairing: shuri x riri

warnings: angst concerning family death that's literally all

divider by @firefly-graphics !

but it's raining.

riri sat criss-cross in the passenger seat, her head against the raindrop covered window as she stared through it. it was nearly pitch black outside, nothing lit except the road due to the headlights. her mind was hazy, crowded with millions of tiny little feelings and voices, and the silence of the ride was of no assistance.

“what time is it?” shuri groaned, her eyes surveying all that she could ahead of her. riri snapped out of her daze and looked at her girlfriend. “hm?”

“the time, ri,” shuri laughed sluggishly, taking a hand off of the wheel and massaging her own neck. “feels like we've been on the road forever.”

riri nodded in agreement before checking her watch and mumbling a quiet, “1:16.”

a weary hum escaped shuri's mouth as she hung her head and took a deep breath. without thinking, her palms pressed firmly into the steering wheel and shifted left. the two, now pulled over on the backroads of who knows where at 1 in the morning, sat in a deep pool of silence. unspoken thoughts bounced around the interior of the car like a rubber ball as shuri's beckoning glare pierced holes into her girlfriend's face. she knew there was something wrong.

“hey, what is it?” shuri softly inquired. she readjusted to face riri, biting her nails. a wave of uneasiness washed over her as a result of her girlfriend's refusal to make eye contact. riri blew out some air, shook her head, and fidgeted with the zipper of her jacket. “what's what?”

shuri scoffed, her mind staggered. “this.. what's this?” shuri motioned to riri's tense and unwilling demeanor. “since when do we keep things from each other? hm? i thought everything was fine.”

“never, I just.. I got a lot on my mind that I can't put into words right now. so just drive? please?”

“if it isn't fine, ri, we can stop. hell, we can even turn around! i want you to be okay.. i know how it feels.”

“shuri, just drive.”

the hour was 2:28 by the time they arrived home, and it was still silent; deafeningly silent. on top of that, the downpour outside hadn't faltered either. riri tossed her jacket onto the floor and headed for the bathroom, but she was stopped by shuri's sudden unyielding grasp. riri snapped back to look at her, the feeling of her girlfriend pressing gently but firmly into her forearm had riri overcome with emotion.

shuri was dazed and confused, not to mention exhausted from the long drive back home from Chicago. between her and riri, no brains were functioning correctly. not at this hour, and not in this small space.

the smaller girl's eyes bounced around as she released herself from shuri's grip. as her breathing began to shake, she pursed her lips and tried to choke back the tears that were bound to come anyway. shuri had warned her that she couldn't hold them in forever, nor could she avoid the gut wrenching pain of grief. there was a hole growing inside of her, a pit, and it wouldn't go away until she allowed herself to feel. to simply just feel.

throwing her arm around riri's short frame and walking her to the couch to sit, shuri's heart ached in one accord with riri's. the emotions in the air finally settled in, covering the two like a blanket of snow. suddenly, the thick silence was broken by riri's voice; “i miss him, shuri.”

“i know.” shuri bit her lip before looking towards the stairs. “come with me.”

hand in hand they walked up the stairs, and into their bedroom. shuri unlocked the window and raised the glass up.

“what are yo-”

“just come on the roof with me. please?”

“but its raining.”

shuri shrugged and stepped onto the roof, her hand outstretched.

rianna buried her head in her hands before falling into her girlfriend's lap, her tears being overshadowed by the raindrops decorating her face. the whole time they were in Chicago for the yearly observance of her father's passing, riri put on a hard front, convincing everyone, and maybe even herself, that she'd completely healed from his departure. seeing her fall apart like this after leaving wasn't something that surprised shuri, but it left her feeling disappointed. to her, the two rarely ever left their city. to travel out of state to visit her father's grave and home and not allow herself to be present in the moment was something shuri just couldn't bear to let happen.

shuri knew all to well, this feeling. nowhere she turned could she find family; no mother to kiss her wounds, no father to call when in need, no brother to run to in situations too complicated for the others. the empty feeling wasn't new to her. the difference was, shuri's memories of her family now brought her peace, and no longer brought her sorrow. she wanted the same for riri.

“let's go back.”

riri lifted her head up and looked at shuri in perplexity. “what?”

“in the morning. let's go back.”

#angst #riri williams #shuri udaku #bpwf #shuriri #shuri x riri #chivwrts #black panther #wakanda forever #flash fiction

13 notes · View notes

eldritch-spouse · 2 years ago

Note

MY BIRTHDAY IS THE 20TH UH SO UH WOULD THE ICONS CARE ABOUT THEIR SO’S BIRTHDAY? HOW WOULD THEY CELEBRATE IT?

(Or Just Livius cause he’s my bbg and I loooove him)

[Happy barfday, you aged. 🎉]

Icons during your birthday

Vesper wakes you up with birthday head. Sure, you get that plenty of times, but this one is special!! Because he's going to eat you out to the table and then, as you're having breakfast, someone else is between your legs. The whole ring knows, so you probably have a plethora of gifts that are usually some variation of degenerate or filthy and funny. Vesper does pay attention to what you say however, so he'll make sure to get you things you actually want aside from just whatever he thinks would look sexy on you. The day goes by in a hurry because you're too fucked out to think honestly.

Rinx throws the largest party ever. It's embarrassing. It's super embarrassing. But hey, you get a house-sized pile of presents. You're going to spend most of the day opening these while Rinx peels himself for your approval. Put it on! Put every cloth and jewel he gave you on! Let's face it, he probably gets a bit of everything, since usually when you want something Rinx just gets it instantly. He knows it's selfish of him to ask you this on your birthday... But can he fuck you on the pile? Please?

You like piñatas? Kalymir likes piñatas... Okay, now bash the fuck out of this prisoner's brains! That's a fun way to start. You're going to play all sorts of games, from aim to raw power, all of them resulting in some por sod's death. If you have a favorite type of weapon or sport, he's one hundred percent going to bet on that too. You're going to be eating like a real Queen too, so don't worry about breaks. You're going to celebrate every birthday with Kalymir just like you did the first one in your life- Naked, screaming, and covered in blood.

Zizz will ask if you want to spend the whole day in bed. He'll get up and go anywhere you want since it's your day, but he also had a perfect setup ready just to stay with you in his room the whole time and watch movies or play stupid games and nap together. Your presents are buried under endless piles of plushies, and he's going to enjoy watching you dig around for them, especially when you get stuck in a tower of stuffed animals and pillows and he gets to see you wiggle your ass in a struggle. Do you like video games? Zizz will get you into them today.

You've never had a real birthday cake until you become Vorticia's lover. This woman will get you such a magnificent, delicious, mouth-watering, gorgeous, unbelievable cake that you will cry for more, and probably get a stomach ache. She's content to sit with you on her lap and feed it to you, maybe even make you lick her fingers clean. But, eventually, she might just drop you on it and let you go ham. Watching like a pervert before scooping you up to lick you clean, and dropping you again. After that, it's a relatively normal day, she has plenty of cute presents for you and will take you to her son's esteemed sorbet establishment to have all the fun you want.

Livius is very good at listening to the things you want, that's why his presents are usually always the best out of all Icons, as he seems to hit the nail on the head every single time. Since he assimilates plenty of your tastes, he's likely to guess correctly what you'd most like to do for your birthday, and has no issue slipping into the surface to rip his way into the theaters or go to a water park, whatever the Hell you so please! Nothing will stop him from giving you everything you want, so that you feel so special in that one day that you'll never feel jealousy ever again in your entire life. Because you deserve that.

Cero is too fucking extra. This is the definition of being treated as a Queen. You're forbidden from moving a muscle since the moment you wake up. He's already dolled up with the best attire he has, the servants will start piling in the room to bathe and dress you like a doll, preparing you to go out into the halls and greet all sorts of people you've never even heard of as Cero apparently organized a dazzling party while you were fast asleep. You feel sorry for the imps. Since the spotlight is always on you, it will feel a little exhausting, but Cero's always there to make sure others definitely give you space, by shooing them away, or speaking for you. You're complimented and praised the entire time by everyone, including him, and you get some of the most elegant gifts ever out there. Then, of course, you're gently fucked in your get-up while the King of Pride whispers about how well-behaved you were.

#Vorticia oc #Rinx oc #Cero oc #Kalymir oc #Zizz oc #Vesper oc #Livius oc #notamonsterfucker

168 notes · View notes

ghostieeeee · 1 year ago

Text

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟐: 𝐂𝐎𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐀 𝐂𝐀𝐓

ᶜᵘᵗ ʰᵉʳᵉ ✄-----------------------------------------

Word count: 1.8k

Warnings: Possible spelling errors? :D

ᶜᵘᵗ ʰᵉʳᵉ ✄-----------------------------------------

The day had passed by fairly quickly, you spent your breaks cooped up in the library with your friends and Eunchae, and although classes were basically a death sentence, you managed to survive till this point at least. The last ten minutes of the day. But despite the reasonably short time, every minute seemed to drag on to become an excruciatingly tiring sixty seconds.

The classroom has become your penal institution, keeping you locked up for good as a consequence for your naivety and lack of knowledge. It felt restricting, but this was one of the limited classes you share with a friend- your dearest Kim Chaewon.

“I hate this” There she goes again, complaining about the class- she's only complaining because of her lack of understanding over the topic you're currently covering. “I don’t understand why we can’t just study this ourselves, Sir has almost sent me to sleep with this lesson multiple times!” she whisper-yells, avoiding all eye contact with the teacher himself as she jots down notes into her personal notebook.

“It’s school, Chae, most things about school are bound to get boring sooner or later” You feel yourself smile at her annoyed huff, shaking your head lightly out of habit. “There isn't that long left until you're home free”

“Huh? Where are you going after school?”

“My english partner invited me to a coffee shop so we can start our assignment together”

In the corner of your eye, you notice the sudden stop to her note-taking and the turn of her head to face you,”Wouldn’t you have started that in class with them?”

“We were planning a few things. We still need to research more and actually begin to type it out or whatever” you explain, ignoring the strange look Chaewon was giving you.

“Mmhmm… Who’s your partner this time?”

“Aren’t you nosey today?” You stifle a small laugh,”If you must know, I'm paired with Kang Haerin”

“As in the shy popular girl, Haerin?” Her voice was laced with an undertone of uncertainty and concern,”You know this could bring attention to yourself, right?”

“Yes, I'm very much aware, but at least she wants to do the project. I’d rather face minor attention than have to do a whole assignment again. Chae, I was extremely sleep deprived last time, I became almost erratic” You let out a gusty sigh,”It’ll be something quick. We agreed to get the project done as soon as possible, and that's that”

"I'm just looking out for you, you know how much I love you"

"I know, Chae, but I know what I'm doing"

You listen to her sigh. You're almost certain the only reason she hasn't pummelled you to the ground yet is because you're her friend. You have too much of a backstory together for her to just bury, quite literally and figuratively. Three years has certainly been a show in the making when it comes to you. "If this comes back to bite you in the ass I'm here for you"

"You always have been, and I appreciate it a lot. I appreciate you a lot…" You pause to glance at your friend, sharing a gracious smile with each other,"get back to your work"

"Yes ma'am," Chaewon nods, turning her attention back to her note-taking as her wrist goes into immediate overtime.

The next seven minutes dragged on by, making your every movement feel slugged as a result. Students were evidently done with the Monday hassle as most flickered between the clock on the wall and the clock on their phones. They were desperate to leave and confine within the comfort of their homes- preparing for either an early night's worth of sleep or none at all.

However, after what felt like three hours worth of agonsing torture, the same mellow ring of the school bell radiates the air, completely sending the class to carnage. Students hadn't even waited for the teacher to dismiss them. They hadn't even waited for him to finish his sentence before they were already out the door and very well down the hallway.

“Free phone?” Chaewon speaks up, nudging you slightly as she nods to the seat on your left. It was completely empty, the boy you sat next to had vanished,”I guess someone was in a rush”

“That doesn’t mean we should take it though. Who knows what's stored on that thing?” You speak with a slight disgust, putting your notebook into your bag.

“I suppose,” she grins, “but that won't stop me!”

“Hey, hey! That's not your phone to take!” You complain, trying to block her sight of the black cased device.

“I'm not going to keep it, you make it seem like i'm the villain” Chaewon rolls her eyes, her grin having transformed into a misleading frown.

You shake your head, walking past the forgotten possession,”maybe you are the villain, maybe you're not… who knows?”

“That's cruel”

“Maybe?” You stop outside your classroom, hand tightly gripping the material of your bag’s strap. “Time to socialise” you sigh, having already spotted the girl you're meeting with.

Has she told Minji?

“goodluck Y/n, you might need it”

“Thanks Chae” You're both quick to separate- with Chaewon taking off in a hurry to find Kazuha, and you staying to meet with Haerin.

It wasn't uncommon for Chaewon to scurry off to meet Kazuha, they are neighbours afterall, but you're still stuck in the state of wishing someone you know would join you to help ease your mind a little.

Friend or alone, you're still going either way.

“Are you ready?” Turning your head to the meek voice, you find Haerin already looking at you with her same stoic face. That sweet voice had almost no correlation to the way she presents herself outwardly.

“Yeah, i'm ready”

ᶜᵘᵗ ʰᵉʳᵉ ✄-----------------------------------------

Pushing past the glass door, a fresh ambience of crushed coffee beans rade your nose. The warmth from the heaters attacked the chill you had brung in with you. The late October air stood no chance here. The exterior was cloistered and closed, so many tables and such little space, but you suppose that only added to the acquaint charm of the business.

Slightly trailing behind Haerin, you make your stop at the partly busy counter, where a female from your chem class stands, her hands occupied with retying her coffee stained apron. “Hello, welcome. What can I get for you today?”

It was Jiwoo- one of your sister's other friends- they are perfect friends in all honesty, them and another girl called Sullyoon. The three of them are almost always in other people's business for no clear reason. Like you said to Chaewon earlier, you were certain they were working against you with their weird spying techniques.

“Y/n?” You hum to Haerins call, eyes connecting with the barista's apron in front of you as your throat squeezes itself shut momentarily. “I’ll just get whatever Hearin ordered” You almost squealed out.

“Very well,” Jiwoo nods, placing your order through “That’ll be eleven-thousand won please”

“I’ll pay,” Haerin declares, having already pulled out her card and inputted the pin. You had no chance to even get a word in before she had already paid for the order.

“Thank you, we’ll bring your coffees over to you when they're ready”

“Thank you” You and Haerin surprise each other alongside yourselves with the sudden synchronisation to your words. While it was a generic response, and literally anyone could have done that, it was still surprising. Unbeknownst to you both, however, was that Jiwoo had judged this with narrow slitted eyes, her mind booting and reeling in any possibilities of your strange outing. Never has she ever seen you both talk- let alone in unison. As far as Jiwoo knows, this could even be a drug deal, and obviously, you're the sourcer.

Taking your seats at a round, plastic top, table- located somewhat close to the counter- you pull out your laptops, your hand also moving to unsheath the sheet from earlier. You kept the paper in case you ever needed to use her email again- fortunately, for now, you have not.

“What part do you want to follow up on?” Haerin questions, without looking away from her screen, her mouth left to hang slightly agape.

“That sounds creepy” you mumble, pondering over your options. However, your focus lifts at the sound of a small chuckle.

Was that Haerin?

Looking up only confirmed your suspicion. It really was Haerin. Her little chuckle was a first with you, and her widening smile only made her look all that much more like a cat. The corners of her eyes were pinched as she smoothed out her shirt.

“Not in that way. I don't think you’d be able to follow a printed sentence home”

Feeling yourself smile at her lighthearted attitude, even if it may only be temporary, you respond in the same demeanour “Doesn't it technically follow me home?”

“Because it’s in your bag?”

“Yeah” you observe the girl opposite you as her nose scrunches up.

“Maybe you have a stalker…” she almost whispers.

“Should I report it?”

“Maybe… I wouldn't want some random stalker if I were you”

“Two iced americanos?! A third voice intrudes, a voice you’ve heard so many times coming from your sister's room late at night when she's on facetime with her friends. Jiwoos' other partner in crime- Sullyoon. Of course they would both work together in the same establishment.

“Yes, that's us” Haerin responds as her smile retreats back into the shadows of her more introverted personality. “Thank you”

“Thank you” you repeat Haerins' words after Sullyoon places your own drink in front of you. “So… an iced americano, huh?”

Haerins face flushes a dusty red,”I know it’s not everyone's favourite, sorry if you don't like it”

“That's alright, I’ve never had this order before” you speak, holding the beverage between your fingers and palm as you evaluate it through the glass cup provided. You rarely ever hang around long enough to stay inside of a coffee shop, so having a glass container is certainly new to you.

“Oh… well, I promise it isn't as bad as the students at our school make it out to be”

“It’s okay, I trust you, i’ll try it in a minute." Haerin nods, shifting herself back on the purpose of your meeting- the english project.

“That’s good to know, since we’re doing a project together and what not”

“I suppose I have no other choice but to trust you”

“Possibly…” Haerin trails off, quickly glancing at you before she's completely immersed in her own world.

“I’ll start on the words of Shakespeare” You finally answer her question, earning a hum of approval from the brunette.

“Okay, i'll start on modern literature then”

Was it really a necessary idea to give a bunch of high schoolers a project based on the evolution of english literature and the culture surrounding it? Probably not. But are you going to try your best to get the best result possible? Absolutely… with a little help from your new partner, of course.

You just hope nothing bad comes from this…

ᶜᵘᵗ ʰᵉʳᵉ ✄-----------------------------------------

: Dating in a high school full of love thirsty teenagers was never really something you wanted. But of course, things change- and you learnt that in more ways than one. Kim Minji, one of the more popular students. Hong y/n, probably the most invisible person alive. They couldn't possibly be dating… or maybe they could be? You never know what goes on behind closed doors.

ᶜᵘᵗ ʰᵉʳᵉ ✄-----------------------------------------

𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐎𝐔𝐒 | 𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓 | 𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓

ᶜᵘᵗ ʰᵉʳᵉ ✄-----------------------------------------

𝐓𝐀𝐆 𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓: [𝐎𝐏𝐄𝐍]

@jeindall777 @feisrants @thefckghost @everydayiloveyves @nasyu-kookies @justdelulumeh @feb14-kid

@ehcyps @imjeyjjey @winteresss @haechansbbg @urwyf3

@idkwhatim-doinghere101 @imahallucination11 @sserajeans @lesleepyyy @jennasluma @kaypanaq

@petruchiosstuff @pandafuriosa60 @haexrin07

#newjeans #minji #kim minji #newjeans x reader #minji x reader #kim minji x reader #newjeans minji #minji smau #kim minji smau #haerin #newjeans haerin #kang haerin #chaewon #kim chaewon

96 notes · View notes

dcfangirl · 13 days ago

Text

I want to flesh out the backstories of Misa and Light in my Death Note AU so here's how they go:

It starts with Misa, who becomes a Japanese member of a popular-ish k-pop group in her teen years, she becomes close friends with her fellow members, and especially becomes best friends with one of them who she's known since they were both trainees.

The living conditions at their company weren't the best but fortunately because of her status as an international member, Misa got by well enough. unfortunately it wasn't the same for her friend who one day, long into their career, dissappears, and leaves a detailed message relying the abuse she went through from the management team and some other people at the company. The message is posted online but the label covers the whole thing up and buries it and disbands the group slowly, starting with Misa.

Misa goes home to Japan, (her parents are still alive in this au) but her career is over and she lost her best friend.

This is where Gelous comes in, Misa is still meant to die, and Gelous wants to spend the rest of her life by her side, he goes down to the human world and becomes her companion. Misa uses her death note to get revenge on all the people who hurt her friend.

Rem follows Gelous soon after, dropping her death note as an excuse.

That death note is found by Light Yagami, a former prodigal detective, who quit the police force after he solved a huge case in his first year that implicated some big name politicians, which resulted in his suspect being cleared of all charges while he had to helplessly watch the victim end up in jail and soon after get killed in there. And all of his colleagues told him to let it go and keep his head down. Light then becomes disillusioned with the justice system.

Light uses Rems' death note to (subtly) get rid of all the corrupt people involved in that case.

Rem leads him to Misa and they become (albeit reluctant on lights side) friends.

but when Misa' time comes Gelous can't bring himself to let her death happen, and he stops it just like in canon, Misa gets his death note, and the rest of his remaining lifespan but she loses another friend.

She makes the eye deal with Rem, per Lights' suggestion, cause why not. And becomes part of Lights secret death note murder group, operating discreetly, until of course the plot kicks in and Kira appears. And now the murder book club has to catch him before L & the police do, or else the existence of the Death Notes will be exposed.

#i tried making this less messy #death note #death notes au #death note au #light yagami #misa amane #lawlight #yagamane

13 notes · View notes

pottermeow22 · 6 months ago

Text

Sooooo, I just managed to watch the whole of Kalki-2898AD in one sitting today.

And what a masterpiece!!!!!

I know that reviews about the movie have been mixed, (Arshad Warsi, eyes on you, man👀👀👀) but amongst the abundant comedic relief, were to me atleast, many buried little Easter eggs and clues that only someone with a knowledge of the Mahabharata, and someone willing to look with a more thoughtful eye will catch!

Bhairava's whole characterisation is the single most largest example of this! After Ashwathama's first little flashback, the suspicion of Bhairava being Karna began to itch at me, because who else could be a greater warrior than Arjuna on the field of the Kurukshetra battle?

The first similarity I found was this.... The way Bhairava has spent a large portion of his life trying to enter an elite society simply because he believes that the circumstances he was born to are not the determiners of his capacity. The way he almost KNOWS in his heart, that he has a fate larger than this coming for him, yet blinds himself into believing that it is life at the Complex! The first mistake that Karna committed in his life is the same. His first step into adharma, was brought about by his desire to be considered equal amongst the Kshatriya warriors of the Kuru clan. To not be limited by the circumstances of his birth or upbringing as the son of a sarathi....

The second clue to me, was his attachment to Bujji!!! This one is less of a parallel, and more of an indirect clue as to the background Bhairava might have, though. Karna was the son of a charioteer, who was expected to be one too, and strongly disliked the idea of being forced to be one when his interests lay in becoming a warrior that people spoke of even eons later. And at the end of the epic war, it is his chariot again, and the kshatriya king Shalya as his charioteer that pave the way to his death! The first time Ashwathama hurls Bujji and Bhairava loses yet again, this was straight where my mind went.

Then, there are the more subtle character nuances. Karna in his time, was considered a warrior second to none, and yet people often only acknowledged him as an equal to Arjuna. And in one modern iteration of the Mahabharata that I'm not sure where I read it, Krishna says that while Arjuna competes with himself, looking only to better himself, Karna strives to be better than Arjuna. And in that, he holds himself back to Arjuna's level. A clear sign of a hyper competitive person, is that not? And the first time we see any sort of a serious don't mess with me attitude from Bhairava, is when he is losing. When he has lost. And so goes his patience with the wind, his need to be undefeated, to WIN leading him to his following chaotic course of action...

And finally, the centrepoint of Karna's story, his Identity.... Karna's whole story, his cause and consequence, his curse and his many boons, are the result of his birth, and the way it was hidden from him. Bhairava too, seems to have an origin story that he either does not know, or does not remember, instead covering it up with comedic relief sob stories (according to Bujji, not me!!!) of adoption and a Captain father, which Dulquer was sooooooooo cute in his 10 minutes of screentime! Does Bhairava have a Radha too, who brought him up as a bosom son and he refuses to give up her memory to anyone? Why at the end of the movie did he lose recollection of the climactic fight? Has he been cursed with forgetfulness and therefore does not remember the legends of his own story?

Overall Kalki 2898 AD, to those watching with an open mind and a thoughtful eye, is a minefield of curious parallels, and a reversed good vs evil that with more detail from part 2, could make for a blockbuster winning combination!!!!

PS The way he looks at Sumathi/Deepika before picking her up in his arms was so 🤯🥵🤤... And is the baby somehow his and not a result of Project K? Because I do remember Sum-80 saying she was negative after the last attempt at seeding. Curiously endless possibilities!!!!!

#kalki2898ad #prabhas #deepika padukone #bhairava #karn #parallels

14 notes · View notes

starhrtz · 2 years ago

Text

— 000. PROLOGUE

CHAPTER PREMISE — When (name) meets an untimely demise at the hands of a stranger – just as she was accepted into an university and her life was about to start, no less. She finds herself reincarnated as the child of the successful Hinomori family.

SERIES PREMISE — after a mysterious death, you find yourself being reborn as an actor's daughter. everything seems to be smooth-sailing in this life before you came across a strange star eyed boy during your junior year in high school. this strange yet fortune encounter leads to a spiral of love yet grief.

CONTAINS — implied death

series masterlist | next

School has always been a pain.

Perhaps hearing that your brother got into one of the top universities in Japan made you motivated to study hard, though that was the only thing really. You didn't have many friends being counted as a weirdo who's nose would always be stuck in a book, not that you minded after all you weren't bullied due to your brother's influence. Right, it was always your brother who got the spotlight yet that same spotlight always protected you from being harassed no matter how much you tried you somehow couldn't bring yourself to hate your kin.

Even when you studied hard going as far to study an extra year for the entrance exams, your results were devastating and disappointing. Were all your efforts in vain? Were you really not cut out to enter the school you wanted? Others may consider it good, but their definition and your definition of 'good' was definitely different. Clearly good was rather disappointing, especially when you studied so hard on the verge of fainting just to receive such poor results. Though your parents often say grades weren't everything, trying to encourage you to do something that might be more of your forte but somehow you could see a glint in their eyes of pity and… Disappointment. The latter being something that you hated the most, especially coming from your own parents.

Perhaps that was why you spent most of your time in the library now waiting for your ticket or email saying you have been accepted to your dream university, so why wasn't the list getting shorter? You said burying your head in your arms, as your hair fell to cover the side of your eye as you looked up to check your phone one last time before sighing realising it was really no use to constantly check for something despite knowing deep down… You most likely won't even be accepted. "I… I should get some air." You mumbled while getting up from your seat walking towards the rooftop located on top of the library, it scratched your brain why the roof existed especially at a library but you didn't question it nor complain after all the view was quite beautiful.

"What even is life anyway."

You scoffed while watching the cars drive by as you loomed over them on the roof, of course while you were deep in thought you didn't seem to notice a figure emerging from the shadows. But that's when they started talking to you, so why… Why is it that you can't seem to remember what you both talked about, their voice or their face. All you could remember clearly was the curiosity and apprehension you had for the stranger but the conversation at the end was quite fun or at least that's what you could remember. From what you could vaguely remember, the stranger seemed excited perhaps a bit too excited which was rather odd in your perspective but yet you brushed it off thinking they are just naturally energetic.

Your conversation was cut short when when your phone buzzed, your heart raced and tears started to form in your eyes. "No way… I did it!" You smiled to yourself as you read the acceptance letter again, you held the phone up high thanking every single person out there for their luck completely forgetting about the mysterious figure who stood behind you. That joy seemed to be short-lived before you felt a shove, which had you slowly fall down the building. You turned your head to see the figure grinning as they watched you fall who showed no signs of urgency to help you.

Were you just… Destined to die young?

. . . . . . . . .

Why was your head aching so much? And your vision.. Why was it so blurry? Were you having anaemia or something..? You quickly dismissed those thoughts as your eyes immediately shot open once you remembered about the stranger, but your eyes were greeted with a beautiful young lady smiling as she laid eyes on you yet she wasn't alone a man was next to her. Your mouth was hung agape as you realised what was going on, you've… Been given another life? Not just any life too, you had been reincarnated to the Hinomori family?! "I just knew our daughter would be beautiful." The woman beamed as her husband nodded.

Reincarnating into a rich household wasn't something you planned, or reincarnating at all! Why did it have to happen when you just got accepted or before you could even tell your family about your accomplishments, you wondered if anyone had noticed you were dead or who had called the cops first. Was it the figure so they won't be suspicious, but why you of all people must be pushed? Though another thought came into mind, how was it possible for you to be reincarnated? Doesn't that kind of stuff only exist in tv shows or books, this really does break logic in every way possible…

Though you sort of wanted to see what it was like in the afterlife, perhaps living a life in the Hinomori household wouldn't be so bad? After all, both of them were relatively famous with both of them being part of the acting industry though your mother has started taking up modelling.

Of course, the down side of starting life again was that everything they taught in preschool was easy, a little too easy in fact. Still you kept your act, though you found it weird when you saw a young blonde boy reading one of Kyougoku Natsuhiko's books while his sister was playing on the slide. Huh, perhaps he was born as a smart kid? It's rare to see preschoolers read or even touch a book without being forced to by their parents. Still, you minded your own business and interacted with the other kids but somehow it made you kind of frustrated when they couldn't really understand what you were saying…

please do reblog or comment if you like this!! It rlly makes me motivated to see positive comments!!

taglist -> @aranachan @cerisearan @miyakoa @yevenle @atomi-mi @bajifairyy

#oshi no ko x reader #oshi no ko fanfic #oshi no ko #aquamarine hoshino #aqua hoshino x reader #aquamarine x reader #shizuku #shizuku hinomori #pjsk #project sekai #pjsk x reader #project sekai x reader

375 notes · View notes

dazaispinkietoe · 11 months ago

Text

Obey Me Theory

I've mentioned it but never discussed it so HERE WE GO!!

In my first post I mentioned that I thought the brothers' sins were based on how they coped with their trauma. I'm sick right now so I'm not sure how good this explanation will be but here we go

So, even though most of the fandom knows about the Obey Me lore some don't (SPOILERS AHEAD!!)

Quick rundown: Basically the brothers were all very close to this girl named Lilith, close enough that they considered her a sister when they lived in Celestia. Eventually, she was introduced to a human and fell in love, but that human got sick and she used forbidden methods to save him. This caused a war and ended with her dying as the brothers watched.

So, how did this affect the brothers? They coped with it in their own ways, but these ways seemed to take them over. Which makes sense because nothing about grief is normal, and it can be hard to get out of once you're in it.

In my theory, the different ways the brothers coped are represented by their sins.

Starting with Lucifer, obviously, he is the sin of pride. When he was in Celestia, he was adored for being a model example. He constantly kept up his appearance and was viewed as a leader or a strong figure, so he thought he had to keep up this act to stay admired. After Lilith died, Lucifer likely felt hopeless, he had become the very thing he hated (a demon), lost his sister, and overall failed to protect his family. He covered up what had happened to protect everyone but that didn't change his emotions. Because of how he behaved in the past, he almost instantly latched on to the boss-employee relationship he had with Diavolo, and to distract himself buried himself in his work. He found that he was discriminated against for being an ex angel, but also that the brothers still viewed him as a guide. So, to regain the little control he had, he faked confidence and tried to control how people viewed him, the quality of work, and his strength. This also, however, caused him to become very anxious of the thoughts around him and as a result his pride took him over.

Then we have Mammon. Escapism seems to be a common trend with these brothers, and Mammon found it through money. He tried to buy happiness, and because of Lilith's death I can imagine that he was scared he wouldn't be able to hold onto something, so he bought more than he needed and got more money than he needed, (even though he still ended up broke,) with the hope that it wouldn't have been taken away from him. He also has mentioned that he likes gambling, which not only supports his money hoarding habits but also gives people a rush of adrenaline, that may have changed his mood and made him feel better for a limited amount of time. Like Lucifer, Mammon wants to protect his family even though they don't always agree with his methods. Greed could play a part in this because if he has a lot of something, people might respect him more and in turn respect his family more.

Leviathan's sin is so similar to Mammon's yet so different. Envy can be caused by Greed and make the same emotions, but they aren't exactly the same. It isn't jealousy either. Envy is when you want something that you don't already have and it makes you feel bad about yourself, while jealousy is towards something you feel like you own. This is important to Leviathan's character because in Nightbringer, he mentions how he felt like he could never fit in anywhere. This is likely because he felt like he was missing what others had, and this feeling probably intensified once he was thrown into a pretty much unknown environment where people weren't as friendly to him. Once he had lost his sibling, he probably also became envious of people with full families, or just the thought of someone having one. He ended up really liking video games and animes to distract himself, but this only intensified his feelings because he felt like these were the only thing he had. And if he couldn't be the best or first at these things, then who was he? Definitely not someone important or deserving of others attention, right?

Satan's is a bit different here because he didn't actually lose a sibling. He was more of an addition than a loss. Because of this, and how he was birthed, he felt alienated from most of society. He also felt a lot of feelings he probably couldn't comprehend. He was shaped into who he was by Lucifer, but started to feel like he was no one but Lucifer himself and grew angry with himself for not being able to do anything about it. Because of these emotions he was feeling, as well as having likely emotionally unavailable siblings due to the time of his birth (even though they tried their best) he ended up becoming angry at himself and everyone around him, even his existence. Because he didn't know how to handle these emotions properly and others began to avoid him, he learned to bottle up these feelings, but that only made it worse. Generally, everything that he did made him angry because he just couldn't understand it.

Asmodeus is a bit of a..uh...case with his, but it definitely makes sense. When he was in Celestia, he was praised for his beauty and purity. Ever since he was little he was celebrating himself and what he was, because he was taught to do so. His image was almost all of who he was, what everyone praised him for. So, once he was thrown down into Devildom, he didn't know how to react. Purity wouldn't be praised anymore, and everyone hated him because of where he came from anyways. His entire self image was ruined, and even though he didn't regret giving Lilith even a chance at survival, was it all for nothing? So he tries to fit in. He makes himself look wanted to the public eye, tries and figures out Devildom's social norms, what they like, and what they want to see, but it doesn't work the way he wants it to. He becomes overly obsessed with his self image to the point of self destruction if he's rejected (Solomon found him sobbing because a woman rejected his advances,) but that's not the only reason he's so lustful. He behaves like this to distract himself, too, to not give himself a chance to think about what happened to him, and we see how he just doesn't comprehend the weight of situations both in the original Obey Me and in Nightbringer.

Beelzebub's is a bit difficult if you don't know how chemicals work and stuff, but I tried my best so here we go. Once Lilith died, Beelzebub carried a lot of guilt over the situation and blamed himself for not being able to protect her. This created a very anxious feeling for him, that could probably be considered very very close to hunger, or like a static feeling in his stomach. Because of this, he tried to fill the void by consuming as much as he can, which must be a lot because lets admit it...he is NOT a small man like wtf, 😭 but it never really worked. The feeling was still there, like something was wrong, and it hurt. But besides that, his gluttony may have also been because of how food affects the brain. A lot of people do binge eat when they're stressed, because it produces chemical reactions in the brain that can stop the discomfort for a little while, especially if you're eating something that you like. This may also be a part of the reason Beelzebub gets so mad when he has nothing to eat, because he has no way (in his mind) to control the stress, and gets overwhelmed.

Okay now I'm sure you're all very tired of me talking about Belphegor BUT PLEASE CHAT JUST LISTEN PLEASE HE'S SO RELATABLE JUST GIVE HIM A CHANCE. Belphegor watched Lilith die, and like Beelzebub very much blames himself for it, and like the other brothers was discriminated against heavily for being an ex angel. But instead of confronting this, Belphegor chose to avoid his thoughts. He slept, hoping that his dreams would be better and that he wouldn't have to feel what he was now. This way, no one could bother him, he didn't have to feel, in fact, he didn't have to experience half the things he does when he's awake. There was nothing for him to look forward to, anyways, so he'd be fine. But once he can't sleep he gets anxious, and we see this once he gets desperate and contacts MC, asking for help to sleep. He thinks that sleep will fix his problems when in reality he's just avoiding them like all the rest of his siblings.

#obey me swd #obey me shall we date #obey me belphegor #obey me #om! belphie #om! mammon #om! leviathan #om! nightbringer #om! lucifer #om! asmodeus #om! satan

25 notes · View notes

thegreenhordes · 11 months ago

Text

Twilight's Notes: Autopsy Report

Subject: Cheerilee Infection Type: Stage 3, Growler Cause of Death: Malnutrition

Important Notes: Food was provided to the Subject through slats in the door to her observation room. It was noted that she refused any non-meat food items, often smelling provided vegetables and fruit before wandering away in an angry huff. When provided with meat the subject devoured it ravenously. (Additional Note: Fluttershy is still Very distraught by the act of feeding meat to a subject, understandably so. The animals butchered were already dead when it was done, but I admit the act turned my stomach as well.)

Results of the Autopsy of Cheerilee: Pustules had a thicker membrane than what has been found in other Growler subjects, this has been noted in the Growler files under 'Secondary Mutations', Section Four, Pustule Growth. Additionally, the fluid inside had developed a thick consistency, atypical of previous tests on samples taken from the subject while still alive. Potentially a postmortem event similar to bloating and blood coagulation. The Cranial region of the subject shows typical deconstruction of the front of the skull where the largest pustules grow over the eyes. Bone was missing and the brain was protected solely by the thick covering of the pustules themselves. This was noted with previous autopsies as being how popping the facial pustules can be used to kill the infected. Oddly enough, Cheerilee is a unique case- in that her eyes were still present. They were nonfunctional and buried beneath the growths, but she is the only Growler so far to have them still intact. They were pushed back into the remainder of the skull and put pressure on her brain. It was noted this may be the reason for some of the subject's atypical behavior. (Note: Cheerilee struggled to walk in a straight line and frequently ran into the walls. Additionally, she had a total of five seizures in the few weeks she was in stage 3.)

The state of the subject's teeth were abysmal, many of them were chipped or shattered due to aggressive clenching and gnawing on bone. Multiple lesions in the mouth reveal a recurring observation that the sharpened teeth of the infected don't fit right in the mouth and will often cut their cheeks. The manner in which the teeth end up in this state is still debated. (Personal Note: I believe there is magic involved in much of the disease's effects, with the transformation of the teeth being one such magic-affected change.)

Internal organs were in poor condition, showing signs typical of extreme malnutrition. There were also several tumors and cysts found throughout, once again not uncommon in Growler cadavers. However there were less within Cheerilee than in previous subjects. I'm noting this as being likely due to Cheerilee being the shortest-lived Type 1 in my care to date. Aside from the growths- Which were later tested and found to be a mix of benign and cancerous- I discovered something I hadn't noticed before, though I suspect that was a simple oversight on my part. The glands that create saliva were engorged, the pores from which saliva is discharged were wider than normal. This almost certainly explains the thick, excessive saliva that often drips from a Type 1's mouth.

Final Notes: Most findings were either typical, or slightly atypical of the Type 1 infected. Though some new things were discovered, overall the autopsy proved to be more useful in the fact that I obtained a significant number of samples that I can use. I'll be taking these to study and try to find anything the may lead me towards an understanding of the mutagenic properties of the infection. I may also compare the samples to early-stage infected, stage 1s, 2s, and recovered ponies. My goal is not just to understand the infected themselves, but how the disease got to where it is now- Perhaps develop some sort of vaccine, or a cure for those still in the first 1-2 weeks where they can be saved.

I will be adding this file to the autopsy logs for future reference.

#Twilight's Research Notes #not art #mlp infection au #the glow #Just FYI #the infection began officially 5 months ago #it grew out of control around two months ago #so Twilight has had time to research- but things aren't as easy as she'd hoped in the beginning.#partially because of the infection being so mutagenic #partially because she doesn't know what started the infection or who patient zero is

25 notes · View notes

honestlyboringperson · 1 year ago

Text

Name: Jong Seoyeon

Age: 13

Wish: “Make it so my imagination comes true!”

Power: Shapeshifting

Weapon: Spellbook

Likes: Chains, Rice

Dislikes: Neon

Element: Dark

Magia: Vantablack Slayer: Hands of Tartarus

Teammates: Zhang

Skill Level: Newbie

Witch/Doppel: Suleika

A chuunibyou with a penchant for reveries. She imagines herself as a reincarnated hero of darkness and often finds herself daydreaming of scenarios where she can fight against terrorists, monsters, and other similar entities. When she fights witches, she often goes on long monologues and one liners.

BACKSTORY

Jong grew up with her nose buried in fantasy novels and anime. She would immerse herself in imaginary situations and spent her time collecting faux weapons and cosplay. She would pretend to do imaginary fight scenes beneath old passage ways and alleyways. This lead her to be trapped into a witch barrier.

She met Kyubey in one of these barriers and she immediately wished to make her imagination come true. She was thrilled as she fought, having the time of her life. In her daily life, she fought against monsters and terrorists in her school, and even became a disciple of a veteran magical girl.

But soon, this life style became exhausting. She often found her soul gem to be overly tainted due to the amount of magic she has to use. Her life was on danger almost entirely and she didn’t have enough grief seeds to completely purify her soul gem.

This came to an end when some of her classmates were caught in the crossfire and died. Jong was horrified and she knew that her wish resulted in this. The guilt was too much for her to handle, knowing she was the reason for these deaths. She became a witch soon after that, right in front of her teacher magical girl.

Doppel Description

“Emerge from me, o demon of my heart!”

The doppel of delusions. It takes the form of darkness. The master of this emotion immerses herself in her imagination, looking away from reality. As such, this doppel covers the eyes of it’s master, so as such, she hasn’t gotten a good look at her own doppel. The doppel blankets everything in a vantablack darkness, flitting around, attempting to avoid any and all possible light sources as a single moon beam can half its power, making it not a doppel to fear. It has the ability to blind anything that looks upon it’s star like body and if they are unlucky enough, it can permanently blind them, entrapping it’s victims in the same darkness the doppel adores.

#madoka magica #magia record #pmmm #puella magi madoka magica #puella magi chronicles #madoka magica witch #pmmm witches #magia record oc #pmmm witch #madoka magika #madoka magica oc #puella magia madoka magica #mahou shojo madoka magica #mahou shoujo madoka magica #magia record doppel #puella magi magia record #pmmm magia record

47 notes · View notes

justinspoliticalcorner · 4 months ago

Text

Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic:

In April 2020, Vanessa Guillén, a 20-year-old Army private, was bludgeoned to death by a fellow soldier at Fort Hood, in Texas. The killer, aided by his girlfriend, burned Guillén’s body. Guillén’s remains were discovered two months later, buried in a riverbank near the base, after a massive search.

Guillén, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, grew up in Houston, and her murder sparked outrage across Texas and beyond. Fort Hood had become known as a particularly perilous assignment for female soldiers, and members of Congress took up the cause of reform. Shortly after her remains were discovered, President Donald Trump himself invited the Guillén family to the White House. With Guillén’s mother seated beside him, Trump spent 25 minutes with the family as television cameras recorded the scene. In the meeting, Trump maintained a dignified posture and expressed sympathy to Guillén’s mother. “I saw what happened to your daughter Vanessa, who was a spectacular person, and respected and loved by everybody, including in the military,” Trump said. Later in the conversation, he made a promise: “If I can help you out with the funeral, I’ll help—I’ll help you with that,” he said. “I’ll help you out. Financially, I’ll help you.”

Five months later, the secretary of the Army, Ryan McCarthy, announced the results of an investigation. McCarthy cited numerous “leadership failures” at Fort Hood and relieved or suspended several officers, including the base’s commanding general. In a press conference, McCarthy said that the murder “shocked our conscience” and “forced us to take a critical look at our systems, our policies, and ourselves.” According to a person close to Trump at the time, the president was agitated by McCarthy’s comments and raised questions about the severity of the punishments dispensed to senior officers and noncommissioned officers.

Trump became angry. “It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a fucking Mexican!” He turned to his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and issued an order: “Don’t pay it!” Later that day, he was still agitated. “Can you believe it?” he said, according to a witness. “Fucking people, trying to rip me off.” Khawam, the family attorney, told me she sent the bill to the White House, but no money was ever received by the family from Trump. Some of the costs, Khawam said, were covered by the Army (which offered, she said, to allow Guillén to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery) and some were covered by donations. Ultimately, Guillén was buried in Houston.

Pfeiffer told me that he did not write that statement, and emailed me a series of denials. Regarding Trump’s “fucking Mexican” comment, Pfeiffer wrote: “President Donald Trump never said that. This is an outrageous lie from The Atlantic two weeks before the election.” He provided statements from Patel and a spokesman for Meadows, who denied having heard Trump make the statement. Via Pfeiffer, Meadows’s spokesman also denied that Trump had ordered Meadows not to pay for the funeral. The statement from Patel that Pfeiffer sent me said: “As someone who was present in the room with President Trump, he strongly urged that Spc. Vanessa Guillen’s grieving family should not have to bear the cost of any funeral arrangements, even offering to personally pay himself in order to honor her life and sacrifice. In addition, President Trump was able to have the Department of Defense designate her death as occurring ‘in the line of duty,’ which gave her full military honors and provided her family access to benefits, services, and complete financial assistance.”

The personal qualities displayed by Trump in his reaction to the cost of the Guillén funeral—contempt, rage, parsimony, racism—hardly surprised his inner circle. Trump has frequently voiced his disdain for those who serve in the military and for their devotion to duty, honor, and sacrifice. Former generals who have worked for Trump say that the sole military virtue he prizes is obedience. As his presidency drew to a close, and in the years since, he has become more and more interested in the advantages of dictatorship, and the absolute control over the military that he believes it would deliver. “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had,” Trump said in a private conversation in the White House, according to two people who heard him say this. “People who were totally loyal to him, that follow orders.” (“This is absolutely false,” Pfeiffer wrote in an email. “President Trump never said this.”) A desire to force U.S. military leaders to be obedient to him and not the Constitution is one of the constant themes of Trump’s military-related discourse. Former officials have also cited other recurring themes: his denigration of military service, his ignorance of the provisions of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, his admiration for brutality and anti-democratic norms of behavior, and his contempt for wounded veterans and for soldiers who fell in battle.

[...] Trump has often expressed his esteem for the type of power wielded by such autocrats as the Chinese leader Xi Jinping; his admiration, even jealousy, of Vladimir Putin is well known. In recent days, he has signaled that, should he win reelection in November, he would like to govern in the manner of these dictators—he has said explicitly that he would like to be a dictator for a day on his first day back in the White House—and he has threatened to, among other things, unleash the military on “radical-left lunatics.” (One of his four former national security advisers, John Bolton, wrote in his memoir, “It is a close contest between Putin and Xi Jinping who would be happiest to see Trump back in office.”)

Trump’s disdain for American military officers is motivated in part by their willingness to accept low salaries. Once, after a White House briefing given by the then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, Trump said to aides, “That guy is smart. Why did he join the military?” (On another occasion, John Kelly asked Trump to guess Dunford’s annual salary. The president’s answer: $5 million. Dunford’s actual salary was less than $200,000.) Trump has often expressed his love for the trappings of martial power, demanding of his aides that they stage the sort of armor-heavy parades foreign to American tradition. Civilian aides and generals alike pushed back. In one instance, Air Force General Paul Selva, who was then serving as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the president that he had been partially raised in Portugal, which, he explained, “was a dictatorship—and parades were about showing the people who had the guns. In America, we don’t do that. It’s not who we are.”

The Atlantic released the story of Donald Trump musing about having the same kind of generals that Hitler had and complained about paying $60,000 for “a fucking Mexican”’s funeral (Vanessa Guillén).

This man is a sick monster devoid of any empathy.