A Dirty Little Secret

"Something is wanting, and something must be done, or we shall be involved in all the horror of failure, and civil war without a prospect of its termination."

-Henry Knox

This morning as I sat down on the veranda to read the paper and enjoy the cool 60 degree air, Peg left me a voicemail warning that two squad cars had pulled up next door at the once grand Italianate flophouse. Out of curiosity I padded down the sidewalk in my slippers, only to find them gone.

It did give me a chance to snap a shot of Tara in the first morning light, looking as glorious as ever.

Not long now, old girl. Not long at all. I'm told movers will arrive in about a week. Peg's directed that I find something in the basement freezers to smoke and serve each night over the next week, to avoid dragging it up the hill to the condo. By July I reckon we'll be living up there, and this place that's been so dear to us for the last four years will sit awaiting her new owner in August. It's been a great run, but things end.

In other news, our military is being readied to invade five predominantly Democrat-run cities on the same day we're having a Soviet style military parade down Pennsylvania Avenue. Dear Leader promises to crush anyone who stands up and does anything to voice protest as to either. A Predator drone has been seen flying over downtown Los Angeles.

And if you're waiting breathlessly for a show of courage by our military leadership, such as it is, by refusing to be complicit in treason, don't be too disappointed when no one lifts a finger to stop all this.

There are a couple reasons for being pessimistic about the military refusing to assault or kill its own citizens. First, this truly is murky stuff if you're an officer who takes his oath seriously. You've sworn to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic (we used to substitute "real or imagined" among the wags in my old squadron, which seems less funny now). Surely all this is unconstitutional, but is that mine to say if I'm a captain leading Marines into downtown L.A.?

The guidance given to young officers is that they are to obey all lawful commands unless the order is unethical. But an order passed down from the commander-in-chief through the appropriate chain-of-command is, almost by definition, lawful. As for the ethics of the thing, you must keep in mind the job of the military is, at some level, unethical--soldiers exist to kill people and break things, as my combat veteran grandfather used to say. The mandate to only follow ethical orders is an attempt to put guardrails on that awful power, but an officer isn't allowed to follow his own ethical compass in deciding whether an order to, say, firebomb Dresden, should be defied based on a utilitarian or deontological imperative. Simply put, the rubric for determining what orders to follow is complex, and weighs in favor of doing what one is told.

But there's a bigger issue here. Authoritarians and wannabe fascists are disproportionately represented in the armed services. Among my veteran friends, I'd guess at least three-quarters are fully MAGA, which has effectively driven away folks like me when they try to gather up at one of the reunions that were an annual part of our lives before Trump. I reckon we're not particularly missed. And drive around any military town, Fayetteville or Columbus, GA or Panama City, and take in the political vibe. It's overwhelmingly to the right, even though the population of those in uniform is largely black and brown. It's wonderful how misogyny and hatred of the Other can bring folks together, isn't it?

The most grotesque manifestation of all this came a few days ago when Cadet Bonespurs visited Fort Bragg, recently re-renamed to honor a very bad general who committed treason in defense of slavery.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/06/11/bragg-soldiers-who-cheered-trumps-political-attacks-while-uniform-were-checked-allegiance-appearance.html

They cheered and laughed as he mocked the Governor of California and Mayor of Los Angeles. He called peaceful protestors "insurrectionists", a shocking bit of irony. A company set up shop outside the event selling MAGA schlock to the rubes, including a mock credit card labeled "White Privilege Card: Trumps Everything".

This is all flagrantly illegal, a direct violation of the law preventing folks in uniform from participating in political events. And yet it just happened, and Our Boys (the crowd was almost 100% male) seemed to relish in it, with nary a voice among the senior leadership of the Army speaking up in protest.

Another taboo broken, another sign of the end. Today's takeaway is that when he deploys the military to crush the Blue States as some sort of anti-Lincoln determined to force-feed us racism and Christian nationalism, the fellows behind the triggers are likely going to participate without reservation, and maybe with gusto. Haven't you always wanted to shoot a libtard? At least it's a fair bet he or she won't have an AR-15 behind the door, so the danger's minimal.

Sick. Sick. Sick. We need to leave the country. You can see what's coming.