If he could be more insensitive and heartless, he hasn’t found out how yet. We’re talking about the USS Lincoln and nine months at sea. Trump doesn’t care. His failed Iran War is failing our people. ETTD. Why in the hail we bother with a blockade is ridiculous. There are fewer than 10 ships that have gotten through the Strait of Hormuz per day at this point. And how long have *they* been at sea? Has anyone thought about them, too? We haven’t seen anything about the people on those carrier ships. But Trump isn’t worried about our people, so he couldn’t be thinking about the ships he bolluxed. What a bunch of hooey! With appreciation for CNN via Raw Story because their article is better:
Sailors suffering a mental health crisis aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln were told by President Donald Trump on Friday they hadn’t been stuck on board “nearly long enough.” Trump made the remark Friday when a reporter asked whether the deployment had gone on too long. Multiple sailors have attempted to jump overboard during the extended deployment as doctors on the ship warn they are on the brink of “losing their minds.“
We call bullsh!t. Sailors in mental distress. Considering what they do out there, it’s a major concern. One person might have been called an accident. But many personnel are mentally done. They are fried. There’s no end in sight, and the conditions on the ship are abysmal. It’s a real reason to worry. All they can see is water. There’s been no change in that. But Trump thinks they haven’t been out long enough.
Families of sailors have described moldy showers, broken toilets, weeks without laundry service, and a meal that came to two tortillas and a half-cup of rice. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed the reports of poor conditions and overboard attempts had been “completely misrepresented,” ABC News reported. “Some deployments are longer than others, and I have more respect and gratitude for those sailors than anybody,” Hegseth told Newsmax.
Well, now. We can all agree that Hegseth is full of it. We go by what the families say. His cruelty toward the people and the troubles on that ship are appalling. He won’t go out there and see what it’s really like, and well, he should! It’s frustrating to see nonsense like this. We need the people who know. We need some way to get supplies- the *basic* ones- that should have been done months ago. Other ships may also be running short. Now, no military experience here for your bird. It’s only peripheral knowledge from having a family member in the Marine Corps, and from our very own Denis. And there’s frustration and anger over why they haven’t been helped.
Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA) fired back directly at Hegseth’s dismissal of the families’ accounts. “These men and women signed up to serve their country. The least their country owes them is hot water, a working toilet, and a real meal. Hegseth cannot even manage that, and he has the nerve to look their families in the eye and call them liars,” Levin said, according to the Guardian. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to Hegseth and acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao demanding answers about the deployment, ABC News reported. The USS George Washington left port in Da Nang, Vietnam, last week and is heading toward the Middle East to relieve the Lincoln, the Associated Press reported.
Okay, the USS George Washington is on the way. How long will it take to get there? Because even with the “going home” to think of, there’s still going to be a ton of stress. It may not get any better until they’re in port. There’s going to be a lot more maintenance and repair to be done because the Lincoln was out far beyond what used to be normal. How many of the people on that ship are going to leave when their time is up? Retention is going to be pitiful, but can you blame them? They’ve been let down by the leader of their country and the head of the DoD.
I saw something on Uncharted Blue, that a 20 year Navy vet said this is the worst cruise he’s ever been on. This is what the current maladministration has brought us down to.
Keep in mind Trump, like his entire family going back generations on both sides never served. Not one day. Hell, he’s here because his grandfather (his father’s father) Frederick Drumpf was a fucking draft dodger and fled the old country to avoid mandatory military service. At one point grandad tried to return home and (tragically for the world) was told by the Prince to get the fuck out or be thrown in prison. So he left and came back here. And stayed and established the Trump (Frederick ‘Americanized’ his last name) family, Which begat Donald.
No one on his mom’s side ever served a single day either here or their home country going back generations either.
Who the FUCK is Trump to be so dismissive? Of course he says those of us who have served are suckers and losers. And to be honest in a country that was willing to let him into the WH the first time (that the GOP didn’t torpedo his candicacy in the 2016 primaries is appalling) I’ve often felt like my service didn’t count for a goddam thing. That hurts, but what has brought me to tears many a time is thinking of my dad and the wounds he suffered in the skies over Europe on a bombing mission. he was lucky to survive and it took many surgeries before he was restored to physical health. But his torso was covered with scars both front and back from the wounds and the surgeries. He went to extraordinary lengths to keep them hidden, even keeping his t-shirt on while taking a bath!
I think of him and others, and all the graves in Arlington which I ran past so many times and can’t help but feel our country is no longer worth of all that sacrifice. What sustains me now is a desire to do what I can so that one day we might again be worthy. Because with half the country having voted for Trump a second time after all the shit he pulled the United States sure as hell is NOT worthy of the service that has been rendered, or that which is currently being rendered.
I hope Stars and Stripes and the Military Times (and its sister publications that are service specific) make a BFD about what Trump said. AND when the Lincoln and other ships get home do some serious reporting on what those who have endured the extended deployments have had to go through. Troops read these publications and at some point it will sink in that not just Trump but the GOP doesn’t give a fuck about them. And never has.
Denis, just one little error in your comment. Where you wrote “with half the country having voted for Drumpf a second time. . . ,” that really should’ve been “a third time.” Half this country was out of their minds enough to vote for that lunatic THREE times.
Trump’s mind and the real world parted company years ago. Now, thanks to his rapidly progressing dementia, all the filters are down. Everything he says proceeds straight from his id to his mouth, and Trump’s id is a scary place no sane person would want to visit. When are the mainstream media going to start using the word that most precisely reflects his current mental state: INSANITY?
I wish someone could put him on one of those ships. Like a regular person with no aides or syncophants.