Meetings like these were speculated upon back when Donald Trump first took office. It was known then that he was unstable and a fool and many journalists and pundits speculated that key staffers and the military had taken it upon themselves to override any order that he might issue with respect to nuclear war. Now a new book, Peril, by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa reveals that these measures were taken, just after January 6. CNN:
Woodward and Costa write that Milley, deeply shaken by the assault, ‘was certain that Trump had gone into a serious mental decline in the aftermath of the election, with Trump now all but manic, screaming at officials and constructing his own alternate reality about endless election conspiracies.’–Milley worried that Trump could ‘go rogue,’ the authors write.“You never know what a president’s trigger point is,” Milley told his senior staff, according to the book.In response, Milley took extraordinary action, and called a secret meeting in his Pentagon office on January 8 to review the process for military action, including launching nuclear weapons. Speaking to senior military officials in charge of the National Military Command Center, the Pentagon’s war room, Milley instructed them not to take orders from anyone unless he was involved.
“No matter what you are told, you do the procedure. You do the process. And I’m part of that procedure,” Milley told the officers, according to the book. He then went around the room, looked each officer in the eye, and asked them to verbally confirm they understood.
Two thoughts come to mind: Milley was already at the top of the right-wing shit list and this is going to bring more hellfire down on the man’s head. Not that that will bother him. He’s got stamina and mettle on a level that his detractors not only don’t possess, they don’t even know it exists they’re such intellectual and moral lightweights. And the second is that Trump himself will go screaming bonkers over this. Nothing pushes his buttons more than when somebody identifies him as the reckless, feckless child that he is.
Milley’s fear was based on his own observations of Trump’s erratic behavior. His concern was magnified by the events of January 6 and the ‘extraordinary risk’ the situation posed to US national security, the authors write. Milley had already had two back-channel phone calls with China’s top general, who was on high alert over the chaos in the US.
Then Milley received a blunt phone call from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to the book. Woodward and Costa exclusively obtained a transcript of the call, during which Milley tried to reassure Pelosi that the nuclear weapons were safe.–Pelosi pushed back.–“What I’m saying to you is that if they couldn’t even stop him from an assault on the Capitol, who even knows what else he may do? And is there anybody in charge at the White House who was doing anything but kissing his fat butt all over this?”Pelosi continued, “You know he’s crazy. He’s been crazy for a long time.”–According to Woodward and Costa, Milley responded, “Madam Speaker, I agree with you on everything.”
I well remember this episode being reported in the press and it was a horrifying thing that the country was essentially being held hostage by a lunatic, who happened to occupy its highest office. The only thing more horrifying than that, was that the GOP was co-signing on Trump’s insane behavior then and he’s still their standard bearer now.
Look at all the bizarre episodes we’re seeing: Brian Mast went off on Anthony Blinken on he floor of the House yesterday. Today Indiana Senator James Risch asked Blinken an insane question about “who cuts off the president’s speaking ability and sound?” This is part of the conspiracy theory that Joe Biden is a puppet — literally — being manipulated by Deep State forces.
Sen. Jim Risch presses Secretary of State Blinken about who in the White House has authority to "press the button" and cut off President Biden's mic.
"There is no such person. Again, the president speaks for himself." pic.twitter.com/q5EdBQ6nEO
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 14, 2021
This is completely insane, but this is today’s Republican party. The party of personal responsibility has become the party of conspiracy theory.
And it stands to reason. Trump is still in charge of the party. He’s the presumptive nominee in 2024. He is still crazy. Ergo, when you’ve got a crazy leader, you fall in line behind him and act crazy yourself.
A political party, or any human enterprise, sitting on such a flimsy foundation as the GOP at present cannot long endure. We’re going to see either the unraveling of Trump or the demise of the GOP as it descends into fascism. And what will replace the GOP, I have no idea. Sane Republicans are trying to bail water and make repairs but whether they will succeed or to what extent nobody knows.
The Rs keep showing that they believe (at least in public) that the former guy is wonderful, and thus that they aren’t qualified to hold office, by reason of insanity.
I’m sure the RWNJ outrage will crescendo into a deafening roar by prime time with demands for Milley’s execution. However, if you pay close attention to Milley’s statements at the meeting in question he didn’t say anything improper or illegal. He ordered them to follow proper procedure for nuclear weapons to the letter, and that he was part of the loop.
OMFG! Our nations top military officer ORDERED his subordinates to follow standing orders, to not try and circumvent them!
Not even for a crazed orange man-baby who governed by tweet.
There is a scandal here alright. Just not the one Trump and the MAGAts (a good name for the worst, suckiest band ever!) will be screaming like scalded babies about. The scandal is that prior to and during the transition Trump had been improperly (and in some cases perhaps even illegally) shuffling the deck at the Pentagon to get people loyal not to the Constitution but to him and ONLY him into certain positions. It is as terrifying as you can imagine to think about him having gotten some people into positions to have actually tried to carry out a nuclear strike order in contravention of nuclear release protocols.
That is the scandal. Exposing this and the rot Trump created at the Pentagon would (and should) be part of any complete inquiry into investigation of January 6 which is why the GOP leadership has gone bat-shit crazy trying to stop it. Not that nuking some country would have happened that day, but a full examination of the breakdown within the DOD would reveal how widespread Trump’s improper influence was, including establishing the ability to go around the Chain of Command for use of nukes. Which would create a whole different inquiry!
In the meantime however we are going to be treated with days, weeks and perhaps even months of steady manufactured outrage from conservatives about a JCS Chair insisting that the Chain of Command and standing orders, including for something as serious as using nukes be followed. (Cue Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now whispering “The Horror…”)
Not just DOD – he also was trying to do that at DOJ, and it only failed because some people refused to go along.
Trump’s widely known
, “claim of the infinite power used and promoted by Hitler”, has shown in no uncertain terms, Trump’s reading, which has to be very limited indeed, the master plan book by Hitler, something about the 3rd something or other, Trump never retains anything real … was probably read far enough to know why and how everyone within earshot of Hitler had to use that bizarre solute to Hitler as a god on earth … Hitler DID have ultimate control and power to order troops into virtually any nasty operation … a problem that consumed a few high officers to the point of trying to eliminate Hitler in a bomb blast that went wrong …
This pre-emptive move by this powerful General of ours is the best news we’ve heard lately, and no longer a fantasy of many people who actually care about our country and its citizens …
Trump was saying publicly that different people were, “with him’, or out and he would destroy their jobs or offices …
Hitler was a mega man spending massive amounts of money and slave labor to build huge underground bunkers and V2 assembly factories, these were the devil’s tools to rule the world killing thousands along the way with rockets built in these huge manmade caverns to deliver atomic weapons great distances … he was killed just short of full final designs and there are high level radioactive pockets found where his experiments were being done …
Nobody stopped him before he became a mentally unstable person like trump, only interested in his own praise and power …
I keep a picture of Pelosi standing across from Trump with Milley sitting to trump’s right. She is dressing down the gimp with her finger pointing right at him. I can’t decide if Milley, with his head bowed, is praying or crapping his pants. Guess he was doing both. Read the Bible & studied with scholars. No rule about praying while taking an unscheduled pit stop. Hey, if Jesus didn’t take a steamy, holy, crap now & again, then we got nothing to talk about. The spirit made flesh. I’m all too familiar, at age 68, with the flesh part. I’m trying to keep my little flame of spirit alive in a nonstop shitstorm. My guess is the rest of you are in a similar process.