No, man, the dude will not abide The Dude The Big Lebowski
This shit is personal. My father was a veteran. He served in the United States Army, in the signal corps, believe it or not in the White House Signals Office, he traveled all over the world with President Eisenhower. He was my hero. He is buried in Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery just outside of Joliet, Illinois, just above my mother. I still occasionally take the casket drape flag out of the cherry case, sit on the bed, and cry, He was and is my hero.
Growing up in Cicero, Illinois in the height of the Vietnam war, a regular feature of walking back and forth to school every day was the service banners in the windows of the bungalows on the streets. The number of blue stars in the white field told you how many sons the family within that house had wearing the cloth of this country. A gold star in that field of white was the greatest sign of respect, it indicated a family who had paid the ultimate sacrifice of losing a son in the service of the country. Those houses were respected throughout the neighborhood.
Just as a human being, Donald Trump is a disgrace to the species. But as a President, and Commander in Chief, he is nothing short of an obscenity. It’s one thing to be a brazen chickenshit, and to use a podiatrist renting a space from your father to say that you have bone spurs, not everybody has the guts to serve. But to dare to refer to fallen heroes on far flung battlefields as losers, and suckers, and to do so in the presence of a retired Marine General who lost his son in battle seven years earlier, is a travesty. And the campaign has to know it.
We have all been waiting for the last 3 1/2 years for that Rubicon moment, when the GOP, especially the vulnerable GOP Senators would finally have to either fish or cut bait. And that moment is finally here.
The GOP has spent the last half a century meticulously laying themselves out to active duty military personnel as well as veterans as the party that had their back. Going all the way back to Vietnam, when the Democrats wanted to end the war, bring the troops home, and cut military spending, the GOP has portrayed the Democrats as a bunch of peaceniks that would leave the military hanging in the wind. And the GOP has been winning both the veterans, as well as the active military service member vote ever since.
But no more. Even before the Atlantic magazine story broke, a recent survey from The Military Times and Syracuse University showed that Trump had 49% of the military that had a negative view of him as Commander in Chief, and trailed Biden in the vote 41-27. And one can only imagine what those numbers will be in the next round of polling. Trump’s cavalier dismissal of the newly widowed wife of Sargent LaDavid Johnson, as well as his disrespect for the gold star Jhan family,have soured the minds of military and veteran families against Trump.
This situation is the literal ground zero for vulnerable GOP incumbents. Thom Tillis is in a life and death struggle in North Carolina, as is Leningrad Lindsey Graham in South Carolina, both states ripe with military bases. Colorado is the home to the United States Air Force Academy, and Texas is chock-a-block full of military installations and bases. And now, all of these vulnerable Senators have to decide for themselves how to response to this latest report, and whether to finally break with Trump and condemn him, or stick with him and face the consequences. It’s their choice.
You know, just as a human being, Donald Trump is a pig wandering around on two cloven hooves. I have bridled my tongue to make this article worthy of publication, and you have no idea what it has cost me personally. But in Trump’s callous disregard of fallen US heroes as losers, and suckers, because they chose to sacrifice themselves for a greater good, something that Trump himself has never even considered, he has shown himself to be the traitor to everything that American holds dear. And by ordering that American heroes disfigured of suffering the loss of amputations be excluded from parades because Nobody wants to see that, Trump has shown his true soul to the world. On behalf of United States Army Staff Sargeant James H. Murphy, Rot in hell, motherfucker!
In the military where you vote is determined by your home of record. Initially I think most people declare where ever they were when they joined as their home of record. Then after a while they may chose a state such as FL which has no state income taxes, because this home of record determines your SITW. This HOR also determines where the military will ship/move you when you get out or retire. A lot of moving parts. I would bet there are more service people on NC bases voting in FL than in NC. Very complicated.
We have lots of retired vets here in San Antonio. I suspect they are not liking what they heard.
Oh, I have calmed down since first hearing of this latest outrage. However, I had tears of anger in my eyes for about an hour. Or was it tears of sadness? Both. I hope this ruins the Republican party. It may. They will cry fake news and such but he is already lying about what he said about McCain. And we all know what he said about that.
Even Trump’s people know how bad this is, hence the insincere little tweet thread tonight that was NOT written by him. I look for it to snowball all through Labor Day Weekend…nice timing on the story’s release, isn’t it?
These sorts of timing coincidences keep happening. I wish I had kept a running list. I wonder if Murf did, or if a list could be produced by going through his old articles.
And there’s video of what he said about McCain!
My late grandfather, WWII vet with Patton in North Africa and Sicily, would sign onto that last sentiment, Murf.
Also on behalf of Edmond Kurek Jr.
Who took 3 hanging out of a helicopter and made it home.
Lakeview was the same then.
My own rant on this is up over on the community side. It was all I could do not to fill it with the kind of jarhead grunt profanity I had flowing through my mind yesterday evening after learning about Goldberg’s original piece in the Atlantic. It’s not like we didn’t already know Trump had no respect or regard for military service. But the details of just what he’s said at times is I’m sure making a lot of people besides me feel like their blood is boiling. More importantly if it doesn’t get that strong a reaction from some, it will at least make anyone who doesn’t make drinking a gallon of the Trump Kook Aid (take your pick of colors – Ugly Orange or Golden Shower Gold) every day truly question whether they should vote for him. Again. The fact that so many troops and veterans will still vote for him despite this fills me with despair. But the annual Military Times Survey shows a TREND that as you correctly note is terrifying for the GOP and especially vulnerable GOP incumbents. It might even make some who weren’t vulnerable, especially if as in my case they have a veteran (and Cunningham has seen combat) running against someone who never served at all.
I’ve written before about the scars covering his torso that my dad bore from his service in WWII – that he worked so hard to keep hidden. I think of people I knew growing up who served, the first person from my hometown to die in Vietnam (at Da Nang in 1965) who was the older brother of a classmate and a member of our church – so many people I’d come to know or at least meet over the years. People who served. Sacrificed. Suffered wounds both physical and psychological. And even died.
As you say the GOP has for decades talked the talk, but when it comes to walking the walk of having the troop’s backs it has been bullshit by the train load. As so often what they’ve REALLY meant is having the backs of their pals the defense contractors – at least those in the executive suites that so willingly paid a TAX in the form of big campaign checks!
But I keep coming back to John Kelly, who I wrote quite the rant about after the November 10, 2018 incident of Trump blowing off the visit to Aisne Marne American Cemetery where the dead Marines of the Battle of Belleau Wood (right next to the cemetery) are buried. It’s an iconic battle in our military history but in the Corps its literally revered. I suggested without proof that Trump didn’t want to go because he was afraid the light rain/drizzle might mess up his fucking hair. Turns out I was right. Not that he saw any point in going in the first place. Again, back then I just figured he didn’t feel like going as part of his itinerary in the first place. He just wanted to take part in the grand spectacle part of the international celebration of the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI. A trip to some place out in the countryside? I’m sure he bitched and moaned about it long before that day. Anything that resembles green spaces and rolling hills that doesn’t happen to be one of his own golf courses is somethin he doesn’t see any reason to go to!
But this. This battle turned the tide of that war, stopping the German advance on Paris which they had made to take that city and force an end on their terms before our forces were fully in place to bolster the Allies and the Fifth and Sixth Marine Regiments (who still carry the honor of wearing the French Foraguerre on their dress uniform’s shoulder) were the key. Belleau Wood, and that cemetery are as hallowed ground as any on the face of this earth to Marines.
And retired Marine Genera John Kelly, who was right there when Trump made it clear that he wasn’t going to honor his committment to speak at the ceremony at Aisne Marne, on November 10, the fucking MARINE CORPS’ BIRTHDAY (you have to be a jarhead to realize just what that means and how big the insult to the Corps that day truly was!) not knock Trump on his ass right then and there, resign and walk out to the media and tell them why was stunning to me. Then. Now? I found it hard to breathe at time last night, and even while writing this.
Worse, we now know that Trump literally demeaned the sacrifice of Kelly’s own son, himself a Marine officer who died in combat. At the son’s gravesite in Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day! Jesus fucking christ Kelly! Just what the fuck does it take for you to stand up and scream at a volume that would make a Drill Instructor’s yelling seem like a whisper FUCK YOU, YOU UNFIT ASSHOLE! to Trump before beating him within an inch of his miserable life! If not for the Marine Corps then YOUR OWN SON!
I also wonder what Kelly’s wife and family think of his silence. He was after all given a chance to comment for Goldberg’s story – and declined!
Again, as you say we didn’t learn anything in general that we didn’t already know in that Trump doesn’t give a shit about the troops. However, the level of his disdain, and outright contempt for those who have served, even been wounded and even DIED has actual detail. Appalling, disgusting and sickening detail.
His middle name is John. As in the slang term for a toilet/bathroom. I say the Army should rename “facilities” at Arlington National Cemetery Trump Latrine. And the porcelen parts should have his ugly face in/on them.
Thank you for this Denis. Your outrage reflects how all of us feel.
Instead of getting calmer I’m only getting angrier. I took quite a bit of time to calm myself down for my call to Tillis’ office – I didn’t want to bust out cussing in the hopes the message would be listened to all the way through.
Gosh I believe u are flirting with living in a fool’s paradise. They don’t give a rats arse what we say, but keep up the good work of pressuring them.
I agree, Murph, this is hopefully the rubicon for Himself. I thought it would have been when he disparaged McClain or when he disparaged the Khan family. I really have no words, beyond what you have said.
My father served in the Navy in WWII as a Chief Petty Officer. I have a display box with a photo of him in uniform and a photo of one of the ships he served on. Also his uniform arm patches and his dog tags. I had him narrate to me all the places he was at and what he did. I will always be very proud of him.
For Trump to say this about veterans is the lowest of low. This man cannot be president another four years.
Call & hassle these hypocrites. Tillis & Burr’s office got so upset about my “feedback” they had the capital police call me. I confronted them WITH THE TRUTH & they never bothered me. I called the local & national office of the FBI to report the violation of the Hatch act & Frump coming to NC to encourage people to commit felonies by voting twice. In each case they hung up on me. SNOWFLAKES! I’m a vet, as was my dad. My uncle was wounded in Vietnam as one of the original Green Berets 3x & then trained special forces. I had 5 uncles scattered in the Pacific & Europe in WW2. AS I pointed out, u republicans will be in the crosshairs as u continue to support this nazi. As will u NAZI LOVIN trump voters PHUK U!!!! PUNKS.
Trump is a vicious, small, despicable creature, who essentially knows nothing of American culture. That’s a fact. He knows pop culture, and what it is to be hip, slick and cool. He aspires to that. But real American culture, who we are, what our struggles have been, the sacrifices of those who sought to preserve our way of life — he knows as much about that as the coffee table does. You might as well go talk to it. He is simply an incredibly stupid and shallow person. No wonder Putin loves him. Trump has enabled Putin to make strides in this country, that without Trump, would have taken Putin decades, if ever, to achieve.
I have a great-uncle buried in Arlington, and he not only was a war hero, but after the war he became a Shriner and worked to get disabled children medical attention. There are men and women in this world who contribute, who seek to make the world better and do what’s right. Trump only knows about taking. Vicious, small, despicable. A rat in the Oval Office would be a moral improvement.
I shall always see Putin as another vain old man chasing a fantasia of a 1980s that never was and never will be again. The only difference between him and Trump is he hasn’t had a stroke yet. As to the rest, hell to the yeah.
I respectfully disagree. Trump has nothing inside of him except vanity. Putin is a former KGB agent who hates us & blames us for the fall of the house of cards known as the Soviet union. There’s nothing on earth he would love more than to see the strongest & longest democratic republic under his thumb & to have his agent pissing on every value America, in her nobler history , has ever fought for. HE HATES US. He must be giddy as hell the last 4yrs. Trump is an empty barrel as the slimy rat Kelly lied & called the black congresswoman from florida. Trump doesn’t really care about anything but money.
Thank you for this. As a veteran from a family of veterans, I see this idiot in charge as nothing more than a scab on the ass of the world. And you know that if necessary, when the would is healed and the scab refuses to fall off, we just pick it off and flush it. Let’s work hard to flush this scab come November 3rd, and the mini scabs that have held him in place for too long.
You go, Murph! Don’t you live in Las Vegas? I can’t imagine the good patriots at Nellis AFB are too thrilled with tRump right now. My parents lived in Vegas for 35 years after my dad retired from the Air Force. I’ve been to Nellis with him countless times and their honor guard and chaplain participated in my dad’s funeral.
My father served in the US Army and was in Germany during WWII. He was doing dangerous liaison, usually entering a city just as the German army moved out. He brought home a Bronze Star, which my brother has. He is my hero. I adored him. I have a photo of him in uniform taken just after he returned. With it is a photo of the Bronze Star.
Joe, how could you insult pigs by comparing Trump to them. What did pigs ever do to you? Pigs don’t deserve that comparison. He is MUCH WORSE than anything a pig could have ever done. Much!
Pigs are smarter. The only thing they have in common with orangebob shitpants is he shits where he eats.
The reporter whom Rachel Maddow had on her show corroborating the “losers and suckers” incident was Jim LaPorta of the Associated Press.
As for a Rubicon moment, ‘grabbin’ ’em by the pussy’ should have been it. His campaign should have ended in that moment. Anyone with an ounce of decency saw this, this (there are no words obscene enough for this creature) thing for what he was. Filth, plain and simple. We need to take out the trash on Nov. 3. ALL the trash, him, the trash that has enabled him, the trash that has allowed him to continue, the trash that has joined with him to further denigrate and devastate our country, our people, our lands. He deserves prison time, serious prison, not Club Fed, the real thing.
Maybes are only for the loser. Right now, that’s Trump.
*This post will contain a graphic description of a wartime injury.*
My brother-in-law served five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and then in 2008 his caravan was bombed and he was grievously injured. His survival story is somewhat miraculous…he was stabilized and then medi-vac’d to Germany. I don’t remember how long he was there, but it doesn’t seem like it was more than a couple of weeks before he was transported stateside.
My sister decided to go temporarily live near Johns Hopkins. She had a six month and four year old at the time, and because I was making career changes I was able to go spend a couple of months helping my parents take care of the kids. But I was able to fly up and see Mike once during his recovery. He had lost both legs, but his entire abdomen had been peppered with shrapnel, so it had to be left open for weeks while that was slowly removed. He survived, thanks to modern medicine, but it took almost two years in the hospital and the longterm physical and emotional damage is just horrible.
So to hear this report and all of Trump’s comments, I suppose I should feel some strong negative emotion. But I find that I just…can’t. It’s not surprising. It’s not novel. It’s who he is, and who we’ve known him to be for years…those of us who pay attention. I can’t like him less, because I was already at maximum disdain. I can’t be offended any further than I already was, because I already saw him as totally vile and without any potential for redemption.
That’s not to say I’m feeling apathy over this…it’s an absolute wrong, and it disgusts me. I’m just too tired of this complete waste of a human soul to be angry any more. I’m numb to his moral turpitude. But feeling that way offers a certain clarity. I don’t hate Trump, and I don’t want revenge because he’s done things that I dislike.
Instead, what I want is justice and vengeance. I want him to lose. I want him be destroyed definitively. I want the GOP to suffer for their complicity. And then I was the full force of the U.S. government to descend on Trump and his family and cronies. I want every crime prosecuted. I want everything he’s ever had or ever worked for to be taken from him. And for anyone who committed provable criminal activities, I want them to go to jail.
I’m a pacifist and generally get along with everybody. I don’t funnel a lot of anger into my political views. But for the good of the nation, I think 2021 has to be about some good, old fashioned righteous vengeance.