I loathe this fucker:
President Trump intervened in three military justice cases involving war-crimes accusations Friday, issuing at least two full pardons that will prevent the Pentagon from pursuing future charges against the individuals involved, according to two of their lawyers and a U.S. official.
The service members involved were notified by Trump over the phone late Friday afternoon, said the lawyers, who represent Army Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn and former Special Warfare Operator Chief Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL. Golsteyn faced a murder trial scheduled for next year, while Gallagher recently was acquitted of murder and convicted of posing with the corpse of an Islamic State fighter in Iraq.
The third service member involved, former 1st Lt. Clint Lorance, was expected to be released from the U.S. Military Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas as soon as Friday night. He was convicted of second-degree murder in 2013, and sentenced to 19 years in prison for ordering his soldiers to open fire on three men in Afghanistan.
It was not immediately clear whether Lorance will receive a full pardon or have his sentence shortened through commutation.
He’s not going to be happy until he destroys every single institution in this country. It goes without saying the Pentagon and military leaders opposed this.
LanceThruster
He’s recruiting for his Praetorian Guard. He’s gonna need it.
Adam L Silverman
Chief Gallagher is now running Naval Special Warfare despite what the commanding admiral thinks.
grammypat
An attempt at distraction and diversion. He cares not a whit for the service members. But, we’re on to his histrionics.
Leto
Not surprised, but the hate I have for him is just unparalleled. I hope they have 24/7 surveillance on his grave for eternity because I swear I’m going to shit right on it. I’ll gladly do the jail time
@Adam L Silverman: Yeah, the precedent this sets is so destructive/toxic. Basically reverses Truman’s castration of MacArthur. Can’t wait for the armchair generals to talk about how Trumpov is the CiC and is the boss of everybody! /smfh
Raven
Perceptions in the military differ though and the disconnect with the President’s thinking about troops was on clear display after Trump tweeted on October 12 that “the case of Major Mathew Golsteyn is now under review at the White House. Mathew is a highly decorated Green Beret who is being tried for killing a Taliban bombmaker. We train our boys to be killing machines, then prosecute them when they kill!”
Adam L Silverman
@Leto: The Joint Chiefs are going to have to work with Congress once he’s gone to revise the UCMJ and chain of command guidelines to formally prevent this form of undue command influence going forward. If they don’t it is only going to get worse.
Amir Khalid
Trump obviously thinks killing Muslims for no reason and desecrating their bodies are not wrong and certainly shouldn’t be treated as crimes. He had, as I recall, a similar rationale for pardoning Joe Arpaio before Arpaio could even be sentenced.
J R in WV
I doubt Trump is doing this despicable work just for shits and giggles. He’s probably trying to build loyalty among the troops, who almost certainly view him as a chickenshit wannabe. But of course, I wasn’t aligned with most EMs in the service back when I was in the service, being anti-war and hating Nixon as I did.
And fuck Lyndon Baines Johnson, also too. In fact regarding all the Republican traitors, fuck ’em all~!!!~ to quote the late great…
Frankensteinbeck
@Amir Khalid:
This. Don’t look for some kind of strategy, folks. Pardons are for making it clear that white supremacy is not a crime under the Trump administration.
LAO
@Amir Khalid: Absolutely spot on.
Additionally, I think it’s a craven and disgusting attempt to appeal to the worst supporters.
Mary G
Elise Stefanik didn’t do herself any favors today:
Cobb’s Twitter followers are up to 68,800 from somewhere below 23,000 before the hearing.
PersistentIllusion
@grammypat: He’s not doing any of this, he’s PUPPeT. in a question able to be answered, who is the puppeteer? Besides Putin.
Bill Arnold
Late in life, my father told me about a war crimes incident in Germany involving someone in his unit, who’s name he gave unredacted (HW were the initials[0]) He was still extremely annoyed 50 years later, since his 94th division acquired the German nickname “Roosevelt’s Butchers” (I don’t know the German for this) for killing prisoners (there might have been a few such incidents), and thereafter Germans were less likely to surrender and more likely to continue fighting, thus endangering the soldiers in his division for the remainder of the war.
[0] The guy, who had been in the CCC, once pointed a loaded pistol at my father to force him to fold in a poker game. That kind of guy.
SiubhanDuinne
@Leto:
I’ll see you there, because I’ll be locked up for the same offence.
(P.S. My first physical therapy went fine. I hardly screamed at all.)
smedley the uncertain
Test
ryryryryryryryryryryryryryryr
NNNN
mrmoshpotato
@Leto: How’re you gonna shit on his burial at sea next to bin Laden?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Amir Khalid: Yes, but it’s Trump, the reason can be summed up with “Trump is a dumpshit”; the Generals were saying Trump’s idea of war are from movies.
Amir Khalid
@Bill Arnold:
There are several words for butcher: Metzger, Fleischer, Fleischhacker, Schachter, and so on. Does any of them ring a bell?
Adam L Silverman
@LAO: This is a play for aging and old white veterans who watch Fox News and listen to talk radio non-stop.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: Someone needs to explain to Stefanik that she should really stop talking in public until she can find a way to present herself in a way that doesn’t come across as “crazy ex-girlfriend”?
I’ve got the market cornered on dating women that initially presented as wonderful and turned out to be bonkers, and usually not good bonkers. And now that I’m 49 I’ve got a lot of experience to draw on to avoid making this mistake anymore. But she scares me. And I’m 5’11, 272, teach aikido, and am built like the guys who do strongmen competitions.
The crazy comes off that women in waves. Through the TV!
LAO
@Adam L Silverman: ah, the fine folks who threaten to shot fellow veterans that dare to protest Trump. Got it
chris
@Mary G: Stafanik’s twitter is about what you’d expect. Except for all the people telling her about donating to her opponent.
Ilieitz
@Leto: Trump will be dumped into the sea like like Bin Laden so no one can shit on him
Adam L Silverman
@LAO: Yep. The ideological descendants of the WW II vets who crapped all over the returning Vietnam Vets because they weren’t winning.
Matt McIrvin
The blowback for this shit is going to happen under the next Democratic President and then it’ll be the reason to vote the Republicans back in. Or else it’ll happen under the next Republican President and then it’ll be the reason to reelect Republicans forever. Republicans really have no political reason to do anything other than provoke people to come and kill us, because when we get killed they win.
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
All kinds of things are going to need to be revised/repaired once this country has rid itself of this troublesome monster.
Ilieitz
@Leto:
Trump will be dumped into the ocean like Bin Laden
debbie
@LAO:
And when has he done anything other than that?
Mnemosyne
@Leto:
Just be sure to wear a kilt that day so you don’t get charged with indecent exposure, too. ?
debbie
@SiubhanDuinne:
Hey, glad to see you’re on the good side of the surgery and hope your recovery’s a quick one. Stick to that PT!
TaMara (HFG)
Been away all day, but thought I’d try to embed a tweet.
This seems…important:
Adam L Silverman
@debbie: Provided we can thread the Electoral College needle and remove him in next year’s election. And flip the Senate as well. If we don’t, fixing this will be the least of our problems.
Mnemosyne
@Adam L Silverman:
Actual veterans, or the wannabes who try to claim that going to military school was just like being in the service?
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: No, I’m not referring to the President here.
LAO
@debbie: very true. I should have included that the decision to announce his vile pardons was directly tied to the shit awful day he had today.
grammypat
I’m saying that he is trotting out something outrageous NOW because of the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day that he’s had today. I’m sure that it’s just one of many that he (or more accurately, his handlers) have kept in the back pocket for days such as this. Expect others. Many others, with each more outrageous than the last.
Yutsano
Heh. That’s because evaluations almost never hurt. The therapist is getting a feel of what was lost and what can be accomplished in relation to your goals.
Having said that, extremities don’t tend to hurt all that much. You’re gonna be a champ.
mrmoshpotato
@Amir Khalid: “die Schlachter” would be most accurate for human slaughter I think. Others look to have translations as “meatman.”
JaySinWA
@LAO: The pardon plans have been in the making for days if not weeks. The decision to put them out today may well have been triggered by the days events.
Duane
The stable genius provides another example of how incredibly unfit he is for the office of President. All his criminality is finally too much to overlook, wave off, or defend. The noose is tightening.
Tick-tock, motherfucker.
Adam L Silverman
This is going to leave a mark!
Leto
@Adam L Silverman: Indeed, something will have to be put in place now. Lawyers should rejoice; the billable hours for the entire rewrite of our government is going to be killer!
@Mnemosyne: Hahaha, I’ll have to visit the kilt store that about 5 mins away from our place. Special order and all! I’m glad your PT went well. How long will you need to spend in the rack?
@mrmoshpotato: I can only hope they dump him in a bed of crabs.
Belafon
https://twitter.com/chinfo/status/1195500836673196033
Note that the Navy Chief of Information tweet does not call him Chief.
Adam L Silverman
NotoriousJRT
@Adam L Silverman: They don’t call her Nancy Smash! for nothing.
Belafon
David ??Booooooo?? Koch
Thanks, Susan Sarandon
Adam L Silverman
@Belafon: Great minds and all that…
debbie
@Belafon:
Maybe they will make his life miserable in other ways.
Belafon
@Adam L Silverman: I just have to figure out how to embed properly.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: Yup, my dad was a Chief(though he later got commissioned, and hated it).
Belafon
@debbie: He won’t get to do anything. He might get to man the diving bell at the Marianas Trench.
frosty
But why poison a bunch of innocent crabs? And please, not in the Chesapeake Bay!! I like cracking those crabs with Old Bay.
PS First use of the quote box, looks like it worked. And a lot easier than before the update. Kudos again!
PPS Edit works good too!
Mary G
Elise’s Democratic opponent Tedra Cobb started the morning with 6,200 Twitter followers. Right now she’s up to 79,000 and people are pushing to get her to 100K.
Adam L Silverman
@Belafon: I think you want to click on the text tab, then paste the embed code. Then delete the script at the bottom of it. Then hit post comment. That should work.
Adam L Silverman
@debbie: @Belafon:
He’s going to be put in soul sucking, mind numbing billets. He and his wife and his attorney will bitch about it. Pete Hegseth will make a deal out of it on Fox and Friends, which is how it’ll get to the President. But while he may keep his trident and now his rank, he’s going to be punished via assignment. And that punishment continues until he either snaps and they have him or he retires.
rikyrah
@TaMara (HFG):
Hmmph ??
JaySinWA
@Adam L Silverman: I suspect he’ll have a future with Erik Prince.
Aleta
Yutsano
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c1VKjxbCmo
Oh fuck me running…
Another damn shooting. This one during a football game.
mrmoshpotato
@Leto: Generous.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: NCOIC of a laundromat at a sub-post of Fort Polk?
ETA: The Navy equivalent of Fort Polk.
Adam L Silverman
@JaySinWA: My understanding is that a good chunk of Prince’s problem is his ego and his megalomania drives away qualified people. Including those he partners with and has running his operations. So Gallagher might wind up with him, but I doubt the two will last long together.
Omnes Omnibus
Never mind.
Adam L Silverman
@Aleta: They must have some pretty compelling evidence as this is largely unprecedented in Texas. From the governor to the state’s AG to the Board of Pardons and Parole, to the state court judges, they are all pretty comfortable executing people even when the evidence shows there’s plenty of reasonable doubt.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: If there’s a navy base as bad if not worse than Polk, then I expect so.
Ruckus
@SiubhanDuinne:
Had PT for my shoulder once. A firefighter was walking by and asked the therapist what the hell she was doing to me as it looked like I was going to cry. This was PT after I’d been hit by a truck. I wasn’t in a car at the time and my shoulder took the brunt of the hit from the front bumper. And yes I was going to cry if she went any farther.
I like PT. I really do. No shut up I really like PT. I’m not kidding……..
JaySinWA
@Adam L Silverman: Can we root for injuries?
Leto
@Omnes Omnibus: NCOIC of the Myrtle Beach slip-n-slide.
dww44
@TaMara (HFG): Thanks for posting this. This tweet is so much better on my failing eyes. The text doesn’t fade into the background. It provides some needed eye relief.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Test of embedding a Tweet:
That worked.
Omnes Omnibus
@Leto: Does Myrtle Beach suck enough?
Ruckus
@mrmoshpotato:
No one will pay for him to be buried at sea. Some one will want to set up a monument, to be used for exhaust purposes, $25 for pissing on, $50 to crap. The lines will be long, the grass will be, well no one will want to mow it….
It will be dignified. But it will be busy for a long, long time.
JaySinWA
@dww44: You might look for “dark reader” available at the Chrome web store or as a Firefox plugin. My eyes are thanking the commenter that recommended it.
Suzanne
I have been working from home on Fridays, and I listened to the impeachment hearings this morning. What an absolute shitshow.
I can’t explain how much I hate these people.
Unrelated note: interview in Philly went well. Have one in Pittsburgh in three weeks. Won’t have time for a meetup, but fingers crossed that this becomes permanent.
Ruckus
@Adam L Silverman:
I wonder where he’s going next. It won’t be pretty. Just wondering what hell hole can they send him to, that will be in accordance with his unofficial standing of no longer welcome.
debbie
@Ruckus:
I hope he whines like a little girl.
Adam L Silverman
@Ruckus: His life is going to be very unpleasant.
debbie
@Suzanne:
Good luck! I hope all sprouts are well. Your whereabouts were wondered about in the morning thread.
Adam L Silverman
I’m going to go rub doggie bellies and rack out. You all have a good night. Catch you on the flip.
Wapiti
@Ruckus: I can only imagine that he’ll need to be assigned someplace he doesn’t need a security clearance. I’d say permanent Staff Duty NCO, responsible for getting the flag raised every morning and lowered every night, but there’s probably a need for a clearance there, for the other parts of that job.
Mai naem mobile
@Adam L Silverman: some speculation on the Twitter machine is that Stefanik was talking because they wanted to make Schiff look misogynistic. Anyhoo, I have a couple of Ukrainian American friends whose names end with ‘nik’ similar sounding to Stefanik so I thought she might be ethnically Ukrainaian but I per the google it can also be Polish. Either way you would think she would be more aware of the issues affecting Eastern European/former Soviet states.
Also I think you guys are thinking too deeply into this pardon thing. Its just another distraction/outrage maneuver from Trumpov. He’s too stupid to think that far ahead. BTW on the phone call with Sondland he had to confirm that Sondland was in Ukraine after Sondland told him he was in Kyiv. What a lazy f*cking moron.
Ruckus
@debbie:
@Adam L Silverman:
I was in the navy, I’ve seen some shit holes. I was, 4-5 weeks before discharge, assigned to an LPH. The captain was new to the ship and had been assigned there after being the flotilla commander for the destroyer squadron I had been in for 2 yrs. This was a massively bad, sideways move for this captain but he was a major fuck up. The navy wouldn’t fire him but they would give him shitty duty that ensured that he would never get another advance in rank. This ship was that duty. And he did everything he could to make it worse for everyone else on that ship. This E7 is going to a far worse place than that ship. And everyone on that ship or billet is going to know who he is and why he’s there. And he won’t have a lot to say about any of it.
The Dangerman
@Ruckus:
Perhaps we could set up a complementary business nearby, take advantage of some synergy. I’m thinking colonoscopy preparation clinic.
Ruckus
@Wapiti:
He’s pissed off a lot of people who can make his life very miserable. And will. And he may not even have asked for this. But he will pay for it. In ways that would be difficult to understand for someone who hasn’t been in the service. He will be billeted someplace where the word crappy is used for the very best days. The other days would be a stream of profanity that even I won’t type out. And I’ll say anything with swearing in it.
Ruckus
@The Dangerman:
Always thinking ahead aren’t you?
Wolvesvalley
@Mary G:
Now she’s up to 84.4K.
Mary G
This mook:
frosty
@Suzanne: Good luck to you on both. PA is cooler and wetter than AZ, and Philly and PGH are great places to live. Keep us posted, and there’s Juicers in both places for a meetup!
PJ
@Mai naem mobile: Milan Štefánik, one of the founders of Czechoslovakia, was a Slovak. I doubt he would be pleased that someone bearing his last name was supporting a tyrant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milan_Rastislav_%C5%A0tef%C3%A1nik
Villago Delenda Est
@Adam L Silverman: Nearly all REMFs, tool.
Procopius
@Frankensteinbeck: I hate to tell you this, but white supremacy is not a crime. The things these guys were accused of doing are crimes, and they probably also hold white supremacist and racist views, but those views are not crimes.
Villago Delenda Est
@Villago Delenda Est: er, just too. Don’t know where that l came from…
Sam
@Adam L Silverman: Adam I know you exaggerate for effect, but I work with NSWG. There will be good order and discipline in spite of these pardons. The point you are making is that this is an injury to discipline; an attempt to excuse behavior that our folks reject. Nobody knows a bad operator like other operators.
Martin
Based on what Josh Marshall is finding in the Holmes opening statement, Trump is going to have a VERY bad day when he testifies.
TS (the original)
@Mai naem mobile:
Stefanik is apparently the only female GOP member of the committee. The GOP love to use women when they think there is a good chance that the attack/speech/action will back fire.
Why any woman would take on the role of trump’s attack hound is a mystery to me.
Sam
@Adam L Silverman: Adam I know you exaggerate for effect, but I work with NSWG. There will be good order and discipline in spite of these pardons. The point you are making is that this is an injury to discipline; an attempt to excuse behavior that our folks reject. Nobody knows a bad operator like other operators.
@Raven: I lived this in Iraq. Good order and discipline is very, very hard, but is essential for a good outcome. Our soldiers are held to very high standards, but this is essential if we want to accomplish our objectives. We forget this at our peril.
Martin
Many people are saying @realDonaldTrump’s been holed up in the WH all day/night w/ lawyers ENRAGED at todays DEVASTATING setbacks…& is having a colossal unhinged MELTDOWN. Screaming, throwing things, threatening to fire everyone. He’s TERRIFIED, PANICKED & DESPERATE…
[new site fail]
Oh, it worked. Just took a minute to update. Huzzah!
patrick II
@Adam L Silverman:
Adak, alaska
Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]
It’s late, but I though I’d add this little bit. As far as pardoning war criminals to try to form a Praetorian guard, yes. Trying to distract from a terrible day in the news, yes. There is a third part that seems to have been so far overlooked. This was done on the same day as Stone’s guilty verdicts after about a year of no pardons.
I think it’s at least partly signaling to stone to keep his mouth shut for a future pardon. (though I doubt any pardon except on the last day of his office).
Jay
TriassicSands
But Trump knows more about military affairs than any general or admiral!
Now, not only is Trump above the law, but so are American war criminals. The World Court should try them in absentia. They’d never go to jail, but most of the civilized world would be off-limits to them.
Next up, a pardon for Roger Stone followed by a Medal of Freedom for that great American.
Trump has utterly devalued both the pardon and the Medal of Freedom (see recent recipient Ed Meese).
Chetan Murthy
Hasten the day. And there’s a long list of folks to follow them, starting with the Chimperor.
SFAW
@Ruckus:
I hear ya.
I had hip joints replaced awhile back. Went to PT, the therapist worked on my IT bands.
Now, I’ve been told (by medical persons) that I appear to have a fairly high tolerance for pain. But when the therapist worked on my IT bands, I coulda been a stunt double for the people who keep thanking the Traitor-in-Chief and call him “
cursir.” Not something I want to go through again. [Although I hope I live long enough to need new hips again.]SFAW
@patrick II:
There used to be a large phased-array radar installation on Shemya. I expect it’s still there.
Chris Johnson
@Procopius:
Millenials: hold my avocado toast.
jimmiraybob
Having studied how authoritarians gain control and destroy democracies, I’d say he’s starting the work of separating the ones that will be loyal to him. Classic. Might work if he should get another term.
Aleta
@jimmiraybob: @Sam:
Well said. Thanks.
Aleta
@Aleta:
lost the edit.
@jimmiraybob: re “starting the work of separating the ones that will be loyal”
I imagine he’s operated that way most of his life, at each station of growing power along the way — a military school bully, an admirer who watched mob leaders and dictators. By the time T was claiming to be self-made successful in NYC, he was testing his lawyers to see which ones would cross legal/moral boundaries for him, according to someone who worked for him then. What you put your finger on, his demand for absolute loyalty, is so much his core essence that it’s warping every behavior, direction and remark, but now at this high level. + So much the strategy of an abuser.
@Sam:
Well said. Thanks (from one with relatives and friends on repeated tours in Afgh, Iraq, Africa and on support bases and ships— Marines, Army and Navy).
Pappenheimer
Shemya appears to still have a Naval Station. An Air Force friend of mine was posted on the island; he said that every day of his tour he went down to the shoreline (not far) and threw a rock in the ocean. It’s pretty much Lazkowski Base.
Bill Arnold
@PersistentIllusion:
Hah, just saw this. Been thinking about make it a twofer with the Fundy (nasty wing) Christian Right with this one, with one class of answer. Maybe later in the campaign if he doesn’t exit the stage soon. (Left, right, down, don’t care.)