The speeches by Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump today to 800 or so top US military leaders around the world, combined with the farcical indictment of former FBI Director James Comey and the promise of more of them, have accomplished one thing so far: pushing the Trump/Epstein relationship far down in the news. Is there any doubt that this is one of the prime motivations behind this repression and militarism initiative?
It’s similar with the deployment and threatened deployment of National Guard and US troops to cities run by Democratic mayors.
And though the racist campaign to criminalize and deport people of color without proper legal documents, a big majority with no criminal record, has been underway for many months, it also helps to deter Epstein/inflation/poor polling news coverage, as well as to provide “red meat” to the hardcore MAGA’s.
I just looked at a video of Hegseth and Trumps’ speeches, not every word but enough to get the basic gist of what they said and how they said it. My main takeaways:
- Hegseth was every bit the macho male; into projecting power and domination both personally and what he demanded the “War Department” get back to being, as distinct from the “woke,” “fat,” pro-DEI, concerned-about-climate-disruption organization he saw it as having become. He wants a war-fighting machine ready to go into action immediately on behalf of the Trump vision of a world dominated by him.
- Trump didn’t look so good. He looked tired. He rambled. As distinct from Hegseth’s toxic energy, he was distinctly low energy. He was no inspiring President, that’s for sure. Maybe in the back of his mind, somewhere in that twisted brain, he was haunted by how he had used his upper-class position and so-terrible bone spurs to avoid the draft during the Vietnam war, or the time he called those who died in war “suckers and losers.” He did not seem at ease.
Remember that one of Trump’s major issues during his Presidential campaign was that he would get the US out of the Ukraine/Russia and Israel/Palestine wars, or end them, “on day one.” Make no mistake: some of those who voted for him are noticing that over his first eight months in office he is doing the exact opposite while now going full-militarist with a $70 billion or more increase from this year to next in the already-way-too-large US military budget.
As far as the Comey indictment, many analysts think it’s likely the weak and problematic case will be another defeat for Trump. We will see. But that won’t stop Dictator Don; it’s clear that the Trump/Vance/Miller/MAGA forces have every intention of trying to convict and imprison those considered the most responsible for his two impeachments and indictments/trials/convictions in the courts.
Meanwhile, as far as the latest polling, here is how Nate Silver put it today in the Silver Bulletin:
“This has been a bad week for Trump when it comes to the polls. He began the week with a net approval rating of -7.5 in the Silver Bulletin average. He’s sitting at -9.4 as of today, but his net approval fell all the way to -10.0 (essentially tied for his second term low) earlier in the week. Is this the beginning of a downward trend? . . .
“Whatever the reason, the share of Americans who strongly disapprove of the job Trump is doing is also back up to its second term high of 43.4 percent. For comparison, only 26.1 percent of Americans strongly approve of Trump.”
Repression and militarism: two sides of same coin, all about scaring and intimidating those seen as enemies. That’s how hate-filled and divisive Trump sees those of us who believe in democracy and justice and who are willing to fight against those who are trying to destroy them.
All out for No Kings! on October 18th!
Ted Glick has devoted his life to the progressive social change movement. After a year of student activism as a sophomore at Grinnell College in Iowa, he left college in 1969 to work full time against the Vietnam War. As a Selective Service draft resister, he spent 11 months in prison. In 1973, he co-founded the National Committee to Impeach Nixon and worked as a national coordinator on grassroots street actions around the country, keeping the heat on Nixon until his August 1974 resignation. Since late 2003, Ted has played a national leadership role in the effort to stabilize our climate and for a renewable energy revolution. He was a co-founder in 2004 of the Climate Crisis Coalition and in 2005 coordinated the USA Join the World effort leading up to December actions during the United Nations Climate Change conference in Montreal. In May 2006, he began working with the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and was CCAN National Campaign Coordinator until his retirement in October 2015. He is a co-founder (2014) and one of the leaders of the group Beyond Extreme Energy. He is President of the group 350NJ/Rockland, on the steering committee of the DivestNJ Coalition and on the leadership group of the Climate Reality Check network.
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