Troops ordered to see Melania documentary?
Melania has a new documentary out. As stunning as she is to look at, and impressive as a person, I have no interest in watching her getting ready for 47’s inauguration last year. Apparently some people do though, as it’s quite popular. Though it’s funny that it has an 8% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 99% audience score. Obama’s 2018 documentary on the last year of his presidency The Final Year has the opposite problem, with 83% of critics liking it while only 49% of the audience is interested. Anywho…
So with a Republican back in the White House, it’s natural that we’d start to hear from our old pal Mikey Weinstein. He’s gotta separate the church from the state and get his exorbitant non-profit salary somehow. I don’t hate the player, I hate the game. Scratch that, there’s a lot to hate from this player too.
From the totally impartial Daily Beast and Mikey;
Military Pressured to See ‘Melania’ Against Their Will
Thousands of active-duty military personnel may have been “pressured” into seeing the Melania documentary at cinemas around the country, a watchdog has warned.
The $75 million Amazon film opened last week to $7 million at the box office—despite universally terrible reviews.
According to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, those numbers have been artificially inflated by pressure from MAGA-aligned officers leaning on their troops to buy tickets.
“People are scared,” Mikey Weinstein, president and founder of the MRFF, said. Weinstein said he has received letters from members of the U.S. military at eight facilities worldwide, complaining that their superiors encouraged or pressured them to see the film.
He told Business Insider. “They were pressured to see the movie. Your military superior, that’s not your shift manager at Taco Bell or Starbucks. They have complete and total control over you.”
The MRFF, a non-profit founded in 2005 to promote the separation of church and state within the military, has roughly 100,000 members.
“Nobody that I know wanted to go except for those that did not want to get jacked up by our unit commander for not attending,” one of those members told Weinstein in a letter seen by journalist Jonathan Larsen.
The unit commander in question is alleged to have worn red MAGA hats in the past and “made it very clear” how he feels about those who do not support the administration’s agenda.
He is also alleged to have made seeing Melania count as one of the three “unit activity events” service members are required to attend each month. Such events are designed to promote bonds within combat units and their families.
The letter said, “…he ‘advised’ our unit members and their families to join him and his wife and children for a showing of that new documentary called ‘Melania’ at an off-base movie theater… When he said ‘advised’, we know what that meant.
“We feel helpless to try to fight against what he is doing here.”
Weinstein said that manipulating troops to spend their leisure time on ideologically driven activities negatively affects unit cohesion.
“It tears it down,” he said. “It’s like injecting cancer into the body of the military unit.”
In a statement to the Daily Beast, the Department of Defense said that there “is no Department of War [sic] directive requiring service members to see this film, though the film is fantastic.”
Trump has given the Department of Defense the secondary title “department of war,” but cannot legally rename it.
There’s that impartiality we expect from a “news” organization like the Daily Beast. There’s more at the source if you’re looking to crack a molar grinding your teeth.
Category: Morale
Sorry, Mikey. I need proof. Your word just ain’t good enough. And if this is true, that officer’s chain of command needs to take turns beating his ass right up to his discharge, then beat his ass all the way to the gate.
Well said!
If, and that’s a BIG “if” this actually happened as mikey the whiner says it did, at 8 facilities worldwide, then it needs to be stopped cold, and the individuals responsible at those 8 locations need to be dealt with appropriately.
That being said, 8 facilities in the entire world.. seems that’s a VERY small percentage, and mikeys reaction, as usual is completely overblown.
And the fact that a commander might wear a MAGA hat (off duty I assume. On duty would be a whole other issue) is completely irrelevant, but mikey and the morons at the DB already know this..
Surely there would be an EMail, text, video in 2026? To say it happened without any kind of digital tail or trail these days is to say it never happened.
I don’t get it. They want troops to worship Melania? So the religious freedom people had to get involved?
My son says no one at work has even heard about the film, so I guess they are planning on strong arming him later.
How many CONUS Bases/Posts/Forts, etc even have functioning movie theaters, these days?
I’m not sure if either of our two multiplexes are showing the film. So if I was a troop it would be hard for a Commander to direct me to spend money to support a particular commercial entity.
SFC D is right.
Maybe the enlisted wanted to go to the movie and there was no coercion.
Not quite the same, but at the Guam Naval Hospital, 1970: Corpsmen packed an off-site theater’s first showing of M*A*S*H as the rumor had it that it would not be staying long. The parrallels to our Naval doctors and nurses (officers) kept the theater full for a number of days. To the chagrin of many, more than a few officers and enlisted picked up nicknames based on the movie.
Oh, Mikey you’re not so fine…