Marines investigated for Facebook posts
This is a cautionary tale from USAToday for active duty military people who use social media;
Federal law enforcement officials are investigating a former Marine and several active-duty Marines after they allegedly posted threatening and lewd messages on social media sites that targeted President Obama and a California congresswoman, according to a government official informed of the investigations.
The former Marine was interviewed last week by the Secret Service for the threatening post against President Obama, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigations are ongoing.
I know there’s some weird stuff out there and I’ve seen some of F’n Wook’s stuff floating around on my own Facebook pages, and most of it is harmless, but you really don’t want to make a public record of some of the things you’re thinking in the privacy of your cranium. Most of the commenters here are pretty well grown up, and I’ve only had to delete a few outwardly sexist or racist comments, none by any of the regulars, just some passerbys. But we’re mostly older folks and pretty much police the place by the force of our opinions.
Of course, it’s dicked up that the thought police are trolling the internet looking for trouble. It looks like it’s the result of some Congresswoman’s (Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif.) complaints and of course since those of us in the military are held to higher standard than the rest of the population, it is what it is. We’re a bigger threat to the nation than those ass-monkey teenagers driving around Speier’s district shooting each other.
Category: Military issues
Dont be a fucking idiot and bad shit like an investigation wont happen to you. Im sure the sexual harassment briefings havent changed much outside now social media. You do stupid shit and stupid shit will happen to you.
11M is right.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
@1–correct. It was some pretty jacked up shit they were posting, far beyond mere criticism of Rep. Speier. However, I would advise the good Congresswoman to put on her big girl panties and clean the sand out. Not everyone likes you, and not everyone is going to sing your praises.
Oh, gee, I don’t like most of those people, either, but I limit my stuff to ‘stupid’ and its synonyms. There’s no point in doing anything else. I guess I just don’t have quite that much bile in my soul.
“Welcome back from your 96, Marines. Today, we’re going to have a nine hour briefing on social media and why it’s important for you to avoid being a fucktard.”
Social Media is no different than any other form of communication. You can stand in a Mall and tell a cop to his face that you think his particular department is corrupt and inefficient, and he cant legally do a thing to you, The second you tell him you are going to cut his head off you are going to eat concrete.
Stupidity is shaped like a boomerang. The more you throw stupid out to the world, the more comes back to you.
We need to outsource abusive social media posts against Democrats to the Stolen Valor douchebags. 🙂
Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children, indeed….
Did you learn *nothing* from peeing-on-dead-Taliban-Gate???
Regardless of whatever letter is after the name you do not issue threats towards elected officials. The SS take them seriously.
I thought everyone knew that every single threat to the president or congress person gets investigated? That’ll get you a knock on the door by guys with black suits quick.
Amen to that, Twist!
Guaranteed, the more the Corps leadership tries to censor those sights, the more the rank and file are going to flock to them. Stupid comments aside, this is impossible to stop. If you don’t like it, don’t look.
Now as for those that are threatening the president, well, stand by for heavy rolls dipshits. I don’t much care for the man or his policies, but he is our president and I wish him no ill will. You want to man up and threaten the president, don’t have a shocked face at who comes knocking at your door.
Not surprised really, this stems from a Corps wide trend of a sense of entitlement, especially among junior Marines. I tell my troops time and time again when the day comes where you’ve convinced yourself the institution (or anyone for that matter) owes you something, it’s time to get out and move on. The size of your stack or number of pumps under your belt does not entitle you to shoot your mouth off to anyone, ESPECIALLY elected officials. Like everyone else you must earn your keep on a daily basis, lest you fall by the wayside. At the same time, of course you can voice your political opinions, just don’t be an idiot and smear it all over faceboot; the internet is forever.
Twist, very true. However, USSS is the preferred abbreviation. Something the Scout Snipers know a thing about as well.
Question is, what actions specifically were taken against the AD Marines? If she kept the chain of those idiot Marines in the loop, I have no complaints. If she jumped down these guys with something akin to Babs “Call me SENATOR!” Boxhead, then yeah, maybe not the best move there.
Again, criticism is one thing, but even that has its limits (See UCMJ Art. 88, for example.) Not a big fan of Jackie Speier, but you do have to respect the position she holds, guys.
I don’t support 90% of what the idiots say, it is stupid sandwich jokes that most of us have told at one time or another. What I have an issue with is we have a government that is trying to police up what private citizens say. Just because you don’t like the stupid humor doesn’t mean it isn’t protected. Hell if the WBC is protected why isn’t their stupid humor protected? Granted I can understand CoC policing up it Marines, but the ones who aren’t in uniform anymore and aren’t covered under UCMJ well I guess the Government is just SOL.
Did everyone take crazy pills this morning? This is bullshit and everyone should know it. We are talking about the Obama administration which has lied routinely to cover up shit, directly targets whistleblowers, and has the balls to target citizens through the IRS and through the injustice department.
I don’t see anything of substance in this story either. It’s all general bullshit with zero specifics other than hurt feelings of shitty politicians. The same administration that tried to blame the deaths of fellow Americans on a parolee and even locked his ass up because he dared to say anything against the Muslim plague on civilized society.
Oh, some facebook page got your panties rustled? Better get politicians on that because freedom of speech apparently only means freedom to not make anyone feel bad especially if they have a D next to their name.
If they had anything of real substance they wouldn’t hesitate to portray military veterans in a negative light. That is the entire premise of the Obama administration when they took office FFS. Instead we get reports that make sandy vaginas feel better out their existence because meanies got punished for being mean to the politically incorrect group of people.
I am with you FatCircles0311, I have an issue with them targeting humor, even if it is bad humor. Who else are they going after? Are they just trying to bring attention to a small group who make stupid jokes? How many times have we seen the same kind of threats made towards other Senators and Representatives that never get investigated. This just happens to fit a view that someone is trying to sell.
I love “Just the Tip, of the Spear.”
If you say you want you know who you know what, then you are inviting a visit from you know who about you know what. so, my advice is never wish in writing that you know who suddenly becomes you know what and you will not have to suffer a visit from you know who. I hope this is crystal clear.
Depends on what was actually said…. lewd is maybe “with HER? Are you an idiot?” but threatening is a whole different level, and in a post-Gabbie Giffords post-Newtown post-Aurora post-etc world you can expect very humorless people to read your PUBLICLY RECORDED postings just as if you took out an ad in your hometown newspaper. If you catch any grief, it is self inflicted. Stupid games winning stupid prizes indeed.
@21
I’m with you on that one. Say what you want in most circumstances. But threatening public officials, especially the ones at the top of the chain, is foolish.
The itch under my tinfoil cap says…
We’re likely to see more and more of this. We’re also likely to see the bar for what’s punishable to be set lower and lower.
All in all, I suspect a rather broad based system of destructionism to be placed upon the military over the next few years.
Those that fear our military the most were born within our own borders. I suspect there will be a significant effort to dismantle the current military structure and replace it with something… lesser.
But, I’m crazy like that.
Forgot to add:
Anyone actually see the “threatening” comments? Were they actually threats, or are we simply to assume so because someone in the msm said so?
There is software out there commercially that mines social media sites, looks for whatever the searcher wants, and also does sentiment analysis.
As Google’s CEO Schmidt said recently (paraphrased) ‘accidents of youth’ are now immortal.
@24
Regarding:
Those that fear our military the most were born within our own borders. I suspect there will be a significant effort to dismantle the current military structure and replace it with something… lesser.
Warranted concern. Have you seen this little snippet of lovely? :p
FatCircleO311, sing it brother. Sing it.
On the whole subject of social media and censorship, there are way bigger problems to solve. This is an ant standing next to an Empire State Building of issues.
But as of late the Marine Corps and the government would rather spend their day playing with magnifying glasses instead of wrecking balls.
Here’s the Speier letter of complaint. In today’s LGBT military, I can see how someone could be upset. Of course, I also think most of the stuff is funny and I make no apology for that.
http://speier.house.gov/images/Correspondence/speiermarinecorpsfacebookpages8may2013.pdf
What’s next are they going to see something on this site that seems too close to a “threat” and interview Jonn or TSO?
After following the link in 30 – I’ll go with tasteless and crude. Threatening? Well, picturing a woman bound or with a black eye and a caption like “she burned the bacon – once” makes me think whoever posted it is a dickhead, but absent anything more specific about all you can say is if he actually DID hit a girl like that, he has provided the cops with a shitload of evidence so he ain’t real bright, either.
Needing action by the SecDoD? Hardly….
Those marines posting racist crap don’t have the balls to say it to the face of a black marine, soldier, or sailor!
I retired from the Navy and as a black sailor, I had many marine friends of all races. If being in the military and working with people of all races doesn’t change a person, nothing will!
Most of these marines who spew this crap are the lower end guys who routinely under-achieve or trouble makers. Most intelligent marines get great jobs including protecting the COC.