Letter from the edge

| August 7, 2017

53 Congressmen banded together last week to send Secretary of Defense James Mattis a letter urging the Secretary to ignore the orders of his Commander-in-Chief, claiming that the President intended to disregard the Constitutional rights of transgendered soldiers by denying them enlistment and service in the military. However, they were unable to point to the enumerated right to military service.

So, here’s the letter and it’s signatories;

Apparently, they weren’t paying attention when Mr Mattis said that he wasn’t interested in any issues that didn’t make the force more lethal.

Reading through the names, I didn’t see many Congresspersons who would band together in support of fighting the war against terror the way it should be fought. Most of them have done their best to distract any discussion of the war or military service from the discussions that they should be having in that regard. This is just one more distraction, this time they are hoping to undermine the authority of the President.

I don’t know how the transgender ban could be unconstitutional, it’s been the Defense Department policy since 1775, including the eight years of the Obama Administration.

I’m reminded of the Congressmen who stood on the roof of Saddam Hussein’s palace and declared that Hussein was more trustworthy than President Bush.

I wonder what other maladies Congress is willing to overlook for military service.

Thanks to Chief Tango for the tip.

Category: Congress sucks

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Bobo

WTF is the LGBT Equality Caucus?

Rip Dashrock

They don’t know either. Don’t worry about it.
The LGB-TC-DTXQs are currently arguing about who is queer and whether cross-dressers are true faggots or merely confused. It could go on forever.

Sparks

And why does our Congress have one? They raise enough shit and trouble on their own. Why are we spending tax dollars to fund a caucus for them?

MSG Eric

Because the more Caucuses they have and more committees they have, the bigger their budget and staff become. Its just a pure coincidence that so many members of Congress become millionaires after they get elected. Pure coincidence.

Skippy

Best example would be Dirty Harry out of Nevada one report in 2006
From the LA Times before it became commie rag
Said he had amassed over 100 million plus off of land deals in S Nevada
Not bad if you ask me

OldSoldier54

Lord, please forgive me, but I hate the shadow that SOB casts on the ground.

He could be the poster-child of all that is wrong in politics.

desert

You got that one right!!

David

http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2013/04/16/177496734/how-congress-quietly-overhauled-its-insider-trading-law
https://theintercept.com/2015/05/07/congress-argues-cant-investigated-insider-trading/

Basically, Congress has essentially given itself a pass on insider trading. You will be pleased to know it was a truly bipartisan effort

Ex-PH2

The solution to this specious nonsense is simple: reinstate the draft. That will quickly sort out who does and does not want to serve. And no special medical service provisions crap, either. As is or nothing.

GDContractor

And there was equality for all, and much rejoicing throughout the land.

IDC SARC

Nope Nope Nope Nope

Ex-PH2

I think IDC_SARC is in need of some strawberries or something.

OC

I’m guessing he’d go for the “something”. 😉

timactual

I second the motion, for several reasons.

desert

I too am in favor of the draft, but not for perverted demonic assholes!!

Redacted1775

Congress approval rating is nearing single digits, here’s one reason why.

OldSoldier54

Yep.

IDC SARC

Certified idiocy…it’s official.

AW1 Tim

I still like Heinlein’s idea for a society which he put out in his book “Starship Troopers”. Heinlein was a Navy officer, for whatever that might add.

Anyway, his idea was that the only people eligible to vote, hold an elected office, or a government job were those with military service.

No one else lost any other rights, it was just that anyone who served and got discharged under honorable or general conditions were the ones who got the leadership positions.

I can support such an idea, as it recognizes that some folks have been willing to sacrifice everything if needs be to maintain the Constitution. They earned their say in how things work.

Fjardeson

“Service guarantees citizenship”.

I liked that the first time I heard it. Then I read the book, and liked it even more.

It’s a shame that nowadays, common sense is a super power.

IDC SARC

Sounds like overt discrimination, contrary to the principles which founded this nation to me.

Al Giordino

Such a policy establishes an elite class which will eventually lead to warfare as the elitists shuffle for control. Keep that crap in the churches where it belongs.

Ex-PH2

Oh, you’ve been to Venezuela as it is now, then?

MSG Eric

You say that as if the politicians in DC and Hollywood don’t already consider themselves the “elite class” you speak of.

I’m guessing you haven’t been to either town.

HMCS(FMF) ret

Don’t be forgetting about the “progressives” in those high fallutin’ cities like NYC, Chicago , LA, SF, Seattle, etc… ’cause they know better than us “deplorables”, right Al?

OldSoldier54

Horse crap.

They already consider themselves the “nobility” of this country. Better than the great unwashed. Much better. It’s as plain as the sun burning in the sky.

Think I’m blowing smoke?

Then why did Congress exempt themselves and others from the ACA aka, Obama Care. This is the most obviously glaring example of their true mind set.

The whole point of the Starship Troopers model isn’t about vets thinking they’re a cut above. It’s about government function and spending. IIRC, over half the (assuming adult working age folks) the population don’t pay taxes.

They get free stuff. When something must be paid for, OUT OF YOUR POCKET, well, folks tend to be more frugal then. That is why EVERYBODY should pay taxes. No exceptions, no exemptions, no excuses.

Then comes the issue of when and how to spend it. Like when and how to go to war. Way too many lawyers in government who never had a real job in their lives, who never served, who don’t understand that there is a reason the military has the UCMJ separate from the civil side.

Ain’t nothing like having been there to understand the real stakes of war, or the real costs of training for war.

Hence, The Starship Troopers model.

I mean, couldn’t be worse than what we have, could it?

IDC SARC

yeah because drafting folks has historically resulted in fair apportionment of assignments. 🙂

We already have a problem in that about 1/3 of voluntary recruits don’t finish their first enlistment. Not to mention the sheer numbers involved in tying such a status to mandatory service in a nation of this size and the expenditures necessary to manage the runners, insubordinates and general no-shows.

timactual

How much money is currently spent on marketing and enlistment bonuses? Not to mention salaries and benefits competitive with the civilian world?

timactual

Founding principles such as letting only male property owners vote?

11B-mailclerk

In the Heinlein proposed system, -no one- can be refused acceptance into federal service. It is a -right-. You can quit, or be cashiered for cause, but there is a specific hypothetical example of a blind and deaf man would have to be accepted to service and given unpleasant work, even if it was counting fuzz on caterpillars by touch.

LTC Tom Kratman expands on this societal concept considerably in his “Timocratic Republic of Balboa” in the sequels to “A Desert Called Peace.” His “service for the vote” is much more explicitly military in nature. (He writes good stories, too.)

Interesting for this thread: the Heinlein version would -have- to accept Transexuals, although where they serve would not necessarily be anything military. He did mention a “research base on Pluto” as being an unpleasant place to serve.

19D2OR4 - Smitty

Technically, ‘service’ according to Heinlein didn’t necessarily mean military service, just a two year term of service to the nation. Anyone of any ability could enlist and they would be assigned based on aptitude. Whether that was working as a janitor at a publc building or being in the MI.

It was only the movie that made it only military.

MSG Eric

Yep, a much better consideration.

just some feller

I didn’t like the movie … except for the shower scene.

In the book, one could only vote if one served; but — while serving one couldn’t vote. I would have had a 20-year delay by those rules, but what the hay!

I still like the concept of universal service to the community/nation: Red Cross, military, police, hospital, CCC, etc.

just some feller

Oh … I forgot to close with:

On The Bounce!

(that was never in the movie as far as I recall.)

OldSoldier54

Nah, the movie was a joke.

Texas Nomad

I thought Starship Troopers was fascism fan fiction, although I’ve never read it.

Since I only think short term, given the current political situation it would mark a stark improvement.

David

“I thought Starship Troopers was fascism fan fiction, although I’ve never read it.” Nothing like an educated opinion, huh? You remind me strongly of a couple of other folks around here, named Lars and Joe.

Just An Old Dog

Nothing says open minded like ” I didn’t read it but I thought it was fascism fan fiction”

OldSoldier54

Word.

The Other Whitey

Read it first, then form your opinion, Tex. What you just wrote is basically a parroting of Paul Veerhoeven’s excuse for why he made such a shitty movie.

The book is actually pretty brilliant, even if you don’t agree with the form of government it features, which is often oversimplified and misrepresented by critics anyway. It doesn’t promote fascism or militarism, it emphasizes personal responsibility. That theme pops up in various ways all over the book. I’ll even give you a small spoiler: victory actually hinges on Rico’s platoon deciding to violate the “common sense” of writing off one man to avoid unnecessary risk to the rest. Heinlein didn’t expressly spell it out in a single sentence like I just did, he expected his readers to be smart enough to notice it.

OldSoldier54

” … it emphasizes personal responsibility.”

Exactly.

timactual

I can’t imagine Heinlein promoting fascism. Except in the imaginations of left-wing ideologues who see it in everyone but themselves.

RetiredDevilDoc8404

Take a look at some of the legal geniuses who signed onto this – Sheila Jackson Lee who quotes her favorite statesman Shelia Jackson Lee; Hank “Guam might capsize” Johnson; that Howdy Doody looking Joe Kennedy III, only took him three tries to pass the bar exam. Did I miss something in the Constitution, where is the right to serve in the military enumerated? Did I get discriminated against when they told me I had to retire because I was too broken to fix? Hopefully the SecDef will give their letter its’ due consideration and toss it into the “Act on After The Next Ice Age” file. A bunch of trees gave their lives for those idiots to waste Gen. Mattis’s time, aren’t they the same bunch crying about global warming? They just contributed to elevated CO2 levels!

Brown Neck Gaitor

Sheila Jackson Lee needs to change her middle and last name as they both offend me. /sarc

MSG Eric

If she truly understood the irony in that, she wouldn’t be telling reporters she wants to “impeach” Trump. Even though she has no good reasons/examples of what he’s done to constitute impeachment.

just some feller

Naw … she needs to change her last name because Robert E. Lee was a slave-owner.

[Isn’t that in vogue now-a-days?]

26Limabeans

What? No Susan Collins or Hangus King.
If Suzie wants to be the next governor of Portland..err..Maine then she had better sign on to this and put the onus on Hangus.

Silentium Est Aureum

House members only, no Senators. Yet.

26Limabeans

Oh..That’s different…never mind.

Claw

Caucus, not circus.
Caucus, not circus.

Repeat as needed until seared into your brain.

Ex-PH2

I thought this was a joke, then I read the Fox News article about it.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/08/04/planned-parenthood-teach-your-preschoolers-their-genitals-don-t-determine-their-gender.html

Before you read it, remember that Planned Parenthood IS getting funding from the government. It may come by way of Medicaid, but it is still tax money paying for the services they provide.

http://www.heritage.org/health-care-reform/report/disentangling-the-data-planned-parenthood-affiliates-abortion-services

What does this mean in the greater scheme of things? I have not the slightest idea, but it appears to be an intentional act to destroy us from within, the way cancer eats up the organism from which it is derived.

Sparks

Planned Parenthood is really Planned Abortion.

The Other Whitey

Don’tcha just love how they gloss over the part where Margaret Sanger was a fucking nazi cunt, and that her organization is still running the way she intended?

Ex-PH2

Convenient lapse of memory, TOW.

Eden

And a racist one, at that. Her stated intention for Planned Parenthood was go completely eliminate “people of color” from the face of the earth through abortion.

Eden

*to (not go). Hate it when I see a typo just as I hit the “send” button!

Ex-PH2

I’m seeing so many typos that I missed when I post something that I am slowing down for proofreading, but somewho – er, someHOW, something always gets middess… er, missed.

Some typos are downright funny.

timactual

Proofreading spelling and grammar is the easy part. Proofreading content is a Sisyphean task. “Poster’s remorse” is a daily occurrence.

Ex-PH2

Yes, indeedy, timactual. George R.R. Martin’s manuscript lengths for the various volumes of the novels that ‘Game of Thrones’ is based upon usually run 1500++ pages. It ain’t easy to keep continuity and context in line like obedient pets, never mind do the editing on something like that. It is a difficult task at best.

timactual

I have no sympathy for writers like Martin. After all, he expects us readers to work at least as hard to read his verbose tomes, and wants us to pay him for it, to boot.

Then the authors complain that the movie scripts do not do “justice” to their timeless literary masterpieces. And, again, expect to be paid large sums.

Yes, the editing is difficult. I do have trouble deciding which paragraphs and pages (plural) to skip. Occasionally I think I can skip about 25% of a book and miss nothing of interest or importance.

Rant over. Sorry.
(speaking of verbose).

just some feller

ISYN…. Went to the doctor for a check-up (post-cancer) and was given the typical patient form …. but it was newly updated to include:

Do you think of yourself as:
* Lesbian, gay or homosexual
* Straight or heterosexual
* Bisexual
* Something else
* Don’t know

What is your current gender identity?
(Check all that apply)
* Male
* Female
* Female-to-Male (FTM)/Transgender
Male/Trans Man
* Male-to-Female (MTF)/Transgender
Female/Trans Woman
* Genderqueer, neither exclusively male
nor female
* Additional Gender Category/(or Other),
please specify
* Decline to Answer, please explain why

What sex were you assigned at birth on
your original birth certif icate?
(Check one)
* Male
* Female
* Decline to Answer, please explain why

I just wrote “XY”

IDC SARC

XY…Awesome! 🙂

Ex-PH2

Ah, I like that. I will henceforth answer with ‘XX’ and let them wonder, except for the last ‘decline to answer’ thingy – my answer would be ‘because you people are fucking morons asking questions like this’.

I’m getting crabby about this nowadays.

I will quote my grandfather, who said ‘Oh, for the days when men were men and women were glad of it.’

The Other Whitey

I’d be halfway tempted to check “Other” and write in “Not a fucking deviant.”

Ex-PH2

Freud would have a field day with the people who are inflicting this crap on the rest of us.

I could refer to this guy:
“The great problems of life — sexuality, of course, among others — are always related to the primordial images of the collective unconscious. These images are really balancing or compensating factors which correspond with the problems life presents in actuality. This is not to be marvelled at, since these images are deposits representing the accumulated experience of thousands of years of struggle for adaptation and existence.”

-Carl Jung, Psychological Types, or, The Psychology of Individuation

Or I could just quote the part of biology that refers to reproduction and the reasons for having reproductive organs.

I could go on ad nauseum, ad infinitum, ad astra. But no one would understand.

jonp

1) Fuck You
2) Fuck You And The Horse You Rode In On
3) Fuck You, Are You Blind?

HMCS(FMF) ret

I’d have two replies:

1. How much time and effort was wasted with this PC bullshit?
2. I’ll be looking for a new provider.

Deplorable B Woodman

“Decline to answer, please explain why?”

BECAUSE IT’S NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS. I CAME IN HERE TO GET MY CHOLESTEROL BLOOD LEVELS CHECKED.
To the makers of this silly money wasting “survey”, FOAD.

timactual

Why not just tell the doctor

“You’re the doctor, you figure it out”.
“If you can’t tell, how am I supposed to?”.

Sapper3307

I was expecting to read Bernastys name on that fish wrap.

LC

I don’t expect this’ll be the battle Mattis chooses to fight, but I certainly don’t think he’s offering a full-throated support of this either. Scuttlebutt was he wasn’t happy with how this was announced:

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/344290-mattis-appalled-by-trump-tweets-announcing-transgender-military-ban-report

Fake news? Sure, you can choose to dismiss this, but we’ll see what happens. One can pretty easily make the argument that getting rid of trained, capable people who are serving honorably isn’t exactly aiding our lethality either.

IDC SARC

When you factor in the cessation of the expenditures necessary to support this created class of essentially part-time privileged troops it does.

Redacted1775

Coming from the NYT it might as well be fake. I refuse to believe this was General Mattis’ genuine reaction until he says it himself. The man is not known for being prone to emotional overreactions like the article suggests.

David

Seems to me Trump’s tweets came only a few days after Mattis publicly said “we’re not making a decision because we need a little more time to decide”. Been in that kind of situation with a boss before; while it is symptomatic of a boss who truly does not listen or disregards his subordinates’ input, it is not the end of the world for either party. Cue the eye roll and shoulder-shrug, Eric.

11B-Mailclerk

“Sources say” is the journo-school shorthand for “I just pulled this out of my ass because I want it said.”

It has many variations.

MSG Eric

I imagine he did an eye roll and of course an “unnamed high level source” saw him do it and turned that into “OMG! He’s so pissed!”

If eye rolling caused cancer, I’d have had it after about two years in the Army, when I learned how substantially it helps get over shit.

11B-mailclerk

Hmmm. They didn’t say “military” or “government” source, right? Could it have been a high-level -journalist- source?

Writers believe they are high-level in media, right?

timactual

Nobody is getting rid of anybody. Those who are in the military can stay in, under the terms and conditions they voluntarily enlisted under. Those who wish to enlist may still do so, under those same terms and conditions. “As you were”, so to speak.

It is doubtful, in spite of all the hysteria, that there are any significant number of people who will be affected by this ban.

Brown Neck Gaitor

LGBT caucus? Kind of exclusionary don’t ya think?

5 of the 6 co-chairs signed along with 9 of the 11 vice-chairs.

To be a co-chair you have to be out as L or G. Not sure what the requirements are to be a vice-chair, one of the other letters maybe?

Then you have the 93 plain old members.

The Other Whitey

Sounds mighty discriminatory against X, Y, and Z.

David

You’ve already got Black and Hispanic congressional caucuses; it seems like the Congress has institutionalized segregation.

11B-Mailclerk

LGBT?

Luger Garand Browning Thompson? The WW2 funtoy caucus? That actually would be -really- cool.

I wanna T-Shirt of that!

Silentium Est Aureum

Carol Shea-Porter, aka Che-Pelosi.

Yeah, why does her riding on this not surprise me? Her claim to fame is that she claimed her hubby was a Vietnam vet, but did all of two years at Fitzsimmons. When caught and questioned, she then changed it to Vietnam-era.

Her support of the military only goes as far as sticking it to DoD every chance she gets. Were it not for Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and the votes it gets her, she couldn’t give a rat fuck less about vets.

MSG Eric

Constitutional Right to serve? Yeah, its right there next to the articles of “kiss my ass” and “fuck off you over-privileged elitist DC scumbags”. Proof anyone can serve in Congress.

They sure are starting early on the “re-elect me!” campaign.

jonp

“Proof anyone can serve in Congress”..Maxine “The Wig From CA” Waters

Jus Bill

Fundamental question:
Isn’t this inciting Mutiny?

Mick

That’s what it looks like.

Mick

So they actually sent a letter to Secretary of Defense James Mattis and General Joseph Dunford urging them to ignore the orders of the Commander-in-Chief, eh?

Oh yeah. What a truly great idea. Uh huh.

Dumbass libotard moonbats.

Redacted1775

They have a better chance of Jim Mattis’ knife hands being the last thing they see on this planet than Jim Mattis actually listening to them.

Deplorable B Woodman

I would pay good PPV money to see that. Might even help reduce the national debt.

A Proud Infidel®™

IMHO every one of those tax dollar leeches needs to carry a potted plant with them wherever they go to compensate the rest of humanity for all the oxygen they’ve WASTED through their entire lives.

bg2

The bottom line, as I understand it, is that Mattis sees the military as a fighting force, while others see it as a “social experiment.”

Jim Retired VN SF

And Anthony Brown (D – MD) is a retired COL USAR JAG, Iraq vet who served his active time as a helicopter pilot. He was also the Lt. Gov of the PDR of Maryland.

Green Thumb

Clowns.

Stoneledgeman

Question:
How many of the 53 congressmen/women have served in the military?
Of those who have served, how many have actually been in combat?

Stephen McCartney

I grew up at the beach in So Cal in the 50,60 & 70’s, so I’ll say until Brucilla “decathalo-prostate” Jenner emerged, the only time I ever saw a trannie was in a cheap bar in west Hollywood, P.I. or Thailand (aka “billie boys”). All US citizens can apply to serve, but the military decides who will actually do so. Just that simple. Gender dysphoria is a disqualifier. It is a well known mental disorder, and is not ever to be capriciously approached by surgical means. Psychotherapy has made some in roads as they sift through the weighty emotional baggage of these sad & suicide-prone people. They are militarily unfit. Just that simple. Now we move on.
CAPT Bones Navy Medical Corps (ret)