Category Archives: Military
Theodore Roosevelt Hit Hard by Covid-19 Virus
The Covid-19 virus hit the USS Theodore Roosevelt hard. Over 150 of the aircraft carrier’s crew of 4,800 tested positive. And the symptoms were strange.
The ship’s captain, Brett Crozier, ignored the chain of command and instead blasted out an unsecured email warning to 20 or 30 people. As you might expect, it leaked.
USS Theodore Roosevelt Change of Command
So, at that point, Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modley relieved Capt. Crozier of his command.
But Modley didn’t leave it at that. He boarded the ship and ripped the captain in a profanity laced tirade calling the him “naive or too stupid.“
The tongue lashing was apparently too much for Modley’s boss, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. So the next day Secretary Modley kind of apologized, saying he really meant to say the captain was “smart and passionate.”
And then he resigned.
President Trump Spikes Lt. Col. Vindman
The Senate acquitted President Trump and he spiked the ball. And the first spikee was national security council staffer Lt. Col. Vindman.
However, former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly says Lt. Col. Vindman did the right thing when he outed The President’s “perfect” Ukraine phone call.
“He did exactly what we teach them to do from cradle to grave,” Kelly told the audience at the Mayo Performing Arts Center. “He went and told his boss what he just heard.”
Vindman National Security Council Staff
But junior staffer Rich Higgins sees it differently. He says the NSC was filled with Obama holdovers and Never Trumpers.
I was shocked to find that resistance seemed to be the NSC’s mission.
So he reported that to his boss. But with different results than Vindman.
Nobody called me a “whistleblower” or demanded an investigation. Congress didn’t invite me to testify.
Instead, they fired him.
Best of Bok 2019
Here are some of the cartoons I liked best from last year:
Trump Made his Move
“Mr. Trump has often seemed a president playing checkers while America’s adversaries play chess. He is not given to nuanced strategic concepts or long-range plans.” That’s how WSJ’s Holman Jenkins sees it.
But this time maybe he was a little nuanced, not responding while the Iranians made their moves. Or maybe he was napping, since he only sleeps four hour a night. Anyway, Iran’s proxies moved on oil tankers, bombed oil fields and shot down a U.S. drone. And Trump did nothing. Until they fired rockets at an American base, killing a contractor, and set fire to the American Embassy. Then Trump made his move, executing the evil genius General Soleimani Rocket Man style with a missile.
Long Range Plans
And now it’s not just all Death to America anymore. “His demise will not stop his mission,” said Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei, “But the criminals who have the blood of General Soleimani and other martyrs of the attack on their hands must await a tough revenge.”
Stable Genius Meets Austere Religious Scholar
The Washington Post described Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as an “Austere Religious Scholar” in one much mocked headline. So they changed it. Several times.
Anyway it looks like the Very Stable Genius got the best of the Austere Religious Scholar.
