So...
I'm not a US Marine, so my aperture is adjusted a little different. I'm looking at this thinking, - how would I feel if this was the CSA being put into an "Acting" role - until his nomination goes through.
I'm fully aware of how cunty' the political component of this looks. Looking at wavetops, we have a grandstanding republican saying, "I'm going to make this deliberately hard, purely out of political spite" but below the waves, I don’t see what is being FUNCTIONALLY impacted.
- General Berger's current deputy, who is also the nominated successor, General Eric Smith, will fill the position pending confirmation. The USMC will not be operating in a vacuum. They will not be suffering from a void in the senior leadership position. They will not be experiencing a watershed event. This HAS happened before. 164 years ago, to be exact from the reporting in the story.
It WILL happen again.
Sooner or later, some other cunty politician will do it again. That’s what these shit-sacks do. Hell, it is often exactly what we “pay” them to do. It's why the biggest turds seem to stay in office for SO long.
Sure, it is CLASSIC partisan shit-stick behavior - same as it ever was. However, the republican party isn't shutting things down and DEMANDING that a problem spot get fixed before anything moves forward. No sirree, they're just going to give a lot of bullshit speeches and make a big show of things for their base, while simultaneously making sure that behind the scenes, the apple cart doesn't really get knocked over…
This cunty political grandstanding is not going to keep General Smith from assuming his duties. The guy that is currently slated to take the job, WILL TAKE OVER THE JOB, and he will do it according to schedule. He’s just going to do it with the word “Acting” on the manning roster for the first few days of his tenure. The real thorn in everyone's craw here seems to be that his "title" will briefly be "Acting" CMC.
The rest of rthe republican party hasn't banded together to block GEN Smith's nomination, nor have they banded together to stop the process until their grief point is addressed. It’s just one lonely fellow that used some obscure senate rule to complicate and intentionally slow down the process. Oddly, it isn’t REALLY holding up the process - it just isn’t allowing the process to “speed up” so that they can rubber stamp it in batches before they go on ANOTHER vacation. The process will just be put on hold until ALL our elected officials return from watching the fireworks. (both literally AND figuratively)
If this is clearly the national security issue that it's being made out to be - why are ALL of the senators going on vacation? Why isn’t Cocaine Mitch giving Tommy Tuberville a swirly in the senate lavatory to get him in line? Why aren’t there 40+ senators giving this guy a congressional blanket party so they can all ensure that “we the people” have a strong military that is ready to provide for the common defense at a moment’s notice?
Shouldn’t the senate majority be making a stand and cancelling vacation time until this dire national security issue is solved? If calling General Smith the "Acting" CMC until after they return from vacation is going to make us loose the war in Ukraine and cost us our strategic advantage in Taiwan, shouldn't the senate arms services committee hold some kind of emergency meeting to get this ironed out ???
Or is this much ado about nothing?
Personally, I think the irony is FABULOUS. One hundred specially selected American citizens are going to go celebrate Independence Day with a vacation while their primary duty of "providing for the common defense" is pushed to the back burner. Meanwhile, some random Lance Corporal will surely get fucked over this weekend by being put on duty to make sure the barracks don’t “catch fire” while the elected officials that took an oath of office to “well and faithfully discharge their duties” voluntarily fuck right off for a couple weeks because Congressing is just too fucking hard to do without having a lot of vacations.
Pragmatically speaking, this just looks like another politician shamelessly grandstanding for their base while the media hypes it up as an unforgivable offense. If the same thing happened with an Army General, I'd be laughing my mother fucking ass off so hard and for so long that it would become necessary to call the paramedics to administer some high flow O2 before I passed the fuck out from hypoxia.
As a proudly biased, narrow focus, blindly hypocritical, unapologetic conservative, I think it’s great.
One single mother fucking republican seems willing to throw his reputation into the shitter to take a stand about something that conservatives "CLAIM" is near and dear to their hearts. Aren’t all of these fucking conservatives supposed to be “fixing” the abortion problem in America?
Isn’t it worth some discussion that the Pentagon has apparently instituted a policy that seems to deliberately circumvent certain state laws? Now, THAT doesn’t seem like something senior leaders of Integrity™ would do – does it? Is it OK to let the pentagon create a policy that deliberately circumvents state laws? Or is it just ok when its an issue that doesn’t impact “my own” personal situation.
-I don’t need to take uncharged leave to go to a state that allows unregulated abortion as a birth control method – so I don’t care. I do however wonder, what happens when the Pentagon is free to establish a policy the DOES impact something I feel strongly about by completely circumventing state and/or federal laws?
-As a mildly related issue: Aren’t we watching an Arm-Brace-Ban thingy unfold in congress right now because a “Department” has begun creating policy that circumvents the law? Do we want the pentagon to get into that same habit WITHOUT at least slowing things down to ask “why” they needed to circumvent state law. Or should we start trusting the pentagon the same way that we trust the DOJ? (Asking for a friend)
One single mother fucking republican is falling on his own political sword just before the 4th of July weekend because the Pentagon has established a policy that effectively undermines the law in his state.
Outrageous.
Hm… whatever – I’m just going to enjoy the fireworks.
