2024

[Typical Lax Dad]

[a fan]

Don't look now, but some Republicans still actually know what a F'ing conservative is.

Congratulations Republican voters, you've F'ed up so freaking bad that you got the last two Republican Presidents to endorse a Democrat for President.

Welcome to the bottom.

But please, by all means, keep digging......Center of the Earth and China awaits......


I can see this losing the election for Trump. Can't "Deep State" your way around this one if you're an indie voter.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Don't look now, but some Republicans still actually know what a F'ing conservative is.

Congratulations Republican voters, you've F'ed up so freaking bad that you got the last two Republican Presidents to endorse a Democrat for President.

Welcome to the bottom.

But please, by all means, keep digging......Center of the Earth and China awaits......


I can see this losing the election for Trump. Can't "Deep State" your way around this one if you're an indie voter.

He’s a RINO.

[a fan]

Don't look now, but some Republicans still actually know what a F'ing conservative is.

Congratulations Republican voters, you've F'ed up so freaking bad that you got the last two Republican Presidents to endorse a Democrat for President.

Welcome to the bottom.

But please, by all means, keep digging......Center of the Earth and China awaits......


I can see this losing the election for Trump. Can't "Deep State" your way around this one if you're an indie voter.

He’s a RINO.

Whoops, misread it. My bad.

Not the actual Presidents. Not the same thing at all, and wouldn't have nearly the same effect than the two Bush's.

[PizzaSnake]

And Trump is apparently now blaming the family? Lol

They invited him.

[Typical Lax Dad]

[old salt]

From the Times article:

In a statement from Sergeant Marckesano’s relatives after being contacted by The New York Times, his sister, Michele, said, “We fully support Staff Sergeant Darin Hoover’s family and the other families in their quest for answers and accountability regarding the Afghanistan withdrawal and the tragedy at Abbey Gate.”

“However,” she added, “according to our conversation with Arlington National Cemetery, the Trump campaign staffers did not adhere to the rules that were set in place for this visit to Staff Sergeant Hoover’s gravesite in Section 60, which lays directly next to my brother’s grave.”

Sergeant Marckesano’s sister continued, “We hope that those visiting this sacred site understand that these were real people who sacrificed for our freedom and that they are honored and respected accordingly.”

Apologists, carry on.

Postscript from Vance:

Vance: “You’re acting like Donald Trump filmed a TV commercial at a gravesite. He was there providing emotional support to brave Americans who lost loved ones and there happened to be a camera there.”

He was filming a TV commercial at a gravesite.

... yup!

Why wasn’t Joe and Kamala there?

... they didn't approach the family to support this stunt, Trump did! He needs something to wash the taste of calling their sons and daughters losers and suckers out of their mouths. I am certain, this didn't do the job. Looks like Alfred E. Newman giving a thumbs up in the photo. The man has no concept of social grace.

Neither do his apologists apparently.

They don’t respect the military like Trump does.

There is no bottom. Not one Republican will object to Trump breaking military ethics rules at freaking Arlington, of all places.

After lecturing the world about honor in service when it came to Walz not five F'ing minutes ago.

These people can't go ten minutes without some kind of hypocrisy.

...climb down off your high horse. Trump was invited there by the family. They wanted a photo with him as a keepsake. That does not make it an "official photo" which is what the rule prohibition stipulates. Will the Army now be prohibiting selfies by visiting families ? Listen to today's DoD presser. The Army says the matter is closed. DoD just wants it to go away, but the media hacks won't let go.

Apparently Old Salsa is exceptionally late to this debate, and comes “armed” with the Trump talking points.

It was not permitted by law. His campaign assaulted a woman trying to enforce the rules. They put other gravestones in the photo. He gave the thumbs up over the resting place of a dead servicewoman. They made advertisements for social media out of the content created at ANC.

You’re simply a piece of sh@t on the same order as your Orange God. A sad, old satire of a man and brother in arms.

...FU. Trump was there at the request of the families. They wanted the pictures. It's their call not yours. There's nothing disrespectful about the picture. Trump was their son's CinC. They were grateful for his presence. You're just whining because it helps Trump politically.

OS, respectfully, you KNOW what the problem was here.

The problem is that the TrumpCampaign ran the Video of the event. Not the family. If it was just the family, and we never heard about it, no one would care.

Just agree for once: it was disgusting that the TrumpCampaign ran that video when they CLEARLY knew that was against Military regulations, and was disrespectful to the fallen.

Just say "you're right" and move on. Please.

Respectfully -- Hogwash !

What's disgusting is that Biden couldn't get out of his beach chair to honor the fallen from his Afghan fiasco.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden- ... tery-visit

The more people who see the image, the more the fallen are remembered & honored.
No surprise that the Biden-Harris apologists want it suppressed & forgotten.
Who is CinC is the most important issue in the coming election.
Harris owns the Afghan pullout fiasco. She was the last one in the room & supported it.

[Typical Lax Dad]

From the Times article:

In a statement from Sergeant Marckesano’s relatives after being contacted by The New York Times, his sister, Michele, said, “We fully support Staff Sergeant Darin Hoover’s family and the other families in their quest for answers and accountability regarding the Afghanistan withdrawal and the tragedy at Abbey Gate.”

“However,” she added, “according to our conversation with Arlington National Cemetery, the Trump campaign staffers did not adhere to the rules that were set in place for this visit to Staff Sergeant Hoover’s gravesite in Section 60, which lays directly next to my brother’s grave.”

Sergeant Marckesano’s sister continued, “We hope that those visiting this sacred site understand that these were real people who sacrificed for our freedom and that they are honored and respected accordingly.”

Apologists, carry on.

Postscript from Vance:

Vance: “You’re acting like Donald Trump filmed a TV commercial at a gravesite. He was there providing emotional support to brave Americans who lost loved ones and there happened to be a camera there.”

He was filming a TV commercial at a gravesite.

... yup!

Why wasn’t Joe and Kamala there?

... they didn't approach the family to support this stunt, Trump did! He needs something to wash the taste of calling their sons and daughters losers and suckers out of their mouths. I am certain, this didn't do the job. Looks like Alfred E. Newman giving a thumbs up in the photo. The man has no concept of social grace.

Neither do his apologists apparently.

They don’t respect the military like Trump does.

There is no bottom. Not one Republican will object to Trump breaking military ethics rules at freaking Arlington, of all places.

After lecturing the world about honor in service when it came to Walz not five F'ing minutes ago.

These people can't go ten minutes without some kind of hypocrisy.

...climb down off your high horse. Trump was invited there by the family. They wanted a photo with him as a keepsake. That does not make it an "official photo" which is what the rule prohibition stipulates. Will the Army now be prohibiting selfies by visiting families ? Listen to today's DoD presser. The Army says the matter is closed. DoD just wants it to go away, but the media hacks won't let go.

Apparently Old Salsa is exceptionally late to this debate, and comes “armed” with the Trump talking points.

It was not permitted by law. His campaign assaulted a woman trying to enforce the rules. They put other gravestones in the photo. He gave the thumbs up over the resting place of a dead servicewoman. They made advertisements for social media out of the content created at ANC.

You’re simply a piece of sh@t on the same order as your Orange God. A sad, old satire of a man and brother in arms.

...FU. Trump was there at the request of the families. They wanted the pictures. It's their call not yours. There's nothing disrespectful about the picture. Trump was their son's CinC. They were grateful for his presence. You're just whining because it helps Trump politically.

OS, respectfully, you KNOW what the problem was here.

The problem is that the TrumpCampaign ran the Video of the event. Not the family. If it was just the family, and we never heard about it, no one would care.

Just agree for once: it was disgusting that the TrumpCampaign ran that video when they CLEARLY knew that was against Military regulations, and was disrespectful to the fallen.

Just say "you're right" and move on. Please.

Respectfully -- Hogwash !

What's disgusting is that Biden couldn't get out of his beach chair to honor the fallen from his Afghan fiasco.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden- ... tery-visit

The more people who see the image, the more the fallen are remembered & honored.
No surprise that the Biden-Harris apologists want it suppressed & forgotten.
Who is CinC is the most important issue in the coming election.
Harris owns the Afghan pullout fiasco. She was the last one in the room & supported it.

I am amazed that Trump went to visit the grave of the only service member killed. How thoughtful he is.

[cradleandshoot]

From the Times article:

In a statement from Sergeant Marckesano’s relatives after being contacted by The New York Times, his sister, Michele, said, “We fully support Staff Sergeant Darin Hoover’s family and the other families in their quest for answers and accountability regarding the Afghanistan withdrawal and the tragedy at Abbey Gate.”

“However,” she added, “according to our conversation with Arlington National Cemetery, the Trump campaign staffers did not adhere to the rules that were set in place for this visit to Staff Sergeant Hoover’s gravesite in Section 60, which lays directly next to my brother’s grave.”

Sergeant Marckesano’s sister continued, “We hope that those visiting this sacred site understand that these were real people who sacrificed for our freedom and that they are honored and respected accordingly.”

Apologists, carry on.

Postscript from Vance:

Vance: “You’re acting like Donald Trump filmed a TV commercial at a gravesite. He was there providing emotional support to brave Americans who lost loved ones and there happened to be a camera there.”

He was filming a TV commercial at a gravesite.

... yup!

Why wasn’t Joe and Kamala there?

... they didn't approach the family to support this stunt, Trump did! He needs something to wash the taste of calling their sons and daughters losers and suckers out of their mouths. I am certain, this didn't do the job. Looks like Alfred E. Newman giving a thumbs up in the photo. The man has no concept of social grace.

Neither do his apologists apparently.

They don’t respect the military like Trump does.

There is no bottom. Not one Republican will object to Trump breaking military ethics rules at freaking Arlington, of all places.

After lecturing the world about honor in service when it came to Walz not five F'ing minutes ago.

These people can't go ten minutes without some kind of hypocrisy.

...climb down off your high horse. Trump was invited there by the family. They wanted a photo with him as a keepsake. That does not make it an "official photo" which is what the rule prohibition stipulates. Will the Army now be prohibiting selfies by visiting families ? Listen to today's DoD presser. The Army says the matter is closed. DoD just wants it to go away, but the media hacks won't let go.

Apparently Old Salsa is exceptionally late to this debate, and comes “armed” with the Trump talking points.

It was not permitted by law. His campaign assaulted a woman trying to enforce the rules. They put other gravestones in the photo. He gave the thumbs up over the resting place of a dead servicewoman. They made advertisements for social media out of the content created at ANC.

You’re simply a piece of sh@t on the same order as your Orange God. A sad, old satire of a man and brother in arms.

...FU. Trump was there at the request of the families. They wanted the pictures. It's their call not yours. There's nothing disrespectful about the picture. Trump was their son's CinC. They were grateful for his presence. You're just whining because it helps Trump politically.

OS, respectfully, you KNOW what the problem was here.

The problem is that the TrumpCampaign ran the Video of the event. Not the family. If it was just the family, and we never heard about it, no one would care.

Just agree for once: it was disgusting that the TrumpCampaign ran that video when they CLEARLY knew that was against Military regulations, and was disrespectful to the fallen.

Just say "you're right" and move on. Please.

Respectfully -- Hogwash !

What's disgusting is that Biden couldn't get out of his beach chair to honor the fallen from his Afghan fiasco.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden- ... tery-visit

The more people who see the image, the more the fallen are remembered & honored.
No surprise that the Biden-Harris apologists want it suppressed & forgotten.
Who is CinC is the most important issue in the coming election.
Harris owns the Afghan pullout fiasco. She was the last one in the room & supported it.

trump was invited Biden never would be. Of course the Biden- Harris apologists want the issue suppressed and forgotten. They understand the optics make them look very bad. Too bad they will be dealing with the issue all the way to election day. So it looks like you folks will have to just deal with it after your done whining. My bad, you folks never stop whining about anything.

[cradleandshoot]

Don't look now, but some Republicans still actually know what a F'ing conservative is.

Congratulations Republican voters, you've F'ed up so freaking bad that you got the last two Republican Presidents to endorse a Democrat for President.

Welcome to the bottom.

But please, by all means, keep digging......Center of the Earth and China awaits......


I can see this losing the election for Trump. Can't "Deep State" your way around this one if you're an indie voter.

You talking about the conservative Bush who started the war in Iraq? Your actually using him as an example of what a good conservative Republican should be? At least Bush settled his personal grudge with Saddam. That give you satisfaction my man? You break it you buy it. Bush broke it and the American people are still paying the bill. Your the last person on this forum I would have expected to use George W Bush as a shining example for anything.

[cradleandshoot]

From the Times article:

In a statement from Sergeant Marckesano’s relatives after being contacted by The New York Times, his sister, Michele, said, “We fully support Staff Sergeant Darin Hoover’s family and the other families in their quest for answers and accountability regarding the Afghanistan withdrawal and the tragedy at Abbey Gate.”

“However,” she added, “according to our conversation with Arlington National Cemetery, the Trump campaign staffers did not adhere to the rules that were set in place for this visit to Staff Sergeant Hoover’s gravesite in Section 60, which lays directly next to my brother’s grave.”

Sergeant Marckesano’s sister continued, “We hope that those visiting this sacred site understand that these were real people who sacrificed for our freedom and that they are honored and respected accordingly.”

Apologists, carry on.

Postscript from Vance:

Vance: “You’re acting like Donald Trump filmed a TV commercial at a gravesite. He was there providing emotional support to brave Americans who lost loved ones and there happened to be a camera there.”

He was filming a TV commercial at a gravesite.

... yup!

Why wasn’t Joe and Kamala there?

... they didn't approach the family to support this stunt, Trump did! He needs something to wash the taste of calling their sons and daughters losers and suckers out of their mouths. I am certain, this didn't do the job. Looks like Alfred E. Newman giving a thumbs up in the photo. The man has no concept of social grace.

Neither do his apologists apparently.

They don’t respect the military like Trump does.

There is no bottom. Not one Republican will object to Trump breaking military ethics rules at freaking Arlington, of all places.

After lecturing the world about honor in service when it came to Walz not five F'ing minutes ago.

These people can't go ten minutes without some kind of hypocrisy.

...climb down off your high horse. Trump was invited there by the family. They wanted a photo with him as a keepsake. That does not make it an "official photo" which is what the rule prohibition stipulates. Will the Army now be prohibiting selfies by visiting families ? Listen to today's DoD presser. The Army says the matter is closed. DoD just wants it to go away, but the media hacks won't let go.

Apparently Old Salsa is exceptionally late to this debate, and comes “armed” with the Trump talking points.

It was not permitted by law. His campaign assaulted a woman trying to enforce the rules. They put other gravestones in the photo. He gave the thumbs up over the resting place of a dead servicewoman. They made advertisements for social media out of the content created at ANC.

You’re simply a piece of sh@t on the same order as your Orange God. A sad, old satire of a man and brother in arms.

...FU. Trump was there at the request of the families. They wanted the pictures. It's their call not yours. There's nothing disrespectful about the picture. Trump was their son's CinC. They were grateful for his presence. You're just whining because it helps Trump politically.

OS, respectfully, you KNOW what the problem was here.

The problem is that the TrumpCampaign ran the Video of the event. Not the family. If it was just the family, and we never heard about it, no one would care.

Just agree for once: it was disgusting that the TrumpCampaign ran that video when they CLEARLY knew that was against Military regulations, and was disrespectful to the fallen.

Just say "you're right" and move on. Please.

Respectfully -- Hogwash !

What's disgusting is that Biden couldn't get out of his beach chair to honor the fallen from his Afghan fiasco.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden- ... tery-visit

The more people who see the image, the more the fallen are remembered & honored.
No surprise that the Biden-Harris apologists want it suppressed & forgotten.
Who is CinC is the most important issue in the coming election.
Harris owns the Afghan pullout fiasco. She was the last one in the room & supported it.

trump was invited Biden never would be. Of course the Biden- Harris apologists want the issue suppressed and forgotten. They understand the optics make them look very bad. Too bad they will be dealing with the issue all the way to election day. So it looks like you folks will have to just deal with it after your done whining. My bad, you folks never stop whining about anything.

I'm hoping that while trump was paying his respects to this fallen Marine that he apologized for Bidens f***ing stupidity.

[Seacoaster(1)]

Good summary, and a nice contrast to the apologists and toadies here:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... n-virginia

The author, Kevin Carroll, served as a senior counselor to US secretary of homeland security John Kelly, and as a CIA and US army officer.

[Seacoaster(1)]

More food for thought for the folks without shame:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... ry/679659/

"The section of Arlington National Cemetery that Donald Trump visited on Monday is both the liveliest and the most achingly sad part of the grand military graveyard, set aside for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Section 60, young widows can be seen using clippers and scissors to groom the grass around their husbands’ tombstones as lots of children run about.

Karen Meredith knows the saddest acre in America only too well. The California resident’s son, First Lieutenant Kenneth Ballard, was the fourth generation of her family to serve as an Army officer. He was killed in Najaf, Iraq, in 2004, and laid to rest in Section 60. She puts flowers on his gravesite every Memorial Day. “It’s not a number, not a headstone,” she told me. “He was my only child.”

The sections of Arlington holding Civil War and World War I dead have a lonely and austere beauty. Not Section 60, where the atmosphere is sanctified but not somber—too many kids, Meredith recalled from her visits to her son’s burial site. “We laugh, we pop champagne. I have met men who served under him, and they speak of him with such respect. And to think that this man”—she was referring to Trump—“came here and put his thumb up—”

She fell silent for a moment on the telephone, taking a gulp of air. “I’m trying not to cry.”

For Trump, defiling what is sacred in our civic culture borders on a pastime. Peacefully transferring power to the next president, treating political adversaries with at least rudimentary grace, honoring those soldiers wounded and disfigured in service of our country—Trump long ago walked roughshod over all these norms. Before he tried to overturn a national election, he mocked his opponents in the crudest terms and demeaned dead soldiers as “suckers.”

But the former president outdid himself this week, when he attended a wreath-laying ceremony honoring 13 American soldiers killed in a suicide bombing in Kabul during the final havoc-marked hours of the American withdrawal. Trump laid three wreaths and put hand over heart; that is a time-honored privilege of presidents. Trump, as is his wont, went further. He walked to a burial site in Section 60 and posed with the family of a fallen soldier, grinning broadly and giving a thumbs-up for his campaign photographer and videographer.

Few spaces in the United States join the sacred and the secular to more moving effect than Arlington National Cemetery, 624 acres set on a bluff overlooking the Potomac River and our nation’s capital. More than 400,000 veterans and their dependents have been laid to rest here, among them nearly 400 Medal of Honor recipients. Rows of matching white tombstones stretch to the end of sight.

A cemetery employee politely attempted to stop the campaign staff from filming in Section 60. Taking campaign photos and videos at gravesites is expressly forbidden under federal law. The Trump entourage, according to a subsequent statement by the U.S. Army, which oversees the cemetery, “abruptly pushed” her aside.

Trump’s campaign soon posted a video on TikTok, overlaid with Trump’s narration: “We didn’t lose one person in 18 months. And then they”—the Biden administration—“took over, that disaster of leaving Afghanistan.”

Trump was unsurprisingly not telling the truth; 11 soldiers were killed in Afghanistan in his last year in office, and his administration had itself negotiated the withdrawal. But such fabrications are incidental sins compared with what came next. A top Trump adviser, Chris LaCivita, and campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung talked to reporters and savaged the employee who had tried to stop the entourage. Cheung referred to her as “an unnamed individual, clearly suffering a mental-health episode.” LaCivita declared her a “despicable individual” who ought to be fired.

There was, of course, another way to handle this mistake. Governor Spencer Cox of Utah had accompanied Trump to the cemetery, and his campaign emailed out photos of the governor and the former president there. When challenged, Cox did what is foreign to Trump: He apologized. “You are correct,” Cox replied to a person criticizing the event on X, adding, “It did not go through the proper channels and should not have been sent. My campaign will be sending out an apology.”

This was not a judgment call, or a minor violation of obscure bureaucratic boilerplate. In the regulations governing visitors and behavior at Arlington National Cemetery, many paragraphs lay out what behavior is acceptable and what is not. These read not as suggestions but as commandments. Memorial services are intended to honor the fallen, the regulations note, with a rough eloquence: “Partisan activities are inappropriate in Arlington National Cemetery, due to its role as a shrine to all the honored dead of the Armed Forces of the United States and out of respect for the men and women buried there and for their families.”

As the clamor of revulsion swelled this week, LaCivita did not back off. On Wednesday, the Trump adviser posted a photo of Trump at Arlington Cemetery on X and added these words: “The Photo that shook the world and reminded America who the real Commander in Chief is …August 26th 2024 ..Mark the day ⁦@KamalaHarris⁩ and weak ⁦@JoeBiden.”

The Army, which is historically loath to enter politics, issued a rare statement yesterday rebuking the Trump campaign, noting that ceremony participants “had been made aware” of relevant federal laws “prohibiting political activities” and that the employee “acted with professionalism.” The Army said it “considers this matter closed” because the cemetery employee had declined to press charges.

Meanwhile, an unrepentant Trump team kept stoking the controversy. Yesterday, LaCivita posted another photo of Trump at Arlington and added this: “Reposting this hoping to trigger the hacks at @SecArmy”—the Army secretary’s office.

It had the quality of middle-school graffiti, suggesting that Trump viewed the controversy as yet another chance to mock his critics before moving on to the next outrage. For grieving families with loved ones buried in Section 60, moving on is not so easy.

How old, I asked Meredith, was your son at the time of his death? “He was 26,” she replied. “He did not have time to live. I didn’t get to dance at his wedding. I didn’t get to play with grandkids.”

This week, all she could do was call out a crude and self-regarding 78-year-old man for failing, in that most sacred of American places, to comport himself with even the roughest facsimile of dignity."

[Typical Lax Dad]

C&S, Old Salt,YI, Petey and people like them support this kind of stuff.

Donald Trump and his staff knew – and were reminded of – federal regulations specifically prohibiting the misconduct their campaign engaged in at Arlington’s section 60 this week. But the law aside, only a gross lack of manners, decency and humility could incline a person to film a fundraising appeal over the resting places of dead men and women who cannot decline to participate in the coarse spectacle. The photo of a grinning Trump giving a jaunty thumbs-up over these patriots’ graves is an indelible image of narcissism risen to the point of sociopathy.

Worse is the allegation that two Trump staff members assaulted a small, middle-aged female Department of the Army employee who attempted to enforce the regulation and preserve the cemetery’s dignity. The victim reportedly refrained from filing charges due to a reasonable fear of violence or harassment from Trump’s supporters. Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign defamed this woman as mentally ill. His running mate, JD Vance, said Kamala Harris could “go to hell” for her campaign’s suggestion that the unauthorized footage was intended for use as political footage – just before Trump used it for exactly that.

“Thanks for your service and God Bless America.”

[Seacoaster(1)]

More for the toadies to consider:

https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters ... in/679644/

"On Monday, Donald Trump visited the sacred ground of Arlington National Cemetery, where many of America’s war dead are buried, and posed for photos. In the strangest of these pictures, the former president is smiling and giving a thumbs-up by the grave of a Marine. It’s an image of a man who has no idea how to behave around fallen heroes.

Trump was at Arlington ostensibly to honor the memory of the 13 service members who were killed in a suicide bombing during the chaotic final days of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. The event was supposed to be respectful and private; according to a press-pool note, the families of the troops had asked that there be no media coverage in the area where the service members were buried. But Trump seemed to have other ideas.

According to a report by NPR, Trump’s campaign staff got into a verbal and physical altercation with a cemetery official who tried to stop campaign staffers from filming and taking photographs in the area of the cemetery reserved for recently fallen soldiers. The cemetery confirmed that an incident took place on Monday but did not provide any details, instead noting in a statement that federal law prohibits “political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries.” The Trump-campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement that “there was no physical altercation as described,” and added in a post on X that Trump had been allowed a private photographer on the premises. But in his statement, Cheung also accused the cemetery official who’d tried to block Trump’s staff of “clearly suffering from a mental health episode.”

It’s hard to see Trump’s Monday visit as anything but a campaign stop intended to court the military vote. Speaking to a group of National Guard members in Detroit later that day, he blamed President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for the failures of the Afghanistan withdrawal. By now, Trump’s use of the military as a prop for his own ends should surprise no one. Despite his vigorous avoidance of military service, Trump has a long history of denigrating the service of others, even as he poses as a defender of the nation’s military. As a candidate for the Republican nomination in 2015, he mocked Senator John McCain’s status as a prisoner of war. “He’s not a war hero,” Trump said at the time. “I like people who weren’t captured.”

Later, as president, he told his then–chief of staff John Kelly that he didn’t want “any wounded guys” in his planned Independence Day parade: “This doesn’t look good for me.” Recently, he suggested that the civilian Medal of Freedom is “actually much better” than the military’s Medal of Honor, “because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, that’s soldiers, they’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead.”

But Trump is especially out of place around the nation’s fallen troops. As reported by The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, Trump went to Arlington Cemetery with Kelly on Memorial Day 2017 and visited the gravesite of Kelly’s son Robert, who had been killed in Afghanistan. Standing next to the former Marine general, Trump said: “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?” In 2018, Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, near Paris; as Jeffrey reported, Trump told staff members that the cemetery was “filled with losers.” Trump also “referred to the more than 1,800 Marines who’d lost their lives at Belleau Wood as ‘suckers’ for getting killed,” according to Jeffrey’s reporting.

Jeffrey’s story is very much a sore spot for a candidate who wants to wrap himself in the flag. Trump has denied the reporting, but it was confirmed to CNN by Kelly: “What can I add that has not already been said? … A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs, are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’”

Kelly went on to corroborate other details in Jeffrey’s article. “God help us,” he concluded.

Monday’s wreath-laying at Arlington was, in part, Trump’s attempt to clean up the mess he has created, and to establish some credibility as a champion of men- and women-at-arms. But in the end, it merely served to remind Americans how little he understands about service, sacrifice, and heroism."

[cradleandshoot]

More food for thought for the folks without shame:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... ry/679659/

"The section of Arlington National Cemetery that Donald Trump visited on Monday is both the liveliest and the most achingly sad part of the grand military graveyard, set aside for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Section 60, young widows can be seen using clippers and scissors to groom the grass around their husbands’ tombstones as lots of children run about.

Karen Meredith knows the saddest acre in America only too well. The California resident’s son, First Lieutenant Kenneth Ballard, was the fourth generation of her family to serve as an Army officer. He was killed in Najaf, Iraq, in 2004, and laid to rest in Section 60. She puts flowers on his gravesite every Memorial Day. “It’s not a number, not a headstone,” she told me. “He was my only child.”

The sections of Arlington holding Civil War and World War I dead have a lonely and austere beauty. Not Section 60, where the atmosphere is sanctified but not somber—too many kids, Meredith recalled from her visits to her son’s burial site. “We laugh, we pop champagne. I have met men who served under him, and they speak of him with such respect. And to think that this man”—she was referring to Trump—“came here and put his thumb up—”

She fell silent for a moment on the telephone, taking a gulp of air. “I’m trying not to cry.”

For Trump, defiling what is sacred in our civic culture borders on a pastime. Peacefully transferring power to the next president, treating political adversaries with at least rudimentary grace, honoring those soldiers wounded and disfigured in service of our country—Trump long ago walked roughshod over all these norms. Before he tried to overturn a national election, he mocked his opponents in the crudest terms and demeaned dead soldiers as “suckers.”

But the former president outdid himself this week, when he attended a wreath-laying ceremony honoring 13 American soldiers killed in a suicide bombing in Kabul during the final havoc-marked hours of the American withdrawal. Trump laid three wreaths and put hand over heart; that is a time-honored privilege of presidents. Trump, as is his wont, went further. He walked to a burial site in Section 60 and posed with the family of a fallen soldier, grinning broadly and giving a thumbs-up for his campaign photographer and videographer.

Few spaces in the United States join the sacred and the secular to more moving effect than Arlington National Cemetery, 624 acres set on a bluff overlooking the Potomac River and our nation’s capital. More than 400,000 veterans and their dependents have been laid to rest here, among them nearly 400 Medal of Honor recipients. Rows of matching white tombstones stretch to the end of sight.

A cemetery employee politely attempted to stop the campaign staff from filming in Section 60. Taking campaign photos and videos at gravesites is expressly forbidden under federal law. The Trump entourage, according to a subsequent statement by the U.S. Army, which oversees the cemetery, “abruptly pushed” her aside.

Trump’s campaign soon posted a video on TikTok, overlaid with Trump’s narration: “We didn’t lose one person in 18 months. And then they”—the Biden administration—“took over, that disaster of leaving Afghanistan.”

Trump was unsurprisingly not telling the truth; 11 soldiers were killed in Afghanistan in his last year in office, and his administration had itself negotiated the withdrawal. But such fabrications are incidental sins compared with what came next. A top Trump adviser, Chris LaCivita, and campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung talked to reporters and savaged the employee who had tried to stop the entourage. Cheung referred to her as “an unnamed individual, clearly suffering a mental-health episode.” LaCivita declared her a “despicable individual” who ought to be fired.

There was, of course, another way to handle this mistake. Governor Spencer Cox of Utah had accompanied Trump to the cemetery, and his campaign emailed out photos of the governor and the former president there. When challenged, Cox did what is foreign to Trump: He apologized. “You are correct,” Cox replied to a person criticizing the event on X, adding, “It did not go through the proper channels and should not have been sent. My campaign will be sending out an apology.”

This was not a judgment call, or a minor violation of obscure bureaucratic boilerplate. In the regulations governing visitors and behavior at Arlington National Cemetery, many paragraphs lay out what behavior is acceptable and what is not. These read not as suggestions but as commandments. Memorial services are intended to honor the fallen, the regulations note, with a rough eloquence: “Partisan activities are inappropriate in Arlington National Cemetery, due to its role as a shrine to all the honored dead of the Armed Forces of the United States and out of respect for the men and women buried there and for their families.”

As the clamor of revulsion swelled this week, LaCivita did not back off. On Wednesday, the Trump adviser posted a photo of Trump at Arlington Cemetery on X and added these words: “The Photo that shook the world and reminded America who the real Commander in Chief is …August 26th 2024 ..Mark the day ⁦@KamalaHarris⁩ and weak ⁦@JoeBiden.”

The Army, which is historically loath to enter politics, issued a rare statement yesterday rebuking the Trump campaign, noting that ceremony participants “had been made aware” of relevant federal laws “prohibiting political activities” and that the employee “acted with professionalism.” The Army said it “considers this matter closed” because the cemetery employee had declined to press charges.

Meanwhile, an unrepentant Trump team kept stoking the controversy. Yesterday, LaCivita posted another photo of Trump at Arlington and added this: “Reposting this hoping to trigger the hacks at @SecArmy”—the Army secretary’s office.

It had the quality of middle-school graffiti, suggesting that Trump viewed the controversy as yet another chance to mock his critics before moving on to the next outrage. For grieving families with loved ones buried in Section 60, moving on is not so easy.

How old, I asked Meredith, was your son at the time of his death? “He was 26,” she replied. “He did not have time to live. I didn’t get to dance at his wedding. I didn’t get to play with grandkids.”

This week, all she could do was call out a crude and self-regarding 78-year-old man for failing, in that most sacred of American places, to comport himself with even the roughest facsimile of dignity."

Nice attempt at spin counselor. Joe Biden defiled Arlington National Cemetery by his own ignorance and stupidity by creating the scenario that made the deaths of these 13 military personnel a certainty. Maybe you might want to bone up on how a strategic withdrawal is accomplished? Rule #1 would be don't tell your enemy what your doing or when you will do it. If there is a rule #2 it would be don't have the people you've been at war with providing security for your strategic withdrawal. These are all issues your party is going to have to deal with counselor all the way up to election day. Your party gave trump the ammunition to question the competency of team Biden- Harris. You seem to be bewildered that trump is going to use what your party gave him to try and defeat your candidate. His target audience is those 20% of undecided voters who haven't made up their minds.

[Typical Lax Dad]

[Typical Lax Dad]

[Typical Lax Dad]

[Typical Lax Dad]