"I just do not understand the mentality. If this is a representation of who our military is now… we’re just Rome sitting here waiting to burn. We’ve got nothing left."

From "Fox Host Trashes U.S. Sailors as ‘Weak’ for Speaking Out About Dire Conditions/Fox News host Joey Jones mocked service members speaking out about conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln" (MTN).

Joey Jones on concerns of service members on the USS Lincoln: pic.twitter.com/Va2npYmA9x

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 15, 2026

"I’m pleased that the D.C. police recognize their part in violating my rights."

Said Sam O’Hara, quote in "Man who played Star Wars music at National Guard members receives settlement/The ACLU announced it had reached a financial agreement with the D.C. government and four of its officers, resolving part of the case" (WaPo)(gift link).

"Hey everyone, it’s Amy. Um, I wanted to make a statement today and—oh, sorry, I’m getting eaten by bugs."

"Um, I wanted to make a statement today in response to a couple of news articles that are out there about my marriage to Graham."

A message from my wife Amy: pic.twitter.com/dbDqjssevp

— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) May 30, 2026

"Um, if anybody knows me and Graham personally, you know that we got married in 2023. Um, we live in Sullivan. We’ve got two dogs and we love each other deeply. So it makes me really angry, um, disappointed, and I find it really shameful that there’s a group of media outlets and people who are willing to spread gossip instead of talking about real issues that Graham is running on—like healthcare and education and childcare. Um, I’m walking up and down my road right now and this is like my 20th take. This is very hard to do, but um, I just really wanted to make sure that everyone knows that Graham and I have a great marriage. Um, being married is hard.  Being newly married is hard. Being newly married and going through infertility is hard. Being newly married, going through infertility, and a Senate campaign is hard. Um, I don’t even know if I have the right words to describe what we’ve been going through, but um, our marriage counselor helps. Uh, my personal counselor helps. Graham’s personal counselor helps. Um, and we work on our mental health every day. Um, no marriage is perfect and I—I don’t want a perfect marriage. I want my marriage and I want to be married to Graham. Sorry, blackflies. Um, I knew the man that I married is wonderful and dynamic and probably a genius. Um, I knew the man that I married had been through an immense amount of violent active combat and um, he’s been in therapy for years. I just—I admire the fuck out of him.Um, so when there are news articles about our marriage, it’s just extra shitty. Can I say that online? I hope I can. Um, it’s extra shitty because people in Maine want affordable gas. They want to be able to see their doctor when they’re sick. Um, they want to be able to send like their kids to a nice school, uh, a nice daycare facility, um, and raise families the way that they want to. So I think I’m feeling angry today. Um, and I don’t normally make public statements, but it’s really important for me to tell all of you out there—especially people who are voting in Maine—that I think it’s shameful behavior to spend time and energy and resources on negative ads and negative stories on Graham when all he’s trying to do is improve the lives of people who work for a living. Um, and that’s it. He doesn’t have any other agenda, which is what I think people are trying to dig up. Um, and this is a long video, so uh, I hope my editing team isn’t too frustrated with me. Um, I hope that everyone’s having a good Saturday. Graham and I really care about the state of Maine. We really love it. We were born and raised here and I think we deserve better. I think Mainers deserve better. And I don’t know what else to say. So if you’re editing this video, I’m really sorry. Thanks for watching."

Check the box that's closest to your reaction.

That felt raw and honest and kind of beautiful.

It was evil to force her out there like that, stammering through repeated takes, pestered by insects, subordinated to her man, who... what kind of man is he who won't stand up for himself but sends out his wife, a wife who's obviously fragile and in need of a warm embrace and masculine protection?

 

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An early effort in the 2028 presidential fight: it's George Will in the Washington Post against J.D. Vance.

I haven't read this piece yet. I decided to blog it based on the headline and the photograph, which I find ludicrously unsubtle:

Let's read it:

Spurning the rich subtleties of the English language, JD Vance has a penchant for words that he perhaps thinks display manly vigor, and express a populist’s rejection of refinement. In a recent social media post, he called someone whose posts annoyed him a “dipshit.” He recently told an interviewer that anyone who criticizes his wife can “eat shit.”...

Maybe, because of Trump, "Americans are inured to such pungent language," Will muses, deploying the rich subtleties "inured" and "pungent." George Will's father was a philosophy professor. You can imagine the language he grew up with and that is second nature to him. We know Vance's story.

Here's an excerpt from page 132 of "Hillbilly Elegy":

"The Discombobulator. I’m not allowed to talk about it. They never got their rockets off. They had Russian and Chinese rockets, and they never got one off."

"We came in, they pressed buttons and nothing worked. They were all set for us.”

Said Trump, quoted in "Trump reveals to The Post secret ‘discombobulator’ weapon was crucial to Venezuelan raid on Maduro" (NY Post).

Trump commented on the weapon when asked about reports this week that the Biden administration “Havana Syndrome.” Not much is known about the weapon, but those reports followed on-the-ground accounts from Venezuela describing how Maduro’s gunmen were brought to their knees, “bleeding through the nose” and vomiting blood. One member of the deposed strongman’s team of guards recounted afterward that “suddenly all our radar systems shut down without any explanation. The next thing we saw were drones, a lot of drones, flying over our positions. We didn’t know how to react.... At one point, they launched something; I don’t know how to describe it. It was like a very intense sound wave. Suddenly I felt like my head was exploding from the inside... We all started bleeding from the nose. Some were vomiting blood. We fell to the ground, unable to move. We couldn’t even stand up after that sonic weapon — or whatever it was."

"Six weeks ago, Senator Mark Kelly — and five other members of Congress — released a reckless and seditious video that was clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline...."

"[T]he Department of War... has initiated retirement grade determination proceedings under 10 U.S.C. § 1370(f), with reduction in his retired grade resulting in a corresponding reduction in retired pay."

Six weeks ago, Senator Mark Kelly — and five other members of Congress — released a reckless and seditious video that was clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline. As a retired Navy Captain who is still receiving a military pension, Captain Kelly knows he…

— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) January 5, 2026

"Now, let's kick off the second half of the Rose Bowl"/"I got chills right now"/"I just got a red, white, and boner"/"I think I got a little freedom erection."

The things they say on ESPN:

 

This was the greatest two minutes of televised college sports commentary ESPN has showed since June!

pic.twitter.com/VHGYgBEraf

— Noah Bieniek (Bee-Nick) (@NoahB77_) January 2, 2026

"America sending a message to the world" — if the world watched the Rose Bowl — "We got a B2 and you don't."

Come on fathers don't hesitate/Send your sons off before it's too late.

I'm reading "Army Chief Ignites Uproar After Saying France Must ‘Accept Losing Our Children’/The furor erupted as President Emmanuel Macron is expected to present a plan for paid, voluntary military service to bolster the armed forces against the threat from Russia" (NYT):

The army chief, Gen. Fabien Mandon, who took over as chief of staff in September, told mayors gathered in Paris from across France last week that they must become the messengers of a new French resolve on an unstable European continent.

What is needed, he said, is “the spirit that accepts that we will have to suffer to protect what we are.” If France “wavers because we are not ready to accept losing our children,” then “we are, indeed, at risk,” he told the mayors, evoking the growing threat from Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Made me think of this:

"In a stunning and hasty reversal, the U.S. Coast Guard announced late Thursday that swastikas and nooses are prohibited hate symbols..."

"... erasing an attempt to soften their definition after the plan elicited furious backlash. The abrupt policy change occurred hours after The Washington Post first reported that the service was about to enact new harassment guidelines that downgraded the meaning of such symbols of fascism and racism, labeling them instead 'potentially divisive.'"

From "In reversal, Coast Guard again classifies swastikas, nooses as hate symbols/The new order came hours after The Post reported the service would instead classify such symbols as 'potentially divisive' under guidelines set for release next month" (WaPo).

Interesting. I note that Trump was asked about the policy at his press conference — the one with Mamdani — yesterday, and Trump said he didn't know about it:

"At the heart of Mr. Hegseth’s vision is an insistence that waging war is fundamentally different from other vocations in society because it is deadly and is meant to be."

"'This is life or death,' he said. 'As we all know, this is you versus an enemy hellbent on killing you.'... [T]he government’s duties to citizens who find themselves in harm’s way, fighting for their country, are not like its duties to citizens in other circumstances.... In a life-or-death occupational setting, there is no room for preferential treatment like affirmative action. No soldier should ever be led or covered by someone who has been promoted for reasons other than military effectiveness. That criterion is not bigoted. It arises from a reasonable philosophy of the limited mission of the military...."

Writes Christopher Caldwell, in "That Hegseth Speech Was Actually Pretty Good" (NYT).

"It’s meant to be an eyeball-to-eyeball kind of conversation. He wants to see the generals."

Said an unnamed person who, we're assured, knows what he's talking about.

Quoted in "New details emerge on Hegseth’s unusual mass gathering of top brass/The defense secretary is expected to lecture about the 'warrior ethos' for less than an hour, according to multiple people familiar with the event. But top generals are bracing for possible firings or demotions" (WaPo).

Some Pentagon officials questioned the wisdom of launching a relatively large gathering on short notice to hear Hegseth speak for a matter of minutes, and bristled at the idea that long-serving military leaders — a segment of whom spent years in combat earlier in their careers — needed instruction on how to fight. 

“They don’t need a talk from Secretary Hegseth on the warrior ethos,” a defense official said.... 

“Warrior ethos” across the services can have different meanings, but in general it refers to professional dedication to fighting and winning wars. It is a regular focus of Hegseth, a former National Guard infantry officer, who has also rhetorically championed a “return to lethality.”... 

The in-person nature of the meeting has generated frustration as hundreds of senior officers and their staff prepare to fly in on either commercial or military aircraft, and book lodging and transportation to be in the audience for Hegseth’s remarks early Tuesday....

Frustration at the difficulty of travel arrangements — does that sound like the warrior ethos? I don't know. I'm not a general, but I assume that part of war-fighting is transporting members of the military effectively across the face of the earth. And not complaining about it, just getting it done.

"Last year, by some estimates, Ukraine’s factories turned out more than three million drones...."

"The drones that I examined were remarkably simple: a lightweight square frame, four propellers, a video camera, a battery-powered motor, and room for a bomb. The attack drones, known as F.P.V.s, for 'first-person view,' are guided by an operator watching a video screen that shows what the drone is seeing; other members of the unit monitor feeds from reconnaissance drones.... The Russians are terrorizing the Ukrainians with drone attacks of their own. Towns and hamlets have been largely pulverized along the front lines and for miles beyond; even American air defenses are mostly useless, because setting them up invites an immediate Russian attack. Iranian-made Shahed drones, capable of carrying large warheads long distances, have pummelled Kyiv and other cities with hundreds of strikes. Under the constant threat of attack, the Ukrainians have found it difficult to supply their front lines, and evacuation is sometimes impossible. The prevalence of drones appears to have given the advantage to the defense. Along the seven-hundred-mile front, soldiers on both sides are huddled in fortified trenches, separated by a no man’s land known as the 'gray zone.' With drones circling day and night, surprise attack is impossible, movement suicidal. If soldiers venture out, they are attacked immediately by drones or artillery...."

Writes Dexter Filkins, in "Is the U.S. Ready for the Next War With global conflicts increasingly shaped by drones and A.I., the American military risks losing its dominance" (The New Yorker).

Every man for himself.

In the comments to the previous post, about the Cuauhtémoc disaster, Old and slow said: "They could see the collision coming. I don't understand why the sailors stayed up on the yardarms."

I asked Grok, "Were they courageously holding their formation? Were they waiting for a command?" and guessed that no such command was given because the men could not have scampered down all at once. Grok observed: "Staying in place, secured by harnesses, may have been safer than attempting to climb down without clear instructions.... Naval operations prioritize collective action over individual initiative in emergencies.... The sailors likely held their positions to avoid creating additional hazards, trusting their officers to issue appropriate commands."

My inclination was to credit the sailors with courage, but Grok thought it was more likely a matter of "duty and discipline." If adhering to duty and discipline doesn't count as courage, are we systematically lying to ourselves and others and engaging in sentimentalism and propaganda when we speak of courage in the military? And why would it be less courageous to unclip the harness and attempt to descend?

In writing my question for Grok, I thought of the expression "Every man for himself." Is that a command ever given in the navy? Grok said — full Grok answers here — that's not a formal command in the naval tradition. But then why do I know that phrase? Where does it come from?

"Openly transgender service members will be disqualified from serving in the U.S. military and will soon be removed from the ranks..."

"... according to a Pentagon memo that marks a significant shift from previous Defense Department policy that prohibited discrimination based on gender identity. The memo was made public Wednesday as part of a lawsuit filed by LGBTQ+ rights groups against an executive order signed last month by President Donald Trump, which stated that the 'medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria' were 'inconsistent' with the high standards expected of U.S. troops."

From "Transgender troops will be removed from U.S. military, Pentagon says/The previous Trump administration effectively banned transgender people from joining, but the new memo says currently serving transgender troops will be discharged" (WaPo).

"Is this rightward drift among young men simply a short-lived, Trump-inspired episode or a more permanent transformation?"

"The answer lies partly in Ms. Harris’s ability to connect with and motivate young voters as the campaign nears its end.... But to win more votes from young men, Ms. Harris must address their fears head-on and present a bold vision that speaks to their desire for purpose and strength.... Ms. Harris needs to go big.... Ms. Harris should make a sweeping national call to both military and civilian service — name it the Generation Z Compact to Rebuild and Renew America. Such a plan would offer a sense of identity, community and patriotism, while providing economic stability and skill-building — things many young men feel they are missing...."

Writes John Della Volpe, the director of polling at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, in "Trump’s Bro-Whispering Could Cost Democrats Too Many Young Men" (NYT).

It's a little late for that sort of thing!

Devastating... or is there an answer to this? Better get it out quick.

You know what really bothers me about Tim Walz?

When the US Marine Corps asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did it.

When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, he dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him. I think that's shameful. pic.twitter.com/Dq9xjn4R51

— JD Vance (@JDVance) August 7, 2024

"Despite their courage and great sacrifice, thousands of LGBTQI+ service members were forced out of the military because of their sexual orientation or gender identity."

"Many of these patriotic Americans were subject to a court-martial. While my Administration has taken meaningful action to remedy these problems, the impact of that historical injustice remains. As Commander in Chief, I am committed to maintaining the finest fighting force in the world. That means making sure that every member of our military feels safe and respected. Accordingly, acting pursuant to the grant of authority in Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution of the United States, I, Joseph R. Biden Jr., do hereby grant a full, complete, and unconditional pardon to persons convicted of unaggravated offenses based on consensual, private conduct with persons age 18 and older under former Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), as previously codified at 10 U.S.C. 925, as well as attempts, conspiracies, and solicitations to commit such acts under Articles 80, 81, and 82, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. 880, 881, 882...."

From "A Proclamation on Granting Pardon for Certain Violations of Article 125 Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice" (whitehouse.gov).

Memorial Day at Forest Hill Cemetery in Madison, Wisconsin.

Photos by Meade.

ADDED: Meade's video of the crowd listening to the Military Service Medley by the VFW 1318 Band:

"I can't believe I'm understanding this correctly. Ukraine's minimum age of conscription is currently 27 and they're THINKING of dropping it to 25?"

"THIS is the country that claims to be facing an existential threat from Russia? The minimum draft age in the US during the Vietnam War was 18 (although I've read that no one under 18 1/2 was actually drafted). It seems possible that the Ukrainian legislature isn't as enthusiastic about driving out the Russians as their president. On the other hand, these people being drafted are just more people who are going to die before a settlement is reached or Ukraine disappears from the map...."

That's a comment, at the NYT, to the news article "Zelensky Lowers Draft Age to Shore Up Ukraine’s Depleted Army/The idea of requiring more men to join the fight against Russia’s invasion has become toxic politically, but Russia is not relenting in its assault."

I read that headline and imagined they were going as low as maybe 15, so I was extremely puzzled to read that they were only going "as low" as 25.

What's going on? From the article:

"The National Guard are our neighbors; these are moms and dads from our communities....They are just there as a deterrent to those who might think..."

".... that they can get away with committing crimes.... This is not heavy-handed.... It is nowhere near what ‘stop and search’ was — a policy I did not support. This is just for a temporary basis to calm things down and let people know they’re safe."

Said Governor Hochul, quoted in "Hochul defends deploying National Guard in NYC subways after 'war zone' backlash" (NY Post).