"We do not take an oath to a wannabe dictator, we take an oath to the Constitution and the idea of America, and we are willing to die for it" — #US #General Mark #Milley (Retired)
With Trump showing signs of siding with the russian dictator Vladimir Putin in the war against Ukraine, there are voices in defiance being heard in the United States of America.
https://www.europesays.com/1867303/ Trump’s Firing of Gen. Charles Q. Brown May Have Roots in George Floyd Protests #america #BlackLivesMatterMovement #BlackPeople #BROWN #CharlesQJr #DefenseDepartment #DonaldJ #Esper #GeorgeFloydProtests(2020) #Hegseth #JointChiefsOfStaff #MarkA #MarkT #Milley #Pete #PresidentialElectionOf2024 #RaceAndEthnicity #trump #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesDefenseAndMilitaryForces #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #US #USNews #USTopics #USA #USANews
And after #Trump returned to power, #Milley’s & #Esper’s portraits were removed from the walls of the #Pentagon.
It is unclear whether Gen #CQBrown will get a portrait of his 1 year & 4 months as the #JointChiefs chair. Trump has not publicly criticized Gen Brown, whom he is seeking to replace w/the retired 3-star Lt. Gen. Dan Caine, another fighter pilot.
The two were already at odds over #Trump’s desire to use the #InsurrectionAct to deploy active duty #troops to rein in the protesters, a move that Gen #Milley & then #Defense Secy Mark Esper had vehemently opposed.
Trump would never trust either man again.
Trump would later fire Esper (by tweet). As for Gen Milley, Trump would eventually suggest he should be put to death.
Days after #GeorgeFloyd’s murder, Gen. #Milley, wearing his Army fatigues, accompanied #Trump in a walk across Lafayette Square near the White House for a photo op after an *aggressive* [brutal] clearing of a peaceful #demonstration. Milley was widely criticized for allowing Trump to drag him into #politics.
Milley publicly apologized, saying, “I should not have been there.”
Trump was furious. “Why’d you do that?” he asked Milley, per Trump ofcls at the time.
In the 4-min video, Gen #CQBrown reflected on his experiences as an African American pilot in the Air Force.
The killing of #GeorgeFloyd also blew up the relationship between #Trump & General Brown’s predecessor, Gen. Mark A. #Milley.
Ex-Generalstabschef und Trump-Kritiker Milley verliert Personenschutz
Die US-Regierung geht weiter gegen Trump-Kritiker vor: Nun verliert Ex-Generalstabschef Milley seinen Personenschutz. Außerdem könnte er nachträglich degradiert werden. Sein Bild wurde bereits aus dem Pentagon entfernt.
“The ghost of General #Milley shouldn’t haunt the #Pentagon anymore, nor should it haunt the armed forces,” a senior #defense ofcl said. “This is all about accountability for General Milley.”
[Jiminy Cricket, echoes of #ElonMusk’s Germany “too much of a focus on past guilt”]
Shortly after #Trump was sworn in, admin ofcls had a portrait of Milley memorializing his time as #JointChiefs chairman removed from a wall in the Pentagon.
President Joe Biden issued preemptive #pardons Monday to retired Gen. Mark A. #Milley, Anthony S. #Fauci, members and staff of the Jan. 6 congressional committee, and #police officers who testified before the panel,
in an extraordinary move just hours before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
In a lengthy statement, Biden explained that he was issuing the pardons not because of any wrongdoing by those included
but to protect them after they had served their country.
Biden’s decision comes after Trump has repeatedly threatened to go after those who have crossed him politically or attempted to hold him accountable for his role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
“These public servants have served our nation with honor and distinction and do not deserve to be the targets of unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions,” Biden said in the statement.
“I believe in the rule of law,
and I am optimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over politics.
But these are exceptional circumstances,
and I cannot in good conscience do nothing,” Biden added.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/20/biden-issues-preemptive-pardons/
Forget firing,
Donald Trump just pitched having special counsel Jack Smith #deported.
During a rambling radio interview on 77WABC’s Cats & Cosby Thursday,
Trump threw out Smith’s name when asked about his plans for immigration.
“Domestically, what could America look like if it continues to have this open border policy that we have seen?” asked host Rita Cosby.
“We can’t have it, it’s, it’s not sustainable, it has to be shut immediately and you have to let people in, but they have to come in legally and you have to get the killers, the murderers, and the mentally deranged, you have to get them out.
And we should throw Jack Smith out with them,” Trump said.
“The #mentally #deranged people, Jack Smith should be considered mentally deranged and he should be thrown out of the country,” Trump continued.
Trump seemed to pluck Smith’s name out of thin air, as the special counsel had not yet come up in the interview.
Smith has overseen two investigations into Trump,
one regarding his alleged efforts to overturn the election results in 2020,
and another into his alleged mishandling of classified documents.
This isn’t the first time Trump has threatened to deport those in the country legally.
The former president has repeatedly made threats to deport immigrants who have entered the country under temporary protected status and humanitarian parole.
Shortly before claiming that he would deport one of his political enemies, who is attempting to hold him accountable for his alleged crimes, Trump tried desperately to defend himself from claims that he was a fascist.
The former president went on a tirade against his former chief of staff, retired U.S. general #John #Kelly, who said that Trump fell into the “general definition of fascist.”
Trump claimed Kelly was simply angry he’d been fired.
Trump went on a wild rant calling Kelly a “stupid person,”
“a bully who made up stories,”
and “a man of rather low intelligence, who was a tough guy who became a marshmallow.”
He swerved into complaints about former Secretaries of Defense #Mark #Esper and #James #Mattis, and former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff #Mark #Milley.
This is Trump’s second threat against Smith in as many days.
Trump vowedThursday to “fire” Smith on his first day in office, in hopes of washing his hands of the two federal cases against him.
https://newrepublic.com/post/187579/donald-trump-jack-smith-deport
Fox News’s interview of Kamala Harris was grievance theater, not political journalism
After 10 minutes of playing immigration “#gotcha”,
Baier pivoted to the obvious next subject,
airing a video clip in which Harris expressed support for transgender people in prisons.
Immigrant hatred.
Transphobia.
And later, Joe Biden’s age.
Baier was running through the Fox News greatest hits playlist.
This was #grievance #theater, not political journalism.
. But Harris got in her licks. She had her moments.
Chiming in afterwards in what some saw as 
corporate damage control,
Baier’s colleagues on Fox News gushed their approval.
Martha MacCallum termed Baier’s performance “masterful”, while Dana Perino analyzed the interview as “super good”.
I can’t imagine that too many viewers agreed.
If they came to it expecting to learn more about Harris’s policies or get a true sense of her character, they would have been disappointed.
That wasn’t the gameplan, and it wasn’t the result.
But Harris accomplished something anyway.
️Merely by sitting down with a Fox host, she made a few statements.
First, that she is unafraid and is willing to speak to all voters.
It’s hard to imagine Donald Trump, these days, submitting to an interview with, say, Rachel Maddow of MSNBC;
just this week, he turned away from a CNBC interview, and earlier canceled a CBS News 60 Minutes agreement.
Second, Harris did manage to introduce a few snippets of reality to dedicated Fox viewers who probably haven’t been exposed to some of the most troubling criticisms of Trump.
“That he’s unfit to serve. That he’s unstable. That’s he’s dangerous,” was how she characterized what millions of Americans are feeling.
“And that people are exhausted.”
She even was able to mention, at some length, the harsh view of the former commander-in-chief from #Mark #Milley, who served in two top military roles
– including chair of the joint chiefs of staff
– during the Trump administration.
Milley has called Trump
“fascist to the core”
and has said that 
no one has ever been as dangerous to the United States.
