I don't understand how anybody listened to John Kelly yesterday without developing a sense that he was talking about deep, sacred things before which we should pause with reverence. Perhaps the sacred itself is terrifying: certainly, it looks as if what he said scared some.
That shows it was a powerful speech, I suppose.
What a twisted little mess of words. So now honoring a fallen comrade is equivalent to a coup? So very concerned about totalitarianism, is she? Wonder if she wrote one sentence about using the IRS to quash political speech? It was not the military she seems so afraid of, that was running the Soviet Union.
ReplyDeleteIt's that Soviet connection that's causing me to be as gentle as I am being here. OK, you grew up under totalitarianism, I can see how you'd be hyper-sensitive. But that's not what's going on here. He's not talking about seizing power. He's trying to explain to an America that has grown very distant from military service just what is involved, and why they should honor that process as much as the military families do.
ReplyDeleteI made the serious mistake of scanning Twitter today on this topic. I do not recommend it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, helicopter twitter had a bunch of casualties today. People were pissed. (Not at Kelly)
ReplyDeleteJaed is correct, the reactions of very many on twitter have been, well, troubling to say the least.
ReplyDelete"As if on cue, the first reporter allowed to speak inserted the phrase 'Semper Fi'—a literal loyalty oath—into his question."
ReplyDeleteNow that is truly a bizarre reaction. And did the reporter truly not understand why Kelly was saying he pitied people who hadn't experienced the self-sacrifice of military service?
Kelly called some political opportunists out for tawdriness. I guess they really have no idea what was tawdry about their behavior.
Oddly enough, this isn't all over my Facebook feed. I must have muted the likely offenders, but even so this is the kind of thing that usually seeps through.
And did the reporter truly not understand why Kelly was saying he pitied people who hadn't experienced the self-sacrifice of military service?
ReplyDeleteCouple things on this: first, having watched that presser, I took the reporter's opening as a sincere statement, not a "careful insertion;" that's Gessen's cynical distortion. Which brings me to my second thing: I've seen no evidence that reporters--Gessen included--are that ignorant or lacking in understanding what what they're covering. They know what they're doing.
Eric Hines
I guess they really have no idea what was tawdry about their behavior.
ReplyDeleteI go back and forth.
On the one hand, I think to myself, "Characterizing the Marine Corps motto as a 'loyalty oath'??? Geeze, these people are clueless. Aggressively clueless, too—someone who was simply ignorant would at least have looked up the phrase."
Then fifteen minutes later I'm thinking, "It's not physically possible to be that clueless, and the writer doesn't sound stupid. They're doing it deliberately... but don't they realize that normal people are reading this too??? And what conclusions they're drawing from it?"
Then fifteen minutes after that: "A 'literal loyalty oath, at that. What in the hell is that supposed to mean?"
That's pretty much the way my thinking process goes with all of this stuff, all of these incidents where the press displays this kind of behavior and talk. I can't make up my mind whether it's smug ignorance or deliberate malice or something beyond human ken. But I don't like any of it.
(Does anyone know the first reporter's name? I was wondering whether he might be a former Marine, hence the Semper Fi.)
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know the first reporter's name?
ReplyDeleteHe's a frequent question-asker at those noon(-ish) White House pressers, but Sanders addresses them by first name, not full name. At the presser in question, Gen Kelly took questions only from Gold Star family member reporters or reporters who knew a Gold Star family member, making them self identify with raised hands before he'd call on one.
This guy presumably fit the bill. It's hard to believe even a reporter would be that dishonest; that's a datum that's too easily checked.
Eric Hines.
What is twitter, is that something the Deep State uses to brainwash people.
ReplyDelete