#ucmj

[victusinveritas]

[trash-panda-kitty]

The United States just broadcast a war crime.

No euphemisms. No ambiguity.

We need to talk about what that means.

The U.S. blew up a boat in the Caribbean.

Nine people died.

2 survived and were left shipwrecked,

unarmed, and clinging to debris for an hour.

Then the U.S. military fired again and killed them.

Congress just saw the video.

Experts say it’s a war crime.

Shipwrecked. Unarmed. Then Executed: America’s New “Drug War”

The United States Just Broadcast a War Crime. Let’s Talk About It.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

White House Declares All of Trump’s Orders to Military Are Legal

The Trump administration is twisting U.S. military code to take revenge against Democrats who reminded troops to follow the law.

Malcolm Ferguson at TNR:

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says “all orders” from President Trump are “lawful orders,” and troops have no right to question him. “All lawful—all orders—lawful orders are presumed to be legal by our service members. You can’t have a functioning military if there is disorder and chaos within the ranks,” Leavitt told reporters outside the White House on Monday. “And that’s what these Democrat members were encouraging. It’s very clear. And not a single one of them since they’ve been pressed by the media … can point to a single illegal order that this administration has given down because it does not exist. “You can’t have a soldier out on the battlefield or conducting a classified order questioning whether that order is lawful or whether they should follow through,” Leavitt argued earlier, in a twisted reading of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Leavitt’s comments came as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth weighs court-martialing former astronaut, retired Naval officer, and now–Democratic Senator Mark Kelly for his role in a video that the right is claiming to be “seditious.”

“This administration is pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens. Like us, you all swore an oath to protect and defend this Constitution. Right now, the threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad but from right here at home,” Kelly said in the clip, along with Senator Elissa Slotkin and Representatives Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander, and Chrissy Houlahan—all former military or intelligence veterans. “Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders.”

[...] Unfortunately for the White House’s arguments, there have been illegal orders to the military from the Trump administration. 

Spokesliar Karoline Leavitt is so delulu.

[eltristanexplicitcontent]

We want to speak directly to members of the Military and the Intelligence Community

[reading-writing-revolution]

(via Service members: Remember the duty to disobey)

I won’t have to face this hard choice myself. But, as a retired Air Force veteran, I have many friends who remain in the military. They tell me that they are worried, afraid to speak up or out, and being warned to be careful if they do. Some are whispering in twos or threes, barely willing to voice their concerns out loud. Others are reaching out to retired military colleagues to ask for guidance on how to navigate the “craziness” of the Trump administration while maintaining their integrity. Still others have decided that they cannot serve under this president and have quietly submitted their retirement paperwork. The departures of these highly respected leaders have eroded trust in the chain of command and made things even more fraught for the active-duty members who remain.

Fraught might be an understatement. As Americans, we are faced with an administration that is displaying open hostility to the Constitution. It is blatantly testing boundaries, running roughshod over established law, and careening towards autocracy.

As a young airman, I worked on a signals intelligence “watch floor” with service members from every military branch. Surrounded by computer screens and informed by data feeds, we monitored our area of responsibility for “indications and warnings” to keep our deployed military comrades safe. Most of the time, the work was predictable. But one night, there was unusual activity in our region, creating confusion that could lead to dangerous delays in reporting.

Just when it felt as if we were losing control of the situation, our watch chief, an Army sergeant first class with a booming voice, shouted across the dark room: “If you see something you don’t understand, yell ‘WHAT THE F$CK?’ and I will come over there, and we will figure it out together!”

And that’s exactly what happened. Throughout the night, we sounded the alarm and used our collective experience to make sense of the data, fulfilling our duties.

Unfortunately, the time has come yet again to stand up and yell, “WHAT THE F$CK?”

As a Navy veteran, I get it. We will do what is right and in accordance with the Constitution, and that’s what we’ve always done.

[sweepingtrex]

When I was 22 years old, I commissioned as an Ensign in the United States Navy and swore an oath to the Constitution. I upheld that oath through flight school, multiple deployments on the USS Midway, 39 combat missions in Operation Desert Storm, test pilot school, four space shuttle flights at NASA, and every day since I retired – which I did after my wife Gabby was shot in the head while serving her constituents.

In combat, I had a missile blow up next to my jet and flew through anti-aircraft fire to drop bombs on enemy targets. At NASA, I launched on a rocket, commanded the space shuttle, and was part of the recovery mission that brought home the bodies of my astronaut classmates who died on Columbia. I did all of this in service to this country that I love and has given me so much.

Secretary Hegseth’s tweet is the first I heard of this. I also saw the President’s posts saying I should be arrested, hanged, and put to death.

If this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won’t work. I’ve given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies who care more about their own power than protecting the Constitution.

[critical-skeptic]

When Will Enough Be Enough?

It would be so damn easy to stop this madness. We have the mechanisms—Congressional and military oaths, the UCMJ, constitutional authority—all of it designed for precisely this kind of moment: when a clear and present danger to the Republic emerges. And yet, what do we get? Nothing. Spineless platitudes, endless hearings that amount to nothing, and a collective shrug from those in power who have sworn an oath to protect this country. They have the ability—no, the duty—to act, but instead, they tiptoe around the edges, pretending the fire consuming our democracy is just another bad season of political theater.

The military, the politicians, the courts—they all cling to this farce of procedural propriety as if following the rules matters when the rulebook itself is being set ablaze. These are the same people who proudly invoke the Founding Fathers while utterly ignoring the revolutionary spirit of those men who risked their lives to create a system that wouldn’t be beholden to tyrants. They act like the mere suggestion of extreme measures is taboo, as if waiting for a magic moment of unanimous consent will suddenly fix everything. Newsflash: that moment isn’t coming. We’re already past it. The water is boiling, and instead of leaping out, we’re sitting here like morons, seasoning ourselves with denial and cowardice.

Let’s be clear: this isn’t just about one man or one movement. It’s about the absolute abdication of responsibility by everyone—the lawmakers who sit in chambers and bicker about decorum while the Constitution they claim to revere gets shredded; the judges who hide behind technicalities instead of delivering justice; the military brass who have forgotten that their oath isn’t just to follow orders but to defend the nation against all enemies, foreign and domestic. They know the stakes. They’ve seen the lines crossed, the norms obliterated. And still, they wait. For what? Permission? Consensus? A fucking parade?

Meanwhile, the citizenry is fed this endless, suffocating narrative that we must “avoid conflict” at all costs, as if conflict isn’t already here. It’s here in the erosion of our institutions, in the normalization of corruption, in the relentless assault on truth itself. This country was built on conflict when it was necessary to preserve freedom. Now, we cower in the face of it, deluding ourselves into thinking that restraint is virtue while the very fabric of our democracy frays to the point of no return.

At what point do we stop pretending this is business as usual? How much more blatant does it have to get? Do we need it in neon lights? Do we need a literal dictator standing on the Capitol steps declaring martial law before we acknowledge what’s happening? The fact that so many in positions of authority, with the power and the mandate to act, are choosing inaction isn’t just cowardice—it’s complicity. They are complicit in this decay, complicit in the destruction of the ideals they swore to defend. Their inaction is a betrayal—not just of their oaths, but of the people they serve and the generations yet to come.

There comes a point where the fear of doing something becomes far more dangerous than the act itself. We’re long past that point. Waiting only ensures the fall. So, to those with the power to act but who choose to sit on their hands instead: understand this. History will not remember your neutrality as wisdom. It will remember it as cowardice. And you will deserve every ounce of condemnation that comes with it.

[ladythatsmyskull]

Captain America vs General Milley.