To the Editor:

Someday, if I am ready to hold my nose while slopping through the muck of Stephen “Voldemort” Miller’s vile statements, I will acquaint you with the facts. You vouched for “the man I know,” but I hope you did it because you are unaware of his character. Stephen Miller is not an “honorable” man, which he clearly demonstrated in his Kirk eulogy. Yet you defended him with the most tortuous argument I have ever encountered, interpreting his quotation from a Nazi war criminal promising complete destruction of his opponents as if it were a stormy-weather report. It is not hate-mongering to quote anyone precisely, or draw conclusions from their consistent words or actions.

You think Trump was “tongue-in-cheek” at Kirk’s funeral about hating his enemies? He was bragging, Martin, distancing himself from Charlie’s principles, not self-deprecating. You are consistently blind to the obvious when it does not support your autocratic approach to life.

The primary shock this week was the Hegseth/Trump call for 800 generals, admirals, and other high-ranking military from their world-wide posts to assemble at Quantico VA. The newly-minted “Secretary of War” strode like a frat-boy Culture Warrior as he hawked his 2024 book, lectured our finest military leaders on weakness and “woke decay” in the Pentagon, declared additional restrictions for weight and facial hair, their military responsibilities, and Esprit de Corps, something they have been living their entire careers. He said that anyone in the room who didn’t agree with his directives “should resign.” Respect is in short supply in the DOD, one place it is essential.

In his 72-minute address, Trump informed the assembly that he’d given an order to create military “quick reaction forces” to “help quell civil disturbances” in “Democratic-run cities” and use them as “training grounds” for fighting “the war from within”, terrifyingly comparing domestic disturbances to threats from foreign combatants. Any opposition to Trump is deemed a “terrorist” act. Anything that offends his sensibilities is a “national emergency.”

Deploying the military for non-emergency civilian law enforcement violates the Constitution and Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. In TrumpWorld he can just declare an “emergency” to militarily invade a city, no matter the lack of evidence or objection of the Governor, completely inconsistent with “Small Government,” “States’ Rights,” and Constitutional protections that traditional Republicans used to venerate.

Our president warned our highest military that, “If you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room. Of course, there goes your rank, there goes your future, but you just feel nice and loose, OK?” Putin couldn’t have been more direct. It wasn’t a “joke,” Martin, though followed by sparse half-grunt/chuckles by stunned attendees who couldn’t believe the authoritarian demands they were hearing from a cocky tin soldier and Commander-in-Chief Bone Spurs. He told them to expect orders consistent with his plan to act against American citizens. These military stalwarts have put their lives on the line, and that of their soldiers, in battle for their country’s sake, and their arrogant, ham-fisted superiors threaten them with unconstitutional orders.

Trump’s clean-up comments involved, once again, the Nobel Peace Prize. “We’ll see what happens, but it would be a big insult to our country. I will tell you that. I don’t want it. I want the country to get it.” Like he wants the country to get the princely Quatar jet, the multi-million-dollar ballroom, and the gold-plated everything in the Oval.

This is not a matter of partisan politics. If there was any previous doubt of Trump’s intentions, the Quantico meeting, in the opinions of numerous retired military elites, was an insult to the military and a shocking confirmation of his plans for authoritarian control. Past politicians have hawked what Trump is selling. We are only Free Americans because they lost.

Kelly Scoles,

Fillmore, Ca