President Trump Rocks Out with Real Heavy Metal Band

 

The afternoon of 20 March 2019, President Trump rocked out with a group that makes real heavy metal. The event was different from other presidential appearances, but featured many of the same themes. Two themes, American defense revival and energy dominance, stood in stark contrast to news from Germany. In the midst of the prepared remarks, with the usual riffs, President Trump elaborated on his criticism of the politician John McCain, who the appointed Senator from Arizona, Martha McSally, is unconditionally defending, raising questions about her viability or suitability in 2020. President Trump’s visit to the Lima Army Tank Plant was a great political messaging success on several levels.

The setting:

The Lima Army Tank Plant, in Lima, Ohio, is where the components of the M1 tank, in all its variations, are assembled into a heavy metal instrument that can rock your world. The plant has a uniformed Army oversight contingent, partnered with a skilled civilian workforce centered around proud UAW workers. President Trump spoke to the assembled plant crew, to repeated cheers from these skilled tradesmen, proud UAW members.

If you had not been paying attention, this plant, the only one of its kind in America, had been idled by President Obama. Their workforce was slashed as upgrades for our main battle tank, the world’s most lethal direct fire system, were halted. President Trump was visiting to highlight renewed upgrade orders and hundreds of highly skilled and well paid workers back at work.

The event was not a MAGA political rally, not organized by the Donald J. Trump campaign team. Rather, this was an official presidential visit, more like one of his troop visits. Unlike all previous appearances, President Trump rolled out briefing charts, as any CEO would do. Instead of just repeating the good news numbers, from employment to progress against ISIS, he called up charts that made his point.

President Trump proved very comfortable integrating visual aids into his presentation. Indeed, after a few good news slides, he joked about a trend line chart: “you don’t even need to know what it is about, that line just has to be good.” This observation, which everyone who has ever been in a meeting with charts understood, drew a great laugh of agreement.

Themes:

Workers have amazing opportunities now, with growing opportunities to take great jobs at higher wages. The president repeated the general employment news, again highlighting historic low unemployment for groups that are supposed to be Democrats’ long term voters. He tied this general good news into praise of the tank plant workers and pointed out how, where other presidents had written them off, he has been dedicated to bringing skilled manufacturing jobs back.

He pointed to trade and regulatory moves that created competing demand for these skilled tradesmen. Countering China’s unfair trade practices was helping a steel plant reopen. Approving pipelines meant massive private sector infrastructure employment for pipeline construction, and supported American energy dominance in the world.

Regulatory relief and trade policy supported the president pressuring American corporate chieftains to put American workers first. Indeed, President Trump went from praising the UAW workers to serving notice that he was leaving Lima to go browbeat GM executives into either reopening or quickly selling a newly idled plant to a more competent manufacturing entity. At the same time, Trump positioned himself on the side of union workers against their union bosses.

The president pointed out that the union bosses were all Democrats, and were only supporting politicians who were destroying good trade union jobs. He even called for the bosses to lower the dues on union members. The UAW workers cheered President Trump repeatedly.

America has the greatest military in the world, it does great good, and American workers have provided the arsenal of democracy. President Trump recalled the Lima Army Tank Plant’s history, going back to modifying M4 Sherman tanks for the amphibious landing at Normandy. He recited this plant’s role providing tanks to the Army in every war since then. He called out every state in which major components of the M1 are made, from the specialized armor to the 120mm smooth bore main gun. This part of his presentation offered the chance to praise the shipyards building the Navy’s latest supercarrier and Texas as the center for F-35 construction.

America has achieved energy dominance in the world. President Trump has removed roadblocks to pipeline construction, speeding the transmission of crude oil and gas to refineries or ports. By ending presidential attacks on carbon based energy, he has made investment and energy infrastructure construction attractive. This is bad for Russia and other malign actors who need high energy prices to finance their activities, and very good for our nation and American workers. See this new Popular Mechanics article: “America’s New Energy Coast.”

Unspoken Contrasts with Germany:

Germany has pursued a course of national weakness, in marked contrast to frontline Eastern European states, who have met the 2.0% GDP commitment for annual defense spending. The evidence of readiness rot has mounted and been reported for years. Consider the latest alarming report from Deutsche Welle:

German armed forces commissioner Hans-Peter Bartels demanded Tuesday that Finance Minister Olaf Scholz “reliably” implement funding boosts for the Bundeswehr in line with Germany’s NATO pledge.

The Finance Ministry said Monday that an extra €2 billion ($2.27 billion) was planned for the military in 2020, but Germany’s military spending would drop in 2023 to 1.25 percent of its gross domestic product — well short of NATO’s 2 percent target set for 2025 and Germany’s promise to meet 1.5 percent by that year.

Next year’s intended outlay of €45 billion — compared to €43 billion this year — would not suffice for a “fully equipped” Bundeswehr, said Bartels, who has often highlighted defects in aircraft, tanks and submarines and the “monstrous” military bureaucracy.

Yet the leader of the German government, Angela Merkel, was contemptuous of NATO commitments:

Merkel said Tuesday defense spending has increased as a share of GDP even as the economy has grown. She said long-term budget plans contain “minimal data,” and actual spending has always been revised upward.

She highlighted the importance of foreign aid, saying Germany will continue its efforts on defense “but not at the expense of development aid.”

This long term gross national negligence has turned the German military into a straw giant. In 2018, when the Germans were preparing to take the NATO lead in a quick reaction force, to counter Russian armed incursions, German news sources told a grim tale of Bundeswehr tank readiness:

Specifically, the Bundeswehr’s ninth tank brigade in Münster only has nine operational Leopard 2 tanks — even though it promised to have 44 ready for the VJTF — and only three of the promised 14 Marder armored infantry vehicles.

The paper also revealed the reason for this shortfall: a lack of spare parts and the high cost and time needed to maintain the vehicles. It added that it was also lacking night-vision equipment, automatic grenade launchers, winter clothing and body armor.

How far has the German tank force fallen? About 90%!

Developed in the 1970s by Krauss-Maffei as a replacement for the Leopard I, the Leopard II tank is still one of the best main battle tanks in existence. […] Unfortunately, there are way too few of them.

[…]

West Germany procured 2,125 Leopard IIs — enough to equip nearly twelve panzer (tank) and panzergrenadier (mechanized infantry) divisions. The end of the Cold War and declining defense budgets caused Germany to shed nearly 90% of its tank force, and today the Bundeswehr has just 225 Leopard II tanks.

At the same time the government of a unified Germany has disarmed in the face of resurgent Russian ambitions, that same government has rendered itself dependent upon Russia for the energy necessary to sustain its economy. Angela Merkel is the first East German to lead modern Germany. She used the excuse of the Japanese nuclear power plant failure, caused by a tsunami, to take Germany’s nuclear power plants offline, at the same time as she led a massive transfer to wind, solar and biomass. Yes, solar in Germany! The green energy disaster was perfectly predictable.

Now she has chosen to cut a deal with Putin for a new gas pipeline, Nord Stream 2, providing a long-term subsidy to Putin’s ambitions while making the European economy more vulnerable to Russian meddling. So, here we have a national leader who was raised in Communist East Germany, where the Stazi kept files on every citizen. We have a former KGB colonel in charge of Russia. We have the German national leader pursuing military and energy policy that weakens Germany and NATO, while helping Putin’s Russian.

Naturally, our politicians and pundits are all over the story as one of likely compromise, of dossiers, of collusion. Oh, you haven’t seen those headlines and nightly panels? Funny, that.

Real Russian Collusion?

Given the marked contrast between at least the functional equivalent of Russian collusion by Germany’s leader, and the robust opposition to Putin by President Trump’s energy, trade, diplomacy, and military actions, any rational observer would conclude that Putin has the partner he wants in Europe, but got exactly the opposite here in November 2016. Yet, Democrats have not been willing to concede the legitimacy of any effective Republican president since at least George H.W. Bush.

What is shocking now is the support by bitter “conservatives,” who bet on the wrong horses in the 2016 election, for weaponization of law enforcement and spy agencies to de-legitimize the object of their hatred. The old KGB colonel would keep lists of people and groups outside the Party who served the Party’s ends. Some were willing partners, each side believing they were getting what they wanted. These were called “fellow travelers.” Far more numerous would be people or groups who were cluelessly helping one or more Communist Party objective. These were labeled “useful idiots.”

I leave it to you to choose which category applies to a U.S. Senator who presses a British/Russian disinformation instrument on our intelligence agencies to damage a domestic political rival. Such utterly egotistical, blind aid to Russia’s goals has not been seen since Senator Ted Kennedy contemplated collusion with the Kremlin to stop Reagan’s election. Remember that Putin, and his predecessors, have always been about preserving their own power and weakening us by stoking American internal strife and questions about the legitimacy of our system.

Of course, establishment Republican politicians did not help shore up public faith in our system when they cynically made campaign promises about building the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and repealing Obamacare. Senator John McCain proved a faithless politician, whose supporters have sought to wrap his stained political career in the honor of McCain the military officer. Yet, we are not supposed to notice that of all the POWs who spent years in North Vietnamese captivity, there have been two career politicians.

Sam Johnson stands in marked contrast to John McCain. He not only flew fighters in both Korea and Vietnam, he was a leader in training other Air Force fighter pilots. When he was shot down on his 25th mission over Vietnam, he endured longer captivity than McCain and he was one of 11 prisoners who were isolated from the rest of the Hanoi Hilton population, kept in what was called “Alcatraz.” Read at least these excerpts from his account, Captive Warriors.

Now, having read that, consider that Sam Johnson served his congressional district from 1991 until he retired in 2018. Consider that you have likely never heard of him. Why would that be? He was a co-founder of the conservative Republican Study Group in the House. His life in public office was unmarred by scandal, and marked by steadfast conservative action, keeping faith with his voters and his party. That is, his whole public life was one of selfless service, unmarred by the bitter demands of a brittle ego.

In seeking to protect a flawed politician from political criticism, people like appointed Senator Martha McSally do a disservice to the truth, to public trust, and to the legacy of consistently selfless public servants like Sam Johnson.

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  1. D.A. Venters Inactive
    D.A. Venters
    @DAVenters

    While the 2020 Democrat contenders are moving hard to the left, touting the green new deal, voicing support for abortion rights right up until birth, and generally moving to the left on all kinds of issues that would unite conservative opposition and drive volunteers and turnout, the President decides to make headlines by attacking….John McCain.  Thus he sets off yet another round of internal conservative/GOP/establishment/anti-establishment bickering. That’s great. Just great.

    • #1
  2. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    D.A. Venters (View Comment):

    While the 2020 Democrat contenders are moving hard to the left, touting the green new deal, voicing support for abortion rights right up until birth, and generally moving to the left on all kinds of issues that would unite conservative opposition and drive volunteers and turnout, the President decides to make headlines by attacking….John McCain. Thus he sets off yet another round of internal conservative/GOP/establishment/anti-establishment bickering. That’s great. Just great.

    John McCain was no Sam Johnson.

    As you know, the source of President Trump’s reaction is the latest news about the fraudulent origin of the Mueller investigation, just ahead of its likely culmination in a written report, followed by Democrat and anti-Trump Republican demands/leaks of all the opposition research Mueller’s team amassed for their party to use in 2020.

    As an Arizonan, who got tired of McCain’s serial faithlessness in office, I’m cool with the president highlighting the inconvenient truths.

    • #2
  3. Mike "Lash" LaRoche Inactive
    Mike "Lash" LaRoche
    @MikeLaRoche

    Great post. Another former Hanoi Hilton captive who went into politics was Jeremiah Denton, who served a single term as a U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1981 to 1987. I read his autobiography, titled When Hell Was In Session, when I was a teenager.

    • #3
  4. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    It’s sort of startling to see German Crosses on tanks.

    • #4
  5. Mike "Lash" LaRoche Inactive
    Mike "Lash" LaRoche
    @MikeLaRoche

    And then there was Ross Perot’s running-mate in 1992, James Stockdale.

    • #5
  6. D.A. Venters Inactive
    D.A. Venters
    @DAVenters

    Clifford A. Brown (View Comment):

    D.A. Venters (View Comment):

    While the 2020 Democrat contenders are moving hard to the left, touting the green new deal, voicing support for abortion rights right up until birth, and generally moving to the left on all kinds of issues that would unite conservative opposition and drive volunteers and turnout, the President decides to make headlines by attacking….John McCain. Thus he sets off yet another round of internal conservative/GOP/establishment/anti-establishment bickering. That’s great. Just great.

    John McCain was no Sam Johnson.

    As you know, the source of President Trump’s reaction is the latest news about the fraudulent origin of the Mueller investigation, just ahead of its likely culmination in a written report, followed by Democrat and anti-Trump Republican demands/leaks of all the opposition research Mueller’s team amassed for their party to use in 2020.

    As an Arizonan, who got tired of McCain’s serial faithlessness in office, I’m cool with the president highlighting the inconvenient truths.

    But no one outside that bubble wants to hear anything about it, and I’m just suggesting that, perhaps, it may make more political sense to highlight other issues. Maybe taking John McCain down a peg is not exactly the most pressing concern facing the nation right now.

    It could be that, just maybe, the Democrats are making a mistake by lurching so far to the left and that maybe Trump has a chance to unify his own divided side, and draw in independents who are put off by that leftward lurch.

    But maybe I’m crazy. By all means let’s start a national debate over John McCain v. Sam Johnson. That’s long overdue, I’m sure. 

    • #6
  7. Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo… Coolidge
    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo…
    @GumbyMark

    Bad political move by Trump.  Leave the McCain thing alone.  As you point out it puts McSally in a difficult place (and she has a hard enough time being in an easy place).  It is more important to keep the Senate seat R than for Trump to indulge his feelings.

    • #7
  8. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    Mike "Lash" LaRoche (View Comment):

    And then there was Ross Perot’s running-mate in 1992, James Stockdale.

    Which goes to the point that only two made federal careers.

    • #8
  9. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo… (View Comment):

    Bad political move by Trump. Leave the McCain thing alone. As you point out it puts McSally in a difficult place (and she has a hard enough time being in an easy place). It is more important to keep the Senate seat R than for Trump to indulge his feelings.

    John McCain was no Sam Johnson.

    It is not about feelings, it is about political integrity. And McSally is earning a primary challenger, while Ducey’s political capital is burning. What McSally is actually standing for is dishonest politicians wrapping themselves in military service and claiming an attack on their political malfeasance is an attack on the flag or all veterans whose military service category they match.

    McSally was a deeply honorable and morally courageous military officer. Sadly, she is showing signs she will follow the duplicitous egotist John McCain rather than her supposed mentor Jon Kyl’s example in office.

    • #9
  10. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    D.A. Venters (View Comment):

    Clifford A. Brown (View Comment):

    D.A. Venters (View Comment):

    While the 2020 Democrat contenders are moving hard to the left, touting the green new deal, voicing support for abortion rights right up until birth, and generally moving to the left on all kinds of issues that would unite conservative opposition and drive volunteers and turnout, the President decides to make headlines by attacking….John McCain. Thus he sets off yet another round of internal conservative/GOP/establishment/anti-establishment bickering. That’s great. Just great.

    John McCain was no Sam Johnson.

    As you know, the source of President Trump’s reaction is the latest news about the fraudulent origin of the Mueller investigation, just ahead of its likely culmination in a written report, followed by Democrat and anti-Trump Republican demands/leaks of all the opposition research Mueller’s team amassed for their party to use in 2020.

    As an Arizonan, who got tired of McCain’s serial faithlessness in office, I’m cool with the president highlighting the inconvenient truths.

    But no one outside that bubble wants to hear anything about it, and I’m just suggesting that, perhaps, it may make more political sense to highlight other issues. Maybe taking John McCain down a peg is not exactly the most pressing concern facing the nation right now.

    It could be that, just maybe, the Democrats are making a mistake by lurching so far to the left and that maybe Trump has a chance to unify his own divided side, and draw in independents who are put off by that leftward lurch.

    But maybe I’m crazy. By all means let’s start a national debate over John McCain v. Sam Johnson. That’s long overdue, I’m sure.

    There is a less than zero chance that Trump haters will change at this point. Polls consistently show that self-identified Republicans are already unified behind the president. The question is how much damage Mueller, enabled by McCain and other Republicans who hate(d) the electorate’s 2016 verdict and wish(ed) to undo it, will be able to inflict with his political “report.” Mueller’s files are the start of the 2020 DNC general election opposition research, paid for by tax payers.

    • #10
  11. Franco Member
    Franco
    @Franco

    I think the message is, “We don’t need or want the McCain hero-worshipers, or the Bill Kristol, Paul Ryan types”.

    I respect that. We need some party coherency and some basic loyalty.

    If these people are tottering between far-left Democrats or Trump because of his statements about party-and-constituent-traitor John Mc Cain, they are worthless anyway.

    • #11
  12. D.A. Venters Inactive
    D.A. Venters
    @DAVenters

    Clifford A. Brown (View Comment):

    D.A. Venters (View Comment):

    Clifford A. Brown (View Comment):

    D.A. Venters (View Comment

    John McCain was no Sam Johnson.

    As you know, the source of President Trump’s reaction is the latest news about the fraudulent origin of the Mueller investigation, just ahead of its likely culmination in a written report, followed by Democrat and anti-Trump Republican demands/leaks of all the opposition research Mueller’s team amassed for their party to use in 2020.

    As an Arizonan, who got tired of McCain’s serial faithlessness in office, I’m cool with the president highlighting the inconvenient truths.

    But no one outside that bubble wants to hear anything about it, and I’m just suggesting that, perhaps, it may make more political sense to highlight other issues. Maybe taking John McCain down a peg is not exactly the most pressing concern facing the nation right now.

    It could be that, just maybe, the Democrats are making a mistake by lurching so far to the left and that maybe Trump has a chance to unify his own divided side, and draw in independents who are put off by that leftward lurch.

    But maybe I’m crazy. By all means let’s start a national debate over John McCain v. Sam Johnson. That’s long overdue, I’m sure.

    There is a less than zero chance that Trump haters will change at this point. Polls consistently show that self-identified Republicans are already unified behind the president. The question is how much damage Mueller, enabled by McCain and other Republicans who hate(d) the electorate’s 2016 verdict and wish(ed) to undo it, will be able to inflict with his political “report.” Mueller’s files are the start of the 2020 DNC general election opposition research, paid for by tax payers.

    Nevertheless, I think proving his haters right is a problem. He will need people outside the bubble to work for his re-election. Outside the bubble, this looks spiteful, cowardly, and petty. Keeping the Mueller report in focus is a problem.

    The president is extremely fortunate so far in the way his opposition is approaching things. He was extremely fortunate to have Hillary as his first opponent. But there is an enthusiasm gap that he needs to work on. If it weren’t for that, we wouldn’t have to even worry about a far left candidate winning. As it is, we do have to worry about that. He is beatable. He has the opportunity to change that by turning the focus on to issues like the green new deal.

    Thats all I’m saying.

    • #12
  13. Doug Watt Member
    Doug Watt
    @DougWatt

    Just an observation from one Republican in Arizona that wishes the President would spend a little less time on McCain. The McCain family should be treated with some respect, but the Party needs to move on and not put future candidates in the position of having to seek the blessing of the McCain family. McSally was put in this position before her appointment to finish out Senator McCain’s term in office. The blessing was lukewarm at best and the precedent may prove a problem in the future.

    I can make the distinction between McCain’s wartime service, and his mixed record in the Senate. His time has passed and at the present time the McCain family ire is directed at President Trump, and returned in kind by the President. I have no reason to believe that this will not be repeated in the future with any other Republican candidate in Arizona that does not meet the full approval of the McCain family.

    • #13
  14. Wade Moore Member
    Wade Moore
    @WadeMoore

    Outside the bubble, this looks spiteful, cowardly, and petty.

    As someone who is way outside the bubble I would agree.  I also don’t see what purpose it serves politically.  I am hoping that the Mueller report will clear up McCain’s involvement so we can all move on.  Probably not but that’s my hope…

     

    • #14
  15. Wade Moore Member
    Wade Moore
    @WadeMoore

    Mike "Lash" LaRoche (View Comment):

    And then there was Ross Perot’s running-mate in 1992, James Stockdale.

    I don’t know that I would classify him as a politician.  That whole thing was just weird…

    • #15
  16. Boss Mongo Member
    Boss Mongo
    @BossMongo

    Mike "Lash" LaRoche (View Comment):

    Great post. Another former Hanoi Hilton captive who went into politics was Jeremiah Denton, who served a single term as a U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1981 to 1987. I read his autobiography, titled When Hell Was In Session, when I was a teenager.

    When I worked at the US Army SERE school, I had the privilege of escorting Mr. Denton when he came to be the speaker at a SERE graduation.  Despite all those good years between his repatriation and his speaking (at/about the year 2000), he was adamant that he wished he’d had a hollow tooth with a cyanide capsule in it when he fell captive. 

    Please don’t think I’m sniffing at the privations and horrors suffered by our Vietnam-era POWs, but DoD states that captivity means “change of mission.”  Upon capture the mission becomes “survive and return with honor.”  John McCain did that, but that’s the minimum standard.  There are no tales of him doing something truly heroic, like Mr. Denton did by blinking “torture” in morse code when forced to make a propaganda video.

    • #16
  17. Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo… Coolidge
    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo…
    @GumbyMark

    Clifford A. Brown (View Comment):

    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo… (View Comment):

    Bad political move by Trump. Leave the McCain thing alone. As you point out it puts McSally in a difficult place (and she has a hard enough time being in an easy place). It is more important to keep the Senate seat R than for Trump to indulge his feelings.

    John McCain was no Sam Johnson.

    It is not about feelings, it is about political integrity. And McSally is earning a primary challenger, while Ducey’s political capital is burning. What McSally is actually standing for is dishonest politicians wrapping themselves in military service and claiming an attack on their political malfeasance is an attack on the flag or all veterans whose military service category they match.

    McSally was a deeply honorable and morally courageous military officer. Sadly, she is showing signs she will follow the duplicitous egotist John McCain rather than her supposed mentor Jon Kyl’s example in office.

    And that’s how you get another Sistema.  McCain was petty and vindictive.  He’s also dead.  Trump is also petty and vindictive.  But he’s alive and should be looking ahead to 2020.  If McSally votes the way I like I don’t care whose side she takes in the Trump v Dead Guy pissing match.  I don’t care about integrity, I care about votes.  If I cared about integrity I would not have voted for Trump.

    • #17
  18. Columbo Inactive
    Columbo
    @Columbo

    Franco (View Comment):

    I think the message is, “We don’t need or want the McCain hero-worshipers, or the Bill Kristol, Paul Ryan types”.

    I respect that. We need some party coherency and some basic loyalty.

    If these people are tottering between far-left Democrats or Trump because of his statements about party-and-constituent-traitor John Mc Cain, they are worthless anyway.

    Please allow me to amend what I think the message is:

    “the McCain hero-worshipers, or the Bill Kristol, Paul Ryan types need to recognize their irrelevance.”

    And to quit shooting the leaders of ‘your’ Party in the back whilst they are engaging the true enemy.

    • #18
  19. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    Doug Watt (View Comment):

    Just an observation from one Republican in Arizona that wishes the President would spend a little less time on McCain. The McCain family should be treated with some respect, but the Party needs to move on and not put future candidates in the position of having to seek the blessing of the McCain family. McSally was put in this position before her appointment to finish out Senator McCain’s term in office. The blessing was lukewarm at best and the precedent may prove a problem in the future.

    I can make the distinction between McCain’s wartime service, and his mixed record in the Senate. His time has passed and at the present time the McCain family ire is directed at President Trump, and returned in kind by the President. I have no reason to believe that this will not be repeated in the future with any other Republican candidate in Arizona that does not meet the full approval of the McCain family.

    I think you have put it just right.

    • #19
  20. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo… (View Comment):

    Clifford A. Brown (View Comment):

    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo… (View Comment):

    Bad political move by Trump. Leave the McCain thing alone. As you point out it puts McSally in a difficult place (and she has a hard enough time being in an easy place). It is more important to keep the Senate seat R than for Trump to indulge his feelings.

    John McCain was no Sam Johnson.

    It is not about feelings, it is about political integrity. And McSally is earning a primary challenger, while Ducey’s political capital is burning. What McSally is actually standing for is dishonest politicians wrapping themselves in military service and claiming an attack on their political malfeasance is an attack on the flag or all veterans whose military service category they match.

    McSally was a deeply honorable and morally courageous military officer. Sadly, she is showing signs she will follow the duplicitous egotist John McCain rather than her supposed mentor Jon Kyl’s example in office.

    And that’s how you get another Sistema. McCain was petty and vindictive. He’s also dead. Trump is also petty and vindictive. But he’s alive and should be looking ahead to 2020. If McSally votes the way I like I don’t care whose side she takes in the Trump v Dead Guy pissing match. I don’t care about integrity, I care about votes. If I cared about integrity I would not have voted for Trump.

    We might be in violent agreement. I call McCain duplicitous just as to his votes. I expect people who promise something in the campaign, to get my vote, to actually fulfill their promise. If McSally votes the way I like, I’ll vote for her in the November 2020 election.

    • #20
  21. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    Among the parts of the speech I did not include, President Trump acknowledged Senator Portman and praised him. This is a week after Senator Portman voted against the president’s declaration of national emergency at the border. Not the action of a man who is unthinkingly vindicative.

    • #21
  22. JamesSalerno Inactive
    JamesSalerno
    @JamesSalerno

    CLICKBAIT!

    I was expecting an article about Trump hanging out with Lamb of God.

    Kidding aside, this was an excellent read. TANKS!

    • #22
  23. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    JamesSalerno (View Comment):

    CLICKBAIT!

    I was expecting an article about Trump hanging out with Lamb of God.

    Kidding aside, this was an excellent read. TANKS!

    Thank you. At another level, the 18-late 20s men who make up the Abrams crews have been known to plug music devices into the intercom system. The music? Metal or hard core rap. Psych up music.

    • #23
  24. Boss Mongo Member
    Boss Mongo
    @BossMongo

    Clifford A. Brown (View Comment):
    Thank you. At another level, the 18-late 20s men who make up the Abrams crews have been known to plug music devices into the intercom system. The music? Metal or hard core rap. Psych up music.

    First Gulf War I went over “The Berm” to “Welcome to the Jungle.” Alas, not in anything as sexy as an M1 or a Brad; I was an M113 older than I was.

    • #24
  25. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    Boss Mongo (View Comment):
    First Gulf War I went over “The Berm” to “Welcome to the Jungle.” Alas, not in anything as sexy as an M1 or a Brad; I was an M113 older than I was.

    I don’t even know that.  I could see getting fired up over “Sympathy for the Devil.”  Maybe “Roadhouse Blues” by the Doors.

    • #25
  26. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    Boss Mongo (View Comment):

    Clifford A. Brown (View Comment):
    Thank you. At another level, the 18-late 20s men who make up the Abrams crews have been known to plug music devices into the intercom system. The music? Metal or hard core rap. Psych up music.

    First Gulf War I went over “The Berm” to “Welcome to the Jungle.” Alas, not in anything as sexy as an M1 or a Brad; I was an M113 older than I was.

    I remember my first M113 driver wired his cassette tape Walkman into the amplifier so we had tunes in intercom mode, playing through our CVC helmets.

    • #26
  27. Boss Mongo Member
    Boss Mongo
    @BossMongo

    Clifford A. Brown (View Comment):
    I remember my first M113 driver wired his cassette tape Walkman into the amplifier so we had tunes in intercom mode, playing through our CVC helmets.

    Exactly.  What’n hell was the nomenclature of the amp box?  I’m thing it was a 1655, but bet on that being wrong.

    • #27
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