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Springtime for MAGA and Criminals; Winter for Justice and Hope [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-04-14

It’s been a few months since I’ve had anything substantial to say about the current state of affairs in the country around these parts. After the January 20th inauguration I pretty much knew what was about to happen, based on both his past performance in the office and the 4 year-long wholesale collapse of the justice system in the feigned pursuit of attempting to lend accountability to his various crimes. The man arrived on the scene with a long, spectacular record of expensive, epic failures in everything he touched, from product marketing and manufacturing to real estate, to casinos, to personal relationships to booze, steaks, purses and even guitars. Even in his younger days he couldn’t pique the interests of women his own age so he preyed on teenage girls and later he paid porn stars for sex. Even hard-bitten, jaded law enforcement people will tell you that almost all criminals have one characteristic in common other than brutal, avaricious thuggery: they’re extremely stupid . Every single enterprise that Trump has engaged, both in public and private — including his presidencies — has solidified the hallmark of the “true” Trump brand: LOSER.

So over 70-odd million people agreed that this was the kind of leadership America needed to be “great” again. That doesn’t bode well for the overall state of America’s education and mental health.

Well, 4 months later, it’s become obvious how consistent the Trump “brand” continues to goose step along amid the rubble and wreckage it leaves behind in its fealty to Moscow and the Kremlin. Along with some of my fellow citizens I’ve wondered what exactly it is I’m supposed to do to “RESIST!” in any meaningful way, as a remnant few Progressive luminaries exhort us to do these days. For example, when I filed my taxes last month I lost two whole nights of sleep imagining the consequences of refusing to pay the $9,790 in capital gains tax on my retirement income from the annuity investments my wife and I worked hard, long years to build - knowing that money would eventually help line the pockets of Bezos, Zuckerberg, Musk and their kind of avaricious predators in tax cuts. (I ended up paying it anyway - staying out of Federal prison is starting to become a full-time job these days.)

The other day after I made the mistake yet again by reading the news filled with gangland-style turf wars disguised as punitive tariffs, arson attacks on a Democratic governor’s home, deportations of U.S. citizens because ICE profilers claimed “They looked like illegal foreigners with their black hair and tan skin”, 19 year-old DOGE punks physically jerking Social Security employees out of their desk chairs - I couldn’t help but think back to my earlier days, 5 decades ago in the Navy, back when everything seem so very “civilized” - so “cut and dried” in terms of moral compass.

It turns out the Navy was a learning experience in its own right for me: above all else it taught me that Navy personnel from the ranks of E-1 through E-9 are a direct reflection of their civilian counterparts in terms of culture, empathy, awareness and skill levels - ranging from precocious teenage behavior to brutal, thuggish attitudes and mannerisms as the pay grades increased. Further - at the opposite end of the spectrum, O-1 through O-10 commissioned officers, based on years of service, tended to be the inverse of their civilian culture, empathy, self-awareness and skill levels… which is to say that the better the education and life experiences they have, the more likely the officer should be more inclined to resemble a functional human being that makes decisions based on careful discernment and courage of convictions.

So what has happened to the U.S. military since January 20th? I wondered if the Commissioned Officer’s Oath had been changed or even eliminated, so I went online and looked it up… and SHAZAM! IT HADN’T CHANGED ONE BIT! Here’s how it reads:

“I ___, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

(Notice that nowhere in the above oath does it specify allegiance to a president, a judge or a congress person. Their ONLY sworn duty is to the Constitution.)

Right. So where are they, these defenders of our Constitution — those last bastions against the likes of Pinochet, Manuel Ortega and Papa Doc? What are they doing in that 5 sided concrete cocoon over there across the street from Reagan National Airport? Are they polishing their chestful of medals with Brasso and buffing their shoeshines for the next inspection? Are their uniforms starched and pressed just right for the next photo op after performing some jingoistic speech in front of a group of lobbyists? Has any of them noticed that pretty much every single thing this current president and his majority in Congress has done for the last 4 months has directly countermanded or severely weakened the Constitution’s Bill Of Rights for America’s citizens? He and his gangster gunsels in both Congress and the Supreme Court have either salted or completely ruined the country’s relationships with nearly all of its democratic allies abroad while currying favor with a sworn enemy of America’s legitimate government. In short: Trump and his MAGA government have abrogated their commitment to the rule of settled law in this country while the Officer Corps have sat idly by, failing to uphold the oath that every one of them have sworn to preserve, protect and defend. This country needs a crisis-level DOGE- like attack on fascism, and it isn’t coming from voting booths anymore. The officer corps may not realize or even believe this, but they are the very last hope for beginning to restore Constitutional democracy to this country; the citizenry has been thoroughly poisoned with fear, injustice and financial distress, and the longer it continues, the worse and more entrenched it will get. By the time that MAGA outlaws general elections altogether, it will be too late for civilian intervention.

If the officer corps of the United States Defense Department continues to fail in its duty to remove this treasonous group of gangsters from creating further destruction of our country, they will be regarded as complicit with the fascist movement’s transition to an authoritarian regime led by fools, sycophants and billionaire crime bosses. The democratic world will never freely associate with us again on any level.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/14/2316431/-Springtime-for-MAGA-and-Criminals-Winter-for-Justice-and-Hope?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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