There Will Be No Dissent -- DIgby

[erronis]

https://digbysblog.net/2026/01/05/there-will-be-no-dissent/

Sen. Mark Kelly:

Over twenty-five years in the U.S. Navy, thirty-nine combat missions, and four missions to space, I risked my life for this country and to defend our Constitution -- including the First Amendment rights of every American to speak out. I never expected that the President of the United States and the Secretary of Defense would attack me for doing exactly that.

My rank and retirement are things that I earned through my service and sacrifice for this country. I got shot at. I missed holidays and birthdays. I commanded a space shuttle mission while my wife Gabby recovered from a gunshot wound to the head -- all while proudly wearing the American flag on my shoulder. Generations of servicemembers have made these same patriotic sacrifices for this country, earning the respect, appreciation, and rank they deserve.

Pete Hegseth wants to send the message to every single retired servicemember that if they say something he or Donald Trump doesn't like, they will come after them the same way. It's outrageous and it is wrong. There is nothing more un-American than that. If Pete Hegseth, the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in our country's history, thinks he can intimidate me with a censure or threats to demote me or prosecute me, he still doesn't get it.

I will fight this with everything I've got -- not for myself, but to send a message back that Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump don't get to decide what Americans in this country get to say about their government.

Everyone understands that this is as much payback for demoting that MAGA freak Ronnie Jackson for his drunken behavior and sexual harassment when he was serving as the White House doctor as it is against quelling dissent, right? They restored his rank the minute Trump got back in office.

Kelly is in John McCain's former seat, another storied military hero from Arizona, the home of Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA. MAGA's treatment of both McCain and Kelly perfectly illustrates just how phony their flag waving patriotism really is. But since half the country is suffering from a debilitating case of arrested development I guess this whole thing in a big "LOL" to them.

It's pathetic.

[Klarkashton]

1. The govt is being run like some half assed sweatshop