Apocalypse? Maybe Now.

“Tonight, I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.”~ Congresswoman Liz Cheney, June 9th, 2022

As is often the case, the delightful Peggy Noonan summed it up. I met the Pulitzer Prize winning columnist back in 1990 when interviewing her for her book chronicling her time as President Reagan's speechwriter, "What I Saw at the Revolution." I didn't always agree with her, but she was chatty, funny and flirty and left interviewers as putty in her hands. Yeah, me, too.

Recalling Humphrey Bogart's classic portrayal in The Caine Mutiny, in her Wall Street Journal column, she described Pete Hegseth's embarrassing performance before all of America's Generals and Admirals as "Captain Queeg on Adderall."

Every now and then, a writer simply says something that is so perfect, it stops you in your tracks.

And embarrassing it was. Hegseth was ranting to this crowd...

All those colorful ribbons on their chests mean they've been there and done that. And some of the reactions were contained in a Politico article...

“It‘s a waste of time for a lot of people who emphatically had better things they could and should be doing,” a former senior defense official told Politico. “It’s also an inexcusable strategic risk to concentrate so many leaders in the operational chain of command in the same publicly known time and place, to convey an inane message of little merit.”

One defense official said the event was “more like a press conference than briefing the generals.”

“Could have been an email,” the official added.

Another said the spectacle was a “total waste of money” and that it was “not quite a loyalty test, but … on the spectrum of loyalty to ideology.”

Over the course of 45 minutes, Hegseth railed against “woke” initiatives within the government.

“Foolish and reckless political leaders set the wrong compass heading, and we lost our way. We became the ‘Woke Department,’” Hegseth told the assembled officers. “Not anymore.”

“No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate-change worship. No more division, distraction, or gender delusions. No more debris. As I’ve said before and will say again, we are done with that sh-t,” Hegseth said.

The defense secretary warned: “If the words I’m speaking today are making your hearts sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign.”

The man who had a makeup room added to his office at the Pentagon is railing on about "dudes in dresses?" The officers could, I think, have been forgiven for uttering a collective WTF?

Hegseth's shaky tenure is basically a collective FU to anyone with an ounce of appreciation for the rights and wrongs in American history.

Under former Former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, no doubt a DEI pick to Hegseth, the 20 Medals of Honor given out to soldiers involved in the massacre of surrendering Indians at Wounded Knee, South Dakota were being investigated.

In 1890, an estimated 250 men, women and children were killed by U.S. soldiers on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, many as they fled the violence and well after orders to cease fire. Some estimates put the number of dead over 300, more than half women and children.

Even General Nelson Miles was appalled and called for action against the perpetrators. Instead, the medals were given out as cover for the brutality.

The investigation called by Secretary Austin was stopped by Hegseth, and the medals remained on the record. Like reverting to Confederate names on military bases, it is a collective middle finger to anyone wanting the true stories told.

How long before the guys at My Lai are cleared?

But at the generals meeting, the best was yet to come. President Trump shambled to the mic and was astonished at the silence. It wasn't a MAGA rally and he was obviously missing the usual slavish adulation, not to mention the Village People accompaniment.

At one point he actually, actually talked about the "two N-words" you can't say. His clumsy framing of the dangers of the word "Nuclear," couching it in the context of another forbidden word, was no doubt amusing to this officer...

By the by, the decidedly unamused officer here is Major General Lorna M. Mahlock, USMC, the first Black woman in Marine Corps history to reach general officer rank. For guys like the Secretary of Defense, excuse me, War, she is no doubt a two-fer example of what is wrong with the military.

DEI? Explain that to Colin Powell or Chappie James. Women in combat? Explain that to Senator Tammy Duckworth, make that former Lieutenant Colonel Tammy Duckworth, helicopter pilot and purple heart recipient in the Iraq war.

Fat? Explain that to Norman Schwarzkopf. For that matter, your Commander in Chief.

Trump gave a rambling, disjointed "speech" full of the usual grievances that any of these folks could have looked up on YouTube, if they were so inclined. It, too, was embarrassing and sprinkled here and there in the comments were things like "the enemy within" and maybe we should hold war games in American cities. To a group of military professionals used to precision and order so as not to be misunderstood, it was no doubt a bit alarming.

I can only imagine that some may also have been thinking, "At what point will there be an order I have to disobey?"

And of course, shortly after this disaster, the government shut down. Oh, there were "talks" with congressional leaders, that the president summed up this way.

And then, this way...

And of course, using this shutdown to let Project 2025 editor, and head of the Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought cut even more departments and people...

Oh, I almost forgot thhis...

I hate quoting this line from "Succession" so much, but again...

This shutdown is ostensibly over the fact that Democrats want changes to health care cuts in the next budget. Republicans have framed this as the Dems wanting government health care for illegal aliens.

That is, oh, what's the word? Oh yeah, a lie.

Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act Marketplace are not accessible for anyone here illegally, period. No one is asking to change that. There are, though, some Covid-era premium subsidies for the ACA that are set to expire, driving up costs astronomically for many folks. The Dems want them extended. That's pretty much the disagreement.

Of course, anyone can get emergency treatment in any hospital, whether they are citizens or not. In fact, hospitals have to provide emergency care to anyone who staggers in, whether they have insurance, cash, or not. That law was signed by that notorious liberal, Ronald Reagan.

But nonetheless, the President threw out what he considers the ultimate gotcha for Democrats...“[Democrats] are threatening to shut down the Government of the United States unless they can have over $1 Trillion Dollars in new spending to continue free healthcare for Illegal Aliens (A monumental cost!), force Taxpayers to fund Transgender surgery for minors [...] allow men to play in women’s sports, and essentially create Transgender operations for everybody,” 

I have no bloody idea what he's talking about, but if you drop the word "trans" into any political conversation, that .o1% of the population is sure to bring MAGA hackles to full attention.

This of course, is nonsense and along with the descriptions of cities like Portland as "war-ravaged," continues this endless spew of rhetorical overkill that is debasing the political dialogue to such an extent that reasonable people not only can't agree, they can't talk to each other anymore. Its men are from Mars, women are from Venus, with additional witlessness.

My wife confessed that she had not seen the hilarious and sadly prescient film "Idiocracy." So, we watched it the other night and laughed at the trials and tribulations of an absolutely average guy who wakes from an army experiment years in the future and finds that he is now the smartest guy in the country.

But, the real reason for this collection of brainlessness is again, like dangling car keys in front of a baby to distract. You can see the plan in the fact that Mike Johnson, the gelatinous Speaker of the House, has refused to swear in a newly elected Democrat from Arizona, Adelita Grijalva, named to the seat her late father held for years. Even with the government shutdown, the swearing-in can take place, and other business as well. They are being paid, after all.

And, two Republican congressmen who were elected earlier this year in special elections were sworn in the day after winning their seats, and when the House was not in session.

So let me explain for the Epsteinth time. Ms. Grijalva will be the deciding vote to force release of the FBI files of the late sexual omnivore, Jeffrey Epstein. That is what all this is about. And if you don't believe us, we'll drop the 82nd Airborne into your city to remind you.

Yes, they actually mentioned that, too. Wonder what those generals are thinking now?