This is what we’ve been repeatedly suggesting throughout the thread, and is the reason I started it.
I have to imagine that initially he wasn’t expecting to make it this far and it was just an opportunity to stage a “protest” for his own clout. But now there’s a distinct possibility he’s now dreaming bigger and thinks he’s going to get a slate of Trumpers among the top brass.
Sadly he also doesn’t seem smart enough to realize that even if Trump wins, his loyalty is going to be ignored as soon as he’s no longer useful.
Not to mention that whole, “Possibly destroying the effectiveness of the US military” thing. When you start promoting officers for purely political reasons, you’re starting down a dangerous path.
I daresay he’s already far enough down that path that he doesn’t see a problem with its terminus.
I haven’t followed this closely enough—is this plausible? I mean, are there really a subset of potential promotions that are “woke” or “liberal” or some other icky thing, and the GOP strategy is to delay until they can advance the true American, Jesus-approved promotions?
Go back and re-read the thread, or at least articles that were cited.
The claim originally put forth was that one reason the coup failed was because the military wouldn’t support such an idea. Tuberville’s holding up appointments is like McConnell’s holding up Supreme Court appointments – it potentially allows the next president (presumed to be Republican) to appoint military officers more compliant to a coup.
Well, yeah, pretty much. The ostensible reason Tuberville is doing this is because military leaders were creating programs to help military members stationed in anti-abortion states travel to places where they could get the medical treatments they wanted. These leaders understand that the “woke agenda” is beneficial to the military, and helps them retain the best members. So, those leaders have to go, and be replaced by officers who won’t do any of that “woke garbage”.
It stated with abortion, but has been expanded to pretty much all diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Does the president even appoint anyone in the military above top brass like the chairman of the joint chiefs? These are appointments, not promotions. The military decides who gets promoted based on their own standards, then the promotion is confirmed (or not) by the Senate. I don’t think the president can just reach down and grab some racist major and make him a general. How would this work?
Well sure. But what if he did?
This is the new normal, and will be standard going forward if Republicans get their way.
IMHO, this will totally hamstring the military.
Jul 13, 2020 — Today, women represent 16 percent of the enlisted forces and 19 percent of the officer corps
I’m gonna say it. We will end up with more ‘Jug Heads’ that just want to kill people, than women that typically don’t want to (as Arlo Guthrie said) Kill, kill, kill.
Trump fired defense secretary Mark Esper, who was a civilian leader of the DOD and replaced him with another civilian, Christopher C. Miller, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center. To my knowledge there is no way, no process for the president to choose who gets promoted to what within the ranks. How would that even work?
In Emperor Trump’s mind, he’d just issue a decree as Commander In Chief of the Armed Forces. So it is written. So it shall be done.
No, it’s not possible. Promotions are based on internal policy and approved by the president, or the president + the senate (based on grade). This process is governed by title 10 of US code. Promotions are not based on politics, nor is there a mechanism to “throw out” a promotion list and create a new one based on the whims of the president.
Air Force promotions, specifically general officer promotions, was a big part of my job for years. By the time enough people were fired and policies changed to accommodate the scenario outlined here, we’d be in the middle of a civil war.
Thank you for the factual answer. Very much appreciated.
This seems a lot like threatening Trump with a good time.
In the scenario where Trump gets back in the white house he’s already gotten away with staging an insurrection. Why not go the extra step and threaten the military with a loyalty purge and dare them to resist? It’s another Solomon’s wager where he’ll bet that he’s more willing to split the baby than anyone else.
I guess, sure.
Step 1) Stall on officer promotions
Step 2)…
Step 3) Military loyalty purge leading to civil war and the end of the country as we know it.
nevermind
I’m not sure how you can say it’s not possible. The statute may set forth how the military determines who to recommend for promotion, but statute cannot bind the President to nominate a particular individual. He has the sole Constitutional authority to nominate “officers of the United States.” The mechanism is for him to disregard the list and submit to the Senate a list of officers of his own choosing.
That mechanism is not predicated on Tommy Tuberville doing anything in 2023, though. With sufficient disregard for policy and law and enough lackeys in key positions, yes, the president may be able to force a service branch to produce a promotion list full of sycophants. But that level of disregard for policy and law and sufficient lackeys to pull it off can also allow a president to summarily fire any non-loyalists from the GO ranks and do the exact same thing. In both cases, we’re so far from norms or (IANAL) legality that we’d be looking at events as a military coup.
Military commissions are not lifetime appointments and this is nothing at all like delaying a SCOTUS nomination until the next term.
And that’s the mechanism. They won’t choose the people directly, they’ll just refuse to confirm anyone who isn’t the person they want.
Can we promote Captain Intelligent Woman to Major? No!
Can we promote Captain Exemplary Immigrant to Major? No!
Can we promote Captain Highly Capable Transman to Major? No!
Can we promote Captain Adequate White Guy to Major? No!
Sigh, okay, can we promote Captain Insane MAGAt to Major? What a wonderful idea!