At The New Yorker, Masha Gessen writes about John Kelly and the language of a military coup:
When Kelly replaced the ineffectual Reince Priebus as the chief of staff, a sigh of relief emerged: at least the general would impose some discipline on the Administration. Now we have a sense of what military discipline in the White House sounds like.Consider, in light of Gessen’s commentary, today’s comment from Sarah Huckabee Sanders about Kelly’s claim that Congresswoman Frederica S. Wilson took credit for securing funding for an FBI building: “I think that if you want to get into a debate with a four-star Marine general — that’s highly inappropriate.”
I think of a line from a great Specials song: “Don’t argue.”
[Sanders’s sentence was split in two by a question from a reporter. I’ve reproduced it as an uninterrupted sentence.]
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Lindsay Graham disagrees with Sanders. And, looking back over Trump's tweeting history of attacking four-star generals, so does he.
Yes, that’s to his credit. I found it reported here.
The Washington Post now has an article chronicling Trump’s record of slamming four-star generals. Trump also claimed to know more about ISIS than generals do.
But it’s also chilling that stating what should be obvious — “not in America” — now gets someone credit.
I love Masha Gessen!
Have you ever read Heinlein's Starship Troopers? We listened to it while driving to Montreal... man, what a terrible book in several ways. But one aspect of it that shocked me was the form of government: only military veterans can vote or serve in government.
I’ve read Dessen’s work before in The New Yorker, but without really putting her name and her history together. I haven’t read anything by Heinlein.
Gessen.
I can be your Heinlein whisperer. This book is not worth reading, but it was instructive to see where some people get their inspiration from.
I just looked at the (long, long) Wikipedia article about the book. Pretty grim.
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