The Second Term of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States of America

S2 #3,527
Onlookers mystified by behavior they've witnessed commonly make the mistake of concluding:
I (the witness) don't understand it, therefore the witnessed is stupid.
It's a conclusion that's commonly wrong.

"U.S. military officers are encouraged to cultivate leadership skills." s #3,535
We ought not be surprised if Major Watson brought others to his protest.
Acting alone, he spares others repercussion.

Accepting a U.S. military commission, and obtaining promotions to the rank of Air Force Major usually requires skilled application of talent.
There are multiple plausible explanations for Major Watson's behavior.
Included among them, he could no longer justify sworn oath of fidelity to a madman.

Major Watson's a big boy. He can speak for himself.
The unfortunate reality is, Trump is expelling top talent from our ranks, and concentrating the dead-wood.
This is a conspicuous danger to U.S. national security. How bad?

Trump commanded the U.S. military into War against a second-rate power like Iran.
And Trump has forced himself into a stalemate, wherein he will be very lucky to
return the U.S. to the advantageous position the U.S. was in with Iran at the end of the Obama administration.

Farewell Major Watson
 
theHill.JPG

Wall Street Journal: Trump family ‘cashing in on the presidency in big and sketchy ways’​

Ashleigh Fields / Thu, July 2, 2026 at 11:52 AM GMT-5

The Wall Street Journal's editorial board published a Wednesday op-ed slamming President Trump and his family for "cashing in on the presidency" after his financial disclosures showed the president brought in $2 billion last year alone.
Trump's crypto venture, effectively managed by the Trump Organization, reaped in more than $526.8 million in proceeds from tokens sold by World Liberty Financial.
The benefits weren't exclusive to Trump's sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. but also helped support the family of special envoy Steve Witkoff, including his son, Zach Witkoff. The Witkoff family co-founded the decentralized finance platform and crypto business in question.

"The Trump clan is cashing in on the Presidency in big and sketchy ways. The 927-page report shows Mr. Trump made some $1.4 billion last year from crypto alone. Yowzers," they added in reference to the president's recent financial disclosure.
They cite the odd timing for the meme coin's launch, which happened days before Trump's inauguration.
"The Trumps are seeing their opportunities and taking them, in the tradition of what Tammany Hall's George Washington Plunkitt called 'honest graft,'" the board wrote, referring to the idea of profiting from insider political knowledge without breaking the law.

"Assuming all of this is legal, it's still an unseemly display of using the Presidency for family profit," it continued.
 
Onlookers mystified by behavior they've witnessed commonly make the mistake of concluding:
I (the witness) don't understand it, therefore the witnessed is stupid.
It's a conclusion that's commonly wrong.


We ought not be surprised if Major Watson brought others to his protest.
Acting alone, he spares others repercussion.

Accepting a U.S. military commission, and obtaining promotions to the rank of Air Force Major usually requires skilled application of talent.
There are multiple plausible explanations for Major Watson's behavior.
Included among them, he could no longer justify sworn oath of fidelity to a madman.

Major Watson's a big boy. He can speak for himself.
The unfortunate reality is, Trump is expelling top talent from our ranks, and concentrating the dead-wood.
This is a conspicuous danger to U.S. national security. How bad?

Trump commanded the U.S. military into War against a second-rate power like Iran.
And Trump has forced himself into a stalemate, wherein he will be very lucky to
return the U.S. to the advantageous position the U.S. was in with Iran at the end of the Obama administration.

Farewell Major Watson

Normally there is a good reason for members of the military to not make political criticism of the chain of command.
It would promote a lack of confidence and obedience.

However, when a president actually commits war crimes, such as blowing up civilian boats, kidnapping presidents, or blowing up Ayatollahs who have violated no law, then it is war crimes that all people are required to indict.
For Major Watson to not protest would make him complicit in war crimes.
 
"For Major Watson to not protest would make him complicit in war crimes." R5 #3,543
Potentially perhaps, if Watson was issued an illegal order.
Not clear to me what the legal basis would be for complicity regarding action he both opposed, AND was not party to, apart from membership in the organization that perpetrated it, the U.S. military.
If an al Qaida membership, a U.S. law court might judge harshly. BUT, for a U.S. law court to judge U.S. Air Force majors punitively, bad idea. Unlikely, judicial tolerance would be benefit the court, & the accused.

I hope I'm not over-interpreting #3,543, U.S. military officers, particularly career officers high enough in rank to be directly affected, as are the commanders R5 mentions:
"... war crimes, such as blowing up civilian boats, kidnapping presidents, or blowing up Ayatollahs who have violated no law ..." R5 #3,543
Whether the senior officers responsible are punished or rewarded, too early to know. Trump's $1.776 $Billion “The Anti-Weaponization Fund” demonstrates Trump is willing to be generous to those that break the law for him.

These officers are vulnerable. Their career, their professional lives their reputation either as a hero, or murderous criminal, may be determined by factors beyond their control. Grim.
I do not envy them their dilemma, & will not criticize Major Watson, considering his Hobson's choice.

They started calling it the “Nuremberg defense” when lawyers for Lt. William Calley at his court martial argued that he was only following orders in the March 1968 slaughter of hundreds of Vietnamese in what became known as the My Lai Massacre.
 
The legacy of Nuremberg is now reflected in the U.S. Manual of Courts-Martial, which states that service members have a duty to disobey an order that “a man of ordinary sense and understanding would know to be illegal.”

Trump doubles down on Democrats’ sedition accusation over veterans’ video

President Trump doubled down on his claim that a group of Democratic lawmakers with backgrounds in military or intelligence service have committed sedition by encouraging service members to defy unlawful orders.

In a pair of posts on his Truth Social platform late Saturday, the president said those lawmakers should be in jail, rather than defending themselves on cable networks.

“THE TRAITORS THAT TOLD THE MILITARY TO DISOBEY MY ORDERS SHOULD BE IN JAIL RIGHT NOW, NOT ROAMING THE FAKE NEWS NETWORKS TRYING TO EXPLAIN THAT WHAT THEY SAID WAS OK. IT WASN’T, AND NEVER WILL BE!” Trump wrote shortly before midnight.

“IT WAS SEDITION AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL, AND SEDITION IS A MAJOR CRIME. THERE CAN BE NO OTHER INTERPRETATION OF WHAT THEY SAID!” he continued.....



Grand jury declines to charge Democrats in 'illegal orders' video


US federal prosecutors have failed to secure an indictment against six members of Congress who published a video last year encouraging US troops to disobey orders they deem illegal.

A grand jury declined to indict the Democratic lawmakers on charges of seditious conspiracy in the case pursued by the office of the US attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, who was nominated to the position by President Donald Trump.

Trump had branded the video "seditious" and a federal probe into the video was launched shortly after.

One lawmaker, Senator Mark Kelly, a former Navy captain and astronaut, has sued the government for moving to reduce his retirement rank over the video.

Following news of the failed indictment, Kelly wrote on social media: "This is an outrageous abuse of power by Donald Trump and his lackies.

"It wasn't enough for Pete Hegseth to censure me and threaten to demote me, now it appears they tried to have me charged with a crime."

The BBC has reached out to the US Department of Justice for comment.

The justice department had sought to charge the lawmakers, who had all either served in the military or had roles in intelligence, under a criminal statute known as 18 U.S.C. § 2387, which includes treason, sedition and subversive activities, according to ....



And then we have Hegseth on illegal orders in 2016


Of course he's no claiming that all the orders are legal and there are established procedures for questioning that - only thing he doesn't mention is that he's fired the lawyers who would be responsible for addressing any such questions.

 
That brain worm seems to have relapsed and started using heroin again

 
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