PrairiePundit

 DC Daily Journal: On his first full day in office, President Donald Trump took decisive steps to remove more than 1,000 appointees from the previous administration. This sweeping move includes the dismissal of several high-profile individuals, most notably retired General Mark Milley. In an early morning post on Truth Social, Trump shared his administration’s plan, stating, “My Presidential Personnel Office is actively in the process of identifying and removing over a thousand Presidential Appointees from the previous Administration, who are not aligned with our vision to Make America Great Again.” ... This announcement was made shortly after the new president had concluded a busy inauguration day, which included attending formal ceremonies, signing multiple executive orders, and celebrating with three inaugural balls well into the evening. Among the first to be dismissed was General Mark Milley, who had been serving on the National Infrastructure Advisory Council. This council pl...

 Independent Sentinel: According to Tom Fitton, General Milley met with Merrick Garland and pressured him to target domestic threats and alleged far-right militia groups. They discussed Donald Trump. Milley wanted Donald Trump and his supporters, his fellow Americans, targeted. This is an entirely unprecedented meeting and request. What he calls far-right militia ended up being parents, Christians, and Trump supporters in general. Milley and Garland had no concern about communist-anarchist groups of Antifa and Soros-funded Black Lives Matter. We have the military conspiring with the DoJ. They flouted FOIA to hide information about the meeting. Additionally, Biden regrets appointing Merrick Garland as attorney general. According to a report in The Washington Post, Biden believes Garland was slow to prosecute Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and allowed for an aggressive prosecution of his son Hunter. He would have liked to have appointed someone who prosec...

 American Action News: With less than a month to go before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, the top brass are already running for cover. This week the Army’s chief of staff, Gen. Randy George, pledged to cut approximately a dozen general officers from the U.S. Army. It is a start. But given the Army is authorized 219 general officers, cutting just 12 is using a scalpel when a machete is in order. At present, the ratio of officers to enlisted personnel stands at an all-time high. During World War II, we had one general for every 6,000 troops. Today, we have one for every 1,600. Right now, the United States has 1.3 million active-duty service members according to the Defense Manpower Data Center . Of those, 885 are flag officers (fun fact: you get your own flag when you make general or admiral, hence the term “flag officer” and “flagship”). In the reserve world, the ratio is even worse. There are 925 general and flag officers and a total reserve force of just 760,499 perso...

  Newsmax: Members of President-elect Donald Trump's transition team are drawing up a list of military officers to be fired, potentially to include the Joint Chiefs of Staff, two sources said, in what would be an unprecedented shakeup at the Pentagon. The planning for the firings is at an early stage after Trump's victory over Vice President Kamala Harris and could change as Trump's administration takes shape, said the sources, who are familiar with the Trump transition and requested anonymity to speak candidly about the plans. One of the sources questioned the feasibility of a mass firing at the Pentagon. It was also unknown if Trump would endorse the plan, although he has railed extensively against defense leaders who have criticized him. Trump also spoke during the campaign of firing "woke" generals and those responsible for the troubled 2021 pullout from Afghanistan. ... A second source said the incoming administration would likely focus on U.S. military offic...

 Jack Cashill: On January 6, 2021, nearly five hours passed between the breach of the Capitol perimeter and the arrival of a National Guard contingent ready and waiting to deploy just ten minutes away. Had the National Guard arrived within that first hour, “January 6” would have no more historical resonance than any other day on the calendar. Any number of people bear the blame for this calamitous security failure, but that list does not include the two most frequently cited scapegoats, the D.C. National Guard or President Donald Trump. Of the thousands of words of sworn testimony, some of the most revealing came from Colonel Earl Matthews. In rebutting the questions asked by Rep. Norma Torres, a California Democrat, at a congressional hearing on April 17, 2024, the intrepid Matthews shared some inconvenient truths. “Do you know if ideas like the President seizing ballot boxes was something [Army] Secretary [Ryan] McCarthy was considering when making decisions about deploying the G...

 Fox News: Prosecutors cite Trump’s ‘death’ comment about Milley in repeat request for gag order Trump wrote that in 'time gone by' Milley would have been executed for communicating with China following Jan. 6 Trump's comment was about his understanding of history and not a death threat.  Trump's appointment of Milley looks like a mistake.

  Washington Examiner: CIA director ‘proud’ of Afghanistan analysis despite disastrous Taliban takeover ...   Hundreds of Americans and tens of thousands of Afghan allies and interpreters were still in the country when the U.S. left before the end of August. Burns  said  Wednesday during an Aspen Security Forum discussion that he was “very proud … of the analysis, with all of its imperfections, that we tried to provide to policymakers over the six months leading up to the withdrawal.” The CIA director prefaced this by admitting the agency had not predicted the Taliban would take over the country as fast as they did and that “all of us have lessons to learn from experiences like that.” He suggested that the CIA had at least gotten it less wrong than other parts of the U.S. government. “As the president has said publicly, none of us anticipated that the Afghan government was going to flee as quickly as it did, that the Afghan military was going to collapse as fast as i...

 Washington Examiner: Gen. Mark Milley   h as been accused of dodging questions on allegations he kept information from  President Donald Trump  and undermined him while he was in office. Milley has ignored calls from Republicans to clarify comments attributed to him in  Watergate  reporter  Bob Woodward 's book  Peril , in which it is claimed he did not tell Trump about a crucial call with a top Chinese official. Sen. Chuck Grassley  (R-IA) and Rep.  Jim Banks  (R-IN) have accused Milley of continuing to dodge giving answers about his discussions with Chinese General Li Zuocheng, despite admitting he spoke to Woodward about the calls for the 2021 book. The book's description of the calls  made waves  last year, with Republicans charging that Milley was usurping the chain of command by telling the Chinese general he would warn China about any possible military strike ordered by Trump. Banks and Grassley claim Milley contin...

  NY Post Editorial: The Shameful Six: Never listen to these people again Also making the list are  Dr. Anthony Fauci, Christopher Steele, Randi Weingarten, James Clapper, and Jake Sullivan.  They all have a history of getting things wrong.

 Monica Showalter: Gen. Mark Milley, the Pentagon swamp creature who brought us the Afghanistan pullout and turned the U.S. military focus to "white rage," doesn't seem to be able to get Russia's generals, now bombing Ukraine, to return his phone calls. ... The Post reports focus on the potential war risk, including nuclear conflict, that comes of it.  But it's baffled as to why this could be happening, resorting to quoting a few experts from lefty institutions at the bottom of the piece.... ... It misses some of the big ones, though, one of which is the matter of contempt and how much of that the Russians have for Milley (and his wokester U.S. defense secretary, Lloyd Austin). After all, Milley's signature achievement has been the botched, chaotic, mal-planned, militarily disastrous U.S. pullout of Afghanistan, which left America's military reputation in ruins and effectively negated the U.S.'s decades of sacrifice in blood an...

  Alex Parker: Report: US Army Mandates Training to Help Soldiers Shake off Their Sex 'Assigned at Birth' People with gender dysphoria should find another line of work.  They become a distraction in the military and the commanders who pander to their dysphoria should also find another line of work.  The Army should be training these troops for the rigors of combat. .See, also: Rowling Warns Politicians of ‘Anger Building Among Women’ over Attempts to Silence Them on Trans Issues

  Alex Parker: Do you remember when your mother’s doctor gave you an assignment? I’m referring, of course, to your sex. It was a bold move and burdensome — most assignments don’t last a lifetime. For those unfamiliar with the idea, join the U.S. Army to be brushed up. The Washington Free Beacon has reportedly obtained slides from a brand-spanking “Policy on the Military Service of Transgender Persons and Persons with Gender Dysphoria” training presentation. Last month, officers were educated so they might school their subordinates. The material was provided by “a high-ranking officer in the Army Special Forces.” Per an official representative, the required training will inform “Army personnel on the recent changes to the DoD and Army transgender service policy.” All Army personnel, from soldiers to commanders and supervisors, are required to participate in the training by Sept. 30, 2022, according to the spokesman. ... Of course, nothing creates a stronger Army aside from better ...

 Fox News: ... In early February, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told lawmakers during a closed-door briefing that Kyiv could fall within 72 hours after a full-scale Russian invasion. He said the operation could result in 15,000 Ukrainian military deaths and 4,000 Russian troop deaths. That prediction, like predictions regarding how long Afghanistan's army could last without U.S. support, has already been disproved. Kyiv has held out long past the dire prognostication. The war grinds on. Last week, Russia claimed it had lost 498 military personnel, a figure widely disputed by the Pentagon, which put the death toll somewhere between 2,000 and 4,000. Ukraine has claimed nearly 11,000 Russian military deaths and the Kremlin is believed to be actively concealing the true number. The fact remains that Kyiv did not fall, and Afghanistan did not stand, despite Milley's speculations in May 2021 that the U.S.-backed government there could. "It's not a ...

  Breitbart: Army Unveils Strategy to Deal with ‘Global Disruptions’ from ‘Climate Change’ From Valley Forge to the Chosin Reservoir in Korea, the American military has dealt with severe weather events and won.   This looks like another distraction by woke leadership in the Joint Cheifs who worry about the weather and CRT instead of winning combat operations.  BTW, the US military dealt with heat and humidity in Vietnam and desert heat in the Middle East.   Wokeness is a bigger threat to the US military than the climate.

 Red States: ... There will be people who don’t like the language used here, and I can understand that, but when he’s right, he’s right. Milley has shown himself to be completely inept as a military leader. The way in which the withdrawal-turned-evacuation from Afghanistan transpired was a tragedy and largely avoidable. In a rush to give Joe Biden a political win, Milley and others accepted a plan of action that was destined to fail. Ultimately, it cost the lives of 13 American servicemembers and countless Afghan civilians. When Trump mentioned $60 million in airplanes, I assume he meant the newly acquired A-29 Super Tucano, close-air-support aircraft that ultimately fell into the hands of the Taliban. Or maybe he meant the Black Hawk helicopters or ScanEagle drones? While some fact-checker will probably rush to quibble over the details, the former president’s point remains the same: Allowing such weaponry to fall into the hands of a terrorist government was insane. Milley had the ...

 Washington Examiner: Facing the rising prospect of a major conflict with China, the nation needs senior military leaders who are, well, superb leaders. We're not getting that leadership. The problem starts with the most senior military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley. The Army officer had an impressive career up until his current job. A light infantry warfare specialist, Milley held commands in some of the Army's most prestigious units. As Army chief of staff, the general won praise for pushing innovation in procurement and strategy. Unfortunately, Milley's record as chairman of the Joint Chiefs has been far less inspiring. Over the past year, Milley has given explosive quotes to a legion of different journalists. Stand-out moments include Milley's apparent pledge to Nancy Pelosi that he would interfere with nuclear command structures and his likening of former President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. When questioned about his penchant fo...

  Fox News: Retired military leaders demand mass resignation of Biden team: Milley, Austin, Blinken, Sullivan   Rep. Ronny Jackson said 'everyone who was a yes-man for Biden' should resign They have been serial failures as has the President the serve.  The lack of competence is stunning.  BTW: State Department IG to probe Biden admin's chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal   State Department IG will probe evacuation of U.S. embassy in Kabul, among other things

  Power Line: MILLEY PROMOTES HIMSELF ...   Milley told Leonnig and Rucker that he feared Trump might try to stage a coup after losing the 2020 election. “This is a Reichstag moment,” the authors quote Milley telling aides. “The gospel of the Fuhrer.” And more: “They may try, but they’re not going to f—ing succeed,” the authors quote Milley telling his deputies. “You can’t do this without the military. You can’t do this without the CIA and the FBI. We’re the guys with the guns.” ... This is paranoia on a grand scale.  It is a dangerous trait for general.  Those in Congress asking for his resignation are on the right track.

 Andrea Widburg: ... These embarrassments to America's long and honorable military history, as I said, were desperate to place blame anywhere but on themselves.  Milley (as was to be expected) was the worst.  He  insisted  that Americans abandoned in Afghanistan would have "been at greater risk" if the military had stayed "past the 31st." But here's the thing about all these guys saying that Biden is to blame (which I'm sure he is): why did they go along with a plan that they now claim they knew in advance would be disastrous?  And having gone along with it, perhaps in the naïve and unfounded belief that they could somehow prevent the worst from happening, why did they try to spin defeat as success? And when they got called out on it by a single brave Marine lieutenant colonel, why did they go full Soviet, sending him to a psychiatrist and the brig, rather than doing what any decent Japanese politico would have done under these circumstances ...

 Brandon Morse: In the midst of Democrat softballs constantly being thrown his way, Gen. Mark Milley was finally confronted with someone who didn’t come to play around. Florida Republican Matt Gaetz brutalized Milley in a way that had the general looking very uncomfortable in his seat. What’s more, Gaetz swung and hit President Joe Biden square in the process. Gaetz came swinging out of the gate immediately at Milley, making it clear that his call about pulling out of Afghanistan was a massive error. “You really blew that call didn’t you, General?” asked Gaetz. Milley began to respond that they were in a “strategic stalemate” but Gaetz cut him off and pointed out that Milley focused more on writing his book “Peril” with investigative journalist Bob Woodward than he spent analyzing “the very likely prospect” that the Afghanistan government would be overrun and toppled by the Taliban should the U.S. have departed as we did. Milley denied this but Gaetz was immediately back on him. “O...