All posts tagged: military promotions

‘If Trump Is Reelected, There Will Be No Mark Milley to Stop Him’

‘If Trump Is Reelected, There Will Be No Mark Milley to Stop Him’

Published by skeptic

The Patriot In the November 2023 issue, Jeffrey Goldberg considered what a general ought to do when the commander in chief undermines the Constitution. Explore the January/February 2024 Issue Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read. View More I am a lifelong Republican voter. The Lafayette Square incident described in Jeffrey Goldberg’s article convinced me that any Democrat would be preferable to a second Trump term. The events of January 6 merely confirmed what Lafayette first suggested—that there are no boundaries Donald Trump will not cross. General Mark Milley’s willingness to block Trump’s worst impulses puts a very different light on Senator Tommy Tuberville’s ongoing obstruction of military promotions. Perhaps Tuberville’s pro-life pretext is just that, a smoke screen providing a cover to gut the upper echelons of military leadership, such that Trump may have a free hand to load the Pentagon with loyalists if he wins the 2024 election. The first putsch failed. If Trump is reelected, the next one will not; there will be no Milley to …

America’s Aging Presidential Front-Runners – The Atlantic

America’s Aging Presidential Front-Runners – The Atlantic

Published by skeptic

President Joe Biden is facing a unique set of challenges as he prepares to run for reelection. The most unique of all: No one his age has ever run for president. And voters are worried, even those who give him credit for an improving economy. It’s also worth pointing out that Donald Trump is 77, and has been afflicted by more than the usual number of gaffes lately. On Capitol Hill, the GOP’s new House Speaker, Mike Johnson, is a full week into the job and working to regain order. But the ideological divide among House Republicans is now attracting attention in the upper chamber after GOP anger over Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville stalling military promotions erupted on the Senate floor. Joining the editor in chief of The Atlantic and moderator, Jeffrey Goldberg, this week to discuss this and more are Dan Balz, a chief correspondent at The Washington Post; Adam Harris, a staff writer at The Atlantic; Susan Page, the Washington bureau chief at USA Today; and Alex Thompson, a national political correspondent at …

The House Chaos Continues – The Atlantic

The House Chaos Continues – The Atlantic

Published by skeptic

September 23, 2023, 4:18 PM ET Editor’s Note: Washington Week with The Atlantic is a partnership between NewsHour Productions, WETA, and The Atlantic airing every Friday on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings or watch full episodes here. House Republicans have been fighting among themselves over the federal budget as a possible government shutdown looms. In the midst of this, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Capitol Hill this week to appeal to Congress for crucial weapons and support, which has also been met with some GOP resistance. And, with days until the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, retires, the Senate overcame GOP Senator Tommy Tuberville’s months-long delay on military promotions and confirmed General Charles Q. Brown Jr. to fill the U.S. military’s top job. Joining the editor in chief of The Atlantic and moderator, Jeffrey Goldberg, this week to discuss these topics and more: Steve Inskeep, the host of Morning Edition on NPR and the author of Differ We Must: How Lincoln Succeeded in a Divided America; Manu Raju, …

Senators Need to Stop Abusing the ‘Hold’ Procedure

Senators Need to Stop Abusing the ‘Hold’ Procedure

Published by skeptic

What is a “hold” in the Senate? This is not a question that many casual observers of American politics would normally ask. But Tommy Tuberville, the senator from Alabama, has made it a more urgent one with his blanket hold on all key military promotions that have to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Tuberville’s action, now in its seventh month, has kept hundreds of military leaders, including top officials, in limbo, doing real harm to the nation’s armed forces. As Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro told CNN, Tuberville is “playing Russian roulette with the very lives of our service members by denying them the opportunity to actually have the most experienced combat leaders in those positions to lead them in times of peace and in times of combat.” The three top service secretaries wrote jointly in The Washington Post earlier this month, decrying what Tuberville is doing. No specific rule created the Senate-hold procedure; it is a custom, but one that flowed from the rules of a legislative body that values consensus …