In the end, staff, or prinicipals, will be "look, enough bullshit. Fine. I'll retire and tell the story."
No way whatever this shit show is... doesn't wind up being displayed in full regale.
I do think if its the DUI Hire telling the flag corp how to be "bad ass" as some are reporting? The flag core is going to beat him to death. :P
We have more combat seasoned leaders, and soldiers, in the US military, at any time since 1775... they don't need to be lectured on having a big dick and the warrior ethos.
I can't imagine the graduates of our military academies are going to roll over and pay dead for Pete Kegstand. Some of them yes. A West Point graduate that I went to high school with immediately comes to mind if he hasn't already retired, but I hope the majority of the rest remember their oath.
I expect there will be wild eyed hairy folk and steel eyed slavic types all over the world looking to gatecrash or take advantage of commanders being in the wrong place. Bizarre stupidity that well tops the Signal shambles. Perhaps they will turn tell Pete the truth and to F off.
Across history, the faces of terror have shifted — from inquisitors in black robes, to political commissars, to masked insurgents, to modern states invoking national security. Yet beneath the changes in costume, weapons, and rhetoric lies a single recurring logic: the conviction that the ends justify the means.
The Spanish Inquisition: Salvation by Fear
The Inquisition cloaked itself in the highest purpose — saving souls. Heresy was framed not as personal belief but as a contagious disease threatening the Christian world. If torture, imprisonment, or execution could “purify” the body of society, then such cruelty was not just permitted but sanctified. The end — the preservation of faith — was judged so vital that the means no longer required moral justification. In effect, terror became a holy tool.
20th-Century Regimes: Ideology as Absolute
Totalitarian states inherited this same logic in secular form.
Fascist regimes labeled dissenters as traitors undermining the nation.
Communist regimes condemned ideological deviation as betrayal of the revolution. Both elevated their end — national unity, classless society — to such an absolute that any means could be excused: censorship, imprisonment, purges, and executions. Terror was no longer a regrettable side effect, but an integral method of governance.
Modern Counterterror Rhetoric: Security Absolutized
In democratic states, the same pattern often appears under the language of security. Labeling opposition movements as “terroristic” or “extremist” broadens state power to surveil, censor, and detain. The end — protecting democracy, liberty, and safety — is invoked so forcefully that the means, even if repressive, are rationalized as necessary. What is at stake, the argument goes, is nothing less than the survival of the system itself.
The Common Thread: Fear as Instrument
Whether in the dungeon of the Inquisition, the propaganda halls of the 20th century, or the press release of a modern government, the essential mechanism is identical:
Declare an existential threat.
Elevate the end (faith, ideology, nation, security) above all else.
Deploy fear — of torture, prison, social ostracism, or death — to secure compliance. The “enemy” shifts names, but the strategy endures.
The Paradox of Terror
The irony is that those who wield terror while claiming to oppose it often become indistinguishable from what they fight. The inquisitor rescuing souls, the dictator purging traitors, the state suppressing dissent in the name of liberty — all share the same DNA. By treating the end as sacred, they make fear itself the most reliable tool of rule.
📌 Conclusion:
If terrorism can be defined not only by violence against innocents but also by the principle that the end sanctifies any means, then the line between outlawed terror and official policy blurs uncomfortably. What unites inquisitors, dictators, insurgents, and modern power-holders is not their ideology, but their willingness to enthrone fear as the path to their chosen future.
I first wrote about how gobsmacked we all ought to be by Hegseth-Trump's call for all the top brass of our armed forces to assemble anywhere, anytime, under any conditions, all at once, thereby creating an opportunity to disable our military in one fell swoop. But no matter, because one assumes Trump will simply plug in some guys with 'ripped bods' (evidence of hours each day spent narcissistically pumping iron in front of big mirrors) and White Nationalist tats into the top spots, La Voila. But really, the spectre of doom for us is much more likely to be some sort of soft purge, setting generals and admirals against each other, and elevating to prominence the ones who most readily agree to sell their souls to Donnie Beelzebub-Gambino, et al. Are there no actual heroes willing and able to stand firm in honor of their oath to defend the People and our Constitution? My dad, a Marine Captain and later a Colonel in command of a National Guard battalion, lies interred on the grounds of Quantico, next to my mother, who spent a lifetime supporting his service. Dear Dad, please don't despair that your sterling dedication to duty has gone in vain. And, Dear Generals and Admirals, remember him, and us, when consulting your consciences.
Imagine the critical mass of hatred, contempt and dismay with/for Trump, and his lesser idiots like piddlin Pete, this will generate within the leaders of the armed forces of disUSA and their former commanders. Surely it will stir some righteous response?
Trump’s loyalty test will not go well. The leaks will come before the 60 minutes of Hogsbreath’s show of ineptitude, incompetence, and peerless in vacuous idiocy! How many of our military (former and current) top brass will even appearis my question.
Resistance to the cretinous fascist in chief is already a topic amongst many!
I had just posted a comment elsewhere about this being a made for TV moment from the mind of the Fearless Leader. Hegseth is his service dog. But trump is the All Powerful Leader of the World’s Greatest Military Force in the History of the Universe, so this feeds his need for validation. He can demand that they all come at once even though nobody else would do this for security and logistical reasons. But Master of the Universe gets to command them and they Shall Obey.
And yes it also can help test their loyalty and make it easier to instil fear and prevent their planning any resistance. But given trump’s post COVID dramatic performance at the White House, and his photo op at Butler, we know he loves and craves these grandiose visual displays of power.
This will truly be a dangerous moment. However much a large proportion (we hope) of the senior military understand the constitution, and their obligations to it, what ACTION can they actually take - if only to make a point - while in the room? Turn their backs? This could escalate from 0-100 in seconds. And history shows that military coups tend not to end well.
Personally, I think the potential best thing to happen could be someone seriously senior having the balls to loudly and succinctly ridicule Hegseth, and for the surrounding people to be prepared to physically protect them from the ICE-type thug “security” they will probably have in the room. And (however tempting) it will have to be Hegseth that’s ridiculed, not CiC Trump. That might make Hegseth’s position untenable and maybe force Trump to replace him with someone who actually knows what they’re doing.
I wonder how the military will deny trump's flagrant disregard for law and the constitution. When I saw the rag tag military parade in front of trump , I thought it was brilliant. I hope they will not turn against us.
There were two other reasons that the Valkyrie plot failed. First, Stauffenberg had lost his right hand and two fingers on his left hand. When it came time to assemble and arm the bomb, his handicap made for slow going, and he only had time to set one of the two explosives. Second, one of the other officers present, who was unaware of the plot, pushed the briefcase/bomb with his foot so that the massive table support was between it and Hitler, and the latter received only minor injuries.
Jesus. Sobering, but this is why this is the only column I pay for (per that silly little subscription tag next to the username).
Unlike those "in charge", these are smart, clever and serious people they are gathering. It will come out, one way or another.
Yes it will... won't it.
In the end, staff, or prinicipals, will be "look, enough bullshit. Fine. I'll retire and tell the story."
No way whatever this shit show is... doesn't wind up being displayed in full regale.
I do think if its the DUI Hire telling the flag corp how to be "bad ass" as some are reporting? The flag core is going to beat him to death. :P
We have more combat seasoned leaders, and soldiers, in the US military, at any time since 1775... they don't need to be lectured on having a big dick and the warrior ethos.
Thank you the insight. I unfortunately have been busy at work to pay much attention to this issue.
I can't imagine the graduates of our military academies are going to roll over and pay dead for Pete Kegstand. Some of them yes. A West Point graduate that I went to high school with immediately comes to mind if he hasn't already retired, but I hope the majority of the rest remember their oath.
Hope to God you are right.
Excellent reporting. Very well thought out and communicated.
I expect there will be wild eyed hairy folk and steel eyed slavic types all over the world looking to gatecrash or take advantage of commanders being in the wrong place. Bizarre stupidity that well tops the Signal shambles. Perhaps they will turn tell Pete the truth and to F off.
You would love to see it happen. I think the author is right though, Trump is picking the best ground to have his authoritarian takeover battle.
Terror and the Logic of “Ends Justify the Means”
Across history, the faces of terror have shifted — from inquisitors in black robes, to political commissars, to masked insurgents, to modern states invoking national security. Yet beneath the changes in costume, weapons, and rhetoric lies a single recurring logic: the conviction that the ends justify the means.
The Spanish Inquisition: Salvation by Fear
The Inquisition cloaked itself in the highest purpose — saving souls. Heresy was framed not as personal belief but as a contagious disease threatening the Christian world. If torture, imprisonment, or execution could “purify” the body of society, then such cruelty was not just permitted but sanctified. The end — the preservation of faith — was judged so vital that the means no longer required moral justification. In effect, terror became a holy tool.
20th-Century Regimes: Ideology as Absolute
Totalitarian states inherited this same logic in secular form.
Fascist regimes labeled dissenters as traitors undermining the nation.
Communist regimes condemned ideological deviation as betrayal of the revolution. Both elevated their end — national unity, classless society — to such an absolute that any means could be excused: censorship, imprisonment, purges, and executions. Terror was no longer a regrettable side effect, but an integral method of governance.
Modern Counterterror Rhetoric: Security Absolutized
In democratic states, the same pattern often appears under the language of security. Labeling opposition movements as “terroristic” or “extremist” broadens state power to surveil, censor, and detain. The end — protecting democracy, liberty, and safety — is invoked so forcefully that the means, even if repressive, are rationalized as necessary. What is at stake, the argument goes, is nothing less than the survival of the system itself.
The Common Thread: Fear as Instrument
Whether in the dungeon of the Inquisition, the propaganda halls of the 20th century, or the press release of a modern government, the essential mechanism is identical:
Declare an existential threat.
Elevate the end (faith, ideology, nation, security) above all else.
Deploy fear — of torture, prison, social ostracism, or death — to secure compliance. The “enemy” shifts names, but the strategy endures.
The Paradox of Terror
The irony is that those who wield terror while claiming to oppose it often become indistinguishable from what they fight. The inquisitor rescuing souls, the dictator purging traitors, the state suppressing dissent in the name of liberty — all share the same DNA. By treating the end as sacred, they make fear itself the most reliable tool of rule.
📌 Conclusion:
If terrorism can be defined not only by violence against innocents but also by the principle that the end sanctifies any means, then the line between outlawed terror and official policy blurs uncomfortably. What unites inquisitors, dictators, insurgents, and modern power-holders is not their ideology, but their willingness to enthrone fear as the path to their chosen future.
I first wrote about how gobsmacked we all ought to be by Hegseth-Trump's call for all the top brass of our armed forces to assemble anywhere, anytime, under any conditions, all at once, thereby creating an opportunity to disable our military in one fell swoop. But no matter, because one assumes Trump will simply plug in some guys with 'ripped bods' (evidence of hours each day spent narcissistically pumping iron in front of big mirrors) and White Nationalist tats into the top spots, La Voila. But really, the spectre of doom for us is much more likely to be some sort of soft purge, setting generals and admirals against each other, and elevating to prominence the ones who most readily agree to sell their souls to Donnie Beelzebub-Gambino, et al. Are there no actual heroes willing and able to stand firm in honor of their oath to defend the People and our Constitution? My dad, a Marine Captain and later a Colonel in command of a National Guard battalion, lies interred on the grounds of Quantico, next to my mother, who spent a lifetime supporting his service. Dear Dad, please don't despair that your sterling dedication to duty has gone in vain. And, Dear Generals and Admirals, remember him, and us, when consulting your consciences.
Imagine the critical mass of hatred, contempt and dismay with/for Trump, and his lesser idiots like piddlin Pete, this will generate within the leaders of the armed forces of disUSA and their former commanders. Surely it will stir some righteous response?
“DUI Hire”. 😂😂😂😂😂
#reversevalkyrie
Trump’s loyalty test will not go well. The leaks will come before the 60 minutes of Hogsbreath’s show of ineptitude, incompetence, and peerless in vacuous idiocy! How many of our military (former and current) top brass will even appearis my question.
Resistance to the cretinous fascist in chief is already a topic amongst many!
I had just posted a comment elsewhere about this being a made for TV moment from the mind of the Fearless Leader. Hegseth is his service dog. But trump is the All Powerful Leader of the World’s Greatest Military Force in the History of the Universe, so this feeds his need for validation. He can demand that they all come at once even though nobody else would do this for security and logistical reasons. But Master of the Universe gets to command them and they Shall Obey.
And yes it also can help test their loyalty and make it easier to instil fear and prevent their planning any resistance. But given trump’s post COVID dramatic performance at the White House, and his photo op at Butler, we know he loves and craves these grandiose visual displays of power.
Overreach is a bitch that won’t stop giving causing backlashes that reverberate until the next fool’s overreach.
I have a difficult time believing that Hegseth or Trump have the brains and ability to plan this. Who is really behind it?
This will truly be a dangerous moment. However much a large proportion (we hope) of the senior military understand the constitution, and their obligations to it, what ACTION can they actually take - if only to make a point - while in the room? Turn their backs? This could escalate from 0-100 in seconds. And history shows that military coups tend not to end well.
Personally, I think the potential best thing to happen could be someone seriously senior having the balls to loudly and succinctly ridicule Hegseth, and for the surrounding people to be prepared to physically protect them from the ICE-type thug “security” they will probably have in the room. And (however tempting) it will have to be Hegseth that’s ridiculed, not CiC Trump. That might make Hegseth’s position untenable and maybe force Trump to replace him with someone who actually knows what they’re doing.
Kinda feels like every General should attend that meeting with both a sidearm and a digital voice recorder.
Never hurts to be prepared...
I wonder how the military will deny trump's flagrant disregard for law and the constitution. When I saw the rag tag military parade in front of trump , I thought it was brilliant. I hope they will not turn against us.
There were two other reasons that the Valkyrie plot failed. First, Stauffenberg had lost his right hand and two fingers on his left hand. When it came time to assemble and arm the bomb, his handicap made for slow going, and he only had time to set one of the two explosives. Second, one of the other officers present, who was unaware of the plot, pushed the briefcase/bomb with his foot so that the massive table support was between it and Hitler, and the latter received only minor injuries.