Two thoughts: First, his cadence and speaking style are absolutely the same as those of the typical evangelical mega-church pastor. It is uncanny. Second, how gross is it to go white nationalist in a D-Day speech?
Hegseth uses his D-Day anniversary speech in Franch to take veiled shots at NATO and European immigration policies
Via NR’s The Corner: President Trump Endorses Cops Using the Punisher Logo. Nothing disturbing about this iconography, now is there? Who could possibly object to the usage of a symbol associated with vigilante violence, including extrajudicial murder, especially when it is personalized to be associated with the sitting president?
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor Emeritus of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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Nothing disturbing about this iconography, now is there?
It’s especially galling given the histrionics MAGA Republicans (and not a few Democrats) are indulging themselves in over Platner’s death’s head tattoo.
@Ol’ Nat:
It’s not surprising that Hegseth would latch on to the term warfighter/warfighting, which the DoD has been using for many years. It certainly seems that war and fighter check his rhetorical boxes. Somewhat ironically, warfighter is essentially a politically correct term intended to be inclusive of the members of all military branches. Where an activity involves or may involve members of more than one military branch, as often happens, they may be referred to as warfighters to insure that none are left out.
@Eusebio: Which is kind of odd, given only a minority of “warfighters” will ever do any actual fighting, even in a war. I smile when I read a Republican elected official piously mentioning their veteran status, when it turns out they were JAG officers (e.g. Lindsey Graham and Ron DeSantis) or office assistants, like Vance.
I see that the NR piece sort of touches on this, but there is a story line in Daredevil: Born Again, where Frank Castle (the Punisher) mocks and belittles the police that have adopted his logo. He calls them idiots who don’t understand it. I understand that a scene like this is in the comics canon as well.
I mean, the whole storyline of DDBA is that Kingpin gets himself elected Mayor of NYC. He isn’t quite running on MAGA, but he isn’t quite not, either.
You’d think any self-respecting cop would be far too embarrassed to wear a patch with that asinine logo on it.
Where in earth did Hegseth get the term “warfighting”?!
@CSK:
And benevolent my ass! Not with that image!
It’s especially galling given the histrionics MAGA Republicans (and not a few Democrats) are indulging themselves in over Platner’s death’s head tattoo.
@Ol’ Nat:
It’s not surprising that Hegseth would latch on to the term warfighter/warfighting, which the DoD has been using for many years. It certainly seems that war and fighter check his rhetorical boxes. Somewhat ironically, warfighter is essentially a politically correct term intended to be inclusive of the members of all military branches. Where an activity involves or may involve members of more than one military branch, as often happens, they may be referred to as warfighters to insure that none are left out.
@Eusebio: Which is kind of odd, given only a minority of “warfighters” will ever do any actual fighting, even in a war. I smile when I read a Republican elected official piously mentioning their veteran status, when it turns out they were JAG officers (e.g. Lindsey Graham and Ron DeSantis) or office assistants, like Vance.
I see that the NR piece sort of touches on this, but there is a story line in Daredevil: Born Again, where Frank Castle (the Punisher) mocks and belittles the police that have adopted his logo. He calls them idiots who don’t understand it. I understand that a scene like this is in the comics canon as well.
I mean, the whole storyline of DDBA is that Kingpin gets himself elected Mayor of NYC. He isn’t quite running on MAGA, but he isn’t quite not, either.