With Pete Hegseth announced as Trump’s Secretary of Defense, it’s critical to look at history’s lessons. Truman’s choice, Louis A. Johnson, similarly lacked high-level command experience, and his tenure highlights the risks of appointing a SecDef with limited strategic expertise. Johnson, a political ally, faced criticism for defense cuts that left the military under-resourced. His inexperience in high-level strategy led to clashes with top brass in the “Revolt of the Admirals,” a rare instance of military leaders openly challenging their civilian head.

So you’re feeling defeated. Tired. You want to quit. I get it. A lot of you believed that justice would prevail, that things would balance out. Yet here we are. Trump won again. It’s like seeing the same enemy come back, relentless and untouched. I’ve been there before. In combat, things don’t always unfold how you expect or hope. We’d be deep in a mission, everything stacked against us, knowing we were supposed to be done. But the enemy had other plans. Just like now, you’re standing on a battlefield that feels overwhelming.

One of my spouse's friends called me this morning asking if I would train her on firearms. I said yes. But, her original question was "Should I buy a gun, like an AR-15?" I answered this as two questions.

"Should I buy a gun"? And "Likr an AR-15?"

I share my responses below. Should I buy a gun? This is a personal decision, different for anyone. If you have a reason to be concerned for your safety, such as an existing threat, then yes, definitely. If not, it's up to you and your conscience.

Like an AR-15? No. The answer is always no. More below.

This is not true, there's not any scientific evidence to support a global flood. In fact, there's scientific evidence in opposition of the Bible event.

The mountains used to be underwater, the Rockies were once a seabed south of the equator. That's why there are fossils. There's no fossil record indicating any great migration of species to the Middle East. Many Australian species have never left Australia, they evolved and stayed there. There's no water marks on Great Pyramids indicative of a flood event. The Noah Flood story is a myth. 100%.

Before I start this long day, I think I want to respond to this "Trump - Purple Heart" BS. I want to wait a bit before saying something because I was so livid that whatever I would have wrote would probably put a black sedan in my driveway. But, I have a few words. I have a Purple Heart, in fact a few. My brother lost half his face in Iraq. I'm at a guy's house now who had a round pierce his lung. None of us want these medals, but there's more to it than having just been injured. There's showing up. We volunteered for combat.

I'll start a new thread, hopefully a short one, but it's more of a rant. I'm a hay producer. We hire seasonally, and prefer to hire local teens on their summer break. We can get them outside, teach them about work, and even mentor. But for past 6 yrs, we've hired more migrants. The mentality has changed. Kids used to show up excited to work and earn money. Many were even competitive and tried to outwork each other. We'd invite moms and dads at the end of the season to the ranch for a big cook out to celebrate. But that happens less now.

How many of you have ever been inside a major steel foundry? These places build America, they make the wheels needed for our tractors used to grow our food and more. The plants are hot, and the air quality is often dangerous. Shifts are often 12 hours and many are in small towns. It's not fun work. It's hard, back breaking work and plants are having a hard time finding labor to meet production demands. When they can't find workers, should they just close and we import cast iron from China? Or, is it better to bring in immigrants? We should be thankful.

So, something isn't right with what we are hearing in the news re: polls. First, I'm in Florida. A ship owner with a problem child needs it to pass an inspection, and this is one of the areas I specialize in so I flew into Fort Myers yesterday. My 1st Mate had to fly to Orlando. I have a friend in Punta Gorda and needed to pick up some equipment, which is why I flew into Fort Myers. Then I drove all the way to Orlando to pick up my 1st at the airport there. I traveled the highways, not the interstate. I was curious how many Trump signs I would see.

I don't know who needs to know this, but there's still some who failed middle school science, so let's talk about what vaccines do and don't do.

Vaccines do not put up a shield around your body that prevents a virus from entering your body. Once virus is in, you're infected! What a vaccine does is give your body's immune system the "advanced knowledge" of how to attack a virus. It's very similar to programming. The virus doesn't have to waste time trying different things and failing, some of those things can lead to even worse situations.

When I was growing up, my mother had a friend who had an abortion. This what changed my parent's views on abortion and even tho I haven't seen this lady in 30 years or know if she's still alive, I thought I'd tell you about it because it busts the myth Republican men are pushing. My mother's friend was married to a lineman in Oklahoma. They had two boys, at the time 8 and 13. They wanted a girl and were having trouble getting pregnant, so they went to a clinic to try IVF. The day that he "donated", he ended up getting killed (electrocuted) at work.

How do rural voters get so far to the right? It starts with a little country church. A preacher "teaching" his views and backing it up with scripture and then calling it "facts". Of course, scripture can be twisted to support any argument. I could defend mass murder with it. These messages are reinforced at various community gathering spots. The coffee shop where old men hold court every morning. The country convenience store where people grab a deli sandwich and a coffee. It's further reinforced with the NRA trying to scare them with lies.

I really have no respect for Elon left. The last piece of it left over how he's treated his transgender offspring. A few years ago I got a call from a state social worker who is a friend of ours. First questioned asked: "Where are you with LGBT issues, specifically trans?" /1 They were dealing with a family who had a lot of serious problems. There were minor kids, and an 18 y/o transwoman in the family. The state took the minors, and I agreed we'd protect the 18-y/o from her "dad" while more permanent arrangements could be worked out.

My spouse would never "professionally diagnose" a patient without having personally examined them, as no respected doctor would. But, does have an opinion that is likely more educated than most on what happened during the debate, and I agree with that opinion. First, it has nothing to do with Alzheimer's or Parkinson's. It's happened to me in my lifetime at least twice that I'm aware of, and both time could have easily resulted in a lethal situation. I was lucky. It's called "Sleep Deprivation Incoherence".

A story about preparedness for emergencies. Before getting into it, I'll add that my mother is safe and there was ultimately no damage to her property. But, a lesson was learned yesterday that hopefully will benefit some who read this. After my father passed, my mother decided to turn our ranch property over to her kids, and bought a historic home a few hours away. The home was built before Oklahoma was even a state, and so of course it has no built-in garage. A garage was built shortly after WWII ended.

How important is it to have a competent President who is respected by world leaders? In UK, the equivalent of the "nuclear football" is called "Letters of Last Resort." These hand written letters are issued by each newly installed prime minister and sent to their sub commanders. When new letters are received, the old letters from the outgoing prime minister are destroyed unopened. The letters assume the UK has been attacked by the nuclear weapons and is no longer there. There are four main options a PM offers to sub commanders, they are:

When I left the service, I helped train volunteer park rangers at this nat park. Rhino poaching is a huge problem. Rangers shoot to kill. We were stalked by a bengal for over a day. I didn't think we were getting out of it. Shooting it wasn't an option.
cnn.com/2024/02/15/wor…

https://twitter.com/altnoaa/status/1456091863031615488

You can see how serious it's taken. This crime occurred in 2012, and arrest made in 2023. There's really no statute of limitations, if they can prove you killed a rhino, you're going down. If they see you with a rifle in the park, you're getting buried.
deccanherald.com/amp/story/indi…

In this single paragraph from the US District Court for the District of Columbia in 1973, the court found two important factors that pertain to today's legal questions.

1. The President is an Officer.

2. The President is not a king, and therefore doesn't have (crown) immunity.

https://twitter.com/altnoaa/status/1754761535350567402

The first is important, the Colorado case is before the SCOTUS, but there are cases depending on this decision in other states (such as Massachusetts) where Trump will be removed from ballot in General Election. Is the POTUS an Officer? Yes!

I've been trying to think of how to write this thread for awhile and I'm still not sure how to do it, so I'm just going to write. And before getting into it, I'm not a "prepper" and I'm not advocating violence in any way. But I did spend a decade in Spec Ops, and have concerns. There is a very real possibility that Donald Trump will go to prison. I'd consider it more of a probability at this point. When that happens, a few of his supporters could possibly try to throw this country into chaos. I think this is something that we need to be prepared for.

Tlaib is correct that a government can be criticized without criticizing an entire population. That said, Netanyahu is a racist prick. He always has been and he always will be. If you agree with that, now let me say some things that will make you uncomfortable. The IDF is conducting this war, as I would expect any professional and superior military force would. I served in the USAF 24th STS, alongside Army ODA teams (Green Berets). A large part of what we did was direct air strikes from the ground. Let's examine Gaza.

I was deployed to support counter narcotics operations in the 90s and counterterrorism is the 2000s. A family friend tonight said the cartels are "terrorists". They are not, at least not to the USA, they're organized crime. There is one major unwritten rule to back that up. Earlier this year, a group of Americans visiting Matamoros were shot in their car. It was a case of mistaken identity. The cartels have an unwritten rule to not directly attack Americans. And because this rule was broken, the Gulf Cartel quickly handed over the shooters.

We lost our dad while ALL his kids were serving overseas. When my brother learned about it, it heavily distracted him, he let his guard down, got hurt and he spent a year at Walter Reed recovering. When he was released from his service, he turned to pain killers and alcohol. I was dealing with my own demons after I resigned my commission and left to go to Europe for awhile, so I wasn't around for him. He went through some really tough times. Eventually I returned, learned the extent of things and got him rehabilitation. But his addiction took a toll.