Daily Broadside | New Book Says Milley Usurped Trump’s Authority

Daily Verse | Daniel 12:3
“Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.”

Happy mid-week my friends. The gnome in my garden won’t give me back my copy of The Hobbit.

We live in an increasingly lawless land, led by men and women who not only overstep the boundaries of their constitutional roles, but actively undermine duly elected leaders. It is not too much to say that the United States cannot function as designed if some “leaders” disregard the rule of law and other “leaders” let them get away with doing so. Not only can our nation not function, it will fall apart and land most heavily on innocent civilians who are considered the “out group” — namely, anyone who questions or resists what the party in power is doing.

The latest troubling example of this lawlessness is a claim in a new book that US Army General Mark Milley-Vanillie, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, secretly reassured the Chinese that he would warn them if President Donald J. Trump planned to attack them.

Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, “was certain that Trump had gone into a serious mental decline in the aftermath of the election,” authors Bob Woodward and Robert Costa of the Washington Post write in their forthcoming book, “Peril,” set for release on September 21.

For the record, I think Woodward is a hack. But if this is true, it’s big. Milley, an Army general, plays psychologist and takes matters into his own hands.

These reports suggest that Milley may have over-stepped his role as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a role that advises the president and defense secretary but is not part of the chain of command for operational decisions like the launching of nuclear weapons.

He “may have” overstepped his role? Ya think? A role that “advises” the Commander in Chief and his defense secretary, but isn’t “part of the chain of command” goes behind his Commander’s back and conducts diplomacy without anyone’s knowledge based on his lone psychological assessment of a sitting president?

Milley was so concerned that Trump might start a war with China, he privately called his Chinese counterpart twice to assure him that the US would not strike, per the book.

Who’s running the country? Not Milley — he wasn’t elected. He went rogue. He doesn’t have the authority to be making policy. This is treasonous behavior. He actually interfered with the military action Trump could take as president.

But hey, why not? The Deep State had wrapped itself around Trump’s ankles for five years.

This is the same guy who “advised” the dementia patient currently in the White House about Afghanistan and I don’t hear him fretting by saying he is certain that Biden has “gone into a serious mental decline,” even though everyone else and the family dog can see it.

And get a load of this further reporting by CNN (with my emphasis):

Milley’s fear that Trump could do something unpredictable came from experience. Right after Trump lost the election, Milley discovered the President had signed a military order to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by January 15, 2021, before he left the White House.

The memo had been secretly drafted by two Trump loyalists. No one on the national security team knew about it, according to the book. The memo was eventually nullified, but Milley could not forget that Trump had done an end run around his top military advisers.

“Trump had done an end run around his top military advisers.” Can’t have the duly elected president and COMMANDER IN CHIEF making decisions about troop movements!

Pulling the troops out between November and January 15 may not have been smart military strategy, but that’s not for an “adviser” to decide! It’s certainly not an “end run,” as though the president needed their approval to proceed — it’s the president’s authority and responsibility as the military commander!

Here is the key graph: “The authors write, ‘Milley was overseeing the mobilization of America’s national security state without the knowledge of the American people or the rest of the world.'” And, I might add, the President!

This is frightening. Who, exactly, is in charge? How do we know? If we have military brass operating on their own, outside the chain of command (and definitely outside the scope of the U.S. Constitution), then we can’t ever be sure that there won’t be a coup next time a Republican is in office because some general decides that the president is in “mental decline” according to his own personal observations.

We are heading pell mell into a world of hurt right now.

Brace yourselves for impact.

MORNING LINKS | 22 Apr 20

Happy Hump Day! It’s week six of the Peking Lung Pox and there are some encouraging signs that some of the country might emerge soon from the lock down. Wu Hu!

Your links today include an article from Harvard Magazine examining the so-called “risks for children—and society—in homeschooling.” If the cover illustration is any indication—and it is—you won’t be surprised to learn that the answer is government regulation. In other news, Trump suspends immigration to the U.S. for 60 days; Nancy Pelosi steps on a rake full of ice cream; China may be preparing for total war; and Kevin D. Williamson gives his perspective on recent judicial appointments in Washington State.