Dear Friends,                                                                        Being nice to this guy is hard

Ok. I agree, mocking Pete Hegseth really is shooting fish in a barrel (the biggest, slowest fish). But he does ask for it, so, this time, I’m acting as though he is not the absolutely shining and supreme example, according to Trump’s own definition, of a DEI hire – and, indeed, if this is what DEI truly is then it does need to be stopped – and talk of him as though he actually is the Secretary of Defense of the United States of America. And specifically about his response to the ruling made by District Judge for the District of Columbia Ana Reyes granting a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration’s ban on service in the military by transgender persons.

So Pete, who now thinks that he’s really a whiz at sarcasm and the cutting remark, posted the following on the social media platform now known as X, because, obviously, Cabinet Secretaries must make their pronouncements on the official channel of the White House (no, no, not “Truth Social”, what’s that?):

“Since ‘Judge’ Reyes is now a top military planner, she/they can report to Fort Benning at 0600 to instruct our Army Rangers on how to execute High Value Target Raids … after that, Commander Reyes can dispatch to Fort Bragg to train our Green Berets on counterinsurgency warfare.”

Apart from the gratuitous slurs – now normal for all Trump flunkies, following the mob boss himself – the scare quotes suggesting that Judge Reyes isn’t really a judge, the (odd) use of pronouns, presumably designed to suggest that Reyes, who is a lesbian, is not normal …

… and yes, please, everyone, pay attention to the pervasive tone of contempt, insult, hate, malice, dehumanization, degradation that is typical of all MAGA discourse, and, yes, emanating from the President of the United States of America, have you ever heard anything like this before from a head of state and his underlings …

… Aside from all that – but remember it!!! – the most obvious question it raises is could Pete himself do all that stuff? High Value Target Raids, counterinsurgency warfare? You know all that, Pete? You’re the guy to train them all starting at 0600 hours? Yes, but all that’s still just going after poor old Pete.                                                                          

What’s most important, obviously, is that Judge Reyes is making a legal argument, an argument challenging actions by the Pentagon on legal terms. She is calling on well-known and established empirical data as a part of her legal claims. She makes no claim to knowledge of how to carry out counterinsurgency warfare.

The easy thing would be to say why doesn’t Pete show up for the first, most introductory, class in any law school (with any luck it’ll be 0900 hours, not 0600, that’s nice isn’t it, Pete?) – any one you like, Pete, your boss can easily swing it, you won’t even have to write a personal essay – and start figuring out what the law is, and, specifically, what the judiciary branch of government is.

But that’s not fair, Secretaries of Defense don’t have to be lawyers. And they don’t have to be because the Department of Defense has a team of very good lawyers working for them, the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, founded by George Washington (he was a general long ago, you remember, don’t you, Pete?) in 1775. So, Pete, when you’re having trouble figuring out very simple legal principles go ask them … oh, no, wait a minute, you fired them all didn’t you, something about roadblocks to the military’s one and only mission of killing as many people especially civilians as possible? Oops, well, sorry kid, I guess you’re on your own. Personal advice, me to you, lose the whole I’m such a clever fellow thing.

Love and solidarity,

            Bobby