- About the Trump/Hegseth speeches today to US military leaders;
- Short items about how psychotic drugs are to blame for Charlie Kirk’s killing; how the Rapture has been rescheduled; and how marriage equality is to blame for Charlie Kirk’s murder;
- Paul Krugman about the doomed attempt to revive the coal industry.
Today US military leaders from around the world were ordered to a meeting with Trump and Hegseth in Virginia so they could be lectured to about warrior culture and not being overweight. Apparently it was pretty cringy. I saw a photo several times on Facebook of the military personnel in the audience with uncomfortable expressions on their faces, including one literally face-palming; but I didn’t save a link. Without belaboring this, some links.
Guardian, 30 Sept 2025: Trump defends troops in US cities after Hegseth decries military DEI efforts, subtitled “President and defense chief delivered pair of incendiary speeches to a crowd of hundreds of generals and admirals”
At an address of assembled generals and admirals, Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, outlined changes to military policy and philosophy in a set of 10 directives meant to change organizational culture around fitness, race and gender, describing the previous state of military affairs as the “woke department”.
Donald Trump followed Hegseth’s call to embrace the virtues of lethality as a doctrine with a suggestion buried in an hour-long campaign-style speech that the gathering of officers and senior enlisted advisers should consider targeting US cities and civilian populations as a training exercise.
“We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military – national guard, but military – because we’re going into Chicago very soon, that’s a big city with an incompetent governor,” Trump said, attacking JB Pritzker, the Illinois governor.
And: The Guardian: No more ‘woke’ in the US military: key takeaways from Pete Hegseth’s speech
Woke is out; diversity is unwelcome; look the part, shave, and don’t be fat; women are expendable. Never mind that Trump, and many of the generals, are fat.
Wait– I found the photo.
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Slate, Fred Kaplan, 30 Sept 2025: Trump Just Gave the Military an Extremely Sinister Mission, subtitled “The U.S. president just told military leaders that one of their main missions soon will be to defeat ‘the enemy from within.'”
Before a gathering of the nation’s highest-ranking military officers, President Donald Trump unloaded what may be the most repellent, unhinged, and—in the few moments when he got to his point—frightening speeches by any American president ever.
In a 75-minute ramble, much of it improvised on the familiar themes of his campaign rallies, the commander in chief skewered Joe Biden (“this guy who had no clue”), even Biden’s autopen signature (“I love my signature, everybody loves my signature,” he boasted), the “sleazebags” in the “fake media,” George Soros, the Democratic Party (“they don’t treat you with respect, they’re Democrats, they never do”), several “stupid” Democratic mayors—and touted himself as the savior of the military and the nation (“I rebuilt the military. … I have settled so many wars. … I know more about deals than anybody”).
One can imagine what was going through the minds of the hundreds of generals and admirals, who had once saluted Biden and Obama as their commanders, who had come up through the ranks with an apolitical ethos, and who must have been at that moment wondering what kinds of orders they might have to follow—or consider not following—from this crude man who now has the attack plans and nuclear codes at his side.
Just the latest antics from our mad king and his unqualified acolyte.
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For the record:
CNN, today: Fact check: Trump makes numerous false claims to generals and admirals, some about the military
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Short items.
AlterNet, Carl Gibson, 29 Sept 2025: We have a massive problem’: Steve Bannon gives two-word explanation for MAGA mass shooter
Investigators say Sanford harbored hostile feelings toward the Mormons, and had previously been in a relationship with a Mormon woman. Sanford was an apparent Trump supporter, and was once photographed in a t-shirt that read “Trump 2020: Make Liberals Cry Again.” He also had a Trump sign outside of his home. But despite all of the shooter’s apparent affiliations with the MAGA movement, Bannon took efforts to distance the shooter from the pro-Trump community, and blamed the attack on “psychotic drugs” before quickly pivoting from the topic entirely.
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JMG, 29 Sept 2025: The Rapture Has Been Rescheduled For Next Tuesday
Nope, won’t happen. They never learn. I think we need to understand religious zealots like this as… mentally challenged. As is the population that believes him. They will always be with us. Joe comments:
Read the full article. I just scrolled through the viral TikTok hashtag #RaptureTok and yes, they’re all back at it again. No word, though, about the people who last week quit their jobs and gave away their cars.
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Here’s a new one.
Right Wing Watch, Peter Montgomery, 30 Sept 2025: Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver Blames Marriage Equality Ruling for Charlie Kirk’s Murder
Once again: motivated thinking. Putting the conclusion first and then searching for reasons. Blaming everything bad on people you already don’t like.
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Finishing today with a relatively substantial piece. Though it’s not a new issue.
Paul Krugman, 30 Sept 2025: Fossil Fuels and Fossilized Minds, subtitled “What’s driving the doomed attempt to revive coal?”
I’ve just gotten back from the Netherlands, which is famous for its picturesque windmills. But wind power in Holland is more than a historical curiosity. There are also modern wind turbines almost everywhere you look, both onshore and off. And the ground is covered with dead birds and whales.
OK, not really. Wind power is, in fact, far cleaner and safer than burning fossil fuels. And I personally like the sight of wind turbines. After all, I value the comforts of modern civilization and find it reassuring to see the power needed to provide those comforts generated without harmful emissions.
But Donald Trump, as everyone knows, hates wind power and loves coal. Both passions are deeply irrational. Yet they are shaping policy.
Trump, as we’ve seen, seems bent on returning the to the 1980s, or perhaps the 1880s. This is the essence of conservative resistance to change…
Krugman explains that coal hasn’t been a significant source of energy for decades, and explains why.
So what happened to all the coal jobs? Basically, workers were displaced first by giant power shovels (strip mining), then by explosives used to blow the tops off mountains, exposing the coal beneath. By using these techniques, in 2008 coal companies were able to produce twice as much coal as they did in 1950, while employing 80 percent fewer workers.
And so on. While addressing Trump’s nonsensical claims about wind power — like, that China doesn’t use it.
