The military has a cancer (04-16-2025--Hour1)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepeatcalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:29] So I was planning to do this topic even before I heard the top of the hour newscast. Brendan Dixon just did the same story, but I'm going to do it anyway. I'm not copying him, I promise.

[00:00:44] The Pentagon has placed two top political appointees under administrative leave. Is it under administrative leave or on administrative? It sounds like one would be above the other, like literally on. Anyway, they're on administrative leave.

[00:01:05] After a probe into potential leaks of sensitive information, according to three defense officials. Two guys, Dan Caldwell and Darren Selnick. So Dan Caldwell is a senior advisor to the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth.

[00:01:25] Dan Caldwell was reportedly, this is from the Politico story, was escorted out of the Pentagon by security officers and had his building access suspended pending further investigation. This according to two officials who were granted anonymity to leak the, sorry, to discuss the ongoing probe. Isn't this kind of weird? You've got the story of this coming out.

[00:01:53] And being leaked out essentially by some anonymous people when that's precisely what they're trying to prevent. Like this story relies on on leaks story about busting some leakers. Darren Selnick, the Pentagon's deputy chief of staff, was also suspended as part of the same probe and escorted out of the building, according to one of the officials.

[00:02:21] Okay, so it sounds like they got, they got three defense officials. Two of them know of the Dan Caldwell escort and one knows about the Darren Selnick escort. The leaks under investigation include military operational plans for the Panama Canal, a second carrier headed to the Red Sea, Elon Musk's controversial visit to the Pentagon,

[00:02:51] as well as pausing the collection of intelligence to Ukraine. So those are the, those are the leaks that the Pentagon is trying to figure out who committed them. Operational military operational plans for Panama, second carrier headed to the Red Sea, Musk's visit to the Pentagon, and we're not going to give Ukraine any more intel. Those four stories.

[00:03:17] The suspensions come as the Trump administration seeks to root out leaks, including at the Defense Department. A March memo signed by Hegseth's chief of staff asked the Pentagon's director for defense intelligence to look into unauthorized disclosures and approved the use of polygraphs. By the way, do you know how to beat a polygraph? You can, you can beat a polygraph. Should I tell people how to do this? This is not illegal.

[00:03:45] I don't think it's illegal for me to tell people how to beat a polygraph. It's, it's called the pucker factor. If you, every, when, when they sit you down and they start asking you questions, right, they always start with, you know, are you, you know, the age you are? Is your name, what your name is? And they do that to get the baseline read, right? Well,

[00:04:11] if you are to clench a particular muscle upon which you sit, every single time you answer the question, it creates a spike. And then that becomes the norm. And that's how you mask every single answer. True or false. And law enforcement apparently knew this a long time ago. And they told the guy who invented it.

[00:04:39] And then he proceeded to test that theory. And it turned out to be true. And then he ran around the country advising and lobbying against the use of polygraph detectors, lie detectors. So, yeah. So, I mean, they can be somewhat useful on occasion, I guess, but, you know, once you know that it's kind of like, well, what's the point of these things? But, and I'm sure that these guys have been trained in how to do that as well. It's not, I mean,

[00:05:08] it doesn't take a lot of physical training to master this maneuver. Anyway, from Breitbart, it's not clear what their motives were, but one official said that Caldwell, the senior advisor to Hegseth, was leaking information to, quote, far left reporters to hurt the secretary. And according to the report at the top of the hour news,

[00:05:38] it went to the New York times. So I don't know to, to, you know, whom it went, which reporters specifically, but that's another piece of the puzzle here. It's also not yet clear what the unauthorized disclosures were, but the Pentagon has been beset by a string of leaks in recent weeks, prompting the Pentagon chief of staff, Joe Casper to order an investigation. Casper's order came after the New York times reported that Elon Musk was planning to visit the Pentagon,

[00:06:07] where he would be briefed on quote, war plans in a secure conference room called the tank, where top defense and military leaders gathered to discuss the department's most pressing issues. While Musk did visit the Pentagon, the meeting took place in Pete Hegseth's office, not in the tank. Also,

[00:06:33] the initial report was that he was going there to learn about war plans against China or something, and that didn't happen either. However, even before that, there were leaks of classified information that was only known at the highest levels at the Pentagon. Caldwell was most recently at an organization called Defense Priorities,

[00:06:56] and Breitbart identifies defense priorities as an organization known for advocating foreign policy restraint. He's a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq war. He'd previously worked at the Defense Priorities Think Tank. He played a key role in advising the Pentagon on Ukraine, and this is who was the senior advisor to Hegseth. By the way,

[00:07:25] Hegseth referenced Caldwell in that messaging app, you know, that got leaked also. Well, that one didn't get leaked. They invited the guy, right? They invited that reporter to the Signal group chat. And, but Hegseth in that chat said that Caldwell would be the primary contact to coordinate U.S. military strikes on Yemen. So I don't know if that's the connection.

[00:07:53] Was it this guy Caldwell that maybe, you know, maybe got the reporter into the Signal chat? I don't know if it's related. Selnick, the other guy, the deputy chief of staff, also performed the duties of the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. He served in the White House and the Department of Veterans Affairs in the first Trump administration.

[00:08:16] He also was a former senior advisor to Concerned Veterans for America, which Hegseth used to lead. But, um, he only had that gig after Hegseth had left the organization. So, those two guys shown the door today while the investigation continues. Don't know anything other than that. But, kind of important, I feel like, if they're, you know,

[00:08:44] they're on mole hunt in, um, in the Pentagon. As they should be, by the way. As they should be. But there's, there's a larger issue, um, at play. And there's a piece over at thefederalist.com by Cynical Publius, is his name. Or Publius. I don't know if Publius sounds funnier. But, um, it's a fake name.

[00:09:08] Cynical Publius is the nom de plume of a retired U.S. Army colonel and practicing attorney. I don't know if that's Kurt Schlichter. I don't think it is, because I follow both of those guys. And Kurt goes by his real name. He's a retired colonel as well. Also, a lawyer. So, I don't know. But this other, uh, account, Cynical Publius, uh, seems to me to be a different person than Kurt Schlichter. Who I reference pretty regularly,

[00:09:35] because he writes a lot of fantastic columns over at townhall.com. Publius, Mr. Publius, um, has a piece at the Federalist called, Fired Insubordinate Officers Reveal Massive U.S. Military Resentment Against Elected Civilian Command. He says this is a cancer that has been spreading inside the military for a while. All right, if you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events.

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[00:11:00] but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. Alrighty, so there is a cancer in America's military ranks, and it must be expunged before it's too late. That cancer lies in uniformed service members' widespread rejection of the uniquely American concept of civilian control of the military

[00:11:25] and disregard for the absolute necessity that America's military officers remain apolitical in the face of the constitutional will of the electorate. Again, this is by a retired colonel and practicing lawyer. I'm sure he'll get it. That's why he practices. He says, recent events reveal this cancer, and they include the relief for cause, so, you know, relieved of your command,

[00:11:54] of Navy Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield, after she reportedly refused to hang photos of President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on her headquarters' customary chain of command board. You've seen this, right? Where they take the photos of the president and the Secretary of Defense and the whole chain of command, they got all the photos in like a triangle or a pyramid, you know, set up on the wall.

[00:12:22] And she refused to put Trump and Hegseth on the board and told her subordinates in a town hall that she would, wait the administration out. She would wait them out for the next four years. They also include the relief for cause of Colonel Susanna Myers, the commander of the U.S. Space Force's base in Greenland. Oh.

[00:12:51] Oh, maybe that's why Trump wants Greenland. We have a Space Force base. A space base there. That makes sense. Wait a minute. Susanna Myers, Colonel Myers, you wouldn't even be in the Space Force. But for Trump, he made Space Force. So bizarre. She openly questioned to all of her subordinates via email, Vice President J.D. Vance's official pronouncements

[00:13:21] regarding the U.S., Greenland, and Denmark. Since Trump's inauguration, numerous other senior generals and admirals have been relieved by President Trump for various publicly unspecified reasons. And he gives a bunch of the others that have been relieved or fired or whatever, and he notes that a president firing his senior generals is not a new thing. He then lists a whole bunch of them throughout history.

[00:13:51] He points out, I am a retired U.S. Army colonel. My service record runs a typical gamut for an old colonel with tours in tactical units including service in Afghanistan and Iraq interspersed with service at high-level military headquarters in and around Washington, D.C. Nowadays, I run an account on Twitter, formerly known as X, with a little more than 200,000 followers. I offer commentary on political and social issues with a particular emphasis on the military.

[00:14:21] As a result, I have many military followers including some still on active duty. I offer active duty service members a conduit to anonymously share disturbing military trends. And since Trump's inauguration, I have been flooded with reports of insubordination in the ranks towards Trump and Hegseth. Those reports range from fairly senior officers in the Pentagon

[00:14:49] showing open disrespect around the E-ring coffee maker all the way down to junior enlisted disrespecting their president and secretary of defense in the ship's galley or the chow hall. And then he goes on to talk about, he gives some examples, and then he goes on to talk about, you know, our structure as a commander-in-chief is a civilian. And that has been a sacred premise guiding our military for enlisted and officers alike.

[00:15:19] and he would never in his career, he says, it was a rare thing to ever hear anybody's political thoughts ever. He says, I recall early in my career senior officers advised me not to vote in elections because doing so might suggest that I was a political partisan.

[00:15:48] So he wouldn't vote. I don't know if that's great advice. Same thing in the reporter world as well. Journalists, some journalists don't vote because they say, you know, they need to be removed from the process so nobody can accuse them of bias. And there's disagreement among reporters about whether you should or shouldn't, whether all reporters should or shouldn't. I don't believe you should not.

[00:16:17] If you want to go vote, go vote. I have no problem with anybody going to vote, military or journalists. He goes on to say, though, that the trends we are seeing feel dangerously close to an embrace of 1970s South American-style military juntas or junta, if you will. Think about General Mark Milley. Remember that guy? Telling China that he would warn them about U.S. military activity?

[00:16:46] Or how about Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman using his position on the National Security Council as a springboard for impeaching a president because he did not like the way that president was lawfully discharging his duties? These are not the marks of a, yeah, these are not the marks of healthy civilian control of the military, he says. They are instead marks of a military approaching the rationalization of a coup.

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[00:18:45] I have followed him for a while and because he does a lot of stuff on military matters, he gets a lot of feedback from people inside the military and he's saying that he's getting flooded with reports of insubordination in the ranks towards Trump and Pete Hegseth. Not that people are disrespecting Trump and Hegseth to this guy but he's getting the reports

[00:19:15] like oh my gosh this thing happened and he's getting all of these accounts and a lot of it is just based on rumors and that spread like crazy like an HOA Facebook group. No, I'm kidding. Although it does the HOA really does emulate a lot of other areas of our society. Anyway, he says the trends we are seeing feel dangerously close to the embrace of the South American military juntas

[00:19:44] and that these examples and he gave a bunch of examples Mark Milley Alexander Vindman he said these are marks of a military approaching the rationalization of a coup. I attribute the breakdown quite directly he says to DEI policies and practices. Now before you roll your eyes oh it's DEI that's to blame for everything he says I want to be clear

[00:20:14] I do not mean that the advancement of officers for DEI reasons is the cause that's not what he's saying he's not saying that people got elevated based on characteristics that were not important or whatever he's not making that argument he's talking about the implanting of the DEI policies as a core ethos of military service

[00:20:43] and because by doing that it now warps the way people in the organization think and I've been saying this for years which is like this anti-racism stuff whether it's you know CRT or it's DEI or social emotional learning like all of these you know neo-Marxist ideologies that get smuggled in via these programs they are a cancer inside of your organization right if you bring in Robin

[00:21:13] D'Angelo you know the white fragility author you bring her in to talk to the group and you run through a couple of you know privilege walk exercises and such does your organization become less racist no and in fact Harvard University itself in its research found that the impact of these types of trainings make your employees

[00:21:41] now more willing and able and interested in looking for all of the racializing of every issue it makes the workplace worse not better and so when you you know when you smuggle this stuff into the military it's not a surprise that it has a detrimental effect our military has always been driven by core values he says like don't give up the ship

[00:22:10] duty honor country and always faithful and traditionally those values have been apolitical right nonpartisan and solely revolved around the military's fundamental mission of defeating America's battlefield enemies that's it right you win you go to war you win that's the ethos somewhere in these early years of the 21st century however

[00:22:39] DEI also became a central ethos they embrace so-called diversity for diversity sake and the DEI policies became a core ethos of America's military a new warrior ethos grounded not in warfighting but in a purely political and public policy doctrine so on the one hand you have a president that's been elected to purge that political doctrine of DEI from

[00:23:09] America's government and on the other hand you have a generation of senior generals and admirals who mistakenly view DEI as an apolitical military ethos you understand what he's saying I think I think he's got it right here so when Trump seeks to exercise his constitutional powers to purge a purely political doctrine right the generals and the admirals mistakenly see it

[00:23:38] as an effort to purge a fundamental essential and apolitical military ethos that gives them license to feel justified in resistance to resisting the lawful orders of their commander in chief and engaging in insubordination because they falsely imagine they are protecting a core competency of our nation's defense now the good news is that we can fix this

[00:24:08] and he says it's not very hard in the military it just requires some guts by Trump and Hegseth and the military department secretaries in the face of a media determined to discredit their every move there are two parts to fixing it number one education and number two example setting all right so spring is here a time of renewal and celebrations you got graduations weddings anniversaries and the special days for mom

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[00:25:38] we got that wacko judge Boasberg Boasberg whatever issuing an order the court determines that the government actions on that day by refusing to turn that plane around even though the judge had no idea if there was enough fuel on the plane to actually do that you know demonstrate a willful disregard for its order sufficient for the court to conclude that probable cause exists to find the government

[00:26:07] in criminal contempt the whole government the whole government is in criminal contempt this guy's out of control and Thomas Crown who is also an attorney points out that the U.S. Marshals are going to have a heck of a time arresting Trump and hauling him in front of the judge because the U.S. Marshal's boss I think is Trump so I don't know

[00:26:36] if they're going to have to get through Secret Service first I suspect I don't know oh my goodness so that's a mess also Maryland court documents reveal that deported Salvadoran national illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia's wife a woman by the name of Jennifer Vasquez this is the Maryland dad

[00:27:06] right the guy Chris Van Hollen the U.S. from Connecticut or something I don't remember where maybe Jersey whatever he's in El Salvador he's flying down to El Salvador to try to I guess release an illegal alien and bring him back into the country illegally who was already turns out that this guy Kilmar Abrego Garcia

[00:27:35] his wife had petitioned the court for an order of protection domestic violence protection order against him not once but twice just a Maryland dad not an MS-13 gangbanger although he said that if he went back to El Salvador that his life would be in jeopardy because a rival gang would want him whacked but

[00:28:05] even though El Salvador has cracked down on all of the gangs and cleaned up their country over the last five years anyway yeah the Maryland dad who was ordered to be deported the government just messed up and deported him to the one country that a judge had said don't send him back there which was El Salvador because that's where he's from that's his home country he's sitting in a prison now in El Salvador his home country he is a citizen of El Salvador but because the judge has said yes

[00:28:35] you can deport him just don't send him to El by the US and so they threw him on a plane sent him to El Salvador that was the mistake so can we wire El Salvador

[00:29:05] 100 bucks and give the guy a bus ticket and send him over into your neighboring country and then done everybody is compliant now except Abrego Garcia who would now be in another country illegally but he doesn't have any problem doing that obviously he was in our country for a long time illegally so anyway those are two developments from the federalist piece about

[00:29:35] the military and the lack of focus the loss of focus I should say on its traditional ethos and its adoption of this DEI these policies as part of their ethos as well he says you can fix this problem number one by education you got to reinvigorate training in every service and at every level regarding the military's duty of loyalty to elected civilian

[00:30:04] leaders and their lawful orders make a standard curriculum put it into every branch everywhere example setting is the second thing it'll mean more of what we have already seen the relieving of officers the relieving like kicking people out yes with the relief for cause of senior officers for insubordinate behavior so yes more of that

[00:30:33] but that's not enough what he advocates here article 88 court marshals why this is what article 88 of the uniform code of military justice states any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the president the vice president congress secretary of defense secretary of a military department the secretary of homeland security

[00:31:02] pete calendar or the governor or it doesn't say my name but it should it totally no okay legislature of any state commonwealth or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court marshal may direct this is under a section called contempt toward officials like you're literally not allowed to do this it says it right there in your UCMJ article 88 and he says

[00:31:32] it's a by which senior insubordinate officers must be made an example i he's like i don't think you're going to see generals or admirals breaking rocks at leavenworth the mere act of initiating just a couple of well publicized court martial proceedings will drive home the message that politics is the domain of the president not the oath bearing members of the uniformed services good order and discipline

[00:32:02] must be there is a cancer in the ranks of america's military and it must be expunged before it is too late also gary shapley remember that guy the wall street journal calls him an irs critic but he's a whistleblower they did change the headline they started off by saying trump picks irs critic as agencies

[00:32:32] acting leader and then they changed it to trump picks investigator behind hunter biden tax case as irs acting leader and then they write the story president trump named gary shapley the irs criminal investigator who criticized the government for its handling of hunter biden's tax filings as the tax agency acting commissioner he's a whistleblower okay he's a whistleblower there is a word for this it's called whistleblower not

[00:33:01] critic yes he was an investigator but he was a whistleblower shapley is the internal revenue services fourth leader in less than four months as the trump administration rapidly shrinks the agency during the biden administration shapley rose to prominence as an irs supervisory criminal agent who came forward to congress hence the whistleblower designation and contended that the justice department had slow walked its tax investigation into hunter biden yes and

[00:33:31] then it then it engaged in retribution against him for blowing the whistle in a classic case of whistleblower retribution now the ap credit where it's due the associated press got it right an irs whistleblower they call him right out of the gate and now the tax collection agency is planning to name shapley to one of the highest ranking roles at the agency it's sort of like the

[00:34:01] tulsi gabbard trajectory right you get put on the no fly list then fast forward a couple years and you're in charge of the entire intelligence community had that work out for you lefties all right that'll do it for this episode thank you so much for listening I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast so if you'd like please support them too and tell them you heard it