Posted on 07/27/2017 8:20:26 AM PDT by sickoflibs
Earlier today, President Trump announced that the new Department of Defense policy on transgender was the old policy in effect before Obamas Secretary of Defense Ash Carter ordered it changed.*
Most hot button issues have a gestation period so the sudden appearance of transgenders in the military as a topic of discussion was as shock to just about everyone. Politic has an interesting story on how this all came to pass.
Nearly two weeks ago, the House was debating the Defense Authorization Act. Included in the bill was an amendment that forbid Department of Defense from spending funds on gender reassignment surgery. The amendment, which in saner times would have been unremarkable and even unnecessary, was defeated 214-209 with 24 squish or morally apathetic Republicans voting with the Democrats.
(See list at link)
While those 24 Republicans could block the amendment, they also put the entire bill in jeopardy because there was a very good chance the bill would not pass with that amendment.
Numerous House conservatives and defense hawks this week had threatened to derail their own legislation if it did not include a prohibition on Pentagon funding for gender reassignment surgeries, which they deem a waste of taxpayer money. But GOP leaders were caught in a pinch between those demands and moderate Republicans who felt the proposal was blatantly discriminatory.
There are several members of the conference who feel this really needs to be addressed, said senior House Appropriations Committee member Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) on Tuesday. This isnt about the transgender issue; its about the taxpayer dollars going to pay for the surgery out of the defense budget. As it happened, included in the Defense bill was money for a lot of Trump projects including the Wall.
Thats why House lawmakers took the matter to the Trump administration. And when Defense Secretary James Mattis refused to immediately upend the policy, they went straight to the White House. Trump never one for political correctness was all too happy to oblige.
After lawmakers went around Mattis to engage the White House, Mattis was consulted before the announcement and knew the ban was being considered, according to several White House officials. But the decision ultimately came down from Trump and was White House-driven, Trump aides said.
The president was also annoyed by the Pentagon delay, one person said. A different official said the White House had gotten positive reaction from conservatives, an important factor amid their displeasure with Trumps recent bashing of Jeff Sessions. So now the gender reassignment surgery issue is mooted.
The presidents directive, of course, took the House issue a step beyond paying for gender reassignment surgery and other medical treatment. House Republicans were never debating expelling all transgender troops from the military.
This is like someone told the White House to light a candle on the table and the WH set the whole table on fire, said one senior House Republican aide. The source said that while GOP leaders asked the White House for help, they werent expecting and got no heads up on Trumps far-reaching directive.
While Democrats and centrist Republicans are already blasting the move, one White House official said the decision would be seen as common-sense by millions though likely vociferously protested by others.
Its not the worst thing in the world to have this fight, the administration official said. Had this group of Republicans not pushed the issue, the transgender issue would have been settled downstream and, because Mattis is not a social conservative, probably in their favor. This is the Law of Unintended Consequences in action. A small number of socially liberal Republicans decided to hold the entire Defense bill hostage and force Trump to make a move
and they won a victory they wont ever forget.
I think your near the bullseye!
The whole transgender issue in the military all came out of a White House directive under Obama. Congress never needed to get involved in it one way or another ... which means it was never necessary to add the restrictions as an amendment to the recent defense appropriations bill. As I said at the time, that was basically political theater (worthwhile, but unnecessary) for many members of Congress to enhance their conservative credentials.
As some astute liberals pointed out many times during the Obama administration, one of the dangers of relying on executive orders to implement policy was that it made it very easy for those policies to be terminated without any input from Congress at all.
Are any of the 209 Republicans who voted against the funding for gender reassignment surgery complaining about the end result? I saw senators complaining about the President’s order yesterday, I didn’t see any comments from the House.
I have talked to people who lived around transgenders and some of the stories are quite scary. I actually got this in a E-mail a year or two ago when the tranny in the military debate first started.
Excerpt Begins:
One time me and my friend ( who is a transgender male to female ) was at a store and we were browsing around when a little old lady came up behind my friend to ask them to help get something off a high shelf. and I am paraphrasing here: Excuse me sir, could you help me with getting ( i forget what the item was ) off that shelf?
Well my friend flew the complete hell off the handle as they whipped around and went on a five minute tirade saying things like Do I look like a man? and Are you f**ing blind? in a very aggressive manner. The poor old lady looked stunned as she was just innocently asking someone for help only to be verbally lashed out at by this woman that if she had any doubt about gender she knew for sure at this point that is was a man in a dress due to the aggressive nature of the lashing out she was receiving.
I remember standing there stunned as if just witnessing a Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde moment. I remember thinking that if only my friend had just turned around and used some damned charm instead of flying off the handle and trying to FORCE their idea of how they should be referred to a kindly old lady. An old lady who just wanted something off a shelf and wasnt consciously or maliciously thinking about the gender expression of the person she was asking.
After that day I took steps to slowly distance myself from that person so that I didnt dump them but instead just lost contact with them via attrition. I didnt want to wake that horrible dragon up that I saw that day in the store on accusations that I stopped being their friend because they were trans instead the real reason was because I saw how unhinged they could be for the dumbest and most innocent of reasons. It was like if anyone appeared to question their own self validation, even if it was an innocent mistake, they could fly off the handle. This wasnt like someone with a short emotional fuse, but instead someone with a volatile emotional hair trigger.
A couple of months after the incident in the store I was talking to my cousin who is a tall woman who lives in the country and I told her the story. She laughed after I told her about it and i asked her why she laughed. She told me that sometimes after she does her chores on the farm she sometimes stops in at the local Wal-Mart to either pickup fixins for supper or things like motor oil for her husband. She said her chore clothes are overalls and she packs her hair into a hat to keep it clean, and that one day a little old lady came up to her from behind while she was in the store and asked SIR for some help getting something off a high shelf. She turned around and the little old lady apologized saying something like: Oh Im sorry maam. She said she just smiled at the old lady and said oh, dont worry, it happens all the time because I am tall and they both had a good laugh about it and went their separate ways after she had retrieved the item for the sweet old lady. After she told me this I thought how different that embarrassing experience could have been had she handled it like a genuine person would have.
I have talked to other people who have been acquainted to trans people and the one common thing that I have discovered is that if you ask enough people they all have stories of trans people flying off the handle when someone else innocently mis-genders them. People wonder why I consider trans people in the military such a bad idea. I just have tell them this story and how what would happen if a foxhole if someone under fire accidentally mis-genders their fellow soldier. Talk about an un-friendly fire situation... I mean i consider myself a progressive, but this incident I personally experienced and further collaborated similar incidents with other people who I would consider progressive as well leads me to think that there is a serious risk of having someone with a such an issue in any sort of military situation. I have to say NO to allowing transgender people in the military, they need to get their lives sorted out first and foremost and the military is not a place for them to be doing that.
Excerpt Ends:
So yeah, this is from someone I know who is a progressive liberal who agrees with Trump on this issue, even though I am 100% sure they didnt vote for Trump. I think just the whole idea of someone flying off the handle even if someone inadvertently calls them with a gender pronoun they dont agree with is really scary, especially in the military.
1917 -Join the Navy and See The World
2017 - Join the Navy and get a government funded sex change operation and lifetime supply of sex change hormones and drugs
"They want you...They want you....They want you as a new recruit!"
And serve on the USS Castro Street or the USS Stonewall
Well there already is the USS Harvey Milk.
Yeah, and I hear the Russians and Chinese are hard at work developing a super sonic cruise twinkee to sink it.
Puts new meaning in the term cruising the high seas .
Whatever happened to the era of macho, macho man?
Even the Village People are on the outs with Obama era effeminate queer culture
Yeah, and I hear the Russians and Chinese are hard at work developing a super sonic cruise twinkee to sink it.
Puts new meaning in the term cruising the high seas .
Whatever happened to the era of macho, macho man?
Even the Village People are on the outs with Obama era effeminate queer culture
OK, time for a little rant this morning. To start it off I will say this: I UNEQUIVOCALLY SUPPORT THE DECISION OF OUR COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF DONALD TRUMP TO BAN TRANSGENDERS FROM SERVING IN THE UNITED STATES MILITARY!
I served 24 years in Uncle Sugars bestest Air Force and while I am sure that 95% or more of transgenders probably are capable Airmen, Sailors, soldiers and Marines that does not mean they are fit for military service.
The US Military is not a place for social experiments, it is not a place for playing dress up, it is not a place for activists. PERIOD! It is a place for people who are willing to serve their country and surrender their individual identity to become part of a single cohesive unit working toward a common result.
A US Soldier is not meant to stand out, a US Soldier is not meant to make a statement; a US Soldier is meant to do what they are told, when they are told and how they are told.
Most importantly the US Military works on a set budget. The military is not there to make sure that an ample supply of Testosterone or Estrogen or steroids or any other medicine that is required to transform is available.
The US military medical teams are there to ensure that US Military men and women are physically fit to serve AT ALL TIMES and to treat any injuries or illnesses as quickly and efficiently as possible and return the military member to full readiness. They are not there to inject hormones, install implants and randomly remove or create body parts for INDIVIDUALS that wish to be something else, and then take care of them as they recover while the service members teammates pick up their slack and do their job.
There was an old saying when I came in: If the military wanted you to have a wife, they would issue you one. Well today it is this: If the military wants Transformers they will contact Optimus Prime!
Krauthammer rather than address the merits of the policy -which in all likelihood he is in agreement with- attacks the manner of unveiling the policy. Poor delicate Charles can’t take Trump’s loutish style
Something else came out...like...no more teaching of PR crap....”it’s all about combat”. I’ll look for it.
I made the mistake of tuning in that tool Bryan Killmeade this morning. Talk about your whining bed wetter. He and his handwringing guest were pissing and moaning about how this should have been subject to hearings and deliberation and consensus building and how badly it was handled and all that claptrap.
This got started without any debate or consensus. Obama and Ash Carter just decreed that there would be trannies in the military as a parting sharp stick in the eye in their continuing program of humiliating the military and dismantling it brick by brick and tradition by tradition.
It started by decree and it can end by decree. I well understand that a Tweet is not the way to issue formal orders but the response by them could have been different.
As for Dunford, if he did respond in this way to the President, he needs to find a new job. You don’t do this kind of thing in public. He could have said many different things that would more than sufficiently indicate that he was waiting for more complete and formal orders through the chain of command than a Twitter line. It is only appropriate that you get formal written orders.
As for what Trump said to do. I thought it was pretty clear. No trannie will be allowed to serve in the military in any capacity from this time on. That means Nobody and Now. That means to reverse the Obama / Carter policy with effect immediately. If the JCS and Dunford can’t figure that out they need to be replaced. I’m sure there are plenty of well qualified people to take their place.
Trump possibly also took into account the possibility that some judge would overturn his ban on paying for gender reasignment, but banning trannies entirely was more likely to stand.
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