Is Anyone Paying Attention?

[Tig58072]

The U.S. government's fiscal year ends on September 30, and so far, Congress has not passed a bill to keep it funded. While the Democrats and Republicans are busy pointing fingers and accusing each other of being responsible for a government shutdown, few people are noticing what else is happening at the White House.

The New York Times published a newsletter entitled, On Shutdown, Democrats Turn to Simple Strategy: Do Something.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/us/politics/democrats-government-shutdown.html 🔗

In that article was an interesting bit:

But the Trump administration has made clear that this is a shutdown like no other.

Typically, presidents want to avoid shuttering the federal government, fearing negative effects on the economy, in no small part because millions of federal employees would be put out of work — plus a litany of other wide-ranging consequences.

For the Trump administration, the shutdown is not a problem but an opportunity. By forcing a shutdown Democrats will be handing Trump the ability to push one of his major goals: A total gutting of the federal government.

Since he entered his second term, Trump has been trying — and been repeatedly blocked by the courts — to slash federal jobs, cut services and abolish agencies. He's planning to use the shutdown go even further.

A memo released by the White House this week instructed federal agencies to prepare for mass firings in the event that the government runs out of funding on Sept. 30, the close of the fiscal year.

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September 30th is Tuesday, the day when all of the 800+ senior military officers and their enlisted advisers are to meet with Secretary of Defense Hegseth in Quantico, Virginia, for a mysterious meeting. Some speculation (misinformation/propaganda releases) has indicated that the Secretary will be giving a rallying speech about the new "Warrior Ethos" of the War Department.

He will be making a video of the speech to be released a few days later...

So, why do all of the top brass need to be there in person?

Wouldn't that be a security risk to have all of the Generals, Command Sergeant Majors, and Admirals in one location together?

If the government shuts down, what will our military be ordered to do?

It wouldn't surprise me if he fired a lot of them.

[Lori Dee]

And now we know.

Trump calls for using US cities as a 'training ground' for military in unusual speech to generals
https://apnews.com/article/trump-hegseth-generals-meeting-military-pentagon-0ecdcbb8877e24329cfa0fc1e851ebd2 🔗
Associated Press - BEN FINLEY, KONSTANTIN TOROPIN and EVAN VUCCI
Updated 4:10 PM MDT, September 30, 2025

President Donald Trump on Tuesday proposed using American cities as training grounds for the armed forces and spoke of needing U.S. military might to combat what he called the "invasion from within."

The dual messages underscored the Trump administration's efforts not only to reshape contemporary Pentagon culture but to enlist military resources for the president's priorities and for decidedly domestic purposes, including quelling unrest and violent crime.

"We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military," Trump said. He noted at another point: "We're under invasion from within. No different than a foreign enemy but more difficult in many ways because they don't wear uniforms."

He said military leaders should "do the honorable thing and resign" if they don't like his new approach.

Trump encouraged the audience at the outset of his speech to applaud as they wished. He then added, "If you don't like what I'm saying, you can leave the room — of course, there goes your rank, there goes your future."

Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the meeting "an expensive, dangerous dereliction of leadership."

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My concern with this behavior is "Why now?" He didn't do this during his first term. But he learned from his first term.

He wants military troops "training" in major (Democrat) cities; he wants them now, so that people will become accustomed to seeing armed soldiers patrolling the streets. And then, when the mid-term elections do not go his way, he will once again declare the elections were rigged. There could be massive protests, and he might need military force to stay in power. He is staging the resources that he may need.

In any other country, we would call that a "coup".