Tag: U.S. military

Fears of ‘collateral damage to democracy’ swell as Trump weighs withdrawing from global postal pact

AlterNet logoThousands of absentee ballots could be uncounted in upcoming elections thanks to President Donald Trump’s objection to a treaty which governs the international mail exchange for nearly 200 countries.

Citing disapproval of shipping rates it says unfairly favor China, the White House is weighing a potential withdrawal next month from the Universal Postal Union (UPU), a United Nations agency which allows for global postal service.

Without U.S. membership in the UPU, overseas voters could face high shipping rates for mailing their ballots as well as mass confusion, which could leave thousands of votes uncounted in 2019 and 2020.

View the complete September 17 article by Julia Conley from Common Dreams on the AlterNet website here.

Trump Initiative Will Make It Harder For Overseas Troops To Vote

The Trump administration is set to withdraw from the Universal Postal Union, which could significantly increase the cost of sending ballots through the mail for members of the military and other Americans living overseas.

“Last October, the U.S. gave the required one-year notice stating it would leave the UPU unless changes were made to the discounted fees that China pays for shipping small packages to the United States,” the Fulcrum reported on Monday.

Withdrawing from the UPU would prevent overseas citizens from returning their ballots via regular mail service, and Kentucky Elections director Jared Dearing told the outlet they could have to pay in the region of $60 to use a commercial shipping service.

View the complete August 24 article by Oliver Willis on the National Memo website here.

Military bases unprepared for gathering climate change storm

Responses to hurricanes, flooding already raising alarm bells in Congress and beyond

TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. — A mangled red, white and blue patrol plane still lies across what was once a park here where families played and picnicked, nine months after Hurricane Michael stormed out of the Gulf of Mexico with its 155-mile-per-hour winds.

And beyond that wreckage and other detritus, about 300 of this Air Force base’s nearly 500 damaged buildings are slated to be razed. The Air Force wants at least $4.25 billion to rebuild Tyndall at its current location on the Florida panhandle, a process the 325th Fighter Wing commander, Col. Brian Laidlaw, said could take several years.

“The Air Force doesn’t have financial resources in the bank to do all the repairs we need to do,” he said. Without mentioning climate change, and saying he’s not a meteorologist, Laidlaw added, “I don’t know that any of us ever plans to get hit by Category 5 hurricanes.”

View the complete June 12 article by Elvina Nawaguna on The Roll Call website here.

Trump threatens to send armed soldiers to U.S.-Mexico border

President Donald Trump on Wednesday issued a hawkish threat to Mexican law enforcement personnel and drug traffickers, warning them he is sending “ARMED SOLDIERS” to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump appears to have been agitated by special counsel Robert S. Mueller’s depiction of his White House as a dysfunctional place where top aides defy his orders. Political analysts from both parties have noted when Trump feels in political or legal hot water, he typically returns to an immigration-based message.

That issue, perhaps more than any other, revs up the conservative base he will need to again turn out in big numbers to secure a second term.

View the complete April 24 article by John T. Bennett on The Roll Call website here.

House votes to condemn Trump’s transgender military ban

The House passed a resolution formally condemning the Trump administration’s transgender military ban in a 238-185 vote on Thursday.

Five Republicans joined every Democrat in backing the measure, which was spearheaded by Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.), who serves as the chair of the Equality Caucus’s Transgender Equality Task Force.

The resolution’s passage comes shortly after the administration announced that the requirement for members of the military to serve as the gender they were assigned at birth would be implemented next month, effectively undoing the Obama administration’s policy from June 2016.

View the complete Juliegrace Brufke and Rebecca Kheel on The Hill website here.

Trump finally visited the troops overseas — and it was an embarrassing mess

Credit: CBS

At long last, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania paid a visit to U.S. troops stationed overseas, after a secret overnight flight to Iraq. This visit, held at the…

At long last, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania paid a visit to U.S. troops stationed overseas, after a secret overnight flight to Iraq.

This visit, held at the Al Asad Air Base in western Iraq, should have been a moment of relative triumph and personal growth for the president, who had promised to make such a trip and who has attracted criticism for not having done so at a time in his presidency at which nearly all of his post-World War II predecessors, including Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, had.

But unfortunately, Trump managed to make what should have been a low-key and uncontroversial affair into an embarrassing disaster.

View the complete December 27 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet.org website here.

Anger, confusion greet Trump’s surprise decision on Syria

Senate Republicans uncharacteristically lashed out at President Trump on Wednesday for announcing a sudden and immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, a decision that came without consulting Congress and seemed to catch the Pentagon off guard.

Several lawmakers said Congress received no advance notice of Trump’s announcement, leaving them fuming and scratching their heads.

“I don’t know what they’ve done, but this is chaos,” Sen. Lindsey Graham(R-S.C.), a staunch Trump ally and Armed Services Committee member, told reporters, adding that he planned to discuss the matter with Defense Secretary James Mattis.

Trump’s racist border stunt means troops won’t be home for Christmas

Credit: Andrew Harnik, AP Photo

Trump is expected to extend the deployment of troops to the southern border until January.

In the midst of World War II, Bing Crosby recorded the song “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” about soldiers in Europe longing to be with their family for the holiday. At that time, Americans were fighting Nazis.

Fast-forward to 2018, and Trump (who coddles Nazis) is forcing troops to be separated from their families during the holidays — but not for any noble cause.

According to NPR, Trump is expected to prolong the deployment of thousands of troops along the southern border into January.

View the complete November 28 article by Dan Desai Martin on the ShareBlue.com website.

‘He’s afraid people want to kill him’: Trump has reportedly refused to visit soldiers in combat zones out of fear

“He’s never been interested in going.”

Credit: Senior Airman Delano Scott, Air Force

As President Donald Trump’s egregiously disrespectful attitude toward members of the military has come under closer scrutiny, he has received an increasing amount of criticism for never having visited service members who serve overseas in dangers combat zones.

While there’s certainly always some risk for a president to make such trips, the military is well-equipped to plan and arrange these visits with safety as a key goal. Other wartime presidents have traditionally made such ventures. One main motivating reason is that they feel a duty to show up for soldiers who literally put their lives at risk every day at the commander-in-chief’s direction.

A new report from the Washington Post reveals that Trump’s hesitancy is due to a very predictable reason: fear.

View the complete November 19 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet.org website here.

Trump to Throw Vulnerable Troops to the Loan Sharks

Trump’s White House is planning to absolve the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau of their responsibility to conduct routine examinations of lenders who might be violating the Military Lending Act, and is proposing changes that could leave service members more vulnerable to predatory lending.

By putting the lending industry ahead of our troops, it’s obvious that this president views the troops under his command more as props for photo opportunities rather than actual people. When it’s time to look out for the men and women responsible for protecting our nation, the president couldn’t care any less. Take a look:

The commander in chief is purposely making it harder for the the Military Lending Act to protect service members and their families from deceitful lending practices.

New York Times: “Instead of conducting examinations that might find similar patterns, the bureau will now rely solely on complaints funneled through its website, hotlines, the military and people who believe they have been victims of abuse.” Continue reading “Trump to Throw Vulnerable Troops to the Loan Sharks”