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The Secretary of Defense gathered 800 top generals in the U.S. military from around the world to sit through his performative display of masculinity.
Pete Hegseth had a lot to say about the so-called “warrior ethos” he wants to instill in the military.
The seasoned generals sat mostly stone-faced throughout his vain grandstanding.
Yet, as vapid is it was, Hegseth’s message is serious.
It signals yet another bright red line for democracy that this regime has obliterated.
After Hegseth spoke, Trump made his presence known by saying that U.S. cities should serve as “training grounds for our military.”
Just to be clear, that is the President of the United States saying he’s willing to deploy the U.S. military against his own people for the purpose of “training.”
This isn’t merely rhetoric. It’s already happening.
In Chicago, a joint task force of DHS, FBI, Border Patrol, and ATFE, busted down doors in the middle of the night in a Chicago apartment building.
Armed federal agents in military fatigues busted down their doors overnight, pulling men, women and children from their apartments, some of them naked, residents and witnesses said. Agents approached or entered nearly every apartment in the five-story building, and U.S. citizens were among those detained for hours.
These events come on the heels of yet another mass shooting at a place of worship—a Church of Latter-Day Saints congregation in Michigan in which four people and the gunman were killed.
How Can We Talk of Hope?
In the context of the news going from bad to worse, speaking of hope seems foolish.
Hope has become another 4-letter word—something forbidden and distasteful.
Hope seems out of style, hokey, detached from reality, blindly optimistic, historically uninformed, naive.
But what if we have misunderstood hope?
Hope is not a feeling.
Hope is action.
Hope is a choice.
Hope is a conviction.
As Ta-Nehisi Coates recently said,
“So I don’t think it requires you to feel that you’ll eventually lose. On the contrary, I think it requires you to feel that even if you do lose, you have this steadfastness to keep going.”
Hope is the steadfastness to keep going.
I talk about this and more on this week’s Substack Live.
P.S. I’ve been going live every week. Put a reminder in your phone: Thursdays at 8 pm ET
