Maybe it is men who should be excluded from combat

An Associated Press article posted on Daily Kos reports that Pete Hegseth, the nasty guy’s choice for Secretary of Defense, said earlier this month that women in the military should not be in combat roles. This opens a debate that was thought to be put to rest almost a decade ago. Hegseth insists the military lowered standards to allow women into the elite combat roles. The various branches of the military insist that’s not the case. Hegseth responded that opening positions to women means the standards were changed. The article includes responses from various politicians on both sides and from military personnel. Sen. Tammy Duckworth: “Where do you think I lost my legs, in a bar fight?” Also:

“Who’s going to replace them? Men? And we’re having trouble recruiting men into the Army right now,” said Lory Manning, a retired Navy captain who works with the Service Women’s Action Network.

Kathleen Taylor Logan contributed an op-ed for last Sunday’s Detroit Free Press. She served in Iraq with an infantry unit. She says maybe it is men who should be excluded from combat. Over the last few decades the military has underachieved – stalemated, mismanaged, and outright lost – while in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. And it was led by men. The military needs to move beyond the male-dominated command structures. Women tend to bring empathy to engagements that can deescalate a crisis. They have shown they can channel aggression effectively when needed. They can maintain adaptability and precision while demonstrating the same grit and ferocity. Strategic aggression and calculated restraint that woman often show is essential. Male dominated units have been implicated in atrocities against civilians. The military has been plagued by sexual harassment and assault with disturbing lack of accountability. If those same failures were attributed to women they would have been pulled from combat long ago. Teams led by women and gender-diverse people have shown exceptional leadership, strategy, and teamwork. They tend to outperform teams led only by men. Clinging to traditional gender norms is not a good way to achieve peace and security in the 21st century. In a pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev quoted Benjamin Mazer of The Atlantic wrote about Robert Kennedy nominated for Health and Human Services, Marty Makary for Food and Drug Administration, and Jay Bhattacharya expect for National Institutes of Health.

These men have each advocated for changes to the systems and structures of public health. But what unites them all—and what legitimizes them in the eyes of this next administration—is a lasting rage over COVID.

Down in the comments exlrrp posted some good memes. The first is a photo of the sign at Grace Methodist Church: “Be sure to bring up politics at Thanksgiving. It’s going to save you money on Christmas gifts. Follow us for more holiday tips.” Further down in the comments exlrrp posted a cartoon (author not identified) showing a student struggling to scale huge steps. Nearby is a student whose way is eased by much smaller steps made of stacks of $1000 bills. Guy Venables drew a cartoon in response to Storm Bert that caused a great deal of flooding in southern Wales. It shows two workmen in boots with a mop and shovel. One says, “Right, well that’s got that flood cleared up. Same time next month?” Emily Singer of Kos reported:

Special counsel Jack Smith on Monday moved to dismiss the charges against Donald Trump both for trying to steal the 2020 election and for mishandling classified documents, meaning that—for now—Trump will almost certainly avoid consequences for his illegal actions while in office. Smith cited an opinion written in 2000 from the Office of Legal Counsel that says sitting presidents cannot be indicted or prosecuted. However, Smith said he wants the cases dismissed without prejudice, which would mean these cases could resume once Trump is no longer president. His term expires in 2029.

I heard the dismissal was granted not long after being filed. The classified documents case has two other defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira. Their case continues, though the nasty guy could pardon them. Yes, other cases are still around. The nasty guy was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records. Sentencing in that case has been delayed by the election. He faces charges in Georgia in his attempt to get the secretary of state to “find” enough votes to make him the winner in 2020. This is a state case, so he can’t force it to be dropped and can’t pardon himself if convicted. Even so, the judge might decide to follow the federal precedent of not prosecuting an Oval Office occupant. Yes, he ran out the clock. How depressing. Another pundit roundup for Kos, this one by Greg Dworkin, included a quote by Glenn Thrush, who quoted Mike Lee. First, Lee:

All that has changed is that Trump won the election And now Jack Smith is moving to dismiss Isn’t that tantamount to an admission that this was just politicized lawfare from the beginning?

And Thrush:

They would have pursued the case if not stopped by SCOTUS. All of our reporting (and that of others) indicates that Smith and DOJ believe -- right now -- that Trump committed crimes and failing to prosecute him represents a threat to rule of law.

In the comments is a cartoon by Michael de Adder. It shows Speaker Johnson peeking under the door of an occupied woman’s bathroom stall saying, “We’re just making sure there are no weirdos in the woman’s bathroom.” And more memes posted by exlrrp. One by Jen:

I have never once, in my 45 years of living, been harassed in a bathroom by a trans female. However, I have been harassed by a man walking down the street minding my own business many, many, many times. Gender neutral bathrooms aren’t the problem.

One showing Elon Musk:

Imagine you get to a point of wealth so surreal that you can literally solve world hunger. You can eliminate hunger at a planetary scale. And instead, you say, “nah, Imma focus on making life harder for trans people.”

And one by Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD:

I’m frankly disgusted by all of the “RFK Jr. might acshually have good ideas except for vaccines” hot takes. Being an anti-vaxxer is automatically disqualifying for any leadership role related to healthcare, because it is the hallmark of a person who neither understand science nor respects the work of trained scientists. It is a marker of a gargantuan, untamed arrogance.”

The nasty guy has threatened to pull out of the Paris climate agreement, as he did during his first term. This is a historic treaty signed by almost every country pledging to reduce emissions. Two weeks ago Singer reported that Darren Woods, CEO of oil giant Exxon Mobil pushed back, saying, “We need a global system for managing global emissions.”

The fact that an oil company is telling Trump not to make a disastrous decision that would negatively impact the climate is almost hard to fathom. However, Woods told CNBC on Tuesday that Exxon made investments in technologies to lower emissions, and that those investments are reliant on federal tax credits that Biden signed into law. “There needs to be an incentive to reward those investments and generate a return,” Woods told CNBC. “If we find that those incentives dissipate or go away entirely, then that would definitely change our investment plans.”

Yeah, that’s how much Woods actually cares about the environment. Meteor Blades, a Kos Emeritus, wrote about the current state of the climate. His post was written during the COP 29 conference in Baku Azerbaijan. At the top of the post is a chart showing as of September, 2024 is the warmest year since 1850, a bit higher than 2023. Comments further down add that this is the first full year in which the goal of limiting warming to 1.5C was breached. The chart is followed by a series of quotes. Climatologist Michael E. Mann said the US is poised to become authoritarian, ruled by plutocrats and fossil fuel interests, a petrostate. Jesse Jenkins said that the nasty guy can only slow, not stop the clean energy transition. And Bill McKibbin said:

“Clearly we are not magically resistant to authoritarianism—indeed we’ve now embraced a flavor of it. And clearly America is not going to play the commanding role in helping solve the climate crisis, the greatest dilemma humans have ever encountered. For the next few years the best we can hope is that Washington won’t manage to wreck the efforts of others—and that some parts of this big nation will demonstrate what’s still possible. And that many of us can join in a genuinely global citizens’ fight for rapid action.”

Beyond that Blades wrote about various organizations saying how bad the climate has gotten and will get worse. We may soon hit tipping points with accelerated change. That will risk violent conflict, which will undermine cooperation, leading to more climate change. There are also comments about how the nasty guy has declared he will make it worse. Blades ended with a quote from Rebecca Solnit. Here’s part of it:

They want you to feel powerless and to surrender and to let them trample everything and you are not going to let them. You are not giving up, and neither am I. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving. You may need to grieve or scream or take time off, but you have a role no matter what, and right now good friends and good principles are worth gathering in. Remember what you love. Remember what loves you. Remember in this tide of hate what love is. The pain you feel is because of what you love.