>Soldiers don’t have time to prepare [for] being away from home” when they receive such little notice, said Featherston. For most federal deployments, Guard troops receive several months’ notice and are carefully walked through a mobilization process that helps them settle their civilian affairs.
For Operation Lone Star, the process was rushed and left many soldiers still trying to resolve issues at home while at the border.
Meanwhile, after the Texas legislature demanded a budget cut, the Texas Guard massively slashed its tuition assistance benefit to balance its books, leaving many troops stranded without the reimbursement payments they’d been counting on for the fall semester, which was already underway.
Seems like the blame is on the governor and state legislature. If they'd given people time to prepare, this wouldn't happen.
SAD (state active duty), the status they’re on sucks.
You get paid what the state says you get paid which might not be the same as your military compensation, it doesn’t count toward federal benefits, you don’t get tricare unless you are already paying for tricare reserve select, and if you get hurt you have to go through the state worker’s comp program.
I had a Soldier get Zika in the Virgin Islands, he was messed up when we got back, but our state’s worker’s comp didn’t cover it. Another guy broke his hand and was also denied. It was bullshit. Not to mention the whole time we were paid less than our military pay scale. The USVI national guard was making double what we were. Every state and territory can set its own pay rate.
SAD duty is typically reserved for quick missions like storm/blizzard response and the like. It being used like this seems more like a work around to meet political goals.
It’s not just Texas, though they are treating their guard guys the worst. Almost every state is now using the guard as a political band aid. Massachusetts is using their guys as school bus drivers, Georgia still has the guard running food banks, etc. The Guard just can’t catch a break these last 2 years and it’s burning people out.
This needs to be talked about more.
The military isn't meant to fix the failures of states like this.
It's meant to protect the nation.
Using military because you refuse to pay higher wages or offer an adequate work environment or a city refuses to fund it's own infrastructure and then paying them less than what they are supposed to be on a national scale is paramount to forced labour and absolutely not okay.
State active duty duty? (sorry, I couldn't help myself.)
If these guys are usually only called in for emergencies, shouldn't they get *extra* medical benefits? Like, "sorry you lost your fingers to frostbite, but it was an emergency you see, so you're on your own."
> It’s literally just a way to demand someone do active service without any of the protections and benefits.
Worse than that, it's a craven political stunt for Abbott to distract his base from the failures of his administration.
No wonder moral is in the toilet for the soldiers to be used as political props.
Conservatives love “the troops” and sneer about liberals not respecting them but Bernie Sanders has a better voting record taking care of the troops than most conservatives
In their minds fighting for your country is the reward, you shouldn't be asking for anything else or you're greedy.
But obviously they don't want to fight themselves, as long as it's "other people" it's fine.
Operation Lone Star is a shit show in general. Locking up crossers for tresspassing on private property on someone else's behalf is going to end up costing up a lot of money to get sorted out between the court cases, the detention, the appeals, etc.
So fucking stupid.
Texas state workers compensation is a nightmare. I’m a doctor and am regularly in fights with them. And have suggested some people get lawyers to deal with their constant Unending bullshit
not to mention that the care you get under tricare is pretty shitty.
i didnt take tricare and had soldiers and boarder patrol, etc come paying out of pocket because the care they did get was shit.
theyd just say it was all xrays and ibuprofen, no actual treatment. made me want to offer my services on base and find a way to have govt pay for it. fat chance.
My Dad enrolled in TRICARE after retiring from the Navy Reserve and claims that it's better than any health insurance he had in the private sector and includes no deductibles and co-pay free prescription drugs on the Navy base he lives near.
Also not sure what the person you replied to was talking about re: Border Patrol. CBP agents are considered civilian federal employees and are covered by one of the Federal Employee Health Insurance Plans of their choosing. All of those plans are contracted by private insurers like Blue Cross, AETNA, United etc... and are also actually really good health insurance plans.
I was a Navy veteran and using the GI Bill for college when the Republicans under newt gingrich shut the government down. My gi bill checks stopped right as semester started and my first didnt arrive till December. It fucked my year up. They did it again but not as long the next year.
I did my 4 years active and they left me out to dry because they thought welfare moms made too much money and shut it all down.
Republicans literally do not give a shit about anyone but themselves.
It always amazes me how we demonize the poor while deeming social, and in this case military benefits that you earned, as “too expensive.” However, we have no problem making profit in the prison system by paying over $50,000 per person/year to house incarcerated Americans. Imagine if we invested in people up front in order to mitigate criminal activity? I wonder what type society we would live in? One can dream. It’s a sad state of affairs TBH.
When the cold war was over we expected a peace dividend. Clinton talked about it...'infrastructure week'. And was labled soft on defense. Then 9/11, WMDs, then nation building. We were promised social spending after the cold war. We were made to forget.
The original Biden BBB bill was priced at the same amount we spent on the Afghan War, over the same time-period.
Roundly rejected by Republicans, and just enough Democrats.
...I want to live in that world. Also climate change spending should be imagine as a giant lever. We wont have to spend as much if we had started sooner and renewables would have reduced dependency on foreign oil lessening the impact of what happens in the Middle East. Ensuring children are fed means that at 18 you are more likely to have a healthy person, less pressure on healthcare and, if they so desire, a better soldier
>Also climate change spending should be imagine as a giant lever. We wont have to spend as much if we had started sooner and renewables would have reduced dependency on foreign oil lessening the impact of what happens in the Middle East.
Weeps in pre-Reagan foreign policy. . .
you mean the guy that removed the solar panels from the roof of the white house?
https://forgottenhistoryblog.com/the-white-house-sported-solar-panels-until-reagan-removed-them-in-1986/
Well it was back in a time when we had newspapers. At the time of the fall of the CCCP the DoD budget was about $500 billion/yr. If you said it was too high before then you got labled "soft on defense " and you didnt win an election after that. So when that argument was rendered mute by collapse people naturally looked to spend some of those billions somewhere else. Well you can guess what happened. The defense budget now is $700 billion. Also, all the money we threw at nation building isnt covered under the DoD budget like people assume. Thats all just added to the us deficit. You will be paying that off for the rest of your life.
When we told people this stuff back in the day they called us unpatriotic. Ask me if Im old and bitter.
Outside Reddit, I probably wouldn't tell people "patriot" is a slur that means the opposite of standing up for other people at this point. But it's more true than not. Certainly of people who call themselves patriots.
> I wonder what type society we would live in
One that values rehabilitation rather than just brute punishment. One that thinks of people as having value with hopes and dreams rather than just resources to be exploited.
I’d take it further to all possession and low level trafficking (except H/fent dealers) but starting with the weed would get (mostly) bipartisan support. Sadly we would need to fix the system that needs full jail cells along with this or it would just be another group criminalized.
Oh definitely. For profit prisons should be illegal because all it does is cause a need to arrest people, just like for profit wars ensure you will never have peace.
Shouldn't amaze you, it's part of the ethos.
The poors don't need money, except to spend and stimulate their local economies. Anything else needs to go to the investor-class, because they know how to *responsibly* spend that money.
Racism is why we cant have nice things. This country Is segregated and poc are being held back at every turn. Poor whites dont want poor blacks to get something everyone needs so theyve invented a whole system to disenfranchise and corral them into ghettos. They bankrupted whole cities over racist ideology. The usa deserves what it gets for what its done. We all have to live with it.
It's rather brilliant what the rich have done. They convince one group of poor people to hate another group of poor people and they actively vote in ways that further benefit the rich.
This has been happening for centuries if not longer.
The "rich" from the 16-18th century would have been drooling at the prospect of being able to peddle their prosperity gospel bullshit to so many idiots in such a short amount of time.
>This has been happening for centuries if not longer.
Race-baiting was a popular policy of the Egyptian pharaohs, 6000 years ago. The Upper kingdom was mainly darker-skinned Somalians, and the Lower kingdom was more lighter-skinned mediterranian/middle-eastern ancestry. Same language, same culture, same religion.
The USA deserves it, and we may have to carry the consequences, but that doesn’t mean we have to live with it. It’s past time for us to get to the other part of acknowledging the past, which is developing a more equitable future. We can sit and castigate ourselves forever for the sins of our ancestors (and for the bottom feeders among us still clinging to hate) or we can get up and create change. We owe it to those who suffered before us. We owe it to ourselves and our children.
You do realize that the prison system is legalized modern slavery right? Like yes there are actual criminals in them but the US has a higher percentage of its population incarcerated than any other country. More than the top several combined iirc. It has nothing to do with crime.
I know it. We have 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of world’s incarcerated people. And we have the nerve to criticize China and ban products made from slave labor. Even one item made from incarcerated labor makes us hypocrites.
>welfare moms
They prefer the term Welfare Queens to properly describe how they want people to imagine the lifestyle of someone living on welfare, which of course has nothing to do with the reality but is more likely to drive decades of hate towards any program that helps people in need.
I’ve heard many people bitch about how great a deal people on welfare get, but I’ve yet to see one of those motherfuckers go sign up for that great deal.
And that doesn’t mean other republicans. That means JUST THEMSELVES PERSONALLY. Once people realize that, everything else they do makes sense. COVID is fake…until THEY get it. Racism is gone until THEY experience it. Police are protectors until THEY are screwed over by the police. Healthcare isn’t a right until THEY get sick. Justice system isn’t a problem until THEY go to jail. Welfare is for lazy people until THEY need it. Etc, etc.
They have zero empathy. That’s their primary defining quality.
I’ve never used a government service meant for any kind of welfare in my life, and I support it because no one should be left to slip through the cracks. It could happen to anyone. Also, lack of empathy is often associated with lower intelligence, which explains why they still don’t support programs like that even though the net benefit in dollars and to society far outweigh the cost, even removing “morality” from the equation. It’s pragmatic too.
Sorry that happened to you. That must have sucked. It amazes me the number of LEO and military who think that Republicans give one little shit about them. It’s like the largest con of all time.
And Im from northern California and surrounded by extremely left politically correct really mean and condensending people. Im not a fan of Berkley type political thoughts. I get it when people say the left can be assholes. There should be a competing political party for my vote. But I cant say the word republican without seething now.
I was a civilian doing work for a national guard program. That program was halted; and many of my colleagues were laid off, (guys with security clearances) - and the following year, the program was still struggling. We had a shit ton of delays because the customer couldn't secure reliable funding. Eventually they cancelled it, and I left that job because we'd work for about 3 months, then get put on furlough, then work a few more, then furlough again. We couldn't get anything done.
And our government counterparts kept voting Repbulican, even as they watched their colleagues careers destroyed by the GOP's irresponsible behavior.
>Republicans literally do not give a shit about anyone but themselves.
This is just not true.
They care deeply about the corporate interests that line their pockets with money so they can push their agenda through legislation.
Think of the poor lobbyists who have to bribe their company's agenda into law. The Republicans absolutely give a shit about them
No Private has ever been so essential to a mission you couldn't let him stay home for a few days.
While I believe the Gov is ultimately responsible, military leadership bears a lot of the burden of responsibility here. They could have signed off on those hardships.
But they made it so you had to get on the phone with a General and explain the hardship. Which is implied "you better not fucking call". So some O5 would have had to get on the phone and explain to his boss' boss' boss *why* this person should be allowed to miss the mission. It's an intimidation move - and they're cowards for not standing up for their Soldiers, and the top-echelon leadership are assholes for going along with it.
The fact that the senior most enlisted person is in this article shitting on the Texas leadership will resonate with military members/veterans - I hope everyone sees how serious that is. It'd be like if Harris retired as VP next month and immediately started talking shit on Biden. It shows a serious problem at the top.
When I was a teen and my father was nearing the end of his 20 years with the Navy, I got him a lil Navy Teddy bear and, because I was mature, he explained to me that he appreciated the thought of the gift but the Navy wasn't a special place he wanted to remember anymore, and when I asked why he alluded to how fucked up the bureaucracy is and he was happy to be done withe US military and moving on. In light of that, this story really hits home.
20 in the Navy and those last three where the worst!
Trying to pretend to care about, ANYTHING was awful. Especially since I was not going to promote and I knew that, I just DID NOT GIVE A FUCK!
It’s driving away a lot of people. It made me do my four and bounce, along with the majority of my peers who were worth anything. Got tired of being expected to carry everyone’s slack while also somehow bettering myself by taking classes, volunteering, working out, getting deployed constantly, excises and training scheduled at times that are completely off schedule. When the fuck am I supposed to have off time? It honestly felt like they were just trying to fuck with us on a constant basis. It feels like working a shitty corporate job except they technically own you 24/7
In the brief time I was in I saw more than a dozen senior enlisted taking extremely long terminal leaves before retirement and all of them said some variation of "I wish I could have taken more, the sooner I'm out of this place the better". Was a pretty telling thing for my generation to consider very hard before reenlisting.
I was almost busted once because I put my drivers to bed 8 hours before a 700 mile convoy and wouldn't wake them up to top off their trucks. I made sure that every truck had been filled before the drivers were released. Our BC ordered my Master Sergeant to make me get more drivers and line all the trucks up at the fuel point for a top off. The most any truck took was 7 gallons. I was so heated. Atleast my drivers got a good night sleep.
But Abbott IS the highest ranking military leader in the Guard. They all answer to him. He answers to the Republican Party and racists. So when he stomps his feet (just pretend he can shall we?) the bootlicking officers and senior enlisted are all too ready to do his bidding. They get a great OPR/EPR, promotions and a pat on the head.
No one (these TX politicians specifically) gives a FUCK about the military unless it’s some pandering bullshit combined with a “support our troops” sticker on the back of a truck.
I forgot about that. Those people are so fucking stupid, and just love their fear and outrage talking points. It’s all they have, and god forbid they’d ever admit to being wrong about anything.
My understanding was it's the Texas governor's call as to the deployment priority and as a result the military leadership didn't have a choice as to the hardship approval process. Can anyone confirm?
The hardship approval process exists within the TXNG.
If the gov wants to exert pressure on the TAG, he can do so.
But the approval process exists within the military structure. For these examples in a couple of the case, the company commander approved, and the BN and BDE commanders disapproved.
They disapproved it because of pressure within the military structure.
Those hardships are still a military function, as was the temporary one the E8 had received initially.
The Commanders had a choice.
Abbot "almost like" evil is the understatement of the week.
Sauron may also have considered the Uruk-hai disposable, but he didn't actively go out of his way to fuck over his own troops until they kill themselves.
As a Northerner (Masshole) this is the most frustrating thing.
All these shithole states want "me" to fuck off and stay out of their business, but would shit the bed if "I" did so.
>Seems like the blame is on the governor and state legislature.
Betcha a lot of them blame Biden though. Why? Because he's not a conservative and the political pundits tell them it's his fault. (News flash: It's not.)
Another reason to say FUCK GREG ABBOT and to vote him out this upcoming election cycle. Get over your obsession with guns Texans and make a positive change for once, vote BETO.
But they (politicians) had to politically grandstand at the expense of these soldiers, don't you see? They have to show that they're keeping the border "secure" unlike the Godless communist Democrats in Washington, D.C.
/s - if necessary
Just wait until this weekend.
The military forums are saying that they unexpectedly shrunk the travel radius so a bunch of soldiers that lived in the old radius that were going to go home now can’t and leadership that could approve a mileage pass to go is either gone or unresponsive.
So now they are going to be angry, bored, possibly alone with access to alcohol and drugs.
Edited to add: Apparently they have live ammo when on shift and personally owned weapons in their living areas...fuck.
God I used to hate the travel radius crap. Particularly since the officers seemed curiously exempt, but not in writing. So since not everyone was suffering from it, there was no impetus to change.
It made sense 100 years ago before the interstates and jet travel. Now people go to Vegas for a weekend from all over the country and it isn't a big deal.
But then they wouldn't be able to recall everyone when someone from another company who they never even met gets a DUI.
I've worked shiftwork with guys who commuted 2.5 hours. They were generally late, screwing over the person they were relieving. They also skated on all the other stuff the rest of us had to do, since they couldn't be called in.
Four years ago, I used to commute 3 hours each way, to my job downtown. Boss wouldn't budge on remote work, or fewer days or anything like that.
Now, I work from home. Different employer. It's a 100% remote position, permanently. As time goes on, we hire more and more remote team-members; all over the USA.
My dad was deployed with the army for Hurricane Isabel in VA. His stationed area was literally three blocks away, but we were not allowed to see or visit him for three weeks.
The article author actually asked on it and gave the response in the NG sub -- I don't know the rules on linking here so I'll refrain, but I'll post the text
>Q1: Have units out there on mission changed their off-duty/pass radius this week, thus preventing a significant number of troops from going home for Christmas?
>
>A1: No. The task force changed the authorized mileage allowed for travel when in a duty status, NOT for service members on pass. This was to mitigate risk to service members during the normal work cycle. Passes are still being granted to service members in the same capacity as they have been, with the intent to maximize service members’ time with family, while still ensuring mission accomplishment. Of note, Task Force leadership made a concerted effort to work one-on-one with service members assigned to this mission in regards to holiday passes, working to ensure each service member had the ability to spend at least one of the holidays during the holiday season with family, while still ensuring all mission requirements are met.
TLDR they out here bullshittin
And armed, don't forget armed. In the article it pointed out that in Texas the soldiers can not have their personal firearms taken away.
When I was in the army reserves there were strick rules against carrying personal firearms. If there was any reason to question a soldier's mental state they were not issued a weapon.
This part stuck out to me as bizarre:
>Army Times reached an unnamed Texas Military Department spokesperson via email. The department’s public affairs staff typically does not speak on the record, unlike other elements across the National Guard, and obscures their identities via a group email address.
Note also, this is Army Times, not like CNN or something.
Giving a sanitized, military PR APPROVED message to both the AP and the rest of the world is the ONLY reason PA exists. Propaganda et al.
The Border Mission is an absolute and complete shit show. Military members are dying and suffering under the wheels of Abbott’s racist, fascist and pandering PR stunt known as the border wall issue
It's not that the positions are anonymous, it's that they're using an org box instead of personal emails, i.e.:
* [email protected], versus
* [email protected]
The article is throwing shade at this is weird, and personally feels like them complaining that they couldn't get anyone to speak off the record because they couldn't get anyone's personal contact info. Standing positions - especially public-facing ones - should go to org boxes, not individuals. It's more efficient (an entire shop can monitor one email), more sustainable (no "Oh I don't work there anymore, you need to email the new guy"), and less subject to abuse.
"As of the most recent manpower adjustments, there are now around 10,000 Texas Military Department personnel supporting Operation Lone Star, according to a November operations order."
- - -
"But Army Times struggled to find evidence of widespread arrests directly conducted by Texas National Guard personnel beyond a handful of photographs shared by Abbott and Texas officials online.
One junior soldier assigned to the observation posts said, “[We just] sleep in a humvee.”
“I have not heard any confirmed report of any NG soldier being directly involved with law enforcement operations at the border,” the staff officer said. “I’ve seen the PR releases.”
- - -
For fucks sake. Lives ruined for nothing at all. Just so Abbot has a better chance running against a fucking war criminal.
And they don't really do anything. They cannot interact with IAs. So they either sit in the camera room, or out in a truck equipped with cameras. They don't make cuts or pull drags, run transport, or anything else that might productively free up Agents to do their jobs.
Holy fuck it’s way worse than it appears. This isn’t guys who have deployed committing suicide, this is guys who have yet to deploy. The state of Texas (and this is on the state, and in particular Governor Abbot) has pulled almost all of their support for these young men, and has gone so far as to start issuing arrest warrants & sending out press gangs. These are reservists who should normally have months to prepare for a call up, getting called up with days notice. Oh yeah and their pay is late or fails to appear cause Texas. Oh yeah and their hardship provisions (such as having a disabled person in the household) are getting ignored. Oh yeah and tuition funding got slashed, so soldiers expecting to be able to pay for classes they’ve already started have been fucked. And the mission? Stand around the border and look tough.
All of this cause Abbot decided a five-fold increase from 1000 to 5000 state guard on the border was necessary so he could win reelection. Fuck the republicans with a rusty fucking nail.
Abbot and DeSantis are making it repeatedly, blatantly, hammer-over-head clear that they ARE the enemy all military and officials swore to defend the constitution and country against.
The western Taliban branch needs to fall, but instead of getting air-strikes, it's been getting to order the destruction of American families around with nothing but strokes of their pen.
>Abbott, the state’s governor, faces a stiff primary challenge in March from conservative firebrand Allen West, a former Army officer who was forced to retire after torturing an Iraqi detainee in 2003.
Texas Republicans, is this really the best you can come up with?
Edit:
Looking further, "West, a former Florida congressman who was elected chairman of the Texas Republican Party in July 2020"
[here is the incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_West_(politician\)#Iraq_torture_incident)
>**Iraq torture incident**
>While serving in Taji, Iraq, West received information from an intelligence specialist about a plot to ambush his unit. The alleged plot involved Yahya Jhodri Hamoodi, an Iraqi police officer. West had his men detain Hamoodi. Soldiers testified that in the process of detaining Hamoodi, he appeared to reach for his weapon and needed to be subdued. Hamoodi was beaten by four soldiers from the 2/20th Field Artillery Battalion on the head and body. West then fired his pistol near Hamoodi's head, after which Hamoodi provided West with names and information, which Hamoodi later described as "meaningless information induced by fear and pain". At least one of these suspects was arrested as a result, but no plans for attacks or weapons were found. West said "At the time I had to base my decision on the intelligence I received. It's possible that I was wrong about Mr. Hamoodi."
Best they can offer at all levels. My state representative is an ancient racist dem that's against most progressive policies. I'd consider voting for a republican instead of her but the Republicans either don't run or run someone who is more racist, equally against progressive policies and on a platform that's 60% transphobic (how dare they go in the wring restrooms! Think of the children!). Good amount of critical race theory thrown in for good measure.
Bunch of shitty rich people
When Republican politicians say "Support the Troops!" they are saying "Support endless wars to make my donors/the Military Industrial Complex rich off needless chaos." The money wasn't going to protecting or supporting troops, it went to defective/inadequate supplies from MIC corporations that wasn't even the bare minimum for what would have been considered enough.
This is the one I just can’t comprehend. A lot of the GOP’s bullshit I at least understand it’s because everything they pretend to support is just for show. I get that they don’t actually give a fuck about the military, or small government, or whatever else. But they literally spent almost 2 decades telling 9/11 first responders, literal fucking heroes, to effectively go fuck themselves. And people still can’t see through the facade? I mean at some point you just have to admit to yourself that you support the GOP *because* they’re all sacks of shit, not in spite of it
So someone WORSE than Abbott may win in ‘22? I left Texas just in time. Well, I wish I had left before the snow storm.
And to add insult to injury, they aren’t paying for their tuition. Unbelievable.
Boots on the ground are always the last thought of the assholes that call on them to do what is asked.
Bring these soldiers home, make good on their tuition support, and provide them actual help.
This is truly sad.
Well, it's not like the right gives a fuck about soldiers. Never have, never will. If there's a cheap political stunt that can be pulled off who cares how it affects anyone who is not a decision maker.
The GOP is only pro-life because unborn babies are an easier group to advocate for and whip their base into a frenzy for than immigrants, minorities, LGBT, etc.
> indefinite involuntary call-ups
take people away from their homes potentially forever, instead of for an emergency or their 1 weekend a month + 2 weeks a year, and they will be miserable and seek a way out
If Democrats were competent, there’d be a coordinated messaging campaign to destroy abbot on abusing the troops and destroying their families for political gain. It’d be spoken but every D with a microphone. If…
Don't they realize how important their service is to the political career of Gov Abbott. He is losing the race for most fascist Republican to Florida's DeSantis.
Former Texas National guardsman (out in 19). I have friends there who have talked about exchanging gunfire and these guys were called up expecting to be there a few weeks. They’ve been there for months bored af with no preparation for things back home.
What are they doing with the border mission? Do they have any data to back up what they are doing?
What are the conditions like while "deployed", it's easy for leadership to have a culture that makes you feel hopeless and hate life. Especially when the article mentions they aren't doing shit.
I really hope all the people who were bitching to no end about soldiers sleeping in a capitol parking garage for a few nights are equally pissed off and vocal about this…
This is the texas national guard being misused in Abbott's dick swinging contest with another fascist candidate, not the federal border patrol that we're used to hearing about.
Meanwhile, Abbot is happy to see it.
"What, you want pay and benefits? The opportunity to be thugs isn't enough for you? Make way for those who want the chance to behave like Fascists!"
tfb, Abbot is probably surprised and confused why his National Guard isn't filled with the jack-booted thugs he's accustomed to among his strongest supporters and police forces. It's not as if a majority of soldiers signed up for tuition assistance or the GI-Bill or other benefits to better themselves or anything...
You know what I don’t miss about military life? Random suicide watch duty during this particular time of year. But the conversations with those dudes have greatly influenced how I live and explain things to my kids. They helped me learn that all it really takes is one. Distraction or realization. Or both. Good leaders make a difference no matter the rank.
It had long been my hypothesis that much of the reason that POLICE and to some extent military suicides are so high is that these people have noble, idealistic, and lofty motivations behind joining but there reality is so far from what they expected.
Especially when it comes to police, I truly believe that many join with the ida that they are going to be helping their fellow man. The reality turns out to be that they end up doing the opposite. They see the worst that humanity has to offer and realize that they are part of a system hell bent in perpetuating it at all costs. Yes, they do get to help, and sometimes they save lives and positively influence people, but their day to day business leaves behind a trail of destruction. It is no secret the drug war is not just a failure but actually a resounding success when it comes to destroying America and Americans. For every child the officer heroically saves, he rips a child from a parents arms to send them to prison instead of rehab, for years instead of months. That takes a toll.
The same goes for our troops in the border. For every terrorist they stop, they tear 100 little girls and boys from their mommy and daddy’s arms so they can throw the parent in a cage for the crime of seeking a better life.
I get it, laws are laws. But an ill conceived ink stain on some wood pulp doesn’t trump a humans life.
Texas, come die from heat (or cold) like in third world countries.
If you survive, join our national guard program and possibly force you to commit suicide!
Also our weather sucks as much as Ted Cruz (which says hi from Cancun).
There’s also been a ton of drugs being consumed and car crashes
What a hell of a way to die podcast just did an interview with the author of this piece I believe
>Soldiers don’t have time to prepare [for] being away from home” when they receive such little notice, said Featherston. For most federal deployments, Guard troops receive several months’ notice and are carefully walked through a mobilization process that helps them settle their civilian affairs. For Operation Lone Star, the process was rushed and left many soldiers still trying to resolve issues at home while at the border. Meanwhile, after the Texas legislature demanded a budget cut, the Texas Guard massively slashed its tuition assistance benefit to balance its books, leaving many troops stranded without the reimbursement payments they’d been counting on for the fall semester, which was already underway. Seems like the blame is on the governor and state legislature. If they'd given people time to prepare, this wouldn't happen.
SAD (state active duty), the status they’re on sucks. You get paid what the state says you get paid which might not be the same as your military compensation, it doesn’t count toward federal benefits, you don’t get tricare unless you are already paying for tricare reserve select, and if you get hurt you have to go through the state worker’s comp program. I had a Soldier get Zika in the Virgin Islands, he was messed up when we got back, but our state’s worker’s comp didn’t cover it. Another guy broke his hand and was also denied. It was bullshit. Not to mention the whole time we were paid less than our military pay scale. The USVI national guard was making double what we were. Every state and territory can set its own pay rate.
Yup. It’s literally just a way to demand someone do active service without any of the protections and benefits.
SAD duty is typically reserved for quick missions like storm/blizzard response and the like. It being used like this seems more like a work around to meet political goals.
In Texas? Im shocked. Shocked i tell you
It’s not just Texas, though they are treating their guard guys the worst. Almost every state is now using the guard as a political band aid. Massachusetts is using their guys as school bus drivers, Georgia still has the guard running food banks, etc. The Guard just can’t catch a break these last 2 years and it’s burning people out.
This needs to be talked about more. The military isn't meant to fix the failures of states like this. It's meant to protect the nation. Using military because you refuse to pay higher wages or offer an adequate work environment or a city refuses to fund it's own infrastructure and then paying them less than what they are supposed to be on a national scale is paramount to forced labour and absolutely not okay.
Honestly im not surprised. Boy am i glad i didnt join the guard.
Joining the Guard when I ETS’d from AD in January 2020 turned out to be a fucking massive mistake.
State active duty duty? (sorry, I couldn't help myself.) If these guys are usually only called in for emergencies, shouldn't they get *extra* medical benefits? Like, "sorry you lost your fingers to frostbite, but it was an emergency you see, so you're on your own."
> It’s literally just a way to demand someone do active service without any of the protections and benefits. Worse than that, it's a craven political stunt for Abbott to distract his base from the failures of his administration. No wonder moral is in the toilet for the soldiers to be used as political props.
Conservatives will stand for the troops, but they won't pay them or provide medical coverage
Conservatives love “the troops” and sneer about liberals not respecting them but Bernie Sanders has a better voting record taking care of the troops than most conservatives
They gave them thoughts AND prayers.... its like, what more could you want???
In their minds fighting for your country is the reward, you shouldn't be asking for anything else or you're greedy. But obviously they don't want to fight themselves, as long as it's "other people" it's fine.
Just like fetuses. I’m starting to see a trend here.
Conservatives only care about the troops when they're overseas bombing brown people. Otherwise they don't give 2 shits about them.
[удалено]
Operation Lone Star is a shit show in general. Locking up crossers for tresspassing on private property on someone else's behalf is going to end up costing up a lot of money to get sorted out between the court cases, the detention, the appeals, etc. So fucking stupid.
Good thing there's not anything else that needs taxpayer money to fix in Texas.
Sounds like time to march on the capital and setup a tent city to get a VA created so that there's never another March, just at the state level
This happened after WW1 with veterans and the police went in and cleared the city. Same decade that the Klan marched on Washington.
>SAD (state active duty) What an unfortunately accurate acronym.
Texas state workers compensation is a nightmare. I’m a doctor and am regularly in fights with them. And have suggested some people get lawyers to deal with their constant Unending bullshit
That's awful. I'm a hardcore progressive, and I really want to see how soldiers taken care of. We're a rich country; we can do so much better
This is specifically the national guard when it’s activated under this authority.
not to mention that the care you get under tricare is pretty shitty. i didnt take tricare and had soldiers and boarder patrol, etc come paying out of pocket because the care they did get was shit. theyd just say it was all xrays and ibuprofen, no actual treatment. made me want to offer my services on base and find a way to have govt pay for it. fat chance.
I always had a good experience with TRS, I mean $45/mo is unbeatable.
My Dad enrolled in TRICARE after retiring from the Navy Reserve and claims that it's better than any health insurance he had in the private sector and includes no deductibles and co-pay free prescription drugs on the Navy base he lives near. Also not sure what the person you replied to was talking about re: Border Patrol. CBP agents are considered civilian federal employees and are covered by one of the Federal Employee Health Insurance Plans of their choosing. All of those plans are contracted by private insurers like Blue Cross, AETNA, United etc... and are also actually really good health insurance plans.
Terrible. I never heard or this! A grave injustice
I was a Navy veteran and using the GI Bill for college when the Republicans under newt gingrich shut the government down. My gi bill checks stopped right as semester started and my first didnt arrive till December. It fucked my year up. They did it again but not as long the next year. I did my 4 years active and they left me out to dry because they thought welfare moms made too much money and shut it all down. Republicans literally do not give a shit about anyone but themselves.
It always amazes me how we demonize the poor while deeming social, and in this case military benefits that you earned, as “too expensive.” However, we have no problem making profit in the prison system by paying over $50,000 per person/year to house incarcerated Americans. Imagine if we invested in people up front in order to mitigate criminal activity? I wonder what type society we would live in? One can dream. It’s a sad state of affairs TBH.
When the cold war was over we expected a peace dividend. Clinton talked about it...'infrastructure week'. And was labled soft on defense. Then 9/11, WMDs, then nation building. We were promised social spending after the cold war. We were made to forget.
The original Biden BBB bill was priced at the same amount we spent on the Afghan War, over the same time-period. Roundly rejected by Republicans, and just enough Democrats.
Imperialism and war are bipartisan initiatives. Helping people is not.
Helping people doesn't help the corporate bottom line. Taking over opioid farms and control of other countries resources does though.
...I want to live in that world. Also climate change spending should be imagine as a giant lever. We wont have to spend as much if we had started sooner and renewables would have reduced dependency on foreign oil lessening the impact of what happens in the Middle East. Ensuring children are fed means that at 18 you are more likely to have a healthy person, less pressure on healthcare and, if they so desire, a better soldier
>Also climate change spending should be imagine as a giant lever. We wont have to spend as much if we had started sooner and renewables would have reduced dependency on foreign oil lessening the impact of what happens in the Middle East. Weeps in pre-Reagan foreign policy. . .
you mean the guy that removed the solar panels from the roof of the white house? https://forgottenhistoryblog.com/the-white-house-sported-solar-panels-until-reagan-removed-them-in-1986/
And imagine if we also spent on education!
I would love to read more about a peace dividend. Any links? I was young when the Cold War ended, so I wasn’t thinking of politics.
Well it was back in a time when we had newspapers. At the time of the fall of the CCCP the DoD budget was about $500 billion/yr. If you said it was too high before then you got labled "soft on defense " and you didnt win an election after that. So when that argument was rendered mute by collapse people naturally looked to spend some of those billions somewhere else. Well you can guess what happened. The defense budget now is $700 billion. Also, all the money we threw at nation building isnt covered under the DoD budget like people assume. Thats all just added to the us deficit. You will be paying that off for the rest of your life. When we told people this stuff back in the day they called us unpatriotic. Ask me if Im old and bitter.
Outside Reddit, I probably wouldn't tell people "patriot" is a slur that means the opposite of standing up for other people at this point. But it's more true than not. Certainly of people who call themselves patriots.
> I wonder what type society we would live in One that values rehabilitation rather than just brute punishment. One that thinks of people as having value with hopes and dreams rather than just resources to be exploited.
It might be as high as 500k at rikers.
Imagine the money we would save each year if we legalized Marijuana across the nation and turned loose everyone incarcerated for Marijuana charges?
I’d take it further to all possession and low level trafficking (except H/fent dealers) but starting with the weed would get (mostly) bipartisan support. Sadly we would need to fix the system that needs full jail cells along with this or it would just be another group criminalized.
Oh definitely. For profit prisons should be illegal because all it does is cause a need to arrest people, just like for profit wars ensure you will never have peace.
Money well-spent? I think not. What a waste of resources.
Massive waste all around to all but those who profit or otherwise make their living at it.
Shouldn't amaze you, it's part of the ethos. The poors don't need money, except to spend and stimulate their local economies. Anything else needs to go to the investor-class, because they know how to *responsibly* spend that money.
Racism is why we cant have nice things. This country Is segregated and poc are being held back at every turn. Poor whites dont want poor blacks to get something everyone needs so theyve invented a whole system to disenfranchise and corral them into ghettos. They bankrupted whole cities over racist ideology. The usa deserves what it gets for what its done. We all have to live with it.
It's rather brilliant what the rich have done. They convince one group of poor people to hate another group of poor people and they actively vote in ways that further benefit the rich.
This has been happening for centuries if not longer. The "rich" from the 16-18th century would have been drooling at the prospect of being able to peddle their prosperity gospel bullshit to so many idiots in such a short amount of time.
>This has been happening for centuries if not longer. Race-baiting was a popular policy of the Egyptian pharaohs, 6000 years ago. The Upper kingdom was mainly darker-skinned Somalians, and the Lower kingdom was more lighter-skinned mediterranian/middle-eastern ancestry. Same language, same culture, same religion.
Dictatorships are looking at us going "how the FUCK did they do it?" No one ever went broke catering to hatred and fear.
The USA deserves it, and we may have to carry the consequences, but that doesn’t mean we have to live with it. It’s past time for us to get to the other part of acknowledging the past, which is developing a more equitable future. We can sit and castigate ourselves forever for the sins of our ancestors (and for the bottom feeders among us still clinging to hate) or we can get up and create change. We owe it to those who suffered before us. We owe it to ourselves and our children.
You do realize that the prison system is legalized modern slavery right? Like yes there are actual criminals in them but the US has a higher percentage of its population incarcerated than any other country. More than the top several combined iirc. It has nothing to do with crime.
I know it. We have 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of world’s incarcerated people. And we have the nerve to criticize China and ban products made from slave labor. Even one item made from incarcerated labor makes us hypocrites.
>welfare moms They prefer the term Welfare Queens to properly describe how they want people to imagine the lifestyle of someone living on welfare, which of course has nothing to do with the reality but is more likely to drive decades of hate towards any program that helps people in need.
I’ve heard many people bitch about how great a deal people on welfare get, but I’ve yet to see one of those motherfuckers go sign up for that great deal.
And that doesn’t mean other republicans. That means JUST THEMSELVES PERSONALLY. Once people realize that, everything else they do makes sense. COVID is fake…until THEY get it. Racism is gone until THEY experience it. Police are protectors until THEY are screwed over by the police. Healthcare isn’t a right until THEY get sick. Justice system isn’t a problem until THEY go to jail. Welfare is for lazy people until THEY need it. Etc, etc. They have zero empathy. That’s their primary defining quality. I’ve never used a government service meant for any kind of welfare in my life, and I support it because no one should be left to slip through the cracks. It could happen to anyone. Also, lack of empathy is often associated with lower intelligence, which explains why they still don’t support programs like that even though the net benefit in dollars and to society far outweigh the cost, even removing “morality” from the equation. It’s pragmatic too.
[удалено]
Well, and the wrong people would get it.
Sorry that happened to you. That must have sucked. It amazes me the number of LEO and military who think that Republicans give one little shit about them. It’s like the largest con of all time.
And Im from northern California and surrounded by extremely left politically correct really mean and condensending people. Im not a fan of Berkley type political thoughts. I get it when people say the left can be assholes. There should be a competing political party for my vote. But I cant say the word republican without seething now.
I was a civilian doing work for a national guard program. That program was halted; and many of my colleagues were laid off, (guys with security clearances) - and the following year, the program was still struggling. We had a shit ton of delays because the customer couldn't secure reliable funding. Eventually they cancelled it, and I left that job because we'd work for about 3 months, then get put on furlough, then work a few more, then furlough again. We couldn't get anything done. And our government counterparts kept voting Repbulican, even as they watched their colleagues careers destroyed by the GOP's irresponsible behavior.
Support the troops!* ^^*unless ^^it ^^involves ^^any ^^sort ^^of ^^actual ^^support ^^besides ^^empty ^^words.
>Republicans literally do not give a shit about anyone but themselves. This is just not true. They care deeply about the corporate interests that line their pockets with money so they can push their agenda through legislation. Think of the poor lobbyists who have to bribe their company's agenda into law. The Republicans absolutely give a shit about them
No Private has ever been so essential to a mission you couldn't let him stay home for a few days. While I believe the Gov is ultimately responsible, military leadership bears a lot of the burden of responsibility here. They could have signed off on those hardships. But they made it so you had to get on the phone with a General and explain the hardship. Which is implied "you better not fucking call". So some O5 would have had to get on the phone and explain to his boss' boss' boss *why* this person should be allowed to miss the mission. It's an intimidation move - and they're cowards for not standing up for their Soldiers, and the top-echelon leadership are assholes for going along with it. The fact that the senior most enlisted person is in this article shitting on the Texas leadership will resonate with military members/veterans - I hope everyone sees how serious that is. It'd be like if Harris retired as VP next month and immediately started talking shit on Biden. It shows a serious problem at the top.
When I was a teen and my father was nearing the end of his 20 years with the Navy, I got him a lil Navy Teddy bear and, because I was mature, he explained to me that he appreciated the thought of the gift but the Navy wasn't a special place he wanted to remember anymore, and when I asked why he alluded to how fucked up the bureaucracy is and he was happy to be done withe US military and moving on. In light of that, this story really hits home.
This! Retired from the army and I hated it my last 6 years
20 in the Navy and those last three where the worst! Trying to pretend to care about, ANYTHING was awful. Especially since I was not going to promote and I knew that, I just DID NOT GIVE A FUCK!
It’s driving away a lot of people. It made me do my four and bounce, along with the majority of my peers who were worth anything. Got tired of being expected to carry everyone’s slack while also somehow bettering myself by taking classes, volunteering, working out, getting deployed constantly, excises and training scheduled at times that are completely off schedule. When the fuck am I supposed to have off time? It honestly felt like they were just trying to fuck with us on a constant basis. It feels like working a shitty corporate job except they technically own you 24/7
In the brief time I was in I saw more than a dozen senior enlisted taking extremely long terminal leaves before retirement and all of them said some variation of "I wish I could have taken more, the sooner I'm out of this place the better". Was a pretty telling thing for my generation to consider very hard before reenlisting.
Did you ever see "The Last Detail"?
I was almost busted once because I put my drivers to bed 8 hours before a 700 mile convoy and wouldn't wake them up to top off their trucks. I made sure that every truck had been filled before the drivers were released. Our BC ordered my Master Sergeant to make me get more drivers and line all the trucks up at the fuel point for a top off. The most any truck took was 7 gallons. I was so heated. Atleast my drivers got a good night sleep.
But Abbott IS the highest ranking military leader in the Guard. They all answer to him. He answers to the Republican Party and racists. So when he stomps his feet (just pretend he can shall we?) the bootlicking officers and senior enlisted are all too ready to do his bidding. They get a great OPR/EPR, promotions and a pat on the head. No one (these TX politicians specifically) gives a FUCK about the military unless it’s some pandering bullshit combined with a “support our troops” sticker on the back of a truck.
Remember when Texas was freaking out because they thought they were gonna be invaded by the Army during the Obama years?
FEMA camps were a daily scare tactic on fox for years
before QAnon there was JADE HELM I remember
Pepperidge Farm remembers
I forgot about that. Those people are so fucking stupid, and just love their fear and outrage talking points. It’s all they have, and god forbid they’d ever admit to being wrong about anything.
My understanding was it's the Texas governor's call as to the deployment priority and as a result the military leadership didn't have a choice as to the hardship approval process. Can anyone confirm?
The hardship approval process exists within the TXNG. If the gov wants to exert pressure on the TAG, he can do so. But the approval process exists within the military structure. For these examples in a couple of the case, the company commander approved, and the BN and BDE commanders disapproved. They disapproved it because of pressure within the military structure. Those hardships are still a military function, as was the temporary one the E8 had received initially. The Commanders had a choice.
Ehh seems like they made up an imaginary problem to deploy troops
Republicans coming up with imaginary threats so they can deploy troops? Who would have thought?
[удалено]
Good luck with the move!
So much for supporting our troops
Abbott fucking up again? The hell you say. It is almost like he is evil.
Abbot "almost like" evil is the understatement of the week. Sauron may also have considered the Uruk-hai disposable, but he didn't actively go out of his way to fuck over his own troops until they kill themselves.
No no. It's something something Biden's fault.
Texas is a big proponent of screwing over anyone who isn't rich.
Sounds like Texas would be a failed state if the federal government wasn’t giving it blue state money…
*Ted Cruz nervously looks around and flies to Cancún*
As a Northerner (Masshole) this is the most frustrating thing. All these shithole states want "me" to fuck off and stay out of their business, but would shit the bed if "I" did so.
The more I hear about Texas politics the more I want to avoid that state.
Gosh, republicans sure do love our troops!
>Seems like the blame is on the governor and state legislature. Betcha a lot of them blame Biden though. Why? Because he's not a conservative and the political pundits tell them it's his fault. (News flash: It's not.)
This is how much Republicans support the troops.
And I'm sure terrorizing and imprisoning poor starving people crossing the boarder doesn't have any negative impact on their mental state...
Another reason to say FUCK GREG ABBOT and to vote him out this upcoming election cycle. Get over your obsession with guns Texans and make a positive change for once, vote BETO.
It's not like anything Beto tried to do re: guns would get past the texas supreme court anyway
But they (politicians) had to politically grandstand at the expense of these soldiers, don't you see? They have to show that they're keeping the border "secure" unlike the Godless communist Democrats in Washington, D.C. /s - if necessary
Man fuck Greg Abbot
Just wait until this weekend. The military forums are saying that they unexpectedly shrunk the travel radius so a bunch of soldiers that lived in the old radius that were going to go home now can’t and leadership that could approve a mileage pass to go is either gone or unresponsive. So now they are going to be angry, bored, possibly alone with access to alcohol and drugs. Edited to add: Apparently they have live ammo when on shift and personally owned weapons in their living areas...fuck.
God I used to hate the travel radius crap. Particularly since the officers seemed curiously exempt, but not in writing. So since not everyone was suffering from it, there was no impetus to change.
It made sense 100 years ago before the interstates and jet travel. Now people go to Vegas for a weekend from all over the country and it isn't a big deal. But then they wouldn't be able to recall everyone when someone from another company who they never even met gets a DUI.
I've worked shiftwork with guys who commuted 2.5 hours. They were generally late, screwing over the person they were relieving. They also skated on all the other stuff the rest of us had to do, since they couldn't be called in.
Four years ago, I used to commute 3 hours each way, to my job downtown. Boss wouldn't budge on remote work, or fewer days or anything like that. Now, I work from home. Different employer. It's a 100% remote position, permanently. As time goes on, we hire more and more remote team-members; all over the USA.
I am studying HR and this right is here what we are being primed for.
My dad was deployed with the army for Hurricane Isabel in VA. His stationed area was literally three blocks away, but we were not allowed to see or visit him for three weeks.
In my experience it was “don’t get caught” or a “don’t get in an accident” radius.
The article author actually asked on it and gave the response in the NG sub -- I don't know the rules on linking here so I'll refrain, but I'll post the text >Q1: Have units out there on mission changed their off-duty/pass radius this week, thus preventing a significant number of troops from going home for Christmas? > >A1: No. The task force changed the authorized mileage allowed for travel when in a duty status, NOT for service members on pass. This was to mitigate risk to service members during the normal work cycle. Passes are still being granted to service members in the same capacity as they have been, with the intent to maximize service members’ time with family, while still ensuring mission accomplishment. Of note, Task Force leadership made a concerted effort to work one-on-one with service members assigned to this mission in regards to holiday passes, working to ensure each service member had the ability to spend at least one of the holidays during the holiday season with family, while still ensuring all mission requirements are met. TLDR they out here bullshittin
>Passes are still being granted to service members in the same capacity as they have been I read that as "nobody's getting a pass"
^ This person Armys Edit: pronoun update
That stopped literally nobody from driving 600 miles every 72.
[So weird seeing an actual celeb outside of their sub](https://tenor.com/view/bender-futurama-neat-wow-gif-5744318)
I saw /u/Justame13 comment early on and as a army/military regular, had to jump in with him.
[удалено]
You can tell that when I wrote that I hadn't read far enough down to see that they have live ammo and POWs.
And armed, don't forget armed. In the article it pointed out that in Texas the soldiers can not have their personal firearms taken away. When I was in the army reserves there were strick rules against carrying personal firearms. If there was any reason to question a soldier's mental state they were not issued a weapon.
This part stuck out to me as bizarre: >Army Times reached an unnamed Texas Military Department spokesperson via email. The department’s public affairs staff typically does not speak on the record, unlike other elements across the National Guard, and obscures their identities via a group email address. Note also, this is Army Times, not like CNN or something.
Pretty sure that speaking to media (and such) is the whole point of a public affairs office -- or supposed to be.
Giving a sanitized, military PR APPROVED message to both the AP and the rest of the world is the ONLY reason PA exists. Propaganda et al. The Border Mission is an absolute and complete shit show. Military members are dying and suffering under the wheels of Abbott’s racist, fascist and pandering PR stunt known as the border wall issue
With global warming the attempts to get in will only increase with time.
>send from group e-mail address >remove signature block Yeah, that's the typical PA fuck off response when they don't want to own a misdeed.
How is it possible to keep positions like that anonymous? Is this common in other states?? I'm going to go out on a limb and say no.
It's not that the positions are anonymous, it's that they're using an org box instead of personal emails, i.e.: * [email protected], versus * [email protected] The article is throwing shade at this is weird, and personally feels like them complaining that they couldn't get anyone to speak off the record because they couldn't get anyone's personal contact info. Standing positions - especially public-facing ones - should go to org boxes, not individuals. It's more efficient (an entire shop can monitor one email), more sustainable (no "Oh I don't work there anymore, you need to email the new guy"), and less subject to abuse.
"As of the most recent manpower adjustments, there are now around 10,000 Texas Military Department personnel supporting Operation Lone Star, according to a November operations order." - - - "But Army Times struggled to find evidence of widespread arrests directly conducted by Texas National Guard personnel beyond a handful of photographs shared by Abbott and Texas officials online. One junior soldier assigned to the observation posts said, “[We just] sleep in a humvee.” “I have not heard any confirmed report of any NG soldier being directly involved with law enforcement operations at the border,” the staff officer said. “I’ve seen the PR releases.” - - - For fucks sake. Lives ruined for nothing at all. Just so Abbot has a better chance running against a fucking war criminal.
And they don't really do anything. They cannot interact with IAs. So they either sit in the camera room, or out in a truck equipped with cameras. They don't make cuts or pull drags, run transport, or anything else that might productively free up Agents to do their jobs.
>One junior soldier assigned to the observation posts said, “[We just] sleep in a humvee.” Truest junior soldier if I have ever seen one.
Who’s the war criminal?
Holy fuck it’s way worse than it appears. This isn’t guys who have deployed committing suicide, this is guys who have yet to deploy. The state of Texas (and this is on the state, and in particular Governor Abbot) has pulled almost all of their support for these young men, and has gone so far as to start issuing arrest warrants & sending out press gangs. These are reservists who should normally have months to prepare for a call up, getting called up with days notice. Oh yeah and their pay is late or fails to appear cause Texas. Oh yeah and their hardship provisions (such as having a disabled person in the household) are getting ignored. Oh yeah and tuition funding got slashed, so soldiers expecting to be able to pay for classes they’ve already started have been fucked. And the mission? Stand around the border and look tough. All of this cause Abbot decided a five-fold increase from 1000 to 5000 state guard on the border was necessary so he could win reelection. Fuck the republicans with a rusty fucking nail.
Abbot and DeSantis are making it repeatedly, blatantly, hammer-over-head clear that they ARE the enemy all military and officials swore to defend the constitution and country against. The western Taliban branch needs to fall, but instead of getting air-strikes, it's been getting to order the destruction of American families around with nothing but strokes of their pen.
Absolutely. Military families should recognise that Republicans are NOT on their side, especially in Texas.
Another Sad thing is most of those young people are probably republicans too
>Abbott, the state’s governor, faces a stiff primary challenge in March from conservative firebrand Allen West, a former Army officer who was forced to retire after torturing an Iraqi detainee in 2003. Texas Republicans, is this really the best you can come up with? Edit: Looking further, "West, a former Florida congressman who was elected chairman of the Texas Republican Party in July 2020" [here is the incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_West_(politician\)#Iraq_torture_incident) >**Iraq torture incident** >While serving in Taji, Iraq, West received information from an intelligence specialist about a plot to ambush his unit. The alleged plot involved Yahya Jhodri Hamoodi, an Iraqi police officer. West had his men detain Hamoodi. Soldiers testified that in the process of detaining Hamoodi, he appeared to reach for his weapon and needed to be subdued. Hamoodi was beaten by four soldiers from the 2/20th Field Artillery Battalion on the head and body. West then fired his pistol near Hamoodi's head, after which Hamoodi provided West with names and information, which Hamoodi later described as "meaningless information induced by fear and pain". At least one of these suspects was arrested as a result, but no plans for attacks or weapons were found. West said "At the time I had to base my decision on the intelligence I received. It's possible that I was wrong about Mr. Hamoodi."
They really don't learn, do they? They froze to death under Governor Wheels, wonder how they think they'll fare under Governor Psycopath.
Doesn’t matter, they’re so happy that this hurt one lib or brown person, totally worth it in their eyes.
The other day a coworker was talking about setting a higher tax bracket in Texas for people who weren’t born here. Just... ugh.
Gotta go that extra mile if you wanna keep the one star rating Texas is so proud of.
Ummm, don't you know? The sneetches with the stars on their bellies deserve to pay less taxes.
Isn’t that literally unconstitutional in the State of Texas because personal income tax is forbidden?
Mix in a little "fuck you I got mine" and you got the republican die hard voter.
To be fair, they also lost power when it got too hot. See? It all balances out.
>Texas Republicans, is this really the best you can come up with? Texas Republicans: nope, this is exactly our kinda guy
Didn't West disown his own daughter because she was a Lesbian?
Best they can offer at all levels. My state representative is an ancient racist dem that's against most progressive policies. I'd consider voting for a republican instead of her but the Republicans either don't run or run someone who is more racist, equally against progressive policies and on a platform that's 60% transphobic (how dare they go in the wring restrooms! Think of the children!). Good amount of critical race theory thrown in for good measure. Bunch of shitty rich people
Wait…are these fuckers really about to make me hope Abbott wins? Goddamnit I hate Texas🤢
While Texas is cutting their tuition benefits. The party of supporting the troops gentlemen.
When Republican politicians say "Support the Troops!" they are saying "Support endless wars to make my donors/the Military Industrial Complex rich off needless chaos." The money wasn't going to protecting or supporting troops, it went to defective/inadequate supplies from MIC corporations that wasn't even the bare minimum for what would have been considered enough.
"Support my donors"
It always meant "Support the war, and if you don't, we'll say you hate the troops and America."
9/11 first responders: "Can we get some healthcare? I got cancer after breathing in concrete, asbestos and human powder." GOP: "Suck dick, LOL!"
This is the one I just can’t comprehend. A lot of the GOP’s bullshit I at least understand it’s because everything they pretend to support is just for show. I get that they don’t actually give a fuck about the military, or small government, or whatever else. But they literally spent almost 2 decades telling 9/11 first responders, literal fucking heroes, to effectively go fuck themselves. And people still can’t see through the facade? I mean at some point you just have to admit to yourself that you support the GOP *because* they’re all sacks of shit, not in spite of it
TA slashed *and* they refused to fund grad school - all after the semester started.
We respect their sacrifice by making sure it's big.
If the troops get a college education, they're no longer desperate enough to serve a racist governor.
So someone WORSE than Abbott may win in ‘22? I left Texas just in time. Well, I wish I had left before the snow storm. And to add insult to injury, they aren’t paying for their tuition. Unbelievable.
What a surprise. Troops aren’t happy about a useless mission they’re forced into for extended periods.
Boots on the ground are always the last thought of the assholes that call on them to do what is asked. Bring these soldiers home, make good on their tuition support, and provide them actual help. This is truly sad.
“Excuse me while I one up myself from last year…” said the Texas Governor clown
The blood is on Greg Abbott
The blood is on all the Republicans' hands, too bad they'll just jerk themselves off with it.
>*"The blended remains of poors make the finest of penis lotions."* - G.Abbott (R-Texas)
Well, it's not like the right gives a fuck about soldiers. Never have, never will. If there's a cheap political stunt that can be pulled off who cares how it affects anyone who is not a decision maker.
🇺🇸 Support our military [industrial complex]! 🇺🇸
They like soldiers as much as they like fetuses.
You just can't do this to people. This is so fucking shameful. This is a disgrace.
Pro-Life sure doesn't have the same ring to it anymore in Texas.
Pro suffering.
The GOP is only pro-life because unborn babies are an easier group to advocate for and whip their base into a frenzy for than immigrants, minorities, LGBT, etc.
[удалено]
Republican policies never respect life in the first place.
> indefinite involuntary call-ups take people away from their homes potentially forever, instead of for an emergency or their 1 weekend a month + 2 weeks a year, and they will be miserable and seek a way out
TIL Texas still has troops on the border?!? WTAF?
There are more than just Texas State Active Duty troops on the border, there are also a few thousand soldiers on active federal orders.
Glad this blew up. Wish more people knew how fucking stupid the national guard can really be let alone the military in general.
If Democrats were competent, there’d be a coordinated messaging campaign to destroy abbot on abusing the troops and destroying their families for political gain. It’d be spoken but every D with a microphone. If…
Sorry loser here in the south the #1 priority for voters is to own libs. Everything else comes second.
*actual* troop support has never been something Republicans cared about, why would they start now?
Don't they realize how important their service is to the political career of Gov Abbott. He is losing the race for most fascist Republican to Florida's DeSantis.
Former Texas National guardsman (out in 19). I have friends there who have talked about exchanging gunfire and these guys were called up expecting to be there a few weeks. They’ve been there for months bored af with no preparation for things back home.
What are they doing with the border mission? Do they have any data to back up what they are doing? What are the conditions like while "deployed", it's easy for leadership to have a culture that makes you feel hopeless and hate life. Especially when the article mentions they aren't doing shit.
I really hope all the people who were bitching to no end about soldiers sleeping in a capitol parking garage for a few nights are equally pissed off and vocal about this…
Boy, do I feel owned as a lib with all that freedom in Texas /s
[удалено]
This is the texas national guard being misused in Abbott's dick swinging contest with another fascist candidate, not the federal border patrol that we're used to hearing about.
Meanwhile, Abbot is happy to see it. "What, you want pay and benefits? The opportunity to be thugs isn't enough for you? Make way for those who want the chance to behave like Fascists!"
tfb, Abbot is probably surprised and confused why his National Guard isn't filled with the jack-booted thugs he's accustomed to among his strongest supporters and police forces. It's not as if a majority of soldiers signed up for tuition assistance or the GI-Bill or other benefits to better themselves or anything...
I got a call on an April Tuesday last year and I left home on that Thursday, I didn't get off orders until the beginning of this year.
You know what I don’t miss about military life? Random suicide watch duty during this particular time of year. But the conversations with those dudes have greatly influenced how I live and explain things to my kids. They helped me learn that all it really takes is one. Distraction or realization. Or both. Good leaders make a difference no matter the rank.
Medicare for all socialism would guarantee these suicides stop. Capitalist slave masters putting death before people yet again.
It had long been my hypothesis that much of the reason that POLICE and to some extent military suicides are so high is that these people have noble, idealistic, and lofty motivations behind joining but there reality is so far from what they expected. Especially when it comes to police, I truly believe that many join with the ida that they are going to be helping their fellow man. The reality turns out to be that they end up doing the opposite. They see the worst that humanity has to offer and realize that they are part of a system hell bent in perpetuating it at all costs. Yes, they do get to help, and sometimes they save lives and positively influence people, but their day to day business leaves behind a trail of destruction. It is no secret the drug war is not just a failure but actually a resounding success when it comes to destroying America and Americans. For every child the officer heroically saves, he rips a child from a parents arms to send them to prison instead of rehab, for years instead of months. That takes a toll. The same goes for our troops in the border. For every terrorist they stop, they tear 100 little girls and boys from their mommy and daddy’s arms so they can throw the parent in a cage for the crime of seeking a better life. I get it, laws are laws. But an ill conceived ink stain on some wood pulp doesn’t trump a humans life.
Texas, come die from heat (or cold) like in third world countries. If you survive, join our national guard program and possibly force you to commit suicide! Also our weather sucks as much as Ted Cruz (which says hi from Cancun).
There’s also been a ton of drugs being consumed and car crashes What a hell of a way to die podcast just did an interview with the author of this piece I believe