Oct. 1: Hegseth advances religification of U.S. military to improve smiting capacity … Anti-labor Labor official gets job leading Labor Department fight against labor … Judge orders DOJ to turn over illegal memo illegally declaring murder legal … Pennsylvania reports fifth measles-associated death associated with measly Robert F. Kennedy …
TFN stuff: Podcast | Merch | Other TFN
Support: Venmo | BuyMeACoffee | PayPal
Take action: Your representatives
Midterm races: Senate | House
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a “speech” on Wednesday shot off a considerable amount of his inexhaustible arsenal of weird shit that would get him fired as your kids’ babysitter.
Getting little attention among the weird is Hegseth’s creation of a Pentagon Office of Religious Affairs (ORA), which will include increased funding and organizational influence related to issues involving magic sky people and the military people who love them.
Hegseth said that government-enhanced loving of the imaginary people would make military people better at killing real people.
In fairness, Hegseth is hardly the first government official to violate the First Amendment prohibition against giving theocracy even a small corner of government bureaucracy. But at least Democrats have the decency to dress it up in secular clothing.
By contrast, compare Hegseth’s language in his ORA order with the language of woke author James Madison’s Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:
Madison: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…”
Hegseth: “…I am establishing the Office of Religious Affairs…”
Keep in mind that Madison’s reference to Congress was amended after the Civil War to apply beyond the federal government, to stop traitorous dicks from using state and local powers to be traitorous like dicks. So, no part of government is even supposed to respect an establishment of religion, let alone establish an establishment of religion.
What does Hegseth’s ORA order do that Madison wouldn’t respect? It’s unclear, the signature trait of most religious texts:
“…the establishment of the ORA will ensure resources are adequately provided and, where necessary, policy is properly aligned to prioritize the free exercise of religion and the spiritual readiness across the Total Force. Nothing in this memorandum shall be construed to compel religious participation or to diminish the free exercise rights of any Service member, civilian employee, or family member of any faith or no faith.”
Which could very well be true, because what can be construed to compel religious participation is outside this memorandum, in the rest of the military, the culture of which is routinely construed to compel service-member participation in whatever the fuck their commander is doing.
Military Religious Freedom Foundation1 (MRFF) President Mikey Weinstein, calls it being “voluntold” to do things. When the “volun” part comes from your commander, you construe the fuck out of it as “told.”
And when we dig in further, which the corporate coverage I saw left undug, we find the ORA empowered to evangelize evangelism throughout the military: “Ensure the Department of War [sic] and the Military Departments prioritize and obtain sufficient funding and resources for religious affairs,” including:
Religious ministry, aka Crusades
Facilities and infrastructure, aka barracks of the holy
More chaplaining, aka expanding evangelizing proselytizing
Chapel youth programs and “faith-based homeschool support,” aka getting them before their brains are finished
Contracts for religious organizations, aka funneling taxpayer dollars to people whose direct supervisors are the voices in their head
Despite Hegseth’s grudging acknowledgment of those "of … no faith” (except, y’know, faith in humanity and the scientific method), the premise of the ORA is the idea that “spiritual” qualities are required for optimal killing capacity.
The whole purpose of the order, it says, is “to strengthen the moral, ethical and spiritual readiness of our warfighters.” It says the ORA will fund “research” and technology to support “spiritual fitness, spiritual readiness, and spiritual resilience.”
A triple shot of spirit, just the way Hegseth likes his spirits.
In his speech, Hegseth even said, “while we wage physical war, we all know the real battle is spiritual.” (This could explain why the Pentagon is covering up casualties; they’re just physical casualties, not the serious kind.)
The implication, of course, is that service members are supposed to treat as axiomatic the existence of spirits aged even longer than the ones Hegseth enjoys.
This all comes in the context of Hegseth’s re-theocratization of war. Service members are being told right now to declare a religious affiliation, after the list of recognized affiliations was whittled down like Christian missionaries whittle down rival religions.
Hegseth has instituted religious services, with Christian nationalist speakers, that are optional unless you construe “optional” as meaning you’ve been voluntold. As I reported earlier this year, the MRFF says it heard complaints about commanders saying the Iran War wasn’t just a religious war, but … gulp … the religious war.
The Pentagon still hasn’t responded to a congressional inquiry about those commanders, and whether they would be punished officially or the other way: With an eternity in Hell.
Justifying Christianizing of the military, Hegseth on Wednesday cited an early work on military strategy, the Book of Psalms, which says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”
Hegseth didn’t mention that the God in that psalm was the Hebrew God, meaning Hegseth is aiming his faith at the wrong god the way he aims artillery at the wrong schools. And it means that America is cursed, as we’ve all started to suspect. Facepsalm! 🤦
STATUS REPORT How’s Hegseth’s proselytization going? Divinely!
Because corporate media treat religion as sacrosanct, sometimes I resort to right-wing coverage, just to see what’s been missed. And the Washington Examiner reports that on Wednesday, Hegseth said 95% of the U.S. military were religious, but in March that number was just 82%.
Which means in just six months, 13% of the military have found God or multiple gods. Or, as I and Martin Luther like to put it, they’ve lost reason.
Either way: Praise Hegseth!
THE UPSIDE As with most religious texts, no matter which god wrote it, God is in the details. It’s all in the interpretation.
And the Pentagon is not notorious for rapid bureaucratic realignment, so the likelihood is that little of this will insinuate itself throughout the military before Hegseth is Raptured by congressional impeachment committees.
For the same reason, however, this could take a while to stop — especially if Democrats don’t make holy-roller rollbacks a priority. Which they won’t unless the people do.
Labor Foe to Lead Labor Department
Y’know how the Commerce Department gets leaders from the ranks of commerce? Well, the Labor Department gets its leaders from the ranks of commerce, instead.
So, the Senate on Wednesday confirmed Keith Sonderling as the new secretary of Labor. As deputy secretary while the previous secretary was partying it up instead of laboring for labor, Sonderling has already overseen, as I wrote back in April:
Defending canning the statistics chief for telling the truth about job numbers and inflation.
Killing millions of dollars for fighting child labor and slavery overseas.
Proposing ending the minimum wage for home-care workers.
Rolling out unsafe workplace safety rules … for miners … and for harmful substances such as Republican labor policies.
Clearing the way for private equity and crypto to devour retirement plans.
Trying to let construction companies not provide proper lighting for construction work by construction workers on construction sites.
Fighting a requirement for factory farms to just give away work-van seat belts to fat-cat workers.
Why would a labor guy do all this? Because Sonderling’s labor experience, in labor law, was in fighting labor, and labor law, on behalf of rich people.
According to one law firm for rich people, “Sonderling has consistently stressed the importance of enforcement agencies taking the lead to create an environment in which employers can feel comfortable implementing AI strategies…”
Imagine any other enforcement agency thinking this way: Making criminals feel comfortable.
Labor is supposed to take the side of labor. Just like, under Republicans, Commerce takes the side of commerce and so does the Environmental Protection Agency.
The vote to confirm Sonderling fell on party lines, 47-41, meaning 12 senators didn’t even show up for work.
Judge To Review Scientific Breakthrough on Boat-iac Killings™
Federal Judge Paul Engelmayer on Wednesday ordered the Justice Department (DOJ) to let him see its secret analysis advising the U.S. military that its killings of people in boats are legal.
The finding came in a secret DOJ memo. The American Civil Liberties Union and Center for Constitutional Rights took the DOJ to court to release the memo. (h/t)
The DOJ reportedly found in its secret memo that it’s legal for the military to murder people in boats — without warning, due process, a chance to give up, a warrant, a court date, a lawyer, public evidence of guilt, or honor — if and only if the people in the boats have been found — without due process, an indictment, a conviction, public evidence, or honor — to belong to one of the groups on an also-secret list that, according to Pres. Donald Trump, have been deemed — without evidence, actually attacking the U.S., or congressional approval — to be at war with the United States.
A valid legal finding that murder isn’t murder would be an historic breakthrough — in science, math, logic, special effects, and existentialism — that tyrants have pursued for decades, with many heartbreaking failures and near-misses along the way.
U.S. law and military guidelines are astonishingly clear that the U.S. military cannot just blow people up even if they’re not armed, not a threat, not attacking us, and not even part of an enemy army. Why do you think we lost Vietnam?!?
Before deciding to release the secret memo, Engelmayer on Wednesday gave the DOJ two weeks to share it with him, so he’ll have time to read it while, for instance, going on a long weekend sail in the Caribbean.
FLASHBACK You newer Newsfuckers might not know that last year I began reporting on two guys who supplied Trump with enough pseudo-evidence to justify his unjustifiable assertions of all kinds of extraordinary powers: Kidnapping, torturing, deporting, renditioning, military deployments, and boat murders.
What we know publicly of their evidence has torpedoed any hope of credibility. Keeping the documents secret allows Trump and the DOJ to mask the fact that they don’t have anything better in their back pockets.
If Engelmayer decides, or lets us decide, that this is the case, it would represent Trump’s biggest discovery so far of government waste, fraud, and abuse.
GOP Suffers Rare Case of Failing to Kill Someone
Convicted murderer Christa Pike today is refusing to obey Wednesday’s Supreme Court order to die.
The court rejected Pike’s final request to not be killed. Tennessee officials then forcibly restrained Pike and injected her with poison, the way civilized societies do when they don’t realize that the future will wonder how we could be such monsters.
When big government’s first non-consensual injection failed to kill Pike on Wednesday, officials tried again.
But Republican officials have considerably more experience killing people by reducing government services, and so the second poisoning attempt also failed, leading Christian Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN), who loves everyone the way his executed god said to, ordered a pause of state executions.
As of this morning, Pike was unconscious but snoring loudly, like many alive people. Officials put her in an ambulance and sent her to the hospital. Y’know, so she wouldn’t die.
Pike’s lawyers have argued that she was so fucked up from sexual abuse and mental illness that she didn’t deserve to be executed for committing murder at the age of 18. Tennessee prosecutors argued that she did, too.
Kennedy’s Measles Experiment Adds Fifth Unliving Data Point
A fifth Pennsylvania resident unvaccinated for measles has died a measles-associated death, the state announced Wednesday.
The four previous measles-associated deaths of people not associated with vaccines included an 18-year-old, a 40-year-old woman, and two babies too young to get vaccinated which is yet another reason unvaccinated people should stay the fuck at home forever and protect society from their brains.
Pennsylvania now has 943 confirmed measles cases. This is America’s worst year for measles since 1991.
According to the Associated Press, the eight measles-related deaths of the past two (hmm) years outnumber the total from the previous 30 years. And that’s including the first Trump administration.
Whether there’s a connection between not getting a measles vaccine and then getting measles remains unclear to idiots.
Under Health (sic) and Human Services (sic) Secretary Robert Feebleminded Kennedy Jr., the Centers for Disease Control (sick) and Prevention (sick) has only reported two (2) measles-related deaths in Pennsylvania, in hopes that residents will become immune to voting for Democrats next month.
More Fallout from Dipschmitt Attack on Jack Smith
In Wednesday’s TFN I made the case that Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) falsely accusing former Special Counsel Jack Smith of being at an Atlanta Hawks game wasn’t the real scandal. The real scandal was:
The overall attempt to punish Smith for investigating Trump
Republican indifference to the distinction between fact and factional fiction
It now turns out that there’s actually video of Smith at the Iowa Hawkeyes basketball game the same night that Schmitt said Smith was in Georgia watching the Atlanta Hawks game and conspiring with local prosecutors … to, um, enforce the law?
Wow, someone had eyes like a hawk-related thing!
Thanks, surveillance state! That’s all we need from you. You can go now.
Election Watch
PENNSYLVANIA Attack ads attacking Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie (D-PA) appear to cite local news articles about how awful he is.
And yet, Politico reports, some of those articles aren’t news articles, they were written by someone who’s gotten money from Harvie’s rival, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and posted on a site that allows anyone to post articles that look like news even if they were written by someone getting paid by Harvie’s rival.
Also not mentioned in Fitzpatrick’s ads, his years of work — secret and otherwise — for the secretive, Christian nationalist Fellowship Foundation, the group better known as The Family that runs the National Prayer Breakfast and is trying to run Ukraine, with Fitzpatrick’s help.
SANDERS Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is wading into the midterm general elections, after helping a slew of progressives win their primaries.
Politico reports that Sanders has raised more than $23 million and he’s writing checks like Trump spends unallocated taxpayer funds. First priorities for Sanders’s donations: Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (D-MN), running for Senate; state Rep. Angie Nixon (D-FL), running for Senate; and state Attorney General Keith Ellison (D-MN), running for re-election.
Sanders has also helped candidates with their fundraising, including $574,000 for the Michigan Senate campaign of former public-health official Abdul El-Sayed, which is weird because I keep hearing that El-Sayed hates Jews like Sanders, who he likes.
One Quickie
Y’know how America loves kids not nearly a fraction as much as America loves saying America loves kids? It turns out that loving kids sometimes implies you should do work to help them. And yet, The Guardian reports that government reports on child-labor deaths — a phrase one ought not expect in a nation that loves kids — have come up even shorter than the dead people being reported on. More than half of the reported child deaths lack data on how their lives ended, other than too soon, and to which industry we sacrificed them. (h/t)
Taking Action
You can find TFN Bonus Stories on close House races here and on close Senate races here.
Oct. 17 will be a nationwide day of action, No Kings: Vote Early. 50501 has more information here.
TCB
SUPPORTING TFN You can help make TFN happen by sharing it with others, and, if you can afford it, by upgrading to a paid subscription. TFN is still growing, but between normal attrition and American Express canceling subscriptions, the number of paid subscriptions is falling, so your support is especially important now.
You can also support TFN via cash apps: Venmo | BuyMeACoffee | PayPal.
Thank you. E pluribus fuckem.
Go get ‘em, kids! Republicans aren’t even good at killing people anymore!
TFN creator and writer Jonathan Larsen co-created Up w/ Chris Hayes and wrote for Countdown with Keith Olbermann at MSNBC, helped launch CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360° and Air America Radio, and has also worked at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Young Turks. He is a member of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation advisory board.
Disclosure: I’m on the MRFF advisory board, as you can see in the sentence just above this one but in the third person.
He claims that being religious makes soldiers better at killing people. Oh, so you're not going to promote the red words then, sport? You want the 10 commandments in classrooms but you don't want to follow them.
Granted, religious zealotry has led to more deaths than any other manmade source in history. But the Glamour-don't of PT just wants troops who are brainwashed and will never question an order because they believe a diety directs it. Same folks criticizing jihadis - oh, the irony.
Hegseth is so transparently stupid that the reality surpasses any SNL comedy sketch. Thank you, Jonathan, for showing us the fool behind the macho mask. J Gallo, former pastor