Today's Must-Read: A Follow Up

Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly is acting no more -- he resigned. Ads a folliow-up to this post from Monday, here's a must-read from Digby that adds a couple of dimensions to the story:

You do what he wants or else. And if it blows back on him, you will take the fall. That’s the deal.

Why so many people eagerly sign on to that is beyond me but there seems to be an endless supply of them:

Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly resigned Tuesday after traveling nearly 8,000 miles to Guam to berate thousands of sailors on Monday, later saying he stood “by every word,” and then subsequently apologizing for the remarks within the span of about eight hours.

Modly submitted his resignation a day after audio of his speech on the carrier was published by Task & Purpose. James McPherson, Undersecretary of the Army, will be tapped to replace Modly, a defense official told Task & Purpose.

His remarks were even more tone-deaf and -- well, "clumsy" is inadequate, but it will have to do -- than I had known from initial reports:

“Crew of the Teddy Roosevelt, you are under no obligation to love your leadership, only respect it,” Modly said. “You are under no obligation to like your job, only to do it. You are under no obligation, you are under no obligation to expect anything from your leaders other than they will treat you fairly and put the mission of the ship first.”

“That’s your duty,” Modly continued. “Not to complain. Everyone is scared about this thing. And let me tell ya something, if this ship was in combat and there were hypersonic missiles coming in at it, you’d be pretty fucking scared too. But you do your jobs. And that’s what I expect you to. And that’s what I expect every officer on this ship to do, is to do your jobs.”

It's like he's trying to a WWII movie hero. What he is is a jackass.

Read the whole thing -- it's probably not an eye-opener -- we should have known -- but it's illuminating nvertheless.

If You Do Something Stupid, Double Down

In this instance, speaking of Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly, who, as you will remember, fired the captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt for trying to take care of his crew. Well, he outdid himself this morning:

The Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly blasted the now ousted commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt as "stupid" in an address to the ship's crew Monday morning, in remarks obtained by CNN.

Modly told the crew that their former commander, Capt. Brett Crozier, was either "too naive or too stupid" to be in command or that he intentionally leaked to the media a memo in which he warned about coronavirus spreading aboard the aircraft carrier and urged action to save his sailors.

The acting secretary accused Crozier of committing a "betrayal" and creating a "big controversy" in Washington by disseminating the warning so widely.

The only betrayal is that Trump didn't look good. (t'[s still unconfirmed, but the word is that the firing originated with Trump.)

This is the crew that cheered Capt. Crozier as he left the ship. Modly must have a death wish -- except that those who are really serving have too much respect for the service.

And what are the odds that this is another distraction to throw into the mix. There is, after all, an election coming up, and you can bet Trump is shitting bricks over his chances of winning another term.

If you're still wondering what kind of human being -- and I use the term in its biological sense -- Modly is, note this from arch-conservative Bill Kristol:

Perhaps worth remembering that Modly is Acting Secretary because he, unlike his predecessor, had no problem acquiescing to Trump's pardoning war criminals.https://t.co/gq25wnggn3

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) April 6, 2020

Via Joe,.My.God.,