Distress at Sea, MAGA Meltdowns, Catering Carts and Hypocrisy
The Week in Review by Pragmotiv News
Suicide at Sea
Republicans constantly tout their patriotism, their support for our troops, and their disdain for anyone who disrespects our flag or our women and men in uniform. So why are they silent about what has come to light about conditions aboard one of our Navy carriers deployed to the Middle East?
Reports surfaced this week about the horrifying conditions plaguing Navy and Marine personnel aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. This is the same carrier where President George W Bush famously declared “mission accomplished” during the Gulf War after 9/11.
Apparently, the conditions aboard the ship have become so bad that some crewmembers have attempted suicide by jumping off the ship into the ocean sixty feet below. The reports describe skimpy food portions from the mess hall, moldy showers, lack of hot water, lack of drinkable water, and shortages of food and essential hygiene items like toothpaste, deodorant, and soap. What’s worse is the reports of sailors attempting to jump overboard.
The conditions are being blamed on logistics, but we think it’s more than the logistics of deployment. It’s incompetence and indifference. Ever heard of the saying: “The fish rots from the head”? When asked what he thought about the reports, Donald Trump, the Commander in Chief, dismissed them out of hand and said that the sailors haven’t been deployed “nearly long enough”. Two hundred sixty-fivedays and counting isn’t nearly long enough for a man who avoided being drafted for the Viet Nam War by getting a doctor to say his bone spurs on his feet were so severe he couldn’t possibly walk the jungles of Viet Nam. But those same feet have been able to walk countless miles on golf courses all over the world.
Trump has no earthly idea what it takes for the men and women who enlist in our military to endure the conditions necessary to sustain, support or carry out the missions they are tasked with. The “let them eat cake” attitude he displayed when the press asked him about the reports from servicemembers’ families is despicable but it’s what can be expected from this president.
Secretary of Defense Hegseth dismissed the reports as “completely misrepresented”, Republicans in Congress are silent, and families are left with little to no communication about their loved ones in many instances.
The wife of one servicemember has now spoken out. She recounted and shared texts from her husband who jumped overboard. He talked about his deteriorating mental state and told her how his requests for help were ignored by his chain of command. The sailor was in the water for an hour before the rescue personnel were able to retrieve him from the ocean. She has requested to remain anonymous out of what we are sure is fear of retaliation by the government, or by MAGA, against her and her husband.
So now, after all the backlash, the Pentagon has sent the USS George Washington to the Middle East to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln; a move the White House claims has nothing to do with the media coverage of the conditions or the suicide attempts.
MAGA Meltdown
Pragmotiv News Host, Kameron posted this pic and all hell broke loose. It blew up on Threads. The MAGA-verse had a mini melt-down and came for him in the comments. Why is it that a picture postedon social media elicits such a firestorm? Is it because the idea of people of color and women runningthis country scares the crap out of them?
After he got a kick out of their meltdown, he contemplated MAGA’s use of the familiar buzzwords usedto describe Liberals and Democrats are just that; buzzwords. Do they really even know what the terms Socialist or Marxist mean? Or are they merely spouting what they think will scare people into voting for them? Let’s explore these buzzwords.
A Marxist is one who views history as a struggle between the bourgeoise (those who own the means of production) and the proletariat (those who sell their labor). They view capitalism as an exploitation of workers and posits that capitalism will inevitably be overthrown by a socialist revolution leading to an eradication of societal classes and the promotion of a communist society. This world view was espoused by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the 1800s.
Many of those on the Right love to screech about Liberals’ desire to “usher in Sharia law” or their intent to make America a Communist State. But the truth is no one in the Democratic party or on the Left is advocating the eradication of Capitalism. All people on the Left are saying is that the Middle-Classneeds relief; healthcare is a human right and that all the wealth begotten by the richest one percent should not be obtained at the expense of the working class.
Socialist is a term they’ve used for decades to describe Leftists and Democrats, but this term no longer scares people. As people have learned more about the details of democratic policies, this term has been rendered somewhat mute. But, for the sake of discussion, the term is defined as an “economic and political system centered on public or collective ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods and services. In a socialist society, major industries, utilities, and resources are managed by the state to reduce economic inequality and ensure that wealth is distributed based on contribution or need, as opposed to private profit. Democratic socialists combine this economic model with a multi-party democratic political system.
Although there are some on the left who describe themselves as Democratic Socialists, this is not an adoption of full-on socialism. Today’s use of that moniker to describe one’s world view connotes one who is more to the left of the Democratic Party. Their view is that the top one percent should not continue to get wealthier while the bottom ninety-nine percent get poorer and have less. They still believe in capitalism, but advocate that everyone, including the rich, pays a proportionate share in taxes to ensure that the government can provide the things needed by society that society cannot provide for itself. That is what the role of government is.
Communism refers to a political and economic ideology that positions itself in opposition to liberal democracy and capitalism. It seeks to establish a classless, stateless society where all property as well as all means of production are commonly owned, and wealth is shared equally. In historical practice, however, communist societies have been governed by a single ruling party exercising centralized control over both politics and the economy.
Reread that last sentence and let that sink in. That sentence describes in practical terms what the current group in power seems to be leading us towards. They advocate male dominance and control and female subservience. They are patriarchal and want to control what we think, what we read, what we can say and what women do with their own bodies.
Republicans are the ones who want to remain in power forever and make it so that they can’t get voted out of power by the people. This is the reason for the voter suppression efforts through their constant lies about voter fraud. It’s the reason for their decades-long gerrymandering efforts. So, one of the two major political parties in the United States is embracing Communism, but it is not the Democrats.
Last, but not least: Sharia Law. Sharia Law is the religious and mora code of Islam. It encompassespersonal duties, religious observances, and broad social and legal guidelines. Ask yourself which political party in the United States has espoused views that fit the above description? Think about Roe v Wade. Think about how they have circumvented the separation of Church and State mandate: The insistence on the Ten Commandments being displayed in public school classrooms. Republicans are obsessed with people’s sexuality and controlling what people do in private. This is why we keep calling them the party of projection; everything they accuse the Left of is something they have done or are trying to do.
Hide The Turkey
Iran has been threatening to kill Donald Trump for years. It has been widely speculated that the previously thwarted attempts were ordered by Iran. At the NATO summit in Türkiye last month, they received a credible threat against Trump and Air force One such that they felt it necessary to sneak him away in a catering van to a military jet. In doing so, they left the entire press pool vulnerable to the attack.
At the time, Trump lied and said that he had taken the original Air Force One to Britain for “old times sake” and that he left the luxury jet donated by Qatar because he knew the troops would get a kick out of seeing it on the tarmac.
It later came out that the new jet lacks the security capabilities of the older Air Force Ones. Trump never flew out on the older plan. Instead, they took him off the plane from the opposite side he had entered in a catering container. This was to ensure that the reporters traveling with him on the plane would not know he wasn’t on it.
While on the flight to Britain, reporters and staff on the original Air Force One are told to keep the shades down. Meanwhile, Trump is flown on a third military plane, then sneaked back onto Air Force One and exits like he has been on the flight the entire time. Past Presidents would have been forthcoming about the threats. But Donald Trump obviously feels like he must hide all adverse facts surrounding Iran because he knows he’s in a quandary of his own making. He literally picked a fight with a country that should be no match for the United States but is nonetheless besting us because of the incompetence of his administration.
Hypocritical Oath?
In an interview on Fox News this week, James David Vance said that “God was trying to get his attention” by knocking a glass off the wall. Newsflash JD, God does not have to break things to get your attention. If a spirit knocked the glass off a wall in JD Vance’s vicinity, it most assuredly was not a spirit of The Lord. God has rules against spirits manifesting physicality in the material world, and He would not break his own rules to communicate with the likes of JD Vance. A true Catholic would know that. A “Catholic” of convenience like Vance obviously does not know that God forbids spirits this type of interaction with humans.
If this wasn’t enough of a glimpse into the putrid state of JD Vance’s aura, there’s his awkward and lackluster defense of wife, Usha Vance’s against attacks by white supremacists during the 2024election. He said, “obviously she’s not a white person, and we’ve been accused -- attacked by some white supremacists over it. But I just – I love Usha. She’s such a good Mom, she’s a brilliant lawyer and I’m so proud of her”.
Vance is just strange and awkward. In another interview on Fox News, Vance was shown comments made about him by Abdul el-Sayed, the candidate from Michigan running for U.S. Senate. El-Sayed rightly criticized Vance on his sycophantic reversal of his opinion of Donald Trump.
Vance was previously a critic of Trump until he was tapped to be his running mate and then it was as though he had forgotten everything he had written about in his book “Hillbilly Elegy”, a New York times best-selling autobiographical account of his life and cultural background. In that book, Vance arguesthat the social decline in White working-class communities stems not just from a mix of economic factors, but from cultural and behavioral issues as well.
This is one of the reasons Vance has been labeled a hypocrite because over the roughly seven years between his 2016 critiques of Trump and the 2024 election cycle, Vance went from a Never Trumper to a staunch defender. As El-Sayed said, he sucked up to power.
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