Posted on 05/20/2023 10:29:10 AM PDT by PoliticallyShort
Drag performances took place on board the USS Ronald Reagan under the command of a Navy captain whose promotion to rear admiral is currently being blocked by Republican Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville.
Capt. Michael Donnelly served as commanding officer of the aircraft carrier the USS Ronald Reagan from April 2016 to September 2018. During that time period, Yeoman 2rd Class Joshua Kelley was performing as a drag queen at Morale, Welfare, and Recreation department-sanctioned events on the carrier under the drag name “Harpy Daniels.”
As commander of the USS Ronald Reagan, Donnelly would have been aware of, and responsible for, that activity, according to William Thibeau, director of The American Military Project at The Claremont Institute.
Donnelly declined to comment for this article through the U.S. Navy.
“Every military officer takes command of units large and small with the understanding they are responsible for everything that does and does not happen under their command,” Thibeau explained. “It’s the basic truth of military leadership, whether you command an infantry company or an aircraft carrier.”
“The USS Ronald Reagan drag shows of 2017 and 2018 were not random acts of entertainment for sailors, but were sanctioned Navy programs under the Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) department of the ship,” he noted. “As commander of the ship, Captain Donnelly would have been ultimately responsible for this program.”
Thibeau also noted that large media outlets, such as NBC and the Military Times, had covered the drag shows during Donnelly’s tour—significant press attention that “would have been a standard reporting requirement directly to Captain Donnelly at the time.”
“My biggest performances here are the lip-sync competitions we hold to build up morale,” Kelley said in a August 2018 interview with NBC News.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailysignal.com ...
No, and I don't support it know, nor do I support women in combat roles or on combat ships, or units.
My question has more to do with who the audience of these shows are. I have a hard time believing that the sailor who just found the love of his life in a bar in Subic Bay is going to have his mind changed by a drag show on the boat. I know that opposition to these things can get people in trouble. I've told my son that several times after memes that he has texted me.
My impression from him though is that 90+% just roll their eyes at this kind of stuff, so I don't quite know who the audience is.
As I said before, I'm not against what Tuberville is doing, I just want to here the rest of the story.
I’m not sure you and I see it the same way. I view open homosexuality in or out of the military as a corrosive element, although out of the military, I have been inclined in the past to live and let live.
However, live and let live is not what what the people pushing this have in mind. In their mind, it isn’t just “You will bake the cake” (as in the reference to the bakery sued because they refused to bake a cake for a homosexual marriage) or even “You will not criticize homosexuality”.
It is “You will CELEBRATE homosexuality. Silence on the subject is Violence.”
Basically, it is Winston tied to a table while he is tortured by O’Brien, who sees right through Winston’s disinclination to answer a question he would rather remain silent on. It is O’Brien’s job to make Winston BELIEVE that 2+2=5, or that he is holding up three fingers but wants Winston to BELIEVE he is holding up four fingers.
He wants him to fully LOVE Big Brother, and when that is complete, when he is wholly cleansed and really DOES love Big Brother, then he will be considered cured, and will get the long awaited bullet in the head.
That is precisely and exactly what is going on here. For the Left, the deconstruction of one of the greatest meritocracies in history, the US Military, is a happy side effect.
We allowed that camel’s nose in the tent. We allowed open homosexuality in the military. We allowed women in the military. And now, we have sexual sandals, we have ships that cannot be handled in busy sea lanes without colliding, we have female four star admirals being promoted over dozens of far better, more capable, and qualified men. (That example is Michelle Howard, a black female who was “the first” to achieve that rank a current four star.)
When this took place during the Obama Administration, I took the time to review what could be seen of her service record and assignments, and compare to the men she was promoted over, and it wasn’t even close. But that is the point of her promotion.
In the most important meritocracy we had, where meritocracy and ability really counted and will count in a shooting war, they have destroyed that. They got rid of anyone they could at flag rank and in the O-6 and above space who wasn’t on board with women on ships and open homosexuality. (not to mention people below that ranking who disapproved). When we get into a shooting war, and we will, we are going to pay with blood for that campaign to cleanse the military.
It isn’t about changing the minds of individual sailors on liberty in Olongapo who might be drunkenly attracted to debauched women selling themselves.
It is about saying to the sailor “We don’t care what you think about relationships between men and women. But you are going to accept and embrace homosexual relationships, and failure to do so positively and enthusiastically will end your career. You will not have the option of just staying silent and keeping your opinions to yourself.”
That 90% who roll their eyes are going to be subject to discipline and accompanying lack of promotion opportunities if someone sees them rolling their eyes and is offended.
In the past, you might have some sailor who was a bible-thumper and 90% of the people who rolled their eyes were unblemished because God is not a “protected class”. There will be no such forbearance in the current military if you roll your eyes when the ship is flying the rainbow flag during LGBTQZ Month. You roll your eyes and someone complains, that is it.
In summary, I think the foundation of where we differ is that while you appear to be against open homosexuality or women in combat roles, you think this focus on homosexuality and drag shows is overblown and much ado about nothing, whereas I see the critically needed pushback against those things as too little, too late. The damage is done, and that genie is not going back in that bottle.
This is nothing personal, here, and I thank you for your service to our country, so I absolutely don’t want to deliberately offend you or insult you. But I have to conclude we differ in this matter, in that you don’t appear to think it is worthy of much attention, and I feel that the negative attention some are giving it is far, far overdue.
A shiver just went through the upper ranks of the Navy! Thanks Tuberville. Thanks.
And that, ladies and gents, is how you end this sh!t in the military. BZ Coach.
It’s the Navy, what did you expect?!?!
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