War Secretary Hegseth orders rare, urgent meeting of hundreds of generals, admirals Sep 30 in Virginia

[RDKirk]

Are you just pretending you don't know this speech was intended for the American public? Or do you really not get it?

Of course it was.

"See how all these big military guys have to come when I say so? You think they're so great? Well, I'm the boss of all of them."

 

[RDKirk]

Russians say Urrah. Germans say Hurrah.

It's basically the same thing.

It's a particular kind of noise that, properly done, can be shouted frequently at the loudest intensity without straining the vocal cords. It's the same with marching commands...if you do it correctly by basically "huffing" out the sound through wide-open vocal cords, you can be loud all day long.

 

[DaisyDay]

Talking to a number of retired officers and enlisted over the past couple of days, the consensus is this will be the purge that the right-wing claimed Obama executed.

We expect to see a lot of sudden retirements fall out of this. It won't be glaringly sudden, but watch the count over the next 18 months.

And this is very dangerous to the country. When all the conscientious, Constitution-respecting top brass leave, that means the ones left may be MAGA.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

Oh I get it (as did the officers assembleled in that hall). The CINC wants to use the U.S. military against us.

Well it the police can't handle it, the military will. Who needs old time civil war era laws to tie our hands.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

And this is very dangerous to the country. When all the conscientious, Constitution-respecting top brass leave, that means the ones left may be MAGA.

Now your getting it.

 

[Servus]

But do you see his demands for Greenland as justified? If so, why? Denmark have already said that the US is free to expand its military presence on Greenland for military strategic reasons (at the height of the cold war there was ~6000 persons there, nowadays it's counted in the 100s). Implicitly threatening a founding member of NATO is ok anyway?

I'm afraid I haven't done much research on it. It all appears to be in the "if" "insinuated" "suggested" "maybe" stage. If something actually starts transpiring, then I'll become more up to speed. Not that that would have any effect on what transpires.

 

[BCP1928]

Of course it was.

"See how all these big military guys have to come when I say so? You think they're so great? Well, I'm the boss of all of them."

He did, in so many words, order the military to a wartime footing. That's got to be for overseas consumption.

 

[RDKirk]

And this is very dangerous to the country. When all the conscientious, Constitution-respecting top brass leave, that means the ones left may be MAGA.

THAT is a serious and real consideration.

We were discussing that very seriously during the Clinton administration. The Clintons were not at all liked or respected by the military.

For me, Clinton represented the opposite situation from Reagan. With Regan, I respected (even liked) the man as Commander-in-Chief but despised his politics. With Clinton, I respected his politics but despised him as Commander-in-Chief.

But there was discussion of what a military leader should do when in the situation of serving under a Commander-in-Chief that can no longer be obeyed in good conscience. And the discussion did revolve around, "If all the morally conscientious resign...who have we left the troops to?"

 

[essentialsaltes]

"It's a war from within," the president said to the room of high-ranking military generals who flew from across the globe to Quantico, Virginia. "We're under invasion from within," Trump said.

Trump talked about his efforts to increase the use of the U.S. military in American cities. Trump claimed Democratic-run cities, such as New York, Chicago and San Francisco, are in "bad shape," and that he threatened to "straighten them out, one by one."

"I told Pete [Hegseth] we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military National Guard," Trump said.

<reactions>

[Speaker] Johnson, who was pressed about whether training troops in American cities was appropriate, said Trump's comments were "cherry-picked out of a long speech."

When asked if using military troops in American cities was appropriate, Johnson said, "I don't serve on the Pentagon, I run the House of Representatives."

Immediately following Johnson's remarks, [Minority Leader Hakeem] Jeffries said the president's comment was a "deeply disturbing statement,"

"A single American should never be viewed as an 'enemy from within' or as target practice for the American military," Jeffries said.

"We have the finest military in the world and they should be used to keep us safe from external enemies," Jeffries added.

 

[GoldenBoy89]

"It's a war from within," the president said to the room of high-ranking military generals who flew from across the globe to Quantico, Virginia. "We're under invasion from within," Trump said.

Trump talked about his efforts to increase the use of the U.S. military in American cities. Trump claimed Democratic-run cities, such as New York, Chicago and San Francisco, are in "bad shape," and that he threatened to "straighten them out, one by one."

"I told Pete [Hegseth] we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military National Guard," Trump said.

<reactions>

[Speaker] Johnson, who was pressed about whether training troops in American cities was appropriate, said Trump's comments were "cherry-picked out of a long speech."

When asked if using military troops in American cities was appropriate, Johnson said, "I don't serve on the Pentagon, I run the House of Representatives."

Immediately following Johnson's remarks, [Minority Leader Hakeem] Jeffries said the president's comment was a "deeply disturbing statement,"

"A single American should never be viewed as an 'enemy from within' or as target practice for the American military," Jeffries said.

"We have the finest military in the world and they should be used to keep us safe from external enemies," Jeffries added.

Even more disturbing than the president’s words are the people who don’t seem to have a problem with them.

 

[Desk trauma]

It's a particular kind of noise that, properly done, can be shouted frequently at the loudest intensity without straining the vocal cords. It's the same with marching commands...if you do it correctly by basically "huffing" out the sound through wide-open vocal cords, you can be loud all day long.

Blundering off into the weeds of the intricacies of yelling: the overlap between shouted preaching and harsh metal vocals amuses me to no end. Before streaming was a thing I have my radio set to scan and it lands on some Rev Ernest N Angry radio hour. In the 30 seconds or so I was paused there he builds to a point and swaps from his normal preaching voice into some variation of a guttural vocal for emphasis.

 

[7thKeeper]

You can start a thread about that here: Conspiracy Theories

Hegseth's speech was excellent.

As a military person, Hegseths speech was a *bleep*ing joke.

 

[Chesterton]

I was just pushing figures around on ChatGPT.

This little boondoggle probably cost from a low of $100,000,000 to a high of $320,000,000.

I don't know what figures you were pushing around, but I simply asked it how much it cost and it said defense experts and lawmakers estimate it was hundreds of thousands to millions.

 

[Chesterton]

Really?

The bit about the US being respected because Trump can carefully walk down stairs? That was intended for the American public?

Here's a direct quote from the speech:

"We were not respected with Biden. They looked at him falling down stairs every day. Every day the guy's falling down stairs. I'm very careful, you know, when I walk downstairs. Like I'm on stairs, like these stairs, I'm very careful. I walk very slowly. You don't have to set any record. Be cool. Be cool when you walk down but don't, don't bop down the stairs. So one with Obama, I had zero respect for him as a president, but he would bop down those stairs like I've never seen *inaudible* danah, danah, danah bop."

Truly he is a wordsmith.

Or this:

But people, soldiers and I felt embarrassed because there'd be stories about, you know, you couldn't, we couldn't fill up our Army, Navy, Air Force. We couldn't fill them up. And it was headlines. His headlines. It was during Biden's four years, the autopen. I call him the autopen. How would you like to have your thing signed by an autopen?

You know, when I have a General and I have to sign for a General because we have beautiful paper, they're gorgeous paper. I said, throw a little more gold on it. They deserve it. Give me. I want the A paper, not the D paper. We used to sign a piece of garbage. I said, this man is going to be a general, all right. Yeah. I don't want to use this. I want to use the big, beautiful, firm paper. I want to use the real gold writing.

When you talk about the position and they're beautiful and, but how would you like to have that where you, some kid sitting in the back office is having it signed with an autopen? I thought about it and I thought about you people first, admirals, generals, I said, somebody works as his whole life. He gets into maybe the academies or wherever.

But however you got there and you go through years of work and now you become an Admiral or a General or whatever. And when you do, the president of the United States signs your commission, as you know. And that commission is beautifully displayed. And I sign it, actually, I love my signature. I really do. Everyone loves my signature, but i signed it very proudly.

And i always think to myself, how can you have an autopen? Sign this? It's just so disrespectful to me. It's just totally disrespectful. And it turned out that almost everything he did was signed by by autopen, except for when he gave his son Hunter pardon. He signed that one. And that's actually the worst signature I've ever seen. That was a bad. The autopen looks much better.

If this speech was intended for the American public, I guess it really does show just how highly Donald Trump thinks of the public.

I specifically referred to Hegseth's speech. I didn't listen to Trump's.

 

[Chesterton]

Oh I get it (as did the officers assembleled in that hall). The CINC wants to use the U.S. military against us.

Of course it was.

"See how all these big military guys have to come when I say so? You think they're so great? Well, I'm the boss of all of them."

You have some evidence for this, or is it just you spewing hate?

The American public needed to hear about these changes. Recruitment and re-enlistment have been down for years, and the woke lunacy is part of the reason. So, specifically, young people possibly considering a military career especially needed to hear this. And it doesn't hurt that our enemies publicly heard it also. If a nobody like me knows how the wokeness has been deleterious from reading the news, I'm sure China knows a lot more.

 

[wing2000]

When asked if using military troops in American cities was appropriate, Johnson said, "I don't serve on the Pentagon, I run the House of Representatives."

Pathetic.

 

[Bradskii]

Are you just pretending you don't know this speech was intended for the American public?

Have you watched it? You think I it was a good idea to show the American people how badly the commander in chief can mangle so many ideas and spout so much absolute nonsense for so long in front of a captive audience?

Please tell me that you were embarrassed. I was embarrassed for him and I dislike the guy intensely.

 

[Chesterton]

Have you watched it? You think I it was a good idea to show the American people how badly the commander in chief can mangle so many ideas and spout so much absolute nonsense for so long in front of a captive audience?

Please tell me that you were embarrassed. I was embarrassed for him and I dislike the guy intensely.

I wish to put everyone here on notice: I will no longer be responding to blind posts. There should be no need to explain things that have already been explained for the sake of people who don't follow threads. (Pro-tip: they're meant to be followed. That's why they're called "threads".)

 

[RDKirk]

I don't know what figures you were pushing around, but I simply asked it how much it cost and it said defense experts and lawmakers estimate it was hundreds of thousands to millions.

You don't understand the factors involved. I have personally staffed military unit deployments...I know more questions to ask and situations that occur. It becomes a lot more expensive because it was a rushed call...they had to arrive within a week of notification, which negated many cost saving factors that could have occurred if they'd been given a couple of months warning.

Key assumptions (explicit & fixed)​

• 400 generals (each on their own aircraft), 800 assistants → 1,200 people total. This is a low estimate.
• Origins: theater commands worldwide → average round-trip flight time ≈ 14 hours.
• Per-hour aircraft operating cost (per general’s aircraft): Low = $10k/hr, Mid = $20k/hr, High = $35k/hr.
• Assistants: average international last-minute travel $1,200 each.
• Lodging: $300 / room / night in the Washington DC area, assume 2 nights for 1,200 rooms.
• Local transfers: $250 / person.
• Base support, security, hangars, handling, admin overhead: 15% of subtotal.
• Rush/inefficiency multiplier (positioning, surge, extra tanker/standby costs, etc.): ×1.40.

---

Line-by-line math (per scenario)​

Flights — generals (round trip 14 hr)

• Low: $10,000/hr × 14 hr = $140,000 per general → 400 × $140,000 = $56,000,000
• Mid: $20,000/hr × 14 hr = $280,000 per general → 400 × $280,000 = $112,000,000
• High: $35,000/hr × 14 hr = $490,000 per general → 400 × $490,000 = $196,000,000

Assistants travel

• 800 × $1,200 = $960,000

Lodging

• 1,200 rooms × $300/night × 2 nights = $720,000

Ground transfers

• 1,200 × $250 = $300,000

Subtotal (flights + assistants + lodging + ground)

• Low subtotal = $56,000,000 + 960,000 + 720,000 + 300,000 = $57,980,000
• Mid subtotal = $112,000,000 + 960,000 + 720,000 + 300,000 = $113,980,000
• High subtotal = $196,000,000 + 960,000 + 720,000 + 300,000 = $197,980,000

Add 15% overhead (base support, security, hangars, admin)

• Low → $57,980,000 × 1.15 = $66,677,000
• Mid → $113,980,000 × 1.15 = $131,077,000
• High → $197,980,000 × 1.15 = $227,677,000

Apply 1.40 rush/inefficiency multiplier

• Low (final): $66,677,000 × 1.4 = $93,347,800 → ≈ $93.3 million
• Mid (final): $131,077,000 × 1.4 = $183,507,800 → ≈ $183.5 million
• High (final): $227,677,000 × 1.4 = $318,747,800 → ≈ $318.7 million

---

Concise takeaway​

• Best single mid-range estimate: ≈ $184 million.
• Plausible range given assumptions: ~$93 million (very optimistic) to ~$319 million (pessimistic).
• Biggest cost driver: per-hour aircraft cost × long global flight hours (i.e., the choice of VIP/strategic lift and lack of consolidation).
• Secondary drivers: rush/positioning inefficiencies, tanker/escort needs, and surge security/ground handling.

 

[RDKirk]

You have some evidence for this, or is it just you spewing hate?

The American public needed to hear about these changes. Recruitment and re-enlistment have been down for years, and the woke lunacy is part of the reason. So, specifically, young people possibly considering a military career especially needed to hear this. And it doesn't hurt that our enemies publicly heard it also. If a nobody like me knows how the wokeness has been deleterious from reading the news, I'm sure China knows a lot more.

That could have happened in a televised presidential address to the nation.