"The scandals and outrages pile too high for even a small fraction of them to be noticed properly."

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/opinion/pete-hegseths-religious-war.html?unlocked_article_code=1.alA.bJIS.KmJ6dP-uspy9&smid=url-share


How exactly did he (Pete Hegseth) become secretary of defense, to use the traditional title for the job? (Ever the overcompensating showboat, he prefers “secretary of war.”) It’s astonishing to look back at the period in early 2025 before his Senate confirmation hearing and recall all the worry about the allegations of his public drunkenness in the past, of his gross mismanagement of the groups Vets for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America, of his sexually abusive behavior. (He disputed all of this.) Those were, indeed, blaring alarms. But they were no more concerning than his theocratic bent, which was minimized in the shuffle.

That’s how it goes with Trump and his tribe: The scandals and outrages pile too high for even a small fraction of them to be noticed properly. Besides which, Christian nationalism had embedded itself too deeply in the MAGA movement and the evolving Trump administration for Hegseth’s version of it to stand out as boldly as it should. He has faded into the crowd of holy rollers.

In normal times, under a normal president, we would be talking nonstop about the fact that the lethal behemoth of the United States military is under the supervision of someone who holds such extreme religious beliefs and not only admits but brags about the extent to which they define and drive him.

In normal times, under a normal president, we would gasp at the messianic, bellicose timbre of a government video, distributed last year, that wed a montage of our military arsenal to a soundtrack of Hegseth’s voice reciting the Lord’s Prayer. It didn’t merely imply that ours was an army of God. It trumpeted that — with unsettling fervor, with chilling grandiosity

[displacedvermoter]

1. You could say the same thing about the NY Times

Last edited Mon Apr 13, 2026, 03:15 PM - Edit history (1)

and how in so-called "normal times" the Times would have/should have been talking full time about how the "lethal behemoth of the US military" was going to have a convicted business fraudster and a sexual predator, already proven incompetent in a previous four year term, as Commander in Chief should Trump get reelected.

Not normal times, indeed.