TV News LIES

A top Air Force commander, , announced his retirement Tuesday for “personal and family reasons.”

“After much reflection and with a full heart, Barb and I have made a difficult decision to request retirement from the United States Air Force for personal and family reasons,” Bussiere, the head of Air Force Global Strike Command, said in a post on Facebook.

“While I’m stepping away from active duty, my commitment to service remains. I look forward to finding new ways to support our Air Force, our national defense and the incredible people who make it all possible,” wrote Bussiere, who was nominated by the Trump administration to be the Air Force’s vice chief of staff over the summer.

Bussiere has served as Air Force Global Strike Command commander since December 2022. 

He was nominated by the administration to be the next Air Force vice chief of staff in July, but Aviation Week reported in early September that Bussiere’s nomination was withdrawn.

The former Air Force vice chief of staff, Gen. James Slife, was fired in February. 

Bussiere’s retirement came hours after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth held an extraordinary gathering of top military officials in Quantico, Va., where he announced he was raising fitness standards and overhauling the military’s internal complaint and investigation process.

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Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth probably hoped their speeches on Tuesday before every top U.S. general and admiral would really rally the troops to new heights.

But at least one retired military leader wasn’t so gung-ho about the comments made by the president and the secretary of defense during the gathering, calling them “insulting” and “offensive.”

During the meeting, Hegseth announced his plans for a revamped military that would “remove the social justice, politically correct and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department.”

He also declared there would be no more fat soldiers.

After he spoke, retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling appeared on MSNBC to rip Hegseth’s new plans and his attacks against the military’s DEI programs.

TVNL Comment:  No more fat soldiers?  How about fat presidents?

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U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth slammed what he called "fat generals" and diversity initiatives, crediting them for decades of decay in the armed forces at a rare meeting with hundreds of top military commanders in Quantico, Virginia, on Tuesday, Sept. 30.

Hegseth, a former Fox News host, told the attending commanders he would crack down on physical fitness and grooming standards, as well as disposing of "woke" policies. The defense secretary and his boss, President Donald Trump, told attendees they have the option to resign if they don't support the agenda.

"It's unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon, and leading all around the world," Hegseth said during his speech. "It's a bad look, and it's not who we are!"

TVNL Comment: How about a mental acuity test twice a year for those at the very top?

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Protests against the National Guard roiled DC on Sept. 6 as Chicagoans waited to see where President Donald Trump, who rattled his saber on social media, would send troops next aiming to fight crime.

But it’s not clear where troops might head next, after Trump suggested he could also send them to New Orleans. Governors traditionally decided when to deploy troops short of an insurrection, and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has opposed the move in Chicago while Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry welcomed the possibility.

Trump told reporters Sept. 5 he has decided where to send troops next but he didn’t reveal the location. Here’s what to know about what’s happening with the National Guard:

Trump's comments on deploying the National Guard to Chicago have been mixed. He said Sept. 2 he would send troops to the Illinois city, after a violent Labor Day weekend, before cautioning that he only wanted deployments where governors welcomed them.

But Trump paraphrased a line on social media Sept. 6 from the movie “Apocalypse Now” to threaten continued deportations of undocumented immigrants in Chicago.  Trump also signed an executive order Sept. 5 changing the name of the Defense Department to the War Department, the name it had from the founding of the country through World War II.

“I love the smell of deportations in the morning,” Trump said, converting a line about napalm in the Vietnam War to refer to deportations. “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.”

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In Forrest Gump, the title character, played by Tom Hanks, receives the Congressional Medal of Honor from President Lyndon B Johnson.

In real life, it appears Hanks will no longer receive another military honor.

The alumni association of the US Military Academy, or West Point, announced in May that it would award Hanks, a two-time Oscar winner, with its 2025 Sylvanus Thayer award, which is given to an “outstanding citizen of the United States whose service and accomplishments in the national interest exemplify personal devotion to the ideals expressed in West Point’s motto: ‘Duty, Honor, Country’”.

Now, the West Point Association of Graduates has canceled the ceremony to honor the actor just weeks before it was to take place, the Washington Post reported.

In an email to faculty, retired Col Mark Bieger stated that the decision would allow the academy to “continue its focus on its core mission of preparing cadets to lead, fight and win as officers in the world’s most lethal force, the United States Army”.

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Vice President JD Vance threw his full support behind President Donald Trump’s deadly military strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean this week, saying that he did not even care if people call it a war crime.

“Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military,” Vance wrote Saturday on X.

Political commentator Brian Krassenstein responded to say that “killing the citizens of another nation who are civilians without any due process is called a war crime.” Various experts on international law and the laws of war have also said the strike could be considered a war crime.

“I don’t give a shit what you call it,” the vice president replied.

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