The Associated Press reported yesterday that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has given an order to erase more than 24,000 images of female, minority, and gay soldiers as part of the Pentagon’s purge of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) content from Department of Defense archives and histories.
The military is having terrible problems recruiting. Hegseth has just exacerbated those difficulties exponentially. In my wildest dreams I never could have conceived of such hateful, ill-considered, self-sabotaging behavior. And this is the best our so-called president has to offer? I have no words.
I'm afraid diminishing the military might be deliberate. It would certainly not conflict with Putin's desire to minimize America's presence in world affairs. Look at the attack on the VA. Who would want to enlist in the armed forces if they aren't going to provide assistance in the event of debilitating injuries? I wouldn't be surprised if Hegseth thinks he's purifying the ranks, but that might not be the whole story.
It is deliberate, and it might be for the best. Do we really want a military that captures Canada and Greenland? I am already reading of Trump arguing about the Canadian boundaries as not being settled. He wants to take the Great Lakes completely. Also, Ukraine would be better off if the US military were not perceived as such a threat. Certainly Europe would be better off. Since the US is not democratic and Europe is, and Canada is, I stand with them. It is sad, but not that Russia will have a rival army because it doesn't.
This is why Trump is also going behind Zelenskyy's back to try to get rivals to run against him.
I am an American and a German and living in Germany right now. I am going to go to a demonstration for women for International Women's Day today. Happy International Women's Day!
I suppose that part of what they are doing is attempting to demoralize the African American and other soldiers of color who would not be likely to heed their orders to fire on American protestors. Getting rid of these loyal and valorous Americans is part of the plan to turn us into an autocracy in which any form of dissent is fatal. It will take an all white army that loathes everything DEI to fulfill the orders they are planning. So part of it is just deeply ingrained racism, and part of it is a disgusting strategy. I am so deeply grateful that my parents, including a father who suffered in the segregated Navy during WWII, are not here to see this ignominious day.
A thinking person might imagine that Hegseth and his adoring President, Mr. Just look at those White Supremacy tats--wish I could sport some! (And the dude can really grab some a**!) were trying to lean and mean down our military into a personal army of ethnically cleansed thugs.
While trump is withholding $400 million from Columbia University because they are not doing enough to combat anti-semitism, his secretary of defense is erasing the memory of brave women and men because of their race and gender. I simply cannot find the words for this.
The timing of the Columbia story is significant for another reason. Dr. Snyder wrote a substack letter on 3/7 describing the Zelensky WH meeting as classic antisemitism. The Columbia story is a ruse to hide their true intent.
Thank-you for this piece.Erasing history by deleting photos and other reportings is stupid and will never work especially in this day of rampant availability of knowledge through a vast myriad of ways.I am glad for your piece tonight.I am proud of my black brothers and sisters who have so helped our country to be what it is today given their almost insurmountable odds.I can’t remember the name of the black soldier who served his country so valiantly in World War 2 only to come back to this country and to be blinded on a bus by I believe the bus driver.President Truman took this man’s cause up after he learned of it’s viciousness.Racism and sexism are alive and well here and our dear leader may he rot in hell for perpetuating this hatred.
The veteran of whom you wrote was Sgt. Isaac Woodard. His story was told in the book "Unexampled Courage " by Richard Gergel. In 2019 I attended a book talk by the author at the National Archives. I also bought the book and highly recommend it. It's a story that needs to be told and to be remembered.
"As soon as all the corrections which happened to be necessary in any particular number of The Times had been assembled and collated, that number would be reprinted, the original copy destroyed, and the corrected copy placed on the files in its stead. This process of continuous alteration was applied not only to newspapers but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound-tracks, cartoons, photographs—to every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance. Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct; nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record.
All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary. In no case would it have been possible, once the deed was done, to prove that any falsification had taken place. The largest section of the Records Department, far larger than the one in which Winston worked, consisted simply of persons whose duty it was to track down and collect all copies of books, newspapers, and other documents which had been superseded and were due for destruction. A number of the workers in it, whom Winston never even spoke to, though he often saw them hurrying to and fro in the corridors, were engaged in simply identifying and deleting from the press the names of people who had been vaporized and were therefore considered never to have existed.
And this was not done once and for all, but continuously. On the contrary, the past not only changed, but changed continuously. The Party was in control of the entire record and controlled all memories as well. As Winston saw it, even when one knew that an event had taken place, its absence from all official records could make it feel as though it had never happened. Who controls the past, ran the Party slogan, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.”
Now the techbros can do it without copyboys. Find disapproved text with A.I., have the new boss order them stuffed down the memory hole... what does paper matter anymore?
I’ve just finished rereading Rick Atkinson’s trilogy on the US Army in Europe in WWII and all of these point are reinforced with citations. DoD’s actions are comparable to the Stalinist period airbrushing of photos.
However, all is not lost. Trump has told at least two truths. During the campaign he told me that if I voted for Harris grocery prices would go up and the stock market would go down. Well sure ‘nuf, I voted for her and that is exactly what happened.
I read the first two years ago and have the third sitting here unread, it’s on my list, which grows every day, unfortunately the day itself doesn’t grow beyond 24 hrs, even with diminished sleep there are not enough hours in the day to get everything done that I would like. 5 or 6 years ago I didn’t read any Substacks much less all of the comments that connect me to a much wider community. As much as I try to manage my life all manner of things are left undone at the end of the day 🤷♂️
That and the fact that any use of the word "gay" wound up also being grounds for deletion, never mind the fact that the Enola Gay was the name of the B-29 bomber that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, or that Pvt. Thomas Gay, a Medal of Honor recipient was deleted. the list goes on. A sad footnote to the 92nd you mentioned is that fact that its commanding officer Ned Almond was a racist who regarded his command of the unit to be beneath him. He became a controversial figure in the Korean War.
Still another disgusting racist trashing of history by this stupid, ignorant, incompetent, vicious, loathsome regime. I understand that'll also include photos of Commander Tibbitt who piloted the "Enola Gay," the WWII plane he named for HIS MOTHER! and which dropped the A-bomb on Hiroshima. Hegseth and the whole revolting lot are the ones who belong on the trash heap of history.
And the photo of a man who was a Sergeant Major in the Marine Corps, Sgt. Maj. A.C. Gay. Because, you know, DEI. Rachel Maddow raked Hegseth over the coals this evening. He's a pathetic excuse of a man, let alone a failure as Secretary of Defense.
Thank you for this, Luc. I love the example they set - they and the Tuskegee Airmen, the "little iron men" of the Nisei Battalion, the Navaho code talkers, the many Hispanics on the roster of Medal of Honor recipients... men who had every reason not to support a country that had treated them and theirs so badly. But however often their country had failed its ideals, it was still their country, and perhaps they had faith and hope it could still get better. That's patriotism.
Hegseth is probably the dumbest fleck of fecal material to ever grace the Pentagon. Worse he has no class, taste, decent upbringing, manners, empathy, or emotional intelligence. He will never be qualified for the job he has.
Thank you so much for these photos. They tell a story that the White “Christian” nationalists want to erase. Tonight, Rachel Maddow zeroed in on the name of the plane that dropped the atom bomb, the Enola Gay. According to Rachel, the teen team King Musk has hired to destroy our records, apparently used an algorithm to remove the word “gay” from every single mention of the name. The plane was one and the athlete, Tyson Gay. In fact, some right-wing publications started calling Tyson Gay “Tyson Homosexual”! How fucked up is that? Honestly, it’s at this point in my late life that I was like Dr. Ruth…a trained sniper.
And a few trained snipers are just what we need. Rachel's reporting tonight was just perfect. It appears "Tyson Homosexual" started with an anti-gay church group in Tupelo, Mississippi. Ya can't make this stuff up.
Or the outcome of the Civil War! These racists pigs who wish the Confederacy had won ALSO wish for what that implies-- that black people were still enslaved.
I weep for the memory of those brave soldiers and for what used to be my country.
We will make them live on!
Me too. Exactly my reaction Linda. However if I may point out not everything was so beautiful but we didn’t have sanctioned despicable behavior
The military is having terrible problems recruiting. Hegseth has just exacerbated those difficulties exponentially. In my wildest dreams I never could have conceived of such hateful, ill-considered, self-sabotaging behavior. And this is the best our so-called president has to offer? I have no words.
I'm afraid diminishing the military might be deliberate. It would certainly not conflict with Putin's desire to minimize America's presence in world affairs. Look at the attack on the VA. Who would want to enlist in the armed forces if they aren't going to provide assistance in the event of debilitating injuries? I wouldn't be surprised if Hegseth thinks he's purifying the ranks, but that might not be the whole story.
It is deliberate, and it might be for the best. Do we really want a military that captures Canada and Greenland? I am already reading of Trump arguing about the Canadian boundaries as not being settled. He wants to take the Great Lakes completely. Also, Ukraine would be better off if the US military were not perceived as such a threat. Certainly Europe would be better off. Since the US is not democratic and Europe is, and Canada is, I stand with them. It is sad, but not that Russia will have a rival army because it doesn't.
This is why Trump is also going behind Zelenskyy's back to try to get rivals to run against him.
https://meduza.io/en/feature/2025/03/06/behind-the-president-s-back?utm_source=email&utm_medium=briefly&utm_campaign=2025-03-06
This is an evil empire Trump is running. Here is what the Germans think of Trump.
See the Focus magazine cover of March 7.
https://de.readly.com/magazines/focus-magazin/2025-03-07
I am an American and a German and living in Germany right now. I am going to go to a demonstration for women for International Women's Day today. Happy International Women's Day!
I saved the magazine cover for a potential protest sign. Thanks
Multi-tasking. Blow it up on one of those big balloons for a parade!
Excellent point. Thanks very much
Jim. I think you're on to something.
The weasel in the White House would like nothing better than to turn the US over to his puppet master.
Might not? Bwahahaha.
Come on. He's a republican. Hegseth couldn't conceive of a consequence if it was inches from his face.
Try this on for size, Paula: Yes. This is the best they have to offer. Unbelievable. Lock Them Up.
I agree with all of you who responded to my comment.
I suppose that part of what they are doing is attempting to demoralize the African American and other soldiers of color who would not be likely to heed their orders to fire on American protestors. Getting rid of these loyal and valorous Americans is part of the plan to turn us into an autocracy in which any form of dissent is fatal. It will take an all white army that loathes everything DEI to fulfill the orders they are planning. So part of it is just deeply ingrained racism, and part of it is a disgusting strategy. I am so deeply grateful that my parents, including a father who suffered in the segregated Navy during WWII, are not here to see this ignominious day.
A thinking person might imagine that Hegseth and his adoring President, Mr. Just look at those White Supremacy tats--wish I could sport some! (And the dude can really grab some a**!) were trying to lean and mean down our military into a personal army of ethnically cleansed thugs.
While trump is withholding $400 million from Columbia University because they are not doing enough to combat anti-semitism, his secretary of defense is erasing the memory of brave women and men because of their race and gender. I simply cannot find the words for this.
It’s all so … stupid! It’s only been a bit over a month. and that vile man and his minions have destroyed years of societal progress!
I don't believe that's true. We still have what we know to be true in our minds. And we have lots of books, stories and pictures outside the Pentagon.
Hope you're right--your lips to God's ear
The timing of the Columbia story is significant for another reason. Dr. Snyder wrote a substack letter on 3/7 describing the Zelensky WH meeting as classic antisemitism. The Columbia story is a ruse to hide their true intent.
Totally false concern for the welfare of Jews by a bunch of known anti-semites!
Thank-you for this piece.Erasing history by deleting photos and other reportings is stupid and will never work especially in this day of rampant availability of knowledge through a vast myriad of ways.I am glad for your piece tonight.I am proud of my black brothers and sisters who have so helped our country to be what it is today given their almost insurmountable odds.I can’t remember the name of the black soldier who served his country so valiantly in World War 2 only to come back to this country and to be blinded on a bus by I believe the bus driver.President Truman took this man’s cause up after he learned of it’s viciousness.Racism and sexism are alive and well here and our dear leader may he rot in hell for perpetuating this hatred.
The veteran of whom you wrote was Sgt. Isaac Woodard. His story was told in the book "Unexampled Courage " by Richard Gergel. In 2019 I attended a book talk by the author at the National Archives. I also bought the book and highly recommend it. It's a story that needs to be told and to be remembered.
Thank-you for the information.I will check this book out of my local library.
Rot in hell and know never ending pain in Hell!
Good point, Victoria. They might erase history within the walls of the Pentagon, but the World Wide Web will preserve it forever.
"As soon as all the corrections which happened to be necessary in any particular number of The Times had been assembled and collated, that number would be reprinted, the original copy destroyed, and the corrected copy placed on the files in its stead. This process of continuous alteration was applied not only to newspapers but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound-tracks, cartoons, photographs—to every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance. Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct; nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record.
All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary. In no case would it have been possible, once the deed was done, to prove that any falsification had taken place. The largest section of the Records Department, far larger than the one in which Winston worked, consisted simply of persons whose duty it was to track down and collect all copies of books, newspapers, and other documents which had been superseded and were due for destruction. A number of the workers in it, whom Winston never even spoke to, though he often saw them hurrying to and fro in the corridors, were engaged in simply identifying and deleting from the press the names of people who had been vaporized and were therefore considered never to have existed.
And this was not done once and for all, but continuously. On the contrary, the past not only changed, but changed continuously. The Party was in control of the entire record and controlled all memories as well. As Winston saw it, even when one knew that an event had taken place, its absence from all official records could make it feel as though it had never happened. Who controls the past, ran the Party slogan, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.”
-George Orwell, 1984
Now the techbros can do it without copyboys. Find disapproved text with A.I., have the new boss order them stuffed down the memory hole... what does paper matter anymore?
I’ve just finished rereading Rick Atkinson’s trilogy on the US Army in Europe in WWII and all of these point are reinforced with citations. DoD’s actions are comparable to the Stalinist period airbrushing of photos.
However, all is not lost. Trump has told at least two truths. During the campaign he told me that if I voted for Harris grocery prices would go up and the stock market would go down. Well sure ‘nuf, I voted for her and that is exactly what happened.
Promises made, Promises kept.
Atkinson's trilogy is remarkable. Everyone should read it.
I read the first two years ago and have the third sitting here unread, it’s on my list, which grows every day, unfortunately the day itself doesn’t grow beyond 24 hrs, even with diminished sleep there are not enough hours in the day to get everything done that I would like. 5 or 6 years ago I didn’t read any Substacks much less all of the comments that connect me to a much wider community. As much as I try to manage my life all manner of things are left undone at the end of the day 🤷♂️
Never thought of it that way…but it’s obviously legitimate. I voted for “,la” too. Look what I wrought!
LOL. Insert the emoji of laughter with tears coming out of the etes.
That and the fact that any use of the word "gay" wound up also being grounds for deletion, never mind the fact that the Enola Gay was the name of the B-29 bomber that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, or that Pvt. Thomas Gay, a Medal of Honor recipient was deleted. the list goes on. A sad footnote to the 92nd you mentioned is that fact that its commanding officer Ned Almond was a racist who regarded his command of the unit to be beneath him. He became a controversial figure in the Korean War.
So reprehensible
Still another disgusting racist trashing of history by this stupid, ignorant, incompetent, vicious, loathsome regime. I understand that'll also include photos of Commander Tibbitt who piloted the "Enola Gay," the WWII plane he named for HIS MOTHER! and which dropped the A-bomb on Hiroshima. Hegseth and the whole revolting lot are the ones who belong on the trash heap of history.
And the photo of a man who was a Sergeant Major in the Marine Corps, Sgt. Maj. A.C. Gay. Because, you know, DEI. Rachel Maddow raked Hegseth over the coals this evening. He's a pathetic excuse of a man, let alone a failure as Secretary of Defense.
Thank you for this, Luc. I love the example they set - they and the Tuskegee Airmen, the "little iron men" of the Nisei Battalion, the Navaho code talkers, the many Hispanics on the roster of Medal of Honor recipients... men who had every reason not to support a country that had treated them and theirs so badly. But however often their country had failed its ideals, it was still their country, and perhaps they had faith and hope it could still get better. That's patriotism.
Very well said, Hugh.
Hegseth is probably the dumbest fleck of fecal material to ever grace the Pentagon. Worse he has no class, taste, decent upbringing, manners, empathy, or emotional intelligence. He will never be qualified for the job he has.
Over on "The War Zone" one of the comments that I saw earlier in the week referred to Hegseth as a "DUI hire."
I was greatly amused.
Thank you so much for these photos. They tell a story that the White “Christian” nationalists want to erase. Tonight, Rachel Maddow zeroed in on the name of the plane that dropped the atom bomb, the Enola Gay. According to Rachel, the teen team King Musk has hired to destroy our records, apparently used an algorithm to remove the word “gay” from every single mention of the name. The plane was one and the athlete, Tyson Gay. In fact, some right-wing publications started calling Tyson Gay “Tyson Homosexual”! How fucked up is that? Honestly, it’s at this point in my late life that I was like Dr. Ruth…a trained sniper.
And a few trained snipers are just what we need. Rachel's reporting tonight was just perfect. It appears "Tyson Homosexual" started with an anti-gay church group in Tupelo, Mississippi. Ya can't make this stuff up.
Christian Nationalism at it’s finest, as a man who was educated by Jesuits I find the very idea of CN repugnant 🤬
It's obvious Pete is not happy about the outcome of World War II
Good one!
Or the outcome of the Civil War! These racists pigs who wish the Confederacy had won ALSO wish for what that implies-- that black people were still enslaved.
And that Brown people are mowing your lawn and cooking your restaurant food and cleaning up after you.
DOD's DEI policy = Despicable Execrable Immoral
Good one: despicable, execrable, immoral! DEI stands for Trumpelon.
He is a true t***p DEI hire: Drunk, Entitled and Ignorant