Here is the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security General John Kelly speaking in front of an audience at George Washington University Center for Cyber and Homeland Security in Washington, D.C this morning:
If lawmakers not like the laws that we enforce that we are charged to enforce, that we are sworn to enforce, then they should have the courage and the skill to change those laws. Otherwise they should shut up and support the men and women on the front lines. My people have been discouraged from doing their jobs for nearly a decade, disabled by pointless bureaucracy and political meddling and suffered disrespect and contempt by public officials who have no idea what it means to serve. During my confirmation process and in hearings members of Congress the press and other public officials frequently asked me about the morale problems the department has experienced over the last few years. My response has simply been when you discouraged, when you disabled, when you unjustly criticized in default believing the initial reports as opposed to defaulting to believing the stories told by my professionals. When you do all of those things and show disrespect to the individual who's risking his or her life to defend the country, when you do those things what do you expect?
This is the classic strong man line: shut up and follow orders. He begins by putting it on the lawmakers and who can blame him? You’ve seen our Republican Party—they’re the worst! There are a bunch of Democratic lawmakers we don’t like either. We are all on board! Except, it’s not simply that our country needs to scale back the frightening overreach of law enforcement that both parties have been complicit in since September 11, 2001, it’s that there are still actual laws that Homeland Security needs to follow.
But that’s not what Kelly is going on about. He explains that all of this “pointless bureaucracy” ends with the election of Donald Trump, and by extension John Kelly. Kelly is revving up for his new gestapo forces that he hopes to have under the guise of
undocumented “deportation” forces.
Kelly at this point is best known as not being Kris Kobach, the terrifying rumor of a choice for Homeland Security who was floated out before unpopular President Trump tapped Kelly for the position. And as the
New York Times explains, Kelly became the third retired general Trump wanted for his new
regime administration.
General Kelly would be the third retired general to get a senior position in Mr. Trump’s cabinet, reflecting the president-elect’s comfort with military men in important national security posts. He has selected Gen. James N. Mattis as defense secretary and named Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn as national security adviser. He is also considering David H. Petraeus for secretary of state.
Kelly’s attacks on critics—telling them to shut up or stop the checks and balances that make our country a democracy and not a dictatorship or a military-ruled totalitarian society—is worrying; but it’s also a big excuse. You can’t do your jobs because you need to be
able to use private prisons? Why exactly? That sounds like you’re shitty at your job, unless you think your job is to put everybody into prison. You think undocumented families hiding out in churches and sanctuary cities is cramping your ability to protect America from its enemies? I refer you to the above statement about you being shitty at your job.