DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus Hegseth moves to demote Sen. Mark Kelly and cut pension over video on illegal orders

Washington — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday that the Pentagon had begun a process to demote Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona and cut his retirement pay over a video in which Kelly, a retired Navy captain, called on service members to "refuse illegal orders."

In a post on X, Hegseth said he had issued a letter of censure to Kelly, who served in the Navy until 2011. In response, Kelly said he will "fight this with everything I've got."

The Pentagon, Hegseth's post said, "has initiated retirement grade determination proceedings" that could result in a "reduction in his retired grade" and "a corresponding reduction in retired pay."

"Captain Kelly has been provided notice of the basis for this action and has thirty days to submit a response," the post said. "The retirement grade determination process directed by Secretary Hegseth will be completed within forty five days."

Hegseth said that he had "issued a formal Letter of Censure, which outlines the totality of Captain (for now) Kelly's reckless misconduct."

"This Censure is a necessary process step, and will be placed in Captain Kelly's official and permanent military personnel file," Hegseth added.

The Pentagon announced in November that it was conducting a review of misconduct allegations against Kelly to determine whether he should be recalled to active duty to face court-martial proceedings.

On Monday, Hegseth called the video "seditious," adding that it was "clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline."

"As a retired Navy Captain who is still receiving a military pension, Captain Kelly knows he is still accountable to military justice," Hegseth said.

Kelly was one of six Democratic lawmakers who released a video in November urging service members and members of the intelligence community to defy "illegal orders," citing threats to the Constitution. The group, who are all veterans or former national security officials, included Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and House members Jason Crow of Colorado, Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania and Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire.

The Arizona Democrat is a former astronaut and is married to former Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was shot in a 2011 assassination attempt in Arizona. He responded to Hegseth's announcement on X.

"My rank and retirement are things that I earned through my service and sacrifice for this country. I got shot at. I missed holidays and birthdays. I commanded a space shuttle mission while my wife Gabby recovered from a gunshot wound to the head — all while proudly wearing the American flag on my shoulder," Kelly said. "Generations of servicemembers have made these same patriotic sacrifices for this country, earning the respect, appreciation, and rank they deserve."

Kelly added that Hegseth "wants to send the message to every single retired servicemember that if they say something he or Donald Trump doesn't like, they will come after them the same way," calling it "outrageous" and "wrong."

"If Pete Hegseth, the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in our country's history, thinks he can intimidate me with a censure or threats to demote me or prosecute me, he still doesn't get it," Kelly said. "I will fight this with everything I've got — not for myself, but to send a message back that Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump don't get to decide what Americans in this country get to say about their government."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hegseth-mark-kelly-demotion-censure-pension-pentagon/

What law did Kelly break? He said nothing that Hegseth hasn't said in a previous conference ( there is video) So if it's guilty of something, so is Hegseth......

This is really a dumb move...REALLY stupid.

Just give Hegseth a minute to sober up and this will all blow over.

That will work until noon each day.

You've got some crazy inside contacts...

RFK is a heroin addict, and Hegseth is drunk by noon every day?

It's been alleged that Hegseth has/had a drinking problem at least as far back as his Fox News days.

I suppose I should have put that in purple. I didn't think that was needed. I'll be more careful in that department moving forward.

As far as RFK Jr. being a heroin addict, I've never stated that is a current issue. I have always said "former heroin addict". Which is 100% accurate and he has spoken about it publicly. If you would like some sources to substantiate that I can provide them.

Yeah, I know Heg probably has his fair share. I've seen RFK completely refute ever using heroin though. Not sure where that came from.

And no, you didn't need purple. Just my kneejerk comedic response.

I won't bore you with the entire article but here is just some of what he said at a conference on drug addiction in Nashville.................

Kennedy told attendees that he was addicted to heroin for 14 years, beginning when he was a teenager. During those years, he was constantly making promises to quit, both to himself and to his family.

"I didn't want to be someone who woke up every morning thinking about drugs," he said, noting that one of the worst parts of addiction was his total "incapacity to keep contracts with myself."

Kennedy said he eventually stumbled upon a book by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung that claimed people who believed in God got better faster and had more enduring recoveries, so he worked to rekindle his faith and started attending 12-step meetings.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health...-urges-focus-on-prevention-and-community

The article actually includes him heavily advocating for helping addicts and some good ideas for doing so. It also has a lot of unneeded political content.

Holy crap!

I had no idea. I vaguely, but specifically, remembered him responding as if the allegations were not credible.

In fact, when you stated it, I asked AI. I just pulled that thread back up:



So now, I asked the follow-up:


I've noticed these AI machines do a lot of "hallucinating", but that's just terrible.

That's truly crazy! I most likely wouldn't have known about that conference or what he himself had said if I didn't live in Nashville myself. It was all over the local news here.

Wow... I'm starting to use the search engine AI's myself to answer simply questions like this. I'll have to make sure I'm more thorough.

I started noticing serious anomalies when asking sports questions lately. I asked about the Browns futility in Pittsburgh as "the two major losing streaks"... it only spoke about the current one. Then I asked "what about the 70s and 80s?"


There was also a discussion about Derrick Henry where it stated he ran for over 20,000 yards in 2027 and 2028.


I'm becoming more convinced this is not the 'droid we were looking for.

AI is pretty neat, but not perfect... Still gotta use the old noodle...

I'm becoming more convinced that AI actually means "Almost Intelligent"