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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsVET: I thought I was done being shocked by this megalomaniac-I was wrong. Even for him, this is low.
Charles Clymer - Writer
12 hrs ·
This evening, it was reported that Donald Trump told a grieving military widow over the phone that her husband "knew what he signed up for".
The full reported quotation was: "he knew what he signed up for ...but when it happens it hurts anyway."
I have folded countless flags in Arlington National Cemetery, carried countless caskets to their final resting place, and heard countless parents, spouses, siblings, and children grieve over the loss of their loved ones.
I have heard things cried out in agony over flag-draped caskets that I dare not repeat here because there is something to be said for the sacred and dignified privacy of certain moments that transcend our fragile bonds.
What is given to the rest of us by these families is a person who represents the whole sum of all that's come before them and all that could have been had they lived.
Sergeant La David Johnson, 25, will never again celebrate the birthday parties of his two children. His parents will never again be able to call on a weeknight and playfully hassle him for not calling them enough.
His wife, Myeshia Johnson, pregnant with their third child, due in January, will never again wake up next to his warm body on a winter's morning.
These are all part of the million things now lost forever to this family.
And it is why when interacting with the loved ones of a fallen service member, anything less than perfection is failure.
How many commanding officers have rehearsed their remarks to spouses, rewritten handwritten letters to the bereaved because the words weren't quite right, spent an extra thirty minutes scouring their uniforms for lint before visiting the family's home?
These moments are sacred, and everything must be perfect.
I cannot adequately articulate the disgusting cruelty of this person who could not be bothered to choose his words carefully when speaking to a widow who has lost everything.
This is a man who never served, who received five draft deferments, who has insulted a prisoner of war, who has lied about donating to veteran's organizations, and who, just last year, callously mocked the parents of a fallen soldier because of their religion.
This coward is a high functioning sociopath who is unfit for the Office of the Presidency, let alone negotiating our daily collective existence with people far greater in character than he will ever be.
I thought I was done being shocked by this megalomaniac, and I was wrong. Even for him, this is low.
Sergeant Johnson, thank you for your service, given in full, and our thanks to your family for theirs. Be thou at peace.
https://www.facebook.com/cmclymer/posts/994854820657410
cilla4progress
(24,750 posts)I've ever read. Extremely moving and spot on.
kimbutgar
(21,172 posts)So sick and disgusting him and his supporters. Draft dodging sob.
tblue37
(65,456 posts)Neema
(1,151 posts)about why our jobs are going overseas, a guy she knows posted something about how Trump is changing all that. That he's done more than any sitting president to keep our jobs from going overseas because he's a successful business man. Seriously. And this dude is Puerto Rican. I just had to shake my head and hide the post. There's no reasoning with someone that delusional.
SunSeeker
(51,579 posts)lame54
(35,297 posts)Blue_true
(31,261 posts)Unfortunately Trump is President. I tear a hair out each day over Trump being President.
lame54
(35,297 posts)The widow still hasn't been properly comforted
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)Sgt. Johnson and Mrs. Johnson, you deserved better. Your country has let you down.
Stonepounder
(4,033 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)Too sad and disgusted right now to say anything else.
sarge43
(28,941 posts)I've been trying to hold back the tears of rage and pain. No more.
I won't say thank you Sgt Johnson. Just peaceful passage Soldier. Duty done. I wish we could do more for your wife and children. God knows they deserved better.
I try not to hate; it's corrosive. So, loathing and disgust for the soulless coward who said those vile words to your wife and children.
catbyte
(34,413 posts)Americans are coming through for Sgt. Johnson's family. The GoFundMe page is up to $387,849 as of now.
https://www.gofundme.com/sgt-la-david-johnson-scholarship
sarge43
(28,941 posts)catbyte
(34,413 posts)Probably because that orange nightmare didn't make things 10 X worse for his family.
https://www.gofundme.com/ssg-dustin-wright-memorial-fund/
sarge43
(28,941 posts)calimary
(81,352 posts)I have NEVER in all my 64 years seen our countrys so-called leadership stoop so damn low. So utterly DETESTABLY and DESPICABLY low.
DEPLORABLY low.
joanbarnes
(1,722 posts)barbtries
(28,805 posts)he is highly dysfunctional. and very sick
tblue37
(65,456 posts)Low-functioning sociopaths end up broke and/or in prison. That is the distinction that is drawn by psychologists.
meow2u3
(24,766 posts)as the rotten-to-the-core, irredeemable, demonic monster he is!
arthritisR_US
(7,288 posts)ffr
(22,671 posts)But I would never want to trade places with Myeshia Johnson who not only lost her husband of three, but who now must also deal with 36% (Dotardians) of America being told to look down upon her family's sacrifice. It cannot ever be taken back. Surreal.
"Sergeant Johnson, thank you for your service, given in full, and our thanks to your family for theirs. Be thou at peace."
Moostache
(9,897 posts)I am so sorry for the asinine response of our President to the grieving widow that I want to punch him square in the jaw and shake him while screaming "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?!?!"
I am also moved to tears by the immensely appropriate words from Charles Clymer. I never served. I was never subject to a draft or a choice of having to be inducted or seek refuge like our current Coward in Chief. I'll never fully know the depth of sacrifice serving in uniform requires, but I respect the choice and service of all those who answer the call. To see one of their surviving spouses and their memory disrespected like that is too much.
Trump is an irredeemable lump of shit. He is the answer to the question "what is worst in life?". Our country deserves better, but the families of our fallen soldiers should NEVER face such abuse from our leadership. Ever.
peggysue2
(10,836 posts)It's the only reasonable response to the Trumpster's latest example of full-on psychopathic behavior. And for the cherry on top, he lied about the encounter, called everyone who heard his hollow words as being fabulists. They made it up; he didn't say it. He has proof.
The only proof is the growing evidence of the man's callousness, his repeated soulless responses to anyone/anything that demands empathy, intelligence, understanding.
Josh Marshall at TPM wrote yesterday: the man is poison. Equally on the mark is Rick Wilson's mantra: Everything Trump Touches Dies. I stand by the story/lyrics that Trump repeated during the campaign: The wounded, venomous snake invited into the house. However, the ending needs a rewrite, specifically the kind woman, seeing the snake for what he is, heaves the reptile into the fire. And never looks back.
Solly Mack
(90,776 posts)That's what he said when we heard what the piece of shit said to Myeshia Johnson.
Then he made a face he hasn't made a in long while, not since his early days home from Iraq. He got up and walked away. Like he did in the early days after Iraq when his remembering got the better of him.
Trump's comments hit a lot of vets that way. His heartless and cruel words, said to the widow of a dead soldier, were one more destructive blow that leaves its mark forever.
Myeshia Johnson will never forget the day she learned of her husband's death. BAM
She will never forget the day his body made it home. BAM
She will never forget when his body went into the ground. BAM
- And she will never forget the words Trump said to her.
One - more - blow.
FakeNoose
(32,672 posts)Why would anyone want to enlist in any branch of the military, with Cheeto as the "leader"?
He does not have your back, or anyone's back.
It's a sad day in America when we all come to this realization together.
sarge43
(28,941 posts)Alice11111
(5,730 posts)in such a cavalier & disrespectful way. That is all DT is capable of feeling, for anyone but himself & his family. This, together with the fact that he lied to avoid his responsibility himself make him a model for young people to avoid. Your son is the model young people should emulate.
He only eprsents a few. Most of us care deeply & honor your son. Thank you for his brave service. We are very sorry for your loss.
tblue37
(65,456 posts)Hekate
(90,738 posts)ffr
(22,671 posts)Imagine what it would be like if they were transparent.
O-M-G!
Still In Wisconsin
(4,450 posts)Indeed. And tears stream down our cheeks...
Puzzler
(2,505 posts)-Puzzler
heaven05
(18,124 posts)Lt. Johnson would have had my back as you know I would have yours...idiot-boy-potus never would understand that camaraderie....never. To treat a dead soldier/officer as such, openly, proves the ameriKKKa trying to form is not my america. Neither is he my prezident..or ever will be my prezident.
MFM008
(19,818 posts)Bad luck anyone has to sacrifice anything while this horrid creature squats in the white house.
bdamomma
(63,903 posts)nail in his coffin...........he is digging himself in a hole, and he wonders why people don't see his "greatness" what a delusional POS he is.
dalton99a
(81,534 posts)Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)On America's military and fallen soldiers. Disgraceful and disgusting.
Fritz Walter
(4,291 posts)I know that survivors receive extended support from numerous resources, including Military OneSource, an excellent DoD-contracted program that provides extensive confidential non-medical counseling and other direct support, (at least until Drumpf decides that its not profitable to his brand).
Not to mention other federal, state and local programs who actually see value in supporting Gold Star families. And are thereby essential community partners.
Still, his callous, egomaniacal response should be a wake-up call to all the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines who have donned the uniform, picked up a weapon, stood a post and perhaps fired a shot in defense of all we hold dear (past or present). And yet, some of them still voted for this shit-stain on the fabric of our great nation. Please dont hold that against them: theyre loyal to us, politics notwithstanding.
A shit-stain who donned a costume at an adolescence convalescence institute and carried a prop in one formation/parade or another. Yet, chicken-hawked out with bone spurs when his nation called.
From an Army brat (Korea and Vietnam era) and civilian service-provider to service members and their families.
PatrickforO
(14,584 posts)Thank you for your service, given in full.
madokie
(51,076 posts)One day we will free from him. Either the congress will do their job or mother nature will take care of him. He's not a very healthy person from what I read and see.
mdbl
(4,973 posts)when he ran for president.
LiberalFighter
(50,997 posts)As long as he is the one doing it.