Baseball, Chain of Command, and Minecraft Mayhem: A Morning Reflection on Current Events

The rain pours down in Alabama as I share my excitement about attending tonight's minor league baseball game – a rare late evening out that hopefully won't be dampened by the weather. But something more concerning than rain clouds is brewing in our military installations across the country.

Military leadership is experiencing a significant shake-up, with multiple commanders – notably women – being removed from their positions. Colonel Sheila Baez Ramirez's suspension from Fort McCoy highlights a peculiar pattern: official photographs of President Trump, Vice President Vance, and Defense Secretary Hegseth mysteriously absent from chain of command boards. What's particularly striking is how these empty frames were immediately filled following her suspension, suggesting potential resistance rather than administrative oversight. This pattern extends beyond Fort McCoy, with similar situations occurring at other installations and even in my own workplace, where leadership photographs remain conspicuously absent despite explicit communications about their installation.

Beyond military matters, we explore the troubling case of New Mexico Judge Joel Cano, who resigned after harboring an illegal Venezuelan gang member on his property, and the bizarre phenomenon of parents defending their children's destructive behavior in movie theaters during Minecraft screenings. The disrespect shown for public spaces raises important questions about parenting and accountability in our society. We also examine the case of German teenagers denied entry to the United States after border officials determined they planned to work illegally despite claiming tourist status. 

What's your take on these current events? And while we're sharing – what toppings do you prefer on your hot dog? I'm a fan of everything from mustard and ketchup to chili, cheese, onions, and even slaw! Join the conversation and let me know what you think about today's hot topics and hot dog preferences.

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Liberty Line each week on Sunday, look for topics on my X file @americanistblog and submit your 1-3 audio opinions to anamericanistblog@gmail.com and you'll be featured on the podcast. 

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Chapters

• 0:29 Rainy Day Baseball Plans
• 1:18 Military Leadership Firings Controversy
• 5:27 Judge Harboring Illegal Gang Member
• 6:34 Minecraft Theater Destruction Debate
• 8:05 German Teens Denied US Entry
• 10:14 Hot Dog Toppings Question

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:15

Hello, good morning, happy Tuesday. It is a rainy day here in Alabama. It's supposed to taper off, though, throughout the day and by six o'clock when we go to our first ball game. We got free tickets from work at six. Hopefully it won't be raining, but you know what? It's going to be late for us too, because we're in bed by seven. So, but it's free tickets, we're going to go. The Gent has never been. I have been once before, a couple of years ago, at our new stadium here in North Alabama. So it's made. I mean, it's minor league baseball, but you know it was fun, I enjoyed it. So hopefully the rain will go away soon.

Speaker 1: 0:51

But so there's an article out about somebody being fired for not putting up the pictures of the president, the vice president and Pete Hegseth. Let me go get it. It's on the New York Post, of course, and I find it interesting because I will tell you why after I read the damn thing. Kenny, all right, so here we go. A couple of things. There's a lot of women being fired in military leadership roles Interesting. Maybe they just happen to be women, I don't know.

Speaker 1: 1:25

Army suspends Colonel Sheila Baez Ramirez after Trump-Vance Hegseth photos vanish from chain of command board. When you're in a military base or a federal building or something like that. You walk in, you're going to see the pictures of the president, vice president, secretary of defense, whatever department you're in. That head picture will be there, that kind of thing. Well, the commander of fort mccoy was relieved of duty after the uS Army base failed to install photos of President Donald Trump, vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on a wall displaying their chain of command. This is just standard operating procedures. You're supposed to have the current president and all that chain of command pictures on the wall. Okay, all right.

Speaker 1: 2:17

Colonel Sheila Baez Ramirez was suspended as garrison commander of Fort McCoy in Wisconsin. This suspension is not related to any misconduct, the US Army Reserve Command said in a statement. We have no further details to provide at this time while this matter is under review. However, pete Hexeth on Sunday posted on his ex claiming commander of Fort McCoy, whose base chain of command board was missing, photos of Trump, vance and Hegseth has been suspended. So suspended different than fired, we'll see. Mainly, she's fired, she's removed. It came after the Defense Department of Defense announced a probe into why a wall displaying the chain of command had been empty frames on the wall since the election, and a new image they posted of the wall showed the frames had been filled.

Speaker 1: 3:11

Imagine that, regarding the Fort McCoy chain of command wall controversy, we fixed it Just like that. Isn't that wild? Been empty for months? That's all of a sudden, now that somebody is suspended, now it's filled All of a sudden, just like that, overnight. Huh Makes you wonder. Also, an investigation has begun to figure out exactly what happened.

Speaker 1: 3:35

I would like to know too, because here where I work, their pictures are still not up either. Hello, we even got an email from I can't say saying we're waiting to, we're blah, blah. I mean it was like big, bold letters, exclamation points. You know, stop asking. We're getting them done, uh-huh, sure, then why aren't they up? This is bullshit. It needs to be up. I want to know what's happening.

Speaker 1: 4:05

But also, moving on, it says this move after firing Watson as Sheila girl. The move came after a series of leadership shakeups across the US military. Earlier this month the Pentagon fired the base commander for I can't pronounce the name Pitt Udall, pitt Pittle, fultiful, I can't. Whatever. A space force command in greenland after she undermined vance. I guess vance went. Oh, she undermined him. What do you mean? After the vice president visit, colonel suzanna myers emailed base personnel on march 31st, writing. I do not presume to understand current politics, but what I do know is the concerns of the US administration discussed by Vice President Vance on Friday are not reflective of this space base. Oh, and then she was removed from her position. Good, good, I want the pictures up. Okay, moving on, let's see. Let's see, what time am I at right here? Am I good on time? All right? All right, yes, we are good on time.

Speaker 1: 5:11

There were so many other stories I wanted to talk about. Let's talk about the Victor Girls blog. I wrote an article over here Judge resigns after harboring illegal gang member from Venezuela. Actually and I correct myself in the article, of course, when I write these things, I write with a dry wit, so I hope you understand the sarcasm, snark and that kind of thing when I write what kind of judge lets an illegal gang member live on his property? That's the question facing New Mexico Magistrate, judge Joel Cano. Magistrate, judge Joel Cano. He just resigned after ICE arrested a suspected member of Venezuela's brutal I can't pronounce it gang at his home. The man was also in the country illegally. Yes, so you know I call him a gang, but then all throughout the article, I'll correct myself and say oh, I meant terrorist group, because they have been dubbed as a terrorist group and this man, this judge, this American judge, was letting him live on his property. Anyway, you can go read that over there at the Victor Girls blog.

Speaker 1: 6:17

I want to talk about this Minecraft stuff too, switching gears. All of a sudden, these parents are defending their children, destroying movie theaters. You've heard about this already. I'm not sure what Minecraft is. I guess it's some kind of video game made into a movie. I don't know. But why do you want to? Is there something in the video game that you destroy stuff? Why are you sitting in the theater, destroying the theater, watching the movie? And the parents are defending these actions. They've showed pictures of the movie theater and it's atrocious, and these people have to come in and clean it up and take care of it and maintain it. It's costing them money and I just think it's wrong. Now I understand you're going to get popcorn on the. I wouldn't. They would be banned from the movie theater if I was in charge. Oh, it was horrible. But the parents are defending these actions Now I guess they're not out there smoking pot or doing drugs and robbing people yet, but that's what it's going to lead to If you keep letting your children do this. Okay, get a grip. That's all I'm going to say, and yes, I'm going to stand by that. Call me a Victorian prude, I don't care. Okay, what else we got going on here? There was something else I wanted to talk about. Oh, what was it? I already talked about that. Oh, these, okay, real quick, let me see if I have the time. Yeah, a little bit, a little bit of time. Oh, my gosh, sorry, I'm getting there.

Speaker 1: 7:52

German teens denied entry into US for traveling under false pretenses and intended to work border patrol. This story has been coming up in front of my eyeballs online for a while now. I just I decided to ignore it for a couple of days just to see, but it keeps popping up, so we're going to talk about it. A pair of backpacking German teens, booted from the US, lied about the purpose of their trip, customs and Border Patrol said. But the women claim US officials twisted their words to trump up the allegations. Words to trump up the allegations.

Speaker 1: 8:31

Maria lapierre and charlotte pole, 18 and 19, arrived in hawaii on march 18th and were with short-term travel permits ahead of weeks long us trip but were detained by border patrol. Okay, so they came here. They came here with paperwork for a short term. They were going to travel whatever. These travelers were denied entry after attempting to enter the us under false pretenses one used a visitor visa and the other visa waiver program, cbp officials said on the post, both claimed they were touring california but later admitted they instead they intended to work, something strictly prohibited under the US immigration laws for these.

Speaker 1: 9:09

So this is a different article. The first article I read mainly just said they turned them away. They were suspicious of them. They didn't have any hotel reservations. They came to Hawaii with no hotel reservations anywhere. I was going to give it a pass. I was going to give that a pass because young people these days do things differently than we old people do. If they wanted to come over and think they were going to backpack and camp around, okay, whatever. But these women were planning to continue on to Los Angeles and then Costa Rica.

Speaker 1: 9:40

After Hawaii Insisted, they were interrogated by CBP for hours, but transcripts showed their words were twisted and outright falsified. I don't care. Hopefully you'll find this story somewhere. I need to keep this short. We're coming up on 10 minutes and I need the question of the day what goes on your hot dog? What do you put on your hot dog? I can do anything on my hot dog. I like mustard ketchup, I like chili and onions and cheese. I like slaw dogs, all of it. Okay, what do you put on your hot dogs? Maybe when you go to the baseball game? Okay, gotta go, love you. Thanks for listening. Bye.