Despite Trump's Veto Threat, Senate Approves Provision To Rename Military Bases

Despite Trump's Veto Threat, Senate Approves Provision To Rename Military Bases



Fort Bragg in North Carolina is one of 10 bases that are named after Confederate military leaders.
Chris Seward/AP

The Republican-controlled Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a defense appropriations bill that calls for renaming U.S. military bases that honor Confederate officers — a provision that President Trump has threatened to veto.
The Senate's 86-14 vote to approve the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is more than enough to override a veto, should the president follow through on his threat. The vote comes days after the House passed a similar version of the $741 billion bill.
It now goes to conference, where the House and Senate will iron out any differences. Among other things, both bills authorize a 3% pay raise for service members.
The White House issued a statement this week saying that while it supports the spending, it has "serious concerns" about the base-change mandate.
If the authorization becomes law, 10 Army bases named after prominent Confederate military leaders would be changed. They include Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Fort Hood in Texas and Fort Benning in Georgia. Other military installations that bear the names of Confederate figures would also be changed.



In recent weeks, the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd have provided new impetus to years of unsuccessful efforts to push for the base-name changes. Many believe it is improper for the U.S. military to honor individuals who fought for slavery and sought to secede from the United States.
Although in the past the military resisted those calls, last month Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Secretary of the Army Ryan D. McCarthy were reportedly "open" to the idea.
An ABC News-Ipsos poll released last month showed that 56% of those surveyed oppose changing the names of bases, although that figure was heavily skewed by race – 67% of African Americans favored the move, while 32% of white Americans and 54% of Hispanic Americans support it.
In June, Trump tweeted: "These Monumental and very Powerful Bases have become part of a Great American Heritage, and a history of Winning, Victory, and Freedom."
In an interview with Fox News journalist Chris Wallace that aired last weekend, the president appeared to soften his stance somewhat, saying he "might" veto the NDAA.
"We won two world wars, two world wars, beautiful world wars that were vicious and horrible, and we won them out of Fort Bragg, we won out of all of these forts that now they want to throw those names away," Trump told Wallace.
Overturning a presidential veto is not a certainty. Lawmakers could flip their votes on the bill to sustain a veto.
The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., said House and Senate lawmakers would work to produce a bill "that both sides can support and the president can sign."

MMW

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

That Uplifting Tweet You Just Shared? A Russian Troll Sent It

Image
Here’s what Russia’s 2020 disinformation operations look like, according to two experts on social media and propaganda. By   DARREN LINVILL   &   PATRICK WARREN Internet trolls don’t troll. Not the professionals at least. Professional trolls don’t go on social media to antagonize liberals or belittle conservatives. They are not narrow minded, drunk or angry. They don’t lack basic English language skills. They certainly aren’t  “somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds,”  as the president once put it. Your stereotypical trolls do exist on social media, but the amateurs aren’t a threat to Western democracy. Professional trolls, on the other hand, are the tip of the spear in the new digital, ideological battleground. To combat the threat they pose, we must first understand them — and take them seriously. MORE: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/russia-troll-2020-election-interference-twitter-916482/ P...
Read more

The Nightmare Scenario That Keeps Election Lawyers Up At Night -- And Could Hand Trump A Second Term

Image
The Nightmare Scenario That Keeps Election Lawyers Up At Night -- And Could Hand Trump A Second Term   (Photo: Photos: Getty Images) Americans will almost certainly go to bed on Nov. 3 without knowing who won the presidential election. Since millions of people will vote by mail, constraints on time and resources will slow ballot counting into potentially a weeks-long process. Voting patterns suggest it’s likely that President  Donald Trump  could end Election Day in the lead in certain key states, only to be overtaken by Democratic opponent  Joe Biden  when more votes are tallied.  This could create a nightmare scenario during the three months stretching from Election Day to the Jan. 20 inauguration: a battle on the state and congressional level over who is the legitimate winner. This could include Congress reconvening on Jan. 6, presided over by Vice President  Mike Pence , with no consensus over its potential role in choosing the next president. This...
Read more

When Life Hands You Lemons

Image
 It's like this folks: sometimes your mind goes blank. Happens more than usual with me of course. Take this forum for instance. I wanted to post something today and couldn't think of a topic. At least not a non-sexual one and we know sexual ones lately have been frowned upon.  Then along comes one of our regulars and complains about something. Well, they might not say it was a complaint, just an observation, but it was a complaint. A minor one. It has something to do about being able to make something out of nothing. Sort of like me this morning, how to make a thread out of an empty head? But they (notice I am using the correct pronoun, not saying he or she), by what they said got me thinking. What I thought was: Not sure if that is the actual saying, if I remember correctly, I remember the saying going something like this: Umm, no, I don't think the saying I am thinking of goes that way either, maybe ONE of you good folks can remind me how the saying goes. Either way, when...
Read more