You probably saw this Wednesday, and your reaction might well have been similar to mine.
pic.twitter.com/6S0tX1CrIz If there is a technical problem with the Democratic-lawmakers-urge-military-and-IC-to-resist-the-commander-in-chief video, here it is again.
— Byron York (@ByronYork) November 19, 2025
The video isn’t particularly novel. A couple of decades ago, someone in Hollywood got the idea that it would be really cool if they recruited a half-dozen or a dozen familiar faces who’d be willing to engage in leftist activism, have them all read the same script, and then do a bunch of rough-cut edits that would make them look cool as the final product jumped from one to another saying the same stupid things.
The Hollywood Left doesn’t do this anymore because the general public has gone well beyond the eye-rolling stage at the infliction of these videos on them. But the Washington Left, who sees themselves as the ugly-people version of Hollywood, still thinks they’re awesome and can’t stop recording them.
They’re lame. You know that. Hell, everybody knows that, but these people. But the Democrats have become a party devoid of anything but outrage — that which can be performed and that which can be generated — and so they do what they know.
It’s like Alinsky told them: Never go outside the experience of your people. Alinsky knew that the Left is generally a bunch of hacks who don’t come about their philosophy honestly, but rather see it as the easiest grift available — if you can lie your way into power, you’ve generally got it licked, and raiding the public till for spoils is just the gravy off the top of the game.
So coming up with something new is really too much work for these guys.
That’s a commentary on the form of this disgusting missive, though. Far more problematic is the substance.
What the hell is this supposed to mean?
We want to speak directly to members of the military and the intelligence community who take risks each day to keep Americans safe.
These are all supposedly former members of the military and intelligence community, and presumably they understand the concept of the chain of command that they’re explicitly subverting.
We know you are under enormous stress and pressure right now. Americans trust their military, but that trust is at risk. This administration is pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens like us.
Is it? How so? For such a highly charged statement, one would expect that a specific allegation would be forthcoming.
Because if not, then this would seem to be an awfully subversive message, one that would seem to be highly suspect and likely suggestive of insurrection. Why, a non-specific allegation that the duly elected president of the United States has set the military against the American people would have to be punishable at least by congressional censure, if not removal and prosecution as sedition, would it not?
You all swore an oath to protect and defend this Constitution. Right now, the threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad. Have some right here at home. Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders.
Interesting. Can’t wait to hear the specifics. What are these illegal orders?
You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution.
Well, sure. Still waiting to hear what orders are illegal, though. And that’s a pretty significant hole in the argument so far.
Are we talking about the missiles taking out the narco-terrorist drug boats attempting to bring cocaine and fentanyl to poison Americans, of whom more have died this year from that poison than perished in the Vietnam War? Pirates on the high seas have always been fair game for the U.S. Navy; are we now saying that Venezuelan narco-terrorists are somehow protected by international law?
Because if they are, if that’s the position of Elissa Slotkin and Mark Kelly and the rest of these brave patriots standing up for the poor unfortunates of Cartel de los Soles taking up residence in Davey Jones’ locker, then why not have the cojones to say so?
We know this is hard and that it’s a difficult time to be a public servant. But whether you’re serving in the CIA, the Army or Navy or Air Force, your vigilance is critical.
Vigilance for what? Where is a specific allegation here?
And know that we have your back. Because now more than ever— The American people need you. We need you to stand up for our laws, our Constitution, and who we are as Americans. Don’t give up, don’t give up, don’t give up.
Don’t give up what?
Don’t give up the ship.
Oh, sure. The ship.
This is a historical reference, of course. It refers to the final words of James Lawrence, a United States Navy captain, as he was carried below the decks of the USS Chesapeake during a naval battle on June 1, 1813, against the British frigate HMS Shannon in the waters off Boston. Lawrence’s words didn’t carry his crew far; the Chesapeake was shortly overwhelmed by a boarding party, but word got around that he’d uttered them before he died and a few months later his friend and fellow officer Oliver Hazard Perry ordered a large blue battle ensign, stitched with the phrase “DONT GIVE UP THE SHIP” in bold white letters, and the Perry Flag was displayed on his flagship during a victorious engagement against the British on Lake Erie in September 1813.
What any of this has to do with President Trump is not outlined by Mark Perry, Elissa Slotkin, and the rest of the Ugly Hollywood script-readers. They just implore the soldiers and spooks not to give up the ship.
These are the same people who forced them to work without pay by shutting down the federal government for six weeks so that invading illegal migrants could get free health care. They’re the same people who supported purging our armed forces of people who wouldn’t take an experimental vaccine that caused such astonishing rates of myocarditis in young men that we suddenly had a dearth of combat-ready pilots.
And we’re supposed to credit their warnings about Trump?
Is he starting wars with our neighbors and thus offering illegal orders to our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines? It sure seems that Trump has ended many more wars than he’s started.
Is Mark Kelly trying to say Trump is breaking the law should he order military strikes against Mexican cartels that have penetrated our country with drugs, sex trafficking, and much more? If so, say so. Then we can have a legitimate debate, to include the question of just how deeply those cartels have bought up the Arizona and California Democrat Parties, and gain an honest assessment of whose side Kelly is actually on when he makes his exhortations about holding the ship.
There is a fresh outrage from these people every day. One must be somewhat circumspect as to how much opprobrium and contempt to dole out in response to this video, lest one should empty the stores in advance of the next, and surely worse, outrage.
Especially given its context, which is the failure of their shutdown to generate a political win and the subsequent failure of their changing the subject to Jeffrey Epstein — again — to generate positive results.
But even so, this is a new low. And it shouldn’t go unpunished.
In a previous column or two, I talked about how the modern Left has fully embraced victimhood culture as a replacement for honor culture, and how that’s a significant marker of their behavior. This is another example. It’s of a piece with that video everyone saw a month or two ago of the Antifa cretin who spat on an ICE officer amid a rowdy protest and was promptly roughly arrested for his trouble.
This is that, with a stupid Hollywood activist-chic tint to it. These people are inviting retaliation from the administration or the House or Senate leadership so that they can then performatively claim victimization.
The way to beat victimization culture is to gleefully victimize the victims, whose victimization is fake to begin with.
Strip their committee assignments, kick them out of their offices, refer them to the Justice Department for sedition, open investigations into them for every possible violation of campaign finance or other laws. Make examples of them and let them scream about persecution as patriots standing up for American principles.
Nobody believes Elissa Slotkin is a patriot. She wouldn’t have cut that video if she were one. She’s a partisan hack installed in the Senate by her Deep State CIA masters in a questionable election. Nobody is fooled by any of this. So lean on her and let’s see just how committed to supposed principle she is.
These low blows shouldn’t be tolerated.
Of course they’re provocations. Everyone understands that’s what they are. What isn’t as well understood is that they aren’t just a kick in the family jewels against Republicans. They’re also assassination porn. They’re dog-whistle exhortations to the Left’s crazies that it’s OK to take a poke at Trump, Pete Hegseth, and others atop the military chain of command.
Which is why the allegation of “illegal orders” is left unspecific. That’s a dodge of real debate, but it’s also a clumsy sidestepping of responsibility when the next James Hodgkinson or Thomas Crooks decides to pop off and shoot their political enemies.
And because of that reality, punishing this is much more important than any negative political ramifications of letting these people whine about being “persecuted” for making this video.
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, 2025-11-20 03:43:00, 
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