Cartoon

Low Flow

Written by SK Ashby

(Cartoonist - Nick Anderson)

In other news, Trump fired Secretary of Defense Mark Esper last night. His temporary, acting replacement is Christopher Miller, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center.

Meanwhile, Undersecretary of Defense Policy James Anderson resigned this morning in protest of Trump's firing of Esper. His temporary replacement is retired General Anthony Tata, an islamophobe whose actual nomination to the position died.

Finally, researchers say Biden could repeal Trump's ban on transgender military service immediately, without going through a lengthy approval process, because all of the original guidance is still valid.

It would take only an executive order to reverse Trump's 2017 ban on most transgender Americans from joining the military.

This is because "there will be no need to redevelop guidance, restudy options, redraft regulatory language, or retrain anybody," concluded the paper published by the Palm Center, a think tank at the University of California, Santa Barbara. "Everything needed already exists in current military guidance and remains a part of current military practice."

This is a reminder that the transgender ban was Trump's idea, not the Pentagon's idea.

The Obama administration ordered the Pentagon to study the issue that they didn't find a valid reason to exclude transgender service members. Trump just made shit up to roll back the policy.