"...do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic..."

"For the good of the Air Force, for the good of the armed services and for the good of our country, I urge you to reject convention and careerism..."
- Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Maxwell AFB, April 21, 2008

"You will need to challenge conventional wisdom and call things like you see them to subordinates and superiors alike."
- Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, United States Air Force Academy, March 4, 2011

Sunday, November 22, 2020

Is it Pronounced Fascism or Fascism?

AUG 2022 UPDATE:

The Department of Justice and the Air Force fixed the "glitch" and directed Chief Bass to un-block me from her Facebook page and to change the page rules to make it clear that she cannot ban or censor people due to disagreeing with their expressed viewpoint.  The was done in accordance with a court-signed agreement.  Stars and Stripes article on the legal victory here.

20 Feb 2022 UPDATE:

While preparing documents for my litigation, today I discovered that I have been blocked from viewing the Chief Bass official Facebook page.  It is not clear if this has been done due to the ongoing litigation. 


 

26 Mar 2021 UPDATE:

If you, or somebody you know, has been banned or censored from the CMSAF official Facebook page (especially if you are not active duty) please get in touch with me if you would like to potentially join a lawsuit (at no cost to you) in defense of the First Amendment.  You can contact me at wingedryno@gmail.com.

UPDATE:  Well, that didn't take long.  Despite this blogger's commentary being above board, non-profane, and non-insulting the Chief decided to delete my comments and the replies to it and to block my ability to post on the official government page.  I messaged her after she deleted the post, but prior to the block, and asked her if it was a glitch else I would be filing a lawsuit.  She didn't respond and it turns out it wasn't a glitch as she blocked me from being able to comment right after.   The Air Force believes it can silence viewpoints and criticism that it doesn't agree with, no matter how non-profane, non-threatening, and non-defamatory in its communications with the public.  So I will be filing suit against the Air Force and CMSAF JoAnne S. Bass in order to restore our First Amendment rights.

Not only did she not publicly correct the airman wishing violence to silence me, she encouraged him with her action by, well, silencing me.  That may be leadership of a sort, as history reveals, but it's not really leadership for the good guys.  It's not role modeling the good ole red, white, and blue when you break the law in full view of your airmen.  What kind of role modeling is that?

4 JAN 21 UPDATE:  Chief Bass has changed her "rules" in the official page "About Us" section, and has removed the honest blurb that used to conclude the rules (shown below) and which stated that Chief Bass and her team would remove access to the official page for "any reason."  The new updated rules wisely jettison that honest blurb which transparently demonstrated Chief Bass' moderation approach, but her newly worded "rules" are still inconsistent with the First Amendment to the Constitution which applies to Chief Bass and her team of federal employees.  And this blogger has still been denied access to the official forum and been censored on that forum.  Chief Bass has still left my queries unanswered in my attempt to address this issue without engaging the courts.  As such, my only option to correct the continual violation of core rights by Chief Bass and her team, is to file suit and request the courts clarify the relevancy of our Constitution for those who have taken an oath to support that document.

31 Jan 21 Update:  Seriously, when is an adult going to step into the room?  Air Force, what are you doing allowing this?  Social media is a double edge sword.  It can amplify a positive professional message, or it can absolutely damage an institution.  There is no question which result is being achieved through the participation of CMSAF Bass on the internet.  CSAF you need to fix this yesterday.  Get to it.


"We do conclude, however, that the First Amendment does not permit a public official who utilizes a social media account for all manner of official purposes to exclude persons from an otherwise‐open online dialogue because they expressed views with which the official disagrees."


- Second Circuit Court of Appeals (affirming the decision of a lower court)

 

For those interested in the discussion that was deleted (apparently containing the views that led to Chief Bass banning this blogger), you can read the archived thread here.  Or for those interested in an excellent discussion of the CMSAF censoring this blogger, give this podcast a listen.  For Chief Bass defending her policy of banning and censoring people who she finds to be unpatriotic and unhelpful retirees who have not done anything great, check out her words here.  For a great breakdown of her "apology" video for her latest blunder on social media, The Scuttlebutt Show has an interesting episode on it where the host says, "The biggest cyberbully in the Air Force is CMSAF Bass."

For those interested in my last successful federal lawsuit against government (state rather than federal) in defense of the First Amendment, please see here.
 

For those interested in viewing the censored thread you can still do so.  The Chief hasn't censored all Americans who post there or all the comments.  Even this one below still stands which is good and shows she can accept some criticism from some people.  It will be an interesting discussion to find out why my very vanilla viewpoint was not acceptable to her.

Not long ago there was an airman who posted on the Facebook page of the CMSgt of the Air Force, Chief Bass, humorously asking if her name was pronounced "bass or bass."  This ruffled the Chief's feathers and she directed the airman to contact her the following Monday.  After some phone calls, that airman posted an apology on social media.

The Chief and her 'government official' Facebook page has generated some interest across the Air Force family.  One particularly good podcast has three individuals discussing her response to the "bass or bass" debacle that ensued from her response to the silly humor from SSgt Jacob Banks.

Now enter today's discussion where your humble blogger posted on her Facebook page suggesting that mission focus has slipped, bending toward SJW-laced propaganda, in our Air Force.  The Chief politely responded to me that she disagreed with my comment and explained why.  My post said that "air power" has been replaced with "#CarePower" and set off a barrage of defenders of the feely-goody telling me that I should shut up, un-follow the page, along with some minor ad hominem lobbed my way.  It is the Internet, after all.  Standard.

One comment, however, took it a bit further.

Somebody named Aaron Degnan suggested that he'd like to use violence to get me to shut up and stop me expressing my viewpoints to this particular government official.  Hovering over his name pops up that he's apparently a crew chief and Production Superintendent at MacDill Air Force Base.


So I referenced the "bass or bass" issue that the Chief felt was appropriate for her personal and public involvement, and asked her if she thinks active duty enlisted folks expressing a wish for violence, to silence the speech of Americans to their government officials, on her page was worth her personal interaction.

 
It will be interesting to see if literal fascist values (just read Mussolini as he literally wrote the book on fascism and the importance of using violence to silence critical opinions) rises to the same level as humorous online antics when it comes to correcting her airmen in a public fashion so others can benefit.

Place your bets on whether she will deem this as important as the "bass or bass" comment.