Kareem P. Montague has been opinionated on Fb since 2011, taking jabs at Republican political operative Karl Rove, posting messages about Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s first Senate marketing campaign in Massachusetts, defending the professional soccer gamers who take a knee, and denouncing “white privilege.”
Now an Military colonel, Montague—a veteran of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan—has been awaiting affirmation to be promoted to brigadier general since March. The promotion has been stalled together with these of about 200 others.
In February, the Protection Division adopted a coverage of permitting three weeks of taxpayer-funded paid go away and reimbursement of journey bills for enlisted girls to get an abortion. Initially, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., sought to halt the army promotions to pressure the Pentagon to yield on the abortion coverage.
The holds have precipitated extra info to emerge in regards to the would-be recipients of the promotions.
Tuberville retweeted a thread by the American Accountability Basis, a watchdog group, about Montague’s numerous politicized feedback and social media posts.
“The Senate must do our job and take a better take a look at many of those nominees. These jobs are too vital to not,” Tuberville posted on X, previously often known as Twitter.
In September 2017, Montague had a close to 1,000-word, 10-point Facebook post defending gamers within the NFL who kneel reasonably than stand for the nationwide anthem. “The flag and the anthem—do you keep in mind why Moses and his folks spent 40 years within the desert? Principally, it was as a result of they had been silly (and impatient) and so they forgot that symbols are usually not the true factor. Worshiping a golden calf was an insult to God,” he wrote.
He later added within the submit: “Protests – information flash for the ‘cease politicizing my sports activities’ crowd, protests are presupposed to be messy. That’s the purpose, typically you must shut down a metropolis bus line to level out the apparent. We’d like to have a nuanced debate on CSPAN, however most of you who’re blissfully blind to a selected challenge would miss it. You’re too busy watching soccer.”
In level eight, he talked about so-called white privilege.
“Our nation, regardless of its nice beliefs and its promise, was nonetheless based on the backs of a complete race of individuals,” he wrote. “A system of de facto and de jure segregation has created a long-standing imbalance in our nation. Consequently, there’s a normal benefit to being white on this nation. There’s nothing any of us must do about it, simply acknowledge that it’s a actual factor.”
In one other prolonged Facebook post a month earlier, he denounced Accomplice statues, asserting, “It’s time for us to cease revering these leaders with public constructing statutes, army base names, and public faculties.”
Montague was a distinguished army graduate from Harvard College in 1995, according to the Defense Department. He most just lately has been the chief of workers of the Military. Montague was twice deployed to Iraq, most just lately in 2008-2009 because the conflict wound down, and twice to Afghanistan, most just lately in 2015-2016. He was additionally deployed to Kosovo in 2001, just some years after U.S. airstrikes.
“After we check out Col. Montague, you shortly uncover that he’s beloved by the Military brass not as a result of he’s a conflict fighter, however as a result of he’s a social justice warrior,” Tom Jones, president of the American Accountability Basis, informed The Every day Sign. The Pentagon, he stated, “wants to begin over on these promotions and choose women and men on advantage, not on political activism.”
Montague posted on Fb in August 2011 about being promoted to colonel.
In a September 2011 Facebook post, after his promotion, he appeared to again Elizabeth Warren, who was elected to her first time period within the Senate the following 12 months. The submit highlighted a remark by which Warren stated, “There may be no person on this nation who obtained wealthy on his personal,” and went on to clarify that folks owe their fortune to a collective.
“You constructed a manufacturing facility on the market? Good for you. However I wish to be clear: You moved your items to market on the roads the remainder of us paid for; you employed employees the remainder of us paid to teach; you had been secure in your manufacturing facility due to police forces and fireplace forces that the remainder of us paid for,” Warren stated within the quote highlighted by Montague. “ … However a part of the underlying social contract is you are taking a hunk of that and pay ahead for the following child who comes alongside.”
However different political posts got here earlier than his promotion.
In Might 2011, he ripped Rove, onetime adviser to former President George W. Bush, over Rove’s lack of awareness of rap.
“Do you wish to know why 92% of blacks vote strictly Democratic, because of this,” he wrote. “The truth that Karl Rove can’t distinguish between Frequent and somebody the likes of Snoop or different “gangster rappers” is indicative of the assumption amongst so many African People that the Republican Occasion simply can not relate. Phrases can not specific how unhappy/indignant the arc of this ‘controversy’ made me at present.”
Earlier that month, he posted, “That is hysterical,” concerning then-President Barack Obama’s remarks on the White Home Correspondents Dinner. In a follow-up submit, he remarked on somebody who neither he nor anybody else knew would sometime be president.
“Even funnier! The Trump strains had been priceless,” he wrote of comic Seth Meyers’ jokes about Donald Trump.
In April 2011, he extolled a movie about Harvey Milk, a San Francisco politician and homosexual rights activist, writing, “Nice film that I watched tonight. I feared it might be too preachy, nevertheless it was not. Effectively-made movie about an fascinating individual, dwelling throughout an fascinating time. Add it to your cue [sic], you gained’t remorse it.”
The Protection Division didn’t reply to an inquiry for this text.
Biden has criticized Tuberville for holding up the army promotions, calling his actions “harmful” to nationwide safety.
The Every day Sign beforehand reported on Air Pressure Col. Ben Jonsson, who wrote positively about vital race principle and who Biden nominated for promotion to brigadier normal. It additionally beforehand reported that Tuberville had blocked the promotion of Navy Capt. Michael Donnelly, who allowed a drag queen present on the USS Ronald Reagan, a nuclear-powered plane provider.
The Alabama Republican can also be blocking the promotions of two Air Pressure generals nominated by Biden: Lt. Gen. Kevin Schneider as commander of Pacific Forces, who referred to as for increasing “range, fairness and inclusion” within the army, and Brig. Gen. Elizabeth Arledge, who complained about “whiteness,” to main normal.
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