It has been a wild 24 hours in American politics. First you had a group of members of Congress with prior military experience decide to make a seditious video. That video, as I pointed out yesterday, was not a friendly reminder that if you are given an unlawful order you do not have to follow it. It was a psyop video aimed at service members who might be personally conflicted about their missions. In other words, it was a message telling them that if their feelings get hurt, maybe they should just ignore the order.

If Its Lawful, You Don’t Get To Choose

That is not how the United States military works. If an order is lawful, you follow it. You do not get to insert your personal emotions like it is a group therapy session. The creators of the video know that. They also know that nothing the military is doing right now even qualifies as an unlawful order. They did not specify a single example because they cannot. So they tossed out a generic statement and hoped their military credentials would be enough to sway someone who should know better.

As I told someone on X who challenged this stance and replied with “prove it,”:

“the entire video was angled toward the emotions of service members who may disagree with some of the actions the administration is taking and feel torn between their feelings and their duties. That is not a luxury you get in the military. Lawful orders are lawful orders. Violating the Constitution, U.S. laws, or military regulations would be unlawful. The creators of the video never articulated what unlawful order they were talking about because they know the missions are lawful, even if a service member dislikes them.

So they resorted to a classic psychological tactic. Gaslighting. An invalidation technique designed to plant doubt in a person’s convictions. They cited their own military experience as if to say “trust me, we would refuse that order,” and because it came from elected leaders, the message must be lawful. That is exactly the type of messaging our intelligence agencies have used in foreign psyops for decades.

Did they overtly call for service members to overthrow the government or refuse to execute the law? No. Of course not. I am sure they did enough legal research to avoid that. They have lawyers, and I am sure every line of that script was screened. But that does not change the intent. In this political climate, with the missions on deck, and the manufactured outrage that always seems to appear like clockwork, the intent is obvious.

If they actually cared about the welfare of service members, they could have provided a hotline or point of contact for anyone who truly believed they had been given an unlawful order. They did not because that was not the point. The video was not made to help service members. It was made to influence them.”

Cue The Violins

Now, while Democrats were clutching their pearls over the reminder that sedition and treason are still crimes, Senator Mark Kelly decided to play the victim card. Because nothing says “I am the real victim here” quite like being held accountable for your actions.

Not So Fast, Captain…errrr…Senator

Senator, no. The President does not determine the punishment for sedition. The UCMJ does under Article 94. You retired from the military after twenty five years. That means this applies to you. Donald Trump was not speaking to Senator Kelly. He was speaking to Retired Captain Kelly, who is still subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice in certain situations. Stop pretending you are exempt from the rules because you now have a Senate parking pass. You know that so you had to fire off another post about you miltary experience for sympathy:

The 2 Faced Captain?

Benedict Arnold did a lot for the nation as well, until he didn’t. Then, of course, his wife, former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, came to his defense. I actually understand that. It is her husband. Gabby went through a horrific attack. I may disagree with her politically, but I will never pretend what happened to her was anything less than tragic. She has every right to defend her husband, even if she is wrong about this.

Honey, Move Up Please

But apparently that was not enough for Mark Kelly. He could not let his wife’s defense stand on its own. No, he had to hide behind her trauma to make himself the victim again.

Astronaut Diapers, Anyone?

At this point, he is probably wetting his astronaut diaper. All of them who appeared in that video have spent the last twenty four hours on a full blown PR campaign trying to defend what they did. Not to Trump. To everyone. That alone tells me Mark Kelly is scared.

Does he have a reason to be scared? Possibly.

Is this all because of something he did to himself? Yes.

He is following the standard Democrat political damage control playbook:

1. Do something you should not have done.
2. Wait to see which way the political wind blows.
3. If it blows the wrong way, pretend you are the victim.

Same Old Song and Dance

We have watched this same act over and over again. It is predictable. It is pathetic. And it still does not excuse what the intent of that video was.

You do not get to engage in a political psyop targeting the military and then run to the cameras crying that someone was mean to you when people call it what it is.

Own it!

UPDATED 11.23.25 – Here is another attempt at “Capt. Mark Kelly” to hide behind his wifes tragedy, thanks to Paul A. Szyupula for posting:

Editorial Closing

This oped was written by Sack Head Shaun, host of The Edge of Liberty, airing Mondays and Wednesdays at 8 PM Pacific on SHR Media and KLRN Radio.

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