Tim Kaine trying to weasel a ban on Hegseth changing base names into the military budget



Democrat Senator Tim Kaine (Va.) has weaseled an amendment into the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2026 that would handcuff Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth when it comes to the naming of certain military bases and other Pentagon assets.

Erasure

The Department of Defense took part in the iconoclastic Biden-era sweep of American history that saw graves dug up, statues toppled, animals renamed, busts melted down, and church windows removed.

Pursuant to the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2021 — which survived a Dec. 23, 2020, veto by President Donald Trump — former Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin established a commission to identify, for the purpose of removal, "names, symbols, displays, monuments, and paraphernalia to assets of the Department of Defense that commemorate the Confederate States of America or any person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America."

Austin ultimately embraced all of the commission's recommendations.

As a result, nine Army installations took on new names: Fort Bragg in North Carolina became Fort Liberty; Fort Benning in Georgia became Fort Moore; Fort Gordon in Georgia became Fort Eisenhower; Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia became Fort Walker; Fort Hood in Texas became Fort Cavazos; Fort Lee in Virginia became Fort Gregg-Adams; Fort Pickett in Virginia became Fort Barfoot; Fort Polk in Louisiana became Fort Johnson; and Fort Rucker in Alabama became Fort Novosel.

Restoration

These changes delighted Democrats and other leftists.

Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner (Va.), both on the Senate Armed Services Committee, were among those who celebrated the condemnation of memory, claiming in a joint statement that the name changes were "proof that progress is possible."

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Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, Trump signaled a desire to reverse the changes.

Months after Hegseth restored the names of Forts Bragg and Benning, the commander in chief told a North Carolina crowd that the other seven Army installations were similarly getting their proper names back.

Among the Democrats prickled by this twist of fate was Kaine, who told reporters in June that Trump lacked the authority to make the name changes, stating, "The president can't change the law on a whim, and his court jester Pete Hegseth can't do it either."

Prohibition

The U.S. Senate plans to vote this month on its version of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act.

'We learn from our triumphs and our pains, which makes our country stronger.'

The bill currently contains an amendment, section 349, which would require Hegseth to use the names of Pentagon assets in the Commonwealth of Virginia, including military bases, that were adopted by the Biden-era naming commission.

This amendment, which Kaine's office confirmed to Blaze News was the Virginia Democrat's handiwork, bars Hegseth from overriding the Virginia-specific naming recommendations of the commission.

If the NDAA 2026 is passed as is, Forts A.P. Hill, Lee, and Pickett will become Forts Walker, Gregg-Adams, and Barfoot, just as the Biden-era revisionists intended.

When pressed on whether there was a conversation about limiting this prohibition to Virginia, the office of one Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee told Blaze News, "NDAA deliberations are held at a classified level, so we cannot comment on the process involved in the inclusion of this provision."

Blaze News reached out to several Republicans on the committee to ask whether they would fight the amendment but has so far received no confirmations.

Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said in a statement to Blaze News, "Past administrations have tried to rename bases that should [never have] been changed in the first place. Here at the Pentagon, we honor our American history and traditions; we don't erase it."

"We learn from our triumphs and our pains, which makes our country stronger," added Wilson.

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Activists protest renaming Chicago school after Barack Obama, calling former president 'another oppressor'



Former President Barack Obama and his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, have been floated as the possible new namesakes of a school in their native Chicago.

But not everyone is on board with the idea, and several activists even staged a protest where they claimed the former president is just "another oppressor."

What are the details?

The Waukegan Board of Education is considering renaming a few of their schools due to their current namesakes' ties to slavery, WLS-TV reported.

One committee floated the idea of renaming Thomas Jefferson Middle School — currently named after the former president and Founding Father of America who owned slaves — after the Obamas. According to Fox News, that led to a protest outside the school board meeting on Tuesday.

"From the time Barack Obama became President until 2017 when he left, he today is still the highest-ranking president with deportations in our nation," demonstrator Julie Contreras declared. "We feel that Barack Obama did disservice to us. He denied us, and he didn't stop the deportations, the way he promised."

She added, "If you're removing the name of Thomas Jefferson, one oppressor, the name of Obama is another oppressor, and our families do not want to see that name."

Protester Mauricio Sanchez, whose father was deported under the Obama administration in 2015, said, "It was something very sad. We couldn't even say goodbye to our dad. We just hoped for him to be able to get out."

School board member Edgar Castellanos, who was brought to the U.S. illegally as a child, said flatly of the Obama renaming proposal, "I will not be part of renaming a school after someone who did not and does not represent the undocumented community."

According to WBBM-FM, the activists called Obama the "deporter-in-chief," who hurt their community directly. Three million people were deported during Obama's eight years in office, Fox News said.

"That's millions of families that were affected and separated, many of whom reside right here in Waukegan," Oscar Arias told the outlet. "The fear that many of [my] friends faced of never seeing their parents again after coming home from school still resonates with me."

Anything else?

The Daily Caller noted:

Throughout his presidency, Obama drew criticism on the immigration issue from Republicans and Democrats. Obama implemented the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program by executive order, held unaccompanied minor children in facilities and deported a record 409,849 illegal immigrants in 2012.

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DC committee pushes for capital makeover stripped of names of slaveholders like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson



A committee advising Democratic Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser has proposed renaming dozens of schools, parks, and various other government buildings over their namesakes' connections to slavery, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.

Included in the list of individuals who the committee says should not have public works named after them are former Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor and Woodrow Wilson; Revolutionary leader Benjamin Franklin; explorer Christopher Columbus, and national anthem writer Francis Scott Key.

Never mind the fact that the city itself is named after George Washington and the district after Christopher Columbus.

The report, put together by the mayor's senior adviser Beverly Perry and public library director Richard Reyes-Gavilan, labeled 153 of the 1,330 individuals who have something named after them in the capital as "persons of concern" for their past conduct.

According to the report, the criteria for renaming included whether the namesakes owned slaves, supported the institution of slavery, passed laws disparaging women or minorities, belonged to a "supremacist organization," or discriminated against a marginalized group.

In all, the committee deemed problematic the naming of some 22 schools, 2 libraries, 11 recreational centers, and 78 streets, and 8 monuments or memorials — essentially pushing for a "cancel culture" makeover of the nation's capital.

"We believe strongly that all District of Columbia owned public spaces, facilities and commemorative works should only honor those individuals who exemplified those values such as equity, opportunity and diversity that DC residents hold dear," Perry and Reyes-Gavilan wrote in the recommendation.

"Commemoration on a District of Columbia asset is a high honor reserved for esteemed persons with a legacy that merits recognition," they added.

The move is likely to reignite public debate over renaming public assets that commemorate the nation's history.

As Black Lives Matter protests raged in the aftermath of George Floyd's death in late May, several on the left pushed for renaming everything that could be feasibly deemed offensive from product brands to national monuments.

This latest effort may be the most aggressive and sweeping yet, but it won't be entirely easy to enact. The Post noted in its report that certain assets, such as schools, usually undergo a rigorous "public engagement process" before being renamed. Other assets, such as streets, parks, and government buildings can be independently renamed by the city council.

Many of the monuments in the district are actually owned by the federal government, and are under its control.

The committee suggests that assets such as the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial be recommended for removal, relocation, or be given additional contextualization by the federal government.