Franklin the turtle is a Canadian creation beloved by generations of children, so when U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth turned him into a bazooka-wielding soldier in a social media post Sunday, many people were alarmed.

Hegseth’s post featured a mock cover of a Franklin children’s book titled “Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists.” The image shows a smiling Franklin wearing a military helmet and vest and an American flag on his arm. He’s standing in a helicopter, firing a weapon toward a boat carrying packages and a man holding a gun.

“For your Christmas wish list,” he wrote above the post, an apparent attempt to make light of deadly U.S. military strikes on suspected drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.

      • radiofreebc@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        That’s what they want. It’s called “flooding the zone” and they want you so worn out on stupid shit like this, that you won’t bother to protest the really bad stuff still to come.

        • FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world
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          13 hours ago

          Quietly stacking courts and gerrymandering in Alabama or Oklahoma isn’t front page news, but will affect the lives of countless people in the future

          Big bomb go boom distracts from the machinations. Anyone who still has a shred of respect for their oath of enlistment should put a round through Hegseths forehead as punishment for war crimes.