[guest post by Dana]

Oooh, big man on campus!

El Rancho High School teacher and Pico Rivera city councilman Gregory Salcido was caught on video maligning the U.S. military after singling out a student for wearing a U.S. Marines sweatshirt during his U.S. history class. The student’s father is a Marine veteran who served in Afghanistan:

Three videos on social media of Pico Rivera Councilman Gregory Salcido, a teacher at El Rancho High School, making disparaging remarks about the military and berating a student for wearing a sweatshirt with a Marines logo have gone viral and created a backlash.

El Rancho Unified School District officials confirmed Saturday. Jan. 27 that the person speaking is Salcido and that the incident took place on school grounds.

“We acknowledge it is his voice based on the research of the incident so far and knowing it came from one of our classrooms,” district Superintendent Karling Aguilera-Fort said in a phone interview.

Salcido’s rant included insulting members of the military fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and claiming that people only enlist in the military because they have no other options. Because they’re just dumb, you see:

“Because we have a bunch of dumbs‑‑‑s over there,” Salcido said in the video, which is peppered with profanity. “Think about the people who you know who are over there. Your freaking stupid Uncle Louie or whatever. They’re dumbs‑‑‑s. They’re not like high-level thinkers, they’re not academic people, they’re not intellectual people. They’re the lowest of our low.”

Of course Salcido completely ignored the many, many fine members of our military with advanced degrees and successful careers, both in and out of the military. He went on to directly address the student who wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps:

“You better not freaking go,” Salcido says in one recording. “Don’t wear that in here.”

He also made racist comments during the rant:

Salcido is heard speaking in loaded terms about foes of the United States, saying the military was losing to “dudes wearing freaking robes and chanclas [flip-flops]” in the Middle East.

“The data is in, we don’t have a good military,” he said. “We couldn’t beat the Vietnamese. They’re a bunch of people this freaking big throwing rice at us.”

He also criticized military recruiters in public schools.

“It’s a lie that our military is freaking b‑‑‑‑ing,” he said. “Why, after the national anthem, do we have a killing machine fly over the freaking stadium? You know, the stealth bomber comes in. Everyone’s all like, ‘Yeah.’ Like, ‘That’s what we kill people with, woo.’ Why would that be something we celebrate?”

After the videos went viral, an enormous backlash followed and as a result, Salcido has been placed on administrative leave and is under investigation by the school board.

Interestingly, this isn’t the first time Salcido’s behavior in the classroom has been the cause for concern:

In May 2012, he was put on paid administrative leave after the Sheriff’s Department received a complaint that he struck a student.

In July 2010, a parent complained that Salcido had threatened his daughter, made inappropriate comments to his summer school class about race and insulted other students and parents, which Salcido denied.

He was suspended until the following fall’s first day of class.

Salcido, who was first elected to the City Council in 1999, stands on the dais with his hands at his side and does not recite the pledge of allegiance along with his colleagues during meetings.

Also, today Fox News Radio played Salcido’s rant for their guest, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, himself a veteran. After hearing it, he commented:

“Well, I think the guy ought to go to hell. I just hope he enjoys the liberties and the lifestyles that we fought for.”

Said the White House Chief of Staff.

Perhaps high school teacher Salcido will take up one parent’s offer to educate him in an area in which he is obviously deficient:

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

Sarah Rumpf already posted about CNN’s blockbuster story revealing that Melania Trump traveled to the State of the Union speech separately from Trump. As Sarah said, the story might be worth a brief mention in the current environment — Stormy Daniels just denied having had a sexual relationship with Trump, but Melania has been less openly defensive of Trump lately, and stories abound about her recent seeming independence — but it’s hardly the biggest story out there.

But there is a paragraph in that CNN story that I think is worth a separate post, because it shows how absurd Big Media can get:

Melania Trump appeared to a standing ovation in the Capitol and was seated for her husband’s speech just one minute before its scheduled start.

Wearing a cream pantsuit by French design house Christian Dior, and a white silk blouse from Italian label Dolce & Gabbana, the first lady looked coincidentally very similar to the female Democratic congressional members who last year at Trump’s address to the Joint Session of Congress protested Trump’s policies by wearing white, the color of suffragettes.

It’s quite obvious that CNN doesn’t think this is a coincidence at all. They think Melania is sending them a Coded Signal: Help! I’m being oppressed! But I’m fighting back by wearing white like the suffragettes!

Please.

Near the end — after the recitation of all the other White House couples who have ridden to the SOTU together, I see one other attention-getting line that may explain a lot:

CNN’s Jim Acosta contributed to this report.

Well of course he did.

[Cross-posted at RedState and The Jury Talks Back.]