So he’s barking vague mad decrees at his underlings and leaving it to them to figure out what to actually do about it. It’s a far cry from Obama being present in the situation room while Neptune Spear went down.
I’d term it more the Republican Shadow Government preparing for its next coup attempt. How far does this shadow government extend? What other actions are they taking to undermine the US government? Investigations are required.
NYT has an annotated version of the Signal chat. Gifted:
Marc Champion of Bloomberg observed that there was no discussion of blowback or consequence:
It’s hard to know whether this strategy of bigger air strikes will succeed. The Houthis had already shown signs of reduced capabilities in recent months as a result of dozens of smaller US attacks, and more might do the trick without a need for boots on the ground. But it’s hard to defeat any enemy with airstrikes alone. It’s also unclear how they might retaliate. What’s more interesting is that the political appointees in charge raised none of these questions of effectiveness and potential blowback. They don’t appear to have been discussed.
Instead, the principles discussed political ramifications and blaming Biden. Donald Trump was not among the principles.
Instead, the chat focused on how to persuade US taxpayers that this was the right and necessary thing to do. The conclusion was that messaging should focus relentlessly on Joe Biden’s failures and the Iranian threat, because so few Americans would know who the Houthis are.
Exactly, 100%.
It’s the first page in the Trump playbook for class Trump-101.
Deny absolutely everything that makes you look bad. No matter how obvious you are wrong, no matter how preposterous it is to deny the mistake, it is never your fault and it is always someone else’s fault (in this case Biden and the Atlantic editor and toss in the media which is always blamed).
Stick to that script. Never, ever stray from it.
And it works. MAGA love it. Republicans run the whole government (so there will be no accountability meted out). It will work again this time.
A few weeks from now this will be a distant memory in our short attention span country.
Yeah, that’s the same impression I get from reading it - that Hegseth and Vance really don’t want to bother with the Houthis, but they had to follow orders.
Seems implausible to me. What you’re suggesting is a staff member who takes communications security so seriously they’re willing to face job loss and criminal charges to protect it. And yet this person chooses to violate communications security by giving an outsider access to the meetings.
If it’s entirely routine, and if (per the participants’ own assertions) no classified material is discussed, then they should have no objection to including a high-profile journalist in every Signal chat group going forward.
I know they hate the media, but that’s overly cruel even for this administration.
It says a lot that the controversy is about an accidental group chat invite rather than an entire building being bombed to kill one person by people who doubted there was much of a point in doing so.
We’ve done so much of that going back to at least the Clinton Administration and through successive administrations of both shades in covert drone warfare, not to mention the industrial-grade carpet bombing of Cambodia and Laos in undeclared wars that this is just a pimple on top of a giant cancerous tumor.
Also, now John Ratcliffe is now claiming that the Signal app comes pre-installed on Agency computers. which, WTF? Why have I been getting annual cybersecurity briefs for years indicating that absolutely no commercial apps are suitable for communication about and transmission of controlled government information but the national intelligence apparatus is now using this to discuss offensive military planning and operation intelligence using privately owned mobile devices?
Stranger
Should have injected them with bleach.
Yeah. That would have been funnier.
This is so not my year.
That’s me in the corner
That’s me in the group
Chat
Listening to the war plans
Oh, no, I’ve said too much
This sent me to my knees, flailing.
I’d like to think that at least some, a few, OK, at least one or two, MAGAs finally realize that Trump’s denial of accountability in this business is simply additional proof that he was lying about stolen elections, emigrants voting, eating pets, sexual assault, fraud, etc…, ad infinitum … That is, if Trump would have simply, at first, taken responsibility, called it a screw-up and vow to punish those responsible, then they could stand behind the idea that Trump does admit when he is wrong, it’s only so rare that it’s hard to tell.
But, it is so clearly obvious in this case that Trump, and his Cabinet are lying and/or are condoning the lying, that some MAGAs might wonder if perhaps Trump had been lying in the past…
I said I’d like to think that, but I doubt any will. Perhaps we are getting closer to the tipping point where the US electorate decides enough is enough, but it seems we have long way to go. Unfortunately.
LOLOL
NOPE!
As usual, the YouTuber LeagelEagle has a great rundown of this whole thing:
(34 minutes)
It’s been clearly obvious for a number of years that Trump and the individuals he surrounds himself with are liars. Worse yet, they’re not even competent liars. Short of a catastrophic series of events that hurt Trump supporters in particular, I cannot reasonably expect them to change their opinion about him. And even then the jury is out on whether they’ll blame Trump or wokeness, Biden, or some other nonsense.
Turning against Trump means turning against their identity as well as friends and loved ones.