The direction of society lately

[thollandpe]

Wow. Find The Atlantic article and read it. Buy the magazine and keep it. This is utterly stunning and Jeffrey Goldberg was the only one who handled himself like a pro.




"S M" is Stephen Miller. Thinking he can extract concessions and remunerations after it's done. I have not read The Art of the Deal, but is that how you do a deal?

It was the next morning, Saturday, March 15, when this story became truly bizarre.

At 11:44 a.m., the account labeled "Pete Hegseth" posted in Signal a "TEAM UPDATE." I will not quote from this update, or from certain other subsequent texts. The information contained in them, if they had been read by an adversary of the United States, could conceivably have been used to harm American military and intelligence personnel, particularly in the broader Middle East, Central Command's area of responsibility. What I will say, in order to illustrate the shocking recklessness of this Signal conversation, is that the Hegseth post contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.

The only person to reply to the update from Hegseth was the person identified as the vice president. "I will say a prayer for victory," Vance wrote. (Two other users subsequently added prayer emoji.)

Well good thing they're hard at work securing our military against the real threats.

Unfortunately, in recent years civilian and uniformed leadership alike have implemented Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs and their attendant race and sex preferences within the Armed Forces. These actions undermine leadership, merit, and unit cohesion, thereby eroding lethality and force readiness.

Whiskey Pete = DUI hire.

[Tom]

Even if they had not taken steps to include somebody they didn't intend to, how do these morons even know that they are running clean versions of the product? It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest that they've received "your product is out of date and will stop working, click this link to update it" messages and they clicked the link.

The irresponsibility is mind blowing.

[Paul Jacobs]

From BBC News:

A security expert has warned that the US administration’s mis-use of messaging services like Signal could be exploited by Russia in its talks on Ukraine.

Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, an ex-army officer and security expert, tells BBC 5Live that he’s in a number of Signal groups himself, but adds that the app is typically used for administration purposes, “not for operation”.

“Most of us ditched it a few years ago because it is so easy to hack into”, he explains, before describing how data breaches could be exploited by Russia in its negotiations with the US on Ukraine.

As a result of the leak, de Bretton-Gordon suggests that Vladimir Putin will be “sitting very happy in the Kremlin at the moment”.

“When you have people like [Pete] Hesgeth and [Steve] Witkoff who apparently are not trained and have no idea about counter surveillance and espionage, it just makes life really, really easy," he adds.

- end of BBC quote.

Of course I realise that what happened here was gifting information not a hack.

[j44ke]

WTF is Stephen Miller doing participating in this? What leadership structure puts him in a strategic discussion like bombing a foreign country? Is he lead babysitter? I bet he is. I bet Trump has him babysitting all the kids. Or more likely since he's Iago to Trump's Othello, he's the shadow president now.

[gregl]

Trump's a simple, stupid animal. He cares only for dominance and attendant revenge. He could care less for unimportant things like "governance." He leaves that to minions. Into that power, moral, and ethical vacuum comes this group of morons. Congratulations, MAGA America. You're getting exactly what you voted for and deserve. The rest of us are just collateral damage.

Greg

[Paul Jacobs]

Trump's a simple, stupid animal. The rest of us are just collateral damage.

Greg

Including turtles, it seems.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c30myl9q550o

[htwoopup]

And, as Jonathan Last has pointed out, the Brits and the Europeans HAVE been taking out Houthi drones etc so they have been doing their part. And, they didn’t ask for this so absurd to think they could be shaken down. And, as was in the article the US had to do this now before the Israelis did and got credit for it? And, they use Signal so they don’t have a record of it which is illegal on the Archives act and FOIA. And the guy running the CIA puts a CIA agent’s name in a group chat on unsecure devices in an unsecure app and people in the chat have no clearance to know the agent’s name? The guy running the place puts his own peoples’ lives in danger and that is ok? Oh, and as someone has pointed out…aside from that you know that Russia and China for sure have hacked these morons personal phones, Witikoff was actually in Moscow at the time of the chat so it must have been really hard for the Russians to know what was going on. And, the death of 53 folks so that Trump could look like a tough guy surely doesn’t violate any laws. But WTAF, laws don’t apply to us anyway.

[suspectdevice]

One must postulate that the reason these folks are on Signal, instead of a secure, government issued/operated communications channel is that they don’t want to comply with federal records laws.

When your goal is malfeasance- you don’t want to be recorded for posterity.

That Atlantic editor is a “former” Israeli Defense Force operative. Nobody ever really leaves the intelligence apparatus- so it’s safe to assume this leak was Bibi’s way of letting europe know they should go pound sand.

The Atlantic, like the NYT is a primary water carrier for pro-genocide forces inside the “liberal establishment”.

[72gmc]

Heather’s take. “Lock them up” comes to mind.

https://open.substack.com/pub/heathe...m_medium=email

[Scott G.]

And, as Jonathan Last has pointed out, the Brits and the Europeans HAVE been taking out Houthi drones etc so they have been doing their part. And, they didn’t ask for this so absurd to think they could be shaken down. And, as was in the article the US had to do this now before the Israelis did and got credit for it?[snip]

The Israeli's bombed the Houthis back in December, the Saudis and assorted Gulf countries have been bombing too.
If DJT wants to shake someone down, how about the merchant ships operating under flag a convenience ?
JdV is bit confused, it's isn't the Europeans they're protecting it is Chinese ships flying the Hong Kong flag,
maybe the PLAN could protect the Hong Kong ships ?

[vertical_doug]

One must postulate that the reason these folks are on Signal, instead of a secure, government issued/operated communications channel is that they don’t want to comply with federal records laws.

When your goal is malfeasance- you don’t want to be recorded for posterity.

That Atlantic editor is a “former” Israeli Defense Force operative. Nobody ever really leaves the intelligence apparatus- so it’s safe to assume this leak was Bibi’s way of letting europe know they should go pound sand.

The Atlantic, like the NYT is a primary water carrier for pro-genocide forces inside the “liberal establishment”.

I think he was a prison guard in the military. Operative is a stretch and to tie this back to Bibi doesn't make sense. He wants the current cowboys, he doesn't want to destabilize them

[suspectdevice]

I think he was a prison guard in the military. Operative is a stretch and to tie this back to Bibi doesn't make sense. He wants the current cowboys, he doesn't want to destabilize them

This dude spread the Sadam/ Al Qaeda “link” misinformation in 2002🤮 after serving in the IDF… one of the original Big Lies that sunk the American Empire.

The majority of his journalistic career has been spent spinning yarns about Israel and re-packaging apartheid as statehood and legitimate conflict, while just needling the powerful people he has access to enough to exude “journalism”.

This is what intelligence agencies do, create and control narratives, hiding truth in fiction.

The narrative here: America doesn’t want to help Europe, and America is angry that Europe doesn’t want to help kill people in the levant on behalf of israel, enough.

The poor Opsec is the sugar coating for normalizing the new, perverse, Maga definition of “antisemitism”- not supporting wholesale genocide and ethnic cleansing.

[BBB]

Ms Hyde always has an amusing take. This time on the 'leak'.

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...r-donald-trump

[vertical_doug]

This dude spread the Sadam/ Al Qaeda “link” misinformation in 2002�� after serving in the IDF… one of the original Big Lies that sunk the American Empire.

The majority of his journalistic career has been spent spinning yarns about Israel and re-packaging apartheid as statehood and legitimate conflict, while just needling the powerful people he has access to enough to exude “journalism”.

This is what intelligence agencies do, create and control narratives, hiding truth in fiction.

The narrative here: America doesn’t want to help Europe, and America is angry that Europe doesn’t want to help kill people in the levant on behalf of israel, enough.

The poor Opsec is the sugar coating for normalizing the new, perverse, Maga definition of “antisemitism”- not supporting wholesale genocide and ethnic cleansing.

yes it is was intelligence agencies do, but a simpler conclusion is he was just a useful idiot. He was not the only journalist spreading the lies. The same can be said for journalists now.

[thollandpe]

Saw this somewhere, historically bad group texts...

Weather looking good for June 6, boys.

OK team, mark that as D-Day for Operation Overlord, we good?

Confirmed for the British.

Tedder confirming for the air.

Leigh-Mallory as well.

Ramsey confirming for Neptune.

Um, this is the editor for Völkischer Beobachter, am I supposed to be on this?

WTF, dudes!!??

<angry face emoji>

[j44ke]

This dude spread the Sadam/ Al Qaeda “link” misinformation in 2002�� after serving in the IDF… one of the original Big Lies that sunk the American Empire.

The majority of his journalistic career has been spent spinning yarns about Israel and re-packaging apartheid as statehood and legitimate conflict, while just needling the powerful people he has access to enough to exude “journalism”.

This is what intelligence agencies do, create and control narratives, hiding truth in fiction.

The narrative here: America doesn’t want to help Europe, and America is angry that Europe doesn’t want to help kill people in the levant on behalf of israel, enough.

The poor Opsec is the sugar coating for normalizing the new, perverse, Maga definition of “antisemitism”- not supporting wholesale genocide and ethnic cleansing.

yes it is was intelligence agencies do, but a simpler conclusion is he was just a useful idiot. He was not the only journalist spreading the lies. The same can be said for journalists now.

Plenty of people on the interwebs are not who they say they are. Even on cycling forums.

[vertical_doug]

[j44ke]

Most cycling forum moderators look like George Clooney.

[9tubes]

With the physique and talent of Peter Sagan.

[72gmc]

Most cycling forum moderators look like George Clooney.

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