I'm listening to the Commentary Magazine podcast about this Signal thing. I'd say I can't believe it, but I really can.
I would like to point out that I have said for many years that the government people and the journalistical people are all crowded into the same vehicle, diligently patting one another's backs and pulling a fast one on the nation's - nay, the world's! - regular people.
As a read the press on Signal-gate, most of the attention is being focussed Walz.Yeah, he screwed up, but the entire lot of them were discussing policy on a non-approved system, one that, btw, disappears messages after a week or two. Policy discussions are supposed to be on approved systems that can be achived for history. The whole lot of them are in violation of the law. And they really don't care.
I've read a fair amount of speculation now about how much blowback from Signal-gate there will be and how much pain it might cause for the Republicans on the Hill. To which I posit that there'll be no more than a touch of shoulder fatigue and perhaps minor discomfort as they just shrug it all off as unimportant, as is their now 100% predictable M.O. for responding to anything negative that happens in or around Donald Trump's sphere of responsibilities and accountability.
Sorry. You'll have to excuse me for just a second while I step outside and howl like a banshee with laughter after typing the words "responsibilities and accountability" in the same sentence that contains the words "Donald Trump".
(Sound of receding footsteps, door opening and closing, clock on the wall of an empty room tick-tocking... strange, loud exterior noise and then a car alarm going off... door opening and closing, footsteps approaching, couch springs creaking)
There. OK, where was I? Oh, yeah...
Of course, there's so much nearly continuous shrugging going on in the Republican ranks on the Hill and most everywhere else these days that one would think a serious repetitive motion injury like rotator cuff tendonitis might start to present before too much longer.
But I'm sure those gold standard government health care plans they all have will cover any treatment that might be required in full.
As our Commander in Chief said some time ago now: Only the best people.
I am having a day, I overslept, I forgot to grab my lunch bag, I found a hole in the lining of the pocket of my very expensive coat...I had another wardrobe malfunction...luckily on the lunch, today is the day the Pizza guy comes ( I don't get pizza,,,but everything he sells is $5...I usually get boneless wings, but today I also got a salad, which his are very good...)....hope the rest of the day is better....
@Doug... I saw your comment over at Noah's about focus, and you got the most likes, and your comment was spot on...and then I run down the list and it's about as unfocused as a bunch of random comments can be, with Noah trying to be a thought leader and guide folks to agreement, but no.... It kinda turned into the object lesson of what I was talking about with the Dems not even being able to effectively argue about what to argue about.
Derek Thompson was on the Lawfare pod the other day talking about the book. It was better than his and Klein's reciprocal appearances on each other's pods. Having a third party interview him was helpful. I'm going to buy the book. Klein is left of where I am, though I respect him. Thompson has become one of my favs.
Previous to CSLF, I've not engaged in any social media stuff anywhere except in here. It all looked so bad, I figured I had better things to do. It being Substack, stuff gets tossed up for random consumption, so I bit at some person talking about remote work and now efficient everyone doing it is and how CEO's are the actual problem and if they'd just be effective leaders everyone could work from home, etc., etc. So, I dipped a toe in the water and commented that the CEO's are exercising leadership by requiring everyone to be in the office and the next thing I know is the person is telling me I abuse my children and wife, have anger management problems, and a few more ad hominem stupidities.
Social media really is a nasty place for any coherent discussion.
It's why I focus more on humor or feel-good family stories. I get far more likes and fewer jerks (although one poster appeared to take delight in trying to dispute stories about my wife Pam). But I also post at the muthaship my views on Ukraine.
1) I adopted from Ukraine, so I have a personal connection to the story.
2) Ukraine has lost 20% of its territory since 2022. It cannot expel Russia from its conflicted areas without additional troops (either European or US).
3) I'm appalled at the attitude of not sending in US troops to advance "our strategic interests", but not caring about the death and destruction of innocent civilians.
4) I've argued for "all-in or all-out" because it will save lives. I argue for Ukraine suing for peace now, not later, to save lives.
One can disagree with my views, but at the mutha ship there are at least a dozen jerks who make uncivil comments about it. So I mostly crack jokes. For my next to final Ukraine post, I'm gonna challenge my detractors to a bet on who wins the war.
BTW, Jonah is NOT in a good mood about "the other Goldberg journalist" in the news. That is real temptation! It is so tempting to poke him tomorrow in one of his columns, about it. I am hoping tomorrow night's G-file is a parody of other signal chats that included him.
Keep posting the fun stuff about life in China. It's fun to read, and insightful. I try not to say anything bad about China, although they have their faults as well.
Lotta faults. It's all messed up here in the most interesting ways that never get talked about in Western media. The West just harps on the stuff that everyone did or does and make moral judgments conveniently absolving themselves while condemning everything they don't actually know much about.
Then, there's the day to day boots on the ground that's remarkably fun. I get to live in the future.
Lately, there have been a number of thoughtful pieces by high level academics at the leading universities lamenting the lack of space for public discourse and no one's going to jail yet. The lights are still on. Smart people are still talking sense. I'm fortunate to see it.
My Facebook is 99% non political and 95% non religious. Mostly it's my wife!!, a brother and his 2 daughters and his wife, (youngest bro works in NatSec so...he is off the grid), one sis and her 2 daughters and son.
And a good couple dozen High School and college friends.
We just started a federal election campaign here, so I've started pausing several of my FB friends for the next month who seem to believe that it's a forum for posting whatever they like against whichever politician they don't. It's a nice feature - one click and I don't see their posts for 30 days.
Good morning. 36 degrees here, predicted to rise to about 50 and cloudy. Some professional guessers are predicting rain in the PM.
Both the mothership and the FP are covering the accidental including of the journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, in a classified conversation about attacks on Houthis in Yemen. The participants, including Secretary of Defense Hegseth, Secretary of State Rubio and VP Vance, were using an encrypted phone app called Signal, which is NOT approved for classified communications.
I used to hold a TOP SECRET clearance, both in the military and as a civilian contractor. If I had done that, my clearance would be gone and my a$$ would be in “deep do-do.” This is at least as egregious as Hillary Clinton keeping classified emails on her personal server.
This morning’s “Worth Your Time II” headline says it all: 'If Pete Hegseth Had Any Honor, He Would Resign' --David French. https://archive.ph/gFirD
And if he didn't, then if the guy who appointed him had any honor (or any common sense), he'd fire him. But if he had either of those two things he wouldn't have appointed him or any of the rest of these incompetent clowns in the first place.
Hillary included communications with classified markings on them. Nothing I read in the Atlantic was marked as such. I have no doubt some of what was shared was classified, given how much intel Uncle Sammy classifies.
My oldest has a TS-SCI; we don't even talk in generalities about his work. What I know I attained from public sources (knowing his org unit name, and what his skill set is, I can guess what he does). I know he researches UAVs (drones), enemy UAVs, likely to be able to make recommendations about their capabilities, for offensive and defensive purposes. I told him that, asking if I was accurate or not: "80%". He added there are other things he does as well.
He doesn't use signal at work (or at home), given he's not allowed to have any personal electronics at work (no cell phone, no iPad, no apple watch, etc.).
Well, your oldest has more common sense (and respect for the law) than these clowns. The reason none of it was marked classified was that it was in a chat, not a document. But what HRC did was and is unforgivable.
I suspect on the approved devices, the classification level would be displayed. More importantly, no uncleared persons, like journalists, would have an approved device.
I thought HRC should have gone to jail and I think that everyone on this call should be prosecuted, and whoever admitted Goldberg to the chat should go to jail. But they won't.
The answer to that is classified. But if you have that Signal app I might be able to share some info with you about future covert missions to "slip one in" on ya'.
I suspect it comes down to defining what is a war plan. Back in 1980s-1990s, when i worked for Naval Avionics we were taught it could refer to a range of things, including tactical plans and policies/strategic outcomes. My read of the chats that were published were war plans at the policy/strategic level (i.e. what will this do to gas prices, can we get Europe to pay for our opening up their shipping lanes). Hegseth could have been saying he didn't release/discuss any tactical level plans, so no war plans were texted, while Goldberg could be saying that they did discuss war plans. Both could be right...or wrong.
It simply depends on how they are defining the term.
I don't think you have read the article. Mr. Goldberg makes it very clear that he declined to disclose information that (by his description) any reasonable person would consider a "war plan".
Probably, but what I must ask is: What's all this talk lately about "receipts" in situations where I don't think a receipt as I understand it is involved?
I was reading some comments elsewhere about this thing last night after the news broke. One person was wondering about the use of "SCIFs" for such sensitive and important situations and why hadn't these folks been using "the cone of silence"? To which one rather astute commenter quickly replied:
Too much stupidity to fit underneath it all at once.
A SCIF (Secure Compartmented Information Facility) is normally required for discussing Secure Compartmented Information (SCI) which is often, but not necessarily, TOP SECRET. SCI is usually source-derived intelligence which would shed light on who or what the source is, if it were revealed.
From published accounts, it sounds like they were discussing operational plans that would be executed in the near future, which may or may not be SCI or even TS. They may be "just" SECRET.
Good thing, too. Most SCIFs are Faraday cage vaults that prevent electromagnetic emissions from going in or out, which means you can't use personal smartphones (even with s Signal app) in a SCIF. Ergo, they were likely not in a SCIF.
We had a SCIF at Naval Avionics. I wasn't allowed in there, even though I was the financial officer for the SCIF. So when it was time to do the mandatory triennial inventory, someone with that clearance had to do it. Our XO did it for us, then we'd buy him a beer after a round of golf in the golf league. We knew never to ask what was in there.
Ours was more or less housed in the attic. It had fewer than 50 people assigned (by manipulating spreadsheets I kinda sorta reverse engineered to get that number). My oldest works in a SCIF, but beyond that he doesn't say anything about it.
Thanks for the explainer, Phil. You obviously know a lot about it. I know you said you had a security clearance, so have a much better-informed perspective than the rest of us. But...
A Faraday cage is just an enclosure lined with wire mesh, inside the walls generally. The vault provides added security (and its probably easier to shied a vault than a regular suite of offices).
All that money squandered by previous administrations on secure internal communication channels, and they go broadcasting over some random web app so as not to leave a text record in the national archives…
Someone commenting elsewhere lamented the fact that in his view what should happen is Trump should 86 his entire cabinet and replace them all with "skilled and responsible MAGA people."
Let that last sink in for a minute.
I bit my tongue. But someone else quickly filled in for me, saying you probably couldn't find enough of those to staff a toll booth.
Followed by this from another wag: Or even a phone booth.
Stupid, yes. Arrogant, yes. I’m sure all of them were briefed on proper procedures regarding classified information, Rubio especially, since he has been in government much longer than the others.
I disagree about stupid. The issue is peer pressure, and a need to know. If anyone on that circle refuses to use Signal (or whatever is du jour method) then they get excluded from information they need for their work. In a highly political environment, not being in can weaken someone's authority.
Ironically, that need to know is what weakens it: because everyone has to be on, it's easier to send it to J Goldberg by mistake. No doubt Jonah gets included on stuff meant for Jeffrey, and visa versa.
So you are suggesting that if the VP, or the Secretary of Defense, or the Director of National Intelligence refused to join this Signal group text they would have just been excluded? That if JD Vance, the Vice-freaking-President of the US would have said "let's move this discussion to an approved secure device" the rest of the group would have just gone on without him?
** That if JD Vance, the Vice-freaking-President of the US would have said "let's move this discussion to an approved secure device" the rest of the group would have just gone on without him? **
Stipulating that all of us are speculating ... I think there are a lot of possibly complicated status dynamics among the administration figures. The vice president is not part of any official chain of command in the Executive Branch. He's just "pulse guy," in case the situation arises where the president doesn't have one.
It was reported that all the participants (excluding Goldberg of course) had access to secure voice equipment. At that level, they probably had devices they could carry with them.
It would not have taken much for someone to say, "hey can we take this to our secure phones?"
Accurate. Catchy. You're not going to trademark that are you? Might want to use it myself sometime, and I don't have one of those trademark thingies on my keyboard.
Yes, arrogantly stupid beyond anything I could have imagined. But, I'm not surprised. I've always believed Trump and his entourage to be not just disgusting, but actively stupid.
Yes, I think the eyes are just reflecting the feathers. As MarqueG observed, it can be hard to capture the color on film, because the color isn't really there: it's all just light effects.
Morning. We’re chilling for another day here, with highs in the mid-30s. The high for today happened already: around midnight, in the 40s. It’s a good day to prune briars, since you need thick clothing for the job…
I told him there wasn't time for him to take a shower. He's in the shower. He'll get what's coming to him. I have plenty of opportunities to make his life sufficiently uncomfortable that he decides to join the Army, all while maintaining a Professional Manner.
I told Brenda that, if I hadn't given up murder for Lent, F would have been in pieces in the freezer instead of at the meeting today.
She gave me that look that says, "When you're being all hyper-organized and being early and bringing all the stuff, I sometimes forget how strange you really are."
To be fair, I give her that look whenever she talks about politics. She's super Trumpy. One day, she said her son was looking for a girlfriend in the college Catholic Students Group, "but she has to be unvaccinated (for Covid)."
People who get militant about the Covid vaccine are people I try to avoid. I have colleagues in good health who still mask about campus, but who slip the mask down to eat in the cafeteria because everyone knows viruses also take lunch breaks.
My youngest has a date Saturday down in Cincinnati. I don't know how he met the girl, but he says she seems nice enough. She doesn't party hard, so he's hopeful they have a good date. He finds dating girls at UD a problem, since too many of them like to only date in large groups while they blackout drink. He tells me that isn't his scene.
Poor Jonah, being accused of writing The Atlantic story.
Stephen Hayes posted on twitter "Why would Jonah want to write for The Atlantic" and my first thought was
"A bigger audience"?
But I didn't post it!
Snap! And more prestige among #OurPeers.
I'm listening to the Commentary Magazine podcast about this Signal thing. I'd say I can't believe it, but I really can.
I would like to point out that I have said for many years that the government people and the journalistical people are all crowded into the same vehicle, diligently patting one another's backs and pulling a fast one on the nation's - nay, the world's! - regular people.
As a read the press on Signal-gate, most of the attention is being focussed Walz.Yeah, he screwed up, but the entire lot of them were discussing policy on a non-approved system, one that, btw, disappears messages after a week or two. Policy discussions are supposed to be on approved systems that can be achived for history. The whole lot of them are in violation of the law. And they really don't care.
I've read a fair amount of speculation now about how much blowback from Signal-gate there will be and how much pain it might cause for the Republicans on the Hill. To which I posit that there'll be no more than a touch of shoulder fatigue and perhaps minor discomfort as they just shrug it all off as unimportant, as is their now 100% predictable M.O. for responding to anything negative that happens in or around Donald Trump's sphere of responsibilities and accountability.
Sorry. You'll have to excuse me for just a second while I step outside and howl like a banshee with laughter after typing the words "responsibilities and accountability" in the same sentence that contains the words "Donald Trump".
(Sound of receding footsteps, door opening and closing, clock on the wall of an empty room tick-tocking... strange, loud exterior noise and then a car alarm going off... door opening and closing, footsteps approaching, couch springs creaking)
There. OK, where was I? Oh, yeah...
Of course, there's so much nearly continuous shrugging going on in the Republican ranks on the Hill and most everywhere else these days that one would think a serious repetitive motion injury like rotator cuff tendonitis might start to present before too much longer.
But I'm sure those gold standard government health care plans they all have will cover any treatment that might be required in full.
As our Commander in Chief said some time ago now: Only the best people.
I am having a day, I overslept, I forgot to grab my lunch bag, I found a hole in the lining of the pocket of my very expensive coat...I had another wardrobe malfunction...luckily on the lunch, today is the day the Pizza guy comes ( I don't get pizza,,,but everything he sells is $5...I usually get boneless wings, but today I also got a salad, which his are very good...)....hope the rest of the day is better....
Cool Bird, specifically the black one with the bright blue plumage...are those bright blue eyes real or a reflection off the plumage?
Those are actually feathers, not his eyes. His eyes are dark brown and kind of disappear into the background.
I saw that clip of that crazy looking bird and its crazy behavior when the show it was taken from was on TV.
It was, shall I say, pretty Wild...
Nat Geo Wild.
Bwaah ha ha ha ha ha ha !!!
Ooh, that is even cooler. Thanks.
Think it's a reflection , but I'll check Birds of the World when I'm at home.
Thanks
...oh but the emails!!!
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤐🫡🫡🫡🤢
@Doug... I saw your comment over at Noah's about focus, and you got the most likes, and your comment was spot on...and then I run down the list and it's about as unfocused as a bunch of random comments can be, with Noah trying to be a thought leader and guide folks to agreement, but no.... It kinda turned into the object lesson of what I was talking about with the Dems not even being able to effectively argue about what to argue about.
Very fine praise Kurt, thank-you. I value your like, more than Noah's.
Because you have lived and argued for many of the things, the hopefully new Leftist political focus desires, Abundance.
Hopefully.
Derek Thompson was on the Lawfare pod the other day talking about the book. It was better than his and Klein's reciprocal appearances on each other's pods. Having a third party interview him was helpful. I'm going to buy the book. Klein is left of where I am, though I respect him. Thompson has become one of my favs.
The whole of society seems to be ADHD anymore. Not sure if the internet is causal or, uh, effectal…
Misread effectal as effecal. Something subliminal going on with that one, me thinks.
Look! A squirrel!
Eastern gray squirrel.
Sorry, I was distracted...
If I get a vote, I vote both.
Any plans to move the CSLF to Signal? 🧐 it might attract more subscribers!
Good idea! We might be able to get some Trump "policymakers" as fans!
That's funny!
Previous to CSLF, I've not engaged in any social media stuff anywhere except in here. It all looked so bad, I figured I had better things to do. It being Substack, stuff gets tossed up for random consumption, so I bit at some person talking about remote work and now efficient everyone doing it is and how CEO's are the actual problem and if they'd just be effective leaders everyone could work from home, etc., etc. So, I dipped a toe in the water and commented that the CEO's are exercising leadership by requiring everyone to be in the office and the next thing I know is the person is telling me I abuse my children and wife, have anger management problems, and a few more ad hominem stupidities.
Social media really is a nasty place for any coherent discussion.
Not only should one never read the comment sections, one should never, uh, comment.
Except of course on CSLF
Chris Best, Hamish McKenzie, and Jairaj Sethi could not be reached for comment.
Never heard of 'em.
They are the owners of Substack, along with some other investors, I believe.
Oh. Well, good for them.
It's because we are liberated.
Speak for yourself. I'm an Independent. Ain't nobody gonna' own me.
You may independently choose to not be liberated, of course. It's a free publication.
It's why I focus more on humor or feel-good family stories. I get far more likes and fewer jerks (although one poster appeared to take delight in trying to dispute stories about my wife Pam). But I also post at the muthaship my views on Ukraine.
1) I adopted from Ukraine, so I have a personal connection to the story.
2) Ukraine has lost 20% of its territory since 2022. It cannot expel Russia from its conflicted areas without additional troops (either European or US).
3) I'm appalled at the attitude of not sending in US troops to advance "our strategic interests", but not caring about the death and destruction of innocent civilians.
4) I've argued for "all-in or all-out" because it will save lives. I argue for Ukraine suing for peace now, not later, to save lives.
One can disagree with my views, but at the mutha ship there are at least a dozen jerks who make uncivil comments about it. So I mostly crack jokes. For my next to final Ukraine post, I'm gonna challenge my detractors to a bet on who wins the war.
BTW, Jonah is NOT in a good mood about "the other Goldberg journalist" in the news. That is real temptation! It is so tempting to poke him tomorrow in one of his columns, about it. I am hoping tomorrow night's G-file is a parody of other signal chats that included him.
I'd rather read your thoughts rather than Jonah's...
#MeToo
I need to self moderate. I can feel the interweb getting to me.
Keep posting the fun stuff about life in China. It's fun to read, and insightful. I try not to say anything bad about China, although they have their faults as well.
I agree. I enjoy the stories, and I don't need to have a big picture opinion.
Thanks much.
Lotta faults. It's all messed up here in the most interesting ways that never get talked about in Western media. The West just harps on the stuff that everyone did or does and make moral judgments conveniently absolving themselves while condemning everything they don't actually know much about.
Then, there's the day to day boots on the ground that's remarkably fun. I get to live in the future.
Lately, there have been a number of thoughtful pieces by high level academics at the leading universities lamenting the lack of space for public discourse and no one's going to jail yet. The lights are still on. Smart people are still talking sense. I'm fortunate to see it.
My Facebook is 99% non political and 95% non religious. Mostly it's my wife!!, a brother and his 2 daughters and his wife, (youngest bro works in NatSec so...he is off the grid), one sis and her 2 daughters and son.
And a good couple dozen High School and college friends.
No one I haven't known for 30 years!!
We just started a federal election campaign here, so I've started pausing several of my FB friends for the next month who seem to believe that it's a forum for posting whatever they like against whichever politician they don't. It's a nice feature - one click and I don't see their posts for 30 days.
That's a good metric.
Good morning. 36 degrees here, predicted to rise to about 50 and cloudy. Some professional guessers are predicting rain in the PM.
Both the mothership and the FP are covering the accidental including of the journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, in a classified conversation about attacks on Houthis in Yemen. The participants, including Secretary of Defense Hegseth, Secretary of State Rubio and VP Vance, were using an encrypted phone app called Signal, which is NOT approved for classified communications.
I used to hold a TOP SECRET clearance, both in the military and as a civilian contractor. If I had done that, my clearance would be gone and my a$$ would be in “deep do-do.” This is at least as egregious as Hillary Clinton keeping classified emails on her personal server.
This morning’s “Worth Your Time II” headline says it all: 'If Pete Hegseth Had Any Honor, He Would Resign' --David French. https://archive.ph/gFirD
And if he didn't, then if the guy who appointed him had any honor (or any common sense), he'd fire him. But if he had either of those two things he wouldn't have appointed him or any of the rest of these incompetent clowns in the first place.
The guy who appointed Hegseth is the biggest incompetent clown of all.
Guess who appointed *him*? "We the People".
And "*we*" did it twice.
Edit: Sort of makes it a toss-up for The Biggest Incompetent Prize, I guess.
Definitely resignation-worthy. Indefensible.
Hillary included communications with classified markings on them. Nothing I read in the Atlantic was marked as such. I have no doubt some of what was shared was classified, given how much intel Uncle Sammy classifies.
My oldest has a TS-SCI; we don't even talk in generalities about his work. What I know I attained from public sources (knowing his org unit name, and what his skill set is, I can guess what he does). I know he researches UAVs (drones), enemy UAVs, likely to be able to make recommendations about their capabilities, for offensive and defensive purposes. I told him that, asking if I was accurate or not: "80%". He added there are other things he does as well.
He doesn't use signal at work (or at home), given he's not allowed to have any personal electronics at work (no cell phone, no iPad, no apple watch, etc.).
Again Jay, read the article.
From The Atlantic: "The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans": https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/trump-administration-accidentally-texted-me-its-war-plans/682151/?gift=GJ8BttuoXrtu1ZXQn6tAiS-jXDcfN9CuGzB2l-JBEYs&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
Well, your oldest has more common sense (and respect for the law) than these clowns. The reason none of it was marked classified was that it was in a chat, not a document. But what HRC did was and is unforgivable.
I suspect on the approved devices, the classification level would be displayed. More importantly, no uncleared persons, like journalists, would have an approved device.
I thought HRC should have gone to jail and I think that everyone on this call should be prosecuted, and whoever admitted Goldberg to the chat should go to jail. But they won't.
All true.
I agree with you, Phil.
But, he has no honor. Never has.
Nope.
..."the lumpers have prevailed over the splitters."
There's just something about this that brought a huge grin to my face. Thanks, C.
You're welcome.
I am by nature more of a lumper than a splitter. But it is easier to publish splitter material.
Taxonomy is hard.
True. That's why I never do my own tax returns but pay to have a professional do them.
Trying to slip one in on me? 🚪
There is a far-side cartoon where a stuffed deer head says to another
"Nothing is permanent except for death and taxidermy".
The answer to that is classified. But if you have that Signal app I might be able to share some info with you about future covert missions to "slip one in" on ya'.
That seems like it might be dirty.
Probably too hard for AI to handle!
Hegseth dismissing the texted war plans with the statement "We were not texting war plans", rang about as sincere as Bart Simpson's "I didn't do it".
I suspect it comes down to defining what is a war plan. Back in 1980s-1990s, when i worked for Naval Avionics we were taught it could refer to a range of things, including tactical plans and policies/strategic outcomes. My read of the chats that were published were war plans at the policy/strategic level (i.e. what will this do to gas prices, can we get Europe to pay for our opening up their shipping lanes). Hegseth could have been saying he didn't release/discuss any tactical level plans, so no war plans were texted, while Goldberg could be saying that they did discuss war plans. Both could be right...or wrong.
It simply depends on how they are defining the term.
I don't think you have read the article. Mr. Goldberg makes it very clear that he declined to disclose information that (by his description) any reasonable person would consider a "war plan".
Then you don't know what constitutes the different levels of a war plan. I cannot help you there.
Yes. Goldberg has the receipts.
Probably, but what I must ask is: What's all this talk lately about "receipts" in situations where I don't think a receipt as I understand it is involved?
Yeah. Its lingo. It means that Goldberg's got "da goods".
I think it means "documents or other evidence showing that what you are saying is accurate."
I get that from the context. I just think they ought to come up with another word, because "receipts" already has a meaning.
They could say, "He has evidence," but that wouldn't sound snazzy and up-to-date.
“It’s all been said before, just not yet by everyone.”
- Karl Valentin
Yeah! I know…it’s stupid to a degree I can’t describe.
I was reading some comments elsewhere about this thing last night after the news broke. One person was wondering about the use of "SCIFs" for such sensitive and important situations and why hadn't these folks been using "the cone of silence"? To which one rather astute commenter quickly replied:
Too much stupidity to fit underneath it all at once.
That’s good. They also could have used their shoe phones.
Probably should have. Might have saved them from the foot in mouth disease they're now suffering from in trying to defend their indefensible idiocy.
Right. I have to admit, this one confirms my worst forebodings.
A SCIF (Secure Compartmented Information Facility) is normally required for discussing Secure Compartmented Information (SCI) which is often, but not necessarily, TOP SECRET. SCI is usually source-derived intelligence which would shed light on who or what the source is, if it were revealed.
From published accounts, it sounds like they were discussing operational plans that would be executed in the near future, which may or may not be SCI or even TS. They may be "just" SECRET.
Good thing, too. Most SCIFs are Faraday cage vaults that prevent electromagnetic emissions from going in or out, which means you can't use personal smartphones (even with s Signal app) in a SCIF. Ergo, they were likely not in a SCIF.
(Sorry, that's a lot of jargon).
We had a SCIF at Naval Avionics. I wasn't allowed in there, even though I was the financial officer for the SCIF. So when it was time to do the mandatory triennial inventory, someone with that clearance had to do it. Our XO did it for us, then we'd buy him a beer after a round of golf in the golf league. We knew never to ask what was in there.
Ours was more or less housed in the attic. It had fewer than 50 people assigned (by manipulating spreadsheets I kinda sorta reverse engineered to get that number). My oldest works in a SCIF, but beyond that he doesn't say anything about it.
My brother works in a SCIF. Our mother couldn't grasp that he wasn't able to receive phone calls during the work day.
Thanks for the explainer, Phil. You obviously know a lot about it. I know you said you had a security clearance, so have a much better-informed perspective than the rest of us. But...
Faraday cage vaults? Electromagnetic emissions? SCI, SCIFs?
All sounds like it's out of a SCI-FI move to me. 🙄
There's a lot of "eye candy" in spy movies.
A Faraday cage is just an enclosure lined with wire mesh, inside the walls generally. The vault provides added security (and its probably easier to shied a vault than a regular suite of offices).
Hegseth is not going to be bringing coleslaw to a mensa picnic any time soon...
Yeah. Those Mensa types would probably be afraid the ants would get an invite to attend through Signal.
So you’re saying he should bring the Hot Dish instead?
Wasn't Hot Dish one of the women he had an extra-marital affair with?
🤣🤣🤣
Good. He'd probably let it grow salmonella.
Unless he is catering as a worker. If the caterer hires stupid people.
Most caterer employees I've met are college students.
HAHAHAHA….
All that money squandered by previous administrations on secure internal communication channels, and they go broadcasting over some random web app so as not to leave a text record in the national archives…
This is a real turd-blossom bouquet of a cabinet.
Someone commenting elsewhere lamented the fact that in his view what should happen is Trump should 86 his entire cabinet and replace them all with "skilled and responsible MAGA people."
Let that last sink in for a minute.
I bit my tongue. But someone else quickly filled in for me, saying you probably couldn't find enough of those to staff a toll booth.
Followed by this from another wag: Or even a phone booth.
** Trump should 86 his entire cabinet and replace them all with "skilled and responsible MAGA people." **
It reminds me of Sammy "The Bull" Gravano in that these people obviously have no idea how completely bizarre they seem to normal people.
You're not kidding. With heavy emphasis on "completely".
Kinda puts the HRC email server kerfluffle in perspective.
Yup.
Are they just stupid, or what?
Stupid, *and* "what".
Stooopid.
Stupid, yes. Arrogant, yes. I’m sure all of them were briefed on proper procedures regarding classified information, Rubio especially, since he has been in government much longer than the others.
I disagree about stupid. The issue is peer pressure, and a need to know. If anyone on that circle refuses to use Signal (or whatever is du jour method) then they get excluded from information they need for their work. In a highly political environment, not being in can weaken someone's authority.
Ironically, that need to know is what weakens it: because everyone has to be on, it's easier to send it to J Goldberg by mistake. No doubt Jonah gets included on stuff meant for Jeffrey, and visa versa.
So you are suggesting that if the VP, or the Secretary of Defense, or the Director of National Intelligence refused to join this Signal group text they would have just been excluded? That if JD Vance, the Vice-freaking-President of the US would have said "let's move this discussion to an approved secure device" the rest of the group would have just gone on without him?
** That if JD Vance, the Vice-freaking-President of the US would have said "let's move this discussion to an approved secure device" the rest of the group would have just gone on without him? **
Stipulating that all of us are speculating ... I think there are a lot of possibly complicated status dynamics among the administration figures. The vice president is not part of any official chain of command in the Executive Branch. He's just "pulse guy," in case the situation arises where the president doesn't have one.
In summary, what a bizarre kerfuffle.
That's groupthink stupid.
It was reported that all the participants (excluding Goldberg of course) had access to secure voice equipment. At that level, they probably had devices they could carry with them.
It would not have taken much for someone to say, "hey can we take this to our secure phones?"
*groupthink stupid*
Accurate. Catchy. You're not going to trademark that are you? Might want to use it myself sometime, and I don't have one of those trademark thingies on my keyboard.
Yes, arrogantly stupid beyond anything I could have imagined. But, I'm not surprised. I've always believed Trump and his entourage to be not just disgusting, but actively stupid.
A bird "often found at the tops of trees" in western New Guinea! Found by whom, one wonders, and how?!? Do the bird tourists use drones?
Found by highly motivated graduate students? "How badly do you want that PhD?"
The unsung (and uncredited) heroes of research.
So true.
Found by ascendant bird-watchers, no doubt.
Cool birds. When the male does that thing and his eyes go phosphorescent blue-green...is that his regular eyes reflecting the plumage?
Update: Not his eyes. Those are spots of iridescent feathers. His eyes are dark brown and hard to see when he's performing.
It’s magical.
Yes, I think the eyes are just reflecting the feathers. As MarqueG observed, it can be hard to capture the color on film, because the color isn't really there: it's all just light effects.
It’s pretty cool. The shape of the plumage, that dance, the eyes…. Cool.
That shiny black seems to make them very hard to film. Amazing colors all around.
Good morning, friends. The youth are not happy about being up today. F is mumbling nastily and will Get His later on.
Morning. We’re chilling for another day here, with highs in the mid-30s. The high for today happened already: around midnight, in the 40s. It’s a good day to prune briars, since you need thick clothing for the job…
Have you tried "the beatings will continue until morale improves"....(?)
My husband has a bike “kit” with that saying on it, lol!
I told him there wasn't time for him to take a shower. He's in the shower. He'll get what's coming to him. I have plenty of opportunities to make his life sufficiently uncomfortable that he decides to join the Army, all while maintaining a Professional Manner.
RE: He's in the shower. He'll get what's coming to him.
Hmmm... Will the rest of your family come to see you on visiting day?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRclearNRvc
Erm, not what I meant.
I told Brenda that, if I hadn't given up murder for Lent, F would have been in pieces in the freezer instead of at the meeting today.
She gave me that look that says, "When you're being all hyper-organized and being early and bringing all the stuff, I sometimes forget how strange you really are."
To be fair, I give her that look whenever she talks about politics. She's super Trumpy. One day, she said her son was looking for a girlfriend in the college Catholic Students Group, "but she has to be unvaccinated (for Covid)."
People who get militant about the Covid vaccine are people I try to avoid. I have colleagues in good health who still mask about campus, but who slip the mask down to eat in the cafeteria because everyone knows viruses also take lunch breaks.
My youngest has a date Saturday down in Cincinnati. I don't know how he met the girl, but he says she seems nice enough. She doesn't party hard, so he's hopeful they have a good date. He finds dating girls at UD a problem, since too many of them like to only date in large groups while they blackout drink. He tells me that isn't his scene.
I hope your son had a nice time. It's too bad that the college's "scene" is blackout drinking.
"giving up murder for Lent"
Huh. 🤣🤣
"but she has to be unvaccinated (for Covid)."
Well, if that doesn't deserve "that look", nothing does.
I have a feeling the sons will stop caring about that kind of thing once they leave home.
Can we move you up into a West Wing Cabinet position?
My mother wanted me to have a Real Job With Pay.
Cause raising 10 youth/volunteer extraordinaire isn’t enough!
There's no pay.