Chit-Chat: The Feels

[EtheltoTillie]

Very good interviews with Goldberg and Warner on Morning Joe. 

[bluegirl147]

8 hours ago, Anela said:

Democrat wins special state Senate election in Pennsylvania in major upset

Republicans will downplay this but I think it's a harbinger of things to come.

3 hours ago, jessiebell said:

These people aren't even the bottom of the barrel - they're beneath the barrel.

You are being generous.  They are underground at this point.

3 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

I guess, there were a few things that should probably be looked into. Didn't Musk offer voters money in one state or something? 

Yes he did. And at least twice Trump has publicly said Musk knows computers and referenced Pennsylvania and how they won in a landslide. (they didn't win in a landslide).

2 hours ago, tres bien said:

And the wife of former MN State Senator Justin Eichorn (in jail for soliciting sex from an underage woman which was an undercover police officer) filed for divorce on Monday 

Good for her.  And now he is trying to obstruct the investigation which led to the judge saying you have to stay in jail instead of being released to a halfway house.  If found guilty he is looking at a mandatory 10 year sentence.  They are federal charges though so Trump could pardon him though.

1 hour ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

Pete's history of alcohol abuse is well-documented and also discussed during his confirmation hearing. His coworkers at Fox News knew he was a drunk, and the family of his ex-wife wrote letters to Congress detailing it.

He also said he would stop drinking if he got the job. So if this is him sober we are so screwed. But I think he is still drinking. 

50 minutes ago, fastiller said:

Odd timing: Deanne Bray (Sue Thomas) was on Will Trent last night.

I love Will Trent. I always watch on Hulu.  Can't wait to see this episode.

And fuck Tulsi Gabbard.  Her refusing to answer questions.  Didn't she say she would be completely transparent if confirmed?

[EtheltoTillie]

6 minutes ago, bluegirl147 said:

I love Will Trent. I always watch on Hulu.  Can't wait to see this episode.

 

Be prepared.  That's all. 

[fastiller]

@bluegirl147 - @EtheltoTillie is so right.  Be prepared.  See y'all over in the Will Trent forum.

[Bookish Jen]

42 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

Very good interviews with Goldberg and Warner on Morning Joe. 

Goldberg is the host of the PBS show "Washington Week," which I watch either Friday night or Saturday afternoon. I think this week's episode is going to be a humdinger.

And I figured we could use a giggle:

[annzeepark914]

Over at AOL news, the actual "chat" is posted (by Goldberg). The comments section has gone wild. Magats are trying their doggone best to deflect, per usual.

[bluegirl147]

31 minutes ago, annzeepark914 said:

Over at AOL news, the actual "chat" is posted (by Goldberg). The comments section has gone wild. Magats are trying their doggone best to deflect, per usual.

Here is the link.

https://www.aol.com/attack-plans-trump-advisers-shared-121908379.html

[Dimity]

1 hour ago, bluegirl147 said:

And fuck Tulsi Gabbard.  Her refusing to answer questions.  Didn't she say she would be completely transparent if confirmed?

Liars gonna lie.  And Fascists bending the knee to der Führer are gonna lie even harder.   She and the rest are hopefully in for a day of reckoning.  I hope their few years of power will be worth it to them.

[laurakaye]

52 minutes ago, Bookish Jen said:

Goldberg is the host of the PBS show "Washington Week," which I watch either Friday night or Saturday afternoon. I think this week's episode is going to be a humdinger.

And I figured we could use a giggle:

I do appreciate a giggle now and again regarding the sh!tshow that is the US.  But at the same time, making light of things feels like we are trying to downplay the very real danger these incompetent bozos are putting us in.  It's like we have to laugh to keep from crying because the dumpster fire is coming from inside the house, while the fireman are chuckling about whose turn it is to turn on the water.

As for comfort watches, Kevin in the Countryside popped up on my YouTube homepage.  Kevin - who we never see, nor hear unless he says "Morning" to a passerby - takes long walks through various quaint English villages and shows us the beautiful old cottages, the churches, fields of sheep, overlooked trails, etc.  And if he's walking in the rain, I can practically hear my blood pressure falling.  

[PRgal]

5 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

 

 

That sounds scary! 

 

I agree that liberals' opinion of electric vehicles hasn't changed just because their opinion of Musk might have changed (I think many people had started to dislike Musk's cars before the election because he'd kind of dropped the ball when it came to innovation. He'd been the first and then missed that the competition had caught up. From what I understand, this is how we ended up with the cybertruck). 

 

 

I don't think the neck-in-neck polls are as scary as some people think.  It'll lead to another minority government which means that the party with the most seats will need to form a coalition with another party.  It would mean a government more politically in the centre, too (not that the current Liberals aren't already in the middle).  That said, someone on Threads referred to Nerd Boy (i.e. Pierre Poilievre as "Le Petit Pipi" which made me LOL because it roughly translates to a small you-know-what). 😂

[bluegirl147]

2 minutes ago, PRgal said:

That said, someone on Threads referred to Nerd Boy (i.e. Pierre Poilievre as "Le Petit Pipi" which made me LOL because it roughly translates to a small you-know-what)

I have a theory that is why so many Republican men are the way they are.  They are overcompensating for their shortcomings.

[Makai]

2 hours ago, bluegirl147 said:

Here is the link.

https://www.aol.com/attack-plans-trump-advisers-shared-121908379.html

Brilliant movie by The Atlantic. Drop the bombshell, sit back for a couple of days and watch the assholes lie that no classified information was included and then release the classified information that was included. 

I don’t have any hope that the hypocrite Republicans in congress will actually do the right thing and cooperate with an impeachment but I do think there will be at least one sacrificial lamb.  

3 hours ago, bluegirl147 said:

Republicans will downplay this but I think it's a harbinger of things to come.

I agree. An interesting test will come with the special elections on April 1st. The two House seats are in Republican strongholds in Florida so I don’t expect them to flip but it will still give an idea of the impact of the last two months. Gaetz and Waltz won one in those districts with 2/3rds of the vote last November. 

The other is a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat. Musk’s super pac is spending money in all three elections. 

Edited Wednesday at 04:58 PM by Makai

[bluegirl147]

20 minutes ago, Makai said:

The other is a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat.

If Dems hold this then I will have hope for the future.  Wisconsinites please do the right thing.  Musk spending money on this is just so infuriating.  

22 minutes ago, Makai said:

The two House seats are in Republican strongholds in Florida so I don’t expect them to flip but it will still give an idea of the impact of the last two months. Gaetz and Waltz won one in those districts with 2/3rds of the vote last November. 

If a Rep wins and it's by less than 2/3rds of the vote we are making progress.  States and districts don't turn blue over night.  It takes time.

26 minutes ago, Makai said:

Brilliant movie by The Atlantic. Drop the bombshell, sit back for a couple of days and watch the assholes lie that no classified information was included and then release the classified information that was released. 

They walked right into the trap.  They knew Goldberg had the text chain.  They said it wasn't classified.  OK then why he wouldn't release it?  You practically told him to. Is there anyone with a brain working for Trump now?

28 minutes ago, Makai said:

I don’t have any hope that the hypocrite Republicans in congress will actually do the right thing and cooperate with an impeachment but I do think there will be at least one sacrificial lamb.

Walz added him to the chain so he would be the most likely to resign be fired. But honestly all of them should be. Nobody thought to ask who JG is? I understand Trump has purposely hired incompetent people to run certain things because he wants those things to fail but this is our national defense and intelligence agencies.  If we make it four years or  however long Trump stays without being attacked I will be shocked.

[tearknee]

1 hour ago, bluegirl147 said:

I have a theory that is why so many Republican men are the way they are.  They are overcompensating for their shortcomings.

Barbara Eden today would be the counterpart (when you are 90, you shouldn't turn yourself into a doll).

[tearknee]

We need a v-chip for humans.

[fastiller]

23 minutes ago, bluegirl147 said:

Walz added him to the chain so he would be the most likely to resign be fired. But honestly all of them should be. Nobody thought to ask who JG is? I understand Trump has purposely hired incompetent people to run certain things because he wants those things to fail but this is our national defense and intelligence agencies.  If we make it four years or  however long Trump stays without being attacked I will be shocked.

Mike Waltz (not Walz; don't want to confuse him w/ Gov. Walz).  And Waltz doesn't seem to know how apostrophes work.

 

And how long 'til Vance is taken to the woodshed?

[Lugal]

27 minutes ago, bluegirl147 said:

They walked right into the trap.  They knew Goldberg had the text chain.  They said it wasn't classified.  OK then why he wouldn't release it?  You practically told him to. Is there anyone with a brain working for Trump now?

That's why I think this was an attempted leak to the press gone wrong.  The government leaks like a sieve and has used that to put things out that they don't necessarily want to come out of official channels (and Goldberg promoted the Iraq WMD lies twenty years ago).  But these idiots couldn't even get this right.

[fastiller]

I asked a good friend of mine: 'when you were in the Navy, if you had created a Signal group chat and included someone without clearance in the group (or invited someone w/o clearance to it) and then sent future plans for future operations in that group chat, would you have kept your job?'

His reply: 'it would never have happened... and no, I would be in prison... and if in war time (which we are) be put to death depending on what was leaked'.

[peacheslatour]

1 minute ago, fastiller said:

I asked a good friend of mine: 'when you were in the Navy, if you had created a Signal group chat and included someone without clearance in the group (or invited someone w/o clearance to it) and then sent future plans for future operations in that group chat, would you have kept your job?'

His reply: 'it would never have happened... and no, I would be in prison... and if in war time (which we are) be put to death depending on what was leaked'.

Yeah, I feel like the founding fathers would have taken Trump out back where the gallows were the day after Jan. 6 and we wouldn't be enduring this horror show.

[tearknee]

36 minutes ago, tearknee said:

We need a v-chip for humans.

Yes that is the ABC v-chip PSA using the According to Jim kids in character.

[peacheslatour]

To quote my favorite author -

"There is no curse in Elvish, Entish, or the tongues of Men for this treachery.” 

[bluegirl147]

16 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

To quote my favorite author -

"There is no curse in Elvish, Entish, or the tongues of Men for this treachery.” 

This quote by Noam Chomsky is relevant as well.

I don't know what word in the English language I can't find one that applies to people who are willing to sacrifice the literal existence of organized human life so they can put a few more dollars into highly overstuffed pockets. The word evil doesn't begin to approach it.

[fastiller]

25 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

Yeah, I feel like the founding fathers would have taken Trump out back where the gallows were the day after Jan. 6 and we wouldn't be enduring this horror show.

So, here's a thought experiment.  Would we have been better off had Trump won in 2020 and completed his two terms in January 2025?  Like, would the drafters of Project 2025 have had the time/bandwidth/opportunity to have written it up and have it enacted?  Would a '20-'24 term have been so filled with people like Hegseth and Gabbard and RFK Jr.? 

[bluegirl147]

2 minutes ago, fastiller said:

So, here's a thought experiment.  Would we have been better off had Trump won in 2020 and completed his two terms in January 2025?  Like, would the drafters of Project 2025 have had the time/bandwidth/opportunity to have written it up and have it enacted?  Would a '20-'24 term have been so filled with people like Hegseth and Gabbard and RFK Jr.? 

I've actually thought about this.  If he had won in 2020 he would have had to still deal with Covid. He might have kept a lot of the people he already had working in his administration.  He wouldn't have had the Senate or the House.  Russia hadn't invaded Ukraine yet.  The Israel/Hamas war hadn't happened yet.  

So I honestly think he might have caused less damage in four years than he has in two months. But on the other hand we don't know if he would have willingly left in January 2025.  We also don't know who would have won the Dem primary or the Rep primary assuming there would have been a primary.

[Dimity]

4 minutes ago, fastiller said:

Would a '20-'24 term have been so filled with people like Hegseth and Gabbard and RFK Jr.? 

It's so hard to know what that second term would have been like.  One thing though he'd have still been having to deal with Covid and play off the deniers against the reality of what was happening.  A lot more deaths would have happened under his watch.  Not that he would have cared.  Could he have helped put the country on track financially the way Biden did (and got precious little credit for) or would he have started his threats against other countries and wielded the tariff sword back then?

[peacheslatour]

12 minutes ago, Dimity said:

It's so hard to know what that second term would have been like.  One thing though he'd have still been having to deal with Covid and play off the deniers against the reality of what was happening.  A lot more deaths would have happened under his watch.  Not that he would have cared.  Could he have helped put the country on track financially the way Biden did (and got precious little credit for) or would he have started his threats against other countries and wielded the tariff sword back then?

I wonder if Ukraine could have held off Russia for as the long as they have with Trump sending aid and weapons Putin instead of Zelenskyy?

[Kemper]

21 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Joe Rogan is for entertainment purposes early. You want to hear about the intensity and awesomeness of tigers fucking, he’s your guy. You want to base your political identity off someone? Reevaluate your life, don’t listen to him.

In theory, this is correct. But I am tired of some cable news shows, radio shows, You-tube hosts, podcasters, etc. ...fomenting falsehoods and division. They get away with it by calling it Entertainment and not News. Which has helped lead us directly to hate and division. We have met the enemy and he is us.

 

Edited Wednesday at 10:08 PM by Kemper

[peacheslatour]

Just now, Kemper said:

I theory, this is correct. But I am tired of some cable news shows, radio shows, You-tube hosts, podcasters, etc. ...fomenting falsehoods and division. They get away with it by calling it Entertainment and not News. Which has helped lead us directly to hate and division. We have met the enemy and he is us.

 

Yep. Fox News was sued for millions and got off claiming they were for "entertainment purposes only."

[mostlylurking]

1 hour ago, bluegirl147 said:

All of this sounds totally true to me.

Yep…..even if it isn’t just the fact that this sounds totally plausible is terrifying.

[Dimity]

So apparently JD is now joining his wife on her uninvited visit to Greenland but looks the the only place they're welcome is the US Army base there.  Read the room guys "Yankee Go Home".

[Kemper]

2 hours ago, tearknee said:

Barbara Eden today would be the counterpart (when you are 90, you shouldn't turn yourself into a doll).

Oh my God...that's it! The perfect description. I have been grappling with how to describe some of these old(er) actresses who have had an unbelievable amount of plastic surgery. 

[mostlylurking]

1 hour ago, fastiller said:

Would a '20-'24 term have been so filled with people like Hegseth and Gabbard and RFK Jr.? 

What an interesting question.  It’s impossible to know of course, but I kind of feel like he wouldn’t have done as much damage as he’s doing this time around.  He and his cronies have had four long years of resentment and hatred building up, and also four years to plan the most unhinged comeback ever.  I don’t think certain people would have been in his cabinet had he won consecutive terms.  And the best thing….he would be done and couldn’t run again.

[Kemper]

I read this morning where Trump is apparently considering "reparations" for the January 6th terrorists. If so?  There.are.no.words.

[Dimity]

1 minute ago, Kemper said:

I read this morning where Trump is apparently considering "reparations" for the January 6th terrorists. If so?  There.are.no.words.

I also read that in Oklahoma they want to start teaching the kids that Trump actually won the election in 2020.   As you say, there are no words.  Folks we are seeing Fascism in action.

[tearknee]

15 minutes ago, Kemper said:

Oh my God...that's it! The perfect description. I have been grappling with how to describe some of these old(er) actresses who have had an unbelievable amount of plastic surgery. 

Thank you. ((hope and care))

[Anela]

12 minutes ago, Kemper said:

I read this morning where Trump is apparently considering "reparations" for the January 6th terrorists. If so?  There.are.no.words.

You think they’ve hit rock bottom, but they’re still digging, to go even lower. 
they have mocked people for years, who actually deserve reparations. But these are the same people who were questioning the citizenship of native Americans, so I don’t know why I’m surprised.  

[graybrown bird]

3 hours ago, Makai said:

 

The other is a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat. Musk’s super pac is spending money in all three elections. 

I live in Wisconsin.  The political ads for this Supreme Court race here are overwhelming in their ubiquity and viciousness.

Edited Wednesday at 08:03 PM by graybrown bird
Dropped unneeded part of quoted words.

[ProudMary]

I wish I could share this meme in the Andor forum! 

I'm actually doing a re-watch of Andor Season 1 in anticipation of Season 2 that's coming in April. I gotta tell ya, it's much harder to watch it now than it was during the Biden administration. It hits WAY too close to home in 2025. 😢

 

Edited Wednesday at 08:23 PM by ProudMary
Because Season doesn't have a double S in the middle!

[Ohiopirate02]

19 minutes ago, ProudMary said:

I wish I could share this meme in the Andor forum! 

I'm actually doing a re-watch of Andor Season 1 in anticipation of Season 2 that's coming in April. I gotta tell ya, it's much harder to watch it now than it was during the Biden administration. It hits WAY too close to home in 2025. 😢

 

I am cackling. Also, I can totally see Krennic doing the Star Wars version of adding the wrong person to the group chat.

[kittykat]

3 hours ago, fastiller said:

So, here's a thought experiment.  Would we have been better off had Trump won in 2020 and completed his two terms in January 2025?  Like, would the drafters of Project 2025 have had the time/bandwidth/opportunity to have written it up and have it enacted?  Would a '20-'24 term have been so filled with people like Hegseth and Gabbard and RFK Jr.? 

I think if Covid never happened Trump totally would have won again.  And I don't know.  I think he would have tried to oust Mike Pence.  I think there could have been some damage in those years but not as amped up as now.

[LexieLily]

I wanted to say the standard "Everything Trump touches dies" but that seemed a little bit rude for this, so I won't. Is Trump still in charge or is it theoretically just the two oldest sons?

Woman Dies After Being ‘Violently’ Ejected from Revolving Door at Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, Family Claims

[lookeyloo]

I'm guessing they will be true to form and say "I am not responsible - it was the workers, it was the door maintenance people, but not any of us"

[Anela]

https://www.wired.com/story/michael-waltz-left-his-venmo-public/

A WIRED review shows national security adviser Mike Waltz, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and other top officials left sensitive information exposed via Venmo—until WIRED asked about it.

Quote

 

A Venmo account under the name “Michael Waltz,” carrying a profile photo of the national security adviser and connected to accounts bearing the names of people closely associated with him, was left open to the public until Wednesday afternoon. A WIRED analysis shows that the account revealed the names of hundreds of Waltz’s personal and professional associates, including journalists, military officers, lobbyists, and others—information a foreign intelligence service or other actors could exploit for any number of ends, experts say.

Among the accounts linked to “Michael Waltz” are ones that appear to belong to Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, and Walker Barrett, a staffer on the United States National Security Council. Both were fellow participants in a now-infamous Signal group chat called “Houthi PC small group.”

The White House declined to comment after being presented with WIRED’s findings, but the accounts appearing to belong to Waltz and Wiles went fully private following WIRED’s inquiry.

Earlier this week, The Atlantic reported that an account with the name “Michael Waltz” accidentally invited the publication’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, to the chat, in which senior administration officials discussed plans for a strike on Yemen. (Waltz told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham he takes “full responsibility” for inviting Goldberg, adding, “We have some of the best technology minds looking at how this happened.”) Over the encrypted messaging app, which Department of Defense guidelines bar from being used for the discussion of any nonpublic defense information, the group debated whether a strike should be carried out at all. Hours after an account with the name of defense secretary Pete Hegseth shared missile targets, strike timing, and other highly sensitive operational details of a coming strike, US forces bombed Houthi targets in Yemen, reportedly killing at least 53 people.

A WIRED review of public data exposed on Venmo accounts associated with senior administration officials suggests that the Signal group chat was not an isolated mistake, but part of a broader pattern of what national security experts describe as reckless behavior by some of the most powerful people in the US government.

The Venmo account under Waltz’s name includes a 328-person friend list. Among them are accounts sharing the names of people closely associated with Waltz, such as Barrett, formerly Waltz’s deputy chief of staff when Waltz was a member of the House of Representatives, and Micah Thomas Ketchel, former chief of staff to Waltz and currently a senior adviser to Waltz and President Donald Trump.

 

Other accounts carry the names of a wide range of media figures, from on-air personalities like Bret Baier and Brian Kilmeade of Fox News and Brianna Keilar and Kristen Holmes of CNN to a cable news producer, a prominent national security reporter, local news anchors, documentarians, and noted conspiracy theorist Ivan Raiklin, who calls himself the “the secretary of retribution” and once created a deep state target list. (Fox News declined to comment; CNN did not respond to a request for comment.)

Many of the accounts appear to belong to local and national politicians and political operatives ranging from US representative Dan Crenshaw of Texas to a former mayor of Deltona, Florida, as well as venture capitalists, defense industry entrepreneurs, and executives like Christian Brose, the president of defense tech giant Anduril. (Crenshaw’s office and Anduril did not respond to requests for comment.)

One of the most notable appears to belong to Wiles, one of Trump’s most trusted political advisers. That account’s 182-person friend list includes accounts sharing the names of influential figures like Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, and Hope Hicks, Trump’s former White House communications director.

While none of the Venmo transactions for the account listed for Waltz, Wiles, or Barrett were publicly visible, it appears that none of them had opted out of sharing their contact list, allowing their friend lists to remain visible to the public. After WIRED reached out to the White House for comment, both Waltz and Wiles appeared to change their Venmo privacy settings to hide their friend lists.

Venmo spokesperson Erin Mackey said in a statement, “We take our customers’ privacy seriously, which is why we let customers choose their privacy settings on Venmo for both their individual payments and friends lists—and we make it incredibly simple for customers to make these private if they choose to do so.” The comment is nearly identical to the one Venmo provided to WIRED in response to a 2024 story about now-vice president JD Vance’s Venmo.

Last July, WIRED reported that Vance had left his Venmo account public, exposing a network of connections to Project 2025 architects, DOJ officials, Yale Law classmates, and far-right media figures. (While it was not reported at the time, WIRED’s analysis of that public Venmo account—and the networks of his listed friends—found that the Michael Waltz Venmo account appeared in Vance’s extended network, comprising friends and friends of friends.) According to The Atlantic, Vance was also an active participant in the Signal chat alongside Waltz, where he questioned whether the planned military operation in Yemen aligned with President Trump’s broader message on Europe.

When the Michael Waltz account was set up in 2017, the app would display a prompt allowing users to sync their phone contacts, automatically populating their friends list with anyone in their address book already using the platform. Privacy advocates, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, criticized this design, arguing that it exposes users to unnecessary risks by making social connections public by default. It wasn’t until BuzzFeed News revealed in 2021 that then-president Joe Biden was easily found on the app that Venmo, which is owned by PayPal, added the option to hide friend lists. But that setting remains opt-in. According to its privacy policy, unless users proactively change their privacy settings, their network remains visible to anyone.

Mixed in with the high-profile names connected to the apparent Waltz Venmo account are a number of accounts appearing to belong to ordinary people, such as several doctors, real estate agents, and a tailor. These are the kinds of low-level connections that, experts say, spies look at for basic information—a relationship with a medical specialist could expose that a person is being treated for an illness that hasn’t been made public—as well as patterns, pressure points, or a way in. Experts call them “soft targets”: people who have access but aren’t protected.

For instance, when the US and Israel reportedly sabotaged Iran’s nuclear program with the Stuxnet virus, they used a control engineer’s USB stick, not one belonging to a senior official. Chinese intelligence has used similar tactics, contacting thousands of foreign citizens using LinkedIn or going after university students to get closer to US researchers and companies. While WIRED has found no evidence that foreign adversaries have used Venmo to target a US politician’s network, the platform makes these relationships visible—potentially giving adversaries a searchable map of the people around power.

“The first thing you think of is the counterintelligence issue, right? And the security vulnerabilities. It kind of boggles the mind, in a way,” says Michael Ard, a former intelligence analyst who now runs the masters program in intelligence analysis at Johns Hopkins. “It would be really easy for somebody to spoof a contact, and that is something the security industry has already been issuing notices on.”

Waltz has spent years inside the Republican national security establishment. A former Green Beret—something reflected in the number of apparent veteran Green Berets, Navy SEALs, and other special operators to whom the Venmo account bearing his name is connected—he served as a defense adviser at the Pentagon under former defense secretaries Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates, and later counseled US vice president Dick Cheney on counterterrorism. In 2020, following the US drone strike that killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, Waltz says he was part of a small group of lawmakers privately briefed at the White House.

Another participant in that thread was Hegseth. A public Venmo account under his name, identified by The American Prospect in February, revealed a similarly elite network—including names matching executives at defense firms like Palantir and Anduril as well as lobbyists and President George W. Bush–era officials. In the Signal chat, the defense secretary directly responded to Vance’s concerns: “VP: I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.”

Both Vance’s and Hegseth’s Venmo accounts have since been deleted.

Jake Lahut contributed reporting.

 

 

 

[Dimity]

5 minutes ago, Anela said:

In the Signal chat, the defense secretary directly responded to Vance’s concerns: “VP: I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.”

Sigh.  Not that they hadn't already made their feelings crystal clear but good god when did the US become the bad guys?  This is just so very, very bad.

[ProudMary]

8 minutes ago, Anela said:

A WIRED review shows national security adviser Mike Waltz, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and other top officials left sensitive information exposed via Venmo—until WIRED asked about it.

"But her emails..."

This story is dangerously terrible, too. 

[Dimity]

1 minute ago, ProudMary said:

"But her emails..."

And let's not forget Hunter Biden's laptop that contained...well it could have contained...but still, Hunter Biden...

[peacheslatour]

15 minutes ago, Anela said:

https://www.wired.com/story/michael-waltz-left-his-venmo-public/

A WIRED review shows national security adviser Mike Waltz, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and other top officials left sensitive information exposed via Venmo—until WIRED asked about it.

 

What utterly vile incompetence. It's mind boggling. Can you imagine fucking up this badly and still expecting to have a job?

[jessiebell]

And the hits just keep coming

RFK jr has named a long time promoter of vaccines cause autism, David Geier, to conduct a study on the subject.  Geier and his father have published papers linking the two.  Geier was disciplined by the state of Maryland for practicing medicine without a license.  I'm sure it will be a thoughtful and thorough review and I'm sure he'll come up with a link.

[Dimity]

1 minute ago, peacheslatour said:

What utterly vile incompetence. It's mind boggling. Can you imagine fucking up this badly and still expecting to have a job?

Never underestimate the confidence of a mediocre white man.

[Annber03]

6 hours ago, bluegirl147 said:

I have a theory that is why so many Republican men are the way they are.  They are overcompensating for their shortcomings.

Oh, absoutely. You don't obsess as much as they do over who's a "real man" and whatnot if you're not desperately tryihgn to overcompensate for something.

This is also the explanation for the rabid gun nuts that exist out there. 

5 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

Trump on the leak: "It's really not a big deal." From The Hill- 3/26/25

President Trump on Wednesday shrugged off new reporting from The Atlantic highlighting messages from a Signal group in which administration officials discussed specific timing of an attack on Houthi rebels.

Trump was asked about the new development during an appearance on “The Vince Show” with Vince Coglianese.

“There weren’t details, and there was nothing in there that compromised. And it had no impact on the attack, which was very successful,” Trump said.

“A thing like that — maybe Goldberg found a way,” Trump continued, referring to Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic who was included in the chat by mistake. “Maybe there’s a staffer, maybe there’s a very innocent staffer, but we’ll get — I think we’ll get to the bottom of it very quickly, and it’s really not a big deal.”

STFU, Trump. 

4 hours ago, fastiller said:

I asked a good friend of mine: 'when you were in the Navy, if you had created a Signal group chat and included someone without clearance in the group (or invited someone w/o clearance to it) and then sent future plans for future operations in that group chat, would you have kept your job?'

His reply: 'it would never have happened... and no, I would be in prison... and if in war time (which we are) be put to death depending on what was leaked'.

For real, what does it have to take at this point? Why can't someone just go in there, slap the cuffs on EVERYONE who was involved in this shitshow, and march them out of hte White House and ensure that they will never be allowed back in/headed straight to trial to be held criminally accountable for this? These are extremely unusual circumstances, at this point we need to just literally throw their asses out and we need to do it now.

And that includes Trump as well. Especially given the way he's shrugging this off. Just....get everyone the fuck out of there already. We literally cannot afford to go through four more years of this.