Humor-Satire Trump Staff Picks, Co-Conspirators and the Revolving Door of Departures [2024 Edition]

[KaraBulut]

...And eventually, Trump's sedition with Russia will be known, and he will be stained idelibly for it. Maybe not the full details, but eventually someone will talk. There are always people who know. And it isn't possible for Putin and Trump to speak in Russian, so there are witnesses.

I think they already know. This morning, I've been watching clips of Republicans, including the Speaker of the US House, saying, "Ooopsie. Everybody makes mistakes!". Hegseth acted like a 6 year old caught with his hand in the cookie jar, blaming the journalist.

David French, as usual, writes in a NY Times editorial what any rational American should be saying:

Opinion: If Pete Hegseth had any honor, he would resign

Opinion: If Pete Hegseth had any honor, he would resign

www.sltrib.com

Opinion: If Pete Hegseth had any honor, he would resign
There is not an officer alive whose career would survive a security breach like the one that just happened at the fingertips of the secretary of defense.

I don’t know how Pete Hegseth can look service members in the eye. He’s just blown his credibility as a military leader...

This would be a stunning breach of security. I’m a former Army JAG officer (an Army lawyer). I’ve helped investigate numerous allegations of classified information spillages, and I’ve never even heard of anything this egregious — a secretary of defense intentionally using a civilian messaging app to share sensitive war plans without even apparently noticing a journalist was in the chat.

There is not an officer alive whose career would survive a security breach like that. It would normally result in instant consequences (relief from command, for example) followed by a comprehensive investigation and, potentially, criminal charges.

Federal law makes it a crime when a person — through gross negligence — removes information “relating to the national defense” from “its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be lost, stolen, abstracted or destroyed.”

It’s way too soon to say whether Hegseth’s incompetence is also criminal, but I raise the possibility to demonstrate the sheer magnitude of the reported mistake. A security breach that significant requires a thorough investigation.

 

[rareboy]

Hegseth of course has no honour...none of them do.

This is all just a big game to them now...all war games at a 14 year old boy's level.

And unlike the howling rage that would fill the right wing news cycle for weeks and end up with congressional hearings....the msm and the Dems will just sputter for a day or two and then shruf their shoulders.

 

[KaraBulut]

One of the screenshots showed the participants in the chat celebrating the bombing of the Houthis, which resulted in 53 deaths, with emojis and congratulations.

I get the "mission accomplished" and "our guys are back home safe" but this is what always disturbs me about modern warfare- it has become too easy to think of it as a video game and not a serious use of military force that has consequences.

 

[opinterph]

NARA record-keeping

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) | USAGov

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) preserves U.S. government records, manages the Presidential Libraries system, and publishes laws, regulations, Presidential, and other public documents.

www.usa.gov

 

[rareboy]

Heather Cox Richardson is worth the read on this today. This is the central issue....

"According to Goldberg, the use of Signal may also have violated the Espionage Act, which establishes how officials must handle information about the national defense. The app is not approved for national security use, and officials are supposed either to discuss military activity in a sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF, or to use approved government equipment.

The use of Signal to plan a military attack on Yemen was itself an astonishingly dangerous breach, but what comes next is simply mind-boggling: the reason Goldberg could report on the conversation is that the person setting it up included Goldberg—a reporter without security clearance—in it."

Everyone understands that this communication platform is being used to circumvent resords keeping.

And the biggest favour that some hackers like Anonymous could do is to crack it wide open and reveal WH comms in real time until Congress gets their shit in order on this.

March 24, 2025

Today the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, dropped the story that senior members of the Trump administration planned the March 15 U.S.

heathercoxrichardson.substack.com

 

[KaraBulut]

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) | USAGov

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) preserves U.S. government records, manages the Presidential Libraries system, and publishes laws, regulations, Presidential, and other public documents.

www.usa.gov

When you work in a Federal Agency, all communications and meeting transcriptions are copied to NARA.

Normally, when classified information is being viewed or discussed, it is supposed to be done in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) and you're not allowed to take personal phones into a SCIF. This stuff gets drilled into every Federal employee and contractor, even if you're not in a position where you routinely see classified information.

These clowns using personal phones and a public chat service to discuss classified information are violating all sorts of Federal laws. This stuff would get you or I fired immediately, and likely we would be referred to the FBI for an investigation and possible charges. It's very serious.

But if you're working for someone who was never held accountable for filling up a hotel bathroom with classified documents, I guess you might think the rules don't apply to you.

Federal Register :: Request Access

www.ecfr.gov

 

[KaraBulut]

They should have asked for Gabbard (Director of National Intelligence- oxymoron!) and Stephen Miller (White House puppeteer) to resign, too.

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5212589-warner-hegseth-waltz-intel-group-chat/

Top Intel Democrat calls for Hegseth and Waltz to resign

en. Mark Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, criticized the Trump administration for using a Signal group to discuss plans for carrying out bombing in Yemen, calling on officials to resign and saying others would have been fired for the same actions...

“If this was the case of a military officer or an intelligence officer and they had this kind of behavior, they would be fired,” he added.

“This is one more example of the kind of sloppy, careless, incompetent behavior, particularly towards classified information, that this is not a one-off or a first-time error.”

Warner noted that “classified information should never be discussed over an unclassified system.”

 

[rareboy]

He certainly sounded pissed and Gabbard and Co. just sat stony faced.

 

[KaraBulut]

He certainly sounded pissed and Gabbard and Co. just sat stony faced.

And one looked more cross-eyed than usual.

I've never heard Pete Buttigieg say "fuck up" but, here it is:

View attachment PeteButtigieg-SignalChatScandal_20250324.mp4

 

[rareboy]

The Klown Kar Posse that fucked it all up.

I guess the one thing they didn't have to worry about was the Kremlin finding out what was going on because Gabbard and probably a couple of others were filling them in along the way.

 

[rareboy]

Ossoff: This was a huge a mistake

Ratcliffe: No

Ossoff: This is an embarrassment. We will get the full transcript of this chain and your testimony will be measured carefully against its content

 

[KaraBulut]

The evolution of the excuses throughout the day has been maddening. The latest consists of an excuse that every sibling tries at least once: "He did it first!".

The latest excuse, "Biden approved Signal!".


According to security sources from the Biden administration, it was approved to message someone to say, "Hey, check your secure government email", not to send classified information.

Here's what to know about Signal, the messaging app used in apparent leak of war plans to a journalist

Because Signal uses end-to-end encryption, experts agree it is more secure than conventional texting - but it could be hacked.

www.pbs.org

Government officials have used Signal for organizational correspondence, such as scheduling sensitive meetings, but in the Biden administration, people who had permission to download it on their White House-issued phones were instructed to use the app sparingly, according to a former national security official who served in the administration.

The official, who requested anonymity to speak about methods used to share sensitive information, said Signal was most commonly used to notify someone that they should check for a classified message sent through other means.

And apparently, Trump Administration officials were specifically warned on 18-Mar-2025 not to use Signal because Russian hackers were attempting to hack Signal.

Pentagon warned staffers against using Signal before White House chat leak

Bulletin sent on 18 March said Russian hackers could access messages as Trump officials now downplay blunder

www.theguardian.com

Pentagon warned staffers against using Signal before White House chat leak

The Pentagon recently warned its employees against using Signal, the encrypted messaging app, due to a technical vulnerability, an NPR report reveals...

But according to a Pentagon “OPSEC special bulletin” seen by NPR reporters and sent on 18 March, Russian hacking groups may exploit the vulnerability in Signal to spy on encrypted organizations, potentially targeting “persons of interest”.

 

[rareboy]

To the world's (currently) richest man...this is all just a joke.

 

[NotHardUp1]

Wait!

Did JD Vance or Pete Hegseth THANK Goldberg even ONCE for not publishing the classified data?

I didn't hear them say Thank You at any point.

The principals may have the cards, but we can all SEE them, so . . .

This isn't going to end well for them. They never should have started this.

 

[rareboy]

 

[rareboy]

Adam Kinzinger also is horrified by the sloppiness and the threat this episode represents to national security.

Let's be clear: the use of the Signal messaging app for high-level national security discussions is a direct violation of federal law and White House policy, which require all official communications to be archived. Yet, these officials set their messages to disappear, ensuring there would be no record of their conversations. This was not negligence—it was intentional. This administration has operated with reckless disregard for the most basic principles of government oversight, and the consequences could be catastrophic. And sadly the only reason we know, was a (possibly divine?) accident that included a reputable, and responsible, reporter in Jeffrey Goldberg.

I guess the question is...when planning the bombing of a hostile party...why did they not want oversight? Were they afraid of their language? Or actions?

The Signal Betrayal: A National Security Breach That Demands Accountability

My comments on Laura Coats Live

adamkinzinger.substack.com

 

[KaraBulut]

The evolution of the excuses throughout the day has been maddening. The latest consists of an excuse that every sibling tries at least once: "He did it first!".

The Daily Show covered the excuses talking points:

 

[rareboy]

It only makes their incompetence and disorganization stand out in even higher relief.

I am reading that Great Britain and other western countries are even more seriously considering the sharing of intelligence info with the US as the result of this fuck-up.

 

[rareboy]

I think that the former allies of the US know full well that TrumpCo. loathes all of us

...they haven't been making a secret of it at all.

The contempt shows through in every speech and message the White House cabal makes.

I doubt if there is a single NATO ally or other democratic liberal country now that would say they trust the
US to live up to any treaty obligations.

 

[rareboy]

It was this kind of prevarication and stupid lies that probably enraged everyone who doesn't have their head stuck up Trump's ass yesterday.

And goddamn the Dem senators who voted for Gabbard.