webodec3ARCHIVEPreview
Open in TheBrain

Hegseth 3 Sec Def

estb 2 25

3/3/26 bunch lost ? create file --> bak capt

MERRI OK

SEE APOC 3 THEOCRACY DOUGLAS WILSON

SEE PRESS SUPPRESS CRM 4

jennica pounds

SEE GOP STEAL ELECTION MILITARIZATION ~ POSSE COMMITATUS

SEE IRAN 3 WAR XIAn natl 3 26

see FAIL GIRLS SCHOOL WAR CRIME

SEE THIEL PALANTIR ANDURIL AI gingrich luckey palmer

EXECUTE PUBLIC CRUEL STRICT FR

SEE DEI

SEE TATA POW RACISM

webodec4 on signalgate fail

SEE MILITARIZATION

male warrior ethos jagoff rules no pc rules of engagement

SEE EXTRA-JUDICIAL KILLING

SEE FASCISM press suppression 9 25 TRUMP INTERVIEW FLAG OFFICERS

see retaliation mark kelly astronaut VENEZ MADURO

SEE WWW MEMORY HOLE CONFED STATUE BASE NAme hood

see miso

THEOBROS // JDV // XIAN NATL REV DOUG W REF APOL?

princeton tory?

SEE THIS F*KING GUY

LOOMER ISLAMOPHOBE

SEE PVTIZE VA UNITEDHEALTH

---

three 2 25

-=-=

MARK KELLY 2 SECDEF BRIEF, NO INFO

-=-=

-=-=

AN 10 26 ENGLHART?

As always, the Trump administration is setting ever stranger records for public “entertainment,” and yes, I certainly do have to put that word in quotation marks.

Only recently, Secretary of—you choose—War or Defense (I certainly know which I’d choose) Pete Hegseth made it clear that Nidal Hassan, a former US Army psychiatrist and American-born Muslim, who killed 13 people and wounded 32 at Ft. Hood, Texas, in 2009 (claiming to be waging jihad “for what he called the illegal and immoral wars in Afghanistan and Iraq”), would be executed by a military firing squad on December 3 and that the killing would—a first—be “live-streamed” for—obviously!—public entertainment. (The last time a member of the US military was even executed by firing squad was for desertion in France on January 31, 1945, only months before World War II ended in Europe.)

And just to put such a plan in perspective, these days, on this planet of ours, the only other two countries that regularly carry out public executions of capital sentences are Afghanistan and Iran. Even Saudi Arabia has stopped doing so (which should tell you something about the company the United States is now keeping).

Executioner-in-Chief Donald Trump is also now in retreat on almost every front imaginable, from global politics to the American version of the same.

In this country, nothing quite like this has happened since the public hanging of Rainey Bethea, a Black confessed rapist and killer, in Owensburg, Kentucky, in 1936, witnessed by an estimated 20,000 onlookers. Ever since then, execution as a public spectacle has been forbidden. But evidently, in the age of Donald Trump, nothing, however grim, is truly forbidden anymore, though, of course, the president did finally have to break down and, while not stopping the firing-squad execution, cancel its public screening.

In fact, in some strange sense, that public firing-squad execution, had it actually happened (and there certainly was opposition to it, even among congressional Republicans, though not, of course, from the president of the United States), would have been all too symbolic of the age of Trump and of a country that is distinctly going down, down, down on a planet that is, in fact, doing the same.

This may simply no longer be a Trumpian planet in any sense of the term. Give him full credit, of course. He’s been nothing short of amazing (or rather amazingly bizarre) during one and a half presidencies (so far), especially since, once upon a time, the very idea of him as president of the United States would have been the most ridiculous joke imaginable—or do I mean unimaginable? He should, in fact, be all too literally considered the living definition of imperial decline.

And yes, it’s true that Executioner-in-Chief Donald Trump is also now in retreat on almost every front imaginable, from global politics to the American version of the same. Don’t doubt for a second, for instance, that his party is likely to get clobbered in the upcoming November congressional elections, even though American billionaires are spending a fortune to help Republican candidates. After all, it looks like all too many of his potential voters might simply stay home, a phenomenon already labeled “the red undertow.”

Decline at Sea?

Globally, once upon a time, who would have even believed this version of the United States? Admittedly, there was that disastrous Vietnam War in the previous century, but still, this country remained a power beyond compare as its competitor, the Soviet Union, collapsed. These days, however, in the age (or do I mean the aging?) of Donald Trump, it’s down, down, down, and down again.

In fact, retreat now seems to be distinctly the name of the game. As a recent New York Times headline bluntly summed it up: “Trump’s Retreat: From the Gulf to Britain, American Forces Pull Back.” That, of course, was in relation to the war he launched against Iran which, if you happen to remember, was going to be victoriously ended within weeks. Seven months later, he’s talking about pursuing it yet again in a big-time fashion after the November congressional elections. Here’s how he explains it: “I stated, numerous times, that it would take 4-6 weeks to get rid of THE IRAN NUCLEAR THREAT, and I did it in one night!... the rest of the time is just to make sure it stays that way.”

It all makes sense now, right? And give him credit: Seven months later, there indeed is no Iranian nuclear threat (not that there ever was). In that sense he couldn’t have been more successful or, as he put it, “I am ensuring that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. We had no choice because we can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.”

His very existence (twice!) as president of the United States suggests that decline has new meaning on a planet that itself may be going down in a big-time fashion.

Oh, now I understand, of course. (Who wouldn’t?) And under the circumstances, what a success his war has been!

Success and yet... once upon a time, “our” president certainly never would have guessed that, so many months after he launched his war, for fear of an Iranian attack, his administration would actually have pulled back a set of B-1 bombers from... no, not Saudi Arabia or Jordan (not faintly!), but Great Britain. Yes, those bombers were withdrawn from a base in England to bases in the United States, which couldn’t have been more victorious of him, could it? It fits perfectly with that TV show he (and I) once watched as kids about the US Navy in World War II, Victory at Sea.

And that tells you all too much about this increasingly strange planet (and president) of ours and just how Donald Trump and crew are taking down possibly the greatest imperial power ever in a big-time fashion.

It should also give you a sense of just how disastrous Trump’s war on Iran, which he claimed last spring would end “I think within maybe two weeks, maybe a couple of days longer, to do the job,” —and (it goes without saying) in victory, of course—has proven to be. These days, in fact, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are both suggesting that the war might last all the way through his second presidency.

Yes, Donald Trump is finally being pummeled on this planet of—well, is it ours or his?—and he’s undoubtedly soon going to be pummeled again, right here in the United States, a country with staggering numbers of nuclear weapons, in the upcoming November congressional races, where it will be beyond surprising if he and his party don’t go down, down, down.

Yes, whether he even knows it or not, he is now in retreat in a big-time fashion, including on that public execution. That includes, of course, his retreat from his recent comments about Los Angeles and San Diego being potentially lost to (assumedly) an Iranian nuclear weapon (that, of course, doesn’t exist) and that, were such a thing to happen, really wouldn’t matter to him. Yes, who among us would truly care if two West Coast, pro-Democratic cities were lost to Iranian nukes? Not “our” president, that’s for sure!

And let me just suggest that, after this November 3, President Trump is likely to find himself in retreat big time in American politics, too.

Here’s the truth of the matter: When the president of the United States (and some of his top officials like Pete Hegseth) are in retreat mode, whether we know it or not, we’re in a different world.

Honestly, the coming of Donald Trump as president of (not so long ago) the most powerful and dominant country on the planet gives imperial decline new meaning. Honestly (yet again!), once upon a time, it would have been hard to imagine any great imperial power, no less the United States of America, having someone like Donald Trump as president even in its era of decline.

His very existence (twice!) as president of the United States suggests that decline has new meaning on a planet that itself may be going down in a big-time fashion. Perhaps a future TV series about the US military in his presidency will be called “Decline at Sea.”

Retreat, ho!

-=-=

AN 10 26 POPE?

'Colossally stupid': Top legal scholar shreds Pentagon's latest stunt

-=-=

RWW 10 26 -->

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s rhetoric has prompted hundreds of service members to file complaints with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

-=-=

omfg

an 10 26

One of the forces behind President Donald Trump’s Iran paranoia was the fear that a single nuclear blast miles above America could knock out the power grid and plunge the country into darkness.

*The New York Times* reported on Wednesday that the political prominence of beliefs that Iran could knock out the U.S. with nothing more than an electromagnetic pulse (EMP).

Ironically, the report began by mentioning that during Trump's first term, he "signed an executive order directing federal agencies to defend the United States against an unusual type of nuclear strike that his advisers warned could shatter the power grid, wipe out critical infrastructure and lead to a national collapse."

The problem is that it's incredibly unlikely.

The report explains that the overwhelming scientific consensus is that Iran managing an EMP attack would be extraordinarily difficult to carry out. An EMP is a powerful burst of energy that is created when a nuclear weapon is detonated high in the atmosphere. In a normal nuclear strike an EMP likely wouldn't kill people the way an actual blast would. The real problem is that it would disable electricity, communications, transportation, banking, water systems and other U.S. infrastructure. In an era run by technology, it would collapse the U.S.

In 2019, President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to strengthen U.S. resilience to EMPs after a New York "dairy entrepreneur" sounded the alarm that even a small nuke from Iran could trigger an EMP and collapse the U.S. Henry Schwartz has been on a mission to incite panic among top Republican officials and advisers in the U.S.

That's when conservatives like Frank Gaffney, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, John Bolton, Pete Hegseth, John Ratcliffe and JD Vance began panicking and promoting the warnings and advocating for military action against Iran’s nuclear program.

According to the experts who spoke with the Times, the freakout is being dramatically overstated.

To have a successful high-altitude EMP attack, Iran would likely need a hydrogen bomb, not a basic atomic weapon. They would also need the exact altitude, orientation, "precise alignment of its gamma rays" and unpredictable space-weather conditions.

According to Stephen M. Younger, a former Los Alamos physicist, even advanced nuclear states would struggle with this and the odds that it could take down the U.S. are worse than even a coin flip.

"In the vacuum of space, however, the gamma rays create no shock waves or mushroom cloud. Instead, they strike the planet’s upper atmosphere, producing a chain reaction that creates something akin to a super-strong radio transmitter," said the report. "The gamma rays hit air molecules and knock out electrons that spin around the Earth’s geomagnetic field lines, creating waves of electromagnetic energy so powerful they can fry circuits thousands of miles away."

Experts have certainly kept an eye on it, but it isn't as likely as Mr. Schwartz seems to believe. Still, his close relationship with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth suggests a Schwartz believer is at the top.

The report closes by making it clear that while nuclear proliferation should always be a concern and grid security is important, an Iranian EMP attack is not a credible near-term existential threat. Schwartz's EMP movement may be politically influential, but among the scientific community, reality reigns. It turns Schwartz's exaggerated campaign into a confrontation with Iran.

-=-=

-=-=

AN 10 26

LAST EXEC 1936? KTY BLK KID/ RAPE WHT WOMAN 20K WATCHED?

'Public lynchings will be next': Horror at Trump's planned public execution

-=-=

-=-=

AN 10 26

A prominent group of conservative Christians are denouncing President Donald Trump's top military official, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, for ordering that convicted terrorist and mass murder Nidal Malik Hasan — who committed the 2009 Fort Hood shooting that led to 13 deaths and 32 injuries — be executed publicly by firing squad. It is the first public execution in modern American history.

"The National Association of Evangelicals (along with several other religious groups) are now joining the USCCB in condemning Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth’s plans to publicly execute Nidal Malik Hasan, also saying doing so promotes a 'culture of death,'" reported journalist Jack Jenkins of the religious news outlet RNS on Friday.

In an excerpt from his report, Jenkins wrote that "Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, told RNS that while he affirms the 'need for justice' regarding Hasan’s crime, 'at the same time, a live-streamed execution by firing squad risks turning one of the state’s most solemn responsibilities into a public spectacle, promoting a culture of death, rather than a culture that upholds the dignity of every human being.'"

Evangelical Christian organizations are not alone in slamming Trump and Hegseth for choosing to publicly execute Hasan. On the social media platform X, prominent commentators from all sides of the political spectrum expressed disgust with the decision.

Billy Binion, reporter for the libertarian magazine Reason Magazine, posted, “This is sick. You can support justice for Nidal Hasan’s victims without making his execution a source of entertainment. This administration so often governs for the online mob. It’s depraved.”

Glenn Greenwald, formerly of The Intercept and ideologically heterodox, argued, “There are a very small number of countries that still carry out public executions. Those are the countries we are constantly told are uniquely primitive, barbaric, sick and evil. It’s revealing that Pete Hegseth wants the US to join that group but also entirely unsurprising.”

Wajahat Ali of the liberal Substack The Left Hook stated, “Public lynchings will be next.”

Trump and Hegseth are also under fire for terminating the employment of dozens of top staff at the Pentagon, amounting to more than 900 years of combined experience, and replacing them with partisan loyalists.

"Since January 2025," Michael N. Schmitt, a law professor at New York University, wrote for Just Security in June, "the Defense Department has removed, replaced, or forced the early retirement of a remarkable concentration of operationally experienced senior officers. Among them are the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the chief of naval operations, the chief of staff of the Army, and the commander of U.S. Cyber Command, who concurrently serves as director of the National Security Agency. Most recently, Gen. Christopher Donahue, one of the most decorated and combat-experienced officers of his generation, has been forced out as commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa and, in his NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) role, as commander of Allied Land Command. Public explanations have been sparse and, to the extent they have been offered, largely general."

Schmitt added, "The question regarding these departures is not whether the president and secretary of defense have broad lawful authority to reshape the senior officer corps. They unequivocally do. Nor is it a question of whether personnel decisions of this kind are ever warranted. Sometimes, they certainly are. Instead, at its core, a central question is their impact on the combat effectiveness, indeed the lethality, of our armed forces."

Even Gen. Christopher LaNeve, Hegseth’s senior military aide, indirectly admitted the mass firings could become a problem.

“Every shortcut in training and lapse in discipline will be paid for in blood,” LaNeve wrote.

-=-=

new natl xian entity dod 10 26; spiritual armor, send me OT

-=-==

PSAKI pt FAIL NEVER DO PILATES

-=-=

AN 10 26

Pentagon chief’s legal footing called out as generals reject his guidance

-=-=

AM 10 26

Even though Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is mired in waging an unpopular and unsuccessful war against Iran, on Wednesday he demonstrated his ongoing fixation on culture wars by announcing that he would not allow civilian professors at military academies to receive tenure.

Now an expert is calling him out for this, characterizing it as evidence of an anti-education philosophy — including Hegseth literally banishing the word "educate."

"The supersize black Sharpie is what gives it away," wrote The Atlantic contributor Eliot A. Cohen, a professor emeritus at Johns Hopkins University, on Wednesday. "Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s order to stop awarding tenure to civilian professors at the military academies ends with a huge, jagged signature—an homage, perhaps, to that of the president—the size of two of the paragraphs above."

Cohen continued, "Military education is still education—a point that Hegseth fails to understand. It seeks to develop disciplined, curious, insightful thinkers. The service academies do not, in any meaningful way, teach tactics. They are there to educate young officers, admittedly emphasizing some qualities that get a lighter touch in civilian institutions."

Civilian professors are essential to this process, Cohen pointed out.

"The best anthology of writing about leadership I know of was produced by a West Point professor—someone with nary a day of military service—who also edited a fantastic edition of the memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant," Cohen said. "Men and women who are going to be officers will learn as much about what leadership entails from Shakespeare, or classes in cognitive psychology or ancient history, as they will from a perusal of field manuals."

The Johns Hopkins scholar then drew attention to an on-the-nose manifestation of Hegseth's war on education.

"Hegsethian thinking, if that is the right word, has permeated the senior ranks of officers and officials in some of these institutions," Cohen explained. "In a particularly egregious act, the Air Force Academy has removed the word educate from its mission. This is a step backward worthy of a caveman in a G suit—someone who thinks that fancy weapons and aggressiveness guarantee victory. It is the mindset of someone who has learned nothing from the American military failures that now stretch back to Vietnam, and will produce more such in the future."

Despite Hegseth's outwardly confident makeover of the Pentagon, President Donald Trump may fire Hegseth if Republicans suffer losses in the 2026 midterm elections, with retired naval officer Theodore R. Johnson writing for The Washington Post on Wednesday that Hegseth would be a logical scapegoat given his prosecution of the controversial Iran war. Twenty years earlier, after President George W. Bush's Republicans were shellacked in the 2006 midterms, the president fired Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

In addition to the Iran war, Hegseth has provoked harsh criticism for focusing on culture wars in the military, particularly by trying to purge references to "woke" information such as climate change and targeting racial minorities and women in terms of ending careers and denying earned promotions.

"Welcome to the cold open for 'Saturday Night Live' this week, right?" executive director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America Paul Reickhoff said on Wednesday. "But it is our reality. And I've always said that Pete Hegseth is the acting secretary of 'Culture War.' His job has been to wage culture war on the Pentagon. And this is the latest extension of that."

-=-=

White House legal memo fuels fears over Trump’s misuse of Pentagon funds

AN 9 26

===

AN 10 26

Retired general says Trump official’s purge has reached 'next level'

-=-=

MUSK LUCKEY PALMER NEWT GINGRICH?!

9 10 26

-=-=

MASSIE IMPEACH , SOME GOP VOTE LIMIT IRAN WAR

RWW

09/16/2026

byKyle Mantyla

Republicans are sending members of Congress home early to avoid a vote on the impeachment of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The FBI director struggled to explain a change in the agency’s hiring rules.

FBI Director Kash Patel tore into the Democratic senators he clashed with during a blockbuster hearing Tuesday, accusing them of acting like “buffoons on Capitol Hill” during an appearance on Fox News.

-=-=

MMA 9 26

The Navy disclosed 8 suicide attempts after right-wing media dismissed reporting about conditions on the USS Lincoln as "Persian propaganda"

-=-=

9 26 talk at musk rocket? spacex?

-=-=

-=-=

mma 9 26

The Navy disclosed 8 suicide attempts after right-wing media dismissed reporting about conditions on the USS Lincoln as “Persian propaganda”

Written by Gideon Taaffe & Helena Hind

Published 09/29/26

As reporting emerged in August that the servicemembers on the USS Abraham Lincoln faced poor conditions and declining mental health — evidenced by at least one servicemember overboard incident — right-wing media dismissed the stories as a “misrepresentation in the media,” “an information op,” and “Persian propaganda.” The carrier was deployed in the Middle East for nine months during the Trump administration’s Operation Epic Fury.

On September 22, acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao disclosed that eight personnel across the Lincoln strike group attempted suicide.

Earlier reporting on deteriorating conditions and apparent suicide attempts across the Lincoln strike group now confirmed by Navy

“Persian propaganda” and an “information op”: Right-wing media dismissed reports about the Lincoln and its crew’s mental health

-=-=

-=-=

CNN

Deadly US strike on Iran school may have been a war crime, UN report finds | CNN

5 days agoTwo deadly US strikes on Iran during the opening salvo of the **war**, including one that hit an elementary **school**, may have been **war crimes**, a United Nations fact-finding mission concluded in a new report.

United Press International on Yahoo

U.N. investigator: U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats may be crimes against humanity

23 hours agoA special rapporteur for the **U.N**. human rights council said in a new briefing that U.S. attacks on alleged drug boats may be **crimes** against humanity.

-=-=-

-=-=

NO PRESSER FOR MONTHS? NO FOX HIT?

AN 9 26

Leakers 'truly freaked' as Trump’s 'Colonel Vodka' runs rampant: biographer

-=-=

an 9 26

david franch

President Donald Trump was reportedly surprised when Army Secretary Dan Driscoll tendered his resignation last week, but he should not have been. Under the reign of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, America's military has undergone a purge, with the man who never rose above the rank of major either firing or blocking promotions for more than 80 high-ranking officials. Many of those targeted were either women or African American, leading to allegations of discrimination, but a Republican columnist argued there is an even bigger problem — Hegseth also targets competence, and therefore is putting American lives at risk.

"To maintain the stalemate against Iran, the United States is drawing resources from other, more dangerous theaters of potential conflict," New York Times columnist David French wrote on Sunday in a column titled "Pete Hegseth Is a Wrecking Ball." "There are now no active carrier battle groups in the Pacific region, for example, exactly when China has ramped up its military activities around Taiwan."

He added, "The lack of interceptors is escalating the crisis in Ukraine. Russia is able to pound Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with ballistic missiles virtually at will, creating a critical vulnerability for the Ukrainian war effort. Last week, for example, Kyiv endured the longest sustained bombing campaign on the Ukrainian capital since the opening days of the war."

After noting how The Economist reported Putin plans on escalating his attacks in Ukraine and on NATO, French went on to say that "as long as Iran — a longstanding ally of Russia that’s closely linked to its neighbor through the Caspian Sea — remains in the fight, it can continue to deplete our interceptors to the point where it might take years to bring our stocks back to acceptable levels, even if we ramp up production at immense cost."

Along with undermining America's ability to meet its global responsibilities, French continued that "the long-term threat is to the character and competence of the armed forces. They are becoming politicized, and the politicization of a military can both destroy its combat effectiveness and turn it into an instrument of domestic oppression. If you are under the delusion that Hegseth’s purges are about competence more than loyalty — a welcome corrective to the excesses of D.E.I. programs — well then, as we say in the South, bless your heart."

In August, NYU law professor Ryan Goodman calculated that Hegseth's removal of 25 senior military officers alone cost the military "over 900 years of military experience." Elaborating on this point, fellow NYU law professor Eric Schmitt wrote that "since January 2025, the Defense Department has removed, replaced, or forced the early retirement of a remarkable concentration of operationally experienced senior officers. Among them are the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the chief of naval operations, the chief of staff of the Army, and the commander of U.S. Cyber Command, who concurrently serves as director of the National Security Agency.”

He concluded, “Most recently, Gen. Christopher Donahue, one of the most decorated and combat-experienced officers of his generation, has been forced out as commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa and, in his NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) role, as commander of Allied Land Command. Public explanations have been sparse and, to the extent they have been offered, largely general."

Speaking with AlterNet in April, Dr. Robert Shapiro, a former top economic adviser to President Bill Clinton, identified how Trump's war against Iran (which Hegseth encouraged) is also inflicting long-term damage to the United States in a different way — economically.

“Even if hostilities do not restart, the price of oil will not return to pre-Trump levels because there’s a new risk premium that they could restart at any time, increasing tanker insurance costs for example, and because oil infrastructure has been degraded, reducing supply for some time,” Shapiro told AlterNet at the time. “An Iran-controlled toll to use the Strait will produce big bucks for Iran, but its impact on world prices for oil, natural gas, helium, etc. should be minimal. Another source of economic friction will be the now-intense uncertainty about what the Trump administration will do next—in the Mideast and in scores of policies at home; and uncertainty dampens investment.”

He went on to say, “As it is, the economy was weakening before this crisis began, and these and other factors will exacerbate those downward pressures. A resolution over the next two weeks will not stop the deterioration in economic conditions.”

-=-=-=

mma

Pete Hegseth hasn't been on Fox News in 11 months

09/02/26

-=-=

-=-=

AN 9 26

HEGS FAIL

In the aftermath of President Donald Trump's Secretary of the Army resigning on Monday — amidst a purge of military personnel equating to more than nine centuries of experience — a new report reveals that the outgoing officer was deeply alarmed at Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's gutting of America's armed forces.

"During a White House meeting last week, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll brought his concerns about the future of the Army under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directly to President Trump — a sign of how far tensions between the two Pentagon leaders had escalated, and of the dysfunction inside the building, four people familiar with the conversation told us," reported The Atlantic's Nancy A. Youssef, Missy Ryan and Michael Scherer on Monday. "Trump was surprised when Driscoll told him how many generals and other top officers had been fired, pushed out, or passed over for promotion under Hegseth, one of the people said. Driscoll argued that the Army could not transform itself the way it needs to because of the departure of so many leaders, this person said, adding that Trump expressed concern about the deep cuts to the Army’s senior leadership. Driscoll informed the president of his intention to resign — and by today, Driscoll was on his way out."

The journalists added, "Hegseth’s purge of the military has been so dramatic that with Driscoll gone, the military’s largest service is left without a top civilian leader, a Senate-confirmed top general, a confirmed Army general in charge of operations, or a confirmed commander of Army troops in Europe. Because of all the firings across the service over the past year, the Army, with more than 450,000 active-duty soldiers positioned across the globe, has fewer generals than at any point in recent history. Driscoll’s personal appeal to Trump just days before his exit was the most direct articulation of high-level concerns among Pentagon leaders about the strains facing the force — including Hegseth’s intervention in Army personnel decisions and the mounting demands of the Iran war."

They also observed that Hegseth's rationales for firing people and withholding promotions have demoralized the ranks.

"The Army has long prided itself on representing the diversity of the country, but under Hegseth, minorities and women have been pushed out or barred from promotion," Youssef, Ryan and Scherer wrote. "The military has long sought to be apolitical, but under Hegseth, troops are measured not by combat experience but by their perceived loyalty to the administration. Among the generals fired have been some of the most experienced and decorated in the service. Each departure marks the loss of decades of investment in that soldier and raises questions about how future troops can rise through the ranks."

Driscoll left his position after months of clashing with Hegseth. According to a report by The Washington Post in April, “Hegseth and Driscoll have disagreed on numerous issues, including Hegseth’s moves to block the promotions of several Army officers." They added that if Driscoll stepped down, Trump might replace him with Hegseth's top spokesman Sean Parnell, which alarms observers as Parnell is perceived as being just as political and interested in culture war battles as Hegseth himself.

-=-=

-=-=

an 8 26

dod non concurraNCW LEk parnell rant traitor?

Classified leak reveals 'growing turmoil' among senior Trump officials

-=-=

-=-=

RAW

Tara Dublin

August 31, 2026

Our military has never seemed weaker on the global stage thanks to Cadet Bones Spurs' regime carrying out Project 2025’s planned changes to the U.S. military.

Aside from renaming the Defense Department to the Department of War during peacetime, the other shredding of our esteemed military being carried out right in front of us includes everything the Heritage Foundation wanted: ending diversity programs, reversing reproductive care travel policies, and reviewing high-ranking officer promotions for political alignment.

Then there’s renaming warships after terrible people, stranding the USS Abraham Lincoln, and manufacturing a war in Iran to distract from the Epstein Files, because the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East just weren’t enough.

Trump has a long history of openly disrespecting our armed forces, because that’s what weak, thin-skinned, jealous bullies do when they come face-to-face with their opposites. He takes no responsibility for the egregious body counts — both foreign and domestic — attributed to his two administrations. A weakened American military makes our country vulnerable to attacks from our enemies, which is exactly what Putin wants. It pairs nicely with the visuals of the vandalism in D.C. perpetrated by only one person; Putin’s puppet himself delivered the weakest version of our country as a 250th birthday present for Daddy Vladdy.

But there’s really no better example of how much Trump hates the military than his installation of former Fox News Talking Head and fellow thrice-married serial philanderer “Punch-Drunk” Pete Hegseth as the “Secretary of War.” Bringing his brash Broski braggadouchery to the MAGA base, “Kegseth” — a nickname he’s rightfully earned thanks to his multiple drunken public appearances — served in the National Guard from 2002 to 2021 and has now turned the Pentagon into a frat house with its own Green Room where he can get his makeup done before doing the world’s worst photo ops.

Together, Trump and Kegseth went scorched earth on the Pentagon and purged anyone who wasn’t going to choose loyalty to Trump over America. Under the guise of getting rid of anyone who was pro-DEI initiatives, they fired high-ranking military leaders from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Senior Service Officers, and also blocked the promotion of at least 45 officers.

During his controversial tenure, Hegseth has been focused on strutting around and putting on pretend shows of strength. Colin Jost’s impression of Hegseth on SNL is so spot-on, it’s scary while also being funny/not funny.

Aside from making a mockery of our military on the global stage, Hegseth has been obeying orders by pulling a Bari Weiss and firing three employees of the venerable military publication Stars and Stripes after they reported — accurately — about the abhorrent conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.

Kind of like how the White House posted a “Leftist Influencers” List on its website to target three independent political content creators after they reported — accurately — on Trump’s health amid multiple “annual” visits to Walter Reed within the same calendar year.

Or how Trump constantly bullies the press instead of ever answering their questions.

It’s just weird how they keep trying to punish people who are just doing their jobs.

Anyway, Stars and Stripes (S&S) — which still has a print edition! — has reported on the United States Armed Forces and their communities since the Civil War era.

While it operates from within the Department of Defense War, it’s independent and editorially separate from it, and its First Amendment rights to report on military actions and other issues relevant to our military has been guaranteed by Congress.

Of course, none of that matters to Punch-Drunk Pete and the Epstein Bestie who keeps taking naps on camera while behind the Resolute Desk. While they’ve made it abundantly clear that they couldn’t care less about the conditions our servicepeople must live under, they care very much about the optics of a disaster like the one aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.

Rather than apologizing and taking responsibility or, I don’t know, properly taking care of every member of our armed forces with dignity and respect so that they wouldn’t be considering suicide, Kegseth and Trump are just worried about their bad actions making them look bad.

So Hegseth, who can’t do a pull-up and has dumbed down every press conference from the Pentagon, ordered Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin to fire journalist Lara Korte. When Slavin refused, Hegseth fired them, as well as publisher Max D. Lederer Jr., for “insubordination.” All three are now on “administrative leave” awaiting a court ruling after they filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Hegseth, Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, DOD public affairs official Andrew Brey, and the DOD itself.

I guess Trump and Kegseth have to decide if it makes them look worse to admit the truth, or to fire the people who report the truth they don’t want to admit to. They are both threats to national and international security. The least qualified person to ever oversee our military is one boozy brunch away from accidentally launching a nuke over a perceived slight.

All of this makes my brain cry, because I’m so tired of the stupidest people carrying out the most obvious yet also stupidest plot to destroy our democracy from within. Stars and Stripes has been around since THE CIVIL WAR ERA and the drunk guy from Fox News and the handsy host of The Apprentice shouldn’t be anywhere near it.

I can’t stress that enough, because now we’re hearing that Hegseth is “seriously considering” a presidential run in 2028, which is just too stupid to think about. Although, I can’t say I wouldn’t enjoy watching Sen. Jon “Hotticus Finch” Ossoff shred Punch-Drunk Pete in a debate.

I’ve had a lifelong respect for our military, and I can only hope that once Democrats flip Congress, they’ll be investigating Hegseth and his staff for war crimes as part of their campaign of accountability for the Trump regime.

REF ...

David Pakman, Ed Krassenstein, and Brian Tyler Cohen are all on the WHITE HOUSE WEBSITE, each of them being made out to be enemies of the State. They’re all essentially being doxxed by Donald Trump, all for daring to always tell the truth about him.

A quick word about Ed Krassenstein and his brother, Brian. They’ve had a bad rep for being opportunistic grifters for as long as I can remember. They claim to be Democrats, but have tweeted support for Trump in the past, and have even justified buying a Cybertruck. These aren’t all of the things about them, but this is my way of saying that they are not universally beloved by liberals, and that would include me.... RAW

-=-=

-=-=

stakes context

Trump admin discussed sending the battle-ready 82nd ...

The Independent

https://www.the-independent.com › ... › US politics

Oct 4, 2025 — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly considered deploying an elite Army unit to Portland, Oregon, to address protests President Donald ...

-=-=

PRESS SUPPR

biz times 8 26

The Pentagon has confirmed that prominent pro-Trump influencer Jennica Pounds, known online as DataRepublican, has been working inside the Defense Department as a special government employee, disclosing an arrangement that remained largely unknown while Pounds continued weighing in publicly on politically charged disputes.

The disclosure is drawing renewed attention to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's relationship with supportive online personalities and comes after more than a year of restrictions on the traditional Pentagon press corps. Pounds, who has nearly one million followers on X, previously held Pentagon press credentials before joining the government.

Her employment surfaced not through an official announcement but through an unusual public confrontation with State Department Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers. Pounds initially alleged that an unnamed "deep state" official had attempted to entrap her into improperly handling sensitive government material.

Rogers said she had offered Pounds Biden-era documents concerning Cuba as a potential exclusive, treating her as a friendly reporter who might be interested in the material. Pounds became alarmed after seeing markings on the documents and publicly suggested she might have been maneuvered into committing a crime.

Rogers disputed that characterization. She said the markings reflected standard redactions applied to material that could be voluntarily released under public-records procedures and offered to publish the documents herself to demonstrate that Pounds wasn't being set up.

As the dispute unfolded on X, an account critical of Pounds disclosed that she was working for the Defense Department. The Pentagon subsequently confirmed her employment to multiple news organizations.

Pounds "serves at the Department of War as a Special Government Employee and is no longer a credentialed journalist," the Pentagon said in a statement, using the Trump administration's renamed designation for the department. Officials said Pounds's media credentials expired in June and that she didn't seek to renew them before beginning her government role in July.

The Pentagon hasn't disclosed which office employs Pounds or described her responsibilities. Pounds said after her position became public that she joined the department to "serve the country in a more hands-on way."

That lack of detail has raised questions because Pounds remained an active political voice online while her government status wasn't publicly known. Her recent posts have included criticism of Democratic lawmakers and commentary involving a retired Army officer and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who has had disagreements with Hegseth.

Lauren Harper, who holds the Daniel Ellsberg chair on government secrecy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said Pounds should have disclosed her government employment to her followers. The concern centers on whether audiences could distinguish independent commentary from communications produced by someone simultaneously working inside the government.

The episode has also renewed scrutiny of Adam D'Ortona, an active-duty Army lieutenant colonel with more than 100,000 X followers who has criticized congressional Democrats and supported Hegseth's campaign against diversity and inclusion programs at the Pentagon.

D'Ortona was reported last September to have been working inside Hegseth's office. Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said at the time that he wasn't an adviser or department spokesperson, while D'Ortona this week denied that the Pentagon pays anyone to "post stories." The Army and Hegseth's office haven't provided additional details about his role.

The questions surrounding Pounds and D'Ortona come amid a broader transformation of media access under Hegseth. Beginning in May 2025, the defense secretary imposed restrictions requiring journalists to be escorted through Pentagon areas where reporters had previously been able to move independently.

The department subsequently required journalists to sign a new access policy covering the solicitation and publication of information that hadn't been authorized for release, including unclassified material. More than 30 news organizations-including The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and Fox News-refused to sign, and dozens of journalists surrendered their Pentagon credentials in October 2025.

That same month, Pentagon press secretary Sean Parnell announced that more than 60 journalists from another group of organizations had agreed to the policy. Those outlets included Gateway Pundit, Turning Point USA's media operation, LindellTV, Timcast and the National Pulse, which Parnell described as part of the next generation of the Pentagon press corps.

A federal judge later concluded that the credentialing policy was intended to remove disfavored journalists, according to the supplied account. An appeals court subsequently allowed a related requirement that reporters be escorted inside the Pentagon to remain in effect while litigation continues.

-=-=-=

-=-=

nation jet her 8 26

the uneasy stalemate between Iran and the United States flared into violence on Sunday after America launched an attack on Iranian rocket launchers. Iran retaliated by launching missiles against Jordan, a US ally. The new round of fighting proves that the Trump administration remains committed to the fantasy that that more violence will force the Iranian government to surrender. In reality, although both sides in the conflict have endured losses, the ability of the US to impose its will with force has steadily diminished. On August 22, retired general Barry R. McCaffrey offered the sober assessment that “the US Armed Forces have probably permanently lost access to 15 Persian Gulf bases. Iran now poised to control access the Gulf States. US will have to negotiate new access in western Saudi Arabia, Israel, southern Europe.”

McCaffrey is an eminently establishment figure, but his pessimistic conclusion aligns with the judgement of thinkers who are more typically seen as critics of the foreign-policy consensus. John Mearsheimer, for example, an international-relations professor at the University of Chicago, describes the Iran War as a humiliating defeat.

Unfortunately, acknowledging defeat doesn’t come easily to either Donald Trump or the ridiculous martinet he nominated to run the military, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Both Trump and Hegseth are cultural warriors first and foremost, interested in winning battles on social issues by purging trans soldiers from the military, blocking the advancement of women and Blacks in the upper ranks, and overturning anything they consider DEI (a broad category that includes even acknowledging that Black soldiers have served with distinction).

With his focus on culture wars, Hegseth isn’t likely to listen to the criticism of figures like McCaffrey and Mearsheimer. In fact, evidence suggests that he isn’t even willing to listen to his own four-star generals who are offering dire warning that the military is dangerously overextended. As The Washington Post reported on Sunday, “Several U.S. military leaders have advised Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that prolonging large-scale operations against Iran is unsustainable and risks weakening their ability to confront threats elsewhere, including the U.S. homeland.” Even before the Iran War started, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the White House “that the U.S. lacked sufficient munitions—and support from allies—to conduct an extended large-scale campaign.” The Trump administration ignored this caution, and the US is now in a worse position, lacking the military bases to resupply navy vessels in the region (which has led to crisis conditions on ships such as the USS Liberty) and suffering a shortage of Patriot interceptors.

The Post report noted that “certain generals and admirals were more expansive and frank than is usual in telling Hegseth they disagreed with orders to keep providing equipment and personnel when the operation’s trajectory remains uncertain.”

If Hegseth is disregarding the advice of his top generals, it’s because the culture war is more important to him than the real war. Hegseth has White House ambitions and is gearing up for the 2028 GOP presidential nomination. Losing a war with Iran would tarnish Hegseth politically, but he has developed a simple solution: using the resources of the Pentagon to create a troll army of social-media influencers who could create an alternate reality where all his actions were brilliant victories.

On August 27, Will Sommer of The Bulwark, an astute observer of the right, reported that one of Hegseth’s most vocal online fans was also covertly a civilian employee of the Pentagon. The person in question was Jennica Pounds, who posts under the name DataRepublican. As Sommer noted:

Hegseth has gone to great lengths to limit and muzzle many members of the traditional Pentagon press corps. But secretly employing a shadowy, rabidly online personality for the apparent purpose of going after your enemies is a remarkable illustration of the kind of steps Hegseth appears willing to take to fight internecine political wars. Here’s the thing, though:

Pounds appears to be just one of several people enlisted in such a task.

At least three other prominent pro-Trump social media figures who have either worked for Hegseth or almost gotten jobs at the Pentagon have also come to serve as reliable online allies for Hegseth. Funnily enough, they’ve also all rushed to defend Pounds in the face of the criticism that she’s an undercover federal operative.

On Sunday, the Post published an extensive article that built on Sommer’s journalism, both confirming it and providing additional details. According to the newspaper, “The Pentagon has secretly installed several conservative military veterans with large online followings in government roles, declining to disclose their assignments as they amplify Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s viewpoints and attack those who scrutinize the Trump administration.”

One of Hegseth’s troll soldiers, Thomas Anderson (who posts under the name Cynical Publius), repeatedly attacked anti-war Republican Representative Thomas Massie during a primary race that Massie ended up losing. It’s hard not to avoid the conclusion that taxpayer money allocated to the Pentagon was used by the executive branch to influence a congressional election, a direct attack on the principle of keeping the military out of domestic politics.

Shamefully, the Post’s excellent reporting was attacked by the paper’s hawkish columnist Marc Thiessen, a frequently unhinged apologist for Trump’s imperialism, who responded to the report about senior generals dissenting from Hegseth by fuming, “Whoever leaked this is a traitor and ought to be prosecuted.”

In point of fact, the leaker was committing an act of high patriotism, not treason. In a constitutional republic, the military is not the political instrument of either the president or the defense secretary. Rather, the military must always be nonpartisan. If top generals think the military is being pushed to the limits of its fighting capacity, the public deserves to know.

Hegseth is remaking the military into the image of MAGA: an army of white cis-male reactionaries who nurse fantasies of their macho prowess and love the catatonic self-satisfaction of living in a social-media echo chamber.

A perhaps more sympathetic interpretation might be that Hegseth is as much to be pitied as held in contempt. After all, he’s clearly incapable of winning a real war, so has to settle for the illusory victories of his troll army.

-=-=

ref wapo

Pentagon secretly installs military influencers in civilian roles

Conservative veterans with large social media followings have been hired by the Defense Department and are amplifying Pete Hegseth’s culture-war fights.

8 30

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon on Wednesday. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

By Dan Lamothe

and

Tara Copp

The Pentagon has secretly installed several conservative military veterans with large online followings in government roles, declining to disclose their assignments as they amplify Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s viewpoints and attack those who scrutinize the Trump administration, according to people familiar with the matter and corroborating material....$

-=-=

x ref

Libertarians against Trump

@libertyNoKings

🚨 Before Massie’s primary, @CynicalPublius ran a relentless anti-Massie campaign, called him a ‘toxic narcissist,’ his supporters ‘dimwits,’ even linked Massie fans to antisemitism. Turns out he’s Thomas R. Anderson, listed in Pentagon, assigned to a DoD office, the entire time

-=-=

8 26

-=-=-=

THE RIGHT-WING SOCIAL MEDIA DOGE BOOSTER known as “DataRepublican” has, over the last two months, waded deeper and deeper into hot-button political issues. From Candace Owens to the six Democratic lawmakers who encouraged troops not to follow unlawful orders, DataRepublican, the nom de web of Utah mom Jennica Pounds, has been active on X, venturing far beyond the number-crunching work she did as an early Elon Musk booster.

What Pounds didn’t reveal as she grew her social media presence was that she was secretly working at the Department of Defense. Since July, Pounds has been a temporary “special government employee” for the Pentagon.

Pounds’s secret job spilled out into the open this week, after she erroneously accused Sarah B. Rogers, the State Department undersecretary for public diplomacy, of trying to entrap her for treason. Amid that flap, an X user critical of Pounds revealed that she worked for the Defense Department. The Pentagon later confirmed to me and other reporters that Pounds does work as a special government employee, but refused to explain exactly what job Pounds has or in which departmental office she works.

Pounds’s secret work for the Pentagon calls into question the motivations of several of her posts, such as when she took a jab at then-Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, a Hegseth nemesis. It also raises serious questions about Secretary Pete Hegseth’s cozy relationship with outspoken conservative social media influencers, and whether it breaches serious ethical norms.

Hegseth has gone to great lengths to limit and muzzle many members of the traditional Pentagon press corps. But secretly employing a shadowy, rabidly online personality for the apparent purpose of going after your enemies is a remarkable illustration of the kind of steps Hegseth appears willing to take to fight internecine political wars. Here’s the thing, though:

... $

-=-=-=

-=-=

MMA

8 26

Take a Pete Hegseth presidential bid seriously

He could become the presidential candidate of the right-wing media’s id

Written by Matt Gertz

Published 08/18/26

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth may be contemplating a promotion. His Monday trip to campaign with Republican congressional candidates in Iowa, home of the first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses, spurred a Washington Post report that the visit is consistent with the belief among “officials familiar with Hegseth’s thinking” that he “is considering a run for president or some other political office after his time in the Trump administration is over.”

Hegseth, a bombastic former Fox News weekend host who spent years speaking directly to the Republican base through that MAGA propaganda network, may be uniquely attuned to the right's attention economy. He could become the presidential candidate of the right-wing media’s id, running a furious culture war campaign fixated on domestic political enemies that checks all the boxes for authoritarian-minded pundits indifferent to traditional policy issues.

Anti-Muslim. Hegseth has much to offer the MAGA pundits who casually declare that “Islam is here to kill us and convert us” and call for “using military force to start raiding mosques and removing these people from our country.” At home, he has decried the “Muslims’ birth rates” in multiple states and fearmongered about the success of Muslim political candidates, warning that “Islamists” are trying “to seed the West with as many Muslims as possible.” And abroad, he has written that “just like the Christian crusaders who pushed back the Muslim hordes in the twelfth century, American Crusaders will need to muster the same courage against Islamists today” — then literally overseen U.S. forces bombing Muslims in Iran and Yemen as defense secretary.

Anti-DEI. At Fox, Hegseth was at the forefront of the right’s assault on policy initiatives promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, warning that such policies had weakened the military and calling for “a new commander in chief that’s going to get rid of all of this CRT, DEI nonsense, all the gender nonsense.” He’s now put that into practice at the Pentagon, firing or canceling the promotions of numerous Black and female senior officers, overseeing the banning and attempted expulsion of trans service members, and launching a study that seems engineered to ban women from serving in combat roles.

Anti-press. Right-wing media hate the traditional press, and Hegseth, who urged readers of his 2020 book to “disdain, despise, detest, [and] distrust” the news media, never misses an opportunity to demonstrate his contempt for mainstream reporters. He’s smeared news outlets as unpatriotic for not running headlines like “Iran increasingly desperate,” and mocked and derided individual reporters, even denouncing his former Fox colleague Jennifer Griffin as “the one who misrepresents the most intentionally.” Under his leadership, the Pentagon rolled out a stringent new set of rules for reporters and, when journalists at major news outlets turned in their press passes rather than signing them, replaced those reporters with right-wing influencers and staffers from MAGA outlets.

Anti-immigrant. Perhaps no current issue unites the right-wing commentariat like virulent attacks on immigrants — and Hegseth’s rhetoric aligns perfectly with them. “When you import the Third World, you get Third World hierarchy, values, and chaos,” he said in a November 2024 Fox segment, adding: “Your quality of life is going down. You feel less safe. Your resources are being drained. ... But don't speak up about that. If you do, you're the racist.” As defense secretary, he used a speech in France marking the anniversary of D-Day to attack the “invasion” of migrants hitting European beaches, asking, “When will European capitals do something about that invasion?”

Pro-war crimes. It’s not an overstatement to say that Hegseth has his current position because the president appreciated his Fox advocacy on behalf of U.S. service members accused or convicted of war crimes, which he seems to reject as a legitimate category. He wrote in 2024: “Should we follow the Geneva Conventions? What if we treated the enemy the way they treated us? Would that not be an incentive for the other side to reconsider their barbarism?” At the Pentagon, Hegseth “has fired and reassigned uniformed lawyers and dismantled many of the offices set up to prevent the targeting of civilians and related sites,” focused his public statements on the need for “lethality,” and carried out operations in the Middle East, Indian Ocean, eastern Pacific Ocean, and Caribbean Sea that experts say could include war crimes, as The New York Times reported.

Pro-Christian nationalism. Hegseth has “invok[ed] Christian theology in public statements about the war with Iran,” including urging the American public to pray “every day, on bended knee” for a military victory in the Middle East “in the name of Jesus Christ,” and told a conference of defense ministers from the Western Hemisphere that “our nations” are “Christian nations under God,” the Times reported. He invited Pastor Doug Wilson, “a self-described Christian nationalist who wants to repeal a woman's right to vote, has defended slavery and believes homosexuality should be a crime,” to give a sermon at the Pentagon earlier this year.

Together with his abject loyalty to Donald Trump, those positions make Hegseth a plausible candidate for the GOP ticket. That could come in the form of a 2028 primary battle against Vice President JD Vance, who has fallen out of favor with much of the right-wing media. But the former Fox & Friends Weekend co-host is also just 46 years old — if Vance wins the nomination but loses the general election that year, Hegseth could easily spend a few years returning to the network as a contributor or hosting a podcast, sitting on defense industry boards, and campaigning for Republicans before running for the 2032 nomination.

Hegseth was manifestly unqualified for his current position, his stewardship of the Pentagon has been a series of rolling disasters, and he is among the most unpopular members of Trump’s widely reviled administration. But in a world in which the former host of The Apprentice is currently serving his second term in the Oval Office, it is worth taking Hegseth’s potential candidacy seriously.

//

The Pete Hegseth debacle was inevitable

  1. 04/23/25 12:29 PM EDT

FLASHBACK: When Pete Hegseth endorsed the military executing captured alleged combatants

  1. 12/01/25 12:22 PM EST

Trump picked Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Pete Hegseth to be secretary of defense. Here's some of what he's said on the air.

  1. 11/13/24

=-=-

Writing for the Washington Post, a conservative "defense hawk" confessed to feeling "sticker shock" over President Donald Trump's $1.5 trillion military funding request, trashing the Pentagon for trying to spend such an outlandish amount on "funding boondoggles and sweetheart deals."

Max Boot is a Russian-American author who has in the past written about walking away from the American conservative movement after Trump's takeover of the Republican Party. In his new piece for the Post, he wrote that he has "long been in favor of more military spending," even backing the $1 trillion budget that the Pentagon reached this year. Despite that, however, even he now balks at the $1.5 trillion requested for next year.

"In inflation-adjusted terms, that 50 percent increase would result in the largest defense budget ever — exceeding even the World War II peak," Boot explained. "And this comes at a time when the federal budget deficit is at $1.8 trillion and federal debt is nearly $40 trillion. On its current trajectory, public debt as a percentage of gross domestic product in 2030 will exceed the record set in 1946."

Boot further noted that Congress has not been "rushing to rubber-stamp the staggering defense budget," with the House passing a measure that would provide $1.15 trillion, and an extra $73 billion for the Iran war. The Senate has opposed this measure, however, meaning the military budget as of October 1 will likely be the $838 billion set by a continuing resolution. This state of affairs, Boot argued, is entirely the fault of Trump's administration.

"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has no one but himself to blame," Boot continued. "He has been contemptuous of Congress, so it’s hardly surprising that its members are not rushing to hand him a massive pot of cash. If Hegseth wants to win bipartisan support for the defense budget — something that was taken for granted in years past — he needs to start briefing Senate Democrats, not just Republicans. And he needs to do a much better job of addressing lawmakers’ concerns about controversies such as the unexplained firings of general officers, the lawless attacks on alleged drug boats, the deteriorating conditions aboard an aircraft carrier deployed to the Middle East and the failed war with Iran."

He added: "No one denies the need to replenish missile stockpiles running low because of the Iran conflict, but the very fact that the United States has used up such a large part of its missile arsenal so quickly is a damning indictment of years of defense misappropriations that long predate President Donald Trump. You would think that $1 trillion would buy enough missiles to fight China or Russia, but it turns out that we don’t even have enough to fight Iran. The Iran war also revealed that the military was woefully ill-prepared to fight an enemy equipped with low-cost drones; Iran’s drones and missiles have done serious damage to U.S. military installations in the Middle East. It’s true that the new defense budget has a lot more money for drones and drone defenses, but it also includes massive boondoggles that can’t be justified on the merits.

=-=-=

AN 8 26

Trump often attacks Democrats as being unsupportive of the military — a claim they aggressively push back against. But five and one-half months into the war with Iran, officers serving in the U.S. Navy are, according to i Paper reporter Simon Marks, feeling increasingly frustrated and feel like Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are turning their backs on them.

"Families say the mental health of sailors is now at immediate risk," Marks reports in the UK-based i Paper. "They reported at least one incident in which a crew member was prevented by his colleagues from jumping overboard."

Marks describes conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, a warship where the crew is "plagued with a potentially deadly morale problem."

"Back in April, barely a month into Donald Trump's war with Iran, sailors serving on the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier started grousing on social media about dwindling food supplies," Marks explains. "Images sent to spouses and parents were leaked to the media and appeared to support claims that the ship's supplies were coming under growing pressure. Some 'meals' consisted of little more than a handful of boiled carrots and two dried-out slices of unidentifiable meat. Sailors aboard the nearby USS Tripoli were also lodging similar complaints. At the time, Hegseth denied any problems existed, claiming that the vessels had more than 30 days of food supplies for their crews ... But four months later, the crisis has intensified."

Marks, noting recent reporting from the Stars and Stripes, points out that families of U.S. Navy members addressed their worries during a recent town hall event in San Diego.

"Families reportedly warned Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao that they were increasingly fearful of suicides among the men and women serving aboard the carrier, which has been at sea for more than 250 consecutive days, more than 40 of them engaged in combat with Iran," Marks writes. "Last month, the Lincoln set a new record, having spent longer continuously at sea without a port call than any U.S. aircraft carrier in history…. The 5000 men and women aboard the carrier say food and basic hygiene supplies are running low, physical and mental exhaustion is setting in, and letters and care packages sent from home have failed to reach the ship for months."

A U.S. Navy member quoted in the Stars and Stripes warned, "Our mental health and physical health is in danger. We need help."

-=-=

AN 8 26

Trump has created a White House where "the buck never stops with the people who actually hold power," "a new piece from MS NOW argued, and it is a "master class" in endless blame that his Cabinet is taking to heart.

In a piece published Tuesday morning, reporter Hayes Brown detailed how Trump has made "deflecting blame for mistakes, lapses and failures ... completely normal," despite the long tradition of presidents accepting blame for their administration's shortcomings. Instead, his growing list of failed policies and ideas has been pinned on a predictable cast of scapegoats, including "underlings; Democrats (in general or specific); strawmen of any political stripe; or, in a pinch, other key members of the administration."

No mounting failure has proven more ripe for dismissal than his abysmal popularity and the effect it is set to have on the GOP in the midterms.

"Trump put on a master class of the technique during an interview with Punchbowl News last week," Brown wrote. "His abysmal polling numbers and string of unforced errors have threatened the GOP’s chances of holding control of Congress after the midterm elections. Trump insisted, though, that he isn’t the source of the problem: 'The question is, will they vote? Because a lot of them are very angry at Republicans, to be honest with you. … They’re angry at Republicans, but they’re not angry at me.'”

In response, Trump's Cabinet has proven they are "willing to take his lessons to heart," even if none of them have quite mastered the art of deflection as the president has. Under the president's model, officials have learned that "blame can be spread laterally among equals, down toward subordinates or even backward against the flow of time, but never up to the top," often leaving "Federal staffers down the chain" unable to fight back against accusations.

"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been a skilled student in his time in office," Brown continued.

"In the early days of the war against Iran, the Pentagon chief was full of bravado and happy to take credit for what he claimed was a swift, decisive victory. As the conflict stretched out and munitions stockpiles have reportedly been massively depleted, he’s sought to duck any criticism. While begging Congress for a cash infusion to restore the military’s weapons supply, Hegseth both denied that there is even a shortage and also blamed the Biden administration for 'four years of underinvestment and mismanagement.'”

He concluded later: "Trump’s abdication of this tenet has fostered this fecundity of finger pointing. Beyond the unnecessary drama it engenders, it is simply no way to run a government. Without accountability, failures are left to fester instead of getting fixed. Trump has crafted an administration that follows his example in shirking responsibility, placing self-interest above the interests of the nation. The buck stops nowhere in Trump’s White House."

-=-=

-=-=

Kiera Butler @ Mother Jones: Oh Look, Another Far-Right Extremist at the Pentagon

A senior defense official in Hegseth’s department appears to share these ties—and has expressed Christian nationalist and far-right views on social media. Justin Overbaugh, a retired US Army colonel, currently serves as Deputy Under Secretary of War for Intelligence and Security.

8 26 CROWDSRC IDEAS TO WIN WAR

===

AN 7 26

The bizarre new announcement out of President Donald Trump's Pentagon has effectively "kicked a hornet's nest," according to a new report from The Hill, with experts expressing grave concern about the lack of scientific backing and the dangers the new policy could create.

This week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a new policy whereby all military officers 30 and older would be required to submit to screenings of their testosterone levels, and any found to have a deficiency would be required to undergo hormone replacement therapy to correct the supposed issue. The policy, met with widespread confusion and mockery, fits the secretary's longstanding insistence that the military's shortcomings could be fixed with a greater focus on masculinity.

The scientific community, however, is not at all convinced by the idea. In a report published Sunday, The Hill spoke with experts who warned that Hegseth's rationale for the policy lacks sufficient scientific evidence and warned that trying to influence testosterone levels in military officers could lead to dire side effects.

"Hegseth argues the effort, to become part of the military’s periodic health assessment for troops over 30, will ensure the optimal performance and long-term health of warfighters," The Hill explained. "But medical experts say Hegseth’s rationale for the directive isn’t backed by science, warning of overdiagnosis and warning of side effects like heart problems and infertility. Coming amid the broader embrace of the hormone among White House officials, the move plays into Hegseth’s focus on appearances and masculinity, which one Democrat said this week borders on 'homoeroticism.'”

Speaking with the outlet, Derek Griffith, the director of the program for research on men’s health at the University of Pennsylvania, stressed that low testosterone is far from a common issue, noting that only around 2 percent of the male population is impacted by it. Given that the military is already staffed by "a group of relatively younger, fitter men and women," Griffith doubted that low testosterone would be anything close to a "major issue" there. He also noted that things like "heart disease, cancer, hypertension, diabetes, depression and alcohol abuse" were the actual major causes of health issues in men that the military ought to focus on.

“I don’t fully understand,” he said of the new screening guidelines. “I don’t know what they’re seeing or what data they’re using to say ‘this is where we need to really focus and put our energy.'"

He added: “It’s not what’s usually a major issue for healthy men. I imagine for most active-duty military, they’re pretty much at a healthy weight. So I would be curious what percentage they’re expecting to identify who have low testosterone and would be in need of a treatment.”

Adriane Fugh-Berman, a professor in the department of pharmacology and physiology at Georgetown University, warned of the side effects that increased testosterone doses could carry.

"Testosterone even in low doses increases heart problems, kidney problems, infertility and fractures, which hardly seems like a good way to keep soldiers in fighting form," Fugh-Berman said. Hegseth’s remarks seem to imply that testosterone increases longevity, and there is no evidence for that. It shrinks testicles, too. How manly is that? It’s ridiculous to screen a population for a questionable condition which has a treatment with unproven benefits and proven risk.”

Brooke Nickel, a public health researcher in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney, also expressed worry about "Young, healthy men are being told that common experiences like tiredness, stress or changes in libido are signs that something is medically wrong and that testosterone is the solution."

-=-=-=

7 26 REF TO 5 NYT REPORTERS ERIC L PILITZER AF1 NO CTR-MEAS = LEAK? SUBPOENA SERVED AT HOUSE

CNN's Jake Tapper issued a strong fact-check after claims from President Donald Trump's secretary of defense alleged there were people leaking information from the department.

According to Secretary Pete Hegseth, leaks put their brave American soldiers in danger.

"I have delegated tasking authority to ⁠the [Department of Defense's] Office of ⁠General Counsel, empowering OGC to request and ⁠receive all information, records and support across the department concerning media leak investigations," Hegseth said ⁠in an X video.

Tapper responded with, "I know of one leak that put our brave pilots at risk!"

He posted a link to the full inspector general's report revealing that Hegseth used the Signal app to leak classified information to his family outside the Pentagon.

He specifically quoted the significant finding that "The Secretary sent nonpublic DOD information identifying the quantity and strike times of manned U.S. aircraft over hostile territory over an unapproved, unsecure network approximately 2 to 4 hours before the execution of those strikes. Using a personal cell phone to conduct official business and send nonpublic DOD information through Signal risks potential compromise of sensitive DoD information, which could cause harm to DOD personnel and mission objectives."

The full report also had screen captures of the secretary's message that outlined every detail about conditions and the mission ahead of the U.S. strike in Yemen against Houthi rebels.

Hegseth risked "endangering U.S. troops by using the Signal messaging app to share military plans before the first attack in Yemen," the IG ruled.

Tapper went on to cite the reports finding that "if this information had fallen into the hands of U.S. adversaries, Houthi forces might have been able to counter U.S. forces or reposition personnel and assets to avoid planned U.S. strikes…”

“Even though these events did not ultimately occur, the secretary’s actions created a risk to operational security that could have resulted in failed U.S. mission objectives and potential harm to U.S. pilots," Tapper added from the report.

"Some call them whistleblowers. When they’re alerting the public to government lies and malfeasance, for instance," Tapper later added.

===

MPU 526

https://substack.perfectunion.us/p/how-trump-is-helping-military-contractors

*By Lucy Dean Stockton, More Perfect Union

In recent years, the Pentagon has welcomed new contracting processes that pad military contractors’ profits — a trend that is now being turbocharged under President Donald Trump, and the military-industrial complex is thrilled.

Typically, when the government buys a product or service, it uses competitive contracts to ensure that taxpayers get a fair price. But in the last few decades, the Department of Defense — with the blessing of bipartisan lawmakers — has embraced alternative processes that let contractors circumvent many of the mandated regulations governing Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) contracts, like accounting standards, cost negotiations, and intellectual property rights limitations. This means that some agencies have been empowered to negotiate terms that look closer to normal business contracts, but often offer a worse deal for U.S. taxpayers.

“The Pentagon is increasingly relying on rapid acquisition pathways that subvert competition to acquire weapons,” Julia Gledhill, a research analyst at the Stimson Center, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit focused on global peace, told More Perfect Union. “Legislators have totally kneecapped the Pentagon’s ability to negotiate contracts with military contractors, meaning that both the military and taxpayers are being fleeced by these companies.”

These alternative contracting mechanisms, including “non-traditional contracting” and “Other Transaction Authority” (OTA) procurement, have vastly expanded over the last decade within agencies like the DOD and the Department of Homeland Security. This has corrupted a process that was originally designed to produce narrow contracts for innovative products into a major acquisition vehicle for basic procurement from well-established military contractors as well.

In 2025, these kinds of OTA contracts amounted to more than $18 billion in government spending. Across the board, it means that prototyping agreements have become much more common and expensive than basic procurement agreements.

“ The OTA is an existing vehicle that, if they expand it, it helps speed the money out the door.” Bill Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told More Perfect Union. “It’s less record keeping, less scrutiny, and it’s the perfect vehicle for lining the pockets of both the old and the new contractors.”

In April 2025, Trump signaled that he would accelerate the shift towards rapid acquisition processes through an executive order to overhaul the DOD’s procurement process. The order specifically requested that the new processes “expedite acquisitions…including a first preference for commercial solutions and a general preference for Other Transactions Authority.”

IFrame Content

And the military-industrial complex is loving it. On an April 23 earnings call, Lockheed Martin President Jim Taiclet called the Iran War and the Trump administration’s focus on “agility” in military contracting, “a golden opportunity right now based on who’s in government, their experience, their willingness to change the demand that they have for what we do and our partners in our industry do.”

“We can move the contracting system from this FAR cost — Federal Acquisition Regulation -based, cost-based Truth [in] Negotiation Act burden that we’ve all had — and move it more towards a commercial contracting system,” Taiclet told investors. Venture-backed investors, he said, “are helping us and the government get out of our traditions and into a more agile contracting scenario.”

Lockheed Martin has won nearly $50 billion in government contracts since 2008, more than 97 percent of which were with the Department of Defense. The last quarter of 2025 represented their biggest season of contracts ever. In 2024, they were the fourth-highest awarded OTA contract recipient with the Defense Department, just behind peer weapons manufacturer Northrop Grumman.

Last year, Lockheed Martin spent more than $15 million lobbying lawmakers, including on “acquisition policy,” among other issues.

Lockheed Martin did not respond to More Perfect Union’s request for comment.

Northrop Grumman executives echoed the excitement about the expansion of OTAs. On an April 22 earnings call, Northrop Grumman President Kathy Warden told investors that the company is “seeing more use of OTAs and other nontraditional contracting mechanisms.”

These contracts have been lucrative for the defense company and its subsidiaries, which won nearly $7 billion in total Defense Department contracts in 2025.

“I don’t see a desire by the department to push industry profitability down,” Warden told shareholders. “I see a real alignment here and an opportunity for us to work with the department to create better economics for industry and the government.”

Northrop Grumman spent more than $8 million lobbying on acquisition policy, including specific lobbying on Streamlining Procurement for Effective Execution and Delivery Act of 2025, which expands the use of OTAs in military procurement.

Northrop Grumman did not respond to a request for comment.

Other military contractors, like L3Harris Technologies, an American defense technology company, echoed this sentiment.

“I have to give the Department of War credit for their innovative approach to acquisition here,” L3Harris Technologies Chairman Christopher Kubasik told investors on an April 30 earnings call. “What is going on now has never been done in the history of our country, and they are going fast. We and the rest of the defense industrial base are keeping up with them to the best of our ability. I think it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

L3Harris Technologies won $318 million in OTA contracts last year, the 6th highest of any military contractor. They were awarded $7.6 billion in total government contracts last year.

Defense contractors’ profit margins already far outpace most other industries by as much as four times. While typical commercial industry profits sit around 6 percent, many military contractors see profits of at least 15 percent, paid almost entirely by U.S. taxpayers. Military contractors have received more than half of all Pentagon spending since 2020. And as the industry has grown more consolidated, the remaining companies are exercising even more power over the Pentagon.

The defense industry spends tens of millions of dollars lobbying the government each year. In 2025, the industry collectively spent a record-breaking $198 million to influence lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

Last year, the Pentagon failed its financial audit for the eighth consecutive year, after auditors found significant accounting errors, missing information, and billions of dollars unaccounted for. It remains the only major U.S. federal agency that has never passed an audit.

“We’re experiencing one of the biggest military spending buildups in American history,” Gledhill said. “So you can imagine that a combination of a $1.5 trillion military budget and a less competitive, less accountable weapons acquisition process is really the perfect recipe for fleecing the American people in the name of weapons production and procurement.”

The use of OTAs may also become particularly useful for the DOD as it launches Trump’s Golden Dome Project, which the Congressional Budget Office estimated this week could cost up to $1.2 trillion over 20 years. The project, which is heavily reliant on satellites, would likely benefit from Trump’s Dec. 18, 2025 outer space-focused executive order in which he urged agencies to act with “a first preference for commercial solutions and a general preference for Other Transactions Authority or Space Act Agreements” to promote streamlined acquisitions.

---

-=-=

THE HILL https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5523339-hegseth-wounded-knee-soldiers-medal-of-honor/

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Thursday evening that soldiers who participated in the 1890 Battle of Wounded Knee will keep their Medals of Honor.

“Under my direction, we’re making it clear, without hesitation, that the soldiers who fought in the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890 will keep their medals, and we’re making it clear that they deserve those medals,” Hegseth said in a video posted on the social platform X.

“This decision is now final, and their place in our nation’s history is no longer up for debate,” he continued. “We salute their memory, we honor their service, and we will never forget what they did.”

In late July 2024, then-Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin ordered a five-person board to review the honors given to troops at Wounded Knee, where Native American women and children were killed by U.S. soldiers.

The Biden administration said the board would look at each recipient’s service and record individually to make sure “no soldier was recognized for conduct that did not merit recognition under the standards applicable at the time.”

“Now, upon deliberation, that panel concluded that these brave soldiers should, in fact, rightfully, keep their medals from actions in 1890. The report was concluded in October of 2024,” Hegseth continued. “Yet despite this clear recommendation, former Secretary Lloyd Austin, for whatever reason — I think we know he was more interested in being politically correct than historically correct — chose not to make a final decision.”

He added that such “careless inaction has allowed for their distinguished recognition to remain in limbo until now.”

The Wounded Knee massacre took place in late 1890, as U.S. soldiers were battling Native Americans across the country. The Army’s 7th Cavalry Regiment was enforcing a ban on the Ghost Dance, a Native American spiritual practice, when U.S. troops detained a group of Lakota tribe members near Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota.

After trying to recover weapons from those arrested, a firearm went off, and U.S. troops opened fire, killing at least 250 Lakota men, women and children. About 25 U.S. soldiers were also killed, likely due to friendly fire.

Earlier this year, Hegseth ordered that a Confederate memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, which was previously taken down, be restored and refurbished.

-=-=

---

an 7 26

President Donald Trump could use the military to steal the 2026 midterms, which he and his fellow Republicans have panicked about losing, according to legal experts — although they emphasize that doing so would break centuries of precedent.

“Just this year, President Trump said he regrets that he did not order the National Guard to seize voting machines after the 2020 elections,” wrote Lawfare’s Natalie K. Orpett, Molly Roberts and Loren Voss on Wednesday. “Steve Bannon urged Trump to ‘call up the 82nd and 101st Airborne’ in 2026 to ‘get around every poll’ and make sure that only citizens are voting. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, when asked whether he would refuse an order to deploy troops to polling places during the midterms, avoided answering—and falsely claimed that troops were deployed to polling places in 15 states under Joe Biden.”

The scholars pointed out that “the Constitution mostly reserves to the states the authority to administer elections, with a role for Congress” but that the Elections Clause is limited enough that a sufficiently creative person could try to poke holes in it.

“It defines only states’ power to ‘prescribe’ the ‘Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections’ and Congress’s power to ‘make or alter such Regulations,’” Lawfare explained. “It says nothing about other actions that might affect elections—ensuring security, for example. However, neither the Constitution nor any founding-era law affirmatively authorizes the president to involve the military in U.S. elections, and the few statutes that address the question at all prohibit it in most circumstances.”

After reviewing the evolution of election law in terms of this issue from the Constitutional era through the early republic, the Jacksonian era, the Civil War and Reconstruction, they focused on the bill often cited as a rationalization for using the military for domestic law enforcement.

“The Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C. § 1385), enacted in 1878, ensured that the military could be used for law enforcement only in a set of drastic situations explicitly defined in law,” Lawfare wrote. “By the late 1880s, all major cities had civilian police forces.”

They continued, “Today, the Posse Comitatus Act is widely regarded as the critical limitation on domestic military deployment. The current version of the statute bars the use of any part of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, or Space Force ‘as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws.’ Posse comitatus literally means ‘power of the county’; legally, it refers to a group of people mobilized by officials such as a sheriff to enforce the law or keep the peace. The Posse Comitatus Act exists to keep troops—as opposed to civilians—from filling that role. But the rule isn’t ironclad: As described in our companion piece, the act itself carves out explicit exceptions, such as the Insurrection Act.”

The military is barred from following illegal orders in terms of domestic election interference, but statute does not provide for a specific cause of action. It serves as an affirmative statement of the law — and as further proof that Congress gives elections a special status. The standard limitations on domestic use of the military were apparently insufficient to safeguard elections; Congress deemed it necessary to pass three separate statutes to confer additional protections.”

Lawfare concluded, “These laws have survived more than 160 years, across roughly 80 or so election cycles. And they haven’t gone unnoticed. The Justice Manual sets forth specific procedures for enforcing § 592. The Defense Department Directive on Defense Support of Civil Authorities, last updated in 2018, forbids ‘DoD personnel and National Guard in Title 32 status’ from ‘conduct[ing] operations at polling places and strictly refrain from activities similar to those prohibited by’ 18 U.S.C. §§ 592-594.”

Speaking with AlterNet in June, Democracy Defenders Fund Senior Counsel/Deputy Legal Director Pooja Chaudhuri explained that sending troops to the polls could very well intimidate citizens from voting.

“I think there are two things to consider,” Chaudhuri, who specializes in voting rights as well as election law litigation and advocacy, told AlterNet. “One is that the election is made up of voters, and so the outcome depends on people turning out to the polls and voting. The problem is ... the chilling effect on voters.”

Chaudhuri continued, “When voters hear that ICE may be deployed to the polls, that mail-in voting rules are changing close to the election, a lot of voters might say, ‘I'm just not going to go out and vote.’ That could happen in many different ways. There are vulnerable communities — people may come from mixed-status families — they're US citizens, but they might decide, "I'm not going to vote." So one aspect is the chilling effect on voters that all of these actions would have.”

Dan Vicuña, the Senior Policy Director for Voting and Fair Representation at Common Cause, a nonprofit good government group, elaborated on other ways Trump is meddling with America’s free elections.

“What they all add up to is a desire to avoid any accountability to the voters in the midterm elections — to ensure, to preordain the outcome of a midterm that he thinks is going to go badly for him,” Vicuña told AlterNet. “We know, from the Big Lie of the 2020 election to spurring on a violent revolt to overthrow a free and fair election, that he has no respect for democratic norms, for the voice of the people. This is entirely about his own power and his own ego. He will even invest in protecting that ego and protecting his power at the expense of the needs of the public. People are suffering with high gas prices and affordability issues, and he does not care. All that matters is protecting his power, and he has no interest in whether he does that through democratic means.”

He added, “I think this all adds up to a desire to ensure that his party stays in power and his ability to do what he wants — to attack vulnerable communities — remains intact.”

---

===

KUDLOW LEANED ON DOD TO APPROVE TRUMP KID DRONE DEAL 5 26

MMA

The GOP has become embroiled in a bitter and "extraordinary feud," according to a new report from The Washington Post, over the actions of a "virtually unknown" but vital Trump appointee within the Pentagon.

Elbridge Colby is the current undersecretary of defense for policy, a position which, the Post explained, "serves a vital role as the Pentagon’s chief strategist on issues such as counterterrorism and nuclear deterrence." Additionally, unlike his bosses, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg, he came to the position with actual prior Pentagon experience.

Despite that leg up, Colby has enraged many Republican lawmakers since he was appointed by President Donald Trump and confirmed by Congress. The Post's report noted a particularly caustic relationship with Rep. Mike D. Rogers, an Alabama Republican and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, who took Colby "at his word" when he told the congressman that he was not aware of any upcoming overseas troop reductions. Rogers, who maintains a considerably close relationship with Romania, was then stunned and betrayed to learn that the Trump administration would be removing a key "Army brigade that had fortified NATO’s eastern flank since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine."

Colby claimed to the Post that a final order had not been issued in October when he took that meeting with Rogers, also stressing that he is "very careful about what I say and what I don’t say." Nonetheless, his relationship with the Republican-led chambers of Congress has only soured since then.

"In the months since, House and Senate Republicans have conducted more aggressive oversight of Colby than nearly any other Trump appointee," the Post detailed. "They have overruled his policies and blocked the confirmation of two officials nominated to serve as his top deputies. At least two prominent Republicans have publicly accused him of dishonesty. The extraordinary feud has become an open proxy war within the GOP, people familiar with the dispute said, as Republicans with starkly different ideas of America’s rightful role in the world each have argued their camp best represents President Donald Trump’s vision for an 'America First' foreign policy."

Colby came under scrutiny prior to his confirmation, particularly from GOP war hawks, for his comments attacking the idea of escalating U.S. support for Ukraine, while also dismissing the potential for a military campaign against Iran. Now, he has changed his tune considerably and voiced support for Trump's haphazard conflict with the Middle Eastern nation.

The report further noted that GOP critics have attacked Colby as something of an "enforcer of the Trump administration’s transactional approach to U.S. allies," demanding in speeches and posts "that partners from Europe to East Asia increase their defense spending and prepare for less American support." He has also drawn the ire of certain lawmakers for his attempt to block a congressional delegation from visiting Taiwan, fearing backlash from China.

Lawmakers have also vented during hearings about Colby's poor communication with Congress.

“You know who the hardest guy to get a hold of in the Trump administration is? The undersecretary of defense for policy,” Sen. Dan Sullivan, an Alaska Republican, told one of Colby's top deputies during their confirmation hearing.

===

AN 5 26

New defense budget torpedoes Trump-class battleship - Alternet.org

---

FAIL CT

AN 5 26

According to new reporting from Politico, a federal appeals court is poised to quash Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s effort to punish Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), who drew the ire of the White House by telling troops to reject illegal orders. This represents a major blow to the administration’s war of narratives as it has attempted to smear Navy veteran and former astronaut Kelly as a traitor while asserting its broad military powers.

The matter dates back to last November, when Kelly, along with five other Democratic lawmakers, filmed a video warning that President Donald Trump intended to use the military against American citizens, and reminding troops that they have the right to “refuse illegal orders.” Hegseth then formally censured Kelly, launching a review into whether his rank and retirement pay should be diminished as a consequence. A district judge ruled that Hegseth’s actions amounted to an attack on free speech, which he appealed.

But on Thursday, the three judges presiding over the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit had some harsh questions for White House lawyers, pushing back against the administration’s rationale and suggesting that they would uphold the lower court’s decision to back Kelly’s free speech.

“The text of the video, which I take to be really the fulcrum of this entire case, advises that service members have no obligation to obey unlawful orders,” said Judge Cornelia Pillard. “Nobody in the video says service members have a duty to disobey lawful orders.”

With her fellow judges expressing similar sentiments, it appears likely that Hegseth’s appeal has failed. While the Justice Department is also pushing for a criminal indictment for Kelly and the other five lawmakers involved with the video — all of whom have served in military or national security — such efforts have been stymied.

This has resulted in more than a mere legal loss for the Trump administration, but the ascension of an electoral rival. While Kelly previously had garnered some recognition as an astronaut and senator, “The saga has turned the Arizona Democrat into a high-profile opponent of the administration — and elevated his national standing as he ‘seriously’ considers a White House bid.”

According to Politico, “Kelly has turned his fight with Trump into a fundraising windfall, raking in a staggering $25 million-plus over the last six months even though he’s not on the ballot this year. And he’s leveraged the media attention into a megaphone while growing his online following. Regardless of how the appeals court rules, the case is likely to end up before the Supreme Court either just before the congressional midterms or in the months after, as candidates sharpen their 2028 message over Trump’s improper and potentially illegal use of the military.”

Kelly, who was on the shortlist to be Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate in 2024, isn’t the only Democrat from the video with presidential aspirations. Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) is known to be considering a bid for the primary. A former CIA analyst and Pentagon official, she serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee alongside Kelly.

While in 2024, Kelly was registering at just .4 percent in polls for possible 2028 Democratic candidates, Trump’s November declaration that the Senator’s “seditious behavior” was “punishable by death” thrust him into the spotlight. This high-profile battle with an unpopular president, plus Kelly’s experience as an astronaut and marriage to Gabby Giffords — who famously survived an assassination attempt — has shaped him into a rising political star.

“He’s got the backstory. He’s a hot commodity right now,” said Democratic presidential campaign strategist Pete Giangreco. “He’s done it in a way that has excited the base of the party but is also a talking point that can win a general election because this is about courage and standing up for the Constitution and making sure we have a military that is not politicized.”

As Steven Smith, political scientist and expert in elections and public opinion at Arizona State University, declared, “Some candidates may pop up and be flashier speakers, but none of them will be as articulate. Kelly just commands your attention.”

---

AN 5 26

Pentagon’s push for laser weapons hitting a major snag - Alternet.org

an 5 26

Trump's Defense Secretary accused of lying to the president - Alternet.org

APPT SPECIAL ADVISOR NO CET, SENATE CONFIRM

SECURITY CLEARANCE?

WORKED ON TRUMP CAMP

Oh, This Is Shady AF - YouTube

1:26

1 minute, 26 seconds

And Mr. Parli Parlatory also served as private attorney for President Trump's campaign. Correct.

1:33

1 minute, 33 seconds

I'm not privy to every professional uh position that he's held.

1:37

1 minute, 37 seconds

Well, I'll help you out. He did. And you appointed Mr. Parloratory as your senior adviser, correct?

1:45

1 minute, 45 seconds

Uh, he does reserve duty on behalf of the Navy. Uh,

1:48

1 minute, 48 seconds

his title is senior adviser. You gave him that title, correct?

1:51

1 minute, 51 seconds

And I would uh count him as very much an adviser of mine. Yep. He travels with you. Correct.

1:57

1 minute, 57 seconds

Uh Tim Parlorator has been a long-term friend. Uh he's a great patriot.

:{:{---}:

AN 4 26

President Donald Trump's Navy secretary revealed "we screwed up."

The USS Boise, a nuclear sub is being taken offline after spending about $800 million trying to overhaul it. The goal was to use what they have and rebuild, but the costs are mounting, and it isn't even halfway completed. The full maintenance cost could reach $1.9 billion. So, they've decided to scrap it and build a new one instead,Semafor reported on Friday.

Secretary John Phelan said that Trump is aiming for a new "Golden Fleet" of ships. His 2027 budget allocated less than $42 billion for 19 new battle force ships.

“We screwed up,” said Phelan, who said he was embracing “radical transparency” now that he's in charge. “We did. This doesn’t look good. It is what it is. Time to move on, and try to get going in the future and move forward.”

A Congressional Budget Office report cited that building a modern equivalent of the Boise, a Los Angeles-class submarine (SSN-764), would cost about $8.7 billion. The Navy calculates it closer to $7.1 billion. A 2024 report from The National Interest said, "Modern aircraft carriers, like the U.S. Navy’s Gerald R. Ford-class, cost around $13 billion each due to their immense complexity and advanced technology."

Trump's "golden fleet" demand would be "battleships described as highly advanced and heavily armed. The proposal requests $65.8 billion for shipbuilding, aiming to produce 18 battle force ships, 16 non-battle vessels, as well as an increase in public shipyard capacity," Business Insider reported.

“I think, by killing these programs, it’s sending a message that we’re not going to continue to send good money after bad investments, and that we’re going to try to make prudent economic decisions that are in the best interest of the fleet and the force,” Phelan explained.

He implied, however, that Trump's $65.8 billion budget request for shipbuilding won't be enough to meet the goal Trump has set for ship production.

“The ’27 budget [will have] a very big impact on this, and in trying to get after it, and really an exponential increase in our readiness,” Phelan said.

---

AN 4 26

When U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to destroy "a whole civilization" in Iran in an April 7 post on his Truth Social platform, the comment drew scathing condemnation not only from countless liberals, progressives and centrist Democrats, but also, from many Never Trump conservatives and libertarians. Even some far-right MAGA influencers, including Infowars' Alex Jones, former Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly, and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), are calling Trump out.

Yet in far-right white evangelical circles, Trump still has plenty of loyal supporters.

In a biting article published on April 10, Salon's Amanda Marcotte argues that white evangelicals' feelings of "persecution" are helping fuel a "disastrous" war.

"For over a decade now, the Christian Right has deflected criticism of Trump's immorality and sadism by insisting they are facing persecution for their religious beliefs," Marcotte explains. "In their minds, they are the real victims of a culture gone to hell, and they see the president as their only hope to beat back these imaginary forces of oppression. Nothing, it seems, can shatter this persecution complex. As the Iran war continues to become an ever-bigger disaster, evangelicals are clinging harder than ever to the notion that because they need to defeat their fictional persecutors, Trump's myriad flaws are excusable and forgivable."

Far-right white evangelicals' "paranoid anger," Marcotte argues, is so extreme that they even view "devout Catholics" like Pope Leo XIV as persecutors.

"Regardless of what is being said in private to Catholic leaders," Marcotte observes, "it's clear that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his allies are furious at the pontiff for undermining their efforts to frame this war as a Christian enterprise — and are suggesting that those who oppose it are the equivalent of Christ's persecutors…. (Pastor) Doug Wilson, who heads the denomination Hegseth belongs to, demonstrated how valuable the phony Christian persecution narrative is for conservatives who need an excuse to stick by the (Trump) Administration amid the Iran debacle…. In the real world, Hegseth is a belligerent official who relishes threatening Iranians with 'death and destruction from above.' But in Wilson’s telling, the defense secretary is a humble servant of God, besieged on all sides by the faithless in their ongoing war against Christ's followers."

Marcotte adds, " As the administration's skirmish with Pope Leo shows, though, it's getting harder for the Christian Right to package the Iran war as a product of God's love — even to followers who have a long history of swallowing all sorts of cruelty in the name of Christ…. Some who have been among the president's loudest supporters in the past, like former Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and podcaster Tucker Carlson, are now proclaiming that this war goes against everything Christians should stand for. In an effort to bring critics like these back in line, many evangelical leaders are clinging to false narratives of religious persecution."

---

---

an 4 26

Pentagon denies Trump official threatened war against the Pope - Alternet.org

---

an 4 26

Bombshell report proves evangelicals dragging Catholics 'deeper into heresy': Jesuit priest - Alternet.org

//

Confirmed: Trump admin threatened to overthrow the papacy - Alternet.org

Pope Leo XIV chronicler Christopher Hale says he has confirmed that Trump’s Pentagon threatened to declare war on the Vatican.

“In January, behind closed doors at the Pentagon, Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre — Pope Leo XIV’s then-ambassador to the United States — and delivered a lecture,” said Hale.

“America has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world,” Colby and his associates informed the cardinal. “The Catholic Church had better take its side.”

As the room temperature grew, Hale said he confirmed that one U.S. official “reached for a fourteenth-century weapon and invoked the Avignon Papacy, the period when the French Crown used military force to bend the bishop of Rome to its will.”

Hale said the report confirms that the Vatican had reason to decline the Trump-Vance White House’s invitation to host Pope Leo XIV for America’s 250th anniversary in 2026 two weeks after the confrontation.

Citing a Free Press report, a writer obtained accounts from Vatican and U.S. officials briefed on the Pentagon meeting. According to his sources, Colby’s team picked apart the pope’s January state-of-the-world address line by line and read it as a hostile message aimed directly at President Donald Trump. Hale said what “enraged them most” was Leo’s declaration that “a diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force.”

“The Pentagon read that sentence as a frontal challenge to the so-called ‘Donroe Doctrine’ — Trump’s update of Monroe, asserting unchallenged American dominion over the Western Hemisphere,” said Hale.

Hale said the cardinal sat through the lecture in silence, but added that “The Holy See has not, since that day, given an inch.”

The Trump administration's contentious relationship with the Catholic Church represents a significant departure from traditional Republican-Church alliances. While Trump secured substantial Catholic voter support in 2016 and 2024 by championing conservative social issues like abortion restrictions, his foreign policy approach and rhetoric have increasingly alienated Church leadership.

Pope Leo XIV has positioned himself as a moral counterweight to Trump's geopolitical aggression, consistently advocating for dialogue-based diplomacy over military intervention. This philosophical clash intensified during Trump's second term, particularly as his administration pursued more hawkish positions on Iran, trade relations, and immigration — issues where Church teaching emphasizes compassion, dialogue, and respect for human dignity.

The Vatican's traditionally neutral stance on secular governance has been tested by Trump's unilateral foreign policy decisions and inflammatory rhetoric. Church leaders have publicly questioned whether American military interventions align with Catholic doctrine on just war theory and the sanctity of human life. Additionally, Trump's administration's hardline immigration policies directly contradict papal messaging that emphasizes welcoming migrants and refugees.

The Pentagon's January confrontation with Cardinal Pierre signals an unprecedented willingness by Trump officials to pressure religious institutions into alignment with administration goals. This represents a potential inflection point: where diplomatic courtesy once governed state-Church relations, coercion may now be replacing negotiation. The Vatican's refusal to participate in the 250th anniversary celebration underscores that even America's most prominent religious institution will not compromise its moral authority for political expediency.

---

---

rww

Matt Gertz @ Media Matters: Between Hegseth and the Fox Cabinet, no restraints on Trump’s war crimes plan

Hegseth’s distinguishing characteristic in his prior role as weekend host of Fox’s morning show was his delight in the prospect of American service members engaging in brutality.

TRMS 4 6? 26 LONG LIST OF DOD FIRED FEM POC CAB TAKES HOUSING

Army secretary refuses to resign despite direct pressure from Trump’s defense chief - Alternet.org

AN

---

TDB

Hegseth’s Venmo Is on Display in Embarrassing Leak

Pete Hegesth’s Venmo is publicly viewable and showing his full list of friends and contacts, according to a report.

While Hegseth’s transactions are private, his list of friends on the mobile payment service isn’t—and it’s a who’s who of Washington bigwigs, defense contractors, and healthcare executives, The American Prospectreported.

A name appearing on Hegseth’s friends list could mean he has transacted with the person, but Venmo also has an option to automatically add phone contacts as friends in the app. At the very least, it suggests that the two people are in touch.

All over the list are executives from up-and-coming Silicon Valley defense contractors Palantir (founded by Republican superdonor Peter Thiel) and Anduril, both of which already have multimillion-dollar contracts with the DOD. They could be poised for additional deals under Hegseth’s regime.

Hegseth’s rolodex appears to include executives from Palantir, a defense contractor founded by major GOP donor Peter Thiel. / Marco Bello / Getty Images

His other ties to Silicon Valley include Google’s former director of law enforcement and information security, a former advisor to Thiel’s hedge fund, and former Sen. Scott Brown—who since leaving Congress has become the leader of Competitiveness Coalition, a group that advocates against anti-trust action.

In addition to defense and tech, the healthcare industry is well represented in Hegseth’s contacts. The friends list features executives at UnitedHealth Group, including a vice president, product director, and public affairs consultant.

Hegseth has long pushed for the privatization of Veterans Affairs, the government agency that supplies health insurance for military veterans. As an advisor to the White House during Trump’s first term, he even reportedly advocated outsourcing more of the agency’s work.

While Hegseth doesn’t oversee VA as defense secretary, he could directly attempt to privatize Tricare, the health insurance option for active duty military members.

...

---

TAP

Ahead of his confirmation hearing earlier this month, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s very public biography was the leading topic of discussion. Major media outlets and Democratic senators seized on a police report detailing a violent allegation of sexual assault, a $50,000 settlement, allegations of public intoxication, Christian crusader tattoos, and the now-secretary’s long-standing support of Eddie Gallagher, a Navy SEAL accused of committing a war crime.

But left mostly unexamined in the deluge of details about his sordid background was any scrutiny of the potential conflicts of interest hiding in plain sight, which offer insight into how he might approach key policy issues before the Pentagon.

Hegseth’s Venmo profile, left on public, reveals a digital Rolodex stocked with C-suite executives who have serious financial stakes in befriending the top dog at DOD. Despite the depiction of Hegseth by both Trump acolytes and Democrats alike as an anti-establishment crusader, his contacts are stocked with consummate Washington insiders from the political, media, and donor class.

More from Daniel Boguslaw | [Luke Goldstein]

The individual transactions on Hegseth’s Venmo account are private, but what remains public is his list of friends; at most, that can indicate accounts he’s repeatedly transacted with. At the very least, this list represents phone contacts that were transported into his account as Venmo friends. As Joe Biden found out the hard way, a publicly available network of associates of the head of the Pentagon could be a national-security risk.

The Defense Department did not return a request for comment.

Heavily featured in the list are a new generation of tech-centric defense contractors hailing from Silicon Valley, a break with the old-guard citadel in Northern Virginia. These include officials with GOP mega-donor Peter Thiel’s Palantir and Palmer Luckey’s Anduril. While this cohort already receives billions of dollars’ worth of defense technology–related contracts, they’re hungry for more. They recently announced their intent to form a joint cartel to compete against legacy contractors like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon for a wide array of government procurement and services.

Former Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher, who recently cashed in on his political connections as the new head of defense for Palantir, is on the list, as is Christian Brose, the chief strategy officer for Anduril. Brose was a former congressional staffer on the Armed Services Committee for Sen. John McCain.

Former Massachusetts Republican Sen. Scott Brown (who is musing about running again for a New Hampshire seat in the U.S. Senate in 2026) also appears to be friends with Hegseth. He now chairs a lobbying front group for the tech industry called the Competitiveness Coalition. In 2022, the coalition helped to kill an antitrust bill in Congress that would have more aggressively regulated the e-commerce business of Amazon, another major budding defense contractor. Amazon currently holds a multibillion-dollar contract with DOD for cloud services through its AWS operation.

The secretary of defense has been a long-standing proponent of privatizing the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Evan Bahr, a former adviser to Peter Thiel’s hedge fund who now works in venture capital, is also on the contact list.

Defense is not the only industry group well represented in Hegseth’s Rolodex with business decisions sitting before the Pentagon. Spread out across Hegseth’s Venmo are senior members of UnitedHealth Group, which is based in Minnesota, where Hegseth unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate in 2012. A UHG vice president, product director, and a public affairs consultant who has represented the health giant all show up as well.

The secretary of defense has been a long-standing proponent of privatizing the Department of Veterans Affairs, even advising the Trump White House during its first term to take steps to outsource more VA health operations, because government health care, in his words, “doesn’t work.” UnitedHealth is already the largest private administrator of Medicare Advantage, the private Medicare option, and would be uniquely well positioned to move into the veterans market should the opportunity present itself. In fact, it already has.

Optum, a subsidiary owned by UnitedHealth, currently serves as a third-party administrator for managing the VA’s Veterans Community Care Program (VCCP). The costs of this privatized expansion of VA care rose from $14.8 billion in 2018 to $28.5 billion in 2023. Year-over-year referrals to providers outside of the VA are expanding by double digits, including privately provided emergency care services for veterans, which make up more than a third of VCCP spending.

As Wendell Potter, the health executive turned industry whistleblower, put it succinctly, “For veterans enrolled in private Medicare Advantage (MA) plans run by UnitedHealth, Optum effectively double dips—collecting full payments from Medicare for the expected medical costs of that enrollee for the entire year while simultaneously charging the VA for coordinating private care for the same patient. According to a recent study from Harvard, as much as $1.3 billion in excess funding went to Medicare Advantage plans for veterans who, by and large, relied on VA care instead.”

Because the private sector is incentivized to wring as many reimbursements out of the federal government as possible, reporting shows that veterans are getting ill-advised prostate surgeries, marked-up chemo drugs, and unnecessary joint replacements, all on the taxpayer dime.

Meanwhile, Hegseth is on the record urging further privatization of the VA. Veterans groups “encourage veterans to apply for every government benefit they can ever get after they leave the service,” he told Fox News in 2019. “To me, the ethos of service is, I served my country because I love my country and I’m gonna come home and start the next chapter of my life. If I’ve got a chronic condition—mental, physical, otherwise—the government better be there for me, but otherwise I don’t want to be dependent on that.”

As defense secretary, Hegseth does not have direct control over the policy decisions of the Veterans Health Administration; that is part of a different cabinet agency, the Department of Veterans Affairs. However, the Pentagon does run TRICARE, the health care program for uniformed military, and Hegseth’s clear support for privatization, backed by contacts throughout the largest health care leviathan in America, could play a role there.

UnitedHealth has a division called Optum Serve, which runs a variety of programs for the military. These include the Military Health System Global Nurse Advice Line, which provides assistance on emergencies, scheduling, and other services; Military Entrance Processing Command Medical Referral Services, which provides referrals to outside specialty physicians; and a joint program with the VA and DOD that provides technical support for clinical practice guidelines.

Little attention was paid during Hegseth’s confirmation hearing to his former role as CEO of Concerned Veterans for America, a Koch-backed initiative that supports privatizing vast swaths of the VA. Numerous individuals with ties to the Koch network appear in Hegseth’s contacts, mainly for the Stand Together group, an umbrella organization that directs funding to various free-market causes.

Talking heads from right-wing outlets like the Daily Wire, The Washington Free Beacon, and Hegseth’s former employer Fox News are the most well represented in Hegseth’s Venmo friends, but the contacts also include a handful of mainstream-outlet reporters at Politico and The New York Times. Only one major Democratic politician is Venmo friends with Hegseth: Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA). Make of that what you will.

As one would expect, Hegseth is well connected across the Trump world. But his Venmo friends actually reflect deeper ties to the old guard of Conservatism Inc. Bush administration alumni are peppered throughout his contacts, such as former national security adviser Mark Pfeifle. Laura Loomer, retired UFC fighter Nik Lentz, and Robert O’Neill, one of the members of SEAL Team Six who killed Osama bin Laden, also appear to have a direct line to the secretary of defense.

UPDATE:A previous version of this article identified Richard Salgado, ​​who served as Google’s director of law enforcement and information security until 2022 and now runs a private consultancy, as someone in Defense Secretary Hegseth’s contacts. The person in the contacts was a different Richard Salgado. The Prospect regrets the error.*

Tagged:corporate power, Defense Department, Health & Social Policy, health insurance, Medicare, military, Pete Hegseth, Politics, privatization, UnitedHealth, Veterans Affairs

Luke Goldstein

Luke Goldstein is a writing fellow at The American Prospect. He previously worked as a reporter/research associate at the Open Markets Institute and interned at Washington Monthly. More by Luke Goldstein

Daniel Boguslaw

Daniel Boguslaw is an investigative reporter based in Brooklyn. More by Daniel Boguslaw

---

mma

Fox analyst Jack Keane on Pete Hegseth forcing Army chief of staff Gen. George to retire: "I don't agree with his dismissal for sure" | Media Matters for America

4 26

---

---

AN 4 26

'This is scary!' Experts alarmed at Trump firing respected general - Alternet.org

AN 4 26

As the war on Iran continues to spiral into yet another Middle East quagmire, a growing number of voices from across the political spectrum are voicing their outrage. Now, the call is coming from inside the house.

On Thursday, Deputy Executive Director of the Taskforce on National and Homeland Security David Pyne had some strong words for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, declaring that he is “ashamed” for supporting the warmongering White House official.

“I defended Secretary of War Pete Hegseth from all of his scandals right up until the invasion of Iran,” Pyne tweeted. “He was America First and reportedly counseled Trump against starting a war with Iran a year ago. Since that time he has gone full neocon warmonger and prayed publicly that God would help us kill the Iranian people. I am ashamed I ever supported him.”

Pyne attached this admission to a video clip of a 2024 interview with Hegseth in which he criticized past American military ventures, saying, “The foolishness with which we ricocheted around the world intervening, thinking it was in our best interest when really we just overturned the table and created something worse."

Hegseth of 2024 offers starkly different messaging as Hegseth of 2026, who on Wednesday tweeted, “Back to the Stone Age,” a reference to President Donald Trump’s assertion during his national address the same day that the U.S. was going to “bomb them back to the Stone Age,” which many have interpreted as a thinly veiled threat to commit war crimes.

In his criticism of Hegseth, Pyne pointed to a sermon delivered by the former Fox News anchor on Wednesday morning, in which he prayed that God “make their land a desolation” and grant American soldiers “overwhelming violence … against those who deserve no mercy.”

Pyne wasn’t the only one to take issue with Hegseth’s violent prayer — so too did Pope Leo XIV, who days later delivered a Palm Sunday homily that many suggested was a direct response to the defense secretary.

“Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” said the Pope. “He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood’.”

After tweeting his criticism of Hegseth, Pyne followed up with another post about White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who he claimed “is reportedly urging White House aides to stop censoring reports of US military losses and Iranian military successes as well as plunging poll numbers and gas price trends from President Trump to make him realize what a disaster his great power war with Iran has become.”

---

see thom on dei purge 11 14

---

WE ARE NEGOTIATOR BUT W BOMBS; HANDS NOT TIED ~ LAW

3 26

---

03/25/2026 RWW

by

Kyle Mantyla

If the enormous 21-point swing against Trump in his own hometown was replicated across the country, this would be the Republicans’ worst midterms in 100 years.

‘I’m hopeful that this exposure will help people recognize the signs of Christian nationalism in their own spaces,’ one Moscow resident said.

The Times visited a village where the United States and Ecuador said they destroyed an armed group’s training camp. Residents said it was actually a dairy farm.

The montage, which typically runs for about two minutes, has raised concerns among some of the president’s allies that he may not be receiving the complete picture of the war.

In the first Christian worship service at the Pentagon since the start of the strikes against Iran, Pete Hegseth, who likes to call himself the “Secretary of War,” used prayer and several Bible passages to cast the conflict as a holy war against God’s enemies. He prayed that God would pour out righteous wrath by helping “break the teeth” and kill the “wicked” enemies “who deserve no mercy” and should be “delivered to the eternal damnation prepared for them.”

The New Apostolic Reformation leader's campaign faces collapse after failing to file required tax returns. He's now suing for ballot access.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols held MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell in civil contempt of court after he claimed an "inability to pay" voting machine company Smartmatic sanctions over frivolous claims about the 2020 presidential election.

The US government is taking fees from immigrants and US sponsors for services that it has no plans to provide. The government took their money, and now it won’t even adjudicate their applications—in many cases, it refuses even to issue denials.

---

AN 3 26

On Saturday, March 28, rap-rocker Kid Rock posted, on X and Instagram, a video of an Apache helicopter flying by his home in Nashville.

Rock, taking a swipe at Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, wrote, "This is a level of respect that s–– for brains Governor of California will never know. God Bless America and all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to defend her."

Two days later, on March 30, Reuters' Idrees Ali tweeted, "A U.S. official confirmed that this indeed did happen and the Army is investigating how this happened."

According to Yahoo Entertainment's Namrata Ghosh, Rock is facing a "backlash" because of the video.

Ghosh reports, "The clip, which captured a private military flyby, has sparked debate online…. Kid Rock recently posted a video of an apparent private military flyby at his Nashville residence. The clip shows the country music star standing beside a replica of the Statue of Liberty as he waves at an Apache helicopter that hovers near his swimming pool."

A social media user, in response to the video, posted, "I'm so glad that our tax dollars are paying for Kid Rock to have a military fly by."

Another social media user wrote, "Who wasted thousands of dollars in fuel, maintenance, and wages to go hover by his pool?"

:{:{:{---}:

AN 3 26

President Donald Trump and his Department of Defense are about to shroud their use of the military in even more secrecy, according to Politico, leaving Congress and key allies in the dark.

Per Politico's Thursday report, "for the first time in decades," the Pentagon has halted plans to release the Global Posture Review, which details the placements of U.S. troops around the world. The review, which is traditionally released early on during each new presidential term, is much anticipated by both Congress and allied nations, as it allows them "to determine budgets and discern American military policy."

As Politico noted, the move fits into the second Trump administration's "go-it-alone" strategy and allows it to shroud some of its more controversial military actions in a new level of secrecy.

"The Global Posture Review, which administrations have historically produced early in the term, outlines military priorities and where the Defense Department plans to station assets," Politico explained. "But the department’s decision to buck precedent, which has not been previously reported, underscores the go-it-alone pattern of this White House. Its officials have regularly informed allies and Congress of military actions only after they have occurred — from boat strikes in the Caribbean to attacks on Iran."

“If we don’t have that, it’s certainly not helpful for our work,” Sen. Jim Banks, an Indiana Republican, as well as a former naval officer and Senate Armed Services Committee member, told Politico about the news. “I’d be disappointed by that decision.”

Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, ripped the administration over the decision not to complete the report, saying that the move "shows that this administration has no plans." Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle said that attempting to forge ahead with budget talks with the Global Posture Review would be a dicey prospect.

Officials within NATO also voiced concern to Politico, with one explaining that the report provides a much-needed sense of predictability from the alliance's biggest member.

“The big ask from our side is predictability,” a NATO military official close to the situation told Politico. “We realize that we need to step up and take much more responsibility for our own security, and we are. But we need predictability.”

---

AN 3 26

Now in his early seventies, Pastor Douglas Wilson is hardly a newcomer to the Religious Right. Wilson, the pastor at Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, has been preaching a severe version of evangelical Protestant fundamentalism since the late 1970s. But during the 1980s and 1990s, he was a marginal figure in the evangelical world. Wilson, in those days, wasn't nearly as well-known as prominent Religious Right figures like the Moral Majority's Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr., the Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, Focus on the Family's James Dobson, or the Christian Broadcasting Network's (CBN) Rev. Pat Robertson.

In recent years, however, Wilson has achieved much greater prominence on the Religious Right, enjoying a close relationship with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Wilson is an unrelenting proponent of Christian nationalism as well as dominionist theology, which believes that the United States should be a total theocracy governed by strict Biblical law. Critics of that ideology argue dominionists would govern the U.S. in much the same way that the Sunni Taliban governs Afghanistan and Shiite Islamists govern Iran, albeit with fundamentalist evangelical Christianity rather than a Sunni or Shiite version of Shariah law.

Julie Ingersoll, a religious studies scholar and author of the book "Building God’s Kingdom: Inside the World of Christian Reconstruction," is known for her expertise on extreme ideologies like Christian reconstructionism and dominionist theology. And in an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark on March 18, she examines Wilson's growing prominence in the GOP and the MAGA movement and the ways he would like to see the U.S. governed.

"In the college town of Moscow, Idaho," Ingersoll explains, "a once-obscure pastor-theologian has spent decades building his church into an empire. Today, he leads not only that church, but a denomination to which more than 150 churches around the world belong — plus a private school and an association of over 400 Christian schools, a college, a seminary, and a publishing house. In his writing and speaking over the decades, he has sought to revise our understanding of the reality of chattel slavery in the American South; articulated a vision of innate, virtuous hierarchy that includes an extreme form of male headship; and advocated the wholesale conversion of the United States of America to a theocracy that would apply Old Testament law across the land. Democracy, he once said, is 'foolishness.' And in his view, God is not just a God of love, but a God who actively participates with his people in war."

The religious scholar adds, "Last month, that pastor, Douglas Wilson, stepped up to a lectern at the Pentagon to address a monthly gathering of military leaders. He had come at the personal invitation of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth."

Ingersoll emphasizes that although Wilson is way outside the mainstream of Protestant Christianity, he is now well-connected in the GOP, the MAGA movement and the Trump Administration. The scholar describes Hegseth as "Wilson's most powerful and well-known follower in Donald Trump's America."

"Proponents of America as a Christian nation are often somewhat hazy about what the end state of a 'Christian nation' would look like specifically," Ingersoll observes, "but Wilson and his followers have carefully laid out a detailed vision. For them, a Christian nation would be governed directly by biblical law — and in every area of its common life and culture, it would be shaped by a comprehensive 'biblical world and life view'…. If you accept that the Bible is true, Wilson believes that the rest of his political-theological paradigm must follow."

Ingersoll adds, "A Christian nation, in his account, is a nation in which there is no area of life and culture where the Bible is not the ultimate authority. Wilson and other Christian nationalists draw on a framework known as 'sphere sovereignty' to interpret and apply the Bible to every area of modern life."

---

---

an 3 26

Military’s Stars and Stripes barred from Pentagon press update: reporter

Bruce Haring

---

03/18/2026

by

Kyle Mantyla

Markwayne Mullin has an incredible story. The Republican U.S. senator is an entrepreneur and former mixed martial arts fighter. That unique experience has been a core part of Mullin’s political brand and featured in multiple campaign ads, including one that showed off his punching bag workouts alongside footage of President Donald Trump declaring, “Markwayne Mullin, you don’t want to fight with him.” However, following his nomination by Trump to lead the Department of Homeland Security, some aspects of Mullin’s record have come under scrutiny.

The late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's "sprawling web" continues to ensnare the MAGA movement.

Pastor-theologian Douglas Wilson advocates theocracy, the restriction of the franchise from women and nonbelievers, and much else—and he is closer than ever to real power.

A DHS insider noted Gregory Bovino had an internal investigation looming when he announced he was quitting.

Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) claimed that having an identification card is required “to have a child” in the U.S. He did not elaborate as to when or to whom he thinks the ID would need to be presented.

Once a failed Senate candidate, Jackson Lahmeyer hopes to benefit from a party captured by Christian Nationalism.

---

PRESS SUPPRESS MMA

The Trump administration demands American press propagandize his Iran war

Written by Matt Gertz

Published 03/16/26

We are two weeks into President Donald Trump’s ill-conceived war of choice against Iran, and the president is already suggesting his administration should shut down news outlets for producing critical reports — or even consider treason charges based on spurious claims of collusion with America’s enemies.

Though U.S. and Israeli forces have successfully bombed a wide array of Iranian targets and assassinated its former supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran has followed through with its strategic doctrine by closing the Strait of Hormuz, shutting down a major channel for the global energy and fertilizer trades.

As a result, Trump is begging/demanding foreign navies bail him out by sending ships to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, deploying additional troops and ships to the region for unknown reasons, lifting sanctions on Russia in hopes of lowering the price of oil, denying reports that a Pentagon investigation preliminarily found the U.S. military accidentally incinerated scores of Iranian schoolchildren with an errant missile — and railing against the American press for refusing to report that the war is going well.

Meanwhile, Trump’s hand-picked Federal Communications Commission chair, Brendan Carr, is signaling to broadcast stations that they will face regulatory retribution if they don’t “correct course."

It’s all part of the authoritarian playbook Trump wields against news outlets that produce anything less than Fox News-style propaganda. The protections of the First Amendment ensure that those outlets could likely prevail in court — but fighting is expensive, and over the course of Trump’s second term so far, the corporate moguls who control them have proven unnervingly unwilling to do so.

### Trump rails against press, demands government retribution

Last week, former Fox News host Megyn Kelly bemoaned that the network’s coverage is offering lockstep support for Trump’s Iranian “excursion.”

“Now it's, you cheerlead the war, support the military industrial complex, or … you're a loser,” she said on her podcast. “It's infuriating because we're talking about life and death. We're talking about American life or death. And this is a dereliction of duty.”

As Kelly suggests, when Trump turns his television to Fox, he is getting unhinged validation of his efforts. But the president is not satisfied with that. He wants every American news outlet producing the same Fox-style war propaganda.

Trump used what he baselessly described as “an intentionally misleading headline by the Fake News Media” to denounce the press in a Saturday morning Truth Social post.

“The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal (in particular), and other Lowlife 'Papers’ and Media actually want us to lose the War,” he wrote. “Their terrible reporting is the exact opposite of the actual facts! They are truly sick and demented people that have no idea the damage they cause the United States of America.”

In another post on Sunday evening, the president baselessly claimed that Iran had been “working in close coordination with the Fake News Media” to promote a fake, AI-generated video depicting a U.S. ship burning in the Persian Gulf.

“The story was knowingly FAKE and, in a certain way, you can say that those Media Outlets that generated it should be brought up on Charges for TREASON for the dissemination of false information!” Trump posted. “The fact is, Iran is being decimated, and the only battles they ‘win’ are those that they create through AI, and are distributed by Corrupt Media Outlets.”

(In reality, responsible news outlets have been debunking that video, not distributing it, according to CNN’s Brian Stelter.)

“It's pretty criminal because our media companies, who have no credibility whatsoever, are putting out information that they know is false, and it's a very dangerous thing for the country,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One later that night, “I think they could be in serious jeopardy."

Trump’s weekend anti-press binge followed coverage complaints from Pete Hegseth, the former Fox & Friends weekend host who now heads the Pentagon, who used a press conference on Friday morning to gripe extensively about the banners he has seen on TV news coverage.

Yet some in this crew, in the press, just can't stop. Allow me to make a few suggestions. People look up at the TV and they see banners, they see headlines. I used to be in that business. And I know that everything is written intentionally.

For example, a banner or a headline: “Mideast war intensifies,” splashing on the screen the last couple of days, alongside visuals of civilian or energy targets that Iran has hit, because that's what they do. What should the banner read instead?

How about, ‘Iran increasingly desperate,’ because they are. They know it and so do you, if it can be admitted.

Hegseth posited that an “actual patriotic press” would produce such coverage. He also decried a CNN report detailing how the Trump administration “failed to fully account for the potential consequences” of Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz. “The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better,” he commented, referencing a Trump ally’s effort to take over CNN’s parent company with the help of the administration.

### With Carr, a cause for alarm

It is disturbing enough that the president of the United States is a deranged authoritarian who responds to a faltering war by ranting about its coverage. But what makes it worse is that his administration is filled with apparatchicks eager to carry out his demands for retribution.

Carr, who was reportedly with the president at his Mar-A-Lago club over the weekend, responded to Trump’s initial post complaining about journalists who “actually want us to lose the War” by threatening the licenses of broadcast stations that produce critical coverage.

“Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions - also known as the fake news - have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up,” Carr wrote. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not."

Carr was nonspecific about how broadcasters could avoid reprisal (and Trump had lashed out at newspapers, not broadcast networks, in his post), but he’s a hack who is typically willing to carry Trump’s water no matter how absurd the underlying complaint may be.

Trump signaled his approval for Carr’s threats in his Sunday evening “TREASON” post, writing, “I am so thrilled to see Brendan Carr, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), looking at the licenses of some of these Corrupt and Highly Unpatriotic ‘News’ Organizations."

Stelter, in an extensive report drawing on comments from First Amendment lawyers, notes that Carr “has very little power to follow through” and that television stations, if they are willing to fight such attempted reprisals in court, “are not at serious risk of being banned."

“Any government action against a licensee would cause a protracted legal battle, even more so given the current media-bashing climate, because a station would likely cite Trump’s retributive streak and mount a First Amendment case,” Stelter wrote.

There is a strong argument that stations would be victorious if they fought Carr’s attempts to strip their licenses. But there were also strong arguments that ABC News and CBS News would be victorious if they fought the lawsuits Trump filed over their coverage in 2024. The problem was that rather than going to court on behalf of a free press, Disney and Paramount, their parent companies, decided it was in the interest of their broader business holdings to fold.

The advantage Trump and Carr have in their fight to cudgel the press into line is that it can be very expensive to fight the federal government on behalf of the First Amendment — and what the last year shows is that many people who own or control news outlets don’t care enough about such principles to do it. And Disney and Paramount had much deeper pockets to pay lawyers than an individual local broadcast news station does. Even Sinclair Broadcast Network, which owns or operates nearly 200 stations across the country, has a market cap of around $1 billion, compared to roughly $175 billion for Disney.

If Carr threatens the licenses of Sinclair stations, are its pro-Trump owners really going to go to the mat for the free press rather than using his complaints as an opportunity to push coverage even further to the right?

It’s also worth taking seriously Trump’s threats of treason charges against news outlets. The Justice Department is now staffed by loyalists like former Fox host Jeanine Pirro who are willing to follow through on his demands for political prosecutions. Those efforts keep failing — but they raise the cost of dissent and thus chill free speech.

And that’s what the president wants, as Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt made clear when she channeled him on Monday morning.

“The president has said enough with this coverage from other networks that are not telling you the truth, that are so negative about what’s going on,” she said. “This is a pro-America fight, and every network needs to get on board with that."

And if they aren’t, there will be consequences.

---

---

an 3 26

The United States remains under a cloud of international criticism after it bombed a girls' school in Iran and tried to blame it on Iran itself. Now it's being revealed that the CIA gave President Donald Trump the false intelligence, but made it clear after 24 hours that it was a U.S. bomb. Still, Trump ran with the allegation that it was Iran that hit their own people.

According to *The Guardian*, the CIA believed that the missile may not have been from the U.S. because "the fins appeared to be positioned too low for it to be a Tomahawk cruise missile." But they quickly realized it was, in fact, a Tomahawk missile from the U.S., and the sources said they briefed the president on the reality.

The truth didn't matter to Trump, however, as he "had already settled on the explanation that Iran was responsible for the strike." Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth refused to say one way or another so as not to contradict Trump. Instead, he told reporters that it was under investigation.

Trump's biggest problem with the lie is that he accepted the reality that it was a Tomahawk, and falsely said that Iran had such missiles when it is "used only by the US and a handful of allies, including the U.K., Japan and Australia," the report explained.

“Giving Trump preliminary information is dangerous because he can turn it into a total embarrassment,” a former CIA officer told The Guardian. “If the principal asks you a question, the best thing to say is you don’t know. Knowing how hard it is to go back later to correct the record.”

Former intelligence members blame the briefers and Trump for the public embarrassment.

The most recent numbers show that at least 175 people, mostly children, were killed in the blast at the school.

The report said that the updated numbers mean that the strike is "one of the deadliest targeting errors in recent decades."

The investigation Hegseth referenced is trying to uncover why the intelligence claimed that it was a military target when it was well-known that it was a school. The Australian version of ABC News reported that it was even clear on Google Maps that the IRGC naval base was separated from the colorfully painted school by a large wall. The wall has been there since 2013. The school was converted sometime between 2013 and 2016, The Guardian said.

The Pentagon investigation has been focused on why the intelligence was outdated and whether it was double-checked.

International humanitarian law (IHL) is a set of rules designed to protect those who are not directly involved in the conflict. It includes aid workers, medical professionals, the sick, injured and children. The U.S. has signed and ratified Geneva Conventions of 1949. Breaking those rules is considered a war crime.

The Guardian explained that the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency look at imagery to build a "target database" using a program called Maven Smart System.

A former senior defense official explained that there are years of analysis that go into the system and "layers of oversight." However, once "entered into the database as a possible target, it may not necessarily be reviewed again until a strike is considered." The target list is generated by the system using Maven and "artificial intelligence tools such as Claude, Anthropic’s large language model," the report explained.

In late February, around the time Trump decided to go to war, he instructed all federal agencies to stop using Anthropic's AI technology. PBS News reported at the time that Anthropic has long demanded that the government not use its system for "fully autonomous weapons systems" and mass surveillance.

On Feb. 23, five days before the bombing, Axios reported that the Pentagon and Elon Musk's AI company, Grok, had reached an agreement under which his AI tools would be used instead. xAI agreed to allow its system to be used for everything, including military and warrantless surveillance. So, it's unclear which systems were responsible for putting the girls' school on the target list.

The head of Centcom, Adm. Brad Cooper, told reporters last Wednesday the United States is “leveraging a variety of advanced AI tools" for the attacks.

The Washington Post reported last week that two Israeli officials claimed the girls' school "was not cross-checked or discussed with the Israel Defense Forces before it took place."

Human Rights Watch has called for a war crime investigation.

---

---

AN 3 26

Since assuming the self-titled role of “Secretary of War,” machismo has been at the core of Pete Hegseth’s military leadership. According to a new op-ed by the i Paper columnist Ian Dunt, Hegseth’s “fragile masculinity” is not only an “insecure” projection, but an “embarrassment” to the United States that makes the country “weaker.”

Machismo has always been at the core of the Trump administration’s ethos, Dunt explained, as it has sought to promote executive authority while denigrating women and LGBTQ people, and no one in the administration better represents that than “moron” Pete Hegseth. Not only is he unqualified and “perhaps the least complex individual ever given high office,” but he has “translated his personal flaws into the operating manual for the US armed forces.”

Dunt argued that this issue dates back to the earliest days of Hegseth’s tenure, which he launched with complaints about pronouns, “climate change obsession,” and “dudes in dresses.” Then in what Dunt called “one of the weirdest single moments in American military history,” Hegseth gathered the majority of the nation’s generals and other defense leaders to chastise them about facial hair and various culture war talking points as “they sat in baffled silence.”

As Dunt pointed out, while most recognize his “fragile” overcompensation, “Only in Trump-land would he be considered a sensible candidate for anything.” But the problem with having someone like Hegseth in power isn’t just a matter of morality, but a question of effectiveness.

“This personality type does not plan,” wrote Dunt. “In fact, planning is considered distinctly effeminate. Evidence-seeking, briefings, assessments of vulnerabilities, scrutinising your expectations, critically assessing your strategic objectives, using deep domain knowledge to establish geopolitical reality, understanding the motivation of your opponent: these are the qualities which win conflicts.”

But as the Trump administration is now discovering as the war in Iran expands, Hegseth's approach does not deliver the rapid results that they hoped for. Dunt cites reports that the Iranian regime has turned down two US requests seeking a ceasefire while closing the Strait of Hormuz, throwing the global energy market into chaos.

The impact of all this, Dunt argued, is being felt economically, politically, and beyond, not only weakening the United States but emboldening its greatest foes like Russia and China. What’s more, “It is an embarrassment for a great nation like the US.”

---

an 3 26 // rubio big shoes, trump neck rash lamphrey?

Press photographers have now been banned from the Pentagon after "unflattering" photos were taken of the Secretary of Defense.

*The Washington Post* reported on Wednesday that Secretary Pete Hegseth recoiled after photos from last week's press briefing made him look bad, two sources said.

Hegseth has given a few briefings since President Donald Trump's war in Iran began. Photographers from the Associated Press, Reuters and Getty Images took photos as they do at all official events. After the photos were published, however, members of Hegseth's staff said that they didn't like the way he looked in them. So, they banned the press photographers entirely for two briefings.

“In order to use space in the Pentagon Briefing Room effectively, we are allowing one representative per news outlet if uncredentialed, excluding pool. Photographs from the briefings are immediately released online for the public and press to use. If that hurts the business model for certain news outlets, then they should consider applying for a Pentagon press credential," said Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson.

"It is unclear whether one particular photo — or the sum total of the day’s shots — led to consternation among Hegseth’s staff. When photographers showed up for last Wednesday’s briefing they were not allowed in, according to two other people familiar with the situation who also spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation," the Post said.

Only official DOD photos of Hegseth are being released now.

The new Pentagon has clashed with the press over the first year after Hegseth was caught in numerous scandals. He has since shut down the Pentagon press office, a very small space where reporters could use a table to type up quick reports. He also launched a leak investigation after many of his flubs were exposed to the press, including an embarrassing set of Signal messages in which he revealed classified information to unauthorized recipients.

---

KEVIN KRAMER SEN SAYS WE HAVE BIBLICAL DUTY TO ISRAEL?

AN 3 26

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth quoted the Bible — specifically the Old Testament — on Tuesday during remarks on the progress of the war against Iran, leaving some to express concerns about Christian nationalism and his potentially executing a holy or religious war.

Noting that he had just returned from Dover Air Force Base to accept the dignified transfer of another service member killed in the Iran war, Hegseth said, “I’ll close with Scripture, drawing strength from Psalm 144.”

“Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle,” he said. “He is my loving God and my fortress. My stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge. May the Lord grant unyielding strength and refuge to our warriors. Unbreakable protection to them in our homeland. And total victory over those who seek to harm them. Amen.”

Critics slammed his introduction of the religious text.

At The New Republic, Malcolm Ferguson wrote: “The Christian nationalist undertones of this war are getting even more obvious.”

“Listening to Hegseth read Psalm 144 feels like an ominous justification for further aggression rather than a comforting message,” Ferguson said.

“While it’s a lovely verse traditionally attributed to King David, it does not accurately portray the reality of the situation whatsoever,” he wrote. “The United States is the Goliath of this story, along with Israel. The countries’ joint attacks of aggression have killed over 1,200 Iranians, many of them young schoolgirls. Iranian fuel depots were hit so hard that oil rained from the sky in Tehran on Sunday. Seven American service members have died because a president who promised peace sent them to war for money and regime change, not liberation.”

Professor of public policy Josh Cowen responded to Secretary Hegseth’s reading of scripture: “He could have chosen Jesus’s words ‘Blessed are they who mourn’ or if he was really craving a psalm, ‘The Lord is my shepherd.'”

“Instead he’s sporting militant quotes not to assuage grief but to justify his actions that caused it,” Cowen said.

Dutch journalist Michael van der Galien, according to a translation on X, called it “concerning that Pete Hegseth uses a passage from the Old Testament to suggest that God would bless a specific war between America, Israel, and Iran.”

“From a Catholic perspective, war is always a tragedy and only justified under strict conditions of just war theory, such as self-defense and the protection of innocents, not as a divine mandate.”

Professor Massimo Faggioli, a Church historian, according to a translation on X, wrote of Hegseth’s Scripture quoting, “they’ll do absolutely anything to make it look like a religious war.”

---

in holy war press conf 3/3? he gestured at fake news

an 3 26

Scathing reactions poured in across social media on Wednesday morning after Donald Trump's Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, criticized the "fake news media" for covering American casualties in Iran, with one reaction calling the moment "truly rock bottom."

The U.S. has been engaged in a major joint military operation against Iran with Israel since Saturday, launching a barrage of strikes as the specific goals of the campaign continue to be uncertain. As of Wednesday, at least six U.S. service members are confirmed dead as a result of the Iranian military's counterstrikes.

Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth held a press conference about the operation alongside Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. During his remarks, Hegseth lashed out at the press over reports focused on the six American casualties, accusing them of trying to make Trump bad.

"This is what the fake news misses," Hegseth said. "We've taken control of Iran's airspace and waterways without boots on the ground, but when a few drones get through or tragic things happen, it's front page news. I get it, the press only wants to make the president look bad. But try for once to report the reality."

Reactions to this remark, which appeared to minimize the importance of American casualties, were swift, criticizing the secretary for his callousness and his lack of care for the responsibilities of the news media.

"Hegseth says reporting on American casualties is the 'fake news' trying to 'make the president look bad,'" Tommy Vietor, a former Obama administration National Security Council spokesman and "Pod Save America" co-host, wrote in a post to X. "This is truly rock bottom from the most selfish, arrogant, unqualifed Secretary of Defense in US history."

"Just a thought, maybe SecDef shouldn’t jerk himself off on live television at the thought of casualties in war," Angry Staffer, a prominent political accountant run by a former White House staffer, said in their own post. "War isn’t something to be giddy about. Were the most powerful nation on the planet. We’re supposed to be the quiet professionals, not carnival barking morons."

"To say that the deaths of our troops shouldn’t warrant front page news and that it’s only being reported on to make Trump 'look bad' inspires the kind of rage in me that would get me banned from this app," Joanne Carducci, a prominent online political commentator, wrote in her own post X.

"No, Pete Hegseth," Susan McPherson, an author and businesswoman, wrote in a post to BlueSky. "The media’s job is to tell the truth and report on the good, the bad and the ugly."

"Each thing Hegseth says is more insane, lawless and incriminating than the last," David Kaye, a former special rapporteur for the United Nations, wrote in a post to BlueSky about the press conference overall.

Hegseth also drew intense criticism for his overblown descriptions of military strikes in Iran, including his comments about "death and destruction" raining from the sky and the U.S. "playing for keeps."

"He’s like a really bad actor in a 1980's 'B' action movie that went straight to video," Ron Filipkowski, a former federal prosecutor and political commentator, wrote on BlueSky.

"More than 1,000 Iranian civilians have been killed already including 160 [plus] schoolgirls," political consultant Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin wrote in her own post to BlueSky. "If and when there is a war crimes trial, Hegseth's prosecutors will have a wealth of evidence."

---

see theocRacy apoc xian nat’l

'Deeply alarming': Christian fundamentalists see Trump’s military policies as biblical war

After U.S. President Donald Trump ordered missile strikes against Iran and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — the country's far-right Shiite fundamentalist leader since 1989 — was killed, a long list of other countries were drawn into the conflict. Iran launched retaliatory strikes against U.S. installations in Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia was attacked by Iranian drones.

Meanwhile, Israel and Hezbollah (a pro-Iran Shiite militia in Lebanon) fired missiles at once another. From Riyadh to Beirut to Dubai, the Middle East is on pins and needles.

Trump is claiming that going to war with Iran is necessary from a national security standpoint. But MS NOW's Zeeshan Aleem, in an opinion column published on March 4, argues that Trump's Christian nationalist allies view the conflict as a holy war for evangelical fundamentalist Christianity.

"President Donald Trump can't get his story straight on why he launched a war against Iran," Aleem argues. "But some commanders in the U.S. military are apparently telling service members that they're on a mission to fulfill biblical prophecy. The independent journalist Jonathan Larsen reported that the Military Religious Freedom Foundation has received more than 110 complaints from service members about their commanders' religious gloss on the war on Iran."

Aleem continues, "These complaints, according to Larsen's report, came from every branch of the military, across more than 40 different units, situated in at least 30 military installations…. MRFF President Michael Weinstein told Larsen that the complaints from service members shared a common feature: Commanders are describing the war as 'biblically sanctioned' and 'clearly the undeniable sign of the expeditious approach of the fundamentalist Christian End Times as vividly described in the New Testament Book of Revelation."

Weinstein told Larsen, "Many of their commanders are especially delighted with how graphic this battle will be, zeroing in on how bloody all of this must become in order to fulfill and be in 100 percent accordance with fundamentalist Christian end-of-the-world eschatology."

When military commanders "are reportedly selling American aggression on Iran as a holy war," Aleem warns, it is "deeply alarming."

"Weinstein told Larsen that the complaints violate the Constitution's separation of church and state," Aleem explains. "But regardless of its legality, telling American troops that they're fighting for a Christian god against a Muslim country is medieval madness. It isn't the role of the U.S., per the Constitution, to promote any religion over another. Furthermore, the reported remarks from these commanders is likely to prompt U.S. service members to dehumanize Iran's population, and help set the stage for viciousness in combat and human rights violations. The military is not supposed to be a crusading political-theological movement, but a professional defense force."

//

an 3 26

People are growing increasingly uneasy as President Donald Trump's attacks on Iran are looking more and more like they could be part of a right-wing religious fanatic's fantasy for the apocalyptic.

The Cradle Media's Jonathan Larsen wrote that American soldiers were given a pep-talk about the war in Iran. A U.S. combat-unit commander told them that the attack is part of “God’s divine plan." He said that President Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus” for the specific purpose to ignite Armageddon.

“U.S. Troops Were Told Iran War Is for 'Armageddon,' Return of Jesus Advocacy group reports commanders giving similar messages at more than 30 installations in every branch of the military," Larsen wrote.

The comments come as part of a lawsuit brought by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation; however, it is only one of "110 lawsuits brought in 48 hours from over 40 units across 30 installations," the report said. The complaints came from Christians, a Muslim and a Jewish soldier.

The Christian nationalist theory that Israel has a God-given right to much of the Middle East is one espoused by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. In a speech at a Christian Zionist church in Jerusalem in December, Huckabee conveyed his " purpose is to convert Israeli Jews to belief in Jesus in order to bring about the End Times," explained Religion Dispatches.

The concept is bad for anyone seeking peace in the Middle East, one 2024 report by Forward explained.

The sect of Christianity that Huckabee believes in holds that if they are able to remove Palestinians from the Holy Land, then Jesus Christ will return. He believes in “dispensational premillennialism,” which Forward describes as a belief that “the Rapture will come,” and deliver all evangelicals to Heaven as Israel is invaded by the armies of the world. It will cause Armageddon and prompt the return of Jesus Christ.

The language is making some fearful that the war waged wasn't really about Iran never obtaining nuclear weapons, which Trump claimed he destroyed last summer. It's a holy war, desperate to force Armageddon.

"Maybe it’s a bad idea to put people in charge of government who are eager for the rapture," lawyer and self-described nerd John Collins commented.

"Love when I'm in the military and my boss is, like, 'Time for Armageddon!'" commented author and journalist Emily St. James.

Writer and former Cato Institute policy analyst Will Wilkinson wrote, "Personally, I don’t think we should bring about Armageddon."

"One thing about the U.S., we definitely do not have insane religious zealots in charge,"said Heidi N. Moore, previously of the Wall Street Journal business side.

Writer and elections lawyer at the Cato Institute, Walter Olson, quoteda line from the 1965 song "So Long, Mom (A Song for World War III)" with lyrics by Tom Lehrer: "And this is what he said on/ His way to Armageddon.”

---}:

// BOEBERT HILLARY PIX?

MMA

Right-wing media figures are getting briefed on the Iran war before Congress

Benny Johnson and Brian Kilmeade appear to have more information than just about any elected representative

Written by John Knefel

Research contributions from Sophie Lawton

Published 03/02/26

A defining feature of President Donald Trump’s second term is its symbiotic relationship with media allies, both at traditional right-wing outlets like Fox News and among the newer cohort of MAGA podcasters and online influencers — in some cases, these figures know more about Trump’s upcoming policy decisions than members of Congress. That dynamic was fully on display in the lead-up to the unprovoked bombing campaign the United States and Israel launched against Iran on February 28.

Prior to Trump’s initiation of the war, MAGA streamer Benny Johnson and Newsmax host Greg Kelly appeared to have insider information about when the first round of strikes would occur. Beyond them, Fox News host Brian Kilmeade and contributor Jack Keane claimed to have been involved in high-level briefings on the campaign.

Johnson, who was fired by Buzzfeed for plagiarism in 2014 and later disciplined by the Independent Journal Review for publishing false information, appears to have had unusually close access to officials in the Trump administration responsible for the decision to go to war.

On February 21, Johnson told his audience, “We are going to war with Iran. … I've been asking — I think that the cake's been baked.” It was unclear at the time whether he had inside information or was speculating, as he later added, referring to the publicly reported military build up, “the maps don't lie, OK? It’s happening.”

Johnson returned to the subject on February 27, just hours before the U.S.-Israeli campaign began. He began his show saying he’d just been “on the phone with top-level — let’s just say very high-level administration officials — moments ago to discuss what the plan is” for attacking Iran. Later in the same episode, Johnson claimed that he’d been talking with someone who is at the “top, top level of the administration, and we were yelling at each other — not yelling, but having polite conversation — about, like, what’s about to pop off in the Mid East.”

Ultimately, Johnson told his audience, “This is not a drill. It is actually happening,” adding: “I think in the next 24 hours we are going to see the world change. It may be the next 24 minutes, we're not exactly certain."

Newsmax host Kelly was even more precise. “A very well-informed person told me” the attack on Iran will happen Friday “after Wall Street closes,” Kelly said February 26.

By contrast, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who sits on both the Senate committees on intelligence and on foreign relations, told reporters on February 28 that he was “learning like you are as the news unfolds exactly what's happening." The Trump administration reportedly briefed some congressional staff the following day, with a full briefing to Congress scheduled for March 3.

Johnson and Kelly weren’t the only right-wing media figures enjoying extraordinary access to high-level information. Over at Fox, Kilmeade — a weekday Fox & Friends host who came in to cover a weekend shift — said on March 1 that he “was fortunate enough to be in a briefing with high-ranking Trump officials” a day earlier.

The same morning, Keane offered more granular detail, implying a high degree of insider information. “The [Persian] Gulf states are adequately defending themselves,” said Keane, a retired general and former Army vice chief of staff. “Three of them are preparing for combat, offensive operations. One has already started and two others are about to get going. I'm not going to talk about who they are, but that is being coordinated with Adm. Cooper and Central Command. These will be coordinated, selected targets, and they will contribute to the offensive nature of what’s taken place."

Keane’s comments on Fox the next day suggested he’d been provided with high-level briefings that everything is going smoothly. “The military has got a plan here that I have been privy to understand and it is very comprehensive,” Keane said. “And we're going to stick with that plan until the conditions of these military objectives are met. So far, the plan is exceeding all expectations."

The access to White House war plans that Johnson, Kelly, Kilmeade, and Keane appear to have is even more noteworthy given that the Pentagon tightly controlled its first press briefing of the war on March 2 — having already largely replaced the traditional Pentagon press corps with a series of lackeys, grifters, conspiracists, and cranks. According to CNN’s Brian Stelter, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth — formerly of Fox News — “only answered questions from his chosen outlets” and had a “pre-selected list of questioners.” Those approved outlets didn’t include Hegseth’s former employer, whose correspondent was relegated to the back row and not called on for a question.

All administrations leak and try to manage public opinion through press operations. But the alignment of messaging and interests between the Trump White House and its media allies is unlike anything the United States has seen in recent memory. Sometimes that looks like providing right-wing influencers with embeds alongside Trump’s deportation agents; other times it looks like inviting MAGA media trolls to the White House to discuss antifa. Now, it looks like some of the most slavish voices in right-wing media are getting better information more quickly than members of Congress as the United States and Israel unleash yet more destruction in the Middle East.

---

mma context?

In Iran, the most consequential test of the Fox-Trump feedback loop yet

Written by Matt Gertz

Published 03/02/26

President Donald Trump, across both of his terms, has regularly shaped federal policy in response to the propaganda he hears from his sycophants at Fox News. But his decision over the weekend to launch a war of choice against Iran without a clear goal may prove to be the most consequential example of this feedback loop to date.

Trump is deeply immersed in the Fox universe. He famously consumes the network’s content; highlights particular segments that strike his fancy on social media; hires its employees to run his administration; consults its personalities for advice on domestic and foreign policy; and doles out contracts and pardons alike based on what he sees on its airwaves.

And for decades, the Fox stars Trump trusts most have consistently called for military strikes and regime change in Iran.

That campaign took on new urgency when Trump returned to the White House.

Last June, Fox personalities — particularly Trump loyalists Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, and Brian Kilmeade — used their programs to urge Trump to follow up on Israeli attacks on Iran by launching strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. They warned that Iran is, as Kilmeade put it, “our enemy,” that it posed an imminent threat to American citizens and that, in Levin’s words, “force” is the “only thing to stop” Iran.

Other MAGA media figures from non-Fox outlets opposed U.S. involvement in the conflict. But the overwhelmingly pro-war Fox coverage — and a White House meeting Levin had with the president — were apparently dispositive.

And after Trump ordered the U.S. military to attack three Iranian nuclear sites, Fox’s war hawks rewarded the president by showering him with praise for what Hannity said would “go down in history as one of the greatest military victories.”

The same pattern appears to be playing out eight months later, albeit on a much larger scale.

A Fox-fueled push for war with Iran

Over the past weeks, as U.S. military forces converged in the Middle East, the same Fox figures again urged Trump to attack. Notably, their argument was noticeably light on defining a goal for U.S. military operations after the bombs began to fall.

Instead, they argued that because Iran could, at some point in the future, pose a threat, Trump should act now while he is empowered to do so — and that the result would be an easy U.S. victory. “I cannot think of any reason not to take this regime out,” Levin argued. The U.S. would “lose credibility forever” without a strike, Kilmeade claimed. For Hannity, “The world is going to be better and safer.”

While some on the network seemed to shy away from the topic, criticism of potential strikes largely took place elsewhere in the MAGA media — outside of the Fox programming the president himself watches.

On Friday, hours before the attack began, the trio made their final pitch.

“I hope the president chooses to go at it,” Kilmeade said Friday morning. “We have been looking at these headlines for 47 years, and we have an opportunity to end it. And this president likes to make history.”

“This president knows right from wrong,” Levin told Hannity that night. “He knows good from evil. He knows that this regime is a death cult. And he knows that there's only really two countries that are prepared and willing to put an end to this.”

“We don't need to put up with their crap,” he concluded, as Hannity nodded along. “It's time to put it to an end.”

They got what they wanted: The U.S. and Israeli militaries began attacking Iranian targets that night. Since then, hundreds of Iranians have reportedly been killed, including Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the Pentagon has reported the first U.S. casualties in the conflict. There is no end currently in sight — the Iranian government remains defiant, while the U.S. is sending more troops to the region.

The propaganda war has an aim. The real one doesn’t.

Trump, meanwhile, has had trouble articulating what he’s trying to accomplish.

He first suggested his aim was regime change when he urged the Iranian people to “take over” the government in his first public statement after the attack, but in interviews since then, he just seems to be riffing. He told The Washington Post he is seeking “freedom for the people” of Iran, but he bemoaned to ABC News that regime figures he expected to take over the country had also been killed in the initial strikes. Trump also stressed to The New York Times that his model was the U.S. attack on Venezuela, where the dictatorial regime remained in place after U.S. forces seized its leader. But he also suggested that the Iranian military could turn over its arms to its public. “They would really surrender to the people, if you think about it,” he explained.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former Fox & Friends host, added to the incoherence of the administration’s message when he said at a Monday morning press conference, “This is not a so-called 'regime change war,' but the regime sure did change.” But the Iranian regime currently remains in place, and according to at least some of his statements, Trump may prefer it that way.

Perhaps the reason there doesn’t seem to be a clear goal for the U.S. bombing of Iran is because the goal, as laid out by Trump’s Fox propagandists, was for the U.S. to bomb Iran. That is the aim the likes of Kilmeade, Hannity, and Levin had in mind, and now that they’ve goaded Trump into following through, they are cheering him on.

“Donald Trump did what nobody else could do for half a century,” Levin marveled on Saturday. “How do you like that? And you know why he did it? Because he loves his country.”

So what happens next in Iran? That’s beyond the remit of Trump’s Fox Cabinet. Instead, they are gearing up for a propaganda war in which they declare Trump a world-historic victor and paint his critics as terrorists and traitors. For them, the details of what happens to the Iranians is for someone else to handle.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like anyone within the official Trump administration has answers either.

//

  1. ### Fox continues longstanding push for war against Iran

:{:{11/17/23}:

  1. ### Trump’s Fox News obsession is driving the U.S. toward war with Iran

:{:{06/18/25}:

  1. ### The final case for US strikes on Iran from Mark Levin and Sean Hannity

02/28/26

---

mma

March 2, 2026, edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom

JENNIFER GRIFFIN (CORRESPONDENT): I was in the Pentagon briefing this morning, but we were not called on for a question. We had assigned seats and Fox News was put in the back row. And there was no outside-cuts camera allowed to show who was asking the questions. The Pentagon wanted to control all of that.

These are the questions I would have asked if called on: Why was this an imminent threat? Oman's foreign minister said there was progress in nuclear talks. Was there any evidence that Iran was planning a preemptive strike? U.S. officials now say that was not the case. Do you know where the highly enriched uranium is? That is the question Sec. Hegseth did not want to answer last summer after claiming Iran's nuclear program had been obliterated in Operation Midnight Hammer. The secretary said this war is not about regime change, even though the president called on the Iranians to rise up and remove the regime.

My follow-up would have been how are unarmed Iranian civilians expected to overthrow Iran's security forces? And is this success if the same regime stays in place after this war ends? One question that was shouted at the end and left unanswered: How do you keep this from becoming an insurgency?

...

GRIFFIN: Sec. Hegseth would not rule out having U.S. troops on the ground in Iran but said it would not be 200,000 troops like in Iraq. The secretary said the four U.S. troops killed yesterday took a direct hit to the tactical operations center they were manning and took offense when reporters asked him to articulate why the American people are sending their men and women to war and if he is concerned about it spiraling into a longer war.

The Reliable Sources newsletter had more information about the Pentagon press briefing, with CNN's Brian Stelter writing, “Hegseth only answered questions from his chosen outlets. I'm told he had a pre-selected list of questioners, and all the reporters were in assigned seats, so he knew who to call on”:

The Pentagon has severely restricted access to information in the past year. You'll recall that Pete Hegseth credentialed a MAGA media “press corps” last fall after traditional news outlets rejected new press pass rules that media lawyers said criminalized routine reporting. The MAGA crew does relatively little reporting, so most coverage of the US military is now happening from outside the Pentagon's five walls.

Journalists from traditional outlets were allowed to attend this morning's press conference with Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine. But Hegseth only answered questions from his chosen outlets. I'm told he had a pre-selected list of questioners, and all the reporters were in assigned seats, so he knew who to call on.

---

---

an 2 26

'Head scratcher': Trump aides struggle to spend $500 billion more the military asked for

===

'Dangerous.' Anthropic abandons hallmark safety pledge as Pentagon continues pressure campaign - YouTube

2 24? 26 attacks anthropic, CEO CAVES ON SAFETY MASS SURVEIL AUTON WEAPONS

---

RWW

02/18/2026

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth invited far-right Christian nationalist Doug Wilson to preach at the Pentagon Tuesday, reported Brian Kaylor at A Public Witness. Hegseth’s monthly evangelical worship services and the appearance of Wilson are signs of just how far the most aggressive forms of Christian nationalism have advanced within the MAGA movement and the Trump administration.

As Right Wing Watch has reported, Wilson is a Christian nationalist extremist who believes women should not have the right to vote. In the “Christian republic” he envisions, liberal Christians and non-Christians would not be allowed to hold public office or worship in public. He wants to see the Apostle’s Creed inserted into the U.S. Constitution.

Hegseth was criticized for apparently endorsing Wilson’s views last year when he promoted a CNN profile of Wilson with the comment, “All of Christ for All of Life.” (Hegseth eventually clarified that he supports women’s right to vote.) But Hegseth’s words and actions since then make it clear that he is intent on imposing his Christian nationalist worldview on the U.S. military.

Kaylor reported earlier that at the Feb. 5 National Prayer Service, Hegseth asserted, “America was founded as a Christian nation” and that public officials “have a sacred duty to glorify him.” He also suggested that serving in the U.S. military was a form of Christian spiritual warfare and that serving that mission could earn a soldier eternal life.

In 2023, Wilson’s Canon Press published The Statement on Christian Nationalism and the Gospel, which declared that the United States must formally “acknowledge the Lordship of Christ” in all its laws, “abolish abortion,” outlaw marriage equality, and “recapture our national sovereignty from godless, global entities who present a grave threat to civilization.” The statement affirms that “the Christian Nationalist project entails a national recognition of essential Christian orthodoxy” and supports laws against “public blasphemy.” Wilson is also notorious for publishing a book downplaying the evils of slavery.

Wilson oversees an expanding influence network that includes the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, a network of “classical” Christian academies, and a cadre of far-right “theobros” who embrace his ultra-patriarchal Christian nationalist ideology. The Idaho-based Wilson planted a church in Washington, D.C. last year to “calibrate” conservative Christians working in the Trump administration in alignment with his worldview. Right Wing Watch recently noted that the mother of Brook Potteiger—the pastor tapped to lead Wilson's new church in D.C.—recently told an interviewer that Potteiger became psychically abusive and domineering after falling under Wilson's influence, so much so that she filed a report against him with child protective services.

---

---

AN 2 26

President Donald Trump's leadership has already rankled military officials, but Fox News' national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin reported Tuesday that his Secretary of Defense is causing outright anger.

Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to fire Col. Dave Butler from the chief of the Army Public Affairs and chief advisor to Driscoll, who is currently in Geneva negotiating the end of the war against Ukraine.

The problem might come from Butler's previous job under Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley, whom Trump is still angry atfor speaking out against him. One of Trump's actions in his first few weeks on the job was to strip Milley of his security detail and clearance.

Butler has appeared on the Army's list of 34 officers selected for promotion. He was even slated to score his first star. Hegseth has refused to move forward with the list for nearly four months, saying he has "concerns" about a handful of those selected by the Army board.

Hegseth's problem, however, is that, by law, he can't take them off the list. So, Butler volunteered to remove himself if it meant others would get their promotions.

Driscoll is a very close ally of Vice President JD Vance, dating back to college at Yale Law School. He resisted the firing of Butler.

“We greatly appreciate COL Dave Butler’s lifetime of service in America’s Army and to our nation. Dave has been an integral part of the Army’s transformation efforts. He will be missed and I sincerely wish him tremendous success in his upcoming retirement after 28 years of service,” Driscoll said in a statement.

Butler helped jump start negotiations with Driscoll in Ukraine last November. He even earned praise from Trump last year when the Army had its 250th birthday celebration and parade.

This is just the latest in many who ended up on Hegseth's cut-list since he took over the Pentagon. Others were forced into retirement. Most weren't given a reason.

"Admiral Lisa Franchetti, who was serving as Chief of Naval Operations, General CQ Brown who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General James Mingus, who was serving as Vice Chief of the Army, General DA Sims, director of the Joint Staff, Air Force Chief General David Allvin, General James Slife, Vice Chief of the Air Force, and General Timothy Haugh, director of the NSA, among others," listed Griffin.

It isn't unusual for top military officials to leave as administrations change. This was different, however.

"The unexplained firings have led to fear, uncertainty, and an unwillingness to speak up among senior military leaders," said Griffin.

---

AN 26

Army officials 'amazed' as Trump Pentagon chief axes ex-Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman - Alternet.org

---

an 2 26

Past U.S. presidents, both Democratic and Republican, sounded much different at military gatherings than they did at campaign events. When addressing members of the U.S. Armed Forces, they were careful to avoid the type of overtly partisan comments they typically made during campaign speeches.

But MS NOW's Steve Benen, in an opinion column published on February 16, warns that President Donald Trump is ramping up his push to overtly politicize the military.

"When the Republican meanders his way through partisan red meat when speaking at a political rally," Benen explains, "it's tiresome but predictable. When he delivers the same message to active-duty military personnel, it's a qualitatively different kind of story."

Benen cites specific examples of Trump bringing partisan politics to speeches in military settings.

"The president, speaking at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, seemed especially focused on the state's U.S. Senate race, condemning the leading Democratic candidate, former Gov. Roy Cooper, while touting the likely GOP nominee, former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, who shared the stage with Trump during the on-base political rally," Benen notes. "'You have to vote for us,' Trump told the troops, referring to his party and the 2026 midterm elections. There is no modern precedent for any American president engaging in such radical politicking with active-duty servicemembers, though over the last several months, it's become a more common sight."

The "Rachel Maddow Show" producer continues, "In June, for example, Trump also spoke at Fort Bragg and treated U.S. troops like they were just another MAGA audience, even goading troops to boo Joe Biden, the free press and American elected officials whom the president doesn't like."

Benen points out that during an event celebrating the U.S. Navy’s 250th anniversary, Trump declared, "We have to take care of this little gnat that's on our shoulder called the Democrats."

"An apolitical military is a foundational, bedrock principle of the United States," Benen writes. "Partisan, ideological and electoral considerations must be utterly irrelevant to what the military is and how it functions. It is nevertheless a principle for which Trump appears to have no use, creating an untenable dynamic."

---}:

---

02/09/2026

by

Kyle Mantyla

“The All-American Halftime Show," born out of outrage over Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance, fell short of the hype. From Kid Rock’s poor lip synching to Erika Kirk being MIA, it was simply dull.

Corporate interests dominate the organization planning the reconstruction of Gaza.

Trump has moved the Republican Party away from its decades-old opposition to same-sex marriage, and public support remains high.

Pete Hegseth, who likes to call himself the “Secretary of War,” spoke after Trump to baptize the U.S. and especially its military. He did so by highlighting the worship services he’s been leading at the Pentagon. And he even suggested that soldiers can gain salvation by fighting for the United States.

It turns out the anti-abortion March for Life demonstration was a measles superspreader event.

Under Trump, the DOJ has changed how it brings terrorism cases, and is training them on the opposition.

---

RWW

01/21/2026

by

Kyle Mantyla

The president delivered an erratic address to the World Economic Forum, pushing for the U.S. to take control of Greenland.

This was clear years ago: Trump hungered for total power and retribution, while extremist Republicans mocked liberal government and right-wing groups plotted a fascist takeover.

As the Trump administration unleashes repressive mayhem in Minneapolis-St. Paul, crippling biases and blind spots keep the Democrats and major media from conveying the full story to the public.

Historian Mary Ziegler sees conservative courts poised to force his hand.

During the first Christian worship service at the Pentagon in 2026 — and the first since the U.S. military operation that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro — Secretary of War Pete Hegseth framed that military action as a godly mission. Hegseth also detailed the Bible passage he prayed during the mission and urged the military personnel present to similarly pray for their work decisions.

The president has given a new class of evangelists direct access to the White House. In return, many support him without question.

---

---

AN 1 26

IFrame Content

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — who is infamous for broadcasting secret military meetings and military strikes — again likely accidentally released comment about ongoing litigation despite the Defense Department’s widely accepted rule not to comment on court battles.

CNN reporter Haley Britzky posted on X that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth let slip the news in a social media post targeting Sen. Mark Kelly (R-Ariz.)

“Asked about this lawsuit yesterday, a Pentagon official said that ‘as a matter of policy, the Department does not comment on ongoing litigation,’” said Britzky, who then followed that up with Hegseth’s bitter insight.

“’Captain’ Kelly knows exactly what he did, and that he will be held to account. That’s [sic] why he’s so worried and cranky,” Hegseth stated on X.

Hegseth was responding to Kelly’s X post excoriating Hegseth and announcing his lawsuit against Hegseth and the Pentagon over a move to punish him for a video Kelly released with other lawmakers reminding military members that they must not follow illegal orders.

“Now, Pete Hegseth wants our longest-serving military veterans to live with the constant threat that they could be deprived of their rank and pay years or even decades after they leave the military just because he or another Secretary of Defense doesn’t like what they’ve said,” said Kelly. “That’s not the way things work in the United States of America, and I won’t stand for it.

The Defense Department announced last week that it was taking administrative action against Kelly, a retired Navy captain and astronaut who is serving his first full term in the Senate. The action could reduce Kelly’s retirement rank and bottleneck his military pension.

The lawsuit Kelly filed in Washington asked a federal judge to block the Pentagon’s punish, however, arguing that the move is “unlawful and unconstitutional.”

“The First Amendment forbids the government and its officials from punishing disfavored expression or retaliating against protected speech,” the complaint stated. “That prohibition applies with particular force to legislators speaking on matters of public policy.”

The Defense Department declined to comment on the ongoing litigation to reporters. However, Hegseth could not help but be baited into revealing a snap, in contradiction to department policy.

---

AN 1 26

President Donald Trump is now deploying military lawyers to Minneapolis under the guise of aiding federal prosecutors, who are now overwhelmed by the number of cases they're struggling to navigate.

U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is not only arresting possible immigrants, but they're also taking Americans into custody, either for claims they're obstructing law enforcement, or those they've mistaken for immigrants.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth asked the military to find "40 judge advocate general officers, from which 25 will be selected to serve as special assistant United States attorneys in Minneapolis," CNN reported Wednesday.

Trump also intends to send 1,000 additional federal agents to aid the 2,000 agents already on the ground.

"Ideally, have significant experience in criminal prosecution, civil litigation, administrative law, immigration law, general litigation, or other related fields,” the request said, according to the report.

After the Justice Department was asked to target the family of Minneapolis mom Renee Nicole Good, six prosecutors resigned, and three of those were top prosecutors from the Minnesota District, the New York Times reported Tuesday. Not only is there an increase in arrests, but the local DOJ office is now experiencing a staffing shortage.

Speaking to CNN about the Pentagon getting involved in matters inside the U.S., former deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department Elliot Williams said on a "basic level," it isn't out of the ordinary.

"At its most basic level, of course, it is common within the government for attorneys to be loaned to one place or another to surge when there just isn't a need," he began. "Look, the government, despite what everybody says about the government being too big, actually is quite understaffed in many areas, and lawyers in the immigration context are actually the government just needs more of them, regardless of where anybody is about this issue, you just don't have enough personnel."

What is not normal, he said, is that these are being sent in addition to a surge of 1,000 ICE agents while there are already 2,000 on the ground.

"What is remarkable is the backdrop to all of this with the deployments of personnel in Minneapolis, with sort of the boots on the ground, with this sort of surge in immigration enforcement, that's far greater than certainly I've seen at any point in my career, even having worked for ICE," said Williams, who worked for over four year at ICE as the assistant director for congressional relations.

"So simply putting lawyers someplace, not a big deal. But this world that we're in right now, absolutely remarkable," he added.

---

---

AN 1 26

Military newspaper hires screened for loyalty to Trump's 'policy priorities'

---

RWW

PERFIDY

A bombshell report reveals how the Trump administration conducted that double-strike boat bombing.

---

AN 1 26

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) is now taking Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to court, accusing him of violating a provision of the U.S. Constitution protecting the free speech rights of lawmakers.

CNBC reported Monday that Kelly filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, with both Hegseth and the Department of Defense (DoD) named as defendants. The suit comes one week after Hegseth announced the DoD was cutting Kelly's military pension in retaliation for Kelly — a retired captain in the U.S. Navy and former astronaut — encouraging active-duty members of the military to remember their duty to disobey illegal orders.

The senior U.S. senator from Arizona argued in the lawsuit that the DoD's actions "trample on protections the Constitution singles out as essential to legislative independence," specifically the U.S. Constitution's speech or debate clause. That provision is found in Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution and reads that members of Congress "shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place."

"It appears that never in our nation’s history has the Executive Branch imposed military sanctions on a Member of Congress for engaging in disfavored political speech," Kelly's attorneys asserted in the lawsuit.

Politico legal correspondent Kyle Cheney noted that Kelly defended his position by quoting one of his Senate colleagues from across the political aisle. One portion of the complaint noted that Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) referred to Hegseth's censure letter to Kelly as having "a chilling effect on speech."

Kelly and five other Democratic members of Congress issued the call for members of the military to disobey illegal orders in a video posted in November. After President Donald Trump reposted a call for those lawmakers to be hanged, several of them received numerous death threats from Trump supporters, leading several to file official reports with the U.S. Capitol Police Department.

Click here to read CNBC's report in its entirety.

---

---

AN 1 26

President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are vowing to end "woke" culture in the U.S. Armed Forces, and Hegseth continues saying that a "warrior ethos" needs to prevail at the Pentagon. But not all veterans appreciate their rhetoric.

During an interview with The Guardian published on January 5, retired U.S. Army Gen. Paul D. Eaton argued that Trump and Hegseth are doing the military a major disservice by politicizing it.

Eaton told The Guardian, "There is an active effort to politicize the (U.S.) Armed Forces. Once you infect the body, the cure may be very difficult and painful for presidents downstream…. As the phrase goes, reputation is built a drop at a time and emptied in buckets."

Eaton, who is now 75 and spent 37 years in active-duty service, even compares Trump's politicization of the military to dictator Josef Stalin in the Soviet Union.

Eaton told The Guardian, "Stalin killed a lot of the best and brightest of the military leadership, and then inserted political commissars into the units. The doubt that swept the armed forces of the Soviet Union is reminiscent of today — they are not killing these men and women, but they are removing them from positions of authority with similar impact."

Eaton is highly critical of Trump's use of the military and federalized National Guard troops in major U.S. cities, and he fears some type of confrontation between National Guard troops and local police.

The retired U.S. Army general told The Guardian, "What could go wrong? You can very easily see an escalation in which both sides think they are right, obeying orders that they believe were given legally…. There are going to be people getting hurt who really don't need to get hurt."

*Read retired U.S. Army Gen. Paul D. Eaton's interview with The Guardian at this link.

---

omg 1 26 an

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) is being "demoted" as punishment for appearing in a viral video telling military members they don't have to follow unlawful orders.

A collection of former military service and intelligence members filmed a video last year. The action has no bearing on Kelly's position in the U.S. Senate, but the Pentagon intends to put a note on Kelly's permanent record.

"Right now, the threats to our Constitution aren't just coming from abroad, but from right here at home," the lawmakers told service members. "Our laws are clear: You can refuse illegal order. ... You must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution."

Kelly served 25 years in the Navy and as a NASA astronaut, and achieved the rank of Captain.

According to a statement by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Kelly made "seditious statements," though the federal government doesn't intends to attempt any prosecutions for sedition. Hegseth initially said that he would court martial Kelly. However, a court martial would mean Hegseth would be forced into a military trial for Kelly, who maintains he has not broken any laws or rules with the video.

"This Censure is a necessary process step, and will be placed in Captain Kelly’s official and permanent military personnel file," Hegseth said in the statement.

"This is not a demotion of Sen. Mark Kelly (yet). But it's an effort to open the door to one. Those who sit on a grade determination board are typically service members at least one grade senior to the person under review. They are supposed to be impartial in nature," said military affairs reporterDan Lamothe from the Washington Post.

---

---

an 12 25

Visitors to an American military cemetery in the Netherlands are pushing back following the removal of plaques honoring Black veterans of World War II, according to an NBC News report, seemingly done as part of Donald Trump's anti-diversity crusade.

Per the report, "visitors have filled the guestbook with objections" since the plaques came down earlier this year at the visitor center for the American Cemetery in Margraten, Netherlands. The two displays honored Black soldiers who took part in the war effort and helped liberate Europe from Nazi control. Operated by the American Battle Monuments Commission, the cemetery is the final resting place for around 8,300 American soldiers.

As NBC noted, the cemetery's graves themselves were dug by an all-Black contingent of soldiers.

"One display told the story of 23-year-old George H. Pruitt, a Black soldier buried at the cemetery, who died attempting to rescue a comrade from drowning in 1945," the report explained. The other described the U.S. policy of racial segregation in place during World War II. Some 1 million Black soldiers enlisted in the U.S. military during the war, serving in separate units, mostly doing menial tasks but also fighting in some combat missions. An all-Black unit dug the thousands of graves in Margraten during the brutal 1944-45 season of famine in the German-occupied Netherlands known as the Hunger Winter."

Emails obtained by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) and Dutch News confirmed that the decision to remove the plaques was in direct response to Trump's executive order targeting "diversity, equity and inclusion" programs, an order which has since impacted a wide array of displays, memorials and programs honoring African-American history.

US Ambassador to the Netherlands Joe Popolo -- one of the many wealthy businesspeople and GOP megadonors named to European diplomatic roles by Trump -- spoke out in support of the removal, arguing that the "signs at Margraten are not intended to promote an agenda that criticizes America."

The displays were reportedly removed without any public notice, prompting anger from visiting Americans, as well as local officials and residents. One local who spoke out against the removal to NBC News was 79-year-old Cor Linssen, the son of a Black US soldier and a Dutch mother. Linssen, along with a group of other children of Black US soldiers, visited the cemetery to view the plaques together back in February.

“It’s an important part of history,” Linssen said. “They should put the panels back.”

---

5656133-senate-armed-services-committee-boat-strikes}:

Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker(R-Miss.) said on Thursday that he has seen “no evidence of war crimes” committed during the U.S. military’s Sept. 2 strikes against an alleged drug-trafficking boat in the Caribbean, and he indicated that his panel does not plan to further probe the controversial operation.

“I have seen no evidence of war crimes. The fact is that our military is asked to make incredibly difficult decisions. Service members must do so based on the best available information and often under very tight timelines,” Wicker said in a lengthy statement.

Wicker said he is “satisfied” with all of the information the committee has received regarding the Sept. 2 attack, where two survivors were killed in a strike authorized by Navy Adm. Frank Bradley. Wicker said the strikes against “narco-terrorists” in the U.S. Southern Command area are based on “sound legal advice.”

“When reports first surfaced about a secondary strike, my office immediately directed inquiries to the department to ascertain the veracity of these reports. I promised that SASC would take this matter seriously and conduct thorough oversight. We have done so,” the Mississippi senator said. “Both military and civilian Pentagon leaders have worked in good faith to provide answers to us without any delays.”

Wicker’s panel said it would investigate the Sept. 2 operation, during which the U.S. military conducted four strikes against the purported drug-trafficking vessel in the Caribbean, shortly after The Washington Post revealed a second strike, ordered by Bradley, took place during the mission.

Some Democrats and law-of-war experts have asserted the follow-up strike constituted a violation of international law. Democrats have pushed for a complete investigation of the incident and for the Trump administration to release the full video of the mission. Administration officials and Republicans in Congress have argued that the operation is lawful and that two survivors in the water were trying to flip over the boat, which was severely damaged after the first strike that killed nine people on board, and continue on with their mission.

Wicker’s statement comes days after the chair of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Mike Rogers(R-Ala.), said he will end his panel’s inquiry into the Sept. 2 strikes.

---war

---

bc venez armada blow up fishermen?

an 12 25

Trump wants his name on new fleet of battleships that would have 'zero tactical use'

---

---

rww

12/19/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest conference turned into a war between Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson on Thursday as the two men spent much of their speeches trading blows.

Hegseth’s crusade against the Chaplain Corps undermines readiness, trust, and pluralism.

Anthony D’Esposito will be expected to investigate ethical lapses, despite his own alleged ethical lapses.

Why Media Matters is naming Nick Fuentes the 2025 Misinformer of the Year.

James Fishback’s campaign may not be flashy but it sure is fashy.

Since Trump returned to office, the Education Department’s civil rights office has not resolved a single racial harassment investigation. It sends a message that “people impacted by racial discrimination ... don’t matter,” one attorney said.

---

---

an 12 25

The Pentagon is tight-lipped when it comes to sharing information with members of Congress about drastic new cuts that will "downgrade several of the U.S. military’s major headquarters" while changing the command structure among top generals, the *Washington Post*reports.

Congress, which is constitutionally tasked with oversight, knows little to nothing about plans from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to shake up the military structure, according to the report.

Citing two people familiar with work on the Republican-led Senate and House Armed Services committees, the report said that top officers in command have prepared for the proposal but have heard nothing.

Each agency head is required to brief Congress about work being done, and Republicans are "perturbed" that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ignored that responsibility.

"If adopted, the plan would usher in some of the most significant changes at the military’s highest ranks in decades, in part following through on Hegseth’s promise to break the status quo and slash the number of four-star generals in the military," said the Post. "It would reduce in prominence the headquarters of U.S. Central Command, U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command by placing them under the control of a new organization known as U.S. International Command, according to five people familiar with the matter."

Hegseth won't submit the proposal, according to the Post. Instead, he will have Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine reveal the details.

The cuts will also include a realignment of the U.S. Southern Command and the U.S. Northern Command. Each branch oversees all military operations in the western hemisphere, the report explained.

Hegseth wants to reduce it to a "Western Hemisphere" office he will call "U.S. Americas Command, or Americom," anearlier report from NBC News said.

The Pentagon is also considering creating a "U.S. Arctic Command that would report to Americom." Sources told the Post that plan may have already been abandoned.

According to the proposal, combat commands would be cut from 11 to eight, and four-star generals and admirals would suddenly report directly to Hegseth, the Postreports.

It's part of an ongoing effort by the Trump administration to decrease U.S. military abroad.

Lawmakers told the Pentagon that in order to move forward with the plan, they must "submit a detailed blueprint that describes the realignment’s potential costs and impacts on America’s alliances."

The Pentagon won't get its funding until at least 60 days after the materials have been provided.

Read the full report here.

---

[### I Asked the Pentagon About Pete Hegseth's Mentor. Then ...

Mother Jones

https://www.motherjones.com › politics › 2025/12 › eri...](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/12/eric-geressy-goodreads-pentagon-dod-pete-hegseth-jack-posobiec-threat/)

4 days ago — Six weeks ago, Jack Posobiec asked me to comment on whether I have a “creepy fetish for Asian women.” That was one of several false and wildly ...See more

Six weeks ago, Jack Posobiec asked me to comment on whether I have a “creepy fetish for Asian women.”

That was one of several false and wildly personal allegations that the far-right pundit and newly minted member of the Pentagon press corps said that he planned to include in “a story that I’m writing about you.”

I immediately understood his October 28 email to be a threat, though it was not made explicit. The day before, I had sent the Pentagon press office a series of questions concerning Eric Geressy, a senior Pentagon adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Geressy, who served with Hegseth during a tour in Iraq in the mid-2000s, is part of the Pentagon effort to instill a “warrior ethos” within the US military. He now leads a team reviewing the role of women in the armed forces.

Calling Geressy “my toughest critic and my best mentor,” Hegseth in March presented him with the Distinguished Service Cross, the Army’s second-highest award for valor, for Geressy’s conduct following an ambush in Baghdad in 2007.

Posobiec’s email arrived the day after my inquiries…This was either an incredible coincidence or a deliberate message: Publish your article and get smeared.

I had discovered that Geressy’s email address was linked to a public Goodreads page with a “currently reading” list that included various books featuring stories about “Asian wife sharing.” These pornographic works, with titles such as “Asian Wife Went With Her Dad’s Friend: A Cuckold Story,” appeared on the list alongside two books by Hegseth and a handful of military histories. They contain detailed descriptions of cuckolding, group sex, and scenes involving “ladyboys”—a term used to refer to Thai transgender women. The page, active since 2021, was taken down the day after I contacted the Pentagon and Geressy about it.

I also asked about a 1997 domestic violence allegation against Geressy, about his dating habits, and past relationships with foreign women. [chinese national?]I inquired if the Pentagon had assessed those relationships as part of Geressy’s security clearance process, and, more broadly, if his personal life might create concerns about his susceptibility to foreign influence operations.

The Pentagon repeatedly asked for more time to address those questions. Eventually chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell responded, in part: “Geressy has served for 38 years in the government, has been vetted numerous times by the relevant agencies, and has never posed a security risk or engaged in improper behavior as this piece tries to suggest. Mother Jones has stooped to a new low with this shoddy hit piece and should be ashamed of itself.”

Posobiec’s email arrived the day after my initial inquiries. The false claims he asked about, particularly the Asian fetish thing, seemed to mirror my questions. Posobiec, who in 2016 promoted the bogus Pizzagate conspiracy theory, gave me a deadline, 5 p.m. on October 29, that was the same as the one I had given the Pentagon press office. A Pentagon spokesperson and Posobiec both denied coordination. Geressy declined to comment. But considering the questions, timing, and Posobiec’s links to Defense Department officials, the situation seemed clear. This was either an incredible coincidence or a deliberate message: Publish your article and get smeared.

Posobiec’s email claimed I have “a history of objectifying women,” and that I had engaged in some kind of misconduct. The email also included questions about my marriage.

Posobiec’s questions suggested one of his “two sources” may have been a real woman with whom I did have a brief relationship nearly a decade ago. Contrary to the email’s depiction, that relationship was perfectly amicable at the time. But it was part of some personal messiness, especially around the end of my first marriage, that is embarrassing.

My first instinct was to laugh this off. Who cares what the Pizzagate guy writes? But getting lied about by someone with 3 million X followers is not that funny. Comet Ping Pong never housed a Democratic pedophilia ring in its basement. But that didn’t make it less dangerous when the restaurant was targeted by QAnon crazies, including a guy who fired an AR-15 into a room that had just been full of kids.

I have done reporting that angered other well-known figures on the right—Roger Stone, Miles Guo, Steve Bannon—and that drew some doxxing and half-assed personal attacks from their allies. But I am not famous. Who cares about me?

The threatened audience for the smear, clearly, was my peers—and my wife. It seemed meant to scare me into spiking my own story. That is not journalism, but an attack on journalism.

This apparent threat became more explicit as the possible publication date we had given the Pentagon approached. In tweets, Posobiec asked his followers if he should publish a story about mistreatment of women by a “DC-area liberal reporter.” After our possible publication date passed, though, he went quiet.

That left my editors and me with a problem. Here was what we believed to be an attempt to strong-arm Mother Jones, and perhaps an expansion of the administration’s war on the press. This was news. But the development also complicated an already tricky story. And if we delayed publication, or decided the story was not important enough to run, we risked leaving the impression that we, and I, had been intimidated into silence.

We knew that we would not drop the article because of Posobiec’s ploy, nor rush into running it before we were ready. Instead, we did what reporters are supposed to do when confronted with a journalism dilemma: more journalism.

My emails to the Pentagon and Geressy were part of an effort to check the information we had gathered. We wanted their side of the story. My questions went largely unanswered, but I kept asking. I talked to more people. And I worked to verify the information we had.

We had linked the Goodreads account to Geressy based on various pieces of identifying information, including an email address he had used. The account was listed under the username Eric J—Geressy’s middle name is Joseph. At one point, the page noted that Eric J lived in a specific Florida town, which matched Geressy’s known residence. Also, some of the non-erotic books displayed on the account were seemingly of interest to him; they included books, like Hegseth’s The War on Warriors, that mention Geressy’s military service. These titles appeared on the page between 2021 and July of this year.

Screenshot of the Goodreads page linked to Geressy’s email address. The page was deleted after we asked him and the Pentagon about it.

The same email address was also linked to other apps, including Yelp and MyFitnessPal, that appeared to be Geressy’s, along with a MySpace page that includes what looks like a photograph of him.

Geressy declined to comment, and did not confirm he had a Goodreads account. In theory that made it possible, if highly unlikely, that someone could have used his email account, obtained through a hack or other means, to set up the Goodreads account. So we tried to rule out that possibility.

I spoke to Nathaniel Fried, the CEO of OSINT Industries. That’s a British organization whose platform matches personal information such as emails and phone numbers to online accounts; we had relied on this platform to connect Geressy’s email address to the Goodreads account. Fried said that while OSINT can’t tell you for sure who signed up, “it’s 100 percent that that email has an account.” In other words, either Geressy or someone using his email and personal information created the account.

I also asked Amazon, which owns Goodreads, about the account. After much back and forth, the company said it did not currently have a record of an account linked to Geressy, or the email address he appears to have used. But they also said that they do not retain identifying information for deleted Goodreads accounts. Since the account linked to Geressy had been deleted weeks before, right after I reached out to the Pentagon and Geressy for comment, this statement gave us little new information. Overall, Amazon’s carefully parsed response did nothing to refute the connection.

“It’s all about whether you are susceptible to a foreign service getting any leverage against you. It may not be disqualifying, but it should be looked at.”

Still, none of that fully bore on the main consideration. That is, whether personal reading tastes, past relationships, or apparent dating habits are worth reporting on. After extensive discussion, we decided that in this case, they are.

For one thing, former national security officials told us that for Pentagon personnel in particular, relationships with foreign partners are a major concern.

Geressy lived in 2016 with a woman who evidence suggests may be a Chinese national. That woman started a limited liability company during that time with a name that references Chinese investment. It was registered at Geressy’s home address, then dissolved a few months later. (I am omitting some specifics to avoid including identifying information.) The Pentagon said that Geressy has never been deemed a security risk. But it did not provide verifiable answers to questions about whether that relationship and company were examined as part of Geressy’s security clearance review. Neither did Geressy.

Geressy has had what appears to be a stormy personal life that has included three marriages. In 1997, a jury acquitted him of a domestic violence charge after an accusation by his then-wife, according to court records.

Email addresses Geressy used, and other identifying information, including his first name and biographical information, also appeared in three data breaches, between 2011 and 2016, of adult websites geared toward finding sexual partners, according to databases that include the hacked data. Those sites are Fling, AdultFriendFinder, which then called itself “the World’s Largest Sex & Swinger Community,” and Ashley Madison, which billed itself as “the most famous name in infidelity.”

The presence of Geressy’s email and other information in these data breaches does not confirm he used these sites, according to cyber researchers.

But as John Sipher, a former senior CIA officer, told Mother Jones, in normal circumstances, a government official who might be involved with such websites and who had romantic relationships with foreigners would draw scrutiny. “It’s all about whether you are susceptible to a foreign service getting any leverage against you,” Sipher said. “It may not be disqualifying, but it should be looked at.”

And there is a second point. Geressy is a top official in a Defense Department that has booted trans people from the military based on President Trump’s executive order that argues that “adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.” Geressy is not responsible for trans policy, but he is part of a Pentagon leadership that concerns itself with subordinates’ private lives.

Trump’s Pentagon wants reporters to be not just docile recipients of the administration’s preferred narratives but active propagandists. That is a direct attack on the free press. It is also an insidious danger.

In The War on Warriors, one of the books on the Goodreads page linked to Geressy, Hegesth cited his mentor to support the position that women should not serve in combat roles. “From my perspective,” Hegseth quoted Geressy as saying, circa 2007, “overwhelmingly most females want nothing to do with combat arms.” According to Hegseth, Geressy had argued that the Army had unfairly awarded medals to some women who had served in combat. “If SGM Geressy was a transvestite—or gay, or black, or a woman,” Hegseth wrote, “he would have three Distinguished Service Crosses and be on the front of a Wheaties box.”

The Pentagon is already beset by scandals in which top officials, most notably Hegseth himself, have been accused of conduct that falls short of the standards it demands of other Defense Department officials and service members. Critics have argued that for lower-ranking personnel, actions like Hegseth sharing military plans outside of approved channels, or the adultery heacknowledged during confirmation hearings, would result in firing. The racy selections on the Goodreads account linked to Geressy’s email may be comparatively minor. But that a public page listing such titles existed until we flagged it adds to the impression that the department’s leadership is not only hypocritical, but inept.

Hegseth has reacted furiously to reporting on some of his missteps. He has raged over coverage of his sharing of plans for bombing targets in Yemen with a Signal group that included the editor of the Atlantic. (The department’s inspector general reported that Hegseth’s actions could have put US troops at risk.) He fired aides accused of leaking news of a plan to give Elon Musk a top-secret briefing on US war plans versus China. Posobiec’s email came as the Pentagon took an increasingly hostile stance toward the media.

Kingsley Wilson, a former conservative influencer who is the department’s press secretary, told me that she did not speak to Posobiec about my story and did not believe Parnell did either. Posobiec also denied coordinating with the Pentagon. Geressy did not respond to a question about it.

But it came amid broader pushback to our reporting. “This is a garbage story made up of false allegations, decades-old claims that proved untrue, and disgusting innuendo aimed at smearing a man who was awarded the Army’s second-highest military honor for extraordinary heroism in combat,” Parnell said.

That response is consistent with the combative press relations posture of the second Trump administration. Shortly before, when a reporter asked the White House press secretary to identify who had suggested Trump meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest, she responded: “Your mom did.”

Similar truculence drives the Defense Department’s recent decision to force outlets that assign reporters to the Pentagon to agree to a policy that bars reporters from revealing news the department does not authorize. Most news organizations refused. (The New York Times recently sued the Pentagon, arguing that the policy violates the First Amendment.) Posobiec is among a group of pro-Trump influencers who accepted the restrictive terms. The result is that the new press corps the Pentagon grants access to is largely composed of far-right activists.

The Pentagon press shop maintains close ties to its newly constituted press corps. Wilson, the department’s press secretary, occasionally appears on a program Posobiec hosts. In an October episode, she thanked him for agreeing to the department’s restrictions. “Now we get to have incredible journalists like yourself who are going to be here in the Pentagon reporting on what the Department of War is doing every single day,” she said.

On Wednesday night, after weeks of silence, I heard from Posobiec again. He said he was “finalizing my story,” and wanted to know if me, my wife, “or your in-laws” wished to comment. His message arrived an hour and forty minutes after I wrote to Geressy, posing some last questions and telling him I was “finalizing this story.”

Trump’s Pentagon wants reporters to be not just docile recipients of the administration’s preferred narratives but active propagandists. That is a direct attack on the free press. It is also an insidious danger. It threatens to make us bad at our jobs. It can be harder work to treat people whom we cover critically like complete human beings, people who deserve empathy and a real chance to explain themselves. If the department yanks credentials for tough reporting, if a press secretary just attacks a story without engaging with questions, and if inquiries draw personal attacks, why give spokespeople, or the officials they work for, any opportunity to respond at all?

The answer, I think, is that in journalism, like everywhere else, we should treat people the way we want to be treated. This story, with its weird personal twist, drove home that necessity. By proposing to smear me, Posobiec inadvertently provided a reminder of how responsible reporters ought to act.

I have worked to be fair—and honest. This attempt won’t appease the Pentagon or the people who threatened me. And the choice here, between appearing to be coerced into silence or maybe getting slandered, lacks an option that doesn’t feel shitty.

But what I can control are the standards I aim for. Those are ultimately up to me. But they reflect the values of Mother Jones, and the influence of other journalists, one of whom is my wife. She makes the judgment I’ll live with.

[### The Brand-New Pentagon Press Corps Is Gaga for Hegseth

The Intercept

https://theintercept.com › 2025/12/13 › hegseth-new-pe...](https://theintercept.com/2025/12/13/hegseth-new-pentagon-press-reporters/)

2 days ago — After nearly all legacy news organizations declined to sign on to Hegseth's rules, the new Pentagon press corps is all his cheerleaders.

[### Hegseth team invites far-right activist Jack Posobiec on ...

The Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com › ... › Military](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/02/13/pete-hegseth-jack-posobiec/)

Feb 13, 2025 — Trump administration officials at the Pentagon invited a far-right activist, Jack Posobiec, to participate in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's first trip ...See more

---

AN THE CONV 12 25

News reports about a U.S. military attack on a boat in the Caribbean allegedly carrying drugs have raised critical questions about the military campaign against drug smugglers being carried out by the Trump administration in that region.

Among them: whether Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth or others face criminal liability for any of the attacks. Those attacks killed people alleged to have been involved in illegal narcotics trafficking.

Congressional investigations have begun into allegations that a Sept. 2, 2025, follow-up attack on two survivors of an earlier attack was illegal and ordered by Hegseth. Some legal scholars have cited violations of international and United States criminal law that could come into play.

But as a military law scholar who spent 20 years as a lawyer and judge in the U.S. Air Force, I know that there aren’t enough facts known yet to determine who is responsible for what. There are five investigative mechanisms that could be used to determine the facts and whether there is criminal liability on the part of both senior civilian officials and military members involved in the now extensively reported second strike on the suspected drug boat that resulted in the deaths of civilians.

There are two caveats to this analysis. The first is that the Constitution says a person is to be presumed innocent before being proved guilty. The second is that the story from the White House and the Pentagon has changed over time.

Congressional committees investigate

The first investigative mechanism is the Congress itself.

The House of Representatives and the Senate each have an armed services committee and a foreign relations or foreign affairs committee. In theory, any of these committees can place people under oath and have them testify, as well as issue subpoenas to obtain information.

This concept isn’t new.

Multiple committees examined the country’s lack of preparedness preceding the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and other military installations in 1941.

Almost every month during the Vietnam War, one or more of these committees investigated military matters, including one of the most notorious war crimes in U.S. history. In 1968, Army Lt. William Laws Calley commanded a platoon of soldiers who murdered close to 500 villagers in My Lai, including children and the elderly, none of whom posed a threat and none of whom were lawful targets.

But congressional investigations can be highly political. Even during the My Lai investigation, at least one member of the House, Mendel Rivers, a South Carolina Democrat who was at that time chairman of the Committee on Armed Services, attempted to shield officers in the chain of command. There is little reason to believe that a current investigation, conducted by a dramatically polarized Congress, will be free of partisan politics.

Attorney general investigates

A second means of investigating is for the U.S. attorney general to preliminarily conclude that crimes have been committed and to convene a grand jury to investigate. A federal grand jury is a constitutional body consisting of ordinary adult citizens. Its operations are governed by the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, and its role is to investigate whether there is probable cause to determine that a person has violated the criminal laws.

A federal statute prohibits murder. As far back as 1820, if not before, federal grand juries have investigated the crime of “murder on the high seas.”

No member of the president’s administration is immune from the criminal laws of the country, with the exception of the president himself when he has acted in the capacity of president or commander in chief. The Supreme Court in 2024 determined that the president is mostly immune from prosecution under criminal law.

But I believe this type of investigation is unlikely. That’s because members of the administration have argued that their actions were legal and that the men killed in the second strike were continuing in their mission and posed a threat.

Moreover, the attorney general is supposed to act in an independent capacity from the White House. But Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, has demonstrated her loyalty to the president and his agenda in many instances.

Another consideration is that federal agency heads who rely on their attorneys in good faith are presumed to be immune from the law. This may be why Hegseth has stated that lawyers had advised the mission’s commanders.

Congress and the AG work a case

It is possible that during a congressional investigation one or more witnesses will be accused of lying under oath or accused of contempt.

Congress has the authority to hold individuals in contempt and fine and sentence them, but this is rare. Usually, Congress forwards the claim to the attorney general. Contempt of Congress is a federal misdemeanor offense, meaning a person cannot be sentenced to more than a year. Again, I believe it is unlikely that the attorney general would pursue a contempt charge in a federal court from these events.

Inspector general investigates

The Department of Defense’s inspector general can investigate allegations of wrongdoing in the department, and this includes the secretary. In the past, inspectors general have discovered criminal activity, written a publicly releasable report, and then a senior official was prosecuted.

In 2003, the Department of Defense investigated Darleen Druyun, a senior contracting official, for wrongly steering multimillion-dollar contracts to Boeing. The investigative report resulted in criminal charges from the Justice Department, and Druyun was found guilty in a criminal trial. Boeing officials also left the company, and the company was fined.

The military can investigate its civilian members but cannot prosecute them. The Uniform Code of Military Justice does not apply to civilians. That includes the president and secretary of defense, even though they are at the pinnacle of the chain of command.

International courts investigate

Finally, an investigation could be mounted through international law as enforced by courts outside of the United States.

Superpowers such as the United States and Russia often get a free pass from international law enforcement. In 1986, the International Court of Justice – a body partly created by the United States – ruled that the United States under the Reagan administration violated Nicaragua’s sovereignty during its civil war.

The Reagan administration’s response was that because other nations had disregarded the court, so too would the United States. No American official was ever held to account for the mining of Nicaragua’s main port or for the arming of rebels that led to the deaths of Nicaraguans.

It’s not clear which, if any, of these mechanisms will be used to hold accountable those who ordered and carried out the September 2025 operation in the Caribbean that killed two survivors of an earlier attack. What is clear is that the methods exist to find the facts – and make judgments based on them.

Joshua Kastenberg, Professor of Law, University of New Mexico

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

---

see wounded knee medals

Austin Orders Review of Wounded Knee Medals

July 24, 2024 | By Joseph Clark, DOD News |

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III has directed the Defense Department to review the Medals of Honor awarded to approximately 20 soldiers for their actions during the December 1890 engagement at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota, to ensure no awardees were recognized for conduct inconsistent with the nation's highest military honor.

DOD's Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness will convene a special review panel to conduct an individualized assessment based on standards in effect during that period.

The scope of the panel's review is limited to examining each Medal of Honor awardee' s individual actions during the engagement at Wounded Knee Creek. However, "The [special review panel] may consider the context of the overall engagement as appropriate, including as necessary to understand each [Wounded Knee Creek Medal of Honor] recipient's individual actions," Austin wrote in a memorandum directing the review, which was released today.

Austin signed the memorandum last week following department consultation with the White House and Department of the Interior.

"It's never too late to do what's right," a senior defense official said in an interview this week. "And that's what is intended by the review that the secretary directed, which is to ensure that we go back and review each of these medals in a rigorous and individualized manner to understand the actions of the individual in the context of the overall engagement."

The official noted that the review is warranted based on a range of factors, including a congressional recommendation to review the awards included in the fiscal year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act.

The panel will provide Austin with a recommendation to either retain or rescind each Medal of Honor awarded for actions related to the Wounded Knee engagement, which resulted in the death and injury of approximately 350 to 375 Native American men, women and children, according to a 1990 Senate resolution.

That resolution, which marked the 100th anniversary of Wounded Knee, referred to the engagement as a massacre and expressed "deep regret on behalf of the United States to the descendants of the victims and survivors and their respective tribal communities."

The panel will include at least five experts, including two from the Department of the Interior. It will provide a written report of findings and recommendations by mid-October. Austin will then provide his recommendations to the president.

The secretary of the Army will provide historical records for the review no later than July 26. The Army will include everything associated with the award recommendations for each soldier, the personnel file for each awardee, copies of any Army reports into the actions at Wounded Knee Creek and any other known historical documents salient to the engagement.

The secretary of the Army will provide support to the panel throughout the review, including document retrieval and answering requests for information about the events at Wounded Knee Creek.

Defense officials noted that the department regularly reviews awards for upgrades. The Executive Branch has also conducted reviews to determine whether previous awards should be rescinded, including one in 1916 that led to 911 Medals of Honor being revoked.

The officials noted that the standards for awarding the Medal of Honor have evolved over time, and the review would be held in accordance with the standards in place at the time, as well as the context surrounding the actions at Wounded Knee.

The panel will also consider other relevant laws and regulations, such as those relating to fundamental protections for noncombatants.

"This is not a retrospective review," one official said. "We're applying the standards at the time. And that's critical because we want to make sure that as these are reviewed and as a recommendation is made to the secretary and then to the president that we have applied the standards appropriately, while ensuring that we look at the context."

External stakeholders interested in submitting historical documents for consideration by the panel have until September 15th to submit. All submissions should be sent via e-mail to: osd.pentagon.ousd-p-r.mbx.wounded-knee-moh-review@mail.mil.

WOUNDED-KNEE-MOH-REVIEW-SD-MEMO-SIGNED list

:{:{---}:

---

calvary-soldiers-who-massacred-hundreds-at-wounded-knee-get-to-keep-their-medals-of-honor

by levi Rickert September 26, 2025

Department of War Pete Hegseth used social media on Thursday night to announce that U.S. 7th Cavalry soldiers who massacred hundreds of innocent Lakota during the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre will retain their Medals of Honor. The Medal of Honor, which is the highest award of valor presented to military service members, was given to 20 soldiers.

These medals were given despite the fact that the incident involved the killing of at least 250–300 Lakota people, the majority of whom were women, children, and elders.

“Under my direction, we’re making it clear, without hesitation, that the soldiers who fought in the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890 will keep their medals, and we’re making it clear that they deserve those medals,” Hegseth said in a video posted on the social platform X.

In July 2024, then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had established a five-member panel to reassess the commendations awarded to troops for their actions at Wounded Knee.

The Biden administration stated that the panel would evaluate each medal recipient’s service and records individually to ensure that “no soldier was recognized for conduct that did not merit recognition under the standards applicable at the time.”

Hegseth did not release the findings of the panel during Thursday’s social media announcement.

“We are not surprised, but disheartened that Secretary Hegseth has decided to follow former Defense Secretary Austin’s footsteps and follow recommendations by what I believe to be a panel that was established to ensure a specific outcome,” O.J. Semans, Sr. (Rosebud Sioux), co-founder and co-executive director of Four Directions, Inc., told Native News Online on Thursday evening.

The violence began when the U.S. Cavalry attempted to confiscate weapons from those taken into custody; a shot was fired, prompting troops to open fire and kill at least 250 Lakota men, women, and children. Around 25 U.S. soldiers also died, likely as a result of friendly fire.

For several years, Native organizations have urged Congress to pass the Remove the Stain Act that would rescind the Medal of Honor to those awarded for their violent deeds at Wounded Knee.

In May 20205,*Remove the Stain Act of 2025* was reintroducedby Senators Elizabeth Warren (D–MA) and Jeff Merkley (D–OR), along with Representative Jill Tokuda (D–HI),

"We cannot be a country that celebrates and rewards horrifying acts of violence against Native people," Sen. Warren said when the legislation was reintroduced. "Congress must recognize how shameful this massacre was and take an important step toward justice for the Lakota people."

“We must acknowledge our history and take concrete steps to right historic wrongs from America’s darkest chapters,” said Sen. Merkley. "Moving forward together as a nation demands we remember, reflect on, and work to rectify the abhorrent massacre of hundreds of innocent Lakota men, women, and children at Wounded Knee. This horrific injustice is not deserving of our nation’s highest award for military valor, and our long-overdue bill helps finally set the record straight by revoking these medals.”

Semans still hopes Congress will pass the legislation.

“We will continue to work with Congress to ensure Americans know the truth,” Semans said.

Earlier in the year, Hegseth also directed the restoration and refurbishment of a Confederate memorial at Arlington National Cemetery that had previously been removed.

---

---

WAR CRIMES 2ND STRIKE 12 25

CALLED OUT BY SEN KELLY BOY ON STAGE PLAY ARMY

80TH ANNIV OF UBOAT EXECUTION?

---

mma

December 5, 2025, edition of MS NOW's Deadline: White House

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.) (GUEST): In the future, there's going to be a lot of young officers and NCOs that are looking back on this and saying, wow, how did all this happen?

NICOLLE WALLACE (HOST): Yeah, because Angelo, I mean, that will happen in the future because what happened in the past resulted in the example in the laws of war manual being this example of how one treats shipwrecked people. That is the line that has been drawn based on the study of history.

ANGELO CARUSONE (MEDIA MATTERS STAFF): Yeah, and I think it's worth noting that -- you know, we talk about that as the study of history. But a big part of what Trump and all the people around him are engaging in, and the right-wing media underneath it, is revisionism. You know, a lot of this started with the revision of what our history is, and that is a big part -- so ignoring it is key. And that's, I think, to me, the biggest piece of all of this, is that the narrative or the story that they're sharing is one in which we've been fundamentally weak and somebody like Hegseth is going to go in there and change the culture, and that is what he promised to do. And that's -- what we're having now is this fantasy, the story that he had been selling for so many months starting to become materialized. And obviously it wasn't well thought out, and you have all these operational issues as a result of it.

And that, to me, then, if you add it all up, if you look at what the coverage is and the right-wing media and Trump supporters, it's either they're ignoring it or they're confused. They don't know whether or not to be upset or to celebrate it, because this is now conflicting with the reality. So, for instance, Hannity wants to give Trump credit for these killings. You know, he's been saying that this is an example --

WALLACE: But Trump doesn't want to take any credit or anything to do with the second strike.

CARUSONE: That's exactly right.

WALLACE: Trump's been asked publicly twice, and once he said if there was a second strike, it wouldn't have approved of that. And when he was told by Jim Himes, when the video released, he said, yeah, I'd release it.

CARUSONE: That should -- and yet, Hannity still wants to give him credit for it, and he still attributes it to him and says, well, this is an example of the kid gloves that Joe Biden put on the military coming off. And, you know, other Fox News hosts like Jesse Watters are giving Hegseth all the credit. The chyrons read, "finish the job," right, so they want to celebrate it. Other parts of the right-wing media are saying, well, we don't like this, this is too far, this is confusing. But the majority are ignoring it. And I think that is, to me, the illustration that they've ignored all the history. They have their own narrative, their own version of it. It's obviously been a fantasy, and now we're seeing that materialize into reality.

---

rww

12/04/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

Trump joined leaders from Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo to sign an accord — and to marvel at the new name his administration gave the building.

The Pentagon spokesman insisted the report completely exonerated Hegseth.

Fox Business host Katrina Campins advised women that they would get “hotter” if they joined the Republican Party on Wednesday, declaring, “All Republican women are hot.”

Calls for disenfranchisement rest on a single assumption: that women’s citizenship is partial and conditional.

Conservative Princeton University professor Robert P. George is warning the Republican Party and the modern conservative movement to jettison its growing bigot wing quickly before they destroy the party.

---

MMA

Andrew Napolitano says the entire chain of command involved in double tap boat strike “should be prosecuted for a war crime”

12/02/25 9:44 PM EST

  1. ### Jesse Watters calls double tap boat strike a “hoax”

12/02/25 6:24 PM EST

  1. ### Greg Gutfeld on double tap boat strike: “It's just better for us to kill them in the ocean, make them shark feed, be done with it”

12/02/25 5:59 PM EST

  1. ### Scrounging for a Hegseth defense, right-wing commentators seize on NY Times report

12/02/25

---

Scrounging for a Hegseth defense, right-wing commentators seize on NY Times report

Hegseth’s supporters split hairs over his culpability

Written by Matt Gertz

Research contributions from Rob Savillo

Published 12/02/25

Right-wing commentators have seized upon a New York Times report on the U.S. military’s September 2 extrajudicial killing of 11 people on board a boat the Trump administration alleged was carrying drugs in the Caribbean, claiming that the article “DEBUNKED” a previous Washington Post report that triggered congressional scrutiny over potential war crimes. But the Times actually confirmed, rather than undermined, the Post’s account.

The Post reported Friday that according to its sources, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken order “to kill everybody” on board the boat before the attack, and that after confirming that the first strike left two survivors, the Navy special operations commander overseeing the action, Adm. Frank Bradley, “ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions,” killing them. Lawmakers of both parties quickly vowed to aggressively scrutinize the attack, which legal experts argued would constitute, “at best, a war crime under federal law.”

Hegseth, in his prior career as co-host of Fox News’ Fox & Friends Weekend, championed U.S. service members accused or convicted of war crimes. In one 2019 segment discussing a soldier charged over the extrajudicial killing of an Afghan man accused of making bombs for the Taliban, Hegseth said, “If he committed premeditated murder … then I did as well. What do you think you do in war?”

Top Trump administration officials over the weekend denounced the “fake news” Post’s “entire narrative” as “fabricated” with “NO FACTS.” But at Monday’s briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt effectively confirmed — and defended — the actions the Post had reported, including the second strike.

This confusion left President Donald Trump’s most zealous propagandists with few clear pathways to defend the administration’s actions. But after the Times published its own account of the attack on Monday, “plenty of conservatives are now declaring this case closed,” as Politico reported. Indeed, right-wing commentators have claimed that the Times “quietly DEBUNKED” the Post’s “hoax hit piece,” which they said has been exposed as “a genuinely vile slander of both Hegseth and Bradley.”

“Disgrace to journalism that [Post reporters] @AlexHortonTX and @nakashimae got so many details of this story wrong just to smear @PeteHegseth,” posted RedState's R.C. Maxwell, a member of the new Pentagon press corps composed of MAGA shills.

Fox News, Hegseth’s former employer, had devoted 53 minutes of airtime to the story across the four days from Friday through Monday. The bulk of that coverage came from purported “news side” shows; Jesse Watters was the only prime-time host to address the story, while the defense secretary’s old program ignored it altogether. Coverage picked up on Tuesday morning, however: Apparently armed with new marching orders at last, Fox & Friends finally found an angle and reported on how the “New York Times report backs Trump admin’s account of strike on suspected drug boat.”

In reality, the timeline of the September 2 attack laid out in the Times article matches the one provided by the Post.

First, after U.S. intelligence operatives determined that the boat was carrying drugs, Hegseth issued his order to destroy it and kill those onboard.

From The Washington Post:

The longer the U.S. surveillance aircraft followed the boat, the more confident intelligence analysts watching from command centers became that the 11 people on board were ferrying drugs.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive, according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation. “The order was to kill everybody,” one of them said.

From The New York Times:

According to five U.S. officials, who spoke separately and on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter that is under investigation, Mr. Hegseth, ahead of the Sept. 2 attack, ordered a strike that would kill the people on the boat and destroy the vessel and its purported cargo of drugs.

...

In interviews on Monday, two U.S. officials — both of whom were supportive of the administration’s boat strikes — described a meeting before the attack at which Mr. Hegseth had briefed Special Operations Forces commanders on his execute order to engage the boat with lethal force.

Then, the Navy launched an initial strike, which left two survivors, who were killed after Bradley ordered further strikes.

From The Washington Post:

A missile screamed off the Trinidad coast, striking the vessel and igniting a blaze from bow to stern. For minutes, commanders watched the boat burning on a live drone feed. As the smoke cleared, they got a jolt: Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck.

The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack — the opening salvo in the Trump administration’s war on suspected drug traffickers in the Western Hemisphere — ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, two people familiar with the matter said. The two men were blown apart in the water.

From The New York Times:

Admiral Bradley ordered the initial missile strike and then several follow-up strikes that killed the initial survivors and sank the disabled boat.

The Times account stresses that Hegseth’s “order was not a response to surveillance footage showing that at least two people on the boat survived the first blast,” and that the defense secretary “did not give any further orders” to Bradley following the first strike — but the Post’s account does not say otherwise.

It is unclear whether the Post’s reporting that Hegseth issued a “spoken directive” to kill those onboard the boat is describing something different from the Times’ reporting that Hegseth briefed commanders on his order to “engage the boat with lethal force.” But both agree that Bradley ordered a second U.S. strike which killed shipwrecked survivors.

That second strike, experts say, constitutes “at best” a textbook war crime (if you accept the administration’s dubious claims that this constitutes a lawful conflict in the first place; otherwise, both strikes are simply murder). Trump said Sunday he “wouldn’t have wanted … a second strike,” though Leavitt defended Bradley ordering one on Monday.

The right-wing complaints amount to hair-splitting over the exact extent of MAGA favorite Hegseth’s responsibility for the allegedly unlawful killings — and it's based on two reports that paint a consistent picture. Did Hegseth cause the second strike with his initial order, or did he merely watch Bradley order it in real time with no apparent qualms about it, then promote Bradley, give a speech urging military leaders to “untie the hands of our warfighters” to ensure “maximum lethality,” and then defend the attack and mock its critics?

Either way, the Times article doesn't vindicate him.

MMA //

  1. ### FLASHBACK: When Pete Hegseth endorsed the military executing captured alleged combatants

12/01/25 12:22 PM EST

  1. ### A Fox host lobbied Trump to pardon accused and convicted war criminals. Here's how Fox talked about the cases over the last six months.

05/21/19 5:57 PM EDT

  1. ### Fox praised and validated Trump's legally questionable boat strikes in the Caribbean

10/29/25

---

FLASHBACK: When Pete Hegseth endorsed the military executing captured alleged combatants

Written by Matt Gertz

Published 12/01/25 MMA

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, currently under scrutiny for reportedly overseeing “at best” an alleged war crime in the Caribbean, argued from his Fox News perch in 2019 of an American soldier who admitted to the extrajudicial execution of an alleged Taliban bombmaker: “If he committed premeditated murder … then I did as well. What do you think you do in war?”

The Washington Post reported Friday that on September 2, Hegseth gave a spoken order “to kill everybody” on board a boat that U.S. intelligence analysts suspected was carrying drugs off the coast of Trinidad. After confirmation that the first strike left two survivors “clinging to the smoldering wreck,” the Navy special operations commander overseeing the action “ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions,” according to the Post’s sources. The paper further reported that “current and former officials within the U.S. military and DEA have expressed doubt that all 11 people aboard the first vessel were complicit in trafficking.”

The bipartisan leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees quickly issued statements promising investigations into the report. Legal experts argue the ordered killings would constitute “at best, a war crime under federal law,” as Hegseth’s former Fox colleague Andy McCarthy put it.

“Even if you buy the untenable claim that they are combatants, it is a war crime to intentionally kill combatants who have been rendered unable to fight,” McCarthy wrote Saturday at National Review. “It is not permitted, under the laws and customs of honorable warfare, to order that no quarter be given — to apply lethal force to those who surrender or who are injured, shipwrecked, or otherwise unable to fight.”

Indeed, “orders to fire upon the shipwrecked” are the textbook example of “Clearly Illegal Orders to Commit Law of War Violations” provided in the Department of Defense’s Law of War Manual.

(McCarthy further states that beyond Hegseth’s specific alleged order, “the attacks on these suspected drug boats — without congressional authorization, under circumstances in which the boat operators pose no military threat to the United States, and given that narcotics trafficking is defined in federal law as a crime rather than as terrorist activity, much less an act of war — are lawless and therefore that the killings are not legitimate under the law or armed conflict.”)

Hegseth said Friday that the Post’s story was “fabricated” and that the U.S. operations in the Caribbean “are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict,” but also bragged that “Biden coddled terrorists, we kill them,” and subsequently appeared to make light of the allegations. On Sunday, President Donald Trump said he “wouldn’t have wanted … a second strike” and claimed Hegseth “said he didn’t do it.”

Such weak denials are not terribly credible given Hegseth’s infamous support for U.S. service members accused of war crimes in his previous job as co-host of Fox’s weekend editions of its Fox & Friends morning show.

“Put us all in jail”: Hegseth rejects war crimes as a legitimate category

Hegseth, in one particularly striking example, vigorously defended Army Maj. Mathew Golsteyn during a February 2019 Fox & Friends appearance.

Golsteyn, who had been charged with murdering a captured Afghan man who was allegedly a Taliban bombmaker during a 2010 deployment, had “allegedly told CIA interviewers that he and another soldier took the alleged bomb-maker off base, shot him and buried his remains,” and replied “yes” during a 2016 Fox interview when asked if he had killed the man.

Referring to Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), a fellow veteran who supported Golsteyn, Hegseth said: “If he committed premeditated murder, then Duncan did as well, then I did as well. What do you think you do in war?” He added: “Put us all in jail.”

Video

Citation

From the February 13, 2019, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends

Hegseth repeatedly used his Fox post to endorse presidential pardons for Golsteyn and other U.S. service members accused or convicted of war crimes, hosting their family members or lawyers for softball interviews and vigorously defending their conduct. (At one point, he expressed his disdain for describing such individuals as “service members accused of war crimes,” saying, “They’re not war criminals. They’re warriors who have now been accused of certain things that are under review.”)

The Fox & Friends Weekend co-host also lobbied Trump directly behind the scenes, and the president issued pardons for several of the individuals Hegseth championed and even forced out the secretary of the Navy over his handling of one of their cases.

Hegseth also questioned whether the U.S. military should adhere to international law in his 2024 book, The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free, musing that doing so constituted “fighting with one hand behind our back.”

“Should we follow the Geneva Conventions?” Hegseth wrote. “What if we treated the enemy the way they treated us? Would that not be an incentive for the other side to reconsider their barbarism?”

“Makes me wonder, in 2024 — if you want to win — how can anyone write universal rules about killing other people in open conflict?” he continued. “Especially against enemies who fight like savages, disregarding human life in every single instance.”

Hegseth had the opportunity to implement this strategy after Trump plucked him from Fox’s green room and appointed him to lead the Pentagon and his right-wing media allies helped muscle him through Senate confirmation. Amid the chaos that resulted from putting a wildly underqualified individual in charge of the Defense Department, Hegseth has made clear that he views any restrictions of the ability of service members to kill “the enemies of our country” as “politically correct.”

“We also don't fight with stupid rules of engagement,” he said in his September 30 speech to the country’s assembled military leaders. “We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement, just common sense, maximum lethality and authority for warfighters.”

“Today is another liberation day, the liberation of America's warriors, in name, in deed and in authorities,” he added. “You kill people and break things for a living. You are not politically correct and don't necessarily belong always in polite society.”

The address came just four weeks after Hegseth reportedly committed “at best” a war crime.

MMA //

  1. ### Trump’s pick for secretary of defense has a history of defending war crimes, torture, and more

11/20/24 3:30 PM EST

  1. ### A Fox host lobbied Trump to pardon accused and convicted war criminals. Here's how Fox talked about the cases over the last six months.

05/21/19 5:57 PM EDT

  1. ### Right-wing media praise Trump’s made-up excuses for war against Venezuela

11/24/25

---

AN 12 25

Disgraced former congressman mocked for joining Pentagon press pool

---

AN 12 25

A Canadian publisher of children's books is now issuing a statement denouncing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after he posted an unauthorized AI-generated image of one of its most popular characters.

On Sunday night, Hegseth posted a mock book cover image of the character "Franklin the Turtle," which is owned by Kids Can Press, firing a rocket-propelled grenade at several boats from a helicopter. The text at the top of the image reads: "Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists," with "A Classic Franklin Story" written above. Hegseth added the caption: "For your Christmas wish list..." to the post.

Kids Can Press responded to Hegseth's image with the statement: "Franklin the Turtle is a beloved Canadian icon who has inspired generations of children and stands for kindness, empathy, and inclusivity. We strongly condemn any denigrating, violent, or unauthorized use of Franklin’s name or image, which directly contradicts these values."

The statement caught the eye of several journalists and commentators. CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter observed that Kids Can Press was "not happy about @PeteHegseth's trolling." Concordia University of Montreal professor Shannon McSheffrey wrote on Bluesky: "Franklin fights back."

"Children's book publisher responds to Trump's defense/war secretary on doctored Franklin the Turtle RPG drug boat strike post ...is a real sentence I just wrote," tweeted Wall Street Journal national security reporter Robbie Gramer.

"It would be hilarious for this to go to copyright court and be the reason the regime falls," quipped search-and-rescue professional Michael Coyle.

"I hope they sue," wrote journalist Morgan Leigh Davies. "That image was grotesque."

"Take over threats. Tariffs. Now MAGA has woken Canada’s sleeping giant: Franklin," author Shawn Micallef wrote on Bluesky.

Hegseth has been subjected to widespread criticism in the wake of a Washington Post report claiming that the defense secretary authorized a secondary attack on survivors of a strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea. The White House has not denied that the secondary strike occurred, but has clarified that the strike was in fact ordered by Admiral Frank M. Bradley, who is the commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command.

If the Post's report is true, the secondary strike on shipwrecked survivors would likely be considered a violation of Rules 46 and 47 of International Humanitarian Law, which pertain to "no-quarter" orders and orders to attack people considered hors de combat, ("out of the fight") respectively. The House and Senate Armed Services Committees — which are both controlled by Republicans – have launched official inquiries into the attack with the Department of Defense.

---

AN 12 25

After a series of military strikes against Venezuelan boats that it alleges were smuggling illegal drugs to the United States, the Trump Administration is reportedly pushing for regime change in the South American country and hoping to oust leftist President Nicolás Maduro.

Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Geoffrey S. Corn, who now serves as director of the Center for Military Law and Policy at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, offered legal and military analysis of the Trump Administration's Venezuelan policy during aDecember 2 appearance on MS NOW's "Morning Joe." And he laid out a variety of problems with actions that Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are taking.

Corn told "Morning Joe" host Mika Brzezinski, her colleague Jonathan Lemire (a former Associated Press reporter) and The New Republic's Michael Tomasky that if an order to "kill the stranded members" of a "ship's crew" in the Caribbean Sea was given after a "first strike," it would indicate "an order to commit an illegal killing,"

"Were you trying to finish off the boat, or were you actually trying to kill the stranded members of the crew?," Corn told the panel. "And if it was the latter, how could you justify that, knowing that once an individual is shipwrecked, they are essentially out of combat? But again, this all goes back to the most troubling aspect of that statement by the White House press secretary (Karoline Leavitt), which is this idea that President Trump can merely designate a narco group as a foreign terrorist organization — and somehow, that authorizes the use of deadly combat power as a measure of first resort, shifting from a law enforcement to a wartime paradigm."

Corn added, "That's a chilling assertion of authority. Why are we even treating this as a war?"

The retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel was vehemently critical of Hegseth for "summarily dismissing," from the Pentagon, "senior military lawyers" — which, he warned, is creating a "shock effect" on the U.S. Armed Forces.

Corn told Brzezinski, Lemire and Tomasky, "There's been a general dismissiveness of the role of law in regulating the use of military force on behalf of the nation. And you see this starting to have its manifestation in incidents like this…. A very good friend of mine is the former judge advocate general of the Canadian Armed Forces, and he told me once, 'I never worried about the meetings I was invited to — I only worried about the meetings I wasn't invited to.'"

Corn continued, "So, have they been marginalized? This is a really important issue because rules of engagement are not stupid. They preserve the legitimacy and the integrity of our military operations."

---

rww

11/26/2025

When six Democratic senators with military and intelligence community experience posted a video last week calling on people now serving to refuse to carry out illegal orders, President Trump and many of his supporters lost it – even though the video was simply reminding servicemembers of their obligation under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

The White House has walked back Trump’s initial outbursts calling for execution of the senators, but he said Sunday he still wants to see “the traitors that told the military to disobey my orders” in jail. He reposted a Truth social post calling the senators “traitorous sons of bitches” and “pompous traitorous communists” who “should be impeached and prosecuted.”

The senators have reported receiving death threats, and Trump allies are fanning MAGA outrage with false characterizations of the senators’ video.

Many MAGA attacks ignored the essential point of the senators’ video, which was to urge servicemembers not to obey illegal orders.

Trump adviser Stephen Miller, who has overseen official brutality against immigrants and their defenders, falsely claimed, “Democrat lawmakers are now openly calling for insurrection” and told Fox News viewers that it was “a general call for rebellion.”

Last week Libs of TikTok posteda claim that “Elected Democrats just released a video encouraging members of the military to commit treason and DEFY orders from Trump and Hegseth.”

On Sunday, the Republican National Committee sent an email claiming “Democrats want to stage a military coup” and falsely claiming that the video “called for an all-out coup against President Trump and Pete Hegseth” by “directly asking troops to disobey their orders.”

The RNC called the senators “disgusting socialists” and claimed they were “urging INSUBORDINATION.”

On Monday, the Washington Examiner’s Elizabeth Stauffer wrote that “Democrats are openly calling for a military mutiny.” She said the senators’ video had “all the hallmarks of a psychological operation lifted straight from the CIA’s playbook.”

Political dirty trickster Roger Stone claimed Monday that the video “is a call to arms for a revolt” and complained that “congressional seditionists” were emboldened by the fact that the Justice Department has not moved quickly enough to prosecute former “Deep State” officials.

Gary Bauer—yes, he’s still at it—used his daily newsletter to attack the senators for “stoking division and fueling mistrust in our government, which is the goal of our enemies”—and, let’s be honest, is the hallmark of Trump and the MAGA movement.

The Pentagon announced that Sen. Mark Kelly, a retired Navy Captain, would be investigated and could be recalled to active duty to face a court martial over what Hegseth claimed was a “seditious” video.

Kelly and the other senators made it clear that they were not cowed by Trump’s bluster, and many of their congressional colleagues came to their defense. Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado called it “a decisive moment.” Crow wrote on X, “Trump is trying to incite violence, intimidate, and punish those who speak up to hold him accountable. But the only thing we fear is not rising to this moment and defending the country we love.”

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger said in a videothat military officers are told on “day one” of their training that they are obligated to not follow unlawful or illegal orders. Kinzinger called the Defense Department’s threat “chilling” and said it was designed to strike the fear of God into former officers who are publicly critical of Trump.

A rare critical voice from a sitting Republican came from Rep. Don Bacon who wrote that he thought the senators’ video was a bad idea, but that talk of sedition and threats of court martial were “crazy.”

---

Pentagon now wants to cut Mark Kelly’s pension in 'downshift' from call for court-martial - Alternet.org

11 25 NOT SO MUCH VIOL UMFC CODE AS CITING IT?

---

---

AN 11 25

Steve Bannon urges Trump admin to court martial former NASA astronaut

---

---

an 11 25

IFrame Content

President Donald Trump’s Department of Defense is now targeting a sitting U.S. Senator, one of six Democratic lawmakers who appeared in a video reminding members of the U.S. Armed Forces and the Intelligence Community of their right to refuse to obey an illegal order.

U.S. Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), a retired astronaut and former naval officer, along with the other five said, “threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home.”

“Our laws are clear,” they added. “You can refuse illegal orders.”

In an official statement on social media, the Department of Defense alleged it has “received serious allegations of misconduct against Captain Mark Kelly, USN (Ret.).”

It added, “a thorough review of these allegations has been initiated to determine further actions, which may include recall to active duty for court-martial proceedings or administrative measures.” The statement also said, “federal laws such as 18 U.S.C. § 2387 prohibit actions intended to interfere with the loyalty, morale, or good order and discipline of the armed forces.”

President Trump last week in a series of social media posts promoted hanging the six Democrats.

“It’s called seditious behavior at the highest level,” the president also charged. “Each one of these traitors to our Country should be Arrested and put on trial. Their words cannot be allowed to stand – We won’t have a Country anymore!!! An example must be set.”

“Seditious behavior, punishable by death!” he continued.

Critics blasted the Pentagon’s move.

“Sen. Kelly didn’t tell troops to defy lawful orders, he reminded them of their duty to refuse unlawful ones, which is literally what the UCMJ and decades of military precedent require!” wrote The Bulwark’s Evan Rosenfeld. “Pretending that doing so is ‘misconduct’ is complete propaganda and not rooted in law.”

Punchbowl News’ Andrew Desiderio called it “Pretty extraordinary to call out a sitting senator in this way.”

The Bulwark’s Sam Stein labeled it “ham-handed,” and Bill Kristol of Defending Democracy called it “Naked authoritarianism.”

But The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg noted that the video “looks to have been an official one for which [Kelly] would enjoy Speech or Debate immunity.”

---

context 11 25

A new report published by former U.S. military officers this week decried president Donald Trump’s politicized use of the military and warned of the “eroding” effects his continued use of it will have, per a report from The Guardian.

Since returning to power in January, Trump has become increasingly reliant on domestic military deployments in furtherance of his agenda. This has most notably included the use of National Guard forces to aid in immigration enforcement efforts, particularly in major cities, like Chicago and Los Angeles, that are run by Democratic elected officials.

His administration has also seen numerous firings of high-ranking officers and lawyers who have been unwilling to support certain parts of the president’s agenda.

All of these issues are at the heart of a new report, titled “The Perils of Politicizing the U.S. Military,” which warned that Trump’s use of the military for partisan purposes are damaging to the separation of the armed forces from political matters and the public’s trust in it to act apolitically.

“The use of troops, bases, and ceremonies in partisan settings has blurred the line between military service and political messaging, eroding morale and public trust in the military’s apolitical character,” the report read.

Released on Monday, the report was authored by retired Navy Admiral Steve Abbot, retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, former Army Secretary Louis Caldera, retired Army General George Casey, former Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James and former Navy secretary Sean O’Keefe.

The former officials continued: “When service members, senior leaders, or military symbols are perceived as aligned with political agendas, the public begins to see the institution as partisan rather than national – and once eroded, that trust is difficult to rebuild. This loss of trust makes it harder to recruit across the political spectrum, harder to retain talent, and harder to reassure allies and deter adversaries abroad.”

---

Retired major general 'big time' alarmed by missing military lawyers at critical briefing - Alternet.org

an 11 25

---

AN 11 25

GOP senators clash with senior Trump Pentagon nominee in 'fiery exchanges' DAHMER?

---

The far-right activist and former congressional candidate has repeatedly criticized defense officials on her website and social media accounts while boasting of her close ties to President Donald Trump.

---

---

RWW

12/02/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

Trump’s call to ban “Third World” immigration proves it.

Donald Trump went on a particularly racist tirade about the Democratic representative. And his entire Cabinet enjoyed it.

Contrary to popular reports, DOGE has “burrowed into the agencies like ticks,” government sources tell WIRED.

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI), a highbrow educational organization for conservative students with a long history of intellectual activism, invited students to a dinner with Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones this past spring that its president, Johnny Burtka, described as being “unforgettable.”

The most significant way Hegseth’s establishing his faith is with monthly Christian prayer services held at the Pentagon during work hours. Far from interfaith events, the gatherings have been sectarian and evangelistic. And in a hierarchical structure like the military, when the Secretary of War invites people to come to an event and speaks during it, such an invite might not seem very voluntary.

Given Fuentes’s popularity, it was probably only a matter of time before an outlet asked itself: Rather than tying ourselves into knots about this, what if we instead just got our own Nick Fuentes?

---

---

AN 11 25

During Donald Trump's first presidency, he bitterly clashed with a long list of traditional conservatives who pushed back against his proposals — from a secretary of state (Rex Tillerson) to a White House chief of staff (John Kelly) to a national security adviser (John Bolton) to two U.S. attorneys general (Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr). Even one of Trump's White House press secretaries (Stephanie Grisham) ended up giving Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris an enthusiastic endorsement at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

But Trump's second presidency is much different. This time, he has made a point of surrounding himself with unquestioning MAGA loyalists who are anxious to please him.

In an opinion column published on October 18, the New York Times' Frank Bruni stresses that desperation to please Trump is one of the things that makes his current group of allies so dangerous.

Bruni specifically points to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance.

"There’s no team of rivals around Trump, no constructive dissent, no battle of ideas from which the best one emerges," Bruni warns. "There’s just flattery and more flattery. Tribute upon tribute. Hyperbole atop hyperbole. Of course, telling bosses how effective, charismatic and visionary they are is a tried-and-true route to advancement…. But the sort of fanboy fan dances that Vance and Patel routinely perform? That's extreme. As was Attorney General Pam Bondi's pathetic effort, during a Senate hearing in which she was fielding questions, to make Democrats on the panel answer for their supposed crimes against Trump. How, she wondered, could they be so mean to him? How, I wondered, does she keep a straight face?"

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

Bondi, Patel and Hegseth, according to Bruni, are dangerous not only because of their extreme rhetoric, but because they are willing to back it up with actions.

"If that lip service were merely the ceremonial price that Trump's aides paid to be able to attend to the rest of their jobs in a serious manner," Bruni argues, "it would be little more than embarrassing. But it's part of a broader servility, a more profound humiliation. Their deeds must match their diction. So Bondi has either encouraged or indulged nuisance investigations and malicious prosecutions of Trump's enemies, including (former FBI Director) James Comey and (New York State Attorney General) Letitia James. Patel expanded polygraph tests at the FBI — to prevent pejorative portrayals of the administration from leaking out."

Bruni continues, "Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth channeled Trump's contempt for independent journalists and emulated Trump's attacks on the media by laying down new rules that essentially forced self-respecting reporters to hand in their Pentagon press credentials. The president was pleased: He wondered aloud about doing something similar at the White House. Maybe Patel and Hegseth were always this paranoid and petulant, but Bondi seems to have grown crueler and coarser in direct relation to her time with Trump. And Vance's cartoonish sycophancy is the convenient inverse of his past statements that Trump was 'America's Hitler' and an 'idiot.'"

---

---

AN 11 25

Founded in Nigeria in 2002 — the year after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon — Boko Haram has been a frequent source of violence in that country for 23 years. The far-right jihadist group, often compared to al-Qaeda, favors overthrowing Nigeria's democratic republic and replacing it with an Islamist dictatorship governed by strict fundamentalist Shariah law — specifically, a Sunni version. Boko Haram has a long history of violent attacks on both Christians and Muslims (including Shiites as well as fellow Sunnis they consider too liberal).

U.S. President Donald Trump is now threatening military action against Boko Haram, vowing to "protect Christians." And his messaging is specifically focused on Christianity, not Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Nigeria who fear Boko Haram.

In an article published on November 4, Salon's Heather Digby Parton examines the influence that far-right white fundamentalist evangelicals and "Christian nationalists" are having on Trump's Nigeria policy. And one of them is Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

"Whatever the case, this appears to be based upon misinformation," Parton explains. "Nigeria is dealing with the Boko Haram extremist group, which does target Christians. But it also threatens Muslims who don't accept its radical form of Islam, as well as those who are sympathetic to the Nigerian government. Most experts and analysts reject the assertion that this is some kind of Christian genocide. Trump may have wanted to give a little something to his 'cherished Christians,' as he sometimes refers to his evangelical supporters, but Hegseth is a much more interesting case."

Parton continues, "This is, after all, a man who wrote a book called 'American Crusade,' which The Guardian described as 'depicting Islam as a natural, historic enemy of the west; presents distorted versions of Muslim doctrine in Great Replacement-style racist conspiracy theories; treats leftists and Muslims as bound together in their efforts to subvert the U.S.; and idolizes medieval crusaders."

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

Parton warns that evangelical Hegseth embraces an extreme form of far-right Christian fundamentalism. In this book, the former Fox News host calls for "followers of Christ to take up the sword in defense of their faith."

"Hegseth is also a member of an extreme far-right sect called the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches that also believes in militant Christianity," Parton warns. "It's heavily influenced by reconstructionism, a theology that religion scholar Julie Ingersoll describes as believing 'it's the job of Christians to exercise dominion over the whole world.' In short, Hegseth is a serious Christian nationalist, and there could be nothing more satisfying for him than to muster a fighting force to wage war against Muslims in a foreign land in the name of Jesus Christ."

Parton continues, "It sounds medieval, and it is…. Whether they will follow through on this is anyone's guess. At some point, one might hope that a few of the Christians who are clamoring for the U.S. to go into Nigeria with 'guns-a-blazing' might spare a thought for their fellow followers of Christ who are being terrorized every single day right here in America at the hands of an oppressive government that is deporting them to face certain persecution."

---

---

MMA

Pete Hegseth is replacing the Pentagon press corps with MAGA propagandists

Written by Matt Gertz

Published 10/27/25

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is stifling the Pentagon’s channels for public information and cutting off avenues for accountability as U.S. forces deploy on missions of dubious legality that are fraught with potential danger.

President Donald Trump has sent federalized National Guard troops to multiple U.S. cities since the summer and threatened to send troops to many more. The U.S. military is massing forces in a potential precursor for regime change operations in Venezuela and recently began the extrajudicial killing of individuals on offshore vessels that officials claim, without evidence, are engaged in drug trafficking.

The public has a right to know about these deployments, which raise grave legal and constitutional questions.

But on Wednesday, Defense Department press secretary Sean Parnell announced “the next generation of the Pentagon press corps,” which he described as “over 60 journalists, representing a broad spectrum of new media outlets and independent journalists.”

That a government official trumpeted the debut of the new people who will be covering his department is a signal of just how much that press corps has been corrupted. Its new members are a motley crew predominantly composed of right-wing influencers and Trumpist outlets. Representatives of organizations like The Gateway Pundit and Infowars will replace what Parnell termed the “activists who masquerade as journalists” who turned in their passes last week rather than accepting his department's new restrictions on the press.

Credible defense reporters will continue striving to provide the public with information and insight on Pentagon operations. But they will do so in the face of Defense Department leaders who clearly prefer working with politically sympathetic conspiracy theorists and propagandists. The “new” Pentagon press corps’ coverage will likely range from pliant to sycophantic as its members seek to comfort their MAGA audiences.

The press isn’t the only target of the Pentagon’s campaign against transparency: Hegseth, driven by an apparent urge to limit the effectiveness and volume of oversight, has also launched an overhaul of the inspector general complaint system to curtail its investigations, and he issued a new policy that prevents military leaders from talking to members of Congress without prior approval.

Together, it amounts to an information silo around the Pentagon as U.S. troops deploy abroad and at home.

A DOD campaign to hamstring Pentagon reporting

Hegseth lacked anything resembling traditional qualifications for his post when President Donald Trump appointed him, having instead spent years working for Fox News. And while his most extensive work experience is at a media company, he was by no means a reporter. A right-wing host of the network’s weekend morning show, Hegseth shared the contempt for journalists that permeates much of the network’s programming, urging readers of his 2020 book to “disdain, despise, detest, [and] distrust” the news media.

As defense secretary, Hegseth has effectively made that comment the mission statement for the department’s press relations. He has mocked and derided reporters and torn apart his senior staff in search of media leakers. Soon after he took office, the department punished national news outlets by kicking them out of their Pentagon work spaces and handing them off to right-wing publications. A few months later, new rules banned reporters from much of the Pentagon unless they were escorted by an approved member of the department.

Hegseth and his department are historically lax in sharing information with the press and thus the public, as NPR reporter Tom Bowman, a 28-year veteran of the Pentagon press corps, noted:

Now, we're barely getting any information at all from the Pentagon. In the 10 months that the Trump administration has been in office, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has given just two briefings.

And there have been virtually no background briefings, which were common in the past whenever there has been military action anywhere in the world, as there has been with the recent bombings of Iran's nuclear facilities and of boats off the coast of Venezuela alleged to be carrying illicit drugs. In previous administrations, Defense Department officials — including the acerbic [Don] Rumsfeld — would hold regular press briefings, often twice a week. They knew the American people deserved to know what was going on.

But limiting access for reporters and starving them of information was apparently not enough.

Last month the Pentagon rolled out strict new guidelines for the press corps which warned that “information must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if it is unclassified,” and threatened to strip access from anyone who violated that stricture. On the October 15 deadline to sign their acknowledgement of the new guidelines, journalists for dozens of outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal instead turned in their press passes and left the building en masse.

“Signing that document would make us stenographers parroting press releases, not watchdogs holding government officials accountable,” Bowman noted.

But for Hegseth, that was the point — he wanted stenographers rather than watchdogs, and following the establishment of the new guidelines and the ensuing walkout, that’s exactly what he’s gotten. All the reporters who might consider themselves watchdogs have left the building. Even right-wing outlets Fox, Newsmax, The Daily Caller, The Washington Times, and the Washington Examiner drew a line and refused to sign the new guidelines to retain their access.

Those that did sign are, almost by definition, the type of willing administration lapdogs Hegseth wanted covering him from inside the building. They are, at times by their own admission, woefully incapable of doing investigative work that holds him to account — but they have the skills to promote his talking points and puff him up to their right-wing audiences.

Hegseth and the MAGA right enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship. When his nomination appeared in jeopardy following allegations of misconduct that included sexual assault, workplace drunkenness, and financial mismanagement, Hegseth benefited from the furious support of MAGA influencers. Upon taking office, he then offered access to the likes of Pizzagate enthusiast Jack Posobiec and presidential daughter-in-law Lara Trump to burnish his image.

A rundown of those who will now make up the Pentagon press corps — either rare holdovers willing to sign the guidelines or new outlets that announced their involvement after Parnell’s announcement — suggests that one hand will continue to wash the other. The “next generation of the Pentagon press corps” features a host of representatives from MAGA outlets, many of which publish deranged conspiracy theories, Trumpist hagiography, or extremist commentary.

They include:

Hegseth’s restocking of the Pentagon press room with shills and sycophants aligns with similar efforts underway at the White House, as well as an administration-wide war on journalism which includes defunding public media; suborning once-critical media owners; aiding sales of outlets to friendlier ownership; and filing lawsuits that punish news outlets for reporting that displeases the president.

---

this fucking guy 10 25 fail up, slept to top; 5 affairs w 1st of 3 wives, 2nd ultimate

singer alito astroturf vet orgs and koch, 1st 3

not spec ops 101st? ; war crimes in his unit;

10 25

Pete Hegseth: Everything You Didn't Know About His Sh*tty Past - YouTube

43:37

Now playing

Pete Hegseth: Everything You Didn't Know About His Sh*tty Past

Hysteria

•

:{:{75K views}:

Oct 12, 2025

In our 26th episode of This F*cking Guy, Erin and Alyssa dive deep into the past of United States Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth. From his sexist ideologies, drunken antics, cheating scandals and Fox News career to his embarrassing failures to incompetent leadership, this is definitely our most inebriated and moronic fcking guy of all time.

Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b...

CHAPTERS

0:00 - Intro

1:10 - Pete's childhood

3:38 - Pete's early bad ideas

6:38 - Pete's first marriage and military career

15:45 - Pete on Fox News and drinking problems

21:00 - Ad break

22:54 - Pete gets into politics (and more drinking)

32:49 - Trump picks Pete for Secretary of Defense

harv ret to sender

princeton tory funder?

...

3:41

the Tories March 2002 issue that the reason that some Americans sympathized with the Taliban was because they lacked

3:47

a male disciplinary figure. Later in that article, Hexath advocated parental discipline that included spanking and

3:54

shoving soap in children's mouths. Hot take for the ages. Of course, there was

3:59

the requisite railing against DEI. Back then, it was just called diversity. Here's what Hegsth wrote about that.

4:06

Quote, "Race can be a legitimate part of what makes up a diverse campus, but it also doesn't define anyone. Allan Keys

...

them. So theatrical. He loves drama. Hexath also got himself into some hot water over publishing

5:19

claims that having sex with an unconscious woman was not rape. I'm sorry, what? Here's the exact quote

5:25

from an opinion column that ran in the Tory. The columnist is describing a session he had to attend during college

5:30

orientation where attendees had to determine whether a sketch mentioning a man having sex with a passed out woman

5:36

counted as rape. Quote, "The actual instance portrayed in the skit was in fact not a clear case of rape, at least

5:42

not in my home state. In short, though intercourse was not consented to, there was no duress because the girl drank

...

7:27

questioning the value in offering up human lives in defense of American business interests, he found meaning

7:32

again in advocating for more war. In 2006, he started working with a pro-war veterans organization called Veterans

7:39

for Freedom. VFF was meant to appear like it was a grassroots movement for pro-war American troops who just wanted

7:45

to get themselves and all their friends and colleagues blown up in the Middle East as soon as possible. But it was actually what's known as an astroturf

7:52

organization. Oh, Alyssa. Astroturf fake grass. I just got that like right now.

7:59

VF was actually founded with money from three conservative billionaires who are

8:04

now dead. Bernard Marcus, the founder of Home Depot. Jerry Parentio, a longtime Univision executive who lived in the

8:11

mansion from the Beverly Hillbillies, and businessman and former neighbor of Oprah Winfrey, Harold Simmons. Between

8:17

the three of them, they've been married a total of eight times. Just a fun fact about these boosters of conservative

8:22

family values. Journalist Jane Mayer also found ties between the organization and other shadowy right-wing moneymen

8:28

like Paul Singer. You might remember Paul Singer as the guy standing to the left of Supreme Court Justice Samuel

8:33

Alto wearing pristine waiters and holding a giant salmon in this photo which is from a ProPublica story about

8:39

how Paul Singer paid for Samuel Alito to go on a luxury Alaskan fishing trip.

8:44

Alto did not disclose it and later did not recuse himself from Supreme Court cases directly involving Paul Singer's

8:50

companies. These [ __ ] guys. In 2007, Hegth became the leader of VFF. He was a

8:55

dog [ __ ] leader running the financials of the organization into the ground even as it raised more money than ever. Pete

9:01

mismanaged the money the organization did manage to raise with financial records indicating that by the end of

9:06

2008 VFF was nearly broke. And by broke, I mean deep enough in a hole to consider

9:13

jumping from a Vegas hotel window with under $1,000 in the bank and more than $400,000 in liabilities. donors

9:20

commissioned a forensic audit that confirmed that this was a Pete Hexth problem. The group's options were give Pete more

...

7

at the Republican Federation of Republican Women's Convention in Monterey, California. After his speech,

23:12

of course, Hexath couldn't wait to start throwing him back. At the after after party, the woman who would later accuse

23:19

Hegth of sexual assault intervened to protect another woman he was getting handsy with. Surveillance footage showed

23:25

the accuser escorting Hexath away from the bar and soon after hotel staff reported a loud argument between them by

23:31

the pool. Hegath was very drunk and yelling about what a good guy he was, which is definitely a thing that actual

23:37

good guys do all the time. I'm a good guy. Meanwhile, the accuser was texting her husband, who was staying in the same

23:43

hotel with her two small children and calling Hexath a creeper. Hours later, she returned to the hotel room she

23:49

shared with her husband and kids, but later had flashbacks and nightmares about the encounter. She recalled

23:54

Hegathth blocking the door and assaulting her despite her saying no multiple times. She remembered his dog

24:00

tags jangling above her. 4 days later, the woman went to a hospital for a rape exam, suspecting she had been drugged.

24:06

She initially did not want to include Hegs's name on the report because of his fame. There were no criminal charges

24:12

filed, but in 2020, Hexath secretly reached a $50,000 settlement with the woman who also signed an NDA. When all

24:19

this, including the police report, resurfaced when he was being considered for Secretary of Defense, HG said he

24:24

wasn't drunk, he was buzzed. Oh, okay. Well, then it's fine. And that the criminal investigation resulting in no

24:30

charges totally exonerated him. Although he did acknowledge having consensual sex with a woman, he hadn't told the Trump

24:37

transition team that this incident had happened in the first place. Meanwhile, Hexath was still being booked to speak

24:43

at conservative conferences without the people booking him knowing about what had happened in California. In January

24:48

2019, for example, he was the keynote speaker at Liberty University's convocation. So, he was around literally

24:54

thousands of college-age women. And at other events, he ostensibly had access to an open bar. Like if I were somebody

25:00

who had booked him to speak at my event and not known that there was a police report about an alleged rape at another

25:06

similar event, I'd be pretty pissed. Apparently, Jennifer Rocher was able to move past it. And after Jennifer left

25:13

her husband and Hexa's messy divorce was finaliz

...

three sons and two stepsons all serve in the military, and that when they do, they take it all the way. He fantasizes

29:10

about them joining the Navy Seals, the Army Rangers, the Green Beretss, the Marine Raiders, because quote elite

29:16

units usually skip most of, excuse my language, but it's true, the [ __ ] Now, keep in mind, Hagsth was not in an

29:23

elite unit. He does not have a Ranger pin. He did not attend SEAL training. He is not a Marine. He's not a Green Beret,

29:30

but he sure feels strongly about barring women who are physically capable of meeting the standards that he never

29:36

could meet himself from being able to serve in those roles. Also, in 2022, Hexath donated $1,000 to the

29:42

congressional campaign of a New Jersey gym owner and frequent Fox News guest named Ian Smith. A few weeks after,

29:48

Smith's second drunk driving arrest became public. Smith's first drunk driving incident came when he was 20

29:54

years old, drank 10 to 12 beers, and killed somebody with his car. He was sentenced to 5 and a half years in

30:00

prison for vehicular manslaughter. Great place to put your money, Pete. Unrepentant booze hounds got to stick together. On Fox and Friends in 2022, he

30:07

wrote returned to sender on his graduate degree from Harvard in response to DEI initiatives in the Ivy League.

30:14

By the way, Harvard University. Let's see. Let's do that. Oh my god. I think we'd go with u critical theory.

....

operation rough rider yemen wife bro signal chat

TFG Pete Hegseth Sources

_https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trumps-pick-for-defense-sec-spent-his-college-years-crusading-against-glorification-of-diversity-and-the-homosexual-lifestyle_

_https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/player/bio/_/id/1506/pete-hegseth_

_https://www.theprincetontory.com/archive-of-past-issues/2001-02-issues/_

_https://www.theprincetontory.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/2002-0203.pdf_

_https://web.archive.org/web/20060906061815/http://prince-web1.princeton.edu/archives/2002/04/17/opinion/4942.shtml_

_https://ca.news.yahoo.com/princeton-pete-hegseths-views-feminism-100200035.html?guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucGVycGxleGl0eS5haS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAEdD-QaGi5WlZLvE8gowkG7Ad14X48zhy4R2qInWb7qkj9dlc6uVsoC5KsGVkX4mdzcY07MiMmLRCWW5v2TynNakZoZBPEyxCqteSC6qqLjihEHDlF3tSrgP74u69sm4NURXA50GsmA6xfxFrKcN-BZDzpQCVMYshgqhZbnMA2tk&guccounter=2_

_https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2025/05/princeton-news-pete-hegseth-senior-thesis-plagiarism-allegations_

_https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/ar-AA1uD2gR_

_https://www.propublica.org/article/samuel-alito-luxury-fishing-trip-paul-singer-scotus-supreme-court_

_https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fox-friends-co-host-faces-lawsuit-man-he-hit-axe-n883291_

_https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/pete-hegseths-drinking-worried-colleagues-fox-news-sources-tell-nbc-ne-rcna181471_

_https://archive.is/lSPf9#selection-601.0-641.3_

_https://archive.is/1GJOj_

_https://archive.ph/20250101060614/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/15/us/trump-pardons.html_

_https://archive.is/T8nCv#selection-2646.0-2646.1_

_https://www.mediamatters.org/pete-hegseth/fox-news-host-pete-hegseth-donated-ian-smith-candidate-who-killed-someone-drunk_

_https://www.foxnews.com/media/pete-hegseth-vows-send-back-harvard-university-degree-writes-return-sender-diploma_

_https://wng.org/sift/doug-wilson-responds-to-pete-hegseth-affiliation-reports-1755021501_

_https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/08/politics/video/christian-nationalist-doug-wilson-pam-brown-digvid_

_https://prospect.org/politics/2025-02-05-pete-hegseths-venmo-defense-contractors-unitedhealth/_

_https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/music/news/metallica-pentagon-pete-hegseth-video-b2788101.html_

_https://www.vox.com/today-explained-podcast/415145/women-in-combat-ranger-school-pete-hegseth-fitness-standards_

https://www.whro.org/military-veterans/2025-05-07/the-uss-truman-loses-a-second-fighter-jet-in-just-over-a-week**}:

---

---

AN 10 25

When Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth demanded journalists agree not to report anything without formal authorization from the Defense Department, he sent a mass evacuation of legitimate media from the press corps.

What’s left, writes Slate reporter Molly Olmstead, is … really something.

“The Pentagon has remade its press corps, and we’re starting to get an understanding of which people now are allowed access to the halls of power,” said Olmstead, who included a list of the “top hits” that Hegseth’s considers “valid journalism of interest to the public.”

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell “peddled his 2020 election conspiracy theories through a number of avenues, including his video streaming site,” wrote Olmstead. “As a result, LindellTV has been subject to the same defamation lawsuits that Lindell himself courted, but it carries on with a host of right-wing shows, including the signature Mike Lindell Show.”

LindellTV’s reporters frequently pester Democrats with MAGA lies dressed up as legitimate questions, prompting Nancy Pelosi to publicly snap at them for churning nonsense and MSNBC hosts to blast them for spreading lies to a LindellTV audience that is “too stupid to know the truth.”

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

And when their reporters are not spouting lies, Olmstead says they’re fawning over President Donald Trump’s “fitness plan” and asking press secretary Karoline Leavitt when Trump plans to go public with it.

Another sycophantic organization still hanging around is The One America News network, which Olmstead describes as “about as extreme as it gets without tipping fully into Alex Jones lizard-people territory.”

“It has promoted hydroxychloroquine as a ‘miracle cure’ for COVID; spread ominous conspiracy theories about George Soros; speculated that Michael Cohen, not Donald Trump, had an affair with Stormy Daniels; and declared that Roy Moore was innocent and actually wonhis election,” said Olmstead. “It has also hired Matt Gaetz as a host.”

“Human Events” is another example of the lingering press corps flotsam, said Olmstead.

“This is the latest home for Jack Posobiec, a content creator so inflammatory that being seen as cozy with him — as Hegseth was, in inviting Posobiec on an overseas trip — can lead to major scandal,” said Olmstead. “Posobiec, who has connections to various hate groups, is known primarily as the man behind Pizzagate. … He remains extreme: “Welcome to the end of democracy. We are here to overthrow it completely,” he said at last year’s Conservative Political Action Conference.

The Navy revoked Posobiec’s security clearance as a U.S. naval intelligence officer on reserve, after his involvements with the Unite the Right white supremacist rally.

The list continues with spurious far-right networks like the National Pulse, whose leader was so inflammatory that Australia’s Labor Party asked to ban him from the country, Olmstead reports. Another is The Epoch Times, which Olmstead points out has been charged with money laundering and is “a dedicated promoter of right-wing conspiracy theories, going so far as to create a network of YouTube channels amplifying hoaxes and election misinformation.

The list goes on, and Olmstead said all will “inevitably benefit from a veneer of legitimacy from the credentialing and from the ‘scoops’ they’re given.”

Read the Slate report at this link.

---

---

FAIL ON PENTA PRESS 10 25

10/22/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

Paul Ingrassia, President Donald Trump's controversial pick to lead the Office of Special Counsel, has withdrawn from consideration after a series of bombshell scandals that rendered Republican senators unwilling to advance his nomination.

Fuentes on Paul Ingrassia: “He seemed to me to be pretty far right. ... It says something about the face and the landscape of the Trump administration that a guy like that is tolerated.”

President Donald Trump is demanding that the Justice Department transfer $230 million in taxpayer dollars into his own personal bank account. He can do this, because thanks to the Supreme Court’s recent decisions, the executive branch could accurately be described by King Louis XIV—L’état, c’est Trump.

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell introduced the “next generation of the Pentagon press corps” on Wednesday, referencing those media outlets that have accepted the Pentagon’s new controversial press policy.

The growing list of ICE violations against U.S. citizens wrongfully detained by ICE includes nearly 20 American children—including two with cancer.

---

Pete Hegesth’s Venmo is publicly viewable and showing his full list of friends and contacts, according to a report.

While Hegseth’s transactions are private, his list of friends on the mobile payment service isn’t—and it’s a who’s who of Washington bigwigs, defense contractors, and healthcare executives, The American Prospectreported.

A name appearing on Hegseth’s friends list could mean he has transacted with the person, but Venmo also has an option to automatically add phone contacts as friends in the app. At the very least, it suggests that the two people are in touch.

All over the list are executives from up-and-coming Silicon Valley defense contractors Palantir (founded by Republican superdonor Peter Thiel) and Anduril, both of which already have multimillion-dollar contracts with the DOD. They could be poised for additional deals under Hegseth’s regime.

Hegseth’s rolodex appears to include executives from Palantir, a defense contractor founded by major GOP donor Peter Thiel. / Marco Bello / Getty Images

His other ties to Silicon Valley include Google’s former director of law enforcement and information security, a former advisor to Thiel’s hedge fund, and former Sen. Scott Brown—who since leaving Congress has become the leader of Competitiveness Coalition, a group that advocates against anti-trust action.

In addition to defense and tech, the healthcare industry is well represented in Hegseth’s contacts. The friends list features executives at UnitedHealth Group, including a vice president, product director, and public affairs consultant.

Hegseth has long pushed for the privatization of Veterans Affairs, the government agency that supplies health insurance for military veterans. As an advisor to the White House during Trump’s first term, he even reportedly advocated outsourcing more of the agency’s work.

While Hegseth doesn’t oversee VA as defense secretary, he could directly attempt to privatize Tricare, the health insurance option for active duty military members.

:{:{The Senate confirmed Hegseth as defense secretary by a single vote last month.JDV BROKE TIE?}:

The media figures in Hegseth’s rolodex appear to span the political spectrum. Right-wing outlets like The Daily Wire, The Washington Free Beacon, and Fox News (where Hegseth used to work) are better represented in the friends list. But there also journalists from Politico and The New York Times, too.

Hegseth also appears to be chummy with far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, retired mixed martial artist Nik Lentz, and George W. Bush’s former national security advisor Mark Pfeifle.

The Department of Defense declined to comment to the Daily Beast on The American Prospect’s report.

Hegseth is a former Fox News host who sparked controversy as Trump’s pick for defense secretary after a number of scandals broke, including an allegation of sexual assault (which Hegseth repeatedly denied).

Nevertheless, the Senate confirmed Hegseth by a single vote last month.

---

10/06/2025 RWW

by

Kyle Mantyla

---

===

hegsCALL ALL SR OFFICERS TO MTG 9 25TRUMP ENEMY WITHIN, INVASION FROM WITHIN, USE DEM CITIES TO TRAIN SOLDIERS TO KILL, PETE SAYS = MISSION // MILLER TROOPS TO PORTLAND

women recruit bd set up by truman cut 9 25

---

AN 10 25

During his Tuesday, September 30 speech before a gathering of U.S. military generals, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth railed against "woke" policies in the military and vowed to bring a "warrior ethos" back to the Pentagon. Similar culture-war themes came from President Donald Trump when he spoke after Hegseth at the event.

Hegseth's speech drew a lot of criticism from retired military veterans, who stressed that military preparedness isn't a matter of machismo. And the defense secretary's critics are also sounding the alarm about all the firings at the Pentagon.

In a biting opinion column published on October 6, MSNBC's Steve Benen warns that Hegseth's "purges" are "destabilizing" the U.S. Armed Forces.

The firing of former U.S. Navy Chief of Staff Jon Harrison, Benen laments, wasn't the first Pentagon firing under Hegseth's watch and won't be the last.

"Hegseth is not exactly open to engaging with military leaders whose views differ from his own," Benen warns. "On the contrary, he's proven himself eager to purge the (U.S.) Armed Forces of those he deems unworthy — a campaign that's still ongoing….. Harrison's ouster roughly coincided with two high-profile military retirements — Gen. Bryan Fenton, the head of U.S. Special Operations Command, and Gen. Thomas Bussiere, a top Air Force commander — though it's unclear if their departures had anything to do with Hegseth. There was no ambiguity, however, in late August when the defense secretary fired Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, who served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and Rear Admiral Milton Sands, a Navy SEAL officer who oversaw the Naval Special Warfare Command."

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

Benen continues, "Four days earlier, Gen. David Allvin, the chief of staff of the Air Force, was also shown the door. The broader purge also includes Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh, who was both the head of U.S. Cyber Command and the director of the National Security Agency; Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Gen. James Slife, former vice chief of staff of the Air Force; Adm. Linda Fagan, the commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard; Adm. Lisa Franchetti; Lt. Gen. Jennifer Short; Lt. Gen. Joseph B. Berger III, the Army’s top military lawyer; Lt. Gen. Charles Plummer, the Air Force's top military lawyer; and Navy Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, the only woman on NATO's military committee. Each of these instances is important in its own right, but let's not miss the forest for the trees: A scandal-plagued former Fox News host is destabilizing the U.S. military."

The MSNBC columnist and "Rachel Maddow Show" producer stresses that the "purge" at the Pentagon is "ongoing" and showing no sign of slowing down.

"Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, who served as a Marine officer in Iraq and who now serves on the House Armed Services Committee, spoke to Politico about Hegseth's purges, which the congressman described as politically motivated," Benen observes. "'That's a recipe not just for a politicized military, but an authoritarian military,' Moulton said. 'That’s the way militaries work in Russia and China and North Korea.'"

Benen adds, "The Massachusetts Democrat made those comments in May. The problem is worse now."

---

AN 9 25

Experts are raising the alarm on the United States' three recent attacks onVenezuelan ships, saying that military lawyers would have advised against them. The incidents raise "serious questions about the availability and effectiveness of government lawyers," according to former judge advocate officer Dan Maurer in Lawfare.

"I have grown increasingly concerned," Maurer says. "When those bulwarks are removed or ignored, force is used in criminal ways that delegitimize the armed forces."

Although Trump insists that Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is attempting an "invasion," experts and intelligence officials say the gang is weak and decentralized, according to theLA Times.

Maurer says the framing of Trump's Tren de Aragua boat attack as a strike on a terrorist group in a foreign country during Congress-sanctioned military operations is a dangerous one. Military lawyers, he says, "should have raised red flags before this operation commenced."

He also says that the undermining of judge advocates general (JAGs) — commissioned military officers licensed to practice law and assigned to positions where that knowledge, skill and expertise is used to counsel commanders and represent the interests of the Department of Defense — is dangerous.

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

TheDepartment of Defense must, Maurer explains "comply with applicable laws and regulations when executing missions for the latter."

"If these lawyers were kept in the dark during the strike, it would reflect a serious breach of a norm (and established administrative and military doctrinal processes) meant to ensure U.S. military operations are vetted for legality constantly," Maurer says.

He also points to what he calls Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's "notable contempt for JAGs" as cause for alarm.

Hegseth's "unprecedented relief of the top JAG generals in the Army and Air Force in February, and the current plan to shift 600 JAGs out of their military assignments and into temporary immigration judge robes justifies suspicion that either JAGs in the chain of command were not invited to the planning of this attack or their legal advice — which surely would have pushed back on this plan — was ignored," Maurer says.

The administration's sidelining of or disregard for military legal advice, Maurer notes, is doing serious damage to U.S. military operations, he says.

It "bodes ill for the perceived and actual legitimacy of U.S. military operations, diminishes trust that the military follows the rule of law over the rule of command and erodes confidence in the nonpartisanship of the armed forces," Maurer says.

Former U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Corn calls it a "dangerous precedent."

"If ‘principled counsel’ is steamrolled in this new Department of War, what will constrain the future abuse of military power?” Corn asks in a thinkpiece for national security website The Cipher Brief.

"That this attack occurred at all, under the conditions Trump himself admits, should give all Americans reason to be skeptical that the life-and-death decisions and actions taken by the U.S. military will continue to have the basic protections of thorough, unbiased legal analysis by the very officers that commanders have long trusted for that counsel," Corn adds

---

MMA

September 25, 2025, edition of Vigilance Elite's The Shawn Ryan Show

SHAWN RYAN (HOST): What does it look like if they get into, I mean — I don't even know what we would call it here. I was just gonna call it a TIC, a troops in contact. But I mean, you know, with the MS-13 gangs, the cartels, the Bloods, the Crips, I mean, you know, Hell's Angels, I don't know. You know, there's gang members all over the place, you know, tons of different gangs — I mean, what does it look like if MS-13 pushes back against the National Guard and happens to fire upon them? I mean, do they have ROEs or?

DANIEL DRISCOLL (SECRETARY OF THE ARMY): Yeah, I mean, I think, I think they would see the full might and fury of our United States Army. They would see the full might and fury of the most powerful government in the history of the world. And, I think the president and secretary of war have been very clear that we — they are taking a hard line, and that kind of violence is no longer acceptable in our nation.

--

an 9 25

National Security Leaders for America, a bipartisan organization comprising former senior military, diplomatic and intelligence officials, has strongly condemned the Pentagon’s recent directive imposing restrictions on journalists. Thenew policymandates that journalists sign a pledge agreeing not to report any information — even if unclassified — unless it has been authorized by a Pentagon official, under the threat of losing their press credentials.

In a statement releasedto the press Monday, the organization's president and founder, Rear Admiral Mike Smith (Ret.) said: “Demanding journalists adhere across the board to state edicts about what may — or may not — be reported to the public does not project strength. To the contrary, it betrays unsettling insecurities about the legality and effectiveness of Pentagon actions, plans and priorities."

“Our membership includes many former senior Department of Defense political appointees, as well as general and flag officers; we know how frustrating it can be when plans get out before they’re ready. We know how crucial it is to protect classified information and material, especially when its release could put sources and methods at risk. But the idea that only state sanctioned information is all that can ever be reported to the public flies in the face of the crucial role journalism plays in ensuring our armed forces are accountable to the American people," Smith added.

Rear Admiral Tom Jurkowsky (Ret.), former Chief of Navy Information, said: “Journalists at the Pentagon play a critical role, and Secretary Hegseth is being shortsighted in demanding journalists make this pledge. The public has a right and a responsibility to understand what the military is doing in their name, and that is not possible without an aggressive, sometimes adversarial press.”

The statement from the organization called for a "healthy relationship between the fourth state and Pentagon officials," which it said was "essential to communicating critical information about American national security to the public and has, in rare circumstances, uncovered unacceptable activities that might have otherwise remained hidden." The group asserted that "unprecedented disregard for the Constitution, absent any national security considerations, undermines law, good order and effectiveness."

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

Several journalists' groups and press freedom organization have sounded the alarm over the recent policy.

The Society of Professional Journalists called it “alarming” and said the move “reeks of prior restraint — the most egregious violation of press freedom under the First Amendment.”

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press pointed out ambiguous language in the policy: what counts as “authorized information,” what is “a security or safety risk,” which areas in the Pentagon are covered, etc. The organization warned that such vagueness can lead reporters to self‐censor rather than risk losing access.

Some groups are explicitly calling for the Pentagon to rescind the policy. Others are saying the implementation should at least be paused until the vague terms are clarified and possibly narrowed to avoid overreach.

Meanwhile on Sunday, President Donald Trump was asked by a reporter whether the Pentagon should decide what reporters can report. “No, I don’t think so," he replied.

He added, “Nothing stops reporters.”

Trump's statements appear to express disagreement with the Pentagon policy, but there is no public indication he has ordered it rescinded or formally intervened.

Last week, Trump escalated his rhetoric against media outlets he accused of bias, suggesting that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should revoke the broadcast licenses of networks that provide "negative" coverage.

This comment came a day after ABC suspended "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" following remarks by late-night host Jimmy Kimmel about conservative activist Charlie Kirk's murder.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee, had earlier hinted that ABC's broadcast license could be at risk if the network did not take action against Kimmel.

But on Monday, Disney announced that Kimmel would returnto the air on Tuesday, six days after the suspension, citing internal discussions and business considerations. The decision to reinstate the show followed public backlash, including boycotts and protests, and concerns over press freedom and censorship.

 ===

---

Trump teases threat to defund NYC after governor’s endorsement for mayor

9 25 an

SEC OF WAR

cancel cult scalps?

hegseth huntS at DoD

---

an 8 25

The administration of President Donald Trump reacted badly to a Washington Post story reporting Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth quadrupled his security detail over that of past administrations to guard his multiple homes and properties.

The Post reported Wednesday that “Hegseth’s unusually large personal security requirements are straining the Army agency tasked with protecting him as it pulls agents from criminal investigations to safeguard family residences in Minnesota, Tennessee and D.C., according to numerous officials familiar with the operation.”

Described by the Post as a “sprawling, multimillion-dollar initiative” the security team has forced the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division to staff weeks-long assignments in each location and monitor residences belonging to Hegseths’ former spouses, say officials.

READ MORE: Aides sat 'helpless' as 'incoherent' Trump displayed 'stunning ignorance': biographer

“I’ve never seen this many security teams for one guy,” said one official, speaking anonymously to reporters. “Nobody has.”

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

Sources told the Post about 150 agents typically serve on VIP security details, but one source said Hegseth team is “400 and going up,” while another claimed it was “over 500.”

Trump administration officials pounced the Post for publishing the revelation.

“By publishing details about Secretary Hegseth’s security protocols, the Washington Post is actively putting him and his family in danger for clicks, posted Department of Defense Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson on X.

READ MORE: 'Keeps me up at night': Veterans fear Trump is gunning for another 'Kent State' massacre

Several people working with the Department of Defense’s Press Secretary joined in and slammed the info, including Assistant Press Secretary Jacob Bliss, who called the Washington Post “scum” for publishing the embarrassing numbers. Bliss also claimed reporting the staff increase put “numerous lives and families at risk.”

“How do these reporters sleep at night,” asked Assistant Press Secretary Riley Podleski on X.

Acting Deputy Press Secretary Joel Valdez claimed the Post “intentionally published sensitive details of [Hegseth’s] security detail for him and his family — putting their safety at risk.” He even called for “severe punishment for what [reporters] are doing.”

“President Trump was SHOT and nearly KILLED just last year—yet the corporate media STILL plays reckless games with people’s lives,” posted the Department of Defense “Rapid Response” account on X.. “Have they learned NOTHING?”

READ MORE: 'Good Luck to JD Vance': CNN data guru says Trump’s signature bill is worst in decades

None of the Department of Defense commenters explained in their posts how citing the size of Hegseth’s detail endangered lives as of early Wednesday morning.

---

an dn 8 25

As President Trump threatens to use U.S. special forces against drug cartels abroad, a new book, The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces, reveals some of the most secretive and elite special forces in the Army are heavily involved in narcotrafficking themselves. “There’s at least 14 cases that I’m tracking of Fort Bragg-trained soldiers who have been either arrested, apprehended or killed in the course of trafficking drugs in the last five years or so,” says author Seth Harp. The book also looks at “how U.S. military intervention often stimulates drug production,” including in Afghanistan, which he says became the biggest narco-state in the world during the 20-year U.S. occupation. “Most of the drug trafficking and drug production was being carried out and done by warlords, police chiefs, militia commanders, who were on the U.S. payroll in a corrupt structure,” says Harp.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

As the National Guard expands its presence in Washington, D.C., President Trump says he’ll seek long-term federal takeover of the D.C. police force.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We’re going to need a crime bill that we’re going to be putting in, and it’s going to pertain initially to D.C. It’s almost — we’re going to use it as a very positive example. And we’re going to be asking for extensions on that, long-term extensions, because you can’t have 30 days. Thirty days is — that’s — by the time you do it — we’re going to have this in good shape.

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

AMY GOODMAN: Earlier this week, Trump declared a crime emergency in D.C., even though violent crime in the city is at a 30-year low. Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser has denounced Trump’s takeover of the police force as an “authoritarian push.” At least 800 National Guard troops are being deployed in D.C., alongside 500 federal law enforcement agents.

The Washington Post revealed Tuesday the Trump administration is also planning a so-called Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force composed of hundreds of National Guard troops set to rapidly deploy to other U.S. cities targeted by Trump, including Democratic strongholds of Baltimore, New York, Chicago, Oakland. The force would be comprised of two groups of 300 soldiers permanently assigned to the force, stationed at military bases in Alabama and Arizona.

This comes after Trump earlier deployed the National Guard and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles during protests against immigration raids and arrests by masked, unidentified agents who also targeted U.S. citizens when they were making their arrests.

Rolling Stone reports, quote, “One of Trump’s biggest regrets from his first term in the Oval Office, according to former and current senior Trump advisers, is that he didn’t use military forces and other federal assets to crack down harder than he ultimately did in the summer of 2020” on racial justice protests. Trump’s secretary of defense at the time did not agree with the president’s idea to shoot Black Lives Matter protesters near the White House.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, Trump secretly signed a directive approving the Pentagon’s use of military force on foreign soil to target drug cartels, especially in countries like Mexico.

All of this comes as Trump is due to meet Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska to discuss a ceasefire in Ukraine, where the U.S. has also sent troops.

Today, we take a rare look at U.S. special forces deployed around the world, whether we’re talking about Mexico, Ukraine, Iraq, Afghanistan or here at home. They’re stationed at the most populous military base in the country, which was renamed Fort Liberty in 2023, until Trump’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the Army to change the name back to Fort Bragg, saying, “Bragg is back.” Fort Bragg is home to Delta Force, the most secretive black ops unit in the military, which carries out classified assassinations and other clandestine missions and is also heavily involved in drug trafficking, as our next guest reveals in his new book.

Rolling Stone investigative reporter Seth Harp is a foreign correspondent who’s reported from Iraq, Mexico, Syria and Ukraine, also an Iraq War veteran. His new book, out this week, is titled The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces.

I don’t think people usually expect to see, when talking about a cartel, the largest U.S. military base, Fort Bragg. So, if you can talk about drug trafficking and murder in the Special Forces? Begin with what Fort Bragg is, who the Special Forces are, especially Delta Forces, and who these dead bodies are that are turning up all over Fort Bragg and the surrounding area.

SETH HARP: Well, Trump says he wants to deploy military forces to countries like Mexico to crack down on drug cartels there, but I think he should look closer to home, because there’s at least 14 cases that I’m tracking of Fort Bragg-trained soldiers who have been either arrested, apprehended or killed in the course of trafficking drugs in the last five years or so, often in conjunction with those very same Mexican drug cartels.

This is especially concerning because of what Fort Bragg is. It’s not only the largest U.S. military base, but it’s central to U.S. operations and special operations. It’s the home of the 82nd Airborne Division, which is the United States’ main contingency force. It’s also the headquarters of the Green Berets, the Special Forces, as well as the Joint Special Operations Command, which includes Delta Force, which is the most —

AMY GOODMAN: That’s JSOC?

SETH HARP: That’s JSOC. That’s the most secretive and elite component of the U.S. military. And as you said, there have been some members of Delta Force who have been involved in trafficking drugs recently.

AMY GOODMAN: So, you begin this book with the discovery of two bodies. Tell us when they were discovered and who those men were.

SETH HARP: In December of 2020, two dead bodies were found in a remote training range of Fort Bragg. One of them was a member of Delta Force. They had both been shot to death. And the limited information from police at that time was that it was believed to be a double homicide from a drug deal gone wrong. The other person who was killed at that time was Timothy Dumas, who was a support officer, a logistics officer, for JSOC. The other one, the Delta Force operator, his name was Billy Lavigne. And my book mostly is, or at the core of it, it’s an investigation into who committed these murders.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Billy Lavigne, Delta Force. Talk about the Delta Force operations. And you just mentioned that people are being killed in Fort Bragg, and part of the killing responsibility is the Mexican drug cartels, but those cartels, you talk about being trained at Fort Bragg?

SETH HARP: Mm-hmm. Well, it’s unclear who committed the murders of Billy Lavigne and Timothy Dumas, I’ve got to say. Certainly, we might suspect that it could have been some of their associates in the drug trafficking industry. I did learn in the course of researching the book and reporting it that Lavigne and Dumas were buying cocaine through the Los Zetas cartel in Mexico, which, in fact, was trained in the United States. It began as a project, a joint project, between the U.S. Special Forces and the Mexican government to create an elite paratrooper unit of the Mexican Army, and later went rogue and became one of the most feared cartels in Mexico, Los Zetas.

AMY GOODMAN: So, you’re talking about a kind of Mexico Delta Force.

SETH HARP: You could say that. You could say that, or Mexican Green Berets.

AMY GOODMAN: The numbers that you’re talking about of soldiers who have died at Fort Bragg, in a couple years over 100?

SETH HARP: A hundred and nine from 2020 to 2021. And only four of those deaths took place in foreign combat zones, in Afghanistan and Syria. All the rest took place stateside, either on Fort Bragg itself or in Fayetteville, which is the town right by Fort Bragg.

AMY GOODMAN: So, can you talk about, with this number of deaths, how does it compare, for example, to Fort Hood? And talk about what happens when you have this massive number of deaths. Who is held responsible? And how are they dying?

SETH HARP: Well, so far, nobody has been held responsible. Fort Bragg is the largest military base; however, the number of deaths there, on a per capita and absolute basis, outstrips any other that you might compare it to. For example, we’re well aware that in Fort Hood in 2020, 38 soldiers died. That led to extensive news coverage, as well as two congressional investigations, which ultimately concluded with the entire chain of command at Fort Hood being fired. Even though the situation at Fort Bragg is objectively worse, and has been for years, so far, to my knowledge, nothing has been done about it.

AMY GOODMAN: You say that “Fort Bragg has a lot of secrets. A lot of underground narcotics secrets. It’s its own little cartel.” That was Freddie Huff, who is the ex-DEA agent, talking about Fort Bragg. What exactly does that mean?

SETH HARP: So, Freddie Huff was a corrupt North Carolina state trooper and DEA task force agent who became a high-level drug trafficker in North Carolina. He was the connection between Los Zetas in Mexico and this group of Special Forces soldiers on Fort Bragg who were trafficking and distributing drugs in the area. And that quote was from Mr. Huff. And, you know, he was alleging that he sold, you know, hundreds of kilograms of cocaine to this group.

AMY GOODMAN: How many people die of suicide, and how is that dealt with, in the military at Fort Bragg?

SETH HARP: A shocking and depressing number. You know, the Army is well aware that it has a suicide problem. It has for a long time. But the numbers at Fort Bragg are really extreme, and it’s the number one cause of death at Fort Bragg by far. And many of those deaths are also drug-related, regrettably.

AMY GOODMAN: So, why isn’t there investigation going on? As President Trump tariffs Mexico and increases tariffs on Canada, talking about fentanyl, talk about what’s happening at Bragg.

SETH HARP: Well, on the contrary, there haven’t been. Not only has there not been any sort of reforms or any crackdown on this, but Trump and Hegseth, they make a big show of their support for Fort Bragg, changing the name back to Fort Bragg from Fort Liberty, giving speeches there, touting the Special Forces and the Airborne Corps, without really taking seriously some of these underlying and systemic issues, which are quite troubling.

AMY GOODMAN: One of the ways you use these murders to talk about U.S. presence in the military around the world is when you talk about Timothy Dumas — you say he was a quartermaster with the Special Forces — and how he used his position — was it in Afghanistan? — to bring drugs into the United States. Now, this is the guy who was murdered.

SETH HARP: Yes, that’s the allegation. Not only did — not only was he involved in that, actually, Timothy Dumas, before he died, wrote a letter, a blackmail letter. It was with the intention of blackmailing the Special Forces, because he had been kicked out of the Army for his misbehavior and his crimes and had been deprived of his pension as a result of that. In order to — in a stratagem to exert leverage on the Special Forces and get his pension reinstated, he composed this document, which purported to name the members of what Mr. Huff called the “Fort Bragg cartel.” But before he was ever able to release that letter, he himself was murdered.

AMY GOODMAN: So, let’s talk about Afghanistan for a moment. Talk about the U.S. presence there, the forever war, and talk about heroin, drugs and how they became so critical to the Afghan economy. And did the Taliban have anything to do with that?

SETH HARP: It’s really shocking, the degree to which the war in Afghanistan had to do with drugs and drug production. It’s an aspect of the war that was never covered to the degree that it ought to have been. Afghanistan under U.S. occupation became by far the biggest narco-state in the world, producing more heroin than the entire planet could absorb. Most of the drug trafficking and drug production was being carried out and done by warlords, police chiefs, militia commanders, who were on the U.S. payroll in a corrupt structure, which you could plausibly describe as a cartel, that went all the way up to the president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, and his brother, as well as Ashraf Ghani. During the entire time that the U.S. occupied the country, it was turning out staggering quantities of very high-potency heroin, which flooded the entire planet and caused terrible heroin crises all over the world, including in the United States.

AMY GOODMAN: You write, “No person in any position of influence dared to suggest that the scourge of opiate addiction then afflicting the poor and working class across the United States might have resulted from the wartime narcotics bonanza.”

SETH HARP: Right. And part of that has to do with the DEA’s assertion that only 1% of heroin in the United States comes from Afghanistan. This is something that we were told by the DEA during the course of the war, and which was duly repeated by many media outlets. But I go into some detail in my book about why I believe that that number was fictitious. And in fact, just as in Canada, just as in Australia, Russia, wherever you look in the world, by far the majority of heroin in the United States, I believe, came from Afghanistan.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to move over to Ukraine. You have the summit that President Trump is holding with Vladimir Putin in Alaska tomorrow. You spent a good amount of time in Ukraine. Talk about where you were, when you were there, and what the U.S. Special Forces were doing there.

SETH HARP: I was in Ukraine at the start of the war. I was in Kyiv during the Battle of Kyiv. And at that time, we had been told that there were no U.S. military forces in Ukraine, that they had all been withdrawn on orders of President Biden before the Russian invasion. However, I was the first to report that, in fact, there were members of the Joint Special Operations Command active in Ukraine from day one, including members of the Delta Force, as well SEAL Team Six. And that reporting was subsequently confirmed by other media outlets. They may not have specified what units they came from, but certainly the presence of U.S. special operators in Ukraine has been confirmed.

AMY GOODMAN: So, talk more about the significance of this, where they came from in the United States, what they were doing.

SETH HARP: Well, they all come from Fort Bragg. And the conventional troops that were there in Poland to back up the Ukrainian army also came from Fort Bragg, the 82nd Airborne Division. That’s an illustration of the centrality of Fort Bragg to all U.S. military operations. Now, where are they in the country of Ukraine right now? That’s not — I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know that anybody knows that. But certainly, it is concerning that we have our U.S. military personnel there in a conflict with another nuclear-armed power.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go to President Trump’s relationship with the military. There’s the op-ed in The New York Times today talking about how it was thought it would ultimately, interestingly, be the military that would stop Trump from using it on the ground in the United States. The headline is “We Used to Think the Military Would Stand Up to Trump. We Were Wrong.”

And I wanted to go back to — well, we’ve talked about The New York Times revealing a trove of confidential military interviews with the Navy SEALs who accused Chief Edward Gallagher of war crimes. He met with President Trump at Trump’s private resort in Mar-a-Lago weeks after Trump overruled his own military leaders and blocked them from disciplining Gallagher, despite him being — despite him being convicted of posing with a teenage corpse in a high-profile war crimes case. He was also accused of fatally stabbing the captive teenager in the neck and shooting two Iraqi civilians, but he was acquitted of premeditated murder. In the never-before-released videos, the soldiers tell Navy investigators Gallagher was “toxic” and “freaking evil.” So, he was a Navy SEAL. You served in Iraq. You also report on Iraq. Talk about the significance of this pardoning, ultimately, that Trump did of Gallagher, and who exactly he was, and where he was found guilty of committing these crimes in Iraq.

SETH HARP: Trump’s cozying up to war criminals like Eddie Gallagher is the one — one of the most deplorable features of his administration and is an illustration of the incredibly deleterious effect that Trump’s malignant command influence has had on the entire special operations community, because Eddie Gallagher is somebody who was turned in by his own teammates, who were far from bleeding-heart liberals. These are active-duty Navy SEALs fighting in Mosul, in Iraq, who see their chief murdering people right and left, men, women, children, unarmed people. He was caught on video about to stab that teenage ISIS fighter in the neck. His teammates wanted him gone. The Navy SEAL command wanted him gone.

But Trump saw an opportunity to make guys like Eddie Gallagher part of his personal political brand. And that is — he also pardoned people like Mathew Golsteyn, who was the Green Beret officer who admitted to committing murder on live television. Other people that Trump has made part of his retinue, some of the craziest people in the special operations community.

All of this has had the effect of — you know, there are people in this community who do go by a sense of ethics and who are not so criminally inclined, and the more Trump is in office and doing things like this, the fewer you have of those people, and the more you have of the sort of piratical types like Eddie Gallagher staying in and rising higher in the ranks. And you see that in the kind of fallout of the domestic crime that I describe in my book.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to Seth Harp. He is the author of The Fort Bragg Cartel. It’s out this week. The subtitle, Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces. What did you discover, Seth, about the intelligence role of Delta Force and its covert actions in countries where the U.S. is not at war?

SETH HARP: It’s really incredible how little we know about the Delta Force. I believe my book is the only sort of serious investigative look at the unit, despite the fact that it is the most elite unit in the U.S. military and has been at the forefront of all U.S. wars since at least 2001. So, Delta Force, I’d be happy to tell you anything about the unit. What was your — what should I say?

AMY GOODMAN: You tell us. You did the — you wrote the book.

SETH HARP: The intelligence gathering, you said.

AMY GOODMAN: Yes.

SETH HARP: So, it’s interesting, because a lot of people are not aware the extent to which these type of units, Delta and JSOC, which Delta is a part of JSOC, are — besides their paramilitary capacities, besides their operations doing assassinations and abductions in war zones, they also have strong intelligence-gathering capabilities and are — they have troops that are overseas, that are active-duty U.S. military members who are not wearing uniforms, who are not carrying IDs, who are operating under cover identities, sometimes pretending to be American businessmen, other times pretending to be State Department employees, but, in fact, are carrying out military operations in countries with which the United States is not at war, including things like bugging missions, other things that we don’t know about.

And I think what’s most crucial to emphasize in this context is that, unlike the CIA, unlike other civilian intelligence agencies that are subject to congressional oversight and must report their covert actions to Congress, the military is largely exempt from that type of oversight. And so, I think that’s one reason why you have seen a lot of the authority over covert action shift from civilian agencies to JSOC over the last 20 years.

AMY GOODMAN: Before we wrap up, I wanted to go to these latest moves by Trump, I mean, that special secret directive. We’re using it today to talk about what’s happening at home when it comes to drug cartels. But what about — and you’ve reported from Mexico. What about what Trump is saying, that the Pentagon can deploy in countries like Mexico? The Mexican president said — you know, had a very fierce reaction against this, going after drug cartels there. You started talking about Fort Bragg being a place where some of the most dangerous of these cartels were actually trained.

SETH HARP: Mm-hmm, that’s right. Los Zetas were trained at Fort Bragg, at Fort Benning, and they also received training from Israeli instructors, before they went rogue — another indication or another illustration of how U.S. military intervention often stimulates drug production. What was the second part of your question? Or what was the —

AMY GOODMAN: Well, talking about Mexico, and the U.S. deploying troops there.

SETH HARP: I mean, it’s complete — to the extent — in these days, with the genocide in Gaza and so many other things going on, we almost have lost sight, and it seems like nobody cares about international law. But I just want to point out kind of the obvious, that using military force against drug traffickers, however bad you think drug traffickers are, that’s a total violation of the laws of war. They’re not combatants in war; they’re criminals. So, that’s one thing.

Another aspect of it is, you know, the sort of typical Trump showmanship. It’s not clear to me, having worked in Mexico as a reporter for years, that the sort of cartels that the DEA creates organization charts to illustrate and tout and purport — I don’t know that those really are such coherent organizations as they might imagine, and I question whether they have the intelligence on these purported organizations where they could actually carry out military strikes on them. I don’t know that they actually have the targeting intelligence for that to become a reality. But in any event, they ought to look more closely at the drug crime that’s taking place in the United States and even on our own military bases.

AMY GOODMAN: And can you talk about the long U.S. history, military and clandestine operations and drug trafficking in Southeast Asia, for people who are not aware of what happened, as well as in Latin America, for example, the illegal funding and support of the Contras in Nicaragua, and the thousands of Nicaraguans who were killed?

SETH HARP: Sure. There is a long pedigree of this kind of thing, covert alliances between U.S. Special Forces and paramilitaries and intelligence agencies and foreign forces that are implicated in the international drug trade. As you indicate, one of the first examples of that was in Laos and in Cambodia and Vietnam during that era, as well as in Central America, the case of the Nicaraguan Contras.

However, I must say, all of it pales in comparison with the complicity of the — practically the whole of the U.S. government with heroin cartels in Afghanistan during the war there. The amount of drugs that were produced, the openness of the alliance between the United States and known drug traffickers in that country surpass anything that we had previously seen in American history.

AMY GOODMAN: What most surprised you, Seth, in your research for this book? You, as a member of the military, but then stepping outside, you became a lawyer. You were an assistant attorney general in Texas, but a longtime investigative journalist around the world.

SETH HARP: The stuff about Afghanistan, I think, was the most shocking to me, because it was one country where I had not worked, and I really wasn’t aware of the degree to which the U.S. client state was the entity responsible for producing most of the drugs in Afghanistan. I have been kind of snowed, like everybody else, with this narrative that it was the Taliban that was doing it. But in the course of writing the book, the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan, and the Taliban in 2023 had completely eradicated all drug production from Afghanistan. So, seeing the Taliban come into power and totally eliminate that massive drug-producing industry that the U.S. had not only tolerated, but supported for 20 years, really showed — I guess, really belied the claim, until then, that it was either the Taliban or it was both sides, when, in fact, it was really our guys that were doing it the entire time.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you think with this special directive, a secret directive that Trump has signed, that special forces operations in Latin America will increase under the guise of fighting cartels?

SETH HARP: It’s possible. I find that to be a very complicated prospect. So many of the drug traffickers in Latin America are military or police forces that are allied with the United States. Things are changing in Mexico and in Colombia, but, historically, the biggest drug traffickers in the Americas have been, let’s say, the Colombian Army and right-wing paramilitaries affiliated with the Colombian military, as well as, you know, you see the same type of phenomenon in Honduras and El Salvador and also in Mexico. So, when they talk about targeting these people, who exactly are they talking about?

AMY GOODMAN: Well, you’ve set us up well for our next segment. I want to thank you so much, Seth, for joining us. Seth Harp, Rolling Stone investigative reporter, his new book is just out. It’s called *The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces

WATCH THE SEGMENT BELOW OR AT THIS LINK:

---

HEGS AT PRESS CONF FOR DC DEPLOY

PUT CONFED STATUE BACK AT ARLINGTON “RECONCILIATION”?

an ah 8 25

As the Trump administration continues to push the boundaries of centuries-old constraints on domestic power, the Pentagon is reportedly developing a multi-million-dollar plan to create a “Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force”—armed with weapons and riot gear, ready to be deployed instantaneously to quell civil unrest anywhere in the nation.

An exclusive Washington Post report reveals that two National Guard teams of hundreds of troops, designed to be ready around the clock, would be stationed on opposite sides of the country, able to cross state lines on command.

“The plan calls for 600 troops to be on standby at all times so they can deploy in as little as one hour, the documents say. They would be split into two groups of 300 and stationed at military bases in Alabama and Arizona, with purview of regions east and west of the Mississippi River, respectively,” the Post reported on Tuesday.

READ MORE: Trump Melts Down Over Elizabeth Warren’s Accusations

The price tag? Potentially hundreds of millions of dollars.

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

The Post calls it “another potential expansion of President Donald Trump’s willingness to employ the armed forces on American soil,” and notes that once again, the Trump administration is on “shaky” legal ground.

Legal experts are warning against the plan.

“You don’t want to normalize routine military participation in law enforcement,” Joseph Nunn, an attorney at the Brennan Center for Justice, told the Post. “You don’t want to normalize routine domestic deployment.”

“When you have this tool waiting at your fingertips, you’re going to want to use it,” Nunn added. “It actually makes it more likely that you’re going to see domestic deployments — because why else have a task force?”

READ MORE: ‘All of Christ for All of Life’: Hegseth Under Fire for Endorsing Christian Nationalist

The news follows President Trump’s unprecedented decision on Monday to federalize the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police force to combat what he claims is out-of-control violence, despite the nation’s capital city having decreased violent crime by double digits in 2024 and again in the first half of 2025.

In response to the Post’s report on Tuesday, The Bulwark’s Bill Kristol noted, “So of course it’s not just D.C.”

Former constitutional law professor David Wemhoff, now the editor of The American Proposition, wrote that President Trump’s “purpose is to crush, fight Americans. He has no interest in fighting much less opposing China and Russia.”

“Ah, yes,” remarked former Trump national security official Miles Taylor, “nothing says ‘land of the free’ like a standing army ready to put down the people who disagree with you.”

Progressive researcher Derek Martin, formerly of the National Security Agency (NSA), commented: “President Trump is so afraid of protests he’s preparing to use the military to suppress them. Only tyrants think this way.”

---

rww 8 25

08/08/2025

by

Peter Montgomery

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is promoting a CNN interview with Christian nationalist Douglas Wilson in which Wilson asserts that women should not have the right to vote. Hegseth boosted the interview on social media, adding “All of Christ for All of Life.”

Notorious for publishing a book downplaying the evils of slavery, Wilson publicly stakes out extreme Christian nationalist positions. As People For the American Way President Svante Myrick noted in a recent column for The Hill, in the kind of Christian nation Wilson wants the U.S. to be, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and other non-Christians would not be allowed to hold public office — not even liberal Christians. There would be no public expressions of other faiths allowed, because “the public spaces would belong to Christ.” He would like sodomy to be a felony in all 50 states and have the Apostles’ Creed inserted into the U.S. Constitution.

Hegseth, who seems intent on purging women from the top ranks of the military, belongs to a Wilson-affiliated church in Tennessee, and he has attended the new church Wilson has planted in DC to boost his influence over the conservative Christians who work in the Trump administration.

The Idaho-based Wilson already exerts influence nationally through the Canon Press publishing house, the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, a network of “classical” Christian academies, and a cadre of far-right “theobros” like Joel Webbon who promote a similar patriarchal Christian nationalist ideology.

Hegseth has begun hosting monthly Christian prayer services during working hours at the Pentagon. Brooks Potteiger, the pastor of his Wilson-affiliated church in Tennessee, was the main speaker. Joshua Haymes, another pastor at the church, has claimed that the Founding Fathers had not envisioned “mosques being erected” and publicly asserted, "The First Amendment was designed to ensure that every American can be any kind of CHRISTIAN he wants. It was not designed to ensure every American has the right to publicly worship demons. False religion can and should be banned from public life."

---

an new rep common dr 725

omg

New reporting based on a leaked briefing memo from a recent meeting between high-level officials at the Department of Homeland Security and Defense Department sparked fresh warnings on Saturday about the Trump administration's internal plans to increase its domestic use of the U.S. military.

According to Greg Sargent of The New Republic, which obtained the memo, the document "suggests that Trump's use of the military for domestic law enforcement on immigration could soon get worse."

The "terrifying" memo—which the outlet recreated and published online with certain redactions that concealed operational and personnel details—"provides a glimpse into the thinking of top officials as they seek to involve the Defense Department more deeply in these domestic operations, and it has unnerved experts who believe it portends a frightening escalation."

Circulated internally among top Trump officials, TNR reports the memo was authored by Philip Hegseth, the younger brother of U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. The younger sibling, though lesser known by the public than his controversial brother, currently serves as a senior adviser to Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem and acts as DHS liaison officer to the Pentagon.

The meeting between DoD and DHS officials and the memo centers on Philip Hegseth's push for closer collaboration between the two departments, especially with regard to operations on the ground, like those that happened earlier this year in Los Angeles when National Guard units and later U.S. Marines were deployed in the city to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and local law enforcement put down local protests sparked by raids targeting immigrants and workers.

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

As Sargent noted in a social media post:

Strikingly, the memo says straightforwardly that what happened in Los Angeles is the sort of operation that may be necessary "for years to come." As one expert told me: "They see Los Angeles as a model to be replicated."

"To Make America Safe Again, DHS and DoD will need to be in lockstep with each other, and I hope today sets the scene for where our partnership is headed," states the memo, which also compares transnational criminal gangs and drug cartels to Al Qaeda.

Lindsay Cohn, an associate professor at the U.S. Naval War College, was among the experts TNR spoke with who called that comparison particularly worrying. "The conflation of a low-level threat like transnational criminal organizations with Al Qaeda, which was actually attempting to topple the United States government, is a clear attempt to use excessive force for a purpose normally handled by civil authorities," said Cohn.

Sociology professor Kim Lane Scheppele, a scholar who studies the rise of autocracy at Princeton University, was among those who raised alarm in response to the published reporting and the contents of the memo.

"Here it comes," wrote Kim Lane Scheppele. "The worst we've been waiting for."

According to TNR:

The memo outlines the itinerary for a July 21 meeting between senior DHS and Pentagon officials, with the goal of better coordinating the agencies' activities in "defense of the homeland." It details goals that Philip Hegseth hopes to accomplish in the meeting and outlines points he wants DHS officials to impress on Pentagon attendees.Participants listed comprise the very top levels of both agencies, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and several of his top advisers, Joint Chiefs chairman Dan Caine, and NORTHCOM Commander Gregory Guillot. Staff include Phil Hegseth and acting ICE commissioner Todd Lyons.

"Due to the sensitive nature of the meeting, minimal written policy or background information can be provided in this briefing memo," the memo says.

Joseph Nunn, counsel for the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, told TNR it was "disturbing to see DHS officials pressuring the U.S. military to turn its focus inward even further." Nunn added that the memo suggests that "military involvement in domestic civilian law enforcement" is set to become "more common" if the policy recommendations put forth by Phillip Hegseth take hold.

Following publication of his reporting, Sargent said he wanted to flag something specific for readers.

"It looks plausible that the Hegseth brothers are trying to push military leaders further on involving military in domestic law enforcement," he noted. "Two experts I spoke with read the memo that way. There may be a bigger story here to get."

---

---

AF1 435 M$ FROM NUKES 7 25

---

MMA

[## Fox News gave new classified email revelation in Hegseth Signal scandal just 40 seconds of airtime 07/25/25

---

---

an 7 25

A network of former intelligence, military, and national security officials on Tuesday launched the Profiles in Cowardice Award and urged the public to vote for nominees who are "silent in the face of the country's descent into fascism," a march led by U.S. President Donald Trump.

"We are in a constitutional crisis," says the Eisenhower Media Network's (EMN) website for the award. "Trump is amassing power in the executive branch, ignoring Congress and the courts. Meanwhile, leaders who have sworn an oath to support and defend the Constitution are sitting on their hands."

The new honor is the inverse of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, created by the late president's family "to recognize and celebrate the quality of political courage that he admired most." This year's recipient is Trump's former vice president, Mike Pence, "for putting his life and career on the line to ensure the constitutional transfer of presidential power on January 6, 2021," when Trump incited an insurrection and his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.

"We, the American people, are here to remind them of who they serve, and that it's time to do their constitutional duty by standing up to this administration and its authoritarian bent."

Nominees for the inaugural Profiles in Cowardice Award are former President George W. Bush, former Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), retired Gens. David Petraeus and Mark Milley, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Republican members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

"The 'Profiles in Cowardice' Award was created to call out those weak souls who are failing to engage in efforts to keep our country from sleepwalking into fascism," said EMN's director, retired Maj. Gen. (ret.) Dennis Laich, in a statement.

"These leaders, both past and present, took an oath to 'support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic,'" he noted. "Through their actions, or inaction, they are violating that oath. We, the American people, are here to remind them of who they serve, and that it's time to do their constitutional duty by standing up to this administration and its authoritarian bent."

The public can vote at ProfilesInCowardice.org until August 1, after which the award will be presented to the winner "at the most inconvenient time possible," according to the website.

The site lays out why people were nominated as "cowards." For example, "Bush has a long and storied history of cowardice" and "is solidifying his legacy" by retreating rather than serving as a leader in the Republican Party and standing up to Trump.

In Congress, "Mace is a one-woman culture war content machine—exactly how the military-industrial complex and mainstream media like it," the site continues. Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, "has chosen to push through Trump's agenda of unfettered militarism and confirm unqualified MAGA loyalists like Pete Hegseth," the defense secretary. Republicans on that committee also "rubber-stamped Pete Hegseth to cater to Trump and his blindly loyal MAGA cronies."

Among former military leaders, the site says, "Milley attempted to make a principled stand after the January 6th insurrection—but cowardice won out in the end," and Petraeus said at a conference that "the world was in for 'exciting times' under Trump."

"The Joint Chiefs of Staff are tasked with defending the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic," the site notes. "But as reckless U.S. military actions push the world closer to nuclear catastrophe, they've chosen silence over service. No resignations. No public warnings."

As for Blinken, who served under former President Joe Biden, "he ignored a flood of real-time reports detailing Israeli human rights violations—and now we know his public claims of 'working overtime' on cease-fires were outright lies," the site adds. "With American diplomacy in free fall, Blinken chose complicity and cover stories over truth and action."

Christian Sorenson, EMN's associate director, said that "it takes courage to do the right thing... It takes even more courage to do the right thing when the system itself fosters militarism and war profiteering."

"Targeting 'leaders' in the nation's capital, Profiles in Cowardice highlights the craven and the pushovers, as well as those who eagerly abet authoritarianism and nonstop war for personal and professional gain," Sorenson added. "Virtue and public service will arrive in D.C. one way or another. Profiles in Cowardice is part of that broader effort."

---

---

an 7 25

Military officer slams 'racially motivated' policy that enables Army to kick out Black men

---

AN 6 25

NO LNX

Home | Trump just got a wake up call as he tries to escalate his war on defiance

Sabrina Haake, Raw Story June 15, 2025

Ever since he was ignominiously blocked from shooting George Floyd protesters, Donald Trump has been itching to sic the military on U.S. citizens. Seizing California’s National Guard and sending U.S. Marines into Los Angeles to deliberately escalate violence brings his long-festering fever dream closer to life.

Trump’s former Defense Secretary Mark Esper has recounted how, during a White House meeting in 2020, Trump looked at Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and asked why he couldn’t just shoot protesters, adding, “It was (both) a suggestion and a formal question. And we were just all taken aback at that moment as this issue hung very heavily in the air.”

Milley pushed back on that suggestion and other illegal Trump impulses, eventually leading Trump to call for Milley’s execution and revoke his security detail. During Trump 1.0, Trump apparently suggested shooting protesters enough times that Esper issued a public statement opposing the use of the Insurrection Act against protesters, enraging Trump.

Trump made sure that would not happen again in his second administration by appointing a dangerously unqualified defense secretary with few moral qualms. As a Fox News host, Pete Hegseth echoed Trump’s desire to deploy the military against protesters. He defended war criminals who ‘killed the right people in the wrong ways,’ advocating “total war against our enemies… All of ’em, you stack bodies, and when it’s over, then you let the dust settle and you figure out who’s ahead.”

A trillion-dollar defense budget to kill whom, exactly?

Even though the U.S. is not at war, and Trump has shamefully abandoned our NATO military alliances, Hegseth waxes hard on “lethality,” and rails against “woke” laws that punish soldiers for indiscriminate killings. Trump/Hegseth seek a trillion-dollar defense budget, not to defend America from foreign enemies who are now Trump’s mentors, but to attack “enemies within,” i.e., Americans who oppose Trump’s agenda.

None of this, including Trump’s deliberate escalation of violence in LA, was unforeseen. Who can forget how Kamala Harris was panned as histrionic when she said Trump would sic the military on U.S. citizens, following his promise to do just that? In October, 2024, Trump said he’d use the military against the biggest threat to America — Americans who don’t support him.

“I think the (main problem we face) is the enemy from within,” Trump said, adding: “We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they’re the big — and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.”

Both he and Hegseth have already weeded out military officers who would honor their oaths to the Constitution over illegal orders from Trump. This week, Hegseth inadvertently confirmed that the military, under Trump, will become a domestic force when he testified before Congress, saying, “We’re entering another phase, especially under President Trump with his focus on the homeland, where the National Guard and Reserves become a critical component of how we secure that homeland.”

It’s galling that no congressman has connected the dots and asked about explosive military spending that Trump/Hegseth have signaled will be used against Americans.

Dubious legal grounds

As of this writing, Trump has not declared martial law, but recent Trump history, paired with his glaring mental illness, suggests it’s “when,” not “if.”

Trump’s plan to use troops to impose his domestic agenda is decidedly un-American. Today it includes deportations and manufacturing civil unrest; tomorrow, Trump’s goons will round up journalists who criticize him, judges, Democrats, and political opponents, as just happened Thursday when Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) was tackled to the ground for trying to ask Kristi Noem questions.

If you have any doubt, watch Trump’s illegal and partisan address at Ft. Bragg, where he led troops in uniform to wildly “boo” journalists, California’s governor, and LA’s mayor. If you have any lingering naivety, still hoping soldiers will honor their oaths and not follow America’s Hitler, that speech will erase it.

For now, Trump is acting in LA pursuant to a presidential memorandum deploying the National Guard under a rarely used federal law, 10U.S.C.§12406. Under that code, a president possesses the power to federalize the National Guard only when there is “a rebellion or danger of rebellion” against federal authority, or when the president cannot execute federal laws. As Trump sees it, this assessment depends on his own untrained and undisciplined opinion. Under that statute, however, the National Guard can only support other law enforcement officers and defend federal property.

The Posse Comitatus Act also remains in effect, prohibiting the use of the military as a domestic law enforcement agency, except in extraordinary circumstances not yet present in LA despite Trump’s best efforts. The Insurrection Act of 1807, the authority under which Hegseth sent active Marines to LA, is a broader set of statutes granting Trump the power to use military force in specific circumstances, including suppressing armed rebellion, civil disorder, or other extreme circumstances where the states are unable to maintain public order.

Gov. Gavin Newsom formally objected to Trump sending troops, because California in general, and LAPD in particular, have sufficient resources to maintain order. Newsom knows that when US Marines start shooting civilians, whether in LA, Chicago, or New York, violence will ratchet up to the necessary threshold to circumvent Posse Comitatus and allow Trump to declare martial law.

Sabrina Haake is a 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her columns are found @ Alternet, Chicago Tribune, Howey Political Report, Indiana Democrats’ Kernel of Truth, Inside Indiana Business, MSN, Out South Florida, Raw Story,Salon,Smart News, South Florida Gay News, State Affairs, and Windy City Times. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.

---

---

AN 6 25

'Garbage': Pentagon chief defends renaming USNS Harvey Milk during Pride Month

---}:

an 6 25

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem reportedly requested that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth grant law enforcement powers—including the authority to detain and arrest—to the thousands of military troops President Donald Trump deployed to Los Angeles to suppress anti-deportation protests. Such powers are typically barred under federal law, and experts warn the move marks another step toward the administration invoking the Insurrection Act.

In a memo, Secretary Noem alleged protestors included "invasive, violent, insurrectionist mobs that seek to protect invaders and military aged males belonging to identified foreign terrorist organizations, and who seek to prevent the deportation of criminal aliens,” as the San Francisco Chronicle first reported.

"The military is generally barred under federal laws from taking part in domestic law enforcement. Noem’s request may be a step toward the administration sidestepping those laws by invoking the Insurrection Act, two legal experts said in interviews," the Chronicle added.

RELATED: ‘Looking for an Excuse’: Trump Under Fire for Violent Slogan as He Sends Marines to LA

Syracuse University Professor of Law Emeritus William Banks told the Chronicle that Noem's move is "a grave escalation" that "may presage the invocation of the Insurrection Act.” Professor Banks is an internationally recognized scholar on constitutional law, national security and counterterrorism law, as well as emergency powers and government surveillance and privacy, according to his biography.

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

Secretary Noem also requested “drone surveillance support” and weapons and logistics assistance. President Donald Trump has ordered 700 U.S. Marines and federalized up to 4,000 National Guard troops to go to Los Angeles to help tamp down the protests.

The Associated Press on Monday suggested the protest area itself was small: “Protests over the president’s immigration crackdown spared much of Los Angeles from violence. Weekend clashes swept through several downtown blocks and a handful of other places.”

Other experts weighed in as well.

READ MORE: House Republicans Quietly Slip Anti-LGBTQ ‘Religious Freedom’ Clause Into Funding Bill

Vermont Law and Graduate School professor emeritus Stephen Dycus, an expert in national security law and the Insurrection Act, told the Chronicle that "this could be viewed as a preparation for invoking the Insurrection Act, or it could be viewed as part of a larger effort to frighten people who otherwise would exercise their first amendment guarantee of free speech and protest.”

California Democratic state Senator Tom Umberg, a retired Army colonel and JAG officer, "said he found the letter’s requests alarming."

“It looks like a preparation for a military assault,” Umberg said. “This looks like a subterfuge to create some sort of rationale for some sort of invocation of the Insurrection Act.”

Attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, an immigration expert and senior fellow at the American Immigration Council explained that the "reason that there is civil unrest in multiple cities throughout the country is because the Trump administration ordered ICE to engage in near-indiscriminate arrests, rounding up otherwise law-abiding people with no criminal records."

Political scientist Dr. Norman Ornstein, a contributing editor for the Atlantic, wrote, "this is a prelude to invoking the insurrection act and declaring martial law."

READ MORE: ‘Completely Obliterated’: Trump Claims LA Saved From Ruin by His National Guard Action

---

---

AN 6 25

President Donald Trump's critics, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, are deeply troubled by his response to the tense protests that are rocking Downtown L.A. in response to immigration raids being carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.

Trump ordered 2000 California National Guardian troops to the area, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is talking about sending in 500 U.S. Marines. According to Trump's critics, he is crossing a dangerous line by federalizing National Guard troops — whose deployment to Downtown L.A., they argue, should only be ordered by Newsom if he decides it is necessary.

New York Times national security reporter Helene Cooper discussed the [VID] volatile situation during aMonday morning, June 9 appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," expressing fears that things could turn ugly if Trump uses the military against civilians.

READ MORE:'Can't you just shoot them?' Inside Trump's threat to deal with 'radical left thugs' in America

During his first presidency, Cooper noted, traditional conservatives in the White House would push back against his worst ideas—whereas now, he is surrounded by loyalists who encourage him.

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

Cooper told "Morning" host Mika Brzezinski, "I'm a little worried this is not heading anywhere good…. President Trump doesn't have (former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman) Mark Milley or (Defense Secretary) Mark Esper or any of the people from his previous administration who sort of acted as the brakes on this. Pete Hegseth…. sort of made up that Marines are on high alert, which is not necessarily a formal thing. He tweeted that on Saturday, (June 7) and then doubled down on Sunday, saying Marines are standing by."

The Times reporter continued, "We know that to put active-duty troops on the streets…. President Trump would have to — most likely have to — invoke the Insurrection Act, which to my knowledge, he has not done yet."

During the interview, Cooper drew a distinction between the "political Pentagon" and Trump loyalists like Hegseth and the "military people and career Pentagon."

READ MORE:Trump's latest move is a danger to all of us

Cooper told Brzezinski, "The Pentagon was sort of scrambling last night to figure out what to do. The last thing they want is active- duty troops taking on protesters on American streets. They fought mightily against that during the George Floyd protests…. There's a very real worry, again, among the career and professional military of this sort of look that we are militarizing the country…. If you get to the point where American troops are being asked or tasked with shooting protesters, you will then see this discomfort manufacture in public."

Cooper noted that Los Angeles is heavily Latino and that the military is also racially diverse.

Cooper told Brzezinski, "Right now, the orders are lawful. Right now, they have not been asked to do anything that I can see that could be interpreted as an unlawful order, but I think things could come to a head pretty quickly. You talk about the demographic demographics of Los Angeles — well, the demographic of the American military is pretty diverse, despite all of Pete Hegseth's attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion and DEI and so-called woke policies. You're looking at one of the most, if not the most diverse, institutions that America has. So, you know, there's going to be a lot of conflict there when you start dragging troops who are not prepared to do law enforcement, domestic law enforcement on the streets of America into this."

READ MORE:'It's pathetic': Right-wing red state Republicans are being ripped apart — by football

*Watch the full video below or at this link.

---

---

NO LNX

The man-babies of MAGA never grew up because they never had to

John Stoehr April 26, 2025

Recall that the week began with news that the US secretary of defense had been involved in a second Signal chat in which he shared the same war plans he shared in the first one. This time, Pete Hegseth set up the chat himself and included his wife, his brother and his attorney. Oh, and he used his own phone, not the government’s.

Last weekend, in an opinion piece for Politico, a former Pentagon spokesman warned that “there are very likely more shoes to drop in short order, with even bigger bombshell stories coming this week.”

And lo, a voice came:

Wall Street Journal: “Polygraph Threats, Leaks and Infighting: The Chaos Inside Hegseth’s Pentagon”;

Associated Press: “Hegseth had an unsecured internet line set up in his office to connect to Signal”;

Times: “Hegseth’s Personal Phone Use Created Vulnerabilities”;

National Public Radio: “Former Pentagon official on Hegseth turmoil: ‘It looks like they actually broke the law’”;

CBS: “Hegseth orders makeup studio installed at Pentagon.”

Unfortunately, we are where we were at the beginning of the week. Hegseth isn’t going anywhere. Yes, he is “embattled,” as we say in the news, but every story about him says that Donald Trump has his back.

The closest we’ve come to accountability was in the Journal: “Trump has begun to ask people around him about Hegseth’s performance, and his advisers have closely watched his recent media appearances.”

Until he’s gone, there’s going to be lots more to say about Hegseth. I want to focus on an aspect about him and the maga movement that can be found in the opening scene from the Journal article above.

In it, he reacts after being “rattled” by the fact that someone had leaked word of his classified briefing on China with Elon Musk.

“I’ll hook you up to a f—ing polygraph!” Hegseth shouted at Adm. Christopher Grady, the then-acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to two people familiar with the exchange. Hegseth demanded proof that Grady hadn’t leaked news of the March 21 briefing.

Grady was never subjected to a polygraph, and Hegseth would go on to accuse a number of other people for the leak, including Lt. Gen. Doug Sims, the Joint Staff director, whom Hegseth also threatened with a polygraph test.

I mean, I get it.

The secretary of defense is America’s highest ranking military official. In theory, Hegseth can talk to anyone at the Pentagon in any way he wants to, no matter how accomplished they are, no matter how much older they are. But we’re not talking about what you can do. We’re talking about what you should do among men of honor and distinction.

And there’s your problem.

Admiral Grady’s resume is so deep and long, and so full of achievement and military jargon, that it would be almost discourteous of me to copy and paste excerpts of it. (You can find his bio here, courtesy of Bill Grueskin.) He has seen some things and done some things, with the ultimate cost of failure being that someone under him could have died.

Meanwhile, Hegseth’s resume for the job is nearly as thin as mine.

He’s a 44-year-old former TV personality with a drinking problem and a history of indiscretion with women, shall we say, as well as no experience running anything of size, much less the planet’s biggest bureaucracy. Since taking the job, he has compromised national security, broken dozens of laws, conduct that would get anyone else at the Pentagon court-martialed if he were not Donald Trump’s No. 1 yes-man, and on top of all this, he feels justified in throwing fit with a man who was answering the call of duty when he was still in diapers.

Again, Hegseth has the right to say what he wants to Admiral Grady. He outranks him. No doubt Grady accepts that. But no man of honor would cuss out an admiral out, question his honesty, doubt his loyalty, impugn his character – and do it in front of witnesses, for God’s sake.

But if we leave it there, we’re missing the larger picture.

Hegseth’s dishonorable conduct is shared by the whole regime, including the president. There’s an attitude that respect is owed but not in return. This is borne of the belief that they have the right to rule by race and blood – not by law, not by merit, not by anything other than the accident of their birth. Indeed, anyone who has earned his authority, as Admiral Grady has, is a natural target of their contempt.

This attitude may seem invulnerable, but it’s not. It is weakness personified. When respect is not forthcoming in the way they expect, they fall to pieces. They get emotional, perhaps hysterical. They might even start accusing everyone around them of being against them. As it happens, that describes Hegseth to a T. NBC News reported Friday that he’s growing paranoid, “erratic” and “insecure.” When you act like you’re infallible, you can’t stand it when anyone anywhere disagrees.

If this sounds childish, it is, and there’s a reason for it. It is rooted in the political tradition of venerating above all others the common folk of the American heartland, which is to say, the common white folk. Unlike multiracial populations in cities or on the coasts, people get educations, acquire skill and knowledge, and strive, these are God’s chosen. They are the most authentic, the most real of Americans.

And one way or another, they are always at the center of our time and our attention, as they are the main characters in tales of morality told about America, in which some kind of great sinner is forever trying to take advantage of them, cheat them out of their money and their hope, and these crimes against the blood and bone of the nation demand a champion to come forth and save God’s chosen from this villainy.

They are pure and innocent and just. They never do wrong, they are only wronged, because they are not asked to make choices. Choices are made for them as a consequence of being God’s chosen, which is to say, of being white in a country that was made for white people.

It should be no surprise that men like the secretary of state, or the president, who believe they have the right to rule by race and blood, not by law, not by merit, not by anything other than the accident of their birth, are also some of the most childish people. They inhibit a world in which they never had to grow up. They can be boys forever.

And when man-babies like Pete Hegseth encounter someone who did grow up, who did make something of himself through merit and hard work and determination – when they encounter men of honor like Admiral Christopher Grady – they seem to explode on contact.

For that small justice, I’m grateful.

---

---

AN 5 25

Former Rep. Max Rose (D-N.Y.), who served as an advisor to former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, said Monday Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's plan to reduce the number of four-star admirals and generals by 20 percent indicates there is a "deeper problem" within the Department of Defense (DoD).

"I don't think it's actually connected to a strategic imperative, but rather to the fact that they are looking for constant destruction,"Rose said during an appearance on CNN.

The defense analyst strongly criticized the former part-time weekend Fox News host-turned-defense secretary, saying the generals he is choosing to fire are better and more experienced than him.

READ MORE:Jim Jordan silent after critics hurl accusations of corruption on behalf of billionaires

"And these generals are intimidating to folks like Pete Hegseth because they have what he doesn't, which is experience and good instincts," Rose continued.

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

Earlier on Monday, Hegseth instructed top Pentagon officials to reduce the ranks of four-star generals and admirals by at least 20%, CNN reported Monday.

This cut applies across all branches of the military, which currently has 37 four-star officers. The directive also mandates a 20% reduction in National Guard generals and a 10% overall decrease in all general and flag officers (those ranked one-star and above), who currently number around 900.

In a video posted on the social platform X, Hegseth introduced the "historic" policy and said it is about "Less generals, More GIs."

READ MORE:'What do you mean you don't know?' Tapper slams Trump over reply to Constitution question

Watch the video below or at this link.

---

an 5 25

...Griffin stated that U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat, “believes that that more shoes could drop, is suggesting that there are more firings to come.”

Kaine also talked about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Griffin said, and “had expressed extreme concern about a late night tweet by defense Secretary Hegseth, in which he threatened Iran with potential military action, if they don’t control the Houthies.”

---

---

AN 4 25

Discussing the history of conservatism in the United States, veteran Washington Post columnist George Will used the word "bookish" to describe Republicans of the past. And Will, who is very much a Never Trump conservative, meant that in a good way.

Will was applauding those conservatives of yesterday for, as he saw it, their detailed focus on policy. And he is no fan of the performative theatrics of the MAGA movement.

Salon's Amanda Marcotte cites three recent examples of such theatrics in an article published on April 28, calling out "performative temper tantrums" by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-Georgia), Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Trump White House adviser Stephen Miller.

READ MORE:Meet Ed Martin: The Missouri lawyer weaponizing the DOJ for Trump

"If there were an Oscar for the category 'hard to watch,'" Marcotte argues, "I'd have to nominate the video of Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., barking expletives at a constituent after he asked her if she would have a town hall soon. It's produced in a beauty supply store instead of a movie studio, but in a brief minute and 42 seconds, the video finds its place in the canon of horror films shot from the villain's perspective…. Most adults who act like Mace in public immediately wish to disappear off the face of the Earth in shame. But not our Nancy! No, she's the one who posted this video online, proud of her emotional incontinence."

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

Marcotte adds, "She even offered a homophobic gay panic defense, by describing the man as 'wearing daisy dukes, at a makeup store'….. To people outside the MAGA bubble, it's a baffling choice. She's not even a fun villain."

Marcotte laments that "what most adults find embarrassing, the MAGA base will eat right up."

"Despite this effort, Mace didn't even come close to nabbing last week's gold star for the most histrionic MAGA performance," Marcotte observes. "She was outdone by Stephen Miller, whose usual register on TV is 'verge of a nervous breakdown,' but got so shrill on Fox News Tuesday that Lauren Tousignant at Jezebel worried she'd soon have to 'look at Stephen Miller's face as he pops a dozen blood vessels as his brain explodes'…. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth turned in two performances that would cause Al Pacino to tell him to settle down."

READ MORE:'Ready to fight': How one major firm refuses to be bullied by Trump

Marcotte adds, "While carping about "the fake news media" during the White House Easter egg roll, Hegseth's whining got so pitched his voice started to crack, while his children stood behind him, embarrassed at the spectacle….. All this yelling and bellyaching serves a pragmatic purpose: to distract from how what they're saying makes no sense.

READ MORE:'Was it?' Republican CNN analyst rendered speechless when challenged on Trump spending

*Amanda Marcotte's full article for Salon is available at this link.

---

---

like mad king, increasingly erratic

mma

April 23, 2025, edition of Loomer Unleashed on Rumble

LAURA LOOMER (HOST): And we're also going to address the recent allegations coming out of the Department of Defense that there is a soft coup taking place against Pete Hegseth, our defense secretary. And this is something that I've been reporting on. As we know, there were a lot of GOP senators who didn't want to necessarily confirm Pete Hegseth for his position of defense secretary.

I've always been an adamant supporter of Pete. He's somebody that I've known for a long time. He's a personal friend of mine, and I think he's going to do a great job as defense secretary. But it's not a surprise to anybody, or it shouldn't be a surprise at least that the deep state and all of these RINO obstructionist senators want to have control over the military industrial complex.

---

---

mma

WSJ pundits demolish right-wing talking points defending Hegseth: “It all comes back again to this basic point that something's wrong at the top levels”}:

04/24/25

fox stars pass on defending Hegseth amid Pentagon “chaos”

Written by Matt Gertz

:{:{Published 04/25/25}:

Fox News’ biggest stars have stopped defending Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth amid the weeklong firestorm over their former colleague’s dysfunctional management of the Pentagon and his potentially illegal handling of classified information.

Three months after Vice President JD Vance broke a 50-50 Senate tie to install the historically underqualified Hegseth at the Pentagon, journalists routinely describe a department in “chaos.” Five top Hegseth aides have left the department since last Friday amid reports of “vicious rivalries,” and a “leadership vacuum.” Reporters further revealed that Hegseth had shared details about U.S. strikes in Yemen in a second unsecured Signal chat, potentially endangering U.S. service members, and had the app installed on his Pentagon computer.

Hegseth responded to his growing list of scandals with a combative Tuesday appearance on Fox & Friends, whose hosts defended his conduct.

But other Fox hosts have been silent, even after rallying to support Hegseth when his nomination came under fire and again following the first revelation of his use of Signal to share attack plans.

Fox’s evening lineup of The Ingraham Angle, Jesse Watters Primetime, Hannity, and Gutfeld!have ignored Hegseth’s struggles this week (a passing remark from guest Jimmy Failla to host Laura Ingraham was the only mention of the story on any of those shows).The Five, the Fox panel show which features Jesse Watters, Greg Gutfeld, Jeanine Pirro, and Dana Perino, also has not covered the subject.

Even Will Cain, who spent years sharing the couch with Hegseth as co-hosts of Fox & Friends’ weekend edition, hasn’t mentioned his former colleague’s name on his afternoon show this week. (He did not comment on Fox correspondent Kevin Corke’s report about the Signal story during Monday’s program.)

As Fox’s stars take a pass, full-throated defenses of Hegseth’s leadership are coming from the likes of MAGA stalwarts like Charlie Kirk, Benny Johnson, and Laura Loomer, while their corporate cousins at The Wall Street Journal editorial board savage his handling of the Pentagon.

Two explanations seem plausible for why Fox’s biggest stars have gone silent as their former colleague comes under fire:

Either way, this disaster was the predictable result of President Donald Trump putting a former Fox weekend host with little relevant experience in charge of the Pentagon. The secretary of defense oversees a massive budget and bureaucracy and has the authority under certain circumstances to launch nuclear weapons and end human civilization. The risks of handing the position over to someone because of their takes on TV are almost incalculably high.

Hegseth is currently struggling to manage the Pentagon when its biggest problem is a costly, ineffective, and apparently unending bombing campaign in Yemen. How will he respond if India and Pakistan start trading fire?

  1. ### Fox stars pass on defending Hegseth amid Pentagon “chaos”

04/25/25

//

  1. ### Trump used Fox to vet his defense secretary. It isn’t going well — but now the network is fighting back.

:{:{12/04/24}:

  1. ### Fox propagandists scramble to explain former colleagues texting war plans to a reporter

:{:{03/25/25}:

  1. ### The Pete Hegseth debacle was inevitable

04/23/2

---

AN 4 25

The Pete Hegseth debacle was inevitable

Hiring a Fox host to lead the Pentagon was a bad idea

Written by Matt Gertz

Published 04/23/25

President Donald Trump’s second administration hasn’t yet hit the 100-day mark, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is already being routinely described as “embattled.” On Friday, Hegseth fired three of the top aides he had brought with him to the Pentagon amid an investigation into unauthorized leaks. Sunday brought two new body blows: News that Hegseth had shared details about U.S. strikes in Yemen in a second unsecured Signal chat — this one including his wife, brother, and personal lawyer — and a scathing op-ed from a former top Pentagon spokesperson who accused Hegseth of creating “total chaos” at the department.

It’s unnerving to see the management of the world’s most powerful military described as “a run of chaos that is unmatched in the recent history of the Defense Department,” or to read reports about how the internal dysfunction is leading some officials “to wonder how the Pentagon would function in a national security crisis.” Trump, however, is standing by Hegseth — apparently the only reporting that can get high-level figures removed in this administration is that of conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer.

Hegseth’s disastrous run at the Pentagon is entirely predictable, the natural result of elevating a co-host of Fox & Friends’ weekend edition to sixth in the line of succession because the president liked his Fox News hits.

Hegseth lacked anything resembling the traditional qualifications to lead the Defense Department. Other recent picks have leaned on their experience at the top levels of the military, the Pentagon bureaucracy, or congressional oversight of the department, but Hegseth had none of these — he led a platoon in the Army National Guard and oversaw small right-wing veterans organizations before joining Fox as a contributor in 2014. His elevation might nonetheless be explicable if he had unique personal virtues or strong outside-the-box ideas for how to manage the Pentagon, but he’s been dogged by reports of public drunkenness, sexual assault, and financial mismanagement, while his vision for the military seems to begin and end with the notion that it had become excessively “woke.”

What Hegseth had in spades was the one attribute Trump seems to value above all others — years of expressing sycophantic public support for the president on Fox. For Trump, a Fox obsessive who stocked both of his administrations with familiar faces from the network’s green rooms, that was enough.

Trump reportedly considered Hegseth to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs in his first term but ultimately retained him as an outside adviser — one whosecounsel he took in offering clemency to several accused and convicted war criminals the Fox host boosted. But for his second time in the Oval Office, Trump tapped Hegseth to run the DOD.

Asking a Fox & Friends weekend host to oversee a massive bureaucracy with millions of military and civilian employees and a budget in the hundreds of billions is obviously stupid, and Hegseth’s nomination appeared to be in jeopardy amid a series of damning reports. But Trump’s MAGA media supporters decided to lay down a marker, threatening Republican senators with primary challenges if they did not support Hegseth’s confirmation, and he ultimately squeaked through as Vice President JD Vance voted to break the Senate’s 50-50 tie.

Hegseth’s actions in office quickly vindicated his critics and forced his defenders to scramble on his behalf. March’s revelation that Hegseth had shared detailed information about imminent U.S. military strikes over a commercial messaging app led to days of strained explanations from his former Fox colleagues and others in the MAGA media.

The response has been somewhat different following Sunday’s revelation of the second such set of messages. Some on Fox have offered defenses for Hegseth, while a Media Matters review found the network’s popular panel show The Five and evening hosts Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, and Sean Hannity have ignored the story on their programs. Other MAGA media figures have blamed the report on the “deep state,” withsome suggesting that Hegseth has been targeted as part of a struggle within the Trump administration over Iran policy.

The defense secretary, meanwhile, has responded to the string of damning reports by leaning into what got him the job in the first place: He has publicly lashed out at his critics and lavished praise on the president.

“They've come after me from day one, just like they've come after President Trump,” Hegseth said in a Tuesday appearance on Fox & Friends. “I've gotten a fraction of what President Trump got in that first term. What he has endured is superhuman.”

Hegseth isn’t the only right-wing media star turned top Trump appointee to struggle in the administration’s early days, and we should expect more such stories in the days to come. The president has prioritized hiring people who are adept at throwing red meat to the MAGA base. While that may help them weather scandals that would doom a member of a normal political movement, it is not a skill that translates to overseeing complicated bureaucracies.

//

Trump used Fox to vet his defense secretary. It isn’t going well — but now the network is fighting back.

12/04/24 1:27 PM EST

  1. ### A comprehensive review of the revolving door between Fox and the second Trump administration

11/13/24 11:34 AM EST

  1. ### Pete Hegseth reportedly used Signal to send secret war plans to his family. Right-wing media blame the “deep state” for the report.

04/22/25

---

an 4 25

'Chaos at the Pentagon': Memo authorizing defense missile 'went unsigned for 3 weeks'

---

4 25 ANOTHER SIGNAL W/ WIFE, LIAR; EASTER EGG CALLED PRESS HOAXSTERS, DISGRUNTLE BS

cos reassigned; 3 fired? caldwell?

---

---

aha leaker devil term used to excuse firing? 4 25 dod hegseth

//'Incompetent. Irresponsible. Negligent': Calls mount for Hegseth’s ouster or prosecution

---

---

an 4 25

Kristina Wong, a correspondent for the far-right Breitbart News who has publicly glorified the January 6, 2021 insurrection, was appointed chief spokesperson for the Department of the Navy, where she will also serve as Director of Communications for Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan.

In a post on the social platform X on Tuesday, Phelan announced her appointment.

Social media users including journalists and commentators raised concerns over Wong's old Jan. 6 posts from the Capitol where she appeared to cheer on the rioters who stormed the state building.

ALSO READ:Jan. 6 defendant caught with child porn argues Trump’s pardon should include that too

Defense One reporter Meghann Myers wrote, "It should be noted that it’s pretty unusual for a service secretary to have a civilian PAO. They are usually O-6s."

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

Content creator Peston Steward shareda screenshot of Wong mocking him with an insulting image and wrote, "Would not have guessed a few months ago that this person was about to become the official Navy spokesperson."

Capitol Hunters, an account dedicated to sharing information about Jan 6. insurrectionists, posted a thread with screenshots of Wong's old X posts in which she appeared to celebrate the Capitol attack while covering it for her news outlet.

"Her worst post might be this one: she flippantly captioned a video of people attacking the North Doors: 'Things got a lil sporty here'. To her it was a joke," the account said.

ALSO READ: 'Desperate': Ex-White House staffer rips Miller for saying J6ers were denied 'due process'

Earlier this month, CBS reported that Wong is under consideration to become the chief spokesperson for Phelan.

The CBS report pointed out that Wong filed a story for Breitbart on April 15 on the removal of Dan Caldwell, a top adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. But Wong's article failed to mention that she was under consideration for a role at the Pentagon while serving as a Pentagon correspondent for Breitbart, violating standard ethical practices in journalism.

Jim LaPorta, the CBS reporter who wrote the story, also took to X and said, "The Navy Secretary just confirmed my @CBSNews scoop from last week which means while actively covering the Pentagon as a reporter for a news outlet, Wong was interviewing for a role at the Pentagon which was not disclosed to readers of her publication."

ALSO READ:'Get your weapon!' Violent MAGA man launches run for Congress

---

AN 4 25

Army suspends first female base commander after Trump’s photo found improperly displayed

---

AN 4 25

An exodus of top staffers reporting directly to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is apparently roiling the Pentagon as part of a growing investigation into potential leaks.

Politico reported Friday that three senior Pentagon officials have now been fired as part of the leak investigation: Hegseth senior advisor Dan Caldwell, deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll — who was Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg's chief of staff — have all been officially terminated. And Joe Kasper, who was Hegseth's own chief of staff, is now leaving the Pentagon for a separate job in the Pentagon.

With these staffing changes, the top United States military official is now without a chief of staff, a deputy chief of staff and a senior advisor, less than 100 days into his tenure. An unnamed "senior defense official" suggested to Politico that Hegseth made poor choices for who to trust in his inner circle, with another source saying there would likely be more "chaos" to follow in the coming days.

READ MORE:'Fascist tactics': Trump's top prosecutor slammed over ominous letter to medical journal

“There is a complete meltdown in the building, and this is really reflecting on the secretary’s leadership,” the source said. “Pete Hegseth has surrounded himself with some people who don’t have his interests at heart.”

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

IFrame Content

Additional firings may be announced soon. According to CBS senior White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs, "at least one uniformed Pentagon official" was also fired in addition to Hegseth's top aides. Chris Meagher, who was assistant Defense secretary for public affairs during former President Joe Biden's administration, opined that the exodus of top staff at the Pentagon was proof that the former part-time weekend Fox News host may not be capable of heading the Department of Defense.

"Everyone knew that Pete Hegseth did not possess the leadership qualities, background, or experience to be Secretary of Defense,” Meagher told Politico. “Everything we’ve seen since then — the firing of several American heroes because of perceived lack of loyalty, the sloppiness of Signalgate, the complete lack of transparency, and now several political staff being shown the door — has only confirmed he doesn’t have what it takes to lead."

As Meagher mentioned, the current leak investigation isn't Hegseth's first scandal as secretary of defense. In March, Hegseth shared highly sensitive attack plans for airstrikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen on a Signal group text thread with other top administration officials. The details of that chat were made public by Atlantic magazine editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who was inadvertently added to the chat by National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.

READ MORE:George Conway predicts Trump's 'inner rage' will make him 'lose again and again' in court

Click here to read Politico's article in its entirety.

---

mma

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has repeatedly supported using the National Guard to crack down on protests

Hegseth has demonized protesters in the past, claiming they “hate America,” and suggested that police be “allowed to take the actions necessary” to quell demonstrations

Written by Jack Winstanley & Payton Armstrong

Published 04/04/25 mma

When major protests swept the country in 2020, then-Fox host Pete Hegseth cheered President Donald Trump’s use of the National Guard as a “show of force” and praised Trump’s threat to send “federal reinforcements” to quell demonstrations. Hegseth has also specifically criticized peaceful protesters and suggested police should be “allowed to take the actions necessary to take on antifa, domestic terrorist groups like that.”

As demonstrations against Trump’s actions in his second term continue to ramp up, here’s a look at what the new secretary of defense said about protests in 2020 and beyond.

Trump almost deployed U.S. troops to suppress protests in 2020 and has already started cracking down on protesters in his second term

//

  1. ### Trump’s pick for secretary of defense has a history of defending war crimes, torture, and more

11/20/24 3:30 PM EST

  1. ### Trump picked Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Pete Hegseth to be secretary of defense. Here's some of what he's said on the air.

11/13/24 12:22 PM EST

  1. ### Pete Hegseth's book includes complaints about “Muslims’ birth rates,” praise for “crusaders who pushed back the Muslim hordes”

11/12/24

---

maya angelous bk gone but not mein k at mil acad anapolis?

AN 3 25 HAD TO PUT JACKIE ROBINSON BACK? NAVAJO CODE TALKERS

Army erases WWII vet Medgar Evers from Arlington National Cemetery website

---

---

omg

an 3 25

South African centibillionaire Elon Musk — one of President Donald Trump's closest advisors — is now reportedly scheduled to receive a top-secret briefing involving the United States' top-secret plans in the event the nation goes to war with China.

The New York Times reported Thursday evening that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO will be visiting the Pentagon on Friday to get "access to some of the nation’s most closely guarded military secrets." Those war plans are detailed in "20 to 30 slides" that reveal exactly how the U.S. would plan to fight a war against the world's most populous nation and second-largest economy. The Times Julian E. Barnes, Maggie Haberman, Eric Lipton, Ryan Mac and Eric Schmitt noted that the briefing comes despite Musk having "extensive financial interests in China."

"If a foreign country was to learn how the United States planned to fight a war against them, it could reinforce its defenses and address its weaknesses, making the plans far less likely to succeed," the reporters wrote.

READ MORE:'We're against it': Fox host says the quiet part out loud in segment about disabled kids

Some Musk critics expressed worry that China has significant leverage over the centibillionaire. Progressive activist Murshed Zaheed opined that the Times' reporting included "bats--- crazy" details about Musk's potential conflicts of interest toward the end of the report. In the final five paragraphs of the article, the Times reported that the Tesla factory in Shanghai — which was "built with special permission from the Chinese government" — is responsible for "more than half of Tesla's global deliveries." Tesla also has a $2.8 billion loan agreement with Chinese lenders "for production expenditures."

Consultant Matt Ortega pointed out that Chinese President Xi Jinping could simply tell Musk to "provide us with the U.S. war plan or we will close your Shanghai factory." Journalist Radley Balko exclaimed that Musk getting access to Chinese war plans was "insanity." Former FBI counterterrorism official Frank Figliuzzi called Musk getting the war plans a "clear and present danger." And author and journalist Tim Weiner reminded his followers that Vivek Ramaswamy — who co-founded the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with Musk — once said in 2023 that the tech billionaire would "jump like a circus monkey when Xi Jinping calls in the hour of need."

"If you give the war plans to Musk, you might as well give them to China," Weiner wrote on Bluesky.

Defense Department spokesperson Sean Parnell implied to the Times that Musk's visit was merely casual, saying: "The Defense Department is excited to welcome Elon Musk to the Pentagon on Friday. He was invited by Secretary Hegseth and is just visiting."

READ MORE:'Mob boss government': Trump deal with law firm over executive order ripped as 'shakedown'

Click here to read the Times' report in full (subscription required).

---

==

OMFG // BONDI LIFT SANCTIONS USSR DAY ONE?!

A prominent Republican congressman, the former House Intelligence Committee chair, appeared shocked on national television when he learned that U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered a top Pentagon agency, U.S. Cyber Command, to suspend operations and planning against Russia’s cyber offensives.

Secretary Hegseth’s “stand down” order, while allegedly temporary, is expected to “last for the foreseeable future,” according to The Record, a cybersecurity news site which first reported the news.

CNN reported that a senior U.S. official called Hegseth’s order “a major blow.”

According to the network, “planning for such operations takes time and research to carry out. The concern, the official said, is that the pause on offensive cyber operations against Russia will make the U.S. more vulnerable to potential cyberattacks from Moscow, which has a formidable cadre of hackers capable of disrupting U.S. critical infrastructure and collecting sensitive intelligence.”

READ MORE: World Leaders Rush to Support Zelenskyy as Americans Debate Trump’s Allegiance

The development has received widespread coverage over the weekend.

“Russia is not a significant cyber threat to the U.S. anymore, Trump’s new Defense Secretary says,” the science and technology website Gizmodo reported. “The policy shift represents a complete 180-degree turn from America’s posture over the past decade, which has consistently considered Russia one of the top cybersecurity threats. Credible reporting and government investigations have shown that Russia has hacked into U.S. systems countless times.”

Experts were also stunned.

Veteran cyber expert James Lewis, formerly of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said “it’s delusional to think” the stand down order “will turn Russia and the FSB [the Russian security agency] into our friends,” The Guardian reported. “They hate the U.S. and are still mad about losing the cold war. Pretending otherwise won’t change this.”

The order appears to extend past the Department of Defense, suggesting it may have originated at the highest levels of the executive branch.

Analysts at the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) received a new priorities directive that included China, but not Russia, The Guardian also reported. One source “said analysts at the agency were verbally informed that they were not to follow or report on Russian threats, even though this had previously been a main focus for the agency.”

“Russia and China are our biggest adversaries,” that source said. “With all the cuts being made to different agencies, a lot of cybersecurity personnel have been fired. Our systems are not going to be protected and our adversaries know this.”

READ MORE: ‘What the Hell Is This?’: GOP Group’s Andrew Tate Invitation Draws Bipartisan Outrage

“People are saying Russia is winning,” they added. “Putin is on the inside now.”

U.S. Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) has decades of defense experience in Congress, having served on several committees on the armed forces and veterans affairs, and as Chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence until January—when Speaker Mike Johnson unexpectedly removed him from that critical position. He is a strong supporter of Ukraine and opposes Russia.

At the time of his removal, The Bulwark’s Bill Kristol remarked, “If you’re going to sell out Ukraine to Putin, makes sense to get Turner out of the way first.”

Last year, Turner was also one of a few House Republicans who “were warning about how elements of their party had been infected by Russian propaganda,” The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake noted on Monday. (Video of Turner from last year here.) Turner, he added, “was removed 7 months later as chair of the House intel committee.”

In February 2024, Turner issued a “national security threat” warning on Russia’s activities in space so dire that President Biden’s National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby was forced to deliver a statement from the White House press briefing room.

On Sunday’s “Face the Nation,” CBS News’ Margaret Brennan told Congressman Turner (video below), that “CBS has confirmed these reports that Defense Secretary Hegseth has ordered U.S. Cyber Command to temporarily halt cyber operations and planning against Russia. The Washington Post reports that that’s as long as the negotiations continue. There are no negotiations under way. Does this concern you? Have you been briefed on this?”

A stunned and stammering Rep. Turner delivered his response.

“I can’t – I don’t – no, I’m not – unaware of that. And I don’t believe that that would be – there are too many, I’m certain, considerations there for that to be an accurate statement, so blanket,” he said, according to the official CBS transcript.

“But they have ordered Cyber Command to halt cyber operations,” Brennan reiterated.

“Considering what I know that – that – considering what I know what – what Russia is currently doing against the United States, that would, I’m certain, not be an accurate statement of the current status of the United States’ operations,” Turner insisted, despite multiple news reports confirming the stand down order.

“I’m confident, considering what Russia is currently doing against the United States, that the United States, the status against Russia would not be that, considering what we are facing from Russia operations,” Turner added.

Watch the video below or at this link.

---

03/05/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

In the first major speech to Congress of his second term, President Donald Trump made clear that he intends to barrel ahead with the MAGA agenda.

The problem is not just that Trump lied throughout his national address. The problem is made worse by the apparent fact that he felt like he had to lie.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the liberals Wednesday in reining in some of the Trump administration’s effort to block foreign aid that had been appropriated by Congress.

Business leaders are paying as much as $5 million to meet one-on-one with the president at his Florida compound, sources tell WIRED, while others are paying $1 million apiece to dine with him in a group setting.

International House of Prayer-Kansas City (IHOPKC) Founder Mike Bickle is a “chronic sexual predator” who should never serve in paid public ministry again, according to recommendations released yesterday, following an independent investigation by Firefly.

On Donald Trump’s first day in office, the Department of Defense announced a spate of hires, including 26-year-old Kingsley Wilson, who will serve as the Pentagon’s deputy press secretary. Wilson is the daughter of Steve Cortes, a longtime Trump advisor and right-wing commentator who promotes Latinos moving to the political right. Wilson is also a Trump 2020 campaign alum, and until taking the job at the DoD, ran digital media and communications for the Center for Renewing America, a pro-Trump think tank founded by Project 2025 architect Russell Vought. She’s also an overt internet troll with a long history of bigoted, xenophobic, and deliberately provocative shitposting.

---

mass deport gitmo activist suppress = fascism

frmly bak 11 24

919 primary on const convent cheerleader

xian nat? theocracy rushdoony theobros?

driver on trump seal pardon? war crimes 2x called them warriors ~ deep state?!

see artl iii dirty tricks

his eco- niche is military, so escalator woke to tucker

rape drunk on job, embezel, fail fired koch vet astro

bak 5 23 html endit1

------

---

rww 3 25 Trump has named Hung Cao to serve as undersecretary of the Navy.

Republican candidate Hung Cao tells Christian nationalist Sean Feucht that he's running for the US Senate in Virginia because wiccans have taken over parts of California and now there is "a lot of witchcraft" and "we can't let that happen in Virginia."

---

---

===

rww

02/27/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

The misogynist facing charges of human trafficking is on a plane back to the United States.

As part of a new interview series, white Christian nationalists C. Jay Engel and Andrew Isker spoke with Ron Unz about Charles Lindbergh and World War II. A well-known Holocaust denier, Unz has written that the Holocaust was a “hoax” and that Jews have a “notorious tendency to lie and dissemble.”

Republican Congressman Mark Alford of Missouri offered thoughtless religious platitudes to his constituents.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) claimed Wednesday that Americans who attended recent rowdy Republican town halls were “paid protesters.”

President Donald Trump on Thursday acted as though he had no recollection of calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator.”

> The previous Trump administration effectively banned transgender people from joining, but the new memo says currently serving transgender troops will be discharged.

---

mma

Trump “meme team” leader Brenden Dilley: “There’s going to be nobody left doing podcasts soon because the top people are all going to work for the government”

Dilley hyped Trump administration appointments for right-wing podcasters Dan Bongino and Graham Allen

Written by Alex Kaplan

:{:{Published 02/26/25}:

Brenden Dilley, a far-right podcaster and leader of a pro-Trump “meme team,” highlighted the role of right-wing podcasters in the Trump administration, saying there would be “nobody left doing podcasts soon” because “the top people” would all be working for the administration and specifically hyping the appointments of Dan Bongino and Graham Allen for deputy director of the FBI and digital media director of the Department of Defense, respectively.

Podcasts played a role during the election, with UFC President Dana White praising several podcasters for their role in helping to get Trump elected. “I want to thank the boys Adin Ross, Theo Von, Bussin' with the Boys. And last but not least, the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan,” he said.

On February 24, Dilley praised Bongino’s appointment as “beyond exciting” and said he “was texting him congratulations.”

“We literally went from, like, ‘Oh noes, the FBI is gonna arrest all the memers,’ to … the most senior cabinet position at the FBI is a guy that I fucking made cry at his birthday with a meme from the Dilley meme team because it was so touching,” Dilley said. “Like, just wrap your mind around what just shifted. Like, our guy, my neighbor and friend, is now the second most powerful man at the FBI.”

Dilley previously said Bongino pledged to help get his show promoted on right-wing streaming platform Rumble’s front page and in its “editor picks” section. Bongino is reportedly a Rumble shareholder.

In addition to Bongino, Dilley hyped fellow right-wing podcaster Graham Allen’s appointment to the Department of Defense, marveling, “There’s going to be nobody left doing podcasts soon because the top people are all going to work for the government.”

Video

Citation

From the February 24, 2025, edition of The Dilley Show, streamed on Rumble

BRENDEN DILLEY (HOST): I mean, one of the other moves that was made was that — I don’t know if people familiar — I don’t know how familiar you guys are with Graham Allen. He’s another podcaster and kind of a media guy, new media guy. He just got hired by Pete Hegseth over at the Department of Defense. I don’t know what the hell’s going on. It’s all — there’s going to be nobody left doing podcasts soon because the top people are all going to work for the government.

===

---

MMA

Daily Wire host suggests women should not be allowed to be in military combat or fighting fires

Daily Wire host suggests women should not be allowed to be in military combat or fighting fires

Michael Knowles: “The moment that you say I think men and women can do exactly the same things. And, of course, women should be in military combat ... women should be fighting fires and carrying people out over their backs. And, of course — hold on. No.”

02/26/25

---

caine jcs loyal

===

AN 2 25

Trump’s Friday night firing of the nation’s highest-ranking military official, coupled with U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s sweeping purge of senior military leaders and top military attorneys—removing a total of six of the Defense Department’s most experienced officials—has sparked serious concern among experts.

On Friday night, Trump terminated the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Charles Q. Brown, from his four-year appointed term. No reason was given.

Immediately after, Secretary Hegseth dismissed Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the chief of the Navy, and Air Force Vice-Chief General James Slife.

He also fired all three of the Judge Advocates General (JAGs, or TJAGs), the top attorneys for the Army, Navy, and Air Force — a move some experts say should be the greatest cause for concern.

READ MORE: ‘I’m — We Are the Federal Law’: Trump Blasted for Attack on Dem Governor

On “Fox News Sunday,” Secretary Hegseth explained his reasoning for the JAG firings.

“We want lawyers who give sound constitutional advice,” Hegseth told host Shannon Bream. “And don’t exist to attempt to be roadblocks to anything that happens in their spots.”

As Law & Crime reports, “Bream brought up an X post, specifically, from Georgetown Law professor Rosa Brooks, which said: ‘In some ways that’s even more chilling than firing the four stars. It’s what you do when you’re planning to break the law: you get rid of any lawyers who might try to slow you down.'”

IFrame Content

Indeed, The New York Times calls the firings “an opening salvo” in Hegseth’s “push to remake the military into a force that is more aggressive on the battlefield and potentially less hindered by the laws of armed conflict.”

“Mr. Hegseth, in the Pentagon and during his meetings with troops last week in Europe, has spoken repeatedly about the need to restore a ‘warrior ethos’ to a military that he insists has become soft, social-justice obsessed and more bureaucratic over the past two decades.”

Experts on the law, the military, and authoritarianism and democracy are raising the alarm.

“The purge of senior officers at DOD is deeply troubling, but purging JAG officers worries me the most,” warned U.S. Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), a former Army Captain who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. “JAG officers interpret law for our commanders. They help determine what’s lawful and constitutional. Replacing these military lawyers with [Trump] loyalists is so dangerous.”

Professor of history Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a scholar of fascism and authoritarian leaders, responded to Hegseth’s “roadblocks” remark:

“Well that is the truth. All of this is a process of rearranging government for an accelerated transition from democracy to autocracy. That includes a new domestic role for the military and new autocratic allies abroad.”

U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), a former CIA analyst and Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, called the firings a “purge of senior officers who have served with distinction on the battlefield and off,” and said it “should send a shiver down the spine of any American who cares about an apolitical military.”

“No matter how they try and spin it,” she added, Trump and Hegseth “have brought their political retribution to the very warfighters they claim to care about. And we are no safer for it.”

Describing the firings as “an unprecedented shakeup of senior military leadership,” Associate Professor of Law Mark Nevitt—a former Distinguished Military Professor of Leadership and Law at the U.S. Naval Academy—warns at Just Security of “Trump’s purge of apolitical career officers.”

READ MORE: Trump’s USPS Takeover Plan a ‘Reckless Power Grab’ Endangering Mail-In Voting: Critics

“Make no mistake,” Nevitt writes in a lengthy and detailed explainer, “these firings are extraordinary and destabilize a longstanding norm of separating uniformed military members from politics. It is not an overstatement to characterize these firings as unprecedented and dangerous. What’s more, this purge is occurring against a backdrop of massively complex national security challenges in Ukraine, the Middle East, and beyond.”

On Trump’s firing of the JAG lawyers, Kevin Barron, the founding executive editor of Defense One writes: “Trump is also replacing the military’s top lawyers, who swear to defend the Constitution, with loyalists who will defend him. That’s Hegseth building in pure cover fire for ‘King’ Trump. If Trump has automatic SCOTUS immunity, so could his retribution orders to the military.”

Fred Wellman is a graduate of West Point and the Harvard Kennedy School, an Army veteran of 22 years who served four combat tours, and is now a political consultant and the host of the podcast and Substack newsletter, “On Democracy.”

“They fired the top lawyers of all three service branches. That’s the really dark part,” Wellman declared, referring to the JAG firings. “This is the most dangerous move yet,” he wrote, calling it a “Friday Night Massacre.”

“When I was the Public Affairs Officer for six different general officers in the latter part of my career in the Army, my best friend was always the Judge Advocate General of the command,” Wellman explained. “The good JAGs are unafraid to speak truth to power and ensure the law is followed to the letter. Pete Hegseth hates those JAGs. This is a man that openly supported and campaigned for the pardons of multiple war criminals who were justifiably prosecuted and convicted based on evidence from fellow service members for the torture and murder of civilians in combat.”

Wellman appears to suggest that firing the JAG attorneys could precede possible enactment of the Insurrection Act.

“When you run out the reasons to fire the lawyers by a SecDef and President who do not respect the rule of law, it is clear that the intent is to remove barriers from breaking the laws and military regulations,” he said. “The obvious reason is usually the right one.”

“We know that Project 2025 and Agenda 47 both included references to enacting the Insurrection Act and using military forces to put down public protest and assist in mass deportations and interments. Lawyers with a loose relationship with the law would happily approve actions that skirt the letter of the law and provide legal cover for outrageous uses of our apolitical military against our own people.”

And he suggests those three fired JAG lawyers could have been the “guardrails” to stop a possible invasion of Mexico, Canada, Greenland, or Panama — or the use of the military against American citizens, should Trump choose to do so.

“Who do you think are the people that would have interpreted international law, military regulations, and treaty obligations when the military is ordered to carry out air strikes and raids in Mexico against the newly designated ‘international terrorist’ drug cartels?” Wellman posits. “Who do you think will be advising the service chiefs on use of their forces for seizing the Panama Canal, Greenland, or the utterly comical, but entirely real chance of an invasion of Canada?”

“What about looking at the law and military regulations on the use of force against civilians? Remember, the former SecDef refused to order troops to shoot protestors in the legs under Trump’s first regime. I have no doubt that Hegseth with the right lawyers won’t share that restraint next time.”

Watch the video above or at this link.

===

AN 2 25

Stephen Miller, President Donald Trump’s White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, attempted to deliver a “civics lesson” to U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), but his move quickly backfired, prompting what appears to be a quiet retreat.

Congresswoman Sherrill is an attorney, former federal prosecutor, and former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot. She earned her law degree from Georgetown, a master’s degree from the London School of Economics, and her bachelor’s from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.

On Saturday, Sherrill blasted President Donald Trump’s and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s firings of six of the nation’s top military officers, including top JAG lawyers — firings that have been widely condemned.

RELATED: ‘Accelerated Autocracy’: Why Hegseth’s Firing of Top Military Attorneys Is Raising Alarms

For example, President Joe Biden’s Secretary of the Air Force, Frank Kendall, called the firings, “foolish and a disgrace,” and added: “What frightens me even more is the removal of three judge advocates general, the most senior uniformed legal authorities in the Defense Department. Their removal is one more element of this administration’s attack on the rule of law, and an especially disturbing part.”

“So much for a ‘meritocracy,'” Sherrill wrote, an apparent reference to Trump’s attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), during which he vowed his administration would only hire and promote based on merit.

“Last night at the Pentagon, President Trump and Secretary Hegseth dismantled a core principle of American democracy: the apolitical military,” she wrote, remarks substantiated by experts.

“You don’t rise to our military’s highest positions without decades of leadership and commitment to serving missions across the globe. Four-star General C.Q. Brown has been serving our nation since 1984. Four-star Admiral Lisa Franchetti has been serving since 1985. Both of these individuals earned their barrier-breaking positions because they devoted their lives to taking on our nation’s toughest challenges — and they have the resumes to prove it,” Sherrill explained.

“Yet, Secretary Hegseth called Admiral Franchetti a DEI hire in his book, and criticized General Brown because of his commitment to promoting diversity in our armed forces. This move isn’t about strengthening our armed forces, and it isn’t about merit. It’s about Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump implementing their political agenda,” she continued.

“Additionally, Trump and Hegseth fired the top Judge Advocates General, who are the military’s top lawyers. These are the individuals who interpret law for our commanders, and ensure that we’re fighting in accordance with our values,” Sherrill added. The JAG firings, some experts warn, are the ones that should be of the greatest concern to Americans.

READ MORE: ‘I’m — We Are the Federal Law’: Trump Blasted for Attack on Dem Governor*

Explaining how the military’s top brass usually are not replaced by incoming Commanders-in Chief, Sherrill warned: “Trump and Hegseth are trying to gut the military’s leadership so they can use the armed forces to carry out their personal, political agenda. This move will threaten America’s national security, show weakness to dictators worldwide like Vladimir Putin, and give Donald Trump unchecked power to abuse our military.”

She called Hegseth’s firings a “brazen, dangerous abuse of power.”

“In the United States Armed Forces, you swear an oath to the Constitution — not a person, not a political party. It’s an oath I took for the first time at age eighteen when I entered the Naval Academy, and have taken numerous times throughout my career. I will never abandon that oath, and I will always fight to protect the men and women who risk their lives to serve our country,” Sherrill vowed.

Miller, who was not named in Sherrill’s remarks, decided to jump in and launch an attack.

“Quick civics lesson: a core principle of American democracy is civilian control of the military,” declared Miller, a former Trump speechwriter.

Sherrill shot back.

“Gee, thanks Stephen. Here’s a civics lesson for you,” she offered.

“10 U.S.C. § 152 lays out the qualifications for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. These guidelines ensure the most experienced, capable officers (like General Brown) are protecting our national security and our country. Ignoring the guidelines and firing JAGs suggests the administration is attempting to build a military of loyalists focused less on our safety and more on loyalty to MAGA and Trump.”

“I know you haven’t served and your experience is mainly in speechwriting, so hopefully this is helpful,” she added.

Miller does not yet seem to have responded over the past 14 hours or so.

===

an 2 25

On Friday night, February 21, the Pentagon was rocked by a major bombshell when President Donald Trump fired Gen. C.Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Trump, on his Truth Social platform, announced that he was "nominating Air Force Lieutenant General Dan 'Razin' Caine" as a replacement.

Trump, despite having fired Brown, didn't say anything insulting about him in the Truth Social post. The president wrote, "I want to thank General Charles 'CQ' Brown for his over 40 years of service to our country, including as our current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader, and I wish a great future for him and his family."

Trump did, however, insult former President Joe Biden in his post, writing, "Despite being highly qualified and respected to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the previous administration, General Caine was passed over for promotion by Sleepy Joe Biden. But not anymore! Alongside Secretary Pete Hegseth, General Caine and our military will restore peace through strength, put America First, and rebuild our military."

READ MORE:From 'American Apocalypse' to 'Golden Age': Behind Trumpworld's dramatic narrative shift

The purge was detailed in Tom Nichol's "A Friday Night Massacre at the Pentagon.'

The firing of Brown also inspired a great deal of reactions on X.com, formerly Twitter.

Democratic consultant David Axelrod tweeted, "So the president who dodged the draft with 'bone spurs' fires the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — a decorated fighter pilot and Four-Star General — because he's not a 'warfighter?'"

Journalist Tara O'Grady, formerly of KTVN Channel 2 News in Las Vegas, wrote, "Trump fires top military leaders in unprecedented shakeup. The Friday night terminations include Chair of the Joint Chiefs Gen. C.Q. Brown. The firings are so Trump can replace them with Generals that will place loyalty to him over loyalty to the Constitution."

O'Grady also said of Trump, "He's taking control of the military so he can eventually use them against American citizens."

READ MORE:'Tax Elon!' Irate crowd shouts down GOP congressman during town hall in deep-red county

CNN's Anderson Cooper noted Rahm Emanuel's reaction, posting, "'I think it's very, very reckless'" Former Ambassador to Japan and WH chief of staff @RahmEmanuel reacts to President Trump firing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General CQ Brown, his top military adviser."

Gopal Sengupta, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, tweeted, "Trump fires senior military leadership in unprecedented Pentagon purge. The president fired Joint Chiefs chairman moments before his defense secretary fired the Navy chief and others."

U.S. Marine Corps veteran Jurgen Blick commented, "Trump you are starting to show your colors. I bet trump you haven't got a clue how hard this General worked to get where he saw your lies."

Gavin Barrett, a law professor at University College Dublin in Ireland, commented, "Trump’s political purge of potential opposition spreads to the military Trump/Hegseth -fire the top US military officer for political reasons. -fire the top military lawyers for political reasons. -fire thousands of civilian staff (as a start)."

Politico's Paul McLeary posted, "WIPED OUT: Trump gutted the Joint Chiefs Friday night, firing Chairman Gen. CQ Brown - while he was visiting troops in Texas - and @SecDef said he will also replace Navy Adm. Lisa Franchetti and UASF vice chief Gen. James Slife."

Democratic activist/content creator Harry Sisson wrote, "Donald Trump just fired Joint Chiefs Chairman CQ Brown and provided no reason for doing so. This is part of Trump’s attempt to purge the military of anyone who isn’t loyal to MAGA. Absolute insanity."

Former Pentagon official Chris Meagher tweeted, "Sad day for America. Trump fired CQ Brown and several other proven warfighters and leaders of the US military. Glad to join @kaitlancollins to discuss what our country will be losing in Chairman Brown - a calm, prepared, focused mil advisor on critical natl security matters."

Political strategist Chris D. Jackson lamented, "BREAKING: President Trump just fired Joint Chiefs Chairman CQ Brown—no reason given. That’s another highly qualified African American official ousted, only to be replaced by a white guy. This is what "America First" looks like? So sad."

READ MORE: 'Unacceptable misconduct': Trump DOJ files official complaint against Biden-appointed judge

AN 2 25

Last month, U.S. Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who has on rare occasions stood up to Donald Trump, cast the deciding—and, to some, unexpected—vote to confirm Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. Now, a report reveals that Tillis says the FBI had informed him of “credible” death threats before his vote. This revelation has led some to question whether he voted under duress, while others accuse him, and other Republicans, of caving to pressure.

“In private,” Vanity Fair‘s Gabriel Sherman reports, “Republicans talk about their fear that Trump might incite his MAGA followers to commit political violence against them if they don’t rubber-stamp his actions.”

“They’re scared shitless about death threats and Gestapo-like stuff,” a former Trump official told Sherman.

“Tillis told people that the FBI warned him about ‘credible death threats’ when he was considering voting against Pete Hegseth’s nomination for defense secretary,” Sherman reported. “According to the source, Tillis has said that if people want to understand Trump, they should read the 2006 book Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work. (When asked for comment for this story, a spokesperson for Tillis said it was false that the senator had recommended the book in that capacity. The FBI said it had no comment.)”

READ MORE: Musk’s Cuts Now ‘Hobbling’ Major Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Research Facility: Report

In his article at Vanity Fair, Sherman serves up numerous other examples detailing the threats of violence Republican lawmakers have allegedly been facing. On social media, he writes, “GOP Senators and House members are scared of being murdered by Trump supporters if they don’t support Trump. This is fascism in America.”

It’s not the first death threat Tillis received, and some critics say that if Senators can’t do the job they were elected to do, and swore an oath to perform, they should quit.

Some responded to this post from Sherman:

IFrame Content

“I was also scared for my life when I came forward with harassment allegations against Fox News’ Roger Ailes —- but I still did the right thing. Courage isn’t easy. Most Republicans still need to figure that out,” wrote former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson, who became one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World.

John Jackson is a veteran and former Republican who says he fought in Ukraine for nine months, thanks in part from motivation he got from Ronald Reagan.

“There are millions of children in Ukraine who go to school under missile attacks, daily,” Jackson wrote, in response to Sherman’s social media post. “They are far braver than our politicians. If U.S. Senators aren’t willing to risk life and limb to perform their Constitutional duties, they should resign.”

“This is exactly what Trump was counting on when he pardoned everyone for the 6 January insurrection,” noted Jonathan Z. Ludwig, an Associate Professor of Russian at Oklahoma State University.

Others responded to the article in general.

Tim Marksman, an editor for Wired, writes that “there are a lot of legislators, academics, activists, journalists, medical workers etc. who follow their conscience in their work despite death threats and despite not having the protections afforded members of Congress.”

“I have long believed that not enough has been written about how GOP members have felt physically intimidated by Trump supporters,” noted attorney George Conway. “It doesn’t excuse their cowardice, but it still deserves more attention.”

READ MORE: ‘Chamberlain’ Trump Sparks International Condemnation: ‘First Anti-American US President’

Senator Tillis’s vote to confirm came after an event that had given Hegseth’s critics hope he would not be confirmed.

“Before Senator Thom Tillis voted to confirm Pete Hegseth as defense secretary, he worked with accusers to make the case against him in a bid to get G.O.P. leaders to scrap the vote altogether,” The New York Times reported last week, noting how Hegseth’s nomination had been “teetering on the brink of defeat on the Senate floor.”

“Turning to a group of North Carolina lawmakers who were flying with him to survey storm damage in their state, Mr. Trump noted Mr. Tillis’s impending defection and posed a question: Which of them wanted his endorsement for a primary challenge to the senator next year?” the Times added.

“Tillis personally assured Danielle Hegseth in a call on Jan. 19, witnessed by two other people, that if she signed the statement testifying that she believed her former brother-in-law Pete Hegseth has an alcohol abuse problem and was abusive to his second wife, it would carry weight, and potentially move three votes-his own, along with the votes of Sens. Susan Collins (R., Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska),” The Wall Street Journal reported.

Tillis voted to confirm. Two weeks later, in a rare social media post, the Republican Senator from North Carolina proudly posted photos of his impending trip with the President aboard Air Force One:

---

---

AN 2 25

A federal judge sharply criticized an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice over Pentagon policy asserting that the U.S. Armed Forces could somehow be compromised simply by requiring service members to use a colleague’s preferred pronoun.

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, a Biden appointee, appeared skeptical of both the President’s and the Department of Justice’s stance on transgender service members during Tuesday’s hearing.

Reyes “asserted flatly that the idea that the greatest fighting force in the history of the world would be adversely effected by the need to use specific pronouns for a few thousand members of the military is, ‘Ridiculous,'” Fox News producer Jake Gibson reported.

READ MORE: ‘Bloodbath by Design’: Trump’s Russia Negotiators Criticized for ‘Almost No Experience’

According to Politico’s Kyle Cheney, this is how the exchange went:

“REYES: Can we agree that the greatest fighting force… is not going to be impacted in any way by less than 1 percent of the soldiers using a different pronoun than others might want to call them?

DOJ ATTORNEY: I can’t agree with that here.

REYES: Would you agree with me that if our military is negatively impacted in any kind of way that matters… We all have a lot bigger problems than pronoun use. We have a military that is incompetent. Any common sense rational human being knows that it doesn’t. It is pretext. It is frankly ridiculous. If you want to get me an officer of the U.S. military who is willing to get on the stand and say that because of pronoun usage the U.S. military is less prepared because of pronoun usage. I will be the first to give you a box of cigars.”

An estimated 15,000 service members are transgender.

In another striking exchange, Judge Reyes also called Trump’s executive order on transgender service members “unadulterated animus.”

IFrame Content

Currently, the Pentagon has ordered service branches to stop accepting new transgender recruits into the military, and to pause any gender-affirming medical care for transgender troops.

READ MORE: ‘Sociopathic’: USAID Worker Sues Alleging State Dept. Medevac Refusal for Pregnant Wife

“One of the plaintiffs,” in the case, WUSA9‘s Jordan Fischer reports, “Koda Nature, a 23-year-old transgender man from Texas, said he had been working with a recruiter to join the U.S. Marine Corps when he was informed last month he would no longer be able to enlist. Nature said joining the military had been his dream since he was 5 years old – a dream to follow in the footsteps of 17 generations of his family.”

President Donald Trump has signed at least four executive orders restricting the civil rights of transgender people in the United States, including one that could be used to ban open service by transgender troops, under the guise of prioritizing military excellence, readiness, and “unit cohesion” — tropes that for decades were also used to try to prevent lesbian, gay, and bisexual troops from serving openly in America’s armed forces.

“Consistent with the military mission and longstanding DoD policy, expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service,” Trump’s January 27 executive order reads. Trump also alleged that “adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life. A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.”

That order specifically targeted the use of preferred pronouns, which he called, “invented and identification-based pronoun usage.”

“It is the policy of the United States Government to establish high standards for troop readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity. This policy is inconsistent with the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria. This policy is also inconsistent with shifting pronoun usage or use of pronouns that inaccurately reflect an individual’s sex.”

---

---

FAIL

SEV AN NOT HERE

2 13 25 trump talks to putin fo 90 min war crim invite to US, he to russia

vuln to flattery, putin ex kgb handler

no nato crimea

'Palpable harm': Hegseth slammed for 'screwup' of 'biggest foreign policy issue'

--==

===...