Hey There:
As I was running my Saturday morning errands, I could feel it getting warmer and warmer. By 12 noon it had gone from sweater weather to t-shirt and shorts weather. I was watching a softball game at Oceanside HS while waiting for Tim to finish up track practice and it felt like the middle of June. Of course it was so warm as I made my way into the city, that I ignored/forgot the advice to at least carry a light jacket with me as the temps were going to be dropping through the evening.
In any event….
POLITICS: National Intelligence?
The movie Airplane came out in 1980..
- Ted Striker: My orders came through. My squadron ships out tomorrow. We're bombing the storage depots at Daiquiri at 1800 hours. We're coming in from the north, below their radar.
- Elaine Dickinson: When will you be back?
- Ted Striker: I can't tell you that. It's classified.
- (VIA IMDB)
45 years later, what was once the plot to a slapstick comedy movie, is now what passes for our nation's National Security team.
The Atlantic published excerpts of a Signal chat between top officials in Convicted Felon Captain Orange's administration. Amongst those in the chat were Vice President JD Vance, Defense Sec Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Little Marco rubio, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Steven Miller.
But the creator of the Signal Chat, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, also included Atlantic editor in chief Jeffery Goldberg. What was supposed to be internal discussions about a highly sensitive matter, a strike against Houthi targets in Yemen, were inadvertently given to the EIC of a national political magazine.
As Goldberg explained in the magazine...
The world found out shortly before 2 p.m. eastern time on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen.
I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming. The reason I knew this is that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, had texted me the war plan at 11:44 a.m. The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing.
This is going to require some explaining.
Ya think?
Per Politico.com...
According to The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg received a request to connect on the encrypted messaging app Signal from a user named “Mike Waltz” on March 11 (presumably the Trump administration national security adviser). He was later added to a group chat called “Houthi PC small group” with several other members who appeared to be top administration officials, including Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
Brian Hughes, the spokesperson for the National Security Council, told the publication that the chat “appears to be an authentic message chain.” The NSC did not respond to a request for further comment from POLITICO.
When CFCO was asked about the leak he said "I'm not a big fan of the Atlantic."
Why would he be? They hold him accountable. I mean, what has to gall him most of all was that of all the publications in the country to leak this to, Mike Waltz leaked it to the Atlantic?
And of course, the question I'm tempted to ask is "What if President Biden or VP Harris or someone high up in that administration did something so damaging, something so blatantly stupid as what Waltz/Hegseth did? But I won't.
Instead, I'll ask it this way...
What if George W. Bush/Dick Cheney did this? What if Donald Rumsfeld did this? Or Condoleezza Rice?
Think back to the lead up of the Iraq war in 2003 and all that went wrong. The faulty intelligence, the lack of proper equipment, all the miscalculations in regard to how the conquering troops would be treated.
And these questions are being asked by a guy who spent a tremendous amount of time on this broadcast defending the above referenced officials back in the golden days of yesteryear. I had many a heated discussion with friends, family, co-workers, etc. about all of this. Shoot, in many ways I still say a world without Saddam Hussien and especially his sons is a better, safer world.
But I also have to acknowledge that we went into that war with (at best) faulty intelligence and (to be kind) a faulty plan to restore the nation after overthrowing its government.
And with all that, one thing Bush/Cheney and crew did not do, was leak any of these plans to the media.
The guy who hates the media more than anybody, who has convinced his minions that the free press is the true enemy of the state, had to watch as his administration's plans to take out a terrorist group was not merely leaked out, but handed to the editor of a publication highly critical of the administration on a silver platter. The fact that Orange and his gang of idiots has to defend this does give me some joy.
On the other hand, who knows whose lives were put in danger because of this slop? And if you want to pin some of this on the Atlantic, well I say get lost. Whose idea was to put highly classified battle plans on an app anybody can download? That alone was playing with fire.
Back in CFCO's first term, he at least had some folks in his cabinet and administration who knew what they were doing. Now his got a bunch of unqualified yes-people doing his bidding. Unqualified yes-people make stupid decisions like this.
I mean FFS, JD Vance is over in Greenland this weekend telling people, "We cannot just ignore President Trump's desires"
Why would he say anything else? The last Vice President he had who refused to consider CFCO's desire to stay in as president after he clearly lost the election, almost got himself killed for his trouble.
In 1980 it was a comedy movie
In 2025, it's our federal government.
Scary
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BASEBALL- Opening Week Thoughts
We'll start with the aptly named Bronx Bombers.
My phone was lighting up on Saturday afternoon with the news that the Yankees were basically using the Brewers pitching staff for their own home run derby.
Former Yank Nestor Cortes saw his first three pitches deposited over the Yankee Stadium outfield fence, apparently the first time in baseball history that a team homered on the first three pitches it saw in a game. Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt, both off-season acquisitions, hit shots to right and right center field, then Aaron Judge hit a no-doubt about it dinger into the left field upper seats. For good measure Cortes gave up one more shot to Austin Wells in the first inning.
All in all the Yanks smacked 9 home runs on Saturday afternoon. Judge hit two more and came damn close to hitting a 4th, which would have been amazing. Three homers in three at bats is pretty awesome in and of itself.
And two of the Yankees key off season pickups are paying immediate dividends.
Which leads me to my Mets.
Juan Soto homered on Friday night to help give us our first W of the season. It was what happened on Thursday evening that got some of our knickers in a twist, though.
Soto came to the plate in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and the Mets trailing 3-1. There were two men on base, including LuisAngel Acuna, who Howie Rose had pointed out wasn't exactly being praised for his plate discipline. Somehow after getting behind in the count 0-2 to Astros closer Josh Hader, he worked out a walk for himself. Howie and Keith Raad heaped praise on the young hopeful.
Soto came up after Hayden Singer struck out and Francisco Lindor hit a run scoring sacrifice fly. one swing of the bat would have given the Mets an improbable 4-3 lead after they had been pretty listless for the previous 8 innings.
But alas, after himself working the count full, he struck out to end the game. And of course, this really should be nothing more than a mere footnote. The man is going to be here, if he fulfills his contract till 2039. And the fact that some of us were up in arms about this is why bob Riassman refers to people who call into sports talk radio here as the Valley of the Stupid.
But here's the thing. (and I realize I went over this last year too)
The Mets have been the best Opening Day team in baseball history. While the Yankees can point to their 41 pennants and 27 world titles, we can point to our awesome record on Opening Day.
Problem is, we have lost the last two and 3 of our last 5. The last time we lost 2 openers in a row was 1999-2000. Now you might say, well now, something happened in both 1999 and 2000 and 2024 that should give you pause. yes, those teams made the post-season. So maybe I should chill?
If we get to the post-season this year, maybe I will. (but I probably won't.)
They lost again on Saturday, then, strangely enough, were off on Sunday. Makes no sense whatsoever.
NCAA Tournament
All four number one seeds advanced to the Final Four. That is only the second time that’s happened in the modern history of the tournament. My bracket bit the dust because I only picked one number 1 seed to make the Final Four. Auburn will take on Houston and Florida will play Duke.
Last week, UCONN head coach Dan Hurley was caught on camera telling Baylor that he hoped the refs didn’t fuck them over as he had felt they had fucked him and the Huskies over in their loss to Florida.
And I realize that the right answer here is to take Hurley to task for boorish behavior. He needs to keep thoughts like those to himself and if he really feels that the officiating was the reason his team lost, there are proper channels to go through.
But on a visceral level, I felt his pain and anger. And I can’t sit here and say that I wouldn’t have done the same thing. Again I’m not saying that’s right, I’m saying I can’t say 100% that I would have never done something so dastardly.
Just remember, if you are going to text top secret plans to bomb another country out, check and see who is on the thread. It’s easy to get high level government officials mixed up with the guys in your fantasy baseball league.
Other than that
Stay Safe
and Have a Great Week
.
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