BED-IN FOR PEACE DAY UPDATES
So You Now Have Permission To Hit The Hay - and Claim It For International Peace!
-The firestorm over what should by all rights be a career-killing scandal for multiple members of the Trump foreign policy 'team' (if by 'team' we mean "the worst and least funny improv troupe who think they are God's gift to comedy and improv") continues to roar - though "by all rights" is doing a ton of work as it has to, because ... (gestures wildly). Here's what seems to be known as of this Substack posting ...
-Let's be clear about what we are talking about ... the act that the scandal surrounds is NOT all the social media and messaging questions, but what all the social media and messaging surrounded, which was the first direct military action of this regime: the United States bombing of Houthi rebels in Yemen, which took place yesterday and was touted as an unconditional success by the Trump White House when the runs were completed.
-Then shite hit the fan, as it was revealed by The Atlantic that the planning for the attack did not take place on top-secret secure U.S. military or intelligence networks or in person with all the proper precautions to take place to ensure military safety of its sources and plans, but rather on the commercially-available messanging app Signal. Signal, incidentally, is a secure network for everyday users like us - but not military-level secure or national security-level secure.
-The list of people who were part of the Signal chat about the Yemen attack was a who's-who of the Trump-appointed Putz Parade, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National "Intelligence" Director Tulsi Gabbard, Presidential Intern JD Vance, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Trump Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Trump Cloven Right Hand Stephen Miller, and for some inexplicable reason Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who reportedly were involved in the planning, monitoring, and execution of the bombing raid.
-The chats included commentary about Europe not being up to the task of running such raids and just not being as STRONG and MANLY as everyone involved in the discussion, Vance making an untoward comment about Elected President Trump maybe being a little too nasty about what he wants to do, the icky use of emojis to react to plans and the result of the operation itself, and a general tone that might be common in such discussions on the super-secure networks, but are rarely seen because they are not supposed to be seen.
-To make matters worse, it has further been revealed that one of the officials confirmed to have been listed amongst the members, Ukraine and Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff, was first made a part of the group chat while Witkoff was in Moscow for Ukraine/Russia negotiations - a minor problem in that Russian data hackers have reportedly been able to break into and wreak havoc with Signal and its networks, and an even more minor problem in that it appears Witkoff received messages while he awaited an in-person meeting with Vladimir Putin himself.
-And, as most if not all Substack readers now undoubtedly know, the only reason the world has been made aware of all of this is because one of the other people who was invited to, and then joined, the Signal chat was the Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg. Goldberg dropped the Signal bomb in a story in The Atlantic yesterday afternoon and has continued rounds of interviews with media Legacy and otherwise throughout the day.
-Indeed, as fate would have it an oversight hearing on national intelligence was scheduled for the Senate, which featured choice moments as Gabbard, Ratliff, and self-appointed Trump protector from his home in Las Vegas who actually flew in for the hearing FBI Director Ka$h Patel were grilled by (mostly) Democrats, which featured Gabbard admitting Signal was not authorized by the Government for Governmental communications, Ratliff playing the Biden-did-it-first! card with zero evidence of its truth, and multiple calls for the two of them and Hegseth to be fired for what most called one of the worst, most egregious, and (since we are talking about Trump) stupidest social media breaches they had ever seen.
-Will people be fired? That remains to be seen, though it is hard to bet on Trump or anyone in his purview ever admitting to an iota of responsibility, if not operational concern. When first confronted by the scandal while flying to Asia, Hegseth went to Page One of the Trump Playbook and blamed everything on Greenberg, who appears to have been invited into the chat by Michael Waltz, one of Trump's National Security Advisors. Trump was asked about the chat in a press gaggle yesterday and clearly had no clue about any of it despite two of his closest advisors, Miller and Wiles, being part of the chat - and that, as Commander in Chief, it was his call to order the bombings, which he did.
-This morning, Trump's "defense" evolved into a statement that the bombing runs went off without a hitch. Trump then gave Waltz a "vote of confidence" that Waltz just made an oopsie and that he "was a good man" who "learned his lesson" - a message echoed by Trump lapdog and House Speaker Tim Johnson and other MAGAts.
-And, returning to the hearing, Gabbard and Ratcliff echoed another one of Hegseth's statements that Goldberg's claims that top secret operational details like schedules and weaponry were flat-out lies - something Goldberg has pushed back on strongly, since he has the messages (he may still be on the original discussion string, for all we know) - and while he did not go so far as to reveal the messages themselves (which should be treated as if they were in a SCIFF and not a bathroom in Mar-a-Lago, to grab a random example), he signaled to The Bulwark that he is ready to do so if called upon or if he felt MAGA spin would be too intolerable.
-So one would presume Goldberg would, in fact, spill the beans, as every spin MAGA makes is sort of by definition intolerable. To say nothing about the do-we-even-HAVE-to-mention stink every now-quiet MAGAt (and many, MANY of the officials in the chat like Hegseth, Gabbard, Miller, and more) made over Hillary Clinton's private email server? (Hillary responded to the news stories with a simple eyes-popping emoji.) Particularly as it is also clear that Goldberg will be attacked, as Hegesth and Trump Lying Spokesbarbie Karoline Levitt have already started doing despite most of the facts clearly and obviously being so against the entire lot of them.
-And we couldn't do this update without a word from the rapidly-dysfunctioning President himself, as Elon Musk defended the use of Signal by claiming that federal systems are so out-of-date and decrepit a bunch of snot-nosed coding punks in their 20s can vacuum data from them like crumbs off a countertop Signal is a cool alternative. It is not, of course, not just because it is commercially available but there is a law that says official federal communications are supposed to be archived for national security and historical reasons - and while Trump wants those laws to be quaint relics they can wipe their collective feet on, the clear and present danger of buffoons blabbing such plans without consideration of who else could be listening should really mean SOMEone should at least volunteer to fall on a sword.
-We shall see what ripples wind up happening as the story evolves.
-On the subject of punishment, Trump does have one set of Enemies of His State in his squinty eyes: protestors who dare continue to drive down the value of Apartheid Boy's core corporation, Tesla. Attorney General Pam "Prosecutor Ivanka" Bondi continues to make noise about anyone who hurts or damages one of E's cars, whose resale value overseas market values continues to freefall into negative territory, and whose directives to MAGAts who are still scraping coins together to get a dozen eggs, being charged and tried like actual terrorists. The zeal to protect the falling-apart Cybertrucks is so intense one story claimed the White House would rejoin the International Criminal Court for the specific purpose of bringing anyone who lit a match or pulls out a spray paint can near a Tesla facility or car would be shipped to The Hague. That such cases would likely bring cacophonies of laughter have apparently not yet came into the minds of such prosecutors.
-Bondi is also looking to build a feud with one of the handful of Democrats who are forcefully - and in her case, joyfully - putting Trump and company's feet to the fire: Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett. Bondi is accusing Crockett of more or less supplying Tesla protestors with gas cans and torches and instructions to the next Tesla dealership - something Crockett has not done, and Crockett herself clarifies that she HAS NEVER called for destruction of property in TikTok videos and Congressional testimony. Not content with just clarifying that, Crockett then helpfully suggests that Bondi might be better off if she were to work to keep criminals like, oh, 34-count-convicted felons off the streets and not committing more crimes than trying to turn peaceful first-amendment protests into literal international crimes.
-This Substacker does wish there were more Jasmine Crocketts challenging this regime, and for the record we also want to tell our readers DO NOT BURN OR DEFACE TESLAS OR TESLA LOCATIONS. Keep the protests peaceful. (But keep on keeping on!)
-We'll transition out of today's scandal with Sportsball News and the NCAA tourneys, although the lead story there is not a good one. The Women's NCAA tourney suffered a huge hit when USC star guard JuJu Watson suffered a torn ACL while reaching for a pass in last night's USC-Mississippi State game. The injury knocks Watson out of the tourney, and the sophomore now faces surgery and rehab to get her in a position to become one of the next transformative superstars of the WNBA and women's basketball.
-Elsewhere, the biggest news - especially on the men's side - is the lack of true Cinderella teams to root for. For the first time in decades, the Sweet Sixteen does not contain a so-called "mid-major" team - the Big Ten, SEC, ACC, and Big XII take up all the slots in the brackets. And of those teams, only four teams - 5 seed Michigan, 6 seeds BYU and Mississippi, and 10 seed Arkansas - are not among the top seeds. While there is still only one ESPN bracket that has not been blown up, the belief is the movement of players to the "power conferences" with NIL monies being paid to players may account for the lack of smaller schools breaking through. To say nothing of 13 seeds blowing up brackets.
-Those games resume Thursday along with Major League Baseball-wide Opening Day across the country, so between that and whatever else happens with ... (gestures wildly) ... take a bit of a breather, breathe in, and let's get the daily histories up and gear up for the next wave ...
-NEWS ON THIS DATE: In 1807, the British Parliament ended the slave trade in the British West Indies. In 1911, a fire in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory killed 146 and prompted one of the first waves of workplace protections in New York, led by Franklin Roosevelt. In 1965, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., completed a march from Selma to Montgomery, AL. In 1975, Saudi Arabian King Faisal was assassinated by his nephew. In 1988, protests in then-Czechoslovakia sparked the Velvet Revolution.
-DEBUTS ON THIS DATE: Easter (31 AD-ish), Venice (451 or thereabouts), Titan, the largest moon of Saturn (1655), the Billboard country music chart (1939), manned torpedoes (1941), color television sets (1954), Wikipedia (1995).
-HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Arturo Toscanini, Bela Bartok, Ed Begley Sr., Bridget D'oyly Carte, David Lean, Howard Cosell, Simone Signoret, Eileen Ford, Flannery O'Connor, Jim Lovell, Cecil Taylor, Gloria Steinem, Johnny Burnette, Hoyt Axton, Aretha Franklin, Paul Michael Glaser, Bonnie Bedelia, Sir Elton John, Jean Potvin, Bob Pelander, Mary Gross, Daniel Boulud, Lee Mazzilli, James McDaniel, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jeff Healey, Tom Glavine, Travis Fryman, Cammi Granato, Sheryl Swoopes, Wladimir Klitschko, Katharine McPhee, Big Sean, Mikey Madison, and Sha'Carri Richardson.
-REST IN PEACE/POWER: Frederic Mistral, Claude Debussy, Ida B. Wells, Eddie Collins, Roland Barthes, Bob Waterfield, Robert Joffrey, Cal Ripken Sr., Paul Henning, Buck Owens, England Dan Seals, Bert Sugar, Anthony Lewis, Mark Blum, Beverly Cleary, Larry McMurtry, and Taylor Hawkins.
-FEED THE WORMS: Assassin-to-the-assassin Jack Ruby, proto-gay bigot Anita Bryant, and pioneering car racer turned mega-Trumper Danica Patrick entered Earth on this date.
-TODAY'S MUSIC INTERLUDE: Happy Birthday to Cleveland's Favorite Rock Son, Michael Stanley. (Sax on the recording by the immortal Clarence Clemons.)