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You Can’t Hide Incompetence
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“Believe me, Achmed, it was so easy to intercept their ‘chat’ on ‘Signal’ that I honestly thought they were only trying to mislead the Houtis … but now it turns out they’re too dumb to even suspect that we’d be listening!" |
It’s no surprise that the appointees of President Trump are as incompetent as he is and equally unfit for their positions. I won’t go into the details of their ‘not-so-secret’ online ‘chat’ initially reported in the Atlantic magazine, whose editor was accidentally and unbelievably included in it, like a bug on a wall.
Conceivably, using the relatively insecure ‘Signal’ chat room for a discussion of military tactics violates all existing protocols for discussing such sensitive matters, and everyone involved in the ‘chat’ ought to have known that. More details are all over the internet and in every newspaper in the country. If you are not aware of it, YOU are part of the problem.
But here are some comments about their gross ignorance regarding security measures, as they appeared in ‘Letters from an American’ dated March 24: "Zachary B. Wolf of CNN noted that “Trump intentionally hired amateurs for top jobs. This is their most dramatic blunder.” Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) told Brian Tyler Cohen: “My first reaction... was 'what absolute clowns.' Total amateur hour, reckless, dangerous…. This is what happens when you have basically Fox News personalities cosplaying as government officials.” Foreign policy scholar Timothy Snyder posted: “These guys inherited one of the most functional state apparatus in the history of the world and they are inhabiting it like a crack house.”
Of interest is that 'chats' on official government secure sites are permanent and ultimately there as evidence, if ever necessary, of wrongdoing. Using an insecure, although encrypted, non-government site like Signal, however, enables the content to be 'timed-out' so it is unavailable for investigation in the future.
The American people are catching on to these phonies. Their incompetence becomes more apparent with each passing day. From here on in the Republicans will be losing elections, with the Democrats likely to take over the House of Representatives next year. Note that President Trump has even withdrawn the nomination of Representative Elise Stefanik to be our United Nations Ambassador because that would require a special election to replace her, something Trump now fears the Democrats would win, reducing the Republican's razor-thin House majority!
But getting back to the infamous ‘chat,’ with the country in the hands of these idiots, particularly Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth (the major source of its security violations), a fool who should be sent packing back to FoxNews, it is now a question of our surviving as a representative democracy until the November, 2026 elections.
Are you aware that the confirmation of Hegseth’s appointment as Defense Secretary, on which the Senate vote was tied, 50 to 50, was only accomplished by Vice President Vance’s tie-breaking vote?
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| Hegseth and his boss |
Before that happened, it was thought the Senate would not vote to confirm him because North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis was planning on voting ‘no’ because of Hegseth’s rumored history of drunkenness. It is also rumored that at the last moment Tillis switched to confirming him, putting the decision into Vance’s hands but only after President Trump threatened ultra-conservative Tillis with a MAGA primary challenger in 2026. These may just be rumors, but they make sense.
Tillis, Vance, and the President should join Hegseth in resigning and returning to civilian life for the good of the nation; they all share responsibility for this breach of national security. What is not a rumor is that the Pentagon, a few days after the ‘chat’ that is now in the news took place, finally got around to sending out a warning that the site used for it was not secure and possibly being monitored by Russia, as if they didn’t know that earlier. Hegseth, as Defense Secretary, ought to know what is going on at the Pentagon. That’s another reason for the firing of those mentioned above. You can’t hide incompetence.
JL
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One Democrat and One ‘Independent’ Know the Score
You might not agree with everything Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Lopez say, but they are on the right track. CLICK HERE or copy and paste https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/24/2312252/-AOC-and-Sanders-are-drawing-massive-crowds-and-making-Musk-nervous?detail=emaildkre on your browser line to find out what their ‘road show’ is accomplishing. And don’t skip what the ‘daily KOS’ commenters had to say there, either.
I see this as a reaction to the moribund Democratic establishment which might, I hope, take note and follow, follow, follow!
We know what Bernie and AOC are against, and very generally, what they are for … but its about time a Democratic Party agenda meeting today’s challenges appeared, one at least sufficiently specific to convince independents and disenchanted Republicans to ‘vote blue.’ Merely getting rid of Trump and his crew might not be enough to secure their votes.
Historical Note: After the Democrats had voted the inept Herbert Hoover out of office in 1932, President-elect Roosevelt asked Frances Perkins, his choice as Secretary of Labor, what had to be done to remedy the social and economic problems in which the country was mired. She was quite specific and got the President to agree to back her goals that included old-age insurance, employment insurance, health insurance, a 40-hour work week, a minimum wage, and abolition of child labor. It took years for all of that to eventually become law but a big chunk of it became effective in 1935 when the initial Social Security legislation was enacted. FDR was repeatedly re-elected (the two term limit didn’t exist then) because the specificity of the Democratic agenda resonated with the voters. They liked what they were hearing.
Today, the Democrats must once again be as specific as Perkins was in 1932 as to what their agenda is. Then they will win more easily in 2026 and 2028.
JL
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Trump and Musk on Social Security
Opposition to Social Security, it has been said, is like ‘stepping on the ‘third rail,’ a mistake which has electrocuted more than one political campaigner. Some Republicans, however, are willing to give it a try.
While the President keeps saying that he won’t be messing with Social Security, his Rasputin-like advisor, Elon Musk, thinks Social Security is a ‘’Ponzi Game’ rather that the government-managed retirement income insurance program that has been operating successfully for the past 90 years.
Thus far, they have not cut benefits, their true aim, but are eliminating enough Social Security employees to make telephone inquiries and office visits practically impossible, creating near chaos at the agency, giving its opponents an excuse to attempt to privatize its programs. Musk stands there smirking with his chainsaw in hand, perhaps an appropriate approach in a private business, but not with agencies designed to serve the public. Their ‘bottom lines’ differ and Musk doesn’t understand that difference.
Republicans, if they had any brains, would disavow Musk and chase him out of Cabinet meetings, because he is perhaps the best spokesperson the Democrats could possibly have, as he tears apart the concept of government ‘of, by, and for’ the people enunciated by Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg.
Really though, could you expect anything different from this opportunist, belatedly a Canadian and then an American citizen, but born, raised, and educated in apartheid South Africa? Although apartheid is now illegal there, its historic influences remain echoed by the way differing classes, defined by the color of their skin, lead their daily lives in that country. The minority Whites and a very few Blacks and 'coloreds' live in nice neighborhoods while the rest still call crumbling shantytowns home. And this is the culture from which Elon Musk comes.
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| Musk's hometown: Pretoria |
Unquestionably, he is an advocate of a government (or even the absence of a government) beholden to the wealthy, corporations, and billionaire capitalists from the world of technology ... and as the old saying concludes, leaving ‘the Devil to take the hindmost.’
Hey, gang! To Elon Musk, you are that hindmost.
JL
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Two Things to Keep Your Eyes On
First, even though the Constitution gave us the Supreme Court, establishing lower courts was left to Congress. House Speaker Johnson is threatening to use this power to weaken such courts where many judges seem to be ruling against some of the excesses of the Trump administration. He may try some tricks like reducing the funding for these courts. Keep your eyes open.
The other thing to watch might be even more serious. Last month, the President fired the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Charles Brown, and replaced him with General Dan Caine, who will appear before a Senate Committee considering his appointment next week. General Brown’s dismissal was apparently based on his commitment to installing ‘D.E.I.’ principles in the Armed Forces. This didn’t sit well with our President, who opposes D.E.I. as undemocratic, when the opposite is the truth. Our Constitution's division of powers is intended to prevent 'tyranny by a majority,' from taking away the benefits of democracy from those not in that majority, the aim of many on the right in the false name of democracy.
Right now, the Vice Chairman, Admiral Christopher Grady, is temporarily filling the vacancy. It is unusual, if not suspicious, that Admiral Grady was not included among those involved in the ‘chat’ mentioned earlier in this posting of Jackspotpourri; it certainly included matters of a military nature. Perhaps they feared his input, as someone not already established as part of their team.
An ancillary role of the leaders of any nation’s armed forces, in this country the Joint Chiefs of Staff, becomes important because, like it or not, when a government in a ‘banana republic’ disintegrates for one reason or another, it is usually the military that picks up the pieces and tries to restore order. Look to Latin America and Africa for examples.
And like it or not, the behavior of the Trump Administration and its captive Congress is changing the government of the United States of America into a bare bones structure that might not be able to effectively deal with the challenges, foreign or even domestic, that it faces. That is why the Senate hearing on General Caine’s appointment next week is important. The inconceivable is not the impossible.
JL
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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri
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JL
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