Got the Signal?

The operation against Houthi militants Yemen was a success.  American firepower was able to repel the Houthis and do serious damage to their positions, weakening their ability to attack Israel with long-range missiles and harass shipping lanes in the Red Sea.  And when the attack occurred over a week ago, reporter Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, was following the developing attack from home, rooting for the success of the attack.

Because he'd gotten war plans for Yemen texted to him on the Signal chat app.

Goldberg was given top-secret information in advance when national security adviser Mike Waltz inadvertently logged him on to a Signal chat in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratliff, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and Vice President Vance discussed attack plans for strikes on the Houthis in Yemen and put national-security secrets on an online chat that anyone could have hacked into while it was going on - emojis and all.  

Goldberg knew all about these secrets in advance - kudos to him for sitting on the information until after the attack was carried out.  By releasing details of the chat after the operation, Goldberg has not only preserved national security (not part of his job description), he's made the incompetency of the White House advisers the story.  The national insecurity officers chatting on this Signal conversation blamed Goldberg for the story, insisting that it was a smear campaign against the Republican administration . . . even though the chat has been verified as having actually happened. 

Once Mike Waltz came clean about having added Jeffrey Goldberg - one of his media contacts - by mistake, he explained that he was trying to sign on someone else based on initials - JG - because, that, apparently, is how you store names on Signal.  Waltz was trying to add another administration official, Jamieson Greer.  Who? I looked up Jamieson Greer, I was left wondering why Waltz would invite onto a chat about war plans . . . the United States Trade Representative.

So why didn't these people discuss plans to bomb Yemen on a more secure line?  Apparently they thought it was better to go on an app that the Kremlin could tap instead of going on an ultra-secure line that the President would be privy too.  That was it - they didn't what the orange blob in the Oval Office to know about the particulars.

Even the White House national insecurity staffers don't want the boss to know what's going on because they're afraid he's going to louse things up more than they already are!

Which may explain why Jamieson Greer was supposed to be invited.

Oh yeah, the Houthis just fired more long-range missiles into Israel again.  Guess that operation wasn't a success after all.

Trump At War With the Service

Protests against wars and armament spending do not usually mean hatred toward the people who serve in the military.  The demonstrations against the wars in places like Vietnam and Iraq are not the same as hating the service personnel who do the fighting or dismissing them as losers.  Yet that's what Donald Trump is accused of today.

And I believe the report, initiated by Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic.  Trump's dismissal of John McCain's service for being captured and tortured, his utter lack of history during the centennial ceremonies commemorating the end of World War I, and his refusal to let his namesake son serve in the military because there was no money in it all fit a pattern that, in my view and in the view of a whole lot of other people, verify this story.

I didn't think Trump could go as far as to dishonor the sacrifice of those who were drafted and sent to Vietnam or those have willingly signed up for the military since the draft ended in 1973 (or even draftees), but his attitude toward service personnel who gave their time and, in many case,s their lives to protect and to fight for this country goes beyond the pale.  That's because serving in the military requires putting others ahead of yourself, something Trump is unfamiliar with.  I know that those who serve in the military are heroes, even though I relate more to those who protest against war, flash the peace sign - and sometimes flash half the peace sign at leaders like Trump - and sing "Give Peace a Chance" and "Military Madness" (the latter song is a Graham Nash tune) at peace marches.  I know that people like Pat Tillman and Beau Biden were heroes by giving up everything for their country.  I honor the service of John F. Kennedy, who got out of a Navy desk job to experience combat in the Pacific in the Second World War, the same war where George H.W. Bush got shot down over the sea and almost died fighting against the Japanese.  As a self-absorbed, venal leader who can't be bothered to sacrifice anything, Donald Trump can never hope to understand that.  It's a sin that this man is President of the United States.

See the picture above?  It's a lie.