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Bryan Zepp Jamieson<\/i><\/p>\n
March 27th<\/sup> 2025<\/i><\/p>\n The breaking story about the Signal chat group conversation leading up to the bombing of Houthis in Yemen was already one of the most egregious and bizarre in the annals of American history.<\/p>\n Accidentally inviting the top editor of one of America\u2019s most renowned journalistic magazines, (Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, in case you\u2019ve been on the far side of the Moon this past week) to a group chat about a pending military attack is a bit like being in an NFL team huddle and glancing up to see the stadium announcer is also in the huddle, holding a microphone, listening carefully to the play plan and nodding thoughtfully.<\/p>\n Of course, to stretch that simile further, in this particular huddle there\u2019s no assurance that any of the guys wearing your uniform are actually on the same team. You already know the coach is working for the other guys, after all.<\/p>\n The participants, caught out, have been throwing excuses and lies around madly in all directions like custard pies in a Mack Sennet movie. They\u2019ve tried claiming that the transcript was a hoax, that they didn\u2019t discuss classified information, and that Goldberg made it up because he doesn\u2019t like Trump.<\/p>\n Tulsi Gabbard doesn\u2019t seem to know what country she was in during the discussion. Well, you know how it is: you see one Asian country, you\u2019ve seen all of them. At least one participant was in Moscow during the chat.<\/p>\n Speaking of Moscow, it seems that the reason the Pentagon had issued a blanket order the week before to never use Signal for any official reasons was because Russia had successfully hacked the encryption of the app. And while the Russians may not have been involved with this particular breach, it seems that the names, phone numbers, emails and passwords of all the participants in the session were available online.<\/p>\n About the only people who didn\u2019t know were the American public. But by inviting Goldberg, they got that covered.<\/p>\n To call this a clusterfuck is a bit like saying the Fyre Festival didn\u2019t go well. It\u2019s damning with faint praise.<\/p>\n National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, the man who somehow invited Goldberg to the chat room, claims he never met Goldberg and had no idea who he was. Evidence, including photographs, says otherwise. It\u2019s not quite clear how inviting a total stranger to a top-secret national security chat is somehow better than inviting the editor of the Atlantic. Apparently one guy there was awaiting confirmation to his government post!<\/p>\n But never mind all that. One person was conspicuous by his absence: Le grand citrouille, <\/i>King Pumpkin, the Donald.<\/p>\n You seen scenes where a major military operation is underway, and they release photos of the president and his cabinet all sitting around, looking tense and serious as they rescue hostages or grease bin Laden or whatever.<\/p>\n Not in this case. The closest to presidential leadership is when one of the participants says vaguely that he thinks Donald approves of what they\u2019re doing here. Evidence suggests that Trump had no idea what was going on. To paraphrase the famous Watergate investigative question: \u201cWhat did he know, and does he know that he knew it?\u201d It seems pretty clear that the President of the United States was absent simply because he had nothing to offer.<\/p>\n Trump himself seems to have no idea what the scandal is about, and is mostly reduced to his boilerplate deflection and denial, some of which may actually be valid. It\u2019s pretty clear he has no idea what Signal is, but having discerned that something called Signal was involved, he has declared it defective and wants people to look into it. After all, it let that Goldberg, who was mean to him in the past, in. Something must be wrong with Signal.<\/p>\n He\u2019s variously tried claiming the transcript was a hoax (that backfired: Goldberg released more to show it wasn\u2019t) and that the Democrats were to blame somehow, and that no secrets were discussed. (Several of the participants have tried making that claim, stopping just short of saying the dog ate their homework.) He is, in a word, clueless.<\/p>\n He doesn\u2019t even have the wit to address the specifics, but is just generally doing The Donald, the things he always does when he\u2019s feeling defensive. He\u2019s the old guy with the cane batting at imaginary insects.<\/p>\n He finally realized that there was something to all this confusing \u2018signal\u2019 stuff and described the event as a \u2018glitch\u2019 and boasted that it was the first glitch in the two months of his administration. A sardonically amused Rachel Maddow that evening spent a full half hour running down the glitches so far. She didn\u2019t pad it or speak slowly. It\u2019s an impressive pile of glitches, worthy of Inspector Clouseau.<\/p>\n But no worries: Trump will have Clouseau\u2019s real-life equivalent, Inspector Hegseth, in to determine what, if anything, happened.<\/p>\n In addition to the blatant incompetence, malice and possible treason, public discourse needs to include whether Trump has any control over this gang of fascists, crooks and subversives or is just their little smiley face for the public. Are the lights on? Is anybody home?<\/p>\n The next day we learned that a) four US soldiers were missing in Lithuania and b) nobody had bothered to tell Trump about it.<\/p>\n If you need more evidence of how feckless, reckless, and anti-American this junta is, consider the following exchange between Congressman Jim Himes of Connecticut and alleged Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.<\/p>\n HIMES: Do you think it\u2019s responsible for you, as head of the intelligence community, to retweet posts from individuals affiliated with Russian state media?<\/p>\n GABBARD: That retweet came from my personal account.<\/p>\n HIMES: Personal account? You\u2019re the Director of National Intelligence, not an Instagram influencer. There\u2019s no such thing as \u201cpersonal\u201d when you\u2019re elevating Kremlin propaganda.<\/p>\n GABBARD: I have the right to share information\u2014<\/p>\n HIMES: Information? You mean Russian disinformation. You sit in high-level intelligence briefings, then turn around and boost the same narratives Moscow is pushing. Should we just CC the Kremlin on your next meeting and cut out the middleman?<\/p>\n GABBARD: This is just an attempt to smear me\u2014<\/p>\n HIMES: Smear you? You lied under oath in a Senate hearing yesterday, claiming you knew nothing about classified information, while sitting in Signal chats where war plans were discussed. You retweet Kremlin-backed sources, then act shocked when people question your loyalties.<\/p>\n GABBARD: I\u2019m focused on national security\u2014<\/p>\n HIMES: National security? While pushing Russian propaganda and pretending you\u2019re clueless about intelligence leaks? If a Democrat had done half of this, you\u2019d be screaming treason on national TV.<\/p>\n GABBARD: This is about free speech\u2014<\/p>\n HIMES: Free speech? You\u2019re the President\u2019s top intelligence advisor, not some random guy on Twitter. Every word you amplify has consequences. And right now, you\u2019re handing America\u2019s enemies exactly what they want\u2014straight from your “personal account.”<\/p>\n