Our story so far: Pete Hegseth has no qualifications to be secretary of defense. He's a Fox News weekend host who's written a book about how terrible our military is, and that's it. He's also been accused of sexual assault in an encounter he had while he was divorcing his second wife and had just had a baby with his then mistress (now third wife).
Then, shortly after his nomination, we learned all about the Christian tattoos that cover his body—which also just happen to be popular with white nationalist groups.
Then, a couple of days ago we learned that his own mother thought he was a huge asshole during this period, someone who "belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego." She now says she regrets saying that.
And then last night Jane Mayer broke the news that former colleagues at organizations he ran "characterized Hegseth as a predatory racist with a substance abuse problem who badly mismanaged the only two organizations he ever led." A report written nine years ago said he was "repeatedly intoxicated while acting in his official capacity—to the point of needing to be carried out of the organization’s events."
Ladies and gentlemen, this is your next secretary of defense: boorish, abusive, racist, incompetent, and unqualified. It's so bad that Republicans might even dither a bit before confirming him.
Who needs a Secretary of Defense anyway? Donald Trump knows more than all the generals. Just ask him.
He has a big uh.... brain! And all the best words!
All these appointments are so bad I'm beginning to think Trump thought he could get away with his recess appointment scheme. And he still might.
There's a reason why he insisted the next majority leader be on board with recess appointments.
Don’t worry. Every Republican Senator will joyfully lick Trump’s ass to confirm every single one of his nominees.
Donald Trump knows more than all the generals. Just ask him.
Yet another thing Donnie has in common with Adolf.
It's not my intention to rush to the defense of Hitler, but this is more complicated than saying that he believed that he knew more than his generals.
Despite the reputation the German General Staff had as geniuses, they legitimately fucked up a lot in the first half of WW2. The initial plan they had for invading France likely would have been a debacle and ended up in a attritional stalemate. Hitler took advantage of a black swan event to force them to adopt the plan that produced a lightning victory. The actual plan was written by Erich von Manstein, but Hitler championed it.
It was the General Staff that hatched the plan for Operation Barbarossa with inadequate logistics and operating on three divergent axes, dissipating their forces. It was the generals who insisted on Operation Typhoon to try to take Moscow in Nov-Dec 1941 that left the divisions overstretched and exhausted in the face of the Soviet counteroffensive. And when that offensive began to devour the Wehrmacht, the generals wanted to pull back. Hitler was correct to insist that they stand and fight (though his reasoning for why they should do so was wrong). At that point, it was too late. Withdrawal would have exposed the German troops to fighting in the open and having to abandon an immense amount of heavy equipment they couldn't afford to lose.
It was only at this point, when the General Staff had demonstrated very bad judgment that Hitler began interfering more. Granted, he proceeded to do so very badly, but there's no reason to think that the generals would have done much better.
The reason why the conventional wisdom hardened around the idea that Hitler's interference sabotaged what would have been a successfully prosecuted war is the result of Hitler being dead and unable to defend himself against an organized conspiracy of the generals to seize the narrative. The US Army actually recorded the generals in captivity gathering and making sure they had their stories straight.
They were aided by political knife fighting in the British Army. Going back to the early 1930s, there had been intense and bitter conflict as to the best form of armored tactics. A faction including J.F.C. Fuller (an actual Nazi sympathizer who was cashiered for conspiring to bring down the government in 1940) and B.H. Liddell-Hart espoused ideas very similar to the Germans. Still fighting this battle when the war was over, Liddell-Hart interviewed the German generals while they were still prisoners and published them under the title The Other Side of the Hill. He accepted without question that the generals' story was true in all particulars, either credulously or knowingly, and that became the version that "everyone knows is true." It wasn't until the Soviet archives were opened in the 1990s that it became obvious just how wrong that story was.
Despite the reputation the German General Staff had as geniuses, they legitimately fucked up a lot in the first half of WW2.
Nowhere in my comment do I claim that Hitler's generals were infallible. Nonetheless, it is demonstrably the case that, on numerous occasions, Adolf Hitler, acting as supreme commander of German forces, committed grave strategic and tactical errors, often overruling the wiser counsel of his top officers.
https://www.history.com/news/d-day-hitler-germany-defenses-miscalculations
Why on earth would Republicans dither?
They’re wondering where they find another dozen just like him.
'And the sergeant came over, pinned a medal on me,
sent me down the hall, said, "You're our boy."'
--- Arlo Guthrie, Alice's Restaurant
sergeant <-- president and it fits
Sexual assault, predatory racism, substance abuse...no problem. As long as he has no conviction for litterin'.
All that's no reason to take a man's cabinet appointment from him.
I know right! Republicans elevated Kavanaugh to the SCOTUS. Anything goes.
Yep. Double standards are alive and well. Of course I am 'woke' for thinking that.
After he obviously lied to the Senate during his confirmation hearing!
I don't care what side of the political spectrum you are on- nobody on earth forgets what their senior yearbook quote referred to.
Scumbag asshole attracts other scumbag assholes. Being in a coma for the next four years would be preferable to experiencing the inevitable shit show that is Trumps 2nd administration. A very sad and pathetic reality show starring this countries, if not the worlds, worst human being.
A New York Post commenter disagreed indignantly with my claim that Hegseth had no experience running a large complex organisation. Why, he'd been CEO of two veterans' charities! Tons of experience!
One was Concerned Veterans of America.
The Senate hearings, should they actually occur, will be great television.
Like the Jersey Shore kind of great television.
i would take snooki as secdef over this guy.
Aren't Veterans charities basically the definition of scam charities? Hegseth just was more flamboyant with the money.
Not always, but they are a target for it.
Kind of makes one long for the days of "Heck of a job" Brownie, who just ran the Arabian Horse Association into the ground by his mismanagement, with minimal depravity.
And actually tried to do the job he was appointed to do, and blown off by the administration when they just had to sign some papers... then turned into a patsy, despite this.
(And it's not like anyone else cared he tried to do the job, either. Democrats aren't going to save a right-wing stooge and Republicans just blamed Obama via time-machine logic.)
Huh. I do wish all of Trump's appointments go through.
All that chaos and disruption they bring with them will destabilize the Trump administration, followed by lots of political, economic, and legal fallout. All we need is 1 1/2 years of his chaos to set the foundation to take back the Senate and House.
Just saying, don't stop them from self-immolating.
I dunno. I don't think foreign policy screwups are guaranteed to hurt Trump that much politically, but who knows what kind of damage Tulsi and and Hegseth could do? It's really very worrying. I was hoping Gaetz got confirmed, though, I'll admit to that (and RFK Jr, too, if worst case scenarios can be prevented).
I was so disappointed Gaetz walked away. He was surely going to be a superstar self-immolator.
It will be interesting to see if the British, Australians, Canadians, and New Zealanders pull back on sharing intelligence with Hegseth and Gabbard, and, if they do, whether it becomes publicly known.
I would be shocked if they didn't. They value both their intelligence and their sources. They don't want either turned over to the Russians or needlessly exposed.
If I was the head of one of those country's intelligence agency, I would either refuse to cooperate/ share or I would feed the US disinformation. Send the US some small stuff, but not the most important intel.
Talking it through they might silently refuse and send minor intel and keep the important things to themselves.
Australia relies on US neworks for most of its intelligence. American agents work alongside Australians at places like Pine Gap and Shoal Bay; indeed it's more likely that America hides some intelligence gathered in Australia from the Australian intelligence agencies than the reverse. https://www.australianforeignaffairs.com/articles/extract/2020/02/silent-partners
Careful what you wish for. An authoritarian leader who finds himself in trouble due to chaos and incompetence will do something to create a diversion. The more trouble he is in, the more heinous the diversion. Tactical nuke in Gaza? Live fire at the U.S. - Mexico border? Arrest of Nancy Pelosi? Whatever works, right?
It will be local, e.g. Pelosi.
What he really wants is a Tiananmen square.
the pioneer courthouse square massacre in portland?
incoming multnomah da nathan vazquez is probably already at work immunizing poofter police bureau officers from prosecution should they participate in any genocidal acts against protestors.
But all those things only grow the chaos.
It's one thing for an authoritarian figure who is halfway competent, strategically making the tail wag. It's a completely different scenario when the authoritarian is a salesman but an otherwise incompetent strategist who doesn't understand why people hate him, such that his one-time supporters suddenly want to kill him.
Just maybe the whole lot of them will shoot one another…
The House, yes. There are probably about ten winnable seats; not the Senate,thoush. The 2026 calendar is almost as bad as this year's. The big difference is that Dems aren't defending vulnerable seats, but neither are Republicans. There are really no "pickup" opportunities.
The 2026 calendar is almost as bad as this year's. The big difference is that Dems aren't defending vulnerable seats, but neither are Republicans. There are really no "pickup" opportunities.
Democrats won't take back the Senate next election, but there are definitely some pick up opportunities: Maine, Wisconsin and (if Sherrod Brown enters the fray) Ohio.
Much depends on the structural picture: if Trump governs more benignly* than expected, and the country is at peace and enjoying a good economy, it'll be hard sledding for Democrats. But if Trump overreach and/or economic problems trigger an especially strong thermostatic reaction, I think Dems will be in a competitive place.
*Early indications, of course, show nothing of the sort.
I'm counting on the chaos being so big that there are huge swings like 2020 amid COVID shutdowns.
I don't know, ME and NC might be gettable in 2026.
I go back and forth on this. My fear is that the Administration can self immolate and the voters, being the checked out dumbfucks they are, will not notice or somehow blame everyone but the man they voted for. In other words, it just may not matter that he fucks everything up, at least in terms of harming the GOP.
" .... boorish, abusive, racist, incompetent, and unqualified."
Remind you of someone?
He always attracts the worst sort of people. Birds of a feather flock together.
Recently I was hospitalized for a few days, and my Trumper roommate blasted right wing junk and sports on TV about 15 hours a day on his TV. I cannot even fathom being that much of a jerk, but apparently it’s part of their DNA.
The hospital let it happen? Usually they are chock full of respect and courtesy statements...
Yeah. Headphones should be mandatory if there's a roommate.
" boorish, abusive, racist, incompetent, and unqualified. "
Cometh the MAGA hour, cometh the MAGA man.
It's so bad that Republicans might even dither a bit before confirming him.
Ha, ha, that's a good one!
Susan Collins's brow shall be extra furrowed.
What is this world coming to when the people in charge of the drone murder and starvation siege tactics have an ideology of supremacy?
Meanwhile Democrats are clutching their pearls over Hunter's pardon...
+10. As if they think it will, I dunno, burnish their reputations? Make them more popular? Is it working yet?
Sour prediction: it won't matter who the SecDef or SecState or DNI are because Trump's gut feeling will overrule them on any matter that crosses his fleeting mind. The more if he ends the Ukraine and Gaza wars in a matter of weeks, leaving Dems to splain for the next four years why they didn't do that even as Trump, high on his own successes, proceeds to make a mess of everything everywhere else.
If he ends those wars, Ukraine will lose territory and the Palestinians will cease to exist. I'm sure he'll receive monetary compensation for his great deal making.
Yes. We're looking at the Gaza Trump Towers Hotel and Casino Complex in the middle of the Kushner Gaza Riviera. For what it's worth, Israel is already building military bases inside of Gaza, so Trump Town will be safe! Gaza will have an airport and seaport at last!
Pete's bio is a microcosm of what Trump wants to do to America.
Trump wants "his generals" in place like Hitler (by which, it turns out, he means Waffen SS fanatics), so he'll double-down on this person. Murkowski will vote against but Suzy Collins will vote to confirm if there are only 49 other Republicans willing to vote "Yes". Suzy will vote "No" if there are 50 other Republicans voting "Yes". She'll vote last, this time, unlike the rollback of the ACA in 2017.
EDIT: The military did not back the autogolpe on January 6th, so Trump will want to install as many mini-Flynns as possible. That's what "his generals" means.
An incompetent sexual abuser is preferable to a competent war monger to lead the War Dept. Rumsfeld and McNamara were able to kill millions of victims for US imperialism.
You must have missed his “kill all Muslims” quote.
Hegseth lacks the organizational ability to accomplish this goal. He is only competent at sexually abusing women who idolize the military.
I don’t expect he would try to literally “kill all Muslims”. I do expect he would have a pretty cavalier attitude towards the lives of civilian Muslims in the event of any military action we might take or contemplate. We are bad enough already on that subject.
"An incompetent sexual abuser is preferable to a competent war monger to lead the War Dept. Rumsfeld and McNamara were able to kill millions of victims for US imperialism."
Neither Rumsfeld nor McNamara were competent. Both landed the US in horrible bloody quagmires precisely because of their incompetence and poor judgment.
+1
Rumsfeld and McNamara led open wars of aggression. Trump is too cowardly for such since he could lose and people will die and he knows that he'll be blamed for set back or failure, but his malignant narcissism prevents him from putting himself in such a position. So he will do bombing campaigns and covert strikes and green-light/supply others. Here, Hegseth's racist, xenophobic, white-Christian-nationalism will empower supreme indifference to non-white-Christian-male deaths.
That's the only fear with Hegseth. Otherwise, attempts to remake the rank-and-file will yield many fancy memos but die quiet deaths in the halls of the Pentagon.
Trump lost more soldiers per year than Biden, of course.
And apparently in Goosedat's world, soldiers who get drummed out or jailed or killed for being queer, non-Christian, non-white, or Democratic don't count.
"That's the only fear with Hegseth."
That is nonsensical.
The main task of Hegseth is to winnow out generals that are not Trump-loyal. The purpose is to make the army at least neutral and if possible Trump-loyal when (not if) Trump starts to use violence against US citizen. That is the main fear.
The enlisted ranks are already Trump-loyal. The question is, if Trump orders Americans killed and the officer corps tries to stop it, will the grunts just frag them?
Weird you think that someone who wants to kill and discriminate against even more people is somehow preferable.
An incompetent sexual abuser can also be an incompetant war monger. You don't give him enough credit.
The latest reports from FOX employees and the two veteran organizations he led about Hegseth’s uncontrolled drinking may be the kiss of death. Teetotaler Trump has a strong reaction to uncontrolled drinking, in large part a reaction to the death of his brother Fred from alcoholism.