Tag Archives: Mike Waltz

Robert Reich: The Dogs of War

Posted on by
Reply

What’s really going on.

As a result, he’s probably getting decent advice about what’s good for Trump but not about what’s good for America or the world. It’s an inevitable consequence of purging from the government anyone more loyal to the United States than to him. Besides, Trump only listens to information he wants to hear.

1. Why is Trump taking us into war with Iran?

2. Is (or was) Iran building a nuclear weapon?

3. Is Trump getting good information and advice?

4. Will Iran now cave and agree to destroy its remaining stockpile of enriched uranium and allow inspectors to confirm that the stockpile is gone?

5. Have the bombings wiped out Iran’s capacity to enrich uranium to produce fissile material for nuclear weapons?

6. What’s the worst Iran can now do to the United States in retaliation?

7. Will the American public “rally ‘round the flag” and support Trump in this war

8. Will he send in American ground troops?

9. What’s Congress likely to do now?

10. Bonus question: Where does the phrase “dogs of war” come from?

The Dogs of War
What’s really going on

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-dogs-of-war

New York Magazine: Playing Secretary — Could These Be Pete Hegseth’s Last Days in the Pentagon?

Posted on by
Reply

As war looms, Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon is beset by infighting over leaks, drugs, and socks. How long will Trump stand by his man?

In the drama of Hegseth’s January confirmation hearings, it was easy to get distracted by the financial settlement for an assault allegation, by the multitudinous accounts of heavy drinking on the job, by claims of misogyny from both his mother and his sister-in-law, by the fact that Hegseth, while married with three small children, had fathered a child with a Fox News producer who was also married with small children, during which pregnancy he had slept with the woman who later accused him of assault, and thereby miss some straightforward information about his managerial experience.

Pete Hegseth had run a nonprofit called Veterans for Freedom for several years, an organization that employed fewer than 20 people, and resigned after alleged financial mismanagement nearly bankrupted the organization. He had run a group called Concerned Veterans for America, which employed around 160 people, and resigned amid allegations of misconduct and, once again, financial mismanagement.

In choosing Hegseth, Donald Trump did not choose from the large set of people who had never managed an organization, or the considerably smaller set of people who had managed an organization without incident, but from a smaller still set of people who had managed multiple bureaucracies and resigned multiple times under complex circumstances.

It’s a good read but a bit long. Click the link below to read the entire article:

Could These Be Pete Hegseth’s Last Days in the Pentagon?
archived 13 Jun 2025 19:07:18 UTC

https://archive.is/xG4FF#selection-1205.0-1209.128

Charlotte Observer: Major Shift: Pentagon to Transfer Greenland Oversight

Posted on by
Reply

The Pentagon reportedly plans to transfer oversight of Greenland from European Command to U.S. Northern Command to strengthen American strategic interests in the Arctic.

In other words, our presumptuous King Donald is going to start pretending that Greenland is within his realm.

Just remember to bring your own lunch — there’s not a soul in Nuuk who wants to break bread with you.

MSN – Major Shift: Pentagon to Transfer Greenland Oversight

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/major-shift-pentagon-to-transfer-greenland-oversight/ss-AA1GjEYj

Associated Press: Defense Secretary Hegseth, bedeviled by leaks, orders more restrictions on press at Pentagon

Posted on by
Reply

Bedeviled by leaks to the media during his short tenure, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a series of restrictions on the press late Friday that include banning reporters from entering wide swaths of the Pentagon without a government escort — areas where the press has had access in past administrations as it covers the activities of the world’s most powerful military.

Newly restricted areas include his office and those of his top aides and all of the different locations across the mammoth building where the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Space Force maintain press offices.

The media will also be barred from offices of the Pentagon’s senior military leadership, including Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, without Hegseth’s approval and an escort from his aides. The staff of the Joint Chiefs has traditionally maintained a good relationship with the press.

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid
Step out of line, the men come and take you away

Defense Secretary Hegseth, bedeviled by leaks, orders more restrictions on press at Pentagon
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered further restrictions on how the press operates at the Pentagon.

https://apnews.com/article/military-pentagon-hegseth-press-access-ff9ed0431848cae8816108a8b19c640f

Knewz: The One Reason ‘Pentagon Princess’ Pete Hegseth Still Has a Job

Posted on by
Reply

According to The Nation, Hegseth still has a job because of one man – President Trump.

The site explained how Hegseth wasn’t picked for the role of Defense Secretary due to any skills or experience, but because he shares a similar outlook as Trump on the military.

Just like the president, Hegseth believes the military has been compromised by the left-wing.

In late April, Hegseth put an end to a military program he described as “another woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative.”

He wrote on X: “This morning, I proudly ENDED the ‘Women, Peace & Security’ (WPS) program inside the @DeptofDefense. WPS is yet another woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative that overburdens our commanders and troops — distracting from our core task: WAR-FIGHTING.

“WPS is a UNITED NATIONS program pushed by feminists and left-wing activists. Politicians fawn over it; troops HATE it. DoD will hereby executive the minimum of WPS required by statute and fight to end the program for our next budget. GOOD RIDDANCE WPS!”

Following the signal scandal, Mike Waltz was effectively removed from his position as National Security Advisor (NSA) by President Trump – but Hegseth wasn’t stripped of his role.

While the world awaits more firings due to the scandal, Hegseth isn’t expected to be let go due to his friendship with the current president.

It’s all about cronies, not competence!

The One Reason ‘Pentagon Princess’ Pete Hegseth Still Has a Job
“Pentagon Princess” Pete Hegseth had a rough few weeks making major mistakes and now, the calls for him to be fired haven’t stopped.

https://knewz.com/the-one-reason-pentagon-princess-pete-hegseth-still-has-a-job

Miami Herald: ‘Lying to Him’: Greene Slams Trump White House

Posted on by
Reply

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) criticized President Donald Trump’s advisers during an interview on former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast. She claimed that some in Trump’s inner circle are misinforming him. Greene also expressed concern about Trump’s foreign policy, particularly regarding the potential for renewed conflict with Iran.

Greene questioned, “Why on earth would we go over and occupy Ukraine and spend an untold amount of future American taxpayer dollars defending and mining their minerals as well as potentially putting American lives at risk and future war? Why don’t we just mine our own rare earth minerals that are tied up on federal lands that the government confiscated years ago?”

Greene noted during the interview that there are people “in the president’s ear” who are “lying to him,” but she did not specify who. Bannon challenged the notion of a divide between Trump and his base, prompting Greene to clarify that the true divide exists between Trump and establishment Republicans undermining his agenda.

I love it when these creeps feed on one another. It’s a dog-eat-dog world!

‘Lying to Him’: Greene Slams Trump White House
More for You

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/lying-to-him-greene-slams-trump-white-house/ss-AA1EJq1V

Daily Beast: Bad News for Pete Hegseth as Pentagon Signal Probe Widens

Posted on by
Reply

The Pentagon inspector general has reportedly expanded an investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the encrypted messaging app Signal. Citing a congressional aide and a source familiar with the inquiry, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that acting Inspector General Steven Stebbins plans to widen his investigation to include a second Signal chat Hegseth made that included his wife, brother, and personal lawyer. Stebbins initially announced the launch of the investigation last month, and stated it would examine a Signal group chat Hegseth and other top officials were a part of. That chat became public after then-National Security Adviser Mike Waltz accidentally added Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. The inquiry will now include a probe into the second group chat as well, and could pose trouble for Hegseth—who has repeatedly denied ever using the app to send classified information. Crediting their source, WSJ adds that Stebbins is concerned in part about “who took information from a government system for highly-classified information and put it into Hegseth’s commercial Signal app.”

Bad News for Pete Hegseth as Pentagon Signal Probe Widens
The Pentagon inspector general has reportedly expanded an investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the encrypted messaging app Signal. Citing a congressional aide and a source familiar with the inquiry, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that acting Inspector General Steven Stebbins plans to widen his investigation to include a second Signal chat Hegseth made that included his wife, brother, and personal lawyer. Stebbins…

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/bad-news-for-pete-hegseth-as-pentagon-signal-probe-widens/ar-AA1E0Rw9

Alternet: ‘Sad white boys’: Fear as Trump terror adviser shrugs off threat from ‘inside the house’

Posted on by
Reply

National Security Advisor Mike Waltz was removed this week but a key Trump counterterrorism official remains in place at the White House — and he’s planning a change in strategy to focus on jihadists rather than white supremacist groups that one leading expert said remain a significant domestic threat.

“The call is coming from inside the house,” said Jon Lewis, a research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism. “We all understand why the right doesn’t want to tackle domestic violent extremism — it’s their base.”

‘Sad white boys’: Fear as Trump terror adviser shrugs off threat from ‘inside the house’
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz was removed this week but a key Trump counterterrorism official remains in place at the White House — and he’s planning a change in strategy to focus on jihadists rather than white supremacist groups that one leading expert said remain a significant domestic threat. “The call is coming from inside the house,” sa…

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/sad-white-boys-fear-as-trump-terror-adviser-shrugs-off-threat-from-inside-the-house/ar-AA1E5NjM

WCCO Radio: Hegseth had a second Signal chat where he shared details of Yemen strike

Posted on by
Reply

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth created another Signal messaging chat that included his wife and brother where he shared similar details of a March military airstrike against Yemen’s Houthi militants that were sent in another chain with top Trump administration leaders, both The New York Times reported and CBS News has confirmed.

…

The second chat on Signal — which is a commercially available app not authorized to be used to communicate sensitive or classified national defense information — included 13 people, the person said. The person also confirmed the chat was dubbed “Defense ‘ Team Huddle.”

The New York Times reported that the group included Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer, who is a former Fox News producer, and his brother Phil Hegseth, who was hired at the Pentagon as a Department of Homeland Security liaison and senior adviser. Both have traveled with the defense secretary and attended high-level meetings.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/hegseth-had-a-second-signal-chat-where-he-shared-details-of-yemen-strike/ar-AA1DjQgV

Guardian: Vance’s posturing in Greenland was not just morally wrong. It was strategically disastrous

Posted on by
Reply

Thanks to Trump’s administration, the US could soon have to fight wars to get things that, just a few weeks ago, were there for the asking

The American vice-president, JD Vance, visited a US base in Greenland for three hours on Friday, along with his wife. National security adviser Mike Waltz and his wife also went along. Fresh from using an unsafe social media platform to carry out an entirely unnecessary group chat in which they leaked sensitive data about an ongoing military attack to a reporter, and thereby allegedly breaking the law, Waltz and Vance perhaps hoped to change the subject by tagging along on a trip that was initially billed as Vance’s wife watching a dogsled race.

The overall context was Trump’s persistent claim that America must take Greenland, which is an autonomous region of Denmark. The original plan had been that Usha Vance would visit Greenlanders, apparently on the logic that the second lady would be an effective animatrice of colonial subjection; but none of them wanted to see her, and Greenland’s businesses refused to serve as a backdrop to photo ops or even to serve the uninvited Americans. So, instead, the US couples made a very quick visit to Pituffik space base.

At the base, in the far north of the island, the US visitors had pictures taken of themselves and ate lunch with servicemen and women. They treated the base as the backdrop to a press conference where they could say things they already thought; nothing was experienced, nothing was learned, nothing sensible was said. Vance, who never left the base, and has never before visited Greenland, was quite sure how Greenlanders should live. He made a political appeal to Greenlanders, none of whom was present, or anywhere near him. He claimed that Denmark was not protecting the security of Greenlanders in the Arctic, and that the US would. Greenland should therefore join the US.

It takes some patience to unwind all of the nonsense here.

Vance’s posturing in Greenland was not just morally wrong. It was strategically disastrous | Timothy Snyder
Thanks to Trump’s administration, the US could soon have to fight wars to get things that, just a few weeks ago, were there for the asking, says professor Timothy Snyder of Yale University

Vance’s posturing in Greenland was not just morally wrong. It was strategically disastrous | Timothy Snyder | The Guardian