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White House says it's 'case closed' on the Signal group chat review
- blitzar 2y agobut, their Signal Group.
- kacesensitive 2y agoImagine if this had happened under a Harris presidency.
- jncfhnb 2y agoSeems unlikely
- joshstrange 2y agoWe don't have to? re: "Hillary's Emails"
- sorcerer-mar 2y agoThe thing to really emphasize about autocrats is not that they're just big ol' meanie heads, but that they and their teams are generally wildly incompetent at actually operating the systems they control. These regimes attract the least competent people possible because those people know that so long as they're sufficiently loyal, they'll never be accountable for competence. It's a great opportunity for exactly the people you don't want making important decisions!
- ty6853 2y agoThe US military bombing Houthis is like squishing an ant, they have no air defense and no risk of meaningful counter attack. Understand they literally don't care about opsec, nor is there much reason why they should. It's an exercise to continue justifying military budgets and contractor and manufacturer enrichment. Any secrecy at best just is there to hide how thinly veiled the reasoning is, which doesn't need much bother because anyone open to finding out can quickly ascertain. It's just not supposed to be said openly for diplomatic and political reasons.
- sorcerer-mar 2y agoNot only could they obviously evacuate their targets, wasting tens (hundreds?) of millions of dollars and dozens of civilian lives on an unsuccessful attack, but it's also literally not true they have no air defenses. They've successfully shot down multiple MQ-9 Reapers very recently (one of the drones used in this attack). https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/houthi-strikes-on-us-mq9-reaper-drones/ https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/houthi-stri...
- ty6853 2y agoOk, de minimis air defenses, per the nauseating HN pedantry. The Yemenis have been bombed by drones since at least Obama's extrajudicial citizen murder. How many have they shot down, less than one a year on average? >, wasting tens (hundreds?) of millions of dollars and dozens of civilian lives on an unsuccessful attack, A mistake would be to think this isn't success. The point is to spend lots of money to justify and enrich the bloated defense sector.
- sorcerer-mar 2y agoNow just imagine an entire cabinet filled with this type of motivated reasoning! Frightening indeed.
- ty6853 2y agoIt's been filled with this kind of reasoning since at least the Iraq War and probably longer. That half of trillion has to be spent somewhere and the cabinets always need to manufacture a reason. That the campaign fails and more 'need' done is not even necessarily a drawback.
- sorcerer-mar 2y agoIt's not true. But if it is, it doesn't matter. And if it matters, what about [my unrelated gripes]! None of this is relevant to whether it was proper, legal, or risky to plan an attack via Signal. From your initial comment: > [the Houthis] have no air defense - False > [there is] no risk of meaningful counter attack — False > Understand they literally don't care about opsec — False, the Signal chat referred to some files being transmitted highside (i.e. properly), so clearly they literally do care > nor is there much reason why they should — False, unless you regard "mitigating the risk of American equipment and potentially pilots getting shot down" as "not much reason," in which case we just disagree on axioms
- chasemp 2y agoInsightful yet frightening.
- red-iron-pine 2y agoDonald Trump got elected in 2016 -- this is news? He's been surrounded by incompetent Yes Men for ages; the smart ones left, often rapidly.
- sorcerer-mar 2y agoHis first term he was surrounded by extremely competent and serious people, especially early on. Yes, they got whittled away over time, but they were still a major mitigating factor on his stupidity. Mattis, Tillerson, Barr, Acosta, Azar, Pompeo, Kelly, Mnuchin are all (surprisingly) god-tier thinkers compared to the current clown car.
- treetalker 2y agoMission accomplished!®
- frogperson 2y agoIt feels like we are living in a powder keg, and articles like this just add more fuel to the pile. I'm so worried that one initial act of violence is going to erupt into something horrific and uncontrollable.
- pjc50 2y agoThe US has a surprisingly high tolerance for political violence if and only if it's carried out by gun.
- red-iron-pine 2y agoonly if it's aimed at kids, tho. pull off a luigi and there is no mercy.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- nickpeterson 2y agoMaybe they’ll switch their next operation to iMessage. Can’t wait to see those Memojis issuing kill orders.
- Mr_Eri_Atlov 2y agoIdiocracy in action
- red-iron-pine 2y ago"case closed" == we're not going to talk about it more, and there will be no consequences. these people are wildly incompetent and are a danger to US and international security. I am utterly shocked the US Army, Feds, or basically anyone hasn't stepped up to displace them.