r/somethingiswrong2024 • u/FervidBug42 • 12d ago
News The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans
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u/JoeGibbon 12d ago
All along, members of the Signal group were aware of the need for secrecy and operations security. In his text detailing aspects of the forthcoming attack on Houthi targets, Hegseth wrote to the group—which, at the time, included me—“We are currently clean on OPSEC.”
Fucking clowns.
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u/score_ 12d ago
Everyone in there except for The Atlantic editor should be made to resign and be prosecuted for Espionage Act violations.
They can't even hide behind the president's skirt on this one, because he already said in a press conference that he knew nothing about it.
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u/JoeGibbon 12d ago
That press conference was something else. I saw a lot of people commenting that Trump was pretending not to know, but I honestly believe he had no idea it happened. It really reveals the lack of respect Hegseth has for Trump, and highlights how Trump "leads" by fear instead of by earning the respect of his team.
If something like this had happened under Obama or Biden, they would have been immediately notified of it. Their staff respected them enough to tell on themselves if a problem like this came up. It wouldn't have happened, because serious government employees follow the rules regarding sensitive and classified information, but still. I cannot imagine a scenario where anyone in those cabinets would have tried to hide something like this from the boss like a teenager who spilled the iced tea in the walk-in cooler at a McDonalds or something.
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u/score_ 12d ago
Reminds me of the show Chernobyl, how nobody wanted to be the one to tell the next person up the chain what was going on, lest they be saddled with the blame. And when there was any dissemination of info, it was completely downplayed and inaccurate.
That style of "leadership" is bound to end in a flaming pile of incompetence.
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u/LostNotDamned 12d ago
I can't even believe I just saw everything I just saw. This timeline cannot be fr.
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u/Ok_Insect_1794 12d ago
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
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u/classifiedspam 12d ago
And now imagine all the other fuckups they already did that didn't come to light yet. The current administration is catastrophic in every regard.
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u/videogamegrandma 12d ago
The one where they released all the JFK files with all the Senators, Aides, Investigators, former government employees with their social security numbers and personal identifying information, some of whom are still alive and in their 70s & 80s and have to get new SS#s was a fail too. They didn't think to redact the information until after they'd been published.
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u/briannadaley 12d ago
Author’s signal ID was JG. Good chance it was a misheard voice command for JD.
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u/Princess_Snark_ 12d ago
This is the thing that makes this story so authentic. Like, the frat boys can't be bothered to double check anything bc they can't be touched. Idiocracy in real life. I can't wait till they make this into a comedy someday.... Hopefully by then we can all laugh about it with out great grandkids
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u/ObligatoryID 12d ago
Right!
I’m ecstatic it was a journalist so the story was told!
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u/pink_faerie_kitten 12d ago
And a journalist who happened to be true patriot because he was careful not to share certain things in order to protect the country
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u/MidnightMarmot 12d ago
These are not serious people and they have no business running a country let alone make a decision to bomb another country. What have we become?
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u/saltlife2812 12d ago
OH BUT BUT BUT HER EMAILS
FFS 🤦🏻♀️
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u/Boomboooom 12d ago
Hunter Biden’s laptop has entered the chat
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u/Muffhounds 12d ago edited 12d ago
So has Anthony Weiner's
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u/Aggravating-Tank-172 12d ago
Did you guys read this?!
Holy shit go call your congressmen NOW!
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u/Icy-Ad-5570 12d ago
My congresswoman thinks I'm a George Soros radical left agitator. So I doubt she wants me to share my concerns about this
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u/greyscale789 12d ago
My congressman also thinks that I’m a George Soros radical left agitator, and questions why I believe anything from a political hack mainstream media rag like The Atlantic
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u/AnastasiaNo70 12d ago
My congressmen? Cruz and Cornyn?
Or wait, they’re senators.
My Representative wants to destroy the Consumer Fraud Protection Agency, so he’s a baddie, too. Also wants to defund the VA.
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u/Aggravating-Tank-172 12d ago
They’re mine and I called them. I’m also gerrymandered in with racists and cows and I called my rep.
My question is if you don’t think this is bad enough to warrant a phone call, when will it be? Or are you just going to sit quietly while we continue to descend into fascism? Cause the first rule of tyranny is do not obey in advance.
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u/Specialist_Set_1666 12d ago
Not who you were responding to, but I've also been calling but have awful pro-trump reps, Blackburn and Hagerty, and while my mind acknowledges what you say is true, emotionally I am feeling the demoralizing impact of calling people whose interns are hostile and I don't think are actually even making a note of my call (hagerty's in particular acts like it's a joke and he's pretending to take a note). It's extremely emotionally draining, takes me so long to rehearse and get up the nerve to call, and they obviously don't care and are extremely complicit.
So I am beginning to question if there is a way to still get the message across to them without so much investment from me that could be spent doing some other productive resistance work. Probably not, calling probably is the only way, and if i quit they win, but it's just so hard calling about issues that are so personal and important to me and taking to someone so dismissive.
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u/Aggravating-Tank-172 12d ago
If you have iPhone explain to them you’re going to record the call since people have been rude then turn on the new feature. They won’t be jerks if it’s being recorded. Not as bad anyway.
And if they do act rude, just release it on social media.
Or get another device, put the phone on speaker, and record it and release it.
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u/Specialist_Set_1666 12d ago
This is a good idea. I don't have an iPhone, but I can record it with a screen capture app. Thanks for the suggestion. At the very least I can share it and commiserate...
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u/Flacid_boner96 12d ago
Mine never answers and likely has an intern check voicemail.
They don't care man. Straight up don't care. (Fetterman)
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u/Fleiger133 12d ago
Senators and Representatives are both Congressmen, still includes Cruz and Cornyn.
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u/ObligatoryID 12d ago
Fax for Free Online:
Senators
https://faxzero.com/fax_senate.php
Governors
https://faxzero.com/fax_governor.php
Congresspeople
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u/Helpful-Bag722 12d ago
“The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials."
Deep and thoughtful emojis
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u/Ron497 12d ago
I have very good friends who get pissed off if I use emojis in a text, ever. Even if I'm telling him I just had a great camping trip with my family.
Flexing biceps and USA flags?! Goddamn these people are so immature and incompetent.
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12d ago edited 11d ago
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u/Ron497 12d ago
Agree with everything in your comment!
Have to ask, as a professional, how do you feel about the evolution of "disappear" in the very recent past? I now see people frequently writing here on reddit something along the lines of, "The Trump Administration disappeared Mike Anderson last week." I've never seen it used this way. "The disappearance of Mike Anderson is linked to the Trump Administration." Or, "Mike Anderson disappeared last week and his family is blaming the Trump Administration."
I see more and more verbs being misused. I don't see that as evolution though. Just a misuse of the word.
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u/ADHD-Fens 12d ago
And by thoughtful, we mean like, in the gift giving sense. It was super thoughtful of them to include a journalist in their inappropriately conducted conversation. I bet they were really stoked when they realized it was real.
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u/JesusChrist-Jr 12d ago
Elect clowns, expect a circus.
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u/Confident_Advice_939 12d ago
And when you elect douches. What is the word for what you expect?
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u/YearoftheCat1963 12d ago
They should all be fired.
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u/TheMagnuson 12d ago edited 11d ago
They would be lucky if that's all it ended up in, is a firing. There's legitimate legal grounds to send them to jail for violating a number of laws. This is no joke, people should take the time to read the article and understand happened. This is, at the very least, equally as bad as "her emails", but more likely worse, given that actual operational information was shared. This wasn't just a violation of procedure, laws were broken with this text chain and the members of that text chain need to be held to account.
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u/YearoftheCat1963 12d ago edited 12d ago
I did read the article. But you know these guys, nothing's going to happen to them.
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u/TheMagnuson 12d ago
I meant that comment for those who are just pursuing the comments section. The comment was intended to get headline and comment only readers to read the whole article, since there’s a lot of info in there and the context for why this is a big deal is in there.
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u/Ron497 12d ago
I hope that you are correct, I hope these people are held accountable for their violations.
I get nervous in a group text with my college sports buddies if we're talking about how sore we are now after a men's league game and I don't recognize a number. These hacks are talking about actual military attack plans in a barely encrypted chat app?
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u/ShakyBoots1968 12d ago
Expect no less from the DUI club.
That is truly pathetic.
Looks like somebody broke their own rule.
Again.
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u/madscrumptious 12d ago
I use to work for a group commander, and had to SIGN OUT a private laptop that couldn’t be in the same room as other electronics, so that he could check his top secret emails. This blows my literal mind and makes me so angry. He would be fired immediately if this was any normal administration.
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u/WetFinsFine 12d ago
" nobody knows who the Houthis are – which is why we would need to stay focused on: 1) Biden failed & 2) Iran funded."
Wow. DoD at its finest 🤦🏻♂️
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u/Ron497 12d ago
My mouth dropped open at that one! "Hey, nobody knows who these people are...but we HAVE to bomb them today. And, since nobody knows, let's blatantly lie about it."
Boy, this alone needs to be put on billboards across America. They just demonstrated to all of us that they're incompetent AND they'll do stupid things without reviewing their plans...and just blame it all on the guy NOT ACTUALLY IN THE WHITE HOUSE.
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u/Ok_Insect_1794 12d ago
Pretty remarkable how the right just parrots "Biden's fault" on every. Single. Thing. And people just nod along like the mindless zombies they are
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u/ADHD-Fens 12d ago
My interpretation of this was that they were saying "Nobody knows who the houthis are so we can't say we're bombing houthis, instead we have to say we are bombing people funded by iran because biden failed to do so."
Or something like that. It seems like a pretty reasonable interpretation, at least.
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u/MountainGal72 12d ago
Perfect example of the classic GOP playbook.
Divert attention and Blame the Democrats! Every. Frickin’. Time.
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u/RevolutionaryMind439 12d ago
Imho the bombing of Yemen is a way for Trump to get his own beachfront property & country in the ME. Saudi Arabia borders to the north.
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u/TheLooza 12d ago
So…these goofballs are doing top secret national security comms on non govt servers. Got it.
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u/bananachow 12d ago
Yes. On Signal. Jesus fkn Christ.
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u/RigatoniPasta 12d ago
Signal. The app high schoolers use to sext each other. You’ve gotta be kidding me
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u/bananachow 12d ago
My favorite part is in the screenshots of the message group, Hegseth actually uploaded his face for a profile picture. His real. fucking. face.
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u/NYSports1985 12d ago
This is wild! Take the time to read through this. This would be unacceptable, and require immediate resignations in any normal world
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u/fuzzy_thighgap 12d ago
There is no excuse. Accidents get people killed.
Anyone who does this would be reprimanded and immediately removed from their position. They will be tried and charged. They will go to prison. They will lose everything.
He is not special. Just a bag of meat and bones like every other person.
Remove him.
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u/dragonfliesloveme 12d ago
Our enemies couldn’t be happier with the losers in charge of America now
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u/dragonfliesloveme 12d ago
Michael Waltz, our National SECURITY Advisor should be removed from office. Probably court martialed too. Jfc
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u/dragonfliesloveme 12d ago
Was Hegseth drunk again and did an oopsie? Pretty big effing oopsie.
Trump only deals with incompetent and corrupt people
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u/GT45 12d ago
Pete KEGseth…
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u/Ron497 12d ago
I want a journalist to track his background. Dude was an all american high school kid playing basketball for his father, was the valedictorian, and makes it to Princeton, presumably on an athletic scholarship, and plays ball there. I played college sports against the Ivies. Plenty of guys with drinking problems, but Pete is on another level, including with his tattoos. WHEN and WHERE did it go wrong? I want to know how he went from midwestern valedictorian playing for his father...to drunken MAGA screaming about/at brown people in a bar in Ohio. ALSO, needing to be carried out of business events. That ain't just alcohol folks, that has to be drugs as well.
And, everything else aside, married and divorced twice by ~38 and now married a third time with SEVEN kids by 44 alone caused my eyebrows to stand up. Nothing against divorced people, but that is a lot of legwork for a person in this day and age in America.
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u/tbombs23 12d ago
He definitely has a poly drug problem. The #1 worst combo imo is alcohol and blow. Uppers and downers and it creates a new chemical when you mix them called I think cocaethylene that your body actually craves when you drink, and ofc alcohol lowers inhibitions so calling your dealer after 3 or 4 drinks isn't as big of a deal.
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u/newleafkratom 12d ago
"...It is not uncommon for national-security officials to communicate on Signal. But the app is used primarily for meeting planning and other logistical matters—not for detailed and highly confidential discussions of a pending military action. And, of course, I’ve never heard of an instance in which a journalist has been invited to such a discussion.
Conceivably, Waltz, by coordinating a national-security-related action over Signal, may have violated several provisions of the Espionage Act, which governs the handling of “national defense” information, according to several national-security lawyers interviewed by my colleague Shane Harris for this story. Harris asked them to consider a hypothetical scenario in which a senior U.S. official creates a Signal thread for the express purpose of sharing information with Cabinet officials about an active military operation. He did not show them the actual Signal messages or tell them specifically what had occurred..."
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u/bgva 12d ago
Surely this will be the thing that takes down the administration! /s
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u/FriendshipHonest5796 12d ago
I can almost BET if you venture over to /conservative, they're cheering this on or covering it up. I expect that this will NOT come with any consequences, unfortunately.
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u/bgva 12d ago
If I didn’t have bills to pay I’d put my next paycheck on someone bringing up Hunter’s laptop.
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u/FriendshipHonest5796 12d ago
And Hilary's emails. I mean, honestly, it's a very, very safe bet. Like, maybe we should be raking it in over this.
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u/BK2Jers2BK 12d ago edited 12d ago
It was also posted on r/Politics with a gift link. I really hope the MSM picks up on this story. Alas, it's doubtful. Wonder what mental gymnastics r/conservative would perform to portray this this conduct as seemingly admirable and the right way to do things. gift article link
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u/FriendshipHonest5796 12d ago
Literally had this thought about /conservative. It's wild over there. They're.... something special, I guess.
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u/bgva 12d ago
Just saw it on Variety of all places
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u/BK2Jers2BK 12d ago
You see trumps response in the Presser? Pathetic President Fuck-Banana's response
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u/Key_Environment8653 12d ago
Just went over there and actually, the top comments are aggressively against this. They're not happy.
I guess the idiocy is finally getting ground away and they're going to see that they picked the worst guy on earth to elect president.
If maga gets dissolved before the first year of trump, there's a good chance the republican party can recover.
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u/noteventhreeyears 12d ago
This being behind a paywall is a fucking crime. Fuck the Atlantic JFC.
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u/LongjumpingDebt4154 12d ago
There’s a paywall bypass link above your comment in the thread
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u/noteventhreeyears 12d ago
I know, and I used it. But in general, journalism with a story this incredibly relevant to the public’s safety and security should not be paywalled, period.
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u/HeywoodJaBlessMe 12d ago
The most important journalism should be unpaid charity work
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u/LongjumpingDebt4154 12d ago
I get it. But you would think this would be a headliner the world over.
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u/HeywoodJaBlessMe 12d ago
It if it isnt already, it will be. Other outfits have Atlantic subscriptions and can access the full text of the article to report on from their own outfits.
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u/nikiimcc 12d ago
Such a sloppy group of idiots in charge of our most essential information. We’re toast.
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u/LongjumpingDebt4154 12d ago
But Hilary’s emails…
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u/JayneT70 12d ago
Hunter Biden’s laptop…..
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u/Original-Concert4590 12d ago
But the price of eggggggssss 🥚🥚🥚
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u/AlienConPod 12d ago
I've been hearing a lot about these eggs. But let me tell you, we've got a plan to deal with it. We're bringing in ostriches. We will have the best eggs. They will be huge. The biggest eggs in the world. And I'll make sure they're cheap to buy. Biden didn't bring in the ostriches because he's too weak to handle eggs that big. But we're not weak, we can handle the big eggs. (I could go on lol).
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u/EitanBlumin 12d ago
"We are currently clean on OPSEC"
Narrator: "They were, in fact, NOT clean on OPSEC."
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u/ABeaverhousen314 12d ago
This has to be the craziest quote for me "I will not quote from this update, or from certain other subsequent texts. The information contained in them, if they had been read by an adversary of the United States, could conceivably have been used to harm American military and intelligence personnel, particularly in the broader Middle East, Central Command’s area of responsibility. What I will say, in order to illustrate the shocking recklessness of this Signal conversation, is that the Hegseth post contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing." what a bunch of clowns, this is next level stupidity. They are all talking like they are on Nextdoor.
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u/BashBandit 12d ago
I’m only upset that the publisher left the group chat, imagine how much more they’re saying in illicit message groups that doesn’t get seen. Either way, this is actually some bullshit, is damning for our country as a whole through concept of nonexistent security measures and Tom foolery, and I honestly believe this calls for impeachment of all active parties that pertain to this blunder.
This far outweighs Hilary’s email charade and Hunter bidens dick pics
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u/score_ 12d ago
Likely would have been an Espionage Act violation of his own to stay in the group after he realized it was real.
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u/Ron497 12d ago
Remember where you were when you found out from drunken MAGA staffers that they'd just bombed "a bunch of people nobody has ever heard of"?
"Sure, easy! I'll never forget that! I'd just picked up some bulk almonds and a baguette at the grocery store and I was sitting in my Honda in the parking lot dying to eat them, but my phone kept pinging and these people I don't know were celebrating bombing the Houthis with flexed biceps. I was at the Trader Joe's in Glover Park." Jeff Goldberg, March 24, 2025
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u/ummm-no_thanks 12d ago
- Holy shit
- Anyone else bummed the journalist removed himself from the group chat?! Who knows what else they’ll tell you.
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u/AngryYowie 12d ago
Only the best people are in this administration.
Somehow, each of them manages to be worse than all of the rest of them combined. It's phenomenal how inept they are.
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u/MeasurementTop1559 12d ago
The whole cabinet is a clown car but Hegseth is really the most egregious fuck you that the Trump admin gave to the whole notion of competence.
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u/simsim7842 12d ago
To be using emojis in the context of killing people - enemies or not - is psychotic.
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u/betsarullo 12d ago
I do not work for the government, but I’m not even able to text on my work phone due to the Information Security threat texting poses…. But sure, let’s text war plans, what could go wrong?!
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u/RachelRegina 12d ago
Honestly, it makes me wonder if the reporter wasn't added to the chat for the express purpose of forcing the faster timeline in the event that there was significant pushback to delay. Someone adds them to the chat, and then if there is a push to delay, they can say, "oh no! How'd this reporter get added to the thread? We better proceed as originally scheduled so that we don't risk the plan leaking!"
I realize that take is rather conspiratorial, but it's either that or the people at the top there are reckless and incompetent in their security practices. Maybe both?
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u/abime_blanc 12d ago
This actually gives me so much hope that it's not only Trump who is an actual dumbass but his replacement and his appointees too.
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u/quinn288 12d ago
There’s so much to unpack. And of ALL the people to add to the chat, they add the editor of the Atlantic?!
Reality is often stranger than fiction
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u/MannyMoSTL 12d ago
The anti-war president wants to start a war?
For his billionaire buddies, no less.
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u/Mrks2022 12d ago
At this point nothing is unbelievable. Everything now falls on the realm of possibility. Thankfully the journalist had the intelligence to withhold sensitive information to protect US and human assets. I would expect more of these instances to come about with greater repercussions from the administration’s actions. Again, this is appalling, but completely expected given the current leadership.
Edit: spelling
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u/Apprehensive-Log8333 12d ago
I read this earlier and could not believe it. It's like they have no idea what they're doing! I would love for there to be consequences for this but it's way more likely they try to somehow blame the editor. I found it pretty funny that the first couple days, he and his coworkers were convinced it was some kind of scam where people were pretending to be gov officials, only to discover it was the actual gov officials.
Huh while writing this I did a banned word? We have banned words? Is that sub specific or a reddit thing?
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u/DegeneratesInc 12d ago
Was your word about brown sticky stuff last seen hitting a fan?
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u/Average_Random_Bitch 12d ago
The incompetence is fucking impressive. And consistent with this group of clowns.
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u/StarintheShadows 12d ago
Props to the reporter for handling sensitive government information with more care over whose names and what information gets leaked than the fucking government.
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u/Spamsdelicious 12d ago
The user identified as Hegseth responded three minutes later: “VP: I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC. But Mike is correct, we are the only ones on the planet (on our side of the ledger) who can do this. Nobody else even close.
Whose side are they on?
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12d ago
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u/threeplane 12d ago
Goldberg shouldn’t have published the article? What are you saying?
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u/Stardust_Particle 12d ago
The war plans should’ve been published bc if they sent them to a news outlet that must’ve been what they wanted. It would’ve been hilarious.
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u/Kaonashi_NoFace 12d ago
Te Bulwark has done 2 very entertaining episodes on this already! 👏
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u/qualityvote2 12d ago edited 12d ago
u/FervidBug42, your post has been voted on by the community and is allowed to stay.