03/25/25
Good morning! It’s Tuesday, March 25th.
International Waffle Day
Leslie Knope, is that you?
And now, the news.
Pete Hegseth – a Dunce
-via The Atlantic and Twitter
Hey, remember just yesterday, and last week, when we were talking about how, for a brief moment of time, Elon Musk was going to receive a Pentagon briefing on our contingency plan for if we go to war with China?
And when news broke we were like – wow! That’s a really bad idea!
And then when it turned out that he didn’t get the briefing we were like – good! Because that was a really bad idea!
Because war plans should be, ya know, secret. Seems like it should be obviously.
Turns out… maybe not so obvious.
Because in a bombshell piece of reporting, Jeffrey Goldberg from The Atlantic reports that, two hours before UN bombs hit Houthi targets in Yemen – Goldberg was sent the war plan, including information about weapons packages, targets, and timing.
On accident!
And in case you’re thinking – this story is going to make Hegseth look really bad… well, you’re right but there are more players in this little confederacy of dunces.
It starts with Michael Waltz, Trump’s National Security Advisor. He added Goldberg to a group chat on an app called Signal, which if you’re unfamiliar, is texting service that offers more privacy than classic texting.
It’s not 100% hack-proof, but it is more secure.
As long as you’re not, ya know… texting the wrong person!
So Goldberg gets a request from Waltz to connect on Signal on Tuesday. He accepts. On Thursday, he sees he’s been added to a group called “Houthi PC small group,” and there’s a meeting that opens with “Team – establishing a principles [sic] group for coordination on Houthis, particularly for over the next 72 hours.”
Let it be noted, he spelled principles wrong. Or, used the wrong one, I guess. Least of his concerns, but still.
Principals Committee is a group of the senior-most national-security officials. We’re talking Secretaries of defense and state being included here.
Everyone starts chiming in… Marco Rubio. JD Vance. Tulsi Gabbard. Many others, but that gives a picture of the level this group chat is happening at.
The following day, Vance said he thought this attack was a mistake. He even added “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now.”
He also said he “hates bailing out Europe.” Cool vibes.
The group went back and forth on details and emotions… all with a reporter in the group!
Let me reiterate here that Signal is not a government-created app. The government has apps for exactly this.
They didn’t use those. They used Signal.
Let me also remind you that, while there is no one reason Trump won in 2016, a significant puzzle piece was that Hillary Clinton used a private email server. But her emails.
That’s what they chanting lock her up about!
Hegseth himself once said the email thing would likely result in criminal charges!
This is like… this is so bad. So bad! Hard to imagine how it could be worse.
Expect this to not be the last time you’re hearing about this.
And just for fun… I’ve also attached a link to Twitter with a video of Pete Hegseth, just hours before this all broke, saying “Under the previous administration, we looked like fools. Not anymore.”
To be fair, he’s right… they look worse!
MAGA v The Constitution
-via The Hill
And speaking of looking worse and breaking norms and overall being super dangerous for sweet little Constitution… on Monday, GOP House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, aka Jimmy Jords, announced that he would begin impeachment hearings against Judge Boasbeurg next week. As a reminder, Judge Boasbeurg is the judge who is pushing back on Trump and his administration’s attempt to skirt the laws of law and ethics by sending more than 250 Venezuelans to an El Salvadorian prison, despite not being charged with a crime.
Impeachment would require 67 votes in the Senate, which means this won’t happen. It’s just a waste of time in order to get clicks on the internet and airtime on Fox News.
As a reminder, Jim Jordan knowingly turned a blind eye to his college athletes coming to him about sexual abuse at the hands of the team doctor. That’s not part of this story, but it should also be included in any story that talks about Jim Jordan.
Mahmoud Khalil and Yunseo Chung
And speaking of courts… Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate who is being detained in Louisiana for participating in the anti-genocide/pro-Palestine demonstrations that took place on the campus last year, has had new accusations added to his case as the government attempts to deport Khalil, who has legal permanent resident status.
The new accusations are that, when he applied for permanent resident status last March, Khalil willingly failed to disclose his membership in several organizations, including a UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees. What. A. Monster. Helping refugees. Good thing we’re jailing these dangerous do-gooders!
The Department of Justice’s filing argued that these new allegations reduce Khalil’s right to free speech.
And just in case you weren’t worried enough (sorry, sorry)… another Columbia University student who has been here since she was six years old and is, like Khalil, a lawful permanent resident, has been targeted for deportation over her pro-Palestinian views. She was arrested March 5th for taking part in a sit-in in a protest, get this… against the school’s disciplinary actions against student protestors.
Within days, ICE officials signed a warrant and she was told that her status was being revoked. Three days after that, on March 13th, law enforcement executed a search warrant at her dorm for travel and immigration records, among other documents.
Legal permanent residents. Now, they are possibly being deported for using the First Amendment.
And that’s it. That’s the news.
Listen, sometimes there are just stories big enough that I want to really leave you with them.
We can’t let them distract us from some of the big stuff. And that stuff I just talked about? That’s big stuff.
I’m proud of people who use their First Amendment right to stand up against this fascist regime.
I’m also proud of waffles. Same amount of proud.
And of course, Leslie Knope.
Leslie Knope always and forever.
Hey also, heads up… no news tomorrow. A Kim’s gotta have a little bit of a life, ya know?
I’ll be back to you Thursday, but I’ll miss you so so much!
And because I’ll miss you, and because you’re better than waffles… I’m proud of you.