If you toggle it on, DuckDuckGo will provide a bot blurb as well as a return list. Here's the bot blurb I got with this search:
Donald Trump has expressed interest in finding ways to serve a third term as president, suggesting there may be methods to bypass the two-term limit set by the US Constitution. However, he has not provided specific details on how this could be achieved.
The bot is telling it like it is. The story presumes he'd be able to run again and be elected. To the extent people fail to see Elon is only doing Trump's dirty work, hating on Elon for it instead of hating on the dirty work itself and its actual father, he could possibly win again, but BLESS THE CONSTITUTIONAL LIMIT TO TWO TERMS when considering how he'd abuse things by doing it if he thought he could get away with it. What a piece of work.
UPDATE: Reading the TOI link, it says:
Speaking to NBC News in a phone interview on Sunday, Trump claimed,
“There are methods which you could do it,” while also adding that “it is
far too early to think about it”. The 22nd Amendment of the US
Constitution, ratified in 1951 after Franklin D Roosevelt's four-term
presidency, explicitly limits a president to two elected terms. However, when asked by NBC’s Kristen Welker whether one way to bypass this restriction could be through Vice President JD Vance running and later stepping aside, Trump responded, “Well, that’s one. But there are others too. There are others”.
That would be running a ticket JD/Trump, JD top spot, and then winning. Another way, same ticket and throw JD off a tall building once winning. Putin's possibly hellpful on options.
Speaker Johnson if asked, likely would prefer the tall building option.
FURTHER: An Elon/Trump ticket, Elon top spot, would fail because Elon's birthplace is South Africa; foreign birth being a bar, unless Trump could finagle a way to thwart that Constitutional provision too. (It's original text, not by Amendment, so would it be harder to evade?)
Collusive litigation is always a worry, as in name a class, get it through, and then sell out the class. Isthis an instance of a greatly inadequate settlement amount?
More
than 350,000 current and former employees at UnitedHealth Group have
been sent notices about a proposed $69 million settlement in a class
action lawsuit alleging workers lost millions in investment returns
because the company offered low-performing 401(k) plan options from
Wells Fargo.
The
settlement notices, which were sent by email or regular mail as of
March 24, say a federal judge in Minneapolis will decide during a
fairness hearing on June 12 whether to grant the settlement final
approval.
Each
class member’s proportional share of the net settlement proceeds will
be based in part on the balance they invested in certain Wells Fargo
Target Date Funds at any time since April 23, 2015, according to a website with settlement details.
“Plaintiff
filed a class action complaint … alleging that [UnitedHealth Group]
violated ERISA’s fiduciary duties of prudence and loyalty,” according to
the settlement notice, which used the abbreviation for the Employee
Retirement Income Security Act. “Defendants deny all of the claims made
in the complaint [and] deny all allegations of wrongdoing.”
Wells Fargo sold off its asset management business years ago.
[...] Judge
John Tunheim of the U.S. District Court of Minnesota substantially
denied UnitedHealth Group’s motion for summary judgement in the case in
March 2024. In his ruling, Tunheim wrote that “a reasonable trier of
fact could easily find” the lead plaintiff caught the company “with its hand in the cookie jar.”
The fairness hearing is scheduled for June 12 at 10 a.m. at the federal courthouse in Minneapolis.
During
the hearing, attorneys representing the class will seek an award of
legal fees not to exceed one-third of the $69 million settlement plus
their out-of-pocket costs. Legal fees, administrative costs and a
proposed incentive award up to $100,000 for the lead plaintiff will
reduce total settlement funds available to class members.
Class members don’t need to do anything to receive payment, according to
the settlement notice, nor do they need to attend the hearing. Those
objecting to the settlement, however, must notify the court and
attorneys in writing by May 29 and may speak during the June hearing if
they wish.
The calculator says $69,000,000 / 350,000 gives under $200 on average, and that's if attorney fees are $0. It gets lessened while the plaintiffs' law firm makes a killing.
Is the class being sold out? Is UnitedHealth happy to cap the cost and not take a risk of a substantially bigger hit after losing summary judgment; instead not risking a jury award?
Could be.
Would you do anything, if in the class, with those numbers, or shrug and say the lawyers did okay for themselves, and UnitedHealth got off cheap but it's not worth a fight for what, possibly another fifty bucks?
There is cause up front to opt out of class actions and preserve individual rights to sue, but wtf, let it move on without any cost to you then take the pittance and move on? Myself, I'd protest and say take it to trial, get a jury, and roll the dice. You hardly can do worse than two hundred bucks on average.
__________UPDATE________
You look at the lifetime of a 401k and $200 bucks against annual numbers here and here, and a chief/indians difference seems striking. However, in one of those items it is Brian Thompson under discussion, and he cashed in but only until he duly got "Luigied." Win a few, lose a few.
Hate the bastards! And go with Bernie and AOC the crowds they attract and their push to get Medicare for All. It's the only sane thing out there if we can move it past Dem donor money against it, into serious debate, then over the finish line.
Yeah, they are not yet intentionally coming for me. But mistakes happen, as the Atlantic editor being invited to a top level Trumptsers chat over a military strike at another nation.
Or Musk overstepping and being judicially quelled. It is ongoing operations ripe for error, and if I of a sudden stop posting, please ask about it.
The LaSalle immigration court,
inside a sprawling Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention
centre in rural Jena, Louisiana, has been thrust into the spotlight in
recent weeks after the former Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil
was transferred here earlier this month. His case has drawn
international attention as the Trump administration attempts to deport
the pro-Palestinian activist under rarely used executive provisions of US immigration law. The government is fighting vigorously to keep Khalil’s case in Louisiana and he is due to appear again at the LaSalle court for removal proceedings on 8 April.
But
it has also renewed focus on the network of remote immigration
detention centres that stretch between Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi,
known as “Detention Alley”
– where 14 of the country’s 20 largest detention centres are clustered.
And now where other students have since been sent after being arrested
thousands of miles away.
Badar Khan Suri, a research student at Georgetown University, was arrested in Virginia last week
and sent to a detention centre in Alexandria, Louisiana, and then on to
another site, Prairieland in eastern Texas. This week, Rumeysa Ozturk, a
doctoral student at Tufts University, was arrested in Massachusetts and sent to the South Louisiana Ice processing centre in the swamplands of Evangeline parish.
These distant detention facilities and court systems have long been associated with rights violations, poor medical treatment and due process concerns,
which advocates argue are only likely to intensify during the Trump
administration’s immigration crackdown and promise to carry out mass
deportations that has already led to a surge in the detention population. But rarely do cases within these centres attract much public attention or individual scrutiny.
“Most of the folks in detention in Louisiana
aren’t the ones making the news,” said Andrew Perry, an immigrant
rights attorney at the ACLU of Louisiana. “But they are experiencing
similar, if not the same, treatment as those who are.”
To observe a snapshot of the more than 1,100 other detainees
confined at the facility also holding Khalil, the Guardian travelled to
Jena and witnessed a full day inside the LaSalle court, which is rarely
visited by journalists. Dozens lined up for their short appearances
before a judge and were sworn in en masse. Some expressed severe health
concerns, others frustration over a lack of legal representation. Many
had been transferred to the centre from states hundreds of miles away.
Earlier in the morning Wilfredo Espinoza, a migrant from Honduras, appeared before Judge Robbins for a procedural update
on his asylum case that was due for a full hearing in May. Espinoza,
who coughed throughout his appearance and had a small bandage on his
face, had no lawyer and informed the court he wished to abandon his
asylum application “because of my health”. The circumstances of his
detention and timing and location of his arrest by Ice were not made
clear in court.
He suffered from hypertension
and fatty liver disease, he said through a Spanish translator. “I’ve had
three issues with my heart here,” he said. “I don’t want to be here any
more. I can’t be locked up for this long. I want to leave.”
The
judge asked him repeatedly if he was entering his decision of his own
free will. “Yes,” he said. “I just want to leave here as quickly as
possible.”
The judge ordered his removal from the US.
Substantiated
allegations of medical neglect have plagued the Jena facility for
years. In 2018, the civil rights division of the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) examined the circumstances of four fatalities at the facility,
which is operated by the Geo Group, a private corrections company. All
four deaths occurred between January 2016 and March 2017 and the DHS
identified a pattern of delay in medical care, citing “failure of
nursing staff to report abnormal vital signs”.
At
the South Louisiana Ice processing centre, an all-female facility that
is also operated by the Geo Group and where Ozturk is now being held,
the ACLU of Louisiana recently filed a complaint to the DHS’s civil
rights division alleging an array of rights violations. These included
inadequate access to medical care, with the complaint stating: “Guards
left detained people suffering from severe conditions like external
bleeding, tremors, and sprained limbs unattended to, refusing them
access to diagnostic care”.
The
spokesperson added: “These allegations are part of a longstanding,
politically motivated, and radical campaign to abolish Ice and end
federal immigration detention by attacking the federal government’s
immigration facility contracts.”
The DHS did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Louisiana
experienced a surge in immigration detention during the first Trump
administration. At the end of 2016, the state had capacity for a little
more than 2,000 immigrant detainees, which more than doubled within two
years. A wave of new Ice detention centres opened in remote, rural
locations often at facilities previously used as private prisons. The state now holds the second largest number of detained immigrants, behind only Texas. Almost 7,000 people were held as of February 2025 at nine facilities in Louisiana, all operated by private companies.
“It
is this warehousing of immigrants in rural, isolated, ‘out of sight, of
mind’ locations,” said Homero López, the legal director of Immigration
Services and Legal Advocacy in Louisiana and a former appellate
immigration judge. “It’s difficult on attorneys, on family members, on
community support systems to even get to folks. And therefore it’s a lot
easier on government to present their case. They can just bulldoze
people through the process.”
At the LaSalle
court this week, the Guardian observed detainees transferred from states
as far away as Arizona, Florida and Tennessee. In an afternoon hearing,
where 15 detainees made an application for bond, which would release
them from custody and transfer their case to a court closer to home,
only two were granted.
Cases heard from
detention are far less likely to result in relief. At LaSalle, 78.6% of
asylum cases are rejected, compared with the national average of 57.7%, according to the Trac immigration data project. In Judge Robbins’s court, 52% of asylum applicants appear without an attorney.
In
the afternoon session, the court heard from Fernando Altamarino, a
Mexican national, who was transferred to Jena from Panama City, Florida,
more than 500 miles away. Altamarino had no criminal record, like almost 50% of immigrants currently detained by Ice. He had been arrested by agents about a month ago, after he received a traffic ticket following a minor car accident.
ICE says 29,675 people
are in custody in detention centers across the US. Though the numbers
have slowed, ICE is still carrying out thousands of deportations a
month - 17,965 in March and 2,985 in the first 11 days of April,
according to ICE spokeswoman Mary G. Houtmann.
Detainees allege ICE is rationing basic hygienic products and not giving them masks
Tiben said all but one
of Pine Prairie's dormitories, which house up to 70 people, are under
quarantine. Detainees cannot leave their rooms to exercise or go to the
cafeteria, and meals are served in the dorm themselves.
Though they share every
surface, the detainees have not been given masks, gloves, and other
basic hygienic products, like hand sanitizer, disinfectant, or wipes,
according to Tiben. Two detainees* told Business Insider that soap is
rationed and given out every one to two weeks, which ICE spokesman
Bryan D. Cox denied.
For-profit corporations
run many detention centers, including Pine Prairie, which is managed by
the private prison giant Geo Group.
A spokesperson for the
Geo Group denied medical neglect in the facility and told Business
Insider the detention center "provides access to regular handwashing
with clean water and soap in all housing areas and throughout the
facility."
An attorney suspects 'massive under-testing'
"You're going to see a
loss of life" because of exposure to the coronavirus in ICE detention
centers, Jeremy Jong, a Louisiana-based civil rights attorney, told
Business Insider.
Alongside colleagues at
the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Immigration Project,
and the Loyola Law Clinic, Jong has filed lawsuits in three states to
try and free detainees with underlying medical conditions that make
them more susceptible to COVID-19.
According to the ICE website,
the agency has only carried out 1,030 coronavirus tests on detainees
nationwide. Some 490, or 48%, have come back positive. Another 36 ICE
employees at detention centers have tested positive, as well.
But Jong suspects the disease is much more widespread in detention facilities than what has been reported.
According to the ICE
website, there only have been 20 confirmed cases at Pine Prairie, but
Jong alleged that number is "the result of massive under-testing."
Cox said ICE will carry
out 2,000 coronavirus tests per month, but that those tests will be
earmarked "to determine detainee health and fitness for travel" - in
other words, to clear migrants for deportation.
These are, at the most primitive level, human beings no different in that than Donald Trump, Usha Vance, us, or others - to be decently treated.
Meanwhile, Musk "sells" X to XAI, at a loss? For less than he paid for X. Is he trying to hoodwink the IRS? "Realizing" a loss on X, while still the boss and beneficiary of both enterprises? Hope not, but otherwise he'd have to sell Tesla stock to realize a real loss, there the price is depressed, and that would not be just a loss on paper.
But back to the headline - never forget. N-E-V-E-R!
Guardian has the Vance video with a few geeks standing behind him at the space force site. What a piece of work. The man needs to learn manners, no question about it.
Previosly he dumped a load on Ukraine's Zelinskyy.
Now this. JD, do the world a favor and stfu. Worse than Musk that way.
A report on Friday showed all types of U.S. consumers are getting
more pessimistic about their future finances. Two out of three expect
unemployment to worsen in the year ahead, according to a survey by the
University of Michigan. That’s the highest reading since 2009, and it
raises worries about a job market that’s been a linchpin keeping the
U.S. economy solid.
A separate report also raised concerns after
it showed a widely followed, underlying measure of inflation was a touch
worse last month than economists expected. It followed reports on other
measures of inflation for February, but this is the one the Federal
Reserve pays the most attention to as it decides what to do with
interest rates.
The report also showed that an underlying measure
of how much income Americans are making, which excludes government
social benefits and some other items, “has been treading water for the
last three months,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth
Management.
“Households aren’t in a good place to absorb a
little tariff pain,” he said. “The Fed isn’t likely to run to the rescue
either as inflation moved up more than expected in February.”
These are not political shots being fired. This is consumer confidence hitting the toilet. People do not have trust in Trumponomics. It is that simple. Different policy, different results seems a clear way out. Crabgrass hopes for things getting better.
Here, and here. I've always viewed a glich as something such as a website not loading correctly on the laptop, first try. That level of magnitude. Oh, the computer just glitched on me, no problem, retry. Nobody's life at risk and such. Just -- a glitch.
A coffee shop in Kyiv called "Trump" is rebranding to "Nolan" as
Ukrainians grow increasingly frustrated with U.S. President Donald
Trump's stance on Ukraine.
Located in the capital's central Pechersk district, the establishment was opened in 2019 and in January of this year celebrated Trump's inauguration with a special "Trump sour" cocktail.
It
was an apt name in hindsight as since then things have only soured
further — the now infamous Oval Office showdown, the subsequent halting
of U.S. military aid and intelligence, and the White House's wooing of Russia have left many Ukrainians disillusioned with Trump's efforts to end Moscow's full-scale invasion.
And for the few Republican politicians daring townhall events these days there is extensive questioning and unease by crowds without wearing any caps.
Scaling down the ham-handed crap - a surprising thing for the Trump people - is the news of the day. Greenland accepts a scaled down thing when nobody really wanted any visit by colonial opportunists, and definitively said so.
Denmark chimed in. On YouTube -
Link. A German English language outlet. Current relations, U.S./Europe, suggest the Germans had absolutely no reason to soft pedal the truth of things. Greenlanders being repulsed by Trump imperialism, something repulsive to the world.
Trump's people backing down on the fiasco is a trend breaking thing, and deserves applause. Trump's people ginning up the whole thing. Big thumbs down over the sheer stupidity of it. It had "Big Time Splat" written over it from day one.
House Democrats always assign corporate-friendly New Dems to run the DCCC and never learn what a mistake it is. Before the current disaster, Suzan DelBene, there were equally awful Sean Patrick Maloney, Cheri Bustos, Ben Ray Lujan and Steve Israel, all from the conservative wing of the Democratic Party establishment, all looking to recruit other conservative Democrats, all having done a lousy job, winning only when circumstances dictated it and overrode their sheer incompetence.
DelBene, from a struggling Alabama family, was all through life motivated by accumulation of money and became personally wealthy working in Microsoft’s marketing operations. Her net worth is somewhere in the vicinity of $200 millions and she is absolutely clueless about how the voters she has failed to appeal to live their lives. She ran for Congress — a self-funder— in 2010, lost and ran again two years later and won, first using her massive fortune to beat a progressive in the primary.
She has no imagination and no guts, just a nose to the grindstone attitude that has served her well personally but has done nothing for the Democratic Party or the DCCC. This is going to be a good cycle for Democrats, despite her, and she is eager to take all the credit. She could have gotten off to an heroic start by giving a hand to Josh Weil’s uphill battle to win in FL-06, now a margin-of-error race. Instead she lied about what the DCCC would do to help, did nothing at all and is counting on him losing, an obvious likelihood in an R+14 district. Republicans, meanwhile, have freaked out, seen the possibility of Weil beating their crackpot candidate Randy Fine, and, panicking, have started shoveling money into the race, while DelBene... lunches with lobbyists. Last night, we learned even Musk has rushed to start spending.
Yesterday, Max Cohen and Jake Sherman, not even mentioning the imaginationless DelBene or her pathetic, plodding DCCC, reported on the Republican panic in Florida. “House Republicans,” they wrote, “shouldn’t have to worry about Florida’s 6th District special election on April 1. It’s a deep-red seat that former Rep. Michael Waltz won by 33 points five months ago before decamping for the Trump administration. But many GOP officials are concerned that Republican candidate Randy Fine’s lackluster fundraising and sky-high Democratic enthusiasm could put the race in uncomfortably close territory. Fine, a GOP state legislator, has raised just under $1 million since entering the race and has just $93,000 on hand. Meanwhile, Democratic candidate Josh Weil has brought in a stunning $9 million and has $1.2 million on hand.
The money situation has gotten so dire for Fine that we’re told he’s been calling GOP House members, pleading for funds.”
No help from the DCCC, Weil is considerably closer to $11 million today than he is to $9 million. The one hint of a DelBene/DCCC mention— so typical of her and the DCCC: “Democrats tell us they aren’t expecting to come close to flipping the seat blue.” Cohen and Sherman didn’t mention the first thing I found out about Weil when I called him— he’s a Berniecrat in a district where people hate Democrats but love Bernie. It isn’t something DelBene is capable of grasping, let alone acting on. In her world, only people like Chuck Schumer win election— and people who can buy their seats, the way she did.
It is past time for progressives to take over the Party and make it work. Somebody has to.
______________UPDATE_____________
Two old guys talking, and this DCCC trainwreck GOP-lite mess could blow it anyway.
U.S. officials went door-to-door in Greenland to find anyone who wanted to be visited by the Vances. They found no one.
A local travel company in Greenland’s capital also cancelled a planned visit by Usha Vance
The headline says it all? Not quite. There is this:
Vance, the Second Lady, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, and
Energy Secretary Christ Wright are scheduled to depart for Greenland on
Friday, though those plans could change by the time the delegation
departs.
The U.S. delegation was also scheduled to attend the
Avannaata Qimusserua, one of the world's largest dog-sledding events,
but that visit has been cancelled as well, according to USA Today.
As it currently stands, the American visitors will only be visiting the U.S. Space Force Base at Pituffik.
Greenlanders and Danish authorities aren't pleased about the trip. Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen accused the US of exerting "unacceptable pressure" on Greenland through its planned visit.
“I
have to say that it is unacceptable pressure being placed on Greenland
and Denmark in this situation. And it is pressure that we will resist,”
Frederiksen told Danish broadcasters DR and TV2 on Tuesday. “You cannot
make a private visit with official representatives from another country,
when the acting Greenlandic government has made it very clear that they
do not want a visit at this time,”
Frederiksen went on to say the US delegation's arrival is "clearly not a visit that is about what Greenland needs or wants."
It's sort of like a "Go fuck an iceberg" response. Earned, and given.
It’s
a split that shows Waltz’s unique position in the administration.
Traditional defense hawks — who care most about the breach in security
at the center of the controversy — are also more likely to want Waltz to
stay. They view him as someone who, given his close personal rapport
with President Donald Trump, can sell a more aggressive foreign policy
to hardcore MAGA ideologues who are wary of more traditional Republican
policies. [...]
The
debate emerging in Washington lays bare the fact that different
factions are vying for influence over President Donald Trump’s foreign
policy agenda, and ultimately the future of the Republican Party’s
platform, according to interviews with five people familiar with the
administration’s internal thinking. All were granted anonymity to
discuss internal party dynamics.
[...] Waltz’s
job appears to be safe. Trump told reporters on Tuesday afternoon in a
Cabinet meeting that Waltz is a “very good man” and the attack in Yemen
was ultimately “totally successful.”
“You
have to learn from every experience. I think it was very unfair the way
they attacked Michael,” the president said of Waltz, who was in the
room at the time. Trump instead directed his ire at the Atlantic
journalist who had access to the Signal group chat, Jeffrey Goldberg,
who he called a “sleazebag.”
So, Waltz set up the SIGNAL chat with editor of The Atlantic an inadvertent party.
What next?
Readers are encourage to watch this video, with an all to accommodating FOX talking head helping the man. Would you hire and trust this person in a business you run? Would you think him up to the job, if in your organization?
Crabgrass opinion:
Of course, my personnel decision up front would have never let the guy into things.
Waltz has a Wikipedia page.
From the video, he takes responsibility for the chat fuck-up, but only to a degree and needlessly maligns both editor Goldberg, while blaming the Biden Presidency as somehow at fault for all it did or did not do. That is called passing the buck. That is not an act of courage nor of contrition over having made a mistake with a focus on doing better next time. It is superficial, and mediocre, two characteristics I spot in the video but with the admission I well may be reading the man wrong from that limited presentation. Playing the blame game and trashing others when he'd fucked-up is a gratuitous thing, when discussing a situation he instigated that was clear error.
Will Trump give him the boot? Crabgrass doubts it would happen, but would welcome it even with uncertainty that a replacement might be worse.
Crabgrass would be completely surprised if Hegseth is removed from DOD head over this event.
In discussions at EmptyWheel speculation focused on the JG target Waltz had in mind, (where Jeffrey Goldberg erroneously got included), was Trade Rep Jamieson Greer (wiki page). The discussion included thoughts over getting others besides the U.S. government to pay for the operation, Egypt and European nations, because they predominated Suez and Red Sea trade. In that context, the trade rep would be a person already in dealings with both. He could put on the squeeze with a Trumpian tariff threat, or otherwise. It makes sense.
How the Waltz SIGNAL designations got mixed up, Waltz says he does not know, but carelessness is a clear factor.
In the post operation thread an "MAL" was praised, which could be a Mossad Political Action and Liaison Department abbreviation, as humint of a person targeted for assassination whereabouts for strike purposes would be needed, Mossad being good on humint. Also, Israeli notice of strike launch times would be needed to assure Israel did not scramble aircraft in detecting U.S. F-18 or other air activity and raise a friendly fire threat.
I.e., the guess here is that it was Israeli cooperation that helped set target locations, particularly one or possibly more human target locations for assassination.
BOTTOM LINE: In planning air based assassinations and destruction of enemy positions, it is not normal to invite a member of the media into policy discussion.
That such a thing was done is astounding. Big fuck-ups usually have a head or two chopped, but Trump seems to not bind himself to normal actions. Bet on nobody being fired or reassigned. Bet on a protocol being articulated, even if not made public, on use of SIGNAL and proper care. No heads will roll.
Last, the guy who set the agenda and those included, Waltz, seems to Crabgrass to be the wrong person for the job, but Trump decides that, not me. Again, that video is linked, so you watch and decide.
UPDATE: News now indicates a campaign is involved, ongoing as of today; e.g., here, here and here.
FURTHER: Waltz is a bullshitter and I really have a hard time with that. Again THIS VIDEO. But so is Trump, so, kindred souls is all I can say.
During the Obama administration, proposed U.S. drone strikes in
locations outside active war zones (i.e., in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia)
required high-level approval.[24][25]
The Obama administration process for approving drone strikes in such
locations featured centralized, high-level oversight, based on
intelligence about individuals suspected of terrorism activity.[25]
Obama's approval was required for every strike in Yemen and Somalia, as
well as "the more complex and risky strikes in Pakistan" (about
one-third of the total as of 2012), and insisted on deciding whether to
approve a strike unless the CIA had a "near certainty" that no civilian
deaths would result.[24] The process, formalized in a 2013 Presidential Policy Guidance document, was intended to reduce civilian casualties and blowback risks by requiring the targeted person to present a "continuing and imminent threat" to Americans.[25] The process often required multiple interagency meetings to decide whether to go forward with a strike.[25] However, some U.S. military and intelligence officials opposed the restrictive nature of the system,[25] and some Republicans criticized it as too cautious.[24]
However, in the pre-strike review, Obama "embraced a disputed method
for counting civilian casualties" that effectively counted "all
military-age males in a strike zone as combatants, according to several
administration officials, unless there is explicit intelligence
posthumously proving them innocent."[24]
Counterterrorism officials defended this approach on the idea that
people located in close proximity to known terrorists were likely
combatants; some Obama administration officials were critical of this
approach, who said that it led to implausibly low official counts of
civilian deaths, with one administration official telling the New York Times that it amounted to "guilt by association."[24]
In October 2017, Trump abolished the Obama-era approval system in
favor of a looser, decentralized approach, which gave the military and
CIA officials the discretion to decide to launch drone strikes against
targets without White House approval.[25] This policy reduced accountability for drone strikes.[26] After Joe Biden
took office, he halted counterterrorism drone strikes without White
House approval and initiated a broad review of U.S. policy on drone use.[25]
So the leaked SIGNAL chat group chat targeted an individual and "the building collapsed." That leaves open the question of collateral damage. Civilian death.
It is an item ripe for reevaluation that Trump should address because of the wanton way Israel has attempted ethnic cleansing (indiscriminate bombing) on a scale that has led into ICC questions of war crimes.
Somewhere between Biden ceasing drone killings, and Israeli grotesque conduct is the U.S. resumption of targeted drone strikes (recall, Trump45 drone killing of an Iranian general which this latest action resembles).
If Trump/Hegseth/chat crowd has any defined protocol for authorizing killings, it should be disclosed to Congress, even made public in detail. If it is discretionary to Hegseth or any of the other chat crowd to pin the tail on a donkey, fine, but say so.
Crabgrass honestly believes nobody, not Hegseth nor any others, intends a death vendetta on the scale of Israel in Gaza against Hamas, or likely not the lesser level of Israel in Lebanon against Hezbollah. But the fact that this blown chat expressly indicates a target individual (possible several) makes headlines that have yet to be published among other widespread outlets as a part of their reporting and attention the situation earned.
And SIGNALGATE now has a Wikipedia page. Already. Growing legs into a wiki page within days - and that page shows newly published parts of the chat that editor Goldberg had previously withheld, but published when Trump's officials all said there was no classified material in it (debate being whether it should have been classified, with Gabbard and Ratcliff saying that was DOD's decision to not classify it; i.e., fingerpointing at "Hegseth, not me."
During a hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Director of National
Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe contended
that the Signal chat in question did not include classified information.
That Raw Story item gives notice of the lawsuit and that random selection has assigned the case to Judge Boasberg (the Obama appointee also overseeing the Venezuelans-to-El Salvador extradition litigation).
The party suing over preservation of public records is American Oversight, and this link is its press release, with a complaint copy online, pdf format, here.
Politico notes Rubio in a straddle:
The
assignment of the case to Boasberg comes just two days after the Trump
administration, in the Venezuela deportation case, invoked the “state
secrets” privilege to refuse to share details with the Obama-appointed
judge about the timing of deportation flights to El Salvador.
Boasberg
is pressing the administration for details about the flights to
determine whether officials violated his order earlier this month
barring Trump from deporting people under the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798
law last invoked during World War II. But administration lawyers argued that “disclosure would pose reasonable danger to national security and foreign affairs.”
Rubio, notably, submitted a declaration
to Boasberg justifying the state secrets invocation, saying that
sharing details about the flights with Boasberg — even under seal or in a
classified setting — would endanger national security.
“The more widely information is
shared the greater the risk that the information will reach the public
(even if unintentionally),” Rubio wrote.
Now, Rubio is a defendant in the
Signalgate lawsuit brought by American Oversight, a left-leaning
government watchdog group. He is being sued not only for his involvement
in the text exchange but also for his dual position as acting head of
the National Archives, which is responsible for preserving records used
by government officials in the course of their work. The Atlantic
reported that Waltz set the text thread to automatically delete.
That's meeting himself coming back the other way, which is always a discomfort. Politico also mentioned Trump's vendetta hate toward Boasberg for not being a bootlicker type he is used to:
Boasberg prompted a furious
backlash from Trump and his allies when he halted the administration’s
deportation efforts earlier this month, ruling that the administration
appeared to be violating due process requirements by tagging Venezuelan
nationals as terrorists and rushing them onto planes with virtually no
chance to contest the designation.
Trump called for Boasberg’s
impeachment, a call that was echoed by some members of Congress, and has
unleashed near-daily attacks on the judge.
BBC coverage an ongoing updated last-in-top-of-post item. Readers are urged to keep it current as reporting is updated.
Hegseth has said no targets were identified in the chat thread. Wikipedia contradicts. "Their top missle guy" identifies the target, after the strike, and his status identification is more newsworthy than if only a name given..
AGAIN legs have grown. It is all over the web. You can find a spectrum of coverage evolving, where that BBC item is again noted. All for now. If searching, using
search = SIGNALGATE
should keep you informed, although other search is clearly possible.
____________UPDATE_________
The litigation assigned to Judge Boasberg specifically seeks this relief:
WHEREFORE, Plaintiff respectfully requests that this Court: 1.
Declare that messages and communications sent through the Signal
application in the course of conducting agency business are agency
records subject to the FRA;
2.
Declare that the failure to ensure such messages and communications are
preserved, as required by 44 U.S.C. § 2911, comprises an unlawful
removal of federal records in violation of the FRA;
3. Declare that Defendants have maintained an inadequate recordkeeping system under the FRA;
4. Declare that Defendants have violated their respective duties under the FRA andAPA;
5.
Issue emergency injunctive relief and a permanent injunction ordering
Defendants to comply with their respective duties under the FRA and APA,
including by referring the matter to the Attorney General for
enforcement of the FRA, preservation of records, recovery of unlawfully
removed records, and the recovery or restoration of any deleted or
destroyed materials to the extent possible;
6. Issue emergency
injunctive relief and a permanent injunction ordering Defendants to
preserve all materials relating to Plaintiff’s claims under the FRA;
7. Grant Plaintiff an award of attorneys’ fees and other litigation costs reasonably incurred in this action; and
8. Grant Plaintiff any other relief this Court deems appropriate. Dated: March 25, 2025
The
import of the lawsuit is that a protocol existed at the time this
SIGNAL chat was held by which SIGNAL was used by highest level federal
officials and part of the protocol was to remove chat portions in one
day, four days for the rest.
That is worrisome to historians who
want non-classified public records preserved so that after the fact,
true history, inclusive history, will be preserved to assist them and
the general public to see what the government was doing and when it was
doing it.
The words coming to mind, TRANSPARANCY, RESPONSIBILITY,
ACCOUNTABILITY are all trampled and dishonored when top officials scrub
records and use unofficial communication channels such as SIGNAL to
cover their tracks.
This scrubbing and side-channel use was
deliberate, and an inescapable circumstantial inference is this is not
the first time in only two months of a Pres 47 reign that such
unacceptable usage has happened. The public of the United States of
America deserves better. And Hegseth should resign. Two of the nation's
lead spooks say it was his game, to do all the wrong things and then be
confrontational and belligerent, instead of duly apologetic, when the
fan loaded up.
Replace him with someone better fit to lead a major arm of government.
Gabbard
would do well as head of DOD. She'd likely take the switch, for the
good of the nation. And NCI duties could go to another nominee, duly
confirmed
FURTHER: None of these thread participants looks good. The pejorative anti-Europe banter offends. Emoji use is childish. To the extent they are adults they will, aside from Hegseth, be more careful. Pete is a disaster looking to happen.
"I know nothing about it. I am hearing about it for the first time." That was Trump's response to a press conference question. Trump might need to have a discussion with the group of high administration officials who fucked-up if honestly hearing of the fuck-up for the first time was via a press conference question.
Whatever Trump knew and when did he know it, multiple reports exist on the Internet. It is all over multiple sites and with extensive video reporting.
The original Atlantic article is behind a subscription wall, but some readers might have access. (Crabgrass, from another site's commentator's gift access has full access, but that gift access was granted in a context for that site's community, not generally.)
Crabgrass will, before ending, quote mimimally from the Atlantic item, but for now, for context, two video posts, first, this twelve minute video. It includes a Hegseth reaction which will be a part of the legs growing. All readers are urged to view it.
The
Signal chat group, I concluded, was almost certainly real. Having come
to this realization, one that seemed nearly impossible only hours
before, I removed myself from the Signal group, understanding that this
would trigger an automatic notification to the group’s creator, “Michael
Waltz,” that I had left. No one in the chat had seemed to notice that I
was there. And I received no subsequent questions about why I left—or,
more to the point, who I was.
Earlier
today, I emailed Waltz and sent him a message on his Signal account. I
also wrote to Pete Hegseth, John Ratcliffe, Tulsi Gabbard, and other
officials. In an email, I outlined some of my questions: Is the “Houthi
PC small group” a genuine Signal thread? Did they know that I was
included in this group? Was I (on the off chance) included on purpose?
If not, who did they think I was? Did anyone realize who I was when I
was added, or when I removed myself from the group? Do senior
Trump-administration officials use Signal regularly for sensitive
discussions? Do the officials believe that the use of such a channel
could endanger American personnel?
Brian
Hughes, the spokesman for the National Security Council, responded two
hours later, confirming the veracity of the Signal group.
Those questions are important enough to set out, with surrounding context. There is no indication, yet that Crabgrass knows of, any answers.
Newsweek today reported editor Goldberg is in discussions about public and or other more limited possible disclosure of the full text of all of the chat sequences before he removed himself from the chat group.
If operational detail which might indicate future military deployment details where personnel are in danger are details of the chat thread, there is cause to be cautious among those to whom troop safety matters.
Hegseth is on the record stressing that personnel risk and threat are major things he views as important things to manage as part of the job. From his own former infantry man's perspective in the field, that should matter to his doing the job.
John Bolton weighs in, followed by a panel discussion, here.
All for now. It will grow legs. Actually, it already has.
____________UPDATE____________
Since guessing is sometimes helpful, Crabgrass speculates the target individual for inclusion in the chat was, clearly not Jeffry Goldberg, but rather Spaceforce General MICHAEL A. GUETLEIN, a senior official grounded in remote sensing sigint.
If you attack any site, you want impact assessment, which means a former Deputy Director and Air Force Element Commander, National Reconnaissance Office, Chantilly, Va, would fit into the general framework apparently under chat - bomb them and see what happens.
Perhaps that general, from being experienced, avoided any Signal use whatsoever, preferring secure spook channels instead.
As any competent spook might.
__________FURTHER UPDATE__________
A likely better guess at the JG intended to be a part of an EmptyWheel chat:
As the trade rep, he'd be expected in the part of the chat touching getting Egypt and Europe to pay for cleaning "their" trade route; from The Atlantic item:
The
account identified as “JD Vance” addressed a message at 8:45 to @Pete
Hegseth: “if you think we should do it let’s go. I just hate bailing
Europe out again.” (The administration has argued that America’s
European allies benefit economically from the U.S. Navy’s protection of
international shipping lanes.)
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. Question is timing. I feel
like now is as good a time as any, given POTUS directive to reopen
shipping lanes. I think we should go; but POTUS still retains 24 hours
of decision space.”
At
this point, the previously silent “S M” joined the conversation. “As I
heard it, the president was clear: green light, but we soon make clear
to Egypt and Europe what we expect in return. We also need to figure out
how to enforce such a requirement. EG, if Europe doesn’t remunerate,
then what? If the US successfully restores freedom of navigation at
great cost there needs to be some further economic gain extracted in
return.”
screenshot from Goldberg's Atlantic item
That bit of Eurobashing caught the attention of Guardian whose agent in Washington wrote it up, jumping all over it with spurs on.
