Three bombshells landed on Pete Hegseth in a single day. By nightfall, a West Point professor was calling him the worst Secretary of Defense in 250 years.
The Pentagon Inspector General released an 84-page report confirming what we suspected about Signalgate: Hegseth shared sensitive operational details about the Yemen airstrike not just on a Signal chat, but with his wife, his brother, and his personal lawyer—hours before American pilots flew those missions. He endangered their lives to brag.
Then Admiral Frank Bradley testified behind closed doors on Capitol Hill about the September 2nd boat strike. Lawmakers watched video of what happened to survivors in the water. Rep. Jim Himes emerged and said it was “one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service.” Professor Terrence Goggin, who spent decades at West Point, put it plainly: the tradition of rescuing sailors in distress goes back a thousand years. You don’t kill people clinging to wreckage. “I think Hegseth ordered everybody killed,” Goggin said. “I can’t see any reason why any uniformed personnel would have.”
The Wall Street Journal then confirmed Admiral Alvin Holsey didn’t retire voluntarily. Hegseth pushed him out after Holsey warned the legal basis for lethal boat strikes was “shaky.” The quote from Hegseth: “You’re either on the team or you’re not. When you get an order, you move out fast and don’t ask questions.”
That’s not military doctrine. That’s mob logic.
AND IN THE TRUMP TYRANNY TRACKER….
Meanwhile, the White House added a tip line to its Media Bias Portal—a searchable database naming individual reporters as enemies. Olga Lautman recognized it immediately: “This is Russia. They compile lists and have people snitching on each other. It’s been their culture for centuries.”
Trump announced he’s voiding all pardons Biden signed with an autopen. Presidents of both parties have used autopens for decades. A president has no authority to nullify a predecessor’s pardons. But Trump is asserting the power anyway, probably calculating he missed out on the take.
A leaked Der Spiegel call showed Macron warning Zelensky directly: the U.S. may betray Ukraine on territory. Hours after Witkoff and Kushner left Moscow—kept waiting by Putin at a pointless conference for dominance theater—Russia slapped new charges on an American hostage Marine. Eight more years in a penal colony. That’s Putin’s thank-you note.
And the New York Young Republican Club is honoring a German AfD leader at their December 13 gala—weeks after the state chapter was dissolved over Hitler-praising group chats. Musk supports AfD. So do Trump and Vance. The party’s youth wing is openly courting fascists.
Goggin sees a path forward. Republicans are running 13 points underwater from their baseline in every election since Trump took office—Virginia, New Jersey, Tennessee. If that holds through November, Democrats gain roughly 37 House seats and potentially flip the Senate. “The most important thing,” Goggin said, “is it changes the complexion of the Democratic Party.” New leaders from the Midwest, the Rockies, maybe Texas. A coalition that represents the center of the country.
But between now and then, the worst Secretary of Defense in 250 years is ordering strikes on survivors and pushing out admirals who ask questions.
Day 319.
My recent post on Next Year’s elections….
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