Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalPressure grows on 'reckless' Hegseth as twin scandals engulf Pentagon chief
Pete Hegseth is facing the most serious crisis of his tenure as defense secretary, engulfed by allegations of war crimes in the Caribbean and a blistering inspector general report accusing him of mishandling classified military intelligence. Yet despite the long list of trouble and as lawmakers from both parties call for his resignation, Hegseth shows no signs of stepping down and still holds Donald Trump’s support.
The twin crises have engulfed the former Fox News personality in separate but overlapping allegations that lawmakers, policy experts and former officials say reveal a pattern of dangerous recklessness at the helm of the Pentagon. Democratic legislators have reignited calls for his ouster after revelations that survivors clinging to wreckage from a September boat strike were deliberately killed in a “double-tap” attack, while a defense department investigation released on Thursday concluded he violated Pentagon policies by sharing sensitive details via the Signal messaging app hours before airstrikes in Yemen.
The most recent controversy comes as the Caribbean campaign centers on the Trump administration’s extrajudicial strikes against suspected drug smugglers, which have killed at least 87 people across 22 attacks since September. Trump has justified the operation as essential to combating fentanyl trafficking, claiming each destroyed vessel saves 25,000 American lives, though factcheckers, former officials and drug policy experts have called this figure absurd, noting that fentanyl primarily enters the United States overland from Mexico, not via Caribbean boats from Venezuela.
The legality of the strikes came under intense scrutiny after the public learned that two men who survived the initial 2 September attack could been seen amid the wreckage when a lethal follow-up strike was ordered. While Hegseth initially dismissed the reporting as fabricated, he later confirmed the basic facts during a cabinet meeting this week, saying he acted in the “fog of war” but “didn’t stick around” to observe the rest of the mission.
Senator Patty Murray, the Democratic vice-chair of the Senate appropriations committee, called for Hegseth’s firing following a bipartisan briefing on the incident on Thursday. “Between overseeing this campaign in the Caribbean, risking US servicemembers’ lives by sharing war plans on Signal, and so much else, it could not be more obvious that Secretary Hegseth is unfit for the role, and it is past time for him to go,” Murray said.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/06/pete-hegseth-pentagon-trump
I'm with Patty---although we'll probably get someone worse.
Assad's exiled spy chief and billionaire cousin plot Syrian uprisings from Russia
Former loyalists to Bashar al-Assad who fled Syria after the dictator’s fall are funneling millions of dollars to tens of thousands of potential fighters, hoping to stir uprisings against the new government and reclaim some of their lost influence, a Reuters investigation has found.
Assad, who escaped to Russia last December, is largely resigned to exile in Moscow, say four people close to the family. But other senior figures from his inner circle, including his brother, have not come to terms with losing power.
Two of the men once closest to Assad, Maj. Gen. Kamal Hassan and billionaire Rami Makhlouf, are competing to form militias in coastal Syria and Lebanon made up of members of their minority Alawite sect, long associated with the Assad family, Reuters found. All told, the two men and other factions jostling for power are financing more than 50,000 fighters in hope of winning their loyalty.
Assad’s brother, Maher, who is also in Moscow and still controls thousands of former soldiers, has yet to give money or orders, said the four people close to the Assads.
One prize for Hassan and Makhlouf is control of a network of 14 underground command rooms built around coastal Syria toward the end of Assad’s rule, as well as weapons caches. Two officers and a Syrian regional governor confirmed the existence of these concealed rooms, details of which appear in photos seen by Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/investigations/assads-exiled-spy-chief-billionaire-cousin-plot-syrian-uprisings-russia-2025-12-05/
Oh goody. Now Bibi will have another reason to bomb somebody.
MAGA Pastor Spills on Late-Night Call With Barron Trump
A MAGA-friendly pastor has revealed details of a late-night phone call involving a religious awakening for Barron Trump.
Pastor and therapist Stuart Knechtle, who has 2.4 million followers on TikTok, was speaking on George Janko’s faith-based podcast on Thursday.
Knechtle recalled talking to the president’s 19-year-old son at 12:30 a.m. and said he was “very close” to putting his faith in Christ.
“I thought I was hitting him with everything but the kitchen sink when it came to all the evidence for God and Christianity,” Knechtle, 37, said of their call.
“I thought I was really on, I was pumped,” he said. “And at the very end, I came up pretty much totally open-handed with nothing. But I brought up dreams and revelations.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-pastor-spills-on-late-night-religious-call-with-barron-trump/
First of all, Pastor, it's very bad form to talk about private conversations. Second, you're bragging. And THIRD, Barron was brought up, and I assume, remains, a Catholic. Leave him alone.
Police Beg Judge to Jail Pardoned J6er Seen Near Dem's Home
Police and prosecutors are begging a Trump-appointed federal judge to jail a pardoned Jan. 6 defendant, after he allegedly showed up near Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin’s home.
Taylor Taranto, who made headlines in 2023 when he was arrested near former President Barack Obama’s home with a van loaded with guns, ammunition, and materials to make explosives, has returned to Washington, D.C. He was seen lurking near the Maryland congressman’s house on Tuesday, according to Politico.
The sighting alarmed police and prosecutors, who urged Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols to immediately put him behind bars. The judge said he would consider the matter in the coming weeks and ordered Taranto to return to his home in Washington state for the holidays.
It comes amid a surge in political violence and threats against federal officials, during an especially volatile period that saw last year’s assassination attempt on Trump, the June killing of Democrat Melissa Hortman, and the September murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/police-beg-judge-to-jail-pardoned-j6er-seen-lurking-near-dem-jamie-raskins-house/
What re the bets he doesn't go?
Sepsis is 'very treatable.' For inmates, it's often a death sentence.
Locked in a segregation cell at a county jail in Oklahoma, Terral Ellis Jr. begged for his inhaler, his voice raspy and desperate.
“I think I’m dying,” the 26-year-old father pleaded through the door.
Surveillance camera footage shows the jail nurse sauntered over to his cell, clearly exasperated. “There ain’t a damn thing f------ wrong with you,” she snapped, before slamming the door shut. A nearby inmate cracked a joke about the “boy who cried wolf.”
By the time paramedics arrived hours later, Ellis was barely conscious. He died that day from septic shock brought on by pneumonia – an infection he could have survived, if treated earlier.
Ellis’ story repeats itself hundreds of times each year in jails and prisons scattered from coast to coast. Arrests for infractions as minor as trespassing or a missed probation meeting turn into death sentences when correctional facilities delay or deny medical care that inmates need. Grieving families then sue for millions, often leaving taxpayers to foot the bill.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2025/11/20/sepsis-deaths-lawsuits-prisons-jails-infection-investigation/85755243007/
WARNING: Hot button issue! The attitude of that jail nurse is what is wrong with a lot of prison medical maltreatment., which I saw WAY too much of in my 30-year nursing career. Many jails/prisons hire LPNs, who aren't qualified for the work they do, doctors whose credentials may be on the shady side, etc,---and I suspect that the lower down the ladder, the worse it is because the pay scale is so low.
Vance downplays concerns about antisemitism on the right
Vice President JD Vance said he doesn't see "simmering antisemitism that’s exploding" among young conservatives, even as some Republicans raise concerns about such views gaining traction on the right.
Vance in an NBC interview said "I think it’s kind of slanderous to say that the Republican Party, the conservative movement, is extremely antisemitic.”
The antisemitism debate has raged on the right after conservative media figure Tucker Carlson interviewed white nationalist Nick Fuentes.
Fuentes has a history of promoting racist and extremist views. Carlson didn't push back during their interview when Fuentes said Jews are not loyal Americans.
Fuentes said "the main challenge to" unifying the country is "organized Jewry in America."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/12/04/jd-vance-antisemitism-tucker-carlson-ted-cruz-fuentes/87612444007/?tbref=hp
Once again, JD proving that having a degree from Yale Law School doesn't mean you're smart, it only means you went there and graduated.
HEGSETH RISKED 'HARM' TO DOD PERSONNEL
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked endangering U.S. military personnel when he used the commercial messaging app Signal to discuss real-time war plans, a report by the Pentagon’s acting inspector general released Thursday has found.
The inquiry examined Hegseth’s use of the app, rather than secure government channels, to discuss detailed information about a military strike on Houthi rebels in Yemen, in what became known as Signalgate.
The massive security breach was revealed when The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg published a March 24 story detailing how he had been added to the Signal chat that also involved 18 high-ranking officials, including Hegseth and national security adviser Michael Waltz.
The group chat went into detail about times, types of aircraft and targets.
The internal Pentagon probe found that “using a personal cell phone to conduct official business and send nonpublic DoD information through Signal risks potential compromise of sensitive DoD information, which could cause harm to DoD personnel and mission objectives.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pete-hegseth-signalgate-report_n_693199f2e4b0824b6df8382e
But ya think he would EVER get punished for that? Nah.
Student describes 'horror show' ICE deportation to Honduras at Thanksgiving
Any Lucia López Belloza had not seen her parents and two little sisters since starting her first semester at Babson College, near Boston in August. A family friend gave her plane tickets so she could fly home to Austin and surprise them for Thanksgiving.
The 19-year-old business student was already at the boarding gate at Boston airport when she was told there was an “error” with her boarding pass; when she reached customer service, she was handcuffed and arrested by what she believed were two Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
“I thought: ‘I was travelling to surprise my parents for Thanksgiving, and now the surprise will be that I won’t be there,’” López told the Guardian.
She was allowed a phone call to her parents, who contacted a lawyer. The next day, a federal judge issued an emergency order barring her removal from the US for at least 72 hours until her case could be reviewed.
But the next morning, she was shackled at her wrists, ankles and waist and deported to her native Honduras, a country which she left at the age of seven and of which she has virtually no memory.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/04/student-describes-horror-show-ice-deportation-to-honduras-at-thanksgiving
Another of the "worst of the worst", right? 
Been making a cold remedy--it works, too!
One long ago, when I was waiting table in a restaurant and bar, if any one of us came into work with so much as a sniffle, the boss would pour us a shot of extra sharp ginger brandy and have us drink it. I could never just bolt it down like some could, but even though I sipped it, the stuff seemed to cauterize the throat and get rid of germs. My theory is that no germs can tolerate the stuff!
Fast forward to today. I can't get the extra sharp stuff here in Virginia, so my method has changed. These days I have to buy regular ginger brandy at the ABC store and jack it up with chunks of peeled ginger in the bottom of a pint. So today I've been doing exactly that---two for friends, plus re-upping ours which had about an inch of brandy left from last year. I think we are safe, and so are my friends Dena and Natalie!
True story. Once a friend had just returned from a stint with the Peace Corps in India, and we were having a welcome-home for him at above-mentioned restaurant and bar. Someone had the bright idea to order him a shot of extra sharp ginger brandy. He upended it. Tears literally shot from his eyes! When he got his breath back and could speak again, the first words out of his mouth were, "Order me another!"
Suspect in National Guard attack struggled with 'dark isolation' as community raised concerns
The Afghan man accused of shooting two National Guard members blocks from the White House had been unraveling for years, unable to hold a job and flipping between long, lightless stretches of isolation and taking sudden weekslong cross-country drives. Rahmanullah Lakanwal’s behavior deteriorated so sharply that a community advocate reached out to a refugee organization for help, fearing he was becoming suicidal.
Emails obtained by The Associated Press reveal mounting warnings about the asylum-seeker whose erratic conduct raised alarms long before the attack that jolted the nation’s capital on Wednesday, the eve of Thanksgiving. The previously unreported concerns offer the clearest picture yet of how he was struggling in his new life in the United States.
Even so, when the community member who works with Afghan families in Washington state saw on the news that Lakanwal was named as the suspect in the attack, they said they were stunned, unable to square the violence with the memory of seeing Lakanwal play with his young sons. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to share undisclosed details while cooperating with the FBI in its investigation.
West Virginia National Guard Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, was killed in the shooting, and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, was critically wounded. Lakanwal, 29, has been charged with first-degree murder.
In Afghanistan, Lakanwal worked in a special Afghan Army unit known as a Zero Unit. The units were backed by the CIA. He entered the United States in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a program that evacuated and resettled tens of thousands of Afghans after the American withdrawal. Many had worked alongside U.S. troops and diplomats.
https://apnews.com/article/lakanwal-national-guard-shooting-suspect-afghan-5e5e9567d95a5d0ef806b714bb3ee3b7
Apparently we reserrle them and that;s it? No more help?
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Gender: Do not displayHome country: USA currently
Current location: Virginia
Member since: Wed Jun 1, 2011, 06:34 PM
Number of posts: 13,659