You’ve surely heard about the stupid kid in the Air National Guard who was leaking secret documents to impress his gamer buddies. The kid is only an airman 1st class, but he was also an I.T. specialist in an intelligence unit connected to NORAD, it says here. So he had access to all kinds of top secret information relating to “foreign aircraft, air-defense weapons, military operations, and foreign-policy decisions.” He would have had to sign a document “acknowledging the possible penalties for a violation,” but he did it anyway. And just for the jollies, not for money or ideology. NORAD will have to tighten its security, possibly starting with a provision that no personnel with access to sensitive documents are arrested adolescents.
But the weird thing is that the Right is embracing the kid, Jack Teixeira, as its new righteous cause. For example:
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Thursday defended the man arrested in connection with a high-profile investigation into leaked classified documents.
In a tweet just hours after the FBI arrested Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, 21, Greene, R-Ga., praised his alleged actions and implied President Joe Biden was “the real enemy.”
“Jake Teixeira is white, male, christian, and antiwar. That makes him an enemy to the Biden regime. And he told the truth about troops being on the ground in Ukraine and a lot more,” Greene, a member of the Homeland Security Committee, said on Twitter. “Ask yourself who is the real enemy?”
Why, you’re the real enemy, Marjorie! Thanks for asking! And yes, the leaked documents showed that there were all of 14 special forces U.S. troops “on the ground” in Ukraine.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told Fox News on Wednesday that a “small U.S. military presence” was stationed at the American embassy in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.
“I won’t talk to the specifics of numbers and that kind of thing. But to get to your exact question, there is a small U.S. military presence at the embassy in conjunction with the Defense Attaché’s Office to help us work on accountability of the material that is going in and out of Ukraine,” Kirby said. “So they’re attached to that embassy and to that defense attaché.”
Those troops “are not fighting on the battlefield,” Kirby said.
Kirby added: “There has been no change to the president’s mandate that there will not be American troops in Ukraine fighting in this war.”
Liz Cheney thinks Greene should lose her security clearance for defending Teixeira. Sounds about right.
FOX NEWS’ TUCKER Carlson gave a bizarre defense of suspected intelligence leaker Jack Teixeira on Thursday night. The primetime host claimed that federal authorities arrested Teixeira to cover up a covert, illegal US presence in Ukraine, and as punishment for contradicting “the National Security State and their obedient servants in the media.”
Teixeira, a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman, is suspected of having posted highly classified documents on a private Discord server. The documents were later reposted from the server to other public forums.
“Tonight, the news media are celebrating the capture of the kid who told Americans what’s actually happening in Ukraine,” Carlson told viewers. He continued, “They are treating him like Osama Bin Laden, maybe even worse actually, because, unlike Al Qaeda, apparently, this kid is a racist.” The host was referring to reports that the Discord server in which Teixeira shared the documents contained several racist memes.
Worse than Osama bin Laden? Yes, being taken into custody is so much worse than being killed in a commando raid and dumped in the ocean. And troops assigned to a U.S. embassy are not “illegal.”
Greene is too stupid to appreciate that the defense of Ukraine really is in U.S. interest. Tucker is not, but doesn’t care. An opportunity to bash the Biden administration takes precedence over national security, you know.
In other news — Lawrence O’Donnell on Clarence Thomas:
Justice Thomas failed to disclose a real estate transaction, which was the sale of his mother’s house to conservative billionaire donor Harlan Crow. And the cute part is that Clarence Thomas’s mother still lives in the house, which Crow has renovated at his expense on her behalf. We don’t know if any rent is being paid to Crow.
Corruption, much?
MTG is coming to KC tomorrow for a Young Rethuglican fundraiser…at the Blue Springs Elks Club. On a dead end road, backed up to a golf course. Right next to the American Legion ball fields, which have cancelled all games tomorrow…There are rumors that those people are protesting! Those people also know about trying to sneak her in through the golf course. 40 hwy will be a zoo tomorrow night…
I do hope somebody asks Marjorie how she thinks Jack The Kid's leak compares to that of Reality Winner – watch the dumb pause sweep over her because she would have no idea what they're talking about.
Marjorie Traitor Green.
And Phucker Carlson.
Every day, their Russian friend Vlad Putin shakes his head, looks at those two names, calls in his spy-master, and again, asks the same question as he does every day to the spy-master"
"Spy-master, are these two blithering morons the best useful idiots you can find for Mother Russia?
These people are USELESS idiots! And we have smarter Village Idiots all over Russia!!!
Aren't there any politicians and major media personalities with any brains, a hidden hatred for America, and senses of discretion left in America?!?"
And the spy-master gives his master, Putin, the same answer he provides his boss daily:
"Great and heroic President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin – beloved of ALL Russians and Ukrainians – I am still sad to inform you again that there are no smart politicians in today's Republican Party. Or any intelligent and discreet media personalities at Fox.
They don't understand America, and as a result hate it. So there's that!
But being real idiots, they are too uselessly stupid and ignorant to even be worthy of being entry-level useful idiots.
The Democratic politicians are much too smart and patriotic to be useful idiots. And the same applies to other major media personalities.
And so, President Putin, the only places we can find people stupid, vain, reckless, mendacious, and traitorous enough to be useful idiots, are in either the Republican Party, or on Fox 'news.'"
And so, President Putin walks over to the window of his office in the Kremlin, high over Moscow, opens it, points to his spy-master, and says, "Jump! Jump, or your family will be burned as kindling to keep the guards at the Gulag's warm in Siberia!! JUMP!!!"
Putin then calls the Kremlin's HR Department, and says "Please send me some new candidates for spy-master. The last one saw… He saw an opening, and leapt at the opportunity. Yes, as soon as possible. Thank you."
IANAL, but isn't Embassy property considered to be property of the nation who's embassy sits there? (See, clearly not a lawyer, as I don't word good. I'll come in again.)
The US Embassy is legally US soil, so any personnel there are legally/technically stationed in the US?
Yes, though the marines would have diplomatic status and are in the Russian Federation once they step off embassy grounds. I expect all countries consider their diplomats as being "in the country" when serving in another country.
Don Jr. led the parade in support of leaking classified documents. Anything Trump is being charged with is OK. Barr was out there again saying Trump has his weenie in a wringer with the obstruction charge. I'm not sure what Barr's angle is. He's right about how serious that charge is and how vulnerable Trump is. But why is Barr out there?
If he comes out as a DeSantis supporter, he's trying to get back in the game with a different quarterback. I understand that conventional wisdom says DeSantis peaked and is out of the game already. IF Trump was smart enough to hire a real lawyer to oversee ALL the criminal cases and have that guru micromanage all the individual defenses, Trump might be able to manage a Presidential campaign while all this stuff is happening. I do not see that happening. Trump thinks he's smarter than all his lawyers, and that leaves him with a lot of dumb lawyers because a reputable lawyer expects his client to pay attention and follow instructions.
IF GA comes through with charges and Jack files for Obstruction, Trump will be up to his armpits in alligators. (And I'm leaving out the civil cases that will proceed.) People who expect Trump can keep up the pace of a presidential campaign AND micromanage three felony criminal cases in three jurisdictions with second-rate shysters while keeping the MAGA mob satisfied are overly generous.
More than once in my lifetime, I've bitten off more than I could chew and failed in spectacular fashion. These endeavors, criminal prosecutions, and campaigning happen under a bright and inescapable spotlight. To make a prediction, Trump will admit the load is too much and he will demand all cases, criminal and civil, must be put on hold until after the election because he has a right to campaign. Which won't fly with any judge. Soon after, Trump may realize it's true. He can't do both at once.
I'm not certain Trump will suspend his campaign. He might just hope he can survive the primaries on momentum. But DeSantos is the commanding #2 GOP candidate. I can see several ways, including a stroke or heart attack for the former guy, putting the dicktator from FL at the top of the ticket.
@gulag, I think you're reading the view from Russia completely wrong. I suspect VVP (Putin) is laughing his dupa off whenever he gets word of MTG and the other clowns. She's doing great by the Kremlin's lights. The Russians could not ask for a better set of people to destroy America from within. And comic relief for Vlad, given the western front.
“Jake Teixeira is white, male, christian, and antiwar”
In what multiverse would the Republican Party be classified as “antiwar”? Whatever MTG drinks, it has a lot of lead in it.
Must be that new ultra-right woke-free beer.
Their new conceit is that Biden is going to get the U.S. into World War III because of his support for Ukraine, and Trump is promising that he will keep us out of war (by appeasing Putin). Basically, the MAGA GOP is the new Neville Chamberlain party.
Agreed. Unbelievable how members of the GOP and Tucker Carlson have followed Trump's lead in cozy-ing up to Putin (and any other ruthless dictator who received his ignorantly misguided or curiously motivated stamp of approval) while simultaneously labeling the Left as evil communists.
The one and only war they really want, and I believe they REALLY REALLY crave, is against their perceived domestic enemies walking among them right here; Democrats, liberals, BLM, Antifa, the LGBTQ community, the "Deep State", the FBI, pregnant women, book readers, anybody they can label as "woke", you, and me. That is the only war that interests them, and it interests them bigly. TX Gov. Abbott is at this moment all set to free one of their war heroes from prison.
From the recently leaked audio of TN GOP legislators privately in-fighting; "I think the problem I have is that if we don't stick together — If you don't believe we're at war for our Republic — with all love and respect for you, you need a different job. The left want Tennessee so bad. Because, if they get us, the Southeast falls and it's game over for the Republic. This is not a neighborhood social gathering. We are fighting for the Republic of our country right now. And the world is staring at us. Are we gonna stand our ground? I've gotten phone calls from other reps, going 'We sure hope you guys stand up. Because maybe it will give us the courage to stand up and push back against what's going to destroy our republic.". Interesting revival of the Domino Theory, perhaps backed by an inflated sense of self-importance. This is the raw delusion in which they live, this is who they are – entirely reflective of Trump's base. Apparently the n-word was not expressed in that audio, although undoubtedly thought about; a credit to the effect of Political Correctness which they would loath acknowledging? But who's got time to engage in actual effective governance beneficial to the general public, infrastructure, schools, roads, etc; we're at war!
I believe there are people out there who would be just fine with throwing a few missiles at New York, California, Colorado.
Oops, forgot they also have Mexico in their sights lately, maybe they'll forget it too.
"In what multiverse"
What ever get's them in print, or on the air! The right is a rabbithole a cesspool but hey it seems to work for them. Lots of bad energy. They are wrong as hell , problem is we have Dick Durbin and Lz.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SE94HWE3ks
moonbat,
In truth, I agree with you.
That's the reality.
But to me, the take I wrote seemed funnier. 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aVwDjsHRrs
Can I exceed Doug’s recent consecutive post record! No I’ll stop now.
The right has never been for national security, they used to be for bloated defense budgets, but security was the least, it was always about the cash. It’s interesting to watch them navigate the shit show they created!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb0jgyrRlBs
We need a domestic terrorism law. Not a bad one, a good one. What we have in our country now is an insurgency. It's not political discourse when radicals are inciting insurgency through social media, which, incidentally, provide a shield for the inciters, who claim their incitement actions are just free speech and they have no idea who might interpret that speech as "orders" in an organization.
The US military, although it has its share of problems (infiltration by radical moles), nonetheless has more experience and doctrine related to counter-insurgency (used overseas), but it is not allowed to participate in a counter-effort to a domestic insurgency.
I'm not advocating for using the actual military operational capability against US civilians, but we need to figure out how to protect our people and our democratic republic from an insurgency, and we need to figure out a "safe" way to remove some of the obstacles to legitimate law enforcement dealing with it. By "safe" I mean clearly enough articulated to prevent its misuse against peaceful change movements.
We're headed for Ruby-Ridge-Waco 2.0. Do we really want to replicate on the US scale the "troubles" that Ireland suffered from?
OT: I was listening to a podcast that I would cite but now I can't find it. For me, it was the other shoe dropping. Late last week, TFG was deposed for seven hours in NY for the civil case about business fraud related to property valuation. I've speculated here a couple of times that the criminal version of that same charge isn't necessarily dead. Bragg could pick it up and it will be easier and perhaps more attractive after the civil trial has been held.
What they said on the podcast was that Trump was deposed and probably DID testify because in the civil case, the jury can be instructed that they CAN infer that Trump is guilty if he takes the fifth. Different standards in a civil vs a criminal case. If Trump had not answered questions, he would have weakened his defense and made a guitly outcome more likely – and they're going after $250 million.
The other thing – a criminal charge takes precedence over the equivalent civil case. In other words, the civil case would go on hold if/when the criminal is filed. So the deposition where Trump gave answers would not have happened if the criminal case by Bragg had been filed a year ago.
So if Bragg had filed, the deposition for the criminal case would be a couple of hours of Trump taking the fifth which could not be used by (or even told to) the jury. By waiting, (I'm assuming this is strategy) Bragg has forced Trump to make a defense under oath, statements Bragg can use later even if Trump in the criminal deposition takes the fifth, and even if (predicably) Trump does not take the stand in a criminal trial.
Lettia Jamses seems to have her stuff together. You never know until you're in court but she anticipated and prevented Trump restructuring to move assets out of NY in anticipation of her civil suit. If she wins, she's plowed the road for Bragg – he should send her flowers or something. Wherever James has problems, Bragg knows where he has to beef up his prosecution. Usually, a prosecutor has only ONE chance to present a case. These circumstances allow Bragg to watch the entire case play out in real-time in a CIVIL prosecution before he even files. (I saw that aspect a month ago but I didn't see that Trump had to answer in the civil deposition to save his money and now he's screwed in the criminal! Yes, if Trump was really well prepared, he might have wriggled out by claiming a poor memory. But Trump won't let a lawyer prep him – it's hours of work. Trump thinks he's so smart he can BS his way through.
If anyone knows the podcast from a day or so ago, please cite it.