Cobwebs in Congress, Bigly Ballrooms, Tariff Tantrums, Dementia Denials - Trump Thread #150

[Spandauer]

And Epstein and his beautiful files are still trying to claw their way out of his grave

Previous thread :
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5416501-hes-a-very-good-friend-of-epstein-oh-yes-he-is-trump-thread-149

I don't know much about its inner workings, but I wonder what the ICC thinks of all of this. And if they think it crosses a line, whether or not they'll have to courage to get involved.

Hegseth is usually so drunk that he confuses reality with some sort of action movie.

On the rare occasions that he's sober he has to faced with the reality he is the actual United States' Secretary of War.😱

That's all sorts of mad! Not least of all is the fact that the US Secretary of War didn't exist the last time he was sober. Now it exists and he's it.
😱😱😱

That'd be a headfuck for anyone sane.

If he is an alcoholic I think he’ll be drying out in prison. As Secretary of War (I hate writing that) would it be military prison, I wonder?

It's "Double tap Kegsbreath" from now on.

As for him going under the bus for Trump, this from HCR shows how it just gets pushed down the line:

This evening, Hegseth pushed Bradley under, posting: “Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support. I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made—on the September 2 mission and all others since.” Commentator Brandon Friedman promptly posted: “Hegseth is very transparently blaming a Navy admiral for his own decision. Let this be a lesson for every other military officer: The Trump administration will issue unlawful orders, then blame you for following them.”

As an Admiral, Bradley should have been one of the first people to say "no. I won't issue orders to follow an unlawful act of aggression". He needed to protect those under his command and he failed.

He may have lodged a formal objection and been overruled though, with pressure, this should have been documented though.

The buck stops with Hegsworth for me, either he issued the order, or he is incom has no control over his department, or possibly incompetent and issuing illegal orders.

I'd go for the latter Hesgeth is a gung ho nut.

TRIPUS saying Bradley definitely goes under the bus and Hegseth (who is very unpopular with the Armed Services Committee) could well go too (Katty Kay saying she’s hearing he’ll be gone by January).

His likely replacement will by Driscoll who is a great buddy of Vance.

Bloody hell ..Vance the voice of reason.
So is it fair to say his pal is also a nut?

According to Vance Scottish people couldn't pray in their own homes .
It was linked to the buffer zones to keep the religious nuts from harassing women iirc.

A cynical way of looking at it would be to assume Vance is shoring up his own support within the Cabinet. He doesn’t have the personality to hold things together like Trump, but if he can get his buddies good jobs then they will stand by him.

Missed out the zones were for abortion clincs

They should, by rights, all go under the bus.
I can’t imagine that any of them were unaware it was going to be illegal and that carrying out an illegal order is not excused by the order coming from above.

The worst that’s going to happen is they do jail time. It’s not like they are going to be blown to bits clinging to the wreck of a boat.

Looks like the UK made the right decision to curtail intelligence sharing with teh US.

I hope someone asks a question in the HoC to confirm the UK will not share information if it will be used unlawfully.

Interesting question. Whilst the Sec of Defense (won't use the other word) is a civilian position, he's in the 'ready reserve' of the Natl Guard, so I think he's still considered 'a member of the military'.

As an officer, maybe they can try to 'Pull a Kelly' and reactivate him so they can court martial him. Poetic justice, no?

But it looks like their 'fall guy' for this one will be Adm Bradley who 'allegedly' issued the direct order to fire. When will these patsys learn that they have no protection when Scrotus decides to sacrifice them on the altar of plausible deniability?

Anyone ever seen Pentagon Wars ? About the evolution of the Bradley fighting vehicle .

Major General Partridge: Just because the tests didn't turn out the way Colonel Burton thought they would, was no reason to suspect there was anything devious going on.
Madame Chairwoman: I ask you General, filling the fuel tanks with water before a test to check the combustibility of those tanks, that wasn't devious?
Major General Partridge: If the tanks had been filled with fuel, there's a good chance the vehicle would have exploded.
[Stunned silence]
Congressman #1: ...Isn't that the point?
Major General Partridge: If the vehicle had exploded, we wouldn't be able to run additional tests!

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144550/quotes/?item=qt0457246

Kegsbreath has previous.

Pete Hegseth told US soldiers in Iraq to ignore legal advice on rules of engagement
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/02/hegseth-us-soldiers-iraq-rules-engagement

What's that file that came out recently ?

Nuremberg ?

Will anyone accuse Pete Hegseth of having a genius level IQ ? Although you might suspect he has a wardrobe full of white suits.

I hope someone asks a question in the HoC to confirm the UK will not share information if it will be used unlawfully.

This is a timely wish given the following opinion. We don't really know the extent of sharing and what exactly has been paused.

And I think one of the key things that comes out in the 9/11 wars is that sharing information with an ally, you lose control over potentially how that information is used, even if you have caveats on there, on what you should and shouldn't do for that. And I think there is a legacy really of the 9/11 wars that the UK intelligence community are trying to get over today.
When we turn more to state threats, that the UK intelligence community abides by international law, it abides by ethical codes of conduct. And if you read the speeches of the heads of MI5, MI6, and GCHQ, they talk about the legal constraints and the ethical dimension to international spying.

https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2025/11/21/allies-stop-sharing-intelligence-uk-america

However remember that UK security service operatives are not bound by law

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/v_NvoR08RSw

Introducing .... Mr Secretary of War Crimes!

Looks like the GOP have already swung into "What special election ?" sourgraping it. If that is what their polling is telling the, tomorrow morning could be interesting.

Pigly, we can see you and we can see the physical manifestations of chronic and deteriorating illness. If your doctors are telling you're in 'excellent health', they're lying to you. You know that. And so you are lying to the public, as usual. How long have you got?

He is falling asleep at this latest meeting

I can't help but recall how long Fidel Castro was "close to the end" since 1990 ...