Total chaos

 

Have our service members been incurring danger and harm on our military installations?

Hegseth was stupid for thinking that, and Trump was stupid for believing him.

Totally incompetent

 

It's not just incompetent.  It's unacceptable.  This entire administration should be recalled.  Unfortunately, we don't have a tool for that.

They're getting obscene amounts of money

Enough they can blow billions on non-military, non-defense items.

 

Iran attack, day 3

The war launched by the U.S. and Israel on Iran entered its third day with more Iranian missile attacks directed at Israel and its Arab neighbors as the U.S. military death toll climbed to four. The strikes have also killed at least 11 people in Israel, and the Iranian Red Crescent says 555 people have been killed in Iran.

Kuwait shot down three U.S. F-15s in what CENTCOM calls a "friendly fire incident," but all crewmembers were safe. Smoke rose, meanwhile, from the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait after an apparent Iranian missile strike.

Air travel is snarled as the war forces the closure of key hub airports in the Mideast, leaving tens of thousands of people stranded in the Gulf region — as the U.S. declines to join other countries planning to help evacuate their citizens.

President Trump said Sunday that the joint military operation would continue "until all of our objectives are achieved," and that could be "four weeks or less," but that more American casualties are possible.

[...]

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his administration was coordinating with its international partners to monitor events in Iran, calling it "important that this chance for change for Iran be used properly."

"The Iranian people have long effectively been alone against violence — against the Iranian regime. This regime, which has killed tens of thousands of its own citizens just in recent months, which has always fueled and organized wars in the region, which provided Russia with 'shaheds' [drones] and the technology for their production — this regime has brought this attitude upon itself," Zelenskyy said in a social media post.

"It is important that there be a clear position in support of people and human life," he added, offering his personal thanks to "everyone who is trying to prevent the war from expanding and who is defending against strikes from Iran."

"I also thank everyone who tells Russia — now, based on the experience of the Iranian regime — that justice does come," Zelenskyy said.

[...]

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters Monday that the four American service members who were killed over the weekend died when an incoming munition hit a tactical operations center in Kuwait.

"We have incredible air defenders. Every once in a while you might have one, unfortunately we call it a squirter, that makes its way through," he said. "And in that particular case, it happened to hit a tactical operations center that was fortified, but these are powerful weapons."

  CBS

You can just feel the compassion and empathy.  A squirter.

Hegseth was also asked about Mr. Trump's estimate that the conflict could last four to five weeks, and he attacked the reporter who posed the question, claiming it's a "gotcha-type question."

How? A bit touchy, Pete?

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine offered his "deepest and heartfelt condolences" to the families of the four U.S. service members killed during the joint U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran.

"They're heroes and represent the best our nation has to offer," Caine said.

Caine said it would "take some time to achieve" the objectives of the U.S. military operation, and he warned it was likely that more American lives would be lost.

No shit. But they will be a great deal fewer than Iranian civilians.

"Operations will remain active across the theater and across the globe," he said. "Operation Epic Fury stands as a reminder of what the United States military uniquely delivers: the ability to project power on a global scale with speed, surprise, precision and overwhelming force when and where our nation requires it."

Provided friendly fire doesn't continue.

And, the evergreen response Republicans make whenever the US attacks another country is brought to you this time by Representative Keith Self of Texas...

But that's not stopping Trumpists from claiming that very thing on national TV and in social media.

And because he was egged on by his administration lackeys and Netanyahu.

UPDATE 02:31 pm:

I suspect that's the mood in every US agency since Trump got back in the oval.

I think he mostly spends his time scrolling through alt-right social media and watching alt-right TV.

Friendly fire?

UPDATE 03:04 pm:

UPDATE 03/04/2026:

UPDATE 04/09/2026:

War on Americans

 It's coming from inside the house.

Who gets to decide when the government AI-bots are ready to start killing people without direct human oversight—the Pentagon or the AI companies?

This remarkable—some might say insane—question is at the center of a major standoff between the Defense Department and Anthropic, creator of the AI platform known as Claude. While the Pentagon has contracts with all the leading AI labs, Anthropic until this month was the only one contracted for AI use in classified settings: Claude was, for instance, reportedly involved in the operation to capture Nicolas Maduro.

[...]

But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has grown unhappy with two elements of the DoD’s contract with Anthropic. One, Anthropic won’t let its AI be used to conduct mass surveillance of Americans. Two, it won’t let the DoD use it to operate autonomous weapons systems that can identify, track, and kill targets without direct human involvement.

  The Bulwark

Can't wait for that one to go tits up and track Pete Hegseth. Like those cartoons where the heat-seeking missile turns around and follows Wile-E-Coyote unstead of the Roadrunner.

To the Defense Department, the idea that a contractor would be able to tie the military’s hands like this is outlandish; they should be permitted, they argue, to use AI they contract for “for all lawful purposes.”

Doesn't the Defense Department have its own AI platform? In the alternative, can't they use Elon's AI?

Hegseth could simply drop Anthropic’s contract over this, pivoting instead to any of the AI labs—OpenAI, Google Gemini, Elon Musk’s xAI—that aren’t insisting on these contractual sticking points. But he doesn’t really want to. After all, Claude is supposed to be the best, and at any rate it’s already integrated into lots of DoD systems. It’d be a hassle.

Hold fast, Claude.

Hegseth has issued Anthropic an ultimatum: Change your policy, or we’re going to start getting nasty.

Start?

The Defense Department is threatening to use the Defense Production Act to compel Anthropic to drop its usage requirements. Or it could go the exact opposite direction, declaring Anthropic a “supply chain risk”—which would not only eliminate DoD’s Anthropic contract, but also forbid any business that contracts with DoD from working with Anthropic in any way.

And...

The Trump administration on Friday ordered all U.S. agencies to stop using Anthropic’s artificial intelligence technology and imposed other major penalties, escalating an unusually public clash between the government and the company over AI safety [...] accusing it of endangering national security after CEO Dario Amodei refused to back down over concerns the company’s products could be used in ways that would violate its safeguards.

“We don’t need it, we don’t want it, and will not do business with them again!” Trump said on social media.

Hegseth also deemed the company a “supply chain risk,” a designation typically stamped on foreign adversaries that could derail the company’s critical partnerships with other businesses.

  AP News

Vengeful, despicable assholes.

I hear you, man.

In a statement issued Friday evening, Anthropic said it would challenge what it called an unprecedented and legally unsound action “never before publicly applied to an American company.”

Anthropic had said it sought narrow assurances from the Pentagon that its AI chatbot Claude would not be used for mass surveillance of Americans or in fully autonomous weapons. The Pentagon said it was not interested in such uses and would only deploy the technology in legal ways, but it also insisted on access without any limitations.

Kudos to Anthropic for not taking the figleaf "assurance".

“No amount of intimidation or punishment from the Department of War will change our position on mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons,” the company said. “We will challenge any supply chain risk designation in court.”

Too bad major institutions in this country did not take the same principled stance against Trump's attempted domination.

Anthropic can afford to lose the contract. But the government’s actions posed broader risks at the peak of the company’s meteoric rise from a little-known computer science research lab in San Francisco to one of the world’s most valuable startups.

[...]

Hours after its competitor was punished, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced on Friday night that his company struck a deal with the Pentagon to supply its AI to classified military networks, potentially filling a gap created by Anthropic’s ouster.

But Altman said that the same red lines that were the sticking point in Anthropic’s dispute with the Pentagon are now enshrined in OpenAI’s new partnership.

“Two of our most important safety principles are prohibitions on domestic mass surveillance and human responsibility for the use of force, including for autonomous weapon systems,” Altman wrote, adding that the Defense Department “agrees with these principles, reflects them in law and policy, and we put them into our agreement.”

  AP News

Let me guess. Altman was perfectly satisfied with DOD's "assurances".

Trump said Anthropic made a mistake trying to strong-arm the Pentagon. He wrote on Truth Social that most agencies must immediately stop using Anthropic’s AI but gave the Pentagon a six-month period to phase out the technology that is already embedded in military platforms.

“The United States of America will never allow a radical left, woke company to dictate how our great military fights and wins wars!” he wrote in all caps.

[...]

rump’s social media post said the company “better get their act together, and be helpful” during the phase-out period or there would be “major civil and criminal consequences to follow.”

So fucking sick of this asshole's ignorant rhetoric and petulant tantrums. And that's the least of our problems with him.

The president’s decision was preceded by hours of top Trump appointees from the Pentagon and the State Department taking to social media to criticize Anthropic, but their complaints posed contradictions.

Top Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Anthropic’s unwillingness to go along with the military’s demands was “jeopardizing critical military operations and potentially putting our warfighters at risk.” Hegseth said the Pentagon “must have full, unrestricted access to Anthropic’s models for every LAWFUL purpose in defense of the Republic.”

Yes, we've seen how this administration treats the law.

Hegseth’s choice to designate Anthropic a supply chain risk uses an administrative tool that has been designed for companies owned by U.S. adversaries to prevent them from selling products that are harmful to American interests.

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, noted that this dynamic, “combined with inflammatory rhetoric attacking that company, raises serious concerns about whether national security decisions are being driven by careful analysis or political considerations.”

Gee, how could we possibly know?

The moves could benefit OpenAI’s ChatGPT as well as Elon Musk’s competing chatbot, Grok, which the Pentagon also plans to give access to classified military networks. It could serve as a warning to Google, which has a still-evolving contract to supply its AI tools to the military.

Grok has been so untainted by errors and horrors, so, good plans.

Musk sided with Trump’s administration, saying on his social media platform X that “Anthropic hates Western Civilization.”

JFC. MAGA mentality is killing us.

Retired Air Force Gen. Jack Shanahan, a former leader of the Pentagon’s AI initiatives, wrote on social media this week that the government “painting a bullseye on Anthropic garners spicy headlines, but everyone loses in the end.”

Shanahan said Claude is already being widely used across the government, including in classified settings, and Anthropic’s red lines were “reasonable.” He said the AI large language models that power chatbots like Claude, Grok and ChatGPT are also “not ready for prime time in national security settings,” particularly not for fully autonomous weapons.

What could possibly go wrong?

UPDATE 03/07/2026:

UPDATE 03/11/2026:

Jesus Christ, these people are running the country

 And this cretin is in charge of the military.

Christian naionalism is not Christian.  

We have a bunch of Nazis in charge.  

AI defense system?

 Is AI why Trump wants to bomb Iran?

Also, could AI be any worse than letting Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump have access to classified defense systems?

Ten days - "Special security"

Ten days is a very long time for a major airport to be closed.  WTF is going on?

UPDATE 08:36 am:

WTF?  Was it a typo meant to read 10 hours?  Was somebody being blackmailed or extorted by Trump and they caved?

From the AP:

I still think blackmail or extortion makes more sense.

UPDATE 09:03 am:  From an El Paso City Council Representative...

The FAA is said to have been worried about DOD (DOW?) counter-drone testing.  A high energy laser that could be used against drones was to be tested at a military base (Fort Bliss) near the airport.  I'm vaguely recalling an incident where some government agency was testing some weaponry near a parade??? So, yeah, I can see why the FAA would be concerned about high energy lasers being tested in the airspace over an airport.  JFC.  Pete Hegseth at his best.

UPDATE 09:19 am: Speaking of lack of communication...

LOL.  Bullshit.  These people are great with the off-the-cuff bullshit.

If you're unpopular, you have to use force

The Department of Defense is pressuring staff to watch or read Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Quantico military address – or else. In recent days, senior officials at Donald Trump’s Pentagon have actively monitored staffers, pressing them to confirm whether they had seen the speech Hegseth forced hundreds of top military officials to listen to last month, according to two Defense Department staffers and another person briefed on the matter.

In some cases, the sources say, the senior officials asked for proof that underlings had actually watched it, and made clear that there would be reprimands – if staff were caught lying or ridiculing the former Fox News host’s address.

“We have other things we need to work on,” one of the Defense Department staffers tells Zeteo. “When they told us we were required to watch the Hegseth speech, I did not realize they were going to throw this kind of manpower at enforcing the mandatory viewing of a Trump rally.”

[...]

At times, when subordinates have replied that they had watched the nearly hour-long speech in full, higher-ranking officials have immediately asked the staffers questions about the speech – as if to, in the words of one of the sources, “test” them and make sure they aren’t lying. In other instances, Defense Department staff were warned that there would be negative consequences if they were found to have not actually watched or read the speech, or if they were found to have mocked Hegseth’s address.

[...]

The second Trump administration is expending a gargantuan amount of resources and public money into making the president feel good about himself and propping up his personality cult – with the enforcement of government-wide programs that easily eclipsed the one-billion-dollar mark earlier this year. When it comes to the Pentagon and the American military, the Trump White House and Hegseth have similarly made it a priority to siphon significant public resources towards amplifying their self-parodying MAGA ideology and – as one US official put it recently – their pervasive “culture-war bullshit.”

  Zeteo

It's a new day in America. Expect the worst, and don't be surprised when it happens. I used to always say, stop electing Republicans. I'm afraid I didn't have much influence. Now, we have to go to other remedies. Good luck.

I suspect WWIII

 

UPDATE 09/26/2025:

UPDATE 09/28/2025:

Is he going to demand a loyalty oath to himself?

You're fired!

 

Report and say what he wants you to.  Nothing more. Nothing less.  This guy is lucky he isn't being investigated or raided.