mcswell 15 hours ago

We knew that Hegseth didn't understand (or didn't believe in) security. It's not surprising that Trump, who had highly classified documents laying around in Mar a Lago, doesn't either.

Years ago, I was in a classified meeting in a SCIF when someone's cell phone went off. The person was immediately escorted out of the room--probably their clearance was revoked, and they were told not to come back. Having a cell phone in a SCIF is bad enough, having it go off inside the SCIF is even worse--and answering it during a classified meeting (or just answering it inside a SCIF) is cause for trouble big.

  • xlii 15 hours ago

    In case anyone else didn’t know: SCIF stands for "sensitive compartmented information facility" (I assume ;))

    The thing with security is that usually people treat it like a joke or very very seriously. I think that was the latter.

  • sitzkrieg 13 hours ago

    i have seen someone lose their clearance and sap after wearing a fitbit into the doorway

  • HappySweeney 15 hours ago

    I'm a bit surprised the entire thing isn't in a faraday cage.

    • russdill 15 hours ago

      If the door is open, signals can get in. Additionally, "gone off" could mean an alarm

  • FL410 15 hours ago

    Why would a cell phone even work in a SCIF?

    • sitzkrieg 13 hours ago

      its not a faraday cage. just built to spec

  • ModernMech 15 hours ago

    Huh... I had always imagined SCIFs were like faraday cages, so a cell phone wouldn't be able to send or receive any signals.

    • derektank 15 hours ago

      That would be prohibitively expensive in most cases.

      • sam_lowry_ 8 hours ago

        O'rly?

        These are not only Faraday cages, but they also actively transmit noise.

        It's open information since the 70-ies.

        A mobile phone will not work inside.

akmarinov 2 hours ago

Their boss is a news network host and their commander in chief is a reality tv star - why are they aghast?

ck2 15 hours ago

All the so-called "guardrails" are long gone now

It's just down to a handful of people able to get the Tyrant King to sign off on anything they put in front of him

The scariest perspective is this is only 150 days in.

So imagine what happens 150 weeks later when all bets are off and "sure why not who would stop us" kicks in.

I am truly morbidly curious what happens to a country when 15+ million people disappear in just four years though.

  • beefnugs 13 hours ago

    huh i thought this new cheap mystery meat would be crickets, but this tastes like mexican

    Or the slightly more humanitarian version: Damn all those crocodiles are huge now, at least they kept the cute hats we put on them

rubberwoodneck 8 hours ago

When you elect a clown, the palace turns into a circus.

subjectsigma 14 hours ago

Makes me rabidly furious. “Rules for thee, but not for me.”

  • jrs235 13 hours ago

    The laws and rules are now selectively enforced only against those that don't submit to the head of enforcement. The head of enforcement may ignore the laws however they wish...

    Four legs good. Two legs better.

  • SAI_Peregrinus 8 hours ago

    They're conservatives. That's the core premise of the ideology. For each "thing", prevent any progress that helps anyone other than the conservatives. If previous progress has made things worse for conservatives, revert that progress.

    • subjectsigma 8 hours ago

      No, that’s stupid. You’re replying to someone who would consider themselves fairly conservative. And in my mind conservatives follow and respect the rules and traditions. This is not following or respecting anything.

      Though I will say, it’s been very clear to me since Trump ran in 2016 that he is not actually a “conservative” and that the GOP has been crumbling into degeneracy under him

      • andrekandre 6 hours ago

          > GOP has been crumbling into degeneracy under him
        
        agree, though i might offer the notion that they were already crumbling and thats how he got in the door in the first place
      • Incipient 7 hours ago

        Trump is a businessman, at best, and a snake oil salesman or cult leader more accurately. He talks and people follow.

        He's definitely not a 'conservative'.

bananapub 10 hours ago

remember when the American Right pretended to care about security or propriety

sitzkrieg 13 hours ago

so much for need to know. lets peruse the boxes he packed out LOL

rayiner 15 hours ago

[flagged]

  • isk517 15 hours ago

    Please explain the ways the military leaders fucked up the wars. I'm only 40 so I may not have lived through as many wars as you but the actual 'war' parts of the wars that have involved the US seem to have gone off without a hitch. It was winning the peace that proved difficult and that is a responsibility that falls on the politicians.

    • Whoppertime 14 hours ago

      Well to start off the cold war timeline. The Greek civil war was an American victory, then China fell to the Communists and we spent decades arguing who lost China. Then the Soviets let off Joe 1 and it turns out the Manhattan project was heavily infiltrated by Soviet Spies which made the American nuclear monopoly a short foot note. The combination of those 2 factors resulted in the Korean War. Which was looking like all of Korea would be lost, then all of Korea could be gained until China entered, resulting in a tie. The lessons learned from Korea made the next war in the region the Vietnam War politically constrained, which succeeded in preventing China from entering the war directly like they did in Korea, but resulted in the entire country of Vietnam being lost to the Communists which was a worse outcome than the tie that was Korea. The Gulf Wars learned the lessons of Vietnam, and the constrained vision of keeping Saddam out of Kuwait meant there was no quagmire. Kosovo was also a success, as there was regime change for the better in the former Yugoslavia. The 2000s after 9/11 were some "fucked up wars", the US military seemed to have learned the lessons from the 90s that they should have gone farther with regime change, and forgot the lessons of the Vietnam War. Taking down Saddam didn't result in a more stable Iraq, Iraq didn't turn into a flourishing democracy. After the US withdrew from the country under Obama you have the emergence of ISIS. Obama also helped decapitate Gaddafi's regime, which made Libya less stable. The actual war parts may be successful but if they're not achieving political or strategic goals those wins do not matter. There's an apocryphal tale of an American and a North Vietnamese general after the war:

      American: “You never beat us once.”

      North Vietnamese: “True, but irrelevant.”

  • pupppet 15 hours ago

    Hyper-competent billionaire? You mean the guy who got rich off his quasi-dating app?

    • fhdkweig 15 hours ago

      I choose to believe he meant hyper-"confident".

  • pachorizons 15 hours ago

    The guy who bought his competition and spent billions on an ugly VR rebrand? Lmfao ok.

sugarpimpdorsey 15 hours ago

This description of the oval office as some super-secret meeting space seems like a gross mischaracterization in an attempt to fabricate a controversy or gain clicks.

I mean, it has windows.

If this was true, the situation room wouldn't exist.

The oval office seems more like a busy CEO's office with an open door policy. Bill Maher confirmed on his podcast the current administration turned the annex (where blowjobs were dispensed during the Clinton years) into the merch room where they store the red hats.

yks 15 hours ago

Random individuals without clearance and sometimes with ties to Russia (talking about DOGE here) have access to all government IT systems, including databases of the military personnel, and the military leaders are now aghast at Zuck? I don't know how people can take "clearance" or "classified" seriously anymore.

  • bediger4000 14 hours ago

    Yes. "Security violations" are just another set of laws that bind, but does not protect, any member of an outgroup.

    • ModernMech 14 hours ago

      It's incredible, because the entire basis laid out by the media and Republicans to reject Clinton in 2016 was that she would not respect security protocols. 10 years later and all the people who said she can't be POTUS because she would give secrets away to Russia are now doing the same as her and worse.

      • CamperBob2 13 hours ago

        Exactly. Every accusation from a Republican is either a confession in disguise, a plan in progress, or an unfulfilled wish.