Good afternoon, y’all. Hegseth gets questioned again, and the questions will continue about his “jumping at shadows,” in sending Marines to LA. I’m still pissed about that. First, the police had it under control, then he sent in the National Guard, and now Marines? WTF. These questions are also very much in public, in that we have access to them. To start, from CNN, because they have been good to me lately (ha):
Rep. Betty McCollum, the ranking Democratic member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, grilled Hegseth about the cost of the mobilization.
“How much are these deployments going to cost for both the Marines and the National Guard, and what training or duties are not taking place because of these deployments?” McCollum asked the defense secretary. “Where in your limited budget, sir, are you going to find in the remainder of this fiscal year, are you going to pull the money to cover these deployments, what holes are being created?”
Hegseth initially declined to answer the question directly, instead reiterating that he believes Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, “has the right to safely conduct operations in any state and any jurisdiction in the country.” He ultimately responded that under the new budget request, the Defense Department will “have the funding to cover down on contingencies, especially ones as important as maintaining law and order in a major American city.”
Gee, Petey, LA had it covered. There were protests, and yes, some of them escalated, BUT, ICE made the mess that started the protests! I’m pretty sure they were supposed to notify local authorities that they were doing sweeps. Please don’t quote me on that. They didn’t need *any* help to escalate the situations! So, you sent in the troops without thinking. How can I keep forgetting you don’t know how to think?
I understand that they are looking for illegal immigrants, and they are being pushed hard to make arrests, but gee, Kristi, the methods your people used were a mess. Frightening neighborhoods by grabbing people anywhere they can is not a good use of resources. They’re coming in like SWAT teams instead of ICE. They are not on TV!!!! They need to be planned, not improvised.
Drama consumed Hegseth’s office this spring. He invited Elon Musk to the Pentagon for a classified briefing without first informing the White House, and fired three senior Defense Department officials he accused of leaking to the press. Hegseth also faced significant blowback after sharing detailed military plans in a secure messaging app about a forthcoming strike on Yemen back in March.
The questions will likely be particularly pointed during hearings before the Armed Services committees. The ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jack Reed, said on Sunday that the guard deployment and Hegseth’s decision to put active-duty Marines on high alert “sets a troubling precedent for military intervention in local law enforcement.”
Gee, ya think? *Someone* has an itchy trigger finger. And yes, this is after SignalGate 1 and 2. You say those words and *everyone* knows what they are and who they belong to. He’s not going to be able to bluster and huff his way out of anything now. He can’t redirect questions. Kristi Dogkiller should also be questioned about how ICE is handling these arrests and how well trained they are, because, after all, that was what triggered the protests.
Well, okay, again, the starting of the protests is my own theory – YMMV. Everyone will have their own reasons. Anyhow, Petey is facing a lot of hard questions, whether the White House supports him or not. His “home,” aka the DOD, is in chaos. He ought to be cleaning that up and not sending in the clowns to prove he’s a manly man. You can find the article from CNN here. Thanks for sticking with me!
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Friends, I hate to bug people for money, but times are tough. We’re doing all that we can to hang in. Anything you can do to lighten the load would be appreciated. And we now have coffee cups and tote bags available! Thanks, Ursula
