this meeting sounds insane. Trump Vance Waltz Wiles Gor listening to Loomer demands on supposedly disloyal neocons who should be fired

https://twitter.com/jillrussia/status/1907837198881243553

a source yesterday described the situation between supposed restrainers and more hawkish trump aides as a civil war, incredibly intense, and vicious

https://twitter.com/lrozen/status/1907836971143004193

🧵A former DoD civilian military planner writes to explain why the information that Defense Sec. Hegseth sent out in advance of US strikes in Yemen could have compromised the safety of US military personnel: “Why is something like F-18 launch times so sensitive?

1/ “Yes, it lets an adversary know of an impending attack, but it also reveals a key vulnerability.
An aircraft carrier is most vulnerable to attack when it is launching & recovering aircraft because..its ability to maneuver is restricted. 2/

🧵Sen. Angus King: something you said has sort of puzzled me. …on the morning of March 15, Sec. Hegseth put into this group text a detailed operation plan, inc. targets, the weapons we were going to be using, attack sequences and timing. King: And yet, you've testified that nothing in that chain was classified. Wouldn't that be classified?

Gabbard: Senator, I can attest to the fact that there were no classified or intelligence equities that were included in that chat group at any time.

Gabbard: Turning to key state actors, the IC sees China, Russia, Iran & North Korea engaging in activities that could challenge US capabilities & interests, esp. related to our security & economy. These actors are in some cases working together Identifies Russian as a nuclear threat and cyber threat. new satellite intended to carry a nuclear weapon.
she does not mention Russian threat to US allies in Europe, invasion of Ukraine, hybrid threats, election interference, etc.

🧵Fiona Hill @ForeignAffairs podcast: Trump is “fixated on the one guy himself, on Putin…Certainly his own staff he doesn’t pay any attention to. It's all about being able to sit down with Putin. 1/ “And when you're not prepared, and when you don't know where the other person is coming from—it’s just about his interaction—then of course you're going to be taking on the talking points of Russia. 2/

holy jesus, Gabbard just gave a ten minute Kremlin informercial on one of the Sunday shows reairing on cspan radio. tuned in after it had started and wondered who is this Kremlin loon, and the host did not push back at all. we are in deep deep deep doo doo.

US leverage on Russia has been diminished by what the Trump administration has already given away, Russian expert Maria Snegovaya says at CSIS panel. Russian maximalist goals are still there, she says. Dara Massicot on how Ukrainians have become more western: the things that struck me, …when you walk the streets of these various cities in Ukraine, they only look Soviet on the outside, right? The people are not the same. You can see in real time, the russianness, or, …the shared Soviet (past) just drain out of the country.

DOGE reps had administrative access, not read only, at OPM, WaPo reports, “giving them sweeping authority to install and modify software…**and alter internal documentation of their own activities.”**

https://twitter.com/isaacstanbecker/status/1887490796342903273

“At least 6 DOGE agents were given broad access to all personnel systems at the OPM on the afternoon of Jan. 20…Three more gained access about a week later.”

“Musk’s allies now aim to inject AI tools into government systems, using them to assess contracts and recommend cuts. On Monday, Thomas Shedd, a former Tesla engineer tapped to lead a GSA tech team, told some staff members he hoped to put all federal contracts into a centralized system so they could be analyzed by AI “There is no precedent for a government official to have Musk’s scale of conflicts of interest, …such as business relationships in China. & there is no precedent for someone who is not a full-time employee to have such ability to reshape the federal work force.”

🧵Pres. Biden, flanked by VP Harris and SecState Blinken: It’s a very good afternoon because at long last I can announce a ceasefire and hostage deal has been reached between Israel and Hamas. Biden: The deal is structured in three phases. Phase one will last six weeks. It includes a full and complete ceasefire, withdrawal of Israeli forces from all the populated areas of Gaza and the release of a number of hostages held by Hamas, including women and elderly and the wounded.

👀🧵 “An associate of Grenell had approached conservative social media influencers, according to 2 people with knowledge of the situation, offering paid contracts of as much as five figures to post favorably about Grenell.”

https://twitter.com/matthewkassel/status/1864739432105914478

“One such contract, obtained by POLITICO and not previously reported, outlined that the influencer would do so during ‘peak posting times,’ that ‘content must appear genuine,’ and it could not ‘appear as an overt advertisement or promotional message.’”

“The defense of democracy is the number one issue driving Jewish voters in this election, just as it was in the past election,” Halie Soifer, CEO of Jewish Democratic Council of America and former national security advisor of then Sen. Kamala Harris on JDCA call. Ilan Goldenberg, Harris campaign Jewish outreach lead, and former Middle East advisor to VP Harris, on Trump: “At the end of the day, he is an isolationist who plays footsie with Putin.”

Have pretty minimal phonebanking/get out the vote door knocking experience, but those have had the past few weeks have been so interesting. Guess most predominately, that most people have already made up their minds. Went to 1 address in PA today where told the male was an independent, female was D. but few questions in, the male said he did not know why he was recorded as an independent, it was clear he was a strong Democrat. as was the female in the household. Was not a matter of persuasion of any sort. But the choice to even come talk to someone knocking at the door is an assessment of whether the person wants to talk with you, right? so, there is a self selection thing going on, within even the information the campaigns have acquired of who might be persuadable. an x factor

🧵Haaretz military reporter Amos Harel speaking to Israel Policy podcast’s Neri Zilber on ex israeli generals’ ‘surrender or starve plan’ for north Gaza having kind of been absorbed into IDF thinking, even as top brass denies it: 1/ Harel: “My fear is…the ‘generals’ plan’ … there's talk of starving the population, of pushing the population by force to the south, all kinds of crazy ideas…. this has somehow infiltrated the IDF line of thinking. 2/

🧵VP Kamala Harris, on call with Jewish voters: “I am clear eyed: Iran is a destabilizing and dangerous force. When Donald Trump was president, he let Iran off the hook. 1/ Harris: “After Iran and its proxies attacked US bases and American troops, Trump did nothing; and he pulled out of the nuclear deal, without any plan, leading to an unconstrained Iranian nuclear program.

🧵New from me: US wary as Israel plans retaliation against Iran

US Israel relations at ‘rock bottom’ as Israel PM Netanyahu blocks Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant from traveling to Washington for consultations on Iran.

open.substack.com/pub/diplomatic… When US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer, NSC Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk and a half dozen other top Biden advisors arrived at the Israeli embassy Monday for a memorial event to mark the one year anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks, the optics were of close American Israeli solidarity. But there were signs too of the tremendous strain that the relationship between the highest levels of the two governments are under at the current moment, strain that seemed at times personal.

open.substack.com/pub/diplomatic…

🧵US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan became emotional speaking at an Israel embassy memorial event on the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks. He said he was humbled by the resilience and determination of the families of the American hostages held by Hamas. And he spoke of, for the government of Israel, “the challenge going forward” of “turning tactical wins” into enduring strategic gains. Also attending from US gov: deputy national security advisor Jon Finer, Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk, Asst. Sec. State NEA Barbara Leaf, DoD’s Dan Shapiro, the chairs of the Senate and House foreign relations committees, Steny Hoyer….

Good Walz answer: Those that were closest to Donald Trump understand how dangerous he is when the world is this dangerous. His chief of staff John Kelly said that he was the most flawed human being he'd ever met; and both of his secretaries of defense and his national security advisers said he should be nowhere near the white house. Good Walz follow up: When Donald Trump was in office, it was Donald Trump who—we had a coalition of nations that had boxed Iran's nuclear program in the inability to advance it. Donald Trump pulled that program and put nothing else in its place. So Iran is closer to a nuclear weapon than they were before, because of Donald Trump's fickle leadership.

🧵NSC’s John Kirby: As has been reported recently, dozens of Russian military personnel have been trained in Iran to use the Fath-360 close range ballistic missile system. Russia has received these shipments of Iranian Fath-360 close range ballistic missiles, and will probably employ them within weeks against Ukraine, which will of course, lead to the deaths of even more Ukrainian civilians, particularly because of the way they use ballistic missiles against civilian infrastructure. Kirby: Moscow possesses an array of its own ballistic missiles, but the supply of these Iranian missiles, which have a maximum range of about 75 miles, could allow Russia to use more of its arsenal for targets beyond the front line, while employing Iranian warheads for closer range targets.

AG Garland, appearing with FBI Director and deputy Lisa Monaco: we meet today to respond to a dangerous increase in violent threats against the public servants who administer our elections. we did so because countless americans were enduring terrible threats simply for doing their civic duty, and we did so because threats to election workers constitute threats to our democracy itself. In just a few minutes, the task force here will meet to discuss its continuing work in advance of the upcoming election. Garland: this morning, we unsealed an indictment in the Southern District of New York of Konstantin Kalashnikov and Elena afanasva (check spelling), two Russian based employees of RT, a Russian state controlled media outlet. They are charged with conspiring to commit money laundering and to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

“I am so glad she has made freedom the theme of her campaign,” @PeteButtigieg says of Kamala Harris. “In so many ways, I think that is what is at stake. And yes, women’s freedom is Exhibit A, after Donald Trump demolished the right to choose.”

https://twitter.com/kenbensinger/status/1818080029722775890