The
Trump
administration
has
been
described
as
many
things,
none
of
them
good.
What
no
one
will
ever
accuse
it
of
being
is
“competent.”
Trump
has
surrounded
himself
with
sycophants,
most
of
them
known
only
for
waving
the
MAGA
flag
when
not
hosting
shows
on
Fox
or
podcasts
celebrating
the
debut
of
American
fascism.
Case
in
point:
SecDef
Pete
Hegseth,
who
was
previously
best
known
for
his
multiple
Fox
News
appearances
(and
is
currently
best
known
for
reposting
a
recording
of
a
pastor
saying
women
shouldn’t
have
the
right
to
vote)
now
heads
the
Defense
Department.
Somehow,
a
Signal
chat
group
that
included
him
managed
to
invite Atlantic
journalist
Jeffrey
Goldberg to
a
chat
session
discussing
an
ongoing
military
attack
in
Yemen.
In
all
fairness
to
Hegseth
(which
is
far
more
than
he
deserves),
he
probably
didn’t
send
out
this
invite
himself. On
the
other
hand,
his
defense
of
this
OPSEC
failure
strips
away
all
the
fairness
I’ve
just
awarded
him.
According
to
Hegseth,
this
was
no
big
deal
because
nothing
classified
was
discussed
and
these
weren’t
actually
“war
plans”
despite
the
group
being
referred
to
by
at
least
one
(intended)
participant
as
the
“houthi
war
chat
group.”
Well,
if
that’s
the
case,
then
future
“war
chats”
should
just
take
place
on
X
in
full
view
of
everyone.
After
all,
nothing
sensitive
or
classified
is
being
shared.
Isn’t
that
right,
Pete?
Pete
may
not
be
the
best
judge
of
what
can
or
can’t
be
shared
with
people
who
don’t
have
the
proper
security
clearance.
While
“Signalgate”
continued
to
generate
press
coverage,
it
was
discovered
that
Pete
Hegseth
was intentionally discussing
matters
of
national
security
with… his
wife,
his
brother,
and
his
family’s
lawyer.
And
that
brings
us
to
the
latest
OPSEC
failure
from
this
hideous
administration.
Again,
to
be
far
more
fair
to
ICE
than
it
deserves,
it’s
possible
no
one
from
ICE
added
this
random
person
to
a
chat
group
discussing
a
manhunt
already
in
progress.
Joseph
Cox has
the
hilariously
gory
details
at
404
Media:
Members
of
a
law
enforcement
group
chat
including
Immigration
and
Customs
Enforcement
(ICE)
and
other
agencies
inadvertently
added
a
random
person
to
the
group
called
“Mass
Text”
where
they
exposed
highly
sensitive
information
about
an
active
search
for
a
convicted
attempted
murderer
seemingly
marked
for
deportation,
404
Media
has
learned.
The
texts
included
an
unredacted
ICE
“Field
Operations
Worksheet”
that
includes
detailed
information
about
the
target
they
were
looking
for,
and
the
texts
showed
ICE
pulling
data
from
a
DMV
and
license
plate
readers
(LPRs),
according
to
screenshots
of
the
chat
obtained
and
verified
by
404
Media.
The
person
accidentally
added
to
the
group
chat
is
not
a
law
enforcement
official
or
associated
with
the
investigation
in
any
way,
and
said
they
were
added
to
it
weeks
ago
and
initially
thought
it
was
a
series
of
spam
messages.
Click
through
for
the
coverage
of
this
latest
attempt
to
make
America
great
again.
There
are
plenty
of
screenshots
of
the
texts,
as
well
as
confirmation
that
the
participants
in
the
chat
group
included
at
least
one
ICE
official
and
one
member
of
the
US
Marshals
Service.
Oh,
and
then
there’s
this
detail,
which
makes
it
even
more
of
an
OPSEC
failure.
These
new
ICE
messages
were
MMS,
or
Multimedia
Messaging
Service
messages, meaning
they
weren’t
end-to-end
encrypted,
like
texts
sent
over
Signal
or
are.
The
government
has
issued
nothing
but
a
refusal
to
comment
on
these
revelations.
And
it’s
entirely
possible
some
random
cop
added
this
random
person
to
the
chat
group,
rather
than
someone
working
for
ICE,
but
the
end
result
is
the
same
thing:
another
unforced
error
from
an
administration
that
seems
to
be
to
have
been
crafted
from
the
ground
up
to
be
as
embarrassing
as
possible
as
often
as
possible.
Or
maybe
ICE
was
just
following
DHS
head
Kristi
Noem’s
lead.
After
all,
she
doesn’t
seem
to
mind
exposing
impending
or
ongoing
ICE
operations
so
long
as
it
generates
a
photo
op
for
her
to
post
at
social
media’s
favorite
Nazi
bar:
Here’s press
coverage
of
that
debacle:
In
one
instance,
sources
told
the
Journal
that
Noem
likely
hampered
a
series
of
early
morning
raids
in
New
York
City
by posting
about
the
operation on
social
media
while
it
was
still
underway.
People
familiar
with
the
January
effort
claimed
Noem’s
post
on
X
tipped
off
targets
that
ICE
was
in
action,
spoiling
the
element
of
surprise
and
resulting
in
“fewer
arrests
than
officials
had
hoped
for.”
Of
course,
DHS
spokesperson
Tricia
McLaughlin
was
there
to
defend
the
photo
op
that
jeopardized
an
ICE
operation
by
claiming
the
raids
were
“already
winding
down”
when
the
post
went
live.
Given
the
3:43
am
timestamp,
that
seems unlikely like
McLaughlin
is
flat
out
lying
about
what
happened.
Whatever
the
case,
the
administration
continues
to
lower
the
bar
in
terms
of
basic
competence.
And
while
that
might
be
occasionally
amusing,
it’s
still
pretty
good
at
brute
forcing
its
way
towards
a
totalitarian
takeover.
Back
to
404
Media’s
Joseph
Cox:
Recently
ICE
officials
have raided
incorrect
addresses;
potentially
violated
court
orders
banning
the
agency
from racial
profiling
people
at
Home
Depots;
detained
U.S.
citizens
(including
for
days
without
water);
and
deported
U.S.
citizen
children, one
of
which
had
cancer,
with
their
families
to
Honduras,
all
while
aggressively
rounding
up
undocumented
people
many
of
whom
have
no
criminal
record
and
denying
due
process
to
some.
Being
stupid
in
group
chats
doesn’t
seem
to
be
doing
much
damage
to
the
full-on
evil
being
perpetrated
daily
by
the
Trump
administration.
While
it
does
give
us
some
hope
that
it
will
periodically
trip
over
its
own
feet,
it’s
a
pretty
fucking
cold
comfort.
ICE
Goes
Full
Hegseth:
Adds
Random
Person
To
Group
Chat
Discussing
Ongoing
Manhunt
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