Pete is in a category of his own. Hegseth, that is.

Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
I can't believe Pete has not been given a thread of his own. He certainly deserves it. Oh, sure we have commented on him in the Trump Thread, the Fucking Cabinet thread, the Vance thread, I think he has even been mentioned in the Musk Thread.

But he is doing some things that do deserve attention.

I first became aware of Pete when he was a commentator on FOX. My brother is an avid Fox watcher. We don't talk politics much. But when I visit, I have to endure the FOX News. From the get go, I would say he presented himself as a fancy boy, not the effete kind, but he was always dressed so patriotically in red, white and blue. Blue suit, Red Tie, a handkerchief that looked like an upside down flag in his breast pocket. Red White and blue tennies. Always presenitng himsef as a military expert. To me he was all bark but no bite.

He has certainly shown that in his short tenure as SOD. He has trashed NATO, threatened withdrawal of military aid to Ukraine. Military people do not like him, especially pilots.

The Signal affair was a faceplant. He did not know who was in the group. He keeps denying the information he shared was not war plans--but another former SOD, Chuck Hegel, who served under Bush and Obama said they would have been while he was in office.

Now, come to find out his wife, Jennifer Hegseth, has been attending sensitive meetings in the DOD. She is not even an employee of the DOD, and she certainly does not have the clearance to be in those meetings. She just waltzes in and sits behind her husband, much like an observer. I bet Pete is relying on her intelligence to understand what is going on. No doubt, the Russians and Chinese, North Koreans and Iranians would love to bug their bedroom. I can imagine their pillow talk.

If we were taking bets on which Trumpie would get the first boot, I would bet the farm on Pete being the first one out. Rooting for you, Pete. Don't let me down--oh, wait, you already have.

Comments

  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    I can't believe Pete has not been given a thread of his own. He certainly deserves it.
    If we’re going to have a separate Hell thread on every member of the Trump administration that deserves condemnation, the Ship is going to sink from the weight of Trump-related Hell threads.


  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    I can't believe Pete has not been given a thread of his own. He certainly deserves it.
    If we’re going to have a separate Hell thread on every member of the Trump administration that deserves condemnation, the Ship is going to sink from the weight of Trump-related Hell threads.


    We have one for JFKjr. As I explained, while we have talked about him on other threads, many of his actions deserve special notice. That's why I started this. I am sure SoF has large enough bandwith to take on this thread.

    Here is a link to Saturday Night Live's skit on the Hegseth group chat.
  • No doubt many of the actions performed by Trump's band of lunatics deserve special mention, but where do you stop?
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    I can't believe Pete has not been given a thread of his own. He certainly deserves it.
    If we’re going to have a separate Hell thread on every member of the Trump administration that deserves condemnation, the Ship is going to sink from the weight of Trump-related Hell threads.


    We have one for JFKjr.
    RFKjr?

    I’d say that one isn’t needed either.

    As I explained, while we have talked about him on other threads, many of his actions deserve special notice. That's why I started this. I am sure SoF has large enough bandwith to take on this thread.
    Bandwidth isn’t really the issue, at least not as such. The issue is coming on the Ship and seeing thread after thread after thread about the current Trump-driven nightmare.

    We have American shipmates who’ve talked about the effect all-Trump, all-the-time news coverage is having on their mental health and how they’re having to limit news intake or avoid the news altogether just to get through the day. If we end up with a Hell thread for every member of the Cabinet, that’s potentially 26 threads to scroll post to find something not related to American politics.

    And it has been noted a number of times that participation by Americans in these Trump and Trump-adjacent threads it heavily outweighed by non-American participation. Reasons for that have been discussed elsewhere. But why start more if American participation in the ones we have is already low?

    I’ve stated my preference that there be one Purgatory thread and one Hell thread for all things Trump. If that’s not how it ends up, then okay. But I worry that an ever-growing number of Trump-related threads is going to make some people avoid the Ship altogether.


  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    We tried that the last time Trump was in power, @Nick. Remember the trump thread got so top heavy that it was hard to follow all the strings it contained. The SoF administration finally allowed for separate threads about what the Trump people were doing.

    In the case of Petie. we had been commenting on him in many other threads, but it was hard to determine where to put the comment about his wife's attendance at sensitive DOD meetings without it getting lost in the shuffle.

    It seems whenever a UK cabinet member goofs up, the British members are not hesitant to call that particular member out in their own thread. I think we Americans should also have that privilege.
  • Nick Tamen wrote: »
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    I can't believe Pete has not been given a thread of his own. He certainly deserves it.
    If we’re going to have a separate Hell thread on every member of the Trump administration that deserves condemnation, the Ship is going to sink from the weight of Trump-related Hell threads.


    We have one for JFKjr.
    RFKjr?

    I’d say that one isn’t needed either.

    As I explained, while we have talked about him on other threads, many of his actions deserve special notice. That's why I started this. I am sure SoF has large enough bandwith to take on this thread.
    Bandwidth isn’t really the issue, at least not as such. The issue is coming on the Ship and seeing thread after thread after thread about the current Trump-driven nightmare.

    We have American shipmates who’ve talked about the effect all-Trump, all-the-time news coverage is having on their mental health and how they’re having to limit news intake or avoid the news altogether just to get through the day. If we end up with a Hell thread for every member of the Cabinet, that’s potentially 26 threads to scroll post to find something not related to American politics.

    And it has been noted a number of times that participation by Americans in these Trump and Trump-adjacent threads it heavily outweighed by non-American participation. Reasons for that have been discussed elsewhere. But why start more if American participation in the ones we have is already low?

    I’ve stated my preference that there be one Purgatory thread and one Hell thread for all things Trump. If that’s not how it ends up, then okay. But I worry that an ever-growing number of Trump-related threads is going to make some people avoid the Ship altogether.


    This. One Trump in Hell, the other in Purgatory - clearly, US posters will deal with the horror in their own way, but for those of us not so immediately affected (yet), a separate thread for each of the fuckwitted idiots would be hard to cope with.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    It seems whenever a UK cabinet member goofs up, the British members are not hesitant to call that particular member out in their own thread. I think we Americans should also have that privilege.
    You call it a “privilege.” I call it Too Much. I don’t view the precedent set by a thread for every UK Cabinet member one worthy of following.


  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    edited March 30
    If a person does not want to comment about a particular member of the American government, one does not have to even if they have a thread of their own. But to keep certain members within a general thread could obscure what they are really doing. There comes a time when certain people rise to the top of the milieu and they deserve to have their own thread.

    A case in point. Kristi Noem has been mucking around. She has come out with ads telling migrants to leawe the country. She went to the prison in El Salvador to make a threat saying if we catch you, this can be what will happen to you. She did this while wearing a $50,000 Rolex. Now she is refusig to share who or what paid for that trip. Does this rise to a level where she deserves a thread of her own? Maybe for some, no for others. Frankly, she does not control a 3 million person military, so I am letting that pass for now.
  • RuthRuth Shipmate
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    And it has been noted a number of times that participation by Americans in these Trump and Trump-adjacent threads it heavily outweighed by non-American participation. Reasons for that have been discussed elsewhere. But why start more if American participation in the ones we have is already low?

    Because @Gramps49 has apparently decided that this is how he's going to get through the collapse of American democracy - start a new thread every time a stupid, malign thing bugs him enough. And in all of them he'll get things wrong and refuse to read for comprehension. What he's getting out of I don't know, but I get the feeling he doesn't get the chance to hold forth in real life often enough to suit him.

    There's no fruitful discussion to be had about most of these things on the Ship. They're evil and horrific, and since we're not using this space to organize against them - not the purpose of the forums, I'd say - we end up just exclaiming about how bad they are and getting into stupid squabbles with people we basically agree with. The non-US folks inevitably say the wrong thing, and Americans all snip at each other over stupid shit.

    I need to find a way to not get sucked in.
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    edited March 30
    Oh, now this has become an attack on me from two of my favorite frenemies? If anyone is not reading for comprehension, you might want to look at the mirror.

    My point is I am thinking Petie has risen to the point he deserves a thread of his own. I had thought someone might call me out for first using a category of his own-like Hell being a category of its own.

    In the past, when I asked an administrator if I could start a thread on something, their response was to go ahead and see if it flies on its own. This is what I was doing with this thread. If someone wants to discuss Pete's antiques here, they have the opportunity to do so. If they don't, that's okay, let this thread sink to the bottom. Don't insist it has to be force closed. No one is holding a gun to anyone's head.
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    Okay, I have calmed down a bit. In the past few exchanges it would appear I am not reading a previous post for comprehension. That may be because I am responding to an earlier post when Nick, or whomever, posts a reply. Goes the other way around too. This is a shortcoming of message boards. Guess that is a good reason to quote the previous message one is responding to.
  • @Ruth said:

    There's no fruitful discussion to be had about most of these things on the Ship.

    This - the operative word being fruitful...
  • DafydDafyd Hell Host
    We are not going to stop people who live in the US from starting threads in Hell to complain about specific incidents.
    We will however be closing those threads if nothing on topic is posted on them or if they are taken over by non-US residents.

    Dafyd Hell Host

  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    @Ruth said:

    There's no fruitful discussion to be had about most of these things on the Ship.

    This - the operative word being fruitful...

    Well, if there is one thing that is fruitful, is that it occupies our time. I am not wondering around the streets of the city looking for action.
  • RuthRuth Shipmate
    @Gramps49, I'm not your frenemy. I don't see a post from you and think, cool, now I'm going to get to mix it up with ol' Gramps. We all get stuff wrong sometimes, but when someone points an error you've made, you double down on it, nearly every time. And you talk like the worst kind of retired minister, someone who no longer has a captive audience on a regular basis and can't get used to the fact that people don't have to listen to what he says.
  • DafydDafyd Hell Host
    This thread is now off topic.

    Dafyd Hell Host
This discussion has been closed.