Hegseth Confirmed
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My liberal podcast friends are beside themselves with this one. "Worst cabinet pick in the history of America", says The Bulwark. I'm not remotely worried about Hegseth personally, and I find the primary reasoning to oppose him, about his philandering, to be laughable in the face of what some of our most venerated top-level politicians have often been. The stories of JFK and his dalliances with the white house interns didn't seem to keep him from being considered a great, great man. This is all special pleading, and I don't expect Hegseth to stumble in that way in this role.
The philandering gets more ink but the bigger reason to oppose him is he’s a weekend talk show host with no experience running an organization.
If he fails, which he may well not, it’ll be because the bureaucracy eats him alive.
Only non-witches get due process.
- Cotton Mather, Salem Massachusetts, 1692
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The philandering gets more ink but the bigger reason to oppose him is he’s a weekend talk show host with no experience running an organization.
If he fails, which he may well not, it’ll be because the bureaucracy eats him alive.
@jon-nyc said in Hegseth Confirmed:
The philandering gets more ink but the bigger reason to oppose him is he’s a weekend talk show host with no experience running an organization.
If he fails, which he may well not, it’ll be because the bureaucracy eats him alive.
That’s what the whole next 2 years is really about. The specific reason why he was chosen was to disrupt and dismantle the bureaucracy. It will be a popcorn heavy 18 months…
The Brad
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The philandering gets more ink but the bigger reason to oppose him is he’s a weekend talk show host with no experience running an organization.
If he fails, which he may well not, it’ll be because the bureaucracy eats him alive.
@jon-nyc said in Hegseth Confirmed:
The philandering gets more ink but the bigger reason to oppose him is he’s a weekend talk show host with no experience running an organization.
If he fails, which he may well not, it’ll be because the bureaucracy eats him alive.
You forgot axe-thrower.
Link to video -
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@jon-nyc said in Hegseth Confirmed:
The philandering gets more ink but the bigger reason to oppose him is he’s a weekend talk show host with no experience running an organization.
If he fails, which he may well not, it’ll be because the bureaucracy eats him alive.
That’s what the whole next 2 years is really about. The specific reason why he was chosen was to disrupt and dismantle the bureaucracy. It will be a popcorn heavy 18 months…
@LuFins-Dad said in Hegseth Confirmed:
@jon-nyc said in Hegseth Confirmed:
The philandering gets more ink but the bigger reason to oppose him is he’s a weekend talk show host with no experience running an organization.
If he fails, which he may well not, it’ll be because the bureaucracy eats him alive.
That’s what the whole next 2 years is really about. The specific reason why he was chosen was to disrupt and dismantle the bureaucracy. It will be a popcorn heavy 18 months…
No doubt he’ll implement culture war stuff very publicly. Can’t imagine he’d be anywhere as good as, say, Rummy at taking on the bureaucracy in general. He had force of will, shit tons of CEO experience, and prior knowledge from his stint in the 70s.
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That’s VP worthy
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@jon-nyc said in Hegseth Confirmed:
The philandering gets more ink but the bigger reason to oppose him is he’s a weekend talk show host with no experience running an organization.
If he fails, which he may well not, it’ll be because the bureaucracy eats him alive.
That’s what the whole next 2 years is really about. The specific reason why he was chosen was to disrupt and dismantle the bureaucracy. It will be a popcorn heavy 18 months…
@LuFins-Dad said in Hegseth Confirmed:
@jon-nyc said in Hegseth Confirmed:
The philandering gets more ink but the bigger reason to oppose him is he’s a weekend talk show host with no experience running an organization.
If he fails, which he may well not, it’ll be because the bureaucracy eats him alive.
That’s what the whole next 2 years is really about. The specific reason why he was chosen was to disrupt and dismantle the bureaucracy. It will be a popcorn heavy 18 months…
You sir, are right.
See his generals comment above.
Also, I think he's tasked with cutting inefficient, costly systems. The Chinese can build an aircraft carrier in 18 months, while it takes us ten years.
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I think you're going to see more stuff like this:
Link to videoRelatively cheap, evolutionary not revolutionary, tons of spare parts and modular.
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So Hegseth was confirmed at 10PM on a Friday night? I mean, he had to have been at a bar, right?
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The philandering gets more ink but the bigger reason to oppose him is he’s a weekend talk show host with no experience running an organization.
If he fails, which he may well not, it’ll be because the bureaucracy eats him alive.
@jon-nyc said in Hegseth Confirmed:
The philandering gets more ink but the bigger reason to oppose him is he’s a weekend talk show host with no experience running an organization.
If he fails, which he may well not, it’ll be because the bureaucracy eats him alive.
Was Lloyd Austin a failure or a success, or did he just occupy the position? If Hegseth lasts, then failure or success will be in the eye of the beholder.
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I suppose that partly depends on what the expectations are when he’s selected. Austin wasn’t selected to ‘disrupt and dismantle’ the bureaucracy. Hegseth was, so I’m told.
@jon-nyc He'll get some culture war stuff done, and that'll be enough to satisfy that requirement for success. If he lasts, if he isn't fired by Trump and doesn't resign, then I don't anticipate any situation where there will be an objective measure of failure or success. Which is why I have trouble with the notion that the job is super difficult. There is not any easy way to measure how well this difficult job has been accomplished. Sometimes history judges, such as with McNamara, who even judged himself.
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Again it still seems to me that it needs to be judged against the expectations of the president. If the expectations are ‘keep the seat warm and don’t fuck anything up’ that’s one thing. If it’s ’dismantle the bureaucracy’ or ‘build out 18 carrier groups armed with 100k drones each’ that’s another.
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There won't be a measurable definition of "dismantling the bureaucracy", but people will be able to hand wave claims to have done so. Even the DEI removal, already accomplished, can be considered that. Hegseth won't be standing in the way of DOGE as it does things that might be framed as "dismantling the bureaucracy" by making the information systems more efficient, I mean on the off chance that that happens. I do not anticipate any objective measures here.
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Something Hegseth said in his hearings that stuck with me...
" We won World War 2 with seven four-star generals. Today, we have forty-four. "
@Jolly said in Hegseth Confirmed:
Something Hegseth said in his hearings that stuck with me...
" We won World War 2 with seven four-star generals. Today, we have forty-four. "
Our military today has become much much larger and complicated than the days of Hitler. Look only at it's current budget to see that it is critically important to place a person of great experience in dealing with a trillion dollar budget and making critical decisions toward keeping this country safe from harm. Is it not clear for all to see that Trump decided by himself that such a person would not serve as the best option when said person holds the Constitution as paramount in all decision making, over subservience to the king? Trump is attempting to remove each and every guardrail that exists this second time around. The first time is what we can all call a practice game. Much has been learned from that exhibition and now the real game starts. For him to win this game, he needs an unfettered lane of opportunity to unilaterally see his plans through. So many guardrails exist today that will quickly be dismantled with the current crew of applicants for Cabinet positions. This one disturbs me over any of the others, except maybe for Patel at FBI.
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McConnell:
"The most consequential cabinet official in any Administration is the Secretary of Defense. In the face of the gravest threats to US national security interests since World War II, this position is even more important today...Mr. Hegseth has failed, as yet, to demonstrate that he will pass this test. But as he assumes office, the consequences of failure are as high as they have ever been," his statement continued. "The United States faces coordinated aggression from adversaries bent on shattering the order underpinning American security and prosperity. In public comments and testimony before the Armed Services Committee, Mr. Hegseth did not reckon with this reality."
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I wonder how Elbridge Colby would have fared in a confirmation vote. I heard him on Tucker a few months ago and was impressed. Tucker thought he might get the secretary of defense nomination. As it is, Trump nominated Colby for Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, which is a top advisory position to secretary of defense. Hegseth will have good and competent advisors, should he choose to use them.
