85 Comments
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Fakehat's avatar

He must be impeached. He is a war criminal and a national security risk.

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Heather.B's avatar

What everyone in this administration has in common:

Incompetence,

Cruelty,

Corruption,

Compulsive liars,

Hate,

Lawlessness,

"Alpha male" obsessed,

Misogyny,

Hypocrisy,

Fascism.

The US is at a dangerous stage and we could lose our country due to the extreme incompetence of this administration. The brutal incompetence of the Trump Administration is only matched by it's ignorance.

Here's my favorite tee: It says "Don't blame, I voted for her"

This one 👇

https://libtees.dashery.com/products/74030236-dont-blame-me-i-voted-for-harris-t-shirt

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Shauna Mick-Sims's avatar

Hegseth is a war criminal and should be tried for murder.

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gpm414's avatar

And Trump must be part of the War Crimes trial at the Hague as well.

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Sharon C Storm's avatar

Agree 100%!

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Star Aasved's avatar

Hegseth, like most appointees in this regime, is deeply unqualified for the position and, as we know just another Trump puppet. Will the investigation initiated by Wisker and Reed go anywhere? Given the preponderance of the Republicans to support Trump, no matter how horrific his efforts, I am doubtful but feel strongly that Hegseth must be removed from the position.

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Karen Horwitz's avatar

Love that you mentioned the pardoning of that drug trafficking master mind. That’s the kind of reporting we need to awaken the consciences of Republican senators. It’s so eye opening. It puts the nail on truth here.

It points out there were orders to kill the little traffickers but orders to save the powerful trafficker. It proves that Trump is not about helping the little guy and Trump doesn’t care about drugs. He’s using that situation to look powerful.

We also must keep reminding people there was a little once kind of important agreement called the Ten Commandments. How are we okay with killing these guys and also connected to religion of any sort?

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Jane Myers's avatar

That was my first thought when I read today about that pardon. Trump is pardoning people who are among the most vicious and inhumane, whom he perceives to be "strong" men. At the same time he is visiting so much pain and loss upon anyone he perceives to by "lesser than" and upon those he considers his enemies. Trump is emerging as one of the most vile and sick individuals ever to have gained power in the USA.

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Nadine Roddy's avatar

Yes, thank you SB for bringing into the discussion the pardoning of the "big-league" drug trafficker.

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SNARK Avenue's avatar

Pete Hegseth is taking his newly-minted title literally: the Secretary of War is Secretary-ing the Hell out of War in the name of the US.

Congress should demand a return to calling it the Defense Department — because Hegseth has simultaneously declared War on American

decency & the staunch belief in abiding by our nation’s laws.

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James Freeman's avatar

He doesn’t belong as head of any cabinet post and must be sacked and put on trial along with his boss donald j trump

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Robyn Boyer's avatar

The International Criminal Court should work in league with the Senate armed forces oversight hearings to investigate any evidence that might pertain to the murder of 80+ men. The regime has given no evidence to justify the legal predicate for these killings. Simultaneously, someone/organization (Vote/Vets?) should litigate this issue up to the Supreme Court where “facts” still have some sway. The reps from the ICC should be allowed on US soil to arrest, bring to trial at The Hague and convict Hegseth. Trump cannot pardon him in this instance. While we’re at it, throw Trump into the international grinder. As he is so proud of crowing: “I am the law!” Prove it at The Hague you POS.

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Charlie's avatar
24mEdited

The problem is: the US is not a signatory to the ICC. W Bush in 2002 "unsigned" the signed but not ratified 2000 Rome Statute (Clinton).

I am not anti-military. The US military only does what politicians decide to order. US politicians don't want any impartial legal body investigating the bomb sites.

Ditto for Israel: signed in 2000, withdrew in 2002.

March 2003: US invasion of Iraq.

The Bush administration would have been wholesale convicted by the ICC.

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Rita LB's avatar

Pete Hegseth should be taking a supervised urine test every morning before he goes to work at the defense department… excuse me, the department of war.

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Ellen Deschatres's avatar

“Kill everybody”? Who does he think he is…Caesar? Thumbs down? If we cannot resurrect the Legislative branch of our government, then this INFURIATING behavior will continue. I don’t know whether to ‘rage, rage into the night’ over our inability to stop this, or whether to pray to a G-D I don’t even know exists to encourage some kind of divine intervention on behalf of humanity. These reactions within myself tell me that I am witnessing if not a war crime, a crime against humanity, a crime against all decency.

What kind of person, let alone someone charged with the most serious of tasks on behalf of our nation, acts with reckless abandon where human life is concerned? I am just heartbroken that the most evil people seem to be in charge of the direction of our once-respected foreign policy and military deployments.

Pete Hegseth is, like the Nazi SS soldiers of decades ago, “just following orders”. His recklessness is entertainment for the Czar, his depravity a flag planted for the United States, where we all pledge our loyalty to “One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” Where will this lead and when and how will this end?

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Diane Ohms's avatar

Now is the time to investigate. The corruption has gone far too long.

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Steven Dundas's avatar

Steven,

Indeed Hegseth should be immediately relieved of duties, taken into custody, and investigated for War Crimes, and these attacks are war crimes. These is precedent to try everyone in the chain-of-command for war crimes and crimes upon the high seas. Your question is fortuitous as I wrote about this subject last night. The link to that article is here.

https://dundas.substack.com/p/murder-on-the-high-seas

Anyway. Thank you for bringing this up, your articles are always pertinent and well done. Have a good day, and as always, watch your six.

Steve Dundas

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Mary Greenwald's avatar

And who will take Hegseth's place? Supposedly Daniel Driscoll, U. S. Army Secretary and Vance's buddy who delivered the Russian/Trump Plan to Ukraine demanding they give up Ukraine to Putin and American businessmen who want to develop rare-earth minerals in Russia, Ukraine and the Arctic. (HRC, 11/29/25)

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Ken Williams, PhD's avatar

Retired Army chaplain and professor of military ethics here. There is nothing legal or ethical about the killing and the justification presented by the administration and Admiral Bradley. As other experts have stated, we are not in a formally declared war. The alleged drug traffickers are no national security threat. They are not legitimate enemy combatants. By bombing these vessels and killing these people the administration has committed murder. As noncombatants engaged in the criminal activity of drug trafficking, law dictates that they are to be arrested and detained for trial and provided due process. Even if it were true that we were in a state of war, the admiral’s statement violates the law of armed conflict. There is no legal justification for killing defenseless combatants due to the possibility that their comrades could retrieve them and their cargo, or that the damaged vessel poses a navigational risk. According to the law, the attacking force is required to safeguard wounded and defenseless enemy combatants. Our forces should not have bombed the vessel in the first place. But in the second place, our forces should have retrieved the two individuals before completely destroying the vessel in order to remove it as a navigational hazard. Everyone in the chain of command should be investigated.

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Eric Sivin's avatar

David Brooks wrote a long column in the Times a few days ago explaining why he was proud to be an American. david, goes this make you proud?

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Mary Greenwald's avatar

David Brooks. . .the apologist for MAGA.

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Daniel Boone's avatar

I wish the military brass would gang up on Himmler Hegseth. The day he called that meeting with those generals they were all steaming you could tell. I bet everyone of them hate him.

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Mary Greenwald's avatar

Not all. When you want to be a"manly-man", you want a Secretary of War who looks the part and is willing to kill.

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Daniel Boone's avatar

What’s a secretary of war look like?

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Daniel Boone's avatar

Ok Most of them.

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Douglas Mackay's avatar

He should be, must be, but will not be because, “Who ya gonna trust?” This government is over run with corruption and indifference to law, precedent, and justice. The only way to fix this is to remove the corruption and wait for the stink to dissipate. The Trumpian removal of oversight professionals first set the stage for the ensuing corruption. A Master Plan indeed.

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Nancy Pope's avatar

The whole flap about Kelly and company was because hogsbreath and the rapist WANT to give illegal orders . This order is illegal under international law as a “failure to give quarter”. He and the obeying soldiers all need to be punished.

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