The Shipping News
By 
I hope you all are reading about that time Republicans added a reporter to their secret war planning group chat. Farley provided a gift link in his post.
One thing I’ve been wondering is how many people have Republicans accidentally added to top secret communications? Because I can’t believe that this type of fuckup wasn’t replicated several times over. But we’ll never know.
At any rate, the National Security Council is trying to play this off as NBD because the bombing went as planned. That would be laughable even if there weren’t more to the group chat.
The Hegseth message goes on to state, “Waiting a few weeks or a month does not fundamentally change the calculus. 2 immediate risks on waiting: 1) this leaks, and we look indecisive; 2) Israel takes an action first – or Gaza cease fire falls apart – and we don’t get to start this on our own terms. We can manage both. We are prepared to execute, and if I had final go or no go vote, I believe we should. This [is] not about the Houthis.
3) This leaks and we look like incompetent *hic!* stumbledrunks who drop bombs for P.R. points. And who apparently don’t care who they drop bombs on so long as they drop them first. And who think European allies are The Worst.
The account identified as “JD Vance” addressed a message at 8:45 to @Pete Hegseth: “if you think we should do it let’s go. I just hate bailing Europe out again.” (The administration has argued that America’s European allies benefit economically from the U.S. Navy’s protection of international shipping lanes.)
The user identified as Hegseth responded three minutes later: “VP: I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC. But Mike is correct, we are the only ones on the planet (on our side of the ledger) who can do this. Nobody else even close. Question is timing. I feel like now is as good a time as any, given POTUS directive to reopen shipping lanes. I think we should go; but POTUS still retains 24 hours of decision space.”
SM is Stephen Miller. He makes it plain that the Republicans intend to remind Egypt and Europeans that freedom of navigation isn’t free.
At this point, the previously silent “S M” joined the conversation. “As I heard it, the president was clear: green light, but we soon make clear to Egypt and Europe what we expect in return. We also need to figure out how to enforce such a requirement. EG, if Europe doesn’t remunerate, then what? If the US successfully restores freedom of navigation at great cost there needs to be some further economic gain extracted in return.”
I wonder if those talks have started yet. I wonder if those talks will stall.
Oh well, I’m sure Sulkutary of State Rubio is up to the task.
