The Enemy is Surrounded . . .
. . . by landmines they placed themselves. Below, a story for when you lack motivation to keep fighting for America's future.
By now you have probably heard the insane story published by Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic but for those who haven’t, please click the link and its follow-up article that includes the actual chats from the group. If the Gift Link doesn’t work out, it’s worth buying the article or looking at one of the many other news stories about what happened because it is truly unbelievable, but says a lot about the moment we are in and who, exactly, we are dealing with.
To recap, Goldberg is a writer at The Atlantic who was “accidentally” (we don’t know as of this writing how it happened) added to a Signal group chat called “Houthi PC small group” where Secretary of Defense Hegseth, Vice-President JD Vance, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Secretary of State Rubio, and a bunch of other important national security figures discussed their rationale and plans for a then-upcoming attack on an alleged Houthi terrorist in Yemen.
Goldberg thought it was a joke, until he saw the detailed war plans shared in the chat and then witnessed the plans in action as the US bombed Yemen’s capital city of Sanaa and other sites. He immediately left the group chat and messaged members to confirm its authenticity.
It was real.
The Republican-controlled Congress, which spent years attacking Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for using a private server, has already announced there will be no “disciplinary action” taken against Hegseth and Waltz, a sadly predictable conclusion. They don’t care about the law. They don’t care about national security. The only guiding principle of Republican politicians is selfishness.
This post is not about Congress, however, or the many laws broken by the group chat (including the Espionage Act and violations of all our Open Records laws because Signal chats disappear). The situation is evolving so some details may be out of date by the time you read this (and heads may have rolled), but I thought this story was a good one to discuss the Value of Character.
“Character” is one of the most important Values of The Thirteen Stripes. Character is generally defined as the “mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual”. It also stands for “moral excellence and firmness”, ie: “That person is one of good character”.
When it comes to character, these characters in the Trump-Musk Administration have zero. They have no moral excellence, no firmness, no qualities distinct to individuals that show them in a positive light. Indeed, Trump-Musk find their lack of character to be something positive. They love that their political appointees are completely empty of any sort of respectable principles or values because it makes them malleable and easy to manipulate and control.
People who lack character are not hard to identify. They refuse to take responsibility for their actions, they deflect, they blame, they cover their fear with arrogance. Sound familiar? In this case, Hegseth and Waltz and the entire Trump Administration attacked Goldberg as a liar before admitting that he was, in fact, added to the Group Chat. Another example is their arguing that nothing shared in the group chat was confidential or mattered, while urging Goldberg not release the texts (while also continuing to personally attack him).
Credit to Goldberg for writing these articles and releasing the texts. In this current environment, America needs people to stand up against these wannabe tyrants, people who understand that if you push back against them, you will win.
People lacking character are always on shaky ground. Without a moral compass, they do not know where to go and what do in moments of crisis. Blame is deflected, responsibility avoided. Waltz himself pivoted to praising Trump and attacking Goldberg in a Cabinet meeting later in the day when the article was published. This demonstrates an understanding that what he did was catastrophic, because he responded by sucking up to the one person he knows he needs to suck up to (and who loves being praised like a flower loves the sun): President Trump.
We say all this to once again encourage everyone to resist. Trump-Musk and everyone around them are arrogant incompetents who, if allowed to do so, will destroy everything this nation holds dear. They will never once question the decision-making that led to the national undoing. They will never take responsibility for their actions or their crimes. They will never admit wrongdoing.
They cannot do so, because they have no character. Thus, every action they take deserves to be questioned and challenged, because the very processes by which they make decisions cannot be trusted and they, themselves, have themselves to be untrustworthy. How could they be trusted, when they are discussing war planes over an unsecured line with people all over the world (one chat member was in Russia at the time and DNI Gabbard was in Asia)? These people can’t be trusted to take care of themselves, never mind the country.
Fight them every chance you get.
On the attack itself, we think it important to consider what was actually discussed on the chat. They bombed an apartment building where the alleged girlfriend of an alleged Houthi terrorist lived, killing everyone inside (at least 50 people, per their own estimates).
Think about that. At least 50 civilians murdered. Why? To secure some shipping lanes for European trade and then extract renumeration from our now-former allies? To attack Iran and undermine Biden? To support the Israeli military? All these rationales are given and discussed in the chat, yet we still don’t know. In all the hullabaloo about the chat itself, don’t forget that these craven villains were discussing the murder of many innocent people, and there are no doubt even more chats with even more outrageous sociopathic discussions around the murders of innocent people.
If they can kill innocents in Yemen, they can kill them here.
Finally, we want to share a positive example of character and highlight someone demonstrating immeasurable courage, someone who should be an example to us all as we continue to navigate our nightmare and try to figure out what’s next.
Yunseo Chung, 21, a college junior who was born in Korea and holds a green card after coming to the U.S. at the age of 7, was nearly given over to immigration authorities by the disgraceful and pathetic Columbia University. Instead, she fled and hid, filing suit against President Trump. Unlike the cowardly leadership of her university, which now deserves the shuttering it will likely face in coming years after surrendering to the unreasonable demands of the Trump Administration and refusing to fight to protect its students, Chung is bravely standing up against this administration in defense of the First Amendment and Rule of Law. By fighting, she has demonstrated more character than everyone in the Trump Administration combined. She fears for her life, yet has the courage to stand up and say no to the illegal actions of this Administration. The court issued a Temporary Restraining Order, keeping her safe for now, but this fight is not over for her nor the many other students facing deportation for exercising their constitutional rights. Keep them in your thoughts, your prayers, and if you can afford it, support the lawyers supporting them.
As always, email us with questions at The13Stripes@gmail.com and follow us exclusively on Bluesky @The13Stripes.