Day 1126
'No one leaked war plans' - Pete
A lifeboat can only save a subset of people from a sinking ship. Who should be prioritized? The trade-off between lives introduces factors like status or survival skills. The rule of double effect — used to evaluate the permissibility of acting when one's otherwise legitimate act may also cause an effect one would otherwise be obliged to avoid — should be be considered.
Fleeing to Mars is not an option.
This morning I am reminded of the story about Steam Ship America, later renamed American Star, that illustrates the inevitability of Team USA’s decline. Its gradual collapse over decades reflects how even seemingly invincible structures succumb to external forces, incompetence, hubris and stupidity.
On December 31, 1993 American Star left Greece for the last time, under tow by Ukrainian tugboat Neftegaz-67. The hundred-day tow began. Shortly afterward, American Star and Neftegaz-67 sailed into a thunderstorm in the Atlantic. The tow-lines broke and six or more crew members were sent aboard the American Star to reattach the emergency tow-lines, which proved unsuccessful. Two other towboats were called to assist Neftegaz 67. On January 17, 1994 the crew aboard American Star was rescued by helicopter. The ship was left adrift. At 6:15 a.m. on 18 January the ship went aground at Playa de Garcey, off the west coast of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands. — Wikipedia
Postscriptum. On March 22, 2008, Neftegaz-67 collided with a Chinese bulk cargo ship in the South China Sea near Hong Kong. The Ukrainian vessel sank within minutes. Of the 24 Ukrainians on board the ship, six were rescued. The others drowned and were dredged up a month later.
That anyone anywhere is so stupid as to take this laughable piece of shit seriously, with his faux-jovial giggling at the dead, his deranged fantasies of tariffs and gangrape, his labored lies on behalf of those whose plan for ‘security’ in the face of terrorism is to negogiate a cut of mineral deposits under the fuzzy cover of “peace through strength,” his munificent and forgiving massages of loyal MAGA sheep, is beyond me. — Day 994. About as bad as it gets (November 14, 2024)
The above para is about Pete, then Donald’s nominee to become US Defense Secretary.
Four months later, Pete is in big big trouble, again. So are all the clowns on his Signal app Houthi war op group feed, including Tulsi, Mike, John, Marco and JD.
Off with their heads!
Looking on the positive side, the WH’s Signal app feed about ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may have been, er, deleted by now as a result the Houthi opsec disaster.
On the Ukraine jacket, more non-stop horror, this time in Sumy, where a Russian rocket yesterday creamed a residential block in the center of the city (population 200,000). Scores dead, almost 100 people wounded.
The latest round of talks between the US and Russia is taking place in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Top of the agenda was reportedly the revival of a 2022 grain deal allowing Kyiv to export across the Black Sea. In return, Moscow is said to be seeking relief from Western sanctions, enabling it to export fertilisers.
A White House source told Reuters news agency the talks in Riyadh are going "extremely well" and it expected "to have a positive announcement in the near future." — Reuters (March 25, 2025)
And this:
Some senior Trump administration officials bristled at criticisms of the White House made by Zelensky in an interview with Time magazine — in particular, the Ukrainian president’s claim that senior U.S. officials appear to be taking Putin’s word over the guidance of the U.S. intelligence community.
“I believe Russia has managed to influence some people on the White House team through information,” Zelensky said in an article published Monday.
A senior U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations, told The Washington Post the comment revealed that Zelensky had learned little from his Oval Office dustup with Trump and Vice President JD Vance, which resulted in the U.S. withdrawing military and intelligence support for Ukraine1.
The “some people” on the White House team Z refers to includes Steven, about whom we wrote about yesterday. He was included in the Houthi Signal app messaging group
Steven is hopeless.
Russia plays down swift progress in talks after Trump envoy’s optimism. Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff raised hopes of “real progress” on a Black Sea ceasefire in Monday’s peace talks in Riyadh (The Washington Post, March 25, 2025)