The pattern is all too familiar. The Washington Post runs a story with a sensational claim: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered the killing of survivors of one of the first boat attacks back in September — a coup de grace or finishing shot that would constitute a war crime. The Post appears to have had only one source making the specific claim about Hegseth, but ran with the story. What followed was a line of politicians and pundits calling for the usual criminal charges, impeachments, and resignations. Then, various sources, including the New York Times, debunked the story.
When this story broke, some of us cautioned that the law was clear, but the facts were not. Yes, it is generally a war crime to intentionally kill or order a “double tap” strike for the sole purpose of killing the survivors at sea. The Nazis were charged with such heinous acts in World War II. However, such allegations are often difficult to resolve even after investigations in the “fog of war,” where decisions are made in seconds on a battlefield. This claim was being made with only the Post and a single source as “evidence.”
The Post claimed “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive, according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation. ‘The order was to kill everybody, one of them said.”
This is the same newspaper that won the Pulitzer Prize with the later debunked Russian collusion story — a scandal started by the Clinton campaign, which secretly funded the infamous Steele dossier.
Nevertheless, the airways were filled with experts stating categorically that a war crime was committed.
Notably, these claims were made over the Administration’s vociferous objections, which denied that any such order was given by Hegseth during the attack. Indeed, a later attack did involve survivors who were retrieved and then returned to their country.
The New York Times this week ran a multiple-source story saying that Hegseth gave no such order.
Putting aside the sensational and apparently false claim about Hegseth, the issue of the order by Admiral Bradley comes down to motivation. It is common in war to deliver a finishing blow on a vessel. It has been routinely done by many countries, including when survivors remain on board or near the boat. While countries must take reasonable measures to allow survivors to leave a sinking vessel, the demands of war often allow for a finishing shot to achieve a mission with personnel on or near the boat.
The first attack did not sink the boat in question, and Bradley ordered a second hit. If he did so to sink the vessel, he is likely within the laws of war.
Of course, reasonable people can question the overall policy and whether killing drug carriers is consistent with international law. However, that is not the specific claim raised in this controversy. The question is whether, in a military action, a second finishing shot can be delivered to complete a mission to sink a vessel. The answer is likely yes.
It is also worth noting the distinction between operations targeting boats and operations targeting people. Past presidents like Barack Obama have unilaterally ordered the killing of people abroad, including U.S. citizens. Presumably, if an attack on a targeted individual did not clearly kill that person, Obama would have ordered a second attack to finish him off.
That brings us back to the sudden appearance of this story about an attack in September. The Administration was hitting the Democratic members hard over their controversial video telling military personnel to refuse unlawful orders. Those members later admitted that they could not actually name such an order. While some have demanded sedition charges against the members, I have written that such a case would be legally unfounded and would certainly collapse immediately in court. This was protected speech, even though I disagreed with these members about posting the video.
As the heat over the video continued to rise, the Post suddenly had breaking news of an illegal order from Hegseth. You would have to be a complete chump to ignore the obvious timing and purpose of such a story. The fact that the Post would run to print with a single anonymous source made the story even more incredible. Yet, it did not matter. It was a fact too good to check for the Post and a long line of experts and pundits.
It still does not matter. We are living in a post-truth political environment where media outlets feed the demands of echo-chambered readers. It was true because they wanted it to be true. They wanted Hegseth watching survivors clinging to a boat and ordering the military “to kill everybody.”
The Congress is moving forward with investigations, and that is a good thing. We should be clear on the rules of engagement and confirm that the motivation was not to kill survivors in the water. However, the real lesson here is one that still has not been learned about the corrosive effect of political bias in the media.
Polls show trust in the media at an all-time low with less than 20 percent of citizens trusting television or print media. Yet, reporters and academics continue to destroy the core principles that sustain journalism and ultimately the role of a free press in our society. Notably, writers who have been repeatedly charged with false or misleading columns are some of the greatest advocates for dropping objectivity in journalism.
Indeed, the whole “Let’s Go Brandon” chant is as much a criticism of the media as it is President Biden.
There was always an obvious alternative explanation for the second strike in this story. The boat was clearly not destroyed by the first attack. Yet, in the midst of the sedition debate, there was a need for an illegal order as the six Democratic members struggled to give an example to support their public call. The Post supplied it like an actor walking in on cue at just the right moment. As we investigate the claim, it would be equally commendable for the media to look into its own role in this “double tap” story. Most citizens would likely agree that the media “rules of engagement” also warrant some review.
This is the same newspaper that won the Pulitzer Prize with the later debunked Russian collusion story — a scandal started by the Clinton campaign, which secretly funded the infamous Steele dossier.
The Pulitzer Prize awarded to The New York Times and The Washington Post for their reporting on the alleged Russian collusion narrative—a story subsequently revealed to have been based on the Clinton campaign’s secretly-funded Steele dossier—is deeply compromised. Despite winning the award in 2018 after a year of “investigation,” neither paper uncovered credible evidence or the full truth. Their focus remained exclusively on Donald Trump, suggesting their inquiry was driven by a confirmation bias rather than a neutral pursuit of facts. The continuation of this reporting despite a lack of evidence represents a significant journalistic failure, utilizing the logical fallacy of petitio principii (begging the question). Both publications’ efforts, and the committee’s subsequent endorsement, warrant a retraction of the award.
The Pulitzer, the Times and Post are pathetic at this point.
Obviously the Post is expecting another Pulitzer for this “investigation”
This is just one more lie Turley continues to repeat. You may not like to hear it but the Steele dossier’s funding was initially started by the conservative news outlet Washington Free Beacon, which hired the research firm Fusion GPS to conduct opposition research in the spring of 2016 against Trump and in favor of his Republican opponents. It’s an inconvenient truth that Turley knows, but doesn’t want to admit to his readers because again, he thinks so little of them that they can’t handle the whole truth. If he would lie about this – what else would he lie about?
You may not like to hear it but the Steele dossier’s funding was initially started by the conservative news outlet Washington Free Beacon, which hired the research firm Fusion GPS to conduct opposition research in the spring of 2016 against Trump and in favor of his Republican opponents.
Oh, we’ll hear this! Your old Clinton/Obama lie to use as a non sequitur deflection for that other WaPoo lie isn’t going to get off the ground this time. The inconvenient truth is you and your Obama/Clinton/WaPoo lie are shot down again – as you were back in October 2017 by the Washington Free Beacon itself:
Fusion GPS And The Washington Free Beacon
A note to our readers
https://freebeacon.com/uncategorized/fusion-gps-washington-free-beacon/
“The Free Beacon had no knowledge of or connection to the Steele dossier, did not pay for the dossier, and never had contact with, knowledge of, or provided payment for any work performed by Christopher Steele.
Nor did we have any knowledge of the business relationship between Fusion GPS and the Democratic National Committee, Perkins Coie, and the Clinton campaign.”
That lie defending the felonious Clinton/Obama “Russia Dossier” was exposed along with the criminality of those you’re attempting to defend. One more inconvenient truth for you commie Clinton/Obama/Wapoo apparatchiks: Clinton, Obama, Marc Elias, and Fusion GPS are all unindicted felons who committed the crime of paying Russian and British spies to write their fraudulent Russia Dossier to use in their campaign.
Got any other Clinton/Obama lies that haven’t been repeatedly exposed yet, you pathological lying commie Democrat?
This is just one more lie Turley continues to repeat.
You’ve played your card of the Clinton/Obama/WaPoo lie, and been called and raised with the link to the Washington Free Beacon story where they said you, Obama, Clinton, and the WaPoo are liars.
https://freebeacon.com/uncategorized/fusion-gps-washington-free-beacon/
Now… are you going raise, call, or fold and run away as the cheap fake Democrat lying apparatchik that you are?
Why are we talking about war crimes when there is no war,? Interdiction of contraband is normal police work. So is the arrest of smugglers. I see no justification for destroying boats and killing all passengers thereon when arrest is possible, either at sea (in our waters) or on land.
President Richard Nixon declared the war on drugs. On June 17, 1971, during a White House press conference, he declared drug abuse “public enemy number one” and called for a new, all-out offensive to combat the issue. Sounds to me like a war.
Interdiction, by whom? The UN? Venezuela or Columbia?
They were not passengers. They were not passive in the transport of drugs. They were smugglers of drugs.
Arrest them for what?
I see no justification for destroying boats and killing all passengers thereon when arrest is possible, either at sea (in our waters) or on land.
We have been doing this with legal justification going as far back as Clinton and taking out aircraft and boats moving drugs as far away as Peru.
It is the height of nativity to believe that any president just says “Go find them and shoot them down/sink them” without a score of military and civilian lawyers going through the intended operations first.
Or to naively believe that Clinton, or Obama, or Trump would not do their legal homework ahead of time in order to be able to respond to either credible media questioning or a base political attempt to lie about it to degrade their presidency.
If we want others to follow international law, we need to do so as well.
If we want others to follow international law, we need to do so as well.
That’s an empty declaration that you hope will be accepted as fact. For my part, I don’t accept your emotional beliefs to be accurate where international law is concerned.
1. If you believe that no president who has done exactly the same thing has not first ran what they want to do through administration, military, and civil lawyers to ensure what they intend to do will be within the standards of international law, just come right out and say so.
2. If you believe you are credibly more informed on the standards of international law than the lawyers that Clinton, Obama, Biden, Trump etc, consulted with before carrying out narco-terrorist shoot down/sink interdictions like this, then make that claim alongside your insinuation that we aren’t in compliance with international law.
International law and the lawyers consulted on that body of law by any president don’t care about your emotional feelings.
So far what you’ve posted is a re-do of the insinuations of Kelly and his Blue Falcons.
Interdiction of contraband is normal police work.
When it’s done outside of our borders, involving CIA intelligence gathering and often the State Department?
Nope. Definitely not normal police work. Particularly when warships, warplanes, and anti-terrorist forces are involved.
I don’t suppose you’ve heard of the Battle of the Bismarck Sea?
Thank you, Professor Turley, for a good (and honest) description of the facts in this matter. Given the timing, this may have been a 2.0 version of the Russia hoax. We now know, for example, of elaborate conspiracies cooked up by Obama, Biden, and their advisors to libel Trump. Some, like the DNC’s Steele Dossier and Biden advisor Tony Blinken’s 51 intel experts, followed well-orchestrated plans using the media as a witting or unwitting tool.
When questioned under oath by the Senate Judiciary Committee, some of Blinken’s 51 intel experts revealed that they were recruited to elect Biden as POTUS. Former CIA Deputy Director Mike Morrell told the committee that Blinken was behind the letter. It served its purpose in the Biden-Trump debate by diminishing the laptop’s impact. Blinken was subsequently rewarded by Biden with the Secretary of State job.
Now comes the Seditious Six, saying that soldiers and CIA officers should not obey illegal orders. Questioned as to what such an order might be, they retreat into meaningless speculations and hypotheticals harkening back to their favorite time in history: the Nuremberg Trials. Not long after this, as if the timing were being precisely directed, we are informed by none other than the venerable Washington Post that Trump’s Secretary of War ordered the survivors of a drug boat raid to be killed. Surely, this was a “war crime,” those interviewed by Post reporters said, and all responsible, up to and including the Commander-in-Chief, should be prosecuted and punished to the fullest extent possible. The Seditious Six were exonerated and heralded as prophetic.
However, there was one little problem with the Post’s story: it never happened. Although the Post, the official mouthpiece of the DNC, did as it was told and backed up the Seditious Six with its unnamed single-source account, The New York Times debunked it. This very uncharacteristic act of drive-by journalism exposed the Post and the poorly engineered plan of the Seditious Six and the DNC to paint the dreaded Orangeman and his cronies as war criminals. As the curtain falls on the Seditious Six, Sen. Mark Kelly and his cohorts may have a future doing Bulbhead ads on TV.
JJC,
Great comment!
The fact it was the NYT who debunked the WaPo I find interesting. They must of had so much over whelming sources they could not ignore it.
jjc, further reading about this provides information that the event that is the basis of their Double Tap Lie was one of the very first strikes on narco-terrorist boats. And the WaPoo has had this “story” and been sitting on it for almost three months.
Why didn’t they post it immediately out of belief this was wrong and Congress should be investigating it as the American people had a right to know? Rather than what they did: keep it in their back pocket as they did with earlier “October surprises” BS they’ve posted before elections and been exposed as peddling lies after the election?
Well, there wasn’t much political damage from what was going on at that time in September to waste it by publishing immediately.
Then along came Senator/Captain Mark Kelly, squadron leader of the Democrats’ Blue Falcon Hateful Six demonstration team. Kelly and his fellow Blue Falcons, defaming current military/DoJ/CIA leaders, insinuating to those who serve below them that their senior leaders were issuing them illegal orders (and apparently those under their command were too stupid to recognize an illegal order without their help).
When the Blue Falcon Squadron’s insinuations and defamation of the current military/law enforcement/CIA leadership started having engine trouble and falling out of the sky, the WaPoo suddenly found their Double Tap Lie they had been sitting on for almost three months and launched it in a hopeful rescue mission for Flight Leader Kelly and his Blue Falcon squadron.
But before Squadron Leader Kelly could zoom in to fly in formation with the WaPoo rescue effort and claim “See, I warned you young troops your generals and admirals are issuing illegal orders”, the Double Tap Lie was shot down itself.
And yet, while the attempt to rescue the defamation and lies of the Blue Falcon Squadron have failed, it may be a partial success.
If the WaPoo’s attempted rescue mission diverts attention from how Biden’s debacle in Afghanistan has led to one of his never-vetted before or after coming to the USA Afghans taking the life of yet another American soldier, then the WaPoo will chalk it up as a win.
Further, if it diverts from the ongoing story that would-be VP and battle hardened Command Sergeant Major Governor Walz has permitted almost 200 of his state’s legal and Illegal Alien Somalis to defraud taxpayers of over a billion dollars – then it will be a Double Lie Score success on their Democrat-WaPoo game board.
How long before the Dems demand that we drop leaflets on the boats warning the drug runners that a hellfire will hit their boat in the coming seconds?
We have plenty of boats in the Caribbean to interdict suspected drug runners. Killing suspected drug runners is a war crime. Oh wait, we aren’t at war so it is just plain murder.
Meanwhile, trump pardons Juan Orlando Hernández who was responsible for plenty of drug smuggling into the United States. What kind of cogent policy is that?
How many people did Obama kill with drones and bombs in Libya? And in Yemen? And in Afghanistan? And more? Do you consider those war crimes?
Have you also considered how many Americans have been killed by the poison these narcos are injecting into the US? The people in Yemen that Obama was skeet shooting had never done anything to us. These narcos are killing Americans. Destroying these boats does vastly more good for America that blowing up goat herders in Yemen.
That’s what we voted for.
You didn’t call Obama killing Americans in other countries with missiles murder. You laughed when Biden did the same..And you cheered when Biden pardoned child murderers and terrorists.
Oh wait! You here for…. BBBUUUTTT… MUH TRUMP!!!!
Didn’t Biden also pardon one who murdered an FBI agent, and multiple drug makers and pushers? I may not agree with some of Trump’s pardons or commutations, but the leftist were completely silent when over 2,000 vile pedophiles, child rapists/murderers were released back on the streets. They were silent when Obama, as you wrote did exactly what they’re accusing Hegseth of doing, and beyond. The double standard continually applied by the left is astounding.
Who did you want arrested when Biden bombed a civilian car carrying ten kids? Who got fired? Who got charged?
When Obama bombed a wedding and killed AMERICANS who did you want charged? Who resigned? Who got arrested?
When Obama killed suspected terrorists I supported him. When Biden killed the kids I gave them the benefit of the doubt (although it was a save your face attack after the botched withdrawal), but the left never says good, narco creeps are getting killed. Trump has Dems and the media supporting drug runners, illegals that have been charged with heinous crimes, Iran and even Hamas. This is the new Democrat party.
HullBobby,
Good points.
Yes, if Trump is for something, like secure borders, stopping drugs from coming into America, Democrats are against it.
Leaflets? No way. They still declare Israel is the devil when it does that. What they will demand is that the boats be intercepted and the narcoterrorists be given a free ride into the US mainland and set loose with full welfare benefits as “refugees” like the Europeans do.
It is a war crime whether it was Hegseth or Bradley who is responsible. Your article title is deeply misleading. The white house has confirmed the second strike occurred. They are just scapegoating Bradley.
Please correct your article.
It is hard to believe how far JT has left the reservation. What we have been doing to people on boats in the Caribbean is murder or a war crime. Take your pick.
It’s not hard to believe these liars were justifying Obama doing exactly the same thing… but now attempt political theater where they suddenly have different standards.
Political liars or Democrat useless idiots? Which should we pick?
Why not both?
Not everything is a red vs blue game.
I have problems with actions of both presidents.
Obama’s actions should not absolve all future administrations of responsibility to avoid the commission of war crimes and/or extrajudicial murder.
What war? The Navy was defending itself.
I have problems with actions of both presidents. Obama’s actions should not absolve all future administrations of responsibility to avoid the commission of war crimes and/or extrajudicial murder.
I would grant you might have some credibility, rather than trying this BS application of YOUR standards now, if you had been saying anything similar when Clinton, then Obama, then Biden were doing this. And again, by YOUR standards – far, far worse.
Our military, Coast Guard, DEA, CIA, etc. have been engaged in similar shoot down/sink operations against narco-terrorists running drugs into America as far back as Clinton’s identical actions as far south as interdicting fast boat and aircraft trafficking out of Peru.
If your BS standards were real rather than conveniently new to you, we’d have heard you bugling your outrage based on YOUR standards for many years and three Democrat presidents by now.
HOWEVER – now they’re out of the line of fire, so you throw in a “okay, I now say by my new standards Obama shouldn’t have done that – but let’s talk about and go get Trump because Obama and Biden who I voted for are gone and, dammit, Trump is here again”.
There are roomfuls of both military and DoJ lawyers that have confirmed for every one of these administrations going all the way back to at least Clinton that these are NOT war crimes, nor are they extrajudicial murder.
But, you go ahead and tell us and them that they’re wrong, and you have far more legal knowledge of what qualifies as war crimes/extrajudicial murder than all of them together do.
Please supply the relevant federal statutes and applicable international law that prevents the President from engaging in narco-attacks on the U.S.
I’ll wait.
It is neither, please stop spewing that nonsense. If the President (and you can pick any of the last 6 to fit this argument for their actions in office) consider something a clear and president danger to the security of the United States, they may act. They have the authority under the Constitution and US law.
The check on this is congress’s power of impeachment.
This is not a “war crime” as the Genieva Convention does not apply here. And it’s not murder if the President says it’s not. I don’t particularly like that its purely up to the Executive to decide; we’ve had many very ugly things done under that guise as JT mentions in his article, but it IS legal by every measurement unless it can be completely proven this was a cold blooded execution and not an attempt to destroy the boat or drugs (which is the real purpose for all these actions).
Ummm… what war is the US involved in?
War on drugs, war on terror. OK?
That’s a lie. Please correct your childish behavior pf attempting lies even Biden wouldn’t attempt.
Referencing what war please?
As for misleading, its just Turley’s opinion nothing to get upset about.
It’s a woke Paul Revere galloping through town yelling The British aren’t coming!
We can expect a “controversy” every week for the next year. This the only strategy the radical left has to try to “get” President Trump before November.
They couldn’t find anything in the Epstein files, so we are on to the next ginned up “controversy de jour.”
They have no ideas, have no administrative skills, no creativity. Anything they touch, turns to dust.
Why are they obsessed with protecting criminals? Why do they defend the vilest offenders? The thugs and cartels have killed Americans by the tens of thousands.
The leftwing party (not the traditional liberal democrat) has gone off the rails and has lost any semblance of sanity.
E.M.
Read an article a while back that Democrats are tuning out MSM as they are tired of all the non-stop “bomb-shells” reporting that turn out to be a big nothing burger. And MSM wonders why we have such a low opinion of them.
Another article noted the sudden drop in references to the Epstein files right after the bill passed and Trump signed it.
E.M.
Oh, notice how the one annony moron who would call for the releasing of the Epstein files has suddenly stopped?
Some things to consider
1-Obama ordered reportedly over 500 drone strikes against individuals designated as terrorists.
2-the targets in the Obama strikes were the people (terrorists) and their vehicles, as is true of the present strikes being sent against designated narco-terrorists and their ships. Subs , aircraft, ships were used in every war or undeclared war to sink ships and drown their soldiers and sailors on them. Better that they drown than have to face them prepared and armed in combat was the thinking. Ships were repeatedly hit until they went down.
3-these narco-terrorists are not uniformed and part of a military command set up and are therefore armed illegal combatants and not necessarily subject to the laws of wars.
4-They are also pirates smuggling poisons on a vast scale to our country resorting in hundreds of thousands of deaths.
5-If they do not wish to get hit by missiles or drowned in the Caribbean then I would suggest they not play the game.
Good comment GEB. In other words: FAFO
I like your 3, 4, and 5th point.
Well hell yeah. If Obama did it, it MUST be ok.
Well hell yeah… we and the Washington Post agreed it was okay when Obama did it. And we both agreed again when Biden did the same.
But as long as we can avoid talking about how Biden flooded America with MS13 and unvetted Afghanistan terrorists… our job here is done.
Absolutely, Obama had people killed and should be charged with a war crime.
And so should trump and Bush.
G. Washington too. He killed Indians.
GEB,
Good points.
Obviously you’ve never served in the military. I served. I was taught that I had an obligation to disobey unlawful orders. These attacks on the boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific are extra-judicial murders.
@Wally – Not sure what military you were in? The US Military I served in the men were reminded to obey all orders. If the individual soldier felt it was an illegal order it would be dealt with after the order was carried out. Any soldier who decides he/she will not carry out an order will ultimately be placed under arms and they will face a court marshal. You can certainly have an opinion on what is and what is not murder but the Military is not a democracy.
A soldiers duty is to fulfill all orders regardless of his opinion.
Really? Then you are dumber than you think. If given an unlawful order you have the obligation to not obey, not ok, I’ll do it and put a note in the suggestion box that says I think it was wrong. You have an obligation to not obey. You definitely have been brainwashed, Back up and think about what you just said.
Anonymous says:December 3, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Really?………
Hey Jody (Ano), did you burn your draft card or leave it in Canada?
That’s a strawman argument. Everyone agrees unlawful criminal orders must be refused.
What’s false is claiming service members can label lawful, authorized missions “illegal” because they personally disapprove of them. That’s not duty – that’s insubordination dressed up as moral theater.
Unlawful orders mean crimes, not policies you don’t like. The difference matters.
Disagreeing with your original false flag post. How cute – better than the usual dreck.
In which branch of the military did you serve?
Twenty years Navy here. Your smug “you never served” opener only exposes your misunderstanding of the law we were actually trained on.
Refusing unlawful orders means refusing criminal acts, not vetoing legal missions. Articles 91–92 require obedience to lawful orders, and Article 138 provides a reporting process for abuse. Drug interdiction strikes authorized by Congress and governed by ROEs are not “extra-judicial murder,” they’re lawful operations.
If your interpretation were true, every combat vet is a war criminal. That’s not how military law works, and it’s not what we were taught.
Was Obama’s “wedding strike” illegal and did you say so? Was Biden’s “Volkswagon attack” illegal and did you say so? Was the attack that killed Osama illegal?
As for these “soldiers” and the Geneva Convention, what uniform are these guys wearing?
Wedding, VW … ? Whew….
Wedding, VW … ? Whew….
Whew…. good thing for me Trump is getting the price of gas down! My fuel tank is getting low and I want to throw more light on the situation!
Gaslighting
Gaslighting is the intended psychological manipulation by a low-IQ perpetrator of those they hope to victimize through intentionally misleading that person or persons. This involves the perpetrator lying, denying events, and other methods used in the hope their intended victims doubt their perceptions of reality, memories, and feel overly emotional or irrational.
I served in the military.
Strikes on nacro-terrorists is a legal action.
No it is not. That’s why you were dishonorably discharged.
Under what law?
I’ll wait.
As others have said. O-dumber did it and not a peep from the dems.
Nope. DD-214 under Honorable conditions with a approved rating if I were to re-enlist. All my fit-reps were outstanding. So your attempted lies and smears fail. Again.
Legal action? Okay, gotta ask, what government issues such orders?
Upstate, the law is clear. The anonymous posters writing otherwise are wrong and have never bothered to look up the laws on this subject. They continuously provide opinions based on their hateful desires, not based on the law.
S. Meyer,
Well said and quite true. I would only add not only are their opinions based on not the law, nor facts.
Wally.
This isn’t the first time.
___________________
The First Barbary War, also known as the Tripolitan War, began in 1801 when President Thomas Jefferson ordered the US Navy and US Marine Corps to regain control of the Mediterranean.
According to the US Marine Corps, “pirates from the four Barbary States of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya continuously raided US ships, stealing their cargo and valuables, capturing their crew to ransom them back to the United States, and charging fees for safety in the Mediterranean.”
Obviously Wally, you couldn’t cut it as a mess steward and were discharged as an administrative burden.
And you didn’t have these claimed military memories of yours during the 12 years Obama was doing this and then the four years of Biden doing the same.
Obviously you’ve never served in the military. I served.
Yooo hooo!!! Wally (or should we address you as Carl, or maybe Walter Mitty), you have been repeatedly called in the minutes since you surfaced from the Democrat Borg, questioning what kind of military service and education you had.
It’s your move… and you seem to have disappeared?
The media already claims professional authority, but with zero professional accountability. We have bar associations for lawyers and medical boards for doctors. The press gets front-row access to power with no truth certification at all.
The White House Correspondents’ Association should evolve into a real integrity body, or be replaced by one. Fabrication or reckless reporting is logged against the reporter, editor, and outlet. Three strikes and your government access is suspended for a season. Keep doing it and you lose credentials altogether.
No censorship. Publish anything you want. Just stop letting serial liars enjoy taxpayer-funded special access to the halls of power.
OLLY,
That right there is the real story, the lack of accountability of MSM. There used to be a degree of pride in the press of their accuracy, credibility, and quality reporting. Now, they just print whatever without bothering to fact check it, or they are telling straight up lies and dont even have the shame to fess up to it when caught.
Just look at all the annony morons, blindly parroting a now debunked WaPo story.
The democrats “Mensonge de la senaine”.
Semaine – m not n. Sorry
Dual personality Maggot?
Dual personality Maggot?
Has to be hell the one time each month you’re looking into a mirror while brushing your fangs.
Projection:
Channeling one’s actions onto others typically refers to the psychological concept of projection, where an emotionally disturbed individual unconsciously or deliberately attributes their own thoughts, feelings, and anti-social or criminal behaviors onto someone else.
This is an internal defense mechanism which allows that mentally ill person to avoid confronting their own behavior and guilt by seeing it instead as as the thoughts and actions of another person who they despise and hate.
Margot-
Wrong audience.
-g
Professor, you go very easy on the Media (in particular the fabricated scandals) that suddenly appear from un-named “sources”. Over the last 9 years these “sources” have proven time and again they either never existed (and the story was a total fabrication from the Media) or the un-named sources fabricated the story under direction of Government Officials. It is well past time that these Organizations face both Criminal and Civil consequences for these lies that directly affect the Electorate. It is now clear by evidence (verified) that false information was used by the FBI and DOJ to obtain Sealed Search Warrants. Whether the Judge(s) that signed these Warrants and Sealed their exposure were directly or indirectly involved in the schemes is up for debate. The fact remains that the “planting” of the “Wrap-up Smear” (as described by Nancy Pelosi) have been used to obtain Warrants from the FISC and the DC Federal District Court. Whether Congress must pass a new Statute or Statutes already exist to address this growing Operation is a question for you.
Good essay. Frames all the issues very well.
The Washington Post, along with most of the rest of the propagandists in the media, care far less about truth than they do about getting Trump. Propaganda is now celebrated by leftists in America, just as it was by the Soviets and Nazis.
For ~ 10 years hatred has been the primary policy of many Democrats in politics and in the liberal media. Facts that don’t support this “policy” are twisted, ignored, and/or fabricated. Perhaps one day Democrat politicians will focus more on substantive plans to improve the lives of American citizens, but they clearly aren’t there yet.
The Dems changed course a long time ago away from policies to benefit the citizens and towards the pursuit of power to control them. One could go all the way back to LBJ and the Great Society which was intended to create dependency in the black community. The goal became more apparent since the election of our first community organizer. Now they are comfortable admitting a desire to pack the Supreme Court pack the Senate by declaring statehood for DC and Puerto Rico. They have been working diligently in Red States to flip state supreme courts with the goal of forcing the states to create more black majority (ie Dem) districts in red states. They are starting to openly advocate for socialism, the favorite economic system of authoritarians. I wouldn’t hold my breath too long waiting for the Dems to change course. The winds are blowing leftward for them and they will always pursue the easy course.
About the only thing I disagree with is that “They are starting to openly advocate for socialism.”
I would argue that they are starting to openly advocate for communism. The Dems passed socialism and did not collect the $200.00. The Communist Wing of the Democrat Congress and the Communist Wing of the DNC have decimated the Establishment Democrat Party. If the Republicans don’t get a spine and fight harder to keep the “Democratic” Communists from further gaining a foothold in this country, we’ll lose it all. If we lose the majority, they plan to go after the Constitution, starting with the electorial college, engorge the SCOTUS, and turn the United States into a one Party authoritarian communist State. People need to watch Sanders. He’s very involved in NYC with Mamdani especially after his meeting with Trump. He’s there to help keep him in line. Watch and listen to Rep. jamie Raskin. Jess working hard on whittling down the Constitution..he held meetings teaching how and what they need to do to gain back power and change this country to. He’s another communist. They have a strong foothold in this country and we need to stop the growth of communism now. Or it will be too late.
As to the video, Professor, while I wholly believe you that no sedition charge is warranted or supportable, I was enlightened by a commenter here on an earlier post that those exhortations may well run afoul of Section 2387, which establishes the criminality of attempting to persuade military personnel from their duty.
One of my favorite book series is called the The Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind. The first book in the series is named Wizard’s First Rule. The first rule for wizards is that people are stupid, and because they are stupid they will believe a lie if a) they want it to be true or b) they fear it might be true. All of the rules from this series are useful today in dealing with politicians or the media. Highly recommend the series
Good series.
There was a line in the show Lioness that news became entertainment when it became a 24/7/365 venue for “information”. Had to agree. Made me think about a Saturday Night skit “The Great Wind” which had a news show interrupted for a breaking story of a major wind event, that didn’t exist. Had a reporting standing in a mild breeze talking about the severe conditions and damage – none of which was real. Great satire on how “news” outlets have to generate interest via “major events” that are really not happening. The skit was at least 20 years ago. Guess outlets took it as a model to emulate.
The commentators who bray about the “second strike” issue don’t seem to understand the difference between law enforcement and war, Some, like the “journalists” of the Washington Post are simply naive, pampered children, who are at worst just stupid. But the so-called “sedition six” are evil adults who, in the pursuit of power, take advantage of the naivete of the babied elites who have never faced war and whose parents never faced war.
Not that surprising given they (commentators) think (knowing lie) that illegals in the country somehow have to be arrested, tried by a jury, and convicted before deportation. If (never) they went back to reporting reality D’s/Left would not even be in the building, going into ’26 and ’28 or maybe ever again.
The “sedition six” are dealing in innuendo rather than fact. Apparently they believe that people are not intelligent enough to know the difference. Or maybe they are just targeting those who choose hatred over facts.
They media DO .understand completely. But like George X and his fellow liars here, their rile is “try the lie, it might fly. And if it doesn’t, it will at least distract”.