Day: December 3, 2024

Mother Knows Best

This drama is playing out like some random episode of reality TV….

I appears the Trump’s choice for Sec of War had a mommy problem in the past…..it seems his mother took exception to some of his past activities.

“The family dynamics of Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, have burst out into the open,” reports the Guardian, after a six-year-old email to him from his own mother was leaked to the media. The New York Times got its hands on the 2018 letter penned by Penelope Hegseth during her son’s second divorce, which the paper says it obtained from a person “with ties to the Hegseth family.” The letter most notably scolds the former Fox News host for his treatment of women, though Penelope Hegseth is now trying to walk back the harshest elements of it. Hegseth was already under the microscope for a 2017 sexual assault allegation. More:

  • Quote 1: “On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way, I say … get some help and take an honest look at yourself,” Penelope Hegseth wrote. “I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.”
  • Quote 2: “Son, I have tried to keep quiet about your character and behavior, but after listening to the way you made Samantha feel today, I cannot stay silent. … She did not ask for or deserve any of what has come to her by your hand. Neither did Meredith.” Samantha is Pete Hegseth’s second wife, who “filed for divorce after her husband impregnated a co-worker, part of a pattern of adultery that dated back to his first marriage,” per the Times. Meredith was his first wife, who cited infidelity on his part during their 2009 divorce. He’s currently married to his third wife, Jennifer.
  • Quote 3: “It’s time for someone (I wish it was a strong man) to stand up to your abusive behavior and call it out, especially against women,” Penelope Hegseth wrote. “We still love you, but we are broken by your behavior and lack of character.”
  • Penelope Hegseth today: She now says she sent her son an apologetic follow-up email immediately after sending the initial email, which she said she’d written “in anger, with emotion.” She said it was “disgusting” that the Times had published the email and insisted that the slams she’d made against her son weren’t true: “It has never been true. … I know my son. He is a good father, husband.”
  • Trump camp’s reaction: Trump spokesman Steven Cheung told the Times that printing the email was “despicable,” and that it was an “out-of-context snippet.”
  • Other reaction: “If Pete Hegseth were a decorated general or proven administrator maybe the Senate could look past the fact that he would be the messiest character on a Real Housewives season … but he is a weekend talk show host,” the Bulwark’s Tim Miller wrote on X.

Despicable?  What would Trump do if the shoe was on the other foot…..he would lambast with vigor and vitriol.

Wonder what that change of heart cost the Trump organization?

But wait!  There is more on this slug….

The controversy around Pete Hegseth is growing. Sources tell CBS News that back in 2016, allegations of financial mismanagement, sexual misconduct, a toxic workplace environment, and alcohol problems including public intoxication led to a group of Republicans pushing to remove Hegseth as head of a charity for veterans. Hegseth started leading Concerned Veterans of America in 2011 and stepped down as executive director in 2016, and sources say that among the leaders of the push to oust him from the post was Jessie Jane Duff, one of the executive directors of President-elect Trump’s 2024 campaign—and they say she privately criticized Hegseth until Trump named him as his defense secretary pick, and she’s now publicly backing him.

This guy is unqualified to run the largest budget in our government….he was in the military….by that metric I could be the Sec of War….something no one wants.

This is going to be interesting to see how his nomination and confirmation will play out.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

More Ukraine News

The conflict between Ukraine and Russia and the whole NATO apparatus is not reported as it once was…..so it falls to me to keep the news flowing.

Now Ukraine is saying it is willing to cede some territory to Russia to end this long conflict.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was willing to temporarily cede territory to Russia to bring an end to the war in exchange for NATO protection over Ukraine.

“If we want to stop the hot stage of the war, we should take under [the] NATO umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control,” Zelensky told Sky News. “That’s what we need to do fast, and then Ukraine can get back the other part of its territory diplomatically.”

Zelensky’s suggestion is almost certainly a non-starter for Russia since the invasion was launched to keep Ukraine out of NATO, but it does reflect a shift in his position. Zelensky previously maintained that his war goals included driving Russia out of all of the territory it has captured since February 2022, as well as Crimea.

In a recent conversation with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed to a speech he made earlier this year that outlines his conditions for peace, which include a Ukrainian withdrawal from all territory Russia has annexed, Ukrainian neutrality, and the lifting of all Western sanctions on Russia.

Ukrainian neutrality was Russia’s main demand during short-lived negotiations that took place in the early days of the invasion. Ukrainian and Russian officials held talks in March and April of 2022, but the negotiations were discouraged by the US and its allies.

In the interview with Sky News, Zelensky said Ukraine wouldn’t agree to a ceasefire without guarantees of NATO protection. “We need [NATO protection] very much, otherwise [Putin] will come back. Otherwise, how are we going to go to a ceasefire? So for us, it’s very dangerous,” he said.

While Zelensky and Putin’s terms are extremely far apart, the Ukrainian side could be forced to make more concessions if President-elect Donald Trump follows through with his campaign promise to end the war and pressures Zelensky to negotiate.

(antiwar.com)

But I thought there was no way Ukraine would cede territory to Russia….if the US had applied pressure 2 years ago along these lines then maybe there would not have been so many deaths on both sides.

Is Zelensky just hedging his bets for 2025?

Recently the US has said that Ukraine should start drafting 18 year olds…..

The White House is pressuring Ukraine to increase the size of its military by lowering the minimum age of conscription from 25 to 18, The Associated Press reported on Wednesday.

A senior Biden administration official said the outgoing administration wants Ukraine to start drafting 18-year-olds to expand the current pool of fighting-age males. The pressure from the US comes as polling shows the majority of Ukrainians want peace talks with Russia to end the war.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan recently hinted that the US was pressuring Ukraine to expand conscription, saying Ukraine’s biggest problem in the war was the lack of manpower.

“Our view has been that there’s not one weapon system that makes a difference in this battle. It’s about manpower, and Ukraine needs to do more, in our view, to firm up its lines in terms of the number of forces it has on the front lines,” Sullivan said on PBS News Hour last week.

The Biden administration’s push for Ukraine to draft younger men comes as it is doing everything it can to escalate the proxy war before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated on January 20. President Biden is seeking another $24 billion to spend on the conflict even though it’s clear there’s no path to a Ukrainian military victory.

(antiwar.com)

Has Ukraine lost that many young to this war…..or could it be the massive amounts of desertions.

Ukrainian soldiers refusing to report for duty or walking away from their front-line positions are becoming an increasing problem for Kiev. One Ukrainian lawmaker said that there have been as many as 200,000 desertions. 

Ukrainian officials and soldiers told the AP that “Facing every imaginable shortage, tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops, tired and bereft, have walked away from combat and front-line positions to slide into anonymity.” The report adds, “Entire units have abandoned their posts, leaving defensive lines vulnerable and accelerating territorial losses, according to military commanders and soldiers.”

Soldiers failing to report to their posts are a rapidly worsening problem for Kiev. In 2022, only 9,000 Ukrainians were prosecuted for desertion. That number increased to 24,000 in 2023. Ukrainian government data showed prosecutions skyrocketed to 50,000 during the first nine months of 2024. 

https://libertarianinstitute.org/news/as-many-as-200000-ukrainian-soldiers-have-deserted/

But not to worry Biden made sure that Ukraine got another money dump before the end of his term….

The Biden administration on Monday announced a new $725 million weapons package for Ukraine, which includes anti-personnel mines, ammunition for the HIMARS rocket systems, and other equipment.

President Biden just recently approved the provision of anti-personnel mines for Ukraine, a step that goes against his own policy meant to limit the use of the indiscriminate weapon. In 2022, Biden re-implemented an Obama-era policy that prohibited the transfer and use of US anti-personnel mines outside of the Korean Peninsula.

Biden’s decision to send the mines has been condemned by arms control groups and many countries that are signatories to a treaty banning the weapon. The mines, which are designed to kill or maim people, have been banned by 164 countries under the Ottawa Treaty. The US and Russia are not signatories, but Ukraine is and has been in violation of the treaty.

(antiwar.com)

Treaty violation?  The US is famous for treaty violations….just ask a Native American.

That is all I have for now but I will continue to report the unreported news as I see it.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”