I don't know how they got ahold of it (from the tone, it is entirely possible that his Mom gave it to them), but this is what the NYT says his mom sent to him....

Edit: turns out that Hegsworth's mom did NOT give the NYT the email and in fact she has said tha she apologized for sending it the next day, but didn't deny that she sent it. I guess she shared it with his ex (Samantha?) and she gave a copy to the NYT.

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The TL;DR: Holy Shit.

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• Text of the Email That Pete Hegseth’s Mother Sent Him

Penelope Hegseth sent the email to her son in 2018 as he was in the middle of divorcing his wife, Samantha.

The following is the text of the email that Penelope Hegseth sent to her son, Pete Hegseth, on April 30, 2018. One sentence was redacted by The New York Times for privacy reasons.

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• 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. And as a woman and your mother I feel I must speak out..

You are an abuser of women — that is the ugly truth and 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.

I am not a saint, far from it.. so don’t throw that in my face,. but your abuse over the years to women (dishonesty, sleeping around, betrayal, debasing, belittling) needs to be called out.

Sam is a good mother and a good person (under the circumstances that you created) and I know deep down you know that. For you to try to label her as “unstable” for your own advantage is despicable and abusive. Is there any sense of decency left in you? She did not ask for or deserve any of what has come to her by your hand. Neither did Meredith.

I know you think this is one big competition and that we have taken her side… bunk… we are on the side of good and that is not you. (Go ahead and call me self-righteous, I dont’ care)

Don’t you dare run to her and cry foul that we shared with us… that’s what babies do. 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

We still love you, but we are broken by your behavior and lack of character. I don’t want to write emails like this and never thought I would. If it damages our relationship further, then so be it, but at least I have said my piece. [Redacted]

And yes, we are praying for you (and you don’t deserve to know how we are praying, so skip the snarky reply)

I don’t want an answer to this… I don’t want to debate with you. You twist and abuse everything I say anyway. But… 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…

Mom

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Assuming that this is real (and the NYT does do due diligence in verifying sources), can it be possible for this "person" to still be a credible authority when giving orders to and/or advising the Commander and Chief of the US Armed Forces?

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Enquring minds, and all that.

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Edit: turns out that Hegsworth's mom did NOT give the NYT the email and in fact she has said tha she apologized for sending it the next day, but didn't deny that she sent it. I guess she shared it with his ex (Samantha?) and she gave a copy to the NYT.

Still, imagine how angry she must have been to have sent it at all, presumably in solidarity with (at that time, at least) her recently-made-ex daughter-in-law.

If confirmed, Phelan would be the first permanent Navy secretary without military experience since 2009, when Donald Winter finished up his three-year term in the role. Unlike Winter, who previously had worked within the Pentagon and on Navy contracts at major defense firms, Phelan has little public connection to the sea service.

Of the 26 men to be confirmed as Navy secretary over the last 70 years, all but six have been veterans.

Just today, a Harvard buisness grad with no military service was selected to lead the navy under a national guard captain (which is a good rank but leading a few hundred soldiers is different than 2 and a half million personnel). We have the dog hunter as DHS secretary (which overseas the USCG). Plus, bunch of promotions are being stalled in the senate mainly on political grounds.

This is a spicy topic that will have some arguments in the comments going, so I just ask that you remain respectful.

Thank you and have a good day

Leaving out the politics, motivations, History, etc; just on a purely tactical and strategic basis, has the IDF done a good job at conducting their war given the tactical picture?

How does this conflict compare to other similar wars? For an urban guerilla war, has the IDF performed better or worse in terms of the ratio of casualites(Hamas/IDF/Civilian)? By a lot or by a little?

Is there any practical thing they could have done to lower the civilian casualties, when considering the reality on the ground?

Have they made any major military mistakes that one can point to?

NATIONAL SECURITY: What's behind defense secretary pick Hegseth's war on 'woke'

• "They [Hegseth's tattoos] are far-right Christian symbols that signal a very, very deep antipathy towards Islam," said Matthew Taylor, senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Baltimore. "[Hegseth] literally wrote a book called 'The American Crusade,' drawing parallels between the Crusades and the present moment in the United States and Europe and pushing back on Muslim immigration to those areas."

Taylor noted that Hegseth has also spoken about the possibility of reconstructing the so-called "Third Temple" in Jerusalem, a project that would require the destruction of Islam's third-holiest site. Such an effort would almost certainly trigger a major international war, Taylor said.

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Any current or former military member who does NOT see Hegseth's potential service as SecDef as literally an existential threat to the US military as it has been for 250+ years is either blind, or hopes secretly that such comes to pass...

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IMHO, of course.

• Trump Confirms He Could Use Military For Deportations In ‘National Emergency’

• Trump reposted a Nov. 8 Truth Social post by his ally Tom Fitton, the head of the conservative Judicial Watch organization, that said Trump’s administration is “prepared to declare a national emergency and will use military assets to reverse the Biden invasion through a mass deportation program.”

• _Trump captioned the repost, “TRUE!!!”_

• Trump ratcheted up his anti-immigration rhetoric during his most recent White House run, making it a central focus of his campaign—he has promised to deport all undocumented migrants without providing details on how he plans to execute the program, but has repeatedly floated the possibility of using military forces to remove people.

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So how will the US military under Trump respond to this national emergency? It is within his powers to do so and by definition, just about any order given under this power will be lawful.

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I can only say that I am glad I am too old to serve and too old to be recalled to active duty to serve this person whose "pathologies are so complex and his behaviors so often inexplicable that coming up with an accurate and comprehensive diagnosis would require a full battery of psychological and neuropsychological tests that he'll never sit for," to quote his niece, who has a PhD in clinical psychology.

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It is a great irony of our political system that the man who is about to be in charge of our national security, including the "nuclear football," could not only never pass a security background check for many reasons, including his personal lawyer being BFF of the son of the American branch of the Russian mob (and co-owner of the building that houses their US HQ until his boss decided to run for POTUS), but likely couldn't make it through basic training in any branch of the US armed forces due to his mental/emotional issues.

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Test

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if there is any type of weapon that only makes sense in offensive situations.

In particular, I am wondering about the following weapons:

- Panzerhaubitze 2000 (PzH 2000)
- Leopard 2
- Boxer GTK
- Global Mobile Artillery Rocket System (GMARS)

Are all of these Rheinmetall weapon systems usable both in offensive as in defensive situations or is (more or less) either of them?

I am terrified of what is to come. Need to discuss with other vets/military. Am I being overly paranoid or is this history repeating? I'm asking here cause the subreddits don't allow politics.

NBC News report here.

I don't know where else to vent about this, so I figured I'd post about it here. I have some co-workers in a group chat that talk alot about the mass immigration that trump plans on taking place here shortly. I don't care about politics at the best of times but, what annoys me is how ego driven all of them are. They post things about how all immigrants deserve to be homeless and how most of them are terrorists or felons. Many of them upvote any comments that encourage putting them in shackles or outright just letting them starve. I honestly can't believe the stuff I'm reading. It just seems so incredible to me that people could be so heartless and inhumane.

What's worse, many of these guys talk themselves up as if they are "protectors of peace", the real patriots of our society. When many of them haven't served the military or ever picked up a book. Just a bunch of guys in their 30's and 40's who were privileged enough to be born on the right side of the border, talking about how people that don't look like them deserve to be homeless. Just a bunch of blow hards who keep making themselves out to be some rambo types, when they definitely have the bare minimum training and barely ever been in a scuffle in their lives. It's kind of hard to believe that people would actually talk like this in an open chat with other co-workers.

Anyone else experience things like this? I'm not trying to get political about this truly but, these are human beings we're talking about. They aren't fucking plants; if it ever came to american's being carted off like this. I would hope that people find compassion for us, rather than the way some american's have been speaking. It's just not right, and I can't leave the group chat because I need it for updates. Thoughts?

I'm going to boot camp in a week. I'm usually very vocal about politics in social media, but I've yet to make any posts regarding the election.

I was wondering if you were to post about politics, what do you NOT do if you're part of the government itself?