Is there any situation this asshole can’t make even worse? (Rolling Stone)
AS VERIFIED ACCOUNTS on X, formerly Twitter, continue to spread misinformation on the violent conflict between Hamas and Israel, Elon Musk directed his nearly 160 million X followers to follow accounts known for disseminating lies.
“For following the war in real-time, @WarMonitors & @sentdefender are good,” Musk posted on X Sunday morning. He added, “It is also worth following direct sources on the ground. Please add interesting options in replies below.”
In his own post, CNN’s Jake Tapper took a screenshot of Musk’s post next to a screenshot of a derogatory message from the War Monitor account to a user named Avi Kaner. In the caption, Tapper wrote, “Elon Musk lauds this bigot as a good source of information, part Infiniti.”
A year ago, the War Monitors account thanked Kanye West in a Twitter thread and claimed that “the overwhelming majority of people in the media and banks are zi0nists” and told another X user in June “go worship a jew lil bro.”
The “derogatory message” Tapper highlighted from the so-called War Monitor account was “mind your own business, jew.” Musk deleted the tweet, but he frequently amplifies antisemites. There’s no plausible explanation for this well-established pattern other than that Musk in an antisemitic piece of shit himself.
The good news is that despite the happy talk from X CEO Linda Yaccarino* about “monetizable daily active users,” Musk is rapidly tanking his own platform. With any luck, his current social media reach will shrink to D@ily St0rm3r proportions eventually.
***
Josh Marshall at TPM posted about a report that an Egyptian official directly warned Netanyahu 10 days prior that there would be an attack from Gaza:
Ynet is reporting that ten days before the attack the Director of the General Intelligence Directorate of Egypt, Abbas Kamel, called Netanyahu and warned “something fierce will happen from Gaza”. Netanyahu, according to this report, reacted in a nonchalant fashion and said the IDF had its hands full with events in the West Bank.
Needless to say, this claim is going to loom over everything that is unfolding. The Prime Minister’s office has officially denied the report. But I suspect a huge amount will turn on the specifics of just what is being alleged and denied…
This may seem like just the details of getting caught totally off guard. But it plays almost like a morality play of Netanyahu’s government – that he was so focused on having the IDF coddle the misbehavior of his settler allies that he dropped the ball on the most foundational of the state’s responsibilities: protecting Israeli civilians from attack.
Shades of GWB’s reaction to the “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” memo, if true. There’s usually a “rally around the leader” effect when there’s a mass casualty attack — GWB certainly benefited from that, to our (and the world’s) great cost.
But Israel and the U.S. — especially the pre-9/11 U.S. — are very different countries. Isn’t the whole point of a figure like Netanyahu to prevent this sort of thing?
***
Turning to more trivial matters, Ron DeSantis is so desperate to get back in the 2024 conversation that he’s leaving the con-media safe space to appear on Morning Joe tomorrow as part of a sustained “media blitz,” according to Politico:
On Tuesday, the Republican presidential hopeful is set to appear on MSNBC’s Morning Joe — a show that has placed a highly critical eye on his candidacy along with much of the GOP field. According to an adviser, the Florida governor is expected to follow that up in the coming weeks with an appearance on CNN, another platform that has drawn the ire of conservatives…
DeSantis spokesperson Andrew Romeo said the governor was looking to “drive his message across a diverse swath of media to share his plans for what he will do as president to reverse America’s decline.”
Go on Rachel’s show or go home, chickenshit.
***
Speaking of trivial, vainglorious chickenshits, Kevin McCarthy told Hugh Hewitt he’s willing to serve as speaker again, according to WaPo. The House GOP’s biggest regret is that their own dysfunction is preventing them from blaming the conflict in Israel on Joe Biden.
They’re making that charge in front of any operating camera, of course. But the bright red rubber noses and floppy shoes Repub reps are wearing makes it hard for anyone to take them seriously (so far).
Open thread.
*Speaking of Yaccarino, did y’all hear about her mega-cringe interview at the Code Conference last week? Stockholm syndrome!
Youngkin Is Shattering GOP Fundraising Records in Virginia
dmsilev
I’m sure he’d have absolutely no trouble at all getting the necessary votes. What with the remarkable level of Republican unanimity towards his Speakership and all.
Alison Rose
Kevin, please don’t once again force the country to be voyeurs to your humiliation kink.
MobiusKlein
I have not seen anything in the blogosphere about the chaos around the Guatemala presidential elections.
https://www.npr.org/2023/10/09/1204611996/guatemalans-protest-attempts-to-overturn-the-results-of-presidential-election (need a better source folks)
It’s dear to me, since I have about 30 co-workers in Guatemala. The news seems lost among all the other strife in more famous locales.
bbleh
As much as I dislike Qevin, and as little respect as I have for him, I’d still prefer him to Jimmy J, and quite possibly to Scalise. And it’s not clear he would have any less of a chance. Maybe even more of one if they’re forced to turn to the Dems for votes.
They’re talking about requiring 217 votes within the conference to nominate someone, so they don’t have another pie fight in front of the cameras. But 217 is all but 4, ie any 5 Republicans have a veto over a nominee. Seems to me they’d just be setting themselves up to get jerked around by the Crazies again. There does seem to be much more anger at the Crazies right now, but there’s more than 4 of them. What’s gonna be the price for getting that 217th Republican aboard?
I assume if they can get 217 for a Speaker, then they’ll ditch the one-person MTV rule as well.
Apparently they’re meeting tonight, and then again tomorrow for a “forum,” and then voting within the conference on Wednesday, *IF* all goes as planned.
Good thing I just got another bottle of popping corn.
Ken
@dmsilev: Statements like Kevin’s remind me of Glendower and Hotspur, from Henry IV Part 1:
GLENDOWER: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
HOTSPUR: Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come when you do call for them?
Ohio Mom
That was Ohio Dad’s first reaction, though what came to his mind was Pearl Harbor, and the belief Roosevelt knew the attack was coming and let it unfold because he needed a reason to get us into the War.
Is that story even true, I don’t know.
I will note that Ohio Dad pays much more attention to Israel than I do.
Gregory
Dusting off from more than 20 years ago my regular reminder that claims that there were no specific warnings is tantamount to an admission that there were warnings.
trollhattan
We all know if it weren’t for the {{{Jews}}} the Apartheid Regime would still be in charge of a flourishing South Africa. Or something. He’s Trump II, only with actual money. Can’t he run off and try to ruin some other country?
What odd times these are when we have Jake Tapper speaking truth to nutty power.
dmsilev
@bbleh: Maybe there will be the critical number of votes needed on the question “Should we stuff Matt Gaetz into the nearest broom closet and throw away any and all keys?”. That’s about the only way I can see that they’ll get to 217.
trollhattan
@dmsilev:
First a wedgie, then toss Gaetz into a closet, one with a door lock.
J. Arthur Crank (fka Jerzy Russian)
I saw a story this morning about how Senator Potato Town’s hold on military promotions might come back to bite the military if they have to deploy to the Middle East. Christ, what an asshole!
Ar least I am seeing more articles that make it clear that one party is in the wear-your-underwear-on-the-outside territory and the other is not.
Baud
Um…
Baud
Also too GMTA.
This is a much greater intelligence and/or leadership failure than 9/11, and that’s saying a lot.
Ken
@dmsilev: Shades of that amusing scene in Elizabeth where Walsingham frees the six Catholic bishops, informing them that during their incarceration the bill they opposed passed — by five votes.
Though I have my doubts any Republicans would let Gaetz out of your hypothetical broom closet.
MattF
With regard to Musk’s antisemitism— I worked in a place where a very senior manager had a reputation for antisemitism, and everyone knew about that reputation including the man himself. He was no dummy and teased me about it a few times. I mention this in case anyone imagines that it would be some sort of huge secret. People have their reasons to give Musk rope, and they do. It’s the sort of thing that’s regarded as unpleasant common knowledge, and everyone just deals with it as best they can.
Another Scott
Grr…,
Scott.
Yarrow
I think I read that the WSJ article about Iran being involved in the attack was being pushed back against. Am I remembering right?
H.E.Wolf
@Ken:
Great Henry IV reference! As you say: very à propos.
Electoral-Vote.com has a detailed write-up on the Republican Speakership FUBAR in today’s blog post:
https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2023/Items/Oct09-1.html
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: Someone decided not to save that for their (fucking) book?
Betty Cracker
@Yarrow: I don’t know about the push-back, but here’s a gift link the the WSJ article that alleges Iran was in on the plot. ETA: In the linked article, Sec. Blinken says they don’t have any evidence to support the allegation yet but didn’t rule it out.
tobie
The WSJ report regarding Iran’s alleged coordination of Hamas’ attack seems to beggar belief among experts:
https://mstdn.social/@maxkennerly/111206159869149893
The parallels between Bush ignoring reports of 9/11 and Netanyahu ignoring warnings about Hamas’ attack are strong. I imagine both men were so convinced that the attack would be small enough that they could capitalize on it for their own agenda. Awful.
cain
@trollhattan:
At the moment Gaetz is creating soem serious GOP dysfunction – and I’m hoping that translates to GOP losing the House.
Right now, the timing is really bad for them because they can’t pontificate about Israel.
But there is more bad news – there is some speculation and there doesn’t seem credible sources yet – but TFG might have done some leaks to Russia that would have spread to Iran and then Hamas. If true, the GOP is going to be in even deeper political quagmire as their frontrunner is now giving critical data to Hamas.
Of course, they could paper over it – but that’s going to kill their messaging on blaming it on Biden if Trump leaked shit to Iran via Russia. It will also strengthen the anti-Russia forces and perhaps drive money to Ukraine.
HumboldtBlue
Why protect folks near Gaza when you can bulldoze some kids in the West Bank?
It sure does seem Bibi invited this.
tobie
@Yarrow: I pasted this link to Mastodon which links to Twitter in turn:
https://mstdn.social/@maxkennerly/111206159869149893
cain
@tobie: Hard to believe that Iran didn’t have some kind of participation. Maybe it was Turkiye?
Baud
@tobie:
What do the Israelis know? They didn’t even see this attack coming.
Only right wing rags can be trusted.
catclub
I would say no. The whole point of having Netanyahu is to have him incite this kind of thing from Hamas, and then react as violently as possible.
Villago Delenda Est
(Bibi) reacted in a nonchalant fashion and said the IDF had its hands full with events in the West Bank.
Well, he was busy stoking his base by pulling troops from the South to allow settler types to stir up trouble in the West Bank.
As Adam has pointed out, Hamas and Bibi feed off each other to maintain their grips on power. There are no good guys at the top. The Israeli and Palestinian people are caught in the middle of this cynicism, which is a weak word to describe these fascist pigs.
CaseyL
@Yarrow: You are remembering correctly – Gotta_Laff at Mastodon deleted a post quoting the WSJ story and posted about deleting it – but I’ve not heard anything more substantial or with more details as yet.
trollhattan
@cain:
IDK about sharing intelligence, but weapons I can well believe Iran has a role as source.
What do we know about the rockets? Imported/homegrown/both? Are any guided or are they all dumb rockets (many of the rockets used in Ukraine are unguided).
Terrorism, in general, ain’t that hard to plan, while execution effectiveness varies a lot. France, for a handy example, can weigh in on the many forms it can take.
Regardless, for a militarized state like Israel that is always at some alert level, this is a ghoulish failure on the part of intelligence and the defense forces. Bibi, fashioned entirely of Teflon® will skate as he always does.
tobie
@Baud: I thought the thread from the Iran expert *outside govt* was interesting. It’s one of the subthreads in the Twitter thread that Kennerly quoted.
I also learned from reading the comments that the WSJ reporter had been let go from Reuters in 2008 because of concerns about her reporting.
2008 was a long time ago so it’s probably wrong to question her for this now. But Josh Marshall’s comment that the article was thinly sourced is a fair point.
catclub
@Ohio Mom:
Given the US codebreaking effort, this has a lot of potential truth.
They broke a message that said ‘break off all diplomatic efforts’.
Did Roosevelt get handed the translation and interpretation in time? I don’t know.
mrmoshpotato
@dmsilev:
Fifteen rounds of voting last time. Fifty this time?
What a jackass. Apologies to actual donkeys.
catclub
@Villago Delenda Est:
at least one of those two groups has the ability (in principle) to vote Bibi out. I would claim that they have some agency in Bibi still being in.
tobie
@cain: I agree that Iran was likely involved. The question is to what degree. Did Iran play a leading role not only in supplying weaponry but also in coordinating the attack for many months , as the WSJ article suggested?
catclub
@MobiusKlein:
I heard it reported this morning on NPR.
Cacti
All of the blood from this conflict is on Netanyahu’s hands. He thought himself awfully clever, propping up Hamas as a way to undermine the Palestinian Authority. Now he’s reaping the consequences of that calculation.
tobie
@catclub: Bibi has a scarce majority. Gazans by contrast voted overwhelmingly for Hamas in 2006…a notable fact given that Israel withdrew from Gaza in Sep 2005.
Ohio Mom
@catclub: Pearl Harbor, 9/11, I’m beginning to see a pattern here. I imagine historians could come up with other examples.
catclub
@Ohio Mom:
I am no historian but the bombing of Coventry pops up next on the list. Churchill knew it was coming, but the value of keeping secret their ability to decrypt Enigma messages was greater.
Another Scott
@trollhattan:
Wikipedia:
Rockets were first used as actual weapons in the battle of Kai-fung-fu in 1232 A.D. The Chinese attempted to repel Mongol invaders with barrages of fire arrows and, possibly, gunpowder-launched grenades. The fire-arrows were a simple form of a solid-propellant rocket. A tube, capped at one end, contained gunpowder.
What’s that expression? Necessity is a mother??
I don’t know if Hamas is using anything more sophisticated now.
HTH a little.
Cheers,
Scott.
Roger Moore
@MattF:
The core is they don’t see this kind of bigotry as a deal breaker. They can spin it any way they like, but they just don’t treat antisemitism- or Musk’s long track record of other kinds of bigotry- as that big of a deal. It certainly isn’t enough to stop them from working with him when they see the payoff is big enough.
Anoniminous
@Ohio Mom:
Roosevelt did not know Pearl Harbor was going to be attacked.
Read: At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor
tobie
@Cacti:
Seriously? All of it? Because one side’s behavior is always active aggression and the other’s is passive causation?
We will need to find a political solution and that will require dealing with 2 parties with some agency.
catclub
@Anoniminous: I noticed the publication date of that book was 1982. I am not sure that the secrets of how we had decrypted japanese encryption had been substantially revealed at that time.
Soprano2
I don’t know if anyone has shared this article (gift link) from the WaPo about the link between occupation, health insurance, and death from drug overdose. Turns out having health insurance and working at a safer occupation lowers your risk of dying from an overdose by a lot.
Anoniminous
@catclub:
Read the book. It goes into all that.
Jay C
@Another Scott:
Thanks for the info, Scott: manufacturing simple-but-deadly rockets has been a cottage industry in Gaza for quite a while: AFAIK, these things can be banged together in just about any garage/basement /workshop; quantity making up for the inaccuracy/undependability. And as we’ve seen in Ukraine, weapons systems don’t have to be high-tech/sophisticated to be effective….
hueyplong
@Anoniminous: And years later Prof Kennedy, in the mammoth history of the period 1929-1945, makes a pretty clear case for FDR not knowing it would be Pearl Harbor. Basically, we knew an attack was coming but expected it elsewhere. Code breaking didn’t help with attack task force because they’d gone the 1941 version of offline.
Another Scott
@catclub:
NSA.gov (26 page .pdf) has a book review (?!?) from 1991. The book says it’s all Churchill’s fault.
(I’d clip some excerpts, but it’s a PDF image.)
I put no stock in the conspiracy theories, myself. It’s what humans do – they always, always, always construct conspiracies even when there are often much simpler explanations.
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
@catclub: Israelis can’t vote Netanyahu out until they have another election, and that might not be until 2027. But I think that this government will fall long before that, most likely within six weeks after there is a durable ceasefire in the current war. I think there will be a ceasefire by the end of this month.
Israelis did not vote Netanyahu in by much last November. The anti-and pro-Netanyahu votes were very close to even. Netanyahu’s 4-party coalition won a 64-56 Knesset majority only because two anti-Netanyayu parties did not reach the 3.25% threshold that would have won them 4 MKs each. The Arab “Balad” party got 2.86%, and liberal “Meretz” won 3.15%.
I don’t think Israel will have a new election though. More likely a new government will be formed that includes Yair Lapid’s “Yesh Atid” and Benny Gantz’s “National unity” parties. with Gantz as Prime Minister instead of Netanyahu.
Netanyahu’s coalition partner “National Religious” would be excluded. They are political arsonists and their leaders Smotrich and Ben-Gvir bear a lot responsibility for this debacle.
lollipopguild
@Ohio Mom: Stalin was told by his own spies that the Germans were invading and the British warned him as well, but he made a choice to ignore the warnings.
Trivia Man
@Another Scott: Grr indeed. BUT…
my hope is that a high profile play for Speaker will give ample opportunity for endless sound bites.
”I oppose him because he ignored congressional subpoenas about Jan 6”
”Until he testifies under oath about his involvement in Jan 6 NOBODY should vote for him”
”A vote for JJ is support for the Jan 6 insurrection. Full Stop.”
Baud
I always thought the FDR Truther theory was weird on its face. Even if he wanted the attack to happen so we’d get into the war, there’s no reason he would have allowed the extent of the damage that the attack caused.
Plus, he wanted to fight Hitler. Thankfully, Hitler actually honored his commitment to Japan and declared war on the U.S.
smith
@Soprano2: Thanks for this — it’s a fascinating set of interrelated facts.
Yarrow
@tobie: Thanks for this and thanks to everyone else who posted.
Gravenstone
If this is their plan, they’ll make the initial McCarthy circus look like positively civil and orderly. I’m wondering if there won’t be significant outside pressure to get their shit together behind someone in light of the fact we’re probably going to be spending a shit ton more money on the international stage in short order? That money won’t be authorizing itself in the absence of a true Speaker.
Gravenstone
@Ohio Mom: My initial thought was that Netanyahu knew something was brewing, but was content to let it happen as yes, he desperately wanted a casus belli to give the population a reason to circle around him and his broken coalition. It’s pretty clear he and his crew completely misread/underestimated the scope of what exactly might be in the offing, if this supposition is indeed true.
HumboldtBlue
I think it was someone here who mentioned Middle East Eye, if you need another news source for the region.
wjca
The problem there is the number of people in their conference who don’t want to spend any money outside the US. Period. Their incentives will actually all be on the side of not electing a Speaker.
trollhattan
@lollipopguild: More recently, a good deal of NATO and Ukraine themselves did not take the US warnings of Russia invading, seriously. We flipped the cards and they were, “Now why do you suppose the US is showing us their cards? What are they up to?”
catclub
@Anoniminous:
thanks. I did not know.
Paul in KY
@catclub: I think they thought the Japanese were going to do Midway. A sorta stupid choice (by us thinking that) as all previous Japanese type sneak attacks were always meant to be completely decisive.
Geminid
@Anoniminous: Another good source on this question is Pearl Harbor: Final Verdict, by Henry Clausen.
A Judge Advocate General officer, Clausen was Assistant Recorder at the Army’s Pearl Harbor Board hearings. When the Pearl Harbor Board’s findings came out, Secretary of War Stimson believed they were faulty and empowered Clausen to track down the various witnesses and check their stories.
The main issue was the distribution of highly secret intercepts of coded Japanese messages. Navy cryptographers had cracked the “Purple” code, but this knowledge was tightly held. Army officers “in the know” did not divulge their existence before the Pearl Harbor Board, but their distribution was a vital question regarding Chief of Staff George Marshall role in the Hawaii commander’s unreadiness.
Clausen was “read into” into the proper secrecy level and provided with copies of the cables that he got to carry in a “bomb pouch” strapped to to his chest (the bomb pouch contained a magnesium flare that would destroy the contents).
Clausen was issued a writ requiring his interviewees to answer any and all questions, and give relevant information not asked about. Clausen learned a lot about how the runup to Pearl Harbor was handled by the Army and Navy.
One of the last interviews was in Germany with Colonel Bratton, who had testified that he had delivered the first 13 parts of a critical cable to General Marshall the evening of December 5. After Clausen produced cables and affidavits from other officers who had served at the Pentagon with Bratton, Clausen forced Bratton’s admission that he had perjured himself and did not in fact deliver the cable until Sunday morning. Bratton then signed his own affidavit to that effect.
Clausen testified at the Congressional hearings Republican leaders hoped would confirm rumors that President Roosevelt had mishandled warnings of Pearl Harbor. They were diappointed when Clausen, a fellow Republican, was able to refute the rumors.
Clausen went back to his San Francisco law practice, and wrote this book with a co-author shortly before his death in the 1980s.
catclub
@Geminid:
Fine, but all the previous elections where they have kept Bibi in count in my saying they have agency in keeping him there or throwing him out. And the fact that they keep him means to me that they have a pretty good idea of his MO vis a vis Hamas and fatah, and they are okay with that.
Geminid
@catclub: It is true that sraelis have kept Netanyahu in office for over a decade except for the 18 months from June, 2021 to January 1st of this year, during which Naftali Bennet and Yair Lapid led their 8-party government. But you said Israelis have the ability to vote him out and I pointed out that in fact they don’t until there is an election.
But current members of the Knesset can vote him out and I think they will.
Roger Moore
@catclub:
My understanding is that Japanese opsec for Pearl Harbor was very tight. They did all their planning in Japan and were careful to keep everything on land lines and by sending physical documents rather than using radio. The strike force kept strict radio silence.
There was a famous telegram sent to the Japanese ambassador that the US famously decoded faster than the Japanese did, but that wouldn’t necessarily have helped. The message didn’t spell out any specifics, and there was no reason from the message alone to believe there was going to be an attack minutes later. More importantly, the Japanese sent the telegram to their ambassador at the very last minute to deny the US any advantage if we managed to decode it. That was part of the outrage surrounding the attacks. Because the Japanese embassy was a bit slow decoding the message, they didn’t deliver it until after the attacks started, rather than just before. The point is the US had very little time between decoding the message and the attack, to the point we probably didn’t have time to do anything about it even if there were no delays in getting the translated message through the chain of command.
Paul in KY
@Baud: The treaty between Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan actually had a codicil where each country did not have to go to the other’s aid if that country unilaterally started a war.
geg6
@catclub:
Had to be because I had a class in which this was discussed in college. I had graduated by 1982.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
I think part of the Pearl Harbor truther business is because people assumed it was too big a coincidence none of our carriers were in port that day. They assume Roosevelt must have known and come up with excuses for our most valuable ships to be saved from the attack while still leaving enough ships to be destroyed to get everyone angry. The problem with that logic is it assumes everyone knew carriers were the most important ships, which was not at all settled wisdom in 1941.
Gravenstone
Just watch them. The Israeli government is about to get its genocide on and Republicans will be knee-jerk supporting them every bloody step of the way.
lowtechcyclist
@tobie:
No, because if there are two people who commit one murder together, they can both be executed for it. Which is to say each has 100% responsibility, not 50%.
Baud
I thought this happened weeks ago. It’s being reported today.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
I thought this happened weeks ago. It’s being reported today.
Same here. This certainly isn’t the first time I’d heard that that embarrassment to the Kennedy name had decided to run as an independent.
Leto
@Roger Moore: @Geminid:
This is also a very long running anti-FDR/anti-Democrat attack. It was an attack by Republicans that held no water, but it’s something you see continue to pop up now and again. There are some conspiracy theories that refuse to die even though you have first hand accounts that debunk it, you have official accounts that debunk it, and you have professional historians who have debunked it. It’s also what happens when you have a generally uneducated public.
Leto
Just an aside, but Bobby Kennedy’s family denounces his run.
Citizen Alan
@Baud:
Indeed. I remain 100% certain that the Republicans would have blocked any effort by FDR to declare war on Germany had Hitler not declared war on us first. If he’d played it smart and used the “infamy” of Pearl Harbor as an excuse to break his Japan treaty and declare neutrality in the US-Japan conflict, I think he’d have conquered Europe (to the applause of the Republicans of the day and probably the NYT).
Misterpuff
@trollhattan: Tell Gaetz it’s a SCIF and he’ll happily walk in with his cell phone.
Geminid
@Leto: I bet you would appreciate Clausen’s book. There is a lot of information about about the different officers involved. A few worked at the Pentagon, but most were at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked.
In a nutshell: Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Kimmel was arrogant and did not share information with his Army counterpart, General Short. The Admiral commanding Navy assets based at Hawaii was complacent and did not use its long-range PBY aircraft to scout to the northeast like he could have
Short’s G-2 was complacent and did not take his serously his junior officer’s warnings about activities at the Japanese Consulate. He also flipped the three alert levels for Hawaii Command, so that Level 1 was what Level 3 had been, but he did not inform his superiors in Washington. So when they asked what Alert Level Hawaii command was at, he told them the lowest but they thought Hawaii command was on highest alert.
And General Short was an idiot; Short told the Army’s Pearl Harbor Board that he thought Hawaii was safe because the Pacific Fleet was at Pearl Harbor!
Roger Moore
@Leto:
Refusing to accept debunking is exactly what gives conspiracy theorists a bad name. I also think this is an example of something that drives a lot of conspiracy theories: the people have some ulterior motive for wanting to believe. The evidence they compile is just their to bolster an existing belief they didn’t arrive at rationally. In this case, the people who came up with the theory wanted a reason to hate Roosevelt, and the theory was created to justify that belief.
The Kennedy assassination is a classic of the genre because so many people see his assassination as the root cause behind everything they don’t like that happened since. They naturally want to blame whomever they think has gained from those bad historical changes. Because there are so many things to dislike in the time since then, there are no shortage of people to blame. That’s why there are so many mutually incompatible theories about it.