DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE: A purposeful leak, or a SIGNAL of distress?

Depending on who you ask, Pete Hegseth, the United States Secretary of Defense should either resign, be driven through the streets like a war criminal, or perhaps taken to a local AA meeting.

This all because of the recent security issues better known by mainstream media as Signalgate: www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/03/26/signalgate-controversy-trump-officials-group-chat/82661982007.

Signalgate (foreignpolicy.com/2025/03/25/signalgate-trump-leak-goldberg-yemen-questions), a little tagline to keep the uproar going. And it’s good for ratings too.

There’s nothing like a security breach to bring the American people together. But I’ll be darned if it didn’t. It just served to be another colossal distraction like we’ve seen for at least the last four years.

From about the second day of this little incident, I was strongly pointing toward the idea the leak was on purpose. After all, there is nothing like smoking out a snitch. A good leak has all the makings of just that along with the other side demanding blood, while everyone throws blame to distract the dazzled circusgoers.

Never mind there’s been unattached blame and ignored security faux paus for years.

My first thought was Hillary’s Benghazi fail (thehill.com/homenews/286438-obstruction-lies-and-dishonor-hillarys-benghazi-legacy).

Scott Jennings, CNN/USA Today/LA Times contributor, listed among other examples, “The bar for firing people like this is really high after the Afghanistan disaster where people died (16 marines) and no accountability was meted out. And no accountability after the Secretary of Defense (Lloyd Austin) went AWOL, so if you are arguing today we should get rid of Pete Hegseth over a small mistake regarding communications even while he was expertly executing this military operation against the Houthi rebels I don’t have time for that argument today, and neither do most Republicans.”

CNN said Hegseth has taken no accountability. That’s inaccurate (surprising?) I personally heard two people take accountability. And remember that’s something we’ve not heard too often be it regarding Benghazi, Afghanistan, and did Austin apologize. I can’t seem to remember why he went AWOL (www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/mike-waltz-signal-group-chat-atlantic-editor-trick-b2721824.html).

My disconnect involving this Signal mess is I find it hard to believe that on a group chat of 15 people (along with the reporter) for over a week – no one noticed a rogue name on the list.  

I’m not buying what you’re selling.

But no, let’s throw it to the drunk and blame him AND make up all kinds of WAR PLAN stories supposedly revealed.

Some of my colleagues have asked very pointedly – which drunk do we start with when we begin to do the firing and how far back can we go?

I was reminded of the former VP’s what were called “drunken speeches” (I didn’t see her take a drink so I’m not making an accusation). Then there is fancy Nancy’s reputation (I have not sat down with her at a bar either – I’m not sure where her unsteadiness comes from). Come to think of it, I haven’t had a drink with Hegseth at the bar so I didn’t see anything.

There is the story it was the Trump appointed Alex Wong (the Deputy National Security Advisor under US National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz) who added The Atlantic journalist to the Signal group. Maybe he was at the bar too. Did you know his wife was the US attorney who reportedly prosecuted J6ers (www.timesnownews.com/world/us/us-news/did-alex-wong-add-jeffery-goldberg-to-houthi-signal-chat-laura-loomers-theory-explained-article-119564317)?

I love a good plotline.

Katherine Maher, NPR’s CEO (YKIYK) is also the Chairman of the Board of Signal.

I heard the current CIA director explaining to Congress he had Signal installed on his devices as did his staff when he took over that job.

Maybe I’m old school, but what happened to the White House War Room?

Personally, I’m still digging around for those war plans The Atlantic was referring to. I mean, why would he lie? I did hear he began to walk back a bit of his story, but that was after the narrative to agitate the sheep was in full swing.

Hegseth said, “Let me get this straight, The Atlantic released the so-called war plans and those plans include no names, no targets, no locations, no units, no routes, no sources, no methods, and no classified information.”

For the record, the choice to use Signal, offering high-power, big-time security was inherited from the Biden administration anyway because a lot of people are asking questions about that.

And then there was that time in 2017 when The Atlantic called Signal “the gold standard of encrypted messaging” and mentioned it was used by Clinton staffers.

And, for those in the back of the room, when I was a State Rep staffer we were using Signal too. It’s not where you would make your war time plans.

We do have to blame someone somewhere, right? Because that’s what America has become.

That and destroying Tesla facilities while posting job ads for “protestors” at $40 an hour.

And, back to if we are firing drunks in DC, there’s going to be a lot more than just one drunk pulled out of the pile. And a lot more mistakes that require finger pointing (can anyone name the congress woman who reportedly married her brother so he could come to the US)?

Did anyone figure out who the cocaine belonged to at the White House last year?

And so, the war to divide and conquer continues.

Remember, war is not fought with guns. It’s fought with programming a person to believe with no questions, no original thoughts – just an ego mind’s perception of reality.

A perception propagated by information overload.

Have you noticed mental illness has escalated with the introduction of information overload ala mainstream media, and social media.

Reaction mode becomes manufactured anxiety, which becomes fear, the greatest weapon.

Remember, when people are afraid and worked up and agitated, they are controlled. COVID is the example I will mention every time. Once the group mind is begging for protection, the next step is they surrender their freedom. 

Remember what you gave up after 9/11?

Both sides are likely controlled by the same people anyway offering pre-approved options that don’t allow for coloring outside the lines.

For those who ask too many questions, it’s troublemaker (my lifelong moniker), extremist, conspiracy theorist, threat to society.

And the AI and algorithmic control moves ahead as each person is custom-fed information to match the illusion.

You must dig deep to understand it. You must do your research to find the man behind the curtain.

If you can even find the curtain. These days the blue people are having their “silent riot,” going on in between vandalizing vehicles, Tesla dealerships and the like (www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/texas-members-of-congress-react-to-tesla-takedown-involving-acts-of-vandalism-and-violence-against-elon-musks-brand/ar-AA1BWxf1?ocid=BingNewsSerp).

And the red people, just looking at the excessive executive orders, and then over at the blue people and saying, “keep it coming.”

Pres. Trump could do the best thing ever and there are those so full of hate they would never acknowledge it.

He could also take a turn and destroy everything and there are people who would say “keep it coming.”

For the hate group people, they are going to continue to manifest their own worst nightmare. The more a person fights for what they hate, the more they manifest that experience. It’s happening now as we watch the circus unfold.

We need to stop pointing the finger.  We need to help the mentally ill. We need to find compassion for each other. We need to remember on our death bed not one Tesla that was destroyed, not one moment of your insignificant job, not the amount of money in your bank account, not how you voted or how you loved or hated – is going to matter.

The essence of who you are is all that will matter. Get to know how that feels, because at end game, no one else cares as much about you as you!

Rita Cook is a freelance writer for The Ellis County Press. She can be reached at rcook13@earthlink.net.