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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 1m

That's probably the strongest argument, that it gives the governor the chance to object to legality, possibly to go file litigation over it. Certainly to at least be officially informed. But I don't think it can be construed as a gubernatorial veto power.

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 6m

It wouldn't hurt for states to push more on that, throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. But I don't think any federal court is going to construe that law as saying the order has to go through the governor and the governor can simply refuse to pass it along.

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 7m

It definitely merits more consideration, though the more I looked into it the weaker that seemed, tbh. CA in particular because CA law authorizes the adjutant general to do stuff on the governor's authority. But even if otherwise, I don't think governors could successfully use that to block these.

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 15m

There had earlier been some talk that it might be Title 32, and when Pritzker made his first big public warning announcement a lot of chatter about that because then it would be units officially still under Abbott's command deployed in Illinois. That might be part of why the ended up going Title 10.

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 17m

Texas didn't consent, it was a Title 10 federalization order, not Title 32 (voluntary and still officially under state command). Abbott politically backs it, obviously, but there was no legally relevant agreement to it on his part. Texas NG units were federalized in the same way as IL, CA, OR, etc.

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 26m

That's not at all what it is. It's literally just building dorms and such on an existing airbase. It's not giving them the whole base. It's so they can have their pilots come over and get trained by our instructors on the F-15s we sold them. Singapore already does the same thing at the same base.

Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 29m

If you want to complain about Hegseth overselling it, that's incompatible with stirring up an overblown freakout based on people misunderstanding how common and normal it is.

Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 32m

It's a deeply evil regime in many ways, like all the Gulf petrostate kleptocracies. But it's not like the Taliban hosting al Qaeda and that's why even the Trump administration was mad at the Israelis for bombing them.

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 34m

That might be Netanyahu's position. It's not the American stance on it and that's not something new to Trump.

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 37m

Taliban, too. Thus the "Doha Agreement." An arrangement the US (if not Israel) is generally happy with because somebody has to be the go-between for negotiations and the like. They're playing the role of Switzerland, it's a diplomatic thing, not actually funding and supporting Hamas.

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 47m

This has been underway for years, and lots of other countries also do it. Singapore is already at the same base, for example. Here are some details from 2022. They're literally talking about building dormitories and such. It's for training on the F-15s we sold them. It's a nothingburger.

$12 billion deal may bring hundreds of Qatar, US Air Force members to Idaho base

www.stripes.com

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 57m

Maybe, and that's a massive scandal for sure. But this training facility deal has been underway for years, it was already moving forward under Biden. Lots of other countries have similar arrangements.

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 1h

There are so many shocking, outrageous, unprecedented things going on, I think it's important to recognize when something's actually just normal and unremarkable. We have plenty of actual mountains to worry about, no need to make more of them out of molehills. Qatar is not invading Idaho.

BOO_Ron @aa-ron.bsky.social · 1h

I work in this field. And yes, this is nothing new. The freak out over this is driving me insane. There are foreign air force members/equipment all over in USAF bases.

We sell, train, and sustain aircraft and weapons to many different countries.

Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 2h

This is Hegseth trying to make it sound like a bigger deal than it is. We have friendly foreign air forces in the US for training exercises and the like all the time, especially ones that use US equipment. That's what this is. It's not like an operational deployment or giving them a whole airbase.

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 1h

Sounds like they finalized a deal that was already underway under Biden.

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 1h

This isn't building a base for them, the base already exists.

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 2h

Yes, America is friendly with lots of dictatorships, particularly in that region of the world.

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 2h

A "facility" could be something as mundane as giving them office space and some quarters, maybe some dedicated parking space on the tarmac. Foreign air force units coming over here for flight instructors, or doing tech upgrades, or using our weapons ranges for practice; that's all super normal.

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 2h

This is Hegseth trying to make it sound like a bigger deal than it is. We have friendly foreign air forces in the US for training exercises and the like all the time, especially ones that use US equipment. That's what this is. It's not like an operational deployment or giving them a whole airbase.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2h

Hegseth: "I'm also proud that today we're signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari Emeri air force facility at the Mountain Home Airbase in Idaho."

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 2h

We'll see but it could be a relative nothingburger. We have all sorts of countries over for that kind of training stuff, not just closest NATO allies. You'll see Egypt or, I dunno, like Malaysia or Colombia, etc. Especially if they fly US-made jets. It's not an operational deployment for them.

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 2h

Sounds like he's bigging it up. A "facility" as in they'll have some dedicated buildings there, maybe hangars, but not a whole new base or anything. Having foreign air force units here for training exercises and the like is fairly common.

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 2h

The Constitution. The Declaration. The Spirit of '76. No Kings.

You know, America haters.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4h

Mike Johnson: "We're so angry about it. I mean, I'm a very patient guy, but I've had it with these people. The theory we have right now -- they have a hate America rally that's scheduled for October 18 on the National Mall. It's the pro-Hamas wing and antifa people ... "

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 3h

It's not a fair interpretation. Look, I don't think you were trying to be dishonest, but you make it sound like he responded with a shockingly blunt and obvious insult of Trump, when he did nothing of the sort and instead went out of his way to *not* give an answer that could be construed that way.

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 3h

Lincoln himself had only ever been in the state legislature plus a single two-year term in Congress decades earlier. He was, on paper, the least experienced-in-high-office man to win the presidency until, well, 2016.

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 3h

Lincoln was at the head of a party that'd never won the presidency before, was only a few years old, and he won with only 40% of the popular vote. The Republicans were absolutely, in political terms, the upstart insurgents and Lincoln's victory was a massive sea change in national politics.

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 3h

I think it's entirely fine to read that, arguably, as an implicit jab at Trump, or at least it kind of inherently raises the association in people's minds. But that doesn't change what the chair actually said in the video, which wasn't at all the shockingly blunt insult Adam made it sound like.

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