this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2025
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politics

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[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 92 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Staff are also reportedly annoyed by his installation of a makeup studio at Defense headquarters and his insistence on snapping workout pics alongside troops.

[–] vaguerant@fedia.io 63 points 6 days ago (1 children)

This was so funny I had to double-check the linked article: yes, this part is also real.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 39 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

For as much as trump used to say "straight out of central casting" that really is how he fills important spots.

It's all about the optics, because he doesn't understand what the jobs actually are.

So for Hegsworth, he needs to constantly look "camera ready" he's getting TV grade makeup every day, likely a couple touchups too. Because Trump knows him from Faux news, and that's how he expects him to look.

Then the "workout pics" are almost assuredly being shown to trump and without a hint of irony being told "here's Pete "working" with the troops" and in Trump's mind that's what his job is.

So...

If they actually got rid of those two things, it will make it more likely trump gets rid of Pete. Because it's destroying the image that Pete was picked for.

"Of course the president is an actor; he has to look good on television!"

[–] dhork@lemmy.world 67 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

I was about to whine about the fact that no judge or official could really tell Hegseth what to do, then I read the article:

In April, Hegseth’s Trump-loyalist advisor, Patrick Weaver, took offense to the suggestion that he should have to submit to testing being carried out on those close to the Defense secretary. An ally of President Donald Trump and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, Weaver’s complaint resulted in a phone call from the White House to Hegseth’s team telling them to knock it off.

Ah, he's going after other Trumpers, that's why. The ouroboros may be starting to eat itself....

[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 5 points 6 days ago

It always does. Just a shame those of us sane people that warned everyone time and time again that they're going to catch a lot of innocent people in the crossfire first.

[–] PattyMcB@lemmy.world 67 points 6 days ago

Polygraphs don't really work anyway. We have bigger fish to fry - like the pedo rapist

[–] AlphaOmega@lemmy.world 27 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Polygraph? You mean that pseudo science machine that is accurate 50% of the time?

[–] Goretantath@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago

Yeah, the machines that measure stress, not lying.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 5 points 6 days ago

They work if the subject believes they work, which is telling for pentagon staff..

[–] cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.de 17 points 6 days ago

Again I was not sure whether the headline was satire or real. We can't keep going on like this.

How many lie detectors do you think they burned out before realizing you had to put Hegseth in a shielded room on the other side of the building first?

[–] TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com 13 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

did the DOJ polygraph giselle maxwell ?

[–] womjunru@lemmy.cafe 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] billwashere@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Put that shit on pay per view and id pay $99.99 to watch it.

[–] womjunru@lemmy.cafe 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Yes… likewise. If he passes it, he can keep the money

[–] billwashere@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

Passes? I’d let him keep it all if he actually stays for the whole thing without rage quitting.

[–] fluxion@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Stupid fascist prick. I thought we were bringing the "efficiency" and "professionalism" of corporate America to the White House. Imagine your boss acting like this.

[–] Shirasho@lemmings.world 34 points 6 days ago (2 children)

This is the efficiency and professionalism of corporate America. Lack of trust in employees is one of the driving forces behind the RTO mandate. Even if employees are more productive at home they must return to the office.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Came here to say this. The notion that bringing corporate-world bullshit to our government would be a good thing is one of the worst ideas floating around in our culture. I'm sure if corporations would be allowed, they'd introduce mumbo-jumbo like lie detectors to keep employees even further subjected to their will [1].

Corporations are top-down private tyrannies guided only by profit motive.

A democratic government should be operated VERY differently from the corporate world.

[1] Hell, they already employ complete nonsense like "personality tests" - there is not one iota of evidence to back up any of that. I'm honestly not sure which is stupider - getting your enneagram equivalent (regardless of the brand du jour ) at work, or lie detectors for loyalty.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Hell, they already employ complete nonsense like “personality tests” - there is not one iota of evidence to back up any of that.

That stuff isn't nonsense, it's worse: it's a cover for discrimination against protected classes. "I didn't reject that candidate because he was black; I rejected him because he... uh... failed this personality test I gave him. Yeah, that's it. No racist discrimination here!"

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

What's dumb is that things like Enneagram/Myers-Brigg/DISC and other such woo purport to be "only about people learning about others' styles" and so on, LOL.

I've seen people put their Myers-Briggs letters on LinkedIn and on their resume. FFS.

[–] fluxion@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago (2 children)

No, business real estate market is the reason for RTO. It would be much easier to spy on employees with monitored teleconferencing/spyware tools than trying to stare over people's shoulders.

[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago

monitored teleconferencing/spyware tools ... stare over people's shoulders.

With RTO you can have both.

[–] Shirasho@lemmings.world 3 points 6 days ago

I said one of the reasons. I didn't say the only reason.

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago

Alcoholics gonna alco

[–] Mediocre_Bard@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

They'll just use it to turn kids into skeletons.

[–] WanderWisley@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago (2 children)

So are we just gonna go with binge drinking initiation then huh?

[–] Pilferjinx@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

Stalin style lie detection.

[–] InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

Besides the extra curricular?

[–] AceFuzzLord@lemmy.zip 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Yeah, nothing like having Pentagon staff of all people under a polygraph. What next? Trying to convince professional movie VFX artists that there was no VFX used at all in LOTR or any other huge budget movie series to come out in the last half century?

Edit: VFX not SFX