Week 2: It just continues

At the risk of doing the very thing I was advocating against doing the other day, this is another Outrage Post regarding POTUS47. Triaging the firehose of fascist actions is proving to be awfully difficult, what with so many things being RED ALERT level nightmares.

45/47 and his flunkies, with apparent heavy involvement from Elon Musk, have invited Federal workers to quit by implying an offer of nonexistent severance packages. They have violated the Impoundment Act and have indicated they will do it again and again. 45/47 flew a planeful of deportees to Colombia in chains on a flight with torturous conditions, got into a social media slapfight with Colombia over it, traded concessions, and crowed to the MAGA dupes that he'd just pwned Colombia when they in fact succeeded with their demand that deportees be treated humanely and not escorted by armed soldiers (45/47 won a concession from Colombia allowing him to continue using military planes). He claimed that he'd sent the MILITARY into CALIFORNIA to turn his imaginary spigot on to give Los Angeles more water and crowed about it as some sort of real achievement when it was all in his imagination. His OMB nominee perjured himself in admitting during a Senate hearing that he champions the Big Lie.

All of that is horrifying and that barely scratched the surface of what's gone down in the past two days.

My top-line concern for this brief time period, though, is the attempted firing of at least 17 inspectors general. (This actually happened on Friday night—when administrations often will, in West Wing parlance, "take out the trash" when the fewest people will notice—but I'm catching up to it late. Triage is hard.)

The Office of Inspector General was established in 1976 as one of the post-Nixon reforms designed to protect the nation from a corrupt chief executive and/or corrupt government officials. The job of Inspectors General is to weed out waste, fraud, and abuse in the executive branch of the Federal government. Initially this office was limited to a dozen IGs in the department of Health and Human Services, later it was expanded to cover other agencies and departments. There are now 72 IG positions, tasked with policing waste, fraud, and abuse by policy and policymakers.

45/47 tried to fire 17-20 of them (reports vary on the number), all without cause.

To no one's surprise, the firings are illegal. Inspectors General operate independent of an administration, and though a president can fire them for cause, he must submit a written rationale for the firing to Congress and give 30 days' notice. The only rationale made in this case was that the firings were "due to changing priorities." Since the only purpose of IGs is to root out waste, fraud, and abuse, this was a tacit admission by the POTUS47 administration that their priorities are to not root out waste, fraud, and abuse. Couple that with all of the actions taken in the administration's first nine days and the obvious conclusion is they want to commit vast amounts of waste, fraud, and abuse and not be held accountable for it.

Which, I know, shocker. Who'd have though that a guy who headed up a fraudulent "charity" and a fraudulent "university," who routinely refuses to pay contractors, who grifts as frequently as he breathes, would be up to his cotton-candy-swirl combover in waste, fraud, and abuse?

It's not the first time a Republican president has tried to purge IGs, of course. Reagan fired the lot of them (there were only 16 then) in 1981 only to rehire five of them under pressure from Congress. Bush41 also tried to fire the whole lot but was thwarted by backlash from within and without the government. 45/47 fired several during his first term after his first impeachment.

Among other things, this move puts the lie to what Musk's "job" really is. We were told, after all, that his so-called Department of Government Efficiency was there to find waste and identify inefficiencies. No, no, turns out they're just fine with waste—remember that planeful of shackled and sweltering deportees forced to sit in their own urine? They, and all planned future deportations, were on military aircraft at enormous expense, costing the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars more than the typical method of chartering a traditional civilian-style jet in order to give the whole thing more machismo and, probably, to allow for more control over how poorly the passengers can be treated; in past years there were typically dozens of such flights per week, so even if we're conservative in our estimates, this administration is choosing to spend around a billion dollars or more, annually, on unnecessary photo ops and cruelty. If you're looking for efficiency and budget trimming, you want the IGs—actions taken by Inspectors General save the U.S. billions of dollars every year, at least they used to. No, Musk's real job is to be the unofficial Secretary of Corruption and Self-Dealing.

Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) are calling 45/47’s bluff, sending a letter to the president seeking clarification and rationale, as required by law, and noting, "IGs are critical to rooting out waste, fraud, abuse, and misconduct within the Executive Branch bureaucracy, which you have publicly made clear you are also intent on doing." (Emphasis mine.) They know better, of course, they're just establishing a paper trail for the hypocrisy.

Maine senator Susan Collins, however, remains just as dense and clueless as always. She told reporters, "I don’t understand why one would fire individuals whose mission is to root out waste, fraud and abuse. So this leaves a gap in what I know is a priority for [POTUS47]." Really, Susan? You don't understand? I'll explain: He lied to you. It is not his priority, it is, in fact, the opposite of his priority. (How does Maine keep reelecting this person?) Susan, if you're still confused, go ask your fellow New England Senator, Elizabeth Warren. She sees it for what it is: “[POTUS47] is dismantling checks on his power and paving the way for widespread corruption.”

45/47 has achieved his primary goal in running for another term: He escaped prison. Now he's on to secondary and tertiary goals: Inflict cruelty on people he hates and grift, grift, grift from the American people. Can't have oversight for that.

It's only Tuesday.

Tagged Politics, President VonClownstick   |   Posted on January 28, 2025 at 11:35PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

Pandemic II: Avian Bugaloo

The horribly depressing first work week of the doofus administration started off badly and just kept going, capped off with yesterday's confirmation by half of the Senate (and the vice-president who thinks women without children shouldn't be allowed to vote) of an incompetent, alcoholic neo-Nazi as Secretary of Defense. This leaves us in the unenviable position of wondering: in a crisis, are we better off or worse off if the SecDef is drunk off of his ass? Perhaps the best option is if he's passed out? It's tough to say.

Yet, the thing I'm even more upset about is that our new president—petty, vindictive, stupid excuse for a human being that he is—silenced all public health agencies.

(Aside: This all has had me thinking a lot about my mom in recent days. Mom was a professor of public health and, unbeknownst to me while she was alive, a seriously big deal in those circles. She would be utterly appalled by what's happening now, and in an odd way it has me missing her in a manner I really hadn't been since she died, given how all that went down.)

We all expected him to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization, that wasn't a surprise despite how incredibly dumb it was. What wasn't expected—but maybe should have been, given what we know of the guy?—was his putting an immediate halt to all communication from outfits like the CDC and the FDA and the NIH.

People who don't follow the news probably don't know this, but POTUS47’s department of Health and Human Services ordered a stop to publication of anything from these agencies. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention is prevented from communicating with the public. The National Institute of Health cannot publish reports. The Food and Drug Administration can't tell us anything about our food and pharmaceuticals. NIH is the largest funder of medical research in the world, and its meetings were canceled and research was stopped across the board.

The administration insists this is merely a "short pause," but what is going unstated is, why? Why pause/halt/stop at all? Is it because, oh, I don't know, maybe POTUS47 and company don't like it when the public knows things and want to install a propaganda apparatus to public health communication? The exception in the "pause" order is for communications that are approved by "a presidential appointee." I fully expect that to be the new overall rule in some form or another.

Recall what happened when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit. As POTUS45, the idiot-in-chief pleaded to "slow the testing down," saying that we shouldn't test because if you test, "you're going to find more cases." Then there was a tweet: "Cases are going up in the U.S. because we are testing far more than any other country, and ever expanding. With smaller testing we would show fewer cases!" He didn't like that the world could see how the virus was spreading here. He didn't like that Americans could see how the virus was spreading here. (There's another possibility, unlikely but you can't dismiss it because of how stupid 45/47 is, that he doesn't understand that the tests didn't cause COVID cases. Again, the tweet said, "cases are going up in the U.S. because we are testing." There is a non-zero chance that he didn't understand that the cases existed whether they were tested for or not.)

Further, he was infuriated that his nonsensical happy talk about how COVID would just "go away" and that injecting bleach was a viable treatment option was contradicted and condemned by actual experts in public health, doctors of many stripes, and people with even a rudimentary level of education and/or experience. His vendetta against Anthony Fauci was such that President Biden felt the need to preemptively pardon Fauci to protect him against potential action against him by the conspiracy mob of MAGAts, and all Dr. Fauci did was try to tell the public the truth about what was known regarding COVID-19. To 45/47, that was unacceptable.

Dr. Chrystal Starbird (great name, she's like a comic-book hero; she ought to be a member of Alpha Flight) of the NIH commented of the communications halt, "I don't think the people who just made that decision fully understand what that may mean in terms of implications for really important and critical research." Starbird is undoubtedly correct, but the more chilling thing is that it isn't just that they don't understand, they don't care. Which, given the timing of it all, should scare the bejeesus out of all of us.

 Firstly, we're just five years from the onset of a global pandemic that had enormous consequences. One would think the new administration would not want a repeat of that.

Secondly, we're already looking at a possible new problem, namely H5N1 and H7N9, or "bird flu." Are you among the people complaining about eggs being $9 a dozen now? Well, it's because of bird flu—chickens and other poultry are, you know, birds, and the infected ones are killed to mitigate further spread and thus there are far fewer hens to lay eggs. The outbreak is quite serious, and the prevalence of it has caused it to spread to other species. It's now in cattle, potentially infecting beef and milk. From poultry, eggs, beef, and/or milk—or from the secretions of the birds and cattle themselves—it has infected other mammals, including two of the most important ones (subjectively speaking), cats and humans.

Infected cats got it from raw milk (probably intended for people, not cats, but either way, WTF, people? Raw milk?!). CDC data (now outdated, of course) noted 67 cases of human infection, 63 from poultry and dairy farms and four with unknown points of infection.

But without research and monitoring and, you know, communication with the public, this will get worse. Right now the human (and pet) infection rate is small and the largest symptom people notice is the price of eggs. By doing nothing, the infection rate will rise, species jump will continue, mutations will likely occur, more food will become dangerous, and then we're off to the races. (Oh, and eggs will be even more expensive. Good job, people who voted because of grocery bills.)

So what better time to cut the legs out from under the CDC, FDA, NIH, and any other public health operation?

Even when the "pause" is lifted—with a newly installed unofficial Secretary of Propaganda clearing any messaging?—POTUS47 has nominated the worst possible people to head up HHS and the NIH. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., up for Secretary of HHS, is not just an anti-vaccine crusader, he's also a proponent of raw milk. What a combo right now! He's also completely unqualified, but that's nothing out of the ordinary for a POTUS47 nominee. Jay Bhattacharya, nominee for Director of the NIH, said attempts to mitigate the COVID pandemic were misguided and the best approach was to let people get infected and thus create "herd immunity." Actual public health experts and medical professionals called Bhattacharya's views reprehensible, irresponsible, unscientific, and, at the most generous, "fringe." Said one expert from the University of Saskatchewan, "Bhattacharya belongs nowhere near the NIH, much less in the director's office. [He] would be absolutely disastrous for the health and well-being of the American public and actually the world."

Which nominee is worse, Kennedy or Bhattacharya? You know what, it doesn't matter, they're both utterly horrible and would be devastating to the globe if put in those jobs. Is the "pause" on communications until one or both of them is confirmed by the Senate? So they can order only irresponsible, unscientific, and fringe messaging to the public?

Kathleen Sebelius, HHS secretary under President Obama, had this to say: "You can't pick and choose when an infectious disease is going to break out. And in fact, [Kennedy]'s clearly not reading the news because we are, I think, a year or so away from a major outbreak of avian flu in humans. We've seen avian flu jump from birds to farm animals and from farm animals to farm workers. That's just a step away from a major outbreak of avian flu, which right now has no vaccine. Do I want people to stop researching what could be an effective counter to an avian flu outbreak? Absolutely not. Because it's coming."

This is just week one. Strap in, folks.

Tagged Politics, President VonClownstick   |   Posted on January 25, 2025 at 6:42PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

Snitching

The President has demanded that government employees rat out anyone working for the Federal government that is a "DEIA hire" (the A is for Accessibility, so not just no darkies, broads, or queers, but also no gimps and crips) so that said individuals may be purged from the payroll in favor of more deserving applicants. And he isn't just requesting snitches within the Washington agencies, he's opened it up to everyone and directed reports be emailed to DEIAtruth@opm.gov. As a patriotic American, I felt it was incumbent on me to do my part, particularly since the directive promised "adverse consequences" for those failing to report on DEI leeches and their sympathizers within ten days.

My email is transcribed below. 

To: DEIAtruth@opm.gov

Subject: unqualified employees

 

It has come to my attention that there are affirmative-action hires in the executive branch, none of whom are qualified for their posts and none of whom were hired on merit. All were given their jobs based on their race, gender, and backgrounds and have zero business being in government if we are to be, in fact, a meritocracy as President Trump has declared.

As the president and the Secretary of State and acting Attorney General have stated, such employees are wasting taxpayer dollars in a shameful attempt to undermine American values. They have taken jobs from far more qualified true Americans that happen to be of a different gender, ethnicity, or background. Some have criminal records and many are even born of immigrant parents and grandparents, people who were not even actual Americans!

There are dozens of these individuals, including the following: 

• Donald John Trump
• James Donald Bowman AKA James David Vance
• Elon Musk
• Devin Nunes
• Susan Wiles

In addition, there are several people being considered for jobs that are not qualified and are clearly DEI applicants to fill some sort of quota:

• Peter Hegseth
• Pamela Bondi
• Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy Junior
• Linda McMahon
• Tulsi Gabbard
• Kristi Noem
• Russell Vought
• Lee Zeldin

If we are to reward merit and cease discriminating against worthy individuals in favor of unqualified losers in the name of "inclusion" then all of these people need to be shown the door. Get on that straight away, will you?

Tagged Politics, President VonClownstick   |   Posted on January 24, 2025 at 3:31AM   |   Permalink   |     |  

American Carnage 2.0

What a week it's been, and it's only Wednesday.

I've been trying to keep myself busy—site update project, TV shopping, umpiring shifts, making a bunch of appointments I'd been putting off—to combat the utterly depressing events happening in DC. It only worked to a small degree, I'm pretty depressed anyway. (Aside—as a clinically depressed person I am obligated to point out that this is not the same version of "depressed" as what I usually contend with. It's just that English isn't broad enough to have a word that differentiates the two types properly. For today's purposes we're using the term as is commonly used by the masses who don't know from clinical depression.)

I did not watch or listen to or in any way engage with the inauguration of POTUS 47 on Monday. This is highly out of character for me as a politics nerd, but I frankly knew it would be unhealthy for me to do so this time. I knew what he was going to say, more or less, I knew it was all going to be lies and projection and, in the words of George W. Bush, "some weird shit." Which it was. I knew he would take the Oath of Office and mean exactly none of it, which is exactly what happened; he betrayed the oath within hours of taking it, just as he betrayed it countless times when he was POTUS 45. I knew he would then make his way to the Oval Office and commence "flooding the zone" with an obscene slew of executive orders that would be at best harmful and at worst utterly illegal, which he most certainly did.

The fact that this all happened on MLK Day was just salt in the wound, as the new president mandated government discrimination against LGBTQ persons on the day we were supposed to be celebrating the advance of civil rights. On top of that, he declared that he and his minions would begin firing anyone they didn't like at any position within the Federal government for any or no reason, which had previously been out of bounds.

One thing we should have learned from the POTUS 45 administration is that their "flood the zone" strategy worked then. The continual onslaught of awfulness was so overwhelming that it was simply impossible to cover it all, and attempting to do so gave every piece of it more or less equal weight. So this time around, I'm hopeful that we (that's a very broad "we," meaning anyone trying to educate the public on what's actually happening, anyone trying to counter-program the propaganda coming out of the mouths and keyboards of Republicans and Republican media) will learn to triage the components of the flood and call out the worst of the worst. The lesser offenses are for sure still offenses, still deserve to be fought, but when it comes to communication and messaging, we have to understand that most Americans (a) do not read well if at all, (b) are easily gaslit, and (c) respond to threats more than they do to logic. This gives the autocrats, and by extension the entirety of the modern Republican party, an advantage: they know how to manipulate people. Or, in the words of 45/47, "I love the poorly educated."

So we should focus on meeting the bandwidth the public has and not exceeding it and thus shutting down all reception. With that in mind, the worst things to come of the first few days of this administration in the opinion of your humble webmaster:

• The Orwellianly-named "Restoring Accountability for Career Senior Executives" executive order along with the "Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce" EO. This is a rebrand of what, as 45, he called "Schedule F," the reclassification of all Federal employees to be subject to political hiring and firing. The "accountability" sought here is more accurately described as "be loyal to Trump or you're gone." This is a direct response to the experience of the 45 administration in which people like Miles Taylor and Andrew McCabe displayed ethical behavior and tried to stop policy moves that would harm the country. Those kinds of people will be pre-purged now so sycophants can take their place.
• Actions to promote climate change. Not to promote combating or mitigating climate change, but promoting the climate crisis itself. These include withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord as well as "any agreement, pact, accord, or similar commitment" to the Paris agreement; revocation of the U.S. International Climate Finance Plan; orders to "prioritize economic efficiency" in "all foreign engagements that concern energy policy"; orders to "rescind, revoke, revise, amend, defer, or grant exemptions from any and all regulations, orders, guidance documents, policies, and any other similar agency actions" regarding the exploitation of oil and other resources in Alaska and to ensure that the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge is open for drilling and destruction in the name of fossil fuels; and the rescission of all Biden EOs that reversed or mitigated pro-climate-crisis actions of the 45 administration. (In fact, all Biden EOs were rescinded, regardless of their content. I submit that the reason for this was more sheer pettiness than any policy aims.)
• Reinstatement of and draconian instruction regarding the Federal death penalty. The 45 administration executed more prisoners than all prior administrations put together, so this is no surprise. The language of the EO includes gems like this: "The Attorney General shall ... pursue Federal jurisdiction and seek the death penalty regardless of other factors for every federal capital crime involving the murder of a law-enforcement officer or a capital crime committed by an alien illegally present in this country." Just an added bit of race-baiting and immigrant-terrorizing to put a cherry on top of the cruelty.
• And the worst of the worst: All of the pardons. POTUS47 pardoned everyone who took part in the January 6, 2021 attack regardless of the offense they were convicted of or actions they took. I believe this was done for one reason only—to ensure that he has a loyal mob of domestic terrorists who will work for him in the coming days, weeks, months, and years; who will go after people he publicly demonizes but can't legitimately prosecute. Innumerable people are already living in fear for their lives now that these criminals have been released. (Surprisingly, and somewhat encouragingly, one—and to my knowledge only one—January 6th rioter rejected her pardon. "Accepting a pardon would only insult the Capitol police officers, rule of law and, of course, our nation," said rioter Pamela Hemphill. "I pleaded guilty because I was guilty, and accepting a pardon also would serve to contribute to their gaslighting and false narrative. We were wrong that day, we broke the law [, and] there should be no pardons.") He also pardoned Ross Ulbricht, an online drug-dealer and money-launderer; I suspect this one was at the behest of Elon as Ulbricht is revered in cryptocurrency circles since he developed and promoted crypto as a tool of his narcotic crimes. For good(?) measure he also pardoned two DC cops who were convicted of murder, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice. I extrapolate from the above graph and this item that in 45/47’s world it's a capital offense to murder a cop, but if a cop murders it's hunky-dory.

I'm not even including the attack on diversity and equity policy, the revocation of any and all acknowledgment let alone protection of minorities in the Federal government; that's reprehensible, but survivable. The real harm that does is to legitimize racism and misogyny to those Americans who want to feel freer to wear their white-supremacist attitudes openly and beat down on anyone else. It's awful but can be dealt with socially as well as by policy. Also, the whole "Department of Government Efficiency" garbage; it's a real thing now, although advisory. I don't think he made it cabinet-level, but that probably doesn't matter. It's still basically toothless as Congress controls spending; all it can do is recommend. Not included here is the withdrawal from the World Health Organization because we've already lived through a pandemic under this idiot and know he'd ignore anything related to the WHO anyway. Also, I didn't include the EO that was the most blatant betrayal of his oath of office, the attempt to declare and end to birthright citizenship to anyone not born of American parents—that's unconscionable, but so clearly unconstitutional that even this illegitimate and corrupt Supreme Court would have to bend itself into a pretzel to come up with a way to justify ruling that a President can amend the Constitution with an executive order. It'll be challenged very soon and if John Roberts allows a ruling like that he will have destroyed any remaining trust in the Court's validity.

Also this week we had Elon Musk enthusiastically give sieg heil salutes to a cheering MAGA crowd, white supremacists marching in DC in celebration, and the Bishop of Washington calmly implored 45/47, to his face, to be compassionate and merciful and respectful—basically, to be more of a Christian and less of an asshole—and in response the president(!) posted on social media that the Bishop "was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater" and that "she and her church owe the public an apology!"

The cruelty is the point. That and the grift.

Soon enough the rubes that voted for the first convicted-felon President will see that he won't do a damn thing for their bank accounts (despite the EO deceptively titled "Delivering Emergency Price Relief for American Families and Defeating the Cost of Living Crisis" that actually says nothing of any substance) and nothing in their lives is better for having him in office except that they feel better about using the N word, R word, and various other slurs in public and feel freer to beat on their wives and girlfriends. Or, more likely, they won't see it even though it'll be obviously staring them in the face because, as noted, they're easily gaslit.

So they have to be told. Repeatedly, and in no uncertain terms: The President lied to you. He thinks you're stupid. To him you are merely a mark for his con game. Your groceries are more expensive, not less; your freedoms are more curtailed, not greater; crime is up, not down; the country is less respected, not more, yet he is telling you otherwise. The President is a stochastic terrorist (look it up) that lies to you to make you afraid of people he doesn't like and pretends he's your friend while he robs you blind. The trick is going to be to find a way to do it that actually gets through.

Tagged Politics, President VonClownstick   |   Posted on January 22, 2025 at 8:25PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

Technical difficulties

So, the reconstruction referenced yesterday didn't happen; I discovered some other minor problems before uploading and am having to address those first. Also, I've been spending a lot of time cybershopping because my TV is failing, and I need my TV. I mean, not really, I could live without it and could watch most of what I watch on a computer or even my phone, but how could I have my Trek Night parties or baseball gatherings if all I have is a 14" PC monitor?

So I'm shelling out for a new set. I could repair this one myself if I want to get adventurous, but even that would cost me money for parts and I don't really have the room to disassemble a 55" flatscreen and keep all the parts organized and free of cat hair and (if in the garage) sawdust. Paying someone else to replace the LEDs, which is the failing component, would cost about as much as I paid to buy the thing in the first place. So, new one it is.

Initially, I figured as long as I'm getting a new one I might as well go up a size since I have room, but it's $100 more for the bigger one unless I get a lesser quality model, so the decision came down to what do I want more, a better screen or a bigger screen? Better won. So, same size Roku Plus model is on the way from Best Buy. Even if the current one was still watchable for a while I figured better to buy this now before the tariffs kick in, because our new POTUS is a fucking idiot that still thinks tariffs are magic money that comes from Chinese genies or something and not effectively additional sales taxes.

Anyway, all of which is to say that the site update is still to come. Hopefully in the next couple of days. Unless things go awry yet again.

Now I'm off to umpire in the frigid cold again.

Tagged Site issues, TV, President VonClownstick   |   Posted on January 20, 2025 at 5:43PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

The clown cabinet and the phantom infield

Pete Hegseth does not care that he is in no way qualified for the job he's been nominated to

I've been busier than usual the last few days, so stuff has happened and I've yet to catch up on it all. But some thoughts on a couple of things I have been following:

• Pete Hegseth's confirmation hearing for Secretary of Defense began today in the Senate Armed Services Committee, and, rather predictably, it sucked. Hegseth himself was a bloviating fount of machismo and bullshit—talk of "restoring lethality" to the military (has the army been using stun guns all this time? Are Navy missiles somehow designed to deliver fungal mushrooms and not mushroom clouds?) and "patriotic," "America-first" goals—who avoided answering any question of substance while making sure to get all the boot-licking talking points in to show his would-be boss, the once-and-future (gag) President VonClownstick, that he'd be an obedient and obsequious toady.

  Democratic Senators tried to hold Hegseth's feet to the fire to a degree, but thanks to the limitations on their time and an apparently coordinated effort from the Republican majority (gag) to dismiss every point brought up by a Democratic questioner, their efforts basically failed to move the needle. Still, Mark Kelly and Tammy Duckworth each refused to accept a non-answer to their questions but it mattered not since Hegseth talked over them and essentially filibustered them until time ran out. Republican Senators made excuses for Hegseth's disqualifying behavior and incompetent background. The committee chair Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) kicked things off with an invitation for Hegseth to bullshit his way through dismissing the reports of his awfulness. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma by way of system 892) channeled his MMA performer persona and equated Hegseth's drunkenness and infidelity to behavior of Senators in the room in a weird attempt to negate the troubles associated with a potential Secretary of Defense showing up to work drunk off his ass.

  Every Republican on the committee revealed themselves to be one or more of the following:

  • Themselves unqualified to hold their own job
  • Uninterested in the function of the role of Secretary of Defense
  • Obsessed with "wokeness" as a barely-concealed avenue to promote their own racism and misogyny
  • Spineless cowards who bend the knee to Trump over all else

  The Democrats all said good things and made as much as they could out of Hegseth's myriad negative qualities, but nothing put the former Fox "News" anchor on his heels, nothing made a lick of difference to any of the Republicans, and in some cases the questioning was too cordial. Duckworth was not, her time was well spent and appropriately aggressive, but Jack Reed's genial "I do not believe you are qualified for the overwhelming demands of this job," while substantively on point, conveyed no sense of scale. Jean Shaheen and Kirsten Gillibrand took Hegseth to task for his misogyny, Gillibrand doing the better job, and Hegseth simply did not care. Tim Kaine (D-Virgina) brought up his spousal abuse and womanizing, but Kaine did it all with kind of a smile, which is usual for him and not special here, and wasn't able to hold his own. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) took on Hegseth's about-face on his sexist remarks after being nominated, and thankfully wouldn't tolerate his attempt to filibuster her, but again did not get any suitable answers. Hegseth wouldn't even answer a question about whether he would abide by the pledge he wants every general to make to not work for the defense industry after leaving the service.

  Duckworth was the star of the hearing, among other reasons for pointing out Hegseth's financial improprieties and noting that "our adversaries watch closely at time of transition, and any sense that the Department of Defense is being steered by someone who is wholly unprepared for the job puts America at risk." But even that made no difference to the Republicans.

  As Tom Nichols put it in a piece covering the hearing for The Atlantic, "America's allies should be deeply concerned; America's enemies, meanwhile, are almost certainly laughing in amazement at their unexpected good fortune."

• Item two is far less important: the Seattle Mariners' offseason. After having a conversation the night before with a friend about what the actual hell the Mariners' front office is even trying to do to address their many needs before Spring Training begins next month (from what we can tell from the outside, nothing; though surely things are being attempted that have flopped, unsurprisingly given how stringent the budgetary decree from above is), I had an umpiring shift that included a game with a player that works for Mariner de-facto GM Jerry Dipoto's department of baseball operations. I asked him when we were going to hear anything regarding the gaping black holes around the Mariner infield and he suggested that, while his official answer was "no comment," perhaps something was imminent. Now, I don't know how high up the chain this guy is in the baseball ops office, he might know a lot or he might know next to nothing, but he does seem to know more than I do, so I was keeping an eye out and sure enough, the Mariners made two player acquisitions in the days that followed. Sadly, they both mean very little and neither fills a need for regular players at first, second, or third base.

  First of these moves was the signing of free agent Donovan Solano, late of the San Diego Padres and Minnesota Twins. Solano has played third, second, and first base, put up pretty good on-base numbers, and looks like an excellent guy to have on your bench. But he's 37, has never been an everyday player, and while a useful pickup appears at best to be a platoon partner for Luke Raley at first base. At least he comes cheap.

  Next was Tuesday's purchase of Miles Mastrobuoni's contract from the Cubs. Mastrobuoni had been DFA'd, meaning the Cubs had no use for him, and in nine years as a pro he's managed three uninspired partial seasons in the Majors as a utiltyman. He did have a few good Triple-A years, or partial years, but the ceiling for him seems to be a replacement for the more interesting and more versatile Sam Haggerty, who the M's sadly let go earlier in the offseason.

  Way to get my hopes up, anonymous softball player. Psych! (Not really, I remained skeptical throughout.)

Tagged Politics, President VonClownstick   |   Posted on January 15, 2025 at 12:02AM   |   Permalink   |     |  

Bizarro Cabinet Spotlight: SecDef

The incoming POTUS has named many, many utterly horrible people as cabinet nominees. Some of these incompetent and dangerous buffoons and clowns (clowns with the arsenal of the Joker, by the way) will be confirmed by the incoming Senate. We can only hope that enough Republicans in the new Senate have actual standards befitting their office and the worst of the worst get rejected.

Our worst-of-the-worst spotlight today is on the Department of Defense. The nominee is one Pete Hegseth, who is a Fox "News" personality and wholly unqualified for the gig. But he is, like the incoming POTUS, a sexual assaulter who pays off women to keep them quiet, which likely makes him an A-one perfect candidate in the eyes of the man nominating him. He's also appears to be one to give Rudy Giuliani a run for his money when it comes to who's drunkest.

Prior to becoming a weekend anchor on Fox, Hesketh headed up two veterans advocacy groups, Concerned Veterans of America and Veterans for Freedom. He was forced out of both due to frequent intoxication and misuse of funds, among other reasons.

A report on Hesgeth's conduct with CVA described a series of drunken appearances at CVA events which were "embarrassing, but not surprising; people have simply come to expect Pete to get drunk at social events." One person who worked with Hegseth at CVA said, "I’ve seen him drunk so many times. I’ve seen him dragged away not a few times but multiple times. To have him at the Pentagon would be scary."

With VFF, Hesgeth mismanaged funds so thoroughly that the group had run up nearly half a million dollars in debts while having less than $1,000 on hand. “There’s a long pattern, over more than a decade, of malfeasance, financial mismanagement, and sexual impropriety,” said a former Hegseth associate. “There’s a fair dose of bullying and misinformation, too.”

That part makes him basically twinsies with POTUS 45/47. The alcohol abuse isn't something they have in common, but he was seen at a bar in 2015 shouting, with a companion, "kill all Muslims!" in a drunken chant, which no doubt 45/47 finds endearing. Oh, and he has white-nationalist tattoos and one of an American flag with an AK-47.

But not to worry. It's just the Defense Department. Not like he'd be heading up anything important or influential in any way.

We're so screwed.

Source: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/pete-hegseths-secret-history

Tagged Politics, President VonClownstick   |   Posted on December 3, 2024 at 4:49AM   |   Permalink   |     |  

Quotes of the day

Botox cautionary tale and rejected Batman villain Matt Gaetz

“We’re going to see the return of diseases we have controlled for decades.”

—Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, about potential public health consequences of RFK Jr. leading the Dept. of Health & Human Services.

"[She is] our girlfriend."

—Russian state television commentator, speaking of Tulsi Gabbard, 45/47’s nominee to be Director of National Intelligence.

"I’m sure it will make for a popcorn-eating confirmation hearing."

—Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), speculating on whether or not Attorney General designee Matt Gaetz can be confirmed for a cabinet post.

"[He] will sacrifice our public lands and endangered wildlife on the altar of the fossil fuel industry’s profits."

—Kierán Suckling, executive director at the Center for Biological Diversity, about Interior Secretary nominee Doug Burgum.

And the chef's kiss of today's quotes:

"Matt Gaetz is a sex-trafficking, drug-addicted piece of shit. He is abhorrent. There are pools of vomit with more to offer the Earth than this STD-riddled testament to the failure of fallen masculinity.”

—Ben Domenech, co-founder of the ultra-conservative publication The Federalist, concerning 45/47’s choice for Attorney General.

Tagged Politics, President VonClownstick   |   Posted on November 15, 2024 at 8:27PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

It begins

The Age of Idiocracy isn't scheduled to begin until next January 20th at 9:00am PST, but the incoming idiot-in-chief has already started naming his subordinate idiots, nominating some truly exceptional individuals to very important jobs.

I don't mean exceptional in a good way, either.

Many people that voted Republican, for POTUS and for Senate and House, likely don't realize what they've invited in. Not only are incompetents Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswami now co-heads of the fictitious "Department of Governmental Efficiency" (no such thing exists and no such agency can be formed without Congress), charged with eliminating government programs they don't think are good for billionaires, but the people being tapped for real jobs in the real government are frighteningly extreme.

For the benefit of some folks I've talked to over the past few days what have been asking who these people are, let's have a look at the proposed nominees for the Idiot Cabinet:

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio. You might say, wait a minute, isn't Rubio "Little Marco," one of those Republicans 45/47 hates and ridicules all the time? Yes, same guy. But that doesn't mean anything, the wannabe führer disdains everyone who isn't himself whether he says so publicly or not. Rubio is a toady, a yes-man, who will go in whatever direction the winds of power are blowing, yet is just enough of a "regular" (i.e. pre-2015) Republican that he won't face much trouble getting confirmed by the Senate. Left to his own devices, Rubio is a simpleton and a hawk who likes the idea of the U.S. being "robust" in confronting nations like Iran and North Korea and has characterized Vladimir Putin as a "gangster" (presumably as a negative), so accepting this gig means he'll do a 180 on all of that (except maybe Iran), since Putin is the incoming POTUS's boss and North Korea's Kim Jong Un is the incoming POTUS's best bud.
• Attorney General Matt Gaetz. In no universe, including this one, is Gaetz confirmable to any cabinet post without shenanigans of some kind. He is (was) the Ted Cruz of the House, loathed by basically everyone. He resigned from Congress early in order to stop a House investigation into allegations of him engaging in statutory rape and sex trafficking. Of course, 45/47 likes him probably because of all that, two peas in a pod, if you will. Gaetz would have no problems turning the justice department into a new form of thug force to carry out the incoming POTUS's grievance fantasies. At least he's out of Congress now.
• Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Gabbard has zero experience in the field, but she is a Russian propaganda mouthpiece, which makes her ideal for 45/47’s purposes of kowtowing to Putin.
• Secretary of Defense Pete Hesgeth. Though Hesgeth is an Army National Guard veteran, decorated for tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, he has no experience in government of any sort. Instead, his career has been as a pundit/talking head on Fox "News," spewing lies and propaganda on behalf of 45/47. Also not remotely confirmable to the post in any year before now. Oh, and he has tattoos of Christian Nationalist/neo-Nazi symbols on his torso, so, yeah, nice guy.
• Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. Infamous for being a puppy killer, Noem is no doubt attractive to 45/47 for this gig because as governor of South Dakota she defied all health measures during the pandemic and loves the idea of deporting immigrants. Though I suspect the biggest draw was that she killed her dog.
• CIA Director John Ratcliffe. This guy was DNI for the final year of 45/47’s first term, having been nominated, then withdrawn because of massive bipartisan pushback, then renominated and barely confirmed. His only qualification is staunch obedience to 45/47 in all things. When in Congress, Ratcliffe was ranked by the Heritage Foundation as the second-most conservative legislator nationwide. He was a member of the defendant's team in the first impeachment trial of 45/47.
• Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Also not confirmable, RFK Jr. is an anti-vaccine conspiracist and has claimed that vaccinations are a sort of "holocaust" on American children because he believes they cause autism (they don't). During the pandemic he slandered/libeled Dr. Anthony Fauci repeatedly and spread lies about COVID-19 and the vaccines for that virus, no doubt endearing himself to 45/47 in the process, including a whopper that the COVID vaccine killed Hank Aaron (it didn't). At one point, RFK Jr. was regarded as a respectable environmental activist, but no longer; he's a brain-addled nutjob who literally had a worm eating away at his cortex.
• Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins. Another toady, Collins was also on 45/47’s defense team in the first impeachment trial. Collins is a 2020 election denier, a climate crisis denier, an anti-abortion zealot, and an ardent foe of the Affordable Care Act. So, you know, exactly the kind of guy 45/47 would want in charge of veterans and their health care.
• Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. The perfect guy for the post in 45/47’s mind, the North Dakota governor is in deep with various energy industry CEOs. One of the loudest voices behind the absurd claim that Joe Biden Wants to Ban Your Gas Stove, Burgum supports fossil fuel industry of all kinds, hates the very idea of subsidizing a shift to electric vehicles, and wants to open protected Federal lands to mining and oil and gas drilling. The guy makes James Watt look like a tree-hugger.
• Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin. Zeldin has no experience (sense a theme?) in the field, though he was on the congressional Climate Solutions Caucus as a hostile member. He opposed the Paris Climate Agreement and champions the elimination of regulations that prevent industry from even greater polluting behavior.

Maybe "Idiot Cabinet" isn't the proper term. It's more like the "Bizarro Cabinet." Every official is there to do the opposite of what the job is supposed to be.

And that's just cabinet officials. If we were to get into White House staff it would be even scarier, in part because there's no check on them, the president can put whomever he wants there without approval from anyone.

Of course, 45/47 wants to do an end-run around Senate confirmations because he knows most of the people he wants in these jobs has no business being there. At this point we can only hope that the Senate Republican leadership won't just give away its power and abdicate its Constitutional duty. Not sure what kind of odds I'd give that.

Much of this has to be 45/47 trying to see just how far he can push the envelope before he gets back into the Oval. How many Senators are dumbfuck sycophants like Tom Tuberville and how many value their job to advise and consent and, if necessary, reject? Tuberville, Lindsey Graham, and no doubt at least a couple dozen others are lost causes, but what about the rest? What about incoming Majority Leader John Thune?

I suppose one silver lining of the Bizarro Cabinet is that since they all know nothing about their potential gigs a lot of stuff could blow up on their and in 45/47’s faces. Hopefully some of it, at least, won't blow up in ours as well.

Tagged Politics, President VonClownstick   |   Posted on November 14, 2024 at 9:26PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

Coping?

Captain Pike showed aliens how WWIII began slowly starting with Jan. 6, 2021

Like many of you out there, I'm trying to cope.

This certainly isn't the first election to have not gone my way, but it is the first one where not going my way has predictably catastrophic consequences and I'm not sure how to deal with it.

My neighbor expected it to go down like this, more or less. She was more cynical than I. Me, I truly thought people were going to repudiate the monstrous cancer on our society that is Trumpism. I mean, how could they not? Especially with the way the guy campaigned in the last month-plus?

And yet.

For the moment I'm still mostly stunned. But there are a plethora of other feelings in there, trying to surmount the stunned numbness. It's hard to catalog them all.

You'd think I'd mostly be angry. Don't get me wrong, I am angry—angry at the corporate media that abdicated its journalistic duty, angry at the candidate himself for his overall awfulness, angry at the Russians for their interference (bomb threats?!), angry at each and every one of the people who voted for this petty wannabe tyrant—but it's not the primary emotion here, and I'm not sure what is.

Sadness is in the mix. Fear, certainly. Helplessness. But also embarrassment.

I'm embarrassed to have not seen it coming. I remember the olden days of 2016, when he-who-shall-not-be-named won the first time, and having conversations with friends about what it would mean. I was 100% certain that he wouldn't last a full term in office (hell, I thought there was a very good chance he wouldn't last a full year), as he was surely going to commit multiple impeachable offenses and he would be removed by Congress. Which he did. And, after too long a period, he was impeached. But what I hadn't counted on was the complete and total slide into corruption of the Republican party.

That was then.

It's been eight years and we've seen the bastard get away with everything. We've seen officials from his party turn against their oaths of office almost to a person. We've seen the cult of personality so envelop tens of millions of Americans as to destroy their ability to think critically.

But I still believed in a majority of the voting public. What a sap I was.

When George W. Bush was reelected in 2004 I took it personally. I had worked for the John Kerry campaign, I knew Kerry was a fantastic potential president, and I knew what a disaster Bush had been. I also knew what dirty tricks and propaganda and outright lies the Bush campaign relied on and resented them no end. (And I still think history will one day reveal that those dirty tricks suppressed may thousands of Democratic votes in order to get Bush over the finish line.) When that election result came in I was furious. Bush had been the worst president in living memory, what the hell, people?

Today is so much worse, and yet I'm not furious, not at the top line. Instead I feel dumb. Foolish, even. I feel that I've allowed my relative privilege in this society to cloud my perceptions.

What the [shudder] president-elect represents is horrifying on more levels than one can easily count, but it's not new, not really. I just visited the site of a World War II internment camp the other day. Jim Crow laws persisted for decades. Misogyny has been ingrained in this culture forever. American society has been this ugly to one degree or another since Day One, but here and now is the first time I have felt—not just intellectually understood, but personally felt—oppressed within my own society. The majority of American voters hate people like me.

I'm not trying to draw equivalencies here, I am fully aware that I'm lower on the scale of hatred than many minority groups and people with more immediately obvious "otherness" about them. But the hatred feels personal for the first time.

Now, many that voted for the monster would tell me otherwise, that they didn't vote for him because they hate people. Some of them might even believe that. Some of them might be right, they could be in the cohort that is so disengaged from the world around them that they voted irresponsibly without knowing a goddamn thing.

But most of them voted for him because they hate. They like the cruelty their guy embodies. They like the bullying, the arrogant simpleton behavior, the basic meanness. The bigotry.

Maybe we need this. I mean, even in the idealized world of Star Trek, humanity had to get worse before it got better. In the series premiere of Strange New Worlds, Captain Pike shows an alien culture how Earth didn't get its shit together until after a catastrophic third World War, the origins of which, it was heavily implied, were traced back to January 6th, 2021 and the ensuing second American civil war. And I can now see how that scenario could come to pass—blue state governors are in a hell of a spot now, it's not difficult to imagine states trying to maintain the rule of law and fealty to the Constitution while Federal forces are arrayed against them. It's not difficult to imagine a violent crisis when the [gag] president-elect refuses to leave when his term is up in defiance of the Constitution. It's not hard to imagine a variety of scenarios that could play out with a fascist in the White House surrounded by enablers on all sides.

The majority of American voters preferred a convicted-felon, adjudicated rapist, fascist-to-the-core white man with the intelligence of a baked potato to a principled black woman with impeccable credentials and brains to shame MENSA. Racism lives. Misogyny lives. Idiocy reigns. Ignorance-as-virtue might as well be the new Republican credo.

And I feel—for now—broken and helpless in the face of a blind hatred I'd allowed myself to not see.

Tagged Politics, President VonClownstick   |   Posted on November 6, 2024 at 8:37PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

Freakout sets in

I had faith in humanity. I had faith in there being more sane American voters than rubes and dupes and fascist bigots. I believed in the ability of adult human beings to empathize with women stripped of their rights and dying in ER parking lots. I believed enough Americans were smart enough to know when they were being lied to and what propaganda was sheer bullshit.

Turns out I was wrong about all of it.

There was election interference and intimidation fuckery in several swing states, Russian interference again favoring the fascist candidate, yet turnout was impressively high. And the incompetent criminal Hitler-loving authoritarian bigoted idiot got more votes.

Even if things take a turn overnight and swing state totals narrow and perhaps even flip in a miracle of miracles, the reality still exists that this country isn't populated by good people. This country is full of stupid, disengaged, and/or evil people.

We're in for a very rude awakening indeed.

I've not processed this yet, really, so I'm just going to share what Ben Cohen wrote over at The Banter.

Enough Americans have been taken in by this extraordinary cult of personality and have voted in a madman to be their president. The mainstream press failed spectacularly, again, to focus on the danger Trump posed to America. They turned the presidential contest it into yet another horse race where the reds were fighting the blues in battle to the finish. Trump was sanitized, repackaged, and finally thrust back into the White House with barely a scratch on him.

The polls, having been basically wrong about everything since 2016, were far more accurate than I and almost everyone in the media anticipated. They did not overestimate the Democrats, and they appear to have correctly gaged Trump’s almost mythical ability to activate his base and bring low propensity voters out to the polls. And that really is the story of the race. Despite having run one of the most racist, deranged, insane campaigns in modern history, Trump pulled out the victory again.

He massively over performed with Hispanic men, and shockingly made the huge gender gap irrelevant. It is the comeback of all comebacks, only it isn’t the good guy who has won, but the convicted felon and sexual abuser who tried to overthrow the US government only four years ago.

Sane, well adjusted people know that Donald Trump should not be allowed anywhere near the White House. He should be in jail for the multiple crimes he committed while in office, including his attempted coup. Now he will grant himself immunity and no doubt commit more crimes during his second term in office.

We are headed to a very, very dark place right now, and those who enabled, funded and voted for this despicable charlatan will have to own what is about to happen.

. . .

This is a war that cannot be ceded. We cannot allow Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Fox News to destroy reality and decimate truth. He does not get a grace period, and he must not be respected. Donald Trump is a fascist, and fascists must be defeated. His lies will be countered with truths, and his disinformation will be fought with facts. This is war, again.

And here's the reaction from Craig Calceterra, which I don't think I could improve upon:

America just enthusiastically voted for a violent, lying, bigoted, misogynist, insurrectionist felon who promised it nothing but destruction and misery. It is a damning indictment of the country and its people.

Unlike in 2016, this was no fluke. This was no low-stakes leap of faith by some fed-up people hoping that an uncouth maverick might make their life better and might not cause much harm. This vote was made with eyes wide open. After all that’s been said and done over these past nine years, millions of Americans have decided they don’t care what Donald Trump is, what Donald Trump does, or who Donald Trump hurts. And make no mistake, he will hurt many. He has specifically and repeatedly promised to do so.

Donald Trump has harnessed a longstanding ugliness in this country. He has given voice to the desires of the tens of millions of people who want to round up, brutalize, and deport immigrants and they, in turn, have now given him the power to do so. He’s given voice to the tens of millions of people who want women to be, for all practical purposes, the property of men and, they in turn, have given him the power to do so. He’s given voice to the tens of millions of people who are just fine with abolishing democracy and instituting an authoritarian regime because they believe that regime will favor them and will punish those who they hate and they, in turn, have given him the power to do so. There is something very real, very large, and very ugly in the American body politic and there always has been. And America’s body politics has given Donald Trump power once again.

There is no coming back from this. America, the nation-state, will carry on in name as long as it has more bombs and missiles and money than anyone else and that may well be a very long time. But the ideas and values which all of us were brought up to believe in and that we have always called America is over. What is about to happen in America’s name will represent a perversion of every value I hold. The fact that it will be done with the country’s eager blessing means that the crimes will be committed with malice aforethought and that the damage will be permanent.

Tagged Politics, President VonClownstick   |   Posted on November 5, 2024 at 11:28PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

Every accusation is a confession

The Republican nominee for President is losing his shit over the fact that he hasn't been able to kill the legal proceedings against him and that the public is learning more about what he did while criming. Here's one of his latest rants from "Troth-Senchal," his failing social media platform:

The release of this falsehood-ridden, Unconstitutional, J6 brief immediately following Tim Walz’s disastrous Debate performance, and 33 days before the Most Important Election in the History of our Country, is another obvious attempt by the Harris-Biden regime to undermine and Weaponize American Democracy, and INTERFERE IN THE 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. Deranged Jack Smith, the hand picked [sic] Prosecutor of the Harris-Biden DOJ, and Washington, D.C. based Radical Left Democrats, are HELL BENT on continuing to Weaponize the Justice Department in an attempt to cling to power. “TRUMP” is dominating the Election cycle, leading in the Polls, and the Radical Democrats throughout the Deep State are totally “freaking out.” This entire case is a Partisan, Unconstitutional, Witch Hunt, that should be dismissed, entirely, just like the Florida case was dismissed!

There's one true nugget in that rant, though it is festooned with inappropriate capitalization: the upcoming election is, indeed, the most important presidential election in history (because if this clown wins it, America as we know it is over). Everything else is typical Trumpian horse excrement. But it does illustrate continuing patterns, including the projection of his own past and planned wrongdoings and criminality onto his opponents.

"Falsehood-ridden" is a kind term to describe nearly anything Donald Trump says in any context. Projection.

"Unconstitutional" is in some ways meaningless coming from him, as he had no idea what the Constitution says aside from a cherry-picked sentence here or there, but violating the Constitution is like breathing for Trump. He violated his oath to it countless times during his term in office. Projection.

I will agree that Governor Walz's debate performance was less than perfect, but he held his own, while VonClownstick's own debate performance was staggeringly awful. Projection.

The nearness to the election of the release of the legal brief he's talking about is his own fault, aided by the three Supreme Court Justices he installed. Trump and the super-majority of corrupt Justices caused the delays that brought things to basically a month from election day. Not quite projection, but certainly gaslighting.

Interfering in the 2024 election is and has always been his plan. Just listen to him tell people at his rallies that he doesn't need their votes, that he already has "plenty of votes." Why doesn't he need their votes? Because his plan is to ignore votes and cheat, and he has minions in swing states creating obstacles to voting and putting thumbs on the scales and introducing chaos to the proceedings for the purpose of making voting unreliable and suspect. Projection.

"Radical" Democrats? Please, this guy is an authoritarian fascist. Projection.

"Witch hunt" is a favorite term of his, used apparently without intended irony; investigations of his criminality are backed by mountains of evidence, but his own attempted takedowns of Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, Alvin Bragg, Anthony Fauci, and who knows how many others—even Mark Zuckerberg, of all people!—are based in nothing more than the whining grievances of a bully not permitted to bully with unchecked impunity. Projection.

Finally, weaponizing the Justice Department is one of Donald Trump's core policy planks. He's attempted it (both successfully and unsuccessfully) during his term in office and he promises to do it again, this time without pesky DOJ officials that tell him he can't do it. Massive projection.

On that last point, the New York Times—a publication that for some reason refuses to acknowledge the reality of Donald Trump's anti-American fascist dictator-worship—surveyed a number of former DOJ officials about Trump's plans for weaponization. I turn the analysis of that piece over to the great Craig Calcaterra:

The Times spoke with 50 former top officials from the Justice Department and the White House Counsel’s Office to try to game out how Donald Trump would, as he promises he will, use the FBI and the DOJ to go after his political enemies should he be elected. The upshot of these people’s opinion:

Forty-two of the 50 former officials said it was very likely or likely that a second Trump term would pose a significant threat to the norm of keeping criminal enforcement free of White House influence, a policy that has been in place since the Watergate scandal.

Thirty-nine of 50 said it was likely or very likely that Trump, if elected, would order the Justice Department to investigate a political adversary. (Six more said it was possible.) This, too, is something presidents don’t do.

The respondents were more split on how the Justice Department would respond. Twenty-seven of the 50 said it was very likely or likely that career prosecutors at the DOJ would follow orders and pursue the case. Thirteen said it was possible. Nine said it was unlikely or very unlikely.

Some of the people the Times spoke to blithely assert that Trump wouldn’t do this or that, even if they cannot point to formal mechanisms barring him from doing so. Indeed, they believe that people in the FBI and Justice Department would somehow do the right thing and stop Trump from doing what he says he wants to do. I cannot for the life of me understand how anyone who lived through Trump’s presidency can believe such nonsense but I suppose it’s pretty easy to be a Pollyanna about such things when you’re otherwise comfortable.

Personally, I prefer to believe what I see before my very eyes. And what I see is a man who has vowed to weaponize the Justice Department to go after his critics and enemies and has further vowed to use shock troops to round up minorities — including immigrants with legal status — and place them in concentration camps and subsequently deport them. A man who has promised to stretch the powers of the presidency in ways not seen in our lifetime. A man who, thanks to our corrupt Supreme Court, can now be confident that no one will be able to challenge his doing so. Again: this is not conjecture. He has openly and repeatedly promised this. He has promised to usher in what is, by any rational definition, authoritarianism and fascism.

This is not some conspiracy theory about a covert plot. It is not hidden. Donald Trump is saying it loud and clear. Most of the people who know how the system works believe he’ll do it. We had best listen.

I make it a point never to argue with Craig when he's right.

Tagged Politics, President VonClownstick, Craig Calcaterra   |   Posted on October 4, 2024 at 8:47PM   |   Permalink   |     |