Last night’s Senate vote to confirm the colossally unqualified Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense reminded me a bit of the disastrous 2002 Iraq War resolution vote. A bunch of Democrats who should have known better voted for the resolution. Apparently they thought a no vote would hurt them politically. But at least a few of them — John Kerry and Hillary Clinton in particular — probably regretted that vote later, and not just because the Iraq War was plainly wrong. IMO Kerry and Clinton would have had a better chance in their presidential bids were it not for that vote. I believe that vote cooled Democratic enthusiasm for Kerry in 2004 and was part of what cost Clinton the nomination in 2008. Not that I mind that Clinton lost the nomination in 2008.
Hegseth could seriously screw up the military, and not just because he might be making critical decisions with the help of his good friend Jim Beam. Discouraging women and LGBTQ folks from serving will reduce the ranks quite a bit, I suspect. (See Women, gays, transgender and queer Americans serve in the military because men won’t.) Hegseth also thinks the U.S. military is just way too woke about war crimes, and if we don’t let our boys (note masculine pronoun) massacre civilians now and then we’re holding them back from being warriors, or something. I hate to think about the quality of the recruits over the next four years. We could end up with a military full of Trumpy incels. We’d be doomed.
So all those spineless Republicans who confirmed Hegseth in spite of his obvious inadequacies for the job are counting on him not screwing up so much that their low-information voters notice. Otherwise, that confirmation vote could come back to bite them. We’ll see.
Of course, it’s also the case that Hegseth’s nomination chances probably improved because of Trump’s mass pardon of the J6 thugs. It appears now that Trump can unleash mobs of brownshirts on the Capitol whenever he likes and neither he (thanks to the Supreme Court) nor they will be held accountable.
The atrocities continue. From WaPo:
The White House late Friday fired the independent inspectors general of at least 12 major federal agencies in a purge that could clear the way for President Donald Trump to install loyalists in the crucial role of identifying fraud, waste and abuse in the government.
The inspectors general were notified by emails from the White House personnel director that they had been terminated immediately, according to people familiar with the actions, who like others in this report spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private messages.
The dismissals appeared to violate federal law, which requires Congress to receive 30 days’ notice of any intent to fire a Senate-confirmed inspector general.
The affected agencies were the departments of Defense, State, Transportation, Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Energy, Commerce and Agriculture, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, Small Business Administration and the Social Security Administration. Some of these people had been appointed during Trump’s first term. Oddly, the purge overlooked the inspector general of the Justice Department, an Obama appointee. Maybe Trump hasn’t figured out a way to monetize Justice for his personal benefit yet.
As far as the law is concerned — what law? The Supreme Court said Trump doesn’t have to obey laws.
On the deportation front, in spite of the White House making a big show of ICE raids, so far he hasn’t actually deported that many people.
In his second term, it’s not clear whether Trump is significantly picking up the pace just yet. Biden deported an average of around 700 people a day in fiscal year 2024, and after raids on Thursday, ICE announced it had deported 538 people.
These kinds of raids may be the symbolic beginning of mass deportations. But Trump would have to sustain them and expand them in the long run to reach his stated goal of deporting “millions and millions.”
Still, the publicity has already had a chilling effect on agriculture.
NBC Bay Area reports that the citrus harvest in California’s Central Valley has been “virtually halted” because migrant farmworkers have skipped work en masse in the wake of Trump’s sweeping executive orders cracking down on undocumented immigrants.
The report notes that the timing of Trump’s actions has been particularly troublesome for Central Valley farms because it’s currently “the peak of citrus harvest season,” which means that grocery stores could soon be hit with shortages of fruits such as oranges.
So if you absolutely have to have orange juice, you might consider stocking up on frozen concentrate now. And there are also reports that ICE agents in Arizona have detained Navajo living off the reservation. Brilliant.
Oh, and that puppy-murdering dingbat Kristi Noem has been confirmed as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. We’re more doomed.
In other news: Yesterday Trump stopped all foreign aid except for military funds going to Israel and Egypt. And that’s because Israel and Egypt are the two countries guarding the borders of Gaza. But Ukraine gets nothing. The idea seems to be that the new Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, will be taking his sweet time over the next few months to review where all the foreign aid money is going and then decide what will be continued.
And last week Trump took us a step closer to war with Denmark.
Donald Trump insisted he was serious in his determination to take over Greenland in a fiery telephone call with Denmark’s prime minister, according to senior European officials.
The US president spoke to Mette Frederiksen, the Danish premier, for 45 minutes last week. The White House has not commented on the call but Frederiksen said she had emphasised that the vast Arctic island — an autonomous part of the kingdom of Denmark — was not for sale, while noting America’s “big interest” in it.
Five current and former senior European officials briefed on the call said the conversation had gone very badly.
They added that Trump had been aggressive and confrontational following the Danish prime minister’s comments that the island was not for sale, despite her offer of more co-operation on military bases and mineral exploitation.
“It was horrendous,” said one of the people. Another added: “He was very firm. It was a cold shower. Before, it was hard to take it seriously. But I do think it is serious, and potentially very dangerous.”
Being President of the United States is a difficult job, and there are many things a POTUS must do that can go tragically wrong. But “not freaking out Denmark” is usually not that hard.
WMD's in 2002 and the rise of the Big Lie which Kerry and Clinton bought into: a turning point in the path to today and the emperor of chaos. W. wanted so badly to fix daddy's error and to get Sadam. Wow did he use Colin Powell's credibility and take him out as a political competitor in one bold move. Of course, the public was nutty for revenge of some sort, and Sadam was a name that looked closely enough to Satan that this would sell. Even twenty some years ago, shoddy evidence was enough to convince the hoi polloi who were busy boycotting and renaming Freedom Fries. It was a conclusion they wanted, and even faulty evidence would do. Kerry and Clinton were truly as gutless as the republican Senators who voted for the drunken pole dancer to run the military last eve. We will never know if they knew the Powell Big Lie was a fabrication. We can suspect they did. Powell himself may have known or suspected. He does not strike me as the broken BS meter type.
Oh, the days and weeks of reporters imbedded in search of the breaking news of the finding of the WMDs. It almost became a running joke until they finally had to fess up that a large mistake could have been made. A mushroom cloud of a mistake that was a prelude to the Big Lie of 2020 and the Horror of 1/6 and today. Trust is such a problem that the release of the emperor of chaos crypto coin was viewed by the crypto industry as a negative for its "industry". Who would believe in its value if he was selling one. Same too on AI. His endorsement is almost a guarantee it's a scam too. Oh, the days of Enron and Worldcom. Back then republicans were selling emu and ostrich farming, a bogus war, and Enron and Worldcom. Today they have found a new generation of suckers to fleece, and a new Pied Piper of Mar a Lago. The Senate is busy confirming another batch of big lies. Ask not the moral of the story, ask why the story is lacking characters with morals.
Just a quick snarky prediction on the deportation numbers:
Actual deportations Thursday: 538
TFG Statements for TV: "Last Thursday we deported a record number of illegal immigrants, 538 thousand, more than we've ever seen before. Of course the fake news will report numbers way below that, but they always lie for their political witch hunt. But we've already started the mass deportations, and at numbers never seen before!"
This will be repeated all over the unregulated internet.
And there will be video. Two short videos of ICE agents conducting a raid. Voice over: "These are our powerful and patriotic ICE agents rounding up illegals in Chicago. It's a beautiful thing." A few hours later, the same two short videos will be shown with the following voice over: "These are our powerful and patriotic ICE agents rounding up illegals in Detroit. It's a beautiful thing." (lather-rinse-repeat for Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Baltimore, Portland…)
You see, they're not really trying to govern, they're simply trying to eliminate the government. For any of the functions they deem necessary, they want them taken over for profit by private companies whose executives are in the cult. What we think of as a normal administration is irrelevant. These administration people are just content creators.
Never forget: The only thing he ever had success at was a "reality" TV show that was written and produced by television entertainment professionals; it was scripted, and he was just an actor. One trick pony. He keeps riding it.
The actual real media needs to take a new approach. Every BS assertion must be called out. But it must not be done with an elaborate demonstration of the bona fides of the journalism. It should be done something like this (after showing the false assertion): News anchor says: "That's not true. We have confirmed that there were no raids in Chicago last Thursday. Moving on, we have a short piece on small community groups in suburban and rural Illinois. They have together to protect the local food supply from potential supply issues caused by federal over-reach. Most of these foods are harvested by non-citizens who have work visas. Here's a conversation we had with a small farm owner."
Short and sweet. You don't refute a simple BS assertion with a five page analysis of why it is BS. Just assert the truth.
If you can, read Marcy Wheeler and listen to her podcasts, where she names names and state the facts.
Her website is "emptywheel.net"
Yes, I think most of us here are long-time fans of Marcy Wheeler.
True that. Yet we must face the fact that the electorate of this country did not reject a quite documented liar.
That only gets fixed if Americans start demanding the truth.
I think what you are saying is that each individual American must value the truth in themselves and those around them. We have become too tolerant to liars and lies.
Rachel Madow observed a few years ago, on a Friday, that administrations (I don't think she singled out either party) dump bad news on Friday night. The goal is to have what the impact of the news be overlooked by the media when the Fourth Estate returns on Monday. Trump is a showman – he may drip some distracting bombshell of little importance on Sunday so the deed goes by almost unnoticed.
If you subscribe to the theory of Friday dumps, then it's important to give the purge of the IG office a careful look. The IG is supposed to be independent, making sure the numbers from the agency they oversee are honest. They also guard against department heads looting the agency they supervise and concealing the fraud by publishing fake numbers. The firings were illegal because Trump was required to give Congress 30 days notice. BFD. If they sue they can probably get an extra month's pay.
When Trump moves to install partisans, in the I/G office Congress may balk. Trump is a step ahead of Congress. He will install the most partisan lackeys as "temporary" or "acting" and let Congress stew as Trump makes no effort to fill the positions with the oversight of Congress.
Having shut down official inquiries into misconduct thru the agency that's worked pretty well in the past, Trump has created a cloud of smoke to obscure the internal actions that should be transparent. How will we penetrate the wall around government Trump is erecting? Yes, there is the FOIA but what consequences when Trump ignores it?
There is a fatal flaw. Trump can say, "The ship is not sinking." As captain, he controls the public intercom. "We didn't hit that iscberg, we just navigated close to it so you could get a view." (Pay no attention to the ice from the iceberg scattered on the foredeck.) "We're just stopped for a short time for technical reasons." "Pay no attention to rumors. We are not sinking by the bow. The ship is unsinkable." "We are only testing the procedures of delaying lifeboats. It is only a drill." At some time after the first announcement that everything is under control and before the shock of being immersed in freezing water, passengers will realize they are screwed. Unlike the passengers of the Titanic, I think we will have time to right the ship of state before we go under. (I also see no benefit in believing that we are doomed before that is absolutely certain. And it is not!)
IMO, we need about five to seven percent of the voting population to realize the risk. The further above that we are, the more we have in reality the mythical "mandate" Trump claims, and permission to reverse the hateful policies. Trump will be instrumental in changing the hearts of voters.
When the budget of the VA is slashed, veterans will die for lack of medical care, especially those who depend almost exclusively on the VA for care (and have no other insurance or the resources to get insurance.) It will become apparent when the budget for ACA is slashed, the burden for premiums shifted to people who will have to choose between food and access to medical care. When people die of "pre-existing conditions", it won't be accepted like it was pre-Obama. People know it's a scam to kill people to pad the profits of insurance companies. When the price of all imported goods jumps because of tariffs and deportation, people won't buy administration claims that everything is rosy. When idaster strikes and FEMA is no longer prepared, nobody is gonna feel good that Trump told the states in advance that they are on their own. I believe these will happen to some degree and I'm rooting for failure so spectacular that Republicans in Congress distance themselves from Trump to try to save their jobs. The GOP tried that when Nixon's goose was cooked and it did not save them in the next election.
I want it to be horrible so the mandate to reverse ALL the crappy policies is so huge that we can repair the damage without compromise and construct guardrails to foil the next dictator. We know what has to be reinforced now. And yeah, while we're at it, pack the USSC and pass ethics legislation for the USSC with serious teeth. I mean jail time for misconduct.
War with Denmark? It's a small country. OOPs it in a NATO member. NATo rushes to protect Denmark from {another NATO member}? We are approaching farce here.
I deeply suspect that it was Putin who put the Greenland obsession in Trump's thick head, as part of his plan to break up NATO. I could be wrong, of course. I don't think Trump understands NATO or how alliances work. Everything is transactional to him. He appears to believe our allies are supposed to pay the U.S. to protect them.
" we’re holding them back from being warriors"
That was sort of the narrative that a bunch of GOP'ers used to justify their vote to confirm: "he's going to bring back a warrior mentality", whatever the fuck that means? I'm not sure how dense many of these GQP'ers are (some seem slightly sharper than Tommy Tuberville) but even they must know Hegseth was nominated for only one reason and it has nothing to do with war fighting. He was nominated because he assured Stump that he will if given the order, use the military against our own citizens in demonstrations, protests or riots like we saw during the BLM protests in 2020. I really believe that is going to be his main focus, torturing the LGBTQ crowd in the military is a secondary focus to appease the mouth breathing magat base. Hegseth's main purpose is to turn our military against us just like the PRC did in 1989 at Tiananmen Square. It's coming.
Suppose DJT's policies bring a steep recession. Then consider this.
https://thehill.com/opinion/5105555-democrats-poised-to-win-2028-election/