Coming Soon to DC: A League of Grifters, Meanies, and Fools
The race is on to pick the most despicable person nominated for a position in the upcoming Trump administration. Some people, like the ever-ghoulish Stephen Miller, won’t require Senate confirmation, so the only hope for them to fall by the wayside will be displeasing the boss.
By and large, agendas are written out for government agencies, and are easily accessible in the risen-from-the-dead Project 2025 documents. Also predictable will be the “both sides” journalism and polishing up the resumes of unsavory picks by an acquiescent media, fearful of revenge and desperate to keep up the veneer of being relevant.
The both sides debate du jour this week is President Biden’s unconditional pardon granted to son Hunter. It was clear to anybody paying attention that his offspring –despite two sentencings this month– would be a piñata used to pave the way for a revenge prosecution of the 46th president.
From Biden’s statement about the pardon:
“No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong.There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me — and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”
The right wing press has been in a tizzy, with the New York Post headline "HUNTER GETS AWAY WITH IT," Fox News with an op-ed saying the action was “the most disgraceful in history,” National Review claiming “The Biden Crime Family gets away with it, ”and Breitbart labeling the pardon "ANOTHER HOAX" because "Joe repeatedly promised he wouldn't."
Did I use the words “acquiescent media” just a few paragraphs earlier? Why, yes, yes I did.
Peter Baker at the New York Times accused Biden of “sounding a lot like Trump” in pardoning his son. And the Atlantic’s Jonathan Chait chimed in by asserting the President’s action as "unpardonable hypocrisy."
I’ve seen commentary this morning saying that the current president’s pardon will pave the way for the incoming president’s pardon for January 6th rioters. (As if he wasn’t going to do that anyway.)
Speaking of crime, how about those Trump nominees? Trump family members were pardoned during his last administration, and this weekend he announced Jared Kushner’s father as Ambassador to France and daughter Tiffany’s father-in-law to be senior adviser covering Arab and Middle Eastern affairs.
Because there’s a San Diego connection, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention pardoned war criminal Eddie Gallagher, who murdered a detained prisoner of war and was criticized and condemned by his SEALs and described as “freaking evil.” Chances are good he’ll find a home in the next administration.
Not all Trump nominees are pardoned felons.
Take, for instance, Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, Fox & Friends host Pete Hegseth. Apparently there is a bunch of unflattering information Hegseth failed to tell his handlers about: the accusation of rape made to go away with a payoff and an NDA, an email from his mother blasting him for for abusing “many” women for years, and a bombshell report in the New Yorker suggesting he’d been forced out of leadership from two nonprofits over mismanagement of funds, public intoxication and sexual misbehavior.
If Hegseth’s nomination makes it to the Senate, there will be some exciting video on CSPAN. The failure of Texas Sen. John Tower’s nomination for Secretary of Defense during the George H.W. Bush’s administration due to unbecoming conduct sets the precedent viewers will be able to compare should it come to the Senate. Personally, I think he’ll end up alongside Matt Gaetz, hawking personalized videos on Cameo.
You can go down the list of Trump nominations, and, with the exception of the finance field, they’re all unqualified and/or openly hostile to the agencies they’ll be overseeing.
Here’s Timothy Snyder, whose book On Tyranny has gained in prominence since the election:
Imagine that you are a foreign leader who wishes to destroy the United States. How could you do so? The easiest way would be to get Americans to do the work themselves, to somehow induce Americans to undo their own health, law, administration, defense, and intelligence.
From this perspective, Trump's proposed appointments -- Kennedy, Jr.; Bondi; Musk; Ramaswamy; Hegseth; Gabbard; Noem -- are perfect instruments. They combine narcissism, incompetence, corruption, sexual incontinence, personal vulnerability, dangerous convictions, and foreign influence as no group before them has done. These proposed appointments look like a decapitation strike: destroying the American government from the top, leaving the body politic to rot, and the rest of us to suffer.
One nominee who rises about the ‘burn it down’ mandate is Kash Patel, designated as the next head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Throwing his name into the mix, certainly reinforced the notion of “shock and awe” with the incoming president’s nominations.
Trump Attorney General Bill Barr rejected Patel for a possible role as deputy director of the FBI, telling then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that Patel would be appointed over “my dead body.”
The list of his detractors includes ‘nearly forty’ of his former colleagues who spoke to an Atlantic reporter, insisting on anonymity because they feared retaliation.
Revenge and retaliation are at the top of the list for Patel, who's been making the podcast circuit promising to “go out and find the conspirators [against Trump] not just in government, but in the media.”
“Yes, we're going to come after people in the media … who helped Joe Biden rig elections,” Patel told Steve Bannon late last year. “We’re putting you all on notice.”
His qualifications for the post as FBI Chief are blind loyalty to Donald Trump and a fervent belief in the existence of the “deep state.” Patel’s MAGA loyalty includes building a brand (featuring himself, of course) for suckers to pay into, with K$H Wine, playing cards, clothing, and even children’s books.
On Truth Social, Patel is pitching pills that will mitigate the (imagined) deleterious effects of covid vaccines. and advertises a Christian payment processor. In January 2023, he published “Government Gangsters,” which Trump said would be used as a “roadmap to end the Deep State's Reign.”
In his capacity as an consultant for Truth Social, he said in 2022 that the social media company was trying to boost QAnon conspiracy theories “into our overall messaging scheme to capture audiences.”
Via David Corn at Mother Jones:
The QAnon theory, which arose in 2017, holds that an intelligence operative known only as Q has revealed through cryptic messages that a cabal of global, Satanic, cannibalistic elitists and pedophiles is operating a child sex trafficking operation as it vies for world domination and conspires against Trump. This evil band supposedly includes Democratic politicians, Hollywood celebrities, business tycoons, and other notables. Those who believe this bunk see Trump as a hero who is secretly battling this conspiracy in a titanic, behind-the-scenes struggle. It is pure nuttery. Worse than that, QAnon has sparked multiple acts of violence.
I think, regardless of whether he passes muster in the Senate, Patel is angling to be a 21st century re-incarnation of Lavrentiy Beria, one of the longest-serving and most influential of Stalin's secret police leaders. (I should note that some historians believe Beria poisoned the Soviet leader) He could assume the post of FBI Deputy Director without a Senate vote.
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I don’t want to give incoming Assembly member Carl DeMaio the lead headline, but I should note that he’s already engaged in performative nonsense in the service of Dear Leader. As Democratic politicians are ruminating over California’s defenses in response to Trump retributions, Politico California included an item about his plans to introduce legislation today aimed at punishing state leaders “when they are found to have violated the constitutional rights of citizens.”
The aptly named “Punish Unconstitutional Actions Act of 2025” would hit Gov. Newsom and lawmakers with a 25% pay cut each time a law they voted for (or signed, in Newsom’s case) is later found to be unconstitutional in federal court.
Politico California is just going to love, love, love DeMaio and give him untold thousands of dollars in free publicity each time he launches another crusade/grift. It’s all part of “both sides” coverage, that no loony tunes Democrat could ever receive.
Could YOU pass a citizenship test? Via the Associated Press
Immigrants seeking to become United States citizens have to show a working knowledge of the nation’s history and how the federal government functions. And they don’t get multiple choices.
Could YOU pass even a dumbed-down citizenship test? Let’s find out! [Click for test]
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Enron is back to launch crypto token focused on solving the energy crisis by Liam ‘Akiba’ Wright at CryptoSlate
The company teased the launch of a “token or coin” in the future but confirmed that nothing had been launched “yet”.
The company plans to invest in renewable energy infrastructure, advanced energy storage, and innovative power distribution systems to enhance energy sustainability, accessibility, and affordability.
According to Enron’s press release, the company is committed to continuous innovation and addressing evolving demands like renewable energy integration and climate resilience. The leadership emphasizes ethical business practices, transparency, and sustainability, aiming to set a high standard for corporate responsibility.
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Fragrances may seem harmless. But the research is raising alarm. By Trisha Pasricha, MD at the Washington Post
Phthalates — found in popular perfumes, nail polishes and hair care products — have been linked to numerous adverse health outcomes: insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease and impaired neurodevelopment. A study published in JAMA Network Open found that higher urinary concentrations of phthalates from personal care products was linked to a 25 percent increased risk of hyperactivity problems among adolescents. Another study of the same cohort found that increased phthalate exposure was also associated with poorer performance in math.
The concerns about childhood exposure to phthalates are high enough that in the United States, certain types of the chemical are banned in children’s toys and items such as pacifiers and baby bottles.
For Andrea Gore, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Texas at Austin, who runs a laboratory studying the effects of endocrine-disrupting chemicals, the harms are clear enough that she advises everyone to try to reduce their exposure, especially parents starting a family and those with young children.
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