What an administration this will be! In the past, most Democrat and Republican President-elects have chosen department heads on the basis of competency and experience. Occasionally, department heads are chosen based primarily on ideology. This President-elect is choosing them on the basis of idiocy in some instances. What a circus. Time to send in the clowns.
Let’s see who we have. We have Matthew Gaetz who, until yesterday when he resigned his seat in the House of Representatives, was facing Congressional ethic charges from members of his own party for
“sexual misconduct and/or illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift, in violation of House Rules, laws, or other standards of conduct.”
but, he was nominated by another convicted sex offender to be our new Attorney General.1
Then, there was a journalist at Fox News (Pete Hegseth) who was nominated to be the next Secretary of Defense. He has served twenty-one years in the Minnesota Army National Guard. As far as I know, he seems like a good guy. But he apparently has a soft spot in his heart for American soldiers who have been accused by their brothers-in-arms or convicted of war crimes by their service branch. If his tolerance or penchant for this becomes widely known, then there will be a terrible effect on morale within the ranks and respect from our allies abroad.
Today, Robert Kennedy, Jr., a man who claims that part of his brain was eaten by a worm in the past and who has problems with everything from prescription drugs to vaccines which he believes can cause or have caused autism, will now oversee the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Medicare and other important health agencies as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services. If this happens, I will likely need to visit my physician for some benzodiazepine so I can cope.
And, who better to serve as the Director of National Intelligence than a conspiracy theorist? Tulsi Gabbard, to be specific. She was accused by members of Congress of amplifying Russian propaganda about Russia’s war with Kyiv, while promoting false conspiracy narratives concerning Ukraine. But, her antipathy towards Ukraine is probably partly the reason she was chosen.
Kristi Noem, the Governor of South Dakota who came to notoriety earlier this year after revealing she euthanized her dog in a gravel pit, will be the next Secretary for Homeland Security. She shot her “untrainable” dog Cricket, and then shot a pet goat as well. Hopefully, she will treat her employees in the DHS more charitably. By the way, there were supposedly witnesses to these shootings, but by the time the shooting had stopped and the smoke had cleared, the poor guys were in the next county headed towards Nebraska. President-elect Trump decided he liked Governor Noem when she showed him a model of Mt Rushmore with his face engraved next to the other presidents. She definitely knew how to earn his gratitude.
Mike Huckabee, a Southern Baptist preacher who worked tirelessly to deliver the evangelical vote to Mr. Trump in 2016 and 2020 was the logical person in the President-elect’s mind to be the U.S. Ambassador to Israel. And, what better policy manual to craft the U.S. diplomacy towards Israel than a Scofield Bible? If Brother Huckabee is a dispensationalist, he surely has one (or three) Scofields. Now, about that mosque . . .
We’re being assured by Republicans that there is nothing to worry about with these appointment because some of the more questionable nominees will never be confirmed. But they forget that Donald Trump is simultaneously pushing for unlimited recess appointments. And, if this past year is prologue for 2025, Congress will be in recess almost as much as it is in session.
To be fair, some of President-elect Trump’s are fine as far as I’m concerned. I have no problem with John Ratcliffe for CIA Director (way better than Kash Patel would be.) I have no complaint or knowledge of Susie Wiles for chief of Staff. Marco Rubio would be a good Secretary of State, but while he would be a strong voice in U.S. support of NATO, I think he’s starting to get weak in the knees over Ukraine.
EDIT (NOVEMBER 16, 2024)
I want to update this post with both new facts and a more serious editorial perspective.
The President-elect is again threatening to bypass Senatorial approval of his appointments as required under Article2, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, to wit:
“He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.”
The Constitution was written to provide checks and balances to each of the three branches of government. These checks were wisely devised to protect our Republic from a dictatorship. President-elect Trump apparently objects to these controls, particularly when they constrain his plans for this nation. Some of President-elect Trump’s nominees (like Matt Gaetz) are so outrageous to members of both parties that even some of the most stalwart Trump supporter in the Senate may not vote to confirm him. Now, evidense of any crime uncovered by the Republican-controlled House Ethics Committee is being swept under the rug by the Speake-of-the-House and it is questionable if even Republican senators will ever see it.
The other point I wish to make deals with the President-elect’s comments on keeping the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) out of the vetting process and doing it privately (which may mean, not doing it properly if at all.) If a person working in the White House, or the Pentagon cannot pass a background check for a security clearance, then there is a real problem. The purpose of a background check is to insure that the nominee is “reliable, trustworthy, of good conduct and character, and loyal to the United States.” Reasons a person would fail to be deemed worthy of a top secret or higher security clearance could be drug use, problems with the law, suspicious contacts with foreign agents or foreign nationals, sources from which they obtain their income and so on. It is true that the FBI outsources to private contractors for their own background checks, but they do not have a vested interest in getting some specific nominee approved. The President-elect seems to think that a proper vetting takes too long. And evidence of the President-elect’s disregard for our national security system could be found in his bathroom at Mar-a-Lago where many classified documents were stored. But here is an example of why it is needed and why time and deloberation are good things:
Pete Hegseth, the Fox News host was nominated to be Secretary of Defense. In the last forty-eight hours or so since his nomination was announced, we learned that he was accused in 2017 of sexually harassing a woman. We also learned that he was “removed from National Guard duty at President Joe Biden’s inauguration because he had been ‘deemed an extremist’ by his leadership due to a tattoo on his chest.2” He admitted this himself on a recent Shawn Ryan Show podcast. Of course, that made me curious. What sort of tattoo does he have on his chest? It turns out that he has some medieval crosses on his chest. That is not necessarily a deal breaker as far as I’m concerned. He may have been at a frat party in college and they were playing “truth or dare.” But apparently others who known him and his record much more than I say that he uses the word “Crusade” a lot more than I do and he has talked about the “Third Temple.” In this area, he might agree with nominee Huckabee. In fact, as a fundamentalist Christian I might agree with both Hegseth and Huckabee on that matter, but then I am not trying to influence U.S. policy at the national level.
Tulsi Gabbard background is also coming under a microscope as far as some members of Congress are concerned.
President-elect Trumps future administration is getting off to a rocky start and he won’t even be inaugurated for another two months!
1https://ethics.house.gov/press-releases/statement-regarding-matter-representative-matt-gaetz
2These details on Hegseth are published today in the “Wall Street Journal“:
“Days ahead of Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration, National Guard Master Sgt. DeRicko Gaither received what he describes as a disturbing email about then-Maj. Pete Hegseth, who was about to help provide security at the event.
The email, dated Jan. 14 and sent from a former Washington, D.C., Guard member, included an attachment showing a shirtless Hegseth with a tattoo on his bicep inscribed, “Deus Vult.” A quick google search told Gaither the Latin phrase means “God wills it,” which served as a battle cry for Christians during the Crusades and has become associated with white extremist groups, he told The Wall Street Journal. The pictures also showed that Hegseth has a large Jerusalem cross tattoo. Gaither said he was not concerned about the cross—it was the “Deus Vult” that worried him.
The same phrase had been brandished on banners by the Jan. 6 rioters a few days earlier.“
Because Hegseth’s superiors could not immediately rule out that Hegseth was not a seditionist in league with the rioters, out of an abundance of caution they benched him for thaat event. This was most likely a prudent thing to do. It had nothing to do with anti-Christian persecution, “wokeness” or being politically correct.
UPDATE (FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2024)
Yesterday President-elect Trump reportedly called Matthew Gaetz to tell him he would likely not be confirmed. Indications are that the damning evidence we all know about may just be the tip of the iceberg. So, he withdrew from the process and now, having resigned from Congress, he may not have a job, either. The lesson here is that there is a reason for a thorough vetting process. President-elect Trump has squandered some political capital and good will over Gaetz, and Trump is still two months away from being sworn in. Gaetz will be replaced by Pam Bondi, former Attorney General for Florida. Republican strategist Ana Navarro sees her as a outstanding nomination among the other candidates named for one post or another.
“’She hasn’t been accused of sexual assault. She hasn’t sawed the head off a whale or stabbed a dead bear cub,’ [Navarro] added, referring to Hegseth and allegations Kennedy’s daughter made against the former independent presidential candidate.”
Ms. Bondi does not appear to have children. Hopefully, however, Vice-president elect JD Vance will overlook this and be equally enthusiatic about her as many Republicans and even some Democrats are. I cannot determine whether or not there are any fur babies in the Bondi household. As a cat lover myself, I would be reassured if I knew she had an affection for felines.
And speaking of sexual assault . . .We’re reading about more salacious details concerning Pete Hegseth and his reported rape or attempted rape of a woman in a hotel room during Donald Trump’s first term as POTUS. There are still details that have not been released, including how much money it cost him to buy the victim’s silence. That will quite possibly come in the weeks ahead.
EST-CE UNE MAUVAISE BLAGUE ?
And speaking of hotel rooms. . .Linda McMahon, who Mr. Trump nominated ideally on the basis of her credentials (which falsely stated she had earned a Bachelors Degree in education–she has a BA, but it’s in French) is currently the subject of sex trafficking stories. The long and short of this is that she and her now estranged husband hired a manager or promoter back in the day when the WWE experienced a meteoric rise in popularity. This employee who had a perchance for wrestling, as well as a sexual appetite for young boys 12-16, would use his position of influence to lure children to serve as “ring boys” who would then help set up or tear down the equipment, plus other odd jobs in exchange for the opportunity to meet famous wrestlers and get coveted seats at wrestling matches, when in fact the boys, themselves were the ones who were coveted. They would be molested, sometimes filmed in locker rooms during the act and in hotel rooms as well by a Melvin Phillips, Jr (now deceased.) This scandal was difficult to contain as you might imagine. and Mssr. Phillips was eventually dismissed. However, he was again rehired with the promise to behave. All of this came to light as far as the public is concerned because of a lawsuit filed a month or so ago by five of the boys who were victimized back in the day. No doubt, many Republicans in the Senate will say they are not bothered by this. Some MAGA Christians might think it’s okay or understandable as well (after all, nobody is perfect, even Donald Trump.) But Democrats and the independent free press will hold the incoming administration accountable here as well as in the case of Gaetz and Hegseth. After all, there is only so much dirt that you can sweep under the rug. Right?
For those readers that want the facts of the lawsuit which you might not hear on your favorite news channel or from a popular media personality, you can read the actual complaint here and decide for yourself.
Much, much more to follow <ugh, sigh>.