I don’t want to alarm anyone, but karma has started tugging at the Trump “mystique” the last few days. I do want to encourage you all to take a brief doomscrolling break, soak in this turn of events, and maybe even allow yourself some hope that it will snowball.
A brief and non-comprehensive review:
Axemeister Hegseth is making noise about reactivating Sen. Mark Kelly to active service, raising the threat of court-martialing the combat veteran for being among the Democratic senators that dared to say out loud what has been on a plaque at West Point since 1943.
Fascism was kinda top of mind in ’43. But this is sedition? Please. Let’s see if Mr. Secretary’s resolve holds up as well as his hair product. You may have seen that Hegseth already made headlines lately for telling the Coast Guard to not be so uptight about swastikas and whatnot. When they show you who they are the 3,494th time …
Speaking of cabinet members, let’s share a chuckle at Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Duffy unveiled an effort to “bring civility back” among air travelers nearly simultaneously with his boss having his “Quiet, piggy” moment at an altitude of 30,000 feet.
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It’s not cabinet-level, but an honorable mention nonetheless to President Trump for the ignominious tenure of David Richardson. As the acting chief of FEMA for the last several months, he was a poster boy for Trump’s habit of appointing “acting” chiefs to dodge background checks and Senate confirmations. Not to mention Richardson’s AWOL “leadership” during the floods in Texas. Who among us could’ve predicted this from a guy with a complete lack of emergency management experience upon taking the helm.
Elsewhere in the indifference to human suffering department, the administration’s demotion of nursing (and other helping professions) as something less than a profession for the purposes of student loan opportunity has garnered plenty of headlines. It’s not a good look, especially for a crew who just shut down the government in order to price millions of Americans out of treatment and medication.
About those insurance premiums … yesterday we started to hear that Congressional Republicans are trying to piece together some quasi-fix for the premium disaster that Dear Leader has instigated. Have they ever heard the line about toothpaste and the tube?
Time to wrap this up, but not before a final bit of damning evidence that Trump wearing out his welcome in a way that he used to reserve for 16-year-olds in pageant dressing rooms. Punchbowl rolled out a quote from an unnamed House Republican yesterday that is not to be missed.
“This entire White House team has treated ALL members like garbage. ALL. And Mike Johnson has let it happen because he wanted it to happen. That is the sentiment of nearly all — appropriators, authorizers, hawks, doves, rank and file. The arrogance of this White House team is off putting to members who are run roughshod and threatened. … Members know they are going into the minority after the midterms. More explosive early resignations are coming. It’s a tinder box. Morale has never been lower. Mike Johnson will be stripped of his gavel and they will lose the majority before this term is out.
Bullies require fear, and Trump’s brand of bluster requires a type of perpetual momentum. When both components start to slip away … oh, the humanity.
Last word goes to Mick and the boys: “Well the ballrooms and smelly bordellos / And dressing rooms filled with parasites / On stage the band has got problems …”