“I don’t think she is a Russian Agent” is now the qualification to be the head of our intelligence services. This is his low we have sunk. The idiots are running the asylum.
I don’t know. During COVID they were willing to die, gasping their last in hospitals, refusing to admit COVID was real. If Trumpism starts to hurt, they will use a scapegoat for blame.
But the risk is that the reign of the unqualified will result in so much damage to America that it will take decades to regain any reputation of competence.... and that most fragile of attributes - trust.
I think that ship has sailed. The trust in America is long gone. We need a come to Jesus moment with American voters and the only hope we have that we will have that moment is to let the Trump voters get it full bore. Trump voters are much more dependent on the government programs (excluding of course the billionaires) and they need to get it in full with all the consequences.
Fewer than 50% of the Americans who voted, voted for Trump.
As has been well documented since then, they did so for a wide variety of reasons.
As is also obvious, the fallout from bad Trump choices is going to harm both pro- and anti-Trump voters.
"Get it good and hard" was funny the first time H.L. Mencken said it. It's overuse as a revenge fantasy against fellow Americans who voted differently in 2024 is starting to get old. (And the fallback position "oh, I didn't mean it as a revenge fantasy, I just sorrowfully mentioned it as a historic inevitability" is wearing thin too.).
A little more curiosity about these voters and a little less knee-jerk umbrage would probably serve us better. Otherwise they'll probably just vote the same way again.
IMHO, based on my voting experience since 1976, people will continue to vote against the overall interest of the majority of the American people until they feel the impact of their vote on themselves. I thought Americans had finally come around to reality in 2008 after the complete disaster of wars with tax cuts for the wealthy and financial deregulation and then bailouts for the perpetrators, but no. Democrats need to stay united with rational Republicans and Independents and let the country feel the full effect of Trump policy and appointment insanity. Stop cooperating and force the Republicans to pass legislation on their own and increase the debt ceiling without Democrats votes or require major concessions such as universal healthcare and/or increased taxes on the wealthy. Otherwise this craziness will never end and will in fact expand to its inevitable conclusion of a permanent oligarchy and no middle class. Wake up.
Every organization that aims to build bridges has been mostly organized by Democrats. We HAVE listened and tried to understand, but their views are incoherent. I don't know how they realize unless they feel some pain.
Joe, I do not know if you wrote this piece before the 70+ medical, scientific Nobel Laureates came out with a condemnation of RFK, Jr., urging the Senators to do the right thing and not approve him on so many levels and for so many reasons that I doubt any of them will read the letter. But making it public was a good thing so that anyone who reads it knows what is coming and how much it will destroy. Of course, destruction is the goal of the Burn It Down crowd now swarming around the Narcissist in Chief like flies around a pile of .... (use your own phrase).
I'm trying hard not to stress over the obviously poor and maybe dangerous cabinet appointees. What gives me comfort is the likelihood that many of them will flame out, quit, or be fired by the petulant Trump. I doubt he's matured past his first term where he had huuuge cabinet turnover, maybe the most ever people tell me.
Except for incompetent carrying out their master's orders, I can't imagine what reason he could find to can such sycophants. Oh, wait, silly me. I forgot the Narcissist in Chief does not need a reason, just a sudden bee in his bonnet (or whatever it is that is on his head).
As fate would have it, this especially sartorial edition of Press Pass popped up just 20 minutes after i left the thrift store- where in the greatest stroke of good luck in my life, I snagged a black cashmere Eduard Dressler overcoat for $15.
Anyone who is this inflexible in their appraisal of white dress shirts, subobtimal as they can be, shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the instruments of American diplomacy. At that rate, 90% of the men in suits he deals with would be his adversaries.
Hopefully lil Marco will handle foreign policy details so Anton can focus on enforcing his dress code across all Trump appointees. That will drive some away even quicker than expected.
I appreciate the Lucy’s quote both what he uses and the omitted sentences. Very eye-opening.
And on a different note, many fear an authoritarian outcome but I think we’re already there. The republic — as res publica — has already fallen. With all the consequences that this realization entails…
"Anton is known for his long history of isolationist foreign policy views"
IOW, he fits right in to what Trump [sic] is shooting for: turning the US into a third world hermit kingdom.
-----
"[Anton] essentially argued that destroying the country by electing Trump was preferable to four years of Hillary Clinton as president"
And he wasn't wrong. TFG did everything he could to "Make America Great Again," to return America to the Christian nation our Founding Fathers envisioned, and show the world how strong the country is. OTOH, Ms Clinton would have further ruined the US by keeping us as a liberal democracy, with no G-d watching over His new chosen people (male deity used since these fine folk are convinced that their G-d is an anthropomorphic male), and where evildoers are not sufficiently punished for their actions (like a woman choosing to have an abortion rather than another mouth to feed when she can barely feed her kids now, or a POC pulling into the wrong driveway by mistake).
-----
"You do all these things and you can have a staff of two or three hundred people inside the White House, completely loyal to the president and his agenda"
Because one can't have people who are loyal to the Constitution and the rule of law around. How is POTUS supposed to do presidential things (for example disenfranchising those who disagree with him or threatening our friends and allies in support of those that want to see America taken down a peg or two) if he doesn't have loyalists surrounding him who will carry out his every order, no questions asked? Project 2025... sorry... Agenda 47 must be implemented in its entirety to put America back on the right track. If a lackey dares question the agenda, then buh-by -- and she/he should expect the FBI to open a file on them for unamerican activities.
-----
"His lack of qualifications and tendentious policy positions were largely unimportant to the few senators who were willing to briefly delay their support for him."
A lack of qualifications or a smattering of background for the job to be filled are features, not bugs, in the incoming (mis)administration, as are nasty, evil policies targeting the department one is to lead. The prime criteria are loyalty, being a yeswoman/man, and an extraordinary need to exact vengeance on those that are enemies of the RINOs in general and TFG in particular.
-----
"In the end, expect the whole gang to sail to confirmation."
G-dess, how I hope you're wrong Mr Perticone. But, if you are correct there still might be a silver lining to this cloud. The more asshattery coming from TFG's administration, Congressional RINOs, and pseudoconservatives the better the odds that MAGAdroids will be unceremoniously dumped in the midterms, and the MAGA death knell will begin ringing out. (Yes, I know, wishcasting, but for the time being dreams are not illegal.)
It depresses me that someone as incisive on some topics, who can write so snappily (if snobbishly) as Michael Anton, falls so easily for such basic delusions as he claims are The True Story in the Flight 93 piece (like Democrats supporting immigration because we want to eliminate democracy). These people, even the “intellectuals,” are longing for a fictional America that never existed. Why can he understand taste in ties and live totally disconnected from reality like this?
Because Keats was wrong, and beauty is not truth nor truth beauty? And one of the things that "intellectuals" are good at is making up justifications for the things they want to believe?
Apparently Joe Perticone's skill set (having good taste + not being a dumbass) is rarer than we might wish ;)
If the Senate is going to roll over, capitulate, cave, whatever..to Trumps absurd, dangerous, and irresponsible Cabinet picks what is the purpose of the Senates existence?
Yes, what Trump needs is more Yes Men, and idiots, especially in foreign policy.
If people thought the latter half of the 20th century was the age of ugly Americans, wait until that vacuum our isolationism creates gets filled by others. I look forward to hearing all about the experience as people from Tennessee head south to enjoy a cheap vacation. Mexico is really going to love all that MAGA dropping in on them, starting with Kari Lake.
I could see Canada reclosing their border to visitors (possibly to avoid a measles epidemic).
Reading Joe Perticone keeps me educated, well-informed and therefore, sane. I loved the completion of the Livy quote. Now I'll simply have to look at Anton's Styleforum (Styrofoam?) site just for a good laugh...
I am going to digress a bit and talk about Health Care. Robert F. Kennedy is a quackery filled quack. That US already sucks when it come to good health and health care. The water is filled with lead all over the country. We have high particulate pollution. School lunches are often not nutritious, and neither are the meals of many low income families. Many families cannot afford health insurance and they do not have preventative care, just sick care. To add insult to injury people have claims which shitty insurance companies deny, and this leads to sick people not getting good care. Health Insurance companies should not be allowed to be publicly traded
or provide stock investments. There should be no investors who influence the money the company makes in supporting people to get the care they need. Here is a comic illustration of an unfunny problem. https://youtu.be/O_VMXa9k5KU?si=k2D9LIBSvsHrmejC
Healthcare? Every basic need in America, health, housing, food, water, wifi, heat, has to be purchased with part of the price going to a shareholder somewhere. More and more of the money is going to fewer and fewer people. The coming administration wants to finish the job by making sure that almost all of the money goes to Trump and the few people who put him in power with their hundreds of millions of dollars in support. All they want in return is hundred of billions of dollars.
“I don’t think she is a Russian Agent” is now the qualification to be the head of our intelligence services. This is his low we have sunk. The idiots are running the asylum.
You seriously could NOT make this up. That final paragraph terrifies me.
Does Donald Trump know that Michael Anton thinks his ties are ugly?
Does Trump know that Anton is gay (I'm assuming)?
Trump's mentor was Roy Cohn.
He is married and has 2 children with his wife.
Lol. Like gay men don't marry women and have children with them. There's no thicker beard than a (traditional) wife and a couple of kids.
Especially if they are a conservative
Silly me. I didn’t research enough. My point was that Trump is a bigoted individual.
The American people voted for this, and they need to get it good and hard. Maybe that will snap people back to reality, but I’m not holding my breath.
I don’t know. During COVID they were willing to die, gasping their last in hospitals, refusing to admit COVID was real. If Trumpism starts to hurt, they will use a scapegoat for blame.
Yea, that’s why I said I’m not holding my breath in my original post. Stupid is as stupid does.
But the risk is that the reign of the unqualified will result in so much damage to America that it will take decades to regain any reputation of competence.... and that most fragile of attributes - trust.
I think that ship has sailed. The trust in America is long gone. We need a come to Jesus moment with American voters and the only hope we have that we will have that moment is to let the Trump voters get it full bore. Trump voters are much more dependent on the government programs (excluding of course the billionaires) and they need to get it in full with all the consequences.
Fewer than 50% of the Americans who voted, voted for Trump.
As has been well documented since then, they did so for a wide variety of reasons.
As is also obvious, the fallout from bad Trump choices is going to harm both pro- and anti-Trump voters.
"Get it good and hard" was funny the first time H.L. Mencken said it. It's overuse as a revenge fantasy against fellow Americans who voted differently in 2024 is starting to get old. (And the fallback position "oh, I didn't mean it as a revenge fantasy, I just sorrowfully mentioned it as a historic inevitability" is wearing thin too.).
A little more curiosity about these voters and a little less knee-jerk umbrage would probably serve us better. Otherwise they'll probably just vote the same way again.
IMHO, based on my voting experience since 1976, people will continue to vote against the overall interest of the majority of the American people until they feel the impact of their vote on themselves. I thought Americans had finally come around to reality in 2008 after the complete disaster of wars with tax cuts for the wealthy and financial deregulation and then bailouts for the perpetrators, but no. Democrats need to stay united with rational Republicans and Independents and let the country feel the full effect of Trump policy and appointment insanity. Stop cooperating and force the Republicans to pass legislation on their own and increase the debt ceiling without Democrats votes or require major concessions such as universal healthcare and/or increased taxes on the wealthy. Otherwise this craziness will never end and will in fact expand to its inevitable conclusion of a permanent oligarchy and no middle class. Wake up.
Every organization that aims to build bridges has been mostly organized by Democrats. We HAVE listened and tried to understand, but their views are incoherent. I don't know how they realize unless they feel some pain.
Joe, I do not know if you wrote this piece before the 70+ medical, scientific Nobel Laureates came out with a condemnation of RFK, Jr., urging the Senators to do the right thing and not approve him on so many levels and for so many reasons that I doubt any of them will read the letter. But making it public was a good thing so that anyone who reads it knows what is coming and how much it will destroy. Of course, destruction is the goal of the Burn It Down crowd now swarming around the Narcissist in Chief like flies around a pile of .... (use your own phrase).
I think we would all be wise to assume we are each on our own soon, and prepare as best we can.
I'm trying hard not to stress over the obviously poor and maybe dangerous cabinet appointees. What gives me comfort is the likelihood that many of them will flame out, quit, or be fired by the petulant Trump. I doubt he's matured past his first term where he had huuuge cabinet turnover, maybe the most ever people tell me.
Except for incompetent carrying out their master's orders, I can't imagine what reason he could find to can such sycophants. Oh, wait, silly me. I forgot the Narcissist in Chief does not need a reason, just a sudden bee in his bonnet (or whatever it is that is on his head).
As fate would have it, this especially sartorial edition of Press Pass popped up just 20 minutes after i left the thrift store- where in the greatest stroke of good luck in my life, I snagged a black cashmere Eduard Dressler overcoat for $15.
Anyone who is this inflexible in their appraisal of white dress shirts, subobtimal as they can be, shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the instruments of American diplomacy. At that rate, 90% of the men in suits he deals with would be his adversaries.
Thrift store score! You go!
Hopefully lil Marco will handle foreign policy details so Anton can focus on enforcing his dress code across all Trump appointees. That will drive some away even quicker than expected.
I appreciate the Lucy’s quote both what he uses and the omitted sentences. Very eye-opening.
And on a different note, many fear an authoritarian outcome but I think we’re already there. The republic — as res publica — has already fallen. With all the consequences that this realization entails…
Titus Livius not Lucy that is…
But I Love Lucy … especially at the chocolate factory.
Auto-correct is even dumber now it has AI assist.
I have fond memories of Spinal Taps iconic performance on the Isle of Lucy.
"Anton is known for his long history of isolationist foreign policy views"
IOW, he fits right in to what Trump [sic] is shooting for: turning the US into a third world hermit kingdom.
-----
"[Anton] essentially argued that destroying the country by electing Trump was preferable to four years of Hillary Clinton as president"
And he wasn't wrong. TFG did everything he could to "Make America Great Again," to return America to the Christian nation our Founding Fathers envisioned, and show the world how strong the country is. OTOH, Ms Clinton would have further ruined the US by keeping us as a liberal democracy, with no G-d watching over His new chosen people (male deity used since these fine folk are convinced that their G-d is an anthropomorphic male), and where evildoers are not sufficiently punished for their actions (like a woman choosing to have an abortion rather than another mouth to feed when she can barely feed her kids now, or a POC pulling into the wrong driveway by mistake).
-----
"You do all these things and you can have a staff of two or three hundred people inside the White House, completely loyal to the president and his agenda"
Because one can't have people who are loyal to the Constitution and the rule of law around. How is POTUS supposed to do presidential things (for example disenfranchising those who disagree with him or threatening our friends and allies in support of those that want to see America taken down a peg or two) if he doesn't have loyalists surrounding him who will carry out his every order, no questions asked? Project 2025... sorry... Agenda 47 must be implemented in its entirety to put America back on the right track. If a lackey dares question the agenda, then buh-by -- and she/he should expect the FBI to open a file on them for unamerican activities.
-----
"His lack of qualifications and tendentious policy positions were largely unimportant to the few senators who were willing to briefly delay their support for him."
A lack of qualifications or a smattering of background for the job to be filled are features, not bugs, in the incoming (mis)administration, as are nasty, evil policies targeting the department one is to lead. The prime criteria are loyalty, being a yeswoman/man, and an extraordinary need to exact vengeance on those that are enemies of the RINOs in general and TFG in particular.
-----
"In the end, expect the whole gang to sail to confirmation."
G-dess, how I hope you're wrong Mr Perticone. But, if you are correct there still might be a silver lining to this cloud. The more asshattery coming from TFG's administration, Congressional RINOs, and pseudoconservatives the better the odds that MAGAdroids will be unceremoniously dumped in the midterms, and the MAGA death knell will begin ringing out. (Yes, I know, wishcasting, but for the time being dreams are not illegal.)
fnord
Midterms? What midterms? A show, at best. That’s my guess.
Agree 100%
This country is so screwed. And his dumbass voters don't even know it. And Ukraine? BEYOND screwed.
It depresses me that someone as incisive on some topics, who can write so snappily (if snobbishly) as Michael Anton, falls so easily for such basic delusions as he claims are The True Story in the Flight 93 piece (like Democrats supporting immigration because we want to eliminate democracy). These people, even the “intellectuals,” are longing for a fictional America that never existed. Why can he understand taste in ties and live totally disconnected from reality like this?
Because Keats was wrong, and beauty is not truth nor truth beauty? And one of the things that "intellectuals" are good at is making up justifications for the things they want to believe?
Apparently Joe Perticone's skill set (having good taste + not being a dumbass) is rarer than we might wish ;)
If the Senate is going to roll over, capitulate, cave, whatever..to Trumps absurd, dangerous, and irresponsible Cabinet picks what is the purpose of the Senates existence?
Good question. And what is this country for, if not to provide for the safety and well being of the citizens - which Trump has no intention of doing.
Excellent footnote.
Yes, what Trump needs is more Yes Men, and idiots, especially in foreign policy.
If people thought the latter half of the 20th century was the age of ugly Americans, wait until that vacuum our isolationism creates gets filled by others. I look forward to hearing all about the experience as people from Tennessee head south to enjoy a cheap vacation. Mexico is really going to love all that MAGA dropping in on them, starting with Kari Lake.
I could see Canada reclosing their border to visitors (possibly to avoid a measles epidemic).
Reading Joe Perticone keeps me educated, well-informed and therefore, sane. I loved the completion of the Livy quote. Now I'll simply have to look at Anton's Styleforum (Styrofoam?) site just for a good laugh...
I am going to digress a bit and talk about Health Care. Robert F. Kennedy is a quackery filled quack. That US already sucks when it come to good health and health care. The water is filled with lead all over the country. We have high particulate pollution. School lunches are often not nutritious, and neither are the meals of many low income families. Many families cannot afford health insurance and they do not have preventative care, just sick care. To add insult to injury people have claims which shitty insurance companies deny, and this leads to sick people not getting good care. Health Insurance companies should not be allowed to be publicly traded
or provide stock investments. There should be no investors who influence the money the company makes in supporting people to get the care they need. Here is a comic illustration of an unfunny problem. https://youtu.be/O_VMXa9k5KU?si=k2D9LIBSvsHrmejC
Healthcare? Every basic need in America, health, housing, food, water, wifi, heat, has to be purchased with part of the price going to a shareholder somewhere. More and more of the money is going to fewer and fewer people. The coming administration wants to finish the job by making sure that almost all of the money goes to Trump and the few people who put him in power with their hundreds of millions of dollars in support. All they want in return is hundred of billions of dollars.
https://oldandintheway45.substack.com/p/more-and-more-about-the-money?r=3qbw9
Excellent. Thank you.
Michael Anton? I guess Anton LaVey was unavailable …
Or Susan Anton.