They Also Say...

 

     ...elect a clown, expect a circus.

      So, all week, Trump has been "nominating" people to his Cabinet and administration and even announcing the creation of a Cabinet level position for Elon Musk to run, even though that would necessarily involve an Act of Congress and Trump actually being the president, which he is not. This fictional government entity, to be named DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), named after the failed Doge cryptocurrency, would be tasked with slashing $2 trillion from the federal budget, or abut a third of the budget, in the first year.

     In other words, Musk wants to bring the slash and burn tactics that worked out so well on Twitter (firing 80% of the workforce and leaving crucial functions understaffed or outright axed as well as refusing to pay the rent on the office space). Yeah, let's give complete control of the federal budget ($6.1 trillion) to a guy who in just over two years tanked a company to the tune of 79% of its stock valuation.

     Then there are his Cabinet picks. There's Fox's rubber-headed moron Pete Hegseth, who rose no higher than Major in the Army National Guard and who a decade ago became notorious for accidentally striking a military drummer with an axe. Oh, yeah, and he was investigated for sexual assault, which in Trump World seems to be a prerequisite for a powerful government position.

     Now, as if that wasn't Bizarro World enough for you, there's Tulsi Gabbard, the crypto-Nazi who for years posed as a Democrat in Congress only to find her inner Anna Chapman. Trump wants her to oversee our 17 intelligence agencies as the Director of National Intelligence, which of course would give her access to the nation's most sensitive secrets. Installing Gabbard in the ODNI would essentially be a more or less open intelligence pipeline to Putin's Kremlin.

 

     Not crazy enough for you? How about RFK, Jr running our entire health infrastructure? Trump seems to be perfectly fine with letting Kennedy "run wild" while heading up HHS, the CDC and God only knows what else. Essentially, he wants Kennedy to run everything except anything having to do with oil and gas. Of course, this is the same guy who, while posing an environmental activist, has chased one conspiracy theory after another, especially those having to do with vaccines. Kennedy's recent clams to fame are ditching a dead bear cub's body in Central Park, decapitating a dead whale with a chain saw and biting into a barbecued dog.

     Oh, and let's not forget the brain worm and driving his wife to suicide.

 

     But that's still not the most barking mad thing to come out of Mar a Lago. There's Matt Gaetz as Attorney General.

     Gaetz is shaping up to be the third rail, the red line, the Rubicon that that even Senate Republicans, with a newfound majority, aren't willing to cross. The growing opposition to making Gaetz the top law enforcement officer in the land is such that Beltway insiders are openly speculating that Gaetz won't even get a hearing much less get out of committee.

     Gaetz' experience with the DOJ consists entirely being probed not long ago for allegations of drug abuse and having sex with a 17 year-old minor. Of course, the DOJ chose not to press charges, which, in Trumpian fashion, Gaetz publicly pronounced as proof of his innocence.

     But even the Republican-led House decided to reopen a House Ethics Committee investigation of its own, one that was still active, if glacially-paced, when Gaetz abruptly left Congress right after getting re-elected in Florida's 1st district.

                                                                  

      Of course, Gaetz' abrupt resignation from Congress had nothing to do with any arrogant confidence in his ability to get the appointment but because of that probe hanging over his 18" pompadour like the Sword of Damocles. Gaetz' resignation effectively put an end to the Ethics Committee's probe and Gaetz thought that resigning from Congress would prevent the dirt he knew they had on him from coming out.

     However, this is Capitol Hill we're talking about, a place with more leaks than a Bronx tenement. And it won't be just liberals and Democrats providing the leaks to the media but Republicans who are afraid that Gaetz will damage the party's brand.

     And Gaetz has more baggage than the Orient Express. A lot of Republicans are still seething about his role in ousting Kevin McCarthy from his Speaker's role when McCarthy reached across the aisle to work with Democrats to pass a stopgap spending bill that kept the government open. This was a guy who barged into a House Intelligence Committee meeting because they were investigating Trump and acting like a freshman frat boy on a pantie raid.

     Now, Trumpers are tamping down bile on national TV and trying to positively spin the potential nomination of Gaetz into a good thing and claiming that Trump is actually playing four dimensional chess by advancing Gaetz for consideration. The very notion or suggestion that Gaetz should be made the head of the DOJ, the same entity that investigated him for several crimes should alone, in a sane universe, mandate a recall election.

     But, as Amanda Marcotte said in a recent article on Salon, Trump's fake nomination of Gaetz is nothing more or less than a loogie of contempt hocked in the eye of a criminal justice system that he loathes. There's no 4D chess, just a tired old crook trying to stay out of prison, including installing as Attorney General, an office RFK Jr's father once held, who will quash any and every investigation into Trump's inevitable criminal affairs.

     All because we were worried about the price of eggs. Bravo, America.