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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Party Boys

Party Boys

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We know the Fox News personality Trump nominated to run the Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth, is a creep who abuses women. Heck, his own mother said so, as Anne Laurie covered in a recent post. In case you missed it, Penelope Hegseth emailed the following comments to her son (source is the NYT):

“On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way, I say … get some help and take an honest look at yourself,” Penelope Hegseth wrote, stating that she still loved him.

She also wrote: “I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.”

She took it all back when contacted by the Times for comment and claimed Hegseth is a good husband and father. That’s the mother’s version of a horndog politician’s wife standing stoically next to her man during a press conference called to address a gross sex scandal.

Women are routinely expected to endure this sort of humiliation to preserve men’s hold on power. There’s no payoff for them, of course. Just ask Hillary Clinton.

I thought maybe that would change eventually, but we’re going backward in this country on women’s equality. An adjudicated rapist will put his tiny hand on a bible soon and be restored to the highest office in the land. The parade of sex offenders around the sex pest in chief is a big FUCK YOU to women, whether they acknowledge it or not (and many do not).

But the Hegseth nomination is also a giant FUCK YOU to basic competence, as The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer revealed in an article published yesterday. I suppose it’s paywalled, but here’s a link. Excerpts below:

…Hegseth’s record before becoming a full-time Fox News TV host, in 2017, raises additional questions about his suitability to run the world’s largest and most lethal military force. A trail of documents, corroborated by the accounts of former colleagues, indicates that Hegseth was forced to step down by both of the two nonprofit advocacy groups that he ran—Veterans for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America—in the face of serious allegations of financial mismanagement, sexual impropriety, and personal misconduct.

A previously undisclosed whistle-blower report on Hegseth’s tenure as the president of Concerned Veterans for America, from 2013 until 2016, describes him as being repeatedly intoxicated while acting in his official capacity—to the point of needing to be carried out of the organization’s events. The detailed seven-page report—which was compiled by multiple former C.V.A. employees and sent to the organization’s senior management in February, 2015—states that, at one point, Hegseth had to be restrained while drunk from joining the dancers on the stage of a Louisiana strip club, where he had brought his team. The report also says that Hegseth, who was married at the time, and other members of his management team sexually pursued the organization’s female staffers, whom they divided into two groups—the “party girls” and the “not party girls.” In addition, the report asserts that, under Hegseth’s leadership, the organization became a hostile workplace that ignored serious accusations of impropriety, including an allegation made by a female employee that another employee on Hegseth’s staff had attempted to sexually assault her at the Louisiana strip club. In a separate letter of complaint, which was sent to the organization in late 2015, a different former employee described Hegseth being at a bar in the early-morning hours of May 29, 2015, while on an official tour through Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, drunkenly chanting “Kill All Muslims! Kill All Muslims!”

To sum up, Hegseth is a blackout drunk who sexually harassed female employees and tolerated the same behavior from other members of his team. He’s an accused rapist and alleged bigot. That would normally be a problem for the potential leader of the DoD, but “norm” flew out the window a long time ago. However, Hegseth’s incompetence is disqualifying even if the character issue is moot these days:

Margaret Hoover, a Republican political commentator and political strategist who worked as an adviser to V.F.F. between 2008 and 2010, recently told CNN that she had grave concerns about Hegseth’s ability to run the Pentagon, the largest department in the federal government, given his mismanagement at V.F.F. “I watched him run an organization very poorly, lose the confidence of donors. The organization ultimately folded and was forced to merge with another organization who individuals felt could run and manage funds on behalf of donors more responsibly than he could. That was my experience with him.” Hoover stressed that V.F.F. was an exceedingly small organization, with fewer than ten employees, and a budget of between five million and ten million dollars. She told CNN, “And he couldn’t do that properly, I don’t know how he’s going to run an organization with an eight-hundred-and-fifty-seven-billion-dollar budget and three million individuals.”

Good question, Ms. Hoover.

One amusing aspect of this disgraceful mess: Hegseth allegedly lied to the Trump people and said no skeletons would tumble out of his closet if he were nominated, so they were “blindsided” when the rape accusation and payoff surfaced.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump’s transition team was blindsided by the sexual-assault story because Hegseth had failed to disclose anything about it, including the fact that he had paid off his accuser. He also failed to disclose that he had received a copy of the police report in 2021, long before the Monterey police’s recent release of it. The series of damning revelations has reportedly infuriated the transition team. “When we ask, ‘Is there anything else we need to know about?’ that is usually a good time to mention a police report,” a Trump adviser told Rolling Stone. “Obviously he remembered that this all happened and there is no way—I don’t think—he could have believed this wouldn’t come out once he got nominated.”

Well, maybe Hegseth is yet another scumbag following the corporate ethos of an organization led by Donald J. Trump, so he felt no need to disclose anything. If the boss can sexually assault and defame women with impunity and be reelected, why should Hegseth see his own sordid history as an obstacle to an important job?

The truth is, a critical mass in this country despises women and scoffs at basic standards of competence — or else is so indifferent that it amounts to the same thing. That’s not a hot take; it’s been cooling on the windowsill like a rancid pie for decades.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

145Comments

  2. 2.

    JiveTurkin

    One amusing aspect of this disgraceful mess: Hegseth allegedly lied to the Trump people and said no skeletons would tumble out of his closet if he were nominated, so they were “blindsided” when the rape accusation and payoff surfaced.

    Maybe Hegseth assumed that slipping women roofies and raping them and blowing charity money at a strip clubs aren’t skeletons in his closet.  After all. when the president-elect is a rapist the definition of a skeleton has been redfined.

  3. 3.

    Lobo

    They tried to label us the groomer party.  Do we hit back and label them as the party of rape and enablers?  If there is a better label, please put it here.

  4. 4.

    Old School

    “What sort of vetting was done on these nominees?”

    “We asked them to self-disclose.”

  5. 5.

    gene108

    The idea most voters care about minimum standards for their leaders died.

    Trump stated he’s nominating people for loyalty above all else. We either go with possibly incompetent creep with character issues to a competent creep with character issues, ie Pam Bondi for Matt Gaetz as AG.

    At some point, I expect under secretary of defense or state to be filled with actual Russian mob bosses, at some point in the next four years.

  7. 7.

    MazeDancer

    Still not understanding how the entire GOP Senate is going to meekly accept Hegseth, Kennedy, Gabbard, and Patel after all this disgusting info is continually being divulged.

    It is a long way to official hearings. Do they think the Dems aren’t going to ask very pointed questions?

  8. 8.

    Elizabelle

    I am always amazed that people with so many red flags even seek high profile positions.  Yes, it worked for Trump.   But it does not seem it will for Hegseth.

    I think this nomination is dead.  The felon will come up with another spite appointment for DOD — or maybe he will go with someone less awful but competent.

    Hegseth was just picked because he’s a rightwing mouthpiece and Fox-adjacent?  Happily, I knew nothing about him before this.

  9. 9.

    gene108

    @Lobo:

    Do we hit back and label them as the party of rape and enablers?

    I don’t think the voters or the media care about how ethically compromised Republicans are. It’s just the way things have always been and it’s perfectly normal, like Trump issuing a statement on social media and some poor soul has to go into hiding because of Trump supporter threats.

    It’s no longer shocking. It’s expected. It’s how the world just works.

  10. 10.

    catclub

    @gene108: Trump stated he’s nominating people for loyalty above all else.

     

    That may be what he is stating, but I think he is also specifically selecting people to wreck these organizations.

    That may be the same as loyalty to Trump.

  13. 13.

    Elizabelle

    @catclub:  The Felon may be learning he needs confirmable people to wreck these institutions.

    I am hoping a load of embarrassing information drops on Tulsi Gabbard.  It is terrifying, thinking of The Felon and his thugs in charge of intelligence and national security again.

    Thanks, dumbass voters!  We’d egg you, but …

  14. 14.

    catclub

    @Elizabelle: I think this nomination is dead.

     

    I am not so sure.

    Gaetz already dropped out.  I think one scalp is all the spine republican senators will show.  They will be forced into complicity on terrible nominations by rubber stamping them.

  15. 15.

    Citizen Alan

    @gene108:  75 million Americans literally don’t consider being a sexual predator to be a deal breaker. 75 million Americans demonstrably have no moral character. And they had the unmitigated gall to be offended at “basket of deplorables.”

    I think that Trump voters are quite possibly the most evil class of people who ever lived. At least the Germans who voted for Hitler had the excuse (however morally dubious it was) that they were starving under the Depression and desperate times called for desperate measures. These creatures voted for Hitler because the price of eggs went up during a bird flu epidemic.

  17. 17.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Citizen Alan: I’m over the extreme bitterness I felt right after The Event [cue Mitchell&Webb game show sketches] but still feel a mild bitterness toward white women for what they did …. *again*.

    They FA, and now they’re gonna FO.  And there ain’t nuthin’ any of us can do about it.  Nuthin’.

  19. 19.

    Elizabelle

    @catclub:  I think Hegseth is too heavy a lift for a lot of GOP senators.  But what do I know?  Some may fear a challenge from their far right if they don’t confirm.

    Anyway, I would bet a small amount that he is not confirmed.  Could he be a recess appointment?

  20. 20.

    Shakti

    Apologists: “Hegseth’s mommy is toxic and mean and it’s a miracle he’s not doing heroin under the bridge.”

    It’s sort of funny that “fiscal responsibility get rid of waste guys” want this guy who ran all of the organizations he ran into the ground.

    It’s also fascinating that Trump a teetotaler is nominating or has nominated so many people with major substance abuse problems.

  21. 21.

    trollhattan

    My observation, and it’s a deep one, is Hegseth being a drunk and serial rapist—one thing Trump hates and a second thing he lauds—must have the once and future president conflicted.

    My bet as to which one carries the day is the safest bet in all of Betdom.

  23. 23.

    gene108

    @Steve LaBonne:

    Oh, but voters thought Trump wouldn’t really do the things he said he’d do. 🙄

    Voters are adults. I will treat them as such.

    I believe voters know exactly what they are voting for. No one votes against their interests. A poor family in West Virginia wants billionaires to get tax cuts and for whatever social services they receive to be cut to balance the federal budget.

  24. 24.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    These people don’t know how to vet their own nominees, which is why you need the FBI to do it. Most political parties have someone who does oppo research on their own people so this stuff is found. It’s not like it was deeply hidden

  26. 26.

    The Other Bob

    Let’s not fight Trumps wars for him.  Four Star Generals will eat him for lunch for 4 years and nothing will get done.

  27. 27.

    mvr

    Tick, Tock . . .

    Translation – I’m with Elizabelle on this one. Any ratification vote is more than 6 weeks away and he’s not going to smell any better by then.

  28. 28.

    catclub

    @gene108: No one votes against their interests. A poor family in West Virginia wants billionaires to get tax cuts and for whatever social services they receive to be cut to balance the federal budget.

     

    HL Mencken fan, I see.

  31. 31.

    Dave

    @Elizabelle: Republicans definitely have a much lower bar but currently it’s only DJT whose bar has shattered the bedrock and is residing somewhere in the Earth’s core. The hanger-on’s are desperately eager to replicate this for themselves.

  32. 32.

    Suzanne

    Women are routinely expected to endure this sort of humiliation to preserve men’s hold on power. There’s no payoff for them, of course. Just ask Hillary Clinton.

    There’s an incident going viral on Xhitter right now. A lovely woman posted a picture of herself holding a copy of her dissertation in English Literature, and is celebrating finishing her Ph.D. at Cambridge. She is getting heaps of abuse, death threats, and cruelty. People telling her she should be raped, that her time would have been better spent getting married and having children (she appears to be relatively young and have a boyfriend), and a huge cohort of absolute morons screeching about how much they hate people who go to college.

  33. 33.

    catclub

    So Penelope and Paul Hegseth named their son Pete?

    Do they manufacture acid-base test strips?

  34. 34.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    Oh, is this an open thread?

    I didn’t know who wrote this piece until I read the bit about how the hot take had been cooling like a rancid pie, and then I realized it had to be our very own Betty Cracker.

    And I am so mentally dense that it took me until I was today years old before I realized that “Betty Cracker” is a play on Betty Crocker.

    As for the R-for-rapist party about to take over? And the people who voted for them? They expect us to be civil to them when they treat us like this. They expect us to be polite to them when they gleefully prepare to kill us.

    (In fact, that is my five-word response to any Trumpist who tries to get me to be nice to them: “You voted to kill me.” Unfortunately true, and so simple that even a Trumpist can understand it.)

  36. 36.

    Ruckus

    @gene108:

    Personally I’d say that republicans will pretty much take anyone who will stand up and say “Democrats are horrible.” No need to explain what horrible means in this context. No need to be in any way correct. No need to even say anything even approaching the truth. As long as they win. They are seeing that democrats want a working government, one that is good for all of us, not one that screws over everyone else (that’s a literal screwing as well, I’ll refrain from the word I would normally use here…) They seem to be the side that likes money above ALL ELSE, and hates (with passion BTW) anything that does not create more income for the wealthy. Money seems to be their first and only concept of life, even if they don’t actually have a lot – or more, it’s their measuring stick of life. It’s a goal, to have more of it, and to make sure that everyone they don’t like has less. Equality? pffft. Healthcare? pffft. Kindness? pffft. Money? Now ya got it.

  39. 39.

    Geminid

    @Elizabelle: I also think Hegseth is unlikely to be confirmed. Patel and Kennedy ought to make it through, although Democrats will scuff them up some.

    Gabbard’s the trickiest, I think. She seems like a careful person, the opposite of Gates and Hegseth in that respect. I’m pretty sure a lot of Republican Senators don’t want Gabbard, but I think they’ll need a reason besides them being Ukraine Hawks and her being an Isolationist. The hearings will be worth watching.

  42. 42.

    Jeffro

    It’s almost like there’s a reason that FBI background checks are run on nominees.

    There’s also a reason folks used to feel shame for their disgraceful behavior, and a reason political parties avoided problem nominees (to say nothing of problem candidates).

    Right?

    Somewhere, John Tower is spinning madly in his grave.  “He nominated WHO?  And this guy did WHAT?”

    WHHIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

  43. 43.

    Daven

    @dlwchico: Guy reads like the worse 10% of every douchecanoe dysfunctional junior officer (can’t remember or be assed to find out if he made it to Major or not but the point stands) I’ve ever encountered with the addition of being a fan of Bizarro-Jesus.

    So completely ill suited and unqualified to be SECDEF but also would never ever have the integrity to admit that to himself let alone anyone else and probably desperate to put those damned Generals in their place.

     

    Edit whoops accidentally change my name so welcome to moderation.

  44. 44.

    Ruckus

    @trollhattan:

    My observation is that we may be giving shitforbrains too much credit. He is aging out and somewhat rapidly. He is operating on a screw everyone concept. And while he may succeed to some extent, a lot of things take enough go along to get where he wants to go. Aging lowers the bodies tolerance for stress and he’s in a very stressful position and that almost never works out well for someone his age and demeanor.

    How many actual, real friends does he have?

    Accomplices sure, real friends – not so much.

  49. 49.

    Victor Matheson

    Maybe Trump wants Hegseth to do to the military what he did to the charity:  just fold the US Department of Defense and merge it with Russia’s.

  51. 51.

    matt

    Are we going to stop having HR departments and rules against sexual harassment in the federal government under Trump, to be ‘anti-woke’?

  54. 54.

    p.a

    We’ll soon find out how much room there is in the old Get Smart’s Cone of Silence when Rethug Senators break out the “I haven’t heard that” “I don’t know what you’re talking about” re: these nominees.

  55. 55.

    trollhattan

    @rikyrah: Look at Florida Woman, demanding and gaining equal time!

    For purposes of the forthcoming screenplay, said boyfriend will be a jerk Florida Man of highest order.

  57. 57.

    Old School

    @rikyrah:

    WHAT did the Senator from Michigan say that warranted this response from Malcolm?

    Nance’s tweet is a reply to this:

    Senator Gary Peters
    @SenGaryPeters

    President Biden’s decision to pardon his son was wrong. A president’s family and allies shouldn’t get special treatment. This was an improper use of power, it erodes trust in our government, and it emboldens others to bend justice to suit their interests.
    1:36 PM · Dec 2, 2024

  58. 58.

    rikyrah

    Reecie @BlackWomenViews (@ReecieColbert) posted at 3:35 PM on Mon, Dec 02, 2024:
    Spare me the faux outrage about Joe Biden giving Hunter a pardon, that’s what a father is supposed to do! Of course he changed his mind, DUH! The party of the criminal President elect and his bag of degenerates cosplaying as a cabinet can F all the way off. Any weak ass Dems complaining can have several seats too. #reeciecolbertshow

    https://t.co/wdLFpQ2Zxf
    (https://x.com/ReecieColbert/status/1863698592373821838?t=iA3meLvrhxjaPg6nHXrLNA&s=03)

  63. 63.

    Citizen Alan

    @Bill Arnold: They all are. I’ve considered trolling Evangelical reddit pages with “evidence” that Trump is the Antichrist and that the Mark of the Beast came in the form of a red MAGA hat and everyone who wore one will be condemned to hell.

  65. 65.

    Citizen Alan

    @gene108: People who talk about MAGAts voting against their interest obstinately refuse to acknowledge the possibility that White Supremacy and Christianism are not only interests but overriding interests for some people.

  66. 66.

    different-church-lady

    @Old School: ​

    A president’s family and allies shouldn’t get special treatment.

    You mean like sticking your son-in-law in the cabinet or something?

  69. 69.

    rikyrah

    Um…..

    I generally am curious..

    I know what the geography of Canada is…

    Unless you’re coming by plane or boat…

    How are you migrating to Canada?

     

    Rachel Bitecofer  (@RachelBitecofer) posted at 3:56 PM on Mon, Dec 02, 2024:
    Canada seems to want to save their democracy.

    Canada pulls refugee welcome mat, launches ads warning asylum claims hard.

    https://t.co/c4bt3ojugW
    (https://x.com/RachelBitecofer/status/1863703766685605983?t=RuCguPL_ImuKsIA548cWog&s=03)

  71. 71.

    frog

    @Old School:

    A president’s family and allies shouldn’t get special treatment.

    That is correct. Hunter had a successful negotiation for a plea deal. That was not special. Then some congresscritters got involved, demanding something much more harsh. That was special.

    Hunter got special treatment from the DOJ. That justifies special treatment by POTUS.

    Joe Biden would now need to appoint Hunter to be the ambassador to France to match what Trump wants to do.

  73. 73.

    sab

    @gene108:  I dunno. A 73 year old woman in my husband’s coffee klatch in Ohio voted for Trump because our Catholic bishops told them that they would go to hell if they voted for Kamala. She had qualms, then she prayed on it, and then went with the bishops.

  75. 75.

    jonas

    @different-church-lady:  Some Democrats fear that Trump will use the pardon to criticize the justice system and bolster his own efforts to remake it.

    Yeah, he definitely wasn’t going to do that before, but now all bets are off.

  77. 77.

    Citizen Alan

    @Ruckus:  Jesus said you cannot serve both God and Mammon. The Evangelicals sidestep the conflict by worshiping Mammon and pretending he is God.

  80. 80.

    Bill Arnold

    @Baud:
    She deliberately left replies turned on for her tweet: “And forgo the entertainment? Never.”
    Bunch of moronic assholes piling on. At least one white supremacist. One top-of-the-sort reply already was hit with a Community Note.
    For those who have an account
    ETA: the replies to the tweet are solid documentary evidence that current Twitter/X is a reactionary echo chamber. (At least in the English language.)

  82. 82.

    azlib

    I still think Trump’s awful and incompetent nominees are simply a loyalty test to put Republican senators on the spot. We will see how many fall in line.

  84. 84.

    Splitting Image

    @Geminid:

    I’m pretty sure a lot of Republican Senators don’t want Gabbard, but I think they’ll need a reason besides them being Ukraine Hawks and her being an Isolationist. The hearings will be worth watching.

    She’s a former Democrat, if they need a reason.

  85. 85.

    Lobo

    @different-church-lady: ​  Some Democrats … should be a rotating tagline. We should use it when we want to skewer people like Peters, Polis, etc. when they do dumb stuff.​  The Some Democrats Fear is classic abuse behavior of it was my fault for his/her/they behavior to me.​ Only Democrats have agency and are responsible for the R-Sex Creeps behavior.  Furthermore like someone posted below, add what is some to my existential navel gazing.​

  88. 88.

    mrmoshpotato

    Oh MSNBC…

    You don’t know why the orange shitstain won again?  Is his cock poking your brains?

    Is Andrea Mitchell seriously this fucking stupid?  Can she stand looking in the mirror at night after a day of acting like this?

  91. 91.

    Jackie

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I really don’t think TCFG WANTS the FBI to vet his nominations. He KNOWS his choices aren’t pure as the driven snow, BUT they’ll faithfully swing the wreaking ball, and that’s exactly why he chose them.

    They will fulfill his need to enact revenge and retribution to all his enemies from within – which includes us – because we voted against him.

  92. 92.

    Starfish (she/her)

    @Geminid: During the first Trump term, I had a Republican Senator (shout out to Cory Gardner.) Before Trump started, he had seemed like a Ukraine hawk, and I think I may have asked why he no longer seemed to be on that side of the issue.

    Of course, that was 2016 so I didn’t really know what the Ukraine issue meant. I just noticed that he was a Ukraine hawk before, and then he was hanging out with Trump who was trying to be friendly with Russia.

    A lot of commenters seem to have given up on these Senators, but everyone needs to write them letters ESPECIALLY if you have some Republican ones.

  94. 94.

    different-church-lady

    I mean, how many Democrats do you have to have for a “some”? Three? Maybe just two?

  100. 100.

    sab

    @Elizabelle: Bishops are way higher in the hierarchy than nuns.

    My grandmother was a major bigot and also a Protestant.  Her mother was a Presbyterian from Canada and her father was a second generation lapsed Irish Catholic. We used to laugh at her opinions, but I am beginning to think she was right about Catholics. My Irish American husband agrees.

    ETA But then I remember the Bidens.

  101. 101.

    Betty Cracker

    I’m fine with Biden pardoning his son since he’s being targeted by lawless creeps. But I really hope he’ll issue blanket pardons for Col. Vindman and Gen. Milley, patriots who have been threatened with execution by Trump and his thugs. Sorry, Col. Vindman. It turns out here right DOESN’T matter.

  105. 105.

    mvr

    @sab: And the whole J6 Committee, and a lot of other folks (all registered Democrats? – I guess that’s unworkable but it would be fun).

  107. 107.

    NutmegAgain

    Honestly, I’m kind of surprised that our fish wrap of record journos, and others, don’t want to go to town on this stuff. It’s so salacious, I would think it generates clicks/sales. Besides the rape charge (besides??) all the getting shitfaced at official events, having his mother write a very critical letter, etc. (I know, IOKIYAR).

  109. 109.

    Elizabelle

    @sab:  I remember the story of JFK telling someone giving him a choice that he would meet with the nuns, because the bishops were all voting for Republicans anyway.

    Same as it ever was.

  110. 110.

    Gretchen

    @schrodingers_cat: I cancelled my NYT subscription in July because of their nonsense. I kept WaPo but I think I’ve reached the end of the line with them too. Today’s front page has three headlines about Biden’s “controversial” pardon. Nothing about his “controversial” pardon of Charles Kushner before appointing him ambassador to France. They’re not worth wrapping  yesterday’s fish in anymore.

  112. 112.

    Gretchen

    @Betty Cracker: Same. Also pardons for Jack Smith, Liz Cheney, Adam Kinziger and everyone else on the list that they’ve actually written up to target for revenge. Why doesn’t the enemies list factor into their “concern” over the Biden pardon?

  114. 114.

    Geminid

    @Starfish (she/her): There are still Republican Ukraine Hawks in the Senate. There are fewer in the House, and they may end up being purged in the 2026 primaries. That could be the fate of any House Republican who bucks Trump on any issue whatsoever.

  116. 116.

    mrmoshpotato

    @NutmegAgain:

    Honestly, I’m kind of surprised that our fish wrap of record journos, and others, don’t want to go to town on this stuff. It’s so salacious, I would think it generates clicks/sales. Besides the rape charge (besides??) all the getting shitfaced at official events, having his mother write a very critical letter, etc. (I know, IOKIYAR). 

    Forget it, NutmegAgain.  It’s a Rethuglican cabinet.

  119. 119.

    mvr

    @Gretchen: And to expand things a bit, there are people on death row who really need commutations, and Leonard Peltier and likely other activists still in jail, and then most of the drug criminals as well.

    A blanket pardon for the drug crimes even if they were convicted of other things alongside them would at least require resentencing or release.  And maybe it would be good to clog court dockets for a while. I can’t tell.

    OTOH, The overturning of the Chevron Defense may cut the other way.  Maybe we want more lawsuits challenging everything Trump does under the new standard which appears to be whatever the judge would have decided were the judge an admin. Hard question there.

  120. 120.

    Chris Johnson

    @Geminid: Gabbard is an absolute vatnik. She exemplifies the way in which none of this is about Trump and all is about Russia running the show, THROUGH Trump, now. So yeah RFK to bring us all plague, Hegseth to lead the army in an attack on California or something, but Tulsi is the prize, to the Kremlin. They have some kind of notion that if Trump appoints her, they totally win because all our institutions will blindly obey Potemkin leaders, with Tulsi being the primary one actually capable of following direction (rather than just ruining everything, or witlessly dragging random papers to Mar-A-Lago like a trained dog that can’t read)

    I think that’s ‘one weird trick’ thinking, and I don’t think it’s going to work. In particular, the Republicans in Congress are only down with treason if they get to still be rich and powerful. It’s looking like a total bust-out in which the Republicans are hurt as much as everybody else in the effort to wreck America completely, and I don’t think Putin can trust them to go along with it.

    I don’t know what’s going to happen but certain kinds of disaster are bad for business.

  122. 122.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: While Alexander Vindman attracts the most hatred, his brother Eugene isn’t far behind. I follow Eugene Vindman’s social media account because he’s my Representative-elect, and I see a lot of people demanding treason trials for him and his brother.

    If nothing else, Rep. Vindman will be a big target in the midterms. He would be anyway because he won by less than 3% this year, but I think whoever runs against him will attract a ton of money.

  125. 125.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @The Other Bob: sure hope you’re right.

    Also, I expect my reps to refuse to confirm the back up nominees as well as the first ones offered up in their stew of character flaws and gross incompetence. I am guessing the transition team has secondary nominees just waiting, to propose them when the obviously unqualified first one is rejected.
    If anyone is unqualified, don’t confirm them. I do hope a lot of questions are asked, going deeper into policy and details of how do you plan to destroy this agency ( as someone above suggested).

    Let it drag on and on.

  130. 130.

    Gvg

    I think we should make a fuss about the drunkenness. Trump does not respect drunks. He would pull the nomination if the guy got drunk in front of him I am sure.

    He likes things we hate, but he does have some lines. It might be useful to try to list some other things he hates so we can try to sabotage other vile people when needed.

  132. 132.

    Trivia Man

    @Elizabelle: my guess: recess appointments left and right.

    “But senators said they won’t allow that!” I hear you cry. Counterpoint: Trump calls the tune for them. Period. They will fold like a cheap suit and say, “LAST CHANCE!!  Next time we refuse!”

  134. 134.

    Trivia Man

    @Elizabelle: a true recess appointment has full power. An “acting” title carries some limits. President can name Acting with no permission from anyone. Recess stays until the next session starts.

  136. 136.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah: good indeed.

    Snooze media outlets need to learn: recirculating their own Beltway nonsense and playing “Both-Sides Light” means they can’t be trusted to report a damn thing.

  137. 137.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah: blanket pardons for trump enemies and FBI background checks for all of his nominees, too.

    MAGA’s not the only ones who can break norms.

  140. 140.

    Shakti

    @Gretchen: I just don’t bother with accounts anymore. Any chance I get I bypass the paywalls and places that want me to disable their ad blocker, because the way they want to me to use their site can easily brick my phone or laptop.

    It’s much more pleasant to do it that way.

    The way news is framed it’s just not informative anymore and I feel actively stupider the more I consume. It makes me angry.  And newspaper consolidation and ownership means it’s all billionaire vanity projects anyways.

    And with everything that will happen, I need to save every penny I can for the things I want and need.

    I have come full circle from my youth, who knew those minor skills would come in handy again?

  141. 141.

    karen marie

    @Elizabelle:

    maybe he will go with someone less awful but competent

     

    Given Trump is going to nominate Republicans, “less awful” is unlikely. I’d suggest the next nominee will be “less rapey” but still awful, because it’s clear that Trump intends to cripple the federal government on all fronts, and the Republican senators will go along with his conventionally awful nominees because they themselves are awful people.

  142. 142.

    Jeffro

    @Citizen Alan:

    @Bill Arnold:

    @Kayla Rudbek:

    trumpov has made this life-long atheist reconsider his beliefs more than once in light of all the available ‘evidence’…

    …but I refuse to give him that kind of power.  He’s just an incredibly corrupt, malicious, and ignorant person born into great wealth who has never been accountable for anything in his life.  That kind of person would closely resemble an Antichrist.

  143. 143.

    karen marie

    @dlwchico:   Strip clubs are where Republicans go to “relax.”  Just google “Republican strip club.”

    To be fair, you can also google “Democrat strip club” but I can tell you – having already done both – that the latter search brings up far fewer embarrassing stories.

  145. 145.

    Chris T.

    @dlwchico:

    Who takes their work team to a strip club besides the bad guys on tv shows and movies?

    I once had a boss who did that. It was kind of sad I think, and in the end I would not call him a great boss either.

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