Trump Adminstration 2.0

[DougMacG]

Not my list but interesting.
In order, hardest first:
1. Tulsi
2. Gaetz
3. RFK
4. Hegseth
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Does anyone remember when Hillary was secretary of state that she was not given the most contentious trouble spots, those were to be run from the Obama White House.

When Trump picks a loyalist instead of an expert, that is a bit of how I take it, they plan to run it from the White House and the cabinet secretary will be the face of the policy.
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There was a mainstream article today about how the senior officials at doj believe this attorney general pick to be Insanity, etc. The more shook they are, the better this pick is likely to turn out.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/doj-stunned-at-trumps-insane-unbelievable-choice-of-matt-gaetz-for-attorney-general/ar-AA1u36ky

WASHINGTON — "President-elect Donald Trump's choice of Matt Gaetz — a Florida congressman who was recently the target of an FBI investigation — to be the next attorney general of the United States sent shockwaves through the Justice Department on Wednesday."

  - As intended.

" who was recently the target of an FBI investigation", means different things to different people in 2024, lawfare, warfare world.

[Body-by-Guinness]

Heck, why would he want to give his clear enemies any sort of say in his selections?

Trump’s team skips FBI background checks for some Cabinet picks

 Evan Perez  Zachary Cohen  Holmes Lybrand  Kristen Holmes

US Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, speaks to the press outside the US Capitol as the House votes on a continuing resolution in the House in Washington, DC on September 30, 2023. Last-gasp moves to prevent a US government shutdown took a dramatic step forward Saturday, as Democrats overwhelmingly backed an eleventh-hour Republican measure to keep federal funding going for 45 days, albeit with a freeze on aid to Ukraine. The stopgap proposal adopted by the House of Representatives with a vote of 335-91 was pitched by Speaker Kevin McCarthy. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

Gaetz couldn’t get a job at the FBI if he tried, Andrew McCabe says

President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is bypassing traditional FBI background checks for at least some of his Cabinet picks while using private companies to conduct vetting of potential candidates for administration jobs, people close to the transition planning say.

Trump and his allies believe the FBI system is slow and plagued with issues that could stymie the president-elect’s plan to quickly begin the work of implementing his agenda, people briefed on the plans said. Critics say the intrusive background checks sometimes turn up embarrassing information used to inflict political damage.

The discussions come as Trump has floated several controversial choices for high-level positions in the US government – including Matt Gaetz for attorney general and Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence.

Ultimately, the president has the final authority on who he nominates and decides to share intelligence with, regardless of the established protocol set in the wake of World War II to make sure those selections don’t have unknown foreign ties or other issues that could raise national security concerns.

But circumventing background checks would be bucking a long-established norm in Washington. It also reflects Trump’s deep mistrust of the national security establishment, which he derides as the Deep State. Sources say he has privately questioned the need for law enforcement background checks.

Dan Meyer, a national security attorney in Washington, DC, said the incoming Trump administration “doesn’t want harmony.” They “don’t want the FBI to coordinate a norm; they want to hammer the norm,” he said.

Some of Trump’s advisers began circulating a memo before the election, urging him to bypass the traditional background check process for some of his appointees, a source briefed on the memo told CNN. Instead of using law enforcement, the memo proposed hiring private researchers who could move more quickly to perform background checks.

The president-elect could always, however, decide to eventually submit names to the FBI.

Some of Trump’s picks for roles in his administration could run into problems during a background check, posing potential hurdles during the confirmation process.

Gaetz has been mired for years in Justice Department and House ethics investigations related to sex trafficking. The Justice Department declined to charge Gaetz, and the House ethics probe, days away from being completed, was effectively ended when the Florida congressman resigned from his seat this week. Gaetz has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Gabbard, meanwhile, has frequently appeared to take positions more favorable to foreign leaders widely considered not just American adversaries but, in some cases, brutal dictators, including the presidents of Syria and Russia, raising questions from allies and critics alike.

Gabbard notably met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Syria in 2017, and said in 2019 that he was “not an enemy of the United States.”

In early 2022, she echoed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rationale for the country’s invasion of Ukraine, pinning the blame not on Moscow but on the Biden administration’s failure to acknowledge “Russia’s legitimate security concerns regarding Ukraine’s becoming a member of NATO” — a popular strain of thought in some right-wing circles.

In addition to the confirmation process, FBI background checks are used to vet nominees for a security clearance, which an attorney general nominee is required to have to do the job.

As president, Trump could bypass the process and order Gaetz to be granted a security clearance, as he did in his first term to grant a clearance to his son-in-law Jared Kushner after the approval languished amid questions about potential conflicts of interest.

Trump ordered clearances to be granted to about 25 people whose applications were initially denied for possible national security concerns, CNN previously reported.

If Gaetz does not participate in the vetting process, the FBI could still try to do a basic investigation at the request of the Senate. But one source familiar with the process noted that it is difficult to collect some data without his consent.

US officials are still waiting for the Trump transition team to submit a list of names, including those under consideration for Cabinet-level roles, to be formally vetted for security clearances, the source said.

Trump’s team has, to date, resisted participating in the formal transition process, which includes signing memorandums of understanding and secrecy agreements typically considered a prerequisite for accessing classified material before the new administration assumes office.

Instead, Trump’s transition team has been focused on conducting its own internal vetting of candidates for top administration jobs.

The delay in vetting candidates for clearances also impacts the timing of classified briefings for incoming administration officials, according to the source familiar with the process.

While Trump will have the authority to override any vetting concerns and grant access to sensitive material once he takes office, he won’t be able to do so until he is sworn in on January 20. So if Trump’s team continues to skirt the vetting process, those tapped for key roles wouldn’t be able to receive briefings until then.

The Trump team’s lack of urgency when it comes to pre-vetting individuals for national security positions isn’t surprising and is consistent with how he handled the transition process after the 2016 election, the source said. Trump’s team was “ill-prepared” for taking over in 2017, so the current lack of interest in participating in the vetting process is “par for the course, maybe,” the source added.

Submitting individuals who have current access to classified material or were previously vetted could help move the process along while those with no US government experience will take some time. Trump’s pick of Rep. Mike Waltz as national security adviser, is one such example.

[Body-by-Guinness]

2nd post. Kennedy takes on the Nemesis form:

NEMESIS ☙ Friday, November 15, 2024 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠
A special Robert Kennedy, Jr. edition, pushing past the hot takes and quieting the media racket to explore the profound significance of this revolutionary, historic nomination.

JEFF CHILDERS
NOV 15, 2024
Good morning, C&C, it’s Friday! And today’s Coffee & Covid is a special edition about the most exciting development since Trump’s re-election: the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to the post of Secretary of Health and Human Services. You’ve already seen the news, let’s mute all the noise and the hot takes and dig deep into what this miraculous development really means for America. You won’t be disappointed.

🗞💬 WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY 💬🗞

We had no right to receive such a blessing, especially after President Trump’s definitive victory. But it’s actually happened, and we are profoundly grateful. Also amusing is watching the Establishment freak out worse than a mask zealot at a country music festival. But however hard they are currently freaking out, they haven’t even scratched the surface. Just wait till they figure out what Kennedy’s confirmation would really mean.

🤯🤯 On Wednesday, President Trump, like the Road Runner kindly returning Wile E. Coyote’s misplaced explosives, dropped an Acme Gaetz-grenade down the back of progressive Washington’s trousers while it was distracted looking for the President down in the gulch of Florida.  After Gaetz’s nomination for Attorney General, was inconceivable the President could have been any more provocative, but he managed it anyway. CNN covered the story under the headline, “Trump’s latest controversial Cabinet pick could have a huge impact on Americans’ health and lives.” Hopefully.

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While DC was distracted, distressedly leaping around frantically trying to get the Gaetz-grenade out of its back pocket, the news of Kennedy’s nomination for Secretary of HHS fell out of the Mar-a-Lago-colored sky like an entire crate of Acme Gaetz-grenades and squashed CDC headquarters.

A few second later, a little cloud of black smoke exploded out from under the Kennedy-crate, along with a blackened arm holding a little sign that said, “boom.”

The implications are so stunningly vast that no single headline could do the story justice. CNBC took the economic view, reporting “Vaccine maker stocks fall as Trump chooses RFK Jr. to lead HHS.” (Losers included Moderna, Pfizer, Novavax, GlaxoSmithKline, and others.) The far-left UK Guardian headlined its story, “RFK Jr condemned as ‘clear and present danger’ after Trump nomination.”

It was a total freak out, from one end of J-street to the other. Fox:

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NPR, which should be busy polishing up its resume instead of running hit pieces against my home state, darkly wondered in its headline, “What happens when a vaccine skeptic leads health policy? Ask Florida.”

Incidentally, why do they hate the Sunshine State so much? Hey M’arn’a, what’s the worst thing xe can think of, besides Florida?

Returning to NPR’s headlined question, the answer to what happens was, get ready, more vaccine skepticism. Dr. Lisa Gwynn, a licensed Miami doctor who believes men and women are biologically indistinguishable, is frankly terrified. She’s terrified because so far this year, Broward county has seen five measles cases. Five! (Everyone was fine, of course, but still.) Five! (In a county of millions.)

‘Measles cases’ is the metric the Establishment is using to measure vaccine skepticism these days. Whatever.

But possibly the best description of what terrifies the Establishment the most appeared in the sub-headline to one of the myriad New York Times articles about RFK’s nomination. It read, “Whether the Senate would confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic who has unorthodox views about medicine, is an open question.”

Unorthodox views.

🤯 Kennedy, one hardly needs reminding, is a lifelong Democrat. He believes in manmade climate change and strict gun control. When the Times cries over his ‘unorthodox’ views, all Kennedy’s intersecting areas of common progressive interests count for absolutely nothing.  The fact that caused the Times and the rest of DC’s utter panic over Trump’s win, the fact that sent vaccine stock prices straight downwards, is the fact that Robert Kennedy has called for vaccines to be tested like all other drugs are.

Elite progressives can be divided into two groups. There is a smaller, cynical cohort, a kind of Marxist human parasite, that grows ever richer from every latest looney leftwing social experiment. They are in Congress. The larger group includes the true believers, who infest the government bureaucracy and the academy. They are rules-followers from birth. Follow the rules, and you’ll succeed. Break the rules, and you fail.

One of progressives’ most fundamental rules, to the point of religious dogma, is take your medicine and do what the doctor said. It matters not that America’s health is worse in every measure since the government took over big medicine (or vice-versa, the result is the same, it matters not who started it). Drugs are their sacrament, and compliance is the sacred ritual.

The unimaginable idea that HHS —the single largest agency in the U.S. government, with a budget exceeding national defense —a massive institution trusted to safeguard the sacraments— could be just handed over to a man who’s spent his career suing the government and vaccine companies is, well, unthinkable.

🤯 Progressives don’t want to debate vaccine safety and efficacy. They don’t want to question it. It must not even be discussed. But … how can they avoid the debate if RFK takes charge of HHS, which in turn oversees the CDC, FDA, NIH, and so many other sub-agencies that nobody is really sure how many there are, and I am not making that up.

Literally. Nobody knows. Even ChatGPT agreed:

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The pandemic exposed a whole raft of major federal bureaucracies, like the intelligence services and the Pentagon, who all drink from HHS’ morbidly obese ‘health’ budget.

Including, but not limited to, military bioweapons engineering under the sinister rubric of gain-of-function research for predictive vaccine development. Just saying.

It is literally impossible for Congress to oversee the byzantine labyrinth of agencies, grants, foreign and domestic cooperative initiatives, and NGOs that all feed off HHS’s trillion-dollar annual budget. But there might be one man who could make a dent. That man is Robert Kennedy, who has spent decades digging through HHS’s trash and knows, maybe better than anybody, “where the bodies are buried.”

🤯 But the prospect of Kennedy digging around in the CDC skunkworks is not even the Establishment’s biggest anxiety. Over time, sneakily, gradually, bit-by-bit, the nation’s health laws have handed over vast swathes of power to one unelected official: the Secretary of HHS.

Take, for example, the PREP Act, over which I am currently suing Biden and the federal government. The Act provides total liability immunity to entire industries as long as the HHS Secretary signs a single declaration— literally, just a piece of paper. PFizer and Moderna, just to pick two, are both immune from all vaccine injury claims simply because Biden’s HHS Secretary said so.

So, Kennedy could upend the whole nauseating scheme in about ten minutes, just by issuing a new declaration. Kennedy could also, in his new declaration, order the PREP office to start recognizing automatically a whole slew of injuries related to covid countermeasures, and he could even direct the office to stop rejecting untimely claims. That single declaration could blow the lid off the whole covid scam and immediately aid millions.

And that’s just one Act. Which explains why you’re seeing headlines like Politico’s:

image 4.png
To be crystal clear: the HHS Secretary has been given so much power that Kennedy, if confirmed, won’t need Congress.

🤯 Even since before the primaries, many folks were mad at President Trump for not disavowing the covid shots. But had he done that, President Trump might never have been elected. Now that he’s been elected, he’s elevated the nation’s most notorious vaccine skeptic to a position to officially disavow not just the covid shots, but all so-called vaccines that have not truly been proven safe and effective.

Quibblers argue that vaccines are ‘long-proven’ to be safe and effective.  But Kennedy’s repeated point, with which this author strongly agrees, is that most vaccines were never tested against placebos, nor measured for long-term, all-cause morbidity and mortality. Those aren’t unreasonable requests.

🤯 Now, let’s look closer at President Trump’s Gaetz-grenade. Flip the calendar back to 2005, when President Bush electrified the Establishment by nominating for the Supreme Court his personal lawyer, Harriet Miers, to replace beloved, left-leaning Sandra Day O’Connor, who'd retired (she died recently in 2023). The Establishment demanded another female justice to replace the late O’Connor, so Bush offered them Harriet, a die-hard conservative battle-lawyer who’d never even been a temporary traffic magistrate, much less a judge of any kind.

Following the predictable outrage explosion, including by many conservatives, Bush conceded, withdrew Harriet, and nominated conservative stalwart Samuel Alito instead. The demands for a female justice were quieted. Justice Alito slid quickly and comfortably through the Senate on greased skids. It was a masterful bit of political rope-a-dope that silenced enough diversity dopes to tilt the Court rightwards.

Here’s the point: Is Matt Gaetz the 2024 version of Harriet Miers? Is he just a provocative political sacrifice, to ease confirmation of the real target, RFK?

The Senate cannot politically afford to refuse many of Trump’s picks. RINOs must pick their battles wisely. I don’t claim to enjoy even a shadowy fraction of the political genius that re-elected President Trump against all odds in a modern-era landslide.

But from up here in the cheap seats, Matt’s questionable nomination appears to be brilliant, and offers hope for RFK’s confirmation. At minimum, it might give the Senate cover; by refusing to confirm Gaetz, the Senate shows backbone, shows it’s not just a rubber stamp but a separate-and-equal branch, thereby saving face while confirming Trump’s other nominations.

Still, don’t count Matt out. Yesterday, Politico ran a surprising story headlined, “Why Matt Gaetz Might Actually Become Attorney General.” The story makes the affirmative case for the unlikely, combative Florida Congressman. In short, Politico explained Matt Gaetz is scrappy and principled, doesn’t care what people think, and he has a proven record as a long-shot winner, just like President Trump. Read the whole thing.

🤯 At this historic moment, pregnant with hope and rapturous possibility, we cannot fail to finish with the pandemic overreach that made all of this possible.

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It cannot be reasonably argued that, without the lockdowns, mandates, and political prosecutions, none of what Trump is now doing would even be imaginable, much less on approach for a safe landing. As the President reportedly observed at a Mar-a-Lago event last night, in 2016 he was dogged by Democrat debate that he lost the popular vote, and thus had no mandate.

That slender reed of an argument, that thin straw, was enough to fill up the tank of political fuel powering the so-called “Resistance” movement. The Resistance’s progressive ranks were, as you well know, padded out by squishy Republicans who successfully opposed Trump’s entire agenda and gummed up the machinery worse than an aging relative who clicks on every pop-up offering to “Clean Your Computer Now!”

Ahem, Liz Cheney. Ahem, Adam Kinzinger.  You shall not be missed.

Corporate media’s talking heads can analyze the data all they want. But there is a simple explanation for why Trump was elected. He was elected because America is pissed off. It’s no more complicated than that. Corporate media keeps crying about how President Trump wants revenge. They’re missing the real story, maybe intentionally.

It’s not that President Trump wants revenge. A furious America wants revenge.

We want revenge for lost jobs. We want revenge for lost small businesses. We want revenge for boys cheating girls out of their athletic trophies. We want revenge for bizarre cross-dressers appointed to high offices. We want revenge for wretched drag queens exposing themselves on the White House lawn. We want revenge for the “Pride” flag hoisted above Old Glory. We want revenge for $7 butter, for open borders, for children’s lost educational attainment, for “six foot distancing,” for streets lined with homeless tents, for sneering, hubristic elites commanding trust in “the science,” for soccer moms raided by FBI SWAT teams, for raw political prosecutions, for lives ruined by fentanyl, for euthanized pet squirrels and cats butchered by Haitians, for kids sterilized by trans-affirmed drugs, for elderly parents dying alone, and for chronic, untreatable, disabling vaccine injuries.

“Revenge” is not just, as corporate media feared, Trump’s prosecution of the real insurrectionists who overthrew the 2020 election. What revenge really looks like is quickly and surely becoming abundantly and painfully clear.

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Nothing about this is new. Nothing about this was unpredictable. As has been true since the dawn of time, revenge’s terrifying aspect is Nemesis. Nemesis is now taking its form, the form of Trump appointing to the top of executive federal agencies people who hate those agencies the most.

Dear CDC and FDA: prepare to drain the bitter cup filled with the tainted wine of your arrogance and hubris.

It’s not just Gaetz and Kennedy freaking out the Establishment. It’s the whole slate. For example, behold this overwrought headline from CNN, yesterday:

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The Ancient Greeks believed that Nemesis was the goddess of retribution and vengeance. Nemesis hates hubris, or excessive pride. Nemesis balances the cosmic scales of justice by suddenly and unexpectedly appearing to punish mortals and gods alike just when they think they have won the day.

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No explanation is needed to describe the prideful arrogance of the Democrats’ elite, paternalistic, pseudo-intellectual, top-down biomedical authoritarianism. It is self-evident. It was always there, long before covid, hidden behind a smiling mask of arrogant, faux empathy.

The pandemic ripped off the mask. The Democrats sowed the wind and reaped the whirlwind.

It is, perhaps, too soon yet to express any gratitude for the pandemic. But that day is just over the horizon. We must wait until the crops have been hauled in to weigh the full harvest. But the seeds were planted, the crops are grown, and the farmers are already at work in the fields.

🔥🔥 I’ll leave you with this bit of encouragement. The far-far-left Economist ran a shocking story yesterday with a headline that asked, “Should America ban fluoride in its drinking water?”

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Get ready. The Economist’s answer appeared right in the article’s subheadline: “The idea by Robert F. Kennedy junior—nominated by Donald Trump as health secretary—may have teeth.”

May have teeth! (Get it? Fluoride, teeth? Very clever, Economist.)

Defying all odds, the Economist actually endorsed Kennedy’s fluoride skepticism:

While the article continued by describing in painstaking detail how difficult it would be to implement any federal fluoride ban, the article’s overall tone and conclusion was it might not be such a bad idea.

Just one year ago, questioning fluoride was a cancellable offense. Now, even the lefties at the Economist can, like Biblical Belshazzar, read the writing on the wall.

Call it the “Kennedy Effect.” In other words, Maha is already starting. MAHA-HA-HA!.

[Body-by-Guinness]

3rd post. A Politico post re Gaetz that basically says don’t count him outa:

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/11/14/dont-count-out-matt-gaetz-00189680

[ccp]

got thrown off the air by CNN propagandist anchor.

now she can throw them off the air as WH PS.

https://people.com/kasie-hunt-ends-cnn-interview-trump-spokesperson-karoline-leavitt-8668073

[Body-by-Guinness]

A good overview of Trump’s picks and reason for choosing them. My favorite quote:

“Government spending is a problem everywhere. Avigdor Liberman, chairman of the Yisrael Beytenu party, told the Knesset, “The government hired a hard-working forester.

“Then they gave him a driver, a cook, an accountant, and a manager. They ended up with a bloated organization, and decided to make cuts. So they fired the forester.’”

The rest here:

This will be settled at recess
The Constitution allows Trump to appoint the best Cabinet possible
NOV 15, 2024

The speed with which President Trump has appointed Cabinet members takes my breath away. By my count, he is up to 6 after adding Matt Gaetz as AG and Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence on Wednesday night.

Oh wait a second. On Thursday, he named RFK Jr. as his head of Health and Human Services. As Will Chamberlain tweeted, “God forbid we let RFK Jr. be in charge of HHS, otherwise he might do something crazy like fund experimental gain-of-function research in Chinese laboratories and cause a global pandemic.”

I believe that is called sarcasm. Readers know that I am a stranger to such a concept.

And then Trump made it 8 by picking ex-Georgia congressman Doug Collins to run the VA.

Make that 9. Just before my bedtime last night, The Calvin Coolidge Project tweeted, “President Trump has announced that Doug Burgum will be his Interior Secretary.”

At this point 8 years ago, Trump had appointed no one. He was waiting for recommendations from the Republican Establishment.

Trump has created a No RINO Zone for this administration. The speed this time reflects the quality of the appointments. MAGA is a magnet for heroes and he has embraced them all.

However, the Senate must confirm his appointments to his Cabinet. No problem. The final paragraph in Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution reads:

The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune agreed to call a recess to let Trump’s appointees start their jobs immediately. On Inauguration Day, Vice President JD Vance as President of the Senate, can call a recess. Trump then appoints Gaetz and company. Formal confirmation can come later.

The deal likely was cut during the campaign because at one rally with Gaetz on stage, Trump announced they had a secret they would divulge after the election.

This Cabinet is the opposite of Lincoln’s Cabinet of Rivals. This is Trump’s Cabinet of Allies. He finally is getting an A Team of his own. The A stands for American.

Trump’s voters have issues with the federal government and Trump’s appointments reflect the grievances from the people who live outside the DC cocoon.

Charlie Johnston tweeted, “I have noticed an important theme to some Trump appointments: he is appointing people to head agencies that victimized them.

“Tulsi Gabbard will head the agency that put her on a terrorist no-fly list for endorsing Trump. Matt Gaetz will head the DOJ which tried to railroad him over what was almost certainly an extortion scheme. Pete Hegseth will head the DOD, in which a bunch of woke generals ridiculed his book on reforming the military.

“Interesting thing. In these cases, Trump will NOT have to prod these appointees to act: occasionally he may have to restrain them. This version of Trump is dead set on reforming the bureaucratic Deep State.”

Murkowski, Collins and the rest of the ladies on The View reacted to Gaetz like Blaine Edwards and Antoine Merriweather reacted to Little Women.

JD Vance tweeted, “The main issue with Matt Gaetz is that he used his office to prosecute his political opponents and authorized federal agents to harass parents who were peacefully protesting at school board meetings.

“Oh wait, that’s actually Merrick Garland, the current attorney general.”

ALX tweeted, “The same people who think Matt Gaetz isn’t qualified to be Attorney General thought Kamala Harris was qualified to be President.”

You have heard about revenge. Gaetz got prevenge.

He quit Congress upon the announcement, which by Florida law means there must be an election to replace him by January 8. Who will Democrats get to run on such short notice? I am pretty sure Gaetz has a successor and money lined up for the election.

Meanwhile, Rubio’s appointment as Secretary of State opens the door for a Senator Trump.

Benny Johnson tweeted, “Lara Trump responds to calls for Governor Ron DeSantis to appoint her U.S. Senator of Florida to fill Marco Rubio’s seat: ‘If I am able to serve, I would love to serve the people of Florida. Truly to have that opportunity I think would be incredible.’ ”

This term will be far different than the first one, which seems so long ago now. In the interim, Democrats broke all precedent.

Democrats staged an unprecedented and unwarranted raid on Trump’s home and confiscated 100,000 documents.

Democrats threw his supporters in prison on trumped up charges.

Democrats sued him for paying off an extortionists, taking out a loan and paying it back with interest, and for calling a lying psycho a liar.

Democrats made up 91 felony counts and took a mugshot.

But the final straw — the event that brought it all together — was the assassination attempt. Not today, Satan. The Lord intervened. Trump emerged a humbled and determined man. This is his last chance to save the country for which he stands. He has risen from the ash heap of politics to fight, fight, fight.

Leaders inspire and teach. Courtney Holland pointed out the ages of Team Trump: “Vivek Ramaswamy is 39. Elise Stefanik is 40. JD Vance is 40. Matt Gaetz is 42. Tulsi Gabbard is 43.”

Benny Johnson tweeted, “Elon Musk. Tulsi Gabbard. RFK Jr. In hindsight, Democrats making mortal enemies of their richest billionaires, youngest rising stars and most powerful political dynasties destroyed the DNC for a generation.

“They did it to themselves.

“Pride cometh before destruction.”

Democrats lost the male Latino vote. Many black voters stayed home rather than vote for Kamala. Native Americans overwhelmingly voted for Trump.

When I look at Kamala, I realize Trump dodged a bullet and America dodged a nuke.

Democrats in the Senate protest but they are as short-handed in Congress as Hezbollah members who answered their pagers.

But haters gotta hate and on Thursday they hated Gaetz.

Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal said, “Matt Gaetz Is a Bad Choice for Attorney General.” (Paywalled.)

From Never Trump Island, National Review said, “Matt Gaetz Cannot Be Allowed to Become Attorney General.” (Paywalled.)

The Hill reported, “McCarthy says Gaetz won’t get confirmed: ‘Everyone knows that.’ ”

That’s Kevin McCarthy, the roommate of Frank Luntz. Gaetz got Republicans to fire McCarthy as speaker.

Meanwhile, NBC has revived the Russian hoax to attack Gabbard.

NBC said, “President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, former Democratic lawmaker Tulsi Gabbard, has been accused of amplifying Russian propaganda and would come to the job having never worked in the intelligence world or served on a congressional intelligence committee.”

No mention was made of her being the first Samoan Cabinet member. Back when she was a Democrat, the press made a big deal about her being the first Samoan elected to a voting seat in Congress. Samoa has had a territorial non-voting member for 46 years. That seldom popped up in their stories.

So Trump haters hate most these two and Pete Hegseth, the defense appointee. I need not know more about them to recommend these MAGA winners.

Musk and Ramaswamy are catching flak for heading efforts to cut government spending. Socialists are so jealous of successful businessmen.

Government spending is a problem everywhere. Avigdor Liberman, chairman of the Yisrael Beytenu party, told the Knesset, “The government hired a hard-working forester.

“Then they gave him a driver, a cook, an accountant, and a manager. They ended up with a bloated organization, and decided to make cuts. So they fired the forester.”

Stephen Collinson spun Trump’s appointees for CNN saying, “Why Trump is trying to outrage Washington with his controversial Cabinet picks.”

He is not trying to outrage anyone because these loons are always angry.

The real issue is why the press is dead set against an incoming president who won a majority of the popular vote and 31 states is not allowed to pick his Cabinet.

My suggestions for other picks include Danica Patrick heading transportation, Dr. Phil as surgeon general, Buzz Aldrin to run NASA, Jake Paul heading the Secret Service, and Randy “Shitter’s Full” Quaid to run the EPA. Lee Zeldin can simply move over to the Department of Education and shut it down.

Fortunately for Trump, he never takes my advice.

As for the enemies of MAGA who don’t like the Cabinet, we’ll see you at recess.

https://donsurber.substack.com/p/this-will-be-settled-in-recess?r=1qo1e&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&triedRedirect=true

[Body-by-Guinness]

Trump being handed a championship belt at the UFC:

https://x.com/margomartin/status/1858037538243383784?s=61

[ccp]

cool but look at the size of it.
it does not appear that it will fit around his , ahem , waist.....

[Crafty_Dog]

I am having a glorious time razzing a good friend who despite his IQ and love of Israel, holds on to his TDS.   He called Trump a "divider" so I him things like this.

[ccp]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/musk-top-trump-adviser-clash-over-cabinet-picks/ar-AA1uhwMu?ocid=msedgntp&pc=DCTS&cvid=dd910932d82048a7ae8ea9cf092eb09f&ei=24

[Crafty_Dog]

Tulsi Gabbard vs. Trump’s First Term
As Director of National Intelligence would she underestimate security threats to dodge hard policy choices?
By
The Editorial Board
Follow
Nov. 18, 2024 5:31 pm ET




Tulsi Gabbard speaks at Madison Square Garden, New York, Oct. 27. Photo: Alex Brandon/Associated Press
Matt Gaetz and Pete Hegseth have received more attention as presidential nominees, but one choice who also deserves Senate scrutiny is former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. Mr. Trump’s pick for Director of National Intelligence, or DNI, is on record as opposing the security decisions that made his first-term foreign policy a success.

***
The DNI oversees 18 spy agencies and coordinates the intelligence the President and his policy advisers receive. Strong Trump nominees like John Ratcliffe, at the CIA, can corral their agencies and keep them out of politics. But the DNI influences what the President sees each day, how that information is framed, and what the U.S. knows about security threats around the world. This is a job for an honest broker without pronounced policy biases.

Ms. Gabbard, a Democrat until 2022, shares Mr. Trump’s skepticism toward U.S. military involvement abroad. But she stands out as a troubling choice to manage intelligence because her views on the use of force and U.S. foreign policy mark her to the left of even dovish voices in the Democratic Party.

Mr. Trump is proud of his strong Iran policy, which worked. Yet Ms. Gabbard argued for years that Mr. Trump’s first-term policies would start a war. The opposite was true. Her preferred Obama-Biden policy led to the current Middle East war, and Iran accelerated its nuclear program after President Biden’s election.

Watch Ms. Gabbard’s 2019 video “Trump’s Path to War With Iran.” She begins the same way Kamala Harris would: “First, he tore up the Iran nuclear agreement.” For that, and the maximum-pressure sanctions that followed, she calls President Trump a warmonger. But as Mr. Trump often said in this past campaign, those policies had Iran “on its knees.” They also led to the Abraham Accords.

Mr. Trump wants Saudi Arabia in those accords. In 2019 Ms. Gabbard said Mr. Trump had turned the U.S. into the Saudis’ “prostitute.” She pushed to end support for the Saudis in Yemen. President Biden did that, and the Houthis have since shut down most commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

In 2020 Ms. Gabbard assailed Mr. Trump’s strike on Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s terror chief. She said the strike “undermined our national security” and had “no justification whatsoever.” She tried to limit Mr. Trump’s war powers against Iran. In 2018 she tried to cut from the annual defense bill a strategy to counter Iran’s influence. That would also push us toward war, she argued.

She had one note on Iran—Obama-style appeasement was the only way to avoid war—and she was wrong. Given those views, how would she analyze and present new, if uncertain, evidence that Iran is advancing toward a nuclear weapon if she thought it might lead to war?

In May 2018 Ms. Gabbard wrote, “Israel needs to stop using live ammunition in its response to unarmed protesters in Gaza.” Later that week Hamas admitted most of the dead were its members. It had sent them to breach the Gaza border in an operation presaging the Oct. 7 attack. Ms. Gabbard maligned Israel for daring to prevent it.

Most shamefully, Ms. Gabbard went to Syria in 2017 for a photo-op with dictator Bashar al-Assad while he was massacring his own people. She said she was “skeptical” that he was behind the chemical-weapons attack even as photos of the child victims moved President Trump.

Ms. Gabbard has been wrong about the rest of the world too. She opposed Mr. Trump’s wise decision to leave the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces missile treaty with Russia amid clear evidence that Vladimir Putin was violating the pact. She said Mr. Trump’s decision “heightens the danger of a nuclear holocaust.”

Mere hours after Russia invaded Ukraine, Ms. Gabbard blamed NATO: “This war and suffering could have easily been avoided if Biden admin/NATO had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns regarding Ukraine’s becoming a member of NATO.” In 2019 she warned that Mr. Trump’s China trade policies could “escalate into a hot war.”

***
U.S. intelligence agencies have sometimes overestimated threats, as we learned about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction after the 2003 Iraq war. But the U.S. has also underestimated emerging risks numerous times and the result was sometimes catastrophe. See Pearl Harbor, or the prelude to 9/11. The U.S. also missed Iran’s nuclear advances of the past 20 years that were exposed by Israeli espionage but surprised the CIA.

The DNI isn’t the ultimate decision-maker, and perhaps Ms. Gabbard will drop her glib Bernie Sanders-style patter once she has responsibility, but she hasn’t renounced those views as far as we have seen. The world today is far more dangerous than it was in Mr. Trump’s first term. He will need honest assessments of the threats, and not an intelligence chief animated above all by fear that any U.S. action other than appeasement will result in World War III.

Ms. Gabbard has given no indication across her long political career that she is the right person for that vital duty.

[DougMacG]

Yes they make good points.  I remember cringing at her foreign policy views.  Also at some of Trump's and of Vance's.

The confirmation hearings will be interesting.

I recall Trump liked to surround himself with trigger happy hawks when entering negotiations.  Then he can be the one offering restraint.

[Crafty_Dog]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/christian-motto-or-nationalist-dog-whistle-could-a-tattoo-derail-trump-s-pick-for-defense-secretary/ar-AA1uaIPj?ocid=msedgntp&pc=DCTS&cvid=6160a2c6b0e54a53849847b61e2a433c&ei=42

[DougMacG]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/christian-motto-or-nationalist-dog-whistle-could-a-tattoo-derail-trump-s-pick-for-defense-secretary/ar-AA1uaIPj?ocid=msedgntp&pc=DCTS&cvid=6160a2c6b0e54a53849847b61e2a433c&ei=42

It's a Latin phrase with Christian meaning.  Why are they posting shirtless photos of him?  Do they do that for AOC?

[Crafty_Dog]

As for the shirtless fotos, he has been playing the role of a Ken doll for FOX since he arrived.  Witness the highlights in his hair, gradually added over time.  Gutfield had the some fotos of PH a few nights ago, with hearts floating across the screen, the women guests giggling, and Gutfield saying "That settles it.  I'm gay."

Apparently he is something of a horn dog-- witness the various marriages, his lawyer saying there was an NDA etc.

Tatts like that are a big statement.  The chattering class will chatter.  Flinching now would be an error.

[ccp]

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/hacker-testimony-matt-gaetz/2024/11/19/id/1188643/

always to the NYT or WP or less frequently to CNN

always.

brings up several points

1 - hacking to Congressional computer is a problem
2 - did NYT have a reward - under the table of course
3 - and of course who is hacker
4 - will anyone find out
5 - as well as will this even make any difference?

[DougMacG]

Reminiscent of Trump, but also Kavanaugh, Thomas, etc, if the truth about him is so bad, why do you have to make up stuff?

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/11/about-those-allegations-against-matt-gaetz.php

I would add one thing about his real act that made him an extremist, ousting the Speaker, the Speaker made a promise to get their support and broke it. Sinking the ship wasn't the right response but there was cause.

Out of it came Speaker Mike Johnson, a better Speaker, and a reelected majority.
--------
And this...
https://thefederalist.com/2024/11/20/republicans-must-defend-matt-gaetz-to-end-the-use-of-salacious-lies-as-a-political-weapon/

[ccp]

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/11/is_burgum_the_right_choice_for_interior_secretary_and_energy_czar.html

[Crafty_Dog]

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2024/11/20/trump-eyeing-dan-bongino-to-helm-secret-service-n2648072

[ccp]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/nikki-haley-scorches-trump-pick-tulsi-gabbard-over-her-disgusting-2017-photo-op/ar-AA1uuh8j?ocid=msedgntp&pc=DCTS&cvid=719dc389250741e4a261622b36612713&ei=11

I don't know about this but may be good points. 

Perhaps should be brought up during the Senate confirmation hearings.

[Crafty_Dog]

IIRC there were reasons at the time to doubt our story about the gas attacks. 

[ccp]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-looking-at-naming-right-wing-radio-host-dan-bongino-to-head-the-secret-service-report/ar-AA1usKuZ?ocid=msedgntp&pc=DCTS&cvid=bbe6fe973ef940c48f71d6f87b51560e&ei=14

interesting!

[Body-by-Guinness]

This is disheartening. I was not aware of Bondi’s role in the Zimmerman prosecution:

The Gaetz Reversal: Still Losing When You Win is the Nature of a Rigged Game
The Republican Swamp is still the oil in the gears of the Democrat Machine

JUPPLANDIA
NOV 22, 2024
So Gaetz is out as Attorney General pick and Pam Bondi is in. Most of the MAGA crowd don’t seem too fussed. Bondi was after all a Trump lawyer who stood by him in some of the difficult times. Others cite this just as a personality issue, stating that you need a smoother and friendlier kind of persuasion than Gaetz can provide.

Republican Senators, we are told, are proud and skittish creatures, like thoroughbred race horses ready to bolt. You have to be a Senator Whisperer, offering them tempting lumps of sugar and cooing nicely before you get on their backs.

Jupplandia is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.


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It’s not corruption, we are told, it’s personality. Gaetz is too abrasive, too divisive, too much of an unpopular jerk, to be put in charge of persuading those wild horses to pull the chariot over the line. He’s just so rude and undisciplined. He rubs people up the wrong way, including even a few MAGA figures. Nobody serious likes him.

Does any of this sound familiar, because it should. It should sound especially familiar to Trump himself.

Supposedly the cause of Gaetz withdrawing from the race and Trump accepting this is the combination of this alleged personality issue with much more significant flak regarding sexual allegations against him. As ever, a significant number of Polite Republicans are prepared to accept these allegations on trust, apparently having still failed to learn the lesson that the Democrats and the mainstream media….brace yourselves for this shocking revelation, LIE.

It really is pretty amazing that anyone can treat a sexual smear from certain quarters seriously. After the entirely false claims against Judge Kavanaugh. And after the equally absurd Department Store Rape lie against Trump, or the even more lurid and even more absurd Golden Shower Dossier which claimed that Trump was an agent of Russia following a perverse sex act with honey trap prostitutes in a Moscow hotel.

You know, the one that prompted years of running sabotage of the first term? The one that led to the entire Russian Collusion Hoax? The one that the late John McCain spread around as an early example of the worst figures in the GOP doing everything they could to help Democrats? The one that was concocted by a “former” British spy and paid for by the Hillary Clinton 2016 campaign team and the DNC?

Nor does it ever seem to register with Polite Republicans who immediately take such allegations as proven that the source of the allegation matters. It doesn’t register with them, apparently, that the very people originating these claims against strong Republican opponents are always agents of the Genital Mutilation of Kids Party, the 350,000 or so Missing Sex Trafficked Kids Party, the Puppy Dog Mask Fetish Party, the Boycott Sounds of Freedom Party. It doesn’t seem to register at ALL that the sources of underage sex claims against strong Republican opponents are the Friends of Epstein and the Pals of Weinstein, that the people projecting these claims collect child torture ‘art’ for a hobby and emblazon their own kids and the entire world with a Love Is Love slogan invented by pro-pedophile pressure groups.

Yes, its true that Democrats and RINO Republicans are the acknowledged authorities and interested experts on sexual crimes…..just not in a way that means you should LISTEN to them.

How can any Republican today be unaware that false claims of sexual abuse are a pretty good indicator that the person doing it is projecting their own ACTUAL crimes onto the kind of person who might STOP them?

But sure, being polite and well liked by serpents is all that matters when dealing with the nest of slithering bastards that is the Senate or Washington DC as a whole. Especially when your elected remit, the thing you were chosen for, was cleaning up the filth without worrying about who it offends.

Charlie Kirk, by the way, has absolutely nailed the Gaetz allegations for what they are-projected crimes and imaginary smears. Here is the Kirk take, which is excellent:

“I've had enough of this so-called "House ethics report" on Matt Gaetz. The underlying allegations are so laughable and flimsy that the only purpose of it is to smear Gaetz.

Here are the facts:

The "report" comes YEARS after DOJ dropped its investigation into the same claims. Why did the DOJ drop the investigation? Because the claims hinge on the testimony of two witnesses who have such gaping credibility issues, that even the DOJ, which hates Gaetz, knew no jury would ever convict him.

Who are these witnesses?

1) Joel Greenberg, who has been described as "one of the most corrupt Florida politicians of all time" and who has literally made false sex allegations against a politician before! He accused an innocent school teacher who was running against him for tax-collector of having sex with an underaged student. Sound familiar? A judge called the lies "downright evil."

2) Greenberg became embroiled in a series of crimes and faced a possible 27 years in federal prison. One of these crimes was having sex with an underage minor, the same 17-year-old who is the central character in the claims against Gaetz. BUT, even Greenberg claims he didn't know she was underage because she LIED about her age! She is now active on OnlyFans, selling sexual access for money, and has appeared in porn videos. Go figure.

According to a 2023 lawsuit, Greenberg repeatedly begged Gaetz to secure a pardon for him, and when Gaetz refused, Greenberg vowed vengeance.

An inmate who shared a cell with Greenberg told two federal agents that Greenberg told him that the woman “would be willing to adopt Greenberg’s lie in hopes of a future financial benefit." Greenberg admitted to paying the woman's legal bills in a text to a friend!

Yes this is all ridiculous. Yes it is all clearly contrived lies. Will the media still use it to tar and feather Gaetz? Absolutely. Geatz has made a career of picking fights no one else in Washington had the stomach to pick. They fear him at the DOJ more than anyone.

And that's exactly why we need him running the Department of Justice—he's the only one with the guts to fight the most important fights at the DOJ and root out the corruption we've seen on full display these last 8 years.”

It’s now become as predictable as sunrise and sunset-the Polite Republicans will either be corrupt agents of a lie, or gullible fools accepting a lie, whilst alternative media figures are where you find some recognition of reality and some support for the truth. Trump would do well to stock his entire Cabinet with alternative media figures.

Try putting Russell Brand in charge of the DOJ. Maybe then you could get Gaetz as a compromise.

Kirk is not alone in recognizing the true situation. Jack Posobiec (The Attempted Public Murder of Gaetz) was also smart enough to recognize what was actually going on as pressure built to withdraw Gaetz from contention:

“In the realm of American politics, where character assassinations are as common as policy debates, Matt Gaetz has emerged not only as a figure of resilience but also as a beacon for those who value the integrity of justice.

The salacious allegations against him, which painted him as a villain in a lurid narrative, have been thoroughly debunked, revealing a tale not of personal misconduct but of political maneuvering by a convicted felon seeking leniency.”

Sundance is also frequently on the ball, and he knocks it absolutely out of the park in an article titled President Trump Nominates Pam Bondi for U.S. Attorney General-The Deep Swamp Smiles. This is a devastating critique of the replacement nomination Trump has plumped for having accepted the Swamp refusal of Gaetz (based as we have heard on entirely false slanders and smears).

The Sundance article centers on Bondi’s role in the Race Bait trial of George Zimmerman for the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, a typical modern example of political corruption and CRT racial politics determining justice system prosecutions today (rather than evidence and justice doing so). What we see in this case is that then Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi colluded with Democrats to get an innocent man (who killed in perfectly justifiable self-defense) falsely imprisoned. All of the evidence (including eye witness accounts and physical evidence) had led the Sanford police lead investigating detective (Chris Serino), the local prosecutor (Norm Wolfinger) and the Sanford police chief (Bill Lee) to conclude that Zimmerman killed in justifiable self defense.

The case however was taken up by a Florida civil rights lawyer called Benjamin Crump. Crump’s first act? Hiring a PR company (led by Ryan Julison) to create media pressure. Because that’s what you need when you have a solid case….media pressure. Crump had both Democrat and Republican political contacts and reached out to Bondi to help. Bondi and Crump had in fact worked together previously on the Martin Lee Anderson case. And boy, did she help in the twisting of an open and shut, evidence-supported justifiable self defense into another Racist Murder Hoax.

Bondi had all of the local personnel who had concluded Zimmerman was innocent replaced. All three were removed. State investigators were brought in instead, working for the new special prosecutor Angela Corey, again appointed on Bondi’s request. Sundance then describes the media fiction that shaped public perception on the case, based on ignoring the actual eye-witness accounts (which confirmed things like Martin straddling a prone Zimmerman and pounding Zimmerman’s head against the concrete pavement just before Zimmerman shot him). Of the whole process and Bondi’s role in it he states:

“Pam Bondi was part of that fraudulent prosecution architecture. In fact, without her origination the state case against Zimmerman was non-existent.  Everything told about the Trayvon Martin shooting was a lie, including his age, the “skittles and iced-tea” story, this background criminal record, Trayvon’s known drug use, and just about everything else.  It was all an entirely manufactured Lawfare case, pushed to a compliant media.

None of the witness statements were ever in the media. None of the (full context) 911 call evidence was ever in the media. None of the images of George Zimmerman’s face and head were ever in the media.  None of the corroborating forensic evidence was ever in the media. None of the accurate pictures of Trayvon Martin were ever in the media. Nothing.  It was one big, fabricated Lawfare operation headed by Benjamin Crump and Special Prosecutor Angela Corey.”

In other words, the Zimmerman prosecution and trial, together with his imprisonment during investigation, was JUST AS fake and corrupt, involving just as much collusion between Swamp Republicans and the Democrat Machine, as the equally false sexual allegations put forwards against Kavanaugh, Trump and Gaetz.

And supposed Trump loyalist Bondi was right at the heart of this thoroughly disgusting, Race Politics travesty of justice.

Not only that, but Bondi also went along with what became a key prosecutorial fiction against Zimmerman, which amounted to the fabrication of a witness. The star witness in the court case against Zimmerman was one Rachael Jeantel, presented as an ‘ear-witness’ to the death and to Zimmerman threatening and attacking Martin as well as being described as Martin’s girlfriend. Only according to Sundance none of this was true:

“Everything about Rachael Jeantel as a witness was entirely fabricated by Ben Crump and Angela Corey.  They literally put a fabricated witness on the stand.  Attorney General Pam Bondi knew all about it, in real time, as the false witness was being created and flown back and forth from Miami to Jacksonville in order to try and get some form of story aligned.

Let me be very clear.  Florida AG Pam Bondi knew that her special prosecutor, Angela Corey, and her friend, Benjamin Crump, had manufactured an entirely false and fictitious witness against George Zimmerman.”

Now the case against Zimmerman of course eventually collapsed. He was acquited. He was however investigated for race crimes for another three years, and had spent considerable time in prison while the cases against him proceeded. His reputation was ruined and many people still think he killed a black man with no provocation and in cold blood for racist reasons, just because his ‘victim’ was black.

Bondi was therefore part of a cross-party form of sleaze and willingness to twist the law to fit an anti-white, anti-self-defense, entirely imaginary narrative of young black men being targeted for murder on a regular basis by racist white and Hispanic cops and vigilantes. And she seemed to do this either because it might advance her career or as a favor to her personal friend Benjamin Crump (all assuming Sundance is correct).

Is that the kind of person who is going to clear out the Swamp at the DOJ better than Gaetz would?

Of course maybe Sundance has it wrong. Maybe Bondi supported a false case not knowing it was false. But that’s not much better than doing it all out of corruption and connivance and knowing it was bullshit. The innocent explanation makes her an idiot. The guilty explanation makes her a Swamp operative whose seeming loyalty to Trump was always of the Bill Barr kind. Neither is a strong recommendation and a strong suggestion that she will clean house in the DOJ.

I can’t tell you how much I hope that Sundance is wrong on Pam Bondi, and hope too that Trump has done some art of the deal switch where he knew Gaetz would be rejected, knows Bondi will get the job done, and knows he can sneak her through on a wave of Senate Swamp relief that at least it’s not Gaetz.

But what I do know is that the claims against Gaetz come from evil bastards who want the Swamp to keep winning even when they lose elections, whereas the claims against Bondi don’t. Those come from alternative figures who have been right before and with every fibre of their being, like you and me, want the Swamp and the Machine to burn and break and never corrupt the world again.

Trump says he has learned who to trust this time. Pray that he is right.

https://jupplandia.substack.com/p/the-gaetz-reversal-still-losing-when?r=2k0c5&triedRedirect=true

[Crafty_Dog]

Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, withdrew on Thursday, barely a week after being nominated. There are lessons here, ones the gung-ho Trump team could benefit from internalizing as it continues filling out key posts.


Gaetz defenders are already attempting to blame this flameout on smears, or on hard feelings over Mr. Gaetz’s ouster of Speaker Kevin McCarthy, or on Republican spinelessness. Mr. Gaetz in his withdrawal statement insisted he was “unfairly” targeted. Whatever the Trump team says publicly, it would be unwise for it to fall for those excuses privately. Mr. Gaetz’s liabilities were all his own, and it was those liabilities that burnt down his confirmation.

The biggest was obviously the recently concluded House Ethics Committee investigation into a long list of allegations against Mr. Gaetz, including (from a June committee statement) “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.” The claims weren’t limited to the allegations of sexual trafficking previously investigated by the Justice Department.

Mr. Gaetz looks to have convinced Mr. Trump that these probes were no different from the partisan Democratic allegations and lawsuits aimed at the former president—or, as Mr. Gaetz wrote this week, his own “Steele dossier.” That claim was always ludicrous. Even if one is to buy that a broad team of career prosecutors were plotting to take down Mr. Gaetz (a plot that failed spectacularly, as they never brought charges), the House probe was conducted by Republicans and Democrats on a panel known for its reluctance to throw stones—given that its members live in the same glass House. Yet bits of the Ethics Committee report were starting to leak out, and everything pointed to its findings’ being ugly.

And so, Lesson No 1: Not all allegations against Republicans are partisan shams. That’s surely hard for Republicans to swallow in light of witch hunts against Mr. Trump and Brett Kavanaugh, but the GOP as the law-and-order party has a duty to make careful distinctions.

The Trump transition team might have also read the insider room. Republicans are well versed in defending their brethren against nonsense attacks—even their unpopular brethren. There was a reason few if any Republican members rushed to Mr. Gaetz’s defense: They know him. Congress is a close space, and most all members had seen or heard something unpleasant enough to make them suspect fire accompanied the smoke. Ergo, Lesson No. 2: Take your lead from people who know, not MAGA Twitter insurgents.

All Things With Kim Strassel
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The name of the Trump nominations game is clearly “shakeup”—and that’s to be applauded. Few doubt that Washington is in desperate need of some rattling. But note Lesson No. 3: The Gaetz fiasco is a reminder that there remains a bright line between a candidate who is aggressive, committed and professional and one who is unthinking, partisan and a liability. Mr. Trump has chosen a solid lineup of the former, from Linda McMahon (Education) and Marco Rubio (State) to Chris Wright (Energy) and Brendan Carr (Federal Communications Commission). Mr. Gaetz was always clearly the latter—big on bravado, short on ideas and temperament. While not as discussed as the ethics question, it’s also an important reason his nomination was destined to fail.

Every politician faces a tension between party loyalty (confirming a president’s nominees) and constitutional principle. For all that Mr. Trump has rightly complained about Justice Department politicization and the need for change, his team underestimated how seriously senators take that problem and how focused they are on this vital opportunity to turn things around. They want someone serious and aggressive, but also someone who can command the respect necessary to rebuild trust among all voters in the department.

The temptation may be to pick another loud candidate made popular by catering to the base, rather than one with a true commitment—and plan—for restoring the Justice Department’s fealty to the Constitution and the rule of law. But such a pick won’t reassure senators who are truly eager to rally behind a rock star with a unanimous vote.

And of course it’s possible to tap a candidate able both to shake things up and to promote professionalism. The Republican firmament is teeming with past or current state attorneys general, former prosecutors and other legal heavyweights—many who also have knowledge and experience of the Justice Department’s structure, its problem staff, and potential barriers to reform. Mr. Trump has four short years and a lot of fixing to do. He needs an attorney general who is already sprinting on Day One.

And the country deserves it. A Justice Department that is doing its job is a department that isn’t leading every headline, that isn’t the source of nonstop drama. Starting with a drama-free nominee would be a great start toward that future.

[DougMacG]

I'm hearing of some great picks for the new Administration. But from what I read, I'm disappointed at first glance with the new Secretary of the Treasury, although I guess that decision is not final.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/11/09/donald-trump-cabinet-picks/76140063007/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Bessent

His plan I hear is based on the economic plan of former Japanese leader Shinzo Abe (ah-bay) , the three arrows.

https://www.adb.org/publications/three-arrows-abenomics-and-structural-reform-japan-inflation-targeting-policy-central#:~:text=Abenomics%20has%20%22three%20arrows%22%3A,and%20expanding%20social%20welfare%20expenses.

I like the Kudlow choice or whoever he would recommend. Maybe EJ Antoni
https://www.heritage.org/staff/ej-antoni
Casey Mulligan,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_B._Mulligan
Dan Mitchell
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_J._Mitchell
How about a smart, strong woman, https://www.mercatus.org/scholars/veronique-de-rugy

Thomas Sowell is 94.  Maybe he's available.

Hey Trump, are you reading the forum?