Message Forum

Yeah Joe. Nothing good will come. Then it will. Such is the pendulum.

Well it’s definitely gloating and "neener-neener!" time for some. Buh-bye watchdogs. Always a sign of repression and skullduggery to come.

“President Trump fired 17 inspectors general, the internal watchdogs who monitor federal agencies, on Friday night, capping a week of dramatic shake-ups of the federal bureaucracy focused on loyalty to the president, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

The sweeping move did not affect Michael E. Horowitz, the inspector general for the Justice Department, according to one of the people with knowledge of the matter. But inspectors general at several major agencies were believed to have been fired.

The Washington Post reported the firings earlier. A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

The firings threatened to upend the traditional independence of the internal watchdogs, and critics of Mr. Trump reacted with alarm.

“Inspectors general are charged with rooting out government waste, fraud, abuse and preventing misconduct,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, said in a statement. “President Trump is dismantling checks on his power and paving the way for widespread corruption.”

01/25/25 12:40 PM

#14909

Daniel Brown

I'm with you, Joe. 100%. With this administration cruelty is the point along with looting the treasury.

01/25/25 05:28 PM

#14910

Agreeing with Dan – the corruption of this Administration will be staggering. Government officials used to be subject to strict conflict of interest standards and those are all now out the window – Trump’s firing of the 14 independent inspector generals (whose main function is to prevent corruption and conflicts of interest) last night is only one example.

And the exploitation of the American public by corporate interests (which has always been a problem) will reach levels we wouldn’t have thought possible a few years ago. Trump has signaled to the moneyed class that if they play ball with him, he’ll let them do pretty much what they want.

Like pigs feeding at the trough...

01/25/25 10:05 PM

#14911

Trump's order to drop DEI means the Air Force is no longer allowed to teach recruits about the famous Women pilots ("WASPS") of WW2, or the famous and heroic Tuskeegee Airmen.

That is utterly Shameful, Disgusting! Embarrassing!

It's a Disgrace!

Let''s just stop teaching any history - except of course the story about the "bone spur".

01/25/25 10:33 PM

#14912

https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/pete-hegseth-affidavit-witness-drunk-passing-out-e216ca85

Here are the Senate confirmation votes for the last five nominees to head the Department of Defense:

Ashton Carter (Obama): 93-5

James Mattis (Trump first term): 98-1

Mark Esper (Trump first term): 90-8

Lloyd Austin (Biden): 93-2

Pete Hegseth (now): 50-50

Just so you don’t think Hegseth is being picked on, Marco Rubio, one of Trump’s saner Cabinet nominees, was approved 99-0 as Secretary of State last week.

So sleep soundly and hope we don’t have a serious security crisis or misunderstanding with China or Russia while Hegseth is incoherent and dancing on the stage with strippers:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/pete-hegseths-drinking-worried-colleagues-fox-news-sources-tell-nbc-ne-rcna181471

01/26/25 11:54 AM

#14913

Hilarious that even his MOM thinks he's a dirtbag!!!!

"In addition to questions about whether he had the necessary experience for the position, Hegseth faced blowback over his history of infidelity, an allegation of sexual assault (which he has denied), multiple allegations addressing past struggles with alcohol (which he has also denied), and his past opposition to women in combat roles.

During the confirmation process, Hegseth repeatedly dismissed the slew of news stories that raised questions about his character—including an email reported by The New York Times in which Hegseth’s own mother accused him of abusing “many women."

Ah yes. The heroes of the right.

01/26/25 03:14 PM

#14914

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_federal_political_sex_scandals_in_the_United_States

Do you guys really believe no one has skeletons in their closets? Come on, man! Of course, immorality, infidelity, abuse is never, ever to be condoned, but the hypocrisy of Democrats and the MSM pontificating about Pete Hegseth's personal life must be called out for what it is.

01/26/25 05:11 PM

#14915

MM, thanks for throwing in the towel on the Republican mantra, repeated endlessly in the pre-Trump era, that “Character matters!”

Hegseth’s appalling personal behavior concerns me much less than the fact that he is totally unqualified - he's only led two small veterans organizations and was fired from each because of financial mismanagement - now he's being asked to lead the federal department with both the largest number of employees and the largest budget. And the fact that he still has a serious drinking problem (when he may be called upon to make life or death decisions at any hour of the day or night) is utterly disqualifying. Quoting from the link to NBC News in my previous post:

“Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, drank in ways that concerned his colleagues at Fox News, according to 10 current and former Fox employees who spoke with NBC News.

Two of those people said that on more than a dozen occasions during Hegseth’s time as a co-host of “Fox & Friends Weekend,” which began in 2017, they smelled alcohol on him before he went on air...

One of the sources said they smelled alcohol on him as recently as last month and heard him complain about being hungover this fall.”

01/26/25 08:31 PM

#14916

Joseph Gentilini

John J, it doesn't make any difference to true trumpers if the nomine is qualified or not - their cult leader wants him and that is the bottom line. Truly sad and dangerous.

01/27/25 03:25 AM

#14917

James Hamilton, M. D.

Enough!

I am in no cult.

I support candidates whose policies on most matters align with my views.

And I shall guarantee you that any nominee whom President Trump appointed - and is confirmed - will be quickly fired if he or she does not perform as expected.

Jim

01/27/25 04:00 AM

#14918

speaking of cults, you'll be hearing about tattoos and their connection to christian nationalism for some time. I poked around and discovered quite a bit of interesting and some might say alarming history behind that cutaneous craziness.

https://newlinesmag.com/essays/pete-hegseths-tattoos-and-the-crusading-obsession-of-the-far-right/

By the way, perhaps we were taught this somewhere along the line but it startled me when I was doing some reading recently about tattoos in connection with all this political stuff and ran across a passage that discussed the role our skin has in respiration -- that it assists the lungs in taking in oxygen and expelling carbon dioxide. How cool is that? Maybe everybody knows it and again I guess we were taught that in biology class or somewhere along the line but it came as a fuzzy revelation to me the other day when I ran across it in the reading I was doing. I didn't know the difference between skin and a raincoat. At least I didn't ever think enough about it to make that distinction at the microscopic, biologically significant, and quite cleverly permeable level.

Thank you, skin.

On another front that seems to have come up here: I don't think of trump fans as cultists. I think his fans overlook/tolerate/even revel in his obvious character flaws because they agree with the worldview he projects and have disdain for those he targets. I've always wondered if he believes what he preaches or is just playing to the crowd. With a guy like him it's hard to tell. Much as I have read about the guy I can't find anything that leads me to conclude one way or the other. At least I didn't until I did a little research. If you refer to relatively objective scientific opinions on the matter there have been suggestions by psychiatric researchers that trump has NPD - narcissistic personality disorder - which is characterized by extreme self absorption and an utter, dead-inside lack of sympathy or interest or compassion when it comes to other human beings, who are regarded as pawns to be manipulated for your own self interests. There's actually an initiative going on among behavioral psychologist who argue that Trump's typical behaviors could be added to a new prototypical description of NPD. He'd go down as the poster boy for the disorder. Quite the distinction.

01/27/25 01:43 PM

#14919

Mike, you can apply NPD to other politicians....I am thinking of one in particular. One thing that can be said about Trump, is that he is not ashamed of America.

01/27/25 02:00 PM

#14920

Good news:

The idiotic decision by Trump to remove the history of the Tuskeegee Airmen from Air Force history course has been rescinded after public outcry.

Can someone please explain to me what is wrong with DEI programs?

01/27/25 02:42 PM

#14921

don't look at me, mm. If you have other nominees for the disorder, suggest them to the shrinks.

It would be a little creepy but they could leave it up to the general public, pull together likely candidates and award the dubious distinction to the winner with the most votes.

And thanks Jim. Our bodies are wondrous. In this case they give new meaning to the expression "as I live and breathe!" Which may not be quite as accurate but sounds better than "As I live and oxygenate!"

01/27/25 02:46 PM

#14922

James Hamilton, M. D.

Mike McL.,

I am always suspicious of physicians, including psychiatrists and psychologists, who make diagnoses on people whom they have not examined and, therefore, are not their patients.

As some of you may know I am willing to discuss diagnoses (on this Fourm and privately) that have been made by other health care professionals if it happens to be in my area of knowledge and expertise.

Many public persons who are high achievers may display traits that are offensive to some and admired by others but that does not warrant a specific diagnosis.

On another topic: yes, skin, the largest organ of the human body, has many functions and thermoregulation is one of the main ones.

Jim

01/27/25 03:17 PM

#14923

always appreciative of your professional insights, Jim. I say that as someone whose own profession relies on the informational largess of experts in their respective fields.

01/28/25 09:04 AM

#14924

Dave, please explain what is wrong with meritocracy.

01/28/25 01:06 PM

#14925

M/M

What are you talking about? Who said I am opposed to meritocracy?

Where on earth did that comment come from?

01/28/25 02:02 PM

#14926

Dave, meritocracy is the opposite of all of the DEI programs you mentioned.

01/28/25 02:37 PM

#14927

Yes, I get that. I don't beleive one has to exclude the other. I just thought it was utterly outrageus that they would even consider making the Air Force drop that siginfiant bit of history (the Tuskegee Airmen - and the women pilots) - even for one day.

And we seem to be a loooong way from using "merit" on some of these ealry appointments.

01/28/25 09:58 PM

#14928

MM, meritocracy – are you serious? Many/most of Trump’s top cabinet picks are the equivalent of “DEI hires” - people who are so unqualified for the job that they would never have been chosen by past Presidents of either party. Their only qualification is unwavering loyalty to Trump.

But believe arch-conservative George Will, not me (from a column five days ago):

A thought experiment: Suppose you assembled 100 intelligent, public-spirited people experienced with the complexities of managing enormous bureaucracies, deeply familiar with today’s geopolitical challenges, alert to the importance and sensitivities of allied nations, and acquainted with large private-sector manufacturing and the precarious condition of the U.S. defense industrial base.

Suppose you asked each of these 100 to list 100 people qualified to be defense secretary. There could be, cumulatively, 10,000 different names. What is the probability that even one of those would be Pete Hegseth? Approximately zero.

An independent forensic accountant found evidence of gross financial mismanagement while Hegseth was administering two small nonprofits. This information is redundant evidence of what is facially obvious: his unreadiness to manage the Pentagon’s almost $900 billion budget (soon, one hopes, $1 trillion), 3.4 million military and civilian employees, and relations with myriad contractors and foreign military leaders.

01/29/25 01:06 PM

#14929

I'm all for diversity, equity and inclusion.

but completence, experience and know-how ought to be in the mix somewhere along the line.

There are two sides to that word, meritocricy, in the dictionary - one positive (competence and experience) and one negative (exclusionary)

Be nice to strike a balance.

Not taking sides here, just offering a baseline perspective.Regardless of who's pulling the strings.

01/29/25 02:05 PM

#14930