Normally, Jay, I don't like to argue with you. I admire and resect you, and have been a supporter for a long time. But.
I don't think we can argue both ways here. Prior to the election, Trump's cognitive decline and unfitness (physical and mental) were major talking points. This man mimicked oral sex with a microphone for heaven's sake. He danced without moving his feet for 40 minutes at a rally. This is *not* normal behavior for a functioning adult.
The perception seems to have changed. Either 45 is a cognitively impaired fool or he is not. Unfortunately, your article assumes he is not, though you have acknowledged in the past he is showing signs of severe decline. Clearly, in this piece you describe 45 as the driving force behind these appointments. Is he? Do you really believe that?
I have to question a couple of things. "First, there are the nominations Trump really cares about. As a would-be dictator and aspiring fascist, Trump knows intuitively, and from some experience, that if he wants to be able to intimidate and go after his political enemies while also suppressing any domestic opposition, he needs to control the most important levers of power. Those are 1) the Justice Department, 2) the Pentagon, and 3) U.S. Intelligence services."
Trump or his handlers know this? I posit it is his **handlers,** who are passionate about things like Project 2025 and siding with Putin on Ukraine to gain the benefits of the mineral reserves in the country. (There read Musk who is on record for playing both sides of the fence, and who has shown himself to be aces at sucking up when he needs to.)
Which brings us to "With Justice, the Pentagon, and the U.S. Intelligence all headed by Trump loyalists, Trump could become much more like that despot he so admires, Vladimir Putin. Russian state power has traditionally rested upon control of three ministries: Intelligence, Interior, and Defense. And Trump is borrowing heavily from that playbook."
Again, Trump is not capable of this, he lacks the intellectual capacity. But Vance, Miller, Bannon, et alia are absolutely capable, and are backed by the players of Project 2025. It was interesting to me to see Manafort courted -- he has the Russian connections. In 2016, my first thought was that they all thought they were going to get rich "like the Russian oligarchs." Sadly, my thoughts haven't changed.
"As Olga Lautman, author of the Unmasking Russia newsletter, observed, “This is authoritarianism in the making, mirroring tactics seen in Russia, where the FSB is used to intimidate and control. Under Trump, the FBI will become a tool of the regime, much like the FSB in Russia, used to keep opponents in check, silence Republicans who don’t fall in line, and consolidate power through fear.”
This boils down to the aspirations of **MILLER, Musk, and the hangers-on.** Not Trump, who can barely get around his beloved golf courses without help.
As to Gabbard, today's events in Syria might give her some pause. If the rebellion is successful in getting to and taking Damascus, and the Russian naval base on the coast, there will be a paradigm shift of magnificent proportions, and Ukraine will benefit, and so will we.
I tend to agree. I don't think Trump is a mastermind. He throws darts at a very large target and hopes they land somewhere in the land of "troll the libs" while he drools on his his BigMac wrapper. It's probably the only thing that saves us, because when he perishes from whatever ails him, Vance is certainly not capable of carrying out anything either, since he would have trouble running a donut shop. It was still a good article, though in that we can apply it to his successor(s) - Vance as a patsy for Peter Thiel, Musk, and friends.
Yeah, I tend to agree with you and Charles as well. I think Jay is right that Trump likes these picks, but I think it's his handlers who are really driving him, and making him think these people are his idea. He probably had concepts of ideas that were reinforced by his handlers.
I too am wondering how trump miraculously was cured of his obvious mental decline since no one, absolute crickets, is saying a word. He does have some choice rote answers when asked about his picks and he will say, "Well a lot of my people tell me ___ insert name, is really great!" It's too much work for his pea brain to comprehend any of it, I'm quite sure. But he does understand transactions, money, favor, and adulation. That comes easy.
You've already defined the problem. Trump will never listen to reason or the best advice of the best qualified, even if it is from within. He never has nor ever will. Even if the nominees make it through, Orange Jesus will just pick another bootlicker who will gladly wrap their lips around his johnson and keep doing it until his mysogenistic ego is happy. The true shame is the casualties along then way, where he will fire, they will retire, or bend the knee and smooch the crack. A ton of superb and dedicated generals, administrators, legislators, legal and other experts in government will suffer professional death. That's just on the job without mention of how he will damage everything from the economy to our relationships in world affairs.
While all these picks are important, the biggest problem is the complete absence of values among 78 million voters. Honesty, civility, decency, integrity, compassion and respect for others have been thrown in the trash can as unimportant, ceding value to lower prices on eggs and gas and a maniacal glee in sticking it to the Libs. That means there will be more Trumps in the future (JD Vance?), possibly worse than the Orange Jesus, who will continue to prey on willfully uninformed voters without a shred of critical thinking skills. The Constitution provides a road to a one-party America, the ultimate goal of the Project 2025 types, with so many antiquated laws that keep the same people in power in Congress and SCOTUS for as long as they please. The electoral college has created a situation where 70 percent of the Senate will represent 30 percent of the population by 2040, according to the Washington Post. The system of checks and balances is gone, with POTUS making the rules and lapdogs in SCOTUS and the House following his orders. The last meaningful amendment was 53 years ago when the voting age was lowered to 18. With a sacrosanct Constitution, the road to the Trump Party of the United States is well on its way to fulfilling its dreams.
Of course they are serious. Cheeto Christ is serious. And if he succeeds we will be seriously down the crapper. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear how Biden can make that happen. He can't, and even if he could it would do no good.
Tulsi Gabbard is actually the most dangerous nominee, by far. The problem is that our allies assume she is compromised.
With Gabbard as DNI, the USA will not be "read in" on Five Eyes (UK, Canada, Aus, NZ, USA), and intelligence from other allies will likely also be withheld.
We will be blind. Blind at a time when we have just pissed off the Arab world (Gaza/Israel), blind at a time when we need to understand China's ambitions in depth (Taiwan), blind at a time when Russia may collapse and its nuclear assets will be up for grabs, blind at a time when AI-based threats on our digital infrastructure are about to go into overdrive.
People do not understand that our intelligence services head off major threats to the USA all the time. None of that makes the headlines **because that's the whole point**.
Gabbard at DNI puts us on course to something much, much worse than 9/11.
I think this whole ridiculous mocking and abuse of the American transition of power is part of Trump’s “obligations” to Putin according to the quote in Newsweek from Nikolai Patrushev: “To achieve success in the elections, Donald Trump relied on certain forces to which he has corresponding obligations. And as a responsible person, he will be obliged to fulfill them.”
He isn’t even trying to install competent people to do what he truly needs them to do; *dismantle* the US government, thereby making us vulnerable for takeover. Think about it.
Obviously Patrushev has never met the guy. Of course, he was simply delivering a message from Putin, but that is the most laughable description of The Convict I've ever seen in print. He is a lot of things, but that is not one of them.
Along those lines of being obligated to Putin, when I heard that the Russian ruble is in the crapper, it crossed my mind then that maybe Putin’s ask of trmp was that, in exchange for his “win”, he would imperil the US economy and thus, a lot of the free world along with the US. It’s the international politics poker game where everybody’s cheating*(*Beau of the Fifth Column-You Tube). So I’m seeing trmp’s appointments as so many pawns on the board. If a few flame out to start with, just replace them. If or when they make it through confirmation, should trmp get tired of the way they are performing, he’ll just toss them and replace them with unconfirmed temps. He can play that hand a long time all the while, sending us into the Russian crapper along with the ruble.
I’m sure whomever makes it in, by recess appointment or actually being confirmed by the Senate, will be there only as long as they ‘do as they are told’. But what I am hoping is that while all of this is playing out, Biden finds out what Patrushev meant and a new Harris administration rises from the ashes of the “corresponding obligations”!
Yeah, the thing Vladdito wants isn't the US economy in the tank - it is getting the sanctions lifted - because oil is priced and sold in dollars, and he's got a bunch of it that he (theoretically) can't sell. That would prop the ruble up right nicely. Killing aid to Ukraine wouldn't hurt his feelings either, and that is unfortunately likely to happen.
I think DonOld is getting a lot of credit for these picks. He can barely wipe his arse. Carvel made a good point that there is someone behind the picks, someone way worse than DonOld. Tucker. Carlson. That garbage excuse for a human being knows how to pick garbage excuses for a human being. He's picking people his real boss, Putin, can control; compromised, weak willed, and weak minded people.
Thanks, Jay! I wish there were more writers here on Substack that brought both your attention to detail *and* your ability to write in understandable form.
Worthy of the top section of this group is Russell Vought to head OMB. Unlike the others he is all together too ready to do real damage to the country. I'm especially worried that he will ignore the Constitutional separation of powers and fail to spend money as Congress directs.
Well, it's hard (and somewhat discouraging) to say this but this is the most hopeful piece I've read in awhile. Thank you Jay for your continuous hard work to keep us grounded. It's gonna be a barn burner of a four years. I just hope that we can survive this insanity because the inmates will most surely be running the institution.
tRump has demonstrated so much fealty to his bff Putin since he first ran, that I can’t help but think these are Putin’s picks to destabilize the US government. tRump gets to grift to his heart’s content and the US will leave Russia and China to carve up the rest of the world.
Masterful analysis, Jay! It's amazing that if Trump's most important requirement is loyalty, he can't find someone who is actually qualified for these positions. What does that say about him and about Republicans?
Thank you for your clarity on the Trump pics. There are dump truck amounts of comments on his 'bull in the china shop' behavior concerning these picks it's okerkill! The 'second coming of Jesus' isn't even in office yet, but the media is following his every defecation. I live in a foreign country, so will be unaffected by most of his awful power moves, but still will want to keep track of the carnage.
If you've cancelled WaPo, you may have missed this informative column. The gist is that the ODNI, created after 9/11, is bloated with staff and is a huge waste of taxpayer money. Clearly a target for Co-President-elect Musk's DOGE. If you're still on Xitter, let him know. ODNI should probably be 1 experienced director, 20 or so deputies depending on how many agencies the DNI needs to hear from, an admin asst for each of the above, and a central admin office...maybe a 95% savings. Oh, and a graphic artist/cartoonist to prepare Co-President-elect Trump's daily briefing.
I(nteresting. Note that the only two woman of age are "house mommy" and and a completely unqualified one who donated many millions to Trump's campaigns and causes. All the rest are reasonably young and more attractive than average. Where did Trump grab them?
Normally, Jay, I don't like to argue with you. I admire and resect you, and have been a supporter for a long time. But.
I don't think we can argue both ways here. Prior to the election, Trump's cognitive decline and unfitness (physical and mental) were major talking points. This man mimicked oral sex with a microphone for heaven's sake. He danced without moving his feet for 40 minutes at a rally. This is *not* normal behavior for a functioning adult.
The perception seems to have changed. Either 45 is a cognitively impaired fool or he is not. Unfortunately, your article assumes he is not, though you have acknowledged in the past he is showing signs of severe decline. Clearly, in this piece you describe 45 as the driving force behind these appointments. Is he? Do you really believe that?
I have to question a couple of things. "First, there are the nominations Trump really cares about. As a would-be dictator and aspiring fascist, Trump knows intuitively, and from some experience, that if he wants to be able to intimidate and go after his political enemies while also suppressing any domestic opposition, he needs to control the most important levers of power. Those are 1) the Justice Department, 2) the Pentagon, and 3) U.S. Intelligence services."
Trump or his handlers know this? I posit it is his **handlers,** who are passionate about things like Project 2025 and siding with Putin on Ukraine to gain the benefits of the mineral reserves in the country. (There read Musk who is on record for playing both sides of the fence, and who has shown himself to be aces at sucking up when he needs to.)
Which brings us to "With Justice, the Pentagon, and the U.S. Intelligence all headed by Trump loyalists, Trump could become much more like that despot he so admires, Vladimir Putin. Russian state power has traditionally rested upon control of three ministries: Intelligence, Interior, and Defense. And Trump is borrowing heavily from that playbook."
Again, Trump is not capable of this, he lacks the intellectual capacity. But Vance, Miller, Bannon, et alia are absolutely capable, and are backed by the players of Project 2025. It was interesting to me to see Manafort courted -- he has the Russian connections. In 2016, my first thought was that they all thought they were going to get rich "like the Russian oligarchs." Sadly, my thoughts haven't changed.
"As Olga Lautman, author of the Unmasking Russia newsletter, observed, “This is authoritarianism in the making, mirroring tactics seen in Russia, where the FSB is used to intimidate and control. Under Trump, the FBI will become a tool of the regime, much like the FSB in Russia, used to keep opponents in check, silence Republicans who don’t fall in line, and consolidate power through fear.”
This boils down to the aspirations of **MILLER, Musk, and the hangers-on.** Not Trump, who can barely get around his beloved golf courses without help.
As to Gabbard, today's events in Syria might give her some pause. If the rebellion is successful in getting to and taking Damascus, and the Russian naval base on the coast, there will be a paradigm shift of magnificent proportions, and Ukraine will benefit, and so will we.
I tend to agree. I don't think Trump is a mastermind. He throws darts at a very large target and hopes they land somewhere in the land of "troll the libs" while he drools on his his BigMac wrapper. It's probably the only thing that saves us, because when he perishes from whatever ails him, Vance is certainly not capable of carrying out anything either, since he would have trouble running a donut shop. It was still a good article, though in that we can apply it to his successor(s) - Vance as a patsy for Peter Thiel, Musk, and friends.
Vance may become a life size hand puppet.
Yeah, I tend to agree with you and Charles as well. I think Jay is right that Trump likes these picks, but I think it's his handlers who are really driving him, and making him think these people are his idea. He probably had concepts of ideas that were reinforced by his handlers.
I too am wondering how trump miraculously was cured of his obvious mental decline since no one, absolute crickets, is saying a word. He does have some choice rote answers when asked about his picks and he will say, "Well a lot of my people tell me ___ insert name, is really great!" It's too much work for his pea brain to comprehend any of it, I'm quite sure. But he does understand transactions, money, favor, and adulation. That comes easy.
You've already defined the problem. Trump will never listen to reason or the best advice of the best qualified, even if it is from within. He never has nor ever will. Even if the nominees make it through, Orange Jesus will just pick another bootlicker who will gladly wrap their lips around his johnson and keep doing it until his mysogenistic ego is happy. The true shame is the casualties along then way, where he will fire, they will retire, or bend the knee and smooch the crack. A ton of superb and dedicated generals, administrators, legislators, legal and other experts in government will suffer professional death. That's just on the job without mention of how he will damage everything from the economy to our relationships in world affairs.
While all these picks are important, the biggest problem is the complete absence of values among 78 million voters. Honesty, civility, decency, integrity, compassion and respect for others have been thrown in the trash can as unimportant, ceding value to lower prices on eggs and gas and a maniacal glee in sticking it to the Libs. That means there will be more Trumps in the future (JD Vance?), possibly worse than the Orange Jesus, who will continue to prey on willfully uninformed voters without a shred of critical thinking skills. The Constitution provides a road to a one-party America, the ultimate goal of the Project 2025 types, with so many antiquated laws that keep the same people in power in Congress and SCOTUS for as long as they please. The electoral college has created a situation where 70 percent of the Senate will represent 30 percent of the population by 2040, according to the Washington Post. The system of checks and balances is gone, with POTUS making the rules and lapdogs in SCOTUS and the House following his orders. The last meaningful amendment was 53 years ago when the voting age was lowered to 18. With a sacrosanct Constitution, the road to the Trump Party of the United States is well on its way to fulfilling its dreams.
Do we really live in a world where I'm hoping DeSantis wins the battle for Defense? Holy merciful angels in hell.
Right? I was thinking the same thing!
These aren’t serious appts. It’s time for Biden to declare Trump disqualified. Round them all up.
Of course they are serious. Cheeto Christ is serious. And if he succeeds we will be seriously down the crapper. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear how Biden can make that happen. He can't, and even if he could it would do no good.
Tulsi Gabbard is actually the most dangerous nominee, by far. The problem is that our allies assume she is compromised.
With Gabbard as DNI, the USA will not be "read in" on Five Eyes (UK, Canada, Aus, NZ, USA), and intelligence from other allies will likely also be withheld.
We will be blind. Blind at a time when we have just pissed off the Arab world (Gaza/Israel), blind at a time when we need to understand China's ambitions in depth (Taiwan), blind at a time when Russia may collapse and its nuclear assets will be up for grabs, blind at a time when AI-based threats on our digital infrastructure are about to go into overdrive.
People do not understand that our intelligence services head off major threats to the USA all the time. None of that makes the headlines **because that's the whole point**.
Gabbard at DNI puts us on course to something much, much worse than 9/11.
I sincerely hope I'm wrong.
I think this whole ridiculous mocking and abuse of the American transition of power is part of Trump’s “obligations” to Putin according to the quote in Newsweek from Nikolai Patrushev: “To achieve success in the elections, Donald Trump relied on certain forces to which he has corresponding obligations. And as a responsible person, he will be obliged to fulfill them.”
He isn’t even trying to install competent people to do what he truly needs them to do; *dismantle* the US government, thereby making us vulnerable for takeover. Think about it.
"... a responsible person..." ROFLMAO
Obviously Patrushev has never met the guy. Of course, he was simply delivering a message from Putin, but that is the most laughable description of The Convict I've ever seen in print. He is a lot of things, but that is not one of them.
Along those lines of being obligated to Putin, when I heard that the Russian ruble is in the crapper, it crossed my mind then that maybe Putin’s ask of trmp was that, in exchange for his “win”, he would imperil the US economy and thus, a lot of the free world along with the US. It’s the international politics poker game where everybody’s cheating*(*Beau of the Fifth Column-You Tube). So I’m seeing trmp’s appointments as so many pawns on the board. If a few flame out to start with, just replace them. If or when they make it through confirmation, should trmp get tired of the way they are performing, he’ll just toss them and replace them with unconfirmed temps. He can play that hand a long time all the while, sending us into the Russian crapper along with the ruble.
I’m sure whomever makes it in, by recess appointment or actually being confirmed by the Senate, will be there only as long as they ‘do as they are told’. But what I am hoping is that while all of this is playing out, Biden finds out what Patrushev meant and a new Harris administration rises from the ashes of the “corresponding obligations”!
Yeah, the thing Vladdito wants isn't the US economy in the tank - it is getting the sanctions lifted - because oil is priced and sold in dollars, and he's got a bunch of it that he (theoretically) can't sell. That would prop the ruble up right nicely. Killing aid to Ukraine wouldn't hurt his feelings either, and that is unfortunately likely to happen.
https://www.newsweek.com/vladimir-putin-nikolai-patrushev-donald-trump-russia-1984360
I think DonOld is getting a lot of credit for these picks. He can barely wipe his arse. Carvel made a good point that there is someone behind the picks, someone way worse than DonOld. Tucker. Carlson. That garbage excuse for a human being knows how to pick garbage excuses for a human being. He's picking people his real boss, Putin, can control; compromised, weak willed, and weak minded people.
Wouldn’t surprise me that Tucker has his hands in all this.
Thanks, Jay! I wish there were more writers here on Substack that brought both your attention to detail *and* your ability to write in understandable form.
Worthy of the top section of this group is Russell Vought to head OMB. Unlike the others he is all together too ready to do real damage to the country. I'm especially worried that he will ignore the Constitutional separation of powers and fail to spend money as Congress directs.
Well, it's hard (and somewhat discouraging) to say this but this is the most hopeful piece I've read in awhile. Thank you Jay for your continuous hard work to keep us grounded. It's gonna be a barn burner of a four years. I just hope that we can survive this insanity because the inmates will most surely be running the institution.
I desperately hang on to every little bit of hope! Trying my best to believe that good will triumph over evil.
Trump and his voters are getting exactly what they asked for: Chaos!
tRump has demonstrated so much fealty to his bff Putin since he first ran, that I can’t help but think these are Putin’s picks to destabilize the US government. tRump gets to grift to his heart’s content and the US will leave Russia and China to carve up the rest of the world.
Masterful analysis, Jay! It's amazing that if Trump's most important requirement is loyalty, he can't find someone who is actually qualified for these positions. What does that say about him and about Republicans?
Thank you for your clarity on the Trump pics. There are dump truck amounts of comments on his 'bull in the china shop' behavior concerning these picks it's okerkill! The 'second coming of Jesus' isn't even in office yet, but the media is following his every defecation. I live in a foreign country, so will be unaffected by most of his awful power moves, but still will want to keep track of the carnage.
If you've cancelled WaPo, you may have missed this informative column. The gist is that the ODNI, created after 9/11, is bloated with staff and is a huge waste of taxpayer money. Clearly a target for Co-President-elect Musk's DOGE. If you're still on Xitter, let him know. ODNI should probably be 1 experienced director, 20 or so deputies depending on how many agencies the DNI needs to hear from, an admin asst for each of the above, and a central admin office...maybe a 95% savings. Oh, and a graphic artist/cartoonist to prepare Co-President-elect Trump's daily briefing.
Gift link https://wapo.st/3OF5Mpp
Track all of Trump's nominees with this interactive infographic. Click on any person for details.
https://embed.kumu.io/44005df0a9c12029c658b10ad2fc2a2e
Pete Hegseth (in detail)
https://thedemlabs.org/2024/12/02/track-pete-hegseth-scandals-eith-a-real-time-map-that-updates-with-new-exposures/
Kash Patel (in detail)
https://thedemlabs.org/2024/12/03/kash-patel-illustrated-profile/
I(nteresting. Note that the only two woman of age are "house mommy" and and a completely unqualified one who donated many millions to Trump's campaigns and causes. All the rest are reasonably young and more attractive than average. Where did Trump grab them?
"Where did Trump grab them?"
Come on - you know the answer to THAT question...