Hi y’all! I’m back from a nice Thanksgiving break and ready to ramble on. While I was taking that break, our President-elect continued to exhibit his kakistocracy tendencies. If you will recall from an earlier Mountain Man Musing, kakistocracy is government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state, or in the words of Nancy Friedman, “government by the shitty.” The first announcement was his nomination of Kash Patel for Director of the FBI. This shocked not only tRump’s ardent critics, but also some of his allies. This guy has very little law enforcement or management experience, but would be Trump’s political executioner. Colleagues and supervisors have not been impressed with his legal acumen, but he sounds like a hell of a salesman. Since the end of the Trump administration he sells pro-Trump merchandise and wrote a series of children’s books paying homage to, and I’m not bull shitting you, “King Donald.” Following the playbook of J. Edgar Hoover, Patel has openly vowed to find ways to punish those that Trump has called his enemies. I don’t think I need to tell you that this would be using the Justice Department for political purposes to punish those who have hurt the Donald’s feelings. Patel wrote a book in 2023 titled “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy.” In the book he lists 60 people who are “Members of the Executive Branch Deep State.” In his role as Director of the FBI he will seek justice for those who have wronged “King Donald” and thretens to prosecute them as retribution for those perceived wrongs. What’s scary is that if Patel is confirmed as the Director, his boss (if confirmed) Pam Bondi, has made similar statements about retribution. Oh well, he’s not the only least suitable. We move on to John Phelan, who tRump is nominating to be Secretary of the Navy. Mr. Phelan’s qualifications include being a major donor to Trump’s campaign and an art collector, having an extensive art collection. Phelan has no military experience or even had a civilian leadership role in the service. I’m sure he has many beautiful paintings of boats, the ocean, perhaps some sailors. He will, however, do what the King wants done and not push back. Let me see now. We have a Commander in Chief who has no military experience. A Secretary of the Navy with no military experience. A Secretary of Defense nominee with no military leadership experience, but is a good drinker and is alleged to have met some of the other requirements for being in the Cabinet (think Matt Gaetz). Tulsi Gabbard, nominee for National Intelligence Chief, with little intelligence experience, but likes to cozy up with Russia and Syria. Are some of these nominees starting to make you a little nervous about where the good ol’ USA is headed in these times of global tension and unrest?
Today, as you probably saw in the media, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law in his attempt to ban political activity and censor the media. Fortunately, the South Korean Parliament rejected him and called for his impeachment. He later reversed his decision, but not before his actions created extreme chaos in their capital city. Now, the real scary thing about this is we have a President-elect who would love to do the same thing using our military and his retribution seeking Cabinet members. And, unfortunately, a Congress that would not have the cojones to stop this abuse of power. But hey, in the words of that great American cultural icon, Mad Magazines Alfred E Neuman, “What, Me Worry?”
I’m conflicted about Biden’s pardoning of his son Hunter. I recall Joe Biden standing in front of the camera several times saying a pardon for his son was off the table. He talked about the importance of the rule of law and the need for independence of our justice system. I understand some of his reasoning as far as his son being targeted for prosecution because of his last name, but what about the inordinate number of black men who have to go before the judge and jury for alleged crimes a white man would not even be arrested for. Hunter was convicted by a jury of his peers, but he’s the son of the President of the United States, so he gets a pardon and won’t have to see cement walls as his living quarters in the future. You can bet your sweet bippy that this action will ‘cement’ the Donald’s decision to pardon all of the insurrectionists convicted of January 6th crimes. He’ll be standing in front of the microphone and tell the nation that “I had decided to let justice prevail and not pardon those wonderful patriots, but then old hypocritical sleepy Joe gave his son a jail free card and I just couldn’t stand back and let that inequality thing go, you know. It’s a wonderful thing to be King and have the power to absolve injustices done to my people. Wonderful, Wonderful!”
Well, the missus went to bed an hour ago and I have only two sips of wine left in my glass, so I must excuse myself from providing you further ramblings this evening and trot off to my warm bed and begin what I hope will be sweet dreams and not nightmares. Sweet dreams to y’all. Ziggyman
Mountain Man Musings 