Tag Archives: Noem

Harvard, Tell the Clown Prince to F*ck Off

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Late yesterday, reports stated that the Department of Homeland Security, headed by dog-killer Kristi Noem, acting on instructions from Donald Trump, purported to revoke Harvard University’s certification of admit foreign students who account for more than one-quarter of the enrolled student body.

The pretext for this latest violation of law, the Constitution, and common sense, and without evidence, was that Harvard was allowing:

anti-American, pro-terrorist” foreigners “to harass and physically assault individuals … and obstruct its once-venerable learning environment.” The secretary also accused the university of working with the Chinese Communist Party by hosting and training members of its paramilitary group.

 As reported by the Washington Post,

The decision means Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students, and existing international students at Harvard must transfer or lose their legal status, Noem said.

Noem gave the school 72 hours to turn over a list of records on international students to regain its certification before the upcoming academic year. DHS is seeking disciplinary records as well as electronic records, video and audio footage of international students who engaged in illegal activity, violence, threats to personnel or students, or protest activity on or off campus over the past five years.

Since neither Trump nor Noem appears to have any awareness of what goes on at our most important institutions of higher learning, we can perhaps see in Noem’s hostility the underlying resentment of what they neither know nor appreciate:

It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments. Harvard had plenty of opportunity to do the right thing. It refused. Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country.

And there is this:

“Harvard has turned their once-great institution into a hotbed of anti-American, antisemitic, pro-terrorist agitators,” said White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson on Thursday. “They have repeatedly failed to take action to address the widespread problems negatively impacting American students, and now they must face the consequences of their actions.”

Evidence? Compliance with procedures? The Clown Prince cannot be bothered.

There you have it. The federal government now claims the right to decide what the “right thing” is for universities it regards as unaligned with its agenda.

This hubris, based on no evidence and not in compliance with legal procedures for decertification, is likely inspired by the worst-in-legal-history Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision in which it created the doctrine that the president can commit crimes in office within the scope of his official duties under Article II and that his motives may not be questioned, all without criminal accountability.

It goes without saying, though I’ll say it anyway, that Noem’s message has instilled uncertainty and fear among Harvard’s 6,793 international students. But it’s worse than that.

More than 1 million international students attend colleges in the United States every year, contributing nearly $44 billion to the national economy, according to NAFSA: Association of International Educators.

They play an outsize role in the economics of higher education, in that many international students pay full tuition …. and by creating a critical mass of students to support certain departments, such as computer science and engineering.

It’s time to call the question. Donald Trump and the sycophants that do his bidding believe they are above the law. The Supreme Court indicated as much and, given an inch, Trump always takes the proverbial mile.

So, Harvard, stand your ground. You’ve done it before in the face of gross government overreach, and you have the resources, including one of the world’s great law schools (disclosure: my law school) to mount a compelling defense against this grotesque overreach by the federal government.

It’s interesting that the political party that for decades decried the growing power of the federal government at the expense of the states now applauds anything that Clown Price Trump says he wants. Trump is a fraud, a cheat, a fool, and is intent on destroying not only the greatest American institutions but on removing the authority of the United States from the world arena, leaving it to the likes of Vladimir Putin. One of the many losses resulting from the Trump administration’s embrace of universal ignorance is the loss of opportunity to spread the message of democracy to the world through the voices of international students who learn about and experience it here.

It’s time to call the question and Harvard, your number has been called. Stand up to this petty wanna-be dictator and let’s get down to the core question whether our Constitution will be obeyed or not. If not, then the question will be put squarely before the people as to whether they want a democracy or not.

Finally, in case Trump is considering calling up the military to take control of Harvard and compel its submission, all military personnel should re-familiarize themselves with the principles of Nuremberg. You have no immunity for complying with unlawful orders. Think before you act.

Update: Harvard has sued to stop the administration’s unlawful overreach, citing violations of the First Amendment, the Due Process clause of the Constitution, and the Administration Procedures Act. Good. Meanwhile, Harvard, press your response in the media. Don’t give Trump the advantage of sole occupation of the public space. You have  the horsepower so use it!

Time to Face Reality

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As Trump’s proposed cabinet of losers, criminals, and traitors continues to take shape, it is perhaps time to face certain realities. I am reminded of the statements of several wise people over the years.

Alan Bennett, 90-year-old English playwright and creator of The History Boys, wrote, “History? It’s just one f***ing thing after another…”

You no doubt recall the famous line attributed to the philosopher George Santayana, but here is the full quote:

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Many others, Winston Churchill among them, have reiterated the last line, usually as a warning, usually ignored.

A variation attributed to Eugene O’Neill was that “There is no present or future – only the past, happening over and over again – now.”

And, of course, President Lincoln stated in his address on June 16, 1858, at what was then the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, after he had accepted the Illinois Republican Party’s nomination as that state’s US senator, an election he lost:

A house divided against itself, cannot stand.”

I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.

I do not expect the Union to be dissolved – I do not expect the house to fall – but I do expect it will cease to be divided.

It will become all one thing or all the other.

Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new – North as well as South.

The wisdom of these statements is often overlooked. Not now.

The Republican Party needs a new name. The Republican Party is no longer conservative or patriotic. In the hands of Donald Trump, the GOP is threatening to reduce the federal government to a shadow of its current self and turn such political power as remains outside Trump’s personal dictator hands to the states.

So, let us take a spin through some history that Trump and his billionaire shills have either forgotten, never knew, or simply don’t think is relevant.

I refer to the Articles of Confederation. The Articles were the first “constitution” adopted during the Revolutionary War. The ConstitutionCenter.org explains it this way:

The Second Continental Congress approved the document on November 15, 1777, after a year of debates. The British capture of Philadelphia helped to force the issue.  The Articles formed a war-time confederation of states, with an extremely limited central government.  The document made official some of the procedures used by Congress to conduct business, but many of the delegates realized the Articles had limitations.

Two days later, Congress submitted the Articles to the states for immediate consideration. However, it took until March 1, 1781, for this “immediate” consideration to become final.

Here is a quick [edited] list of the problems that occurred, and how these issues led to our current Constitution.

    1. The central government was designed to be very, very weak.The Articles established “the United States of America” as a perpetual union formed to defend the states as a group, but it provided few central powers beyond that. But it didn’t have an executive official or judicial branch.
    2. The Articles Congress only had one chamber and each state had one vote.This reinforced the power of the states to operate independently from the central government, even when that wasn’t in the nation’s best interests.
    3. Congress needed 9 of 13 states to pass any laws.Requiring this high supermajority made it very difficult to pass any legislation that would affect all 13 states.
    4. The document was practically impossible to amend.The Articles required unanimous consent to any amendment, so all 13 states would need to agree on a change. Given the rivalries between the states, that rule made the Articles impossible to adapt after the war ended with Britain in 1783.
    5. The central government couldn’t collect taxes to fund its operations.The Confederation relied on the voluntary efforts of the states to send tax money to the central government. Lacking funds, the central government couldn’t maintain an effective military or back its own paper currency.
    6. States were able to conduct their own foreign policies.Technically, that role fell to the central government, but the Confederation government didn’t have the physical ability to enforce that power, since it lacked domestic and international powers and standing.
    7. States had their own money systems.There wasn’t a common currency in the Confederation era. The central government and the states each had separate money, which made trade between the states, and other countries, extremely difficult.
    8. The Confederation government couldn’t help settle Revolutionary War-era debts.The central government and the states owed huge debts to European countries and investors. Without the power to tax, and with no power to make trade between the states and other countries viable, the United States was in an economic mess by 1787.

George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Dickinson and others met and proposed that all 13 states meet in Philadelphia to resolve the debacle. The current Constitution emerged from that meeting, was ratified, and then promptly amended by the Bill of Rights to cure certain glaring omissions in the original version. Constitution-making is hard work.

While the issues with the Articles of Confederation were clear, by the time of the Constitutional Convention white people in the southern states were deeply entrenched in the system of slavery on which their economy depended. Compromises were required and made in order to reach a constitutional document that could be promoted among the states for ratification. Without those compromises there would have been no Constitution and no country, at least not one comprised of all the former colonies and territories. Even then, ratification consumed two years and eight months. Ratification of the Bill of Rights took another year.

A very detailed history of the events leading to the Constitution may be found in https://www.britannica.com/topic/American-colonies/The-decision-for-independence if you have interest in it.

What lessons can be learned from this early experience with nation-making?

One is that in the modern world of, say, the post-WWII era, a “nation” in which the major powers are dispersed among many widely spread and independent entities (read “states”) is extremely vulnerable to nations with more power concentrated in a central authority. It’s true, of course, that the separation of what became the United States of America was driven in major part by rejection of the totally centralized power of the King of England. But that king’s authority resided in one person and was absolute.

Under the Constitution (not the Articles of Confederation), the power of the central authority, the federal government, was strong but restrained by several features built into the system, not least of which was the division of federal power into the three co-equal branches we call the Executive (President), Legislative (Congress) and Judiciary (Courts). The idea was that each would serve as a check against the power of the other two. And, among the many brilliant elements of the new Constitution was the principle that the church and state must remain separate so that individuals would always be free to practice, without interference from the government, whatever religion, or none, that they chose.

Over time amendments were judged necessary as the country grew and society recognized that further centralization of certain principles was essential to secure the freedom that the Framers, and the Americans who fought the Revolutionary and Civil Wars to create and preserve the union, sought to protect in perpetuity. For example, the requirements of ‘equal protection’ and ‘due process of law’ apply to both the federal government and the states.

It is now clear that the constitutional regime thus formed has several serious flaws, not least of which is the unplanned for development of political parties. The operation of the Electoral College has also proved to be quixotic at best.

It is also apparent that the widespread rhetorical framework under which Americans claim to a special place in the world is a myth. American “exceptionalism” viewed against the reality of lingering racism, fear of “foreigners,” and fear of the future leads to the inevitable awareness that Americans are no more exceptional than the people of other countries. The US history of intervention in other countries has not endeared the nations of the world to unqualified respect for the intentions of this country.

The threat of climate change and our newly realized vulnerability to disease should be sufficient to bind all peoples together in a common effort to protect the species by protecting the only planet we’re ever going to know. But that’s not what’s happening.

The United States has one of the strongest economies in the world. Our people overall enjoy a standard of living far above most of the rest of the planet. Yet fear of change, fear of the “other” and fear of displacement have led the people to elect a convicted felon as national leader. That same “leader” is plainly guilty of other crimes that will never be adjudicated, including his leading an insurrection against the government to overturn the 2020 election and his theft, and refusal to return, highly confidential government documents.

The Supreme Court, laced with conflicts of interest and outright corruption, has held that the President of the United States may not be held accountable for crimes committed in office if, for example, they are committed while conducting “official acts.” Thus, the Court held that the President may with complete immunity enlist the Department of Justice to join him in a criminal enterprise by simply “discussing” the matter with leaders within the Department.

Trump has made clear that he and his cronies intend not to lead the federal government but to dismantle it. His initial selection of incompetent and blatantly unqualified departmental and other senior leaders is conclusive proof that he has no intention of complying with the oath of office he will nominally take on January 20, 2025.

Trump is literally free, per Supreme Court decision, to ignore the law and proceed with his agenda. Little stands in his way, given the composition of the Congress and the abdication of responsible jurisprudence by the high court. What then?

Many large companies, like Meta and Apple, have surrendered by providing massive funds for Trump’s inauguration, ignoring the advice of Prof. Timothy Snyder not to comply in advance. Trump knows these economically influential entities and their leaders will not resist him. Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post, stopped the paper from endorsing Kamala Harris.

Perhaps even more remarkably, the Post’s Editorial Board has published a list of some Trump key appointments and indicated they should be confirmed. The list includes the likes of election-deniers Elise Stefanik and Pam Bondi (Trump’s second choice behind the disgraced and grossly unqualified Matt Gaetz. Also Kelly Loeffler, rejected by the voters of Georgia. The only ones who fail to pass the Post’s low bar are Robert Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hegseth, and Russell Vought.

Granted the Post spend little effort in explaining itself, but the criteria it chose to mention are, well, mind-blowing.

First, the Post says:

We would not have picked any of his choices for our hypothetical Cabinet. But, as we have argued for decades, that is not the standard we — or U.S. senators — should apply when evaluating potential executive nominees for Senate confirmation. The president-elect won the election. He deserves deference in building his team, and the Americans who elected him deserve an operational government, absent disqualifying deficiencies in competence, temperament or philosophy.

By that standard, all but two of Trump’s planned Cabinet nominees seem confirmable — as well as all but two of his picks for Cabinet-rank jobs that require confirmation.

But then the Post describes some of the nominees this way:

Marco Rubio for Secretary of State – “The son of immigrants, Rubio is respected by Senate colleagues and understands the vital importance of American leadership.”

My comment: this was news to me given Rubio’s post-2020 obeisance to Trump and the MAGA crowd. No sources are cited.

Scott Bessent for Secretary of Treasury — a “hedge fund billionaire, who seeks to stimulate growth and reduce the deficit, is among Trump’s most reasonable intended nominees.”

My comment: Again, no sources or authority cited. Maybe “billionaire” is sufficient for the Post’s purposes. It certainly is for Trump.

Pam Bondi for Attorney General – “Florida’s former attorney general is qualified; lawyers who have worked with her report that she is serious.”

My comment: Bondi is a 2020-election-denier and apparently has lobbied for foreign governments in the past. She’s serious alright. Bondi will be the perfect accomplice to Trump’s continuing efforts to use the Justice Department, with his Supreme Court’s approval, to commit further crimes without accountability.

Doug Burgum for Secretary of Interior – “The outgoing North Dakota governor and Stanford MBA built a successful software company that he sold to Microsoft.”

My comment: Being a software entrepreneur is not an obvious qualification for managing our natural resources. Prepare to lay your body down in front of a national park.

Howard Lutnick – Secretary of Commerce – “The co-chair of Trump’s transition team is a natural fit for a job traditionally held by a presidential friend.”

My Comment: A founding member of DOGE. Billionaire. His pinned Twitter/X account says: “Welcome to DOGE. We will rip the waste out of our $6.5 Trillion budget. Our goal: Balance the Budget of the USA. We must elect Donald Trump President. @elonmusk @realDonald Trump” The accompanying photo is of Lutnick & Elon Musk!

Balance the budget – riiight. Standard Republican rhetoric. Balance the budget and destroy the economy. A “natural fit.”

Lori Chavez-DeRemer – Secretary of Labor – “The former congresswoman from Oregon maintains surprisingly unorthodox views on organized labor.”

My comment: what “unorthodox views” means we are left to guess, and I’m guessing they are not good for unions.

Scott Turner – Secretary of Housing & Urban Development – “The former motivational speaker has never run a big organization, but that is not disqualifying.”

My comment: Lack of experience is self-evidently irrelevant in a Trump administration.

Sean P. Duffy – Secretary of Transportation – “The former reality TV star is also a former congressman from Wisconsin. He’ll still need to study.”

My comment: …..

Chris Wright – Secretary of Energy – “The Colorado oil and gas executive acknowledges that climate change is real.”

My comment: I suspect he also agrees the Earth is not flat. Prepare to lay your body down in front of a national park.

Linda McMahon – Secretary of Education – “The other co-chair of the president-elect’s transition team led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term.”

My comment: Betsy Devos redux? Her SBA experience definitely, certainly, obviously, assuredly qualifies her to lead American education policy, though her opportunities to do more damage to our education system may be brief if Trump fulfills his plan to eliminate the Department.

Douglas Collins – Secretary of Veterans Affairs – “He was a firebrand as a congressman from Georgia, but his heart seems to be in the right place in caring for veterans.”

My comment: You can’t make this stuff up. The most the Post has to say is that the nominee cares about veterans.

Kristi L. Noem – Secretary of Homeland Security – “Dog jokes aside, she has served in Congress and two terms as governor of South Dakota.”

My comment: The Post apparently thinks Noem’s shooting her dog was a joke! And, South Dakota being at the center of our national security concerns, Noem is imminently qualified for … something, though not the complex task of securing the homeland against attacks, especially with Trump in charge.

Interestingly, the Post did not mention Trump’s anointing of Kash Patel as inside man at the Department of Justice with instructions, redundant in his case, to get even or better with many of Trump’s main enemies list.

You get the picture, I’m sure. This is the “government” that Trump promised and that the American people chose, albeit by the slimmest of margins.

The United States is in the deepest trouble.

Corporate America is lining up to bend the knee to Trump. Under Donald Trump the United States seems destined to become a weak state and an international pariah as Trump in turn bends the knee to dictators like Vladimir Putin.

Thus far, the Democratic Party, reeling from the loss of the presidency and both houses of Congress, and with a Supreme Court having conferred immunity for the president’s crimes in office, has nothing much to say. Everyone, it seems, is waiting to see the actual shape of the catastrophe about to begin. It won’t be long now.

Only the Best People

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Que Theme from The Twilight Zone

And:

But where are the clowns
Send in the clowns
Don’t bother, they’re here

[4th stanza of Send in the Clowns by Stephen Sondheim]

To understand the musical reference, see Wikipedia at https://tinyurl.com/27nxhtxh

The majority of Americans who voted are about to get the full dose of what they chose. Unfortunately, the rest of us will too. You may decide for yourself who are the fools here.

Donald Trump has boasted many times that based on his deep knowledge of people, his administration would and did hire only “the best people.” Now that he has managed to bamboozle a majority of Americans into reinstalling him in the presidency, we can, once again, see this claim playing out in real time with real effects on the country. It is impossible to see his appointments as anything but political payoffs to a collection of traitors and incompetents who have no chance of successfully managing the federal government, even the reduced (emasculated?) one that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy (in the new Department of Government Efficiency) imagine in their fever dreams. Hard to imagine Musk co-leading anything with anyone but time will tell.

Trump has said these two acolytes will “dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” None of these people seem to have the slightest insight into the complexity of the federal government’s operations or their impact on the economy and the welfare of the American people. Rough times ahead.

Maybe that is what Trump really wants: destroy the government to prove what a giant of … something … he is. Catastrophic failure seems inevitable. In the last Trump administration, Trump’s goals, to the extent he had any well-formed thoughts about goals other than enhancing his personal wealth, were largely defeated by the Keystone Kops character of many of his appointees. It was also true that working for Trump was an ordeal beyond the tolerance of many of his appointees, so much so that Cabinet-level appointees quit or were fired in numbers that equaled the total of Reagan and George HW Bush combined and far exceeded the combined total for Clinton, George W Bush and Barack Obama.

We also know that many of Trump’s former Cabinet members, and his Vice President, have stated flatly that he is unfit for office. Nevertheless, the American people have spoken, rejecting an intelligent, experienced Democrat in favor of a multiply-convicted felon, rapist, corrupt, racist, dishonest remorseless serial liar, insurrectionist traitor, and violator of his oath of office. What can go wrong? Everything. And we’re still more than two months from Trump’s assuming office.

Announcements of his intended nominations for Cabinet and other critical high positions in the government are chilling beyond anything one might have imagined. If there is any good news in any of these appointments, it is that some of these people will no longer be in Congress. But that is killing with faint praise because they will be positioned to impose much more serious harm on the nation and the world.

Trump has, for example, chosen Matt Gaetz as the next Attorney General. As recently as June 18, 2024, the House Committee on Ethics has had this to say about the estimable Mr. Gaetz:

Notwithstanding the difficulty in obtaining relevant information from Representative Gaetz and others, the Committee has spoken with more than a dozen witnesses, issued 25 subpoenas, and reviewed thousands of pages of documents in this matter.  Based on its review to date, the Committee has determined that certain of the allegations merit continued review.  During the course of its investigation, the Committee has also identified additional allegations that merit review.

Accordingly, the Committee is reviewing allegations pursuant to Committee Rules 14(a)(3) and 18(a) that Representative Gaetz may have:  engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.  The Committee will take no further action at this time on the allegations that he may have shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe or improper gratuity.

Recall that in Trump v United States, the worst decision in American legal history, the Supreme Court held that the President’s “discussions” with the Justice Department seeking to suborn DOJ into supporting false claims of 2020 election impropriety were “absolutely immune” from criminal prosecution.

The Gaetz appointment appears to be causing something of a stir among some Republicans, too much even for the Wall Street Journal.

This is a bad choice for AG that would undermine confidence in the law. Mr. Trump lauded Mr. Gaetz’s law degree from William and Mary, but it might as well be a doctorate in outrage theater. He’s a performer and provocateur, and his view is that the more explosions he can cause, the more attention he can get. “It’s impossible to get canceled if you’re on every channel,” he once said. “If you aren’t making news, you aren’t governing.”

The larger objections to Mr. Gaetz concern judgment and credibility. The U.S. Attorney General has to make calls on countless difficult questions of whom to investigate and indict. Mr. Gaetz’s decisions simply wouldn’t be trusted. He’s a nominee for those who want the law used for political revenge, and it won’t end well.

Contesting for the most insane actions by an elected president in history, I have just seen that Trump has, as predicted, appointed anti-vaxxer Robert Kennedy, Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services. While Kennedy has had many jobs and roles during his lifetime, he has never had a management responsibility even remotely on the scale of HHS. This appointment, like many others, seems destined to produce a nightmarish disaster for the country.

Even the Wall Street Journal found RFK Jr to much to choke down:

Only months ago Mr. Trump was calling the Kennedy family scion a “liberal lunatic,” yet now he wants to hand RFK Jr. the power to “make America healthy again.” Good luck making sense of this nomination.

Mr. Trump’s desire to focus on America’s health agencies is welcome, but RFK Jr. won’t make America healthier. He’s more likely to harm public health by spreading confusion and attacking the American companies that are saving lives and feeding the world.

Trump selected Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence. Russian media has gleefully reported her claims that the Biden administration was intent upon prolonging the war in Ukraine, “out to destroy Russia” and that the Democratic Party was the enemy of democracy driven by an “insatiable hunger for power.” Armed with those deep thoughts, Gabbard joined the Republican Party and endorsed Trump’s candidacy. Given her positions and statements, some commenters have labeled her a “Russian asset.” Quite possible.

Trump chose Elise Stefanik to be Ambassador to the United Nations. This is the same Elise Stefanik who supported the January 6 attack on the Capitol and stated that she would have violated the law, the Constitution, and her oath of office by refusing to certify the 2020 election result. A solid Trumpian choice to represent the country in the council of nations.

Trump anointed South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to head the Department of Homeland Security – you remember her, the person who shot her dog because she disapproved of his behavior. She will likely struggle with Trump’s related selection of Tom Homan as “border czar.” Homan served as acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the first Trump administration. About this appointment, Trump reportedly said that in addition to overseeing the southern and northern borders along with maritime, and aviation security, Homan “will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin.” Homan’s appointment apparently does not require Senate confirmation.

The reference to aviation security being under Homan is curious in that the Transportation Security Administration is part of the Department of Homeland Security. Trump may be signaling an intention to move it. I will leave to your imagination the implications of that for the travel security process at airports. Or maybe Trump simply doesn’t know anything about the organization of the federal government.

As the lead lunatic and merciless serial killer played by Woody Harrelson in the 1974 movie, Natural Born Killers, said when asked what he had to say to his fans, “you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Trump has chosen a Fox News anchor, Pete Hegseth, for Secretary of Defense. Hegseth’s qualifications are that he was a soldier once and wrote some books attacking our current military policies. He is well-educated with a bachelor’s degree in politics from Princeton University and a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Axios reports that Hegseth opposes using women in combat roles, believes the military is too “woke,” has (per CNN) urged Trump to pardon some U.S. servicemen accused of war crimes and to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A quote attributed to him says, “You’ve got top-down political generals who’ve gained rank by playing by all the wrong rules that cater to the ideologues in Washington, D.C.”

It seems likely that Hegseth, who has been with Fox since 2014, is going to disrupt the chain of command while the U.S. is involved in large support roles in at least two wars: Middle East and Ukraine. Do you feel safer? Oh, and check out the photos of his tattoos. Oh, and check out the stories about his alleged sexual assault, that Hegseth denied but paid hush money anyway to secure the obligatory non-disclosure agreement. Curiously the stories I have seen don’t mention anything about DNA testing. Trump spokesman Steven Cheung reportedly has crowed that “Trump is nominating high-caliber and extremely qualified candidates to serve in his administration.” No doubt, Trump will be pleased with Cheung’s praise.

Trump also picked for Secretary of State the man he referred to as “little Marco” during the 2016 primaries. Rubio will exit the Senate, but Florida will no doubt elect a “suitable” MAGA replacement, so no joy there.

Trump’s pick for national security adviser, Michael Waltz, another Florida Republican, is reported to be a “China hawk” and likely opposed to giving more aid to Ukraine. If so, the seeds of internal conflict among Trump’s Cabinet on the Ukraine may be sown. Republican leaders generally seem disinclined to support Ukraine, and NATO itself, against Russia’s expansionist agenda, so Trump may well be on the verge of giving “aid and comfort” to one of our country’s principal adversaries. Treason, anyone?

Perhaps driven by his problematic experience with the gaggle of lawyers trying to help his campaign undermine the electoral process in 2020 and thereafter (also 2016, don’t forget), Trump has chosen William McGinley as White House counsel. Without a hint of awareness of the irony of it, Trump touted McGinley as someone who would resist the “weaponization of law enforcement.” Reportedly, McGinley’s MAGA credentials are solid: he was White House Cabinet secretary, Republican National Committee outside counsel for election integrity and general counsel for the GOP Senate campaign arm, the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Trump also chose right-wing Christian religious fanatic former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as U.S. Ambassador to Israel. Likely this means the slaughter in Gaza will continue. One report I saw indicates Muslims in Pennsylvania and Michigan who supported Trump are now upset with his pro-Israel nominations. This is what you get for single-issue protest votes.

In a related development, Trump appointed Steven Witkoff, a New York real estate baron, his special envoy to the Middle East. Witkoff, co-chair of Trump’s inaugural committee and a regular Trump golf partner, has reportedly been central to Trump’s connection with the Jewish business community.

Perhaps the least surprising and least interesting appointment so far is that of White House Chief of Staff that went to Trump campaign co-chair Susie Wiles, a Florida political operative. Lots of political folks from Florida in Trump’s crew.

Semi-finally, based on reports I’ve seen so far, the new CIA Director will be John Ratcliffe who was Trump’s former Director of National Intelligence. Ratcliffe previously was a Republican House member from, where else, Texas.

I will close this post for today with further observations about the Gaetz appointment. While Hegseth’s appointment as Secretary of Defense is shocking even for someone like Trump, it is put to shame by the elevation of Gaetz to the top federal law enforcement post.

USAToday noted that “Trump chose Gaetz to end ‘weaponization’ of Justice Department.” Again, awareness of irony is in short supply among these MAGA Republicans. USAToday notes

Trump and Gaetz both became fierce critics of the Justice Department after being investigated.”

Yes, that is to be expected, I suppose, but the idea that Gaetz is going to “end the weaponization of DOJ,” the agency Trump tried so hard to weaponize, is absurd. Trump only desisted because of threats by multiple DOJ leaders to resign if he put Jeffrey Clark in charge. Then the Supreme Court came along and found that Trump didn’t need to worry about weaponization of DOJ or any other federal agency because he was “absolutely immune” from prosecution for doing that very thing.

In replay of the replay of the replay, two female senators, Murkowski and Collins, engaged in brief public “shock” at the Gaetz nominations. Five will get you ten they will vote for confirmation.

Finally, here are some reactions among former government officials with knowledge:

“I cannot imagine a worse pick for Attorney General than Matt Gaetz.” [Edward Whelan, a deputy assistant attorney general during the George W. Bush administration]

“On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d call it a disaster.” [Harry Litman, a top Justice Department official during the Clinton administration]

“Our next Attorney General will be tasked with the safekeeping of the rule of law and our democracy, and Matt Gaetz is not fit for that job.” [Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee]

“He’s just trolling America at this point.” [Alyssa Farah Griffin, White House and Pentagon spokesperson in the first Trump administration]

“it must be the worst nomination for a Cabinet position in American history. Gaetz is not only totally incompetent for this job, he doesn’t have the character.” [John Bolton, Trump’s first term national security adviser]

Meanwhile, Jack Smith is closing his criminal prosecutions of Trump who will walk away unscathed for his traitorous behavior in office.

To end, finally, I turn to one of the smartest humans to share his brilliance with us in modern times: Edward O. Wilson (two Pulitzer Prizes), requoted from Your Brain on Art by Susan Magsamen & Ivy Ross:

Along with ants, bees, wasps, and termites, we humans are one of the only nineteen species on the entire planet that are eusocial. In other words, we work together to ensure our collective future. Group selection over individual survival developed with the core huma traits we have honed to this day including sympathy, empathy, and teamwork.

Altruism was essential to build and support community as a portion of the group members made sacrifices for the good of the group as a whole.

The authors added:

While it might not always seem the case, humans throughout history have more often chosen community and altruism over isolation and selfishness because irresolvable rivalry, from an evolutionary perspective, is deadly.