Is Vlad picking Cheeto's national defense nominees?

Or are they being chosen by Vlad, but with Cheeto's input?

I'm leaning toward the 2nd possibility as these folks are Trump loyalists one and all, but I don't rule out the first.

From AP -

Gabbard’s sympathetic views toward Russia cause alarm as Trump’s pick to lead intelligence services

Tulsi Gabbard, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the U.S. intelligence services, in 2022 endorsed one of Russia’s main justifications for invading Ukraine: the existence of dozens of U.S.-funded biolabs working on some of the world’s nastiest pathogens.

Moscow claimed Ukraine was using the labs to create deadly bioweapons similar to COVID-19 that could be used against Russia, and that Russian President Vladimir Putin had no choice but to invade neighboring Ukraine to protect his country.

In fact, the labs are public and part of an international effort to control outbreaks and stop bioweapons.

From DefenseOne -

‘Extraordinarily dangerous’: Intelligence community insiders warn against Trump’s DNI pick

Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, lacks experience, and her record of Russia-aligned public statements could undermine the ability of the United States to acquire intelligence from allies and partners, current and former intelligence officials say. 

Trump on Wednesday announced his intention to put Gabbard, who served in Congress as a Democrat from Hawaii, in charge of the national intelligence office. The office coordinates intelligence efforts across the entire government, forges intelligence-sharing relationships with other countries, and shapes the way the public and the White House understand threats to U.S. interests. The office takes a leading role in assembling the daily brief for the president, which  the White House uses to understand how adversaries are working against the United States, and in telling the public about threats Americans face.

 

I would liken the picks of her, Pete Hegseth (Defense Secretary) Marco Rubio (Secretary of State) and others to the Keystone Kops, except the antics of the Keystone Kops brought laughter and joy to a lot of Americans.

The only people who will enjoy the antics of Cheeto's bunch will be Russian.

Time for a rerun: Cheeto as Paul von Hindenburg

This is a post that I wrote nearly eight years ago before Cheeto took office the first time.  

Re-running it, given the utter venality of the people to Cabinet positions and other jobs within his new administration, seems appropriate.

"

Trump analogy time: Less "Hitler" and more "pre-Hitler"

Godwin's Law, courtesy UrbanDictionary.com:

A term that originated on Usenet, Godwin's Law states that as an online argument grows longer and more heated, it becomes increasingly likely that somebody will bring up Adolf Hitler or the Nazis. When such an event occurs, the person guilty of invoking Godwin's Law has effectively forfeited the argument.

For the purposes to discussing the president-elect, Donald Trump, and/or his administration and advisors, I'm going to have to violate Godwin's Law, or simply consider it suspended for the duration.

The comparisons are too obvious to ignore.



The comparisons of Donald Trump to Adolph Hitler seem to me to be both a case of overreach and being premature.  He hasn't even taken office yet.

Nope.  While it's not a perfect analogy (any analogy is an imperfect comparison between two entities), right now he looks to most closely resemble Paul von Hindenburg.

Paul von Hindenburg, courtesy EncyclopediaBrittanica.com

Von Hindenburg was the second president of Germany (after WWI).

He wasn't Hitler (in fact, he died in 1934, years before the Nazis' greatest evils were fully realized).

However, he was the one who welcomed Hitler into the mainstream of German politics by making him Chancellor of Germany in 1933.

Unlike Trump (who was basically a draft dodger), von Hindenburg was a former field marshal in the German army in WWI.

Like Trump, he was reluctant to accept the responsibilities of his office.

Unlike Trump, he apparently cared about the country he was charged with leading.

Like Trump (who will be 70 on Inauguration Day in January), he wasn't exactly a young man when he first took office (76 years old).

No where did I find evidence of von Hindenburg being held responsible for the rise to power of Hitler and the Nazis; what he did was give them access to the levers of power in the early and middle 1930s.

Fast forward to 2016:

Trump is bringing in some utterly vile people around him, people like Mike Pence, Kris Kobach, Jeff Sessions, Michael Flynn, and others, all people who shouldn't be allowed near a position of public responsibility much less one of public trust.

Right now, none of them appear to be Hitler-like (though at least a couple of them look like wannabes), but when Trump leaves office over his ethical issues (of course, given his age, the term "medical issues" may serve as the preferred euphemism) look for one of them to at least try to assume dictatorial powers.


To critics:

Yes, I know this was (and is) a quick, almost superficial, look at one, very specific, part of the entire ugly situation.

Which is all that it is intended to be; in 50 years or so, historians will produce some very erudite and intellectual treatises that will use many more words to say the same thing."

Hey, Cheeto supporters! This may be the first step in getting what you wanted when you voted for him.

You wanted people to work for free, right?

From Reuters -

US judge strikes down Biden overtime pay rule

A federal judge in Texas on Friday permanently blocked a Biden administration rule that would have made about 4 million more salaried U.S. workers eligible for overtime pay.

U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan in Sherman, Texas, said the U.S. Department of Labor rule that took effect in July improperly bases eligibility for overtime pay on workers' wages rather than their job duties.

[snip]

Jordan, who was appointed by Republican President-elect Donald Trump in his first term, struck down the rule after saying in June that it was likely invalid and temporarily blocking it from being applied to Texas state employees.

The rule would have required employers to pay overtime premiums to salaried workers who earn less than $1,128 per week, or about $58,600 per year, when they work more than 40 hours in a week, beginning Jan. 1, 2025, and it had temporarily raised the threshold to about $44,000 per year on July 1

.

This may be a backdoor way for Cheeto to keep one of his campaign promises.

Of course, his supporters thought they'd still get overtime, it just wouldn't be taxed.

They were wrong.

Legislative schedule - week starting 11/17/2024

Nada, as in there is nothing scheduled at the legislature at this point.  

However, that's subject to change.  Last week, I reported that no meetings were on the schedule.  And at the time, that was true.  

However, the Joint Committee on Capital Review (JCCR) met on Wednesday, so keep an eye out - right now, there's nothing scheduled, but something could be placed there at a moment's notice.

What's the Russian for "Chernobyl this, you people who copulate with your female parental figures!"

We may hear it sooner or later, and with Trump's "dream team" of Cabinet and adviser picks, it'll probably be sooner.

People like RFK, Jr, Tulsi Gabbard, Matt Gaetz, Marco Rubio, Elon Musk, and Pete Hegseth (et. al.) shouldn't be allowed within even sniffing distance of a national office yet Cheeto has nominated/named them to seats at the big table.

Yet, as rancid as his personnel choices may be, his plan to purge the U.S. military of senior officers may be worse.

From Reuters -

Exclusive: Trump's team drawing up list of Pentagon officers to fire, sources say

Members of President-elect Donald Trump's transition team are drawing up a list of military officers to be fired, potentially to include the Joint Chiefs of Staff, two sources said, in what would be an unprecedented shakeup at the Pentagon.

The planning for the firings is at an early stage after Trump's Nov. 5 election victory and could change as Trump's administration takes shape, said the sources, who are familiar with the Trump transition and requested anonymity to speak candidly about the plans.

[snip]

The second source said the incoming administration would likely focus on U.S. military officers seen as connected to Mark Milley, Trump's former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Milley was quoted in the book "War" by Bob Woodward, which was published last month, calling Trump "fascist to the core" and Trump's allies have targeted him for perceived disloyalty to the former president.

"Every single person that was elevated and appointed by Milley will be gone," the second source said.

This scheme seems, well, *familiar.*

Some observers consider Cheeto's picks to be a "dream", but the linked observer at WaPo was probably being sarcastic.  She's a bit of a wiseass. 

Especially since my first reaction to this list was "it's a nightmare".

My next reaction was "the only person who has dreams like this is Vlad...and only if those dreams are wet."

Speaking of Vlad, his initial plan if Cheeto ever became POTUS again may have been to invade the western U.S.  That may still be the plan, but he's frittered away so much of Russia's military on his invasion of Ukraine that may no longer be an option.

He still has nukes, so he may simply turn the western U.S. into a radioactive slag heap.

It's not like Cheeto would do anything about it.  He might say "well, I have bone spurs" while thinking "well, most of them didn't vote for me."

Election postmortem

Yes, I realize that this benefits from 20/20 hindsight.

1. Joe Biden should have stepped well before any Democratic primary/caucus.  The eventual nominee (who I will presume would have been Vice President Kamala Harris) would have benefited from getting their campaign and messaging in order *before* the general election period.  As it was, the campaign seemed rushed.

2. Speaking of messaging, abortion rights wasn't the wrong message, but making it the *only* message was.  America is a complicated place that faces many issues and ceding economic and immigration issues to Republican-generated lies was a mistake.  Ruben Gallego was the only Democrat to win a high-profile race in AZ, and it helped him to define himself before his opponent, Kari Lake, started spreading lies about him (of course, it also helped that everyone who meets her intensely dislikes her).  She did lie, a LOT, but the message was already out.

Going forward, that might be something for Democratic candidates (and their consultants) to keep in mind.

3. None of this changes the most disheartening fact - there are literally millions of Americans who would rather support, and vote for, an utterly vile human being, so long as the vile person is male, and his opponent is female.

Even if they're being lied to, and know it.  So long as the lies are what to hear, they'll choose to believe the lies,

I don't have a "should" to address this.

Legislative schedule - week starting 11/10/2024

Nada, as in there is nothing scheduled at the legislature at this point.

Someone should get a message to Kari Lake

And the gist of that message should be: "Please go away."

Over the last couple of days, I've received four email messages from Kari Lake.

The voters have spoken, twice (in 2022 and 2024), and both times, they have thoroughly rejected her. 

Yet, she still insists that her shortfall in votes is due to illegal votes, and only "legal" ones are counted, she'll win.

She doesn't define "legal", but one thing is clear.  She want lots of money.

From one email -

From another -

She's rapidly devolving to "perennial candidate" status, and she'll go there if she feels that's the best way for her to keep the grift going.

Is deputy dog catcher an elected position?

Statewide Ballot questions

There were 13 statewide questions in total on this year's ballot in AZ; 11 were referred by the Republicans in the legislature, two were referred by the people.

Eight failed - seven legislative questions, and one from the people

There were five election related questions; all failed, including the one intended to remove retention elections for judges.

It failed spectacularly, with more than 75% of voters voting it down.

One that passed: Proposition 139, amending the state's constitution to protect access to abortion which passed by more than 550,000 votes/21 percentage points.

It's not ALL bad news: most school district-related ballot questions passed

...At least in Maricopa County.  I didn't look at the other counties in AZ.

There were 40 school district questions here; 31 passed.  That's more than 75%.

Note: All listed vote totals are current; the totals will change as late ballots are counted.  However, none of them look close enough for the outcome to change.

The State Senate membership may be tied*

* = There's a rather big caveat: If current results hold up.  A couple of the districts that currently favor the Democratic candidate are very close.  One of them is verrrryyyyy close.

As results currently stand, the Senate would be tied 15-15.

However, two of the districts may change -

As things stand right now, the House will have 32 Republican members and 28 Democratic ones, though a couple of those races are close enough to change.

However, the biggest upset may have been in the Senate - former legislator Vince Leach lost his race in LD17 to Democrat John McLean.

Election Results 2024 - 3rd numbers

First and foremost, I want to thanks each and every person who helped to run a polling site or to count ballots.  I may not like some of the results, but I know this -

Democracy doesn't work without you.

Going forward, certain races will be dropped off this list as the outcome in that race seems given.  The vote totals may change but the outcome probably won't.

Election Results 2024 - 2nd numbers

 

Election Results 2024 - 1st numbers

Election Results 2024

When the Arizona Secretary of State and the Maricopa County Recorder post initial results, I'll post some of them here.  Those initial results will only be early ballots, and unless the total overwhelmingly favors one side, races won't be called by the MSM.

A few caveats:

1. They'll be AZ results only.

2. The list of races covered will NOT be comprehensive.  If readers want one added, particularly statewide or in Maricopa County, please leave a comment.

3. No state legislative races will be covered, but that may change as listed races go clearly in one direction or the and drop off my list.

4. My intent is to do an initial report and at or just after 9 (if totals change significantly) and the go to bed and pick it up tomorrow.

5. Reality may intercede and change any of this.