Kansas Crimson

...they will instinctually know what to do.

In 2018, Donald Trump’s brain, Steve Bannon, told the writer Michael Lewis, “The Democrats don’t matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.”

They’ve done it for a decade, and it’s largely worked. Now, one week after Trump’s election to a second term, they’re doing it again, only this time they’re flooding the zone with appointments that—let’s just say—stink up the joint.

It’s disorienting, as it’s intended to be. You feel like you’re playing one of those whack-a-mole boardwalk games at Funland in Rehoboth. Ultimately you’ve accomplished little, except occasionally winning some cheap stuffed animal as a consolation prize.

But sometimes in politics you have to start with small prizes and build up to bigger victories. And even though the bulk of Trump’s embarrassing and unqualified appointments will get confirmed, his intention to nominate Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense gives defenders of good government and the rule of law a chance for a win.

It would not be for a small prize either. Secretary of defense is an important job.

Could Hegseth’s nomination be defeated? Many Republican senators have dealt with Hegseth, and they know he’s beyond unqualified for the position. Has there actually been a single statement from a Republican senator actually praising the choice? I’m not aware of one.

Now of course that’s different from actually opposing a nomination by the party’s Dear Leader, and we’ll see how many Republicans have the nerve to do that.

But still, Democrats and good government organizations and veterans groups should make such opposition from some Republican senators easier. I’m confident there’s zero chance that incoming Armed Services Committee chair, Sen. Roger Wicker, would think Hegseth an appropriate, or even a defensible, selection. Nor would Armed Service Committee members Sens. Tom Cotton or Dan Sullivan. Will they say publicly what they know privately? We’ll see. But it will be easier for them to do so if there’s thorough research into Hegseth’s background and the public marshaling of evidence for Hegseth’s radical unfitness for the position.

Because he really is unfit.

I knew Pete Hegseth fifteen years ago when he was a young, pro-Iraq war veteran, moving in Weekly Standard/Project for a New American Century circles. He seemed to be an effective proponent of neoconservative foreign policy, and some of us wanted to think well of him and give him a hand on a promising career. I even weighed in (ineffectually) on his behalf when he ran for the Republican nomination for senator in Minnesota—against, as I recall, a Ron Paul–supporting America First type.

But as sometimes happens, my judgment and that of others was mistaken. Hegseth turned out to be personally untrustworthy, intellectually shallow, and politically opportunistic. He moved on and was encouraged to move on out of our world, and ended up in the orbit of Fox News and Trumpist sycophancy, where he fit in well.

The general reaction of others who knew him back when is summarized in a text I got last night. This is from someone who’s seen it all, who has a cynical view of politics, and who expects the corridors of power to be populated by opportunists and phonies. He’s not the type to get upset about second- or third-raters being appointed to high office. But still, he couldn’t quite believe this nomination. Under the subject line “Good Christ,” my friend wrote simply: “I wouldn’t let this creep dog-sit for me. Now he’s going to be the Secretary of Defense?”

But don’t believe me, or my dog-loving friend. Let’s just have a full exploration and public scrutiny of Hegseth’s background, and let people make up their own minds based on the evidence as to whether he should be in charge of the United States military.

Another friend emailed last night wondering if we should make a fuss about Hegseth. Wouldn’t it be better to have an incompetent showman rather than a more able Trumpist as secretary of defense? Wouldn’t the first perhaps be able to do less damage than the second?

It’s not a ridiculous position.

But Hegseth would be an ultra-loyalist, and would go along with everything Trump and his apparatchiks in the White House want. He would enable all of Trump’s plans to politicize and degrade our military, about which we’ve already seen a glimpse. It’s impossible to imagine him raising any objection regarding the host of things Trump plans to do, from using the military to round up immigrants to intervening to promote politically aligned general officers.

History suggests that shallow opportunists who have become mindless loyalists can be as dangerous as more impressive ideologues in helping effectuate the authoritarian project.

So it’s worth having this fight. It could prevent a really bad secretary of defense from taking office. But it also could establish the principle, early on in this second and far more dangerous Trump term that lies ahead, that the opposition will fight. And that it can win.

But seriously, why not let them hang themselves?

As always, thank you for your debt service roadkill rubes.

is probably the clash's best album.

Tangible nihilism.

Things that make you go hmmm.....

Donald Trump repeatedly told America he had “nothing to do” with Project 2025. But now, he’s welcoming its architect into his Cabinet with open arms.

Russ Vought, who was deeply involved in the creation of Project 2025 and wrote an entire chapter in the right-wing playbook, is being strongly considered for an upcoming Cabinet position, according to several sources who spoke with ABC News. Vought has already begun the vetting process and has been seen at Mar-a-Lago meeting with Trump’s team.

Vought—a former lobbyist, self-described Christian nationalist, and director of the Office of Management and Budget in Trump’s first term—authored a chapter in the 922-page MAGA extremist master plan titled “Executive Office of the President” for Project 2025’s “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise” section. The chapter serves as “a comprehensive policy guide for the next conservative U.S. president.”

Vought isn’t the only Project 2025 alum being floated for a crucial role in the Trump Cabinet. Gene Hamilton, who wrote a chapter about how the Justice Department needed a “top to bottom overhaul” because it is “captured by an unaccountable bureaucratic managerial class and radical Left ideologues who have embedded themselves throughout its offices and components,” has been seriously floated for an important legal team position. Trump has also nominated Project 2025 contributor and free-speech “warrior” Brendan Carr to serve as Federal Communications Commission chair.

On the campaign trail, Trump had tried to distance himself from Project 2025, particularly after it became a focus point for Democrats. “This was a group of people that got together, they came up with some ideas, I guess some good, some bad, but it makes no difference. I have nothing to do [with it],” Trump stated during his nationally televised debate with Vice President Kamala Harris. His loyal transition team co-chair Howard Lutnick described the project as an “absolute zero” and “radioactive.”

And yet here we are, with Vought, Carr, and Hamilton cozying back up to the president-elect, who was surely lying to America throughout his campaign. The skeleton plan for the far-right takeover is coming alive.

And in local news....

The temporary layoffs and retooling of the General Motors plant in Fairfax, Kansas, so they can begin making the fully electric Chevrolet Bolt have made way to negative ripple effects in Riverside, Missouri.

The latest Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) letter was sent to Riverside Mayor Kathy Rose about the 144 permanent layoffs at Martinrea Riverside LLC.

An excerpt from that letter reads, “The first round of layoffs is expected to occur on December 6, 2024, but it is anticipated that certain employees will be retained until approximately on or around January 17, 2025.”

Those layoffs will impact approximately 69 workers during that first date, and then approximately 75 employees on the second date.

A previous WARN letter from Yanfeng, another GM Autoparts vendor, announced 444 employees would be laid off and the plant will permanently close. The layoffs were scheduled to between last week, and next week.

A third WARN letter from Adient plc also notified Mayor Rose of 169 permanent layoffs would be implemented between November 11th and two weeks later.

Mayor Rose sent KCTV5 a statement about the negative ripple effect that is occurring in Riverside.

Kathy Rose Letter by gswartz00 on Scribd

“While there is never a good time to see these job losses, it is an especially difficult time for those affected with the holiday season upon us,” Rose said in the letter in part.

Penske Logistics also announced 72 temporary layoffs in a WARN letter previously shared with KCTV. OP Mobility, based in Fairfax, WARN letter from the same time-period notified of 72 employees that were being laid off as well.

Virgil White owns KC Burger Joint in Riverside. Some of the employees that have been impacted eat at his restaurant.

“Since probably the first of November is really when we’ve noticed a lot of the Yanfeng employees not coming here for lunch,” White said. “We would do orders for GM every Friday, and I haven’t seen an order for GM – once this month.”

The first round of temporary layoffs at GM will occur this Friday with approximately 680 workers. The second round of temporary layoffs consisting of approximately 1,015 will occur in January.

The GM employees are scheduled to return to work after the plant is retooled, and per union contract they will receive 75 percent of their salary during the down period.

....and the non-union workers in Riverside get dick for Christmas.

If you have ever worked in an Auto Plant you know that retooling the line can be a glorious multi-month paid time off. I remember the glee that greeted the retooling of the truck line when I worked at Ford's Claycomo Plant back in the early 80's. But glee is for union workers, and the non-union workers?

According to CAP analysis of NLRB elections data, workers today have a better chance of winning their union representation election than at any point in the past 15 years, with a win rate of more than 70 percent. After a decline in the number of elections under the Trump administration, workers are back to holding more than 1,700 elections for union representation every year, and 115,000 workers voted in union elections in 2023, the largest number in a decade. As workers have pushed to form new unions, the NLRB has pursued a vigorous agenda of going after lawbreakers: It has won 54 percent more reinstatement offers for illegally fired workers since 2021 than during all four years of the previous administration, while instituting new rules that make it easier for workers to exercise their right to join a union.

The trend for the past several decades has been a weakening of labor law, stacking the deck in favor of corporations trying to bust unions. Businesses can use a range of legal tactics to persuade workers to vote against unionizing, and can even resort to illegally firing workers who try to organize their colleagues, since monetary penalties for breaking the law are nonexistent. Corporations are served by a cottage industry of professional “union avoidance” consultants, with law firms and consultants charging top dollar. One boutique consultant offers to potential clients to “show you how not only to win your election but also teach your staff advanced techniques for union avoidance to ensure your company never goes through a union election again.” And the Project 2025 policy playbook offers instructions for future administrations to neuter the NLRB’s enforcement capacity and turn it against unions by firing key agency leaders, making it easier to decertify unions, and closing off established ways of forming unions.

I drive through Riverside every day on my way to the office. Lots of trump signs there. Missouri went heavy on trumpty plumpty. When given more rope they decided against using it to pull each other up. They chose to make nooses.

Yeah for the roadkill rubes! They voted in their "self-interest" and it is gonna pay off?

We are enriched on the unceded finances of the roadkill rube peoples. I ask you to join me in acknowledging the roadkill rube community; their elders both past and present, as well as future generations. The Japhy Empire also acknowledges that it was founded upon the trickling up of their monies. This acknowledgement demonstrates a non-commitment to beginning the process of working to dismantle the ongoing legacies of trickle up economics; cuz the rubes likes it this way.

I saw a very good line the other day - the people who accumulate $5,000/hour doing nothing convinced the people who make $40/hour working that the problem is the people who make $15/hour working.

jfish26 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 21, 2024 10:23 am I saw a very good line the other day - the people who accumulate $5,000/hour doing nothing convinced the people who make $40/hour working that the problem is the people who make $15/hour working.

In a nutshell.

Ah yes, yes Chevy Bolt.
The ideal of the pansy left. Small enough to fit in the bed of a F250, more masculine than a Fiat 500, and ugly enough that no one would steal it.

But, now that the mouth breathers are empowered, and they know that for the cost of the Bolt they can get a 12' lift, 44" tires (on super-manly 40" rims), and over an acre of multi color lights. Nothing says GIANT cock quite like those super badass off-set wheels too! How about some big chrome nuts hanging off the 27" drop hitch? How about those super macho power folding steps?

You can hear them now, "Look here lefty faggot... I can burn down my own garage and cut out the middle man!"