Exactly. Keeping one’s seat is job number one. Everything else be damned.
They haven’t been thinking straight for years now. US Senators have actual power, and there’s only 100 of them, and they serve for a 6-year term, the longest of any elected officials at the Federal level. Why so many of them are running scared of even the appearance of opposing Trump is mind boggling. Sure, those up for election two years might start being concerned about being primaried, but does anyone really think that what happens now is going to have much impact on a primary six years from now?
Ok, it’s not really Cabinet, but Hegseth’s top Pentagon spokesman was also accused of domestic abuse. Yet more “best of the best.”
“When I assemble my Cabinet, I’m not nominating the best. I’m not nominating you. I’m not picking you. I’m sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with them. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
You would think that just in their own self-interest they would consider that if they are only a rubber stamp for Trump, why does he even need them?
Of course, now there is the point that Elon most likely has all their financial information, so straight-up blackmail could come into play.
Not sure how much this thread has discussed the SEC.
“Acting” (like there’s any other kind?) chairman Mark T. Uyeda, in this article:
https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2025-30
Simply translating to “regulations = bad”?
Getting rid of pesky watchdogs like chief litigation counsel Jorge Tenreiro:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/sec-moves-top-lawyer-crypto-cop-jorge-tenreiro-wsj
Sucks that commissioner Hester Pierce apparently embraces crypto. AIUI Paul “CryptoComptroller” Atkins is awaiting senate confirmation to be the new SEC chair, eager to eradicate efforts by former SEC head Gary Ginsler to crackdown on crypto’s overreach.
AND then Uyeda spews out three new crypto-luvin’ appointees last Tuesday:
Elsewhere it was said that it could take months or longer for anything, like this task fArce, to get implemented. Hoping for that silver lining.
Not sure what your question means. “Acting” means working in the role without official status, such as Senate Confirmation.
It’s in reference to this administration’s volatility, and I recall a preponderance of that in 45’s first term.
No discussion/mention/update/outrage about Tulsi Gabbard being confirmed as the National Intelligence Director?
Mitch McConnel is the lone Republican to vote against her.
Looks like John Thune is giving up on Republicanism and sending the whole team into Dixiecrat hog heaven.
You pair up Tulsi Gabbard (anti-war hippie) with someone like Jeff Sessions (Southern racist), and you really have put together the old Democratic party of the 1960s. I think we can comfortably say what team Trump was on in his teens.
National Intelligence Director Salesperson.
Saw the news, said yup, expected that. What next?
All my outrage is exhausted.
Certainly no free nation is going to be sharing intelligence with the USA again. They know it will go straight to Vlad.
Perhaps they will share intelligence with trusted individuals within the US intelligence community?
I could see people trying that. But you know that if Gabbard got wind of it, those involved would be sent to Guantanamo (at best).
I would hope that an experienced professional knows how to keep something close without excessive sharing.
For what purpose? What positive use would they be able to make of it?
I’d expect that the best we can hope for is that some US persons start funneling info over to Europe, to help them do all the things that keep the planet from devolving into chaos.
I mean, right now, if Trump allows Russia to win a chunk of Ukraine then that’s basically the green light for anyone on the planet that wants a chunk of land, has the manpower to take it, but always feared the World Police to now ramp up the troops and invade.
Holy shit. RFK Jr is confirmed as HHS. Been nice knowing you all. I hope the virus takes me quickly.
He also just voted against confirming Brain Worm. I would be willing to bet quite a bit that, if he were the deciding vote for either, he would have voted to confirm.
I just finished reading Michael Lewis’ The Premonition yesterday.
Michael Lewis’ ‘The Premonition’ Is A Sweeping Indictment Of The CDC
In January and February of 2020, hundreds of Americans in Wuhan, China, were flown back to the U.S. Considering how many people had died of COVID-19 in China at that point, it would have made sense to test those Americans who were coming back. But according to Lewis and his sources, then-CDC Director Robert Redfield refused to test them, saying it would amount to doing research on imprisoned persons.
“Redfield is a particularly egregious example, but he’s an expression of a much bigger problem. And if you just say, ‘oh, it’s the Trump administration’ or ‘oh, it’s Robert Redfield,’ you’re missing the bigger picture,” Lewis says. “And the bigger picture is we as a society have allowed institutions like the CDC to become very politicized. And this is a larger pattern in the U.S. government. More and more jobs being politicized, more and more people in these jobs being on shorter, tighter leashes. More the kind of person who ends up in the job being someone who is politically pleasing to whoever happens to be in the White House. And so … the conditions for Robert Redfield being in that job were created long ago.”
…
According to Lewis’ reporting, the CDC basically had two positions on the pandemic early on. Early on it was that there was nothing to see here — that this is not a big deal. It’s being overblown. And then there was this very quick pivot when it started spreading in the U.S. and the position became it’s too late and there’s nothing we can do.
…
According to Lewis, the tragedy that became the American coronavirus pandemic was a perfect storm of the reaction of the president at the time, Donald Trump, the long history of politicization of the CDC and the lack of a public health care system all coming together.
It’s a good read and illuminates how bad the US public health system is.
As bad as the COVID response was, imagine how much worse the next outbreak will be with anti-vaxxers, pseudoscientists, and not just political flunkies, but hardcore MAGAs whose priorities are to serve Trump and not the public, calling the shots.
Trump treated COVID like it was a public relations disaster for him personally, not the global public health disaster that it was.