DL Open Thread: Saturday, January 25, 2025
Post-Democracy America Day 5: Trump Fires Inspectors General In Late-Night Purge:
The White House late Friday fired the independent inspectors general of at least 12 major federal agencies in a purge that could clear the way for President Donald Trump to install loyalists in the crucial role of identifying fraud, waste and abuse in the government.
The dismissals appeared to violate federal law, which requires Congress to receive 30 days’ notice of any intent to fire a Senate-confirmed inspector general.
Pete Hegseth Is Your Secretary Of Defense. JD Vance to the rescue:
The appointment of Hegseth, a Trump loyalist who has called for a “frontal assault” to rid the Pentagon of what he’s said is a leftist ideology, marks a dramatic political shift in the United States’ national security policy and leadership.
Hegseth secured his post Friday night in a vote of 51-50, after Vice President JD Vance cast the tiebreaking vote. It marks the second time in U.S. history that a vice president’s vote was necessary to confirm a Cabinet official, and Republicans applauded as Vance entered the chamber.
Three Republicans, Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Susan Collins (Maine) and Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) joined the chamber’s Democrats and independents in opposing Hegseth, following a heated confirmation process that centered on allegations of alcohol abuse, sexual misconduct and financial mismanagement. Hegseth steadily and vigorously denied any wrongdoing (despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary .
What we have here is the deliberate destruction of governmental institutions and safeguards against a no-longer-hypothetical oligarch.
Oh, That’s Why Musk Is So Transphobic:
Vivian Wilson – who is a trans woman and legally changed her name when she turned 18 in 2022 to reflect her gender identity and to stop being associated with her father – made comments which appeared to hint at the Nazi salute controversy, but did not Musk outright.
She took aim at Musk’s biographer as well:
“Elon was your darling Tony Stark apartheid-American hero with a semi-tragic backstory who was saving the world and you were too f***ing cowardly to write anything other than a sad excuse for a puff-piece.
“I was deadnamed, and misgendered for no conceivable reason and made to seem like I was just too stupid or too ‘communist’ or too brainwashed or too what-f***ing-ever to understand the 4D chess behind the reasons I was traumatised.
“My identity was trivialised, my reasons for separation were misconstrued, and I was treated as naïve; stupid, unfairly unforgiving and unreasonably moralistic. Worst of all, this was the section that was released early as part of the ‘promo’ because you knew it would catch headlines as part of this culture war bull****. You knew that conservatives and ‘reactionaries’ would take this and run as far as they could with it to get clicks, or to smear my name for their own self interests.”
Has the ring of truth to me…
The (Male) Ghost In The Latrine:
Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert reportedly tried to kick a “guy” out of a women’s restroom in the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, only to realize she’d made a mistake.
Congressional leaders were voting on the House floor when the far-right representative reportedly came “bursting” out of a nearby women’s restroom and complained to security that there was “a guy” inside, Bloomberg reporter Billy House wrote in a series of posts on X.
House said Boebert brought Mace over to help sniff out the supposed intruder. (Insert your own joke here.)
Recalling the scene, House said he waited outside the restroom after seeing Boebert and Mace storm back in. He saw four people leave after her, all women.
Back on the House floor, Boebert falsely told colleagues that the person she saw was Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), the Daily Beast reported, citing sources present. McBride is the first transgender member of Congress and the target of Mace’s bathroom ban.
House said he questioned Boebert about what happened and said she admitted that she hadn’t seen “a guy” after all.
“I apologized, learned a lesson, and it won’t happen again,” she said in a statement to the Daily Beast. (It will.)
An aide to House Speaker Mike Johnson stepped in to advise Republicans against issuing a subpoena to former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson for fear that it might expose sexual texts lawmakers sent her, according to The Washington Post.
Hutchinson, a former Trump loyalist who worked for his chief of staff, gave sensational evidence to the congressional committee on the January 6 riot. She testified that Trump wanted to join his supporters marching on the Capitol, and she claimed that he believed – but did not care – that some of them were armed.
Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk had suggested in public that a subpoena be issued for Hutchinson. However, an aide to Johnson warned Loudermilk’s staff that several colleagues had shared concerns that “sexual texts from members who were trying to engage in sexual favors” with Hutchinson could be shared publicly, correspondence from the time reveals, according to the paper. It was not immediately clear who those lawmakers supposedly are or what was in the alleged text messages.
What do you want to talk about?
Remember, Lauren Witzke made similar accusations about sex and drugs back in the day, and who would doubt it? Many of them got elected to get laid. Matt Gaetz was a member of Congress and still had to pay for it.
Headline in TNJ:
Former state budget director pleads guilty to shoplifting, paving way for Wilmington post
I love that juxtaposition.
From my morning Journal feed:
“DuPont Rethinks Company Spit”.
They apparently want to limit employee spitting solely to the Experimental Station…
Where else do you expect the criminal and functionally illiterate to work if not in government?
J6ers Ponder Civil Rights Lawsuits. Well, ‘ponder’ isn’t the right word. But they’re doing it:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/24/trump-january-6-pardons-riot/
Rep. Sarah McBride’s public statements give me the feeling that she thinks this era of transphobia will all blow over if she keeps her on the ball continues to not take the bait.
I guess being a member of congress confers a lot of privilege, and the ability to take the long view.
She’s always been that way. When your opponent is making an ass of herself, why interfere?
Good point. I guess I’d like to see a little pushback from some Democratic congress person on something. Maybe it is happening under the radar?
We could brainstorm all day, the people with the money will keep their fingers in the wind. I anticipate that all social media will turn to pro-Trump propaganda as he threatens each one in turn.
Not the pushback I was hoping for.
Serious Question: Does Wawa pay to get this kind of coverage of their newest store opening the doors? Especially when the photos look like every other Wawa everywhere else?:
https://www.delawareonline.com/picture-gallery/news/local/2025/01/24/new-wawa-opens-brandywine-hundred-delaware/77929608007/?tbref=hp
Don’t get me wrong. I like WaWa. They’re great when you’re on the road, as a reasonable alternative to fast food joints. Plus they give free tea and coffee on Veteran’s Day. But why do we need so many? In addition to the one which just opened, it’s bookended by the WaWa at Naaman’s and Ridge Avenue, and the WaWa at Naaman’s and Concord Pike. Plus another one at Philadelphia Pike and Harvey Road. And yet another one at Concord Pike and Garden of Eden Road.
Getting back to your original question, a WaWa opening makes for lazy coverage by the TNJ. Why send someone out to do a difficult job reporting on politics, when they can just as easily fill up space with a puff piece.
It’s really sad for those of us who can remember the glory days of the News Journal and the Journal Every Evening, and those amazing printing presses on Orange Street. Bill Frank, Al Cartwright, Norm Lockman, and Betty Burroughs would be spinning in their graves if they could see what the TNJ has become.
And those of us who are still standing shake our heads in wonderment just about every day.
All funded by brick-and-mortar retail establishments that booked full and half-page ads every week and Sundays. There was no other way to find out what was on sale that week.
I guess the immediacy and local roots of the ad revenue generated a kind of independence, since the local barons had not yet become national or international conglomerates.
I admit to some nostalgia for the period ads, like the line-art department store sketches.