Angering the Gods

Tulsi Gabbard was one of the first female members of the U.S. Congress with combat experience. I interacted with her twice: once at a 2016 event hosted by then Congressman Dave Loebsack, and again in 2019 when a neighbor hosted an event within walking distance of my driveway. Gabbard’s campaign for president was gasping for oxygen the day I last saw her. I baked an apple crisp for the event. She took the leftover dessert with her and dropped out of the race the following week.

That Gabbard is a combat veteran, and was a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the House Armed Services Committee, and House Homeland Security Committee, does not qualify her to be Director of National Intelligence (DNI) as was announced this week. In 2022, Vladimir Solovyov reported on Russian media Gabbard was Vladimir Putin’s agent in the U.S., according to Julia Davis who monitors Russian media.

The staffing announcements by the president-elect this week were a continuous showing of bad hires for jobs that take real skills. It is no wonder he bankrupted so many of his businesses. That Gabbard is suspected of being a spy while potentially being DNI is just scratching the surface of how bad the next administration will be for the United States.

What does that mean? We engaged activists need a new approach to dealing in public with the new administration.

On Feb. 1, 2017, my guest opinion, “What if the jobs don’t come back?” appeared in the Cedar Rapids Gazette. The mistake I made then, and won’t make again, is treating Donald Trump like a normal president, instead of the criminal he is.

In her Nov. 13, Letters from an American, Heather Cox Richardson said this about the president-elect:

Trump has made it clear that his goal for a second term is to toss overboard the rule of law and the international rules-based order, instead turning the U.S. government into a vehicle for his own revenge and forging individual alliances with autocratic rulers like Russian president Vladimir Putin.

With four years of experience and frustrations, the president-elect can now move immediately to implement his agenda. With Republican majorities in both the U.S. House and Senate, and with the full backing of right wing billionaires and the Heritage Foundation, I expect he will move quickly. He already asked the U.S. Senate to forego confirmation hearings on his nominees so they can be appointed according to Article II, Section 2, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution:

The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.

That means without the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate. Or, as Rachel Maddow put it:

I hope not to anger the gods and get on the president-elect’s or his minions’ hit list of people against whom he wants revenge. I have enough energy to roll this thing forward one more time, so I’d better make the most of it. So, should we all.