government of the brain worms, by the brain worms, and for the brain worms

what could possibly go wrong?

well, Donny Convict has gone and done it. the dilapidated old dotard has picked his latest addition to his Confederacy of Sewer Clowns: Bobby Brainworms Jr.

Donny’s nominated Bobby to head the newly-renamed Department of Dying of a Preventable Disease.

Ronald Reagan invented this whole destroy the government from within shit.

back in 1980, when Saint Ronnie was assembling his first cabinet, he chose James Watt to be his Secretary of the Interior. up until then, the job of the Interior Sec had been to protect and conserve America’s pristine lands — but that wasn’t how Super Awesome Visionary James Watt saw it. Watt had been a refining-industry lobbyist, and used his position at Interior to sell off as much of America’s national parks and preserves to Big Oil as he could.

after Ronnie set the example, it was off to the races. every successive Republican administration has used cabinet appointments to destroy America.

Donny’s contribution to this scheme has been to crank the blatant corruption dial way past eleven.

it’s been easy to parse Donny’s nominations so far. most of his picks — Hegseth, Gaetz, Rubio — have been in the interest of surrounding himself with toadies and loyalists who will gleefully shitcan the Constitution in favor of doing Dear Leader’s bidding. then there’s end-times-hastener Mike Huckabee, installed to facilitate Netanyahu’s human rights violations, and Russian asset Tulsi Gabbard, chosen as an obvious favor to Donnie’s despot bestie Vlad Putin.

but what are we to make of RFK Jr, whose nomination to head Health and Human Services helps Donny in no particular way? Donny doesn’t need a loyalist at HHS, nor is there any way for him to profit off corruption there. in fact, Donny doesn’t give a fuck about medicine or science. he lives on a diet of junk food, thinks exercising is bad for you, and believes that the secret to health is to have ‘good genes’

so what’s the deal? this: the pure power of obsequious flattery.

Bobby may be a science-denying, conspiracy-embracing lunatic, but he’s not an idiot — and he knows an easy mark when he sees one. he’s been buttering up Donny for months now. he’s been going up to Donny, the afternoon sun glinting off his massive biceps, tears of gratitude pouring from his eyes, and going ‘sir! sir! how do you do it? no one has ever been as fit as you. sir! sir, let me make America healthy again — as healthy as YOU are, sir!’

and Donny said fine, do whatever the fuck you want, just leave me alone already.

hey, here’s a fun story from RFK Jr’s recent past.

In 2019, RFK Jr. visited American Samoa, meeting with local anti-vaxxers and government officials. After his disinformation campaign was successful, vaccine rates dropped to 31%.

A few months later measles swept through the island nation, killing 83 Samoans—mostly children.

great stuff, bro. take a victory lap. you’ve really covered yourself in glory here.

now, when Bobby Brainworms finds the disease-ravaged body of America dead by the side of the road, he can stuff it in the trunk of his car and dump it in Central Park.

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hey, speaking of SecDef nom Pete Hegseth, he seems nice.

because of course he was.

Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, was involved in a police investigation into an alleged sexual assault in 2017, local officials in California confirmed Thursday night.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the city government of Monterey, California, said its police department had investigated “an alleged sexual assault” involving Hegseth, a Fox News host and Army National Guard veteran. The alleged assault took place in the early morning hours of October 8, 2017, at the address of the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa, and was reported four days later, according to the statement.

remember when an incident like this meant the swift end of one’s political career?

oh, and those tattoos all over Pete’s torso? they’re Christian Nationalist symbols, because of course they are.

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I fucking swear, The New York Times makes me want to guzzle paint thinner straight from the can.

why? why is the Times using right-wing framing in their headlines?

why are you obeying in advance, you fucking fucks?

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let’s end the week with some very good news.

Senators voted 51-44 to confirm April M. Perry as a U.S. district judge for the Northern District of Illinois on Tuesday. On Wednesday, they voted 50-46 to confirm Jonathan E. Hawley as a U.S. district judge for the Central District of Illinois.

Twenty-six more judicial nominations are pending in the Senate — 15 are waiting for a floor vote, while 11 are still being processed by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Seven nominees are scheduled to be voted out of committee on Thursday.

Senate Democrats have about six weeks in which to confirm as many Biden judges as they can — and they’ve hit the ground running. these judges are going to be the first bulwark against any attempt by Donny to shred the Constitution.

now, I can hear you saying, but Uncle Jeff, the corrupt Supreme Court can just— and yes, its true, SCOTUS can and will reverse some state-level rulings. but there’s only so much fuckery they can facilitate. SCOTUS has limited time and resources, and during any given session, agrees to hear only a fraction of the cases brought before them. state and appellate courts have in the past and will in the future continue to block hundreds of crappy laws passed by the GOP.

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this is going to be my closing message for the foreseeable future:

practice self-care. do what you need to do to keep sane. if that means you need to disengage with my daily posts for a while, I get it. this community of ours will still be here when you return.

to all the people who have signed on in the days since the election, welcome aboard. settle in as we all try to deal with the shitfuckery that’s ahead of us.

we are all in this together, and we are all here for each other.