Companion of fools
Only 1,341 days to go...
“These are dangerous times. Never have so many people had so much access to so much knowledge and yet have been so resistant to learning anything.” ~Tom Nichols
When I was growing up we ate dinner together as a family every evening. It was lovely and civilized and I learned a lot at that dining room table. Our conversations were elevated as we would all discuss our days.
If a topic came up that needed more information, I can remember my dad getting up and going into the study and bringing back the relevant encyclopedia book and reading it out loud at the table so we could ALL learn more. (We still do that as a family — only now someone pulls out their cell phone and googles the question.)
My folks were curious people. My mom, for example, joined a women’s investment club to learn about the stock market. As a result, she became a daily reader of the Wall Street Journal and would sometimes clip articles for her investment club. One time early in the 1980s, she read an article about a little start up biotech company in California. The share price was incredibly low, so she decided to buy some shares on her own. The stock broker, she was working with tried to discourage her from buying the stock, but she figured since the price was so low and she liked the underlying facts about the company, she insisted on purchasing some shares.
Well, that little company turned out to be a huge winner. The stock split multiple times and kept increasing in value. By the time my dad retired, my parents were able to take some wonderful trips by cashing in some of Mother’s Amgen stock.
My parents watched very little TV and read prolifically. Continuous learning was an expectation in our home. We were encouraged to be around other people who were equally as curious. I was taught that competence, wisdom, good judgement, and expertise were considered virtues.
I suppose that’s why I’m so disgusted by the people that are running our governmental departments today. Where are the wise ones? It’s almost as if Trump wants the least qualified person running some of the more important agencies — just to show everyone he can do what he wants.
So many of the people that Trump has put into key positions of responsibility are not only unwise, but they have no expertise or experience to do their jobs. It’s really mind-boggling.
“The fact of the matter is that experts are more often right than wrong, especially on essential matters of fact. And yet the public constantly searches for the loopholes in expert knowledge that will allow them to disregard all expert advice they don’t like.” ~Tom Nichols
I recognize that all presidents pick people for various roles because they are politically aligned or have supported them when they were candidates, but the astute presidents also look for people, who know what they’re doing.
A good example is the Department of Education. Obama chose Arne Duncan to head up the department. In my opinion, Duncan was a great choice.
Duncan attended the University of Chicago Laboratory School and later Harvard College, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1987. Duncan got involved in the school system in Chicago, and eventually Duncan became CEO of Chicago Public Schools in 2001. He was a well respected educator working in a highly political governmental environment, when Obama tapped him to head up the Department of Education.
Trump has appointed Linda McMahon. McMahon married her husband at age 17 and got a bachelors degree from East Carolina University. She worked as a receptionist at the corporate law firm; she translated French documents, trained as a paralegal in the probate department, and studied intellectual property rights. She eventually joined her husband with his business, World Wrestling Federation (WWF). She’s been successful in the wrestling world and has contributed money to the Trump campaign, but where is her knowledge about education or running a department in a governmental organization?
Or consider Pete Hegseth running the most important and critical Department of Defense. What was his background for such a significant role?
He was an infantry officer in the Minnesota Army National Guard, for which he served at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, executive director at Vets for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America. Hegseth's tenure at Vets for Freedom began with substantial fundraising but ended with a significant decline in revenue, allegations of financial mismanagement, and a merger with another organization. His leadership of the organization has been described as "very poor" by a former advisor. He became a contributor for Fox News in 2014 and a co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend. He faced allegations of sexual misconduct, financial mismanagement, and alcohol issues leading up to his committee confirmation.
It’s so clear that this man doesn’t know what he’s doing — he couldn’t even effectively run a non-for profit organization. Just look at the Signalgate debacle.
“Trump and his coterie argued, against all available evidence, that they had revealed no secrets and done nothing wrong.”
If any other member of the military had done what Hegseth did with, they would have court martialed by now.
Don’t get me started on what’s happening at the Department of Health and Human Services. Last week vaccine-denier Robert Kennedy Jr. faced the Senate in a contentious hearing. According to The Hill:
Amid the deadliest measles outbreak in decades, the secretary has muddied his message about the importance of the measles shot in an effort to appeal to both the general public and anti-vaccine hard-liners.
Kennedy defiantly defended his overhaul of HHS, even as he seemed hazy on some of the details and the impact of putting 10,000 employees on administrative leave.
Even GOP lawmakers zeroed in on moves by the Trump administration that impact their constituents on Wednesday as well.
It was his first testimony in front of Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), the chair of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions who publicly wrestled with whether or not to confirm Kennedy. Cassidy said in his opening statement. “Americans need direct reassurance from the administration, from you Mr. Secretary, that its reforms will make their lives easier, not harder.”
Recently RFKJr. picked and Trump recently nominated Dr. Casey Means, a wellness influencer for Surgeon General. The Surgeon General is the nation's top doctor, responsible for providing health guidance and advocating for the well-being of the American people. They serve as the chief medical officer of the U.S. Public Health Service. They lead efforts to improve the health of the nation by issuing reports, recommendations, and public health campaigns. Means is neither licensed nor board-certified in a medical specialty, but has gained notoriety as a wellness influencer and author. She has expressed concerns about the healthcare system and its approach to treating patients. She has been featured on platforms like "The Tucker Carlson Show" and Joe Rogan's podcast.
While I accept holistic and wellness principles, I also believe in Western medicine. To me it’s not either/or but both/and. Why can’t we have a surgeon general who is open and receptive to medical professionals? What’s wrong with experts?
As I have written before, these are not serious people (Seriously... our road to insecurity). Trump is not concerned about education (Dumb and Dumber), about the qualifications of Robert Kennedy Jr. (Prodigal Son) or Pete Hegseth. If you read my newsletters, you know my thoughts about some of these issues.
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” ~ Isaac Asimov
And it’s not that Trump hasn’t appointed some well-educated people. RFKJr went to Harvard, Pete Hegseth went to Princeton, JD Vance went to Yale, Casey Means went to Stanford. They may be book smart but that doesn’t mean much in my way of thinking. Smart people make mistakes. Case in point, the Bay of Pigs and the Vietnam War were orchestrated by some very smart people. Smart does not necessarily mean good judgement or wisdom or the ability to operate in political situations.
I loved David Brooks’s article in the New York Times: Can We Please Stop Calling These People Populists?
What’s going on here is not a working-class revolt against the elites. All I see is one section of the educated elite going after another section of the educated elite. This is like a civil war in a fancy prep school in which the sleazy kids are going after the pretentious kids.
Look at who is running this administration. The president is an Ivy League-educated real estate developer. The vice president is an Ivy League-educated former venture capitalist. Elon Musk, the emperor of DOGE, is an Ivy League-educated billionaire.
And look at the programs they are going after…. They’re going after the programs where they think highly educated progressives work. They’re going after the foreign aid community, the scientific community, the NGO community, the universities, the Department of Education and the Kennedy Center.
Trump seems to want to destroy any semblance of competence in his administration. It’s almost as if he wants to demonize experts and staff his cabinet with people who can “stick it” to the experts. He seems to want incompetence.
Rather than picking people with relevant experience, Trump is also going to Fox News for his “casting” calls:
All the Major Fox Stars Trump Has Enlisted in His Second Administration
Keeping true to his first term, the president has relied on Fox News’ pool of talent to shape his administration once again, plucking the network’s fiercest and most loyal constituents to serve beside him for Trump 2.0.
Where is the experience? Where is the expertise?
Incompetent or inexperienced government officials will struggle to properly implement policies, manage resources, and deliver essential services effectively. This can result in a decline in the quality of security, education, infrastructure, healthcare, and other public services. When the government is operating with a lack of competence or even malfeasance, it erodes public trust. We can see it happening right in front of us. It’s tragic. Where are the wise ones?
"He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed." Proverbs 13:20
I feel like our government is being led by a companion of fools.
Thought for the day in honor of her birthday…
“It is one of my sources of happiness never to desire a knowledge of other people's business.”
~ Dolley Madison
Must Read Article:
The Mess at Airports Is Part of a Larger Pattern
The Federal Aviation Administration is in a bad mess. After years of exceptional safety, the U.S. air-travel system has recently been beset with near misses and, in one horrifying case, a collision. Air-traffic-control towers are badly understaffed, and controllers have now twice lost—for about 90 seconds and 30 to 90 seconds, respectively—the ability to track flights coming in and out of Newark…the FAA is a lot like much of the federal government: It functioned well for a long time, but years of inattention and underfunding have quietly driven it to the brink of collapse… The FAA is currently 3,000 controllers shy of its target staffing; the controller in charge when a plane and a helicopter collided in January near the airport named for Reagan was doing double duty. Seeking to ensure safety, the FAA has implemented mandatory overtime—which is both expensive and risks fatigue among controllers, who are then more likely to make mistakes…the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service have done further damage… “Many jobs with critical safety functions are indeed being sacrificed, with any possible replacements uncertain because of the government-wide hiring freeze.”
Quote of the day:
“Those of us who served in the military couldn’t accept a cup of coffee and a doughnut at a contractor site because of the appearance of impropriety. Now Trump is taking a 747 airplane from the government of Qatar for his personal use … grift and corruption run amuck.”
~retired Air Force Colonel Moe Davis
What I’m reading today…
Behind all the DOGE pyrotechnics, Russell Vought—who serves as director of the Office of Management and Budget—is working methodically to advance a sophisticated ideological project decades in the making. If Musk is moving fast and breaking things, as the Silicon Valley dictum goes, Vought is taking the shattered pieces of the federal government and reassembling them into a radically new constitutional order…His vision of state power would effectively reject a century of jurisprudence and unravel the modern federal bureaucracy as we know it. A devotee of the so-called unitary executive theory, he wants to see the civil service gutted and repopulated with presidential loyalists, independent federal agencies politicized or eliminated, and absolute control of the executive branch concentrated in the Oval Office.
Libraries are cutting back on staff and services after Trump’s order to dismantle small agency
Libraries across the United States are cutting back on e-books, audiobooks and loan programs after the Trump administration suspended millions of dollars in federal grants as it tries to dissolve the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
…Trump either can’t or won’t find someone to actually fill the roles. Neither possibility is encouraging. If he can’t, at this early stage in his administration, find enough qualified people willing to do these jobs, then the rest of his term will be a continuous struggle to execute. If he simply won’t, because he would rather stick with a small circle of figures he trusts, the administration will also be beset by dysfunction, as leaders pulled in too many directions drop balls, as well as by dangerous incompetence and conflicts of interest.
Deals and Duds, All the Way Down
I do love that the same crowd that bragged about restoring the First Amendment and vowed to end the era of weaponizing the justice system went straight to the claim that Comey’s obvious incitement of violence demands that he be put behind bars.
There’s no rule saying you have to be this dumb.
Bondi Sold Millions in Trump Media Stock the Day Trump Imposed Vast Tariffs
Attorney General Pam Bondi sold $1 million to $5 million worth of shares in President Trump’s media company last month on the same day that he announced expansive tariffs that led to a stock market rout, according to disclosure filings.
Hegseth’s plan to cut senior military jobs could hit more than 120 high-ranking officers
Based on the percentages outlined by Hegseth and his senior staff, 20% of the 44 authorized top active duty general and admiral jobs would be eliminated, along with 10% of the more than 800 one-, two- and three-star positions, according to numbers compiled by The Associated Press.
The cuts — about nine positions among four-star generals and 80 jobs across the other leadership levels — would affect dozens of active duty officers scattered across the five services as well as those who are in joint command jobs, such as those overseeing Africa, the Middle East and Europe. The changes would eliminate 33 senior National Guard positions.
Trump surgeon general pick praised unproven psychedelic therapy, said mushrooms helped her find love
President Donald Trump’s new pick for surgeon general wrote in a recent book that people should consider using unproven psychedelic drugs as therapy and in a newsletter suggested her use of mushrooms helped her find a romantic partner….
Dr. Casey Means’ recommendation to consider guided psilocybin-assisted therapy is notable because psilocybin is illegal under federal law. …The surgeon general’s job is to provide Americans with the best scientific information available on how to improve their health and reduce their risk of illness and injury. Past surgeons general have used their position to educate Americans about health problems like AIDS and suicide prevention. The surgeon general’s warning in 1964 about the dangers of smoking helped change the course of America’s health.
To Whom It May (Unfortunately) Concern at the U.S. Department of Education:
Sec of Education (????) Linda McMahon and the Trump administration gave schools 10 days to gut their equity programs or lose funding. One superintendent responded with a letter so clear, so bold, and so unapologetically righteous, it deserves to be read in full.
D.H.S. Requests 20,000 National Guard Members to Help With Immigration Crackdown
National Guard troops have generally played a supporting role to domestic authorities in enforcing immigration issues at the border, including logistics, security and other assistance. But the Defense Department official said that if the request were approved, it would be the first time National Guard troops were used to help enforce an immigration crackdown in the United States.
Now ICE Barbie Wants Her Own Brand New $50M Private Jet
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appears to have taken her cue from President Donald Trump with a new request for her own private jet. The U.S. Coast Guard made a last-minute change to its 2025 budget to secure a $50 million new plane for Noem.
Kristi Noem Wants Migrants to Compete for Citizenship on New Reality Show
The Department of Homeland Security has been working with writer and producer Rob Worsoff to pitch a reality TV show—titled The American—where immigrants will compete in a string of challenges across the country “for the honor of fast-tracking their way to U.S. citizenship.”
VA Secretary Defends Staffing Cuts, Contract Cancellations in Heated Senate Hearing
Veterans, advocates and VA employees, including union workers who have lost bargaining rights, have expressed alarm at the planned changes at the VA, saying cuts will hurt access to health care and affect benefits and services.
Deputy attorney general who defended Trump in hush money trial is named acting librarian of Congress
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who represented Donald Trump during his 2024 criminal trial, has been appointed acting librarian of Congress, the Justice Department said Monday. Blanche replaces longtime librarian Carla Hayden, whom the White House fired last week amid criticism from conservatives that she was advancing a “woke” agenda. The nonpartisan agency is largely known as the think tank of Capitol Hill and provides analyses meant to help lawmakers in the legislative process. But Democrats are already concerned about what kind of information Trump-appointed officials could access in a process that is typically confidential between CRS and lawmakers.
Gabbard fires 2 top intelligence officials and will shift office that preps Trump’s daily brief
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard fired two veteran intelligence officials because they oppose President Donald Trump, her office said, coming a week after the release of a declassified memo written by their agency that contradicted statements the Trump administration has used to justify deporting Venezuelan immigrants.
Mike Collins was serving as acting chair of the National Intelligence Council before he was dismissed alongside his deputy, Maria Langan-Riekhof. They each had more than 25 years of intelligence experience. The two were fired because of their opposition to Trump, Gabbard’s office said in an email, without offering examples.
RFK Jr. to Congress: "I Don't Think People Should Be Taking Medical Advice From Me"
Kennedy called his views on vaccines “irrelevant,” which, as a lawyer with no real medical experience, should be true! The problem is Kennedy has spent so very much of his adult life trying to make his often unfounded views on vaccines relevant that he has now been put in charge of the government agency whose job it is to oversee vaccine recommendations. That Kennedy has been so wildly successful at doling out unsolicited advice on vaccines is all of our burden to bear. The least he can do is answer for it under oath. Dems blitz RFK Jr. on vaccine record, HHS cuts
This Air-Traffic Controller Just Averted a Midair Collision. Now He’s Speaking Out.
The staffing situation hasn’t yet improved. A string of tech outages prompted some controllers to take trauma leave, further imperiling staffing levels and making training harder.
Since January, layoffs, leadership resignations and a massive proposed reorganization have threatened the integrity and mission of the National Science Foundation. Hundreds of research grants have been terminated. The administration’s proposed federal budget for fiscal year 2026 would cut NSF’s funding by 55%, an unprecedented reduction that would end federal support for science research across a wide range of disciplines.
A book I highly recommend…
The Death of Expertise by Tom Nichols
Technology and increasing levels of education have exposed people to more information than ever before. These societal gains, however, have also helped fuel a surge in narcissistic and misguided intellectual egalitarianism that has crippled informed debates on any number of issues. Today, everyone knows everything: with only a quick trip through WebMD or Wikipedia, average citizens believe themselves to be on an equal intellectual footing with doctors and diplomats. All voices, even the most ridiculous, demand to be taken with equal seriousness, and any claim to the contrary is dismissed as undemocratic elitism.
What I am listening to…
What I read every day…
