Overcast-gray with some layered ground fog this early Tuesday on California’s north coast — sprinkles/drizzle forecast for sometime this morning.
In context of the coming new year, and a newly-minted/old word I’d never heard of until intrigued by a post a couple of weeks ago at Digby — the word, Kakistocracy, ‘…a term meaning a state or country run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens. The word was first coined by English author Thomas Love Peacock in 1829, but was rarely used until the 21st century.’
Merriam-Webster more blunt: ‘government by the worst people.’
All of 2016’s horrific notables, the crown jewel is T-Rump, and an end to the American experiment.
(Illustration: Pablo Picasso’s ‘Weeping Woman‘ found here).
In the world where a buffoon will soon hold the most-important job in the world, disaster will spread out like a rampaging disease — a virus of incompetent arrogance. The blow-back will be enormous. If you take some horrid folks and put them in charge, shit will by nature hit the fan, hard.
A nightmare is just a glance at T-Rump’s building-administration — a down-n-nasty review of the ‘worse people’ per AlterNet:
Meanwhile the news from the transition team is only worse every day.
The folks the Trump team is tapping to fill government posts are literally the worst of the worst.
We have nominees with zero experience of any relevant kind.
Like Rex Tillerson, the CEO of ExxonMobil, who has been tapped for secretary of state.
Not only does he have absolutely no experience with diplomacy, he may also have troubling ties to Vladimir Putin.
Then there is Ben Carson for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, perhaps one of the weirdest choices given that Carson has no relevant experience and earlier stated he did not want to work in government –even though he did run for president.
Then there are the appointees who have been tapped to lead organizations they openly disdain.
Secretary of Education pick Betsy DeVos has derided public education, favoring school choice and vouchers instead.
Rick Perry ran for office on a platform that included closing the Department of Energy.
Now he has been named to lead it.
But more important than a rundown of each of these horrible choices is the bigger picture.
The Trump cabinet picks have more wealth than a third of American households combined.
They are also the most conservative.
The picks are very white and very male — only three of his choices thus far are not white guys.
They are also collectively the least experienced crowd assembled to run major federal agencies in modern history.
In fact, the majority of the picks have no related experience of any kind.
Yes, the ‘bigger picture,’ which is T-Rump himself. Kaki-topia from the way-top. A freakish, creepy and thin-skinned whack-job controlling the apparatus is a true ‘surreal’ nightmare.
Tom Engelhardt at TomDispatch last week takes the T-Rump brand to worldwide chaos and beyond — key point:
Don’t for a second doubt that, under such circumstances, American foreign and military policy would end up being focused on saving the Trump brand, which, in turn, would be a nightmare to behold.
Speaking of past controversies over presidential appointments — okay, I know we weren’t, but humor me here — in 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower had his own Rex Tillerson-style moment and picked Charles Wilson, the CEO of industrial giant General Motors, to be his secretary of defense.
At his confirmation hearings, Wilson infamously offered this formula for success, “I thought what was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa.”
If the State Department and the military were indeed tasked with digging out the Trump brand, you would need to turn that comment upside down and inside out: “I thought what was bad for the Trump brand was bad for America, and vice versa.”
A bad year is ending, the unknown horror just starting…