Very qualified people

Search "unelected bureaucrats" and you'll be swept away on a flood of Rightzi screeds complaining about regulations and restrictions meant to discourage the Plain People of America from doing everything they love, from driving over 55 to home-schooling their young to owning more guns than they could possibly fire in a month.  All the rights that God enshrined in the Constitution are at risk because some geek with an accounting degree crunched the numbers and decided that gas stoves or high-flow toilets are bad for the environment.  Accountable to no one.  Outrageous.  Unacceptable.

Earlier this week it looked as if rapidly aging Speaker Mike Johnson had organized another continuing resolution to fund the federal government for a few months, because that's how the world's most powerful country conducts itself now.  This was unacceptable to the utterly unelected Elon Musk, who spent yesterday threatening MAGA members of Congress with annihilation if they voted for the CR.  Flexing his unelected muscle, of course, but there was method to it:  He and Trump want the debt ceiling raised so a very crowded Day One can include tax cuts for Musk, his fellow billionaires, and wannabe billionaires like Trump.  Musk and Ramaswamy just haven't been able to trim enough fat from the budget by cancelling Medicare and shuttering the Department of Education, and Saudi Arabia has not shown any interest in purchasing the national parks.

Did the House bristle at ceding its central function, the power of the purse, to some dipshit immigrant?  Not so you'd notice.  Quiet as the grave is the Republican caucus.  And their senators are wet with excitement -- Rand Paul has suggested replacing Johnson with Musk.  Three years ago during speakermania -- anyone remember Kevin McCarthy? -- they wanted to make Trump their speaker.  Now they're looking at someone who isn't qualified by birth to be president.  But if the Fourteenth Amendment can be discarded like a McDonalds napkin, why not Article II Section 1 ("No person except a natural born Citizen...")?  Titles no longer matter.  Power has been ceded to the utterly unelected not-even bureaucrats, whose sole qualification is money. 

What does this mean for people who work for a living?  Let Robert Reich explain:

"Funding for essentials will be jeopardized -- disaster relief, clean water protections, food safety inspections, cancer research, and nutrition programs for children.  Federal workers like air traffic controllers will be required to work without pay just as air travel is about to pick up.  The same goes for members of our military."  

But fuck them -- TAX CUTS! for needy oligarchs.  

And this should happen because, according to the racist rapist, "I won the biggest mandate in 129 years."  It's a crock, of course, but he wants the entire government frozen until "I will make my appointments of Very Qualified People in January."  Somebody tell him George Washington won all the electoral votes, twice.  It will drive him goofy.

Sorry, air traffic controllers, Library of Congress clerks, National Forest rangers, CDC lab techs, Air Force mechanics, docents at the National Gallery, security guards at the Smithsonian -- no holidays for you.  Just be grateful to the Leader that you can say "Merry Christmas" to the other people at the food bank.  By next year it will be compulsory.  The Leader is already blaming Biden, despite regularly pretending he does not exist.

Who's obeying in advance today?  The Derby, Kansas, school board has rejected the social studies curriculum for high school students because it's too woke and unfair to the Leader.  They don't want the kids troubled by his ban of travelers from Muslim countries (blocked by the courts).  They object to a statement by textbook publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ("We believe Black Lives Matter.  We believe in social justice.  We believe learning is a fundamental right") -- too Marxist for Kansas.  One assistant superintendent wrote, "Our social studies teachers aim to teach our students...how to think, and not necessarily what to think."  Well, that just leads to unrest.  Facts!  Teach these boys and girls nothing but facts, M'Choakumchild!

"One of the WORST on Television" was the Leader's critique of Neil Cavuto, so the last fact-based Fox News anchor will be leaving after 28 years.  It's now officially the English-language service of Russia Tonight.

On The View Joy Behar suggested that Jady Vance and Musk wanted to take over the presidency, leading Whoopi Goldberg to remark that the Leader should "stay away from the stairways" lest someone trip him.  Now ABC ("Already Being Craven") has forced her to retract her little funny.  "It was light-hearted and it's the holidays," Goldberg protested, but unlike Cavuto, she still has a job.  "There's no way not to step in poo," said Goldberg.  Tell me about it.

The Georgia Court of Appeals ruled that Fani Willis's relationship with Nathan Wade somehow disqualifies her from leading the prosecution of the Leader, Giuliani, Mark Meadows, Jeffrey Clark and the other RICO violators.  You're welcome, sir.  We have tears in our eyes.

In other news, California has declared a health emergency after several cats contracted bird flu and died from drinking raw milk.  Three hundred dairy herds in the state have tested positive. The first human D1.1 flu patient is reported in serious condition in Louisiana.  Let's check in with the CDC.  Hello?  Hello?  It's a recording...says they're laid off.

Nationalism poisons everything.  Rules about language in Belgium require that French be used in official announcements in all but a few places, and only French.  When a Flemish passenger complained, a train conductor in Mechelen began saying "Bonjour, goeiemorgen" to all.  A Dutch-speaking passenger griped about the French and now the language police are all up in his business.  This is how civil wars get started.  How about a rousing "Zaoshang hao"?  Confuse the hell out of everybody.  Encourage them to learn Mandarin.  Should a country this touchy contain the home office of the EU?