from AceofSpades.mu.nu "Look, it's only one House race, but on a symbolic level it sure is perhaps one of the most important of the entire primary season. Cheney is not just a nemesis of Trump and the MAGA movement. She was who the Democrats "groomed" as the alleged voice of reason, symbolic of the majority of Americans and most Republicans appalled at Trump and Trumpism. Myth status: exploded. Cheney represents everything wrong about post-war American government: cronyism, dynastic nepotism, elitist entitlement in the service of pursuing of policies that transformed society from a nation where the power was supposed to be vested as close to the individual as possible to one of an ever growing, ever more omnipotent and omnipresent central government — with her and her ilk as the warders, and us filthy ungrateful lumpenprole the inmates.
But, all that said, let's not kid ourselves that Liz-ard Cheney is finished or washed up. She'll be rewarded with everything from gigs on the propaganda house organs to book deals to seats on the corporate boards of the military industrial complex who could care less that American blood and treasure is sent off to the world's shit holes in stiletto fuck-me pumps and pregnancy flight suits so long as their balance sheets are solidly in the black. Just like dear old dad. Her oleaginous mien might be less evident on your TV screens going forward in the long term, unless of course there is an actual Trump show trial, but her and her kind are like radioactive alien herpes: there is no cure and the eruptions are both painful and happen when they're least convenient."
She said it herself in her concession speech: "But now the real work begins". Liz ain't going anywhere, and its been amazing to see the metamorphosis of leftists who hated Dick Cheney for decades now coming around to square the circle of their Trump Derangement Syndrome with their newfound love of Cheney and tolerance of her dad thanks to his denouncing Trump. If you don't like the left's principles...well, they have others.
The thing is it is never, ever one thing. What Trump has successfully done is give voice to the unsaid, champion Joe Sixpack, speak from the perspective of somebody who was in the rigging, and produced fabulous results.
We used to call that a track record. His was very good until Covid.
If you could make this pick -- the Trump "best since 1776 economy" v the Biden inflationary economy -- which one would you pick?
People are fickle. Gore their ox and they will change on a dime. The price of groceries will have a huge impact on the next two elections if the Reps can pin it on Biden.
Trump's record on endorsements is trending at 93% which is bloody staggering given endorsements on the other side from prominent opponents the likes of McDonnell, Bush, Pence, Cheney, and others. Bloody staggering!
BTW, of the ten Reps who voted to impeach Trump, only two are still in the game.
Make no mistake, the Dems intend to kneecap Trump in the courts. He will be indicted, but he will win that also.
The worst case is Trump is eliminated and the path is cleared for Pompeo/DeSantis/Haley -- all of whom would be Trump policy persons. In fact, this would be the best thing for the Republicans.
In the end, Trump's domestic and foreign policies were fabulous. Domestic prosperity, energy independence, and world peace are hard to beat.
Cheney didn't even live in Wyoming. Everybody is overrating her. She is a dud and will disappear. Not a chance in Hell she gets another platform to pontificate from.
All No Trumpers have failed thus far. She is just another one. She betrayed her party and participated in the Kangaroo Court. I have no problem with her heartfelt view of Trump, but giving credence to that shit show is a firing offense and she got fired.
Agree. I think it is very interesting to look at the races where Trump backed a candidate and the Establishment backed a candidate. Trump is winning almost 100% of those. Trump's policies were pretty good and I agreed with a lot of them. I wish that he would have actually cut spending, and I disagreed on tariffs. You are more than correct on Covid, and by the looks of the book by Birx, the Deep State engineered his kneecapping. They did better than Schiff could do. Don't shed any tears for Ol' Liz. She will sit on corporate boards and make more money doing that than she ever did in politics not to mention the corporate cases that will come her husbands way
Haley is NOT a Trump acolyte. She is a globalist. Rubio as well.
There are a couple of handy litmus tests to judge a pols worth and metal.
First, did they initially believe the Juicy Smalls BS? Haley did, or pretended to. She is OUT!!! Anyone with two brain cells to rub together HAD TO KNOW that whole story was crap. NOTHING about it made a lick of sense. I suspect that most pols who went along with it knew it was crap too, but they had to VIRTUE SIGNAL. That is a sure sign they aren't real.
Another is how did they react to the "INSURRECTION" of J6? How did they refer to it? If they had their panties up in a wad about it then they aren't worth a damn.
Net, net, J6 was a good thing. It was obviously a federal false flag op that the Left has used to further weaponize Law Enforcement against their opposition. But it was good from the standpoint that it showed that the jackals who occupy Congress were genuinely afraid for just a little while of those they respresent.
We need WAY MORE OF THAT. Specifically, the ruling class being afraid of us instead of the other way around.
The number of true patriots amongst the ruling class on our side is vanishingly small.
Watch out for the Lt. Gov of NC. He is a BOSS!!!
Good guys I think (better word would be HOPE) we can trust.
DeSantis, Pompeo. Hawley. Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson. Jordan. Greene. Boebert. Maybe a few others but the list is short.
Have a wonderful weekend. And whatever you do, NEVER EVER!!! talk to a FED or a any LEO without an attorney present.
Spot on, yet again, Jeffrey. As a Pennsylvanian, I'm still mystified why Trump chose to back Oz for the U.S. Senate. Right now, Oz is facing a steep uphill battle against someone who's clearly ill, both physically and because he's a die-hard socialist/communist. Trump's pitch was that Oz was a well-known commodity. Not sure if that'll fly though. Hope it does. Fetterman would be an absolute disaster. It's not like we need two old school Castro-ites in the Senate.
I think it is a sign that "Trump can pick good people" idea isn't correct. Oz is an awful candidate - he lives in NJ, among other things. This was obvious from the start. There was a very good candidate in the primary would likely be doing far better now. What Oz does have is that he's a TV celeb like Trump. Other than that, I don't see any relevant qualification or skill set but without Trump's abilities - and his campaign so far is demonstrating that gap.
I have come to the conclusion that while Trump was the right man for 2016 he is no longer the leader we need. Back then, his ego, while occasionally getting him into hot water, was PRECISELY what America needed to beat back the Left and the Swamp.
Unfortunately, now that same ego won't let him admit mistakes and move on.
As for him endorsing OZ, I think it is a matter of the following: When he isn't sure of who to endorse cuz both candidates are kind of unknowns as far as policy is concerned, Trump will go with whomever has said nice things about him. That is why he picked Oz, IMHO.
Another example of DJT's ego being a problem is the vaxx sitch. Clearly, a HUGE mistake but he still wants to take credit for it.
While I think you're absolutely right about Trump drawing people who are sick of The Swamp®, I absolutely do not buy the idea that he is great at spotting talent. Everything I have seen about the people Trump hires going back decades (I'm a NYer who's read the Post since the late 80s) is that he hires for three things: loyalty, flattery, and loyalty. He is a bungler with some good instincts about media and messaging but absolutely terrible at execution. If Ivanka had married anybody other than Jared Hillary would have won bigly.
As an entrepreneur and business owner with ~300 employees, something that always raises a red flag for me is when I see a business owner fill their org chart with family and longtime insiders raised out of obscurity to senior roles. These are people who can't quit because (a) they'll still be family and don't want conflict with spouse/children/siblings/etc. or (b) they owe you everything and will do anything to hang on to a job they could likely never get on their own.
Successful chief executives need people who are not only loyal, but good at their jobs and capable of telling the chief executive when he is wrong. When Trump has hired people like this from the outside, they rarely stayed, and invariably when they left it was with jeers of "disloyal!" "chump!" and "swamp creature!" following them. In other words, it was always *somebody else's fault*. In my experience, the best leaders are always the first to take responsibility for failures regardless of where in the organization it occurred.
Also, while I've focused here on Trump, I think executive failure is the defining characteristic of every administration going back at least to Clinton. Trump mostly shined a far more colorful light on it than his predecessors.
It’s not just the money … it is the self-righteous, we-know-better-than-you-ignorant-rubes elitism that expresses itself in a manner reminiscent of a bull in the china shop of your life, as they live out Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy.
Jeff, excellent article. Cheney needed to go. I think Trump's economic policies were a boon for the economy and the country, and they are being reversed by Biden's idiot green-energy plan that is anti fossil fuel is killing the economy. However, Trump can be vindictive with people who do not agree with him and that rubs a lot of people the wrong way.
Jeff, I agree with your assessment on the "establishment". I have seen too many elected to office only to enrich themselves with their office. You quote the classic examples...especially Hastert who somehow had $3M to afford to pay hush money to an accuser. I do not agree with Trump being the middle. He actually tried to influence/change an election that he lost. His business acumen is suspect but if I have to choose between him and the Schiff/Pelosi crowd, well I would choose Trump. Trump is just too fixated on retribution not molding the GOP for a huge win in November. We need a new face to the GOP and I don't think that is Trump.
Until we are willing to either re-elect Trump - or someone as abrasive as Trump who is focused upon securing our rights - we still leave this nation open to the manipulations of our elites.
We are dealing with experts in leveraging perceptions, double standards, and passive-aggressive behavior, who will take any civility a conservative or libertarian extends to them and wrap them around the axle with it to marginalize them and render them irrelevant to public policy ... for these opponents see such people as the Evil Other opposing their Righteous Normal.
it is also a test of our priorities: is assured respect for liberty more important than "nice", or not?
I watched Scott Walker get our hopes up, then fold. DeSantis could easily do the same and start listening to the Nice People™, too. Frankly I thought Trump would have done so when he was a candidate, but he has proven he has more respect for us than that.
I don't disagree about the path or goal, but maybe the abrasiveness. DeSantis and Youngkin strike me as the right balance.
Walker listened to consultants, and frankly in a stage match of 16 people most of whom just want to sell books, he doesn't stand out. I think he did well in Wisconsin. Plus, Trump just knows how to project. It's a hard skill to learn. Reagan had it. Clinton had it.
Liz Cheney voted with Trump 90% of the time. The issue for her was team, not policy.
Your issue with swampiness is on the mark. I find issue with your belief that the next generation of Republican will be any better. Republicans for a long time, both older and newer, talk a good game about size and scope of government. Yet they never quite find the ability to actually vote for something other than tax cuts. Tax cuts are fine, but the programs that those same Republicans vote for actually do need to get paid for. There's not a Republican of any sort that is willing to take on Medicare, which is the largest time bomb of all. "Keep your government hands off my Medicare" is a refrain from people who identify as Republicans!
There needs to be people who are actually policy oriented. People who know how to move the system. Blowing shit up is easy. Building stuff is hard. We need elected people who are actually anti-unicorn, not people who are just for different unicorns. That's a hard nut to crack in today's society with today's voters. https://fee.org/articles/unicorn-governance/
Nobody is winning in our county. We're being "led" by illiberal, performative, populist morons from both ends. As Mencken said "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard." I believe you believe Trump should sit out 2024. Let's hope he does. DeSantis needs to be careful. Recently it looks like he's trying to position himself as a successor rather than an alternative as he's endorsed Trump-endorsed total crazies of Lake and Mastriano. Maybe Youngkin should be the guy.
One other point I forgot to make. There's not really anything wrong with ranked choice voting. RC does tend to moderate some of the extremes. As you probably know, Arrow showed that there is no perfect way to aggregate individual preferences. Alaska's issues are 1) open primary, and 2) inability to count in a timely manner. On the timeliness aspect, other states should really adopt Florida's counting procedures that were put in place after the "hanging chads" of 2000.
"But, maybe Trump just has a good eye for people"...I dunno...as President, his track record at picking people who (1) do a good job, and (b) stick around, and (c) remain personally loyal...has not been nearly as good as I would have expected, given his background as an entrepreneur and executive.
It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"
from AceofSpades.mu.nu "Look, it's only one House race, but on a symbolic level it sure is perhaps one of the most important of the entire primary season. Cheney is not just a nemesis of Trump and the MAGA movement. She was who the Democrats "groomed" as the alleged voice of reason, symbolic of the majority of Americans and most Republicans appalled at Trump and Trumpism. Myth status: exploded. Cheney represents everything wrong about post-war American government: cronyism, dynastic nepotism, elitist entitlement in the service of pursuing of policies that transformed society from a nation where the power was supposed to be vested as close to the individual as possible to one of an ever growing, ever more omnipotent and omnipresent central government — with her and her ilk as the warders, and us filthy ungrateful lumpenprole the inmates.
But, all that said, let's not kid ourselves that Liz-ard Cheney is finished or washed up. She'll be rewarded with everything from gigs on the propaganda house organs to book deals to seats on the corporate boards of the military industrial complex who could care less that American blood and treasure is sent off to the world's shit holes in stiletto fuck-me pumps and pregnancy flight suits so long as their balance sheets are solidly in the black. Just like dear old dad. Her oleaginous mien might be less evident on your TV screens going forward in the long term, unless of course there is an actual Trump show trial, but her and her kind are like radioactive alien herpes: there is no cure and the eruptions are both painful and happen when they're least convenient."
She said it herself in her concession speech: "But now the real work begins". Liz ain't going anywhere, and its been amazing to see the metamorphosis of leftists who hated Dick Cheney for decades now coming around to square the circle of their Trump Derangement Syndrome with their newfound love of Cheney and tolerance of her dad thanks to his denouncing Trump. If you don't like the left's principles...well, they have others.
The thing is it is never, ever one thing. What Trump has successfully done is give voice to the unsaid, champion Joe Sixpack, speak from the perspective of somebody who was in the rigging, and produced fabulous results.
We used to call that a track record. His was very good until Covid.
If you could make this pick -- the Trump "best since 1776 economy" v the Biden inflationary economy -- which one would you pick?
People are fickle. Gore their ox and they will change on a dime. The price of groceries will have a huge impact on the next two elections if the Reps can pin it on Biden.
Trump's record on endorsements is trending at 93% which is bloody staggering given endorsements on the other side from prominent opponents the likes of McDonnell, Bush, Pence, Cheney, and others. Bloody staggering!
BTW, of the ten Reps who voted to impeach Trump, only two are still in the game.
Make no mistake, the Dems intend to kneecap Trump in the courts. He will be indicted, but he will win that also.
The worst case is Trump is eliminated and the path is cleared for Pompeo/DeSantis/Haley -- all of whom would be Trump policy persons. In fact, this would be the best thing for the Republicans.
In the end, Trump's domestic and foreign policies were fabulous. Domestic prosperity, energy independence, and world peace are hard to beat.
Cheney didn't even live in Wyoming. Everybody is overrating her. She is a dud and will disappear. Not a chance in Hell she gets another platform to pontificate from.
All No Trumpers have failed thus far. She is just another one. She betrayed her party and participated in the Kangaroo Court. I have no problem with her heartfelt view of Trump, but giving credence to that shit show is a firing offense and she got fired.
She is done.
JLM
www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com
Agree. I think it is very interesting to look at the races where Trump backed a candidate and the Establishment backed a candidate. Trump is winning almost 100% of those. Trump's policies were pretty good and I agreed with a lot of them. I wish that he would have actually cut spending, and I disagreed on tariffs. You are more than correct on Covid, and by the looks of the book by Birx, the Deep State engineered his kneecapping. They did better than Schiff could do. Don't shed any tears for Ol' Liz. She will sit on corporate boards and make more money doing that than she ever did in politics not to mention the corporate cases that will come her husbands way
Haley is NOT a Trump acolyte. She is a globalist. Rubio as well.
There are a couple of handy litmus tests to judge a pols worth and metal.
First, did they initially believe the Juicy Smalls BS? Haley did, or pretended to. She is OUT!!! Anyone with two brain cells to rub together HAD TO KNOW that whole story was crap. NOTHING about it made a lick of sense. I suspect that most pols who went along with it knew it was crap too, but they had to VIRTUE SIGNAL. That is a sure sign they aren't real.
Another is how did they react to the "INSURRECTION" of J6? How did they refer to it? If they had their panties up in a wad about it then they aren't worth a damn.
Net, net, J6 was a good thing. It was obviously a federal false flag op that the Left has used to further weaponize Law Enforcement against their opposition. But it was good from the standpoint that it showed that the jackals who occupy Congress were genuinely afraid for just a little while of those they respresent.
We need WAY MORE OF THAT. Specifically, the ruling class being afraid of us instead of the other way around.
The number of true patriots amongst the ruling class on our side is vanishingly small.
Watch out for the Lt. Gov of NC. He is a BOSS!!!
Good guys I think (better word would be HOPE) we can trust.
DeSantis, Pompeo. Hawley. Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson. Jordan. Greene. Boebert. Maybe a few others but the list is short.
Have a wonderful weekend. And whatever you do, NEVER EVER!!! talk to a FED or a any LEO without an attorney present.
With Liz Cheney gone there is a little less arrogance and ignorance in Washington.
Pity that it is a thimble of water drawn from the ocean, or maybe it is the swamp.
hope you are right...but I it will last as long as a case of Covid. They will somehow recover
Spot on, yet again, Jeffrey. As a Pennsylvanian, I'm still mystified why Trump chose to back Oz for the U.S. Senate. Right now, Oz is facing a steep uphill battle against someone who's clearly ill, both physically and because he's a die-hard socialist/communist. Trump's pitch was that Oz was a well-known commodity. Not sure if that'll fly though. Hope it does. Fetterman would be an absolute disaster. It's not like we need two old school Castro-ites in the Senate.
I don't get that one either. The Pennsylvania Democratic Machine is hard to beat
I think it is a sign that "Trump can pick good people" idea isn't correct. Oz is an awful candidate - he lives in NJ, among other things. This was obvious from the start. There was a very good candidate in the primary would likely be doing far better now. What Oz does have is that he's a TV celeb like Trump. Other than that, I don't see any relevant qualification or skill set but without Trump's abilities - and his campaign so far is demonstrating that gap.
I have come to the conclusion that while Trump was the right man for 2016 he is no longer the leader we need. Back then, his ego, while occasionally getting him into hot water, was PRECISELY what America needed to beat back the Left and the Swamp.
Unfortunately, now that same ego won't let him admit mistakes and move on.
As for him endorsing OZ, I think it is a matter of the following: When he isn't sure of who to endorse cuz both candidates are kind of unknowns as far as policy is concerned, Trump will go with whomever has said nice things about him. That is why he picked Oz, IMHO.
Another example of DJT's ego being a problem is the vaxx sitch. Clearly, a HUGE mistake but he still wants to take credit for it.
While I think you're absolutely right about Trump drawing people who are sick of The Swamp®, I absolutely do not buy the idea that he is great at spotting talent. Everything I have seen about the people Trump hires going back decades (I'm a NYer who's read the Post since the late 80s) is that he hires for three things: loyalty, flattery, and loyalty. He is a bungler with some good instincts about media and messaging but absolutely terrible at execution. If Ivanka had married anybody other than Jared Hillary would have won bigly.
As an entrepreneur and business owner with ~300 employees, something that always raises a red flag for me is when I see a business owner fill their org chart with family and longtime insiders raised out of obscurity to senior roles. These are people who can't quit because (a) they'll still be family and don't want conflict with spouse/children/siblings/etc. or (b) they owe you everything and will do anything to hang on to a job they could likely never get on their own.
Successful chief executives need people who are not only loyal, but good at their jobs and capable of telling the chief executive when he is wrong. When Trump has hired people like this from the outside, they rarely stayed, and invariably when they left it was with jeers of "disloyal!" "chump!" and "swamp creature!" following them. In other words, it was always *somebody else's fault*. In my experience, the best leaders are always the first to take responsibility for failures regardless of where in the organization it occurred.
Also, while I've focused here on Trump, I think executive failure is the defining characteristic of every administration going back at least to Clinton. Trump mostly shined a far more colorful light on it than his predecessors.
This is a fair criticism of my statement above and Trump. Thank you.
It’s not just the money … it is the self-righteous, we-know-better-than-you-ignorant-rubes elitism that expresses itself in a manner reminiscent of a bull in the china shop of your life, as they live out Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy.
True dat
Jeff, excellent article. Cheney needed to go. I think Trump's economic policies were a boon for the economy and the country, and they are being reversed by Biden's idiot green-energy plan that is anti fossil fuel is killing the economy. However, Trump can be vindictive with people who do not agree with him and that rubs a lot of people the wrong way.
thx and agree with your thoughts on Trump
Jeff, I agree with your assessment on the "establishment". I have seen too many elected to office only to enrich themselves with their office. You quote the classic examples...especially Hastert who somehow had $3M to afford to pay hush money to an accuser. I do not agree with Trump being the middle. He actually tried to influence/change an election that he lost. His business acumen is suspect but if I have to choose between him and the Schiff/Pelosi crowd, well I would choose Trump. Trump is just too fixated on retribution not molding the GOP for a huge win in November. We need a new face to the GOP and I don't think that is Trump.
I agree with you
Well until that person comes along, you had better dance with the one that brung ya.
Plenty to dance with: Pompeo, DeSantis, Youngkin....
This is a test of our wisdom and resolve.
Until we are willing to either re-elect Trump - or someone as abrasive as Trump who is focused upon securing our rights - we still leave this nation open to the manipulations of our elites.
We are dealing with experts in leveraging perceptions, double standards, and passive-aggressive behavior, who will take any civility a conservative or libertarian extends to them and wrap them around the axle with it to marginalize them and render them irrelevant to public policy ... for these opponents see such people as the Evil Other opposing their Righteous Normal.
it is also a test of our priorities: is assured respect for liberty more important than "nice", or not?
I watched Scott Walker get our hopes up, then fold. DeSantis could easily do the same and start listening to the Nice People™, too. Frankly I thought Trump would have done so when he was a candidate, but he has proven he has more respect for us than that.
I don't disagree about the path or goal, but maybe the abrasiveness. DeSantis and Youngkin strike me as the right balance.
Walker listened to consultants, and frankly in a stage match of 16 people most of whom just want to sell books, he doesn't stand out. I think he did well in Wisconsin. Plus, Trump just knows how to project. It's a hard skill to learn. Reagan had it. Clinton had it.
When any of them declare themselves a candidate in 2024, I will start paying attention.
Liz Cheney voted with Trump 90% of the time. The issue for her was team, not policy.
Your issue with swampiness is on the mark. I find issue with your belief that the next generation of Republican will be any better. Republicans for a long time, both older and newer, talk a good game about size and scope of government. Yet they never quite find the ability to actually vote for something other than tax cuts. Tax cuts are fine, but the programs that those same Republicans vote for actually do need to get paid for. There's not a Republican of any sort that is willing to take on Medicare, which is the largest time bomb of all. "Keep your government hands off my Medicare" is a refrain from people who identify as Republicans!
There needs to be people who are actually policy oriented. People who know how to move the system. Blowing shit up is easy. Building stuff is hard. We need elected people who are actually anti-unicorn, not people who are just for different unicorns. That's a hard nut to crack in today's society with today's voters. https://fee.org/articles/unicorn-governance/
https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2022/08/18/cheneys-humiliating-defeat-is-another-sign-that-we-are-winning-n2611869?180 I don't think you are correct on the new Republicans but we will see.
Nobody is winning in our county. We're being "led" by illiberal, performative, populist morons from both ends. As Mencken said "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard." I believe you believe Trump should sit out 2024. Let's hope he does. DeSantis needs to be careful. Recently it looks like he's trying to position himself as a successor rather than an alternative as he's endorsed Trump-endorsed total crazies of Lake and Mastriano. Maybe Youngkin should be the guy.
One other point I forgot to make. There's not really anything wrong with ranked choice voting. RC does tend to moderate some of the extremes. As you probably know, Arrow showed that there is no perfect way to aggregate individual preferences. Alaska's issues are 1) open primary, and 2) inability to count in a timely manner. On the timeliness aspect, other states should really adopt Florida's counting procedures that were put in place after the "hanging chads" of 2000.
"But, maybe Trump just has a good eye for people"...I dunno...as President, his track record at picking people who (1) do a good job, and (b) stick around, and (c) remain personally loyal...has not been nearly as good as I would have expected, given his background as an entrepreneur and executive.
"But, maybe Trump just has a good eye for people. All those years running a business might have made that skill sharp."
Jeff Sessions, laughs and laughs. So does Christopher Wray. So does Rex Tillerson. So does Alex Acosta. Etc etc et goddam cetera.
It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"