In Front of Our Noses: A Parade of Bozos
At a time of increased terrorist threat, look who is in charge of key departments.
“To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.”-George Orwell.
For previous entries, click here.
I was listening to a recent installment of the Bulwark Podcast, which was a chat with David Frum entitled, A Very Bad Time for Bozos to Be in Charge and it struck me as a perfect example of why I started this particular series of posts. I mean, sure, I am painfully aware that Kash Patel is the FBI Director, but it is so easy to just watch the clown parade go by and forget, at least to some degree, what a serious mess it all is.
Let’s consider: the US is actively involved in a military entanglement with Iran. Iran is a known sponsor of international terrorism. But more importantly, the Iranians are clearly at a massive disadvantage militarily against the US and its allies, and so need to use non-conventional arms such as their geostrategic advantage over the Strait of Hormuz or asymmetric tactics like the deployment of terrorism.
Let’s stop and consider which organizations within the US government are supposed to protect US citizens from terrorism. Well, one is the FBI, run by the aforementioned Kash Patel (and until recently, had a deputy director, Dan Bongino, whose main resume line is “podcaster”).
Patel is the guy who recently fired a number of agents who were Iran experts because they had been tasked with the investigation into Trump’s retention of classified documents. Do I think that eliminated US counter-intelligence efforts regarding Iran? No, but it does demonstrate where the priorities are (alongside other items on the “to do” list like hanging out in the locker room with the US men’s hockey team, flying to see his girlfriend perform, inviting UFC fighters to “train agents,” and having, like, a really sick challenge coin, bro).
I am sure he is laser-focused on the threat posed by possible Iranian attacks on the homeland.
Speaking of the homeland, another entity that is supposed to protect us from terrorism (indeed, that is the reason it was created in the first place) is the Department of Homeland Security.
How’s that looking? Well, yesterday the Senate approved the appointment of Markwayne Mullin to be the Secretary of Homeland Security.
Mullin owns a plumbing business, is a rancher, and was briefly a semi-pro MMA fighter. He was elected to the House in 2012 and the Senate in 2022.
His main qualification is, I think, that he has demonstrated a great propensity for being on television bombastically supporting Trump. I have no confidence in his ability to efficaciously perform the duties of DHS Secretary. For what it is worth, I do find him to be at least a marginal improvement over Krist Noem (but a butternut squash would be an improvement over Noem, so I damn with faint praise).
Side note on DHS: the TSA was made a federal agency in the aftermath of 9/11 on the argument that airports are an area of potential terrorism. At the moment, TSA agents aren’t being paid because the party in power does not want to acquiesce to reasonable constraints on ICE agents. Oh, and now ICE agents are milling around airports.
Do you feel safer yet?
Let’s not forget that Tulsi Gabbard is the Director of National Intelligence, a post for which she had no qualifications, and that the main qualifications that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had for his job were being on television and the way he looks. And the Attorney General clearly is more concerned with doing the Boss’s bidding than the actual job of running the DOJ, which includes the FBI.
This is truly a stunning array of persons in charge, ostensibly, of keeping us safe and secure.
All of this confirms and deepens my views On Qualification for Cabinet Positions.
Also Christian Crusader tattoos on chest and arms, plus an attitude that panders to a key GOP constituency. Most self-identified MAGA are some flavor of right wing Christian. I am sure that is part of why he was chosen.
Also pro war crimeing, recall Trump’s love of sadistic violence and pardons of convicted war criminals, also part of why he was picked.
If El Taco were to hire people more competent than he, they’d just show him up and make him look bad.
@charontwo:
And Pete’s doing the job accordingly for this Epstein administration. Except he changed his title to include “War,” as in Secretary of Culture War at times, and Secretary of War Crimes at others.
Saw this today and thought it about sums up this administration
I am deeply, deeply concerned about our collective ability to deter or thwart a possible attack. DOGE hollowed out many of our agencies, and this mess with ICE/TSA, along with aviation cuts, not to mention the general overall incompetence…it’s all very alarming.
I am reminded of a recent clip of Trump acknowledging that Iran almost certainly has sleeper cells in the U.S. and that his administration knew who they were, but yet gave no indication that they had been neutralized in any fashion. Yes, feeling of warm fuzzy safety.
Tasked with choosing a Cabinet, Trump opted to cast a television show. In the classic “dumbest guy in the room” competition, Trump Cabinet meetings are the ultimate challenge.
“A cabinet that looks like ME!!11!1” El Taco
I think fear of terrorism is hyped up. Here is a White House list of Iranian terror attacks: https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2026/03/the-iranian-regimes-decades-of-terrorism-against-american-citizens/. None are on American soil. If a country sends troops to a far away place and the locals shoot at them, some might not label that as terrorism. “Sleeper cells” and vessels containing drones to attack California are like abductions by interstellar aliens; aren’t they? There have been 141 mass shootings in the past 23 years, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0002961025003393. These are terrifying, but mostly the actions of good, ole Americans.
Don’t fall for BS.
@Slugger: As an American who grew up overseas, and whose parents lost good friends when the Embassy in Beirut was bombed, I can assure you that the terrorism threat is real. Just because the threat to Americans is more pronounced overseas doesn’t mean it’s not a threat to Americans. JFC.
Wonder if MMArkwayne will turn up at the FBIs UFC session.
I know Stephen Miller isn’t in Trump’s Cabinet, though he likely holds more sway over Trump than those publicly appointed saps. But surely, Mr. Miller’s pronouncement at an event in Memphis yesterday has put your fears of a less safe world at ease:
So, no matter the citizenry’s feelings, they are not only safer, but miraculously so. Historians will study how we got it so good right now.
I mentioned Hegseth upthread. Here is Jamelle Bouie on that topic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJjkdEOnC_M&t=4s
And, incidentally, I was struck by the embedded clips of Trump speaking, how vastly differently he speaks now compared to his first term, the decline is very obvious.
@charontwo: We’ve always known the cruelty is often the point. In your linked clip, Bouie, speaking of Trump and Hegseth, says of Iran, ‘the point of this is the killing”. Chilling. As is Trump threatening Cuba in a flat, almost slurring, monotone, seeming like it was all he could do to stay awake. Yes, obvious decline. From a low level.
As Bouie says more elegantly, they’re having fun playing soldier and making things go boom. What happens when Trump gets bored and wants to make a bigger boom?
@Scott F.:
Well, the third reich has been studied for generations.
@Slugger:
Ice has killed more American citizens than Iran. In the meantime Fatso’s N. Korean boyfriend is bragging about HIS arsenal. Given a lucky shot and a tailwind might actually reach the West Coast…kind of the literal definition of an imminent threat.
@Slugger:
I am no alarmist on this topic. But I do think attacking Iran has increased the chances for terrorism against the US or US interests. As such, strikes me a bad time to have Patel, Mullen, Gabbard, and company at the helm.
@Steven L. Taylor:
The way I see it, the only time it would be good to have such people at the helm, is any time you’re one of America’s enemies,