Tag: Insane

I Firmly Believe That If You Can’t Fool All of the People All of the Time You Should Start Breeding Them for Stupidity*

I think that we have determined a method to Valdimir Putin’s various machinations.

He is determined to ensure that blithering idiots and delusional megalomaniacs take power in countries he considers a crucial to Russian interests:

Russia warned the U.S. against any effort to influence the royal succession in Saudi Arabia, offering its support to embattled Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who’s under continuing pressure over the killing of a government critic.

President Vladimir Putin’s envoy to the Middle East said Prince Mohammed has every right to inherit the throne when the ailing 82-year-old King Salman dies.

“Of course we are against interference. The Saudi people and leadership must decide such questions themselves,” Mikhail Bogdanov, who is also deputy foreign minister, said in an interview in Moscow on Tuesday. “The King made a decision and I can’t even imagine on what grounds someone in America will interfere in such an issue and think about who should rule Saudi Arabia, now or in the future. This is a Saudi matter.”

When you look at the various allegations of meddling by Putin, allegations that he supported Trump,. Erdoğan, le Pen, Modi, and now MBS.

It makes his life a lot easier when people that you have to deal with are stupid, monomaniacal,  and/or delusional.

*President Adam Weisshaupt (from Dave Sim’s Cerebus)

Dead “Man” Walking

I am not stating that  Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) is not a human being, I am saying that he is an immature spoiled child who lacks the maturity to be a fry-cook, much less the de-facto absolute ruler of 33 million people

That’s the first thing I thought when I read that the CIA had issued a report where they concluded that MBS had personally ordered the hit on Jamal Khashoggi.  (As an aside, this would NEVER would have happened if John Brennan was still running the CIA, because he’s been a tool of the House of Saud since his day as a CIA station chief in Riyadh.)

The CIA has concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul last month, contradicting the Saudi government’s claims that he was not involved in the killing, according to people familiar with the matter.

The CIA’s assessment, in which officials have said they have high confidence, is the most definitive to date linking Mohammed to the operation and complicates the Trump administration’s efforts to preserve its relationship with a close ally. A team of 15 Saudi agents flew to Istanbul on government aircraft in October and killed Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate, where he had come to pick up documents that he needed for his planned marriage to a Turkish woman.

In reaching its conclusions, the CIA examined multiple sources of intelligence, including a phone call that the prince’s brother Khalid bin Salman, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, had with Khashoggi, according to the people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the intelligence. Khalid told Khashoggi, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post, that he should go to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to retrieve the documents and gave him assurances that it would be safe to do so.

It is not clear if Khalid knew that Khashoggi would be killed, but he made the call at his brother’s direction, according to the people familiar with the call, which was intercepted by U.S. intelligence.

In related news, it appears that MBS threw a tantrum when presented with a cease-fire plan for Yemen:

Multiple sources tell CNN that a much-anticipated United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a cessation of hostilities in Yemen and for Saudi Arabia to allow humanitarian aid to reach millions of starving people was “stalled” this week after the resolution’s sponsor, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, met face-to-face with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Two sources said the crown prince “threw a fit” about the resolution. Two other sources with knowledge of the discussion didn’t go so far as to describe the crown prince as angry, though they didn’t deny he was annoyed.

Seriously,  what the f%$# is wrong with this guy?

This is what end-stage royal inbreeding looks like.

And She’s Gone

Mira Ricardel, who fell out with the First Lady when she attempted to extort seats on her Africa junket, has left the building:

Top National Security Council official Mira Ricardel is exiting her post after an extraordinary, high-profile clash with first lady Melania Trump.

The White House said in a statement Wednesday that Ricardel will “transition to a new role within the administration,” but did not specify her new job.

“The president is grateful for Ms. Ricardel’s continued service to the American people and her steadfast pursuit of his national security priorities,” said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

The announcement capped off a tense day of speculation about Ricardel’s future after the first lady’s office took the unusual step of publicly calling for her ouster. It appears to be a compromise solution, since national security adviser John Bolton reportedly fought to save Ricardel, his top deputy.

The Trump White House is truly a complete sh%$ show.

Do they Actually Believe this Sh%$?

I know that Kentucky Governor Matt Beven is no one’s poster child for a member of the reality based community, but claiming that zombie television shows are the root cause of mass shootings is a bridge too far:

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) has been forthright about what he believes are the root causes of mass shootings. A few months ago, he blamed gun violence on children’s access to smartphones, video games and psychotropic drugs.

Most recently, he blamed society’s obsession with a specific genre of violent entertainment.

“Seriously, what’s the most important topic that seems to be in every cable television network for example? Television shows are all about what? Zombies,” he said in an interview Tuesday with conservative Kentucky radio host Leland Conway.

Mass shootings point to deep cultural problems, Bevin said, particularly in a society that consumes daily doses of violence through the media. He acknowledged tying zombie shows to gun violence might be perceived as “trite and simplistic.” But, he argued, American culture is “inundated by the worst things that celebrate death,” including the forms of entertainment young people consume.

“These are drips, drips, drips on the stones of the psyches of young generations that are growing up in a society that increasingly said this is normal and okay,” he said. “And eventually, some of those young minds are not going to be able to handle it.”

I’m beginning to think that Matt Bevans is looking to take over Tom Cruise’s role as Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder II: Yokels in Yemen.

Our Friends in Riyadh

It appears that agents of the House of Saud murded dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in their consulate in Istanbul, dismembered him, and took him out of the country in diplomatic pouches:

Top Turkish security officials have concluded that the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on orders from the highest levels of the royal court, a senior official said Tuesday.

The official described a quick and complex operation in which Mr. Khashoggi was killed within two hours of his arrival at the consulate by a team of Saudi agents, who dismembered his body with a bone saw they brought for the purpose.

“It is like ‘Pulp Fiction,’” the official said.

Saudi officials, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, have denied the allegations, insisting that Mr. Khashoggi left the consulate freely shortly after he arrived. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has demanded that the Saudis provide evidence proving their claim.

………

The security establishment concluded that Mr. Khashoggi’s killing was directed from the top because only the most senior Saudi leaders could order an operation of such scale and complexity, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to disclose confidential briefings.

Fifteen Saudi agents had arrived on two charter flights last Tuesday, the day Mr. Khashoggi disappeared, the official said.

All 15 left just a few hours later, and Turkey has now identified the roles that most or all of them held in the Saudi government or security services, the official said. One was an autopsy expert, presumably there to help dismember the body, the official said.

………

Security camera footage showed Mr. Khashoggi entering the consulate shortly after 1 p.m. that day. Ms. Cengiz, his fiancée, waited outside, and she has said he never emerged.

Two and a half hours after he entered the facility, six vehicles with diplomatic license plates pulled out, carrying 15 Saudi officials and intelligence officers, Sabah reported.

Two other vehicles, including a black Mercedes Vito van with darkened windows, went from the consulate to the consul’s residence about 200 yards away. Turkish employees of the residence had unexpectedly been told not to report for work that day, the newspaper said.

This is completely nuts, but it’s par for the course for Mohammad bin Salman.

The 33-year-old boy king-in-all-but-name has clearly never ever had anyone ever say, “No” to him, and he is off the deep end in a way that would have Czar Nicholas II saying, “Dude, you are letting this whole absolute monarch thing go to your head.”

We are in for a bumpy ride on the Arabian peninsula.

Well, Now We Know What it Takes for Alex Jones Banned from Twitter

Because he just got banned from Twitter.

Twitter is not being particularly forthcoming about the proverbial straw that broke the proverbial camel’s proverbial back, but I think that what got Dorsey to stop protecting him was that, he finally had to meat Jones in meat space:


A peanut gallery of three white supremacists and conspiracy theorists are watching Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testify before Congress Wednesday.

All three have been banned from major social media platforms for violating their rules — and they’re using today’s hearings to confront them, and to try to force members of Congress to stand by them.

Alex Jones, a well-known internet conspiracy theorist, sat in the audience at the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing to “face his accusers,” referring to Sandberg and Dorsey. Also in the front row at the hearing was internet troll Charles Johnson; Twitter banned him from the site permanently after he threatened to “take out” a Black Lives Matter activist. Present on the Hill as well was Laura Loomer, an alt-right activist who alleged that the shootings at a high school in Santa Fe, Texas, were staged; she has been suspended from Facebook and Twitter in the past.

That’s Jones on the right, and Dorsey on the left, and, rather inexplicably, a glass-hole* wearing a congressional staffer (see the name tag) and a really tall guy in between them.

So the reason that Alex Jones is gone from Twitter, is not for doxxing the families of victims of mass shootings and forcing them to move, and not for calling for violence against people, it is for coming within about 2 meters of Jack Dorsey, and as a very rich man, Dorsey wants to remain apart from such unpleasantness.

Jack Dorsey is an asshole ……… standing next to a glass-hole.

*Someone out there is still wearing Google Glasses, and they are known as glass-holes.

It’s Completely Nuts

We’re going to include some fun games as hidden Easter eggs in Tesla S, X & 3. What do you think would be most fun in a car using the center touch screen?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 22, 2018

Seriously, Easter Eggs?

Elon Musk is giving Donald Trump a seriously run for his money in the insane tweet division.

Who in their right mind thinks that it wouldn’t be completely insane to put “Easter Eggs” in the critical systems of a 2 ton death machine?

No one, that’s who.

Elon Musk just tweeted thinks that it’s just ducky to put a f%$#ing Rick Roll in the display for his cars.

This is profoundly unhinged.

This Business Will get out of Control. It Will get out of Control and we’ll be Lucky to Live Through It.

A prankster who created the joke Cryptocurrency PonziCoin has called it off, because too many people want to keep giving him money:

People will never cease to amaze and the level of stupidity that human beings express sometimes surpasses any that we have seen before. It is one thing to fall for a Ponzi Scheme that was disguised as something legitimate but when someone takes the extra effort of warning you that you may lose all your money and you still jump in with your two feet, that is on you.

………

With the sudden spiral of cryptocurrency in the world, we have already seen quite a number of people lose money through fake ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) and collapsing platforms, but people never learn and to prove this, a San Francisco based developer, Rishab Hegde, “jokingly” built a cryptocurrency based on Ethereum and named it PonziCoin – an exact copycat of what happened back in 2014.

Rishab Hedge went ahead to warn the investors on the coin that it was a Ponzi Scheme, “The world’s first legitimate Ponzi scheme,” reads the coin’s landing page. The bliss does not end there, the developer adds more warnings in the Frequently Asked Questions section:

Q: Is this a scam?

A: Yes, it’s as much a scam as 99% of the ICOs out there, but it’s more transparent about it 🙂

………

Now here’s the major news; People actually invested in the Ponzi scheme. Maybe with the hopes of being the early investors and cashing out before everything collapses. After around 8 hours, PonziCoin had attracted attention and the platform had collected around 250 Ether coins ( valued at more than $25,000).

Mr Rishab seems to have gotten cold feet due to the attention and he decided to pull the plug on PonziCoin, leaving investors out it the cold and possibly making away with their money since none of the investors got a payout on their investment. An update on the website reads:

This has gotten crazy out of hand, I apologize but we will no longer be selling PonziCoin on this site because this was a joke. I cannot terminate the contract but I will not be selling any coins that I own.

Tulips, Schmulips, this is a REAL bubble.

This is Insane

It appears that the Pentagon is planning for nuclear retaliation in response to cyber attacks:

A newly drafted United States nuclear strategy that has been sent to President Trump for approval would permit the use of nuclear weapons to respond to a wide range of devastating but non-nuclear attacks on American infrastructure, including what current and former government officials described as the most crippling kind of cyberattacks.

For decades, American presidents have threatened “first use” of nuclear weapons against enemies in only very narrow and limited circumstances, such as in response to the use of biological weapons against the United States. But the new document is the first to expand that to include attempts to destroy wide-reaching infrastructure, like a country’s power grid or communications, that would be most vulnerable to cyberweapons.

The draft document, called the Nuclear Posture Review, was written at the Pentagon and is being reviewed by the White House. Its final release is expected in the coming weeks and represents a new look at the United States’ nuclear strategy. The draft was first published last week by HuffPost.

It called the strategic picture facing the United States quite bleak, citing not only Russian and Chinese nuclear advances but advances made by North Korea and, potentially, Iran.

“We must look reality in the eye and see the world as it is, not as we wish it to be,” the draft document said. The Trump administration’s new initiative, it continued, “realigns our nuclear policy with a realistic assessment of the threats we face today and the uncertainties regarding the future security environment.”
Continue reading the main story

The Pentagon declined to comment on the draft assessment because Mr. Trump has not yet approved it. The White House also declined to comment.

This is full, “Protecting our purity of essence,” (Dr. Strangelove) nsane.

Jumping C. Megaladon*


Seriously, this sh%$ has jumped the shark

Seriously, this Russian meddling with the election crap has taken a left turn into the Twilight Zone.

We now have claims that the Russian government used Pokemon Go to influence the election.

I have no doubt that there are Russian trolls out there, and I am even more certain that there elements in the Russian internet community who generate a living through click bait, but the idea that the Russian state security apparatus would use Pokemon f%$#ing Go to subvert our election is simply insane.

This, “A noun, a verb, and Vladimir Putin,” mishugas needs to stop.

It’s not just Facebook, Twitter and Google.

Even Pokemon Go, the mega-popular smartphone game that became a phenomenon last year, was the target of Russian agents trying to meddle with the 2016 US election, according to a report Thursday by CNN.

The effort was allegedly centered on a campaign called “Don’t Shoot Us,” an apparent reference “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot,” a mantra in widespread use after the shooting of Michael Brown.

The campaign is said to be tied to agents in Russia, and it reportedly used social media services like Facebook and Twitter to try to exploit racial tensions in the US. But there was one surprise target: Pokemon Go.

In playing Pokemon Go, people go to real-world locations to find and train digital monsters, which appear on their phone screens against the landscape picked up by the phones’ cameras.According to the CNN report, the Don’t Shoot Us campaign announced a contest on its Tumblr page in July 2016 for Pokemon Go players. The contest encouraged them to visit locations where alleged cases of police brutality took place. Players were also asked to give their Pokemon critters the names of people shot by police, including Eric Garner. The campaign offered players Amazon gift cards as rewards.

Just shoot me.

*The largest shark, and likely largest predator fish ever. It died out some 1.5 million years ago. The Genus is still in dispute, between either Carcharodon (Great White) or Carcharocles (broad toothed Mako). So in jumping C. Megalodon, you have jumped the biggest shark ever.

Crazy Motherf%$#er Wins Republican Primary

What? Not specific enough?

OK, It was the Georgia Senate primary, and the crazy motherf%$#er just won.

What, still not specific enough?

OK, it was Roy Moore who beat the rather aptly named Luther Strange:

Roy S. Moore, a firebrand former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, overcame efforts by top Republicans to rescue his rival, Senator Luther Strange, defeating him on Tuesday in a special primary runoff, according to The Associated Press.

The outcome in the closely watched Senate race dealt a humbling blow to President Trump and other party leaders days after the president pleaded with voters in the state to back Mr. Strange.

Propelled by the stalwart support of his fellow evangelical Christians, Mr. Moore survived a multimillion-dollar advertising onslaught, in the eight figures, financed by allies of Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader. His victory demonstrated in stark terms the limits of Mr. Trump’s clout.

In a race that began as something of a political afterthought and ended up showcasing the right’s enduring divisions, the victory by Mr. Moore, one of the most tenacious figures in Alabama politics, will likely embolden other anti-establishment conservatives to challenge incumbent Republicans in next year’s midterm elections.

And more immediately, the party will be forced to grapple with how to prop up an often-inflammatory candidate given to provocative remarks on same-sex marriage and race — all to protect a seat in a deep-red state. Mr. Moore’s incendiary rhetoric will also oblige others in the party to answer for his comments, perhaps for years to come, at a time when many Republicans would just as soon move on from the debate over gay rights.

On Dec. 12, Mr. Moore will face Doug Jones, a former federal prosecutor and the Democratic nominee, in a race that will test the party loyalties of center-right voters who may be uneasy about their nominee. It may also reveal just how reliably Republican the state has become in the quarter-century since a Democrat last won a Senate election here.

My prediction for the general election: 

  • We will receive innumerable fund raising emails. 
  • Doug Jones will spend a lot of money, and hire Democratic Party consultants.
  • They will advise him to run against Trump and avoid talking about real issues.
  • Doug Jones will listen to these consultants.
  • Doug Jones will lose the election badly.
  • Said consultants will blame Bernie Sanders.

This Is What Comes from Mixing Ambien and Alcohol

A little red wine, vintage record, some Ambien … and magic!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 7, 2017

Like Keith Moon, and not in a good way

The increasingly erratic Elon Musk is now claiming that he got verbal governmental approval to construct a Hyperloop transit system from Washington, DC and New York City.

Rather unsurprisingly all manner of public officials over the proposed route have no recollection of any such discussion:

Elon Musk does not have government approval to build a Hyperloop tunnel from New York City to Washington DC.

The Tesla executive took to Twitter this morning to tantalize his legion of fans and the tech press with the “news” that he had “just received verbal govt approval for The Boring Company to build an underground NY-Phil-Balt-DC Hyperloop. NY-DC in 29 mins … City center to city center in each case, with up to a dozen or more entry/exit elevators in each city.”

Lest any billionaires need to brush up on civics 101: the US system of government does not operate on “verbal government approvals”.

Musk walked back his claim about 90 minutes later, tweeting: “Still a lot of work needed to receive formal approval, but am optimistic that will occur rapidly”.

A lot of work is needed to receive formal approval, indeed.

Musk was received with typical credulity by the tech press, and considerable consternation by various government agencies. Several spokespeople who answered the phones at relevant city, state and federal government bodies laughed upon hearing of the claim that an interstate transit project with a significant street-level footprint in four of the east coast’s largest cities could be approved verbally.

Gee, you think?

I’m not sure if Musk has gone over the edge because of drug abuse, Ambien and alcohol is addictive and dangerous, or if it’s because he has become convinced of his own epic awesomeness from sycophants and the, “Typical credulity by the tech press,” but Elon Musk is well into delusional, and seems to be heading to Bond villain territory.

I’m kind of surprised.  Of all the PayPal mafia, I would have figured that would be vampire Peter Thiel would go over the edge first.

And in the Further Adventures of Florida Man………


This Picture Positively Screams “Florida Man”

A man in Florida, Devon Arthurs, shot his Neo-Nazi roommates because they mocked his recent conversion to Islam.

Before converting,he was also a Neo-Nazi, so I really don’t understand how how Mr. Arthurs did not anticipate the reaction of his wannabee Aryan roommates:

A man in Florida who shot two of his roommates dead gave an unusual defense, the authorities say: they were neo-Nazis who had disrespected his recent conversion to Islam.

The arrest of the gunman, who said he had also been a neo-Nazi before becoming Muslim, led to the discovery that a fourth roommate had been stockpiling materials that could be used to create a bomb, according to a federal criminal complaint. That roommate, a member of the Florida National Guard, kept a picture of Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, on his dresser, the authorities said.

Both men are now in custody. The accused gunman, Devon Arthurs, 18, has been charged with two counts of murder, and his surviving roommate, Brandon Russell, 21, has been charged with two counts related to the explosive material and devices.

Only in Florida, or maybe Montana.

Only in America………

In the special election for Montana’s only Congressional seat,  Republican Greg Gianforte has been formally charged with assault for body-slamming a Guardian reporter.

There is an audio tape, and a Fox News camera crew witnessed it:

The Republican candidate for Montana’s congressional seat has been charged with misdemeanor assault after he is alleged to have slammed a Guardian reporter to the floor on the eve of the state’s special election, breaking his glasses and shouting: “Get the hell out of here.”

Ben Jacobs, a Guardian political reporter, was asking Greg Gianforte, a tech millionaire endorsed by Donald Trump, about the Republican healthcare plan when the candidate allegedly “body-slammed” the reporter.“He took me to the ground,” Jacobs said by phone from the back of an ambulance. “I think he whaled on me once or twice … He got on me and I think he hit me … This is the strangest thing that has ever happened to me in reporting on politics.”

Fox News reporter Alicia Acuna, field producer Faith Mangan and photographer Keith Railey witnessed the incident at Gianforte’s campaign headquarters in Montana, according to an account published on the Fox News website. After Jacobs asked Gianforte his question, Acuna wrote: “Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground behind him.

“Faith, Keith and I watched in disbelief as Gianforte then began punching the man, as he moved on top the reporter and began yelling something to the effect of ‘I’m sick and tired of this!’ … To be clear, at no point did any of us who witnessed this assault see Jacobs show any form of physical aggression toward Gianforte, who left the area after giving statements to local sheriff’s deputies.”

Jacobs subsequently reported the incident to the police. The Gallatin county sheriff’s office said on Wednesday night it had completed its investigation and that Gianforte had been issued with a charge of misdemeanour assault. 

It appears that Gianforte was upset with the Guardian‘s earlier report detailing his financial ties to sanctioned Russian businesses.

With heavy early voting, and with a significant portion of the Republican electorate objectively support assault in general, and assaults on journalists in particular, this nut-job is still likely to win the race, because ……… Montana.

I Am Losing My Motherf%$#Ing Mind

I was talking with Sharon* about our schedule for the weekend, and I noted that we needed to get me, “……… Those things with aglets on the end.”

I had forgotten the word for shoe laces, but I had remembered the word for the little tips of the shoelaces.

Clearly, I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue.

*Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.

Eleven Hours in the Tin Pan. God, There’s Got to Be Another Way!


I Felt a Little Like a Dying Clown, with a Streak of Rin Tin Tin

Even when everyone is on the same page, even when everyone is pleasant to each other, even when they are productive, meetings suck.

What’s more, the agony increases exponentially as the length goes up.

  • 15 minutes: Annoying
  • 30 minutes: Uncomfortable
  • 60 minutes: Agony
  • 2 Hours: Where is your God Now!
  • 3 Hours: I ache for the sweet succor of oblivion!
  • 5½ Hours: Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!

All in all though, it was productive day.

This is the Stupidest Thing Written on US Politics This Year

Yes, I am aware that this is a very high bar to clear, but there is no competition here, Carol Felsenthal, writing for Chicago magazine, has made the most mind bogglingly moronic political analysis of this political season.

Baldrick would say that, “It’s so cunning that you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel.”

Blackadder would say, “Your brain for example- is brain’s so minute ……… that if a hungry cannibal cracked your head open, there wouldn’t be enough to cover a small water biscuit.”

Ms Felsenthal says that Rahm Emanuel should be made head of the DNC:

Not that he asked me, but here’s some advice for Rahm Emanuel: Run for the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee.

The new DNC chairman will be elected when all 447 members meet on February 24, but the auditions are on right now.

Get in the mix. Get out of Dodge. Leave behind the burden of running a city tortured by homicides that this year top 700 with a month to go. Leave behind the stubborn unpopularity with African Americans who make up one third of the city’s population. (Even before Laquan McDonald became a household name in Chicago, Rahm’s support among African Americans was eight percent.)

When I first read this, I thought that it was a joke.

I could not believe that anyone was that profoundly and deeply stupid.

If you read the comments, this opinion is nearly universally shared, with such comments as, “Why not Zoidberg?”

The article is garbage, but the comments are amusing.

Nah Gah Nah Do It

There has been a lot of speculation about who Donald Trump will appoint to his cabinet.

At this point, all that has been confirmed is that the obscure tropical disease known as Reince Priebus will be his chief of staff and that racist antisemitic nutbag Steve Bannon has been his chief strategist and Senior Counselor.

You will note that neither of these positions require the advice and consent of the Senate.

I’m not commenting on any appointments until they are officially announced, not out of any respect for the Trump transition team, but rather out a concern for my own sanity.

All this speculation is driving me batsh%$.