Who's the Worst Pick?

The Law of Unintended Consequences

When I started working as a professional after college, my second boss told me two things that have stuck with me all these decades.

Understand that this was a LOOOOONG time ago, and the world was a different place. For example, I was the first professional woman hired at this company, and they hired me because there was a new Federal government initiative that said they needed a woman on the team to put in RFQs for government contracts. My co-workers (all men) would pat my head and tell me, “Don’t worry, girls don’t need to know about that”, and they explained that if I sat at my desk and filed my nails, that was enough. Full story in the footnote.¹

First, my boss said that if someone was honourable, you could shake hands on a deal, and it would hold no matter what. “But if a man cheats on his wife,” he said, “He could sign a contract in his own blood and likely still renege. Never trust a man who cheats on his wife.”

Second, he taught me to always beware of things out of character. Personality changes, character is immutable.

I learned through my work there that it was pivotal to think things through. It’s critical thinking, and it is imperative for success.

Which brings me to the Orange Menace’s cabinet nominations. He is not honorable (and most of his picks are not, either), and, he has not thought things through.

It’s hard to pick who the worst option is on the list so far. There are a few picks that are (believe it or not) reasonable. Like Steven Cheung for Comms, and Susie Wiles for Chief of Staff. But so many of the rest are so bad, that while I thought about running a poll, it would only be stressful to pick. But feel free to share your worst choice in the comments.

The important thing here is that he and his team have not thought things through. And, as usual, the press and pundits are focusing on the wrong things.

Food

Let’s start with Worm Brain. Not the anti-vax stance. But the “eat healthier” approach. There is no doubt that our country is plagued with obesity: 75% of us are either overweight or obese. Source. We know that this is, at least in part², due to what we eat and how much we eat. And removing a lot of the crap from food like high fructose corn syrup, preservatives, chemicals, dyes, and “fake foods” would be a good idea. Worm Brain will likely start with trying to implement these things in the school lunch program, which currently costs almost $30 billion a year. Source.

Take chicken: school lunches often include “chicken nuggets” which are kinda-sorta chicken, but kids seem to like them. If these were replaced with, say, roasted chicken, the cost would rise, and good luck getting the Chaos Caucus to pay for it. You can apply this to a lot of other foods on a standard American school lunch plate.

In addition, if he wants to serve “real food” this would mean fruits and vegetables that were fresh or frozen, and served in a healthy way. The problem? Even with the amounts now served, rumor has it that close to 75% of vegetables and 40% of fruits are thrown away every day. Here are the results of one study. In all the studies “potatoes” were considered a vegetable, and the most popular fruit was canned, likely in sugar sauce.

Also, to “eat healthy” would mean hiring more people to actually cook more food instead of relying on bringing in processed foods, which are often cheaper.

Here’s a list of school lunches in the US. Here’s how they do it in selected countries in Europe. In Europe, they COOK lunch for the kids.

In addition, there is a contention that it’s not the food itself, but rather the processing and packaging that creates problems. Scroll down to the bottom of this article for a good summary.

Finally, let’s not forget that Worm Brain is huge fan of raw milk. RAW MILK BAD. Especially for kids.

To sum up: healthy food is better than unhealthy food. But you have to be able to afford it, cook it, and get everyone to eat it³. This is true both in your own house, and as relates to government food programs. As an aside, when we think about Congressional funding, while I cannot find any statistics on this, my gut says that the lobbyists for tomatoes are dwarfed by the lobbyists for ketchup.

Military

Most people are concentrating on Pete Hegseth’s complete incompetence to manage the 2.7 million people who work for the DoD, his disdain for women in combat, and being a sexual predator who doesn’t wash his hands.

I’m looking at something else.

Let’s assume that he gets confirmed. And he and the Orange Menace succeed in ousting a lot of Generals. There will be a complete breakdown of military order. That is, soldiers either follow orders, or they resign or are court-martialed. They are trained to respect the chain of command. And there’s a ton of respect for the current top brass⁴.

I suspect that many people will end up leaving. This will be part of a larger exodus of government workers, both through personal choice and Schedule F. Not to mention the likely push for an “all-white fighting force”, which is terribly sad.

So I ask myself: if they (illegally) want to use the military to be out in the streets doing round-ups and deportations, AND maintain a ready force for potential attacks on the US (see this), where will they get the people?

Don’t think it will be easy to replace the troops that leave. It turns out that only 23% of young people are eligible to join the military. That’s 77% who are ineligible often due to drug use, obesity, mental health issues and physical limitations. In addition, most branches of the military today have fallen behind in their recruitment goals. Full deets here.

Obviously, they didn’t think this through. It is conceivable that the Orange Menace only wants a DoD that is “for him” - complete with authoritarian military parades that will destroy roadways. That’s actually a reasonable assumption. But if China and Russia decide to attack us and there are no soldiers to fight back, and no Generals to organize and plan, that’s pretty bad.

I am CONVINCED that someone other than me has figured this out. Hopefully whoever that someone is will be in a position to do something about it. Hope springs eternal.

And On

We could talk about Tulsi Gabbard, the Russian troll doll. Or Mike “Chucklebee” Huckabee, who will, along with other emissaries to the Middle East, work towards Israel annexing all of the West Bank. Not to mention Matt Gaetz, and Deputy AG pick Todd Blanche WHO LOST EVERY CASE HE WORKED ON FOR THE CONVICTED CRIMINAL, who combined will work to completely dismantle the rule of law. I’m going to agree with John Bolton (and THAT has never happened before) when he said that Matt was the worst cabinet nomination in American history. Of note, he said that about Tulsi, too.

Here’s the thing: NONE of these people have thought things through. Nor is there any indication they will work together on joint goals, and will likely end up at cross purposes.

Remember, they have to be able to implement things. For example, DoJ needs to run an investigation before they can bring charges, and then they have to make the charges stick. That’s implementation, and that takes time.

And speaking of implementation - that “Department of Government Efficiency”? There IS no such department, which means it has no funding, and thus Elmo and Vivek are looking for people with “super high IQs” who will work 80 hours a work for NO PAY.

They want to cut a full third out of the US budget. A little over 2/3 of the budget goes to healthcare (Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP and ACA), Social Security, Defense and servicing the debt. Another 15% goes to economic programs (like the Child Tax Credit and other programs) and Veterans Benefits. Leaving 17% for everything else. That latter bucket includes Congressional salaries, by the way. Not to mention things like Air Traffic Control, printing the money, running the courts (where they want to prosecute enemies) as well as the Farm bill. Source.

Not to mention, that department can’t actually CUT — the need to come up with a plan and then implement. Then again, we see what a success Elmo made out of Twitter.

So that’s it for today. I’m debating in my mind what tomorrow’s topic will be — so much to choose from!

By the way, I receive messages asking if it’s okay to share my Substack. PLEASE do! That’s why there’s a “Share” button.

1. It was a small company, and everyone had a key to the building. I used to sneak in at 4 or 5 in the morning and read everything in the library. Then, I’d clear out by 7 and return at 8 when the official workday started.

There was a Monday morning staff meeting where they’d talk about the work for the week, and I would work ahead, and have things to present, and they’d smile at me. The way that you’d smile at a 5-year-old who believes he can drive the truck, when he can’t see over the steering wheel.

But eventually, they gave me a project because they were sure it would lose money, and I was the lowest paid person. I brought it in at a profit. So, they gave me a big project. An Airport Master Plan. Not only did I bring it in on time, and at budget, but when I signed the drawings, and the FAA signed off on the Master Plan - well, it was the first time that the FAA had ever signed off on an Airport Master Plan run and signed by a woman.

After that, they stopped patting me on the head.

2. The ongoing research on GLP-1 meds like Wegovy, Ozempic, etc., may end up showing that there are additional factors in some people that lead to weight gain.

3. Please let me know if you have ever successfully gotten a young child to eat Brussels Sprouts.

4. The US military has been losing people since the end of the Cold War. It used to be (up to the 1980’s) that everyone (and I mean everyone) either was in the military, had served in the military previously, or was related to someone who was either active duty, or previously served. Now that there’s an all-volunteer force and no conscription, most people in the US aren’t related to anyone serving on active duty. This matters because it means military service is “an abstraction” to many people. Full data and charts here. More data on WW2 participation here.