Incompetence and grifting

Two things this morning that made me laugh, starting with the news of one more Federal grand jury refusing to indict someone that made the OAFPOTUS mad—in this case, six someones, all sitting US legislators and former US military and intelligence officers:

A Washington DC grand jury declined to indict six Democratic lawmakers who were denounced by Donald Trump after they made a video urging troops to refuse illegal orders.

Federal prosecutors had sought an indictment against the Democrats who participated in the video, including Elissa Slotkin, Mark Kelly, Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan, who all have military and intelligence backgrounds.

Slotkin, a former CIA officer, organized the video in which the lawmakers said officers can resist unlawful commands. Trump was outraged by the clip, and described it as “seditious behavior by traitors” that was “punishable by death”.

Slotkin said in a statement on Tuesday that the video “simply quoted the law” and Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney, attempted to persuade a grand jury to indict Slotkin at the direction of Trump.

Let's remember that US Attorney Jeanine Pirro previously held the exalted role of Fox News presenter, where she and her colleagues lied about the 2020 election so ridiculously that Dominion Voting Systems forced Fox to settle a defamation case for $787 million.

I also laughed out loud at Paul Krugman's takedown of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik this morning:

While MAGA-world’s fantasy villains like George Soros are brilliant and subtle, MAGA’s real villains are uncouth and dim-witted. Yet they carry out their sinister schemes in broad daylight. For all they need to flourish is utter shamelessness, along with the backing of a corrupt administration and a corrupt political party.

So it’s worth remembering Hannah Arendt’s observations about the architects of Hitler’s genocide, which led her to coin the phrase “the banality of evil”. As Arendt noted, the horrors of Nazism were not inflicted by brilliant geniuses, but through the normalization of thoughtless, amoral behavior that eventually turned into evil. Thus while Lutnick appears on the surface like a dim-witted backroom grifter, he is a warning of something far more sinister and malign lurking below.

OK, I'm not quoting the funny part here, but you should read Krugman's entire post.

And he's right. This Administration could have gotten everything they wanted had they not been stupid. (I also think the lawful-evil faction is really annoyed that their chaotic-evil leader keeps screwing things up for them.)