Trump vs. the Men Without Chests
By John Kass
Nov. 17, 2024
I’m guessing that you are sitting there reading this column on a civilized Sunday morning, with a good cup of coffee and perhaps a sweet roll from Calumet Bakery or some other fine pastry shop. May I also suggest enlightened and cultured music of the baroque coming from the smart speaker, perhaps the “Four Seasons” by Vivaldi?
So, I figure that the last thing on your mind would be you spitting out a mouthful of bloody chiclets on the sidewalk, with your wife screaming for the police. And your friends on all fours, nauseous on the pavement. And other friends stumbling about, groaning through bloody lips.
But that’s what happens in a street fight.
And that’s where you are, in a street fight, even if you don’t quite fully comprehend it yet.
The once-and-future president Donald J. Trump is in a vicious street fight with the Washington establishment that has long wanted him jailed or dead. And this means all of us are in that street fight too, whether you like it or not.
The fight is over the change that the American people voted for, which is precisely what the Washington establishment–I call them the Combine–is threatened by. And they’re using their allies in media and the federal Deep State to crush Trump and keep the status quo and maintain their power. They’re angry as wounded cats that crawled under your porch to die. You can hear them under there.
So cowboy up. Man up or woman up, whatever you want to call it. Wake the bleep up.
Where did you think you are? Dreaming in Narnia?
Narnia is the fantasy land of huggable forest fauns offering tea and cakes and naps to well-mannered children, and Christ-like lion allegories, Turkish delights and strange winged creatures. Narnia was to be found behind a giant wardrobe in a great old country house. It was created by the great Christian moralist C.S. Lewis who wrote the “Chronicles of Narnia.” He also wrote many other books and essays and gave many talks and speeches.
One book without forest fauns was the 1943 book “The Abolition of Man” and he devoted time examining those who reduce human beings to creatures of either the intellect or base impulses.
And they reached down to their hearts and removed their souls. These soulless he called the Men without chests. You can see them everywhere these days.
“We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.”
The men without chests are quite at home in Washington D.C. and among modern academics who constantly defer to expertise and authority, which is one way to separate the soul from your heart. It’s also a way to give up American liberty. The men without chests are most comfortable in politics where they burrow in to avoid accountability, and into the federal bureaucracy, where they been allowed to rule for decades without pushback from the American people. As I type a final draft of this on a Saturday, the noted Fox News Washington establishment pearl-clutcher Neal Cavuto, who replaced Chris Wallace in the network’s pearl-clutching role, pretends he’s worried and shocked about Trump’s proposed cabinet selections.
Cavuto clutched his pearls on Trump’s selection of Trump loyalist and firebrand Matt Gaetz as attorney general, Fox News host and decorated combat veteran Pete Hegseth as defense secretary, former Democrat presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence and Robert F. Kennedy Jr for Secretary of Health and Human Services among others. They promised change and the establishment wants to weaken him and destroy them.
Gaetz exposed the Department of Justice and cross-examined corrupt operatives pushing the Russia collusion hoax. In turn he was smeared by anonymous sources in corrupt media that alleged he was involved in sex trafficking and other rumored crimes, but he was never charged.
They are tough street fighters, and Trump wanted fighters to open his second term because in his first term, the Deep State–that some call the Swamp or the “uniparty”–attacked him unfairly, undermining his administration with a series of lies fed by Democrat Hillary Clinton to her allies at FBI and CIA and carried by the corporate legacy media. The Democrats got what they wanted. They tried to use the Justice Department to bankrupt and destroy him. Two assassins tried to kill him, even as Democrats stoked and provoked the mentally unstable by portraying him as Hitler. The American people rebelled at this, and on November 5. Trump won the electoral college in a landslide, also the popular vote as Republicans took the House and the Senate as well. And Democrats have not recovered.
“No president elect has moved so fast assembling a team,” cried Cavuto, as he welcomed South Carolina Democrat James Clyburn who gave us Kamala Harris. Clyburn played the Hitler card on Trump without much pushback from the mealy-mouthed Combine cheerleader Cavuto. And as for C.S. Lewis, there is a free course on him that I’m eager to join at Hillsdale College online.
But this is not a course on C.S. Lewis. It is a column on getting through a street fight unscathed. There is no such thing.
I am by no means an expert on getting through unscathed. It’s impossible. I have spat out my share of bloody chiclets. And I confess that I once smashed an angry man in the fist with my chin on St. Patrick’s Day many years ago.I showed him mercy. The surgeon wired my mouth shut, and I couldn’t eat solid foods for 15 weeks, and though I started as a heavyweight, I ended up as a lightweight eating only milkshakes. And later Betty and I ran into each other, she noticed I was skinny and took pity on me. We got married.
But that’s a story for another time.
In the story I’m writing now, those men without chests are all over the news, clutching their pearls, telling us that Trump’s proposed cabinet selections are a disaster.
They remind me of the Jack Hawkins character, the crazy minister in the film “Zulu,” Hawkins screaming “We’re all going to die!!!! We’re all going to die!!”
The Washington establishment pearl-clutchers are not proud Zulu warriors. They don’t come at you from the front. The Men Without Chests, too are vicious, but they prefer knifing from behind. They don’t stand and throw hands. They’d rather have others do it.
Some of Trump’s cabinet nominees have driven the left beyond madness, into the insanity best expressed in padded cells. U.D. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., is facing backlash online for claiming that Tulsie Gabbard, President-elect Trump’s pick for Director of National Intelligence (DNI), is “likely a Russian asset.” That seems like a poisonous culture bred in Hillary Clinton’s large box of wine. And Gaetz makes them ill. But he’s loyal. And Trump needs loyalists around him or the election will be a failure.
I know that communists and hysterical jacobins like those leftists I once worked with at “the paper” will pitch fits over Gaetz and Hegseth. But this is political trench warfare. If Gaetz steps away from the Constitution I’ll be among the first to demand his head. But he deserves a Senate hearing. And Hegseth wants to drive the DEI and pronoun idiocracy from the Pentagon, restoring the U.S. Military to what it does best: Killing America’s enemies and breaking things. Kennedy is an enemy of Big Pharma, but for decades Big Pharma has paid off federal regulators one way or another. And children are now obese, becoming diabetic and worse. And Gabbard like Gaetz and others, have been hunted, and smeared by the Deep State, with Hillary Clinton and Wasserman Schultz cackling maliciously. All they need now is a boiling cauldron and a few toads for their soup.
Republican John Cornyn, the Deep State’s Senator from Texas, wants to sabotage the Gaetz nomination and others. If he’s successful I hope he enjoys being primaried by pro-Trump Texas conservatives. And if Cornyn stops Gaetz, there are others in line, like conservative Republican lawyer Mike Davis and former Supreme Court clerk would be the Deep State’s worst nightmare. As Trump’s U.S. Attorney General Davis would tear into them like a Manchester Terrier hunting rats in a barn.
“And now the hunters have become the hunted,” said my friend Thom Serafin of Serafin & Associates on the Chicago Way podcast I co-host with WGN radio producer Jeff Carlin. Indeed.
And another friend wise in the ways of politics–a fan of old time country music–mentioned an old song by Patti Page titled “Conquest:”
And then in the strange way things happen
Their roles were reversed from that day
The hunted became the huntress
The hunter became the prey
Trump’s landslide victory and the speed with which he’s made cabinet appointments might be too much for some to deal with. If so, I’d recommend everyone take a deep breath and realize that the corrupt and broken corporate legacy media is dying. Avoid them. The hunters have become the hunted. The Deep State is terrified. And that’s why their agents are squealing like cornered rats.
You might also take a breath and read “It’s Trump’s Transition and He Calls the Shots” a good piece by solid reporter Philip Wegmann for Real Clear Politics.
You might also check out the Federalist magazine. Eddie Scary has a solid piece “Solid Rule For Trump Admin 2.0: Ignore Whatever The Media Are Mad About!”
The hunters of the Deep State have become the hunted. And the hunted, with names like Gabbard, Gaetz, Kennedy and Hegseth have become the hunters.
The American people voted for change in this election. They wanted their borders secure, and the illegal migrants and violent criminals deported out of America. They voted for government efficiency and an end to the woke military. They wanted an end to the FBI investigating parents at school board meetings. They want an end to the federal police investigating Roman Catholics as potential terrorists merely for attending Latin mass and an end to the fentanyl pouring across the border killing our kids.
They want the Deep State defanged and leashed, prevented from targeting Americans for our political beliefs.
We demand those changes. And you want the changes you voted for, then you must contact your Senators and demand you want those changes to happen and demand that Trump’s streetfighters are confirmed. The men without chests who refuse will find out what it’s like to be targeted in the political primaries, taken out and removed. Not with violence. But with righteous American votes. That’s no brag, just fact.
The hunter has become the hunted.
We’re Americans, and we ‘ve been asleep for a long time. But now we’re awake. All 76 million of us.
And we won’t be prey in our own country any more.
-30-
About the author: John Kass spent decades as a political writer and news columnist in Chicago working at 6 a major metropolitan newspaper. He is co-host of The Chicago Way podcast. And he just loves his “No Chumbolone” hat, because johnkassnews.com is a “No Chumbolone” Zone where you can always get a cup of common sense.
Comments 66
Good column. Not sure it’s a street fight. More like a Tyson/Paul fight. A lot of swinging and a few hits.
Excellent John, Thank You.
it’s a street fight Paul. As Pat Hickey says, put a roll of quarters in your fist.
The aforesaid pearl-clutcher Cavuto is owned by Big Pharma who pour millions into Fox News Coffers. It is disgusting to watch a news segment about MAHA that is punctuated by Big Pharma ads for glp1 drugs.
John, Your hits keep coming. The Dems are just just digging in. We’re ready for them now. I hope!
I had to express my admiration for the intelligence and eloquence of your writing, John. The ideas are well- expressed and your references to CS Lewis and Patti Page (now there’s a combination!) are wonderfully fitting. Thank you for the perfect start to my Sunday.
Truly a street fight and the Derp State won’t simply close up shop and retire! We must ALL support Trump in our neighborhoods or the backlash will continue and not die. Even sleeper cells will require our vigilance.
Great call to the fight, Mr Kass!
Loving the written word.
Thanks,John
Great column. Just for the record though, Jack Hawkin’s character in “Zulu” said “…YOU’RE all going to die! Die! Die!” I watched it just yesterday.
Another concern I have though is that DEI, etc. are just a minor problem in the Defense Department and one easily and quickly fixed. The real concerns are the deterioration of our military industrial base [especially ship building and aircraft production], the weapons procurement systems collapse [eg the Ford class and the LCS], and the lack of balance in capabilities [more than 2000 short-ranged fighters but under 140 long-range bombers for a war in the Pacific?].
DEI can be fixed in a purge of a few weeks or months, the other issues will need years of concentrated effort and legislation, not just decrees from the White House.
You may have been listening to Gen. Keane on Wall St. Editorial Report.
We have so much to be thankful for on this glorious Sunday morning.
Another good one John. Keep up the good work.
I am proud to side with President Trump in this brawl. I am reminded of William Makepeace Thackeay’s love of Americans from his quote in ” The Virginians” ( George Eashington is a central character), “To endure is greater than to dare; to tire out hostile fortune; to be daunted by no difficulty; to keep heart when all have lost it; to go through intrigue spotless; and to forgo even ambition when the end is gained — who can say this is not greatness?”
That it is, Bill!
Thank you Mr. Hickey. Great words indeed
This is truly the fight of our generation. We succeeded in getting the fighters in place, and the deep-staters need to learn that this is a government “by the people.” We have spoken and they slap us in the face by getting in the way. We just need to be strong and demand that our will be complied with.
Good column! I feel as if it’s a street fight.
If you’d like alternatives to Fox News and Neil “Extreme RINO” Cavuto, I would suggest One America News Network (OANN), or little Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN). RSBN and Charlie Kirk’s Rumble account were the best factual reporting live during the Trump assassination attempt that I’ve seen in a long, long time. OAAN’s “Tipping Point” has been a favorite of mine for years.
Excellent piece today, as usual. I’m ok with a President choosing loyalists, as long as the choices have a higher loyalty to the Constitution than to the President. It is when they don’t that the Nation suffers. The Senate now needs to respect the choice that the American People have made.
John,
Good Morning, I love and totally agree with your article.
Your article and you are always on point.
It is Sunday morning and I have a cup of black coffee in my hand, everything except the donut.
Thanks for getting my day and my week started off in the right direction.
I pray for Donald Trump and for our country.
Keep up your great work.
Thanks for a great start to the day with your column John! The deep state and bureaucracy are down, but not out in this street brawl. I am glad to see the amount of forethought that enabled these rapid appointments by Team Trump. Despite winning the election, it is still a long battle ahead against the deeply entrenched bureaucracy supported by many in the Combine in Congress. As Churchill said, “this is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end, but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning”!
Great piece (as usual). That said, in my opinion, the fly in the ointment is Gaetz. After the disruption in the house (without a plan), I find the guy to be an egotist who exists only to fatten his resume’. I figure we have less than two years to accomplish the goals to be able to increase majorities in Congress, as well as cement Trump’s successor. Gaetz will accomplish none of that.
Totally agree. There are plenty of qualified nominees who can begin to reform DOJ on day one. Gaetz is a bomb thrower who wants to have his photo taken in front of the burning building. There is no time for that.
May I put a couple names to the “men without chests”? Adam Shiff and Adam Kinzinger for a start. Nancy “soulless” Pelosi and Dan Goldman fit the description, too.
John, who were you thinking of when you wrote this?
Sunday morning, mug of black coffee in hand, and LOTS for which to give thanks on this upcoming, purely American, holiday! Thank you, John, for your continued wisdom and insight.
This election reminded me of the 1985 Bears and Da Coach is Trump, the “Punky QB” is JD, McMichel is Bannon, and the often overlooked safety #45 Gary Fencik is the small fiery lady from Brooklyn and she stood on the stage this summer in Milwaukee and declared “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired”. In a last minute trade they picked up Tulsi and Bobbie for ‘The’ Dick and Liz Cheney. Now that the Fridge has spiked the ball and the music of “The Super Bowl Shuffle” is fading away its time to prepare for the “Street Fight” that John mentions and as a bonus we now picked up “Rocky” Balboa. It’s only half time and the other team has some trick plays up Adam Schiff’s sleeve and if defense wins championships and offense fills the seats, it’s time to “Bear Down”. (Disclaimer: When the McCaskey’s fired Da Coach after his first losing season I no longer could be a Bears fan and when I moved to Wisconsin I became a Packers fan and Bret Farve is my GOAT. Sorry Jim McMahon you’re now my #2 but Da Coach is still my #1.) As an older Kennedy, Blue Dog, Reagan (former) Democrat I’m now an America First Republican and Ms. Harris “I’m not going Back”.
Oh, Kass! You do it again with a column that not only inspires but teaches. And your commenters, whose names have become familiar, have added layers of both. Here we all sit, with our coffees (light & sweet here) reading and writing, further inspiring and further teaching. I write from north Texas but also and always from the west side and I see names that suggest neighborhoods all over our city. Names that suggest this parish or that park in my home town. Yes on Hillsdale’s class. Yes on Patti Page. Yes on bloody chiclets! Thank you, John and thank you, fellow Chicagoans for another eager morning. My morning music is new, “The Mercury Years, Volume One” and Patti Page is singing “Come What May”. God bless you all.
hansen
Great Article John – why not throw your hat in the ring for incoming White House Press Secretary?
Great column, John.
Gaetz may be a stalking horse. Too many people in both parties hate him, which of course makes him a chesty man in my book. The FBI, against their better judgement and at the insistence a guy appropriately named Bratt in Garland’s DoJ, raided Mar a Lago like the good fascists they are and Trump wants to create a schidt show over that in the Senate. Gaetz has also been harassed by DoJ although they didn’t charge him. But because Gaetz didn’t play nice with the Republican boys, he’s going to be a target of both parties. I suspect he will be rejected, but not after a civil war ambush in the Senate in which Gaetz with the help of a few Republican senators gets to excoriate the swamp creatures like Garland, Bratt, Comey, Mueller, McCabe, — the list is long.
Gaetz’s confirmation hearings, if a couple of Republican senators stand up like men, should be a trial on DoJ excesses of the kind Beria would have approved: “Show me the man, I’ll show you the crime.” And it wasn’t just Trump they victimized it was Flynn, Bannon Navarro and others. The whole point of the Obama/Biden lackeys was to make it difficult for Trump to govern when he was in and, when he was out, to warn others not to work for him.
If Deep State Republicans and Democrats make big enough fools of themselves by gaseously emoting over Gaetz it should make it easier for Trump’s other nominees to get through. And then maybe DeSantis will do Trump a favor and appoint Gaetz to the Senate to fill Rubio’s seat. DeSantis and Gaetz were close back when Gaetz convinced Trump to support DeSantis for governor when his chances looked weak. Or Gaetz could remain in Trump’s inner circle where Trump will keep him busy.
I was thinking this very same scenario, re Gaetz. We will be taking down names when they vote for or against these confirmations. If the swampy Republicans want to end their careers with a no vote, so be it.
John, is it even worth our time to contact our IL senators? They are lost causes.
I will continue to contact my elected Senators even though they are on the wrong side of the aisle. They will know there are some people who disagree with their stances. You are correct, they are “lost causes”.
How about our Reps like Bill Foster and Raja Krishnamurty? They are as well!
Don’t forget the Dems that got the wrath of lawfare. Eric Adams who was in mid-flight on his way to DC to ask for money to help with immigrants that were going to “Ruin NYC” had his campaign office raided by the FB(eye) and now they are digging up dirt from years ago. The Cuomo brothers were cancelled and Andrew in an interview with Bill Maher went through the 13 sexual harrassment allegations and mostly were BS. Al Franklin was gaining popularity and was cancelled in 2018. Democrat Dean Phillips and RFK Jr. that tried to run in the last primary. And of coarse Bernie Sanders until he took the payout of the Budget Committee chair from 2-3-21 / 1-3-23.
Agree with all except Gaetz. I don’t think he has the capabilities to give Trump what he’s going to need at DOJ. He’s not a team player and not an experienced attorney and prosecutor.
Many people are saying that Trump’s picks are unqualified for the positions that he’s appointed them to. When Obama was elected President he had been a lawyer, a community activist, an unexceptional state Senator, and a novice US Senator. He had less experience than any of these people. Yet as President, he was the overall supervisor of all the people appointed to these posts. These arguments against Trump’s picks are invalid.
Writing commentary that’s brilliant AND extremely tough-minded is a rare art. As a JKN reader, you probably enjoy or even envy that ability. I sure do.
If brilliant-and-tough appeals to you, one recommendation is to search out the commentary of Mark Twain or H. L. Mencken. (Try “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses” or “My plan is to let people do whatever they please.”)
Another is to re-read this column carefully. Maybe refer to it every so often during the four-year undeclared war to come, “The Battle Of The Cowards Behind D.C. Desks.”
I was monkeying around in my (latest) To-Do/Calendar. I set up a 47 (!) day repeat of this column to end 8 Nov 78. You’re brilliant!!!
hansen
so if I step on a twig in the forest, the Iroquois won’t hear? Thanks David Bittinger.
. . . which brings to mind that I should have written “commentary that’s brilliant, tough-minded, and also well-read.”
I need to hear more about the St Patrick’s Day Massacre.
Yianni,
Once again your article is spot on and timely. The DC establishment, aka deep state, has juar had their lunch handed to them while they were singing the praises of Kackling Kamala and Joe mumbles. They continue to remain clueless as to how they lost the election, and scheme new ways in and effort defeat the new president and his administration. But they will fail, because we’ve all had enough, and need to change the course of America, away from socialists’ agenda. In our own city and state, mayor Pannix and governor Maximus are pondering just how to block Trump’s agenda of deporting illegals to start with. (I recently sent a note to Paul Vallas to switch parties and run as a Republican for mayor or governor now, as it appears the pendulum is swinging back. We can only hope!) In any event, there’s a new sheriff in town, and he’s making a list, checking it twice, taking names along the way, at long last. Next year’s going to be a helluva year!! Stay tuned….
John, outstanding column. The deep state will fight with all they have, dirtier than the last time. Trump was a political virgin last time. Now he has a better handle on things. He got swampy advice from RINOS last time. Not again. As a businessman DJT will not make the same mistake twice. Why the appointments came rapidly. You John are a great conscience for us. Thank you.
As always, spot on, Mr. KASS.
Unfortunately, my senators, Durban and Duckworth are totally woke. I have contacted both many times and always get the same polite response that they don’t care and will continue to tow the socialist line. In fact Durban is already spouting woke speak. So, I won’t be contacting my socialist Senate representatives because my head hurts from banging it against that wall. Thank God for you, Mr. Kass and all who continue to call a spade a spade and not a pot. And may the lemmings of Illinois see the light.
Excellent work, as per our usual arrangement. I agree with the direction and urgency and admire all the Trump nominees with one exception. We want a loyal street fighter at the D O Injustice. It must be cleaned out top to bottom. I’m not convinced Matt Gaetz is the right person for that job. The congressman is a show pony and not a work horse. I’m sure Trump has a plan B in mind, at least I hope so.
The heavy flak bursting around the Gaetz pick reveals mainly his proximity to their vulnerabilities. The blob cares nothing about “qualifications” or the Constitution.
They care only that no one exposes where the cancerous blob derives its sustenance.
Great column!
This exercise in news column excellence unparalleled across the fruited plain is the reason I’m a paying subscriber. A street fight indeed. People laugh now at interviews like the one you reference here between God awful Neil Cavuto and race hustler James Clyburn. Literally laugh! Thank you, John, for elevating a pleasant Sunday morning to one of satisfyingly powerful reflection on what the nation just did on Nov. 5th and the road that lies ahead for Trump and the nation with IEDs strewn about along the way by men without chests! 💪🇺🇸
Fabulous column John – the comments certainly add to the enjoyment.
Really appreciated you calling Cavuto out for what he is…..should be permanently replaced by Charles “we are making money already”Payne.
The guy wears Pinstripe suits and drives an F250 Dually – what’s not to like?
All my nervous optimism pre election is now replaced by a sense of patriotic euphoria.
2025 MAGA🇺🇸
Indeed Sir! Cavuto is a louse of the first waters.
Gaetz is definitely not a team player. So Mr. President “be careful what you wish for” I am disregarding the house inquiry although that is troubling.There are other bulldogs in the kennel- pick a good one.
Ed. Roob—Northbrook, Il.
Another reason Trump won, maybe the main reason, is that the people realized the media had been lying to them. They won’t stop lying just because they lost. In fact, they’re already doubling down. My solution? Stop watching/listening to/reading their lies.
Yes John, this is war! American’s won one battle but there are many more to go before declaring victory. Trump & most of his appointees are like those in Street Fighting Man, except they are overthrowing the Deep State. David Lee Roth said it in Mean Streets. “…turns you from hunted into hunter, you go and hunt somebody down….”. Yes, I quoted from rock & roll, but there are many truths in lyrics. Great column John. You are back even better than before & in great enough shape you can take on Mike Tyson!!
I don’t know if this counts as “Men Without Chests” but it might be a “street fight”. Fox News and other outlets are reporting that Ohio vote counters are admitting they are counting illegal ballots. Talk about total disrespect for the law.
“ As the contested Pennsylvania Senate race barrels towards a $1 million recount, Democratic officials in a few blue counties are openly admitting to counting disqualified ballots in defiance of state law and court orders. ”
I suppose the legacy media outlets will say this is unsubstantiated news.
Bob.
FYI, I typed Ohio by mistake on this comment. It should be Pennsylvania.
Bob.
New Podcast with guest Thom Serafin? I haven’t got an email yet. Being released soon? I always enjoy when you and Jeff talk with Thom. ( I usually learn something new too)
Thanks John for another great column. It’s a street fight but hopefully the Democrats will leave their guns at home since President elect Trump has already gone through enough violence.
I grew up in the neighborhood of South Deering where the original Calumet Bakery was located and I can vouch for John’s taste in pastries. My wife asked if I thought the selection of Gaetz was not a good one. I replied that if that one guy has everyone completely shitting themselves then he MUST be the right guy. Bidens brownshirts put as many of Trumps people in prison as they could, including a retired general who served this country honorably and never committed a crime in his life. Gaetz was on the list and they would have loved nothing more than to put his head on a stake for the parade. The Deep State has put others in prison for far less than Gaetz had been accused of. Gaetz has the receipts and they know it. The bastards were back on their heels but they’re now coming out of their rat holes. Trump has yet to be sworn in. “It ain’t over til its over” once said a wise man. Donald Trump knows this and he’ll be better prepared than he was in his first term. I think he has better people around him already. True loyalists. If the deep state is shitting themselves over his cabinet picks he must be doing SOMETHING right.
Great column John. I do think DJT learned his lesson on picking people to staff his agencies and we must support him getting them in place. I have also long disliked Cavuto and am now thinking about organizing to get him off Fox! Who has Jim Clyburn on to talk about anything?
John Kass:
I have proudly renewed my subscription. It is wonderful to be back.
A few months ago, I canceled due to the due to the reemergence of the insufferable troll, Tony Cesare, a.k.a. “Rigatony” and/or “Senor Grande.” Two years ago, we uncovered his identity theft of a bar owner in Wisconsin. You referred to him as “a cockroach in a gas station urinal.” Perfect!
He appears to be gone forever now.
I uncovered several of his other online lies not related to your column. Good riddance.
Let’s hope that Tony Cesare never slithers back to pollute your columns again.
I wish you the best of health and continued success.
John,
Excellent column and right on target.
An example that comes to mind is a military. It is of how an acquaintance of mine was hunted.
After spending millions on this individual’s education & training as a (4) year enlisted airman, an ROTC cadet, (3) deployments, fighter pilot training and entrusting him to fly aircraft worth many millions…after many threats, the woke geniuses were weeks away from discharging this young decorated officer because of his refusal to take the mandated covid vaccine(s). He has a family & two young children so he relented.
I’m a Viet Nam era Veteran having served with the legendary U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne.
As for Cavuto, I change channels when that wimp comes on. Fox seems to be collecting more like him.
Let’s go hunting.
Be carefull what you wish for John. RFK Jr. is the sterling example of the crusading “do-good” Democratic tort lawyer. He likes to sue people and corporations. Next to the public sector unions, the tort bar is probably the most powerful and influential supporter of Democratic Party hegemony. If you think the HHS bureaucracy is dysfunctional now, wait until a tort lawyer gets finished with it. It’s like putting the fox in charge of reorganizing the hen house.
Bruce- Good point about RFK jr. and tort lawyers which represent a profession we need less, not more of.
Also, I find the nomination of Matt Gaetz for attorney general particularly ridiculous, but not so surprising. Trump has publicly stated that his number one criterion for hiring is loyalty. That might help Trump’s ego but it’s beyond foolish for any leader and quite dangerous for a U.S. president.
The irony with Goetz is John says Mr. Goetz ” … deserves a Senate hearing.” Fair enough. But that is precisely what Mr. Trump does not want. Mr. Trump has clearly stated he “needs” confirmation of Mr. Goetz via Senate recess rules – no hearing necessary. Of course this is unlikely to happen. And if Donald Trump insists he is just setting up a court battle, one he will likely lose. Sad, since there are many other qualified pit bulls that would sail through senate confirmation. Sad because this detracts from the major mandate the voters gave to Donald Trump: secure the damn border, send the illegal aliens back home, fix the economy, and via EO jettison DEI in all federal agencies.
OK, so I will pledge here that I will volunteer to mentor kids on the Southside as part of conservative pastor Cory Brooks’ project hood. There is momentum for conservative politics now on the Southside, so it won’t be a waste of time, especially having just heard this live on Proft and Jacobson’s show this morning. Street fight.
We have to fight for the minority vote, for credibility and trust. Even the Iroquois, – et al. We have the Hassid, the Amish – it would be a minor coup to appeal to American Indians.
We had them once – the Iroquois
How about if we simply ignored the mainstream media? Along with Harris, Biden and the Clintons, the legacy press also took a sound thrashing on Nov. 5, 2024. Who takes seriously any more the sycophants at the New York Times, Washington Post, MSNBC or CNN? Who anymore listens to editorials from John Kass’s former employer, the Tribune? Yeah, it’s fun to ridicule the shills at the legacy media. But it’s even more fun to give them the attention they warrant: None.
Zulu warriors “don’t come at you from the front” either. Remember “the horns of the bull”? Bloody deadly, old chap! In this sense they resemble D.C. political operators.
John-a terrific column, per usual. My feeling is the more these chestless men’s hair burns from all of the Trump selections, the more I am convinced these are absolutely the best selections. Serious disrupters! All the squawking only shows their fear that they are now being hunted! Tally Ho!!!
Regardless of the number pleas, I can’t see Durbin or Duckworth supporting any street fighters.
I read The Screwtape Letters just after I had my first psychotic episode. C.S. Lewis is less hifalutin and fantastical a moralist than his friend Tolkien. This is one of my favorite quotes by him, a testament to the fairness of his faith:
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”
― C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology (Making of Modern Theology)
As a critic of government corruption, censorship, sneaky ways to drive down wages through immigration, imperial militarism, the media’s censorship and the plethora of illegal surveillance agencies and tech companies, it would have been nice to have had a genuinely non-corrupt leader who believes these things too.
In the summer, I counted 7 honest senators, who happen to fight for workers rights and against corruption: Sherrod Brown, Rand Paul, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Corey Booker, Lisa Murkowski and Ron Wyden. Everybody else is just paying to play to get paid; going along to get along; and taking what are tantamount to bribes from the lobbying K Street.