Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Rick Perry: Stupid Is As Stupid Nominates


The Bastard President has nominated someone even stupider than he is to safeguard our nation's nuclear weapons stockpile.  Which takes some doing.

‘Learning Curve’ as Rick Perry Pursues a Job He Initially Misunderstood

WASHINGTON — When President-elect Donald J. Trump offered Rick Perry the job of energy secretary five weeks ago, Mr. Perry gladly accepted, believing he was taking on a role as a global ambassador for the American oil and gas industry that he had long championed in his home state.

In the days after, Mr. Perry, the former Texas governor, discovered that he would be no such thing — that in fact, if confirmed by the Senate, he would become the steward of a vast national security complex he knew almost nothing about, caring for the most fearsome weapons on the planet, the United States’ nuclear arsenal.

Two-thirds of the agency’s annual $30 billion budget is devoted to maintaining, refurbishing and keeping safe the nation’s nuclear stockpile; thwarting nuclear proliferation; cleaning up and rebuilding an aging constellation of nuclear production facilities; and overseeing national laboratories that are considered the crown jewels of government science...

22 comments:

rickstersherpa@msn.com said...

We are so fucked. A humorous note while on our way to the Presidency as FUBAR, Perry's first gobsmacking moment was in 2011 when he could not remember the Dept. of Energy as one of the 3 departments he wanted to abolished & neither he & pig people base he was appealing to had a fucking clue what DOE dose.

Jimbo said...

I worry mainly about the national labs; even the utterly stupid GOP isn't going to defund the nukes.

labman57 said...

"Global ambassador for the American oil and gas industry"
Isn't that what we normally call a lobbyist?

The Trump Administration -- welcome to Amateur Hour.

Kevin Holsinger said...

Good morning, Mr. Glass.

To paraphrase Obi-Wan, who is more foolish...the fool, or the fool who appoints him?

Be seeing you.

Dave McCarthy said...

"Ooops" indeed...

bowtiejack said...

OMG! Does Rick Perry have videotape of Trump doing something icky? Just asking.

trgahan said...

Is there any Trump nomine that actually knows what the agency they've been appointed to actually does beyond erroneous Dark Monkey Think Tank Fascist Crack-Pot Billionaire Fever Dreams?

It is moments like this that provide some hope that Republicans are so incompetent and greedy that Trump's first term will be more like Bush's custer fuck "heck of a job Brownie!" second term.

R White said...

I read this earlier and after spitting up my water from laughing, I thought that it is appropriate to post, slightly paraphrase here:

Every time I read what this Republican administration plans on doing or who they want to head certain agencies, I want to go punch the people who voted for the 'messiah of morons' in the gut.

Then I feel both sad and horrible, because I feel like I want to assault a mentally disabled person.

Neo Tuxedo said...

Talking of stupid, can somebody with a stronger stomach than mine please head over to The Archdruid Report and tell me if the latest dose of JOHN MICHAEL GREER'S GODLIKE PERSPECTIVE, which my phone tells me he posted yesterday under the title "The Hate That Dare Not Speak Its Name", is as rage-inducing as it sounds? Because I can think of very few articles under that title that I'd actually want to read, and I can no more believe the fucking Archdruid and fucking founder of the fucking Celtic Druidic Golden Dawn would write any of them than I can believe in a cow giving birth to two monkeys and a full-grown ostrich.

Marc McKenzie said...

"‘Learning Curve’ as Rick Perry Pursues a Job He Initially Misunderstood"

"Learning Curve"....holy shitballs.

From the most competent Administration in my memory to one full of clueless idiots...we've gone from MASTERPIECE THEATER to "OW! MY BALLS!".

But hey, emails and something something Jill Stein claimed that Hillary was worse...

Unknown said...

The irony of This moron being the head of the most science-based department in the cabinet is almost unbearable. Like Harpo as the toastmaster.

Robt said...

Do not underestimate the Texas Rick.

it is possible( i ran the numbers), as bleak as the math concludes. But possible.

That Texas Rick once confirmed to the Dept. of Energy. While at church with his family, have a Ted Cruz close encounter with the man upstairs. Who convinces Rick that under his authority is the fire of "fire and brimstone". And this holy fire can be mixed (50/50) with oil to sell for profit an energy never seen glowing in the dark like this before.
Sort of a Ethanol blend of sorts, kinda.
So you see, As Americans we need to come together like we did when Obama became president. As Tick's state of Texas led the way in uniting America by being the taking the gold medal for the most lawsuits of the Obama Adm and the astounding amount of times Texas Rick Tumbleweed announced secession for the same Government (dept of energy) he now believes he is destined to lead and entitled to. One problem is Ricky will not be able to bring along his State of Texas Lt, Governor who actually ran things in his state.
But do not underestimate the ascetics of having Texas Rick sitting at the desk of the energy Dept. he could not remember as one of the 3 he so strongly wanted to get rid of.
It will be ok with Nukes and Rick after President crotch gGaboid outsources our nukes to Russia. A great cost effective move and a safe one at that, right Rick?

America is left in suspense by Brooks. When might he write of how the GOP united around the "Evil O" rolled up the bipartisan sleeves and worked to put together a health care system for Americans?
Waiting in anticipation.........................

Lawrence said...

Learning curve. This, for me, is like the moment when you first swim in the ocean and really understand that it is salty. As opposed to just knowing the fact. And the fact is that Republicans believe ideology matters and expertise is irrelevant. I guess I am the slow learner because we've all seen this before. The Bush appointments to the Iraqi government who were qualified because they disapproved of abortion. Sarah Palin, "But she's learning" gushed one cable news quisling. The time for learning is BEFORE you seek office. They behave the same way in the workforce, now that I think about it.

Fergal said...

I thought being a global ambassador for US oil and gas was Rex Tillersons job!

dinthebeast said...

Neo Tuxedo: I tried to read some of the Archdruid Report last night, a thing called "The Embarrassments of Chronocentrism" but I bailed about five paragraphs in when he tried to blame the progressive movement for the drug war.

Marc McKenzie: Well, I just laughed so hard I thought I might be having a seizure, so there's that.

-Doug in Oakland

crweaver said...

To speed up Rick Perry's learning curve, I would be more than happy to lend him my copy of "Energy Department Management for Dummies".

Neo Tuxedo said...

I didn't even notice that, Doug; I was too busy trying to figure out whether he really meant to be holding today's progressives personally responsible for what people calling themselves "progressive" in the Jazz Age did, or whether he just phrased it clumsily because he's so far along the autism spectrum. (It could be both, of course.) I wanted to compare and contrast that essay with one that recently got reposted to Tumblr, which makes the same basic point on its own that Greer spent his entire interminably serialized novel Retrotopia explaining with all the tender subtlety of a tap on the forehead from Mjolnir, but I dallied too long after said repost, and now the thing I'm fearing is up. (I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that "The Hate That Dare Not Speak Its Name" is of those that "Bob" calls "po'buckers" and e e cummings' old enemy Mostpeople call "white trash", but I'd have to read the essay to know for sure, and I'm close enough to Greer that if I decide the only sane reaction to it is to hit something, there's a risk he might be that something, and despite his best efforts, he doesn't actually deserve it.)

dinthebeast said...

Probably a wise decision. I like to read other points of view, but FSM damn, how does someone that high handed and wrong
get away with calling himself a Celt?

Oh, and Marc McKenzie, I stole your comment (with proper attribution) because I liked it that much.

-Doug in Oakland

Cliff said...

Hi Neo, I'm a regular reader of Greer's blogs, and I have to say I am flat-out baffled by his heel turn this year. I was able to skim his latest post, and it seemed to amount to, “all the criticism about Trump’s pending administration stems from rich liberals hating poor country folk.”

I get the argument that the working classes are being punished by neoliberal policies. That's probably one of the biggest criticisms I have of Obama and the Clintons. And I can buy that the affluent have a bias against the working class. I see that even in my UU church full of well-intentioned people.

But I can't comprehend how Greer sees Trump as a legitimate champion of the working class. Greer has said that people don't trust anything that the big-city pundits tell them, because they know the pundits are only interested in enriching themselves. So how does Greer turn around and declare a born-wealthy Manhattan land developer with a history of abusing his employees to be trustworthy?
Especially after all of the Goldman Sachs appointees? How is Greer not recognizing an obvious con man?

And how the hell does an Archdruid, a leader of a religious sect that worships nature, look at said big-city land developer (not to mention the GOP) and not see a rolling environmental catastrophe? Greer's written extensively about the environmental costs our industrial society is accruing - how does he see Trump as being anything other than the human equivalent of an open-pit tire fire?

The only explanation that makes the slightest bit of sense to me is that it's a jujitsu move: Greer is advocating for Trump as a way to hasten America's decline and force the population to start reckoning with the diminished future we've got in store.

Neo Tuxedo said...

it seemed to amount to, “all the criticism about Trump’s pending administration stems from rich liberals hating poor country folk.”

So, basically what I figured. Thanks for confirming my suspicions.

I can't comprehend how Greer sees Trump as a legitimate champion of the working class. [...] Greer's written extensively about the environmental costs our industrial society is accruing - how does he see Trump as being anything other than the human equivalent of an open-pit tire fire?

I'm as in the dark as you are. Even knowing that he doesn't watch television, because he's so wired neurologically that it doesn't do anything for him, I can't figure out what news sources he's seeking out that are so alternative that they don't even mention, for instance, that He, Trump has expressed his belief that a human role in climate change was completely invented by the Godlesschicoms to make America cripple our own industry. I assume they're also not mentioning the Morning Joke interview wherein El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago asked why the hell we aren't using our nukes, which is how Greer arrived at the frankly insane notion that the vulgar talking yam is less likely to get us into a war than President Hillary Clinton would've been.

Greer is advocating for Trump as a way to hasten America's decline and force the population to start reckoning with the diminished future we've got in store.

Au contraire. Greer, as recently as November, still believed that a Trump presidency might "jolt the United States far enough out of its current death spiral to make it possible to salvage something from the American experiment", as distinct from sending us into a nosedive. Unless the stated philosophy of the Report is just part of a complicated ritual of the sort he outlines at his magical theory blog, in the same way Jonathan Strange and Gilbert Norrell turned out to be just components in a spell woven centuries before by John Uskglass.

Cliff said...

On the whole war thing-
Greer talks all the time about learning from history. Recent and well documented history shows a Republican president getting us into two terrible and interminable wars.
But somehow I'm to expect Trump to be less pugnacious, punitive, and short-sighted than W.?

a Trump presidency might "jolt the United States far enough out of its current death spiral...

Well, I'm thinking that jolt is really what he's after, and we for sure are going to get a hell of a jolt from this administration.

I just can't square that jolt with "Trump is going to take sane and responsible steps to rebuild America's working class." I'm not seeing any evidence that sane and responsible steps will happen, beyond the desperate wishes of millions of working class voters.
And look - Greer has spent thousands of words talking about how desperate wishes simply don't make a thing come true! He talks about that with regards to the oil industry and the alternative energy scene. He did a series of posts on ludicrous end-of-the-world scenarios and the dupes who believed them. So how does he turn around and say that all those desperate people will actually get what they want this time?

I know I'm asking the same question over and over. I think mostly I'm just trying to sort through the many layers of my bewilderment.

Neo Tuxedo said...

I know how you feel, Cliff. We ask each other these questions, because we're not sure we can ask them of Greer and maintain his precious "civility" (a civility that is not to be asked of [e.g.] Finns who liken Muslims to disease organisms, only of those of us who remark that, until the Finn in question identified himself as being from Finland, we would have sworn blind he was from one of those former Yugoslav republics that are still pissed off at Turkey). At least, I'm not. I keep wanting to use phrases like "you actual mildewed Alan Moore hand puppet" or "DID YOUR PARENTS HAVE ANY CHILDREN WHO LIVED, YOU JABBERING FUCKBURGER? BECAUSE YOU COULDN'T FIND A CLUE WITH A MAP AND YOU COULDN'T FIND YOUR ASS WITH BOTH HANDS AND A ROMAN CANDLE UP IT!"

If you think you can get an answer out of him, I'd love to see it.