The Kaka in Kakistocracy

A kakistocracy(/kækɪˈstɒkrəsi/,/kækɪsˈtɒ-/) is a government run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens. — Wikipedia

Attribution: Filling Trump’s cabinet by John Darkow, Columbia Missourian

Share

61 thoughts on “The Kaka in Kakistocracy”

  1. many thanks to Trail friend Ivy Green for thread inspiration today and linking us to Wiki’s

    perfect word “Kakistocracy” for DOTUS 2.0:

    Etymology
    The word is derived from two Greek words, kakistos (κάκιστος; worst) and kratos (κράτος; rule), with a literal meaning of government by the worst people.

    History
    The earliest use of the word dates to the 17th century, in Paul Gosnold’s A sermon Preached at the Publique Fast the ninth day of Aug. 1644 at St. Maries:

    Therefore we need not make any scruple of praying against such: against those Sanctimonious Incendiaries, who have fetched fire from heaven to set their Country in combustion, have pretended Religion to raise and maintaine a most wicked rebellion: against those Nero’s, who have ripped up the wombe of the mother that bare them, and wounded the breasts that gave them sucke: against those Cannibal’s who feed upon the flesh and are drunke with the bloud of their own brethren: against those Catiline’s who seeke their private ends in the publicke disturbance, and have set the Kingdome on fire to rost their owne egges: against those tempests of the State, those restlesse spirits who can no longer live, then be stickling and medling; who are stung with a perpetuall itch of changing and innovating, transforming our old Hierarchy into a new Presbytery, and this againe into a newer Independency; and our well-temperd Monarchy into a mad kinde of Kakistocracy. Good Lord!

    English author Thomas Love Peacock later used the term in his 1829 novel The Misfortunes of Elphin, in which he explains kakistocracy represents the opposite of aristocracy, as aristos (ἄριστος) means “excellent” in Greek. In his 1838 Memoir on Slavery (which he supported), U.S. Senator William Harper compared kakistocracy to anarchy, and said it had seldom occurred:

    Anarchy is not so much the absence of government as the government of the worst—not aristocracy but kakistocracy—a state of things, which to the honor of our nature, has seldom obtained amongst men, and which perhaps was only fully exemplified during the worst times of the French revolution, when that horrid hell burnt with its most horrid flame. In such a state of things, to be accused is to be condemned—to protect the innocent is to be guilty; and what perhaps is the worst effect, even men of better nature, to whom their own deeds are abhorrent, are goaded by terror to be forward and emulous in deeds of guilt and violence.

    American poet James Russell Lowell used the term in 1876, in a letter to Joel Benton, writing, “What fills me with doubt and dismay is the degradation of the moral tone. Is it or is it not a result of Democracy? Is ours a ‘government of the people by the people for the people,’ or a Kakistocracy rather, for the benefit of knaves at the cost of fools?”

    Usage
    The term is generally used by critics of a country’s government. It has been variously used in the past to describe the Russian government under Boris Yeltsin and later Vladimir Putin, the government of Egypt under Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, governments in sub-Saharan Africa, the government of the Philippines under Rodrigo Duterte, and several United States presidential administrations. The term saw increased usage during the presidency of Donald Trump, going viral when MSNBC host Joy Reid and former CIA Director John Brennan used it to insult Trump in 2017 and 2018 respectively. The word was used by commentators in numerous newspapers, political publications, and books to describe the Trump administration.

  2. runner-up ‘toon (and sincerest apologies to monkeys everywhere)

     

    Attribution: Trump advisors by Taylor Jones, Politicalcartoons.com

  3. America’s most prominent vaccine skeptic will soon be responsible for the nation’s health and wellbeing, President-elect Trump’s selection of Matt Gaetz for Attorney General has spooked his Republican congressional colleagues, and Trump’s pick for Director of National Intelligence may be a Russian asset.

  4. and click here for Kimmel’s

    Trump Packs Cabinet with More Kooks, MAGA Minions Bootlicking Donny & His Fight with Gavin Newsom

    Donald Trump is running the country like a reality show, Jimmy lists all of the reality hosts who would have been better presidents, RFK Jr was nominated today to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, we learned that Trump plans to nominate Matt Gaetz for Attorney General, ABC news says a report on Gaetz includes interviews with a woman who claims he had sex with her when she was 17 years old, bootlicking MAGA minions are lined up to support Trump, Elon Musk celebrated at Mar-a-Lago, some Americans appear to have second-guessed their choice for president, politics in New Zealand seems to be going well, Mike Tyson is set to fight Jake Paul, and we check in with California Governor Gavin Newsom (Josh Meyers) to see how he’s handling Donald Trump winning the election.

  6. Although the cabinet is being filled with traitors, brain damaged, anti-Americans, and just plain nuts people supposedly dreamed up by sfb, I am very sure he is not capable of this by his idiot self.  For some it must be nice to just lean over and whisper something stupid into an ear, “shot by a sniper”, and have the orange moron do it a few hours later.
     
    That thought feeds into another one, twenty-fifth Amendment action.  Even though dictator wannabe sfb is doing all this to get ready to take the reins of government there is the possibility he may be removed from office.  Probably unwillingly if he is cognizant of this universe.  If these freaks are actually in when vance takes over would he be forced to keep them?

  7. Trump Could Just Adjourn Congress and Appoint His Nominees Without Confirmation

    Get out your Article II, Section 3, on presidential power over the Senate and the House:

    “with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper”

    This power to adjourn the Senate and House has never been exercised. With the Senate forcibly adjourned, Trump could then deploy the Constitution’s Recess Appointments Clause, authorizing the President to make appointments when the Senate is not in session.

    It’s in every autocrat’s playbook — when not getting your way with the legislative body just shut it down until you get your way.

  8. Somebody should remind Trump that this guy ended up getting beheaded.

    After his succession in 1625, Charles quarreled with the English Parliament, which sought to curb his royal prerogative. He believed in the divine right of kings and was determined to govern according to his own conscience. Many of his subjects opposed his policies, in particular the levying of taxes without Parliamentary consent, and perceived his actions as those of a tyrannical absolute monarch. 

  9. Here is a translated clip from 2022 where Tulsi Gabbard was perturbed about alleged US attempts to overthrow Putin. State TV host Vladimir Solovyov described Tulsi as their “girlfriend” and agreed that she is Putin’s agent.

  13. If enough MAGAts who are electors are concerned, could they flip their votes on J6?   

    If all of those red-staters who googled “can I change my vote?” on Election Day flooded their state’s election office and their US Senate and House offices with calls demanding they not confirm Russian asset, Don-Old tRUMPsky, could we avoid a complete meltdown of our democracy two weeks later?
     
    Anyone? Anyone? 

    ps – Yes, to Rahm!

    pps – TikTok astrologer says 11/19-11/22 might stir things up, again…as if they aren’t already swirling the toilet bowl at warp speed.

  15. Craig – The departments with three initials probably have the goods on Tulsi’s Kremlin connection, as well as Hegseth’s white supremacist leanings (which is why he was yanked from Biden’s inauguration detail and may be why he was “separated” from the military)…so can’t something be done?

    Some (see the list of terrible folks in Adolf’s orbit listed in my Rolling Stone link two days ago) have admitted to being white supremacists, although they call it ~Christian nationalism~ to make it sound less awful.  (That does not make it sound less awful, it just hurts actual Christians who see all humans as equal.)

  16. Only the best people.
    Trump transition team had a meeting yesterday to discuss sexual assault allegations against Sec of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth (he denies it). The alleged assault took place in 2017, which also happened to be the year Hegseth had a child with his mistress – a married mom of three – while he was still married to his 2nd wife (with whom he had cheated on his first wife).

    JUST IN: Pete Hegseth Investigation for Sexual Misconduct Confirmed by City of Monterey

  18. BiD, I agree there could be “goods” on Tulsi-Putin ties, but I think her publicly stated opinions about policy toward Russia are enough to disqualify her. She constantly takes Putin’s side on issues of war and peace.

  20. https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/15/health/rfk-jr-health-issues-stances/index.html

    “Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, a physician, told CNN’s Laura Coates Thursday night that Kennedy “rallied” people in Samoa against vaccinations in 2019, contributing to a measles outbreak that killed 83 people, mostly young children. Kennedy, Coates noted, has denied telling people not to get vaccinated.”

    “Basically what he did is he scared that country away from vaccinations, and measles will kill young people,” said Green, who helped vaccinate people in Samoa during the 2019 outbreak that sickened more than 5,000 people. “That’s what RFK did, and if he is confirmed as HHS secretary, what he will do is he will cast doubt on vaccinations programs across America. That will mean thousands and then millions of people will consider not getting vaccinated; we will not have herd immunity, and physicians like myself and pediatricians and all sorts of other health-care providers will see cataclysmic spread of disease.”
     
    Let’s hope he starts on artificial colors and artificial everything in processed foods.

  22. https://www.tilleydistribution.com/insights/food-regulations-in-europe-vs-the-us/
    “In Europe, the EFSA requires additives to be proven safe before approval and has banned the use of growth hormones and several chemical additives.
    These differing philosophies lead to certain additives being allowed in the US and banned in Europe. For instance, these eight ingredients are commonly used in the US but not in Europe:
     

    rBGH (rBST) – Growth hormone
    Ractopamine – Increases lean muscle in animal stock
    Potassium bromate – Makes baked goods whiter and increases volume
    Brominate vegetable oil – Used to keep flavors from separating in beverages
    Olestra – Fat substitute
    Azodicarbonamide – Used to bleach flour
    Coloring agents – Red #40, yellow #6, yellow #5, blue #1
    BHA and BHT – Preservatives

    Start there, Bobby BW, that should keep you busy for awhile. 

  23. Craig  – There is video of him saying that there are no safe and effective vaccines.  Zero.  Yet, he takes some kind of stuff to keep his muscles swole.  Yet, he puts something on his skin to make himself whatever color that is, and skin is the largest organ and absorbs chemicals.  

  25. Thanks, Pat. We’ve long been drifting towards leaderships by mascots and poster children. Now we’re at the next downward step, the authentically depraved. The slip ‘n slide started with Reagan, himself a poster child of dysfunction and upside-down thinking. 

  29. BiD
    I got both a flu and covid booster last month. My niece was getting married and a couple of weeks before the wedding she dropped by and remarked that a number of her friends had caught covid, so I decided if I was going to be around a bunch of germy people I had better protect myself.  Seemed to have worked.  I have been in close contact with covid infected people and so far,,,,
    I used to not bother but age has made me more cautious.
    Jack

  31. We now can assuredly believe that Tulsi Gabbard is Putin’s agent. For years I have screamed that Trump is Putin’s agent.  
    So Ukraine is toast and Poland is planning a strong defense in case it all rolls westward.

  33. Musical accompaniment  for the clown show in DC. I think it is interesting that the music we most associated with clowns is called Entry of the Gladiators.
     

  34. In the traveling circus days when things were a total clusterfuck, to keep the audience from getting angry and walking out they would have the clowns entertain them. From that we get the term “send in the clowns”. Or so I’ve been told.
    Jack

  35. From what I’ve been reading it looks like the Democrats have decided the best tactics isn’t delay but full hearings. Let Trump be Trump and let his appointees stand up in public and show why they are the best and brightest. Might work.
    Jack

  36. Adolf probably likes him because his name is Kash.
     

    Yes, hearings! Sunlight is a great disinfectant! Hearings will make Putin’s vampires go poof, I hope.

    jack – Got my 7th Covid vax several weeks before I went on vacation.  Masked up in airports/planes/ride shares.

  37. The House Ethics Committee has canceled its meeting set for Friday morning, two sources confirmed to The Hill, as the panel faces increased pressure to release its report into former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).

  38. https://www.newsweek.com/veterans-health-care-cut-department-government-efficiency-1985641

    “In August, the nonpartisan Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute said in its analysis of Project 2025 that “a second Trump term would decimate veterans’ healthcare and benefits.”

    “The Heritage plan aims to finish, in a second Trump administration, the VA demolition job that was launched in the first one,” the institute said. “It’s an unconscionable approach to those who’ve risked their lives for this country.”

    “Ramaswamy, who ran for the Republicanpresidential nomination before suspending his campaign in January, has since said that money spent on expired government programs should be stopped. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Ramaswamy cited the $516 billion spent on expired acts for the 2024 fiscal year.”

    “There are 1,200+ programs that are no longer authorized but still receive appropriations,” which he described as “totally nuts” and advocated for saving “hundreds of billions” of dollars each year by “defunding government programs that Congress no longer authorizes.”

    “Among those expired appropriations is the Veteran’s Health Care Eligibility Act, which amounted to $119 billion in government spending for 2024.The act provides health care benefits to those who have served in active military, naval, or air service and did not receive a dishonorable discharge. It covers outpatient services like health appointments, immunizations, nutrition education, and inpatient services such as surgeries, acute care, and some conditions or injuries that may require urgent care. The act expired in 1998 but has been continually funded.”
     
     
    Veterans, start calling your congresspeople!

  40. We’re also got other world leaders to push Adolf into a corner.   Mexico’s President says if we deport to Mexico, she has 2 million immigrants from the US to deport.  She’s also ready to hit back with tariffs.  
    It will take the world’s non-axis-of-evil powers to keep everything from unraveling.  

  42. MAGAts only heard the parts about getting rid of brown folks and ridding schools of “woke” stuff. They didn’t think anything he did would have a negative impact on them.

  43. https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/15/climate/climate-law-trump-republicans/index.html

    “President Joe Biden’s climate law is on the chopping block as Republicans prepare to have full control in Washington.”

    “But it’s not just Democrats gearing up to protect the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy policies. President-elect Donald Trump is out on a limb within even his own party as he vows to the kill clean energy tax subsidies that automakers, the fossil fuel industry and Republican lawmakers have become increasingly amenable toward over the past two years.”

  44. https://press.un.org/en/2024/gashc4430.doc.htm
    “In other notable action, the Committee approved — by a vote of 170 in favour to 6 against (Argentina, Israel, Micronesia, Nauru, Paraguay, United States), with 9 abstentions (Kiribati, Liberia, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Togo, Tonga, Tuvalu) — the draft “The right of the Palestinian people to self-determination” (A/C.3/79/L.49). “
    The US voted against it.  Shameful! 

  45. looks like DOTUS-elect found a creative way to pay off an undoubtably enormous fee to one of his lawyers.  same goes for a whole lot of those longtime “advisors” (aka potential witnesses, abettors, accessories and/or conspirators).

  46. craig, this morning you brought up art II sec 3’s possible horror story of cancelling congress.  that particular clause — which has a “may” verb– is among other clauses separated by semi-colons, the next to last of which has a “shall” verb mandating he see that laws be faithfully executed.    any chance scotus will see a problem if he pulls the plug on the legislative branch?

    Art II Section 3

    He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.

  47. Punctuation won’t save our country, but it’s a nice thought.  A lot of folks who voted for Adolf are getting concerned.  Lots of vets in that group. January 6th could be “wild,” again, if woke  (deprogrammed) MAGAts head to DC.

  48. My understanding of that clause, from my government 101 class in college,  is that the President can only adjourn them if they can’t figure out how to adjourn themselves. 
    The constitution clearly gives each legislative body the right to determine their own rules and I would think time and method of adjournment would fall under them. 
    Jack, who thinks we have enough to worry about without creating distractions

  50. Congress will no longer operate as a check-and-balance of the other branches. It will be a vassal of the king. Good job, Mitch. 

  51. Back to the future…just like now…
     

    A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century Paperback – July 12, 1987 

    by  Barbara W. Tuchman  (Author)

    A “marvelous history”of medieval Europe, from the bubonic plague and the Papal Schism to the Hundred Years’ War, by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Guns of August.
    The fourteenth century reflects two contradictory images: on the one hand, a glittering age of crusades, cathedrals, and chivalry; on the other, a world plunged into chaos and spiritual agony. In this revelatory work, Barbara W. Tuchman examines not only the great rhythms of history but the grain and texture of domestic life: what childhood was like; what marriage meant; how money, taxes, and war dominated the lives of serf, noble, and clergy alike. Granting her subjects their loyalties, treacheries, and guilty passions, Tuchman re-creates the lives of proud cardinals, university scholars, grocers and clerks, saints and mystics, lawyers and mercenaries, and, dominating all, the knight—in all his valor and “furious follies,” a “terrible worm in an iron cocoon.”

  54. …another great book from Barbara Tuchman

    Blue Bronc, I used to subscribe to the Book of the Month Club, these books would just show up.

    It’s vital to know how things were in order to know how things are. Tuchman knew how to tell the stories.

  58. Needed to see this protest on the floor in New Zealand. Colonizers are trying to roll back Māori rights. Sounds like the white whiners in the US who think DEI hurts them.

Leave a Reply