#maladministrationii

To me, this weekend, the picture of the United States that emerged over this past week is how full of shit most of those who claim to be “leaders” are. It contrasts with the photo above, of How Things Should Be, and were, for nine days.

One of the reasons I quit professional politics in 1980 was seeing/hearing about things like the story of Eric Swalwell too damn often; it’s amazing how many times it involved someone I wouldn’t have expected such things from, as as is the case here:

Yesterday, the San Francisco Chronicle published a report that a woman who previously worked for Representative Eric Swalwell claimed he sexually assaulted her twice when she was too intoxicated to consent. Shortly after she was hired at his Castro Valley district office in 2019, when she was 21 years old, Swalwell pursued her. There were multiple sexual encounters while working for him; she claims he assaulted her twice while she was “very inebriated,” in 2019 and again in 2024. Beyond this report, over the past week claims have circulated on social media that multiple women were planning to come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against Swalwell. Cheyenne Hunt, an attorney and former California congressional candidate who is now the executive director of Gen-Z for Change, said on X she has been “working with a number of women who are in the process of coming forward and sharing their stories of sexual harassment and even alleged abuse at the hands of Eric Swalwell.” Reporting from CNN and the Chronicle has corroborated key elements of the women’s accounts, including text messages and conversations with friends and family at the time of the events.

A parallel narrative has taken hold online that Swalwell’s behavior has been an open secret in political circles. One post on Bluesky read: “We all knew. Anyone who had any connections to California Hill members knew. Swalwell groomed his interns and young staff over Snapchat.” Journalist Dave Weigel pointed to the speed of the political fallout, while David Dayen wrote: “Because they all actually knew, and the escape plan if it ever got out was practiced, at least in their heads.”

Swalwell posted a video to social media in which he flatly denied the accusations, saying: “These allegations of sexual assault are flat false. They did not happen. They have never happened, and I will fight them with everything that I have.” He then appeared to acknowledge personal misconduct, apologizing to his wife for “mistakes in judgment” that seemed to hint at infidelity, while insisting those were separate from the allegations. “I do not suggest to you in any way that I’m perfect or that I’m a saint. I have certainly made mistakes in judgment in my past, but those mistakes are between me and my wife, and to her, I apologize deeply for putting her in this position.” (Short version of all that: he did it.)

In the fallout from the reporting yesterday, Rep. Jimmy Gomez resigned as co-chair of Swalwell’s campaign and called on him to “leave the race now so there can be full accountability without doubt, distraction or delay.” The other co-chair, Rep. Adam Gray, wrote on X that he is withdrawing his support and urged Swalwell to end his campaign. Sen. Adam Schiff, who had endorsed his former House colleague, said in a statement on X he was “deeply distressed” about the allegations, adding “I am withdrawing my endorsement immediately, and believe that he should withdraw from the race.” Sen. Ruben Gallego, a longtime Swalwell ally, also withdrew his endorsement of Swalwell’s gubernatorial bid, describing the allegations in the report as “indefensible.” The California Teachers Association and California Medical Association have withdrawn their endorsements.

Of course “they all knew.” They all knew 47 years ago when I finally couldn’t swallow any more of their bullshit. There’s a really good Alan Alda movie that’s little seen, that you should watch: “The Seduction of Joe Tynan,” which deals how this stuff happens and how it plays out. It came out in 1980 - it could have come out yesterday. I just checked, and the movie’s on Netflix. You should watch it tonight. Make it a double feature, following Robert Redford’s “The Candidate” - also on Netflix - made a few years before the Alda movie. It anything has changed in the past 50 years, it’s that things are worse. Both are “roman a clefs” of actual events.

In other domestic news:

Yes, things at the grocery store and the gas station are as bad as you think, if not worse: The US economy is in the worst shape it’s been in since these reports were first made back in 1952. Here’s a few specifics to back that up: Inflation tripled last month, according to the Consumer Price Index released yesterday. The jump was overwhelmingly driven by the price of gas, which has skyrocketed as the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed despite the fragile ceasefire. Gas prices jumped 21.2%, the single-largest monthly jump since the data started being published in 1967.

And that is intimately connected to “larger events”:

These people could fuck up a wet dream: with all the “progress” since Dilbert was talked out of becoming the worst monster in history last Tuesday, U.S. crude oil prices swung between $95 and $103 a barrel before settling right back under $100, where it had been before the senile old fuckwit went apeshit. Brent crude climbed alongside it. Gas prices kept creeping up, hitting a national average of $4.17 a gallon – seventy percent higher than where we started the year.

The reason is simple, no one actually believes this is over yet. Iran says terms were violated. Maladministration II says negotiations are ongoing. Nitwityahoo is still bombing the region. The Strait - the entire reason this matters economically - is restricted and controlled. This is not a “ceasefire” - it’s a pause with conditions that no one agrees on.

The guys who could fuck up a wet dream also can’t “negotiate” for shit: JD Vance, Jared Kushner, and Steve Witkoff have all been dispatched to Pakistan for ceasefire negotiations with Iran. The problem? They don’t agree on what the United States is actually demanding. Vance holds that Iran must have zero uranium enrichment capacity, period. Kushner and Witkoff floated a dramatically softer position just weeks ago: that the U.S. would supply Iran with uranium for civilian purposes, in exchange for Tehran agreeing not to enrich it into weapons-grade material. Iran has rejected both ideas outright. So, the U.S. position going into these negotiations is not a position - it’s a contradiction. Iran doesn’t trust Kushner or Witkoff, viewing earlier talks with them as a setup, the pretext Trump used to convince Tehran they were negotiating in good faith before launching the attack on February 28, in the midst of public statements that “progress is being made”by both sides. The Iranians have said they would prefer to deal exclusively with Vance, while also warning that key preconditions - a ceasefire in Lebanon, the release of frozen assets - have not been met. The question of whether these talks proceed at all remains open. Iran’s military says it has its “fingers on the trigger.” Dilbert says the U.S. Military will “hang around” waiting to see what its next “conquest” will be.

And in the meantime, our Bullshitter-in-Chief says, “Who you gonna believe? Me or your lying eyes?” Trump posted on Lies Anti-Social: “The Iranians don’t seem to realize they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the world by using International Waterways. They must negotiate. The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate.”

This morning, Dilber said the U.S. military has begun clearing the Strait of Hormuz of mines, despite his earlier bullshit that other countries would do that for him, posting on Lies Anti-Social: “We’re now starting the process of clearing out the Strait of Hormuz as a favor to Countries all over the World, including China, Japan, South Korea, France, Germany, and many others. They don’t have the Courage or Will to do this work themselves.” Central Command has confirmed the mission, stating that Navy ships “began setting conditions for clearing mines in the Strait of Hormuz.” It added that two warships, the USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. and USS Michael Murphy, had transited the passage already. Dilbert claims that “empty tankers” from these other countries are now headed to the U.S. to load up on oil - another bald-faced lie.

Yes, the Lifetime Biggest Fuck-Up keeps fucking up, and keeps getting more desperate as no one shows up to clean up his mess, as Daddy and everyone else did to keep him from ever learning one has to take responsibility for one’s fuckups.

In a sign that the political realities of a big new war are setting in, Trump is preparing a $98 billion ask for U.S. military operations in Iran. It’s way down from the initially floated packages of around $250 billion. But even at that steep discount, it’s likely to face steep odds on Capitol Hill, where both Democrats and Republican fiscal hawks are expected to oppose it.

Just in case you’ve forgotten that Maladministration II is a criminal conspiracy, Trump said yesterday that he will offer pardons to “everyone who has come within 200 feet of the Oval” before he leaves office, he said at a recent meeting. It’s a “joke” he has repeated several times, in a presidential term where he has already pardoned some 1,600 people. I wonder how much each of the In Crowd will have to pay for their pardon - he doesn’t issue them free.

The corruption is everywhere: FAA administrator Bryan Bedford dumped millions in airline stock seven months after he took the job, despite saying he would fully divest within 90 days. Bedford is the former longtime chief executive of an aviation company that owns two airlines, and he held millions of dollars worth of stock in the companies when he was confirmed by the Senate last year.

And then there are the personal stories that just keep getting worse. This one is fucking horrifying; it’s worse that it hasn’t been a huge story in mainstream media. DHS continues to terrorize both undocumented immigrants and American citizens alike. A 3-year-old girl spent five months in federal custody after being separated from her mother at the border. By the time her father finally got her back, it was a nightmare he didn’t know had happened. The girl was sexually abused multiple times by an older child while in foster care The father was told there had been an “accident.” “She was so long in there,” he said. “I just think that if they would have moved faster, nothing like that would have happened.” The delay was federal policy. Under new Maladministration II rules, the process to release children to their families has slowed, with the average time in custody increasing from 37 days to nearly 200. In this case, the father spent months trying to complete basic steps such as fingerprinting, only to be stalled again and again. It wasn’t until attorneys filed an emergency habeas petition that the government moved, and his daughter was released within two days. By then, the damage was done. Her father says she now has nightmares, gets easily upset, and said, “she was never like that before.” This is what happens when a system designed to protect children starts treating them like they don’t matter. Because for a 3-year-old, five months isn’t a delay – it’s everything. A 3 year old? In a prison alone??? These goddamned fucking “people” all need to end up in prison, they’re all as bad as the German concentration camp guards. This country is not only as bad as you think, it’s far worse, that these scum exist.

I’m going to close this with something Garrett M. Graff - whose books I thoroughly enjoy - put in his newsletter this morning. It’s something to think about and remember:

In “East of Eden,” John Steinbeck meditated on our shared daily choice of a life’s path: “When a man comes to die, no matter what his talents and influence and genius, if he dies unloved his life must be a failure to him and his dying a cold horror. It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure to the world. We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the never-ending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue, is immortal.”