All The Best People
Okay, well this one is a doozy.
Patrick Shanahan has withdrawn his name to be defense secretary. It’s kinda a shame because it appears that this family has been at war for years so he’s probably pretty good at it.
You can read this long, long list of all the things his family has done to each other which includes hitting one in the head with a baseball bat, throwing clothes out the window and then attempting to barbecue them, throwing Christmas dinner on the floor, sucker punching one while he’s asleep, oh honey, this is not Ozzie and Harriet.
Shanahan has no military experience but he did serve as a high level executive at Boeing, making him a defense contractor in charge of the military.
As Melania says, “Be best!”
Thanks to everybody for the heads up.
That answers the rhetorical question about who would work for Orange Foolius. This maladministration is central casting for lower life forms.
1Anybody know where Benedict Arnold is buried? Seem like a logical next choice for Trump’s secretary of defense . . .
2This is more support for my developing theory that Trump is deliberately hiring people with such skeletons in their closets. He doesn’t go through the ordinary vetting, but probably has them investigated through “unofficial” sources. Why? So that he can fire them whenever he decides he needs to, and has a handy excuse for it.
Appalling as Shanahan’s domestic situation may be, the very convenient timing of this revelation makes me suspect that the real reason is something related to his job. He probably told Trump that going to war with Iran is a fool’s errand. So out he goes. And who better to replace him than a Raytheon lobbyist? It’s hella good for business.
3The Golden Gibbon must love temp workers! Thats all he brings to the table.
4I am getting throughly gisgusted gy those who supported this maladministration then whine like widdle baby’s when those they supported implement the damaging policies they proposed before the election.
5From the military supporting war mongers like the twit and then whining about people shooting back.
Or now the 9/11 first responders after the New York firefighters union endorsed the doddering don in 2016 and now are blubbering that the doofus is treating them badly. After all don’t the thugs understand that this is no way to treat a primarialy Caucasian work force, this sort of treatment is only for the “others”.
So no sympathy for present battle they endorsed thuglican, they voted for thuglican and now they are being treated the way that they deserve to be treated.
Lock her up.
Two years after she conceded the election.
I’m thinking Mel Brooks.
Or tequila.
6Just every now and then mind you.
To remind us that we didn’t use to have to CONSTANTLY remind ourselves what normal reality USE TO BE..
@ P.P. #6
7Maybe groundhog day and bill murray?
I need to offer an objection to suggesting that the ideal American paterfamilias, Ozzie Nelson. Though I doubt he ever raised a finger against Harriett, he was an overbearing despot.
8K@7:
9That definitely works.
JJ and friends here I am going to demur on this one a bit.
From what detail there is on the linked article I see a military guy who had a successful career at Boeing who fell in love and married a wife who later turned unstable. He had kids with her who turned out to have the similar issues. Everyone in the family except Mr. Patrick seems to be prone to violence.
Now you could make the argument that if he were a stronger, more upright, disciplined man he could have mitigated his wife and kid’s behavior. And it is possible that he had shortcomings with regards to being a father (being absent seems likely). Nobody I know who actually had to deal with family members who are nuts would make an argument like that.
What most guys would have done is divorce her and then go for a trophy wife. He didn’t. While this was going on he managed a successful career resulting in one of the highest offices in the military. (JCS chair is the highest.) And he defends his family best he can. He isn’t a “grab em by the pussy” type at least what we can see.
I have no idea if Shanahan would be a JCS Chair who would push back against Trump sociopaths or he would be right or wrong for other reasons. But I think we should be doing better in opposition than exploiting salacious gossip like this.
10It’s such a shame that Charles Manson had to go and die. He could have had a pardon AND a nice cabinet position.
11Thank you Alan. I agree.
12@alan#10
13First Shanahan, like his fearful leader, never served in the military, like Phil graham, demented Donnie etc he either wasn’t interested or had other things to do.
Next we don’t know if he had a pre nup or not.
Next he might of enjoyed the power he had over a woman who, from one sided reports, had some issues. Or did he cause those issues?
So no sympathy. The man avoided all service. Worked to screw workers, the unions and scam the military for Boeing.
Just from his lack of ethics in the business/ government activities I would be inclined to believe abuse was well inside his wheelhouse
K @13
Thanks for the links
14The Post article had some defense of the young man that he was a baseball star, this after hitting his mother with a baseball bat. Call me silly, but does no one read anything?
15@K#13 you are right I botched the career history with regard to Shanahan being in the military. But it changed nothing in my basic points. Which was not about Shanahan (and what you write about is all speculation and no context).. What I was writing about is us here.
I have utterly no problem with you or anyone else here not liking Shanahan or opposing his political positions. But this gleeful and unashamed rummaging around for dirty details of personal life in order to gain some sort of imaginary high ground is really distasteful.
@Mary Beth#15. Did you read this from the article?
“I have never believed Will’s attack on his mother was an act of self-defense or justified. I don’t believe violence is appropriate ever, and certainly never any justification for attacking someone with a baseball bat,” he said.
16@Alan #16
1) Agreed all any of uss know is that merely 1 side of the argument and by definitiona biased one.
2) Shanahan first reponse was to go protect “his” boy for assualting a woman with a baseball bat and his first writings were a justification of that violence because the woman had been critical of the boy for 2 or 3 hours. Why didn’t the kid just leave? He obviously could since he did when he left her to bleed out on the floor, after sneaking up and assaulting her from behind consistent with his cowardly behavior.
3) The statement you quote about his claim to be averse to thisassualt only came as he was trying to sve his reputation. So it can be safely assumed to be a self serving attempt to obscure the truth.
4) His past record of opposing unions, disregard for workers, scamming gov. contracts with boeing etc. builds a solid basis for beliveing in his inhumanity. Failure to even visit his wife while she was in the hospital after the assualt adds credence to suspicions of his vile behavior.
5) If, like the kerfuffle over the poor racist who got his entry to harvard yanked, one cannot look into the past to get a measure of a person and the sort of decisions one could expect why have any vetting at all?
17Let us just go along with a mary poppins attitude and just accept whatever these sleaze bags have to say about themselves.
Is it “distasteful” to bring up demented donnies shameful attitud towards women since after all he claims its all false. Is it disappointing that we do not beleive that demented donnie is the greatest genius ever since he did tell us that?
The list goes on and on. This man has shown himself to be with out honor, dignity, ethics or principles by his desire to enslave himself, and others, to the yoke under the lash of demented donnie.
If you work for doddering don you get no slack, no mercy and less consideration.