Karoline Leavitt (DJ’s press secretary) is, I must say, off to a pretty good start, in that she is able to parry questions very successfully, seems to have not only swallowed but digested the MAGA line, and is friendly to the press pool, all at the same time. Very impressive, I think, for someone who is only 27 years old. A little about her: her father owned an ice cream shop somewhere in New Hampshire, she went to St. Anselm college on a softball scholarship, and her majors were politics and communications. What could be better for her present position: scoops, softball questions, politics and communicating.

She is married and has a young child, born only 6 months ago. Her ability to function as she is able to may even be more praiseworthy (depending on how you view motherhood responsibilities). One more thing. Her husband is (according to Wikipedia) 32 years older than she is. That would mean that he is about to turn, or already has turned, 60.

More power to her. Oh, not really. I don’t mean that.

She gave a response today as to how impressive DJ has been after only two weeks in office. Each of her points involved dealing with foreign leaders: Trump, she said, achieved his goals with Canada and Mexico on border issues, Colombia and Guatemala on taking back their citizens, and even El Salvador on agreeing to take everyone and put them in prison, whether they were Salvadoran or, say, Nepali. What does it show? It shows a bully will get his way. At least he will until he doesn’t.

Remember Karl Marx? He is the guy who said that “the end justifies the means”. That as long as you have a goal you like, you can do anything you want to get there. You are judged only on whether you did or not reach the end. You are not at all judged by the means you employed.

It looks like the Republicans are, at least to that extent, dedicated Marxists.

On Rachel Maddow’s show tonight, there was a discussion of legality. About how, until January 20, government officials knew they were not allowed to do anything illegal. Now, DJ, the Big E, and their ilk do things illegally all the time, either thinking they are above the law, thinking no one cares, or thinking the courts are too slow to matter. She and Lawrence O’Donnell were batting around possible analogies, but I think they failed.

Try this one: the best analogy is “right turn on red”. Assume a clear illegality creates a red light. When you get to a red light, you stop. If you are a Democrat and want to veer left, you can’t.  But if you are MAGA, and want to turn right, go right ahead; you are expected to break the law, and will be applauded.

What about that old reversed adage, “Ready, fire, aim”? Usually, when you use this, you are talking about someone who is so anxious to move on that they reach the third step before fully completing the second. But that isn’t the case here. Here it is much more stark.

The DJ/BigE plan is to be ready and to fire. Literally, to fire. To tell thousands of people directly or indirectly, that they are being fired. They skip the “aim” portion. That would require them, say when dealing with USAID, to decide which activities in their opinion were proper, and which were not. They just skip that step. Maybe “ready, fire, aim” does not provide a good analogy. Maybe just “ready, fire” would be enough.

Another line: “Every soldier with a living parent step forward!  Not so fast, Jones.”

That may not be very funny, but it provides another good analogy. As they send out all these buy out letters, and people come forward, they are met with comments like “not you, we need you control air traffic”, “not you,  we need you for law enforcement”, “not you, your expertise on North Korea is too important”, or “not you until, at least, after the tax season”.

Enough of the bad jokes, you say. I agree, but we are stuck with the worst bad joke I know.