Trump's choices of people (the best people, the bigly people) for his administration are always worth a laff riot or two. Or would be, if we were watching this show from another planet with lots of nectar and manna and popcorn and beer.
Just consider what Scott Pruitt, the EPA administrator, may have been up to. The New York Times published a long list of accusations a week ago, and they make charming reading even if some of them are not true. To give you just one example:
Lawmakers have argued that the Morocco trip, during which Mr. Pruitt promoted natural gas exports, was inappropriate since the E.P.A. plays no formal role in overseeing gas exports. The trip cost about $40,000, according to agency records, with the flights alone costing $17,000.
Pruitt is the proverbial fox guarding the chicken coop. There's a report that he encouraged the National Mining Association to ask Trump to withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement. Remember that the guy is supposed to guard our environment. Then down a gallon or two of nectar or beer. That's the way to survive this upside-down world.
For a second example of Trump's weird choices, take Mike Pompeo's nomination as the secretary of state.*
I'd prefer we didn't take that choice, of course, given that the guy seems to really dig Rapture** and that the secretary of state can actually increase the likelihood of Rapture coming, in this case by seeing the global politics as a holy war between extreme Islamism and, I assume, extreme Christianism.
Pruitt and Pompeo are good examples of the two important groups among the Republican politicians: The Money Boyz and the Godbotherers. Both get what they want.
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* His nomination is out of committee because Rand Paul flipped his vote on that! Had he not flipped, Pompeo would have been the first candidate for the secretary of state position who didn't get a favorable recommendation from the committee. (This footnote has been corrected for an earlier error where I called Rand Paul Paul Ryan. I always confuse the two names. My bad.)
** For those lucky enough not to know about the Rapture Christians, here's a nice and relaxed take on the history of the concept.
You know that Rapture has taken place when you see piles of clothing lying on the ground and your fundamentalist neighbors have disappeared into heavens. (I assume that you will not be among the Raptured if you read this blog.)
That's the time to steal all their belongings, for at the next stage you and I and all other sinners will be eradicated in a fiery storm of punishment from the loving fundamentalist Old Testament god who made all of us in his own image.
Once we have been incinerated, the Raptured will be returned to earth which will become a blissful eternal paradise.
It's that last bit which gives Rapture-believers the incentive to try to end the world now rather than later.