You see Kash Patel cosplaying a warrior here, replete with camouflage and helicopter, all the accountrements of pretend heroism. All he lacks is Kristi Noem and Batman at his side, to get across that true crimefighter persona. Patel is not only the Director of the FBI, he was the acting head of the ATF until he was replaced yesterday — at the behest of Susie Wiles, so the people in the know say. The same people are also speculating that maybe this is just the opening gambit and Patel might be moving on in other areas, too.
Word around the D.C. RUMINT circuit is that Kash Patel has been tossed from the helm of the ATF—our beloved Southern Sunday trifecta—and is now hiding out full-time in a Las Vegas home owned by his “sugar buddy” Michael J. Muldoon, a sketchy timeshare peddler and deep-pocketed GOP donor.
Nothing creepy about that arrangement, right?
Apparently, we’ve all been told that working from home in Trump’s new Golden Age is for weaklings—so it’s a little weird that Kash can’t be bothered to haul his ass to D.C.
Since he’s playing hooky out West, Dan Driscoll, Trump’s Army Secretary, has stepped in to run ATF on top of everything else. Folks inside the FBI are quietly seething at Patel’s trademark “fuck you” attitude, his goofy takes on bureau protocols, and his open loathing of anything resembling a dress code. It’s put more than a few people on edge, including some folks in the White House…including the one who executed this power move. It rhymes with “Woozy Stiles.”
Meanwhile, Patel’s personal monkey butler—one Dan Bongino, whose head is frequently mistaken for a Costco-bulk canned ham—wants a 20-person security team, plus rose petals strewn before his palanquin whenever he leaves or enters the Hoover Building. (Kidding. Sort of. A DOJ source calls him a “raging drama queen” with “really crazy demands.”)
Bongino won’t blink an eye at shanking Kash. His reputation proceeds him.
You can bet these two blowhards will wind up in a MAGA cage match before long. Grab your popcorn.
Why Bongino feels he needs a security detail, let alone one of that magnitude, is unknown. His predecessor didn’t have anything like that. So who is Bongino worried might come to kill him? This is Joseph McCarthy-level paranoia but in McCarthy’s case, it wasn’t paranoia because there were plenty of people who wanted to kill him. Bongino either knows something we don’t or he is simply over the moon with his own self importance. Quite possibly both.
It’s been reported that Patel wants to “shrink the FBI” and “close its Washington headquarters.” He also wants to “prosecute agents he considers corrupt, and take legal action against journalists he called traitors, views that are radically distinct from previous directors.”
He’s the author of provocative books including, “Government Gangsters.” It includes an appendix listing 60 people he deemed to be members of the “Executive Branch Deep State” that critics have labeled an enemies list.
Patel’s list includes Biden administration officials, Wray, and first-term Trump officials critical of Trump: former Attorney General William Barr, former adviser John Bolton, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, and former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.
During Trump’s first term, Barr and Central Intelligence Agency Director Gina Haspel threatened to resign if Patel was forced on them as deputy FBI or CIA director, respectively.
That was in an era when there were a few adults in the room. Now there are none and look at who we have in the highest posts in government. My best instinct is that Patel will get closed down before the Washington bureau does.
Currently, the dictionary definition of the word,
kakistocracy
/kakɪˈstɒkrəsi/
noun: kakistocracy
government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state.
“the danger is that this will reduce us to kakistocracy”
a state or society governed by its least suitable or competent citizens.
plural noun: kakistocracies
“the modern regime is at once a plutocracy and a kakistocracy”
will just say,
“The second Trump administration.”
I didn’t know Patel was hanging out in Vegas. Makes sense as he’s a real-life (only worse because in addition to being a self-centered attention whore who thinks his schemes and antics help others in addition to himself) he’s version of that annoying character Tom (played by Aziz Ansari) on Parks & Recreation. A vile, despicable and malevolent version. And now he holds enormous power! Anyway once upon a time Vegas like to market itself with “What happens in Vega stays in Vegas” as in come have “fun” – anything you want from drugs to drunken binges and cheating on partners/spouses and it all ‘stays in Vegas.’ Any friends along with you won’t say jack once you’re back home because they behaved the same way.
It’s my understanding the city decided to do away with that and start promoting a more family friendly, if not wholesome (it IS after all based on gambling and casinos!) image. However I suspect a lot of the old attitude is still there. And in a wild and glitzy place like Vegas hookers and blow are much easier to indulge in that in DC! Especially when you’ve got a mega rich pal with a mansion!