#1,060: Gross Incompetence, Breaking International Law, Retribution, a Christmas Without 37 Pencils, and a Mandated Change of Font: THAT’S MAGA

December 15, 2025 / Kurt F. Stone

History teaches that America’s 29th (and until recently, absolutely worst) POTUS, Warren Gamliel Harding, had one of the worst, least competent, most corrupt and avaricious Cabinets of all time. The reason? Unwilling to break up his “Ohio Gang” - his poker buddies - Warren simply brought them to the Nation’s Capitol. Among those he appointed were Harry M. Daugherty (his A.G. and years later fictionalized by actor Christopher McDonald in Boardwalk Empire), Albert Fall (Sec. of the Interior), Charles Forbes (Head of the Veteran’s Bureau) and Jess Smith (Daugherty’s chief aide, who would commit suicide at age 50 after it was discovered that he was running a bootleg and graft operation out of “The Little Green House on K. Street.”

All the fun and fermentation of the Harding era came to a crashing conclusion on August 2, 1923 when the 57-year old president suddenly dropped dead of what future POTUS Herbert Hoover officially stated was “cerebral apoplexy.” Don’t believe it: to this day there are those who believe that his wife Florence (nicknamed "The Duchess”) had actually poisoned him. The reason? She was fed up with all his extramarital affairs, one of which wound up presenting the courtly president with a daughter. In 1927, Nan Britton, the mother of that waif, would ghostwrite a best-selling work entitled, simply, The President’s Daughter. (Ironically, there is one other book - in this case, a fictional thriller - with the same title. It was written by none other than President Bill Clinton).

As bad, incompetent and corrupt a president as he was, Warren Harding, believe it or not, did more to preserve both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution than any of the nation’s chief executives: in 1921, he signed an executive order to transfer the two documents from the State Department to the Library of Congress, thus initiating their permanent display in protective glass cases . . . a crucial step in their preservation. While this is both true and somewhat ironic (considering the many, many failures of his presidency), it also true that Warren is no longer considered by historians to have been the worst of the worst. That position clearly belongs to the Man from MAGA. Felon47’s Cabinet is rife with incompetent sycophants ranging from DOD’s Pete Hegseth and A.G. Pam Bondi, to HHS Secretary RFK, Jr., DNI director Tulsi Gabbard, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Secretary of Education Linda (“The Queen of the WWE”) McMahon. (And by the way, Harding did somehow manage to name three pretty accomplished gentlemen to his Cabinet: Andrew Mellon at Treasury, Charles Evans Hughes at Foggy Bottom (State) and future POTUS Herbert Hoover at Commerce.)

Hardly an hour goes by without the current POTUS referring to his predecessor as “Sleepy Joe” or remining one and all of his supposed mental deficits. One thing he has - to the best of my knowledge - never claimed is that the gentleman from Delaware surrounded himself with a mass of incompetent people who had little if any experience in government. Say what you will, but there is/was no comparing :

Biden Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin (a PhD economist who had served 8 years of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and happens to be married to Nobel Prize-winning economist George Akerlof) to the current Treasury Secretary, former Soros Hedge Fund Manager Scott Bessent;
Biden-era A.G. Merrick Garland (A.B. Harvard, J.D. Harvard Law), a former Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (who was nominated by Barrack Obama for the Supreme Court . . . a nomination that Senator McConnell would not permit so much as a hearing on) and Pam Bondi (J.D. Stetson), who prior to becoming A.G., served on ITs legal defense during his first Senate impeachment trial.
Biden’s Defense Sec. Gen. Lloyd Austin III, the 12th commander of the U.S. Central Command (2013-2016) and current Sec-War Pete Hegseth, a graduate of Princeton, former Fox News talking head and alleged alcoholic.

Historically, most - if not all - presidential administrations have included friends, supporters and even family members of the sitting president. The regime, however, has taken what is essentially an historic grian of sand and turned it into an alpine-sized monolith. In order to be in - and stay in - the good graces of the boss, one must be (if you are female) young, sylphlike and always showing a crucifix above the cleavage; it also helps to have been at one time or another part of his defense team. For males, let’s begin with possessing the riches of Croesus, and the ability to hold one’s tongue on most occasions, and end up with the ability to spell r-e-t-r-i-b-u-t-i-o-n, and possess relative political tone-deafness. Why hasn’t anyone spoken out about all the failed and illegal attempts to turn the Bondi-led Justice Department into a personal law firm that legally harasses any and all of ITs current or former political enemies . . . those who came into the political cross-hairs for simply doing their jobs (like Senator Adam Schiff and N.Y. A.G. Letitia James)?

The best - and most successful - political leaders manage to get across the message “I feel your pain” to a large segment of the public. And what makes this all the better is that these politicians actually believe what they are saying. Think Franklin D. Roosevelt and Barrack Obama. What we face today is something sui generis: a leader (?) who is essentially telling the vast unwashed public (supposedly the bread-and-butter of his fan club) “You aren’t feeling any pain; believe me: there is no pain . . .” Just the other day, Felon47, while ostensibly kicking off the year-end holiday season repeated his bizarre “toy rationing” idea. During a speech in Mount Patterson, PA, where he was slated to talk about affordability (which he initially claimed was a “Democrat hoax” and then claimed to wholeheartedly embrace as his idea) he told Americans that they can “give up” products, including pencils and dolls, for their children to bring down costs! Said the Grinch of Palm Beach: ’Every child can get 37 pencils. They only need one or two. They don’t need that many, but always need you always need steel [sic.].” Besides being both incomprehensible and economically loony-tune, he showed just how out of touch he is with the children who love receiving toys, and the parents who wish they could give them more . . .

It makes one wonder precisely who (or whom) the regime is doing its darndest to please. It’s certainly not the working or lower-middle class. Then too, if logic prevailed, it couldn’t be farmers, inhabitants of small-town America, minorities or non-whites. So who would it be? It seems to me they are most concerned about people with unreasonable fears and grievances . . . who need others to blame for the things they themselves do not or cannot understand. Take DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) and WOKE as an example.

In the midst of all the outrageous Sturm und Drang enveloping early 21st century America, there are plenty of ultraconservatives who want men, women and children to find solutions to the pains and shortcoming of society, by blaming those who are different . . . or at least those who are “catering and caring” for those who are different. Here are 2 examples; one more ludicrous than the other.

In Wisconsin, there is a group called the Wisconsin Deafblind Project, a state program for the families of children with combined vision and hearing loss. It has made a world of difference to both the children and families of those, like the Who’s Tommy are “deaf, dumb and blind.” This past September, the Regime cancelled the five-year $918,000 grant for the program, which supports about 170 children. It also ended a $10.5 million grant used to recruit and retain special education teachers in the state. At the same time, the administration cut similar programs for deafblind children across seven other states . . . all of which lean Democratic. According to a article in the Times, “In each case, the federal officials cited language in the programs’ grant applications related to goals for diversity, equity and inclusion.” (n.b. It should be noted that one of the first executive orders signed after taking office targeted DEI initiatives throughout the government, including federal grants used to advance DEI programs.)

Precisely how assisting these children and their families - already facing lifetimes none of us can imagine - has to do with “Making America “Great Again” is anyone’s guess. But please, don’t even try to guess, for there is simply no answer. It is just plain cruelty; it has nothing to do with any religious or moral ethic I’m aware of.

The one that really takes the cake is Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s recent announcement that as of December 8, 2025, and for reasons of “pushing to stamp out diversity efforts,” he would “order a halt to the State Department’s official use of Clibiri” (a sans-serif typeface [font]) thus reversing a 2023 Biden-era directive that Sec. Rubio called a ‘wasteful’ sop to diversity.” “Switching to Calibri achieved nothing except the degradation of the department’s official correspondence,” Mr. Rubio said. From hereon out, Foggy Bottom will be returning to the serif typeface Times New Roman.

According to an “Action Request” memo, the secretary said that switching back to the use of Times New Roman would “restore decorum and professionalism to the department’s written work.” His order noted that when compared to Times New Roman, Calibiri is “informal” and “clashes with the department’s official letterhead. Even the State Department’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion has been abolished. (BTW: The initial change from Times New Roman was meant to improve accessibility for readers with disabilities such as low vision, dyslexia and people “who use assistive technologies, such as screen readers.”

Gee, don’t you feel so much better just knowing that by “returning to tradition” the regime is getting closer and closer to stamping out all remnants of diversity across the federal government?

Now, if only they could get rid of tariffs, stop blowing Venezuelan boats out of the water, and release the Epstein files, perhaps America could get back to climbing back up a few rungs on the ladder of greatness.

Please?

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