Greetings! Dept. of No Surprises:  Conservatives praised Pete Hegseth’s four-hour performance in his confirmation hearing yesterday, according to Fox News.  Trump aggregated a collection of 25 butt-kissing quotes on his website from GOP luminaries including CNN’s house Republican Scott Jennings who wrote on X, “He kicked their asses today.” My take: Hegseth mostly held his own from the tough questions and his experience as a TV news anchor served him well under the bright lights.  But it still doesn’t qualify him for the position…Toothless: The opinion pages of Iowa’s The Des Moines Register, the state’s largest and most influential newspaper, had nothing to say about Sen. Joni Ernst’s (R-Iowa) backing of Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense…The popular 70s disco band, The Village People, is slated to perform at Trump’s inauguration.  I guess this means we’ll have to watch Trump bust a few moves. (Breitbart)…Billy Bush, host of the entertainment news TV program “Extra” and former Trump confidant, told Tucker Carlson that ABC News created a 75-person unit devoted to derailing Trump’s 2016 run for president (The Gateway Pundit)… Seth Meyers, watch yer’ back.  In a recent Truth Social post, Trump admitted he got “stuck” watching NBC’s late night host.  He called Meyers a “moron” and his Comcast bosses “scum.” Not very presidential.. .App of the Week: Watch Duty, which is a free wildfire mapping tool that also sends real time alerts to users….If you keep reading, I’ll keep Righting. Howard

Greetings! Department of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth lands on the griddle in this morning’s confirmation hearings.  I’m watching as I write these words…Gazing at Gaetz: I tuned in last night to watch “The Matt Gaetz Show” on the ultra-right-wing OAN.  He was better than I expected in his sixth show after debuting last week.  I get no pleasure writing this, but he came across as personable and well spoken. However, he needs a new wardrobe.  The black suit and tie combined with the white shirt made him look like a funeral director…NewsBusters used some nasty words to describe former Washington Post columnist Jen Rubin who announced yesterday that she’s leaving the famed legacy news brand to start a new outlet called The Contrarian offering political and cultural commentary. NewsBusters called her a two-time Hack Madness champion (not sure what that is), a walking cartoon and a fake conservative.  The Washington Free Beacon also threw shade at Rubin, although with less snark. “The Contrarian is built on a premise some would describe as delusional,” wrote the Free Beacon’s Andrew Stiles.  “In Rubin's view, the mainstream media have been too soft on Donald Trump, if not openly supportive of his MAGA agenda.” The criticisms didn’t seem to hurt her launch because as of last night, the site had 35,000 subscribers…TheRighting’s tech-savvy contributor David Zylber has written a handy user’s guide to leaving X and loving Bluesky.  Zylber details the growing problems with X since the Musk takeover, while crowing about the progressive-friendly Bluesky features he loves…If you keep reading, I’ll keep Righting. Howard