Happy holidays and thanks for sharing a little bit of this season with us. Donald Trump's second term as president has not yet begun. But in the 52 days since he was elected, we have gotten a real preview of the chaos and the apparent corruption that the next four years is likely to bring. President-elect Trump has already begun filling his cabinet

with a group of enablers and billionaires and billionaire enablers. We've been either chosen

because they will let Trump do whatever he wants or chosen because they have paid for the

privilege of doing whatever they want. You've already seen one would-be nomination go up in flames, Trump's first pick for

Attorney General Matt Gates, who had to withdraw from consideration amid swirling allegations

of sexual misconduct. Now, Gates has denied all of those allegations, but a bipartisan report

from the House Ethics Committee, released earlier this week, found that Gates

violated House rules, state and federal laws, and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution,

statutory rape, illicit drug use, acceptance of impermissible gifts, the provision of special

favors and privileges, and obstruction of Congress. That person was Donald Trump's pick

to be the nation's top law enforcement official. And then there are Trump's other embattled

nominees. There's Pete Hegeseth, who has been dogged by allegations of alcohol abuse and sexual

misconduct, which he denies. There's Tulsi Gabbard, who has been accused of being a

Russian agent and is Trump's pick for Director of National Intelligence. There's Robert F. Kennedy,

Jr., an anti-vaxxer, who is Trump's choice to run the Department of Health and Human Services.

And there is Cash Patel, who has published an actual enemies list and whom Trump would like to have run the FBI.

And then there is Trump's closest ally, his largest donor, and now his apparent co-president,

Elon Musk, a man who has already brought the country to the brink of a government shutdown.

Last week, Musk whipped hardline House Republicans into a frenzy, tanking a bipartisan

agreement to fund the government through the end of the year and threatening the shudder of the

entire federal government. That mess finally ended when House Democrats bailed out Republican

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and provided the votes to fund the

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