During an 1873 lecture Mark Twain offered the following observation about newspapers and their influence on the electorate: “That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism.”

And, with advisors like Tulsi Gabbard, Trump will be well prepared to resist the blandishments of the military industrial complex.
Much has changed during the subsequent 150 years, of course. Today, no journalist would deign to dig a ditch and few could make a shoe if their very lives depended on it. They are still quite capable, however, of cobbling together baseless calumnies about public servants whose positions fail to conform with the orthodoxies of the left.
Having smeared Pete Hegseth, President-elect Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, the horde is now going after Tulsi Gabbard, his pick for director of national intelligence (DNI). Gabbard was a four-term Democrat House member who served on the Armed Services Subcommittee on Intelligence. She served in the Army National Guard for two decades, deployed to Iraq and Kuwait and is now a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve. According to a report in Politico, “Gabbard does have one of the highest levels of security clearance, known as a TS/SCI.” Yet, the media are circulating a letter from “a group of former national security officials” who inform us that she isn’t really up to the job:
Ms. Gabbard, if confirmed, would be the least experienced Director of National Intelligence since the position was created. Prior directors had executive branch experience working on intelligence matters or served on a congressional intelligence committee. Most have also had significant management experience. The Senate must carefully evaluate whether Ms. Gabbard is equipped to effectively oversee an organizational structure as unique and large as the National Intelligence Program and also the effect of her...