Pic Of The Moment: Let's Meet Trump's New Pick For Head Of DHS

[EarlG]

Hi-res version

Sen. Markwayne Mullin speaks out after being named Noem's replacement at DHS

Markwayne Mullin's Wikipedia page

[Johonny]

1. I assume he was hated by his fellow Senators

Who are all high fiving his departure.

[AZJonnie]

2. It misses the part about how MWM went 3-0 in his MMA fighting career

In the XFL (eXtreme Fighting League), an OK-based regional wannabe UFC outfit.

So you know, he's a FIGHTER!!!

[UpInArms]

3. A degree in drywallogy

You do know that it is really hard to have a real conversation with someone who is 30 in points lower?

[jfz9580m]

5. OT: your icon is sadly appropos -War is Indeed a Racket

I wondered where it was from. If I ever knew I had forgotten. And it is this book:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Racket

War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909–1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.

Making war unprofitable. Butler suggests that the means for war should be "conscripted" before those who would fight the war:
It can be smashed effectively only by taking the profit out of war. The only way to smash this racket is to conscript capital and industry and labour before the nation's manhood can be conscripted. […] Let the officers and the directors and the high-powered executives of our armament factories and our steel companies and our munitions makers and our ship-builders and our airplane builders and the manufacturers of all other things that provide profit in war time as well as the bankers and the speculators, be conscripted — to get $30 a month, the same wage as the lads in the trenches get.

Acts of war to be decided by those who fight it. He also suggests a limited referendum to determine if the war is to be fought. Eligible to vote would be those who risk death on the front lines.

Limitation of militaries to self-defense. For the United States, Butler recommends that the Navy be limited, by law, to operating within 200 miles of the coastline, and the Army restricted to the territorial limits of the country, ensuring that war, if fought, can never be one of aggression.

Interesting stuff..have you read this book UpInArms? I suppose it is a little out of date by now and the massive role of the tech industry not covered..
Business must be booming for all war profiteers..I wonder if Musk, Palantir etc are getting a tonne of new contracts..

[UpInArms]

6. yes, I read the book a long time ago

Smedley Butler is one of my heros

I keep hoping there are more Smedley Butlers out there

it is what keeps me going

[jfz9580m]

9. Ah yes - the plot by those industrialists against FDR

I knew the name sounded familiar. That I had actually heard of.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler

In 1933, Butler claimed to have been approached to be involved in a controversy known as the Business Plot, when he told a United States congressional committee that a group of wealthy American industrialists were planning a coup d'état to overthrow President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Butler also claimed that the plotters of the alleged coup intended on using Butler, at the head of a group of veterans, to place the federal government under arrest. The individuals alleged to be involved in the coup all denied the existence of such a plot and the media ridiculed Butler's allegations, but a final report following an investigation by a special House of Representatives committee confirmed at least some of his testimony.

Sadly that creep Russell Vought has pulled off the coup against the federal govt.

[Bengus81]

11. Here's some real truth....War makes rich men richer.

[Kali]

4. the guy is a total dumbass

but that isn't just due to a lack of degrees. it kind of bothers me, this elitist viewpoint. lots of really good people including liberals that don't have college degrees. sorry EarlG, can't get behind this one. still love you though.

[EarlG]

7. TBH I just don't think a home improvement expert is qualified to run the Department of Homeland Security

Especially not right after America has started a war bigger than anything we've seen in the last 20 years.

Speaking as someone who does not have a college degree, it just seems like common sense.

[Kali]

14. in general I agree, and specifically him I TOTALLY agree

it hit me as ridiculing regular people too and I confess I may be a little oversensitive to that, but to me it plays into the latte sipping, coastal elite stereotype when we call out not attaining law degrees.
making fun of his meager life "accomplishments" and comparing home repair skills to the requirements for heading a huge agency is totally the right thing to do.

[EarlG]

25. I don't like the coastal elite stereotype

It plays into the right wing's claims that experts are useless, which has led us to the shitshow we're in now.

Markwayne Mullin has proven that he's a good plumber -- he inherited his dad's plumbing business, and he grew it and sold it for a profit. He also has an Associate's degree in construction technology.

Meanwhile, the last serious head of DHS was Alejandro Mayorkas. Here's his resume before getting the job:

He graduated from UC Berkeley in history with honors, subsequently earning his J.D. from Loyola Marymount University. After law school, Mayorkas worked as an assistant United States attorney and as the United States attorney for the Central District of California in Los Angeles from 1998 to 2001.

In 2009, Mayorkas was a member of the presidential transition team for Barack Obama, leading the team responsible for the U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division. He was appointed by President Obama as the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. As USCIS director, Mayorkas implemented the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) process in 60 days.

He led U.S. government efforts to rescue orphaned children following the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and led the advancement of a crime victims unit that, for the first time, made it possible for the agency to issue the statutory maximum number of visas to victims of crime.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alejandro_Mayorkas

Here's the thing: if Alejandro Mayorkas tried to do Markwayne Mullin's job for a day, he'd be laughed out of town. He's not a plumber, he's not trained as a plumber, so why on earth would anyone take him seriously if he showed up and tried to be a plumber?

But if Markwayne Mullin is appointed to do Alejandro Mayorkas's job, for some reason, the general cultural opinion seems to be that we should treat it as serious business, because we don't want to offend people with our "elitism."

It doesn't make sense to me. Good plumbers are experts. So are heads of the Department of Homeland Security. It doesn't mean that they're qualified to do each other's jobs.

[Kali]

28. I am just saying the college/law degrees

aren't what makes somebody qualified. some kind of real life experience is a better indication.

my issue wasn't about this particular dipshit.

and what else are we going to get with that asshole in the whitehouse anyway? all the degrees in the world aren't going to change the fact that the only people he's going to pick are idiot ass kissers and plastic faced morons.

[TBF]

36. "I am just saying the college/law degrees

aren't what makes somebody qualified. some kind of real-life experience is a better indication."

^^
This is untrue for most jobs. Whether it's a law degree or the nurse drawing my blood when I go to Quest Labs. There are various levels of jobs and skills out there. Various degrees that train folks for different things. You can't just say "well, I cut my kid's hair at home, so I'm qualified to do anybody's!" No, we have cosmetology programs with a licensing component by state, so folks have some level of expertise for the service they are charging money for.

I think it is really dangerous that republicans have decided to attack education because now we have a lot of folks in this country who are not valuing education and skills at all. Make no mistake, Baron Trump was not homeschooled. He attended elite private schools and decided to do his business degree at NYU. Very wealthy people know full well that education is valuable, they just don't want our kids to have it.

[Bengus81]

8. His post is about those in Congress,not every Liberal everywhre having a college degree

[Kali]

16. is a law degree a requirement for being elected to office?

I presume that would be up to the voters.

[leftstreet]

15. I want Cabinet Appointments to be educated

It's not elitist to expect your Doctor to have gone to school. And it's just as necessary for a position as powerful as a United States Cabinet Appointment.

[Kali]

18. a doctor and a senator are not the same thing

yes I would prefer better qualifications for a cabinet position but the reality is there are plenty of shitty doctors out there with degrees from good schools. most any repuke in power out there is clear evidence education and degrees don't make dumb assholes into good people.

[FakeNoose]

23. But we can always use another plumber, especially so close to the White House

[Kali]

29. wonder if he had anything to do with all the marble they inflicted on the

"Lincoln" bathroom. what a fugly mess they made of that.

from cool 40s art deco to 80s generic casino

https://www.axios.com/2025/10/31/shutdown-trump-white-house-lincoln-remodel-east-wing

[Bengus81]

10. Watch the flare up in a Senate meeting wanting to fight a guy testifying. No wonder a Trump likes

him. BTW,that guy he wanted to fight looks like Butterbean,he would have knocked Mullin on his
ass in two minutes and out in three minutes.

[intheflow]

12. Maybe he'll at least fund FEMA recoveries.

I mean, his business experience is in construction... But of course, since the goal of this regime is to punish the American people and inflict as much pain onto us as possible, I'm sure he'll just take over Kristi's luuv plane and piss on us as he flies over.

[Ol Janx Spirit]

13. I wonder if he would hire a cashier at 7-Eleven to do his plumbing? Why does he think...

...he is remotely qualified to do our "homeland security"?

Do any of these "conservatives" ever even have the thought that maybe--just maybe--they aren't qualified for the job President [REDACTED] puts them up for? (Yes, rhetorical.)

If they took one second to rub two brain cells together it might dawn on them that the reason their predecessor went down in a humiliating ball of career-ending flames was probably because they were also unqualified for the job....

But hey, if [REDACTED] can be President then you can probably figure out how to land a jumbo jet 10 minutes before arrival time.... How hard could anything be?

[Figarosmom]

17. He's the only one from a truly safe state

Because " all 77 districts voted for trump , Oklahoma loves trump" . The only reason mullens got the job was because they won't lose that seat in the Senate, period.

And if he is indeed indigenous he should be mad as hell that ICE has been targeting indigenous people.

[Exp]

19. Well, he's got that kind of face. You just want to

PUNCH IT !

[twodogsbarking]

20. Only the best people

[PatrickforB]

21. So the guy is Tim Allen, right? Remember the episode of Home Improvement where Tim juiced up a garbage disposal

so it had MORE POWER and then fed a broomstick down it to demonstrate!

This is just another ignorant drooling Kluxer that needs to be driven out of power and replaced by people who actually have a) a moral compass, and b) a BRAIN and a HEART to act as its North Star.

[BumRushDaShow]

22. Let's bring out Weird Al...

Should be Markwayne's walk-on theme.

[LoisB]

24. In other words, he is less qualified for the position than I am.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

26. This made me smile

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

27. He is very very anti.immigrant..that and how much he flatters trump, thats all trump cares about

[crimycarny]

30. I only have a high school degree and so does my husband

Markwayne Mullin is completely unqualified to be the head of DHS, but not because the lack of a Bachelors degree. I don’t like this being used as a talking point as it perpetuates the myth that only those with college degrees are qualified for high paying jobs. Trump has a college degree and look where that got us.

Neither my husband nor I have a college degree. Both of us are senior level IT engineers. In fact, my husband is the one his boss calls on when there is a technical problem with a client’s application that no one else on the team can figure out. He’s the least “educated” in the group, many of who have master degrees, but he can troubleshoot the problem like no one else.

The fact that the media is making a high deal out of a lack of a college degree being a huge reason why Markwayne Mullin is not qualified adds to society’s notion everyone must have a degree to be qualified. This adds to the current pressure of our youth feeling the only path to success is a college degree, amassing massive debt in student loans. Markwayne Mullin would have his PhD and still be unqualified. Education, or lack thereof, hasn’t nothing to do with what he isn’t qualified.

[madinmaryland]

32. As an aside, I am an engineer also with a BSEE. I work for an MEP firm and

If you don’t have the degree, then you cannot call yourself an engineer, only a Designer. I’ve only been able to refer to myself as an engineer because of the engineering degree. I’m not a PE, though. Just my two cents.

[crimycarny]

33. Oh puhleeze

Last edited Fri Mar 6, 2026, 06:47 PM - Edit history (1)

I’m talking about my job category/name from my employer. They categorize the roles as Systems Tech Level 1, Systems Ops Level II, Systems Ops Level III, Systems Engineer Level III, Systems Engineer Level IV, Systems Architect. I’m a Systems Engineer Level IV which is why I “call” myself that. “You can’t call yourself an engineer”… geezus.

My point was that having a college degree doesn’t always equate to being competent. And conversely not having a college degree doesn’t equate to incompetence or less skilled. Steve Jobs, for example, dropped out of college after one semester. Michael Dell (Dell computers) dropped out of college at 19. Your focus on title, “Engineer”, sort of proves my point. There are many who never got the official “title” but ran circles around those who did.

Mikewayne Mullin could have a PhD and still be as unqualified as he is now. That was my point.

[2na fisherman]

31. Roid Raging Senator

At the SOTU address Senator Markwayne Mullin attempted to grab a sign from Congressman Al Green who is 78. The sign was a protest against the recent racist portrayal of blacks as apes. And a very aggressive Mullin rushed at Representative Green nearly assaulting him trying to snatch the sign from him. So he must have been triggered to fight him in defense of that racist meme by being so enraged at Green's protest against it. So he seems quick to favor force over rhetoric. If he becomes head of DHS, we will probably see even more people die under his watch by attacks at the hands of agents of our own country as well as acts of revenge from abroad against Trump's war. If personnel is policy, this regime is fully staffed with bad policy-- both foreign and domestic.

[SergeStorms]

34. The only qualification.....

to "work" in the tRump administration is your shit-eating capacity. How much of tRump's "chunky" are you willing to eat, and how much will you thank him afterward for that "privilege?

[czarjak]

35. Plumb Dumb. Period!

TypicalTrumper2

[LilElf70]

37. TSF replaced

an total idiot with an loudmouth aggressive moron. Which by the way can't keep his facts straight when he open his mouth.

I think it was a Jimmy Kimmel monologue the other night that proved that he can't speak for shit. Constantly opens his mouth not knowing what the next word will be. Then has to correct himself.

[BlueTsunami2018]

38. He's a lunatic. An ex-MMA fighter.

He tried to get into a fistfight with a union leader on the Senate floor. Bernie Sanders had to intervene.