Continuing our comparison begun yesterday between the current Presidential Administration and Rufus T. Firefly’s rule of Freedonia in ‘Duck Soup’ (1933),  here is a rather terrifying example of a ninety year old piece of comedic art predicting the future of American politics all too accurately. Among the many mad appointees in the new administration (the guy with no voice who’s in charge of health and who hates vaccines and dumps dead bears in Central Park being the least of them), the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth appears to be the oddest, most random and nihilistic choice of them all. A drunken Fox TV commentator with a history of spousal abuse, he seems to be an almost willfully perverse choice to have been elevated to being in charge of the military. Why, it’s almost as absurd as it would be if Groucho appointed Chico to be the Secretary of War…oh, wait. He does. Enjoy (?) the above clip from ‘Duck Soup’ while taking scant comfort from the fact that the initial meeting between the President and Hegseth in which he offered him the job might have been awfully similar in tone and dialogue as it is in the movie. If nothing else, this perhaps proves that Trump actually does have a sense of humor. I wonder if he’s ever heard of The Marx Brothers?