Colbert on Ron DeSantis possibly replacing Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary nominee

Yesterday, I covered Jon Stewart and Rachel Maddow reacting to the Hunter Biden pardon. Today, it's Stephen Colbert's monologue, Trump Considers DeSantis Over Hegseth | Zuckerberg Dines At Mar-A-Lago | South Korea’s Six Hour Coup.

President-elect Trump's support for his Defense Secretary nominee may be teetering as Pete Hegseth's colleagues at Fox News say he frequently showed up drunk at work, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is working to gain influence in Trump's incoming administration, and Stephen looks into the wild details of an attempted coup by South Korea's president.

I think that Ron DeSantis becoming Secretary of Defense, like the nominations of Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr., to be a case of failing upwards. To be fair, it would also be like Pam Bondi replacing Matt Gaetz for Attorney General, an improvement, someone terrible but at least competent replacing someone terrible who also has no qualifications beyond loyalty. I'm sure I'll have more to say about all of them in the future.

In the meantime, I want to riff off of Stephen's final topic, which didn't make either the title or description, airline travel. I know what Delta One is like, as the final flight I took before the pandemic was first class flying Delta to the final in-person board meeting of the Coffee Party. That happened because I waited too long to book a flight, during which time the cost of a coach ticket rose to within $100 of a first-class seat. For $100 more, I flew first class. I have to admit, it spoiled me, although I got a blood clot in my leg, which wasn't diagnosed until I was hospitalized for diabetes, but that's a story for another day. ETA: I got confused yesterday because of having to rush out the door; the blood clot happened two years earlier. Flying first class was part of the solution to that problem.

Speaking of fanciful airline safety videos, I'm surprised Stephen, who is a Lord of the Rings fan, didn't mention Air New Zealand's. Watch The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made #AirNZSafetyVideo to see what I mean.

As the official airline of Middle-earth, Air New Zealand has gone all out to celebrate the third and final film in The Hobbit Trilogy - The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Starring Elijah Wood and Sir Peter Jackson; we're thrilled to unveil The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made. #airnzhobbit

Special cameos by Sylvester McCoy, Dean O’Gorman and Weta Workshop co-founder Sir Richard Taylor. Directed by Taika Waititi.

Check out the Air New Zealand Facebook page to see behind the scenes pics from ‘The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made’ and see firsthand Hollywood stars on the set of Middle-earth including Elijah Wood, Sylvester McCoy, Dean O’Gorman, John Rhys-Davies (as Gimli) and New Zealand’s own Sir Peter Jackson.

As Sir Peter said, "That's a wrap. I hope you enjoyed it."