This week we watch the same pattern run twice: people take jobs they’re not qualified for because proximity to power feels like a plan… and then they’re surprised when they get discarded the second they become inconvenient.

First, the cabinet-as-cosplay problem: loyalty gets you hired, competence gets you blamed. We talk about the “idealize → use → devalue → replace” loop that shows up in narcissistic systems, except here it’s not a relationship, it’s the federal government.

Then we shift to Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, and the part everyone pretends doesn’t exist: second and third-order effects. You can bomb from a distance, sure. But you can’t “clean win” your way out of energy markets, shipping costs, inflation, and a world that responds to incentives whether you believe in them or not.

No diagnosis. No moral theater. Just mechanics. And a reminder that if you demand clean wins, you’re going to get sold fake ones.