Here is an interesting (and long) read from Vanity Fair
Booman had a list of reasons to impeach Trump. Read that article and try not to be frightened. Obama chose professional and competent people to do the important government work, Trump picked his sons brother in law.
Trump needs to go. Something very bad is inevitable if he stays.
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thanks for the link. That’s very interesting, and very scary.
I bet every other agency has similar stories of the transition. Like we’ve said here many times, none of the Trump people have any idea how to play this game.
You’re welcome.
It’s nice to read a story that ‘gets’ what is actually happening.
I’ve noticed that the media is once again being distracted by ‘easy’ things. Trump is so full of drama I cannot really blame them, and things like Kushner meeting with Russians to set up secure (controlled by the RUSSIANS!) communications would normally be a massive scandal.
But Trump’s administration is like a Main Street on a studio back lot, it’s all facade. Real damage is being done, real issues are being ignored.
It turns out Trump and his family being greedy traitors is far down on the list of our worries.
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Got it bookmarked for later reading. Did manage to skim the article. The damage done by this White House occupant will take a long time to undo, if that is even possible.
After reading that article, and thinking about how that’s just one agency among so many others that must be suffering the same sort of ignorant and arrogant ruination, I fear the damage already done, let alone what’s ongoing and to come, is irreversible and catastrophic.
The most obvious that comes to mind is the State Department.
Like the Department of Energy, there is real danger there.
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Does this mean that no one politicial is supervising what the Department of Energy is doing and that the career civil-service employees are just going on doing what the last legislation from Congress (likely FY 2017 continuing resolution) told them they should be doing? The regulations in the Federal Register march forward. The procurement and contracting marches forward. The implementation and reporting of FY 2017 and any remaining previous FY funded activities march onward generating the accounting and performance records that go up the line. Business as usual, with backup onto public, yes, public, servers as set up in the last days of the Obama administration.
It is not resistance but it is what threatened agencies do under attack from an administration. Making sure that a sudden reversal of policy is never irreversible–that the materials survive to come close to picking up where you left off when the politics return to trying to do a previous program approach.
The internal war that the White House is waging aims to get the will of Trump (if anyone can figure what that is at a particular moment) imposed on the executive agencies. That they’ve not done their homework on the functions of the agencies leads to a generalized withdrawal of resources hoping to shut down what they don’t like. They really are outnumbered by the career civil service personnel, who will carry on with what they are doing even if they have no clear instructions.
Inertia in the executive agencies will save the Republic to the extent that it is saved from Trump.
And even when they do if it is clearly nuts or contrary to the mission. Endless requests for clarification is one way. The British series “Yes, Minister” also comes to mind.
One of Lewis’ best.
Some notes:
From me a few days ago – Ben Carson and Rick Perry may still be having trouble locating their offices. Good way to avoid doing anything that would displease der fuhrer. Should have reflected further on what that would mean:
Did Team Trump hold a job fair at CPAC? Post a “help wanted” ad at Breitbart.com? Hiring from the bottom of the stack of applicants as the Coalition Provisional Authority did?
The Hill reported on this in February Eric Trump’s brother-in-law working at Energy Dept. (Missed that report in real time — it’s the sort of thing that frosts me.) The DOJ gave the hiring of Kushner a pass; so, doubt anyone will bother to claim that the b-i-l hire is nepotism. Also doubt that the b-i-l isn’t drawing a paycheck.
A component that Lewis didn’t directly cover (or edited out for length, either way an addition to and not a criticism of the article, Forbes, August 29, 2012, Bechtel Incompetent To Complete Hanford Nuclear Waste Cleanup: DOE Memo
Nov 23, 2016 – Hanford contractors to pay $125 million settlement
Jan 12, 2017 – Bechtel spins off Hanford vit plant work to new company
The above information is not intended as a criticism of the DOE, Obama administration, or even Bechtel (other than overcharging DOE for materials and work and using public funds to lobby Congress). It’s not as if there’s even much of a short list of engineering contractors that could replace Bechtel.
I also totally missed the report on the PG&E Metcalf substation attack in 2013. Terrorism was quickly dismissed and current suspicion is that the attackers were insiders. What I can say is that such an attack had been imagined many years before then because an engineering contractor that worked for utility companies described this particular vulnerability and the consequences of taking out transformers. (I won’t say more because I don’t want to give anybody ideas.) Fortunate that this actual attack was manageable and utility companies appear to have taken steps to reduce this vulnerability.
(Now must get back to making the pie the blackberries I foraged demand.)
Brother-in-law was probably hired as a Schedule C political appointment that doesn’t require tests or competition. Presidents like to convert these guys to Civil service status as they leave office.
Blackberries and ice cream go nice too and are a lot less work. Picking peaches now, hoping the branches don’t break until I’m through. Japanese Beetles are destroying the grapes and my plum tree, however.
I had the ingredients for a tart (crust, pastry cream, and glazed blackberries) and I didn’t have any ice cream. Cooked up most of them for blintz sauce, better than jam or fresh strawberries.
Once made peach/orange jam (freebie peaches). Wonderful. Backyard apples more often came my way — best apple butter. Blackberry patches aren’t as easy to find as they once were. Not a total negative for me considering how much it cost to make and can the jam and the number of people expecting a jar.
The Guardian – Trump makes US seem a ‘kleptocracy’, says ex-ethics chief Walter Shaub
Would have read better if the author had left out DT’s stupid meeting with some ‘Russians.’ (Isn’t a naturalized US citizen from any country of origin an American?)
It has taken centuries for the USG to enact laws to minimize patronage and nepotism jobs and in each round the spirit of the laws went further than the laws themselves. Break the latter (as JFK did with his appointment of Bobby) and the unanticipated loophole is subsequently and legally closed. DT has taken a wreaking ball to the spirit. This should be an assignment for Congress to get busy on to foreclose crap like DTs.
“Isn’t a naturalized US citizen from any country of origin an American?”
Unfortunately not to many, including Trump.
Corrected:
So confusing. It’s American Bill Browder even though it’s been nearly two decades since he gave up US citizenship in favor of UK citizenship and Russian Rinat Akhmetshin who is a US citizen. (To be fair — WaPo, NYT, and NPR use “Russian-American” for Akmetshin, just to make sure they get that Russian in there.)
Does the “Trump rule” apply to his first and third wives and his mother? Need a new rule — FLOTUS must also be a ‘natural born citizen.’ Ha! That would have been a sticky wicket for Trump.
Unfortunately, Trump is extremely interested in certain aspects of government — the part where he/his can milk it and play king.
A week ago I was looking at Hondas. The salesman looks to be early or mid-20s. One of Obama’s Dreamers. Came here as a kid from Mexico and grew up in my suburb (heavily Hispanic). He could be one of my grandsons except he is more on the ball. When he told me this, I told him (with a smile) “Just like my grandparents”. This seemed to please him. No accent, just a nice American kid. Like the Filipina girls next door (all grown now). Totally American except they respect elders. One’s a nurse like her Mom (Registered instead of CNA) and the other is a teacher. Nurse got a job right away. Teacher is working in day care because no teacher jobs in IL and more layoffs on the way, basically because the (R)’s won’t allow tax increases.
Their father started as a bus boy and now is a manager in a big Hotel chain. REAL Americans in my book.