Bloomberg Opinion Today: Biden’s Presidency Takes Boring Shape You probably don’t remember, but there was a time in this country when not every presidential utterance would trigger your fight-or-flight response. You could go days without thinking about the president of the United States, unless he wore a tan suit or something.
Chaos happens, that’s just life. But then there is man-made chaos where incompetence is the response to life. Our problem with Trump is he chose to ignore life.
The Covid-19 pandemic and economic crisis together have revealed the limits of our capacity to respond to crises that demand basic coordination and resources, limits made far worse by members of the Trump administration but not solely their fault.
In personnel and regulatory rules, the core of the day-to-day business of governing, the next president is likely to encounter a minefield of Trump-era changes; a bureaucracy that’s lost much of its experienced middle tier; and hundreds of officials who have passed the Trump-loyalty tests reportedly organized by the White House personnel director, Johnny McEntee, or cabinet officials like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who asked Mr. Trump to fire his agency’s inspector general in May.
The Trump administration has moved aggressively to alter regulations affecting the environment, workplace health and safety, education policy and programs like Medicaid. This newspaper has documented the completion or advancement of rollbacks of more than 100 environmental rules, some of which went even beyond the wish lists of the companies that will benefit. The Economic Policy Institute found 50 actions that would limit workers’ rights.
Some changes made by executive order can be reversed quickly by the same method, but most will require lengthy rule-making periods of their own, with time for public comment and possible legal challenges.
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Steve Bannon and other acolytes of Mr. Trump denounced the “administrative state” as if it were a permanent and unchanging feature, but Mr. Trump has effectively used the administrative state to dismantle itself, beginning quickly to drive out experienced midlevel lawyers, scientists and analysts, even devising tactics like moving whole offices far from Washington. Throughout the federal government, political loyalists so inexperienced they have not yet completed college have been installed in key positions.
Chaos? Like Bill Barr protecting torturer Gina Haspel?
~
President Trump’s senior military and intelligence officials have been warning him strongly against declassifying information about Russia that his advisers say would compromise sensitive collection methods and anger key allies.
An intense battle over this issue has raged within the administration in the days before and after the Nov. 3 presidential election.
Trump and his allies want the information public because they believe it would rebut claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin supported Trump in 2016.
That may sound like ancient history, but for Trump it remains ground zero — the moment when his political problems began.
CIA Director Gina Haspel last month argued strongly at a White House meeting against disclosing the information, because she believed that doing so would violate her pledge to protect sources and methods, a senior congressional source said.
This official said a bipartisan group of Republican and Democratic senators has been trying to protect Haspel, though some fear that Trump may yet oust her.
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Haspel’s most unlikely defender has been Attorney General William P. Barr, who opposed a pre-election push to declassify the sensitive material, according to three current and former officials.
At a showdown meeting at the White House, Barr pushed back against revealing the secret information.
Gen. Paul Nakasone, who heads U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, has also argued vehemently against disclosure, according to a senior defense official and the senior congressional source.
Like Haspel, Nakasone took the unusual step of directly opposing White House efforts to release the intelligence, because he feared the damage that disclosure would cause.
Infighting has broken out between two leading members of the Proud Boys group, with one announcing he will be taking control of the far-right organization to address “White Genocide” and the “failures of multiculturalism.”
White nationalist Kyle Chapman—who set up the “tactical defense arm” of the Proud Boys, the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights (FOAK)—has criticized the group’s chairman Enrique Tarrio while announcing a so-called rebranding of the organization.
Writing on encrypted messaging app Telegram, Chapman used racial slurs against Tarrio and other neo-Nazi rhetoric while announcing that the “grifting leaders” had been deposed and the group would be renamed the Proud Goys.
The term "goy"—a Hebrew word for a non-Jewish person—is sometimes used by white supremacists to signal their anti-Semitic beliefs, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“Due to the recent failure of Proud Boy Chairman Enrique Tarrio to conduct himself with honor and courage on the battlefield, it has been decided that I Kyle Chapman reassume my post as President of Proud Boys effective immediately,” Chapman wrote. "Our logo will forthwith be changed to reflect the core beliefs of Proud Boy members.
Cheapskate0 over 3 years ago
Let’s make it interesting. If this cartoon was drawn today, not two weeks ago, what do you think Scott would have done?
allen@home over 3 years ago
I don’t know if the chaos will end, but i think it will get better come January 20.
RobinHood over 3 years ago
That answer would be 42.
braindead Premium Member over 3 years ago
Trump and His Disciples want chaos to continue.
They claim the election is not decided.
They want everyone infected with covid.
.
Because patriotism.
Sanspareil over 3 years ago
Chaos is the normal state of things, everything moves toward entropy!
William Robbins Premium Member over 3 years ago
Bloomberg Opinion Today: Biden’s Presidency Takes Boring Shape You probably don’t remember, but there was a time in this country when not every presidential utterance would trigger your fight-or-flight response. You could go days without thinking about the president of the United States, unless he wore a tan suit or something.
Darsan54 Premium Member over 3 years ago
Chaos happens, that’s just life. But then there is man-made chaos where incompetence is the response to life. Our problem with Trump is he chose to ignore life.
Silly Season over 3 years ago
The Covid-19 pandemic and economic crisis together have revealed the limits of our capacity to respond to crises that demand basic coordination and resources, limits made far worse by members of the Trump administration but not solely their fault.
In personnel and regulatory rules, the core of the day-to-day business of governing, the next president is likely to encounter a minefield of Trump-era changes; a bureaucracy that’s lost much of its experienced middle tier; and hundreds of officials who have passed the Trump-loyalty tests reportedly organized by the White House personnel director, Johnny McEntee, or cabinet officials like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who asked Mr. Trump to fire his agency’s inspector general in May.
The Trump administration has moved aggressively to alter regulations affecting the environment, workplace health and safety, education policy and programs like Medicaid. This newspaper has documented the completion or advancement of rollbacks of more than 100 environmental rules, some of which went even beyond the wish lists of the companies that will benefit. The Economic Policy Institute found 50 actions that would limit workers’ rights.
Some changes made by executive order can be reversed quickly by the same method, but most will require lengthy rule-making periods of their own, with time for public comment and possible legal challenges.
✁
Steve Bannon and other acolytes of Mr. Trump denounced the “administrative state” as if it were a permanent and unchanging feature, but Mr. Trump has effectively used the administrative state to dismantle itself, beginning quickly to drive out experienced midlevel lawyers, scientists and analysts, even devising tactics like moving whole offices far from Washington. Throughout the federal government, political loyalists so inexperienced they have not yet completed college have been installed in key positions.
~
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/12/opinion/biden-trump-federal-government.html
Silly Season over 3 years ago
Chaos? Like Bill Barr protecting torturer Gina Haspel?
~
President Trump’s senior military and intelligence officials have been warning him strongly against declassifying information about Russia that his advisers say would compromise sensitive collection methods and anger key allies.
An intense battle over this issue has raged within the administration in the days before and after the Nov. 3 presidential election.
Trump and his allies want the information public because they believe it would rebut claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin supported Trump in 2016.
That may sound like ancient history, but for Trump it remains ground zero — the moment when his political problems began.
CIA Director Gina Haspel last month argued strongly at a White House meeting against disclosing the information, because she believed that doing so would violate her pledge to protect sources and methods, a senior congressional source said.
This official said a bipartisan group of Republican and Democratic senators has been trying to protect Haspel, though some fear that Trump may yet oust her.
✁
Haspel’s most unlikely defender has been Attorney General William P. Barr, who opposed a pre-election push to declassify the sensitive material, according to three current and former officials.
At a showdown meeting at the White House, Barr pushed back against revealing the secret information.
Gen. Paul Nakasone, who heads U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, has also argued vehemently against disclosure, according to a senior defense official and the senior congressional source.
Like Haspel, Nakasone took the unusual step of directly opposing White House efforts to release the intelligence, because he feared the damage that disclosure would cause.
~
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-will-leave-the-question-is-how-much-damage-hell-do-to-national-security-before-then/2020/11/10/551d31a4-239d-11eb-a688-5298ad5d580a_story.html
42Irish Premium Member over 3 years ago
Life isn’t fair. So get over it, then get on with it.
Silly Season over 3 years ago
D’waahhh…
Trouble at the Cosplay Clubhouse?
~
Infighting has broken out between two leading members of the Proud Boys group, with one announcing he will be taking control of the far-right organization to address “White Genocide” and the “failures of multiculturalism.”
White nationalist Kyle Chapman—who set up the “tactical defense arm” of the Proud Boys, the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights (FOAK)—has criticized the group’s chairman Enrique Tarrio while announcing a so-called rebranding of the organization.
Writing on encrypted messaging app Telegram, Chapman used racial slurs against Tarrio and other neo-Nazi rhetoric while announcing that the “grifting leaders” had been deposed and the group would be renamed the Proud Goys.
The term "goy"—a Hebrew word for a non-Jewish person—is sometimes used by white supremacists to signal their anti-Semitic beliefs, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“Due to the recent failure of Proud Boy Chairman Enrique Tarrio to conduct himself with honor and courage on the battlefield, it has been decided that I Kyle Chapman reassume my post as President of Proud Boys effective immediately,” Chapman wrote. "Our logo will forthwith be changed to reflect the core beliefs of Proud Boy members.
~
https://www.newsweek.com/proud-boys-based-stickman-enrique-tarrio-goys-1546597
Bookworm over 3 years ago
My father used to say that “fair” was a four-letter word beginning with “f” that should never be used in polite society.
theotherther1 over 3 years ago
Can you imagine having a friend who treats you this way? I’d get rid of that friend.
ikini Premium Member over 3 years ago
Google Washington Post The crisis at the top of the Pentagon is just beginning. And worry.
Night-Gaunt49[Bozo is Boffo] over 3 years ago
Nothing Trump can do or say will change the outcome. He has lost and lost bigly.
Biden 290 Trump 217 Electoral Votes.