Saturday, December 17, 2016

Washington D.C. moonbats are riding for a fall


I'm watching the ongoing reaction of the moonbats to President-elect Trump's victory with growing bemusement.  I can't believe that they're so naive as to be riding for a fall . . . but that appears to be precisely what they're doing.  Let me cite just three examples.


1.  Mr. Trump tweeted this morning about the Chinese seizure of a US hydrographic survey drone.  In his tweet, he used the word 'unpresidented' - but swiftly changed it to the correct spelling.  He was promptly mocked and ridiculed for his 'spelling mistake' . . . but doesn't everybody have problems with autocorrect?  Isn't it entirely likely that he didn't, in fact, misspell it, but simply spoke his tweet into his cellphone's microphone, only to have it 'corrected' by software?  The rapid correction of the tweet suggests that, but such a simple explanation appears to have completely escaped his critics.  No, he can't spell!  This is disaster!  He's provoking China and opening himself to ridicule at the same time!

Some people should get a life.  A single misspelling isn't the end of the world.  Besides, when you look at the lack of strong leadership from President Obama over our relationship with China - during the past eight years, not just concerning this drone - perhaps 'unpresidented' wasn't such a bad choice of words after all.


2.  Headline in the Washington Post:  'Trump needs to get over his victory'.  Here's an excerpt.

President-elect Donald Trump needs to heal, not revel. That is, he must work on healing the divided country he is about to lead, not continue to revel in his victory with a round of thank-you rallies.

. . .

Crybaby, the Trump supporters will tweet. He won, get over it. But the president-elect is the one who seems to be having a hard time getting over it, or rising above, or inhabiting the responsibility — the majesty — of his new role.

“Elections have consequences, and at the end of the day, I won,” a newly sworn-in President Obama said eight years ago. So I accept: Trump won, Hillary Clinton lost. That has consequences for personnel and policy.

But the manner of winning and the scope of victory also have consequences ... Even by Trump math, he will preside over a deeply divided country. Half its citizens, or more, are worried about what a Trump presidency augurs. They doubt that he has the temperament or experience for the job. It is Trump’s responsibility to reassure and reach out to them. It is his duty to consider — not summarily reject — evidence that Russia may have intervened on his behalf.

This is the sixth presidential transition I have witnessed, beginning with Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan in 1980, and the mood of the city is like no other. “Anxious” does not begin to convey the profound sense of worry.

There's more at the link.

Personally, I don't see any need for Mr. Trump to 'get over his victory'.  If he did precisely what the author of that article wants, and pulled in his horns, and 'made nice' with the establishment, that same establishment would take that as a sign of weakness and criticize him all the more.  There is no truth in the establishment.  It sees only its own need and desire for power, and is flailing around in panic at the thought that its hold on power may be weakened by a Trump presidency.  It will do literally anything to stop that.  The article above is just one example of its propaganda campaign.

Mr. Trump won.  His supporters are, rightfully, very happy about that.  I was not and am not a Trump disciple, yet I see nothing wrong with them joining him in celebrating that victory.  It's their right.  Are we to believe that if the election had gone the other way, Hillary's supporters would not be celebrating just as hard - if not harder - and rubbing the noses of the rest of the country in her election?  Of course they would!

Sour grapes don't become the news media . . . but it seems that's their predominant diet these days.


3.  The Department of Energy is riding for a fall.  The Trump transition team asked a number of pointed questions, including the names of those who'd taken part in international climate talks, and the programs that DoE regards as essential to meet President Obama's Climate Action Plan.  In its response - delivered via the press rather than directly, which was not a good start to its relationship with its future Chief Executive - the DoE said:  "We will be forthcoming with all publically-available information with the transition team. We will not be providing any individual names to the transition team."  (Bold text is in the original.)

First off, who does this spokesman think he is?  He's talking to the future President!  Mr. Trump has the right to ask any questions he wishes of any executive department, because he's going to be heading all of them!  Once he takes office, he will doubtless ask the same questions again - and any refusal to provide the answers he requires, in full and without dissembling, will be nothing less than insubordination and disobedience.  Those actions have consequences, and I trust they will be forthcoming at once and in full measure.  (There's also the point that if you behave as if you have something to hide, you probably do . . . which will elicit further questions and investigations, to find out what it is.)

Second, this is playing into the hands of a future Trump administration.  If the DoE fails to provide the names it's been asked for, there's no reason for the next administration to approve or fund any trips by any DoE staffers to any international climate talks, because obviously none of those staffers had any role important enough to warrant identifying them.  Similarly, if the DoE fails to provide a list of programs it considers "essential to meeting the goals of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan", then the Trump administration will be fully justified in discontinuing, modifying, reorienting, or otherwise adapting any programs it pleases, without any fear that they may or may not impact the former President's policies and plans.  After all, it's just been told - and saying nothing is, in fact, saying a great deal under these circumstances - that there are no such programs!

Bureaucratic resistance to a President who's run a multi-billion-dollar business is stupidity personified.  Mr. Trump is noted for his frequent use (on TV) of the phrase "You're fired!"  Civil service bureaucrats have erected complex procedures to protect their work from political interference, and to safeguard their own positions during any clash with a political administration.  However, that won't prevent Mr. Trump from simply not funding vital programs, or reassigning work to more compliant bureaucrats, or sidelining those whose obstructionism causes difficulties for his administration.  Congress can vote all the funds it wants for a given program, but if he fails to spend them, that program is going nowhere:  and Congress is the legislative, not the executive branch, so it can't arrogate to itself executive privileges and legislate how he must do his job.  That would be unconstitutional.

There are many ways of skinning a cat, and Mr. Trump probably knows quite a few of them.  I wouldn't be surprised if the team he's assembling knows a lot more.  What's more, I'm sure his transition team knows full well how their counterparts in a Clinton administration would have been treated if the election had had a different outcome.  They're going to expect and require to be treated with the same respect and co-operation.  If they don't receive it . . . well, two can play at that game.  Elections do, indeed, have consequences.  I suspect the DoE - and other Washington departments - are going to be reminded of that, come January 20th.

Peter

15 comments:

  1. These liberal suckers have to get over losing! Crybaby leftists will not be telling Mr. Trump what he can and cannot do. He is not the bowing, simpering Mr. Obama. This is a real man that is going to take over the bloated government. Unemployment benefits are not all they are cracked up to be.

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  2. Dept. of Energy, and Education are two we could kI'll and not miss them. ( Along with BATF-E... PLEASE!)

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  3. Oh Man...

    I'm going to get FAT what with all the popcorn I'll be eating....

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  4. One possibility for those obstructionists who can not be fired is a program that Japanese companies have used when they are burdened with incompetent relatives of their founders.

    This is a thing known as a "window-gazing position" where the person has an office, a secretary (who does work only for other people) and no phone or computer access.

    They are required to come in every day, and remain at their desks, idle and doing no further damage, until they either quit voluntarily, or commit suicide.

    John in Indy

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  5. If Trump were a run of the mill career CEO that had come up in stable, settled companies, then I'd be concerned. He might not have the experience to handle a rebellious bureaucracy. But Trump not only built his company up, he's been knocked down a few times. So he's seen how people act when they think they can push you around. He's worked with local politicians, "community organizers" and bureaucrats, who no doubt all came at him with "what he should do". And, he's a project guy. He's not run an organization with inertia, but rather one that ebbs and flows. He's had to hire and deal with new contractors, etc.

    I will admit, I might not consider a CEO of GE or other big corporation as a good fit for President. A President is taking command and he will immediately, as we see, be besieged by people trying to get him to move how they say. The surprising part is some of those people were totally different before you got command. The trick is to not react, but to act in your own time. If they get you reacting, they'll never stop, but even if you eventually do what they "demand", do it later, on your own schedule, after they've settled down.

    Yes, Trump will need to end the thank you rallies, but not now, not while the WaPo is advising they be ended. Perhaps no more after the first week in January? Whenever, it should be clear that Trump ended them on his own, not as a reaction.

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  6. "Yes, Trump will need to end the thank you rallies, but not now, not while the WaPo is advising they be ended. Perhaps no more after the first week in January? Whenever, it should be clear that Trump ended them on his own, not as a reaction."

    Careful with that, it's still reacting to someone else's timetable. What happens if the media re-starts the campaign in January? Or, imagine Trump finds one of his chosen Secretaries or something worth sacking... at the same time the press starts pushing for that person's resignation? Should he comply (and appear to appease) or keep the idiot.

    I've seen how that works, and it doesn't end well.

    Take care.

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  7. I too wasn't a Trump fan before the election, but have been very pleasantly surprised on how he's running things in the transition.

    One thing he understands, and that McCain, Romney, and others in the GOPe don't, is this. He understands that the media hates him, and hates all Republicans, and you cannot win by trying to play along with their little game of Lucyball.
    Happily, most of America also hates the media, so Trump has nothing to lose by standing up to it.

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  8. Window-gazing position; I like that.

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  9. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  10. Trump needs to get Civil Service reform. There is no reason why anyone in the bureaucracy should have any job protection that is not available to anyone else. The inability to fire deadwood/insubordinate people without it taking 2 years to jump through all the hoops is an atrocity.

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  11. It's true that civil service is a system of gubmint employees, by gubmint employees, for gubmint employees - the stated mission of whatever agency they are in be damned. It takes an inordinate amount of effort to remove even demonstrably incompetent gubmint employees. I, for one, am gleefully looking forward to sane, responsible adults asking tough questions of the different agencies and holding them accountable. This, I think, is one of the reasons Trump was elected. If the folks in his administration actually downsize, rein in, or curtail the power of unelected, grasping, self-important bureaucrats, I will be happy.

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  12. "This is a thing known as a "window-gazing position""
    I have seen it done, not very often, but it can be done.
    When I first got hired at NASA I noticed that there was one GS-14 who had his own little windowless office at the end of the hall (GS-14s were usually supervisors) and his only job was to send out little pieces of paper with numbers on them to verify, well AFTER the mission had flown, that some little task had been performed.
    It used to drive some of the engineers nuts trying to track down what the stupid numbers meant in order to sign off on the pieces of paper.
    He finally left.
    The trick is to write their job description so that they have very little authority or responsibility and then shift them during a reorganization. It can even work with an SES position if the people in charge are motivated to that end. Of course you then have to shut the person out of all meetings and computer access and still make sure that they are not goofing off.

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  13. More on the subject:

    https://borepatch.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-department-of-energy-told-trump-to.html

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  14. Re: the Washington Post article.

    Borepost explains "Concern-Trollng":


    https://borepatch.blogspot.com/2016/12/every-story-you-will-get-from-media.html

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  15. unpresidented — When you are blocked by the official USPOTUS Facebook account.

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