Executive Departments 4

[GreyhoundFan]

Because of course: "For a top Pentagon post, Trump chooses a Fox firebrand who is anti-Muslim, anti-China — and pro-Trump"

Spoiler

The barriers to the politicization of the military have been falling with alarming rapidity since Jim Mattis’s resignation as secretary of defense in December 2018. Mark T. Esper is a weak defense secretary who simply won’t stand up to the president as Mattis so often did.

In February, Esper agreed to fire the undersecretary of defense for policy, John C. Rood, who had been chosen by Mattis. Rood alienated Trump by criticizing decisions such as holding up military aid to Ukraine, exiting the Iran nuclear deal and withdrawing troops from Syria. Rood “never hesitated to tell the White House that he disagreed on stuff,” a former administration official told Politico. “He definitely wasn’t a loyalist.” In this administration that’s a fireable offense.

Now, Trump is reportedly nominating retired Army Brig. Gen. Anthony J. Tata — a Fox News regular — as Rood’s successor. It’s impossible to imagine Mattis signing off on this choice for the Defense Department’s No. 3 job.

Tata is a West Point graduate who had a distinguished Army career, but he retired under a cloud. According to the Raleigh (N.C.) News and Observer, the Army’s inspector general concluded that, while still married to his first wife, Tata had affairs with three women — including a more junior officer — and that he had a son out of wedlock. Army leadership chose to let it go, even though adultery is technically a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, because Tata believed that his marriage was over. But the inspector general concluded that his “actions reflected poor judgment and a pattern of misconduct. Under the circumstances, his misconduct was prejudicial to good order and discipline.”

Army investigators also looked into complaints from Tata’s (by then) ex-wife that he had failed to pay court-ordered child support. They dismissed the accusation after Tata produced a court order that criticized his ex-wife for incurring unnecessary medical expenses. But the “court order” turned out to be a forgery. Tata denied concocting the court order, but decided to retire a few months later.

Since leaving the Army, Tata has authored Tom Clancy-style thrillers and served briefly — and not very successfully — as chief operating officer of D.C. Public Schools, superintendent of the Wake County, N.C., public school system, and secretary of transportation of North Carolina. (He was fired from the Wake County post after less than two years.)

But that is not why he is being nominated for a top Pentagon job. It is because of his shameless boosterism for Trump on Fox News. (The other finalist for the post was also a Fox News commentator.)

A Dec. 29, 2018, article on Fox News’s website gives a taste of Tata’s abject sycophancy: “President Trump’s foreign policy accomplishments in his first two years are staggering in their success. . . . From muting the North Korean missile and nuclear threat, to mostly defeating ISIS in Iraq and Syria, to countering Russia by insisting that NATO member nations . . . pay their fair share to defend themselves, President Trump is hitting on all international relations cylinders.”

There is seemingly nothing that Trump can do that Tata doesn’t approve of. Pardoning a disgraced Navy SEAL who was accused of war crimes and firing Navy Secretary Richard Spencer for objecting? Tata: “The president was right to intervene to prevent a biased, small-minded person like Spencer from spitefully tilting the weight of the bureaucracy on top of a single sailor.” Deploying troops to the border as a political stunt? Tata: “President Trump is a man of his word, he said he was going to be tough on the border and he is tough on the border.” Abandoning our Kurdish allies by ordering U.S. troops out of northwest Syria? Tata: “I think the president is making the exact right move in Syria.” Striking a dubious deal with the Taliban that calls for U.S. withdrawal but allows the insurgents to keep on fighting? Tata: “This is the president showing very strong leadership.”

And when something goes wrong — such as North Korea’s failure to disarm — Tata is ready to blame Trump’s critics. He ascribed North Korea’s short-range missile tests in part to “this Russia narrative here at home” on the theory that criticism of the president encourages rogue regimes to act up.

On top of everything else, Tata endears himself to Trump with his attacks on “globalism,” immigration and Muslims. After a terrorist attack in Strasbourg, France, in 2018, he said on Fox: “There is intent to harm Western society by Islam, and we have to accept that.”

Tata is also militantly anti-China: He recently said on Fox News that China’s initial attempt to cover up the coronavirus was “tantamount to detonating a nuclear bomb accidentally and killing 150,000 people.”

Tata’s appointment, if confirmed by the Senate, would further the Foxification of the government and the politicization of the armed services. The last person we need in such a critical position is a MAGA firebrand and Trump worshiper. But those are precisely the qualifications — the only qualifications — that Trump seeks in his appointees. The president is finally getting the kind of government he wants, and, as usual, someone else (in this case the whole country) will be left to pay the bill.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I guess the USPS was nice while it lasted: "Under fire from Trump, Postal Service braces for arrival of new postmaster general allied with White House"

Quote

U.S. Postal Service officials are bracing for sweeping changes with the arrival of a new boss who is deeply aligned with President Trump at a time when the agency is grappling with a financial crisis and battling for its future.

The selection of Louis DeJoy — a North Carolina businessman and top Republican fundraiser — as postmaster general puts a White House ally at the helm of an agency Trump has long agitated to change, deriding it as a “loser” and “delivery boy” for private shipping companies, particularly Amazon.

The administration, led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, has angled for the authority to name a successor to current Postmaster General Megan Brennan and set package prices, among other terms, in exchange for emergency funding for the Postal Service, which leaders say could run out of money by October.

Trump in April called USPS “a joke” and said he would not authorize a $10 billion loan included in a pandemic relief package unless it raised package rates 400 percent on third-party shippers.

With DeJoy’s appointment and the resignation of David C. Williams, vice chairman of the board of governors and a foil to Mnuchin’s borrowing terms, some postal advocates worry that the changes Trump wants will not only materialize, they will be made without any benefit of additional funding — or the promised loan — for an agency whose already shaky financial footing has grown weaker during the coronavirus pandemic. They also worry it will politicize the independent agency, leaving USPS wounded in the run up to a presidential election that in many states may be conducted through the mail.

“We’re trying to manage through a pandemic and economic collapse,” Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.), who chairs the House subcommittee responsible for postal oversight, said in a phone interview. “What could go wrong in hiring a political donor?”

The White House declined to comment, and DeJoy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

DeJoy is the owner of a real estate and consulting firm in North Carolina who had served as chairman and chief executive of New Breed Logistics, according to his family’s foundation page. New Breed was sold to XPO Logistics and DeJoy served on the company’s board of directors.

He is a longtime donor to Republican causes, according to Federal Election Commission records, and has given more than $157,000 to GOP candidates, committees and superpacs since the start of the year. In March 2017, DeJoy hosted a fundraiser for Trump at his home in Greensboro, N.C. N.C. Tickets cost $15,000 per couple for preferential seating and a VIP reception, according to the Raleigh News & Observer. In the invitation he wrote of “unreasonable challenges” Trump faced from “the political establishment, the left wing groups, the media and many of the federal employees of the agencies of the executive branch.”

His wife, Aldona Wos, a former ambassador to Estonia and Trump’s nominee as ambassador to Canada, is the vice chair of the president’s Commission on White House Fellowships. Robert M. Duncan, the USPS board of governors chairman and former head of the RNC, chairs the fellowship panel.

Conservatives are cheering DeJoy’s appointment and hailing his private-sector experience in the logistics industry. Only four postmasters general have come from the private sector, and some analysts want the Postal Service to invest more heavily in the logistics arena, rather than door-to-door delivery.

“We have so many different ways to move stuff,” said Kevin Kosar, vice president of research partnerships at libertarian think tank R Street. “Where does the Postal Service fit into that picture? Hopefully someone from the outside like DeJoy can bring people into the main office who can help him think about that.”

Meanwhile, the Package Coalition — an industry group of online retailers led by Amazon, eBay, QVC and CVS Health, all companies set to lose substantially with higher shipping rates — launched a $2 million ad blitz Wednesday on Fox News. The 30-second commercial, which will air during broadcasts of “Hannity,” “Fox & Friends” and other network shows, takes aim at Trump’s proposal to quadruple package rates, calling it a “400 percent package tax.” It asks viewers to call Congress and urge members to support a postal bailout.

(Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

“We’re trying not to be alarmist about it,” former Army secretary and Package Coalition chairman John McHugh said in a phone interview. “But we want to tell people that there’s something afoot that I think could be cataclysmic in the lives of many Americans. That is the Postal Service running out of money.”

The Postal Regulatory Commission, the body that approves postage rates and monitors the USPS’s budget, on Thursday reported the agency was in “dire” financial shape after 2019. It posted an $8.8 billion loss caused by declining mail volume and missed its payments into a prepaid retiree health benefit account. Those losses don’t reflect the nearly two-month coronavirus pandemic, during which postal leaders told lawmakers they expected $2 billion losses each month as the economy shut down.

But Senate Republicans say they have data that indicates USPS’s losses, propped up by surging package volumes, are far more tame than the agency portrays and that the USPS is not in desperate need of a bailout as some officials claim.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Lock him up:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I couldn't agree more:

I won't be spending a penny on his book.

[smittykins]

Bolton was on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night.  I haven’t watched it yet, but it showed him as it was going to commercial after Stephen’s monologue, and Bolton was actually smiling.  He looked creepy!

[fraurosena]

35 minutes ago, smittykins said:

Bolton was on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night.  I haven’t watched it yet, but it showed him as it was going to commercial after Stephen’s monologue, and Bolton was actually smiling.  He looked creepy!

I am thoroughly disappointed with Stephen Colbert for having Bolton on his show. Why have him speak now, when he refused to speak during the impeachment procedures? Nobody should give Bolton any air time at all. He didn't want to speak then; he can shut the fuck up now.

 

 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

4 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

I am thoroughly disappointed with Stephen Colbert for having Bolton on his show. Why have him speak now, when he refused to speak during the impeachment procedures? Nobody should give Bolton any air time at all. He didn't want to speak then; he can shut the fuck up now.

 

 

I totally agree and was especially disappointed at how comfortable he made it for Bolton.

I feel bad saying this since I've always loved Colbert, but that love is waning since the quarantine.  The first couple weeks of shows were okay, the novelty was there...but without an audience watching him just be so amused with himself and for some reason he thinks flirting with his wife is compelling tv...

This Bolton thing is one more reason I went from faithful viewer to hit or miss.

[GreyhoundFan]

Pompeo is such a jerk:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Gee, this seems like a good investment for taxpayer dollars /sarcasm:

 

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Gee, this seems like a good investment for taxpayer dollars /sarcasm:

 

How is this even possible? Isn't Congress responsible for the allocation of budgets? If so, this loan is illegal.

[GreyhoundFan]

This is disgusting. The Defense Secretary knew about the Russian bounty on our troops:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

This corrupt administration won't rest until they screw over the whole country multiple times.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Love Pompeo's reaction when told that his lord and master changed his mind:

 

[47of74]

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley's attempt to grovel to Fuckmuppet von #Bunkerbitch didn't go over all that well with the twitters

Quote

Nikki Haley attempted to rewrite the narrative on President Donald Trump’s decision to cancel the Jacksonville, Florida, portion of the Republican National Convention in August over fears about the coronavirus.

Twitter users weren’t buying it, accusing the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations of “groveling” to the president.

Haley, also the former GOP governor of South Carolina who has been rumored as a potential replacement for Vice President Mike Pence on Trump’s 2020 ticket, tweeted Friday she was “proud of the selfless leadership” the president had shown in nixing the large-scale event that had been expected to attract tens of thousands of visitors.

Trump “has a great story to tell on how he turned our economy & foreign policy around,” Haley continued. “We look forward to sharing it in the next 100 days!”

 

[GreyhoundFan]

This is what happens when a BT is appointed Postmaster General and he wants to kiss the big orange backside to ensure mail in voting has issues:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Corrupt and incompetent are the themes of this sham administration: "A top HHS aide’s last job was ‘Labradoodle breeder.’ He’s one of many unqualified appointees."

Spoiler

EARLY ON in the coronavirus pandemic, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar assigned a top aide to run the day-to-day U.S. response. The aide’s occupation before his ascension to his prominent post? Labradoodle breeder.

That is only one of the absurd and alarming examples of unqualified or otherwise dangerous political appointees carrying out critical duties in the Trump administration — and the worst part is, the public isn’t even aware of many of them. The United States government employs some 4,000 political appointees, more than any other industrialized democracy. Approximately 1,200 must be confirmed by the Senate, yet thousands remain who can be installed in their positions in the shadows. The only widely available catalogue of who they are and what they do comes in the Office of Personnel Management’s “Plum Book.” This encyclopedia is released only every four years, rendering it almost irrelevant for a one-term administration.

Congress’s Periodically Listing Updates to Management, or PLUM, Act, approved by a Senate committee last week, aims to replace the “Plum Book” with something more relevant: a directory updated every two years instead of every four, and that exists on a website rather than in printed form or a clunky PDF. This is a step forward, though not a step far enough. Better would be data added in real time on who’s in and who’s out, so the public, press and lawmakers can scrutinize power players for experience and conflicts of interest. The matter is of particular concern as an election approaches and presents the possibility of an outgoing administration slipping its political appointees into career roles so that they can stick around unnoticed, a trick known as “burrowing.”

Generally, OPM has done a decent job guarding against burrowing, but the agency’s inspector general announced recently that officials there are slow-rolling his investigation into whether the administration is already sneaking political appointees into what are traditionally career roles. Pair this with the troubling anecdotes about non-confirmed appointees we are aware of, and there’s particular reason for concern.

The man responsible for overseeing the child separation policy at the border, for instance, had never spent any time resettling refugees before he was put in charge of refugee resettlement. He was, however, an antiabortion advocate, which perhaps explains why he sparked scandal by trying to stop detained minors from getting abortions. Currently, the White House is urging the hiring to a key Pentagon position of Rich Higgins, a conspiracy theorist fired from the National Security Council after propounding the theory that a “deep state” composed of the media, Black Lives Matter, Islamists, the United Nations and more was working together to undermine the president. The myth has stuck.

Americans learn of these people poised to have significant influence over the country’s course only by a mixture of chance and circumstance. We ought to be aware of them by rule, the better to ensure that no essential function of government goes to the dogs — or the Labradoodles.

 

[WiseGirl]

I just got my script for my mammogram in the mail. It was sent by my doctor who is 5 minutes away from me July 14th. It should be a one day turn around and the mammogram was July 21st. So mail your ballot by OCTOBER 13th.

 

[47of74]

Guys, if you don't want to be compared to Nazis then don't fucking act like Nazis!

Quote

Another agent complained of being seen as "the bad guys" in society.

"We constantly look like we're the bad guys, when all we're doing is enforcing the laws and doing our job," the agent says.

"It gets to me sometimes, it does," she says. "Cause, I just feel like, you know, we have no respect."

After working with ICE for roughly 12 years the agent says "things have changed a lot" under Trump.

The I was only following orders from mein führer didn't work at Nuremberg.  God what dumb fucks.

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, 47of74 said:

"Cause, I just feel like, you know, we have no respect."

Two things.

1. Shitty grammar: Saying "we have no respect" means you don't give respect to others. Which, conversely, is true. But that's not what you meant. You want to get respected. 

2. Sweetie,  you don't get respect for what you are. You get respect for what you do. If you want respect, you have to earn it first.

[WiseGirl]

More post office shenanigans 

)

[WiseGirl]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

We need this criminal administration gone:

[GreyhoundFan]

I don't know how we will be able to undo all the damage: "Postal Service overhauls leadership as Democrats press for investigation of mail delays"

Spoiler

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy unveiled a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s mail service, displacing the two top executives overseeing day-to-day operations, according to a reorganization memo released Friday. The shake-up came as congressional Democrats called for an investigation of DeJoy and the cost-cutting measures that have slowed mail delivery and ensnared ballots in recent primary elections

Twenty-three postal executives were reassigned or displaced, the new organizational chart shows. Analysts say the structure centralizes power around DeJoy, a former logistics executive and major ally of President Trump, and de-emphasizes decades’ worth of institutional postal knowledge. All told, 33 staffers included in the old postal hierarchy either kept their jobs or were reassigned in the restructuring, with five more staffers joining the leadership from other roles.

The reshuffling threatens to heighten tensions between postal officials and lawmakers, who are troubled by delivery delays — the Postal Service banned employees from working overtime and making extra trips to deliver mail — and wary of the Trump administration’s influence on the Postal Service as the coronavirus pandemic rages and November’s election draws near.

It also adds another layer to DeJoy’s disputes with Democratic leaders, who have pushed him to rescind the cost-cutting directives that have caused days-long backlogs and steady the Postal Service in the run-up to the election. DeJoy clashed with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), in a meeting on the issue earlier this week.

Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.), chair of the House subcommittee responsible for postal oversight, called the reorganization “a deliberate sabotage” to the nation’s mail service and a “Trojan Horse.”

David E. Williams, formerly chief operating officer and executive vice president, will take the role of chief logistics and processing operations officer, a step down for a trusted adviser to former postmaster general Megan Brennan and members of the agency’s governing board. Kevin L. McAdams, the vice president of delivery and retail operations and a 40-year USPS veteran, was not listed on the chart.

It’s not clear what the impact of all the changes will be. Dejoy wrote in an internal memo to employees obtained by The Washington Post that the new structure would create “clear lines of authority and accountability,” but others are more skeptical.

“One of the things that’s led to a lot of head scratching is how some of these folks have been reassigned. We’re not sure he put the right players in the right spots, but maybe he sees something we don’t,” said one person with deep knowledge of the leadership team, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to give a candid assessment. “We’re all going to wait and see and hope he’s done the right things, but who knows? It looks as if most of the people we’ve all worked with for years and years are still there, just moved around.”

The Postal Service will implement a hiring freeze, according to the reorganization announcement, and will ask for voluntary early retirements. It also will realign into three “operating units” — retail and delivery, logistics and processing, and commerce and business solutions — and scale down from seven regions to four.

The structure displaces postal executives with decades of experience, moving some to new positions and others out of leadership roles entirely, including McAdams, Williams and chief commerce and business solutions officer Jacqueline Krage Strako, who previously held the title of executive vice president and chief customer and marketing officer.

“As I said in the video remarks released on my first day, ‘I am decisive, and … when I see problems, I work to solve them.’ Early on, I concluded that our organizational structure was just such a problem to solve,” DeJoy wrote in his memo to employees. “I have decided we need to realign the organization to provide greater focus on the core aspects of our business and to give us a better chance for future success.”

But the changes worried postal analysts, who say the tone of DeJoy’s first eight weeks and his restructuring have recast the nation’s mail service as a for-profit arm of the government, rather than an essential service.

“He keeps referring to the USPS as ‘our business.’ But he’s been appointed postmaster general. You don’t run a business,” said Philip Rubio, a professor of history at North Carolina A&T State University and a former postal worker. “He’s not accountable to shareholders. He’s accountable to the American people and Congress.”

Earlier Friday, congressional Democrats demanded an investigation of DeJoy’s cost-cutting initiatives, which postal workers blame for delivery slowdowns.

A letter signed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) and seven other Democrats, including Connolly, urged Postal Service Inspector General Tammy L. Whitcomb to examine how DeJoy, came to implement policies that prohibit postal workers from taking overtime or making extra trips to deliver mail on time, and how such delays specifically affect election mail.

“Given the ongoing concerns about the adverse impacts of Trump Administration policies on the quality and efficiency of the Postal Service, we ask that you conduct an audit of all operational changes put in place by Mr. DeJoy and other Trump Administration officials in 2020,” the letter states.

It also asks Whitcomb to review the finances of DeJoy and his wife Aldona Wos, the ambassador-nominee to Canada. The couple’s holdings include between $30.1 million and $75.3 million in assets in USPS competitors or contractors, according to a financial disclosure Wos filed with the Office of Government Ethics when she was nominated for the ambassadorship. Postal Service mail processing contractor XPO Logistics — which acquired DeJoy’s company New Breed Logistics in 2014 — represents the vast majority of those holdings. Their combined stake in competitors UPS and trucking company J.B. Hunt is roughly $265,000.

DeJoy had 30 days from taking over the agency to disclose any assets that present a conflict of interest, according to the Postal Service. DeJoy in a statement said he had “done what is necessary to ensure that I am and will remain in compliance with those obligations.”

“We would welcome the Inspector General to look into the steps we are taking to make the Postal Service more efficient,” Postal Service spokesman David Partenheimer said. “She will find that much of what we are doing is designed to address recommendations that her office has made in recent years.”

Agapi Doulaveris, a spokesperson for the Office of Inspector General, said the department had received the letter, but could not comment on ongoing work.

“I would absolutely hope the inspector general would look into why the mail is being slowed, because that’s outrageous,” said Philip Rubio, a professor of history at North Carolina A&T State University and a former postal worker. “Especially during the pandemic and with America about to vote, this is the worst time to be changing policies.”

DeJoy met Wednesday with Pelosi, Schumer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to discuss the new mail-handling procedures and the Postal Service’s tenuous financial position. The agency is projected to run out of money between March and October 2021, though it just accessed a $10 billion Treasury loan authorized last week in an early coronavirus relief package.

During the USPS’s quarterly board of governors meeting Friday, DeJoy said he negotiated the loan terms with Mnuchin. Upon accessing the loan, the Postal Service, subject to confidentiality restrictions, will hand over proprietary contracts for its 10 largest service agreements with private sector shippers. Those businesses use the mail service for “last mile” package delivery from distribution centers to consumers’ homes or businesses.

Mnuchin had sought sweeping operational control of the Postal Service in previous loan terms, including provisions that would allow the Trump administration to approve senior postal personnel decisions, service contracts with third-party shippers, collective bargaining negotiation strategies and high package prices.

In April shortly after Congress authorized the loan, Trump called the Postal Service “a joke” and said he would not approve any emergency funding unless the USPS quadrupled package delivery prices, a move analysts say would quickly bankrupt the agency by chasing away customers to private-sector competitors.

DeJoy, at the governors meeting Friday, said that though he has a “good relationship” with Trump — he’s donated more than $2 million to the Trump campaign or Republican causes since 2016, and chaired the finance committee for the 2020 GOP convention — he does not take direction from Trump on postal issues.

“While I certainly have a good relationship with the President of the United States, the notion that I would ever make decisions concerning the Postal Service at the direction of the President, or anyone else in the administration, is wholly off-base,” he said. “I serve at the pleasure of the governors of the Postal Service, a group that is bipartisan by statute and that will evaluate my performance in a nonpartisan fashion.”

Coronavirus funding for the Postal Service — and Schumer and Pelosi’s demand that DeJoy roll back the cost-cutting policies — emerged as a sticking point between Democrats and the White House in negotiations on a “Phase IV” relief package. The House passed a package with $25 billion for the Postal Service that does not need to be repaid to replace the Treasury loan. The Trump administration has objected to any direct aid to the Postal Service.

 

[fraurosena]

5 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

 

I don't know how we will be able to undo all the damage

 

While I’m angered at the egregious and corrupt efforts to stymie the elections, I also see that the US will have a unique opportunity once Biden is elected. Not to undo the damage, but to build up again, not to what it was, but to something better, something that roots out the corruption and actually serves the people. I just hope they take that opportunity and run with it, not ruin it.

[47of74]

Nikki is now whining about a popcorn shipment being delayed. 

Quote

Nikki Haley tried to shame a popcorn retailer over a missed delivery, and other social media users blasted her.

Haley — President Donald Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations, former South Carolina governor and rumored 2024 presidential candidate — publicly called out the Popcorn Factory for apparently missing a birthday delivery to her nephew.

She ought to talk to fucknugget’s postmaster general if she has a problem.