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  #1  
Old 10-20-2017, 12:49 PM
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How to stop a virus, how to take a census, how to determine if some foreign country is seeking to obtain a nuclear weapon or if North Korean missiles can reach Kansas City: these are enduring technical problems. The people appointed by a newly elected president to solve these problems have roughly 75 days to learn from their predecessors. After the inauguration, a lot of deeply knowledgeable people will scatter to the four winds and be forbidden, by federal law, from initiating any contact with their replacements.

A month after the election Thomas Pyle, a former lobbyist for Koch Industries, arrived for a meeting with Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, Deputy Secretary Sherwood-Randall, and Knobloch. Moniz is a nuclear physicist, then on leave from M.I.T., who had served as deputy secretary during the Clinton administration and is widely viewed, even by many Republicans, as understanding and loving the D.O.E. better than any person on earth. Pyle appeared to have no interest in anything he had to say. “He did not seem motivated to spend a lot of time understanding the place,” says Sherwood-Randall. “He didn’t bring a pencil or a piece of paper. He didn’t ask questions. He spent an hour. That was it. He never asked to meet with us again.”

Pyle then vanished from the scene. He was replaced by a handful of young ideologues who called themselves “the Beachhead Team.” “They mainly ran around the building insulting people,” says a former Obama official. “There was a mentality that everything that government does is stupid and bad and the people are stupid and bad,” says another.

Across the federal government the Trump people weren’t anywhere to be found. Between the election and the inauguration not a single Trump representative set foot inside the Department of Agriculture, for example. The Department of Agriculture has employees or contractors in every county in the United States, and the Trump people seemed simply to be ignoring the place. Where they did turn up inside the federal government, they appeared confused and unprepared. A small group attended a briefing at the State Department, for instance, only to learn that the briefings they needed to hear were classified. None of the Trump people had security clearance—or, for that matter, any experience in foreign policy—and so they weren’t allowed to receive an education.

The one concrete action the Trump transition team took before Inauguration Day was to clear the D.O.E. and other federal agencies of people appointed by Obama. This was a loss. A lunch or two with the chief financial officer might have alerted the new administration to some of the terrifying risks they were leaving essentially unmanaged. Roughly half of the D.O.E.’s annual budget is spent on maintaining and guarding our nuclear arsenal, for instance. Two billion of that goes to hunting down weapons-grade plutonium and uranium at loose in the world so that it doesn’t fall into the hands of terrorists. In just the past eight years the D.O.E.’s National Nuclear Security Administration has collected enough material to make 160 nuclear bombs. The department trains every international atomic-energy inspector; if nuclear power plants around the world are not producing weapons-grade material on the sly by reprocessing spent fuel rods and recovering plutonium, it’s because of these people.

-Michael Lewis. Entire article in September's "Vanity Fair".
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Old 10-20-2017, 12:57 PM
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How to stop a virus, how to take a census, how to determine if some foreign country is seeking to obtain a nuclear weapon or if North Korean missiles can reach Kansas City: these are enduring technical problems. The people appointed by a newly elected president to solve these problems have roughly 75 days to learn from their predecessors. After the inauguration, a lot of deeply knowledgeable people will scatter to the four winds and be forbidden, by federal law, from initiating any contact with their replacements.

A month after the election Thomas Pyle, a former lobbyist for Koch Industries, arrived for a meeting with Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, Deputy Secretary Sherwood-Randall, and Knobloch. Moniz is a nuclear physicist, then on leave from M.I.T., who had served as deputy secretary during the Clinton administration and is widely viewed, even by many Republicans, as understanding and loving the D.O.E. better than any person on earth. Pyle appeared to have no interest in anything he had to say. “He did not seem motivated to spend a lot of time understanding the place,” says Sherwood-Randall. “He didn’t bring a pencil or a piece of paper. He didn’t ask questions. He spent an hour. That was it. He never asked to meet with us again.”

Pyle then vanished from the scene. He was replaced by a handful of young ideologues who called themselves “the Beachhead Team.” “They mainly ran around the building insulting people,” says a former Obama official. “There was a mentality that everything that government does is stupid and bad and the people are stupid and bad,” says another.

Across the federal government the Trump people weren’t anywhere to be found. Between the election and the inauguration not a single Trump representative set foot inside the Department of Agriculture, for example. The Department of Agriculture has employees or contractors in every county in the United States, and the Trump people seemed simply to be ignoring the place. Where they did turn up inside the federal government, they appeared confused and unprepared. A small group attended a briefing at the State Department, for instance, only to learn that the briefings they needed to hear were classified. None of the Trump people had security clearance—or, for that matter, any experience in foreign policy—and so they weren’t allowed to receive an education.

The one concrete action the Trump transition team took before Inauguration Day was to clear the D.O.E. and other federal agencies of people appointed by Obama. This was a loss. A lunch or two with the chief financial officer might have alerted the new administration to some of the terrifying risks they were leaving essentially unmanaged. Roughly half of the D.O.E.’s annual budget is spent on maintaining and guarding our nuclear arsenal, for instance. Two billion of that goes to hunting down weapons-grade plutonium and uranium at loose in the world so that it doesn’t fall into the hands of terrorists. In just the past eight years the D.O.E.’s National Nuclear Security Administration has collected enough material to make 160 nuclear bombs. The department trains every international atomic-energy inspector; if nuclear power plants around the world are not producing weapons-grade material on the sly by reprocessing spent fuel rods and recovering plutonium, it’s because of these people.
Not surprising at all....

"Part of the problem stems from the Trump administration’s criteria for hiring staffers and top political appointees. Potential candidates must be loyal to the administration and not have spoken harshly about the president during the campaign.

That has created a particular problem when it comes to filling national security jobs, because scores of Republican experts, many of whom served in the George W. Bush administration, signed a letter criticizing the future president before the election.

Many experienced Republicans who ordinarily would have vied for middle- and top-level posts under a Republican president also decided to sit out the Trump administration in January, starving the president of choices when it came to picking appointees.

The president himself seems willing to tolerate vacancies indefinitely."


Kelly tries to get empty administration jobs filled fast - POLITICO
  #3  
Old 10-20-2017, 12:59 PM
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By the way, this is dated TODAY...

"At the State Department, more than 78 jobs do not have a nominee out of 149 key positions, and 32 countries still don’t have ambassadors in place, according to data kept by the non-partisan Partnership for Public Service.

The Treasury Department has 15 key slots open out of 28 significant Senate confirmed positions as the White House dives into selling tax reform.

Just last week, Treasury announced it would not fill its No. 2 deputy secretary slot after a second candidate dropped out of the running for it.

Kelly’s own former job remains open two and a half months after he moved to the White House, with Trump nominating Kelly’s No. 2 Kirstjen Nielsen this week after other potential nominees were passed over."


Kelly tries to get empty administration jobs filled fast - POLITICO
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Old 10-20-2017, 01:04 PM
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Not surprising at all....

"Part of the problem stems from the Trump administration’s criteria for hiring staffers and top political appointees. Potential candidates must be loyal to the administration and not have spoken harshly about the president during the campaign.

That has created a particular problem when it comes to filling national security jobs, because scores of Republican experts, many of whom served in the George W. Bush administration, signed a letter criticizing the future president before the election.

Many experienced Republicans who ordinarily would have vied for middle- and top-level posts under a Republican president also decided to sit out the Trump administration in January, starving the president of choices when it came to picking appointees.

The president himself seems willing to tolerate vacancies indefinitely."


Kelly tries to get empty administration jobs filled fast - POLITICO

A POLITICO review of dozens of résumés from political appointees to USDA shows the agency has been stocked with Trump campaign staff and volunteers who in many cases demonstrated little to no experience with federal policy, let alone deep roots in agriculture. But of the 42 résumés POLITICO reviewed, 22 cited Trump campaign experience. And based on their résumés, some of those appointees appear to lack credentials, such as a college degree, required to qualify for higher government salaries.

The theme that emerges is pretty clear: What do you have to do to get an administration job? Work on the campaign.

Also in the ranks of USDA political appointees are the scented-candle company owner; a clerk at AT&T; a Republican National Committee intern; a part-time executive assistant and rental property manager; and a former Washington state senator who mentioned on his résumé that he was the first elected official in his state to back Trump's candidacy.
  #5  
Old 10-20-2017, 02:00 PM
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Could it be that the bountiful redundancy that exists in Washington creating bloat for all the reasons mentioned.

Nah that would not make for a good solid anti Trump article.
  #6  
Old 10-20-2017, 02:07 PM
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Could it be that the bountiful redundancy that exists in Washington creating bloat for all the reasons mentioned.

Nah that would not make for a good solid anti Trump article.
No, but you would know that if you actually read the links. Actually, it appears the "bloat" is growing BUT,
  #7  
Old 10-20-2017, 02:10 PM
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How to stop a virus, how to take a census, how to determine if some foreign country is seeking to obtain a nuclear weapon or if North Korean missiles can reach Kansas City: these are enduring technical problems. The people appointed by a newly elected president to solve these problems have roughly 75 days to learn from their predecessors. After the inauguration, a lot of deeply knowledgeable people will scatter to the four winds and be forbidden, by federal law, from initiating any contact with their replacements.

A month after the election Thomas Pyle, a former lobbyist for Koch Industries, arrived for a meeting with Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, Deputy Secretary Sherwood-Randall, and Knobloch. Moniz is a nuclear physicist, then on leave from M.I.T., who had served as deputy secretary during the Clinton administration and is widely viewed, even by many Republicans, as understanding and loving the D.O.E. better than any person on earth. Pyle appeared to have no interest in anything he had to say. “He did not seem motivated to spend a lot of time understanding the place,” says Sherwood-Randall. “He didn’t bring a pencil or a piece of paper. He didn’t ask questions. He spent an hour. That was it. He never asked to meet with us again.”

Pyle then vanished from the scene. He was replaced by a handful of young ideologues who called themselves “the Beachhead Team.” “They mainly ran around the building insulting people,” says a former Obama official. “There was a mentality that everything that government does is stupid and bad and the people are stupid and bad,” says another.

Across the federal government the Trump people weren’t anywhere to be found. Between the election and the inauguration not a single Trump representative set foot inside the Department of Agriculture, for example. The Department of Agriculture has employees or contractors in every county in the United States, and the Trump people seemed simply to be ignoring the place. Where they did turn up inside the federal government, they appeared confused and unprepared. A small group attended a briefing at the State Department, for instance, only to learn that the briefings they needed to hear were classified. None of the Trump people had security clearance—or, for that matter, any experience in foreign policy—and so they weren’t allowed to receive an education.

The one concrete action the Trump transition team took before Inauguration Day was to clear the D.O.E. and other federal agencies of people appointed by Obama. This was a loss. A lunch or two with the chief financial officer might have alerted the new administration to some of the terrifying risks they were leaving essentially unmanaged. Roughly half of the D.O.E.’s annual budget is spent on maintaining and guarding our nuclear arsenal, for instance. Two billion of that goes to hunting down weapons-grade plutonium and uranium at loose in the world so that it doesn’t fall into the hands of terrorists. In just the past eight years the D.O.E.’s National Nuclear Security Administration has collected enough material to make 160 nuclear bombs. The department trains every international atomic-energy inspector; if nuclear power plants around the world are not producing weapons-grade material on the sly by reprocessing spent fuel rods and recovering plutonium, it’s because of these people.

-Michael Lewis. Entire article in September's "Vanity Fair".

Link don't paste. Your sourcing is often questionable.
  #8  
Old 10-20-2017, 02:13 PM
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Default US Department of Energy

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Originally Posted by graciegirl View Post
Link don't paste. Your sourcing is often questionable.


You mean like this ? Lol

These Are The 10 Most Redneck Cities In Ohio - RoadSnacks


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  #9  
Old 10-20-2017, 02:23 PM
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Link don't paste. Your sourcing is often questionable.
Why the Scariest Nuclear Threat May Be Coming from Inside the White House | Vanity Fair

Perhaps you should learn how to find these.
  #10  
Old 10-20-2017, 02:28 PM
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You mean like this ? Lol

These Are The 10 Most Redneck Cities In Ohio - RoadSnacks


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Wiley. Your mom dresses you funny.
  #11  
Old 10-20-2017, 02:36 PM
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Originally Posted by graciegirl View Post
Wiley. Your mom dresses you funny.


Lol


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  #12  
Old 10-20-2017, 02:58 PM
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i did not see one post that addressed the jittery pokery of the democrats who have intentionally misled with phony objections and questions on many of Trumps picks.

the obvious intent is another means of obstructing .

and the same suspects keeps popping up. they are called the press, the Establishment and the Democrats such as Obama who is leading the charge. its all about stopping Trump by hook or crook. Its a end justifies the means at any costs. Its morally wrong depraved unintelligent

Personal Best Regards:
  #13  
Old 10-20-2017, 04:07 PM
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Originally Posted by Guest
i did not see one post that addressed the jittery pokery of the democrats who have intentionally misled with phony objections and questions on many of Trumps picks.

the obvious intent is another means of obstructing .

and the same suspects keeps popping up. they are called the press, the Establishment and the Democrats such as Obama who is leading the charge. its all about stopping Trump by hook or crook. Its a end justifies the means at any costs. Its morally wrong depraved unintelligent

Personal Best Regards:
Did you read the link at all, or do you just randomly jump the gun.

They are not even nominating anyone. You always go for the throat with no knowledge
  #14  
Old 10-20-2017, 04:18 PM
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Thanks for the link. Since I didn't POST a link, I don't know why the poster said my links don't work...but I did source my information, as you note.
  #15  
Old 10-20-2017, 04:21 PM
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Originally Posted by Guest
i did not see one post that addressed the jittery pokery of the democrats who have intentionally misled with phony objections and questions on many of Trumps picks.

the obvious intent is another means of obstructing .

and the same suspects keeps popping up. they are called the press, the Establishment and the Democrats such as Obama who is leading the charge. its all about stopping Trump by hook or crook. Its a end justifies the means at any costs. Its morally wrong depraved unintelligent

Personal Best Regards:
Goodness me, it sounds like the whole world is against Trump. Wait...they are. Except for 30% of the Americans who are Fox watchers and Limbaugh listeners.
 

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