A NEWSLETTER FROM DAVID CORN |
A NEWSLETTER FROM DAVID CORN |
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The Patriotism of Government Bureaucrats |
By David Corn July 1, 2023 |
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This Fourth of July, I’d like to salute some of the greatest patriots in the land: government bureaucrats.
I live in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area, where tens of thousands of federal civil service workers toil and reside. They are my neighbors. They are my fellow commuters. These are Americans who devote themselves to protecting us. They strive to make safe our food, drugs, cars, airplanes, financial institutions, and workplaces. They endeavor to keep our air and water clean and safeguard our national lands. They fund and manage research to combat diseases and to extend our knowledge of the universe. They assist our veterans. They help our farmers. They manage programs essential for the well-being of our elderly and low-income citizens. They represent us overseas and conduct humanitarian missions. And they do so much more.
It's a pity they are often denigrated and derided as pencil-pushing, inside-the-Beltway ne’er-do-wells staffing Kafkaesque bureaucracies that spend much and do little. Many could be pulling in higher salaries in the private sector. But they want to help. They want to contribute to the greater good. True, far from all actions of federal agencies are commendable. These departments and offices can be captured by special interests or guided by bad policies. But by and large, the Americans drawn to government work want to make our nation and our world a better place. That’s what I call patriotism.
I know smart and talented people who have spent much, if not all, of their adult lives employed at the EPA, the Labor Department, the Justice Department, the National Institutes of Health, the State Department, and other agencies where they put in long hours developing or implementing policies that will improve the lives of thousands (or millions) of Americans and others around the planet. These are admirable guys and gals in noble careers. And when you think of Washington as home to perhaps hundreds of thousands of such people, the city can seem a bit wondrous.
As we fire up the barbecue, wave flags at parades, and down another beer to celebrate the birth of our fragile republic, let’s hail the USA-loving civil servants that keep the ship of state moving forward. Particularly since they are in the crosshairs of the Trumpist right.
For years, the leading strategists of Trumpism have been plotting how to gain control of the federal workforce. Steve Bannon and others have declared war on what they call the “administrative state,” which in their minds includes and extends beyond the nefarious “Deep State” cabal that is always conspiring against Trump. They believe that Trump did not achieve many of his policy aims because the federal agencies were staffed with career professionals who thwarted his plans. Actually, Trump rarely turned his impulsive and vague policy aims into particular proposals. Remember Infrastructure Week...which did not happen? Or his purported but never-released health care plan that would provide Americans cheaper and better medical care? (Spoiler: He had no such plan.)
Nevertheless, Trump’s henchmen have cooked up a scheme to target federal civil service workers should Trump be restored to the White House. Call it the Schedule F Plot. It sounds wonky but it could dramatically change the government—and the nation.
At the end of Trump’s presidency, he signed an executive order that created a category of federal worker called Schedule F that covered possibly thousands of policy-related positions throughout the various agencies. Any employee assigned to Schedule F could lose civil service protections and be easily fired by the White House. At the time, University of Colorado, Boulder, professor Roger Pielke Jr. told Axios, “If you take how it's written at face value, [this executive order] has the potential to turn every government employee into a political appointee, who can be hired and fired at the whim of a political appointee or even the president."
The point was to allow Trump and his minions in the agencies to shit-can career professionals devoted to expertise-based policy—that is, employees serving the public interest instead of Trump’s political and personal interests. But with his stint in the White House at its end, Trump never had the chance to put this authority to use, and President Joe Biden rescinded the order. But had Trump possessed this power at the height of the Covid pandemic, he could have fired scientists and public health experts within the federal government who were warning of the crisis when Trump was trying to dismiss its significance. And he could have disappeared all sorts of mid-level professionals in the national security agencies whom he believed were Deep Statists pursuing him or his lieutenants.
Out of office, Trump has not given up on the idea of turning the executive branch into his personal fiefdom. At a rally last year, he declared, “We will pass critical reforms making every executive branch employee fireable by the president of the United States.”
Every executive branch employee? There are more than 2.1. million civilian service workers (not counting about half a million postal workers).
A president generally has a say in the hiring and firing of about 4,000 federal officials deemed “political appointees” in agencies and departments throughout the federal government. But the career folks are beyond a president’s reach. A revived Schedule F order could place up to 50,000 federal employees under the direct control of a president. (Here’s a good explanation of this plan.)
Forcing tens of thousands of government workers to be White House loyalists—who could lose their jobs and livelihoods at the snap of a president’s fingers—is the move of an authoritarian. We have seen Gov. Ron DeSantis take steps like this in Florida, as he has enacted legislation to seize control of public universities and colleges. (See Pema Levy’s comprehensive account of DeSantis’ efforts to create an autocracy in the Sunshine State.) Presumably, he, too, would attempt to turn the executive branch into his own duchy, if given the chance.
Trump thunders that he loves the United States. Then again, he refers to the January 6 rioters as “patriots.” But—no surprise—he has no greater love than his love for himself. And the power he lusts for is the power of an autocrat. If he ever regains the keys to the Oval Office, his goal would be to turn the federal workforce into a cadre of zombie Trump troops. Many of the people who now hold these jobs represent the best and brightest of our nation. They deserve our gratitude and, with authoritarian candidates angling for the White House, our protection.
Got anything to say about this item—or anything else? Email me at ourland@motherjones.com. |
In 1981, I shared a dump of an apartment on Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue, on which every single storefront was boarded up. The backside of this pad overlooked a crack alley. My roommate was Jamie Kitman, who would go on to become an accomplished journalist and a manager of rock bands, including They Might Be Giants, OK Go, and the Violent Femmes. This was the start of a lifelong friendship, and one of its many benefits for me was getting to know his father, Marvin Kitman.
Marvin was best-known as the wonderfully wry television critic for Newsday. But his career included a long span of clever and smart endeavors. There was his mock-run for the GOP presidential nomination in 1964. His slogan: “I would rather be president than write.” It was a play on Henry Clay’s famous remark: “I would rather be right than president.” (Jamie wrote about that campaign here.) Marvin founded a humor magazine called Monocle with my old boss Victor Navasky. And he penned a book about George Washington’s expense accounts, noting that Washington turned down a $6,000 salary offered by Congress but instead submitted expenses totaling $480,000. That would be $17 million today.
Marvin, who died this past week at the age of 93, was marvelously funny and kind-hearted. Sam Roberts well captured his impishness in a New York Times obituary. If you read it, you will smile. What could be a better tribute? |
The Our Land crew would like to have a few days to not think about Donald Trump, horrendous Supreme Court decisions, or the House Republicans—especially as we celebrate the birth of our great but troubled country. So we’re going to focus on grilling and chilling for a couple of days. We’ll see you later this coming week. |
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Dumbass Comment of the Week |
On Tuesday, I received a message from the judges: We have a winner; we’re done for the week. And it was tough to argue with them on this. Before turning to the victor, here are a few runners-up.
Let’s start with Joe Donnell. I try not to amplify the craziest of people. This is a big country, and there are a lot of nutballs out there. But Donnell is an elected state representative in South Dakota and a Republican. He recently appeared on a show hosted by Meri Crouley, who runs her own ministry, and revealed that Mount Rushmore is a “demonic” portal through which communism is spreading through the entire United States. At least, that’s what I think he said. The diehard researchers at Right Wing Watch caught this exchange:
What the Lord revealed to me is that Mount Rushmore has a direct ley line to Washington, D.C. And he said, basically, that as we continue to work in prayer and do the work of the ministry, that God was going to break that connection. Because in order to understand the spiritual realm of what we’re facing, we have to realize that in order for the enemy to do anything, he needs the agreement of human beings. In order to be empowered to do more damage, he needs the agreement of human beings, and oftentimes that comes in the form of an altar, an active altar that acts as a portal for demonic things… And God spoke to me [and] said, “When Donald Trump steps foot on this territory, there’s something that’s going to be done as far as the Constitution being upheld. It’s gonna bring a breakthrough with the Constitution.” And I kinda got the feeling that what we’re really dealing with in that portal was communism. That witchcraft altar and those things that are happening in the Black Hills; what we’re really dealing with is communism; it’s the ideology and all the demonic entities and spirits behind that.
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This is certainly a new take on the ending of North by Northwest—or the elevator pitch for the next National Treasure flick.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), the Trump-luvin’ former college football coach, is a font of idiocy. He recently observed, “I look at a white nationalist as a Trump Republican. That's what we're called all the time." And then he defended this comment. But that was no surprise. He has long been excoriated for being about as bright as a tackling dummy. This week he acted as if his constituents were dim bulbs. With Alabama designated to receive $1.4 billion to finance broadband access in underserved areas, Tuberville hailed the grant, as if he had helped bring these funds to his state: “Broadband is vital for the success of our rural communities and for our entire economy. Great to see Alabama receive crucial funds to boost ongoing broadband efforts.”
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The problem: Tuberville was one of the 30 Senate Republicans who voted against the legislation, backed by President Joe Biden, that appropriated these funds.
Other Republicans issued similar hypocritical remarks about broadband cash being received by their states and districts. But none of all this vote-against-then-take-credit-for shenanigans topped what Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) did this week. In a tweet, he issued a declaration: “I’m warning socialists and communists not to travel to Florida. They are not welcome in the Sunshine State.” |
Fully probing the utter stupidity of this remark could take up an entire issue of this newsletter. First, everyone in the United States who supports Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid is something of a socialist, whether they want to accept that or not. So is Scott telling Social Security recipients and Medicare beneficiaries to stay away? Nearly 5 million residents in Florida enjoy Social Security benefits, making the state No. 2, after California, in terms of receiving Social Security funds. Ditto for Medicare. Second, Rick Scott made his huge fortune in the health care business, which included running Columbia/HCA, the largest for-profit health care company in the United States that raked in gazillions of dollars through socialism—that is, Medicare and Medicaid. After the company was investigated for vastly defrauding these two programs, it paid out over $2 billion in fines and settlements. Yes, Scott made millions off these socialist endeavors, and his company ripped them off. Third, does Scott really want folks from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom (the NHS!), and other nations that have socialist parties and programs to keep out of his state and not spend their vacation money in Florida? Should only Ayn Rand fans visit Disney World?
I could go on and on about this remark. It is a good illustration of how dumb the GOP has become, as it relies on juvenile name-calling, thinking it’s cute to taunt Democrats as “socialists” and “communists.” But this is merely sophomoric red-baiting. And in this case, it’s self-defeating. Yeah, New York City liberals, stop vacationing in Florida. For prioritizing infantile trolling over common sense and the interests of his own state, Scott this week wins a no-expenses paid trip to Palookaville.
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There were many readers who said right on to my contemplation of John Durham’s false statements to Congress and how the media covers public officials who misrepresent facts and lie.
Mark Heinicke wrote:
It's my belief that social media multiply the spread of lies to the point where fewer and fewer believe the credibility of any news source—legitimate or not. How to counter this is one of the greatest challenges of our time. We are not going to get much help from the lumbering U.S. government, where congressional gridlock has become the rule and plutocrats quash movements against the status quo. The structure of the Constitution is partly to blame—the checks and balances we have valued for so long are antiquated mechanisms thwarting progress. To cope with the rate of change in technology, artificial intelligence in particular, only a parliamentary form of government can act swiftly enough to head off disaster.
I’m not sure a parliament is better suited to dealing with the challenges of AI and social media. But we can look toward Europe and see if that is the case. The big obstacle is probably the public. If citizens do not practice good information hygiene and if they do not demand that their leaders strive to protect and serve the truth, politicians are not likely to confront this knotty problem on their own. George Klipfel emailed:
I’m still consistently amazed at how many media outlets still use the word “misinformation” rather than “lies” to describe falsehoods, primarily from the right.
To say something is a lie is to evaluate the intent of the source, and many people in the media would rather abstain from such judgments. But as I’ve argued for decades, there are plenty of occasions when that verdict is justified, and reporters should not shy away from it.
My recent article about special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of Donald Trump and the civic need for him to go beyond the pilfered-documents case prompted a large number of (long) replies. Remember: Concise emails are much appreciated by the folks in the mailroom. It means less heavy lifting for them. Paul Roden shared this:
I agree that Jack Smith must do more. Trump must be indicted for sedition, tried, convicted, sentenced to the maximum, consecutive, not concurrent sentences under the law, with no possibility of a presidential pardon, parole, house arrest, dismissal of charges, commutation of sentences and fines. Trump must not be allowed ever to run for president or any other elected office in the land.
The only two things I fear are a hung jury in the Mar-a-Largo stolen-documents case and in the January 6 insurrection cases and for Trump appealing the case to his Supreme Court, saying he should be acquitted because the jury pool was tainted by all the adverse publicity and he was not given a fair trial. He will claim to the bitter end that he was treated very unfairly by the media and that this was the Deep State, the Democrats witch hunt and the corrupt DOJ and special counsel Jack's Smith's vendetta against him.
I am mostly confident that Smith and his team are looking for the strongest case or cases they can bring against Trump. They have the high burden of having to persuade a jury, and that, no doubt, will be a big factor in deciding what other prosecutions they can mount. As Paul points out, there will likely be many appeals in the Mar-a-Lago case and in any additional prosecutions of Trump that Smith might initiate. There is a long winding road ahead. Dirk Faegre declared his confidence in Smith:
When we look back at the documents case, we realize how much work the Jack Smith team did. It was obviously huge. It looked simple in the early stages: The guy took and kept the documents and refused to give 'em back. What's the problem with a quick indictment? Lots—that's what. There were hundreds of classified docs, and they had to select the ones that would work in a trial. That cannot be simple. Working to flip witnesses. Getting the closed-circuit video. And on and on and on. We now believe it was screamingly fast work by Smith.
It's clear he's doing the same with the January 6 case. And it's a lot more complicated and will involve indictments of others beyond Trump. We're into trusting Jack Smith & Co. There's no grass growing under his feet! Jack Hafeli wrote:
The 37 charges against Trump, which might feel like charging Capone with tax evasion, should not be considered a capitulation. After all, it was enough to get Capone sentenced to 11 years in Alcatraz. That's not nothing, and more than enough to feel some accountability had been delivered to Trump.
On the other hand, I have felt for some time that Trump should be brought up on RICO charges. Trump's so-called coded language to get others to commit crimes on his behalf sounds strikingly similar to what put John Gotti away. Both Rolling Stone and the Hill have written recently about the likelihood that the state of Georgia may come out with racketeering charges. (Both cite the Washington Post as publishing the story first, but I can't get past the subscription wall to see it.) What are your thoughts on this?
For those who can pass through the Washington Post paywall, this is the story. As I’ve noted, Trump does act like a slippery mob boss. Racketeering laws were developed to deal with such criminals. If they are part of a conspiracy or criminal enterprise—but don’t directly participate in the worst misdeeds—they can still be held accountable. It may be hard to build a legal case of this sort, but thematically it does seem appropriate for the January 6 assault on American democracy.
Donald Price had a question:
Why has Trump not been charged under a statute that will disqualify him from holding Federal office, such as 18 U.S. Code § 2071 or other?
Donald was referring to a federal law that states:
Whoever, having the custody of any such record, proceeding, map, book, document, paper, or other thing, willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies, or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both; and shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States.
At first glance, it seems this might apply to Trump. I’m no lawyer, but my hunch is that this wording presents a high level of intent, meaning a prosecutor would have to prove that Trump acted “willfully” and knew it was illegal to take this material. His defense, of course, would be that he believed he had the right to do so. Also, the previous paragraph of this law refers to documents “filed or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court of the United States, or in any public office, or with any judicial or public officer of the United States.” Maybe this definition does not apply to the Trump material? And given the disqualification penalty, a prosecutor might fret that an indictment under this law would appear too political. All this is to say that these prosecutorial decisions are complicated and nuanced. So far, Smith seems to be on the ball. But there’s much to come upon which he will be judged.
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“Moxie, why are you shaking so much? It’s just a grooming.” “Maybe you won’t come back for me.”
“There is no chance of that.” “Something might happen. An earthquake. A heart attack. A kidnapping. How can you know nothing like that will happen?” “Nothing will happen. I promise you. I know.”
“You lie like a...” |
Read Recent Issues of Our Land |
June 27, 2023: When lying doesn’t matter (including John Durham’s testimony); Hightown, a crime drama that explores the underside of Cape Cod; and more. June 24, 2023: Why Jack Smith must go farther; Dumbass Comment of the Week (the Trump and DeSantis war rooms); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more. June 21, 2023: How Daniel Ellsberg changed the world—and my life; how you can support Our Land; Loves Comes to Buildings on Fire’s love letter to the NYC music scene of the 1970s; and more.
June 17, 2023: How dangerous is Elon Musk?; anatomy of a (No Labels) scoop; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Fox News); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more. June 13, 2023: HBO’s brilliant Reality—and my appearance in it; Jenny Lewis’ rocks mid-life; and more.
June 10, 2023: Pat Robertson’s obits left out a key fact: his crazy antisemitic conspiracy theory; how best to post a Santos scoop; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Jay Monahan); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.
June 6, 2023: Mike Pence and the right’s revival of its war on gay America; CNN CEO’s big fail; 65 and a bad day to get stranded on Earth; Joy Oladokun’s effort to be the “Black Bruce Springsteen; and more.
June 3, 2023: What the GOP’s hostage-taking in the debt ceiling fight tells us about regulating rogue AI; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Jenna Ellis and Glenn Greenwald); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.
May 31, 2023: What the hell is Ron DeSantis thinking?; Moonage Daydream is too dreamy; Tina Turner’s “Whole Lotta Love”; and more.
May 27, 2023: How the media aid and abet GOP hostage-takers; Henry Kissinger at 100, still a war criminal; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Pat McCrory); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more. |
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Got suggestions, comments, complaints, tips related to any of the above, or anything else? Email me at ourland@motherjones.com. |
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