Mark Shea
Dave Griffey at Daffey Thoughts directs our attention to a superb post in reference to the anti-Trump hysteria that has possessed the left:
Or Deus Vult for you sticklers out there. To read some anti-Trump Catholics, you’d think opposition to Trump is all one needs for salvation. Embrace evil, teach heresy, endorse blasphemy, it matters not. Just go on crusade against Trump and you are in the good graces of, well, people who think a lot about their political opinions.
Thank goodness there are saner minds out there, like that of Michael Flynn. No, not that Michael Flynn. This Michael Flynn, who looked at the Big Ban controversy and discovered there really is a problem in our current state of affairs. And it isn’t always ‘them’.
Read on, and you’ll discover a crack in the foundation that is growing, and growing, and growing. Trump will last four years or less. But the threats to our nation’s future that are rising in the current melee – courtesy of both sides – will last.
Go here to comment. Since Dave posts at Patheos, that home of the unhinged left, the left wing comments are often a hoot. Go here to read the TOF post: The Rule of Law:
A slow-motion Contitutional crisis is brewing. The Permanent Bureaucracy is in revolt.
While many federal workers have begun to consider avenues of dissent only since the inauguration, others had been preparing for weeks. In the last days of Obama’s tenure, several departments catalogued data and reports and got them into the hands of allies outside the government.
That ought to seem dangerous to anyone who loves democracy. But then, the Enlightened regard the American people as irredeemably stoopid.
the federal employees have been “in regular consultation with recently departed Obama-era political appointees about what they can do to push back against the new president’s initiatives. Some federal employees have set up social media accounts to anonymously leak word of changes that Trump appointees are trying to make.”
IOW to strategize ways to undermine Trump they are setting up sites like alt-DOJ or alt-EPA and so on. This is not entirely new, only more extreme. Former Bush administration official Hans von Spakovsky told Independent Journal Review that
“I saw this same kind of behavior amongst career lawyers inside the Justice Department during the George W. Bush administration; although, they were not quite as blatant about it as these federal employees.”
Jerry Pournelle writes:
Apparently I am nearly alone in seeing this judicial revolt as a true constitutional crisis, fully deserving impeachments by the House even though Senate convictions are unlikely. I am not arguing the wisdom of Mr. Trump’s immigration executive orders, other than to say they are hardly unexpected given his campaign; but their legality is manifest. Even those disliking them say so. The Constitution gives Federal authorities control over immigration; not states. That’s the Congress and the President; there might be room for judicial mediation if these two branches were in serious dispute on this, but they have not been asked.Black letter law gives the President authority to suspend or delay admitting any class of immigrant he sees fit if he declares it a matter of national security. That law has been in effect for a long time. Mr. Obama used it in reverse to admit migrants and refugees; he did not see them as a threat to national security. That was his prerogative as President, whether we agree or not. A judge could not have ruled that he was wrong. Congress could impeach him, or strip him of the power (although he could veto that legislation; a simple majority ruling would not be sufficient). Neither was done and his rulings stood. The same is true now with Trump: he has black letter law on his side.Mr. Trump does. This decision might be questioned by Congress, but even Congress has no authority to stop his actions without considerable more procedure than we have seen, and as a matter of fact it will not do so. So the President takes an action that his predecessor says is wrong, and the Courts suspend the order, because they do not find that this is a national security issue. That is not for them to find. That is a matter for the President and Congress.This is a grave constitutional crisis, and it does not look like ending well.
All of this is independent of whether one likes Mr. Trump or approves of his EO. TOF does neither. The EO is no more likely to make America safer than Dodd-Frank is to duck the next Juglar Cycle. It amounts, as did so many past laws and orders, to “virtue signalling.” Just a different set of virtues signaled to a different set of people. This is invisible to the Usual Suspects because they don’t talk to Those People. But all of the rioting and protests and near-treasonous activities within the Permanent Bureaucracy will do far more to solidify the coalition that elected Trump than it can do to undermine him, for every such action taken will be seen as further proof that he was right.
His opponents are so over-the-top that routine events, like criticism of judges, is treated not only as beyond the pale but as unprecedented, simply because Mr. Trump has done so. What was applauded in one administration causes attacks of the vapors and fits of pearl-clutching in another. There is so much noise on the channel regarding trivia that no one is conducting triage on Trump actions or hearing the signal.
“Foolish though the recently elected president may be, the precedent of having unelected officials within the government try to destroy or route around a chief executive they don’t like is terrible. No matter how incompetent or misguided our president may be, it’s deeply worrying to move towards a system in which the government’s powerful bureaucracies take on and try to get rid of elected officials they don’t like. We as voters have no way to either replace those bureaucracies nor to redirect them. Our system of government relies upon them following the orders of the executive and the legislature. If they begin to see themselves as above that, we risk a tyranny of ‘the experts’ which would probably do none of us (in the long term, not even the experts) any good.”
— Darwin Catholic
This ridiculous charge that the federal Civil Service is opposed to the Trump Administration is deeply offensive to the majority of us. Most of us do our jobs, no matter who is President. We did what we were directed to do under President Obama and we will do what we are directed to do under President Trump. That is the reality for the vast, vast, VAST majority of us.
There is a small cadre of morons who fail to see that no administration gives a thought to our work. They do not grasp that what we do is so mundane that it is inconsequential to upper management, except in the aggregate. This is as it should be since the People are not served by our political leanings, they are served by our getting their permit completed quickly, properly, and efficiently… Or, whatever other mundane task it is that these complaining idiots, utterly oblivious to how blessed they are to even HAVE a job that provides set pay and benefits and the best protections on the planet… (Protections that drive managers like me through the roof with irritation at not being lawfully able to remove bad employees.)
This “oh my Gosh! The world is ending” minority is extremely vocal while the majority are just rolling along, doing what they have always done. There is another group of folks, mostly law enforcement, who are positively pumped up by Trump’s win, following six years of not enforcing most of our federal laws. For us, sitting a desk and passing on investigations because they do not fit the approved narrative has been a horror. We are excited, not because we are Republicans or anything but because you hired us to enforce the law and that is what we WANT to do.
So, please don’t buy this lie that the federal Civil Service is upset by a Trump win. It isn’t true.
David, you’re not the only civil servant (or former civil servant) around here.
And as one, surely you know that it doesn’t take a huge minority to gum up the works and disrupt plans.
If you want to disrupt the meme that you’re a monolithic group (which nobody around here has said), then don’t phrase things as if you’re a monolithic group. Otherwise anybody can disprove you by simply pointing to any federal employee unhappy with Trump – which there are plenty.
I do not work in govt, but from my observation of the US NRC inspectors at commercial nuclear power plants, and US NRC auditors and reviewers over nuclear steam supply companies like mine, what David Spaulding writes is 100% correct. With the notable exception of Gregory Jackzo, former NRC Chairperson appointed by the Obamanation of Desolation, even people as high up as Commissioners are usually quite apolitical. They have a job to do – nuclear safety – and it doesn’t matter which political party is in charge, nor should it. Anti-nuke nut case Jackzo was sadly an exception to that rule.
Re: General Flynn. if the treasonous spooks had acted on intel concerning a jihadi murderer, the left would be screaming that they first didn’t get a warrant.
Lets’ shut down the domstic big data spying piut inb y Bush and Obama and fire all the NSA spies. Its’ a start, and like the fed they have been consistently ineffective in keeping us safe.
Mark-who should be mortified upon re-reading that paragraph. It’s utilitarian in that it provides additional evidentiary support for the conclusion that everything that lunatic writes is bullshit.
Advice concerning the idiotic left’s recent embrace of violence: don’t bring a baseball bat to a gun fight. I’m going to the range this afternoon. There are enough bullets to make a dent in the problem.
This is a problem which could be addressed, if the Senate Republican caucus was ever interested in accomplishing much of anything (rather than playing footsie with each other and tossing bon bons at Mr. Donohue of the Chamber of Commerce.
Thank you for the correction, Mr. Winchester. I’ll be sure to be more exact in my language in the future.
NP David. Hold the line. The honest man must always be vigilant against the dishonest one. Interesting times ahead for the civil servant.
What is blinding Trump protesters that they cannot see why Donald Trump is such a godsend to our country? I don’t understand the hatred. Trump will make our country great again or at least try. Obama, on the other hand, was out to destroy our way of life and was in league with the powers of darkness. One can only conclude that Trump protestors are inspired by the devil. Anyone have the slightest disagreement with this observation?
Let us not ascribe to Satan what can be explained otherwise. Under Obama I think leftists in this country thought they had reached the promised land. Even as they lost control of Congress and were decimated at the State level, they clung to this belief. When Trump, Donald Trump!, defeated the chosen successor of Obama, they suddenly had a crisis of faith, and that is precisely the source of their hysteria.
Correct, Mac. I think “The Spanish Inquisition” is another metaphor for this leftist “pomp and circumstances.”
Really! You need to look at reality. Trump is a minor threat to what has been going on in this Nation for the last 100 years.
I have never, in my lifetime, even during the Reagan era, known so many good and godly people, who have and will continue, to pray for Donald Trump’s candidacy and presidency. Is he a perfect man-a Saint? No. Is he the only man who could have accomplished what he has?yes! We will continue to pray daily for this President and for our Country!
I wish these hysterical ninnies would find out how the Nuclear Football actually works….
Seriously, they think, what, Mattis is going to roll over and give Trump whatever he wants when it comes to launching nukes? Pull the other one, it’s got bells on.
https://youtu.be/2w5VyURV8nk
(This is ignoring the whole “Destroy all human life” thing.)
Hildebeast in a drunken fit of rage would have been a safer bet?
The Left is apoplectic over the election of Trump. He has upset their rotten applecart and threatens to undo all their efforts to legislate guns, global climate (Where is Canute when we need him?), open borders, population control, the cashless society, and a host of other things are all part of the global government agenda of the Left. Trump’s election, the likely election of Marine LePen in France, and Brexit in the UK are all part of a widespread awakening to the insidious agenda of the Left. Our main stream media is a propaganda machine for the Left. Our schools have become training camps for little socialist zombies. Our entertainment sector is a pleasure pill factory to keep the population distracted and apathetic. The parties of the Left are substantially inhabited by atheists who seek to free us from traditional morality and enslave us to the rule of philosopher kings. Bitter Clingers! Unite!
the likely election of Marine LePen in France,
She’s a good bet to win a plurality in the 1st round of the Presidential election, but the polls on contingencies show her being shellacked in a runoff by either M. Fillion or M. Macron. As French pols go, M. Fillion is a good guy. M. Macron is a Europhile screwball.
It is the leftover group of Obama loyalists that think they cannot be removed from the NSA/CIA, etc. believe in the ‘Shadow’ government being created by Obama and funded by Soros, who as a Jew during WW2 helped Hitler round up Jews for the concentration camps.
The Department of Justice needs to bring Obama and Soros into Court and shut down the illegal funding thru a suppose nonpolitical group.
I have no problem agreeing that we can look at chaotic daily events now, and at the seemingly willful blindness of Trump protestors, and ascribe this dis-orientation or confusion to the influence of the devil.
If people are not “prayed up” if we are out on a limb without our full armor, if we drift away from the safety of the sheepfold, we can all be so easily targeted by that figure of the shadows known as Satan.who does not relent.
Christ Jesus Victor! Christ Jesus Ruler!
“David, you’re not the only civil servant (or former civil servant) around here.
And as one, surely you know that it doesn’t take a huge minority to gum up the works and disrupt plans.”
Uh. If you actually have any experience dealing with beaureaucrat scrim the outside, you will know for a fact that it only takes ONE to cause a huge problem on multiple levels.
“One can only conclude that Trump protestors are inspired by the devil. Anyone have the slightest disagreement with this observation?”
The Bible says that Satan is a liar, the Father of Lies, a murderer, and that he comes to kill, steel, & destroy. These rioters are doing ALL of these things in kind. They may not know it, but Satan is indeed their inspiration.
Some federal agencies are stacked with ideologues. The Department of Education is one; EPA is another. The Civil rights division of the Department of Justice is still another. In everything they do they try to put their thumb on the scale.
Now that I have unburdened myself via the rant posted above, I may soberly suggest the Trump Administration attend itself to necessary business of turning out the politically appointed holdovers from the Obama Maladministration. Their appointments are pro tempore and the sooner they go the better. Any others who become insubordinate must go as well. As to the “Shadow Government” of Obama, let that man and his coconspirators take care. We are currently at war. Beware actions that are tantamount to treason. We notice that Hillary has maintained a measured silence. After all, why jiggle all those skeletons in her closet? Whether she should be prosecuted is for others to determine. Perhaps the integrity of the rule of law demands it, rather than petty vindictiveness on anyone’s part. Then, would that do more harm than good?
There’s quite a bloc of federal agencies begging to be dissolved, reconstituted, or replaced. Since there isn’t any candy in it for Mr. Donohue of the Chamber of Commerce, I’ll wager the Republican majority in the Senate will block any attempts.
Art Deco wrote, “[T]he polls on contingencies show her being shellacked in a runoff by either M. Fillion or M. Macron…”
You are right, the FN will gain about 35% in the 1st ballot and, in the run-off, the other 65% will vote for the 2nd candidate, whoever he is. The fact that M. Fillon is implicated in a financial scandal and M. Macron has no track-record in electoral politics probably means it will be he. The fact that he is an Enarch & Sciences Po graduate and worked for Rothschilds means that many will see him as a safe pair of hands.
I seem to recall there is a passage in the bible where the evil conspire to bring down the good because he forces them to confront their sin. We all knew that Donald Trump was raw and imperfect but he is who we have and, God willing, will succeed in doing what is right. For those who deny that the civil service is obstructionist, they need only look at the Department of Education and the EPA. David Spaulding is about half right. There is good and bad in the rank and file. Speaking as one who spent thirty years in DOD, I have seen both. The few bad can undo the work of many more of the good. If that is kept in mind, the problems can be more easily identified and dealt with. The most significant factor blocking successful government today, no matter how you define it, is simply that government has passed the size limit to be effective. There is a natural desire to control and to grow and this has redounded to just the opposite.