Sunday, April 29, 2018
Neon Leon: A Trumpian Vision of Utopia
Neon Leon: A Trumpian Vision of Utopia: Raising the Red Warning Flags Again ...
A Trumpian Vision of Utopia
 |
| Raising the Red Warning Flags Again |
 |
| The Mantra of Big Brother in the movie, "1984" |
The time has come for Americans to take a hard look at what is happening to our national values and what kind of nation we choose to be in the foreseeable future.
In order to see what the future holds, it is necessary to look back first. The oft repeated warning that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it may have become a cliche' but it still rings true.
And for me, the work of two of America's greatest writers, George Orwell and Sinclair Lewis, still serve as a reminder that democracy is a messy and frail enterprise dependent on citizens who cherish freedom so much that they will not only die to protect it in foreign wars, but also stand in peaceful resistance at home against
politicians peddling "lofty" plans to remove some of their hard won rights enshrined in our constitution. They are the novelists who long ago foresaw the threats to democracy from communism and fascism.
The latter, in my opinion, is emerging again, as President Trump works to plant the flag of Make America Great Again in a 1950's American landscape; a mythical and unattainable Utopia which appeals to those who remember when a high school education was sufficient for a man to land a secure job in the huge manufacturing sector while his wife "happily" labored at home.
In order to see what the future holds, it is necessary to look back first. The oft repeated warning that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it may have become a cliche' but it still rings true.
And for me, the work of two of America's greatest writers, George Orwell and Sinclair Lewis, still serve as a reminder that democracy is a messy and frail enterprise dependent on citizens who cherish freedom so much that they will not only die to protect it in foreign wars, but also stand in peaceful resistance at home against
politicians peddling "lofty" plans to remove some of their hard won rights enshrined in our constitution. They are the novelists who long ago foresaw the threats to democracy from communism and fascism.
The latter, in my opinion, is emerging again, as President Trump works to plant the flag of Make America Great Again in a 1950's American landscape; a mythical and unattainable Utopia which appeals to those who remember when a high school education was sufficient for a man to land a secure job in the huge manufacturing sector while his wife "happily" labored at home.
The Further A Society Drifts From Truth The More It Will Hate
Those That Speak It ~ George Orwell (1903- 1950)
Orwell was an English novelist, essayist and journalist whose work is marked by an awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and outspoken support of democratic socialism.
Orwell's book Ninety Eighty Four (1984) was written in 1949 and has become required readings for students for fifty years. In fact, it was the best selling book in America in February 2017, in what many considered as a reaction to Trump's embrace of radical populism in his run for the presidency.
The satirical book portrays one man's resistance to a totalitarian regime that controls all people with a massive bureaucracy designed to crush all individual thought and deed by using a continuous surveillance mechanism controlled by Big Brother.
The surveillance happens in market places, in your home, office, on roads and happens through hidden mikes and "telescreens" which can not be turned off (and via human agents who work for the big brother).
So Orwell predicted the existence of a communist state which employed sophisticated surveillance technology as well as a form of propaganda based on lies, half truths and sheer myth.
Communism, of course, has been universally rejected by Americans and most of the world since WWII. It is a rejection formed from a troubled history which include The Cold War (which saw a mutual, massive, buildup of thousands of nuclear weapons) and the breakup of the Soviet Union, following the destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1992.
After the splintering of the Soviet Union, Russia reacted by embracing the economic power of capitalism, and ordinary citizens found new sources of income and more personal freedom. But Putin's "new" communism lives on in the repression, murder, and imprisoning of those who oppose or criticize the regime, while his hand-picked oligarchs control the nation's wealth.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross." Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951)
Unlike communism, fascism (broadly defined as an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization) has not received that much attention in the USA.
Our historical knowledge of fascism is centered around Italy's long, but disastrous, love affair with Benito Mussolini's National Fascist party, after they allied with Nazi Germany.
But fascism, in my opinion, is emerging again, as President Trump works to plant the flag of Make America Great Again in a 1950's American landscape; a mythical and unattainable Utopia which appeals to those who remember when a high school education was sufficient to land a secure job in the huge manufacturing sector, often for decades.
Sinclair's satirical novel, It Can't Happen Here, was published in 1935 and a 1936 play adapted from the novel was very popular also. What propelled its popularity was a sense of urgency that the United States — like the nations of Western Europe — might contain dark forces yet to be unleashed. That sense of fear, is very much still alive today--in fact within a week of Trump's election, the book was sold out on Amazon.com.
Published during the rise of fascism in Europe, the novel describes the rise of Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, a politician who defeats Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) and is elected President, after fomenting fear and promising drastic economic and social reforms while promoting a return to patriotism and "traditional" values. After his election, Windrip takes complete control of the government and imposes a plutocratic/totalitarian rule with the help of a ruthless paramilitary force and governmental control of newspapers and radio stations.
Fascism has emerged in numerous political parties in America for many years, with little success. But in 2013, a political party and social movement calling itself the American Blackshirts Party emerged, with its stated goal being "to create the foundations for a fascist America." It is the only active fascist group originally from the USA that subscribes to Italian fascism (instead of neo-Nazism) and is the largest political movement of its kind in North America, according to Wikipedia.
However, in my opinion, President Trump has become the face of a much bigger fascist movement in America. And, because his followers remain committed to embrace the fascist elements inherent in the promises of a Trumpian Utopia, for the first time in my life, I believe the primary existential threat to our democracy comes from within our own government, not from hostile nations far from our shores.
While I am indeed alarmed at the threat of fascism, there is certainly no perfect, one to one, comparison with early fascism movements and the current political landscape of America. For instance,we are not in the major depression-like conditions which has historically provided the "dark soil" for the growth of fascism.
In addition, we have a rich democratic tradition of resistance--beginning the day after Trump's inauguration, there were millions of protesters in the streets for months on end and continues unabated to this day. Importantly, that resistance has been duly reported on by a free press in all its forms.
However, there are growing concerns about the Trump administration's descent (consciously or unconsciously) into the realm of fascism, to wit:
If you go to the U.S. Holocaust Museum, you can see a sign hanging there that tells you what to look for if you’re worried that your country may be slipping into fascism. Let’s take a look at their twelve early warning signs of fascism.
Most of the polling taken this year reveals that many of the changes put forth by the denizens of Foggy Bottom are not supported by the majority of its citizens, but Trump's largely older, white, working class, political base is convinced that the president is their hero, and can do no wrong. Period.
I remember the lectures of my American History professors about what the founders most feared when they established the democratic republic: the “mobocracy.” They spoke often of the threat to liberty that Alexis de Tocqueville and the ancient Greeks warned about: that the people in a democracy, goaded by a populist leader into fear and anger, might trample the very institutions created to preserve their freedoms.
I learned that, as Alexander Hamilton watched the French Revolution began in 1879, he feared America would also unleash a populist passion that, instead of leading to a greater democracy, would instead lead to what he called "the arrival of a tyrant, riding to power on the shoulders of the people." (The French Revolution was indeed passionate; the abolition of the French monarchy in 1793 was followed by a two year "Reign of Terror" when there were massive beheadings by guillotines.)
Trump’s campaign promise to “drain the swamp” was and is nothing short of a callous joke.
The stench from the swamp has often been detected within the capital for decades, but Trump has managed to make it worse by importing an army of political neophytes from a neighboring swamp. But that "swamp" differs in that it more closely resembles a lovely protected wetland, populated by ulta rich, far right, mostly white, folks who have been living all their lives in a gated community far removed from their fellow citizens.
They are used to wielding power to amass vast piles of money. I submit that most aren't truly corrupt, rather they are corrupted by power so much that they feel entitled to say, charter political flights on the taxpayer's dime, to use a small convoy of agency cars (with sirens blaring) to go to a restaurant or even to order up a $43,000 private phone booth for the office.
Perhaps we should take a deep breath, step back a mite and take the time to look at the true size and nature of what has become, in my opinion the most chaotic, and morally bankrupt administration in modern history.
And in terms of outright corruption, Trump is unique. According to the presidential historian Robert Dallek, "...no American leader has acted with more unadulterated self-interest as Trump." Dalek compared Trump with two other presidents thusly: Ulysses S. Grant's tenure was marked by the "Whiskey Ring" plot (treasury officials pocketed taxes from booze distillers) and Warren G. Harding presided during the "Teapot Dome" scandal (the administration stole oil reserves en masse). [Those presidents] "oversaw the most flagrant instances of graft in American political history. In both cases, the fault of the president was in his lack of oversight." As far as Dallek is concerned, something more nefarious is at work in the White House of Donald Trump.
"What makes this different," Dallek says, "is that the president can't seem to speak the truth about a host of things." Trump isn't just allowing corruption, in Dallek's view, but encouraging it. "The fish rots from the head," he reminds.
Here's a quick history of the "lowlights" of the administration:
Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser, was fired and then plead guilty to lying to the FBI over conversations he had with Russian envoys about sanctions during the transition.
Mr Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates have been indicted for 12 federal charges, which include money laundering, bank fraud and filing to register as foreign agents. They have pled not guilty.
Trump's son in law, Jared Kushner, went to work at the White House as a senior adviser with broad domestic and international policy responsibilities. Kushner has refused to fully divest his business interests and insisted on retaining a large majority of his holdings in the Kushner real estate companies, valued by the New York Times at as much as $761 million. The Times reported that Apollo, the private equity firm, lent $184 million to Kushner Companies to refinance the mortgage on a Chicago skyscraper while Citigroup lent the firm and one of its partners $325 million to help finance a group of office buildings in Brooklyn.
George Papadopoulos, a former campaign aide to Donald Trump, has pled guilty to lying to federal agents working for special counsel Robert Mueller, as part of his investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia. Papadopoulos is widely assumed to be cooperating with the FBI.
White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter resigned from the position in February, following public allegations of spousal abuse from his two ex-wives. The allegations were supported by photographs of a black eye and a restraining order.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is being sued by the states of California and Massachusetts over her decision not to process the debt relief claims of thousands of defrauded students who attended
Corinthian Colleges, a now defunct for-profit college. (Corinthian is accused of defrauding 80,000 students, pushing them to enroll in an institution that was peddling substandard degrees.) Further, DeVos’ Department of Education has been accused of converting into loans thousands of grants paid to teachers across the country, according to a report from NPR. For the last 10 years, the government has offered grants of up to $4,000 a year to certain college students willing to teach at lower-income schools. But a government survey obtained by NPR notes that "many of those grants were turned into loans, forcing students to pay back the money — with interest — for reasons as minor as paperwork errors." The report also noted that she uses security from the U.S. Marshals Service that will cost the American taxpayer about $1 million per month, a unique use of such extensive protection for the department.
Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was forced to resign on September 29, 2017, after it was discovered that he spent taxpayer dollars on private flights. After Price resigned, he offered to pay back $52,000 of his travel costs (total cost of his taxpayer-funded wanderings is estimated to be $1 million).
Trump appointee Dr. William C. Bradford resigned from the US Department of Energy Office of Indian Energy amid reports that he had made racial slurs directed at Barack Obama on Disqus and Twitter. (Bradford had claimed that some of the comments were the result of identity theft and not his.)
Center for Disease Control Director Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald was forced to resign on January 31, 2018, after it was discovered that she bought tobacco stock, thereby creating a conflict of interest.
Last month, Tony Tooke, chief of the US Forest Service, resigned after a series of accusations of sexual harassment and retaliation.
Scott Pruitt, head of the EPA, has become embroiled in a scandal after details emerged of excessive costs associated with his security detail as well as his unsavory ties to corporate lobbyists. Pruitt blew past an allotted $5,000 budget to redecorate his office by leasing works of art from the Smithsonian and building a $43,000 soundproof booth. The inspector general of the EPA is investigating Pruitt for what The Washington Post says are "at least four non commercial and military flights" in the past eight months, which cost the government more than $58,000. Pruitt has also built himself a $43,000 soundproof booth in his office, for reasons that remain unclear. Pruitt's personal security detail includes high-ranking EPA investigators who are supposed to be tracking environmental violations.
Steven T. Mnuchin, the former Goldman Sachs banker who now runs the Treasury Department, is being investigated for commandeering a government jet so that he and his wife could see the solar eclipse in Kentucky. That same month, Mnuchin took a U.S. Air Force C-37 jet from New York to Washington. The trip cost taxpayers $25,000. (Timothy F. Geithner, who was President Barack Obama's secretary of the treasury, frequently flew coach when he made that trip.)
Ryan Zinke, the interior secretary, is being investigated for travel expenses that include a $12,375 chartered flight to Montana from Las Vegas, where he had attended an event for a hockey team owned by one of his benefactors. Documents released last year by the Interior Department showed Zinke used Park Police and other government helicopters to shuttle himself to events; Politico reported the helicopter flights cost taxpayers more than $14,000 and that he spent $3,100 on private planes on a trip to the US Virgin Islands.
Trump's son in law, Jared Kushner, went to work at the White House as a senior adviser with broad domestic and international policy responsibilities. Kushner has refused to fully divest his business interests and insisted on retaining a large majority of his holdings in the Kushner real estate companies, valued by the New York Times at as much as $761 million. The Times reported that Apollo, the private equity firm, lent $184 million to Kushner Companies to refinance the mortgage on a Chicago skyscraper while Citigroup lent the firm and one of its partners $325 million to help finance a group of office buildings in Brooklyn.
On March 23, John Bolton, the newly minted national security advisor and staunch neo-conservative (who still maintains his support for Bush's Iraq war), was revealed to have chaired the Gatestone Institute since 2013. The Intercept magazine reported (click here) The group is infamous for creating "fake news" related to the "threat" that Islam poses to Western society. Here are a few of their gems devoid of any supporting evidence: (1) Stories claiming that the “mostly Muslim male migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East” in Germany are fueling a “migrant rape crisis” and that “Muslim mass-rape gangs” are transforming the United Kingdom into “an Islamist Colony.” (2) Claims that immigrants bring “highly infectious diseases,” genital mutilation practices, and daily terrorist acts to host countries. (3) Last year Gatestone reported German officials were seizing homes to be provided to “hundreds of thousands of migrants from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.” Not. Actually, German media noted that a single house in the city was placed into temporary trusteeship after it remained vacant.
Elaine L. Chao, who heads the Transportation Department, has used government planes on at least seven occasions, according to The Washington Post. She is also facing questions about her ownership of stock in Vulcan Materials, a building company that would likely benefit from a $1 trillion infrastructure plan Trump has touted.
Rick Perry, the energy secretary, took a private plane to visit "a uranium facility in Piketon, Ohio," in late September, according to Reuters, who also reported that he flew into "a private airport in Kansas that was within a 45-minute drive of Kansas City International Airport."
And, like any standard fascist organization, nepotism and cronyism runs rampant throughout Trumpland.
George Nader, a Middle East specialist with ties to Donald Trump's team attended secret meetings during the presidential transition between the United Arab Emirates and Trump associates, and has said he is cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller and the grand jury.
The NY Times reported on April 8 that Robert Mueller is looking into a $150,000 contribution made to the Trump Foundation by the Ukrainian steel magnate Victor Pinchuk in exchange for a campaign speech by then candidate Trump at a conference in Kiev, raising questions over whether Mr. Trump allowed the line to be blurred between charitable donations and political influence.
The Washington Post reported in April 2017 that Nader attended a December 2016 meeting in New York between Emirati officials and members of Trump's inner circle, and another in January 2017 in the Seychelles Islands between the Emiratis and Erik Prince, a Trump associate and former head of Black Water (a controversial organization of mercenaries that aided the American military in Iraq).
Nader was also in the Seychelles when Prince met with Kirill Dmitriev, the chief executive of the state-run Russian Direct Investment Fund, according to Post sources. In private testimony before the House Intelligence Committee last year, Prince denied any wrongdoing and strongly denied that anyone on Trump's team asked him to take the meeting.
On April 20, 2018, The Wall Street Journal reported that The Kushner Cos. were subpoenaed by federal prosecutors for information related to an Associated Press report that the company filed dozens of false documents about its buildings in New York City, including documents stating it had zero rent-regulated tenants in buildings across the city when, in fact, it had hundreds. The AP report covered a three-year period when the company was run by Jared Kushner. The Brooklyn attorney’s office also has reportedly subpoenaed the Kushner Cos. over a visa-for-investment program to raise money from Chinese investors for its real estate projects.
On March 2, 2018 CNN said "US counterintelligence officials are scrutinizing one of Ivanka Trump's international business deals, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The FBI has been looking into the negotiations and financing surrounding Trump International Hotel and Tower in Vancouver as well as the international business entanglements of both Ms.Trump and her husband to determine whether any of those deals could leave them vulnerable to pressure from foreign agents, including China, according to a US official. Ms. Trump, who has a security clearance. is a "volunteer" in Trump's White House which means she isn't subject to many ethical and transparency rules that were enacted to protect the American people, including a law prohibiting conflicts of interest."
She is often seen in White House meetings, on subjects from manufacturing employment to women in technology. She and Mr. Kushner invite legislators, lobbyists and C.E.O.s to their home for off-the-record discussions of their agenda. On the day Mr. Trump and the Kushners met with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, China granted Ms. Trump’s company three trademarks in the giant Chinese market; other countries have done likewise.
Mr Manafort, Donald Trump Jr. and the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner met Russian individuals on June 9th, 2016, in Trump Tower on the pretext of gaining information about Hillary Clinton, has prompted serious federal inquiries about collusion.
Taylor Weyeneth, a 24-year-old former Trump campaign worker, was appointed last year to be the deputy chief of staff at the Office of National Drug Control Policy, or ONDCP, the agency tasked with coordinating federal drug-control efforts, including the growing "Opioid Epidemic." After questions arose about his lack of qualifications, he resigned on January 25, 2018.
Dan Scavino, Trump’s onetime golf caddie, now White House director of social media.
Keith Schiller, Trump’s former bodyguard, first head of Oval Office operations and now a $15,000-a-month security consultant to the Republican National Committee.
Linda McMahon, professional wrestling magnate and Trump friend, now Small Business Administration chief.
Robin Bernstein, Trump friend and a founding member of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, named to be ambassador to the Dominican Republic.
Boris Epshteyn, a friend of Eric Trump from Georgetown University, named a White House spokesman before taking a job in TV.
Kyle Yunaska, Eric’s brother-in-law, named to a senior Energy Department job.
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, longtime friend of Melania Trump, whose firm got $26 million for help with the inauguration.
Then, of course, there’s Michael Cohen, Mr. Trump's longtime attorney, whose home, office and hotel room were raided by FBI agents, and is reportedly being investigated for bank fraud, wire fraud and violations of campaign finance law, the latter being in response to Cohen's admitted payment of $130.000 to porn star Stormy Daniels while Trump was running for president. On April 24th, Mr. Cohen said that, if called as a witness in Daniel's lawsuit, “I will assert my 5th Amendment rights in connection with all proceedings in this case due to the ongoing criminal investigation by the F.B.I. and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.”
Trump has also extended the family-based employment program to the friends and family of friends: Ben Carson’s son, White House Counsel Donald McGahn’s wife, Rudy Giuliani’s son, Education Secretary DeVos’ husband and sister-in-law, and various other friends’ spouses, siblings and offspring.
HOW ARE PEOPLE VETTED BEFORE THEY ASSUME THEIR ROLES IN GOVERNMENT? WHO IS VETTING THE VETTERS?
For some answers, here is my version of a quick tutorial gleaned from Wikipedia:
The vetters are The FBI, the Office of Personnel Security and Suitability (OPSS) and the Presidential Personnel Office (PPO).
The FBI is responsible for reviewing the criminal history, financial records and foreign contacts of applicants for the White House, the Department of Defense and other agencies with employees that require clearance, but under U.S. law, the president has the authority to grant security clearance to whomever he sees fit, regardless of the FBI's findings. (The Obama administration chose not to override the recommendations of the FBI when it came to hiring decisions for White House positions.)
Once the investigators have completed a report, security clearance adjudicators in the OPSS adjudicators will weigh the results against existing criteria for security clearances. Most individuals will be granted a security clearance, although complicating factors or derogatory findings may delay a decision or result in a denial of a security clearance.
In exceptional circumstances, agencies may request an interim security clearance (those temporary clearances are, on occasion, deemed necessary for many agencies to fill their jobs while the final process plays out) and OPSS may be able to grant them within a few weeks after the individual has submitted a complete security package. Final clearances usually are processed and adjudicated in less than 90 days.
In addition, issues exposed in the process could result in working with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics to address those conflicts (such as divesting stocks or business assets ), developing a plan for how to speak about past history in confirmation hearings, or potentially withdrawing the nomination for an insurmountable issue. The office was set up after the revelations of poor ethics in the Nixon administration.
The PPO is ultimately responsible for recruiting and vetting candidates for more than 4,000 jobs, about 1,600 requiring Senate approval, so given their huge mandate, let's see how well they are performing first.
One answer lies in the evaluation of the Department of Defense (the process for obtaining an interim clearance is the same for defense contractors as for senior White House aides), and it ain't pretty--check this out analysis by the Defense Department, as reported by NBC News on January 23, 2018:
. "The [analysis] captured data from 200,000 applications for secret or top secret clearance by defense contractors over the past three years, many of which were not fully adjudicated until 2017. The Defense Department found that 165 defense contractors had their initial security clearances revoked last year after further investigation linked the recipients to problematic or illicit activity, including questionable financial transactions, influence by foreign governments and even felonies like pedophilia."
. Further, those 165 contractors had slipped through the initial vetting round and had been allowed access to sensitive information.
In an effort to understand current issues about security clearances, I found the following interview, which was published on Vox, a general interest news site, worth sharing.
It was published on Feb. 13, 2018 and the participants were Vox staff member Sean Illing and Mark Zaid, a Washington Lawyer who specializes in national security and often represents people who are going through the security clearance process.Taylor Weyeneth, a 24-year-old former Trump campaign worker, was appointed last year to be the deputy chief of staff at the Office of National Drug Control Policy, or ONDCP, the agency tasked with coordinating federal drug-control efforts, including the growing "Opioid Epidemic." After questions arose about his lack of qualifications, he resigned on January 25, 2018.
Dan Scavino, Trump’s onetime golf caddie, now White House director of social media.
Keith Schiller, Trump’s former bodyguard, first head of Oval Office operations and now a $15,000-a-month security consultant to the Republican National Committee.
Linda McMahon, professional wrestling magnate and Trump friend, now Small Business Administration chief.
Robin Bernstein, Trump friend and a founding member of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, named to be ambassador to the Dominican Republic.
Boris Epshteyn, a friend of Eric Trump from Georgetown University, named a White House spokesman before taking a job in TV.
Kyle Yunaska, Eric’s brother-in-law, named to a senior Energy Department job.
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, longtime friend of Melania Trump, whose firm got $26 million for help with the inauguration.
Then, of course, there’s Michael Cohen, Mr. Trump's longtime attorney, whose home, office and hotel room were raided by FBI agents, and is reportedly being investigated for bank fraud, wire fraud and violations of campaign finance law, the latter being in response to Cohen's admitted payment of $130.000 to porn star Stormy Daniels while Trump was running for president. On April 24th, Mr. Cohen said that, if called as a witness in Daniel's lawsuit, “I will assert my 5th Amendment rights in connection with all proceedings in this case due to the ongoing criminal investigation by the F.B.I. and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.”
Trump has also extended the family-based employment program to the friends and family of friends: Ben Carson’s son, White House Counsel Donald McGahn’s wife, Rudy Giuliani’s son, Education Secretary DeVos’ husband and sister-in-law, and various other friends’ spouses, siblings and offspring.
HOW ARE PEOPLE VETTED BEFORE THEY ASSUME THEIR ROLES IN GOVERNMENT? WHO IS VETTING THE VETTERS?
For some answers, here is my version of a quick tutorial gleaned from Wikipedia:
The vetters are The FBI, the Office of Personnel Security and Suitability (OPSS) and the Presidential Personnel Office (PPO).
The FBI is responsible for reviewing the criminal history, financial records and foreign contacts of applicants for the White House, the Department of Defense and other agencies with employees that require clearance, but under U.S. law, the president has the authority to grant security clearance to whomever he sees fit, regardless of the FBI's findings. (The Obama administration chose not to override the recommendations of the FBI when it came to hiring decisions for White House positions.)
Once the investigators have completed a report, security clearance adjudicators in the OPSS adjudicators will weigh the results against existing criteria for security clearances. Most individuals will be granted a security clearance, although complicating factors or derogatory findings may delay a decision or result in a denial of a security clearance.
In exceptional circumstances, agencies may request an interim security clearance (those temporary clearances are, on occasion, deemed necessary for many agencies to fill their jobs while the final process plays out) and OPSS may be able to grant them within a few weeks after the individual has submitted a complete security package. Final clearances usually are processed and adjudicated in less than 90 days.
In addition, issues exposed in the process could result in working with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics to address those conflicts (such as divesting stocks or business assets ), developing a plan for how to speak about past history in confirmation hearings, or potentially withdrawing the nomination for an insurmountable issue. The office was set up after the revelations of poor ethics in the Nixon administration.
The PPO is ultimately responsible for recruiting and vetting candidates for more than 4,000 jobs, about 1,600 requiring Senate approval, so given their huge mandate, let's see how well they are performing first.
 |
| Kushner, Flynn, Spicer, Scaramucci, Porter.... |
The Washington Post filed this report on the outfit on March 30th, 2018:
"An obscure White House office responsible for recruiting and screening thousands of political appointees has suffered from inexperience and a shortage of staff, hobbling the Trump administration’s efforts to place qualified people in key posts... documents and interviews show."
"At the same time, two office leaders have spotty records themselves: a college dropout with arrests for drunken driving and bad checks, and a lance corporal in the Marine Corps reserves with arrests for assault, disorderly conduct, fleeing an officer, and underage drinking."
"Under President Trump, the office [began] with far fewer people than in prior administrations. It has served as a refuge for young campaign workers, a stopover for senior officials on their way to other posts, and a source of jobs for friends and family (one senior staffer has had four relatives receive appointments through the office)."
"Six senior officials over age 35 went elsewhere...just months after their arrival, documents and interviews show. Since the inauguration, most of the staffers in the PPO have been in their 20s, some with little professional experience apart from their work on Trump’s campaign."
"Even as the demands...mounted, the PPO offices....became something of a social hub, where young staffers from throughout the administration stopped by to hang out on couches and smoke electronic cigarettes... [and] PPO leaders hosted happy hours...that included beer, wine, and snacks for dozens of PPO employees and White House liaisons who work in federal agencies, White House officials confirmed."
"The White House...said...the happy hours are not unique to the PPO and are a way to network and let off steam." White House officials said the PPO is performing well, even though they acknowledged the office is much smaller “than at any time in recent history...the office is starting to make progress on nominees for positions that require Senate confirmation." They blamed delays on "Democrats and slow background checks."
‘‘No administration has done it as poorly as the current one,’’ said Max Stier, president and chief executive of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan group.
On Feb. 8, 2018, The Trump administration appointed a new director of the Office of Government Ethics. Emory Rounds, who joined OGE in 2009, will serve as the ethics agency's new head for a term of five years.
Let us hope that Rounds enjoys more success than the previous director, Walter Shaub, who had been an outspoken critic of ethical lapses during the Trump administration and resigned amid frustration in July 2017.
In my opinion, the OGE tried hard in the beginning to reign in some of what they deemed as unethical behaviors by key members of the Trump Administration, but they were thwarted almost immediately. (The source for what follows is FCW.com, which they state "provides federal technology executives with the information, ideas, and strategies necessary to successfully navigate the complex world of federal business.")
In January, 2017, the OGE's request for Trump to fully divest his business holdings was rejected by Trump. The OGE found that Trump's plan to instead place his business empire under the management of his sons rather than to divest them was "insufficient."
Then, in April, 2017, The Trump administration moved to block an effort to disclose the names of former lobbyists who have been granted waivers to work in the White House or federal agencies.
The White House asked Shaub to withdraw his request which he had sent to every federal agency for copies of the waivers. In the letter, the administration challenged his legal authority to demand the information.
In May 20, 2017, the administration relented and provided the names requested, after Shaub sent a "scalding" letter to all federal ethics agencies to support his demand for compliance, saying “Public confidence in the integrity of government decision making demands no less.”
FCW.com noted that "Dozens of former lobbyists and industry lawyers are working in the Trump administration, which has hired them at a much higher rate than the previous administration." In addition they said, "Keeping the waivers confidential would make it impossible to know whether...officials are violating federal ethics rules or [are allowed]to ignore them."
Other notable OGE clashes: (1) Trump's possible violation of the constitution's Emolument Clause clause (now being used to sue the president) with the Trump Organization's lease of the Old Post Office for its hotel in Washington, D.C. (2) click here Violations of the Hatch Act (a Depression-era law that regulates campaigning by government officials) by United Nations Representative Nikki Haley, social media director Dan Scavino and senior adviser Kellyanne Conway. (3) Charges of nepotism following the admission of Ivanka Trump into the White House as an official government employee (she has an office in the West Wing).
Shaub said "The rules and regulations outlined by the ethics program “set the absolute bare minimum for what you have to do in order to not be a criminal or not be a civil violator or not be a rule-breaker...[and] the departure from [ethical principles] is every bit a threat as any violation of a specific rule.”
After a year of the Trump administration, how well is the vetting process going?
"An obscure White House office responsible for recruiting and screening thousands of political appointees has suffered from inexperience and a shortage of staff, hobbling the Trump administration’s efforts to place qualified people in key posts... documents and interviews show."
"At the same time, two office leaders have spotty records themselves: a college dropout with arrests for drunken driving and bad checks, and a lance corporal in the Marine Corps reserves with arrests for assault, disorderly conduct, fleeing an officer, and underage drinking."
"Under President Trump, the office [began] with far fewer people than in prior administrations. It has served as a refuge for young campaign workers, a stopover for senior officials on their way to other posts, and a source of jobs for friends and family (one senior staffer has had four relatives receive appointments through the office)."
"Six senior officials over age 35 went elsewhere...just months after their arrival, documents and interviews show. Since the inauguration, most of the staffers in the PPO have been in their 20s, some with little professional experience apart from their work on Trump’s campaign."
"Even as the demands...mounted, the PPO offices....became something of a social hub, where young staffers from throughout the administration stopped by to hang out on couches and smoke electronic cigarettes... [and] PPO leaders hosted happy hours...that included beer, wine, and snacks for dozens of PPO employees and White House liaisons who work in federal agencies, White House officials confirmed."
"The White House...said...the happy hours are not unique to the PPO and are a way to network and let off steam." White House officials said the PPO is performing well, even though they acknowledged the office is much smaller “than at any time in recent history...the office is starting to make progress on nominees for positions that require Senate confirmation." They blamed delays on "Democrats and slow background checks."
On Feb. 8, 2018, The Trump administration appointed a new director of the Office of Government Ethics. Emory Rounds, who joined OGE in 2009, will serve as the ethics agency's new head for a term of five years. Let us hope that Rounds enjoys more success than the previous director, Walter Shaub, who had been an outspoken critic of ethical lapses during the Trump administration and resigned amid frustration in July 2017.
In my opinion, the OGE tried hard in the beginning to reign in some of what they deemed as unethical behaviors by key members of the Trump Administration, but they were thwarted almost immediately. (The source for what follows is FCW.com, which they state "provides federal technology executives with the information, ideas, and strategies necessary to successfully navigate the complex world of federal business.")
In January, 2017, the OGE's request for Trump to fully divest his business holdings was rejected by Trump. The OGE found that Trump's plan to instead place his business empire under the management of his sons rather than to divest them was "insufficient."
Then, in April, 2017, The Trump administration moved to block an effort to disclose the names of former lobbyists who have been granted waivers to work in the White House or federal agencies.
The White House asked Shaub to withdraw his request which he had sent to every federal agency for copies of the waivers. In the letter, the administration challenged his legal authority to demand the information.
In May 20, 2017, the administration relented and provided the names requested, after Shaub sent a "scalding" letter to all federal ethics agencies to support his demand for compliance, saying “Public confidence in the integrity of government decision making demands no less.”
FCW.com noted that "Dozens of former lobbyists and industry lawyers are working in the Trump administration, which has hired them at a much higher rate than the previous administration." In addition they said, "Keeping the waivers confidential would make it impossible to know whether...officials are violating federal ethics rules or [are allowed]to ignore them."
Other notable OGE clashes: (1) Trump's possible violation of the constitution's Emolument Clause clause (now being used to sue the president) with the Trump Organization's lease of the Old Post Office for its hotel in Washington, D.C. (2) click here Violations of the Hatch Act (a Depression-era law that regulates campaigning by government officials) by United Nations Representative Nikki Haley, social media director Dan Scavino and senior adviser Kellyanne Conway. (3) Charges of nepotism following the admission of Ivanka Trump into the White House as an official government employee (she has an office in the West Wing).
Shaub said "The rules and regulations outlined by the ethics program “set the absolute bare minimum for what you have to do in order to not be a criminal or not be a civil violator or not be a rule-breaker...[and] the departure from [ethical principles] is every bit a threat as any violation of a specific rule.”
One answer lies in the evaluation of the Department of Defense (the process for obtaining an interim clearance is the same for defense contractors as for senior White House aides), and it ain't pretty--check this out analysis by the Defense Department, as reported by NBC News on January 23, 2018:
. "The [analysis] captured data from 200,000 applications for secret or top secret clearance by defense contractors over the past three years, many of which were not fully adjudicated until 2017. The Defense Department found that 165 defense contractors had their initial security clearances revoked last year after further investigation linked the recipients to problematic or illicit activity, including questionable financial transactions, influence by foreign governments and even felonies like pedophilia."
. Further, those 165 contractors had slipped through the initial vetting round and had been allowed access to sensitive information.
. The report, according to NBC..."shows how it is possible for people who have been compromised or who have criminal backgrounds to slip through the cracks of the preliminary background investigation and obtain access to sensitive national security-related information."
. The most common reason for denying a security clearance, the report concluded, was related to the applicant's finances, with over 370 applicants being denied clearance for "financial considerations." Felony charges were the cause for revoking 63 clearances, and evidence of foreign influence or foreign preference was found in 56 applications.
. In 151 of the cases, applicants were granted an initial security clearance that was later revoked when it was discovered the applicant withheld information. In one example, a person given interim secret clearance in 2015 was discovered in 2017 to have been found guilty of raping a child prior to applying for the clearance.
To supporters of the president, their responses to charges of corruption follow a standard script--either blaming "anti-Trump forces who are eager to thwart the president's agenda and impeach him" or pointing to the administration's achievements, to wit:
"President Trump came to Washington to drain the swamp and is following through on his promises," White House deputy press secretary Raj S. Shah has said repeatedly, citing Trump's executive order on ethics, the elevation to deputy status of ethics lawyers in the White House counsel's office and "unprecedented steps to rein in waste of taxpayer funds."
In comparison, when Obama was elected in 2008, his transition team employed dozens of lawyers to help with the vetting process, according to Rachel Maddow on the opening segment on her January 9, 2017, show.
Maddow said, "Obama team’s ethics review missed some things before nomination—like Tom Daschle’s $140,000 in back taxes he owed due to unreported income in the form of the use of a car and chauffeur provided by one of his lobbying clients—the vetting still captured those issues during the confirmation process." And, as Maddow noted, "None of Obama’s appointees had a criminal conflicts of interest violation or any other criminal violations after taking office. Not one."
Illing: Why has this White House had a harder time than other administrations in getting security clearances?
Zaid: This White House is unusual on so many different levels: You have people with no prior government [or] security clearance experience, and extensive financial engagements and foreign connections that most typical federal workers would not have seen. So...this has created a unique situation, and there really is no precedent for it.
Illing: These people who haven’t been granted permanent security clearances are given interim clearances, which means they still have full access to sensitive materials, right?
Zaid: Correct. The reports I’ve read say that about 30 or 40 people are operating in the White House with interim clearances, and that means they have full access to everything you would otherwise have access to if you had been fully cleared.
Illing: There seem to be two possibilities here: Either these 30 or 40 people, including Jared Kushner, are having trouble getting clearances due to their unusual backgrounds ... or the FBI has found troubling or suspicious information about them during the course of their investigation.
Zaid: Both of those scenarios could be correct for multiple people. We normally would expect the FBI to give priority to senior White House staffers, and given who some of them are, it doesn’t surprise me that those investigations could take a lengthy amount of time...I have clients whose investigations have taken two, three, sometimes four years for a variety of reasons — some nefarious, some trivial.
Illing: Something that’s not clear to me, and I assume most readers, is who actually makes the decision to approve or deny a security clearance. Is it the FBI or the White House or some other agency?
Zaid: The FBI conducts the background investigations...but they do not formally decide who gets a clearance and who doesn’t. In fact, they don’t even make recommendations one way or the other; they simply conduct the investigation and hand over their findings.
Illing: So ultimately the White House decides who does or doesn’t have the ability to handle sensitive information?
Zaid: For secret and top secret clearances, the White House has its own Office of Security that makes that decision. For access to what is called Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI), that is done by one or more of the intelligence agencies, [such as] the CIA...the NSA or the Defense Intelligence Agency, depending on what access or information the person is going to be working with.
It’s not all that unusual to see interim secret or top secret clearances granted for over a year, but it is unusual to see SCI interim clearances for that long, because these are people who have access to the highest levels of classified information, including the president’s daily security brief.
Illing: This is the level of access Jared Kushner currently has, right?
Zaid: Correct.
Illing: Since the White House ultimately decides who gets a clearance, do you worry that we might end up in a situation in which the...administration offers high-level...clearances to people who can’t pass the requisite background check?
Zaid: ...The White House security office is run by career staff, not by political appointees, so I would be incredibly troubled if the...career security staff granted the clearances.
Here’s what could happen, however. The president could order...the Office of Security to continue granting access to whoever based on the president’s constitutional authority, in which case I’m not sure there’s anything they could do about it. As far as I know, that hasn’t happened before, and it would concern me greatly. If Congress learned about it, it could potentially be grounds for impeachment, but that’s a political decision. Basically, this is an area governed by norms as much as anything else, and we might be facing a situation we’ve never faced before.
Another answer, in my evaluation of security and ethical issues, was supplied by The Daily Beast, a prominent news and opinion website. They examined 341 nominations the president has made to Senate-confirmed administration positions in the last year. Of those, more than half (179) have some notable conflict of interest, according to a comprehensive review of public records. One hundred and five nominees worked in the industries that they were being tasked with regulating; 63 lobbied for, were lawyers for, or otherwise represented industry members that they were being tasked with regulating; and 11 received payments or campaign donations from members of the industry that they were being tasked with regulating.
Likewise, last June, a liberal super PAC called American Bridge 21st Century found 74 lobbyists working in the administration, 49 of them in agencies they once lobbied on behalf of clients. And two weeks ago they provided a new example of that trend when they noted that the new deputy administrator of the EPA is former coal lobbyist Andrew R. Wheeler.
Then there’s the turnover rate. According to a Brookings Institute analysis, "Not counting his Cabinet, nearly a third of Trump’s most senior aides have quit or been fired. Including promotions and reassignments, nearly half of Trump’s A Team has turned over in his first 15 months, a level of churn unmatched in recent history."
While I give him credit for giving a voice to the millions of Americans who had felt abandoned by both political parties, for strengthening the capabilities of the US Navy, for following the Obama strategy through against ISIS, and for his willingness to address our failing national infrastructure, the negative impacts of his leadership are much larger in scope and intent.
What we have here, dear readers, is a man who went bankrupt four times, bilking countless laborers, banks and would be students in the process; a man divorced three times with a strong penchant for sexually abusing women; a man with an enormously pompous and narcissistic ego; a man who has never chose to read much of anything; a man whose rhetoric is often incoherent, and a man who has produced a well documented list of literally thousands of lies in the last two years.
It may well be, as former Virginia congressman Tom Davis (R) put it, “Voters don’t care about stuff like the emoluments clause and all the background noise... people just push the mute button.”
And it may also be that many Americans like his utter contempt for virtually all of the agencies of our republic and the rights of individuals still seeking their rightful place in society.
At some point, farmers will realize that his Farm Bill is a threat to their livelihood. Voters will discover that his tax cuts for the middle class are temporary while the uber-rich cuts are permanent. Many folks in the rust belt will soon realize that their old jobs will never come back as promised. And, those Republicans who haven't already jumped ship, will indeed be swamped by a blue wave in November.
Finally, I predict that America's faith in their country will be at least partially renewed when Robert Mueller, that paragon of virtue to many, will reveal the nasty depths of corruption in Trumpland and the associated investigation into the criminal workings of Trump's long time lawyer-buddy, Michael Cohen, will lift the lid on Trump's very dirty laundry basket.
I will leave you with this little ditty by my favorite columnist from the Washington Post:
As for the "drain the swamp" plan, with its vision of purified Washington? I managed to find the link to the original press release and, feeding it into my browser, was transported to those late October days when pundits mused about whether Clinton would take Arizona and whether Trump would start a television network of his own.
The link loaded, but the page was empty.
Normally, I post on the second and last day each month, but I need to take a couple weeks off somewhere far away from the ever present vision of The Donald. Please avail yourself to my dozens of postings available on my search engine and listed titles.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)