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babylonsister

(170,963 posts)
Wed Jun 26, 2019, 07:04 AM Jun 2019

Trump demands subservience and gets incompetence




https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-demands-subservience-and-gets-incompetence/2019/06/25/ec69b692-978d-11e9-830a-21b9b36b64ad_story.html?utm_term=.0cb3b04d2a39


Trump demands subservience and gets incompetence
By Dana Milbank
Columnist
June 25 at 7:54 PM

snip//

It’s no mere coincidence that the border debacle is the work of Trump’s Homeland Security Department, where every major border- and immigration-related agency is led by an “acting” official. Trump’s acting commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, John Sanders, just resigned after only two months on the job. The Post’s Nick Miroff and Josh Dawsey report that he will be replaced by the current acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Mark Morgan (who got the job after praising Trump’s policies on Fox News). Morgan, in turn, has only been on the job for a couple of months since Trump fired yet another acting director of ICE. Trump had also ousted his DHS secretary and his head of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and he has tabbed an “immigration czar” who has not yet accepted the job.

snip//

Trump is unabashed in his preference for this “Apprentice”-style, “you’re fired” leadership. It’s a theme of a new book about Trump’s Cabinet, “The Best People,” by Yahoo News national correspondent Alexander Nazaryan. Of his fondness for acting officials, Trump told Nazaryan: “It gives me a lot of leeway. It gives me great flexibility. I do like it. It’s such a big deal to get people approved nowadays. .?.?. We have actings, and we’re seeing how we like them.”

In other words, the administration is run by people on perpetual tryout, perpetual probation, unable to make long-term plans or to command the respect of those they (nominally) lead. The Federal Aviation Administration, which botched its handling of the Boeing 737 Max crashes, has been led by acting officials. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, which bungled the recall of Fisher-Price’s Rock ’n Play bassinet, has been run by an acting chairwoman. (She announced last week she will step down at the end of her term in October.)

Now, Trump’s “actings” are causing babies to go hungry, and they may soon bumble us into war with Iran. But that’s okay, because Trump likes the “flexibility.”
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Trump demands subservience and gets incompetence (Original Post) babylonsister Jun 2019 OP
Republicans never fail to disappoint. kentuck Jun 2019 #1
Acorn. Tree. Vinca Jun 2019 #2
The problem is watoos Jun 2019 #3
"labor flexibility" is a problem in the corporate world too nuxvomica Jun 2019 #4
This is happening where I live. greymattermom Jun 2019 #5
Does your daughter get health care? watoos Jun 2019 #7
Gov. Allen did this back in the 90's with VDOT underpants Jun 2019 #10
A cause of the Peter Principle where people are promoted to jobs beyond their competence. LastDemocratInSC Jun 2019 #6
As bad as the incompetence is, with this gang I think competence would be much, much worse. tanyev Jun 2019 #8
when all you want is toadies, all you get are toads. Javaman Jun 2019 #9
 

watoos

(7,142 posts)
3. The problem is
Wed Jun 26, 2019, 07:15 AM
Jun 2019

that Trump wants chaos. To get people who are like him he can't put them through the Senate confirmation process. Look how many of Trump's cabinet members are "acting" members.

nuxvomica

(12,364 posts)
4. "labor flexibility" is a problem in the corporate world too
Wed Jun 26, 2019, 07:16 AM
Jun 2019

Companies replace FTEs with temps and consultants to give themselves more "flexibility" but they wind up depriving the organization of institutional memory, commitment and accountability. I've seen it happen over and over. What stops it is customer dissatisfaction.

greymattermom

(5,751 posts)
5. This is happening where I live.
Wed Jun 26, 2019, 07:35 AM
Jun 2019

Companies hire contractors who leave as soon as they can find anything better. Then they have to train a whole new batch of workers, and they fire at least half of those during training, so everyone is afraid of being fired every day. How can this actually save money? The staffing companies get paid more than the workers. My daughter wants an all year part time job. She gets a full time six month contract via a staffing agency, every year with the same company. She gets unemployment during her yearly furlough. This costs the company and the state a lot more than the 3 days a week all year position she wants.

underpants

(182,279 posts)
10. Gov. Allen did this back in the 90's with VDOT
Wed Jun 26, 2019, 09:01 AM
Jun 2019

Yes. George Allen. He also spent a lot of money removing games (Minesweeper Freecell) from state computers.

The DEPT. of Transportation was a mess. He was laying off engineers to such an extent that as I understood it the Friday routine was - come in, work until lunch, pack up your office in a box, wait to see if you were getting axed. If by 4:00 you hadn’t gotten a call you unpacked and left for the weekend. You can guess how this turned out - they hired people back under contract (NOT state employees) and paid more and that includes the cost of benefits. Virginia roads used to be spectacular but that one dip and they’ve never been the same.

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